[Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

The story unfolds around Osaka, Japan, with the unlocking of one girl's hidden potential, and a gathering of Young mages whom are destined to change the fate of the Earth.
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Kokuten
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

Post by Kokuten »

Drysi shuddered as the ghostly classmate rubbed alongside her, connecting to her arm. She hugged her work close, making sure not to smear the ink on the paper as Vrey orbited around the scribe. A shell-shocked look of annoyance permeated her features, all three eyes intensely staring forward while the interaction played out. The girl didn't like to be touched, and it showed in her face and as ribbons of mana whipped off between the two mages. She shook her head, and scowled at Vrey.

"Don't do that," hissed Drysi, turning a bit red in the face. Realizing this, she stole a quick glance at Willow to see if the girl was looking, feeling properly embarrassed.

----

The plan had been simple, as simple was the only thing that would work with Druids. Spark was a small-scope, high-intensity spell that would create an immense amount of heat in a single spot, much like a fire faerie would on itself, but for only a moment. The fire was magical, and could catch things ablaze rather well, even magical equipment if set just right. Mr. Flynn was the druid of this place, the whole forest beheld a bit of his aura, as if they were walking through his home.

So, Drysi was going to burn it down.

After all, one could not ignore a fire in their home, could they? Drysi giggled at the magnificent brilliance of it all, if she fanned the flames enough, the Keeper would not be able to let it sit. He would have need to come and do something about it, anything like this would be beyond Willow's current ability. That giggle began to spread into a evil little smile, the very nature of it made her feel very diabolical, it was something intoxicating. In fact, it was almost overwhelming at how cunning it was. It almost scared the scribe how much this seemed to thrill her, until she realized a Cottonfly had wondered too close, likely infecting her with its illnesses. She began to sneer, about to threaten it, before it idly glided away.

She was determined to hate these things.

----

When they entered the clearing, at the flowing Faerie Well, Drysi paused at its edge. She held the pulsing spark spell in her hands, written upon piece of Sonnetwood paper, made from a mystical tree that grew in another forest within Osaka. The power pulsed at her chest, and she had found the perfect opportunity and place to begin her plan. With one word, she could begin a small blaze that she could easily enhance into a firestorm, turning this idyllic little glade into a black swamp that would get their teacher running. They'd finish this challenge, albeit probably to the chagrin to their teacher, and the only price was this natural beauty, carved from the edges of the forest.

Drysi's mouth flattened, watching the creatures take to the water in the well, the life that flitted about in this small opening. All three of her eyes followed the movements, and the flow of magic that permeated this place. It was like a song for the senses, each melody of color and faerie moving about as if singing the forest's voice for it. Her bright eyes sparkled at the scene, a small warmth pitting in the coal of her heart. Her fingers curled around the sonnetwood paper, and after a moment of hesitation it was gently slid into her pack, into one of the many folders.

With a pair of hands clenched around her satchel's strap, she carefully stepped forward. There was a wariness in her heart about these creatures, but she was taken by the miraculous scene. She stopped and looked at her rock, of which the ink had dried rather readily, pulsing at the presence of the Faeries. Pensively she approached the well, her curiosity restrained under suspicion, heart thumping.

Her fingers tightened, and she looked back at Willow for what little wisdom she expected from her, "Do we just... talk to them? Or... kill them?"
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Gwathdraug
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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Vrey had separated herself from Drysi as the triclops reprimanded her for trespassing against the blonde girl. As the group walked closer around the bend the grey of the bald teen's eyes slowly burned away to a dull, but still glowing, green and small areas of skin across Vrey's body began to twist and peak into twisting ridges that left would shine sickly before whatever power was creating them tunneling back out of site.

In response the girl was twitching - her head moving in small jerks - and a frown was frequently flitting across her face before it would drop then her lips would curl slightly and the whole cycle began again.

