The Chalk Prince and the Clover

by FrostTheWolf


03- Boden

When Gallus had originally asked Albedo and Klee the question he had on his mind, the griffon was expecting a short and simple answer. He didn’t really ask anything that was too complex in nature. Just the simple question of asking where they were from. After all, if Professor Fluttershy’s lessons in kindness taught him anything, it would be better to ask rather than just simply assume. Though, the response that the griffon got in return left him and his friends with more questions than answers.

“The only real thing that I can say is that we’re really far away from home.”

That had Gallus look back at Sandbar and Silverstream, shortly before looking back at him. “What makes you think that exactly?”

“Well, let me ask you a question this time,” he countered, “Have you ever heard of Mondstadt? Liyue? Maybe Inazuma?”

Gallus was quick to shake his head in response to Albedo’s question. As he looked over at friends, they proceeded to do the same thing. None of the names that Albedo said really sounded like any place in Equestria at all. If anything, they sounded like the names of places that would only exist in the books that Headmare Twilight kept in her library. “Can’t say that we have.”

“I thought as much,” he sighed, noticing that Klee had picked up a few twigs from off the ground nearby, “Each one of the names that I mentioned is a country from where Klee and I are from. Your response to my question only verifies my original hypothesis. That wherever we are now, we are definitely not in Teyvat.”

“Tey… bat? What’s that, a strange animal?” Silverstream asked, sounding rather confused. 

“Silverstream, I think that’s the name of where they are from,” Sandbar was quick to clarify, trying his best to explain it to the puzzled hippogriff in the most simplest way possible, “Like how you’re from Mount Aris?”

At first, the earth pony’s comment took a bit of time to process. Though, not long afterwards, the hippogriff finally had a response, “Oh I get it! So this… place you mentioned is like your home?”

Albedo folded his arms, noticing that his little sister was beginning to set up a small campfire with the sticks that she gathered before he looked back at the three of them, “More or less. Though-” Before he could continue, his eyes darted to the left as he looked farther down the road, “It appears that we’re going to have company.”

“Huh? What are you talking about? It’s just us here-” Just as he said that, Gallus saw three familiar creatures running over to them. 

“Yona sees friends!!”

Shortly afterwards, three more creatures arrived to join Sandbar and his friends. Much to their surprise, it was the fellow classmates and friends from back at the School of Friendship; Yona, Smolder and Ocellus. They didn’t even seem to really notice Albedo and Klee as they approached the group. If anything, their attention was more focused on their friends.

“A-are you guys okay!?” Ocellus was the first one to speak as she looked at each one of her friends with a bit of concern and worry. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

“N-no, we're fine,” Sandbar insisted, not knowing what exactly was going on or what prompted, “Why? What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” the dragon that was next to her retorted, “Are you serious? The three of us heard an explosion from all the way back in the student dorms.  We came all the way out here to-!” Unexpectedly, the dragon paused, but not before she began to sniff the air around her and look around. “Do you smell that?”

“Smell what, friend Smolder?” Yona asked, confused by the way her friend was behaving right now.

At first, there was a long pause as Smolder sniffed the air again, trying to determine where the scent that she smelled was coming from. Shortly afterwards though, she had an answer for them, “It smells like… some creature is cooking over a campfire.”

“Oh Klee is just cooking the fish she has! Sorry about that.”

That single response was enough to have the dragon and the rest of her friends look back to where Klee and Albedo were. The dragon, changeling and yak were startled by their presence; not even noticing them originally until the little one spoke up. At first, they were all silent and didn’t speak a word. Though, after a couple of seconds, Ocellus took it upon herself to speak. “Um… h-hello.”

“Hello to you as well,” Albedo replied kindly, setting aside his curiosity for the time being, “You must be friends with Sandbar then?”

The changeling herself looked rather nervous, but before she could answer, she was cut off by the dragoness that was right next to her, “Yeah we are, but how do you-”

“Aside from what your friend... Yona I believe, said just mere moments ago?” he asked, which had their gaze be redirected towards the yak momentarily, “Well, it appeared that each one of you seemed rather close to your companions here. If I had to take a guess, the three of you raced over here out of concern for your friends well being.”

“Yona has question,” the yak quickly retorted, “Yak ask who you are?”

Before Albedo had the chance to provide the answer to Yona’s question, one of the yak's friends beat him to it. “This is Albedo and his little sister, Klee! We happened to run into them while we were at Saddle Lake,” Silverstream quickly interjected, “He was telling us that they happened to be really far away from their home when you guys showed up.”

“That answers one thing… I guess,” Smolder added on, “Though, that doesn’t really explain what we heard though.”

For a moment, Silverstream paused as she tried to come up with a possible answer for her friend. Though, before she had the chance to get the words out of her beak, Albedo spoke up, “Perhaps I can answer this one,” he offered, “When it comes to my little sister Klee, there are two things she likes to do. Exploring the world around her and playing with her… toys. One of the games that Klee loves to play is to see how much fish she could catch when by a lake or river. Though, her methods of doing so are… questionable at best.”

“Okay, but,” Ocellus now took a turn to speak, “How does that relate to what we heard-?”

“Oh, are you guys talking about when I was fish blasting earlier?” they heard Klee ask out of curiosity, “Klee made sure to use her best bombs in order to catch these! They’re gonna taste so good when I’m done cooking them.”

