Another day, another chapter, as I write this, I'm at 41,000 ish words. Three days to do the other 9000, let's do this (though the story won't end there the way things are going, tbh.)

The child's pov

"Another day, another adventure, hm, my dear?" Lilly said. This was the magic tutor, Lilly. Well, she wasn't the only magic tutor, she was just the only one that would still work with me. I drove the others away, one way or another, or they gave up trying to teach me.

She had lightly colored long, unruly air and soft green eyes. Her familiar was a Guardevoir, a humanoid Pokemon that looked like it was wearing a graceful dress and had short cropped green hair. Lilly wore a simple dress. She was very good at magic, although she hadn't given me many demonstrations. Demonstrations of magic didn't actually do much, since just doing certain motions was not enough. It was something on the inside. A demonstration of magic would do nothing but piss me off.

I wasn't in the mood to talk to her. I wasn't in the mood for anything. Trapped in this place… all the guards would be enforcing it, too, Archibald would make sure of it. Trapped in this place… I didn't want to talk to anyone right now, and I especially didn't want to have a magic lesson. Ah yes, having my failures shoved in my face was just the greatest.

"Not in the mood, huh?" She asked.

"Not for magic, no." I frowned.

"Then what am I even here for?" Lilly asked, chuckling a little.

"I wanna talk… well no, I wanna do, I wanna go."

"Calm down a little." Lilly said. "Your breathing."

I regulated my breathing a little better. I realized I had been breathing heavy. I got just a little bit excited when I thought about it, was all. I mean, who wouldn't be? Just about everyone else, that was the problem.

If I could just have different blood, I wouldn't have any of these problems. I would probably already have a familiar, I wouldn't have the eyes of the kingdom on me. I wouldn't be bound by all this convention. I wouldn't have all these expectations on me. I could be out and about, flying with my buddy Flygon. That was my ideal familiar. There was something about Flygons that was so cool to me. Plus, together, we would be able to fly. I wanted to fly so bad…

That was the Pokemon I thought I was always meant to have, but there were two distinct reasons I would never get it. One, Flygon's weren't native to this region. I had never one in person. If anyone had one, I would be all over that. No, I had only seen that particular species in books and a painting or two in the castle. I used to stare at this one particular painting a lot in an armor room. It was a watercolor, and showed a great warrior riding his Flygon, both clad in armor. I asked who it was in the painting, but nobody could identify him. I wanted to be him. Him and the Flygon… so cool… so free. The green desert dragon with red eye guards that looked like it was wearing slipper. Um, anyways, Flygons lived in a place where there was beach without ocean, far away from here. That didn't mean someone here couldn't have a Flygon. The painting had to be of a past citizen of this Kingdom. No, the thing that really screwed me over was my royal blood. It meant I would have a legend for sure. Flygon was not a legend.

"Listen, I know you're upset, but you can't just shut me out, and you can't just roll this off. You are fearless and creative and curious, and I love you for all of that." Here came the 'but.' "But somebody got really hurt today."

"And how was that my fault?!" I exploded. "He said himself it wasn't my fault! They chose to come, they were responsible for themselves! So why am I getting all of this trouble for it?" All I was trying to do was give them a good experience, and a sense of agency.

"Because you're a leader…" Lilly said, calmly. A… leader? "A very good one, too. You can get people rallied behind you. You've been going after this goal of yours for some time, haven't you?" I raised an eyebrow. "Don't think I don't know about your escape attempts. I know why you keep exploring caves.

"I saw it this time, too. I was so close." I grit my teeth and clenched my fist. I couldn't just leave a guy injured… maybe dead. He wasn't dead, as it turned out. But for a sinking moment, I thought he could be. I was… a little resentful that he fell. He had been exploring with me before. Doing something silly like that, falling, he must have messed up real bad, he must have done something stupid. I showed him the way before. It was his fault.

"You were, and I hope one day you get to explore the world to your heart's content. However, the world is a dangerous place by yourself. I know you will get a legend who will help you. And to do that, you need to be able to become a beacon for them."

"Yeah… yeah… but before that. Why does me being a leader make me responsible for his mistake?" I asked.

"Because when you are a leader, you represent your people, and you are responsible for the end result, regardless of the individual contributions to the problem or the solution. Your parents are the same for you and for this kingdom."

"Hm…" That was something to think about, but for now, I had no comment. After a moment of silence, she got the idea.

"Let's move on to our lesson, hm?" She smiled. I crossed my arms, but conceded.

"Sure…" If it would get me closer to my dream, if it would get me closer to the world beyond these cliffs… I would do anything, even these stupid lessons.

"Alright, into position." Lilly instructed.

