Sophia gave Ellie a tour of her domain, and the princess loved all of it. She was especially fond of the cherry blossoms and even wanted to live there. In the end, the little tiger also met Blu, and the two became friends quickly. Something unexpected happened during their meeting as well, though.

“Whaah, so pretty!" Seemingly not having noticed anything yet, Ellie was busy exploring the crystallized plants while her eyes were sparkling almost as much as her surroundings.

“What just happened, Blu?” The blonde brought her hand to her shoulder and let the bird hop onto it before moving in front of her to look at it while talking. “Why did you and her glow just now? Why did I see magic particles going in and out of her?”

In response to that, the parakeet didn’t react at all. “Oi!” She didn’t like that. “It’s clear that you did something!” She continued to stare at Blu for a while until the parakeet eventually turned its head away after caving into the pressure.

“Do you want me to get angry?” Anything concerning the little princess was not game to her, after all. After that, the bird immediately raised its wings in defeat. Even the absolutely overpowered Blu instinctively knew that angry Sophia would be bad news. “So, what did you do?”

Pausing for a second, the parakeet then rubbed its head against Sophia’s thumb while it was sitting on her hand. “Yes, I was that you pat her cheek.” She rolled her eyes. “What happened afterward, though? Why did you two glow? Why were there magic particles going in and out of Ellie?”

Blue just tilted its head in return. A second later, the parakeet started flapping its wings a couple of times. "Yeah, I have no idea what that means." She had trouble interpreting the bird’s intent. "Okay, both of you were glowing, and the particles… Did you unlock Ellie’s magic?!”

The parakeet immediately shook its head. “No? But it did unlock, didn’t it? I could feel her power before already, but it feels active now.” Blu changed its response to nodding instead.

“So it did activate!” Sophia sounded excited. “But you really had nothing to do with it?” Hearing that, the bird froze. “Is there anything you want to tell me?” Blu then just turned its entire body away from the blonde.

“What’s that supposed to mean? You didn’t unlock, but you also didn’t not help?” Blu didn’t move an inch in return. “Not the most talkative today, huh?” Sophia felt like they had already had better conversations before. "Mhmm, was it about to unlock soon on its own, but you being near her and touching her cheek, as a massive bundle of pure magic, kickstarted it?” She took a guess on the events.

Hearing that, Blu turned around again and moved its head up and down a couple of times. “Ah, I see.” She stared at the parakeet before breaking into a smile. “Sure, let’s leave it at that.” Sophia then gently patted its head for a little while. “It’s about half of Maya, isn’t it?” She then looked at Blu again, who nodded in return. “Anna’s going to be sooo jealous." She already knew how the older sister would react now that the little princess had about twice the magic she had at her disposal.

“Ellie!” Once the blonde was done with Blu, she faced the princess, who was entertaining herself with one of the crystallized cherry blossoms while they were having their conversation.

“Hmm?” She quickly walked up to the taller tiger. “Does So…phia need anything?”

“How are you feeling right now?”

"GREAT!" Her answer came instantly. “This place is the bestest!”

“Happy to hear~.” She smiled at her. “I meant your health, though. For example, feeling like you got a cold?” Sophia roughly remembered the time when Ari and her magic got messed up and how sick they felt back then.

“Not at all!” The princess shook her head. “Ellie’s full of energy and never felt better!” As she said that, Blu left the blonde’s shoulder and landed on the little tiger's shoulder again while rubbing its head against her cheek once more before nodding a couple of times. "Ehehe~." Ellie liked that a lot.

“Perfect!” She was relieved that she wasn’t suffering from any side effects. After all, Sophia had no idea how children naturally awaken their magic in that new world of hers. “Do you want to experiment a little with me?”

“Expeririment?” The little tiger looked confused.

“There’s a few things I want to try together with you.” She smiled at her. “If it works out, we’re going to have a TON of fun!”

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“Ellie loves FUN!” The princess was a fan of the plan already.

“Come here for a bit~.” Saying so, Sophia sat down cross-legged on the grass and patted the ground in front of her.

"Okay!" She quickly did the same, and the two looked at each other for a moment while sitting down in front of each other.

“Perfect!” Still smiling, the blonde stretched out her arms and held her hands in front of Ellie.

“What are we doing?” Still confused, the princess went ahead and placed her hands on top of Sophia’s.

“I’m going to try something now.” Holding her hands, Sophia then used some of her raw magic and let it flow into the little tiger. Pink and purple particles covered both their hands and parts of Ellie's arms. "Are you feeling something right now?”

“Hmm…” She tilted her head. “Ellie feels a little warm.” As she couldn’t see the particles, this was the only noteworthy change for her.

“That’s a start! Anything else? For example, feeling extremely powerful and strong?” It wasn’t exactly what the blonde was going for.

“Ellie always feels powerful and strong!”

