Ellie spent the entire day training her newly awakened magic and decided that she wanted to learn some tricks to satiate her mischievous side because she wanted to learn wind-based magic to mess with her older sister. It was a great success, but she forgot about the part where Anna could also use magic and immediately got back to her.
“Ellie wants to make a house!” Sophia, Blu, and the princess were back in the cherry blossom forest the following day, and the little tiger started with a grand request.
"Come again?" The blonde felt like she had missed something. The parakeet on her shoulder also tilted its head to the side.
“One day, Ellie will live here in paradise, so she needs a house!” She gestured all around her while saying so.
“I thought we came to the conclusion that Kira wouldn’t ever allow this?” Sophia vaguely remembered her wanting to live amongst the cherry blossoms before.
“But once Ellie’s Anna’s age, mama can’t say no any longer!”
“Oh, we’re playing the long game, huh?” Sophia was starting to understand.
“Yes!” She just nodded. “When that happens, Ellie needs a place to stay!”
“They grow up so fast!” The blonde looked touched. “Also, not a feeling I should have yet.” She then seemed rather conflicted over the fact she got emotional over a child growing up.
“So, can we make a house?!” Ellie was very motivated about her plan.
"Well, I'm not sure if we'll be able to build a house anytime soon, but how about we teach you some earth-based magic for the time being?" While saying so, the three were surrounded by earthen walls that shot out of the ground. "You can do stuff like that with it. Walls are the start of any good house, right?"
“Let’s go!” The princess was in favor of the suggestion.
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Not wanting her cherry blossom forest to be affected by the upcoming earth-related training, Sophia decided it was time to relocate to a different place.
“Alright, we can go wild here.” Once they exited her portal, Sophia gestured at the plain grassland all around them. There were some trees scattered here and there, but it was mostly just green as far as the eye could see, together with some colorful flowers mixed in everywhere. "I did this when I was bored. It's nice-looking, but nothing of value would be lost if we used it as a training ground."
“Ellie just lost 20% of her motivation!” The little tiger was already missing the cherry blossoms. “Surrounded by pink was so much better!”
“I don’t disagree, but are you willing to risk those beautiful trees while training with earth magic?”
"A good point!” The princess saw the issue. “That would be bad!”
“The plain suddenly sounds a lot better, doesn’t it?”
“Yes!” She agreed. “Okay, what does Ellie have to do to learn earth?”
“The same as usual~.” Sophia smiled at her.
“Ahh, makes sense!” Ellie didn’t seem surprised. “Still, can So…phia and Blu make some things with earth magic? Ellie wants to get a better feeling on it!”
“Of course!” The blonde, together with Blu, nodded in return. Immediately after, numerous earthen walls and pillars shot out of the ground around them. “If you need any more help, ask away, but for now, have fun~.”
“That’s Ellie’s specialty!” She was quite talented at having fun.
“Mine, too~.” Sophia smiled at her before getting comfortable under one of the few nearby trees, and Blu also joined her by sitting down on her shoulder. The biggest downside of the grassland was the full exposure of her domain's all-white default texture, so they wanted at least a little cover from it.
“Mhrmm…” While the two were relaxing, Ellie was busy circling around the dirt pillars they had created for her. “It doesn’t feel very different from usual dirt?" She eventually tilted her head while looking confused. "Not very magic-like!"
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"Ah, that’s because the earth magic we used earlier works a little differently from the air and water-related things we taught you before."
“How so?”
“Before, we used magic to create water and wind.” Sophia made a slight pause to let her think about it. “Now, we used it to move it. We simply pushed the dirt up from below the ground.”
“Mhh… Ohh!” The princess needed a second. “Does that mean magic cannot make dirt? Only move it?”
“No.” The blonde and Blu shook their heads. “You can create dirt. In fact, everything around here has been created with magic, dirt included." Sophia simply gestured all around her on the plain they were in. “It’s just a different way of interacting with magic.”
“Ellie understands!” She nodded a couple of times. "How does that work?" The little tiger may have understood the concept, but she still had no idea what it meant.
“Imagine grabbing or pushing the dirt, but without actually touching it with your hands. Use your magic power to do it while thinking about the shape you want it to turn into.”
