Prince’s harsh triangle eyes, with one inverted, are the camouflage of his sense and sensibility beneath his green fur. This seven-foot-tall hairy green beast with flapping big ears first appeared in Chapter 1 of Georgia Yilton and the Magic Journal. Prince is sweet, gentle, and has a stubborn pride. He speaks English and a little bit of German.
Prince was born a lancer and sometimes going solo in search for the happily-ever-after magic spell. He used to believe an act of true love performing against a spectacular castle backdrop would transform him back to his original self, but he did not realise that he was indeed an original. His narcissistic preoccupation was associated with the dark side of fairy tales that he could turn Prince Charming one day without identifying the sorcerer or the witch, who irresponsibly cast the spell and run away from the victim.
His crown was made from an alloy of titanium and gold and the mechanical dragon head adorned with a pair of topaz eyes was a late addition by his mage. There was a hint of Japanese robot anime influence during his moulding. Prince could easily trace his fascination with parallel worlds of fairy-tale enchantment and sci-fi mechanical engineering back to the good old days with his mage.
As the name suggests, Bass is an electric four-string bass guitar, packed with versatile tones. This elegant and street-smart creature first appeared in Chapter 2 of Georgia Yilton and the Magic Journal. Travelling with a walking and talking bass guitar was crazily whimsical.
Bass delivers great traditional jazz bass style, walking bass lines, and soaring grooves, following the shifts of harmony, as if falling in a deep trance. The two snappy-sounding pickups are also his talking lips. His slim fretless rosewood fingerboard serves to shift the balance of his body very well, especially when flying on Prince’s back. Adapting a two-beat gait, like riding on horseback, Bass knows how to rise to the trot when Prince’s outside shoulder and inside leg are forward. Bass and Prince are the best buddies.
Bass wears his posh suit of a porous lacquer finish. The metallic midnight wine colour gives him the groovy looks as well as the growling tone. The purposely tailored suit is to enhance the sonic qualities by allowing his timber body to breathe and to set free his true tonal character and powerful punch. It is certainly more than just the good looks. Dreamy but disciplined. Funky while devoted.
The mage drew Don under the beautiful sky of the Aurora Borealis dancing.
Don looks exactly like a dog, and in fact, he is a husky, except walking only on his two hind legs. His denim pocket is a fashion-meets-function feature of his beastie character. This unfailingly dependable creature first appeared in Chapter 3 of Georgia Yilton and the Magic Journal.
His athletic cells are hungry for competition or a test of endurance. He often races against Prince and Rocky to learn amazing techniques. He is reliable and always delivers on promise.
Bianca and Chococo first appeared in Chapter 4 of Georgia Yilton and the Magic Journal. The two little fellas are best friends since they could remember, while they are insanely jealous of the other’s gifted flair. But there is not rivalry standing between them. As they are often misjudged by their stereotypical traits, they simply wish to swap places with one another.
With her fur as white and soft as snow, Bianca is immediately associated as a cuddly, adorable, cute little bunny. Her not-so-threatening appearance often causes others to undermine her efforts and intelligence.
Bristly and chocolate-skinned, Chococo suffers from common misconceptions about pigs being obnoxious, grimy, lazy, and sometimes, nerdy. On the contrary, she has naturally clean instincts to start with and has an incredible sense of smell and fashion.
Intense jealousy is veiling their direct personalities and natural talents in helpless, yet partial acceptance. They decide to put on the mascot costumes, acting out the person that they want to become, against the exaggerated false impressions.
Rocky, who conquered the Drake Passage, is a rockhopper penguin with ebony feathers, pink feet, a white belly, a yellow spiky hairdo, and most of all, a humpback whale tail. This pudgy creature first appeared in Chapter 5 of Georgia Yilton and the Magic Journal.
Rocky considered cruising in the Zodiac boat with his mage was the best part of his life. He was once stuck at Base Orcadas, one of the Argentine permanent bases and the oldest of the stations still in operation in Antarctica, for five summers and five winters before he could find a way to be reunited with his mage. He sailed off in the sixth summer, determined to leave the glittering icebergs behind him. His image on the magic journal faded as he grew weaker away from her. She kept recolouring his portrait and added a whale tail to help him swim across the ocean of fear.
Rocky is a wise penguin and demonstrates extraordinarily comprehensive knowledge about life.
Flora is a chrysanthemum flower symbolising both happiness and grief. Her cushion-like head, adorned with rows of creamy white ray florets, is supported by a long straight stem growing from a varnished timber cabinet. The cabinet has two little drawers capable of holding innumerable secrets and gadgets of all kinds, regardless of their physical dimensions. Flora often compiles the shopping list and is committed to store the goodies in her magic drawers and to save them for special occasions.
Flora and Bass were initially posed in a still life painting in their mage’s studio in the southern hemisphere. Later their mage decided to change the art genre somehow and redrew them in her magic journal. Flora first appeared in Chapter 5 of Georgia Yilton and the Magic Journal. She has keen sensitivity to others.
Part robot, part lightbulb, and part construction apparatus, this droid-like beast was genuinely a vicious villain by default, equipped with a razor-sharp drill and a heavy-duty clamp. This magical creature first appeared in Chapter 8 of Georgia Yilton and the Magic Journal. With an analytical and data-driven mindset, the droid, as he also believed, was designed to perform a routine of work and sleep of the pre-set target Ms Yilton. No errors. No more experiment either. A perfect replica. He was merely identified by the serial number BU1b-773D-N9418-CA03-2TV5-X2X8 before Nicht gave him the name Bulb.
Prince accepted Bulb as a member of the magical journey squad when objections were raised from the beastie buddies and taught him gentlemanly rules along the way.
Bulb is now responsible for the maths and accounts in the magical journey squad. He often expresses with remarkable clarity and occasionally sounds like a precocious little brat.
The mage originally drew Nicht’s image as a caterpillar that was primed to transform into a radiant airborne fairy, but the transitional features were perhaps too real and not well received, eventually causing Nicht’s denial. Nitch imagined she was the mage Georgia Yilton and saw things from the mage’s perspective.
The beastie buddies were there from the very beginning of the magical journey to the castles, but she could only recognize Prince as her counterpart in Berlin. It was her dumbness in all senses to veil the reality. She connected with more magical creatures as she opened up her senses. Since the awakening of her heart, awareness and inner peace blossomed. The strength of denial shifted over time…
The metamorphosis was indeed Nicht’s life metaphor. It was the view of magic that she held on to, by learnt knowledge or by intuition, in her mind as she lived out her life with passion each day and grew to the person of her own expectation, with little reference to the mage’s blueprint. The expression of her life metaphor through an outward appearance of a human was shallow, but it did provide some insights into how she expected instant magic could work through life.