“Aren’t you a healthy girl?”

“The healthiest!”

“That’s great!” She had to chuckle. “Still, maybe even more powerful than usual?”

“Hard to tell when you’re the most strongest!” Ellie’s mood was excellent.

“That is true.” Sophia played along.

“Ellie feels like she has even more energy! Does that count?”

“That very much counts!”

“Yay!” The princess got happy. “Why, though?”

“We’ll be getting to that now.” The blonde let go of Ellie’s left hand and presented the palm of her own hand to the princess. A moment later, a perfectly round ball of water with a diameter of five centimeters appeared and began to float roughly 15 centimeters over her palm.

“Ohh!” The little tiger stared at it with sparkling eyes. “So jealous! Ellie wants to use magic, too!”

“Ahaha…” Sophia wasn’t sure what to say. “How about we train a little and get you ready for when it’s time?” She wanted to surprise her.

“Okay!” She managed to get even more excited. “Let’s go!”

“Steph’s rubbing off on you, huh? When we were in the capital.” She noticed the dog’s favorite catchphrase. “But, yes, let’s go!”

“What does Ellie need to do?”

“Let’s see,” She hadn’t gotten that far in her plan yet. “I guess, let’s start with… Alright, please put your hand, palm side up, between my hand and the ball of water in the same way I’m doing it right now.”

“Sure!” She did exactly as told and then stared at the water ball with a curious expression. “Now?”

“Can you feel the water?”

“Nu-uh!” The princess shook her head. “How can water be felt without touching?”

“Don’t go philosophical on me now.”

“Philololo- what?”

“Don’t mind me.” Sophia rolled her eyes while stifling a chuckle. “Does your hand feel any different than usual? After all, it’s right between my hand and the magic I’m using it for.”

“Mhrmm!” She stared at her hand for a good bit while her face went through all sorts of expressions. "A little tingly!”

“Tingly, huh?”

“Tingly!” The princess nodded once.

“Okay, what now?” Saying so, the blonde grew the ball of water to twice its original size.

“More tingly!”

“Fair enough.” She wasn’t sure what reply she expected. “Can you try and concentrate on the tingly?”

“How?”

“Try to make it feel even more tingly!”

“Ellie’s not sure if So…phia’s a good or bad teacher.”

“Yes.” The blonde agreed. “Do you think you can try?”

“Absolutely!” The princess closed her eyes to concentrate extra hard.

“Is it working?”

“No idea!” She lightly shrugged.

“I really need to step up my teaching game, after all!”

“Ellie thinks so, too!” The princess nodded in agreement.

“25% less sassy, please!”

“Best Ellie can do is 10%!”

“Wow.” Sophia needed to pause for a moment. “Have you been secretly meeting Maya lately?”

“No, why?”

“Not important.” The blonde shook her head. “The tingly feeling you have is probably the magic I’m using. Again, I’m controlling the water through my hand by using magic. Try to concentrate on the water like you want to control it, too. Like, think about wanting to make it bigger really hard. Put some power into that idea! The tingly feeling might get stronger that way~.” She tried to trick the little tiger into using her magic.

“Thinking about wanting to make it bigger?” Ellie tilted her head while staring at the ball of water.

“Really hard and strongly!” She repeated herself.

“Okay!” The princess seemed highly motivated and focused on the water floating on top of her palm, which Sophia was keeping there. "Bigger! Ellie wants it bigger!” She stared at it so hard that her expression turned all scrunched up. “More water! Bigger ball! More powerful!” The little tiger was doing her bestest to influence it.

“Oh?” A few minutes after Ellie started making grimaces at the water, something began to change. Small ripples formed all over the perfectly round and smooth ball, which soon grew a tiny bit in size.

“It’s more tingly now!” Her eyes were sparkling again. “Ellie can feel it! It’s bigger, too!”

“It sure is~.” The blonde kept smiling. “That’s why it’s more tingly now.”

“Should we try something more advanced now?”

“Yes!”

“That’s the spirit!” Being a fan of her enthusiasm, Sophia went right for the next step. “Right now, I’m making the water float with my magic. Try imagining doing the same. Want it to float really hard!”

“Okay!” She immediately went back to making grimaces at the water as the princess was focusing hard on the task. A minute later, the ball rose up ever so slightly.

“Talented.” Sophia murmured this word before slowly lowering her hand, which had been below Ellie's until now. “Still tingly?”

“Nu-uh!” She shook her head. “Ellie’s hand just feels powerful?”

“Yeah, it feels quite powerful to use magic.” The blonde nodded. “So, how do you like using magic? It’s pretty cool, isn’t it? You learned it so fast, too!”

“H-HUH?!" Hearing that, Ellie's concentration broke, and the ball of water she had been controlling for the past couple of moments splashed onto her hand and lightly spilled over the two girls. Thankfully, it wasn’t that much water they were playing with.