Stupid college, stupid carriage. There is untapped greatness within Grim, he can feel it, he knows it! But if everyone is too stupid to even stop for a second to notice it, he’ll make people see it and bow down to it. Everyone deserves to witness him as he becomes the most powerful magician in the world!

But first, he needs a robe. Sure, he doesn’t have much of a need for them, but a great magician in training like him needs one. He must look his best.

…that and he knows he’ll get kicked out of here, but he’d rather not give that feeling any words so he pushed that down.

With amazing grace that only he is capable of, Grim managed to sneak past that weird man in the crow mask and he spots a coffin that’s a bit more isolated than all the others floating in the air. “Gates,” they were, or so that weird man uttered, dismayed at how many of them there were.

Well, one student wouldn’t be missed. He’d be taking their place after all! This person should be honored that they’re the first stepping stone to his road of fame. Still though…Grim can’t help but wonder this gate was so far away from the others.

Oh well, no use on wondering on that. He’s got a robe to get before the ceremony starts! He can’t be late for his debut.

Grim approaches the gate, getting his little paws under whatever gap there was, and pulled. Of course, it wasn’t that simple. The lid was too heavy, refused to give way from his prize. Then he heard footsteps echoing in this large chamber of a room.

Well, if this gate refuses to open up to him, he’ll just have to make it.

With his perfectly mastered magic, Grim let the flames from his breath consume the lid. Hehehe, nothing can truly resist his fire! Grim couldn’t help but twirl in the air, kicking out his feet at his own skills.

“Fire?” A sleepy voice, almost yawning out the word, sounded out from beneath the gate’s lid. Like an infection, it grabbed at Grim, seeking to sink deeper into his head with its multiple layers.

Grim’s bones went cold. Wasn’t the student inside supposed to be asleep? And isn’t there only supposed to be only one student in each gate?
But Grim shook his head. He came here to become a magician, and if there is more than one person inside, well that’s just more chances for him to grab a uniform. He just needs to be sneaky about it. Nab one and go.

Grim shoved his paws under the lid once more, grinning as the lid started to move even though the skin underneath his fur started to shiver harder and harder. The coffin finally gave a small crack into it’s dark depths. He could see the pretty gold designs on the sleeve winking at him, taunting him to take it and wear as it own.

But before he could shove the lid open the rest of the way, a powerful force bashed the lid for him, nearly taking his claws with it. Grim gave a shrill yell, but nothing more as his eyes were forced to focus on the five large black tendrils that punched the gate open, pulsing with shifting blue-white veins as they retracted.

Grim wouldn’t know how to explain it. It seemed as though the very air around this area started to eat at the lights. The weight of that lid was nothing compared to the fear that weighted his lungs down. His ears refused to take in the confused voices of the other students, seeming nothing more than static to him.

Something grabbed the edge of the gate. He wanted to say it was a hand, it had the sleeve, but for whatever reason, he didn’t want to acknowledge it as a limb. A limb implies just one. Grim felt like he was watching multiple little ones. Fingers felt more correct, but also not.

The being in there sat up. The colors weren’t right, rippling about in a vague shape of a person, shifting the robes in such a hypnotizing pattern that Grim could only watch as it swiftly jumped out.

Only then did you look human.

Normal skin, normal hair, normal amount of limbs.

“Where am I?”

And a normal voice.

“H-ha—” Grim found his voice, feeling the need to say something, but when your head twitched in his direction, Grim flung himself right behind the flaming coffin. He can’t look into your eyes. He knows he can’t.

And you ran out the door just as other people started to pile in trying to see what made such a loud boom. They would only find a burnt coffin and a lid split in half.

Grim could only wait. When they too were gone, Grim suddenly gave a yowl so loud it shook his whole body.

“I forgot my uniform!”

Fear? He doesn’t know them. If he let’s himself be scared by someone like you, he’ll never be able to reach his dreams!

Grim has never once seen you sleep.

Sure, he sees you go to bed, rest right besides him as he dreams of his untapped power flourishing under a single flick of an ear, but he has never once felt your body relax under the blankets. You just lay there, existing in the quiet as the stars shine through the window. Grim is able to sleep well most of the time, but for the first few nights, he couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes, nor actually tell you the truth that he’s awake at all.

Pretend. He has to pretend, keep quiet and let this silence belong to you only. Every time night falls, Grim always felt as though he’ll be dealing with a different beast entirely. The only reason Grim was having these good nights was because you started wandering. About a few minutes after he should be sleeping, you’d slide out of bed and walk, somehow never making a floorboard creak. Somehow never breathing, as though you no longer had to pretend to.

