Oh, I know those! the filly cried in evident excitement as Astarte described books,
Bonded has one, but she calls it a Tome. Is a great big thing full of magic and she puts things 'bout us in there, just so there's somethin we can go "This is me" with.This "busy" however still sounded odd to her. Just because you were doing other things didn't mean you couldn't do something else, too. She was exploring this odd little wood and also making a new friend and watching branches turn into something she'd never dreamed of; she could certainly answer a simple question about someone wanting to take some of her honey or not. And even if it didn't wind up simple, she could go back to exploring and telling stories later. Maybe not today, but later.
She'd have to think on that one; it made no sense to her at all. Maybe she could ask around back home.
Energy works, she said in an almost prim and rather scholarly type of voice as she lifted her head up higher and suddenly took on an air of sophistication,
are very like and yet very not-like both spells and raw magic. At the simplest level there is an energy, a life, to creation; is one of the nine elee-ments. This is why places feel safe or cozy or why they seem to vibrate with act-tive-it-tee even if they're very still. Magic is taking the energy of a thing, an idea or emo-shun or elee-ment, and turning it from the passive energy of exist-ting into an active energy. It's the same as heat turnin' to fire or air turnin ta winds; 'cept I can have conv'r-say-shuns with winds and such, but not with the active energies. They're buzzy. Spells is using will-power and collec'ed energies to put the parts you wants to be all fire-wind active into being that way and freezin' them like that; I mean, it gets stuck when it's all agitated up like that. Sometimes the energies are only made to stay buzzy for a little bit and sometimes it's for so long that you t'ink it won't ever stop being buzzy. Energy works takes the energies and bumps them into being right. Like this, she added, and quickly hopped to her feet and brushed a branch aside with her nose, nodding as it swayed easily out of her way for a moment before flowing back down to where it'd originally been. Settling back down to continue watching she went on with her explanation, still in a manner of someone with a great amount of regal pride. Apparently, respecting this particular lesson had been heavily emphasized.
When I do energy works I feel the bit of life in the creation and I ask it, like askin the branch to move. And like the branch, it'll move as much as it's comfyble. You can move the branch further if you really push, but it's harder and you has to force it. That's what magic is. Bumping it and ducking a bit doesn't need as much as pushin', and I don't want it to be bent for forever so I don't need spells. The bad magic happens when you push too hard and the branch breaks; but with energy, it's when you make it too buzzy active so that it can't ever be the way it was even if it stops bein' buzzy, so it turns into diffr'nt creation energy all jammed t'geth'r. They don' like that.With a tilt of her head she paused a moment, thinking on the neat summary Astarte had given her earlier explanation of why she could mess with the auroras and bring them down close. Wanting to try and do the same thing, she lost some of her self-restraint and looked slightly more placid as she finished with
I touch the life of ev'ything around and ask it to do nice things. Sometimes I need to say "Please" really nice first, if I haven't been a good friend.She'd watched rapt throughout, but she did glance up when Astarte paused. Returning the smile, AuraSidra gave a rather pleased expression that indicated she'd found all of this to be what was incredible.
Well, I ran when I felt funny; it was good cuz things blew up, but I coulda looked closer instead. And the kraken was easy; sometimes when Gypsy-Tribe goes wanderin' the things she pokes get curious too. So they go pokin too, then we have to make them go away again. Mama said we had these things called nippers once that would sneak up and just take a bite from ya and then run 'way again, and you'd just have a big ol' hole in ya from 'em. Bonded and the others that take care of things at home found the nest to make them go away too, and Bonded had to heal someone cuz they had caught nipper-fleas which live under the skin and eat the muscles. Dat was before me, though.She listened close as she heard about the tower with the bridge, holding the telling of a favorite place as something special; it was a sharing of something that was important to her. The concept of "not allowed to go in" was odd to her as well; this filly said so many strange things! But she kept quiet about it, having been told before that sometimes one would already know the answer to the question if they merely listened. She was learning to do more than ask all the time, but to think as well.
She had been told
not to do things, of course, but it was different for her. She'd been told that if she fell in one of the acid pools in Caustic's sulphur-rich volcanic wasteland of a home she'd be badly hurt and maybe die. But nobody had simply said "don't play in there." She'd been told that going too far from shore could be dangerous; and then promptly laughed at as a huge deep-water wave half-drowned her before she managed to orient herself back towards shore. She wound up coughing more water out of her lungs than she knew she could hold. She'd been told that she had to get herself out of any trouble she found - in fact, she was constantly told that - so she wasn't sour about the laugh. She was also constantly told that they'd also make sure she didn't die. She might break something or get singed or even pass out before she managed to undo whatever troubled her, but she'd always be yanked out by her tail when she really needed it. Luckily for her pride, she'd yet to need rescue.
So maybe there were some things in some of those rooms that were like that and just nobody told Astarte. Maybe her friend would get singed too. That would make for a good story! Hopefully she could hear about it after; once the other filly stopped coughing up clouds of smoke, that is.
And then, enraptured by the favorite place and her own musings as she watched the thing come together, she got quite the surprise when suddenly; it worked! Springing to her feet again she trotted in a tight circle of excitement, letting out a shrill whinny of a laugh. Oh, it was quite delightful, the way it made those little sounds and flashed that way! And it was very pretty. She was quite happy that Astarte had such a thing because it was simply wonderful, and she wanted wonderful things for her.
I can?! she squeaked, her excitement battling with surprise as her eyes grew round and her smile swallowed her face,
Ohhhh, thank yew! Oh-oh-oh! Wait! I've an idea! she cried, and closed her eyes tight in concentration. Although it didn't stop her talking.
I'm learnin a trick an' it's like if you bump aside a whole bunch of fern leafies all at once to get somethin under it, and it's real hard, but I think...And then, right by her nose, there was an assortment of crystals.
Beaming happily, she spread out a multitude of the small things in front of Astarte. Each was a different color, each had grown so that in their center a shape could be made from the disruption in the texture, and each was coated with various colored of moss in seemingly endless patterns. Some mosses were flecked in two or three colors, an even salt-and-pepper composition that could blend into looking like a whole new color if you didn't focus on them. Others had clearer patterns within the moss; spots or patches, or great sweeping areas that could be imagined to be any of a number of things.
I trade with 'Pectrum for these, she said proudly, looking back up at the other filly earnestly,
See how the moss glows an' reflects through the crystals? It's pretty bright so you might see it a little, even in the day. Next time you canna sleep, if you wanna fix a broken thing again, this way you can see better; 'pecially if the moons aren't heavy or there's clouds.With that, she pranced back towards the little music box and happily twisted the knob with her teeth, giggling merrily as the music started up once more and the lights kept time.
Pick one, she encouraged happily, and then looked up as if a sudden thought had struck her,
Now I have two friends! Awesome!She'd thought of her as one for a while now, but getting the music box sealed it for her; it was a proper friend, not simply meeting someone nice. That happened sometimes, she heard; sometimes you merely met someone who was nice and liked being near them, but you didn't get close or become real friends. AuraSidra thought that only a friend would let her have something this lovely, so now they had to be just that.
OOC| Oh wow, super long.

No wonder it took so long to type out!