by Weiqi Wang
Windy could deliver Soarame’s letter very fast, but it took longer for Filton to send his letter back to Soarame, because Windy only works for the school; so Soarame had to put this matter aside for now.
‘Thanks for the letter, man.’ Kardiac said to Soarame back at the dorm. The girls were also there — they were used to hanging out in Soarame’s dorm.
‘Sure, do you know how long this letter takes to reach you?’ Soarame asked.
‘It took a month.’ Kardiac sighed. ‘It’s too far and my parents are not wizards, so they could only use ordinary mailing. What about you, man?’
‘Mine neither.’ Vivarin cut in. ‘Most of our parents are not, I suppose.’
‘Hey, he’s asking a “man”.’ Omifo teased Vivarin, but seeing the girl’s instant threatening pose, he had to quickly quiet down.
Everyone was amused to see this, except for Soarame. Thinking about his parents, Soarame became emotional. Just when he was trying to switch topic, there came a vague meowing sound.
‘Soarame, you have a cat in your dorm?’ Jemario asked.
‘What? Cat? No.’ Soarame was happy to see the crew distracted.
‘Then how come I heard a cat meowing?’ Jemario wondered while another meow sounded. It was faint, but everyone still heard it in the quiet of the room. The crew was curious, wondering if there might be a cat outside. They opened the door and found it was already dark outside, but with Omifo’s Light magic they looked around the building, but found nothing.
Puzzled, the crew returned to the dorm. Soon enough, they heard another strange meow. They exhausted themselves trying to locate it, but just couldn’t find the cat.
Finally, everyone became a little creeped out, especially the girls. The meow was definitely from inside the dorm building, but there was definitely no cat here. The weird meow bothered the girls so much that they didn’t even dare to go back to their dorms alone, so the boys had to escort them — but first of all they still had to find out where the mysterious cat was.
‘Halg, what are you doing?’ Kardiac asked the only boy who didn’t look nervous at all; he was laying in the coach with a relaxed smile. Before Kardiac’s voice faded, another weird meow broke out.
‘Soarame, congratulations!’ Breaking the tense air, Halgon chortled. ‘It’s your magimal egg!’ Hearing that, the friends shoved each other, and rushed over to Soarame’s desk to encircle the ivory-white egg, marvelling. Halgon was right; the meowing was indeed from the egg, and it was getting louder.
‘Oh, dear. Soarame, Sachastain sent you a cat?’ Kardiac widened his ox-like eyes in shock. ‘Cats are born from eggs?’
Soarame was also puzzled. Let alone the fact that cats were not egg-born, he had hoped there was a fierce fighting magimal inside the egg. The ancient ebony box in which the egg rested suggested that the magimal wouldn’t be something as ordinary as a cat, but now it seemed very likely to be a cat of some sort — well, a magical cat, if that helped.
While Soarame was wondering, with a soft creak, a crack appeared on the “cat egg”. All of a sudden, a ray of rainbow-coloured light radiated through the crack in the eggshell, and the ivory-white egg started glowing. The cracks began to increase, zigzagging all over the egg. As this happened, a halo of glittering and translucent aura shone around the egg. Soarame and his friends gazed in amazement; it looked beautiful.
The intense pulse of vitality that emitted from inside the egg made the kids feel excited and joyful. With the appearance of the last crack, the shell shattered into pieces and the whole egg exploded open. The body of the little magimal inside radiated with dazzling white light; it shone so bright that Soarame couldn’t see clearly what on earth the little magimal was. The eggshell pieces fragmented further and became countless light dots, converging towards the dazzling light and cloud surrounding the egg.
This scene lasted for a little while before the lights finally faded. Soarame and his friends were so stunned that no one in the dorm had said a word since the appearance of the first crack on the eggshell. Not until the dazzling light faded did Catheray call out. ‘Oh my god, how cute is this!’
The little magimal finally revealed itself — it was a fluffy white kitten.
The girls were totally dazzled by the little white cat’s appearance; in contrast, the reaction of the boys was a little different. Every one of them had been expecting something more — what could a cat do? Sure, it was cute, but could it beat a smilodon?
