Groff stretched and blinked himself awake under the afternoon sky. Strawberry had gotten off of him- most likely having rolled over in his sleep- and was currently snoozing right by without a care in the world.

Groff chuckled, peaceful, before remembering what exactly happened to cause Strawberry to come running to his aid.

Floating… Chip was the one with air magic, not him! Unless their powers swapped for some reason…

… Waringly, he let magic flow from his paws. A flame lit, and quickly unlit as soon as Groff willed it.

So it’s not that, unless it was resolved sometime before he woke up…

Could he still float?

Groff took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused on flying. He felt his paws leaving the ground, but nobody holding him up…

Carefully, he opened his eyes.

The ground sat a few inches below his paws, and yet his body felt as tense as if he were soaring the skies. His newfound air magic was definitely… weaker than Chip’s, yet still…

He needed to talk to Martus.

“Martus!” Groff yelled.

“Ah, Groff!” Martus waved. “Need something?”

“I have air magic now and I don’t know why!” Groff floated a bit to demonstrate. “But I still have my fire magic so it isn’t some sort of power swap with Chip or anything!”

“Ah.” Martus sweatdropped. “You see, recently, people have been awakening to these things known as Classes… Right now, there’s only two classes we know of- Bards and Elementalists. You’re an Elementalist- you have, or will have, all four of the elemental magics.”

Groff’s ears perked. “All… four!?” He remembered how he felt the water helping him get himself and Reese back to shore- was that due to magic, too?

“Correct. Now, we’re not used to multi-element wielders yet, so I don’t know what training to give Elementalists outside of regular magic training, but there may be people willing to help in other worlds… but first, the 101s...”

Knock, knock!

The owner of the house opened the door and immediately sweatdropped at the sight of Groff. “Oh jeez, are you a normal cat I’ll have to take to the shelter or are you Barkley 2?” She said.

“I guess Barkley 2?” Groff cocked his head. “But anyways, I came here because of this map.” He held up a map Snowsparkle had drawn him when he asked her for advice. “According to Snowsparkle, you should be a good teacher.”

“... You talk…” Although Groff could not see her eyes under her long hair, he could tell this brown-haired poncho-wearing stranger was clearly shaken. “... The Mer-line doesn’t… there’s no way… How?”

“The Mer-line?” Groff cocked his head again. “I came here by myself- I can travel universes! Besides, I didn’t see any mermaid themed train station lines on my way here.”

The stranger sat in silence. “...I need a moment. Come on in, but I need a moment. If you see a clown, that’s Gwen- don’t let her eat my stuff. You like dogs, right? I live with one, so…”

The stranger (whose name was Cass) sat down on the floor to meet Groff’s height. “So did Snowsparkle tell you anything about who I am?”

“She didn’t know either.” Groff said. “Just felt like this map would led me to someone who’s good at helping people who recently ended up with new magic- all types of magic.”

“I’m surprised it didn’t lead you to Lenna.” Cass said. “But I’ve helped my fair share of newbies myself, so…” Cass took a breath. Her body became pure static for a moment, before reshaping into the form of a giant electric moth.

“Shouldn’t we go outside?” Groff asked.

“Hm…” Cass frowned. “Usually, we’d use New Wirral for that, but it doesn’t look like you can go there…” She detransformed. “But where could we go instead…”

“How about another universe?”

“Jeez, this place is cold…” Cass shivered. They took the form of a fiery dog in goggles, most likely to keep warm, but it seemed like it wasn’t enough. “Maybe we should pick someplace else. Fire’s the element you started off with, right? It’s better if we pick a place more suited for practicing the other elements…”

“But where else are you going to find those snow fox things with ice powers?” Groff asked. “They’re fun to chase after!”
“Hello?” A traveller, a woman in a rabbit-eared hood, wearing a charm in the shape of a durian, paused at the sight of the duo. “... Are you two lost? I came here to fight the Wildfrost, but I’d be willing to bring you two back to Snowdwell-”

“Actually, we’re here to train my magic!” Groff said. “You see, I recently somehow got air, earth, and water magic out of the blue…”

“I’m not from this universe.” Cass said. “And I’m usually a human named Cass. Groff-” She gestured a paw at him. “Took me here so that I could train him. Do you know anything to help?”

“I have an idea.” The traveller said. “But first, since you gave us your names, I’ll give you ours. I’m Snowshine.” She pointed to herself. “And this is Pinkberry.” She pointed to a little pink and white fox creature with a plant growing from their forehead. “And for my idea…” She toyed with her charm necklace. “... I’m from a tribe of ice magic. We usually use it to slow our enemies down in battle. I could teach you.” She pulled out two snow sticks. “I have magic of my own, but it makes me a bit unsteady, so we’ll just use these… Follow my example, ok?”

“Aster! Check this out!” Groff then tackled Aster and inflicted him with 2 turns of the Snow Status. “Cass also taught me this!” He then used Water Wall.

More From family_staralternate_emailNicoNoctilucySee Morearrow_outward

Similar ArtworksSee Morearrow_outward