The tree withers and dies on the spot. Its leaves turn brown and fall. The bark rots, and it sinks into the ground before turning to dust. My pure blue eyes glow and I flick my hands. Grass peeks up from the dust, happily arching towards the setting sun. I let out another breath. Smoke comes from my mouth. Snaker smiles. “Good job, Wilder. It’s important to learn control.” “You could flatten mountains. Chaos is dangerous, but powerful.” He adds. “Yeah, I know.” Wait, wait, a voice says in my mind. You actually used my power? Instead of locking me away again? I’m impressed, amigue! I jump. “S-Snaker. What was that?” He tilts his head. “What was what?” He doesn’t hear it? I shake my head. “U-Uh, never mind.” Ahhh nice choice. Dunno if I want him knowing yet. Hey Wild. Tell him you’re tired. Go to your room. Best way to get out of training. A mischievous snicker reverberates through my mind. The feeling under my ribcage has stayed as a warm pulse instead of returning to the low buzzing. “I-I’m tired, Snaker. Can I go to bed early tonight?” I ask. He nods. “Of course. Are you okay?” “Yeah, just a bit exhausted. I think that magic took a lot out of me.” It’s not a complete lie. Now that my adrenaline has faded, I feel like I’m sleeping on my feet. I head inside, kicking off my boots and trudging up the stairs. After I shut my door behind me, I slide to sitting on my rug. So tired… Uh, yeah amigue. That took a lot outta you. You need to build up your chaos magic tolerance. Dark red smoke billows out of the floor under me, swirling in front of me and taking the shape of a standing humanoid. Glowing blue eyes blink out where the face should be, and the inside of its mouth is also glowing blue. It grins at me and stretches. “Oh man,” it says. “I haven’t been physical in what, eleven years? Twelve? Wow.” It taps its chin. “Oh crap yeah. I haven’t been physical since your mother was my vessel. After she died… I went into you.” “E-estoy loco?” I squeak. Maldita sea. Why does that always happen when I’m freaked?? I always switch to Spanish. “Nope! You’re not crazy!” It chirps. “I’m the incarnation of your powers, Wilder.” “Y-you are?” I ask. It nods aggressively. “I used to live inside your mother, Shine. But when she died, I was forced into the only person related to her that could handle my power. That was born to handle my power. You.” It plops down on my bed. “And finally, you embraced me enough to wake the incarnation of me.” “Nice room by the way!” My room is plenty big, with a closet and a nice bathroom. I have a red, blue, and black canopy bed in the back left corner of the room, and a desk with a PC and spinning chair in the other back corner of the room. There’s a bright blue rug covering the room, and a wooden oak bookshelf next to the bathroom door. The bathroom door is on the left wall of the room, and the wall around it is painted the nonbinary flag. Snaker went out of his way to paint it after I came out to him, and surprised me with it after school that day. The bookshelf is full of manga, adventure books, comics, and my sketchbooks. The very top shelf is where I keep all my art supplies. Heavy duty charcoal, pencils, white charcoal, kneaded erasers, sketchbooks, etc. “What are you called?” I ask the entity. It falls back on my covers. “Shine called me Chaos. Pretty anticlimactic, huh? You can call me whatever you like.”
I stare out my windows at the trees, and the tiny grass shoots sprouting from the ground where I destroyed that oak tree. A bird chirps on the outside of my window, perched on the sill. The sun sinks below the horizon, casting orange, pink, and yellow hues across the green leaves of the forest. I look over at the chaos entity. “Sprout.” I murmur. “You’ll be Sprout then.” Its mouth drops open, and it lets out a laugh. “Really? The incarnation of chaos, Sprout?” I nod. “What are your pronouns?” “‘It’ is fine, Wilder. But I can be any.” I smile at it. “Well, I should be going to bed now, I feel really tired. Can I have my bed back?” Sprout ducks under the covers. “No. Your bed’s too comfy. Fight me for it.” “I will.” I crawl onto the bed, kicking at Sprout until it yelps and bounds onto the floor, laughing. “Oh FINE. YOU get the bed. I’ll burrow under here!” It crawls under my rug. “’Night, Wilder!” “Night, you unhinged smoke being.” I murmur, pulling the covers over me. And I slip into sleep, dreaming of Sprout doing backflips across a blank sky like a canvas. Or is it not a dream? Sprout could’ve entered my brain. “Uh, Wilder?” A voice calls, waking me up. “What’s this?” I groan, burrowing under the covers. “It’s too early for this, Snaker.” “No, get up. And what is this?” I roll over in my bed, blinking open my eyes. “What’s what?” Snaker points to the floor, where Sprout is asleep sprawled across the carpet, drooling. The morning sun filters through the sun, making the smoke making up their body curl around them like roiling waves. I prop myself up on my arms. “Oh. That’s Sprout.” I toss an eraser at its head. “Oi! Sprout! Wake up!” “Nooooooo!” It hisses, throwing the eraser back. “I’m sleeping! Though its hard with this hulking thousand year old shapeshifter standing over me!” “Rude. I feed you, Chaos.” Snaker snaps back. “It’s Sprout now! Wilder changed my name, bestie to Shine!” Sprout heaves up its butt, walking its legs and dragging its face across the floor as it jumps onto my bed. “Come on, you two. I’ll make pancakes. At least it’s the weekend. No work for me, no school for you!” Snaker pumps his fist, exiting the room. His footsteps pound the stairs as he bounds down them. “Extra chocolate, please!” Sprout calls. “Yeah yeah!” Snaker shouts back. “Wait, Snaker was friends with my mom?” I ask. “Yup. Well actually he’s technically your uncle. He’s the brother of your father.” “Why did I not know this?” I demand. Sprout shrugs. “Who was my father?” I ask instead. Its face darkens. “You don’t want to know, Wilder. Trust me. Why do you think you live here? You were gonna be born on the other continent. But your mother found out who your father really was and left the entire continent to come to Myria.” “Does Snaker know?” “Yes. Part of him blames himself for who your father became.” Sprout says, hopping up. “Now come on! Get ready! I want pancakes!” “Oh alright.” I stand up, yawning, before Sprout picks me up. I yelp. “ESTÁS LOCO?! DÉJAME ABAJO, MALDITO!!” “NO.” Sprout says, marching to the bathroom and dropping me in the shower. “I’ll get your clothes! What do you want to wear today, Wilder?” It chirps, walking out of the bathroom. “You get undressed and start the water!” I let out a sigh. “You are unhinged. I hate you.” “Love you too, bestie.” It calls from my room. “Uh huh. Just get me one of my button-up band shirts and a skirt.” I reply, getting undressed and turning on the hot water. Sprout plops my ‘The Pretty Wild’ button-up short sleeves and a blue solid skirt on the bathroom floor. “Ooh! Hang on!” And it rushes out of the room again to probably make a mess of my closet. After finishing cleaning myself and getting dressed, Sprout returns to the bathroom. I freeze in the middle of buttoning my shirt. “What are you wearing?” I demand. It’s put on one of my ‘Linkin Park’ black shirts and one of my pink one-shoulder capes strapped around its chest. It clips something to my hair. “Perfect! The outfit is complete! And I thought it would be good to match with you!” “Oh brother,” I whisper. Sprout bustles me in front of my mirror. “Look! Look! It goes so well with your outfit!” Sprout’s clipped a bow to the right side of my hair. A black and blue ribbon. I sigh. “You’re insane.”
