"Hop, skip, jump then slide and twirl downwards then spiral upwards into a geyser spell!" I spoke as I danced, as I moved my body to the beat of the mana around me. A pillar of water as tall as me and as thick as a tree branch shot out of the ground into beautiful spurts of water that mimicked rain. My dark brown hair was almost black, from the water matting it. I was mimicking the moves of my mother, of course with my own Clailipian twist. I'm not so scummy as to just steal dances, especially when I know what it feels like to have your hard work stolen.

The twist? Oh, it's the spins and twirls. It's something that I've always incorporated in my choreographies back when I was still Gabrielle. P.E. class was absolutely wild.

I still get shivers thinking of the times when my feet would get caught between the bamboo poles when performing the tinikling¹. Though the memories were already so hazy I couldn't remember the exact steps, just thinking of the pain of getting a foot caught makes me seize up.

"What do you think, Horsey?" I asked the former abomination named Horsey. I wasn't the best at naming things, my creativity when it comes to that kind of thing was incredibly disappointing. A prime example of how bad I am at it was when I named my childhood dog Brownie…or was it Blacky? What was that dog's color again…

But that aside, I watched Horsey as it clapped at my choreographical genius with three pairs of hooves. 'Horses looked like that right? I made him with what little memory I had left of horses. So it shouldn't be that far away from the real thing. I don't think my memory is THAT horrible.' The acorn soldiers on Horsey's back applauded too, with their magical needles I provided to act as their weaponry.

I gave them weapons as I needed to get going, after all, my Mama thinks I'm dead. It's been a week of me living there in the village, and the people were all kind enough to let me stay and eat for free, all because I had my mother's last name. But last night, I overheard that the chief received a message via a messenger owl, inviting him to my funeral. Apparently the whole village thinks that I am a fake, but since I was still a dianian they couldn't just kick me out themselves. So I'll do it myself. I'll find Mama's new nest and show her that I wasn't dead at all!

That is why I woke up extra, extra, early. So I can leave the village undetected with Horsey and go on an adventure! SSS-Class danger world my ass, I'm a Diancia, and Mama said that we were super strong, apparently my grandmother once drowned an entire kingdom of demons, and my aunty, who I haven't seen ever, could summon a wave strong and big enough that it could wash away an entire seaside town and leave no trace of it ever existing.

"Scary stuff, but that means that even if I am the most untalented one of the bunch, then I should still be above average I think. A case of a tulip being seen as unsightly when growing in a rose garden, but wonderful in a barren land." I never really grew out of this habit of speaking thoughts out loud, even in my past life I used to get berated by my venomous tongue-slips.

"Eh, that's future Clailip's problem. Not mine!" I hummed and got on Horsey's back, and ordered him to start moving again. I call him a he because I think male horses have long necks, and he has a very, very, long one.

"But I wonder who that person pretending to be me is…the letter said I died in my sleep after not being able to eat or drink for two days…or was it three?" I don't think I had some sort of evil tein pretending to be me, I also don't think it was some sort of doppelganger. I mean what sort ot stupid idiot would take my place only to kill themselves in such a weird way?

I focused on the forest road in front of me, riding my humble ten-legged, meter-long necked, six-eyed, steed, riding like the wind and enjoying the scenery of this bountiful forest blessed by Bu'Wan. The air was fresh, the wind was nice and cool on my skin, and the sun provided a layer of warmth that kept the cool wind from making me a bit too cold. The acorn soldiers had tiny compartments that they could hide in that was installed by me, and I could see them poking their heads out of the little holes I made for them at Horsey's sides. A few managed to climb up me and onto my head where they watched the blurring forest with me.

What an absolutely peaceful day.

***

"How curious… Kara's child has actually died? Honestly I thought it was a distasteful joke at the time… Oh well a tragedy, really. Though I guess a part of me is glad that it has happened as it gave them a reason to invite me into their new nest." Nathaniel, my master, spoke. He really wasn't the empathetic type was he?

"Aren't you a bit too honest? Frankly, I think you're being disrespectful." I put away the invitation letter sent by messenger owl on a plain hardwood desk where alchemical instruments and vials of chemicals lay bubbling and reacting to the mana that Nathaniel was constantly emanating.

"Tut-tut, Colin, you really think that I'm that boy of a monster? Well you'd be right. But in this case my feelings are totally justified." Nathaniel, stood on a countertop to make himself taller than me, and proceeded to draw sigils and glyphs in the air using his odd ice magic. The ominous aura of it has always given me chills, this time was no exception. "I have reason to believe that the 'Clailip' that that letter speaks of, is nothing more than an effigy. Kara always writes and tells stories to my father about how energetic, wild, and wacky little Clailip always is. To stop eating, drinking, or responding for two whole days before 'dying' in his sleep is a bit too out of character. I'm going not just to learn about dianian magic but also to help my Godmother. She's helped me lessen the awful mollycoddling of my beloved parents, I think it's only right I do this for her. Dianians aren't very well-versed in arcana, but I am."

"Godmother!?" I was absolutely shocked, I know that I was still a relatively new student of Nathaniel. But to think that I didn't know such a major detail about him leaves me wondering if I was even fit to be called his brightest student.

"Yes, Kara and my mother have a long history of adventuring together. It's a family secret of sorts, the Diancians are the most secretive and hated family of the Eight Phases, because of the disaster Lilianna Diancia wrought upon this world around 150 years ago. Kara is more or less the youngest of her siblings, so she was pretty free, but the rule, the tradition, still exists for her as she was still a Diancia. So it's become a sort-of secret that she associates with my family. I'm telling you now as you've finally set foot in a dianian nest, so as a scholar I trust you know to keep this a secret." Nathaniel explained as he picked out one of the many sigils that he's drawn and solidified it and stored it in a dimensional bag of sorts.

"Oh, so it was a secret…" My tail–shaped like a goat's, and which has stiffened up due to the thought of my assumed incompetence as a disciple–relaxed. I watched curiously as he prepared numerous magical formations and storing them away in his bag. "But anyway, how'd you find out about the specifics of Clailip's death?" I had no clue as it wasn't mentioned anywhere in the letter.

"Ah, my father sent me a letter earlier, detailing what Kara had told him in another letter. I thought it was some sort of cruel and frankly, horrible joke, done by my father, to make me come back to the castle once more and be their little boy again. 'You never know when you will die, so hold your parents close.' Kind of thing." I nodded my head, understanding what he meant and why he didn't inform me of the news earlier. I most likely would have thought the same.

"So, I'll be mobilizing my team as vice-captain to find that child. Or at the very least his actual body. Kara deserves to mourn and grieve over her actual child, and not just a cheap copy." Nathaniel hopped off the countertop, as he was finally finished lecturing me. "Though, I do wonder…No. That lady's not so cruel as to give out such an order…on the other hand though…Nevermind." Nathaniel muttered.

I wonder, what he was thinking about just now.