[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 »

There was a flash of success gleaming from Drysi's face as the stone glimmered in response to magic. It worked! Another feather in the cap of the Maelgwyn clan legacy! That is, until the cheery scribe saw Vrey looking at her rock. The odd girl caught an amused look, the rocks owner thinking that the construct was taking a moment to admire her tool. Then, understanding flooded Drysi's eyes, peeling them open to the fact that the glow was due to Vrey. The Detect Magic spell was indeed detecting magic, but it was detecting everything floating around, and the hairless girl in particular.

"Ha... Ha ha, Success! That was... a test!" twitched Drysi, her face cherrying in embarrassment. Despite this, she laughed triumphantly, "Thank you, Vrey! It does indeed work, but now... I..."

Her lips pursed furiously as she fought the urge to throw the rock into the woods. Then, in a moment of clarity, she began to add further detail to the inscription on the stone. The quill furiously wiggled over the rock, and added writing in the shape of an eye. Her hand glowed, and with a bit of imbued magic, the stone sparked, and opened a sedimentary eye on one end. It blinked, before Drysi began to wave it around. "This! A Mage Eye drawing the Detect Magic spell into a straight line and magnifying its range immensely! With this, we could find Mr. Flynn, even if he was trying to be invisible."

To demonstrate, she began to wave it around, the eye lighting up brightly as its gaze passed over Vrey, Laosie, and Chuffy.

"Hmph," A smug sense of satisfaction had found its way back forward.
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Straken
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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With an appreciative look on her face, Willow watched Drysi work. Even the initial detection stone was interesting to her, and the Welsh girl's ability to think on her feet with magic was to be commended. Now if only she could work on being a bit humble. It seemed that the group had begun to figure out the roles of everyone for this part, so Willow tucked the rune stone into one of the pockets of her hoodie and rejoined the group.

"Mr. Flynn gave me a tour of the grounds, and back in England I went hunting with my uncle a couple times; so if nothing else, I should be able to get a rough idea of where he is. Couple that with Drysi's seeking stone, and Chuffy's tracking, finding Mr. Flynn should be the easy part," Willow said, an optimistic charm coming through her voice as she made her way toward the font of the pack. "Starting out ought to be easy, there's only one path this close to the mansion, but it'll fork not to long after. Then it'll come down to whether he went North to the ridge, or South to the creek."

Laoise, standing in the rear, observed the students as they began to work through the problem. The only student she wasn't sure of was Vrey, who had proceeded to sit in a tree, but since the familiar wasn't sure of all that the girl was capable of she would hold off on judgement. Instead, she noted everyone's approach, and reported in to Ruarc who had already made it to the first checkpoint.

The Druid was finalizing the magic involved in the first test when Laoise gave the first update. He was thankful for the unique benefit Laoise provided as it allowed him to move around while still observing, and since he was not present he was able to see how the student performed without direct influence of an instructor. Jotting down a few notes in a pocket sketchbook, he kept track of what to bring up once the class wrapped up.

Back with the group, Willow breathed deep when she passed the tree line. As of yet, the only justification she could see for the Druids scouting her was her affinity for being outside. Feeling spritely in her hiking gear, she did a little spin before proceeding to walk backwards alongside Kat. The sudden movement alerted the Brit to something she had been unaware of before. She had picked up a hitchhiker pretty quickly after entering the woods. Clinging to the front of her shirt was a small ball of cotton no bigger than the palm of her hand. By the looks of it, it was trying to crawl into one of her pockets but had to stop and brace against the spin. Before then, the impossibly light spirit hadn't even registered, but now it was using all six of its legs to hold on while it's wings folded against its body; and it's vaguely lamb-like head had tucked into one of its legs.

"Aww, hello there!" she cooed. Picking it up in her hands, Willow showed it to Kat. "It's a cottonfly!"
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Kokuten
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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"A what-fly?" Drysi commented, giving a less-than-content look from the back of the group as Willow stopped. She let out a decidedly unhappy sigh, trudging her way forward to the fore of the group. With how she acted, she was more than ready to get moving, though she was also brought to a stop when she saw the little spirit. Her eyes widened a bit, and her mouth flattened, a twinkle of curiosity in her eye. All three of her eyes were fixed on the cute fluffball. Then, that curiosity was mired, almost immediately, by an exaggerated disgust, "Ugh... It's so... ugly. What is it about druids and attracting any manner of pest or problem that floats around?"

She leaned in, a stark look of disappointment coloring her face, of which her two eyes reflected this, but not the third. The eye on Drysi's forehead was wide-open, pupil dilated, as it looked with the other two. Whatever was happening, the triclops didn't seem to be aware of it.

"It looks young," groaned Drysi, standing up straight, third-eye realigning, "I say we squash it before it multiplies and has a chance to crawl in our heads."
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Kai
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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"Is that what those are called?" Kat responded to willow, looking at the tiny, fluffy creature. "I've seen those my whole life but my parents never believed me that they existed until my powers manifested." She giggled a little, gently stroking the small magical creature's fluffy back between its wings. "They are so adorable," she commented, before glaring at Drysi for the less than polite comments she had been making. as such, she stood between willow and Drysi as if to protect the vulnerable little cottonfly.

"Now, now, Drysi, it's a perfectly harmless creature, and it won't hurt you, but if you try to do anything to it I might hurt you instead." the blonde half-Japanese girl harrumphed a bit as the triclops continued to show little to no signs of being socially competent. "Just keep messing with your rock and leave the forest creatures to us."
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Mr. Blackbird Lore
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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Chuffy and Johann set off with the group. Johann kept quiet, feeling like an outsider and a fourth wheel. Or is it fifth wheel? Cars have 4. Am I just the last or an extra? Thee German pondered this for awhile until Willow exclaimed something and drew his attention.

