So, I've realized that with the release of season 6, the age gap between Keith and Pidge went from three years to five years, which is kinda big. HOWEVER. If you recall, in Disney's Tangled, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider are, like, 8 years apart. Therefore, I STILL SHIP IT, BECAUSE IT'S ACCEPTABLE.
Also, WOW THIS ONE WAS HARD TO WRITE. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to depict it, how to teach somebody magic.
Please, PLEASE read my end note, as it will have some details for a little thing for you guys!
Chapter 4: World of Wonder (Part 2)
The NPC in front of Pidge was labeled as "The Wonder Worker." He had a long robe that dragged against the ground. The tip of a tail poked out of the back of it, the orange scales complimenting the dark blue of the robe. He had two long arms with clawed hands, three fingers on each. His neck looked like two separate necks twisted together.
Pidge couldn't see where his neck ended and his face began, as the scaly creature also had some sort of beard. Upon closer inspection, Pidge decided that it wasn't really hair, but more like a light bundle of feathers. They were a pale orange. The same feathers rested on the top of the Wonder Worker's head in a similar pattern to a horse's mane, trailing down the back of his head where they disappeared into his cloak. He had one single red eye. Pidge also noted that he had no visible mouth. She almost jumped when he "spoke" without moving at all.
"What is your name, young lady?" The voice was deep and smooth. It definitely originated from the Wonder Worker, but it also felt as though it was spoken directly into the young paladin's mind.
"My name is Pidge," she said carefully, reaching for her sword, only to find that it wasn't there.
"You cannot fight in here. All of your melee weapons were unequipped when you entered the tent. This is a place of magic."
"So the rumors are true," she muttered. The Wonder Worker nodded solemnly.
"This, my dear, is the place where one can learn the ways of the mage."
The scene around the pair changed. What had previously been a dark entryway melted away into a well lit tent. Objects were floating around, including large bubbles of water. Small tornadoes spun in contained circles on the ground, which appeared to be cracked and uneven. Fire burned in torches that weren't mounted on anything. At the top of the tent, a cluster of storm clouds rippled with lightning.
"This is where you will learn magic."
Pidge gazed at the room, awestruck. Then she grinned. "Where do I start?"
The Wonder Worker stepped in front of her. "There are six possible spells that you can learn: fire, water, wind, ground, gravity, and lightning, in that order. For today, we'll just work on fire. You can learn the rest as you progress on your journey."
"Yeah, some journey this has turned out to be…"
"What was that? I didn't quite catch what you said."
Pidge had to take a second to remember that she was speaking to a program, and that it wasn't built to understand everything she said. "I said, how do I learn the fire spell?"
The Wonder Worker glided across the tent, his tail leaving a smooth trail in the dirt behind him. He stopped at a lower torch, one that was just about head height for him and about a foot above Pidge.
"You see the flames? One must remember that fire is alive. I like to start my students out with fire because it teaches patience and control, making it easier to learn some of the other spells."
"So it's like a living creature."
"Precisely. And as such, you have to be willing to set boundaries. To limit the fire, limit yourself. Yes, it's possible to pour everything you have into a fire attack, but everything around you would burn. To prevent harm to yourself and your allies, you must exercise self control."
Pidge noticed out of the corner of her eye that something changed on her display. Underneath her health bar, a smaller red bar labeled "magic" had appeared.
"Your magic gauge will help you know how much fire is appropriate to use. If you drain the gauge completely, you will have to rest for a full eight hours to restore it. Otherwise, it will gradually restore itself when you are outside of combat."
The Wonder Worker stepped back from Pidge, gesturing for her to move back as well. He raised his hands up and yelled "Fire!" Flames shot from his fingertips, spiraling through the tent. He was right, the flame was alive. Pidge considered that it looked like a dragon was flying overhead. It started out small, controlled, and gathered more power as it flew through the various different torches, taking their flames with it. Finally, all of the fire gathered in a ball in front of the Wonder Worker. It shrank down to about the size of a basketball.
"Now, my student, reach into the flames and make their power your own."
Pidge looked at the fire skeptically. She could feel its warmth on her skin. Every instinct told her that to touch fire would mean that she would get burned.
No. She couldn't stop after coming all this way. She had to at least try.
Pidge reached out and placed her hand in the ball of fire.
Keith realized that he'd worried himself to sleep. When he woke up, he was in a rather uncomfortable position, having slumped over on the bed. His back hurt.
He stood up, trying to twist and stretch his back out, forcing a yawn.
Glancing at his display clock, it had only been about an hour since he'd fallen asleep.
He rubbed his eyes. What could have woken him up like that?
Then he heard it, a knocking on the door. He tensed for a moment, considering that it could be somebody hostile, but the familiar voice reassured him that all was well.
"Keith?" Pidge called through the door. "You had better not be asleep in there. I'm tired, man. You forgot to send me the key."
Keith smiled, ignoring his own stupidity. She'd made it back safely. That was all that mattered.
He opened the door to reveal a mix of exhaustion, frustration, and excitement.
"And just where have you been all this time? I was about to come looking for you!"
"Keith, you don't have a shirt on. I doubt you were going to come looking for me any time soon. Besides, we're in a party, remember? If you really wanted to know where I was," Pidge opened her menu, followed by her map. She pointed to the two dots blinking on it. "You could have just looked at the map. Party members are trackable."