Vrey stumbled as the faerie well came into view. The hairless teen was moving haltingly. Her body visibly flickered out of sight, being gone for barely the time it took to blink, then reappeared almost exactly where she had left - no movement seeming to be lost inbetween the moments she was gone. Stuttering to a stop a few feet behind her companions Vrey stood mostly still as she began to fidget - her gauntleted fingers pushing and spin off one and another in a whole series of random taps. An odd vibration seemed to take hold of the girl's entire body as she continued to flicker in-and-out of sight despite no longer moving forward at all.

She did not like it here. The magic itched and stung and bit briars into her.

She wanted to go underwater - to sink away - but the water was theirs so instead she ate at the time around her - sinking into nothing instead of the comforting watery depths.

She heard sound inbetween clapped silences - Drysi wanted to talk. Caradoc always stressed talk was important even if it lead to conflict. Stressed and still strobing in and out of vision Vrey started to haltingly walk forward again - she had to touch something to speak to the spirits. As she passed by Drysi and Willow, Vrey's entire body froze again and then with a twitch and a gnash of her teeth the teen disappeared once more only to reappear all the way at the shore of the well.

With a glare and her whole face contorted by writhing branches of green light shining under and pushing up her skin Vrey dunked her entire head into the waters of the Faerie Well.

Talk?
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Straken
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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Willow, who had made her way to the cottonwood bench to inspect the note, considered the faeries in the clearing. When she returned to the other two, many of the lounging cottonflies had fluttered over and landed on her shoulders. Much to her surprise Vrey had determined to dunk her head into the spring. "It's not that hot out, is it?" the Brit wondered as she moved to stand next to Drysi before addressing the triclops' question. "Obviously we don't kill them. The note says one of them has a clue, and Mr. Flynn probably didn't hide the clue inside a fairy. What's Vrey up to, by the way?"

Under the water, Vrey was engulfed by a refreshing coolness and a limitless blue that seemed to vast for such a small spring. A gentle, shimmering light lit the water from somewhere deep below. A vague sense of disorientation would be felt as something seemed off, and an observation of the light below would suggest that Vrey had flipped and was looking up from down below. There was no pressure, no sense of suffocation, just the soft caress and a feeling of floating. A small school of fish swam past the bald girl. One of them, the largest in the school, noticing the sudden visitor to its domain swam over to Vrey. Once it was within about five feet or so it twitched suddenly, looking as though it had been shocked by a live wire. Swinging away to what must have been a safe distance, the large carp locked eyes with Vrey; its long whiskers waving slightly in some faint current.

Back down by the river, Laosie was leaning against a tree at the edge of the clearing, watching the two students work away at Ruarc's test. Kat had set right into recovering the box buried in the fire ring, while Johann worked on solving the riddle. He had solved it without assistance needed, but he still seemed self conscious about his abilities. As of right now, there wasn't much she could do without giving away potential clues, but she did make a note to reaffirm his good performance.

The sounds of bird songs provided a chorus to the ambient river as Johann looked across it. It was of modest size, but in this site the water widened and slowed as it ran over a bed of rocks that seemed to shimmer in the midday sun. Off the the left side of the bank were what appeared to be large stepping stones that led to a small path on the other side.

Kat's own diligence paid off as her magic worked the small wooden box out from the soil and ash of the fire ring. Modest in presentation, the surface remained unblemished as even damp dirt slid off. Small iron brackets made the joints and hinges, while brass bands ran across stained oak wood, and an unpolished brass lock held the lid shut. Judging by the looks of it, the key they needed to find would be on the small side as well.
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Kokuten
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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"I don't know," grumbled Drysi, a little frustrated that they had to interact with the local populace. "Just... make sure she doesn't drown or something."

Vrey wasn't the only person who didn't like it here, but for the Triclops it was for much, much different reasons. Animals scared her. When she was little girl, her grandmother used to keep pets that would growl at her. That, and a dog bit her on the hand the one time she tried to trust one of the dirty things. Two months before she came here, she tried again with another dog, and it bit her other hand. Most of these creatures were at the very least images of the animals they were supposed to represent. Being so close to them now made her heart race, and she went back to considering her original solution. She just needed a good place to start. There were trees everywhere, with leaves intermingling.

