With his first spell out of the way, he now had to focus on the next two. These ones might be a little more challenging, but he'd do his best. Not that he really had much of a choice.

He let the rainbow stay as best he could as he focused on his next spell. However, it didn't stay long and quickly dropped as he suddenly lost all focus. No other shadows were formed, nothing. Instead, a flash of bright light seemed to envelop him for just a second before it vanished. And while it only lasted a moment, it left him absolutely exhausted. He almost fell but managed to right himself just in time.

So that clearly failed. But he had one more spell...If he could just focus on it long enough...

"Speech" l 'Thoughts'

He tried to focus on his next spell. Which one was he going to do again? Light...pretty sparkly light...He reached into his magic, trying to draw it out, with only a little bit of focus and concentration. But as he managed to grab something, a spell, he focused a little harder.

However, as soon as he did, something began to feel horribly, horribly wrong.

Instantly, his mind began to fill with...with what? He didn't know. But there was something. Something was new. Something was wrong. Fleeting glimpses, too quick he didn't know what they held. And then he felt it, a feeling that gripped him and wouldn't let go.

Fear. Pure fear.

His eyes widened, his heart rate quickened to much faster than the normal rate, and he started breathing heavily. He stood on shaky paws, took a step forward, and collapsed. He curled in on himself as the feeling of fear only increased, joined with paranoia. Something was out there. Watching. It never went away. It was always there.

There was only one other place he had been in where something like this had happened before. The Dreamstalker. Was it here? Was it watching? Was it going to attack? Or was it going to watch, knowing the horrors it had inflicted on those present that day? Knowing that one day, they would feel it again. Maybe cause it themselves.

And that was what had happened, wasn't it? He caused this on himself. This fear, this paranoia, that had him curled up into himself, his paws over his eyes are he tried to block out everything around him. But it didn't work. It never would.

He was always there. Never leaving. Never gone.

You can't hide from yourself.

"Speech" l 'Thoughts' | @Rift

Palefur watched with mild interested as many creatures came forth and presented their magic. She couldn't say that she was interested in pursuing such flashy things herself. After all, magic was simply a tool and she wasn't sure she completely approved of it being used in this way. But, being one to judge the world, she kept her stance neutral and even. She was not swayed or taken by one act over the other, simply because it was flashy or magnificent. How good did they perform? How creative were they? Did their performance stand out and was it personal? Those were the questions she asked.

The cat came up and winked at one of the other judges before a rainbow appeared over her head. Palefur did not visibly react to this and simply stared at him with a measure gaze. But when the rainbow disappeared and he simply stood there, her tail flicked impatiently. Weren't they supposed to be doing something?

He just stood there, for a while, before Palefur decided that their turn was over. "Ah, ok, that's enough. Very, uh, impressive. Please remove yourself so the next person can have a turn." But he wasn't moving, just staring ahead with pure terror in his expression. Palefur frowned and looked around for security or something. "Uh, hello? Can we please get him off the field?" Did these creatures have any sense of organization?

Rift watched the serval with growing concern as he stayed stationary, motionless, long after his turn had ended. Rift was a little impatient to get on with his act and it was clear that some magic had gone horribly wrong. He trotted out onto the field and came up on the serval's side. He was staring ahead, frozen with terror. Concerned, but also a little impatient to start his own act, Rift began nosing him away. "Come on, it's okay. We'll find someone to help." He looked over to where the medics were stationed. "Hey, can we get someone out here to help him?"

He slowly lead the serval back to the entrance and waited for him to fully leave before turning back to the judges. He shook out his pelt and looked up at them, trying to keep calm. "I am sorry about that. My name is Rift. I am the Guardian of Eridanus, the King of its Kingdom. And today I bring the beauty of nature to these games."

Rift turned away and pressed his nose against the ground. From the earth, a sapling began to grow, which, as his magic sang into its seed, stretched taller until it was a sapling that was up to his shoulders. More and more it grew until it a full-grown oak tree stood before him. He had wanted it to grow larger, until it was almost as big as the tree back at home, but it was about the size of an average tree, a younger one perhaps. But it would serve its purpose.

He didn't look back at the judges as he stood on his hind legs and pressed his paws against the bark. He rarely cast this spell in this magnitude and, now that he was about to use it, he realized that he was glad to have the tree smaller then his original intentions. As his magic flowed into the bark, there came a faint glow. He frowned. It wasn't strong enough, so he tried to direct it up towards the leaves instead. He would rather have the leaves be glowing brighter and the bark glow none. It didn't quite get to what he wanted, and there weren't as many colors as he could have like, but it worked, at the very least.