He’ll swear up and down that you don’t scare him, not at all! He just ate something funny or had a potion blast in his face wrong. If you decide one day that you wanted to eat him, Grim has confidence that he can blast enough fire fight back. But, the Great Grim needs his precious sleep, and it would ruin it if he were to fight you now, so he’ll leave you alone.

Eventually, Grim does sink into something regular. He even manages to sleep as soon as he hits the sheets, regardless if you’re there or not.

But one night, you suddenly shot up in bed.

Grim hadn’t opened his eyes, he didn’t feel the need to other than groan in annoyance, but then he heard a near imperceptible sound of grinding, like bones against dry, cracked land. The bed started to dip towards your side, almost enough to make Grim slide down, and only then did he open his eyes. But he didn’t dare turn to you.

The moon was completely full, shining through the window to cast a clear shadow of you for Grim to see. He curled up further, watching as your humanly figured was sat straight up, facing something in the room. When the grinding got louder, the air flowing through this bedroom began to flood his ears, nearly deafening him as it shifted from simply whistles to full blown mind rending static. But still, Grim would not get up. Not when he can see something bloating out your back.

With a soft pop, your tendrils came out, your head no longer visible as your extra limbs thrashed about. They suddenly became stiff, aimed themselves at the direction you were facing, then lashed out in unison.

Grim shot up in the air at the sound of glass breaking. He twisted himself around just as the pieces scattered onto the floor. A long while back, on the second day you moved into this dorm, you had placed a curtain over the mirror in this room. Now the fabric was just the slightest bit open, shining silver pieces fall between the gap. He couldn’t stop himself from turning to you, even when his fur was standing on end, but you looked fine.

You looked human again, your face carefully blank for only a moment. Then you blinked and gave a gentle smile.

“Go back to sleep Grim,” you got out of bed, pushing the sheets towards him.

“Bu—” his words were failing him. He could only look at the mirror pieces on the floor.

The glass gave a crisp crunch as you stepped on them.

“Nothing to worry about,” As though following a silent incantation, the broken mirror shards started to glow. They floated up, as though bubbles in a dark sea, then flowed towards the mirror hidden behind the curtain, “I’ve come to find out this thing unfortunately is self repairing.”

You would never make any mentions of that night. Grim is content to think of it all as a nightmare to never remember.

You’ve been wandering outside the dorm more lately. When night falls and the moon is one big round ball in the sky, Grim would wake up to the front door closing downstairs. The first few times, he didn’t bother getting up. It wasn’t his problem where you go and what you’re up to, and the bed was too comfy for him to ignore.

But the wind was cold and carried with it many sounds he didn’t want to hear. It wasn’t the ghosts, they’d laugh at him no matter how many times he’d yell at them to stop. They say there’s nothing here but he knows they’re liars.

When you got up again and heard you opening your closet, Grim grunted and kicked the blanket off of him.

You didn’t say anything and neither did he when he floated over and rubbed his eyes. You simply got a smaller sweater and put it over his head. The both of you went out without a sound.

He’s not a coward. It’s only natural to keep an eye on you when you’re doing mysterious things again. Besides, you could be eating a feast without him. And if that’s true, he will set the whole dorm on fire!

But you didn’t go anywhere close to campus. Instead, you did a sharp turn and walked towards the forest. All the trees were close together, covered in leaved unlike the tree back at the dorm. Grim can’t see any light. The closer he got, the more suffocating it seemed. Like a monster was hiding in there.

“Can you close your eyes for a moment, Grim?” He jumped and dropped his sweater. He scrambled to pick it up.

When you laughed, he got angry, fur bristling. “Huh?! Why should I? So you can ditch me and sneak all the food for yourself?!”

“Food?” You turned to him, hands dusting off his sweater before adjusting it back properly over his ears. “I’m not getting anything food related. Well, unless you count a beautiful sight to be food for the eyes. Then yes, I am getting a feast.”

That’s it? You’re just going sight-seeing? Then why did he bother getting up in the first place then?! Ah, but it’s too late to go to bed. Grim’s too awake and he knows he’s not going to get any sleep like this.

Grim crossed his arms and shut his eyes tightly. “Well if you’re not eating something delicious, then fine! Like this?”

You patted his head. “Perfect. Hold still.”

There was a prickle in the air. A release, as though pressure in a pipe was finally allowed to flow out. An easy sigh, a relaxed hand. Hand. Many, many hands cradled Grim, never clinging, gently holding. He tensed. How could he not?

But he didn’t run, not even with the winds screamed about the ravine he below him.

Then all went silent.

There was pop in his ears. And the ocean’s waves greeted him.

Grim opened his eyes, but you were not watching him. You looking above. Far, far above, as though searching for something that simply wasn’t there. The sky was perfectly clear, dotted with millions of stars.

“H-how did we get to—”

“Dreams are paintings upon a black canvas. The shadows that cradle them are my walkway.” You didn’t even let him finish! What is it with you and riddles? “What did you think when you saw the stars for the first time, Grim?” And you have the gaul to ask him anything when you didn’t answer his question.

“You’re so rude,” But Grim knows when you don’t want to answer. He’s not dumb. And so Grim joins you in looking up. “Hmm…When I first saw the stars, I thought ‘What do they taste like?’”

You coughed into your hand, clearly trying to stuff a laugh down. Grim growled but that’s all he did.

“Of course you did.” You went and sat on a nearby rock, leaning against it. “As for me, I thought ‘When will they stop looking at me? When will they go away?’”

But an empty sky would be boring, wouldn’t it? But he won’t say anything. Your head is stuck somewhere else, remembering something.

“Hey Grim?” You called just as Grim laid on his back. “Did you know the sailors here use the stars to find their way in the ocean?”

“Really? There’s a lot of stars though.” Grim snuggled his coat.

“I didn’t understand it either. But looking at it right now, I figured out why.”

“How?”

“The stars here aren’t alive. They only move one way, with no goal, no hunger. Predictable. It’s a quiet sky. I love it.”

So, why were you here when you can’t play in any spelldrive tournament? Well, technically you could with the way the rules are written but unfortunately they clearly favor magic users heavily. So really, you saw no point in participating whatsoever.

Anyways, to answer the question, it’s because of the ghosts. Grim was yapping your ear off about wanting to attend practice, muscles getting all tied up from disuse and whatever other excuse he has, but you only gave in when those three ghosts asked if they could play as well.

They’ve done you a number of favors, acting as both the Ramshackle cleaning crew and a makeshift security system. You respect them, so you’re willing to relent.

So, here you are, standing still on the field knowing full well you can’t touch the disk with your bare hands. Can’t exactly run cause what are you gonna do? May as well be a prop. That and you don’t want the damn disk to make another dent in your skull.

You’re still bitter over that.

“I got the disk, I got the disk!” And there goes Grim, running around in circles as the Savanaclaw team tried to get it out of his control. “Okay, how does it go again? Uh, ‘little flame born on a—’ Ah!”

He rolled just as Ruggie swept down on his broom to swipe at him. Grim kept the disc safe, somehow.

“Huh, what’s he doing?” The thin ghost floated over, tilting his head as Grim continued to grumble.

You crossed your arms. “Trying to remember a story I told him. Apparently it helps him with his spells.”

“Aren’t you going to help him?” And miss him flounder about?

“I’ll give him a minute.”

Eventually, when Grim face planted but still kept the disc tight to himself, he finally whined out. “Uh, can you help me?!”

You gave a thumbs up and projected your voice out. Grim followed suit.

“A little flame was born on a candle wick.

“A bright, brilliant sapphire spark that wanted nothing more than to light up the night.

“It wished to see the stars. It wished to become a star.”

It was a silly little story that popped into your head when you saw the way the flame in his ears flickered.

Grim dodged under, coughing out dirt from his mouth and continued repeating your story.

“It wished to been seen by all and have them be comforted by its strength and warmth.

“But how can it? Stuck to the little wick it was born from?

“All it can do with watch the sky through the window.”

Arrogant little Grim, never honest about his desires. Says he’s too good for anything and yet wants attention.

When Grim was far away enough from the chasing team, he planted his feet on the ground and turned to the goal.

“Worry not, little flame. You will shine in the eyes of so many others.

“Don’t dim yourself with your regrets.”

If he wants to be as brilliant as he wants to be, then he’ll have to work for it.

A pinprick of fire, a light blue spark that burned nearly white appeared in front of his mouth.

Leona, Ruggie and Jack were the fastest to try and close in on him, but all their ears collectively went stiff.

You snapped your fingers and they all ducked instinctively.

“Blaze with the strength of your wishes!”

A thread thin beam of light flashed for a moment before the path was engulfed in pure white flame. The disc was but a comet, flying and clipping the hairs of all the Savanaclaw members that barely managed to dodge. The disc hit the goal, flew right past it, and soared into the sky, leaving behind a glitter trail of dying embers.

Much like the story, the flame became a star, a loud, explosive one, if only for a few moments.

“Huh,” you were the first to break the silence, not at all shocked. “You’re getting better at that, Grim.”

“See that? You better be bowing to me now for my mercy!” Grim was just as chipper as ever. Actually, he’s even more happy now that he got to show that off.

Leona blinked at the sky, then sighed, “Ruggie, get another disc.”

Oh good, you don’t have to pay for that.

You finally pinned this colossal coral monster down, piercing its empty head with your tendrils to the floor of this underwater cave. It slammed its four hands with too many fingers on the ground, unable to grab at you with its multiple joints so stiffened up with greedy and coarse green coral.

Its back tensed, the barnacle holes on its back flaring for only a moment before you flipped off, keeping your tendrils deep inside its head as wet black needles ripped through the air. They pierced the cave’s ceiling and couldn’t retract them back.

Perfect.

“You ready, Yuuken?!” You shouted, already adjusting your tendrils to splay out like a flower.

There was a grunt behind you, but no clattering. “Give the command!”

The this empty husk of a head as handles, you rip this mock of a human giant right down the middle, flecks of rocky flesh flying off, red and green but unable to stain anything. The rib bones within that split flared out, forming a toothy maw that wished to close with its other half. You wouldn’t let it, for within the confounds of its belly was a stone like mass with veins clinging to the split sides, beautifully smooth in contrast to the rest of its body. When it beats, it sounded like a gentle roll of glass on stone.

“Now!”

Yuuken rushed under your tendrils, the rib-teeth nicking his cheek, but drove his sword deep into the creature’s source of life. The coral creature went still, its heart gave another gentle beat before a stream of red sea glass leaked around the sword.

The creature fell to the ground, and Yuuken’s sword slid out.

You both looked at each other, taking in the other’s cuts and bruises before Yuuken broke out into a gentle smile of relief. You couldn’t help but return it, and he collapsed soon afterwards.

“We did it.” He simply stated as you approached his head, “We got the last of that’s monster’s spawns.”

You patted his cheek with one of your large tendrils, taking in the state of his legs. Yuuken Enma was a full fledged human, sanity and comprehension limited when compared to the mother that birthed this creature you just fought, with flesh and blood holding the same limitations. He didn’t have any broken bones, but the cuts and bruises on them were fierce.
You crouched down and picked him up like a sack of potatoes. It was no trouble at all for you, despite his large and tall figure.

“Ah,” Yuuken tried to push himself off, “Do you always have to do this? I know I’m pretty heavy.”

“You just saw me rip this thing a new one and you think I’m bothered by your weight?” You smirked, even though he can see it. “Let me carry you. It comforts me.”

That and you can feel the way his rib cage expand and shrink as he breathes. Reminds you that he has survived another day. You could just leave him, just find a safe place for him to live a normal life, learning the traditional way of the sword, but one way or another, he’d find a way to reach you.

What are childhood friends for? He answered to you, when you got angry and screamed at him to explain why he always puts himself in danger, why he wants to fight battles that’ll inevitably destroy him.

He won’t let you fight these battles alone, so you won’t let him walk after every one. It’s only fair.

…

You accidently sniffed in dust and sneezed yourself awake.

“Uh…beh…shut uu…” Mumbled a sleeping Grim. He rolled on his side and sunk deeper into his sleep.

You sat up, rubbing the gunk out of your eyes. The room was still dark, the empty shadows shivering with the bare trees outside. It’s so strange to you, truly, that these shadows are simply shadows, and not gateways for curious eyes and hands. And that these trees live, die and stay dead rather than their corpses being repurposed as a breeding ground for ambitious and monstrous insects.

Dreams are even stranger to you. Back at home, your dreams were simply another place to talk with your parent, the nonhuman on, as they protect your mind from any potential intruder.

Now your head is a place for memories to play out, for strange images and stories to unfold.

Truly, this world is a strange place. Noisy, compared to home, the nights silent compared to the hum of hungry monsters you always felt within your body.

You wished Yuuken was here to witness this, to witness a strange, but peaceful world, where cities don’t have to be confined, where cultures bloom and magic is real, even if none of you can use it. You’re sure he would love it.