§Three Days Later…§

Tomorrow was not, in fact, better than the last. Neither was the day after it. Or the day after that one. No matter what she did, how hard she tried, she failed. Every single time, and her heart wouldn't let her forget it with her defeats weighed upon it like crates full of dumbbells. In fact, it hurt her so much that she could barely even bring herself to get out of bed! What's the use of embracing another straight day of failure? But nevertheless she did, and it lead her to once again seat herself in Master Eon's study.

"Today, young Chihiro," Master Eon said as he floated off of his chair. "We will—"

"I know, I know," Chihiro droned as she curled into a ball and looked aside with a small frown on her face. "More magic practice."

"Actually, that's not the case." Master Eon shook back and forth slowly before he floated closer to Chihiro. "Today, we will be doing something else."

"Eh?" Chihiro peered up at Master Eon as her frown stretched wider. "Like, what else is there?"

Master Eon cleared his throat and spun around the table.

"The relief efforts at Shattered Island are nearly finished, but they need a few more helping hands in order to finish repairs, and I had wished to converse with the island's king about his encounter with Kaos." Master Eon floated aside. "So, you and several of the Skylanders will accompany me on a diplomatic embark."

Chihiro only sat as Master Eon spoke a conversation with Hugo that she blocked out of her mind. Why weren't they training? Had he finally gotten fed up with all her mistakes?

"Wait…" Chihiro pushed herself to jump out of her seat stand tall. "Shouldn't I be staying back and studying? I mean, I've got all those spells I need to master—"

"Chihiro, being a portal master is more than just mastering spells and fighting enemies." Master Eon flicked from here to there, as if he was pacing while talking. "Diplomacy is a vital part of a portal master's duties—after all, one cannot be expected to keep the peace and safety of a sole island, let alone the entire universe if they cannot easily deal with others in a just way."

"So I'm coming because," Chihiro tilted her head, "I gotta study how to talk to people?"

"Well, somewhat." Master Eon floated towards Chihiro and rested on her shoulder. His tone was slightly playful, as if he was trying to crack a joke, but honestly it only made Chihiro feel worse. "The will be a vital opportunity for you to study firsthand how both Skylanders and portal masters, as keepers of justice, are expected to engage with the civilian populace. So in simple terms, yes, you are learning how to talk to people." Master Eon sat himself on Hugo's shoulder. "And more importantly, you've been training for so long that you seem to be burnt out!"

Chihiro bit her lip and cast an aside look. True, she was feeling a little burnt out from constantly practicing… But that was only really because of her inability to actually complete anything! No matter how many times she tried, her efforts all amounted to failure.

"Perhaps a change of routine would help you some." Master Eon flew off towards the open doors of his study with Hugo dutifully behind him. "Come along now, we'll leave once you change out patrols."

Chihiro groaned and pushed herself to follow them. She really didn't enjoy this sudden change in routine, but it was no use arguing with Master Eon. He was her mentor, and besides, she still felt too awful to argue. She didn't even pay attention to the scenery as she, Hugo and Master Eon made their way to the portal room. Not that she wanted too, anyways—she was sure everybody around could tell that she was an absolute, utter, failure. She could feel their glares piercing into her soul and ground her teeth to keep from focusing on their judgmental, disappointed gazes.

The entry into the stone halls that lead to the portal room was a bit more of a relief, for at least she knew there was one thing she could do right. Still quite crestfallen, she pushed past Master Eon and Hugo as the glow of the portals from a nearby open entryway signaled that they were nearly there.

As soon as she stepped inside the portal room, Chihiro wiped her tears and grabbed a list off the nearby wall. Time to get to work. Her first stop was at a nearby whirring portal that she immediately activated without even thinking. Once it activated, Spyro hopped out alongside a muscular, blue-skinned, four-armed yeti with lemon-colored eyes who was covered in white hair, and a dull reddish-orange gremlin with large pointed ears, cream-colored markings around his eyes and belly, and big black and yellow eyes that held two large golden pistols in their furry hands.

"Hey guys," Chihiro barely said as she made a weak smile and a weaker wave to match. "How was the mission?"

"Really great!" shouted the gremlin as they spun their pistols around like toys. "Those weird cyclopses—wait, what's the plural of cyclops? Cyclopses? Cyclopsi? Cyclopsus?"

"It's cyclopes, Trigger Happy," Spyro interrupted as he looked over at Trigger Happy and then Chihiro. "Anyways, the mission was a success—we drove the cyclopes out of the village and called in emergency response. Within a week, the village should be completely back to normal!"

"That's great news, Spyro," Chihiro mumbled as she buried her face in the list. "Anyways, you guys take a break for now—you've been assigned to guard the island for the afternoon."

