Chapter 11: 3 Years Later

"Lucas...Lucas let's go!"

"I...I can't...it's so...it's so far…" Lucas cried.

"Come on Lucas, we can go together...it's all fine and dandy. That's what brothers do."

"Claus…"

"It's alright...we can go swimming together."

"Claus please…"

A black swirling cloud formed around everyone. A red swirling ghastly figure that hung around in the background. The image of a gray masked person with a sword shone in front of him.

"Lucas...Lucas...Lucas...Lucas…"

The blonde boy shot awake in the middle of his house. Rubbing his head, he sighed.

"Same dream as...as always…" he said. He glanced at the bed next to him. As he already expected, Flint had woken up and left. Just as he had been every day since he had turned 11.

Truthfully, he wasn't mad at his father, even after everything that had happened. Flint had always come home and raised him. Not...in the perfect sort of way, as he would still leave every morning to go to the mountains, come home around noon when Lucas was going to his mother's grave, and then go back into the mountains.

However, ever since Lucas had turned 14, his father seemed confident enough that he could be out on his own. Old man Wess had also been serving as a godfather to him. And Flint had been overprotective those last few years. Only taking him out to visit mom's grave until his 14th birthday.

Lucas sighed as he climbed out of bed, he took out a comb from the drawer, looked in the mirror, and started brushing his hair.

"Lucas...you're growing up to be such a strong young man." The words of his mother echoed through his head as he brushed his hair. Even though his mom had passed 3 years ago, he still felt as though her spirit was watching him...somehow, somehow she was.

He set the comb down and turned to a plate of donuts left out on the table, his father could never quite match the recipe his mother once made. But the magic was still there, even if it wasn't quite the same at family dinner these nights. He bit down on a powdered sugar one, that was always Claus's…

Lucas shook his head to himself, while it had been a slow process, he had...eventually, gotten past his brother's death. Enough love and comfort was enough. Even if he was indirectly responsible.

"It's not your fault, my son...it never will be." Flint had told him.

He walked outside, and let out a little bit of a gag. A full raise of smoke had brushed in the air, ever since those weird lightning storms had gotten so rampant, even the sheep pens next to the house were wrecked in the process.

"Woof! Woof!" Lucas blinked as Boney ran up to him. The chocolate Labrador panted and whimpered a little.

"Hi Boney…" Lucas said, patting the dog on the head.

"(Hey Lucas!)" Boney said, panting a little. "(Let's go for a walk.)"

Lucas nodded. Recently, he had discovered that Boney could talk...or...at least...he could understand Boney. He wasn't quite sure what the deal was. And it wasn't like Flint believed him at all.

Boney followed after Lucas as they walked into town. Tazamily had changed a lot over the past 3 years. The Town Bazaar had been turned into some sort of weird...drug store? As the Fassad & Pigmask cult rebranded. They passed by Fassad, who was still giving a speech, and, as they were reaching the crossroads train station, they heard Old Man Wess shouting at him.

"Fassad you big bastard!" the man snarled. "Release your grip on this town!"

Fassad leered at him.

("You should do something.)" Boney barked. ("Flint won't be home for a while...so visiting Hinawa's grave now wouldn't do much good. You know he likes to go with you.")

"I know Boney, I know." Lucas whispered. He walked up to the crowd speech.

"Now, old man Wess," Fassad said innocently. "Why must you be so grumpy? Have you not gotten your daily dose of Happy Box?"

Lucas noticed the Pigmasks coming up. Not that the townsfolk seemed to care. He wasn't sure why everyone was so rude and mean. They just simply...didn't care."

"Um...Mr. Wess!" Lucas called. "I think it's been a little bit since you took your medicine last. He nudged his head in the direction of the Pigmasks."

Wess sighed as he turned away from him. "Very well, young Lucas, come back and help me."

"That's what I thought…" Fassad growled, then, he grabbed Lucas and pulled him in close, making Boney growl.

"Listen here and you listen good," Fassad growled. "If I were you, I'd accept your little scheme of happiness you shitty kid. I don't know how the hell you've gone this long without cracking, but mark my words, I'll make you suffer if you keep this up."

Lucas didn't say anything and simply rubbed his arm as he followed Fassad to the nursing home, where his grandfather Alec had been reallocated, and where Wess' old house once stood.

When he entered Wess' room, there was a smashed happy box with a crack in the screen with a dirty table and rusty bed.

"What were you doing out?" Lucas asked. "You know what Fassad'll do when he catches you outside for no reason."

"I know, but, it's just so frustrating." Wess grumbled. "I think it's best that I just entrust this mission to you then."

"What do you mean...to me?"

"I received contact from Kumatora, she said something about Duster maybe being alive and working at a place called Club Titiboo."

"Titi...Titiboo?" Lucas asked.

"Don't go saying that name near you father." Wess scolded. "Anyway, if that moron has been alive this whole time, I'm really gonna throw a fit. So, I want you to go and smack some sense into that boy. When you do, send a letter via this robotic Bluejay I bought from the drugstore.

"But...aren't there like...Monsters and stuff? The train is only accessible for workers unless I pay. And...I don't have any Drago Points...or money...or whatever it's called." Lucas said, nervously.

