I gazed around the small clearing in boredom as Saki sat on a large rock and continued to read the thing she called a "book." I didn't see the point of the paper box, but Saki insisted it was vital.

This is not how I imagined magic training. I groaned in boredom and moved from laying on my stomach and onto my side. "If you would have done it my way, we would have started by now."

"I'm almost done!" She loudly proclaimed as she continued to squint at the book she said was a spellbook for children. I didn't understand how she gained knowledge from squiggles on a bunch of papers. She promised to teach me to read how one day, but I was indifferent. She didn't understand how my deep knowledge worked, so we are even in that regard.

"You said that a while ago," I huffed in boredom and watched the otherwise still blades of grass wave in response to each of my breaths.

Birds melodiously chirped from the trees and accompanied the gentle whistling of the wind and rustling of the leaves. The short grass was softer than wood chips; the sunlight shining on my fur was warm.

I would have never noticed how great the world is if I had never escaped. I don't think I would ever willingly go back. The sun is better than any lamp, and the outside world smells and sounds nicer as well.

After a few moments of enjoying the wonders of the world separate from boring cages and bothersome storm days, I turned my attention inward. It took a bit of focus, but soon I could sense the energy that constantly churned inside of me. I had never tried this before, and it was not what I expected.

I could feel my magical core squirm and fight itself, the two sides incompletely blended. My core was like a room during a free-for-all training session, but instead of everyone fighting on their own, each monster belonged to one of two sides in the war: Stellan-like and monster magic.

Until Mrs. Hanna mentioned it, I had never cared enough to notice how the two magic types in me fought and destroyed each other. After years of constant magical turmoil, I unquestionably thought I could not do anything about my situation. I believed it was normal for me. Now, my predicament bothered me in a way I struggled to describe, even to myself.

I can do this, just simple energy manipulation; I do this all the time with my armor and energy blasts. Easy. After a deep breath, I focused on the mass of energy I visualized as a black and yellow blob. Black was the standard color of my armor, and yellow was the color of the star patterns that appeared when I was low on dark power. Once I felt I successfully had a magical grip on the two types of energy, I attempted to separate them.

Though I could feel the energy partially spit off of each other, both types of magic fought my will. The wild dark powers violently resisted my efforts while the lighter substance calmly stretched towards the dark part of me with the same amount of force. I growled as they refused to separate.

I, however, refused to give in so easily. I paused to rethink my strategy and studied how my power continually swirled within me. Instead of trying to separate everything all at once, I attempted to gather a bit of just one of the two magic types and separate it from the swirling mass.

I decided to start with the black substance since I was more comfortable with how it felt. The golden Stellan-like energy slightly burned when I interacted with it as if it disliked me somewhat.

Slowly, I pulled a bit of dark energy free from the rest of the swirling mass. It fought my focus, but I kept it apart from the rest. However, before I could celebrate my small victory, my concentration shattered.

"I'm done!" Saki cheered with a joyous scream. After a pause, she spoke again, "are you awake?"

With a groan, I opened my eyes as I rolled off of my side. "I'm awake." After I rolled onto my stomach, I calmly looked down at the child sitting in the grass next to me.

"You don't sound like you're awake." Saki crossed her arm and stuck out her bottom lip. "You barely took awake, too."

"I was focusing on something else while you read your boring box of paper and scribbles. What did your book say?" I stared at the white, scribble covered pages of her books.

"Oh! Right!" She placed the book down on the grass with a grin on her face. "It told me how to summon magic in my hands! I didn't understand lots of it, but I'm ready to try!"

"I could have told you how to do that," I rolled my eyes and snorted, "that is the easiest part."

"Hush!" Saki weakly slapped the tip of my muzzle with an open hand without looking up. Then, she intensely focused on her hands in front of her with a crinkled nose.

I have a feeling this is going to take a while. I huffed and silently summoned a bit of magic in front of me, mostly to show off. I studied the small sphere of mostly black energy while Saki continued to focus on her efforts, oblivious to anything outside her efforts.

I eyed my power and noticed the small yellow sparks that danced among the black sphere. After a pause, I began to work with a small sample of magic. I molded it with my mind and slowly began to pick out the yellow sparks. This is much easier outside of my body.

I quickly discovered that where the two touched, they dissolved each other. That explains... a lot. My body makes yellow magic, but I need the black to live because the light side hurts me.

I paused. Is that why I'm so defective? An experiment with light magic that failed? I glanced between the gently glowing ball and the churning mass of dark magic. Is that why Master never made another one of me?

With a smaller amount of my energy, I felt like I was achieving something. Soon, I had two spheres suspended on either side of my face, a large black mass and a tiny golden sphere.

I glanced at Saki, who looked like she was straining in her focus. We are going to be here for a while. I opened my magical senses to see if she was partially succeeding, but the two spheres of raw energy blinded me for a moment.

It took me a moment, but I managed to focus on Saki. Much to my dismay, the magic inside of the Stellan moved in a way I could only describe as "restless." All of it remained within her and had no inclination to flow out of her hands.

