“What are you doing up on that monstrosity?” Cinera chirped at him from below.

He was in the middle of building his first ever castle and he was loving every moment of it.

The rustic twist of sphagnum growing out of the many crevices, the artistic flair of his genius, and the architecture of the prints he saw displayed during an exhibition at the eternal vernal pools.

He was enamored by the whole thing.

The muck flowed up through the base walls and to the top in a steady stream to meet his needs.

Battlements and towers adorned the edges as he climbed higher and higher up.

The skies were filled with light pillowy clouds and drifting winds. It was just a tad bit too sunny for his liking.

He turned his attention to the land below with a wave of satisfaction washing over him.

It felt like just another day in the swamp. Nothing was amiss and nothing was out of place.

He could just let his mind wander while his body worked.

“Hey, come down! I think you should see what it looks like before you start doing the details!” Cinera shouted at him from somewhere just out of view.

He took a deep breath and leapt from the top ropes of his creation. It pushed against him, and he did so in equal measures.

It was another sign of his advancement in every way.

His strength and durability had increased many folds while his creations handled the same kind of abuse.

He felt the wind rush past his warty skin while diving for the floor.

His body hit the ground with a thud before bouncing to a stop.

“Woah, you nearly crushed us!” Natan flailed slightly in surprise before complaining.

“I knew where you guys were. It was perfectly safe. Now, what did you want to show me?” He turned to the momentous object at his back with joy already creeping into his motions.

‘The wonderful, massive, grandiose, and exalted! Oh, how great it will-’

He paused mid thought as he took full account of his piece of…shit.

The sides were wavy and obviously poorly aligned with the rest of the structure.

The spires curved and sagged in strange places, making them look more bulbous and less pointy than he wanted.

The battlements were far too thick and rough to actually move on.

‘The keep…’

The centerpiece of the whole project was the worse crime. It was beyond rough. He could barely distinguish it from a massive pile of shit.

It was soul crushing to the little toad.

“No, no, no, no, nooooo! This can’t be my wonderful piece of art. I put my everything into it. I know I can do better than this. It must be… what did you guys do to it?!”

He turned to the amphibians with a venomous glare barely concealed.

“Woah, we didn’t do anything to your…project, you just… are … struggling. Its not like I could do anything without making an explosion and Natan is just, well, her.”

Egosum held his stare for a few more moments before dropping his gaze along with his shoulders in defeat.

“I’m sorry. It’s just hard to accept. I suck at building.”

The salamander held her words as Natan made her way over

“No, you don’t. You just need more practice. Refine your skills a bit and you will be making the most magnificent castles in existence.

He turned to her with a downturned gaze.

“Thanks. Practice will definitely help. I guess I can’t be a genius at everything after all. Who can be, ya know?” The girls rolled their eyes at his tone while he approached the side of his monstrosity.

His webbed hands connected with the lingering sense of Qi baked into the structure.

Within seconds, the towers and buildings flattened and morphed back into the ground, leaving a barren spot in the loamy soil where his masterpiece once stood.

“You will be missed.

He stroked the ground with a tender look in his eyes.

“Okay then.”

-

“That looks pretty good for your first real building. So, you’re saying that this thing will last?”

Cinera entered through the low-cut entrance and with a light spell hovering to her side.

“Yeah, it should. My Qi gives it some innate structure that will keep it together long after it decays away into the ether. I just dont know what to do about the light. The tents at the beastmen’s village were somewhat translucent but rock isn’t nearly as much.”

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He followed in after her, observing the dome with his enhanced vision, on the lookout for any weaknesses or imperfections.

“It will be a little dark, but I might be able to do something about that. We will have to see. In the meantime, just add some windows. It can’t be too hard.” He slowly panned over to her.

“I can’t do windows.”

“You can’t do windows?”

“Nope.”

The salamander looked back to the top of the dome.

“Okay. We’ll figure something out, but first I want help flying.”

They left the mud hut and walked out into the sprawling green plains of sphagnum.

“Alright, let me see your newest rendition of flight.”

Egosum watched the red and black salamander whirl a bundle of magic together in her palm.

The ashen circle of energy slowly locked each piece into place and coalesced into its final version.

An ashen cloud slowly billowed from the center, forming a small bundle of grey just above the ground.

Just as he thought the magic was over, a few dense arcs of lightning exploded from the circle with its signature crackle.

They laced themselves into the thick matrix with ease before slowly filling every inch of it.

She placed her hand into the pillowy substance and Egosum watched the cloud sag under her weight.