"Neat! I've never seen one of those before. Do they do anything cool?" He reached out a finger to see if he could lure it into his hand. After a few seconds of failure and a brief brush of human contact he retreated sheepishly.

Turning, he noticed Chuffy fixated on a particular spot beside the trail and went to investigate. Johann came upon his dog eating flowers that the boy believed were once identical to those he'd been asked to track. "Umm guys... Does the teacher maybe grow those flowers out here?" He held up the mangled discovery while Chuffy stared eagerly.
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Gwathdraug
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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Vrey had gone from perched, to balanced, to pacing erratically on the branch that had been burdened to her presence. Every few turns the girl's head would sneak a confused stare towards the group - towards Willow but with a stare reserved for the cottonfly and not the girl herself. The little fluff of a creature put a gnawing, biting itch beneath the hairless teen's skin. Turning on her heel back on the path of her pacing the short, tree-standing student walked until her forehead connected with the tree trunk on this rotation.

When her head made contact the girl ground her way down against the bark into a squat. Then shaking her head Vrey scratched the rough bark against the scratch she felt she needed to reach.

This new creature was not as good as the other creature that had been made in addition to the group. Pushing off the tree with her hands the small teen fell back out onto the length of the branch. Letting her head limply crane to one side, Vrey caught sight of Chuffy, adorned by his prowess against flowers, and the girl quietly put her gauntleted hands together in a nearly smothered pair of claps.

Rolling off the branch one of Vrey's arms snagged at her former perch at the last moment and then swung her towards a tree much closer to where the undead dog had done his dirty work. As soon as she landed on the second branch the teen sat and then twisted her body so she was hanging upside down by her knees. The bald girl cocked her head and let a tiny frown slip on her face as - even fully outstretched - she couldn't make one of her hands make contact with the animal below her.

She had wished to congratulate him spirit to spirit on being the good dog.
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Straken
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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Willow held the small cottonfly for everyone to see up until Drysi suggested killing it. Bringing it towards her chest, she sought to guard the innocent fairy, and scowled at the Welsh girl.

"Cottonflies are one of the most pleasant  creatures out here, they absorb stress and anxiety while making you feel calm and peaceful," the Brit said, reciting what she had learned from Ruarc when the little balls of cotton first started flocking around her. Then she moved the cottonfly up to her shoulder, where it sheepishly climbed onto the new perch before tucking itself behind the girl's blonde ponytail. It looked to be very relaxed.

Continuing on the trail, following Johann as his dog led the way, Willow peered around the tall boy when Chuffy looked to have found something. "Wow, Chuffy actually can track the flowers, or, at least, they look like the flowers from the tree. Think he went that way?" pointing as she spoke, Willow gestured ahead towards a fork in the path. Two paths diverged, on one Chuffy would find more flowers, and Drysi's stone eye gave off a faint glow; down the other there were no flowers, but Drysi would see a stronger response from her stone.
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Kokuten
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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"Anything that gets in your head without your permission is a pest," muttered Drysi, having isolated herself through her toxic attitude. It was no different from the time at the Dorms. She didn't like any of them. They all tried to get in her space, and worse yet, they trusted anything with a pair of cute eyes and 'supposedly' good intentions. No matter what Willow said, she didn't trust the sweetly adorable cottonfly. The mixture of how much she loved and hated the creature made her fume more so than usual, almost as much as being ignored immediately beyond the safety of the sheepsect.

Why was everyone so difficult? Was she out of touch? No. It's the others who were wrong.

Her musing was interrupted by her glowing stone. All three of her eyes focused on the little rock, and she begin to smile, but quickly restrained that. Putting on an authoritative air, she spoke loudly to draw people's attention back to her. The detection stone was held up so that everyone could see the directional device.

"Perhaps we should place our faith a bit more in actual magic, than the smelling senses of a noseless dog?" droned Drysi, pointing her stone down the path the faithful pup had found. "Look, there's nothing that way, but if you look this way..."

She pointed the stone down the path with a stronger reaction, "There's a greater amount of mana. Unless our teacher is as much a Druid as you are, Willow, I would say that we should follow my stone. Flowers can grow anywhere. They're plants. Our teacher is a big, magical, moving target."
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Mr. Blackbird Lore
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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Johann scratched at his headgear above his concealed right eye. "Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. What if he just keeps finding other patches of the same flower? We might just go in circles. But it's cool that he still has such a strong sense of smell!" The German cheerfully praised his pet with a couple loving pats and scratches.

"So uh... Yeah. He might be able to help confirm the path, maybe, but I don't think Chuffy can lead us all the way there."
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Kai
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Re: [Episode 1] A Practical Morning Exercise

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Katerina shrugged as she listened to the goings on. while it seemed there were two potential paths, Drysi had decided on her own without too much deliberation that one of them was correct and the other was not, and while she was quite possibly right, she was just as likely to be wrong. Looking down both potential avenues, the Japanese-American did remember a few things she had been taught about the use of magic- It was quite possible for a skilled Mage to use powerful magic without using, or exuding, much mana or other telltale signs of magic. It was also possible for one to use a very strong, lingering magic while going a different way to hide one's own trail.

"What if we tried both ways? does everyone have a way to signal? We can follow both trails and signal once we've found something, that way we're more efficient in trying to figure out where Mr. Flynn has gone. If Johann doesn't mind, I can take him and chuffy down the flower trail, while the rest of you can follow the mana trail? He's just as likely to be down one path as the other, by all regards."
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