Chapter Text
When looked at from a bird’s eye view, the blue surface of the ocean stretched endlessly towards the horizon - if any birds even lived on that planet. No land in any direction, just calm waves rolling and swaying with a quiet buzz, a low murmur as they reflected the shine of this galaxy’s light planet like a surface of a giant mirror.
Foam with bubbles appeared from below, coming from the ocean’s depths. Then broad, huge blots of red swam upwards, expanding outwards as the water continued to bubble. The ocean boiled, with dark, sticky blood…
Amelia opened her eyes, jolting awake and sitting up in her bed, only to realize she was back in her room. The rain outside no longer drummed against the windows, as gray clouds were replaced by a setting orange sun, now slowly dipping below the line of the horizon.
The talking cat kept sitting on her desk completely motionless, like a statue that someone placed in her room. He watched her in silence, his black fur lit up in stripes with the rays that fell through the window. “The rain stopped a while ago. Are you ready to start your training?” the cat asked, now that her excuse was gone.
“I’m hungry,” Amelia groaned, her mind currently dead set just on eating something, anything to calm down this wolfish hunger gnawing at her. She eyed that full plate of food she brought, still sitting there untouched and went to get it. Unburying herself from under the blankets, she noticed something - both the pain and the gash from her forearm had disappeared like it was never there.
Amelia was already used to this - for those past two months she had quite many nasty falls and scrapes but come morning they would always fade away clean. But to have her skin literally open up and then close within just a couple hours…
“Hey, did that cut just…?” she asked, still looking her arm over, but unable to find even a scar left behind.
“It’s your natural healing ability now. Your body heals a lot faster and better than a normal human could,” the cat explained. “You’re now hungry because you’ve just compressed the healing process that would take a week into a few hours. Your body needs more energy if you’re going to push it like that,”
Amelia just shook her head in response to his scholarly tone. The longer this crazy summer went on, the less she understood out of this - like a song that just got faster and faster until it became an incomprehensible cacophony of sounds, building towards some unclear climax.
She got to eating, taking just a bite at first and letting the taste hit her buds. The hunger just made the food taste so much better, and a few seconds later she was already stuffing her mouth and chewing energetically. Everything she pulled out of the fridge before - the cookies, the mac and cheese, what was left of the meatloaf and the yoghurt, all was picked clean off the plate, not a crumb left behind.
Training. For the past two months that cat just wouldn’t quit pestering her about it. He wanted to do it right the day after he gave her those powers actually. But when there were so many opportunities suddenly presenting themselves - She could explore, go to places she never was at before and pull off stunts that would take her years of practice - why do something as boring as that? And today he showed up again with the same old line. But something was different this time, and today Amelia was actually willing to listen.
That fight she had today… When she faced that thug without a second thought, the girl thought it would work out just because she had those powers. That she would just know what to do, somehow, despite never being in any fight before. And she winged it - if it wasn’t for that fancy handstand she pulled off by accident and those reflexes she didn’t know she had, this could have turned out to be a lot uglier than she liked to admit.
And that strange dream… a deep feeling of unease appeared out of nowhere as she recalled it. A sea of blood. Not that she ever saw any but it just looked… real, in some strange way. Like she was there and looked at it, not imagined it. And that eerie silence… like there was life there before, but no more. Screaming out in terror before suddenly falling silent forever.
Amelia finished the last cookie, before getting up from her bed, dressing up again and getting ready to transform. Her parents weren’t home now, so she didn’t need to sneak out first, and she could call her line out to her heart’s content!
“Ancient stars, banish eternal night!” she shouted, touching the ring on her hand.
Once again, the familiar, purple aura had enveloped her body with its warmth- the light of the bright violet flash radiating onto the rest of the room for a second it took to turn Amelia into her magical form. The outfit didn’t come with pockets, so the girl picked up and put on her school backpack too, where she kept her flip phone and the mp3 player as well as what little pocket money she had.
“Let’s go and train,” she declared to the slightly dumbfounded cat as she opened up her window to sneak out.
“I’m not sure what’s gotten into you, but if that gets you to work...” the cat muttered to himself as he watched her climb out, before taking the leap himself.
************
As the end of summer in Midwood Grove drew nearer, the evenings only came faster, the September sun hanging at the sunset. Its orange warmth peering over the buildings and treetops had since dried out the rain, leaving no more than a few stray drops of it clinging to the grass of the park that Amelia’s landed in.