"Finally, something easy," sighed the yeti before they looked over at Chihiro. "So, how are the lessons with Master Eon going?"

Chihiro stood frozen and bit her lip.

"They, they went great!" Chihiro sputtered as she giggled and looked away. "I learned a ton of new fancy-shmancy magic spells, everything went swell, and I definitely didn't screw everything up like a total failure!"—Chihiro jolted up as the portals flared and whirred—"crap, gotta get going!"

And with that, she waved goodbye to the group before she bounced over to the next portal and opened it up. She stopped only momentarily to make conversation with the Skylanders who arrived from it before she attended to the others. Normally she'd love to talk with her friends, but she feared that lingering too long would bring about the inevitable questions.

How did your lessons go?

Did you master any spells already?

Are they tough?

Chihiro sighed and held the list close to her heart. She couldn't bring herself to tell them the truth and disappoint them—after all, they were counting on her to help them defeat Kaos. She couldn't possibly let them down! After a few minutes, she brought herself to the last portal and watched it glow.

"Okay, I've gotten reports from all the other afternoon patrols," Chihiro said as she grabbed another sheet of paper out of her pocket and wrote down the reports on it. "This should be the last one."

Chihiro gulped, placed her hands on the portal's rim, and watched as it flared with bright light before a few familiar figures hopped off its surface—or rather, rolled off in the case of one!

"Terrafin, Stealth!" Chihiro weakly chirped as she forced a fake grin. "Nice to see you! How'd the mission go?"

Sure enough, Terrafin and Stealth Elf arrived back from whatever their latest mission was—following up on a past investigation or something?—and stretched against the light of the portal. A red and gold, stout robot with wheels for legs and drills for hands, whose light bulb-like eyes seemed to drill into everything around them flanked them as they rolled off the portal next and beside Terrafin.

"Well, it went as good as it could have," Stealth Elf said as she rested her arms at her side. "We still don't have any clue on where Kaos hid the Fairy Kingdom, or what he's been doing there beyond what we can infer from his cronies, but, at least we got those spell punks taken care of."

Chihiro nodded and immediately diverted her attention down to her list. "Drill Sergeant, you're on the evening shift," Chihiro gestured towards the robot. "You can just hang out here."

"Affirmative, sir!" Drill Sergeant whirred as he rolled past Terrafin and Stealth Elf.

As Chihiro watched Drill Sergeant make his leave, she couldn't help but smile. Even though Drill Sergeant called everyone "sir," out of habit, something about him calling her that made her feel… Happier, for lack of a better word.

"Terrafin, Stealth." Chihiro turned back to her list and rubbed her eyes, "you’re—"

"Actually, I have a special task in mind for them, young Chihiro."

Chihiro turned around, and found Master Eon as he floated closer towards her! When she turned back, Terrafin and Stealth Elf nodded and bowed slightly in Master Eon's presence, as they were clearly honored by their old mentor's appearance.

"What'cha got in mind, Master Eon?" Terrafin asked as he crackled his knuckles.

The three of them talked among each other for a while, then Terrafin and Stealth Elf obediently followed after Master Eon's ghost and left Chihiro behind. This was more than relieving for her—she didn't exactly want to worry about unwanted training questions.

"Young Chihiro, why are you standing there?" Master Eon asked as he stopped and turned around. "You're joining us as well."

"Eh?” Chihiro uttered. “Oh, right,"

Chihiro nodded her head, then quietly trailed behind Master Eon. Her head hung down the entire time, and her gaze drifted away from the room and its sights as her mind blended into a hundred questions.

I know Master Eon said he did this to try and help me, but… Is he really being honest? Chihiro thought as she bit her lip. What if he's just making me do this 'cause he's bored of watching me fail all the time? What if he's really fed up with me and just doesn't want to deal with me anymore?—Chihiro gulped and tugged on her sleeve—what if he thinks I can't really do this?

Well, it was of no use asking now, for she had gotten outside in the time spent contemplating, and there was already a ship parked over by a nearby ledge and waiting to take them to their destination. It had white flags with red crosses plastered across its sides, which signaled that it was some kind of emergency vehicle like the ambulances she'd occasionally see on the streets at home, and it looked large enough to house an entire village! When she finally walked on board, she found that Master Eon loitered near the top of the bridge, as if he was anticipating her arrival. To his side, Stealth Elf leaned against a wall beside a sleeping Terrafin, and a couple of ursine mabu dressed in pristine red and white robes scrambled from side to side on the occasion.

"We are ready to embark now!" Master Eon proclaimed as Chihiro boarded the ship's deck. "Shall we depart?"