‘Soarame, I’m so jealous! A kitten is way better than some bizarre beast of some sort!’ Dileys tugged Soarame’s arms. ‘Go pick it up!’
Soarame woke up from his thoughts and put the meowing kitten in his arms. Feeling the softness and warmth from the little furball, he suddenly melted and realised that he shouldn’t be complaining — it was a life, and he would be its master from now on!
‘Meow.’ The little fluffy creature looked at Soarame with great curiosity from a pair of crystal-clear blue eyes. Surrounded by the exclamations from his friends, Soarame held the kitten up affectionately. At the same time, he sensed that there was a mind connection established between the kitten and himself — this must be the bond that was formed through the hatching process. Soarame was reminded of Richie once again, but the bonding efforts had never been successful; so this kitten was the first magimal for Soarame and made him finally understand the difference that having a magimal made. The kitten seemed to also recognise Soarame as its master due to the mind connection; its two big eyes squeezed into slits as it enjoyed the petting from Soarame, and it began rubbing Soarame’s face with its head.
‘Soarame, can we try too?’ The girls were totally entranced.
Everyone got a chance to hold this snow-white kitten in turn. Even the boys had to admit that they actually loved it; their initial disappointment had totally vanished upon touching the cute little kitten.
‘Should we name him… or her?’ Jemario suggested. ‘Is it a boy or a girl?’
‘Yeah, let’s find that out first.’ Vivarin told Soarame. ‘Come on man, we’re all waiting.’
Soarame hadn’t thought about that until now, so he turned the kitten over softly and started to check closely. All the boys suddenly became anxious again, as they were hoping the cat would be a boy because it was supposed to grow up as a ferocious magimal — one that was tough enough to battle a wolf, if not a tiger or a bear.
Everyone was watching Soarame, holding their breath and hoping to read the answer on his face. Unfortunately, a while passed and Soarame was still at sea.
‘How’s it going, Soarame? What are you waiting for?’ Kardiac was running out of patience.
‘I… I don’t know?’ Soarame uttered his confusion embarrassedly. ‘How do you tell?’ Hearing that, everyone burst into laughter.
‘It’s a girl.’ Dileys checked and pronounced confidently. She couldn’t hold back her chuckle though.
‘How do you know?’ Asked Omifo.
The girls had to laugh again. Dileys could not find the best way to answer this. ‘You boys really should read more books!’
‘Shh, I know!’ Kardiac was not convinced. ‘Look at the breasts. They are fat, so it’s a girl!’
Hearing Kardiac, the girls collapsed in gales of laughter. Kardiac realised that he must have said something ridiculously wrong, so he tried again. ‘I didn’t mean fat like my breasts, but in another way…’
‘Okay, just stop, please!’ Catheray was lying on the floor with an aching stomach. ‘We all have kittens at home so we can tell. It’s subtle, so don’t worry about it!’
‘It’s true.’ Vivarin supported her friend. ‘It’s hard to explain, but trust us, it’s a baby girl.’
Soarame was shocked by the fact that his first battling magimal was actually a girl cat. He held the kitten in his arms and stared blankly for a while, then heaved a deep breath. ‘Okay, at least we can name her now.’
‘Soarame, this cat may be a supportive type.’ Dileys struggled to get up from the floor. ‘Don’t you
know magimals of this type are the best kind?’
‘No, I don’t. I just want to name her first.’ Soarame couldn’t wait for this part.
‘She’s your magimal, so you name her.’ Jemario looked at Soarame. Everyone nodded.
‘She’s as white as snow, so I’ll call her — Snower!’
SNOWER’S PRESENT
‘I think Snower is a great name, especially for a Water magimal.’ Omifo chimed in. ‘But is she?’
‘Magimal? Lineage?’ Kardiac curled his lips disapprovingly. ‘Forget that. Just take her as a pet.’
Hearing that, everyone went quiet. Almost everyone agreed with Kardiac — how powerful could a cat be, even if she could perform magic somehow?
At that moment, Snower suddenly meowed and glared at Kardiac angrily with her big azure eyes. She stretched out her little claws towards him, signalling a threat. However, Snower was so young that this movement had no deterrence whatsoever; on the contrary, it looked amusing and adorable.