A tall, gray fence she vaulted over separated the quiet stretch of greenery from the rest of the city, making it feel like a small world by itself. Nobody was around, and it was unlikely someone would be out at that hour, so it was going to be a perfect place to train in - whatever said training would actually entail.
The talking cat jumped down right after her and and forward, making Amelia follow it. Pushing through some rustling bushes, they found a decent clearing that the cat judged as good. With speed and grace, the odd familiar leapt onto a bench next to a small lamp, settling on top of the still dark and damp wood.
“Let’s start with something simple,” he said in his deep voice, before unnaturally stretching one of its paws to point it towards a lamppost. It was currently powered off, with plenty of light still outside, yet suddenly the cat’s eyes glowed for just a second. Amelia saw a bolt of some energy surge through the air within a blink, barely perceptible. The light came to life, its intense yellow radiance now making the shadows of her and the bench stretch out on the dirt path.
“This is something you can already do, so let’s keep trying,” he said, before his eyes glowed again - this time more intently, the light snuffing out slowly, its spark being strangled and drained..
“Now turn on this lamp again,” he gave her the first task.
“You mean just zap it?” Amelia asked, remembering how it went with the vending machine earlier today.
“If that’s how you call it, yes,” the cat nodded.
Thinking it was going to be easy, Amelia took a step towards the pole, wanting to touch it - or maybe punch it or kick it like previous times. That always got machines to spark to life before and start working like she wanted them to.
“No,” the cat unexpectedly said in a stern tone. The air suddenly grew thick and still at once, the impression making Amelia halt in place. “Do it from a distance,” he then clarified more calmly.
Amelia took two steps back, making it about five feet of distance between her and the pole. She stood there, thinking for a few seconds, before letting out a nervous laugh and scratching the back of her neck.
“Okay so… How do I actually do it?” she asked, completely clueless. “I mean, I can do it up close if I try, but how do I get it to just… shoot out of my hand?” Amelia asked the cat, needing an explanation from square one.
“And how does your kind move their hands and legs? Do you have to think about it when you do it?” her new mentor replied with a question of his own, not helping her confusion.
“Heck if I know! I’m not a biologist!” Amelia exhaled, putting her hands on her hips and kicking up dirt with her purple boot. The girl had thought those odd mentors speaking in riddles were only a case in some old kung-fu movies. But apparently Karate Kid was a documentary.
“Good, because it’s not science,” the cat answered surprisingly, fortunately not about to tell her about wax on and wax off.
“As far as we could determine, all humans like you are magical. Your bodies are composed of stardust, the elements of the same stars that your magic comes from,”
A few stars shone in the overhead sky upon the retreat of the dusk as he said that.
“Now, for normal humans this isn’t enough of its own to use magic, but the powers and the ring I gave you bridge that gap. And that makes you a magical girl,”
Once again, the cat reached its paw towards her, like a human extending its hand to point with it. Amelia saw a shine of purple light, then looked down and noticed there was now a circle on the ground around her, glowing with a soft light. There came a sound, like a jingle carried by the wind that moved her hair. Outlines of her veins and nerves appeared on her arms and legs, shining even through her long gloves and boots as well as running across her body. It felt a little strange, even scary to see, but… somewhat cool at the same time.
“Magic was already within you from the moment you were born. It’s a limb you never knew you had, and too weak to move on its own. But now you have to start feeling it like you do your arms and your legs,” the talking animal told her.
“Uhhh…” Amelia scratched her head again “‘Go with your gut,’ isn’t exactly an instruction, professor Trivia,”
“What?” the cat asked, puzzled, completely thrown off track by this word.
“Well, you sound like a pop science trivia machine, you know. And I need some way to call you since you never told me your name so… that’s your name now - Trivia,” Amelia pointed to the magical and alien life form sitting on the bench in front of her.
She was wondering if it simply didn’t have a name, maybe those didn’t exist wherever they came from. But if they were meant to be partners, then without being able to name him it always felt strange. It just came to her mind as she heard him speak, but it would do. She felt it would.
