Spirit Animal Ficlets

Waiting, waiting, and waiting

Tipu hated waiting. Time moved slower when he waited and he hated waiting.

Three more minutes until his life would change forever. The internal clock would tick over and he'd feel the change happen.

The day he drank the sap and receive his familiar, find out if he was an earth mage or not, would he be taken on as his father's apperentice or simply become a incanti.

Two minutes and he'd know the truth. The earth shifting under his feet as he dropped to one knee. The sap was sweet on his tongue and reminded him of so many forgotten things. As the thread of his magical core pulled away. People gasped in amazement. He knew his familiar like his own core before even looking. Fast, smart, useful.

After the last few seconds, Tipu looked up. A halo was in front of him. It was a vortex of magic. Tipu knew the stories, that when a thread of core magic escaped after taking the sap would open a portal to all of the magic in Asder. He could see his father, tipping his head towards the halo. He had to reach inside and his familiar would come out. He knew that because he had attended a few sap ceremonies before. Tipu saw the mind boy next to him approach his own halo of magic. It slowly turned red. Red like earth magic.

Tipu stepped up. The gaze of Carvic on him and the mind boy. He pushed his arm into the vortex. It felt warm and cold, soft and hard, like everything and nothing. A place of pure magic. Something brought itself closer, slowly Tipu stepped back and took his arm out.

The vortex shifted in color becoming bronze. That couldn't be right at all, Tipu didn't have bronze magic. That was mind magic and he only grew up with earth magic. The mind boy had earth and Tipu had mind. That was rare in Asder, to have your opposite magic type. There was occasional where some Asderians got different magic but not two sap ceremonies of opposite sides get the wrong magic.

The mind boy looked appalled as a Gazelle gracefully stepped out of his magic. It rubbed its head against him but tbat didn't get rid of the look of utter shame, horror, and disgust. Tipu focused on his own vortex. Nothing seemed to be coming from it.

This was it. The moment he waited all of his life and it became nothing but a huge disappointment. Tipu began to step back but Carvic lifted his head "This is unheard of, stay boy," the rhino commanded.

Tipu froze in his tracks, the totem had spoken to him. The rhino leaned down towards Tipu "Put your arm back inside, he seems to be lost," he instructed. Tipu did as he was told, he reached his arm inside the swirl of magic. This time he felt the presence, far off but drawing near. Rapidly approaching as if this was the moment it had been waiting for all its life. The familiar made contact with Tipu's arm and Carvic pulled the boy back.

The halo closed itself in an instant, nearly taking Tipu's fingers and familiar with it.

Carvic dropped him "ASDERIANS OF EARTH AND MIND, I PRESENT YOU THE REBIRTH OF STONE THE TOTEM OF MIND!" The rhino said.

Tipu stared at the little leopard gecko that clung to his hand for dear life. He couldn't believe it. He got the wrong magic but he had done something unheard of, something that was impossible. Master Naj approached him "Its time, isn't it Ganh?" She asked.

Tipu's father smiled as he approached the mind boy "I assume so, Naj," he replied.

Both masters touched the boys "You will be my apprentice, it's time for new masters," the said.

Tipu felt like his heart- no, his entire world had been shattered.