Despite how carefree and happy she was when Klee told them that, the reaction that she got from the creatures that had just recently arrived was anything but that. “So let me get this straight,” Smolder then spoke up as the dragon looked back towards Albedo, “The explosion we heard… was your sister using bombs to go fishing?”

“Pretty much,” Albedo sighed, noticing how his little sister was now humming to herself as Klee began to cook another fish she caught over the campfire, “Whenever Klee happens to see fish swimming in a lake or river back home, she can hardly contain herself. Though, most of the time, she would get in trouble for doing so.”

Even with what he said though, the dragoness was not entirely amused by that, “Okay, just… where are you guys even from that would make something like that remotely okay?”

“We were getting around to that, actually,” Gallus pointed out, which had Ocellus and Yona look back towards him with a puzzled look on their face.

“Yeah, we were asking Albedo about where he and Klee were from before you guys arrived,” Sandbar explained as the earth pony turned to face both siblings, “Did you want to continue where we left off?”

“Maybe,” Albedo took it under consideration as he scratched the bottom of his chin, “Though, perhaps a simple explanation might be better.”

“Yeah, you were talking about that one place that’s your home right? It was called… Tray Mat or something, right?” Silverstream added on to the conversation. Though, what she said only had Gallus smack himself in the face with one of his claws as he let out a low groan, “Is it a city? A place? What's it like?”

“Teyvat, actually,” Albedo corrected the overly eager hippogriff, “As for what it is, it’s bigger than any of those things actually. Teyvat is the name of our world. Our ‘realm’, so to speak. It is a world watched over by the archons. Though, given the current situation that Klee and I are in, I can safely say this. Even though the six of you see this world as your home, it is one that is foreign to the two of us. Everything is… different here.”

Moments after hearing that, Sandbar and his friends were thrown off guard by Albedo’s words. It was… obvious that they weren’t exactly from around here. Yet, to hear that they were from a different place entirely? That was something none of them were expecting at all, and this was taking into consideration the amount of crazy things that happened to the six of them just in their first year alone.

Though, after some time, one of them took it upon themselves to speak up and ask a question, “How so?”

Albedo blinked, surprised for a moment by the question as he looked back towards Ocellus. “Hmm?”

“You said that everything is different,” the changeling replied back to his question, before asking one herself, “How exactly is it different to you?”

“That is not an easy question to answer. Though, if I have to narrow it down to just one thing,” Albedo said as he closed his eyes, deep in thought as he had to try and come up with another answer for them. It took a bit of time at first, but eventually, he came up with an answer for them as he opened his eyes, “Ah yes, the essence of life.”

“Uh… what?” Ocellus asked, sounding a bit puzzled.

“Let’s just say that how everything feels is different to me, whether it be the ground under my feet or the winds blowing past me,” He explained further, trying his best to make things easy for the six of them to understand, “It’s something I have happened to pick up on throughout years of studying natural life.”

“So, hold on,” Gallus now interjected, “Let me see if I get this right? You’re a scientist?” 

In response, Albedo shook his head as he folded his arms, “No, actually. My profession is that of an alchemist-”

“Wait, so you’re a potion guy?” Silverstream interjected abruptly, “Like some creature who would tell adventurers that they can’t handle their strongest potions?”

In response, the alchemist sighed. “While that may be true, that is only one aspect of it. Alchemy is an art that revolves around all living things and the study of life. From the plants and animals to the inhabitants that would call someplace their home, to the earth itself.” Even though what he said was true, it appeared that his words more or less confused them.

So, noticing something nearby, he decided that the best way to showcase what he meant was through a demonstration. “There’s a saying that my teacher told me. ‘From soil was birthed chalk’,” As the alchemist extended his right arm forward, a butterfly from the nearby forest was flying nearby and landed in the outstretched hand, “Soil being the origin of alchemy, the basis of all life.”

In a motion that shocked every creature that was watching, Albedo closed his hand. At first, it looked as if the alchemist had just crushed a butterfly. Though, instead, something different happened. A golden colored glow radiated from his hand and when he opened it, a robin took form in his hand before flying away, “While chalk is the blank canvas in which to paint life.”

The simple display of alchemy left Ocellus and her friends speechless. At first glance, Albedo didn’t look like he had any form of magical power at all. Yet, just now, he was able to transform a living creature with just a simple touch. That was something that could even rival Discord and he was a spirit of chaos! How exactly was he capable of doing such a thing?

“Was there anything else you wanted to ask me?” the alchemist asked calmly. Though, the simple question was enough to have each one of them shake their heads. Around this time, Klee had already finished cooking the fish that she had and proceeded to eat most of it. Though, she happened to save one for her older brother as the little girl walked over and tried to hand it to him.

“Here, big brother! I saved one just for you!”

Even though Albedo wasn’t entirely fond when it came to consuming meat, he was not one to turn down a gift from Klee. The alchemist accepted the small snack, though, he did not eat it just yet. For there was something else that he wished to say. “If you don’t happen to have any more questions for me, there is one that I would like to ask all of you… if you don’t mind.”

At first, Sandbar and his friends didn’t say anything as they were still trying to wrap their heads around what they had just witnessed. Though, when the earth pony was about to speak, Yona beat him to it, “What question?”

“Well, given that the six of you more likely happen to know a lot more about where we are than either Klee and I do,” the alchemist said as he looked at all six of the creatures in front of him, “Can you help the two of us try to find a way back home?”