“I…” Trivia hesitated for a second, thinking deeply, like the concept of identity, or having a name was such a strange thing to him. Or like he never thought of it until now, just being puzzled. “Fine, Let’s get back to the subject at hand,” he then said, before turning back towards the turned off lamp. “Point to that lamp post and imagine the magic shooting out of your hand,”
Amelia pointed, holding her still glowing arm out, striking a pose like with a one-handed pistol shooting. She stood like that for a second, feeling some sort of power being there - like that pumped up feeling like being about to break into a sprint - but no way to release it. She took a breath and tensed up, holding this tension like that for several seconds, before letting out a heavy sigh and lowering her hand.
“But how do I imagine something that… I never even thought magic could be real up until now, so how can I do that?” she whined, again growing frustrated.
“I see… that clarifies it. Let’s try it differently then,” Trivia said profoundly, like a teacher discarding one method and taking on another within moments.
The glowing circle and the lines on Amelia’s silhouette disappeared, along with the sensation that she felt of almost “having” it.
“Magic resonates with emotions and intent. Wanting something, or feeling something gives it a certain shape, that’s equivalent to a form,” Trivia then started explaining again. “Some need a sound or a specific line, and some can do it through motion alone. Magic is like a language that writes and rewrites reality. Inserts commas and clauses to create brand new sentences and-”
“Whoa, whoa, slow down there, Ms. Fletcher,” Amelia suddenly interrupted the cat, raising up her hands, this whole language bit suddenly reminding her of her class teacher's long and boring lectures, the resemblance being a bit too uncanny.
“Try to channel your emotion into it. Make yourself angry, or make yourself want it a lot, if that works better for you,”
“Sure, I’ll crush this stupid task like a can, just watch me!” Amelia energetically spun around before striking the same pose and pointing at the lamp post with a smug face. The energy surged through her,
It seemed like confidence wasn’t it. Either that, or her real conviction was lacking.
“Don’t fool around. Use the emotions you do have. Ones that are truly yours,” Trivia told her.
“Alright…” Amelia exhaled.
************
About ten tries later, as Amelia kept trying on different mindsets, from wanting it really badly to imagining it as an art exercise, to straight up reverse psychology of not wanting it to happen - with effects the same as the others. Sometimes she got close - she felt the arc jump between her fingers, or a tingle running up her arm, but nothing that would actually achieve what was the task. She could by now emit the electricity somewhat consistently, but shooting was way beyond her reach for now.
It was still tiring, despite really not doing anything - feeling and holding this tension, then not having it fire off felt like that moment where you feel the sneeze coming but you can’t, and it just ends up shaking you with that unpleasant feeling.
“I hate this stupid training, wish I could just go home already and…” Amelia kicked the dirt again as she got into posture and pointed.
Hot energy rushed through her arm and wrist, a purple lightning bolt extending out of it like a whip to lash the lamp post. It was slow, and not fully detaching from her, completely unlike how Trivia made it look. But it hit, and the light came on again, the two same shadows once again appearing on the ground.
“Huh, I only had to get angry. Is that the trick?” Amelia chuckled, a sly grin returning to her face as she straightened up and shook off the smoke from her glove.
Trivia looked at the alight lamp, pondering something for a second, before turning back to Amelia. His black eyes looked at her with their infinite void that swallowed up the yellow light falling into it.
“Anger is a shortcut, but a bad one. It doesn’t pay off in the long run,” he said in a serious tone.
“Well, nothing else worked,” Amelia shrugged.
“Anger may carry power, but it won’t create by itself. You had something else that made you cast it, feeling angry about it only sped up the process,” the cat explained with a scholarly tone yet again. “But there is no fast road to proper magic,”
“Wait, that makes no sense,” Amelia protested. “Nothing I tried before had worked, and you’re telling me the thing that worked is not the right way to do it? Then what’s the right one?” she let out a frustrated gasp.
Trivia fell silent for a moment.
“How about you ask yourself that?” he told her. “What is the most important thing a magical girl has?”
Amelia grabbed her chin in thought, remembering what the cat told her a few minutes ago.
“Magic, right? It’s what I can do but others can’t,” she replied, as that seemed to be the most obvious choice.
“No,” Trivia told her firmly. “What you call your “zap” won’t be nearly enough to deal with the enemies that you’re meant to face,” he added in a cautioning tone.
“Really? And what’s the big deal with those aliens, anyway?” Amelia asked, folding her arms in an unconvinced manner.
The night continued to draw near, its dark blue hue pushing back the lively orange blaze in the sky.