In the training hall, Zariah the squidling slept like a rock on the bleachers as Coco the bunny loomed over Zariah. Coco tapped her foot against Zariah's side, and Zariah mumbled in her sleep as she rolled off the bleachers to avoid Coco's foot. Coco sighed and lightly pulled on her ears as she wondered how Zariah can sleep at the most inconvenient times.
"I wonder when the princesses and their friends will come back," Lulu (the demi-rabbit) said as she struggled to fluff her rabbit tail into a sphere.
"The door will open in five seconds," Mixo the boy kitsune said (spikey purple hair with magenta gradient tips, magenta eyes, light-tanned skin, and slightly short spikey purple kitsune tails with magenta gradient tips).
Lulu perked up her ears and looked over at Mixo as he was stretching on the floor.
"What makes you say tha-" Lulu said, right before one of the doors to the training split open before Destiny and the others walked in, causing Lulu to look in their direction with surprise.
"How'd you..." Lulu said; however, as Lulu turned around, she saw Mixo was as surprised as she was.
"Were you joking when you said that?" Lulu asked. Mixo glanced at Lulu and shook his head.
"I don't think he was... I believe Mixo was just surprised by how many tails... Lola's father has," Wilmoth the demi-mothion boy said (short fuzzy blond hair, ruby red eyes, tanned skin, no antennas, fuzzy golden fur on their lower body, forearms, hands and a ring around the area over their chest, and has normal blond-coloured mothion wings).
Lulu glanced at Wilmoth and then towards Zalroth as Lola lead Zalroth past her. Lulu pointed at Zalroth's tails and counted them.
"Are ten tails a lot for kitsune?" Lulu asked, causing Coco and Mixo to stare at her dumbfoundedly. Lulu cluelessly blinked at the duo.
"What?". The duo glanced at each other before sighing.
"Nethermind...," Mixo and Wilmoth uttered.
Zalroth stretched his arms and did the middle-aged groan, causing Deva to snicker.
"You really are getting old. Not even your unlimited vitality can sustain you now," Deva remarked cheekily. Zalroth flicked Deva on the forehead and knocked her off balance, causing her to fall off Zalroth's shoulders and got buried halfway into Zalroth's tails.
"For the record, all men do that," Zalroth said sternly. Deva let out muffled noises as she flailed her legs around. Zalroth sighed, and he heard light wet splats-like footsteps approach. Zalroth looked downwards to see Jokel the... nude kid Velkol (long curly cream white hair, pink eyes with black scleras, pale white skin, no nipples or either reproductive organs, slightly liquidy skin, small fangs, and slightly chubby hips).
Jokel silently stared up at Zalroth as a dark red coloured fox cub slept on Jokel's head. Zalroth tilted his head, and Jokel did the same while sticking out their extremely long tongue at him.
"Do you want to ask me something?" Zalroth asked. Jokel swiftly retracted their tongue and looked at their hands before they started to sign at Zalroth.
"Do you have any spare clothes? Everyone thinks I'm weird because I can't wear any of the provided clothing," Jokel signed. Zalroth nodded before he raised his hands.
"Yeah, it must be annoying dissolving everything you try to wear, right?" Zalroth signed. Jokel looked at Zalroth with shocked eyes and fumbled her fingers as she struggled to do the correct hand gestures.
"You know how to do sign language?" Jokel signed surprisedly.
"Why so surprised? Do you sign to everyone hoping they know how to sign back?" Zalroth signed. Jokel slowly nodded while covering her shy expression with her hands. Zalroth chuckled to himself as he reached into his tails and pulled out the Crescent Moon Staff.
Zalroth lightly booped Jokel on the head, and a veil of green qi seeped out from the staff and wrapped around a surprised Jokel. The qi condensed around her body before its glow died down and revealed the zipped-up oversized white hoodie with a skull insignia on the front underneath. Jokel stared down at the hoodie before gazing up at Zalroth.
"Don't you worry about dissolving those they're made from acid-proof fabrics," Zalroth remarked as he lightly tapped the crescent end of the Cresent Moon Staff against his head. Jokel enthusiastically bowed and graciously signed her appreciation to Zalroth as her dark red fox cub climbed into the hood of her hoodie. Zalroth gave Jokel a thumbs-up before he crouched down.
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"Since you're a velkol, which pronouns do you prefer I'd refer to you by?" Zalroth signed.
"Female ones.". Zalroth patted Jokel on the head and ruffled her hair before he stood up. Zalroth twirled the Crescent Moon Staff in his hand and slammed the base of the staff into the floor; a wave of green qi seeped out from the Crescent Moon Staff and formed into a collection of different coloured beanbags.
