“Now to start, you’ll be flying with the assistance of my wind, only using yours to help keep your bance. It’ll feel strange at first, but I can see that you’re already prepared.” He chuckles as Hina levitates with excitement.

  “I wanna fly!” Nothing else matters to her more at the moment.

  “Make sure you hold on tight! Remember, flying is basically just levitation but farther off the ground.”

  They lift off, Cosmo’s wind propelling her upward. It was like when her mom lifts her up and tosses her in the air, only she doesn’t come back down. They speed up a bit when they near the canopy, stopping their ascension just above the trees. The flora is enveloped in a sort of dim light, one simir to Hina’s glowy eyes after she wakes up from dreaming. It almost felt alive, the gusts of wind blowing past them like the voice of nature.

  “It’s so pretty!” She could hardly believe how wonderful it all looked.

  “This is all by your design, little star. Your mind gave birth to this nd, breathed life into it with but a single thought. I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it. Simply breathtaking.” He stares off, taking in the view before him.

  Hina blinks a few times, unsure of what half of what was just said meant. “So my head made it? How does a brain make a baby? Am I inside my baby?”

  Cosmo cackles, dramatically throwing his head back in ughter for emphasis. “Goodness, no. Your head did create this world, brains can’t actually make babies it’s just another way of saying you made it, and we are simply inside the world of your dream and not a child. Does that make sense?”

  “Oooh.” She wonders if a brain could even hold hands with another brain, which gets her thinking about brains with hands.

  “Are you ready for the rest of your lesson? We need to work on your aerial bance.”

  Hina is always ready to fly. “I’m gonna be Supergirl!”

  “You can be whatever you wish to be with magic, little star. With practice, your only limit will eventually be your imagination. Which is why I wanted to teach you, young one. Your potential is boundless, and I genuinely look forward to seeing you grow in your journey.”

  “You’re nice, Momo. I like you! We’re best friends now.” She smugly grins as she shakes his feather like a hand, confident that she was the first and only to have such a cool sparrow for a best friend.

  Cosmo bows. “I’m honored, little Hina. I’ll gdly be the best friend of such a pleasant human!”

  They dance around together in the air, the fact that Hina has miraculously attained near perfect control over her direction failing to cross Cosmo’s mind for a moment.

  “You’re directing and bancing yourself so well! Never before have I seen or heard of someone being so talented! Oh joy, I might even be able to teach you the beginnings of nature magic!” He nearly forgets to keep his protege suspended in the air in the midst of his excitement.

  “Is that like, growing trees and stuff?”

  “It’s far more than that, little star. It is in essence, the ability to tap into the bounties of nature and benefit from its many fruits. In your terms, this would make you stronger than any super. With the proper practice, of course.”

  “Would it give me ser eyes?” This is very important to her, a necessity in her pursuit of super.

  “You could probably find a way to give yourself ser eyes, so yes.”

  She suddenly lets go of Cosmo and splits off, flying in loops while screaming because words couldn’t possibly begin to represent how happy she is. He watches dumbfounded, his standards on time till mastery going completely out of the window. Everything she does is unprecedented, so the metric by which to measure her progress is irrelevant. The power of a Witch knows no mortal bounds, especially in the hands of a child who absorbs information like a sponge and masters magic so quickly it’s almost as if it were bending to her will.

  “I believe I can flyyyyyy! I believe I can touch the skyyyyyy!” Hina sings her mom’s favorite song while cruising around in the sky, never wanting to put a single part of her body on the ground again. The sky could totally be her new home like how the birdies live in it.

  Marsha drops in from above and taps down on a cloud next to Cosmo. “What in the worlds is going on… Dude, is she flying? And so soon?” She rubs her temples while chuckling at the sheer absurdity of how quickly Hina is learning.

  “Oh! Welcome, I wasn’t expecting to see you until the trade off. Isn’t she incredible? She’s nearly mastered flight, and all I have to do is give her some lift here and there now.”

  “Where the heck did you find such a talented kid? At this rate, she might learn my precious origin fire spell in two human weeks or less! I never thought I would get to teach someone else that so soon… I guess life has its mysterious ways of working

  “Her level of mastery within a week’s time is incredible! It might even be possible to get her to my level or higher, but do I have enough time… The thought of a child mastering magic that would generally take most a human decade or longer to learn within a matter of weeks should be baffling, but considering how attuned to nature and mana she already is this has a bit less of an impact for him than it would have for anyone else.”

  “Agreed. Her fine-tuned control over even the most minute of mana based phenomena she imposes on her world is astounding! She might even become the world’s first Rainbow Witch…” Marsha ys on Cosmo’s back as if he were a hammock, it beginning as a joke but quickly devolving to her simply being comfortable and rexed in a matter of seconds. “Cos, did you do something with your feathers or are they always this pleasant and soft?”

  He stutters, taken aback by the sudden use of a nickname but fttered by the kindness of her words. “Are they really that nice? I just use- you’ve distracted me.”

  “I have, haven’t I?” She grins smugly. “So, about that Witch theory of mine…”

  “Ah yes, your theory. It is very well possible, but affinities with other elements might become a bit of a roadblock for her. Hopefully the foundation we build for her is strong enough to support the wild life this one is likely to live.” Cosmo settles on a yer of his wind, careful to not disturb his new friend’s rest while doing so.

  Marsha seems to be in a good mood. “You’re a pretty alright guy, you know that? Most would get infted egos and grandstand when I stopped by their person’s imagination, but you treated things like how you’re supposed to. Actually I’d say things are supposed to be like how you do them, at least from what I’ve seen so far. So sorry about treating you like you were just gonna push back anyways when we met.”

