Every Time a Bell Rings...

I was getting pretty hungry. Studying on an empty stomach was hard.

-...-

*Sniff Sniff*

A nice smell brushed across my nose, it was sweet, like baked treats. Oh, it was so lovely that my stomach put me on autopilot, forcing me to the kitchen.

The moment I arrived at there, I saw Uncle baking something in his human form.

“Uncle, what are you making?” I sniffed the air again, smelling all that goodness coming from the oven.

“I’m surprised you can’t figure it out on your own,” he smiled at me.

Oh? What was he… Oh! It must be cake! It even smelled like honey apple berry!

I ran at him and hugged him, squeezing my arms around him as tight as I could.

"Yay yay yay!" I cheered, jumping up and down while still hugging him.

“I wanted to surprise you," he claimed. "but it seems you got here a bit early.”

Right now he just put it in the oven, but it still looked like it was coming along really well. Although, there were quite a few cake pans in there...

When he finished setting a timer for an hour, he turned around and I saw his silly apron that had a cute pig on it saying, ‘Best Chef in Congrlin.’ I didn’t know where Congrlin was, but the apron was adorable.

Hey, you know what? Where did he get the honey apple anyways? My tree was still in pretty bad shape.

“Uncle, where did you get the ingredients for the cake?”

He answered by telling me that while I was reading in the library, which apparently lasted about six hours…he made a trip down to Elysium and met with the Talking Tree.

As a reward for helping stop the mana thieves, she gave him some of the berries we needed to make the cake, and also let him have a new sapling too.

One other thing the Talking Tree wanted us to try was water the dead Boni tree with mana water. She hoped it would bring it back to life, but she wasn't sure.

All the Hobgoblins and the Talking Tree were pretty worried about me, asking specifically if I was okay. Uncle told them I was doing surprisingly well, considering everything. I guess I was, since I got a whole day's worth of sleep.

“You’re not experiencing any elevated levels of anxiety when you think about the other day, are you?” Uncle asked.

“Of course n…” I stopped answering when images of a hornet bee aiming its cannon at me appeared in my mind. The fear that rushed through made me shiver. “I-I’m okay.”

I just didn’t want to think about what happened. It was so scary because I couldn’t do anything about it. I was so powerless.

But if I trained with Uncle, I’d be super strong like him, and then nothing would ever scare me again.

“Hmmm…” Uncle hummed, kneeling down next to me. “It’s okay if it scares you to think about,” he brushed my hair. “The other day was a big deal, after all.”

“Okay…” I replied in defeat. “It was scary. I’ve been trying not to think of it since it happened. But, I want to train and get stronger, like you,” I said with determination.

“Strength doesn’t make you strong,” he said. “Being strong means getting knocked down, and finding a reason to get back up again.”

Woah… That sounded deep! But, I didn’t really understand it.

“If I get knocked down, doesn’t that mean I’m weak?”

“You’re only weak if you stay down. Keep fighting for what you believe, even against all odds. As long as that motivates you, you’ll always have courage.”

Now I understood! I think… As long as I fought for what was on my heart, I’d be strong enough to take on anyone!

“Okay,” I nodded, eagerly. “I’ll always fight for what I believe in!”

“That’s the spirit.” He rubbed my head again. “If things ever get to you, just remember that I’llo be here to back you up.”

“Okay, Uncle,” I nodded. “We’ll save the world, together.”

Uncle always had a nice smile. He needed to use it more.

“How about I give you your birthday present now?” He folded up the apron and put it away in a drawer. “We’ll need to go to the courtyard for it.”

Yay! Another gift!

“I thought we were in lockdown,” I commented.

“We are, but the threat level is low based on my inspections. You’ll be safe in the front yard.”

He must have been on break from checking things. If the coast was clear, I wasn’t going to be upset getting a little fresh air.

~☆☆☆~

The flowers in the field were as vibrant as ever, releasing the most wonderful aroma. I kept having to mentally scold myself for not leaving the window open before we left The Hive. If I had, my room would have smelled like this too.