"Alright, you lot gather round!" Zalroth said with a lightly raised voice. All the kids gathered around and sat on the beanbags. Deva pulled herself free from Zalroth's tails before she returned to piggybacking on Zalroth's shoulders.
Zalroth waved the Crescent Moon Staff vertically to his side and conjured a chalkboard using green qi. Zalroth rested the Crescent Moon Staff against the side of the chalkboard and picked up the white piece of magichalk (it glows). Zalroth drew three perfect circles, and one of the kids commented, in awk, Zalroth must be a maths teacher, causing Zalroth to exhale amusedly. Zalroth quickly connected the three circles to make a triangle-esc shape before he coloured in each circle: the top circle was blue, the bottom left was red, and the bottom right was magenta.
"Alright.". Zalroth placed the magenta magichalk on the chalkboard's chalk holder before moving out of the way of the diagram and turning towards the kid.
"Now for a brief rundown of what I've drawn for you before we properly start. These are the three basic spiritual energies, and in simple terms, they allow us sentient beings to use more complicated spiritual abilities compared to monsters; any questions so far". the kids shook their heads, and Zalroth continued.
"To start with.". Zalroth pointed at the blue circle and it glowed.
"This circle represents qi which refers to your soul energy and is the spiritual energy monsters lack; however, we possess it, and with it allows us to have a higher level of ... self-identity (I think that's the best way to describe it)". Zalroth lowered his finger and pointed at the red circle before it glowed.
"This circle represent kai (heh) or also referred to as physical energy on its own it is responsible for giving people their physical vitality or health or strength, depending on how you'd like to refer to it.". The kids nodded along as Zalroth moved his hand to the magenta circle.
"And this one represents magical energy or mind energy, and as the name implies it's responsible for giving people mental strength or fortitude or brain power, in simple terms.". Zalroth crossed his arms and looked back at the kids.
"Any questions?". Some of the kids raised their hands.
"Yes, Lulu?". Lulu lowered her hand and itched the back of her hand as she formulated her question.
"Urm, so if someone who's smart will have more... mind energy than someone who's not as smart?" Lulu asked.
"Good question, although it's actually the other way around; when someone is born with more mind energy they will be on average smarter, but it only affects babies, so when their older and gain more mind energy they won't get passively smarter they'll just have an easier time retaining knowledge.". Lulu nodded as Zalroth moved on to someone else.
"Yeah... Coco?".
"Following up on Lulu, does the same thing apply to kai or physical energy?".
"Sort of the part being born with a lot at birth will mean the person will be stronger on average but gaining more will passively make you more athletic, but what it won't do is make you passively more muscular, for example," Zalroth asked. Zalroth spotted Jokel had her hand slightly raised.
"Jokel?" Zalroth asked.
"How do you know our names?" Jokel signed, causing Zalroth to chuckle before gesturing to Zuno standing nearby whilst he restrained Callie, who kept saying she only wanted to ask Deva some basic questions about the inner workings of the Ancient Tower's architecture.
"Come on, Zuzu, it won't take too long," Callie pleaded as she tried to squeeze out of Zuno's grip.
"You can wait until after the lesson," Zuno said with a stone-cold poker face, causing Callie to flop like a fish in defeat at her predicament. Deva lent down to Zalroth's kitsune ear and whispered into it.
"Was it a bad idea for me to tell her I'm a-".
"Very much," Zalroth stated before he looked back at Jokel.
"Just to clarify, Callie over there told me the other day.". Jokel nodded before she raised her hand again.
"Was that other question just an intrusive thought?" Zalroth asked, to which Jokel nodded.
"What did you mean when you say by itself when referring to the kai circle?" Jokel signed. Zalroth nodded before picking up the magichalks again and drawing two more circles (an orange circle and a purple one). Zalroth drew lines from the qi and kai circles to the orange chalk circle and lines from the qi and magical energy circles to the purple circles.
"So, to answer your question, Jokel.".
"For people to use spiritual abilities it is required for you to be able to mix your qi with your kai or magical energy to create usable magic," Zalroth said before he pointed at the glowing orange circle.
"As you can see when you...". Zalroth spotted Lola with her hand up.
"Yes, Lola?".
"Papa, wouldn't it be easier to do a demonstration?" Lola asked as Scarlett giddily brushed Lola's tails with a hairbrush. Zalroth placed his hand and hummed to himself while considering Lola's proposition.
"What do you lot think?" Zalroth asked, causing the kids to excitedly cheer to show they'd like a demonstration. Zalroth smirked to himself before picking up the Crescent Moon Staff and lightly pushed the chalkboard with his foot to give himself more space.