Damn the natural beauty, she didn't want to get eaten.

"I'm going to try something, and if it doesn't work, I'm burning this place down," admitted the Triclops, quite openly. She very carefully approached the well, her boots sinking into the beds of grass as she stepped. "I'm not a human, so maybe they'll take better to me."

Not that that has ever been the case.

Moving just past Vrey, she planted herself rather stiffly, in preparation for something more. She pulled out a piece of parchment, and began to mark it at the corners. The scribe licked her thumb, and pressed it to each of the filigree points, which began to glow, and the flat sheet started to float... and float... and float it did all the way into the tree line, into the sky. A disgusted grimace rested on her face, but not so much as the one when she made a flowing motion with her hand, this time drawing the paper from her satchel with a different sort of magic. Like a leaf on a string, it followed her movements, before she set it in front of her, like a canvas, flattening it out. She began to scribe.

Or... draw? Quickly, lines formed on her work-space, detailed features of man in his late twenties. He had a distant look on his face, broken by a pair of glasses that belied a roughly-hewn hardiness. The others could easily recognize it as a developing portrait of their teacher, Ruarc Flynn, and a extremely detailed inking at that. There was a bit of style and flair to the depiction, but the remarkable thing was the speed at which Drysi worked upon it, before slowly turning the parchment to where the spirits could see it.

"Excuse me. Erhem... Creatures. People. Animals? I am Drysi Maelgwyn, and I am looking for this man," announced the artist, suddenly feeling silly for speaking to a bunch of animal spirits. "Do you know where I could find him?"
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Kai
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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With the box unburied, Kat made her way closer to the fire ring, picking up the small object and holding it up, examining the way it was constructed and how they might open it, finding the small lock and the obvious need for a key. "Hey, Johann, it looks like we need to find a key. you said the answer to the riddle was a mirror? Perhaps if we find something mirror-like around here, we'll also find the Key. do you see anything like that?"
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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The German blushed, but otherwise gave no response to Laoise's praise, and he hid even that by turning his back to them and feigning contemplation. Of course, for him feigning contemplation always turned into actual contemplation. Water might work. Nothing else around here seems to possess a reflective quality, nor would either of our magics produce such a thing. I think. Ice, maybe? Keep it simple, stupid. Water, first.

Turning to face his partner, the burning red in his cheeks had fizzled out. "The river should work, I think. There's some stepping s-s..." He breathed and slowed himself, "Stones over here," he indicated them with a pointed index finger.
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Kai
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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Katerina remained quiet while Johann sat deep in thought, also searching around their surroundings. Her eyes laid on the stepping stones just the same time as the German boy pointed them out, and she moved for them almost immediately. "Alright then, come with me, Johann!" Kat exclaimed, grabbing the young man's hand as she passed by, gently tugging him toward the water so they could both go and check it out.
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Gwathdraug
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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The sudden directional switch set Vrey more at ease than anything else that had happened so far - the fact that the directions had become easily fluid again and were acting normal was something the odd teen had given up on hoping for. Still there was a fish staring at her.

A fish that she was also staring at.

Tilting her head curiously with almost no thought for breathing the bald girl furrowed her brow until she brought just a tiny, handful of tendrils of her power to the fore - the vibrant green wires of energy copying the whiskers of the carp save for the small bubbles they created as they touched the water around them.

Blinking as her face relaxed Vrey dipped her shoulder slightly into the water as she shrugged.

