Awakening Magic
Page 15
The next few hours are a blur of packing, hugging your friends farewell, and—of course—murmuring your travel plans to your comatose squadmate. By the time the stars are coming out and the moon rising, you’re on an interplanetary transport, watching the buildings of Magi Town recede beneath you.
* * *
(1/1) >>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
The next time you have a party, you invite a few guests—with everyone’s permission, of course.. They seem to really love both the food and your performance; afterwards, Anemone, a dark-skinned girl who habitually pins soft-petaled blossoms to her neatly braided hair, shyly asks Chant if she can display a few of her flower arrangements, and Rusalka from down the hall, blonde and pale and wearing a one-piece bathing suit under her school skirt, asks if she can play an Esther Williams-inspired music video that she made for a squadmate’s new single.
By the end of the month, your small gathering has become considerably less small, but more interesting.
You’ve started something amazing.
A girl who makes pots collaborates with a student who writes poetry, creating several vases inspired by their use of imagery.
One week, a girl reads a poem about a unicorn; the next week, a boy displays a painting he’s made, inspired by that poem, and another student stands up and offers to bake a giant cake in the shape of a unicorn in exchange for getting to hang the painting in xir dorm room.
The next week, there’s sweet and tasty vanilla cake for everyone, and you couldn’t be happier.
* * *
(1/1) >>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
You spend the ride to your new post eating the have-a-safe-journey cupcakes that your hallmates teamed up to bake for you, playing card games with your squadmates, and listening to music. Finally, you arrive at…
* * *
(1/3) Snekkei, a planet of ice and snow
* * *
(2/3) Hanano-Cheval, a planet of rolling plains
* * *
(3/3) Bahariso, a planet of oceans and islands
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
You spend the ride to your new post eating the have-a-safe-journey cupcakes that your hallmates teamed up to bake for you, playing card games with your squadmates, and listening to music. Finally, you arrive at…
* * *
(1/3) Snekkei, a planet of ice and snow
* * *
(2/3) Hanano-Cheval, a planet of rolling plains
* * *
(3/3) Bahariso, a planet of oceans and islands
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
One day, after magic classes, someone you’ve been hoping to hang out with one-on-one enters your room. It’s…
* * *
(1/3) Magda
* * *
(2/3) Abby
* * *
(3/3) Chant
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Reading a book dedicated to your new post, you learn that the entire planet has a very cold climate. The guidebook was right, you think when you step onto Snekkei’s surface for the first time. The snow’s icy coating gives under your boot, but bears your weight. You and your friends end up sliding over to the hover-car that will take you to your new home, holding onto each other and giggle-shrieking with laughter.
Yes, it’s bitterly cold, so cold that breathing is almost painful—but you’re still able to find beautiful things.
The baby seals that swim to shore to play with you. The hut made out of blocks of ice that glow rainbow after moonrise. The large walrus that appoints himself your guardian. Knowing that he’s sleeping outside your door at night makes you feel safe, and you curl up happily in your warm pile of furs.
Defending your neighbors from green-skinned, sharp-toothed humanoids that crawl out from underneath the ice to spill blood onto the snow, you make tons of new friends.
The family who lives next to you has three pet wolfdogs. At first, they sniff inquisitively at your hands; before long, they start wagging their tails whenever they sense you coming up the street.
The family’s six-year-old twin daughters always try to make sure you’re on their team whenever the neighborhood children have a snowball fight, and their one-year-old sister can happily sit in your lap for hours.
You learn how to fish, how to stay calm when you run into a bear on your way home, how to tie a scarf so that it’ll keep your mouth warm. And you get really good at playing the vintage Pac-Man machine in the community center.
* * *
(1/1) >>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
The first thing that you notice about your new home is its magnificent landscape.
Hills and plains, covered with green grass, that roll on forever. Fog on the horizon at sunrise.
And horses. Lots and lots of horses. Although you were a decent horseback rider before, you end up getting really good at it. You also get used to charging your phone with tiny solar panels.
Eventually, you even start picking up subtle habits from the locals—with their permission, of course. You text pictures of the landscape by way of greeting, drink extremely sweet dark tea from tiny cups, and end stories told around the fire with “and the hills roll on” instead of “And they lived happily ever after.”
When you help a local magical girl save one of the region’s largest festivals from monsters in the form of giant shadowy hawks, you’re celebrated, and one of the country’s most famous horse breeders even names a foal after your squad: Lucy Abichanda du Fleethooves y Starmaine.
You’re having a truly amazing time.
If only
* * *
(1/1) >>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Spending time in a beautiful beachside town is just the perfect thing to remind everyone how good life can be.
Chant gets more freckled by the day.
Magda tans perfectly.
Abby, in defiance of all logic, stays as pale as ever.
