The group celebrated Ellie's first use of magic, where she didn't get any help from anybody with cake, and Sophia announced that she was going to teach the little princess for a while longer, and the others were free to do whatever they wanted. The blonde also gave Ellie some rules regarding the use of her new magic, including making her promise that she wasn’t going to use it unsupervised for the time being.
“Alrighty, are you ready for more training?” Sophia and Ellie were back in the cherry blossom forest when the blonde addressed the princess in a cheery voice.
“Y-E-S!” The little tiger was very motivated.
“Perfect!” She liked the enthusiasm. “Blu’s here to help, too!” After saying this, the little parakeet appeared from one of the nearby trees and landed on the blonde’s shoulder.
“Yay!”
“For now, how about you show what you learned yesterday and make us a nice little water ball to warm up?”
“Okay!” Ellie immediately jumped at the prompt and began concentrating. In the end, it took her two extra tries to get it working as she wanted to, but she was able to recreate the success of the previous day.
“Focusing can be hard, huh?” Sophia smiled at the princes after the third attempt was successful. “Good job!”
“Very hard!” Ellie nodded. “Still super fun!”
“Do you want to play with more water, or should we try some other things with magic?”
“What other things can be done?” The princess tilted her head.
“Whatever you can think of~.” She gave her a thumbs up. “And then three more things on top of that.”
“Waoh!” The little tiger seemed impressed. “That’s too many choices for Ellie, though!”
“It’s horrible, isn’t it?” The blonde felt her. “Too many choices can make things actually worse, huh?”
“Yes!”
“How about we try playing around with wind for a change? It's fun, and you can use it for a lot of mischief~."
“Ellie loves mischef!”
“I’m not surprised about that.” Sophia knew that she would like that. “Let’s give teaching you this a try!” While saying so, the branches of the weeping cherries around them began to sway in the newly generated wind, and countless petals and cherry blossoms started to circle around the princess, almost trapping her in a whirlwind of pink.
“So pretty!” Not bothered by the wind whatsoever, the little tiger just began catching the cherry blossoms moving around her midair. “How does wind magic work?”
“The same as the water one.”
“Think, concentrate, let’s go?” She tilted her head.
“Let’s go!” The blonde nodded. “Do you think you can do it?”
“Ellie will try!”
“That’s the spirit!” Sophia liked the enthusiasm. “Remember, only a light breeze. You don’t want to destroy all those lovely trees, right?”
“Never!” The princess shook her head.
"Perfect, then start preparing!" She gave her a thumbs-up. "Blu and I will be watching you." Afterward, the blonde, with the parakeet on her shoulder, got comfortable under one of the trees while watching the little tiger.
“Can the wind keep going? Ellie wants to feel it more to try and do the same!” The little tiger needed more inspiration.
“Sure thing!” Sophia smiled at her. “Blu, would you mind?” Immediately after, the parakeet lightly flapped its wings, and something akin to a gentle summer breeze enveloped the whole area around them.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Thank you!”
----------------
While Sophia and Blu were relaxing together, Ellie kept studying the wind around her. Moving around, spinning in circles, catching some floating petals here and there, and trying to become one with the wind, in her words, at least.
“Any luck?” After around 20 minutes, the blonde tried to find out how it was going.
“Close!” She looked at her with sparkling eyes. “Ellie’s this close to becoming the wind!”
“The task was to create wind, not turn into it.”
"A-Ah!” The princess froze for a moment. “Ellie got too into it!”
“Happens all the time.” Sophia felt her. “Wanna try again?”
“Yes!” She nodded. “This time, Ellie will focus on the right thing!”
“Do your best~.”
“Let’s go again!” Ellie immediately stretched out her arms to feel more of the wind around her. “Mhrmm…” Her eyebrows scrunched up.
“Did you notice something?”
“Maybe?” The princess seemed a little confused.
“Tell me what it might be.” The blonde encouraged her to go on.
“Ellie feels like the wind comes from somewhere. Normally, the wind is just there and is windy for a little bit, but this… Ellie doesn’t know, feels weird!”
“Try to focus on that somewhere.” Sophia gave her a thumbs up. “Find the place the wind comes from!”
“Okay!” Closing her eyes, the princess blindly walked around the area to try and find the source of the wind Blu was creating. “Mhmm, oh!” After stumbling around for around five minutes and almost crashing into four trees later, she eventually stopped roughly 30 meters to the left of the blonde.
“What did you find?” The blonde looked at her while gently petting the parakeet that moved to her hand, which she was holding up.
“Found it!” She opened her eyes again.
“Yeah, but what did you find?”
“Windy magic!” The princess pointed at an empty area between two cherry blossoms. “It’s coming from there!”
“What makes you think so?” Sophia wanted more details. “The wind isn’t any stronger there, is it?”
“It feels like magic here! The same tingly or powerful feeling Ellie had when she first felt it and used it on her own! It’s strong here! The wind also goes in all directions and not the same in this place!”
“That’s a start.” She was okay with that reply. “Study the area a little more and try to get a better hold of the feeling. Then, do your best and replicate it to make your own wind. Still, always remember to take care of your concentration and not to overdo it for now.”
“Will do!” Ellie immediately walked right into the middle of the area she had been pointing at. There, she lifted her arms as if trying to grab something out of the air. Naturally, she had no success with that. Afterward, it seemed like she started concentrating on some once more.
“It’s sooo fun watching someone who has no idea how magic works play around with it and trying to figure out what’s going on!” Sophia was having a great time. In response to that, Blu looked straight at the blonde and nodded a few times. “What’s with that reaction?!” She didn’t like how the bird was looking at her, but Blu just reacted with a slightly sassy-sounding chirp.
“W-Waoh!” While Sophia was being teased by a bird, Ellie suddenly made some tremendous progress and got loud. A massive gust of air shot from her hand and blew away almost all the cherry blossoms on the tree in front of her, causing a small tornado of pink petals. “A-Ah…” Her expression then turned a little awkward.
“Someone overdid it a little, huh?” The blonde smiled at the princess.
“B-But Ellie didn’t use more than she could feel!” She started pouting. “Why so different?!”
“The magic you felt was the source for the entire wind in the area all around us.” Sophia lightly shook her head. “You used the same amount and instantly shot it away from your hand. Because of that, it was much more powerful.”
“Ohh!” The little tiger nodded a few times. “Ellie hadn’t thought about that!”
“Don’t worry about it~." She wasn't upset. "My suggestion for the future is not to try and copy simple things like the amount of magic. Always add details and think of the result while using magic.”
“Thank you!” The princess was happy about the guidance. “Ellie will remember this from now!”
“Perfect~.” Sophia gave her a thumbs up. “Do you want to try again? This time, maybe a little gentler, though.”
“Of course!” The little tiger reacted with a big nod. She was still highly motivated.
“That’s the spirit!”
----------------
The princess immediately returned to concentrating on the task and another ten minutes quickly passed. During that time, it seemed like she was making great progress because her expression turned rather confident before long.
“Ellie gets it now!” While announcing these words, a gentle breeze formed in front of her and picked up countless cherry blossoms that lay on the ground from the earlier accident. Then, the wind carried them over to the little tiger and showered her in petals for a little while as they circled around her. “Yay!”
“Wow!” Sophia looked honestly impressed. Blu also was using its wings to clap. “That’s amazing! Good job!”
“Ehehe~.” She enjoyed being praised. “Magic is so fun!”
“It sure is!” The blonde thought so, too. Blu also nodded along. “You are very talented, too! You’re learning it so fast!”
“Yay!” The princess got even happier.
“Hehe.” Sophia was proud of her. “Should we jump right into the next lesson?”
“Ellie’s hungry!” She had other plans.
"A very valid argument.” The blonde nodded. "A good one, too.” She could never say no to getting something to eat. “Shall we head home for a bit and have lunch?”
“Lunch!”
Having decided to take a break from Ellie's magic training to get some food, Sophia opened one of her portals, and the two returned to the cottage for the time being.