Esper picked up the basket resting by his feet, balancing it against his hip as he pulled the ripe forvirrad fruit from the plant's limbs.

The long red fruits were Aspen's favorite, but no one in Esper's family really enjoyed them. Esper had grown them as a favor for him; the tall plants had a place of honor in the garden. Aspen adored them, but his Dam was allergic to them so he couldn't grow them in their family garden.

He sighed and continued down the row. Things had been awkward between them for the past three months, but they had managed to remain friends, even if it was somewhat strained. Aspen had avoided him for a good week after he rejected him, even going as far as to arrive late to school. The teachers had scolded him several times, saying that graduation was coming up quickly, they needed to get going on their final projects. Aspen had apologized before going to work on his project.

Esper didn't know what Aspen was doing for his final project, but he did know that Amaya was doing some sort of complex illusion that would recreate a scene from one of her favorite books. She had been stressing over it for the past few weeks, apparently she was having trouble maintaining the complex illusion for the duration of the performance.

He had finished making the last few tweaks to his own project a few days ago, just in time for the showcase tomorrow. His sculptures were stored in a large refrigeration unit that he had charmed himself. He had hoped that Aster would come back from his tour in time to see his project, but according to Aster's dam he had elected to continue his service for another six months. When he had learned about that it had stung a bit, Aster knew that Esper was graduating that year, but he hadn't taken leave to visit him. It was fairly discouraging for the young doe.

A sudden loud thunk met his ears, drawing him out of his thoughts. He looked down, finally noticing his overly full basket. One of the forvirrad fruits had fallen from the overflowing basket, landing at his feet.

He shook his head and bent down to pick up the fruit, careful to keep his basket steady. HE placed the red fruit back into the basket and turned back around, walking back down the row. He exited the garden, walking past the barrier of trees and heading for his burrow.

"Hey Esper can you come here for a moment?" Lilliana yelled, coming out of her burrow. He turned to look at his Dam in surprise.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute Dam!" He yelled back, walking down the tunnel to his burrow. He walked through the sitting room to the hallway, opening the kitchen door and placing the basket on the table before turning and walking back into the hall. He made his way out of his home, walking towards his parents.

"Hey little brother!" Amaya said cheerfully, walking up to him. The elder sibling had grown to be almost six inches taller than her brother, several taller than most of the does in their year. Combined with the muscle from her almost religious sword practice and her dappled black and grey coat, the buck was rather intimidating.

Esper grinned, "Hey. Did Dam and Da call for you too?" Amaya nodded. "Yep, they probably want to give us the typical 'you're adults now, you have to be responsible, don't rush into mating, blah blah blah,' speech," she said.

"I don't know why they're asking for me then," Esper said, smirking. His sister scoffed, "Yeah, you're clearly the responsible one." Esper stuck his tongue out at her before disappearing down their parent's burrow.

The rest of their family was gathered in the sitting room, Snowdrop and her litter were sitting on a couch while their parents were seated on the love seat.

"Esper, Amaya, sit down please," Hawthorn said, looking up at his eldest kits. Esper raised a brow but did as he asked, sitting down on the second couch, Amaya sitting next to him.

"What's this about?" Amaya asked. "Your parents," Hawthorn answered. Esper frowned, "What about them?" He asked. Their Da sighed, "You two are twenty-one Esper, tomorrow you'll be considered adults. With your parents being who they were, one of you two will be the next monarch of Winter. So for lack of better words, you need to be tested to see which one of you it is."

The siblings nodded, they had figured that something like this would be necessary since they had been told who their parents were. "Does that mean that you told them?" Amaya asked, gesturing to the younger littler.

Willow grinned, "Yep! We found out last week. Personally, I think that it's really cool that we'll know a monarch." The older pooka chuckled. "Fair enough," Esper said, grinning.

"So how do we get 'tested' exactly?" Amaya asked, looking toward her parents. Hawthorn shrugged, "I honestly have no idea. However, a week ago we were sent a letter from the Spring King to send you to the Home World once you had graduated." The twins looked at each other nervously.

"How long are we going to be gone?" Esper asked.

"At least a year," Lilliana said, smiling sadly. Esper sat back, trying to process that. They had never left Terra or been away from their family for more than a day. The longest Esper had been away from his parents was once when he had accidentally fallen asleep at the Lake and stayed the night there curled up on the banks.

A vaguely annoyed Aster had woken him up the next day, berating him for being so careless with his health. That particular incident had embarrassed him for months; he had refused to meet Aster's eyes for weeks afterward.

Amaya sighed, "When will we leave?" She asked, frowning. "In two days," their Dam answered. "They sure don't waste time do they?" Esper muttered.

"Hey, it's alright big brother!" Snowdrop said, "Even if you get picked, we'll come and visit! Someone will have to stop you from wrecking Winter after all!" "I hate you Snow, you're absolutely horrible," Esper said, glaring at his youngest sibling. "You don't really mean that Big Brother~," the younger doe sang.

Esper huffed, "Sure I do," he muttered, crosseding his arms and pointedly ignoring his sister. The rest of the family rolled their eyes, used to the two sibling's playful banter.

Hawthorn cleared his throat, "Anyway, you two should probably say your goodbyes tomorrow, you won't be seeing your friends for a while."

They nodded solemnly, the grave nature of the words not lost on them. Whichever one of them became the next monarch would not be able to return to Terra for a very long time, possibly never. They would likely never see their friends again, only seeing their parents and siblings once every few decades, possibly even centuries. Most of the contact they would have with their past lives would be letters that would be few and far between, the sheer distance between the two planets being a communication block.

