A Portal Mix-Up

"I'll help!"

"Sky!"

Sky looked down and spotted a young red fox Seldnac—Lumi, if Sky remembered her name correctly.

"What's up?" Some dust went flying when Sky landed, head tilted to the side. "Do you need help?"

"Well... Kinda." Whenever Lumi opened her mouth to speak, Sky could see her tongue glow in the same shade of yellow as the flames on her ears. "My friends and I have a portal magic test soon, so we wanted to train tomorrow, but... We need some volunteers to practice. And you know people, right? Can you find some?"

"Sure!" Sky jumped up and flapped her wings a few times as she hovered in the air. "I'll ask around! Anything I need to keep in mind?"

Lumi breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much! The others are asking around, too, so with your help, we should have enough volunteers. Doesn't matter who, they just need to walk through our portals, that's all. We'll be on the meadow outside the city all day, so as long as they come at some point tomorrow, any time's fine."

"All right, see you tomorrow!" Sky circled above Lumi once before she zoomed away, sped up by her speed magic.

The first one she spotted—pun not intended—was Mikki. The hyena Seldnac was working on something; his head was blocking Sky's view, but his rose-gold flames flickered high, and the matching spots on his fur glowed brightly, which meant he was using his magic.

"Hey!" Sky called out as she made to land, and touched ground right in front of him. "What are you doing?"

Mikki raised his head, causing the sun to catch in his ear piercings. "Take a look," he answered with a grin, and nudged a small lump of silver towards Sky.

Well, at least it had looked small between Mikki's paws, but for Sky and her fennec fox statue, it was pretty big. "What is it?" Sky asked, pawing at the item.

"It will be a locket when I'm done." Mikki took the object back and got back to work.

"Ohh, for who?"

"Jamie, he's visiting the city for a few days, and very cute." The locket slowly took shape, turning from a lump of metal to an intricate flower. "And what are you up to?"

"Well, I'm trying to look for people to help my friend," Sky answered, tail wagging excitedly. "She's a bit younger than me, and she and her friends need to practice their portal magic before a test, but for that they need people to walk through them. Do you want to help?"

"I should be able to manage walking through a portal. When and where?"

"Tomorrow, at the meadow near the city. Lumi said they'd be there the whole day, so you can come as late as you want to, too!" Sky only now noticed that her paws weren't quite touching the grass, and hurriedly started flapping her wings.

Mikki chuckled. "All right, I'll be there."

"Great! See you then!" Sky didn't even wait for Mikki to say goodbye before she left, still on the lookout for new helpers.

Tall grass almost hid Lena from Sky's view, but when she was right above her feline friend, Lena's spiral-shaped blue markings lit up brightly, and Lena looked up at her.

Sky landed with enough speed to send some dirt flying. "Lena!"

Lena flattened her ears and raised a paw to clean off the dust that was now on it, courtesy of Sky. "What do you want to ask me?"

"So, my friend Lumi asked me a favor, and I need your help!" Sky started, tail wagging so quickly her butt moved along with it. "She and her friends want to practice portal magic, and—"