  He chuckles warmly, taking care to not ruffle his feathers in excitement. “I just figured you had an abrasive personality, my fluffy friend. No need to apologize when there was no harm done, it makes for a terrible habit.”

  “You really are a nice guy. Have you considered being a nice girl?”

  “I haven’t really thought of how my appearance may be to others. My existence is as it is, therefore my outward presentation isn’t really of concern to me most days. When it is, all I need to feel better is a good preening and some delicious fruit from one of these bushes here.” He hops over to a strawberry one that’s weighed down by ones a fair bit bigger than they typically are. “Even the fruit here contains mana, so it’s actually quite useful for when I have a particurly taxing day.”

  Marsha’s mouth hangs open in surprise. “Did you just say the fruit has mana? At her age? Wait, how old is she again?”

  “She’s six according to the manifestations of her friends I spoke with during our first meeting. You wouldn’t believe the level of detail they had to them! Near perfect recreations, just missing the actual magic behind making them whole.”

  “Okay, so remind me of why we aren’t just teaching her everything at once again? Wouldn’t that be the best method for realizing her full potential?”

  “One might think that, yes. More knowledge usually leads to more power, so doing many things at once can yield great results. However, she seems to be the type that does best learning things on her terms, which brings us to the ‘why’ of this whole thing. Trying to teach this young one things other than what she is locked onto will only result in a massive drop in efficiency. If I believed she would benefit from several concurrent instructors, I would have done whatever I could to keep you from leaving the other day.”

  Marsha blushes a bit. “Did anyone tell you that you have a really nice husk to your voice? You kind of sound like this one swan I dated way back. She was smokin’ hot, but just got too in my face about things. Like, noses touching barely holding back a growl in my grill about stuff that didn’t even matter. She thought that I used her toothpaste once ‘cause there was some missing, threw me at a big ol pile of jello that was in her person’s imagination for some reason. I don’t even use toothpaste! I have other ways of keeping myself clean, so I didn’t even understand that part. You’re not a thrower, though. You’re a sweet little thing and I enjoy just sitting here with you.”

  “Your kindness is greatly appreciated. I’m sure Hina would like to see you more, so please feel free to stop by and stay for as long as you like. It wouldn’t do if we squandered a chance to build our friendship further, after all.”

  The little Witch seems to have tired herself out, a cloud serving as a cool and rexing cushion for her to y on. “Momoooo…” She pats her belly, unable to form the word ‘food’ in the moment due to her being wiped.

  Marsha giggles. “Looks like you have some work to do, friend.” She rolls off of his back and suspends herself using fmes. “I’ll carry her back down so you can get her grub, yeah? Swear on my heart and soul I won’t harm a hair on her head.” A blue glow envelops her for a moment, it being magical proof that she truly means it.

  “If you’re willing to put yourself on the line to prove you can be trusted, then I suppose there isn’t anything for me to worry about. I’ll meet you two on the ground, okay?” He drops into a nosedive before she can answer, barreling toward the ground as if he meant to crash head-on. He sticks the superhero nding perfectly, nearly scaring the life out of Marsha in the process.

  “Gods, this bird is gonna give me a heart attack…” She floats over to Hina and carefully scoops her up, propping her head up with her left shoulder before beginning their meteoric descent. “C’mon princess, let’s get you to your castle, yeah?”

  Slowing mere meters before hitting the ground, she taps back onto the ground with the grace of a ballerina. Proud of herself, she marched over to where Cosmo was cooking and found a mossy rock that seemed to have enough moss for her to sleep comfortably. Her nose picks up the scent of buttery biscuits mixed with the sweet fruity scent of jam.

  “Did you make all this?” She stares, jaw sck from the seven different levels of surprised she is to see a dozen each of biscuits with jam in them, strawberry bck currant puddings with a lovely dollop of whipped cream on top, and strawberry vanil swirl cupcakes with vanil buttercream frosting and strawberry preserves yered atop each other. It was like a dream come true presented to them on several silver ptters. Her head overheats when trying to comprehend just where all of this was being kept, and from what he crafted the most beautiful treats she had ever seen in her long and adventurous life.

  Cosmo nods as he puts out the fire and cleans up his tools using magic. “They’re on Hina’s list of things to try in her real life, so I figured she would be delighted if this was one of her first things she saw upon waking.”

  Hina snaps awake, the smell of sweet treats overriding her desire to continue her dream of being a pirate that steals oars from her foes. “Strawberry?” She mumbles, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

  “Oh my gosh I’m gonna cry, Cos. How is she so precious? My heart can’t take this…” She dramatically clutches her hands over her chest. “Yes, sweetie, strawberry. Lots and lots of strawberries!”

  “Yaaaaay! I love them!” Her eyes barely can stay open, but she has no intention of missing out on some of the highest ranking foods on her must-try list.

  Marsha hands Hina a pte of two biscuits with jam, one pudding cup, and a cupcake with a little edible star topper on it. She makes quick work of them, watched lovingly by her two friends as she does.

  The following days come and go, her mind more and more focused on magic as the time passes her by. It’s been two weeks since she began to fly, and she swears she can hear enchanting voices carried by the occasionally that always ask her to py. She, of course, has told no one about any of this. What good would it do to bb to everyone and their moms about your superpowers? Supergirl keeps her secret well, so Hina must as well in order to be the superest of the supers.