I walked quietly behind the chaos in front of me, watching as Felix pranced around with Jacky, Topaz, Winter and Star. He was singing a little song, dancing to it alongside the spiritmals.

"Who's on an adventure now? Me! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Forests, lakes and deserts we'll go! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Journey far and wide until, the ends of the world we'll reach we will, sing with me now my mates won't you? Won't you?"

"Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho!" All the spiritmals sang along, dancing alongside the young coordinator.

As they went on to the second verse, I started nodding along to the music. It wasn't a bad song, and it was definitely one of the catchier ones I've heard.

It was quite a sight to behold actually, a couple of Spiritmals singing a lively tune and dancing alongside a trainer, putting on a little performance for all the Passersby. Soon, we weren't even walking anymore, Richard having drawn quite an audience to clap alongside the beat, a few of them even singing along to the chorus.

"Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho!"

In the little time I've known him, Richard seemed to be the kind that would put on a show wherever he went, the kind that would cause a ton of mischief and get out of it scot free. With him being a coordinator, I had a feeling that it was due to him being under the limelight practically all the time.

"Nope, he doesn't ever grow up." Felix sighed a little. "And to think that he'll be turning twenty this year..."

"Well, at least there isn't a dull moment to have around him." I replied.

"That's true, but it can get really annoying very quickly." Felix replied, the tone of his voice revealing a hint of annoyance. "Well, at least he's happy."

"Hmm..." I replied, looking back at the commotion just in time to see the song and dance end. Richard and Jacky bowed immediately, cueing the other spiritmals to follow suit.

"That was a pretty good performance." I complimented the young coordinator, who handed a sheepish grin back at me.

"I'm used to it. Me and Jacky tend to do random performances like that. Sometimes, we'll even get tips."

"You should join us next time Em, it's fun!" Star's eyes glowed, Winter nodding in agreement at my feet.

"Hmm... I'll consider it." I replied, honestly not wanting to get involved but also not wanting to crush the hearts of the excited spiritmals.

"I know what you're thinking Em!" Star chirped. "You seem to have forgotten that I could read your mind."

"Oh... right..." I sighed at Star's reminder.

Star's eyes glowed with mischief, and I knew what was coming.

"I'll be placing that on my bucket list." The bird announced telepathically.

"Knew it." I replied.

"How about you Felix? Would you join next time?" Star asked the quiet boy.

"No thank you." He simply replied.

"Aw... come on Fels! It'll be fun!" His cousin attempted to get him to join.

"I think I've made my answer fairly clear."

"You're no fun."

"What did you expect?"

"To be honest... nothing." Richard sighed. "You're always like this after all. At least since that day."

Felix glared, and Topaz just yawned slightly as the events unfolded in front of him.

"So, what are you guys going to do now? It's only 2 in the afternoon." Richard asked.

"Train." Felix replied. "Or at least, I'll be training."

Topaz's ears perked up at his trainer's words.

"Oh come on! Let's do something fun instead." Richard frowned slightly. "Why don't we pop into one of the shops around here?"

"Suit yourself Richard, but I'll still be training." Felix replied calmly, "After all, after one race there's always another."

"Surely you can find some time to relax?"

"Maybe, but that time isn't now." Felix answered.

"Fine..." Richard gave up arguing. "What about you Emily?"

"I guess I'll find a quiet place to sit at and talk to Star. We have... things to discuss about."

"Fine then... where are we meeting for dinner?"

"I never said I'll be joining you two for dinner." Felix cut in while Topaz seemed to sigh at his statement.

"Oh come on." Star chirped.

Felix sighed.

"Fine, I'll meet you both here at 6." He finally gave in, before walking away with Topaz by his side.

"I'll see you at 6 then, Richard."

"I'll See you as well." His cousin replied, a flash of what seemed to be worry crossing his eyes for a second as he watched Felix walk away. It was so quick, I wondered if I had imagined it, as the coordinator was  soon bouncing away happily, his jackelopp hopping beside him.

————————————

In about fifteen minutes since we parted, I had bought myself a sandwich and found a nice bench to sit on. Breaking off two pieces of sandwich and handing them to Star and Winter, I started eating the leftover piece I had.

"So Star," I started the conversation after swallowing. "You're really going to be giving up on the search?"

"Certain." The yellow bird looked up from her sandwich.

I nodded, taking another bite.

"Would it be ok if I were to ask how life in the Stars is like?"

"Of course it's ok to ask." Star replied. "It's pretty fun up there actually, every planet is different in its own way, and there's this place called the aura sea. It's like a field of twinkling stars. Legends and rumors suggest that that's where the energy we use to evolve come from. That being said, we can't absorb the energy by being in the area, we have to earn it by experience. It's a cool place to be in, especially when I want a quiet place to think."

"That sounds awesome!" Winter replied. "Can you take me there someday?"

"Um... sadly, no. There's no oxygen up there, and while there is a move I could use to make it possible for you guys to breathe... I don't know how to do it yet." Star admitted.

