Chapter 092 – Sisterly bonds
Sophia's magic classes to teach Ellie continued for another day and the princess managed to learn the basics of air-based magic by being able to create her own gusts of wind. It turned out that the little tiger not only had a lot of it but also was very talented at using magic.
"Do you want to keep going with air and wind, or should we try something different?" The duo returned to the cherry blossom forest, and Sophia wanted to know what to do next.
“Ellie wants to learn some mischef with wind!” Her eyes started sparkling. “Something I can annoy Anna with!” After all, she loved her older sister.
“Gladly~.” The blonde saw no issues with her request. “Just to be sure, you just want to mess with her a little, right? You don’t want to make her actually angry?”
“Yes!” She agreed. “Ellie wants to be a menace but doesn’t want Anna to hate her!”
“You want to be a proper sister, got it!” As a fellow sister, Sophia was fully behind the plan.
“What’s possible with wind to be annoying?” The princess didn’t want to waste any time.
“Well, Blu is the expert when it comes to harassing others with wind magic, so we have the best teacher on hand already.” She pointed at the little parakeet who had gotten comfortable on Ellie’s shoulder after their lunch. “Oi!” Not liking that, the bird got upset and flapped its wings once. Instantly after, a massive wall of air hit the blonde and pushed her several meters back while also liberating two trees of all their cherry blossoms.
“Ohh!” The little tiger clapped her hands a couple of times.
“See?” Sophia returned to them and smiled at her. “Blu’s the bird to be when it comes to learning wind-related things.”
“Good to know!” The princess nodded. “Still, Ellie wants to annoy Anna, not make her go fly.”
“Fair enough.” The blonde was happy that she knew where to draw the line. “Blu, teach her some fun things that are more on the harmless side.” After hearing that, the parakeet used its wing to salute before taking off from Ellie’s shoulder and landing on the ground between the tigers. A second later, a gust of air hit the blonde's face and disheveled her entire hairdo. To some degree, at least, as she always had rather wild hair.
“Messing with hair!" Ellie’s eyes were sparkling. “Very annoying!”
“Very…” Not entirely happy about the situation, Sophia used her hands to entangle her hair and roughly put it back into shape. “I wonder if Kira buys it if I blame the bird for her daughter’s new skill- Oi!” Another gust of wind hit her. Blu did not approve of her plan.
"Ellie promises to only use mischef on Anna!" The princess instinctively knew that she could end up in trouble otherwise.
“Well, that could work.” Sophia smiled at her.
“Phew.” She looked relieved. “And maybe papa if he ignores Ellie too much again!”
“Absolutely deserved.” The blonde had no intention of stopping her there. “Kira would agree there, too.”
“Yay!” She clapped her hands in anticipation. “Ellie can’t wait to-, huh?” She suddenly turned around. “Eh…? Something touched Ellie’s shoulder just no-, Ei!” The princess then looked behind her over her other shoulder before jumping back on the spot. “Again!”
“Hehe~.” Sophia let out a small laugh while Blu also chirped a few times.
“What?!” The little tiger didn’t like that. “Ellie definitely felt something!”
“Did you forget the part where we’re teaching you mischief with magic right now?” The blonde chuckled again while smiling at her. “Blu used air to imitate someone tapping your shoulder.” The parakeet nodded in agreement.
“O-Oh!” She sounded a little embarrassed in return. “That’s a good one!”
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Having seen two types of mischievous wind magic she liked a lot, Ellie seemed raring to go and immediately jumped right into training again. She kept going for a little over an hour and quickly made some progress, thanks to Blu's help.
“I’m not so sure about this, chief.” The better the princess was getting, the more Sophia was suffering as her test subject. Her hair had been turned into a complete mess, and even her clothes had started to become disheveled by the constant wind attacks she had been receiving the past hour.
“Ellie is very sure, though!” She disagreed with the blonde.
“I’m sure you are.” The taller tiger lightly rolled her eyes.
“Yes!” The little one was full of vigor.
“Alright, fine.” She couldn’t win against her. “You’ve already gotten plenty of experience with ruining my hair, though. How about you focus on the shoulder tap trick for now? I’d like a break if that’s okay.”
“Okay!” Ellie could agree with that and jumped right into training once more.
