Leo was horrified at the news that he was growing a tail in reality. The thought of becoming a real life cat boy was mortifying in itself. Would he end up ending every sentence with a 'nya' or something? The thought of that alone made him want to throw up.
"It's not all that bad right? It will just serve to make you look even cuter!".
Luna attempted to comfort him after seeing how hard he was taking the news. He in turn stared blankly at his sister, he knew it wasn't intentional but her words felt like she was kicking him when he was already down.
"Astra! What is the meaning of this!'
With no one else to yell at, He turned to Astra and shook his wrists in frustration
'We don't know. All we did was pour our energy reserves into your body!'
Astra was clearly nervous at the sudden surge of anger directed towards it. How was it their fault?!
"Well you clearly did something! A Tail? A tail of all things. I am going to look like a freak"
Leo held his head and groaned as horrific scenarios played in his head. Even Astra seemed disturbed by what they were seeing.
Leo was slowly growing more fearful towards the day he would log out and be back in reality.
Leo felt a tap on his shoulder, turning his head, he saw his sister looking at him with an extremely concerned look on her face.
"Umm. Who are you talking to Leo? Who's Astra?"
Lunas expression showed that she was afraid that she had hit her brother so hard that he might have started imagining things.
"Astra is this. The bracelets on my wrists. They are my weapon and they are very talkative, a little bratty sometimes. Don't you hear it?".
Leo pointed to his wrists, somehow feeling wronged. This caused Lunas eyes to water a bit before she gave Leo a gentle hug,
I am so sorry. Your sister didn't mean to hit you that hard!". She was fully blaming herself for her brother to start hearing imaginary voices.
"No... he was saying that before you hit him. He was mentioning this Astra before so it wasn't you who broke his mind...you may have broken his skull before"
Barry interjected but his last words were closer to a murmur yet it still didn't escape Lunas hearing. Luna glared at her teacher accusatorily but decided to not pursue the matter.
"Wha... Astra is able to speak! They are a soulbound weapon or something! C'mon, tell them Astra!"
Leo begged desperately, hoping that his partner would vouch for him. He didn't want his sister and her mentor to think he was insane!
'We would but it matters not. They wouldn't hear us anyways. It's not like we have an actual voice. You are hearing us inside of your head. We communicate via telepathy...'
Astra reply was noncommittal and was like a bucket of cold water being dumped on him. He had thought Astras voice was coming from the bracelets. It somehow never occurred to him that Astra wasn't physically saying anything. No wonder why Barry had looked at him like he was pitiful when he first explained it.
"Soulbound weapon....? Wait, I think I have heard about that sort of thing before"
Barry furrowed his brow, as he tried to recall where he had heard that term before. When he remembered, his eyes widened in shock
"I-is it really a soulbound weapon?! I thought they were a myth! Each one is said to hold some earth shattering power. Power that can let one challenge even the gods!".
'I one. He is aware of our greatness.'
Barrys shocked and amazed remark caused Astras self esteem to spike
Leo inwardly groaned seeing Astra getting full of herself but he did nod yes at Barrys question. Barry leaned in closer to inspect the bracelets
"Are you sure you weren't swindled? These look a little... shoddy to be such a mystical piece of gear. What grade is it anyways?"
His brows were furrowed as he looked extremely doubtful based off Astras appearance
'....Nevermind. We take it back. We don't ignorant gorilla!'
Astra instantly flipped their opinion on Barry, offended that he called it shoddy.
"Well if I read the description earlier, Astra is currently at the Rare Grade. I was the one to name them too"
Leo decided to answer honestly believing that Barry might have more information about what sort of entity Astra was.
"Rare? That settles it, you were scammed. Lets go down to the village and find the scamming piece of trash who took advantage of you. I will help you get your money back!"
Barry growled in rage. Luna nodded her head in approval at his suggestion. Barry picked up his axe and began storming off in the direction of the village with Luna following closely behind but stopped after a few steps.
The sudden stop caused Luna to bump into him, the young rabbit rubbing her nose after bouncing off her mentors sturdy back. She shot him a dirty glare but Barry didn't seem to notice
He began to slightly tremble While his back faced towards the 2 siblings, having noticed something off about the way Leo spoke of Astra.
""Hold on...Did you say 'currently'? What do you mean by that?"
"Yeah... Astra was normal grade earlier but they ate 2 shields and upgraded to the Rare grade. Can even transform too!"
Leo raising both of his arms, the bracelets shimmered briefly before rapidly transforming into the gauntlets.
Luna thought the transformation was cool, growing a bit jealous, wanting a cool transformation weapon herself, staring at them with stars glimmering in her eyes. Barry on the other hand felt his body shaking in surprise.
"Go see that old fart Pyrs. He is the village blacksmith. He will be able to teach you more about your weapon I think. You should go now"
He avoided Lunas gaze that screamed 'I want one too'. He didn't have one and was not willing to admit that and embarrass himself in front of his apprentice.
Leo had a confused look on his face. He wasn't sure why Barry was so intent on getting rid of them so soon.
"Alright Old Man, I will be back later. I will be going with my brother now"
Luna waved goodbye to her Teacher who was slightly in awe when he turned to see Astra transforming back into a set of bracelets.
Luna grabbed Leos hand and pulled him along and away from the log cabin and from her stingy mentor. Unable to break free from his sisters grasp, he waved with his free hand to Barry calling out.
"I will make sure to visit Comrade... Bye for now"
"You too ... .take care. Also I am not an old man. I am middle aged at best!"
Barry had a somewhat forced smile but still retorted to the rude behaviour of Luna. He had sent out his apprentice to grab him some supplies and she had left without handing them over. Once the two of them were out of sight, he let out a sigh. He shook his head at the thought of his silly apprentice but his thoughts kept drifting back to what Leo had called Astra.
"Pyrs will have a field day if that is really a Soulbound Weapon...If it's growth based too.... We may finally have some hope..."
The murmur was heard by no one but the forest which had begun to grow darker with the setting of the sun.