"Awww..." Winter sighed.

"It's for your own safety."

"How's your family doing Star?" I asked.

"As well as they can be... I guess..." Star sighed. "I haven't actually gotten to know many of them that well... there are like hundreds of us. I've gotten close to one named Comet though. She's apparently from the same batch of eggs, making her my closest sibling. In fact, she's the only one I know from my own batch. She's a little sad about me leaving, but she understands why I've decided to do this."

"Why didn't she tag along?" Winter questioned.

"She knows that I'll rather do this alone. She wants to meet you though, Em."

"Why did she choose to stay behind like that though? I mean... you're practically leaving your family to come down here for your last few days. I doubt she'll let you go on your own that easily." I asked the bird.

"Em... to be honest, the glowstaride family didn't exactly feel like family... Comet is literally the only one I'm remotely close to. Heck, I'm even awkward with my own parents. Comet knows this, she knows that at the end of the day, my true family is you, Winter and maybe even Felix. She wants the best for me, and knows that I'm better off being with you guys. My parents agree as well so..."

"I see..." I replied softly.

"You know Em, that day in the cafe when I decided to leave... I thought that I'll be finally returning home. I guess, in a way I did but..." Star sighed. "It just doesn't feel the same. I love my parents, but they somehow just don't feel as close to me as you guys."

I nodded silently.

"Anyways, let's talk about something else." Star seemed desperate to change the topic.

"Ok then... what would you like to talk about?"

"You, Em; and winter as well. How have the two of you been doing?"

"Fine." Winter replied. "I've been taking care of Em for you." The wolfabeast's nose twitched in amusement.

"Yea, Winter's been helping me take care of the rescue center. It'll be a hundred times harder if I had to run it myself, especially since we have a certain spiritmal that loves to raid the refrigerator." I petted Winter's head, the wolfabeast wolfing in joy.

"A spiritmal that raids the refrigerator?" Star seemed a little confused.

"His name is Crunch. He's a monotone wolfabeast." Winter explained. "He keeps trying to eat everything and anything. I caught him breaking into the food storage at least five times."

"Wow that sounds like trouble." Star's eyes widened in amazement.

"He is." I replied. "And of course, he would be the very spiritmal my brother decides to adopt."

"Wait your brother adopted a spiritmal?! When?"

"The day you came to visit." I replied. "I was hosting an adoption fair when you called."

"What exactly is your job anyways? In detail at least." Star tilted her head to one side, clearly curious. "You've stated that you care for abandoned spiritmals and do research on them."

"That's basically it. I'm a professor, Star. I started right after you left, helping rescue the Spiritmals team Alchama have captured. I helped the spiritmals that have owners reconcile with them, and released those that didn't have any and were still capable of living in the wild. I then took care of the rest of the spiritmals, those that didn't have owners, but lived so long in captivity they've lost their survival skills. Of course, some were still capable of living in the wild, but they just didn't have in in them to return to their former lifestyle. A few even stuck around just out of respect."

"Wow." Star remarked.

"Yea. Of course, I do rescue random spiritmals from smaller events and nurse the hurt ones back to health... be it emotionally or physically. While doing so, I try to do a bit of research on their species, and send in the information to other scientists to help us all learn more about them and the information is used to update the spiritmal dexter."

"Ah I see... that's interesting." Star was intrigued.

"The pay's really high though most of it is used to keep the rescue center running. Still, I like my job." I continued.

"So, have you entered any races recently?" Star asked.

"No." I simply replied.

"No? I mean you probably won't be able to enter the official ones, but not even the ones for leisure?"

"Actually, I could technically enter official races now. Felix gave me a pass after you left."

"He what?!" Star exclaimed.

I nodded. "He's been trying to convince me to join one, actually."

"But Emily always turns him down." Winter continued.

"Why Em? Wasn't it your dream?"

"It was. It no longer is." I gave Star a small smile. "Of course, I guess I'll be joining one soon, seeing that it's on your bucket list."

Star appeared to be speechless.

"Speaking of my bucket list..." Star blinked, trying to pick up the conversation once more. "I think I'll state the more important things I have on it."

"Go ahead. I guess I'll need to know what's on it."

"Well. Firstly, I want to spend as much time I can with you and enter a race as well. Secondly..." Star stopped for a while. "I want to help Felix discover who he really is."

I blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I think you know." Star looked at me straight in the eye, and somehow... I understood what she was getting at.

"That's all there is to it actually. Those two things are the ones of highest priority on my list. There are others of course, I've stated most of them back at Nightshade's lab. However those two... I just need to accomplish them."

I nodded.

"Now, why don't we take a walk around Brightlit before dinner? Since we're here and all." Star continued.

"Sure thing." I agreed, packing up the trash and throwing it into the nearest dustbin before letting Star lead the way.
———————————

Now look at this update, that I just found.

When I say go, get ready to publish...

Yea... I haven't updated this in a while have I? I wonder who's still actually reading this mess of a storyline...

I guess it doesn't really matter.

And now... Go!