NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 085 – Boasting about cherry blossoms
Sophia took Ellie to her domain as a part of her birthday gift and showed her all the biomes the others created. Saving the best for last, the blonde took the princess to her cherry blossom area after lightly explaining everything that was going on in the first place.
“Okay, you can open your eyes now.” The duo went to the initial floating island with the river and the hammock over the cherry blossom forest. Ellie was currently sitting on the blonde’s shoulders while covering her eyes with her hands.
“Why did Ellie have to- WAOH!” Her eyes immediately fell on the massive pink and white weeping cherry in the middle of the island and spanning all above it. “Pretty tree!” Her eyes were already sparkling before having even noticed where they currently were.
“Yeah, it’s a nice tree, buuut~,” Sophia then turned around to make the princess face away from it.
“W-A-O-H!” She got even more excited as she finally noticed their surroundings. “Are the islands floating?!” The princess first noticed the hundreds of other floating objects in the distance around them.
“They sure are~.” The blonde smiled at her. “In fact, we’re on one of those floating islands right now, too!” She walked closer to the edge and bent slightly forward to show the little tiger on her shoulders what was below her.
“?!” Her vocabulary wasn’t developed enough to put her feelings into words. “Cherry!” She ushered the first thing that came to mind as she looked at the never-ending sea of white, pink, purple, and red trees below them. “SO MANY!”
“It’s something, isn’t it?”
“IT’S AMAZING!” She liked it a lot. “Ellie has never seen anything like this!”
“Most people that ever existed probably haven’t.” Sophia scratched her cheek.
“Can we go down?!” The princess on Sophia’s shoulders started to get fidgety. “Ellie wants to see the cherry blossoms close!”
“Of course!” Immediately after, yet another portal appeared beside them, and she walked through it.
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“Ellie’s going to live here from now on!” Down in the actual forest, the little tiger jumped off the blonde's shoulders and started dancing around the trees and their cherry blossoms that were constantly falling down on the ground to a level where everything was already covered in a layer of petals. “This place is so much better than the castle! Can we build a room for Ellie right here?”
“I mean, you’re more than welcome to stay here, but good luck convincing your mom.” She saw some slight issues with her plan.
“A-Ah.” The little tiger froze. “Ellie forgot about that.”
"She might be a too tough opponent for us."
“True!” The princess nodded. “Mama can’t be beat!”
“Yes, moms can never be beat.” Sophia smiled at her. "How about we just come here to play really often for the time being?"
“Okay!” It was a compromise she could live with. “Wait! If the blossoms already falling like that, it won’t stay pretty for long! It only lasts for a week or two!”
“Oh, you don't have to worry about that~.” The blonde sounded ever so slightly smug. “They’re magic trees! They’ll stay in full bloom forever!”
“NO WAY!” She couldn’t believe it. “That’s been Ellie’s dream ever since seeing my first cherry!”
“And now it came true~.”
“YAY!” The little tiger was very happy about it. “Can I have a magic cherry for home? Ellie wants to look at one forever! Even when not here!”
“Sure!” Naturally, she’d gladly do that. “Oh, wait, I have a better idea! If you can wait a bit longer, I'll teach you how to do it once you're able to use magic. How does that sound?”
“Hmm…” Ellie tilted her head while thinking about it. “That sounds fun, but what if it takes longer…?”
“Then I’ll simply do it for you.”
“Yay!” She cheered up again. “Thank you!”
“You’re very welcome~.” Sophia couldn’t help but spoil her.
“Can we walk around a little longer?” The princess was already back to dancing between the trees and through the cherry blossoms. “Ellie saw some very pretty dark purple cherries when we were above! Can we see them? They’re all the regular pink and white around here.”
“Whatever the birthday girl desires~.” No wasn’t an option. “Let’s see, dark purple, huh?” She spun around on the spot before pointing in the direction opposite the princess. "They should be in that direction because the blossoms are getting slightly darker over there.”
“Okay!” Ellie got closer to Sophia again and grabbed her hand. “Let’s go!”
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The duo walked through the forest for around half an hour while Ellie took her time to look at all the trees, cherry blossoms, and falling petals, together with how they were slowly changing colors. Just like Sophia, she also seemed to prefer the weeping cherries over the regular ones, as she watched them for much longer whenever she stopped walking.
“Ah, there are the dark purple blossoms~.” After some more exploring, they finally found the trees Ellie wanted to see.
“Yay!” The princess immediately sprinted over the cluster of weeping cherries and jumped through the air to catch some of the falling petals. “Ellie has never seen anything more pretty!”
“Yes, I also love how it turned out.”
“Bestest place ever!” She was really happy to be here. “Do the trees really stay pretty forever?”
“They do~.” Sophia smiled at her again. “Magic is amazing and lets you do that if you want! It can bring your desires to reality! Well, within limits, of course.”
“That’s amazing!” Her eyes were sparkling. “Magic can change nature! So cool!”
“Magic and nature are actually good friends and help each other out.”
“Ohhh!”