“Haa, I’m way too soft.” Enjoying the break while the princess was getting ready, Sophia let out a soft sigh while trying to fix her destroyed hair, which had started to look more like a bird's nest thanks to having been subjected to so much wind lately.
Afterward, the princess played around with the blonde for another half an hour, where she constantly tried to use short bursts of gentle wind next to Sophia's shoulder to make it feel like someone was there. Unfortunately, every now and then, Ellie misjudged her strength, and a harder blow hit the blonde, ruining her freshly fixed hair again.
Another 30 minutes passed, and after Blu showed the princess how it was done a few more times, Ellie eventually managed to recreate it relatively well, to the point where someone unassuming would turn around to check what had just tried to touch them.
“Ellie wants to see Anna and try her new skills!” In higher spirits than ever after having finished her training, the princess couldn’t wait to see her sister to be a proper menace to her. “Let’s go!”
“Gladly!” Sophia happily agreed to pushing the problem she created, Ellie, to someone else. Wasting no time whatsoever, she opened a portal to the cottage, and they quickly stepped through it.
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Back at home, the trio, Blu was on the blonde’s shoulder, went to the living room, where they ran into the tall tiger and the others.
“Ei!” Seeing her sister, Ellie immediately welcomed Anna with an air blast to her face, causing her bangs and twintails to become a tangled and fuzzy mess in an instant.
“Oi!” Naturally, she wasn’t very fond of this. “What was that for?!”
“Mischef!” The mood of the little princess was excellent.
"Yup, that's about what I expected when I heard that Sophia's going to be her teacher." Ari, who was also in the living room, wasn't overly surprised about what had just happened.
“Why me, though!?” Anna didn’t like her treatment.
“One of the many jobs of the older sister is to endure the mischief of the younger one.” Steph, sitting next to Chloe on one of the sofas, had an easy explanation for her.
“She’s speaking from experience, too.” Sophia nodded a few times.
“I sure am~.”
“Also, you’re not the only one.” The blonde then pointed at herself and her ruined hair while looking at the taller tiger. “She used me as a test subject for the entire day.”
“I’m not sure if that makes it any better!” In fact, Anna actually started pouting after hearing that.
“You do know that Kira will kill you when she finds out that you taught her baby nothing but mischief, yes?” The jaguar slowly shook her head as she stared at Sophia.
“It was Blu that did the teaching!” She instantly pointed at the bird on her shoulder. “O-Ouch!” She then was immediately hit on the cheek by the parakeet’s wing.
“Yeah, she’s totally going to buy that.” Ari just rolled her eyes in return.
“Ellie also promised me that she only ever uses magic to do mischief when the target is Anna.”
“Exactely!” The little princess nodded in agreement. “Or when papa ignores Ellie too much!”
“Well, I guess that should be okay.” The jaguar scratched her cheek. “Ignoring Ellie is a crime, and messing with one’s sister is apparently to be expected, too.”
“Ehehe~!” The short tiger liked that even Ari was on her side.
“Ellie, my dear~.” Anna then kneeled down to get on the same level as the short tiger. “You do know that sisters messing with each other is a two-way interaction?”
“Two-way?” She tilted her head. “H-HEY!” Ellie was suddenly trapped in a gentle whirlwind that completely messed up her hair in an instant.
“I can use magic, too!” The tall tiger showed her a smug grin.
“Unfair!” Ellie didn’t like that.
“How so?” Anna didn’t see an issue.
“I’m sorry, Ellie, but that’s how it works.” The other sisters, Sophia and Steph, had bad news for the little princess.
"A-Ah.” She hadn’t expected such a betrayal.
“That’s how it is~.” The tall tiger smiled at her sister. “If you want to mess with me, prepare to get messed with!”
“Sophia, Blu!” The little princess suddenly faced the duo. “Ellie needs to learn better and more mischef!”
“Sure thing~.” The blonde gave her a thumbs-up, and the parakeet saluted her with one of its wings.
“Having fun?” Ari nudged Anna’s side. “I saw how you, even while complaining, were smiling the entire time.”
“It’s a LOT better than having gotten the cold shoulder from her for most of last year!" She enjoyed the actual sisterly interaction with Ellie a lot.
“Fair enough.”
The group kept chatting a little longer about the wonders of sisterly bonds before it was eventually time to bring Ellie back home to have her rest. While she had been energetic until the very end, it had still been quite an eventful and tiring day for her, after all.