Do you speak? Do you eat?
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Straken
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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As Drysi began to draw, one of the motes of light that had been dancing around on the surface of the spring stopped, and after a few moments flew up and over to watch the show. Once the triclops had posed her question, the mote drew in close to her third eye. Now up close Drysi would see the mote was a small fairy less than an inch in height. The curious little Fey had pink skin, big eyes of solid green, ethereal red hair the floated around her, and clothing that seemed to have been made from woven leaves and grasses. It seemed to be inspecting it's own reflection in the girl's eye. After a few brief moments the fairy smiled wide at Drysi and flew back to the pond.

Under the pond, in the realm of the carp lord, Vrey was staring at fish and the fish was staring back. When she sprouted whiskers of her own, the fish swam in a quick circle that ended with it being a little further away than before. In a quick motion it picked up a small rock in its mouth, and then spit it in a lobbing arc that made the pebble tap the strange girl square between the eyes.

Above the water, Willow watched as the other mages went about their tasks, and watched Drysi's drawing form with the same look one has when watching fireworks. Vrey still had her head in the pond, and it looked like some of the fairies that weren't watching Drysi were inspecting the bald girl's shoulders. Feeling somewhat arbitrary to the matter, the Brit pulled out the rune Mr. Flynn had given her, and after focusing on it again found that it still wasn't responding to her. Just as she was feeling somewhat down about the matter she felt something push gently against her side.

Looking over, it turned out to be a young deer faun that had wandered over from its parents on the opposite side of the water. Its antlers were just beginning to grow, and they reminded Willow of tree saplings. With a cautious hand, she reached over to pet the creature. It started slightly at the movement, but allowed it after calming down again; and Willow could feel the parents watching her carefully.

"Do you know where Mr. Flynn is hiding, little one?" Willow asked, kneeling down to eye level with the faun. The faun simple nuzzled Willow's shoulder before turning to go sit by the spring. The deer spirit that must have been its father, judging by the gnarled wooden antlers that appeared to have been growing for many years, also made it's way over to the spring for a drink. Looking like it was going in for a drink, it didn't stop and it quickly mimicked Vrey as its head went under the water. The antlers poking out of the water giving the appearance of a small tree growing from out of the water. Vrey would notice the new arrival as the buck's head appeared beside her. After orienting itself, the buck locked eyes with the carp, and a few moments passed with no action before the deer withdrew its head from the water. Shaking its head dry, causing a few small twigs and leaves to fall from its antlers, it went back to rest in the shade.

The carp, after having its staring contest interrupted, swam another quick circle. Giving Vrey a cautious look, it closed the distance and poked it's own head into the shimmering ground, appearing to have its head in the sand. On the surface, Drysi and Willow saw the carp surface in the center of the spring. The small motes of light seemed to flock around it, the pink colored one that had gone up to Drysi going as far as to sit right just between its eyes. The carp gave another look at the deer, who returned the look with a nod. A few bubbles suggested the carp was somewhat irritated.

Setting its irritation aside, the carp gestured with its whiskers, and then the water of the spring turned as dark as water at midnight. Then the fairies went to work. The little motes split into two groups, the pink one lead three others around the water's surface in seemingly random patterns as glowing dust was left behind on the surface; the other group of motes went to the fallen twigs and leaves the buck had left behind and began carrying them to the water.

"It looks like a map of the hiking trails," Willow offered as she watched the glowing dust form a series of trails on the dark surface of the water. Twigs were laid out to mark borders and boundaries, while leaves were apparently used as points of interest. One marked their current location, one was likely the mansion, there was a spot down by the river, and the last spot was indicated by the pink fairy placing a leaf on top of the annoyed carp.

Nodding slightly, Laoise was pleased to see the students heading in the right direction. She had been the one to test the little trials, and this one was a pleasant puzzle. At least, Ruarc was proud of it, even if he had had help devising it.

Once the two students had reached the stepping stones, they got a good view of the river. It was relatively shallow at this stretch, looking to be only about a foot deep near the middle stone and a few inches shallower near the edge. The stepping stone were wide, well worn, and stable as the water worked passed them in a gentle rush. The water appeared to get deeper a bit downstream where the water looked to slow down; providing either a good spot to fish or swim depending on preference.

