Make shooting stars. Okay. How hard can that be?
I can do this. Kaline trained me in the spell.
First, get on all fours and make sure my paws stay in contact with the tiles and the pattern at all times for maximum effectiveness. Then, focus all my energy in my heart chakra. Done.
Next, imagine that energy traveling out through my paws and forming shooting stars. The more precise the image the better.
I picture miniature comets and shining Christmas stars shooting out. Not ninja stars. UGH. Why did I think ninja stars? I want to light up the mosaic that extends for two feet around me in all directions. Do we get points off for going outside the lines?
[Hey, Demos?]
A telepathic growl rattles my skull. Obviously, he's concentrating as hard as I am.
Okay. System! Do I get penalized for lighting up tiles outside my little area?
[Lose XP and lose Magic points for not being able to control your powers. The whole point of this task is to help you control and harness your power. It also reflects badly on your Beast Tamer, who has clearly not instructed you properly. Your Beast Tamer loses points and power.]
Now, that gets my hackles up. I'll happily accept being labeled as a screw-up all day long. But no one takes points and power from Kaline. No one!
So, it's do or die.
I try to remember everything she taught me. Her gentle little hands held my front leg and my back leg as I maintained contact with the pattern in one of the towers upstairs. She thought that it would be less pressure if I practiced somewhere other than the actual arena.
"Don't try and force it," she advised me. "Just let it flow from your heart chakra. For this first time, don't worry about the shooting stars lighting up other parts of this old dusty drafty tower. That'd be an improvement."
She sang to me. I didn't understand all the words because they were in the ancestral tongue of Tanglewood, and when I played the game, I had difficulty learning the language. But then, I never really had to unless it was part of gameplay. To me, it was just worldbuilding and not something I needed to pay attention to.
I made a mental note: Try and learn the language. Very difficult when you can't talk. Maybe I can practice with Demos.
in any event, listening to the song helped me. I felt a golden ball of energy traveling from my heart chakra, then splitting into four smaller golden balls and traveling down my legs until the orbs flew out of my paws. The moment the balls of energy left my paws, they broke apart into dozens of glittering fiery golden stars that scattered across the area Kaline marked off.
I did it!
The glittering golden stars sank into the lines on the floor, lighting it up like a Christmas tree. If you want to know the truth, the pattern was spectacular. It looked like constellations in the midnight sky, and also that "Starry Night" painting by Vincent Van Gogh.
"Blaze, you lived up to your name," Kaline cheered joyfully, hugging me around the neck and kissing my cheeks.
I let my tongue like crushed velvet dart out to lick her face. This licking thing felt weird to me. My brain couldn't quite wrap my head around it. Unless it was with a sexual partner, or unless I used my tongue and cleaned the dirt off my brother's face like our mom would do, I never licked anyone like this.
We humans may have so many advantages over animals. I'd trade licking faces for the power of speech any day. But somehow licking someone's face seems to be a superpower with animals. especially pets.
Kaline rubbed noses with me. "You are so ready to train with Demos. I know it sounds a bit like overkill to practice before we practice, but I want you to do well the first time."
That sounds right to me, Kaline. I don't particularly want to make a fool of myself in front of Demos and Gussie and your father. And that Ser Maartenwitz will be there too. I can just picture his logbook. "Blaze completely blew it in training. He couldn't make a single star. He couldn't even make one of those tiny gold stars that teachers give kids."
OR, "Blaze destroyed the entire arena. He blew up the floor. No steak or fish for him."
OR, "Blaze doesn't know how to color inside the lines. How embarrassing for Kaline. She's not cut out to be a beast tamer. She should just become an accountant."
Oh no. I can't let my negative self-talk ruin my performance. Check myself before I wreck myself.
Stars. Stars. Stars. Starry, starry night. The star way up in the sky in Christmas songs. The Star of Bethlehem. Eastern Star. Conjure the stars. Reach the stars...
They dance from my paws, flying and floating, lighting up the mosaic around me. Come on. Come on. Light it all up. I can hear the whoosh and the buzzing. I can see the light all around me. Come on, cover the entire area. You can do it. Come on...
It's all lit up!
But Demos' mosaic isn't doing so hot. Look, patches everywhere.
[Demos?]
A loud growl.
[Demos! Your mosaic has gaps.]
More growling. Lots more growling. He doesn't like me trying to communicate. Is it against the rules to help him? Oh, System?
[Beasts cannot help each other once the task has started. Nor can Beast Tamers.]
Who made up those rules? We should want to help each other, right?
But wait. System, is it only beasts that are performing the Shooting Stars exercise that can't help each other?
[Beasts and tamers that are performing the exercise cannot help each other.]
But Gussie is just sitting there gnawing on crunchy fruits and watching us. I focus my energy on her. [Gussie, Demos needs help. You need to do something.]
[I'll say he needs help. He has holes in his pattern.]
[I can't help him. The rules, you know. But you...maybe if you fly over and circle, he'll pay attention to you.]
She has a smile in her voice. [You are a good beast, Blaze. I'll give it a go.]
I'm almost done! I've got this task in the bag. Now I just hope that helping Demos doesn't backfire on me and on Kaline!