"Ah, I figured you ask that," Wess said, "Now, I don't have the money to provide you with a train ticket. But, I have some additional spending money, you can buy some weapons and defensive armor."

"But...all they sell are...shirts, charms, and bracelets?"

"Indeed, rather unfortunate, but you'd be surprised how much defense those give you?"

"What?!" Lucas asked, bewildered.

"Anyway," Wess scolded, "I need you to go meet up with Kumatora, talk Duster into coming back here."

"But...what about my…"

Wess looked at him, and Boney's sad whimper.

"I know it's hard for you to understand." he said. "But, your father isn't the man he once was. The death of your mother and brother have been too hard. For the love of god Lucas, your father has done nothing but go into the Mountains and look for your brother. It's been 3 years Lucas, 3."

"I...I know…" Lucas said, looking down at his shuffling feet. "I...I guess I'll tell him."

"Good, now, that should help with your area. Go along and pray to your mother again, I'm sorry I took up all your time."

Lucas sat down at dinner that night with Flint, who had prepared a few lamb chops for dinner. Both of them had gotten back from Hinawa's grave. As per the usual, it seemed as though this was going to be another quiet dinner. That was all it ever was.

"Um...dad…" he asked, nervously.

Flint just kind of looked at him, then picked at his food.

"Dad…"

"Yes…" Flint asked, his fathers voice sounded a lot more soft than it had 3 years ago.

"I...I want to leave Tazamily for a while."

His father gave him a bit of a shocked look as he picked at his food a bit longer. "Lucas, there is nowhere else to go on these islands. Tazamily is the only town apart from that big ol' city that their building out west."

"I...I know that." Lucas replied meekly. "But...I still feel like, I'm missing something in this world. That there is something out there that's wanting me to go out and stop all the change that has been plaguing our town for the last few years."

"Times change Lucas…" Flint replied, looking down at his food. "Maybe this progress of Tazmily is simply for the better. It sure seems like most of the townsfolk agree with these Pigmask people. After all, they continue to work for them."

"But...everyone is so...so...selfish?!" Lucas replied. "Just today, I saw Abott smuggling food from Abbey, his wife! And what about Thomas? All he does is go out to the factory, and when his shift's over, he doesn't even come home half the time! Old man Wess and Grandpa are locked in that nursing home with nothing to do."

Flint shrugged. "Listen Lucas, you're growing up in a changing society," he said. "Most of the other kids your age have adapted to this new lifestyle. They are out with their fancy Happy Boxes, Hybrid Pets, and money. They're earning jobs up there in that factory or laboratory. Meanwhile, I just see you playing with sticks treating them like...well...I don't quite know."

"But dad!" Lucas whined. "This isn't right! Something isn't right! The townsfolk were never like this before! It all changed when that Fassad person showed up!"

Flint choked a little on his lambchop before speaking up again. "Lucas, I can't afford to lose you to those weird mutant things out there! Not after all this time."

"But you go out there everyday!" Lucas replied, slowly feeling something fiery in his heart. "How do you think I feel knowing there's a chance you may never come back!"

Flint poked at his lamb chops with his fork, not responding to Lucas.

"Is this what Mom would really want?" he asked his father. "Do you think Mom and Claus would be happy in this society?"

"I don't." Flint replied. "But in case you haven't noticed, we're the only family apart from Wess to not have these strange Happy Boxes. No doubt whoever these people are knows that we're not going to change. However, eventually, we may have to change just to conserve our lives."

"Dad...I...I want to change this world back. I don't like this new world."

"Well...I know I raised you to be honest, so tell me, if I tell you no...will you stay?"

Lucas' felt heat rise in his face as he looked down. "N-No…" he said.

Flint nodded. "Well, in that case, you might as well go ahead and make your mother proud."

That's it for this month's chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it.

Okay, so, questionnaire time. I've been feeling rather self-coccineous about this series lately. The story stats per month seem to disagree with my feelings towards this. However, it should be known that I love writing this story. However, I'm not sure if everyone else has been. I know that this short story format leaves a lot to be desired, in terms of development and growth on each character. However, compared to my other stories, which use original characters as the main highlight. Mother 3 is a game that I simply find...to beautiful to change heavily.

Sure, I have some plans to differentiate this from just a standard retelling of Mother 3, as you may have guessed from Salsa's chapter, and this chapter as well. However, with my slow paced telling, I'm concerned that this story will be forgotten after a while.

Now, I don't mean to make it sound like I'm discounting the story. 9 times out of 10, there will always be a new chapter on the 2nd of each month for now. However, this series will soon take priority after a while. I'll be discussing that time when we get there.

My goal is to eventually touch on ALL 3 games in the Mother Series, I've already done Mother 2 with my original EarthBound story, Bound by Earth, and am now doing Mother 3, once this story is done, I may do Mother 1 if there's support for it. All 3 of these stories will be canon to the EarthBound Saga lore that I've been creating over the past 2 years, including the sequels to Bound By Earth, (Check my profile if you're interested).

Anyway, I'm getting off topic, I guess what I'm trying to ask is, how has this series been so far? Have I been doing a good job capturing the tone and style of Mother 3? These are the things that have haunted me in my writing of this game.

Well, I don't force you to answer these of course, but it's just nice to hear that there is still support going strong. Even if it's simply "Nice Chapter, I look forward to more."

See you all, next month.