A Mother When Needed: Tales From Archeleon's Willow

By Kouta

After a traumatic incident rips Sierra’s family from her, she wakes up on Jitaku, an entire world of orphans under the care of Akira, the galaxy tree’s greatest Mother, and her squadron of unique and talented caretakers. Worried at first, Sierra warms up to the odd characters surrounding her and decides to join a field trip to save a baby manticore from a group of self-righteous hunters with a knack for acting stupid.
Too bad for them Akira is a witch who does NOT take well to bullies, especially those targeting her kids.
Rated E for Everyone!
-Creator

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9781304672193

Book preview

A Mother When Needed

Written by Kouta

Copyright © 2017

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-304-67219-3

CONTENTS

Archeleon and Their Willow

Once flourishing with life and prosperity, an Earth, the size of Jupiter, fell into war and ruin after a battle between cosmic beings obliterated the balance between good and evil. A blast destroyed the duplicated and re-shaped Milky Way galaxy, nearly eliminating all possible life. But Eracort, creator of the universe, was barely able to save what mattered. Saddened by losing the galaxy based on their home dimension, Eracort cried out the Ocean of Forever Reaching Waves, a cosmic sea that stretched from one end of the ever-expanding universe to the other with an endless bottom.

Eracort punished those who destroyed their work, relishing their infinite pain and suffering but feeling empty nonetheless. After eons of torture, old friends came to give Eracort their support. After many condolences and a fantastic reunion, Eracort found themself struck with inspiration; and decided to remake the galaxy yet again, this time with far more amusing twists.

After a brief explanation, one of Eracort’s allies spoke up, hoping they’d be able to take on the burden of protecting this new galaxy. Eracort was pleased with and accepted the request; in return, they offered Archeleon the Ocean of Forever Reaching Waves to be the entity’s new home. The sea-like phenomenon had unlimited energy to keep Archeleon alive for many, many eons. 

As Archeleon took to the limitless ocean, Eracort used their power to make a willow tree sprout from the turtle’s shell. I can’t say how long this took, but when Eracort was done, a willow tree of galactic proportions grew from Archeleon’s back. Archeleon’s shell grew as wide as your Milky Way Galaxy; the tree stood taller than anyone could measure. The colorful leaves were filled with stars, suns, and moons; hemispherical worlds grew from the tree on vines, along branches, and even from flowers. Eracort filled the tree with many forms of sentient life once more, then ‘disappeared,’ excited to see what stories come from their newest creation. Their friend, the cosmic entity of protection, Archeleon, happily guarding the willow tree. 

Intro

It was nighttime on Alexandria, a world the size of a small continent. The two suns were in their buds while the five moons lit up the dark sky. The village resembled a southwestern country town with low mountains outlining the land’s end. There was an X-Mas celebration for the adults.

Astrid and her kids weren’t invited. What kids? Who’s Astrid? Well, in the forest not far from a bonfire encircled by dancing villagers was a group of five. Ah man. The leader was a tall curvy woman with four kids at her side. Wish we could join. This was Astrid; she had long wild red hair and was as wide as she was tall, over six feet. Freckles decorated her pudgy face, and her wide smile showed some missing teeth.

B-b-but the Manticore? Cried the youngest. Elvis was maybe nine and only four feet tall with sharp claws and bushy brown hair covering his eyebrows. He was a hybrid with a short brown tail and furry ears flattened against his head.

I hate to break it to you, El, but I think we over-shot it. The other male said. Tyler was a tall twelve-year-old black platypus hybrid with webbed hands and feet; the latter was wrapped in bandages, a bill replacing a human mouth, and even the beavertail, which hung stuck in the air. I think we were at least one branch off.

Oh man. Elvis groaned and leaned against Astrid.

Not again! Another female voice. This eleven-year-old child was a satyr; the hair on her goat legs matched her messy brown hair and the fuzzy tail on her rear. She was massaging her neck; the curling horns on her head were heavier than she could handle. I missed filing-night for this.

Astrid chuckled at her kids. Let’s get back home then and try to research what went wrong and how not to mess up next time.

