"So, what brings you here?" Afjak asked Ruby as he gave her a bit of water. They had returned to his camp after scaring off those wolves.
"Well, my friend told about Dranakis Threshold and what happened to it. I was curious and wanted to see it for myself." Ruby said. "I was exploring the ruins when I heard something in the forest and went to check it out."
"I presume that was when those wolves chased you?" Afjak asked.
Ruby nodded. "What about you? What were doing here?" She asked.
"Well, I was making my way back to my camp when I had heard screaming. I had ran to see if anyone was in danger when I came across your scanner." Afjak explained. "I remember hearing about it from another human before so I figured you must've dropped it in a panic."
"Okay. But what are doing here in the middle of the forest by Dranakis Threshold?" Ruby asked.
Afjak sighed but still answered. "That is quite a story, but one of my own foolishness." He took a seat. "It was a while ago, although it was much longer for many other creatures but still. I t all began when my tribe encountered this group of humans calling themselves chaotic players." Afjak began telling his tale.
"It was odd but treated them with respect as guests, one of them came around more often than the others however, Tom, I believe his name was. I was just an apprentice for a great muge, then one day I heard Tom tell the truth of Dranakis Threshold to my master. I thought this would be the perfect chance to prove myself to him and set off in secret."
"But it got detroyed before you could get here?" Ruby asked. To her surprise, Afjak shook his head with a saddened smile.
"On the contrary I succeded. I figured I'd make a camp and begin studying the area and take my notes back to my Master, believing he would be proud." Afjak started to say what happened once he had reached the Threshold.
Flashback...
Afjak was closely observing some plants had never seen before, testing on them with some tools he took with him in his satchel. That's when a loud noise caught his attention. Turning around he spotted fighting in the distance at Dranakis Threshold. Gasping he sprinted as quickly as he could to the battle.
As he runs there, the sound of Mugic rang through the air and a bright light over took his vision. lowering his arms and slowly opening his eyes as it faded, the OverWorlder found the floating island in ruins as debris fell from the skies.
Present...
"I stood there and watched as my only path home was destroyed. After that, I spent the rest of my time setting up camp and mapping out the forest." Afjak recalled sadly.
"Wait if that was your one way home, then wouldn't that mean you're from the past?" Ruby asked as she looked at him with a surprised and sympathetic look in her eyes.
"Indeed." Afjak confirmed.
"I'm so sorry." Ruby said to the blue skinned creature.
"There is no need." Afjak told her. "All of this was my own fault, me leaving on my own, getting stranded in a another time and not being able to see my father again." He sighed sadly.
Ruby looked even sadder at his words, she almost lost her mother in a accident when she was younger but she thankfully lived. She had no idea what she would do if she lost her. She put her head down, trying to think of something.
"I've got it!" Ruby exclaimed suddenly, making Afjak jump in surprise.
"What?" Afjak questioned.
"I've know of an OverWorlder smarter and wiser than any other creature. If anyone could think of a way to help you, he can." Ruby told him, causing him to raise his eyebrows.
"Really? Who?"
"Najarin." Ruby told him, making his eyes go wide in shock.
"Truly?" Afjak asked, both disbelief and hope in his wavering voice.
"Yeah, He lives at Lake Ken-I-Po." Ruby explained.
Afjak grinned. "Where is that?" He asked in an excited tone of voice, a complete 180 of his previous mood.
"Give me a minute to grab a map so I can show you." Ruby said before pulling out her scanner and porting away. True to her word, she came back a minute later with a map of the OverWorld. "Got it!" She waved it around before opening and pointing at the lake location.
"It'll probably be a day or two before we can reach there." Ruby explained.
"Well then, there's no time to lose. Let me pack all of my items so we can set off." Afjak jumped up onto his feet as he started to move to gather his belongings.
"And while we journey there I can tell about Perim in the time from before and now." Ruby helpfully supplied to him.
Afjak gave the girl a grateful smile. "That sounds nice."
And thus began the short journey of Ruby and Afjak with Ruby telling tales to Afjak of both Perim and her adventures, including an incident with losing Jekyll at Glacier Plains.
"So after I had reached the top with Amber and her friend Eula, I called back to Jekyll, but when he didn't reply we turned to see that his end of the rope was loose and he was gone!" Ruby exclaimed as they trekked through forest.
"No." Afjak gasped.
"Then when we started to panic we heard shuffling behind us to see Jekyll standing there!" Ruby told him, although she neglected to mention the part where he was also flipping them off as well for forgetting him before colapsing.