Keith stared at her blankly before slapping himself on the forehead. "I can't believe I'm such an idiot."
"Hey, you're not here to think. I'm the brains and you're the brawn."
"But I can think for myself a little. And I know I was worried about you. Where were you?"
"I'll tell you in the morning. I'm tired." She flopped onto the untouched bed, noticing that one of the beds already looked used.
Keith sighed. "I'm too tired to argue with that. We'll talk in the morning."
Keith was as confused as ever when Pidge dragged him to a sparring field near the inn. A few curious players had gathered, wondering what the two humans were doing. By then, the rumor of paladins being in the game had spread far and wide, considering they were supposedly the only humans in the universe that had access to the game. The rumors weren't quite right, since Keith wasn't technically a paladin anymore nor was he entirely human, but the pair had become not only popular, but a symbol of hope as well. Many had chosen to keep fighting instead of giving up because of the paladins.
If Voltron was there to help, then they'd be there to help Voltron.
"Pidge, calm down. What is it you want to show me?"
Pidge looked incredibly happy, which was unnerving. It was hard to be excited or happy about anything in this world.
"I'll show you."
She stepped away from him, sending him the duel invite. He accepted and the duel began. Drawing his sword, he charged at her. He felt a small sense of pride as she dodged. He'd taught her that.
Pride quickly turned to surprise at what happened next.
"Fire!"
Keith's eyes widened as a torrent of flames shot from Pidge's hands. She wasn't aiming at him, but rather the grass beneath his feet. Which caught flame almost instantly.
"Ow! Ow ow ow!" Keith jumped around, trying to get away from the fire. Every time he put a foot down, his hp dropped a little lower, until he was finally free. He looked at Pidge in amazement.
"Is that…magic?"
"No, I've always been able to do this and the game just barely figured it out. Yes, it's magic!"
"I concede the duel," Keith announced. The sequence ended, granting Pidge the victory. "So that's where you were last night. You were out learning magic!"
"I didn't tell you because I wanted it to be a surprise," she said guiltily. "The weapons in this world just don't work for me. I know you've noticed it. I'm not gonna lie, I miss my bayard. I realized that I'd need to find an alternative to using a sword. So, when I overheard some folks talking about magic, I jumped at the chance. Now you won't be carrying this team. We can work together."
"That's amazing!" Keith yelled, grabbing Pidge under the arms and spinning her around. She was alarmed, almost slapping Keith in the fact for moving at her so quickly.
"What the…"
"Oh!" Keith set her down, blushing lightly. "Sorry. Just, uh, got a little excited there."
Pidge's confusion melted away. She started laughing at him. "You're a doofus, you know that?"
"And you're a nerd."
"Then I guess it's meant to be."
"The doof and the nerd, partners. Not sure how I feel about that."
"Then let's just go with…red and green."
Keith deflated a little. "But…I'm not the red paladin anymore."
"You're still part of the team, and the family. Plus, red and green is better than black and green. Or purple and green if we're going with your Blade outfit. You wear a red jacket anyway, even here." She gestured to his coat.
"Alright," Keith said, nodding. "Red and green it is. We could start a guild with that name."
"Nah, I think I like it better with just the two of us. Running a guild would be way too much work that neither of us would want to do, and you know it."
They headed back to the inn to gather their things before heading out of the safe zone. "You know," Keith said, "I never thought of you as a burden for me to carry. I'm sorry if you felt that way."
"It's cool. I know I won't feel like that anymore after today."
"So, how exactly does your magic work?"
"I have this little bar underneath my health bar that shows how much magic I have left. I can use spells of different strengths that use different amounts of magic."
"Is fire all you can do?"
"For now. The more I use it and level it up, the more spells I can learn. I think I get a new one every ten. That would make the most sense. So for right now, I'm at magic level one, with rather inefficient magic usage. Just setting the grass on fire drained half my magic. It restores itself naturally unless I totally run out. Then I have to get a full rest to get it back."
"Why does this feel so familiar?"
"It's like I said before. I'm the brains and you're the brawn. Now we're balanced, just like we were back with Voltron."
Suddenly, they both heard a little jingle. They opened their menus to find a new message for both of them.
"The boss room has been located," Pidge read. "Any willing fighters, report to the town Hypnea in two days."
I FINALY FINISHED
I told myself, "Melodic, you have to get it done before season seven drops, or your fans will be angry at you."
Well, I met the deadline. And season seven drops in five hours. Nailed it.
So, I know I mentioned before that I might sneak some Shallura in occasionally, but thanks to what we learned at SDCC, that's not happening. Besides, Allurance is actually super cute.
Some of you have asked if I have a regular posting schedule or if I could get on one. I'm sorry to say that I don't and I won't. I believe in quality over quantity. You want good chapters? Be patient and wait until they're done. If I set deadlines, I'd be giving you short and broken chapters that wouldn't flow right and would be full of errors.
Oh, and one final announcement: I have decided to study English in college! I want to minor in both creative writing and editing. That's right, I'm planning to make a career out of writing. I'll keep you posted on how that goes if any of you are still here in like six years.
And the little thing I talked about? I'm working on a novel! Like, a totally original one. It's on my Wattpad (And I'm sorry Wattpad readers for the redundancy) which you can find at user/loolaalee so get over there and check out the prologue! The one you're looking for is title Reverie. Anything else on my Wattpad (besides the Kidge stuff) is probably going to be abandoned and left to rot.