Seeing how Snower seemed to be able to understand human language, everyone was surprised.
‘Snower won’t be that simple. She’s not just a pet.’ Halgon, who hadn’t been really in the conversation, suddenly spoke up. ‘You guys remember how hard the hatching was, don’t you?’
Everyone nodded.
‘First of all, cats don’t hatch from eggs — at least I’ve never heard of any. Have you?’ Seeing everyone shaking heads, Halgon continued. ‘So Snower definitely isn’t a cat. Besides, I once saw a high-ranking magimal egg hatching before. It’s the same process but much quicker than Snower.’
Everyone looked at each other in surprise and marvelled at Halgon’s knowledge. ‘What magimal do you think Snower is, then?’
‘I don’t know.’ Halgon shrugged his shoulders. ‘But I am sure that she’s of a rare kind.’ This time Snower looked at Halgon as if she was smiling and nodding.
‘She really can understand us?’ Vivarin asked in disbelief.
‘Smarter than you, huh?’ Omifo teased.
‘What was that? Say it again?’ Vivarin turned around with a ‘Vivarin smile’. Omifo hurriedly made a face and recoiled behind Soarame.
‘I’ve heard of a kind of high-ranking magimal that looks like a cat, it’s called Dragcat.’ Dileys claimed. ‘Books say that they are children of dragons and some high-ranking tiger-like magimal.’
‘Not a dragcat, although they do get born from eggs.’ Halgon shook his head. ‘A Dragcat has zebra print on its body and scales on its limbs.’
‘How do you know all this?’ Once again everyone was amazed; they threw admiring looks at Halgon. ‘What is Snower, then?’
Seeing everyone confused, Snower held her head high and meowed, as if she was proud of her mysterious origins.
‘Soarame, here’s a thought.’ Halgon didn’t answer the question directly. ‘A magimal can communicate with its master through telepathy, so you could ask Snower directly what she is.’
‘Oh yes!’ Soarame clapped his hand to his head. His master taught him about this long ago but he just never had a chance to put it into practice. ‘I never tried it. How do I do it?’
‘It’s just like performing magic, only even easier.’ Halgon answered. ‘Telepathy is essentially talking using mind power, so it has an easier name — mind-talk. Just concentrate and sense the mind connection between you and Snower, then talk to her using the connection instead of your mouth!’
‘Wow, is that real?’ Everyone wanted to see what happened.
Soarame tried and instantly learnt the mind-talk trick, as it was instinctive if one had a magimal. {Snower, can you hear me? } The beauty of mind-talk was that it was independent of the voice, and therefore the communication was always private and much faster.
{I…I…meow! } Snower seemed too young to communicate yet. Soarame tried several times, but had to give up eventually. Everyone was disappointed, but the great news was that Snower could most likely do it in the future.
‘Were all magimals born with the language talent?’ Kardiac protested. ‘That’s so unfair! I spent several years learning to speak after I was born!’
‘It’s not our language, nor any human language.’ Halgon was amused by Kardiac’s reaction. ‘Mind-talk is as simple as a mind talking to another mind, passing information and thoughts regardless of any language barrier… It’s an amazing way of communicating and hard to explain, until you do it yourself.’
‘So, Snower can talk to anyone, in any language, when she grows up?’ Dileys tried to understand this.
‘No, she can only meow when she talks to anyone other than Soarame, so only Soarame can understand her even after she grows up.’ Halgon explained. ‘But as a high-ranking magimal, she probably can understand us.’
‘Oh gosh, it’s too complicated.’ Kardiac complained. ‘How do you know all this, anyway?’
‘Books. Plus, my family does some business with magimals.’ Halgon hesitated a bit but decided to tell them. ‘So I know that only high-ranking magimals can do mind-talk; the lower ones can only “mind-listen”, but won’t be able to talk back.’
A magimal dealer family! Wow, that was big. The crew was surprised by Halgon’s background. Everybody knew that magimal dealers were usually large, noble families because they had to be powerful enough to do this business. Soarame recalled that his master once told him about this, that the magimal dealer family must have some highly powerful wizards at their bases, because from time to time they would need to battle the wild magimals and conquer them, and maybe even tame them. According to Scankeen, most magimals were not really friends of humans — they invaded towns and villages and seized livestock as food; many times they did that to people too. Therefore, magimal dealers often showed up there to protect people and do their business along the way; but sometimes they overdid it by invading magimals’ territory and stealing their cubs.