The trunk showed off a dim, dark brown light while the leaves glowed in brighter, more saturated colors. Blue, red, green, pink, yellow, many different colors, although the glow was not as shining bright as he had tried to do. Perhaps he was simply out of practice with this spell. He had not used it frequently since the lights had last turned off.

He paused now and took a deep breath. This was when he turned back to the judges, to gauge their reactions on his final spell. He knew what was going to happen, he wanted to see what they thought. He pressed a single paw against the tree's trunk and willed it to begin moving. It was slow at first, the new tree unused to movement, before the entire thing was quivering and shaking, releasing many of its leaves into the air. It only got about half of them, but the spectacle was still marvelous. It was a shining, glimmering rainbow as leaf after leaf was scattered into the air, falling down like tiny little stars.

Rift stood there for a moment before the shalking began to stop and he stepped through the pile of leaves, smiling up at the judges. He was a little disappointed in how his act had gone, but he had at least been able to perform all of his spells. "Thank you," he said, with a dip of his head, before turning and stalking out of the arena, forgetting, just as he had done last time, that'd he'd left a tree and a large number of glowing leaves in the middle of the arena.

@Kera

Kera watched the other acts, though-- she was damn near unimpressed with the majority. She liked Pride's story about the sky, and Elspet setting herself on fire was-- sure as fuck something, and pretty entertaining, but the worm did nothing except for make a judge ask for a medic and one of the cats just made a rainbow and then did nothing.

The wolf ruffled her coat out as she was called on next, after Rift, weaving through trees to stand before the judges. She knew one-- barely --Kin-Kin, another light-wolf. "Hello," she said with a dip of her broad head. "I'm Kera, the Lightbringer." Best to keep the titles short today-- Kera had to concentrate.

Her head lowered further until it touched the cave floor. Bursting from the stone came a sprawling carpet of mushrooms, twisting up her muzzle as though greeting an old friend before the mushrooms went circling around her massive paws in a faerie ring. Each mushroom stood about a foot tall-- some taller, some smaller --and each one emit a bioluminescent glow that turned Kera's white fur golden.

She murmured a greeting, and then she lifted her head.

For Kera's next spell, she had to draw herself up a little bit for it. It'd be given to her by one of the three kings-- though never upgraded. A sacrifice Kera made to squeeze some damn information out the bastards. Regardless, she had to look impressive.

And impressive she did. The gemstone under her fur glittered pink as a pair of gigantic, golden wings formed around her shoulders-- completely useless, of course, they were only for show --about twice Kera's height and splayed out. They looked as though they could have taken her into the air, if they wanted to.

They fluttered once, beating, though no sound came out. The white wolf, bathed in the golden glow of the yellow-capped mushrooms and eternal wings, kept her back straight and her head high, focusing quietly on her final spell.

For a moment, stand there impressively was all Kera did.

On the inside, she panicked.

Shit fuck, she thought, but did her level best not to let it show. The grand, golden wings attached to her shoulders exploded away in a cast of light, sending quickly-dimming sparks of yellow in all directions.

Had her final spell succeeded, there would have been more, but for now Kera only bowed her head again. "Thank you," she said-- more to her mushrooms than anyone else, offering them an affectionate nuzzle, before Kera stepped out of the faerie ring and back into the crowd.

@Huckleberry

There was so much magic in the air. It was not just the Spire, although the Spire's influence was certainly starting to take a toll on the kitten, but there were so many powerful magic users here. It was worse where the magicka competition was going on. She had stayed away for as long as she could, but now she knew it was her turn, and she shambled into the arena, her whole body tense and her tail dragging behind her. She did not have the energy she needed to stay happy and cheerful, but her body was alive and buzzing and magicka. Her pink eyes were wide and she stood in front of the tree, staring at the judges.

Her mind was almost empty as she fought for control, to stay in control. Hold it together, perform her best. She knew what she was going to do and prepared her first spell. She said nothing to the judges - she could not spare words.

She initially intended for the spell to cast right in front of her, but the glowing tree behind her was distracting, so distracting. She didn't mean to do it, but as she released her spell, the entire tree erupted into white-hot flame. There was a huge flash of light as the bark, the branches, the leaves, glowed and then burst into plasma and Wilder became a black silhouette before a tree glowing white hot.