Every Saturday, the local girls gather under a large umbrella to apply seaweed masks to their faces and hands; once they get to know you, they invite you to join them.
In the morning and evening, you practice
on the beach, adapting maneuvers and tactics designed for a squad of four to battle plans that can work for only three.
You learn how to use your powers to get out of a riptide, how to collect the prettiest shells and weave them into bracelets, how to eat shaved ice before it starts melting.
When, on a stormy night, a giant amphibious squid with glowing red eyes emerges from the ocean, you put your training to good use and send it slinking, defeated and harmless, back into the depths from whence it came—and you’re hailed as heroes by the town you’ve grown to love.
You’re making tons of new friends—but one of the friends you’d most like to share this with isn’t here right now….
* * *
(1/1) >>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Reading a book dedicated to your new post, you learn that the entire planet has a very cold climate. The guidebook was right, you think when you step onto Snekkei’s surface for the first time. The snow’s icy coating gives under your boot, but bears your weight. You and your friends end up sliding over to the hover-car that will take you to your new home, holding onto each other and giggle-shrieking with laughter.
Yes, it’s bitterly cold, so cold that breathing is almost painful—but you’re still able to find beautiful things.
The baby seals that swim to shore to play with you. The hut made out of blocks of ice that glow rainbow after moonrise. The large walrus that appoints himself your guardian. Knowing that he’s sleeping outside your door at night makes you feel safe, and you curl up happily in your warm pile of furs.
Defending your neighbors from green-skinned, sharp-toothed humanoids that crawl out from underneath the ice to spill blood onto the snow, you make tons of new friends.
The family who lives next to you has three pet wolfdogs. At first, they sniff inquisitively at your hands; before long, they start wagging their tails whenever they sense you coming up the street.
The family’s six-year-old twin daughters always try to make sure you’re on their team whenever the neighborhood children have a snowball fight, and their one-year-old sister can happily sit in your lap for hours.
You learn how to fish, how to stay calm when you run into a bear on your way home, how to tie a scarf so that it’ll keep your mouth warm. And you get really good at playing the vintage Pac-Man machine in the community center.
* * *
(1/1) >>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
The first thing that you notice about your new home is its magnificent landscape.
Hills and plains, covered with green grass, that roll on forever. Fog on the horizon at sunrise.
And horses. Lots and lots of horses. Although you were a decent horseback rider before, you end up getting really good at it. You also get used to charging your phone with tiny solar panels.
Eventually, you even start picking up subtle habits from the locals—with their permission, of course. You text pictures of the landscape by way of greeting, drink extremely sweet dark tea from tiny cups, and end stories told around the fire with “and the hills roll on” instead of “And they lived happily ever after.”
When you help a local magical girl save one of the region’s largest festivals from monsters in the form of giant shadowy hawks, you’re celebrated, and one of the country’s most famous horse breeders even names a foal after your squad: Lucy Abichanda du Fleethooves y Starmaine.
You’re having a truly amazing time.
If only
* * *
(1/1) >>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Spending time in a beautiful beachside town is just the perfect thing to remind everyone how good life can be.
Chant gets more freckled by the day.
Magda tans perfectly.
Abby, in defiance of all logic, stays as pale as ever.
Every Saturday, the local girls gather under a large umbrella to apply seaweed masks to their faces and hands; once they get to know you, they invite you to join them.
In the morning and evening, you practice on the beach, adapting maneuvers and tactics designed for a squad of four to battle plans that can work for only three.
You learn how to use your powers to get out of a riptide, how to collect the prettiest shells and weave them into bracelets, how to eat shaved ice before it starts melting.
When, on a stormy night, a giant amphibious squid with glowing red eyes emerges from the ocean, you put your training to good use and send it slinking, defeated and harmless, back into the depths from whence it came—and you’re hailed as heroes by the town you’ve grown to love.
You’re making tons of new friends—but one of the friends you’d most like to share this with isn’t here right now….
* * *
(1/1) >>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Magda’s hair is in two neat braids, and the bright pattern on her dress seems to echo her mood. “In one of my classes, we were given the homework to do something that we never thought we’d be able to do. I thought I’d go into town. Would you like to come with me? We’d have fun, perhaps.”
The thing is, with Magda, having fun is easy. You almost think that you could try not to have fun and still end up having a lot of it.
Magda has the city maps in her head, and she knows wild shortcuts—through the alley, through a stranger’s garden, let’s sneak onto this tram even though it’s free for city residents! Let’s pretend to be delivery people and sneak through the back room of this restaurant, even though they’d let us through if we asked! Oh, someone’s coming—quick, hide behind these crates of oranges! (If you got caught, the worst that could possibly happen is that someone would shake their head at you and go “Kids these days.”) Still, it’s fun to live as if everyday things are some great adventure.
* * *
(1/1) >>
* * *
* * *
* * *
Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *