It's just a regular magical training session for the royal guards until a certain someone explains the "true secret" to being powerful at magic.
[I’m still working some long fics but I just wanted to get this short one off my chest. I hope you enjoy it!]
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“Remember, you have to concentrate when you're casting Ximocu, or else the shield will instantly break, and then you'll get hit in the face.” Explained Mateo for probably the third time that day as he paced back and forth in front of the five guards.
“I am! But the shield keeps breaking no matter what I try to do.” Rico exclaimed as he picked pieces of fruit out of his hair.
“We want to learn it sir, but it just isn't working!” Felipe added.
“What do you think we should do Mateo?” Asked Gabe as he wiped some juice off his face.
“Well at this point the best thing to do is-”
He was cut off by a sudden flash of pink in front of his vision, then the high pitched and very excited voice which exclaimed “Hi guys, whatcha you doing!?”
Mateo waved at her “Hello Flo, we're just having a magic lesson.”
“And trying not to get hit with fruit.” added Rico.
“What's magical about getting hit with fruit?” she asked.
“Nothing, but we're supposed to block projectiles with magic. So we take turns throwing them at each other and then we either block them or get hit. But we mostly get hit.”
Her ears perked up “Oh oh that sounds super duper fun can I watch?!”
Mateo nodded “Sure you can, as long as you stay on the side out of the way, we wouldn't want you getting splattered.”
“YAY!” she shouted as she happily hopped to a safe distance away.
Mateo turned back to his class and continued: “As I was saying, the best thing I can recommend for all of you is to practice more. Right now you are all at a beginner's level, but your magic will become stronger as you practice. That's why we're here today isn't it?
Gabe sighed “Yes you're right, it's still annoying though.”
“OH OH OH I know how you can get really strong really fast at magic! I know all the secrets about magic! Ask me! Please, please, please pretty pleeease?” Flo was rolling around on the ground in her excitement.
The royal wizard smiled and decided to humour her “All right Flo, what's the secret of magic?”
Flo squealed in delight as she jumped up on top of a bush and straightened up, ready to speak to the crowd. “There are three important things to being super strong at magic. Number one is you need to have some kind of magical sparkly stick or potion to make the magic effects happen!”
“I see, well we do have tamboritas so that one's checked off.” said Antonia.
“Next you have to know how to say the magic words and do the magical movements! All the words sound like nonsense and the movements that look like a really funny dance, but when you do them the right way cool stuff happens!”
“Oh he's made sure we’ve rehearsed the flap and clap until we can do it in our sleep, so that won't be the issue.” laughed Rico.
“Now you guys have all that stuff, but you're missing the most important thing of all!”
“And what could that be?” asked Mateo.
“The thing that makes a magic person truly powerful is...wearing a pretty dress!”
“Wait what!?” they all exclaimed.
“I can't believe I'm the only one who's figured this out! Look at how Mateo always wears his pretty red dress whenever he's doing wizard stuff!”
The wizard looked shocked “But i-it's not a-”
“And Elena has the most beautiful dress covered in sparkly sparkles, so she doesn't even need to say magic words all the time anymore because it's soooo amazing!”
Gabe put his hand on his chin “She did get a lot stronger after the dress got bejeweled....”
“Well I should know I wouldn't exist without it! And Olivia has her snuggly red dress on whenever she's here for classes. And Victor was complaining the other day about how his magic doesn't seem to be as strong as it was when he was a malvago, but that's because he's wearing his suit all the time now instead of that pretty purple dress with the bugs on it! Carla always wears nice dresses and she hasn't been complaining about her magic!
Miguel shrugged “Actually I think scorpions are arachnids, but you do have a point…”
“But my outfit is not a dress, it's a robe!” exclaimed Mateo, finally catching his breath.
Flo tilted her head to the side “What's the difference?”
“Well it's... it's... they're different because... actually I don't know….” he admitted. “But the point is I don't think that has anything to do with-”
Rico pumped his fist in the air “It's settled then, we all need to go and find some pretty dresses to wear!”
“Yeah!” Felipe exclaimed.
“That sounds great!” agreed Miguel.
“There's some extra dresses in the tailoring room in the palace.” Said Antonia with excitement “If none of them work I know this really cute dress store in town!” she paused and turned towards Gabe. “As long as it's okay with you, General.”
Gabe shrugged “Sounds a lot more fun than getting another fruit in the face.” He turned to Mateo “I think that's enough of a lesson for today. I certainly learned a lot.” He said with a smile “We’ll pick up where we left off next week?”
Mateo was speechless, he just nodded
Gabe grinned “All right then, let’s go.”
Mateo and Flo watched as the guards left towards the palace.
The alpacamundi hopped down from the bush “I wonder what they'll choose! I hope they get sparkly ones! What do you think?”
Mateo furrowed his brow “Flo, I….I don't think that anyone's outfit actually has an effect on their magic except for MAYBE in rare cases like Elena's. But even then it’s unlikely. I mean correlation and causation are two different things.”
Flo looked up at him “But it's at least worth a shot, right?”
Mateo was quiet for a moment but then a grin slowly appeared on his face. “Well now that you mention it, it's definitely something that we can adDRESS later!” Then he burst into laughter.