Before I began to sort, I paused as pain arose in me with the diminishing amount of dark magic within me. I eyed the black sphere of energy as it floated next to my face. I should do this carefully; I don't want it to recombine with everything else.

I studied my core, then noticed that it slowly produced the yellow light magic. I can't put the black back there, so what else can I do? I contemplated my options. The only thing I can think of is to keep the energy in my body, away from the light magic in my core.

I calmly ate the black sphere and sternly kept it and my core separate. I could feel the freshly-separated energy and my core fight against my control. Eventually, both energy types obeyed my will and stayed where they belonged.

As the dark magic dispersed throughout my form, my pain eased beyond what I had known my pain to be. I felt... stable. I never noticed that my muscles were sore until the pain was gone. I released an audible sigh of relief. A bit of golden core magic still attacking the dark magic in my form, but it was so minimal compared to my old way of life I barely noticed.

As I began to slowly sort the new mix of magic from my core already floating in front of my face, I glanced at Saki and noticed she was still struggling. With a huff, I turned my attention outward and looked at her, "kid, relax, you're trying too hard. Just tell your magic what to do and get it to work for you. It's a slave. Give it orders and be firm in what you want."

"Magic isn't a slave! It's a part of you! Like your soul and mind! That's what the book says!" Saki looked away from her hands to yell at me more, then froze as she noticed my three spheres of magic. "How?"

I resumed my sorting. "It's because you are trying too hard; just order it to do what you want instead of trying to drag it out by force."

"I've summoned my magic before!" Saki's nose crinkled as she stared at me. "I've never had to order my magic around and, that's not what the book says!" She picked up the book and shoved it in front of my face.

I glanced around the shrinking sphere of mixed magic and to the illustrated, scribble-covered pieces of paper. The hand-drawn illustrations of hands holding glowing spheres on the pages did not help me understand what the scribbles said. "I see why you're having so much trouble." I refocused on my magical task. "What did you do to summon magic before?"

I glanced at Saki as the Stellan hesitated as she retracted the book, then spoke in a squeak. "It comes out when I'm scared." She whimpered slightly, her eyes glazed as if she was trapped in memories.

I reabsorbed my next batch of dark energy, then looked down at the still-stunned humanoid. "You need to be scared?" My voice spoke in a deep tone as a dark grin slowly spread across my face and I stood, towering over her. My sharp white teeth bared as a deep growl escaped my throat. I rose to my feet and towered over the small girl sitting in the grass.

Saki froze and slowly looked up to me, her silver eyes wide. "Hoshi?" Her voice wavered; she trembled in my shadow. "Hoshi?" She repeated her voice now just a strained squeak. As I moved closer, she raised her hands in front of her and squeezed her eyes shut.

Suddenly, a silver flash blinded me; I staggered backward. My mind and my body burned as I struggled to remain on my feet. What just happened? My mind offered no answers as spots danced in my vision; my ears rang. My memory of the last few minutes is fuzzy.

I slowly laid down and carefully rubbed my head with one of my front paws. After I groaned, I looked down at Saki through the slowly disappearing spots in my vision as she remained on the ground with her cape curled around her. "Saki?"

She slowly looked at me with quivering eyes as I lowered my paw from my face. Her ragged breathing slowly calmed as she burst out of her cocoon and tackled me in a hug. "NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!" She buried her face in my fur. "Please don't ever scare me like that again!"

What did I do? I can't remember. "I'll try," I wanted to remember, but my mind was hazy. The ball of yellow energy that had once been near my head was gone. It probably vanished after I lost my focus on whatever had happened. I closed my eyes and searched my mind for answers. I was sorting magic, and then...?

Suddenly, I remembered. Pain from guilt quickly overshadowed the lingering soreness from the previous events. I almost attacked her, and it terrified her. Why did I do that? I struggled to come up with an answer.

I froze. I'm a monster. I'm supposed to act like that; why do I feel guilty? I looked down at my feet and flexed my paws. They cut through the blades of grass and soil, and a rock briefly stuck beneath one of my claws. What am I? A monster? Something closer to a Stellan? No, that can't be right. Master made me, I am a monster, but what kind of monster am I?

If I'm defective, does that mean I am a failure? Master wants me dead like the waste of energy I am. I want to live, but should I be alive? In my continued existential crisis, I didn't notice Saki slowly release the hug, then curl against me and rest her head on my shoulder.

"I did it!" Saki cheered and snapped me out of my trance with a jolt. "Look Hoshi! I did it! I have magic!"

I blinked and looked at Saki's hands and immediately noticed the small silver sphere clutched in her hands. "Good for you," I responded and looked towards the sky. I had spent several hours thinking about my situation, but I never found satisfactory conclusions to my questions. Dusk would arrive in a few more hours, and we needed to find shelter before then.

I looked at Saki's face. "Now all you need is to learn spells."

Author Notes!

What do you guys think of the training session! The next chapter contains the last time skip of the story! See you then!