Yes, Ma’am. Most of the kids said.

Astrid smiled, then realized Elvis, Tyler, and Vicky answered, but not the last. She looked around until finding the final kid. Eduardo? Are you alright? The three kids turned to see the final child. Age unknown and the shortest of the group, Eduardo was a brown-skinned adolescent. Nobody knew if he was the oldest or youngest, and nobody asked. He wore a few layers of colorful clothes, and beside him was a living puppet the size of a teddy bear. Many grey stripes and shapes decorated the odd-looking felt fauna’s fur; it was calm and content as it studied the owner’s gaze.

We need to call Mom, The puppet surrounded himself and Eduardo with a gust of wind, Someone’s in trouble!

Wait! Astrid shouted, but the duo had already taken off. What is-? Then she heard screams from a distance. Astrid spun around to see the villagers couldn’t hear the sounds of panic over the celebration. Kids, take your medicine! The children took out a vile each and downed the contents within. And send help!

Astrid took to the sky, wind picking her up and carrying the adult to the chaos. It wasn’t long before she caught up with Eduardo, I’ll go ahead! Astrid shouted and shot past them with a Mach cone forming.

Members of the Komodo/lion household were being attacked. Upstairs was the corpse of a pregnant mother; downstairs, the Father was fighting, but I just don’t have the stomach to describe those scenes. I can and must tell Sarah’s final moments at her childhood home. From the mudroom door burst a young brown-skinned girl. A hybrid of hybrids if you will. Sarah had lion ears, claws, and fangs, but also a Komodo dragon forked tongue and tail. One of her eyes was a lion’s amber eye, the other was a hazel Komodo dragon eye.

Sarah was drenched in her family’s blood, as well as her own tears, snot, and saliva; screams wouldn’t stop belting from her throat. She could hear the monster inside still smashing and destroying her home. Sarah’s Father’s anguished cries of turmoil filled the family property. Sarah wanted to run as far as she could, but there was no energy left, and before she could move, the monster came out.

A massive jellyfish with dozens of undulating tentacles crashed through the front of the house, destroying the mudroom in the process. Sarah gave up in the face of death; it was too much for her. Sarah closed her eyes and fell back, allowing her fate to come, too exhausted to keep fighting.

With her unconscious, the jellyfish monster could do as it pleased but didn’t get a limb near the sleeping body when the air around it turned into a twister and lifted it into the air.

Astrid arrived on the scene and brought a tornado with her magic to fend off the monster. Astrid ran to Sarah, thinking the jellyfish was taken care of. She was wrong. Astrid couldn’t get within four meters when tentacles latched to the ground and pulled the jellyfish from the swirling winds. Astrid was astonished as the jellyfish fought back so quickly against her magic.

The monstrous creatures shook away the twister and surrounded Sarah with tentacles, keeping the gelatinous head above her body. But Astrid wouldn’t give up, Winds of Wrath! She demanded of the night air.

The breeze picked up speed immensely and shot towards the many limbs approaching Sarah, keeping their grip off her. The villagers in the town below were taking notice of the weather in the mountains above. Concern was beginning to engulf them. Astrid was fighting to move the jellyfish, but she couldn’t get much closer, and if the wind were too strong, it could harm the child she was trying to save.

Liquid burst from above, then a shark made of lightning flew into the fight. It charged directly into the jellyfish. Finally, there was damage; the jellyfish stumbled backward onto the house roof.

When the shark tackled the monstrous jellyfish, a man jumped from within the elemental sea creature. A tall Caucasian with a handsome squared jaw face and glasses landed in front of Sarah. The Supreme Master of Dab; Dab Master Supreme has arrived on scene! He announced and dabbed left.

Fire shot from Dab’s fingertip and combined with the air to make a Nurse Shark. He dabbed right, water and earth combined, and his movements to create a thresher shark. Dab crossed both arms above his head, and the two sharks combined into a great white as lightning struck it from above.

Full Elemental; Forward charge! Dab directed the shark forward with his hands.

Just as the shark made of