It was getting late, so the girls had to leave, but the investigation of Snower was by no means over. The next day, Soarame and his roommates went into the library, searching for books on magimals.
‘Soarame, starting to explore the library already?’ Rodka’s voice sounded from nearby. ‘Interested in magimals?’
‘Yes, we are looking for a cat-like, high-ranking magimal.’ Soarame’s eyes brightened up on seeing Rodka. ‘Could you help us?’
‘Oh?’ Rodka’s eyebrow curved up. ‘You have a magimal? And it’s cat-like?’
‘Yes.’ Kardiac chimed in. ‘A strange one!’
Before anyone else had a chance to talk, Kardiac described the process of Snower’s birth. Rodka’s expression changed while listening to Kardiac’s description and his interest was captured. Even students that were just passing by and by-heard Kardiac threw curious look at the friends. Rodka helped the boys go through books for the entire day, but nothing was found. At Rodka’s request, the boys agreed to go back to their dorm to let him see Snower himself.
Getting to the dorm, Rodka’s eyes were instantly locked on the small fluffy white ball that was huddling on the couch. Soarame went over to caress Snower. ‘I tried to mind-talk with Snower, but she’s too young to do it yet.’
‘Mind-talk? Really?’ Rodka seemed really amazed. ‘She looks just like a normal kitten! But if she has the potential for mind-talk, she’s definitely not normal. Let me help you find her breed from the library from now on; I go there all the time anyway.’
‘That’s brilliant, thanks so much!’ Kardiac was feeling blessed. ‘Any time I see the books I get a headache!’
‘Hey Soarame, we are here again!’ Right then, the delightful voices of the girls sounded. This time they didn’t bother to knock, but just stepped into the dorm.
‘We missed Snower!’ Dileys was calling out, but she froze halfway into the room — that familiar figure… he is… he actually is?
Rodka? Dileys felt a rush of dizziness. How could Rodka be here? Is it an illusion? Shaking her head and rubbing her eyes, Dileys looked over again. This time Rodka had turned ar
ound to face Dileys, making her blush with happiness.
‘Wake up Dileys, act natural!’ Catheray whispered to Dileys and chuckled. Hearing Catheray’s words, Jemario and Vivarin also chuckled knowingly. As Dileys’ best friends, how could they not know her little secret?
Rodka said hello to the girls upon being introduced by Soarame, but he only had a very short round of chitchat before leaving in a hurry due to his own schedule, so that Dileys didn’t have much chance to talk to him. That was a pity, but Dileys couldn’t stop the smile from forming on her lips — they were officially in a same friend zone now.
Since then, Rodka started to explore libraries all over the campus. Soarame and his friends also made various types of efforts, but they got tired out pretty soon. They didn’t find anything valuable about Snower, and there was really not much that they could do other than checking in books. Meanwhile, Snower behaved pretty much like an ordinary kitten — eat, sleep, poop and meow — so that Soarame and his friends lost motivation to pursue her breed. This kept on for a while, until one day —
This day, the boys and girls were playing with Snower as usual, except for Dileys and Vivarin, who had gone to the library to help Rodka. Rodka was still making efforts to discover Snower’s breed, which was a perfect opportunity for Dileys to get acquainted with him; but she was too shy to go alone, so Vivarin volunteered to accompany her.
‘Meow!’ Right then, Snower was trying to mind-talk to Soarame. Although she still couldn’t really talk, she was able to send the rough meaning of her thoughts.
‘You want to go out?’ Soarame managed to catch Snower’s intention. ‘Sure, let’s do it.’
Jemario and Catheray joined the boys for a walk. The crew toured to the nearest lake and had fun there, when Snower suddenly start to make another round of mind-talk —
{There, there! }
‘Hey guys, Snower just learnt to talk!’ Soarame was surprised to “hear” this. ‘She said she wants to go that way!’