Uncle and I settled at the very center of the courtyard for training of some kind. I changed into some sweatpants and made Samael give me a big ponytail. For fun, I put on a sweatband around my head and hands too, even though I couldn't sweat. None of these clothing items actually did anything helpful, but they sure did look the part.

The fact that this training was supposed to be part of my birthday gift was gonna’ be so great! so I assumed it was going to be so cool that it was going to make all the trouble we'd had up to now worthwhile.

"Yalda, it's time you start learning about magic."

“Really?!” I squealed with excitement, bouncing in place and stepping toward him with a bright big smile.

“Of course. It would be unwise to not focus on mastering your abilities.” In his bee form, he hovered down to eye level. “First off, I have a very special thing to unlock in you. I know you'll like this...”

Oh, what was this about? I knew I was full of surprises, but what would he 'unlock?'

A message appeared in my vision, asking for permission to let Uncle access my security systems and hard drive. I gave him full access without question.

-New feature unlocked!-

-Wings can now be deployed on demand-

Oh... my... goodness... I HAVE WINGS!? I KNEW IT! ‘BOUT DARN TIME!

Fluffy white wings, covered in the most soft and weightless feathers, elegantly spread forth from my back. They parted the air with angelic majesty as they stretched out for the first time. I was stunned at how they felt so natural, yet so new. Of course to start off the lack of blood flow made them all prickly, but once that faded I had full control over their maneuverability.

“I can fly!” I climbed up on a table and threw my fists up in the air like a superhero.

“Wait…”

“YIPPIE!” I leaped euphorically up into the air, flapping my wings as fast as I could to soar into the sky like my ancestors!

*CRASH!*

But then fell flat on my face.

“Ouchy…” I cried. That was scary and I hurt my nose...

Uncle helped me stand after my humiliating face plant. Then he kindly summoned some sort of tiny tornado wind to get the dust and dirt off of me.

“You may have wings, but that's only the first step to flying, you know?”

“But, I wanna’ fly now," I pouted, slapping my hands against my legs lightly.

“Even fledgling birds take time learning to fly, Young Mistress.”

He was right. I probably jumped the gun a little bit there. But could he blame me? Finding out I had wings was so stinking cool!

Oh well. At least I had them, and that was all the assurance I needed to know that I'd master them one day. Practice does make perfect, as they say.

Uncle already knew how to fly, and he was up for teaching me. Our wings may have been very different, since his looked like blue glass, but he claimed the core principles were the same.

I was stunned to find out that he had an assortment of books lined up that he wanted me to read. Nearly twenty of them, all about aerodynamics, weather, anatomy (of birds), gravity, space, gyroscopes, and he also wanted me to study a bit about wind magic too.

Each of these books were thick as a brick. You could probably make a house out of them. Maybe a normal person would be detoured by that sort of educational load, but I was a scientist's daughter. Twenty books was like a leisurely afternoon of reading for me.

Despite the reading material he'd just handed off, this was homework for another time. right now he had a very unusual first instruction for me to follow. I was supposed to open and close my wings, stretch them all around and hold them in different poses. Then he wanted me to learn how to spawn them out on command, and de-spawn them too.

At first, it was really easy. He couldn’t have paid me enough to stop dancing around and flapping my wings everywhere. But then it hit me... They got super sore.

The exercising was taking a lot out of me. My wings were starting to feel weak the longer I had them out, getting very heavy on my back. We needed to call it a day after about twenty minutes of practice, otherwise I was worried they were going to fall off.

"So, why did I have to get my wings all sore?" I asked.

"The more you stretch them now, the easier they'll be to move later. You need to work up some muscles."

I think I understood that. It's like working out. You needed to start with small dumbbells and work your way up to heavier ones. After a hard workout, it was time to rest so those muscles could grow back twice as strong.

I really felt like I put a lot of work into training today. By the end of my stretching session, I felt like I’d literally become stronger for it, as if the progress was something tangible and trackable...

-CONGRATULATIONS! Xp requirements met! You've Leveled Up!-

Huh…? Why did that message just appear in my field of view?

-...-

Level up? Does that mean…? No way…

"Hey, Uncle...I have another question."

"Yes?"

"Is my life a video game?"