“They help each other grow and take care of each other.” The blonde explained it in very easy terms to her. “But, if you can use magic, you can change nature to your liking a little.”
“Really?!” She seemed rather interested. “Can Ellie make it warm forever? No more winter?!”
“Gosh, I love you so much!” The blonde sympathized with her on many levels. “It might be possible, but you would need a LOT of magic for that. Even I wouldn’t be able to. Also, it would be unfair to those who love and need the cold.”
“Aww…” The princess hung her head. “Ellie gets it, though.”
“You can change the temperature directly around you, though.” She tried to cheer her up. “I’ve been making it warmer around myself and the other cats in the group ever since winter started to survive.”
“Awesome! So…phia NEEDS to teach Ellie how to do that!”
“It’s an essential skill to any cold-hating cat, so of course I will~."
“THANK YOU!” That made her the happiest yet. The cold was a serious business for all of them, after all. “Now Ellie really hopes she learns to use magic before next cold time!”
"Well, it's only May, so it's not even summer, and we still have a lot of time left before it has to happen."
“I hope!”
“Hehe.” The blonde let out a small chuckle before looking around for a moment. “Do you want to see the best place now?”
"There's something even better!?!" The princess got loud because she didn't think it was possible to one-up the cherry blossoms.
"How about you decide for yourself?" Once again, Sophia opened a portal and escorted her through it.
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“H-HUH!?” The blonde brought the princess to the crystallized part of the cherry blossom forest, and she immediately froze in surprise. “What is this…?”
“This is the place where I got those pink gemstones from.” Sophia pointed at the bracelet the little tiger was wearing on her left wrist.
“That doesn’t answer Ellie’s question!” She just got loud.
“Fair enough.” She scratched her cheek in return. “Earlier, I said that you can influence nature with your magic, right?”
“Uh-huh!” She nodded.
“You see, when you use too much magic, this happens.” She gestured all around her. “Usually, plants just get bigger with magic, but they can mutate, too.”
“Mutatate?” The princess looked confused.
“Ehehe~.” Sophia had to chuckle at her pronunciation. “It’s when something like plants or animals change either a little or a lot and start being different. Like, if you’d suddenly have a second tail.”
“Ohh!” Ellie looked at her tail. “That would be fun!”
“Mhmm, I’m not so sure about that.” She glanced at her own tail with a complicated expression. “Then again, Mira has nine of them and is doing just fine…” The blonde paused for a moment. “Anyway, if you use too much magic on nature, stuff like this can happen.” She pointed around herself again. “Stuff can crystallize or completely change in different ways.”
“Ellie doesn’t really get it, but it's SOO cool!" It was a little too much for her to fully understand what was going on.
"I was planning to gift you one of the crystal trees and put it into the castle garden right in front of your room as an extra birthday gift, too."
"BESTEST BIRTHDAY EVER!" The princess wasn't against the idea. "Thank you!"
"Hehe."
"A second tail still would be cool, too!” She had taken a liking to the idea and was staring at her singular one again.
“How about no? Your mom will kill me if I let that happen.”
“Fine…” She sounded honestly disappointed. “Does that mean Ellie can make her own gems when she can use magic?”
“It’s not impossible, but it’s really, really, really hard.” Sophia scratched her cheek. “To create this place, Anna, Chloe, and I needed to use all of our magic together, and even then, we needed help from a new friend that has way more magic than all of us combined.”
“Wow!” The princess had no better response. "A new friend?”
“Blu~!” As if on cue, the little blue parakeet appeared out of nowhere, landed on the blonde's shoulder, and happily chirped a couple of times while rubbing its head against her cheek. “This is our newest and cutest friend~.”
“So adorable!” Ellie was an instant fan. “Wait, Blu has more magic than all of you?”
“Well, excluding Mira, but yes, our lovely bird here is stronger than everyone you know together!”
“Wow, so Blu’s the bestest?”
“Sure is!” Sophia nodded while the parakeet was doing the same.
“Wait!” She then got loud. “Why can a bird use magic, but Ellie can’t?!” The princess got jealous.
“What a dilemma, huh?” The blonde had nothing to say and just looked to the side to glance at the parakeet on her shoulder. “What do you think? I can sense her magic already, but why can’t she use it yet?” In return, Blu just tilted its head while staring right at the princess for a while. Then, the parakeet took flight only to land on the little tiger’s shoulder instead before rubbing its head against her cheek, as well. The moment they touched, a pale pink light surrounded Blu and Ellie, and countless pink and purple magic particles appeared out of nowhere and circled around the princess while also going in and out of her.
“Blu is so cute!” Ellie didn’t seem to have noticed and was just happy about the parakeet being as adorable as it was.
“Eh…?” Sophia, on the other hand, looked slightly confused over what just happened. Once the light disappeared and the particles seemingly got absorbed into the little princess, Blu flew back to the blonde while chirping a couple of times. “Did just happen what I think happened…?” She simply stared at the overly proud-looking bird with a dumbfounded expression for a while.