Terra, unlike many other planets, was a fledgling colony, missing more advanced technology found on other systems. As far as they knew, only Kale and Cala Bunnymund owned a video transmitter, and even that was mostly only used for emergencies.

There was a reason that clans didn't move often, the move between worlds often stretched even the tightest of family relations. Usually it was only newly mated pairs with a more adventurous streak moved to new planets. It was hard of members of clans to be separated from one another for a long period of time, after all, clans and family were the main aspects of a pooka's life, from birth to death.

In a secluded clan generations of family members would live close together, all of the adults helping raise the clan's kits and taking care of extensive gardens and burrows. In the case of oldest clans it wasn't odd for the entire family to live underground in extensive warrens, having little to no contact to the outside world. The only time outsiders would be allowed into the warrens would be if one of them had met and mated someone on their tour of duty. Otherwise the clan mated within itself, the sheer number of diverse family lines preventing inbreeding.

Esper himself had always fantasized about being part of one of those clans, the lifestyle had always appealed to him since they had been taught about it in school in their first year.

He hoped that whoever he ended up mating with, preferably Aster, wouldn't mind setting up a clan with him. Yes, it would mean that he would have to have a boatload of kits, but honestly he didn't mind, he had always adored kits, even more than the normal love for kits that his nature had.

His Dam had apparently been part of one of those clans, having met his Da during one of her frequent trips to the surface of her birth world. The clan life had never appealed to either of them, so instead of Hawthorn joining the clan they had left for Terra. She had told stories of her many siblings and cousins since they were young.

He had always listened with rapt attention, mentally comparing the image present with his own life. He loves his parents, there was no doubt of that, but being surrounded by family like that had always seemed like an amazing life to him.

It had been his dream for years to be a member of a clan, if he mated into one or created his own it wouldn't matter to him, he just wanted to be a part of one.

However, if he was named Queen, that dream would be torn from him. A monarch's duty was to their season first, then to their family. He would be too busy with ruling to have more than a few litters if that. Monarchs usually had very few kits, their duty preventing them from being truly able to give their offspring the attention they needed.

"Esper, we should probably leave, it'll get dark soon and we need sleep for tomorrow," Amaya said, nudging her brother. Esper snapped out of his thoughts. "Yeah, alright," he said, standing.

The twins said goodbye and walked out of the burrow, silence passing between them. As soon as they reached the surface they broke apart, heading for their respective burrows.

Esper fell to all fours, hopping down the tunnel to his home. He went down the hall and into the kitchen. He stood up and grabbed the basket of fruit from the table. Esper turned and exited the room, walking about out of his sitting room and back to the surface. He set out for Aspen's burrow, intent on bring the fruit to him before tomorrow. After all, if he forgot about it than it would probably rot, forgotten in his kitchen.

Well, maybe not. He'd ask either his parents or his siblings to look after his burrow while he was gone. Snowdrop would probably be the best option.

His burrow was built with the intent of housing an unmated doe, the nest room as far away from the open air as possible so that their heat scent wouldn't attract passerby bucks. That way if he didn't come back his only doe sibling could have it.

After all, she was fourteen now, she'd get her first heat soon and didn't have her own burrow yet. Her litter had gotten their own burrow on their eighth birthday, as was tradition for kits, but she hadn't moved for some reason.

"Esper, what are you doing here?" Aspen asked, coming out of his burrow. Esper looked up in surprise. He had gotten lost in thought again.

He grinned, holding up the forvirrad fruits. "I picked these from the garden earlier, I thought that you might like them," he explained. Aspen smiled, "Thanks Esp." The buck stepped forward, taking the heavy basket from his arms.

"Do you want to come in?" He asked, indicating to his burrow. Esper had to resist biting his lip at the invitation. Aspen was still interested in him; an unmated buck did not invite an unmated doe into their burrow unless they wanted to show off.

"I'm good Aspen," he said, smiling awkwardly, "but there's something I need to tell you." Aspen cocked his head to the side in surprise. "Alright, let me go put these down," he said. Esper nodded and Aspen disappeared down his burrow.

A few moments later he reappeared. "Alright, what's up?" He asked. Esper sighed, "I'm leaving," he announced. Aspen's eyes widened, "What? Why?" He asked.

Esper fidgeted, "I-I'm not sure if I'm technically allowed to tell you, but you're my best friend and you deserve to know. Do you remember the first conversation we had?" He asked. Aspen frowned and nodded, "Yeah, we talked about the monarchs and the disappearance of the Winter pair, why?"

Esper let out a long breath, "the Winter pair were mine and Amaya's parents." Aspen's eyes widened, "You're from the line of Winter?!" He exclaimed. "Not so loud!" Esper hissed.

Aspen rubbed his head sheepishly, "sorry." Esper rolled his eyes. "Does that mean that you're…"

He shrugged, "Don't know, that's why I'm going. We're going to find out which of us it is, and we'll be gone for at least a year. I just wanted to tell you, because if it's me I probably won't see you again."

Aspen nodded sadly, "When do you leave?" "In two days." The buck sighed, "So soon…" Esper nodded, "I just found out myself."

"All right. Esper, I know we'll see each other tomorrow, but I need to say this now. If it does turn out to be you, can you promise me, that you won't forget me?"

Esper began to tear up. "Aspen, you're my best friend. Even if I live to be a million years old I'll never forget you. I swear I treasured every moment I spent with you. I might not care for you the way you want me too, but I love you as the closest friend I've ever had."

Aspen smiled sadly, "I can live with that. Goodbye Esper." The tan buck turned and walked into his burrow, Esper's eyes following after him sadly.

He turned and left, heading for his own burrow. Tomorrow was a big day, he would need his rest.