Magical (A Quest of Vacations, or Starsigns, or Something Else)

Not all Water Spirits look much alike.

This is something you've known for as long as you've lived, the springs that would always ask you what kind of new things you'd been learning much larger than the little spirits that would come out during the rain and splash around in the puddles with you. In turn, they are much different from the boisterous river spirits, who leap out of the waves and scare fish away from people's nets.

So you have options. And, after a moment of thought, you decide to draw the kind of spirit that you're most familiar with, the calm ones that live alongside Fire Spirits and absolutely hate the idea of being clogged with ricebird feathers.

And, decision made, you get to work.

Just about all Water Spirits have fishtails. They use them to stir up waves and, when pulled into corporeality, to slap anyone they find offensive. You've never actually seen the last part in action, never created the opportunity, but that's what they tell you it's for, and you don't have much reason to disbelieve them.

Fins are another common feature. The spring spirits have larger, smoother fins than the other kinds that don't have legs instead, being basically webbed feet without the feet. These fins are more transparent than the rest of them, and you'd likely be able to see through them even if you dragged the spirit they're attached to into corporeality.

You add a few ridges to the fins on your drawing, and make them a bit thinner. It might not be particularly accurate to any one kind of Water Spirit, but you're supposed to make one that looks about average, and most spirits have ridged fins. To anyone who would know it's not completely accurate, you're sure it'd just look like a stylistic choice.

The heads, though... the heads of Water Spirits tend to resemble some kind of small, cute land animal for some reason. You decide on a vaguely canine appearance for this one even if its face ends up being much rounder than a vox's would be, and the ears are pointy, instead of just flopping over.

And as for the color... Water Spirits have fur that can be blue, green, or purple. Yes, they have fur, and not scales. You've had to explain this to far too many people over the years to not make this fact obvious in your drawing. It helps that the spirits in the hot springs have thicker fur than the other kinds.

You aren't sure how long you've been working- you aren't particularly good at drawing, and you need to make sure you get this right, when you're pretty sure Raspberry is going to be using this as a reference for as long as she possibly can- but it's clearly been some time, since Caramel's finished before you do.

Curious, you look at his piece of paper. Sound Spirits, it turns out, look like warmly-colored musical notes with chubby birdlike faces. It looks about right to you, if a bit simplified, but you'll leave judgement to people who can actually see that type of spirit.

Raspberry seems happy with you. "Thank you! Hold on a moment, Rye, I've got something I can pay you back with." She rustles through her desk for a moment, before pulling out a coin that shines almost blue. "It's an aqua coin! I was collecting coins for my last project, but I don't need them anymore, so..." So this is what Crescent silver looks like.


[ ] Take the aqua coin.

[ ] Don't take the aqua coin.

"Thank you." The coin almost seems to ripple when you take it, as if it were made of water compressed into a solid form. Except it can't be, because, well, that's ice, and you can't control ice. But this coin... it feels almost connected to your magic in some way.

Coins from the ancient civilizations are still accepted currency in almost all of Kovomaka, the main exceptions being settlements of ratfolk. But people don't spend them as often anymore, preferring to keep them around as offerings to the spirits, or exchanging them for bira. And with the sensation you feel having this coin in your paw.... you sort of understand why they make some kinds of spirits so powerful.

You go back to your own room soon after, watching out the window as the sun sets and casts the abandoned school grounds in shades of pink and orange. Adding in the greens of the grass, it's colored similarly to the building you're in, if more... subtle.

You wonder, for a moment, what you're supposed to do with the aqua coin, but end up deciding that your pocket is as good a place for it as any. At least until you can figure out something better.

This isn't exactly how you expected your second full day at the academy to go, but... it seems like, whatever's going on, it wasn't something that anyone could have anticipated.

---

As fun as yesterday was, you don't think you can go the rest of time until term doing nothing but talking to people. You're used to having lots of contact with people outside your family, but never the same people for all that long. And most of the people who would visit the springs were adults. You actually don't know that much about talking to those your own age.

So you should probably take a break from socializing for a bit. Actually, you were thinking you'd spend the next few days in the library. It might take a few days, but there's actually something you really want to look up...



[ ] Vanilla Nighthawk.

[ ] Different kinds of metal and how they interact with spirits.

[ ] Basic information on other planets.

[ ] Monsters native to Kovomaka.

[ ] Well-known family lines containing mostly wizards.

[ ] The history of Will-O-Wisp Academy.

[ ] The differences between various Realms on Kovomaka.

[ ] Ancient civilizations.