The train arrived in Brightlit just after Dawn. Having taken the overnight train, alighting the train was literally an experience I would call waking to a new world. As we exited the train, I took in the sights of the queer little town. The sun shone through the high branches of the trees above, however the shade provided by the trees casted a shadow over nearly all of the town. Dappled spots of light could be seen paving every spot, with a couple of actual glowing mushrooms growing by the roadside.

"Whoa, this is neater than those photos I saw." Star commented.

"Photos?" Felix questioned.

"Yep I was using the computer yesterday." Came the reply.

"You know how to use a computer?!" The blue-haired boy continued. Topaz perked up at the action, and I could roughly hear him mumbling something about how paws and keyboards do not mix.

"Yea, I could use a computer. It's real neat actually." Star puffs out her chest feathers in pride, leaving Felix silent.

"Oooh those mushrooms look neat!" Winter rushes over to one of them, sniffing it a little. Just noticing the mushrooms, Topaz wiggled our of Felix's grasp to join Winter with the mushroom sniffing while totally ignoring his trainer's calls.

"Topaz! Come back here!" Felix ran after his escaped Lionblitz. I sigh, simply calling Winter back to me with a simple whistle.

"Topaz, you've kind of been slacking lately." Felix shook his head at the lionblitz. The Spiritmal seemed to sigh at his words, for once actually walking beside Felix without jumping onto his shoes.

"Say how did you and Topaz get to know one another?" Star asks out of curiosity.

Felix seemed to hesitate, and Topaz being Topaz, decided to nudge his trainer in encouragement. Felix sighed. "I got Topaz when I was seven. Adopted him from the Rairin family."

"Rairin? Are lionblitz rare?" Star tilted her head to one side.

"They are in the wild, but they're pretty commonly bred for adoption." Felix replied as he continued walking forward.

"Why'd you choose Topaz though? Why not another Spiritmal?" Star continued pressing on.

"Well, we could only adopt Lionblitz in our family."

Star sighed. "You know what I'm talking about Felix."

The boy doesn't reply, and silence fell upon the crew for the next few minutes.

"Fine... I wouldn't ask anymore." Star chipped out of slight annoyance.

"Good." Came the reply from the grumpy teen.

It was then a familiar Jackelopp came into view.

"Hey! Ain't that Jacky?" Star commented, causing Winter, Felix and Topaz to look in the direction of which she was pointing.

Felix nearly cursed upon seeing the Jackelopp, instead muttering a string of what seemed to be nonsense to himself. I sighed, already trying to prep myself for the action that was about to go down.

"Hey Fels! Hey Emily!" A familiar voice sounded from behind us both. Before I had any time to react, I found a hand on my shoulder, looking behind me to see Richard grinning at us both.

"Hey Richard." I replied as calmly as I could, slowly brushing his hand off.

"What are you doing here." Felix questioned, his voice monotonous. He did not even bother to get rid of his hand on his shoulder, seeming to be completely done with the bounciness of his cousin. "And how many times have I told you..."

"You can tell me that a million times Fels. You know I wouldn't stop."

Felix just remained quiet, giving his cousin an icy glare.

"So, are the two of you dating yet?" Richard asks, a mischievous look on his face.

"Nah." I simply replied him.

"Richard." Felix continued. "No way in the stars would I—"

"Don't speak too early Fels!" Richard cut him off.

Jacky laughed a little, bouncing up and down in amusement.

"Whatever." Felix replied. "What brings you here anyways."

"Oh I should be asking you that Fels, there'll be a contest here in five days. Obviously I'll be joining that, but it's kinda suspicious that you'll be around an area which has a contest soon..." Richard winked at the frustrated Felix.

Felix sighed. "Ok, ok, which one of you came up with this idea?" He stared at both me and Star.

"Me of course, and I'm not ashamed to say it." Star puffed out her chest feathers once more. When she noticed his icy glare, she just shrugged as much as a bird could. "What? It was on my bucket list ok?"

"And how did you even know there would be a contest here?"

Star grinned as much as a bird could, her eyes shining mischievously. "By using a computer of course! Those things are kinda amazing."

"Great, I completely forgot that you're a magical bird that could use computers."

Star grinned. "I'm not an ordinary Spiritmal you know."

"Of course I know that, you keep reminding me of that little fact." Felix grumbled.