I stood, my feet about shoulder width apart, my knees slightly bent, my legs relaxed. I tried to rid myself of all muscular tension, well, unnecessary muscular tension, you needed some tension to be able to stand and the like. I put my shoulders back, my chin slightly down, and lengthened my spine. Then I closed my eyes. This was a neutral position, from which all could flow through you. That was another important thing about magic, and maybe this was one place where I was getting tripped up. Magic… didn't come from inside you, it came from the nature around you. The person acted more as a… um… what did she call it… a magnifier, an echo chamber? You merely focused and channeled the energy around you into magic.

I… couldn't get that. I don't know why, I just… no matter how many times someone tried to get that concept through my thick head. I mean, it made sense in my head, but actually doing it actually… Getting my body and mind to work together to get it done. I did all the visualization exercises, I talked to my sisters, even though they were very condescending about it. All of them tried to describe it to me, and it sounded exactly like what the teachers said. If was all vague metaphors and feelings and the unconscious. And I loved a good metaphor but it didn't help. I took supplements some self-proclaimed guru said would increase my magic prowess. It just gave me digestion problems. I tried putting myself in life or death situations a few times because I heard that if you did that, your familiar would come out and save you. It wasn't true. Lilly had to save me. And each and every time, she told me I just needed to keep working on my magic. There wasn't some crazy shortcut. I just had to keep doing the drills, doing the exercises. It was… incredibly frustrating.

All these thoughts, bouncing around my head, I needed to let them pass. I couldn't be a vessel for magic if I was too full with my own thoughts. I relaxed and put my fingers together. I concentrated on my breathing. That had been another huge roadblock for me, figuring out how to get my thoughts out of my head. Every time I tried, I would find myself thinking about not thinking, or thinking about some other random thing. I could manage moments of silence, but not much more than that, before some sneaky thought would make its way into my brain. The solution was that I had to replace my distracting thoughts with focused thoughts, specifically, my breathing.

Then, came the visualization part. I had no trouble imagining things, but the visualization that was being asked of me was something a little… more, than just imagining. It was also feeling things. I asked my sisters and parents. Apparently, it got easier with time, an automatic action that felt like an extension of the mind. I had never even gotten close to that frame of mind.

I tried the image that made the most sense to me, a windmill. The wind would move through the windmill, the windmill didn't have to do anything on its own except stay loose and movable. The wind would do all the work. They were used as a source of power, generating power by just letting the wind move through it.

I could feel Guardevoir's small, somewhat plantlike arms going over my shoulders and back and legs, signaling for me to relax those muscles more. I did tend to tighten up those muscles when I was concentrating hard. But then I relaxed my mind a little as well. If I concentrated too much, it wouldn't work either. It was a nearly impossible balancing act. I honestly had no idea how so many people found this so easy?!

"Calm down. You're thinking. Focus on your breathing." Lilly said. This was probably about the fiftieth time she had to remind me that in this week alone. She had a seemingly unlimited well of patience. I wouldn't have been even a tenth as patient if I had to teach myself.

"You're thinking." Lilly said again, in that same, calm tone of voice. I focused on my breathing and relaxed, in and out… picturing the windmill. I did nothing but that for a few seconds.

"Very nice. You're doing well. Visualize a beacon."

A beacon, the thing I had to do, that I had never been able to. Lilly stopped trying to teach me other spells a long time ago so we could focus entirely on this. Beacon magic was just what we had to do to show our familiar Pokemon where to go. Without that, they are not able to find us and bond with us. I wasn't entirely sure why… and I didn't think anyone really knew how it worked, but it worked. That was what the kid did with the slight mist just before his Pidgey found him. A bright light going out into the world.

I concentrated on it, and at the same time stayed relaxed. I tried to feel the energy of the world around me flow through me to generate the magic I needed so badly. I stayed that way for a while. Then, slowly but surely, I started to see some light through my eyelids. Not a very bright light, but light. I wasn't completely incompetent, I could do something… it just wasn't enough for a royal.

"Sense the world around you. What do you hear… what do you smell… let it fuel you."

I did as she asked… a musty library, books, dust, that smell that paper had.

"Actually, let's try… sense the world outside, the lake, the air, the waterfalls. Sense that, you may have a stronger connection."

I would have an even stronger connection if I could actually GO outside.

"Stop thinking about your thoughts." Lilly gently instructed. She… had an eye for this, huh? I was tired of this… but fine, I would give it a shot.

The salt of the air, the lake, the wind in my hair… the ocean… running through me, flying through me. And then suddenly there were hands on my shoulder.

"You've done it, my child! You've done it! That beacon was strong enough, they will see you! Oh… I'm so proud. I know, I always knew…" She embraced me, and she was… crying? And I was crying?

I couldn't believe this was real… I could finally have the ceremony… I could finally begin my life… wow.

"Let's practice a few more times to make sure you can repeat it, ok?" Lilly asked. I couldn't talk, I was all choked up. I merely nodded in return.

Huzzah, she did the thing, she won the points, go her! Leave a fav or follow if you enjoyed and a review, your words mean so much to me, And as always guys, have an awesome day!