"How did he get behind you?" The blue skinned creature questioned in disbelief.
"We have no idea." Ruby shook her head. "He refuses to tell us whenever we ask him." He's still upset about the phantom frostbite.
Ruby then pulled out her scanner and checked the map. "Ok, almost there. Just a few more minutes I think." She said, giving Afjak an enthusiastic smile, which he returned in kind.
It wasn't long until they had reached the shore of the lake. "Ok, we're here!" Ruby cheered as she looked around. "Now we just need to find a boat and we'll be all set." She said as she looked around. Afjak walked up next to her and assisted in searching for a boat before spotting a dock. "Over there." He pointed out.
Ruby ran over with Afjak closely following. The Chaotic player grabbed some oars and got in the boat with Afjak jumping in soon after. After gabbing the oars from Ruby he looked at his new friend and gave her a genuine smile. "Hey Ruby." He said, getting her attention. "Thank you for this." He said, causing Ruby to give him a smile and thumbs up.
"No problem!"
"Welp, here goes nothing." Ruby said as she knocked on the door 3 times. A pause occurred as nothing happened. "Huh. Maybe I should- Eep!"
Ruby started to speak before suddenly jumping in fright as the doors began to open on their own. Coughing into her fist as she blushed in embarrassment, Ruby spoke up again. "I- I guess that's our cue."
Slowly, they entered the main room of the castle, the doors behind them closing along with the windows.
"So another human decides to come to my home." A voice boomed out. In a flash of blue light appeared an elderly-looking, humanoid creature with blue skin similar to Afjak and a long white beard. He wore blue clothing that gave him the appearance of a wizard.
He floated down towards them. "For what reason do you-" Najarin began to speak, only to cut himself off as his eyes widened instantly upon seeing Ruby's creature companion. "Afjak?" He spoke again, his voice much weaker.
Ruby blinked. "Wait, you two know each other?" She asked in confusion.
"Is it truly you?" Najarin asked again as he landed on the floor, tears pooling in his eyes and his voice cracking.
Afjak stepped forward, a warm smile wider than any Ruby had seen him make on his face. "It's me, father."
Ruby blinked. "Eh?" Then her mind fully processed his words. "EEEEEEEEHHHHHH?!"
"My son!" Najarin cried as he embraced Afjak in a hug, tears of joy spilling out of his eyes. Afjak returned the hug in kind, shedding his own tears of joy.
"I can't express how much I've missed you." Najarin told his son as he began to let go of the hug. "But what had happened? I had thought I would never see you again, and how did you get here?"
Afjak rubbed the back of his head, partally in shame about his reckless actions. "What happened is quite the story. But as how I got here? I have to thank my new friend, Ruby." He gestured to the girl who just remembered where exactly she was.
"Uh, hi." Ruby meekly waved.
Najarin turned to the girl. "You have helped return my son to me. For that, I cannot thank you enough." Najarin bowed his head to the Chaotic player.
Ruby frantically waved her hands. "Oh there no need for that! All I did was help give him directions!"
Afjak put a hand on his father's shoulder. "Perhaps but who knows how long it might've taken me to find him before I accidentally ended up somewhere like the Underworld." He turned to Najarin. "If I recall correctly, Chaotic players like to collect scans of creatures, don't they? Perhaps a couple scans of us will do for now?" Najarin hummed as he considered the idea.
"There's really no need-" Ruby began to speak before Najarin cut her off with his hand.
"Please, this is the least I could do." Najarin insisted.
Back at the Port Court, Jekyll, Penny and Nora were all sitting at a table.
"You are really still upset about that, huh?" Nora asked Jekyll who was drinking a hot chocolate.
"I still trip and feel phantom pains." Jekyll growled. He still planned revenge on Eula.
"Hey guys!" Ruby exclaimed, appearing out of nowhere and making Jekyll fall over in surprise. "Check this out!"
Penny and Nora leaned over as Jekyll pulled himself up, grumbling something about 'why are there rose petals?'.
"No way!" Nora gasped. "You got a Najarin scan?"
Penny squinted her eyes. "I don't recognize that other creature." She said as she stared at the scan of Afjak and Jekyll nodded in agreement.
Ruby smiled. "Well that is quite the story."
Back at Lake Ken-I-Po, Najarin and Afjak were catching up.
"There are many studies you need to catch up on if you wish to become a master, Afjak." Najarin informed his son.
Afjak only smiled, looking forward to working with his father again. "I'm sure you learned even more things to teach me with your experience father."
Najaringave a light chuckle as he looked out the window with his son, looking forward to the future.