“Mhrrmmm…” The expression of the princess scrunched up. “Ellie thinks she needs a little bit of thinking to do that. Sounds weird!”
“Many things I say sound weird.” The blonde was used to it already. “Play around with the idea a little and see what happens.”
“Okay!” She had nothing against weird ideas and immediately focused on the pillar of dirt again. “It’s so much harder without any magic to feel!”
“Do your best~.” Sophia just cheered her on some more.
“Ellie always does her best!” Saying so, she kneeled down and put her hands on the grass below. “Wait! Ellie wasn’t supposed to touch it with her hands!” She immediately jumped up again.
“You don’t have to treat it so literally~.” The blonde let out a small chuckle. "It's okay to touch it like that to get a better feeling. You’re just not supposed to dig a hole, form the dirt into a pillar, and call it magic afterward.”
“Ohh!” The princess nodded a few times. “Much easier then!” She immediately returned to touching the ground while having a concentrated expression.
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Ellie kept studying the grass and dirt for about half an hour while touching it in various places to see if she could feel anything that would help with her magic.
“Do you need some more help?” Sophia was wondering if the little tiger was making any progress in her eyes.
“So…phia said that Ellie should use her magic to grab or move dirt, right?”
“Something like that, yes.” She nodded. “Like when you were controlling the water or air, just that the dirt is already there.”
“Ellie has an idea, then!" Saying so, the princess suddenly made a fist and punched the ground below her. Immediately upon making contact with the dirt, her fist dug into it and pushed away the ground in a roughly two-meter radius around her. There first were some ripple or wave-like motions at the top before everything finally caved in. The result of this made the little tiger fall into a one-meter-deep hole she ended up making herself.
“W-Woah, are you okay?!” Sophia jumped on her feet with a worried expression. Up until now, she had been lying under a tree, and the hole that had the same depth as Ellie was tall. From her point of view, it looked like she had been swallowed whole.
“Better than ever!” Ellie only lifted one of her arms out of the hole and gave her a thumbs up.
“Don’t surprise me like that!” The blonde got closer to the hole, kneeled down on the edge of it, and lifted the princess out of it. “What was that superhero-like move for?" She felt some sort of familiarity between her punching the ground so hard it split open and some of the superhero movies she had seen in the past.
“Superhero?” The princess tilted her head.
“Don’t mind me~.” She had no plans of explaining it to her. “Anyway, care to explain your thought process here?” The taller tiger pointed at the hole.
“Ellie wanted to look cool!” Her reason was simple but perfectly valid.
“You definitely succeeded in that.” Sophia had to give her that. “Please explain what you did, though.” While she saw what happened, the blonde still wanted to hear it from her.
“Ellie used her magic to push away dirt around her fist!” She sounded extremely proud of herself. “Was thinking and concentrating about the dirt going away from Elli’s fist as she hit the ground.”
"Kind of like you wanted the dirt to behave like water?"
“Yes!” The little tiger gave her a big nod.
“That’s quite something!” The blonde seemed honestly impressed. “Did you want to create a hole this massive and deep, though?”
“N-No comment!” She quickly turned her head away.
“Ahaha~.” Sophia had to chuckle at her reaction. “What if it hadn’t worked out, though? Hitting the ground so hard surely would’ve hurt your hand.”
“Ellie was very confident of herself!” She gave her another thumbs-up. “No danger, no gain!”
“…” The blonde needed a small pause. “I don’t disagree with the message, but you being in danger is playing with my life! Kira will end me if something happens to you. I wouldn’t blame her, either, because I absolutely earned it.”
“Mama doesn’t need to know, does she?”
“…”
“It will be secret between Ellie and So…phia!” The princess showed her a bright smile. “Okay? Okay!”
“This girl is dangerous… And she only just turned four!” She was worried about the princess's future —or rather, about everyone around her because no one would be able to ever go against her.
“Let’s go!” The little tiger didn’t care about her monologue. “Ellie wants to learn more! This time, Ellie wants to learn something from Sop…phia from start to finish!”
Doing as told, the blonde let out a small sigh but then gladly continued to teach the princess a bit more earth-related magic to keep the training going at a decent pace before coming up with something new.