Proceeding out onto the stones, it was apparent that they were as stable as they looked; allowing the two to move and look around without worry of falling in. A cursory inspection of the water would show ripples reflections of the viewers in the water flowing passed the stones, and on the downstream side was something more. A faint glint of light, like sun reflecting off of a bit of metal. Its source, a submerged key, seemingly suspended just below the surface of the water.
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Kokuten
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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Drysi was wary of spirits, especially after what had happened after the first day of class, she knew that she was at greater risk of running into these beastly motes with Willow around. Vrey would no doubt do her part to mingle with such strange creatures, upsetting them or riling them in some way. Bitter thoughts of betrayal and annoyance began working up her spine, only chilled to suspicion as her display gained an audience. She had tried to ignore it at first, but the light proved distracting to the girl. She wanted to swat at it, but thought better of it, being so deep in enemy territory. What better reason would they have to strike at her now?

Art made her feel a bit better, letters were all well and good, but she enjoyed making little compositions. Showing it off made her feel a bit proud, which eased her mind a bit, until the faerie closed in on her. Her eyes stared intently at the fae creature, the third eye widening the most. The spirit had taken an interest in dilating pupil, much to the chagrin of the artist. In Drysi's vision, the creature was a hot pink color, so much so that it warmed her face. When the small being smiled and flew off, the girl's three eyes fluttered, the third one watering from the experience. She took a moment to wipe it as the colors washed from the world around her, and then saturated in shades that were so much more intense. Her vision had become hazy, as some details of the forest around them became more evident to her.

It was beautiful, more striking than before. She could always see it, that much felt true, but for some reason it was never as clear as now.

She looked at the approaching fawn, and she grabbed her bag's strap blearily. The creature had an aura about it that she could see, earthy hues shedding off it like it had emerged freshly from the earth. With all of this new sensory input, the Triclops was at a loss, she didn't know what to make of it. Deep down, the Maelgwyn in her wanted to snap at Willow for tossing her fingers out to get bitten off, but something in her told her that wasn't the case. Sight extended, Drysi followed the animal-spirit's trail back to the father, which had a much more imposing aura. The strength of mountains in its legs, and the grace of falling leaves in each step. That was something that couldn't be felt, but seen, somehow it was evident to the scribe.

The pond was the most difficult to look at, because it glowed back into the girl's eyes so much that it forced her to shut them tightly. A few more misty blinks, and she saw that the glow spread into the earth around the water's edge, flowing and ebbing with a great nucleus at its center. Vrey was a small blot of color against it, something greater hung over her shoulders, but Drysi couldn't see it, not yet. The stone in her bag had thrummed since they had arrived, and now she could truly see what had drawn them here.

The sensation began to fade the more she stared, the more she began to understand what she saw. Her hands wiped away at her eyes some more before she saw the intent in the movements of the spirits, commanded by the carp. With a folding motion of her hand, her drawing of Mr. Flynn folded in turn, and was guided into her bag. Another, wider page set itself in front of her, as she stood near shoulder-to-shoulder with her classmates. The scribe's eyes practically glowed as she dipped her pen in the ink and began with long flowing strokes, following and matching the faerie's trails forming a map to follow. Wordlessly, she worked, the place they stood at on the page was decorated with a small swimming carp, the mansion was a hastily detailed rendition, and each leaf after was marked with a swirl that glowed with the power of magical ink. The river almost flowed to life as she ran it through the work, doing her best to remake the show generosity put before her.

Furious scribbles followed, and then the Welshgirl stuck out her tongue, tapping the ink-stained quill on it before drawing a set of squares in a small icon. A line of text had been scribed at the bottom of the page, a spell, and the set of squares seem to sink into the papaper than merely rest upon it.

"The furthest point is likely Mr. Flynn," Drysi said, blinking her wet eyes, the emerald color only more brilliant now, "that or a step in the right direction."
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