"Wait wait wait are the two of you talking to a bird?!" Richard seemed confused at the interaction.

"Well it sure looks that way." Jacky commented.

"Well because it is." I replied the Jackelopp, successfully placing both trainer and Spiritmal into extreme confusion.

"Well what did you expect from a Glowstaride?" Star asks Richard, this time allowing herself to be heard by him.

"Star bird speaks?!" Richard seemed to fall backwards, nearly landing on Jacky who had jumped out of the way just in time.

A few people who were passing by stopped in confusion to look on at the action. I sighed as I noticed this while Felix pulled Richard off the ground. In the end we ended up dragging him away from the attention gathered, our Spiritmals following behind us.
—————————

"Yes, Star bird speaks." I finally replied Richard after we had escaped all the weird looks people were giving us and had found a nearby cafe to take a break in and have some brunch.

"You gotta get used to it I guess." Star winked at Richard. "But keep this a secret ok?"

"Oh! Uh... of course mdm."

"Don't call me mdm." Star replied, giving him an angry look. I tried not to laugh, knowing from experience that Star was just acting. "Call me the lord supreme star of the solar system. Or Queen Nova if that's too much of a mouthful."

"Of course Queen Nova..." Richard mumbled softly as Jacky burst out laughing once more. Winter twitched her nose in amusement watching the action go down while Topaz grinned a little, trying his best to hide it but failing pretty badly.

"I didn't know your glowstaride was that savage..." Richard mumbled softly.

"Heh, I'm not a normal bird ya know? Anyways, just call me Star, the Queen Nova thing was kind of a joke."

"Oh." Richard replied.

"So you're planning to enter that contest huh?" Star questions.

"Umm... yea!" Richard looked up at Star.

"What's a contest like? I mean I've pretty much seen your performance the other day but I want to know all about it." Star continues.

"Ah! A contest is awesome! Basically it's like a Spiritmal battle, but aesthetics play a part as well. The first round is just plain aesthetics though, while the second part of it includes both aesthetics and battle strategies."

"Cool." Star seemed intrigued. "Hey Em we should enter one sometime. Not this one though, we'll need to train."

"Of course." I replied, feeling Star fidget on my shoulder.

"What about you Felix, would you join?" Star tilted her head towards the silent chunk of ice.

"No thanks." He simply replied, almost as though he was trying to escape the conversation for the longest time until Star got him involved.

"Why?"

"He has his reasons." Richard sipped his coffee. "But if I tried to tell you why he would attempt to murder me."

"Yep! Fels would literally send the Dancing Pallbearers after Richard if he were to say a thing." Jacky agrees, snuggling up against his trainer.

"My that's a fancy word you know Jacky." I remarked.

"Wait you know what I'm saying..." the Jackelopp's ears shot up, nearly punching his trainer in the face.

"You could say it's a gift." I replied the Spiritmal.

"You could talk to Spiritmals?!" Richard seemed genuinely interested.

"A gift." I simply repeated.

"Ok..." Richard replies, suddenly diverting his attention to what was happening under the table.

I looked under as well, surprised to see Winter and Topaz snuggling up next to one another, both fast asleep. I quickly snapped a photo of the two before returning back to the conversation, Star nodding in approval at the photos.

Meanwhile, Felix seemed to be in his own little world, not even seeming to realize that Topaz was no longer on his lap.

Richard sighs. "It looks like he's spacing off again."

"Again? What do you mean again?"

Richard shrugs. "He does that a lot when he was little."

"He does it quite often even now. Though I honestly think I'm worse when it comes to attention span." I replied, sipping my own cup of coffee and finally taking a bite out of my pasta.

"You know, he wasn't this cold a few years back." Richard seemed wistful for a moment. "We live quite close to one another actually, so we'll often play together when we were younger."

"What's changed?" I asked.

"Nothing actually. Honestly nothing's changed... but something did happen, and that made matters all the more worse."
———————

I actually updated? Wow...

And I'll let you guys know that even as the author, I feel as though I'm reading the story for the first time as I put my thoughts on paper, even if I know what's going to happen. You could say that this is an update for me as well.

I'm sorry if I've lost my touch... haven't exactly been writing for a while.

I know not many people read this book, but does anyone have any theories about Felix?