The lightning seemed to give the ash order along several axis. New fields began to show up within the magic that he had never seen before.

His enhanced vision picked the cloud apart. The new realm offered a clarity that he wasn’t even aware was missing since learning the power.

He watched the lightning energy shearing the ashen cloud to pieces as it tried to keep it together.

The internal forces quickly became too much and the lighting tore through the sides of its containment.

The flashes struck all around the trio with Natan ducking behind the toad.

A stray bolt smashed into his face, blinding him for a brief moment.

“Oop. Sorry about that.”

He squinted his eyes as they readjusted to the light. His large hand brushed the soot from his nose where it made contact.

“Alrighty then. That was an experience.”

The caecilian peaked out from around her blockade.

“I almost died!”

“Said I was sorry.”

Egosum croaked for their attention before the bubble creature could derail them before they even began to begin.

“Anyway. I think I see what the problem is. Are you lancing lightning bolts through the cloud to give the particles inside some sort of order and rigidity?”

Cinera nodded along in confirmation.

“Well, I think that's the problem and the answer. The lightning bolts are too strong and plentiful so when they start to pressure each other, they begin to force their way out of the cloud, bringing all the other bolts with them.”

Cinera listened intently to his explanation.

“If there is a way to just directly charge the cloud then that should alleviate this problem at the very least.”

They waited around while she contemplated a fix before starting her magic circle up once more.

The cloud came out again but rotated on itself over and over again in a swirling mess.

“What are you doing?”

She didn’t say a word while focusing on the spell.

His enhanced vision picked up a new source of energy coursing within the cloud.

The ash rubbing against itself seemed to have the same effect as the lightning she had introduced before.

“What’s causing it to become charged now? I haven’t seen anything like this.”

The ash was so full of energy that he almost struggled to believe the spell contained less mana than the first try.

She finally hazard her first attempt of stepping on the cloud while Natan ducked behind the toad once more.

Her hand sunk into the cloud before finally stopping just before the bottom.

He saw her eyes light up as she saw the minor success.

She lowered the ash and tried hopping onto the cloud only to fall through it the same second.

“That was amazing. Great idea Ego. I think it just needs to be a a good bit denser and we are set.”

“Cinera.” He cut off the flurry of thoughts she was spouting. She turned to him with a slightly crazed glint to her eye.

“Since when do you call me Ego and can you answer my question? Where did all of that energy come from?”

She came back to her sese under the interrogation.

“Well, it just kind of rolls off the tongue sooo… now, I guess. Now the energy is a little more complex. It was partially an idea from the volcano I threw lightning at. Once it erupted, I couldn;t see shit but lightning and cloud for days.”

Egosum raise one of his brows.

“Clouds tend to have lighting. Not much else really does so what was the inspiration.”

She scuttled towards him with a bit of insanity creeping in.

“It was an ashen cloud, not a rain cloud. That made me think about why eruptions would have something that normal clouds do as well despite how different they appear, and I think I figured it out.”

She paused for dramatic effect.

“Ash is just a ton of material being rubbed against itself in a super-heated state. Clouds have more lightning on hot days which leads me to my conclusion. That movement and heat causes the particles to naturally charge themselves. No need for my unnatural interference.”

Egosum nodded along as she explained.

“So that means you could create lightning the same way?”

She brushed him off with a flick of her wrist.

“Certainly. That isn’t the cool part though. There aren’t very many lightning mages and even fewer ashen mages. I might be one of the only few who actually know about this interaction. It’s a phenomenal discovery. The ramification it can have on my other spells is insane.”

The other amphibians shared a glance before addressing her once more.

“That is… awesome for sure. Why don’t you try it again with a denser cloud now?”

She whipped back around with her hand to the air.

The magic came to life and the cloud billowed from the circle like the densest of fogs.

The size eclipsed all the other attempts many times over before shrinking down to a size appropriate to carry her small figure.

The hyper condensed ash rapidly grew in energy under his gaze, appearing more lightning than its base.

“Woah.”

All at once, it gained that familiar order. She raised her free hand to the cloud and brought it near the ground.

Without another look, she hopped onto the ash and wobbled for a few seconds while maintaining her concentration on the spell.

It looked ready to burst under her pressure before she turned with a open mouth smile plastered on her.

At the very same moment, she fell through and the brightest flash and the loudest pop he had ever heard shook the plains.

His hands shot to his eyes as they burned, and his ears ached from the noise.

“Cinera! Are you okay?!”

He shouted out for his friend who had been at the center of the explosion despite being unable to see or hear.

He flopped forward, reaching out to the ground in search of her body.