[Flashback] Dry Days and Wet Girls [Solo]

[Eldon Sunkiss]

Timestamp: 38th of Summer, AV 504

"Eldon! Focus!" Eldon's eyes snapped back to life as his father, quite literally, screamed in his ear. The young shirtless Drykas looked up at his father, startled as he was woken from his cozy daydreaming. "Eldon, stop looking at those girls and get to work. It's dry, we've got barrels to fill. Get to work." Eldon was stunned, either from the daydreaming, as he still wasn't sure he was really doing. He shook his head in disbelief as he looked away, and sure enough, there were three girls staring at him, giggling at what his father had said, giggling at the eighteen year old shirtless, just giggling because they were typical girls giggling about typical girl things. "I wasn't staring at those girls." Eldon tried to defend himself, but there was no strength behind his word, and his father's serious glance only told him he was neither convinced nor amused at his weak attempt to justify himself. The younger Sunkiss had to look away from his father, his eyes peering into the empty barrel resting in between his legs. He frowned. "Get to work, son." Eldon grumbled unhappily, something about the sun being absolutely scorching and miserable, the air itself was windy, but so dry and warm that it almost made things worse for the working Drykas. Uncomfortable conditions always tended to make his mind wander more easily, and the difficulties of reimancy to be more difficult to hurdle. He glanced next to him to see the expert filling up a barrel with ease, there was no telling how long his father had been doing this. In attempt to mimic his old man, Eldon shoved his hands into the barrel and began to focus. Focus was the difficult part for Eldon. His father had always told him that everyone that uses a personal or world magic had issues of their owns. Some had difficulty with the entire processes, some had a single part they got stuck on. Being as young and fresh as he was, he knew not of his limits, nor did he believe he had any. He felt the pull of res throughout his body as it the strange magical essence itself was pulling the very blood in his vein in a single directions. It had felt like some sort of vortex, or two actually, drawing everything from inside his body to the palms, the fingers of his hands, and left only a cold numbing sensation throughout the core of his body. This was riemancy, Eldon was a Sapphire Clansman, a thought that made him smile as he worked. The rest of the world had grown silent around him, the giggling girls' voices faded into nothing but the breeze beating against his freshly trimmed face, his own father, the rest of Endrykas, all seemed to fade into black, complete darkness as he was alone with the Barrel in front of him, filling up the container with ease.

[Eldon Sunkiss]

Eldon began humming idly to himself as he felt the barrel fill with the strange green hue djed, it was quite enchanting, then a firm feeling erupted on the surface of his cheek. Eldon glanced up to find his peaceful black world evaporated. The heat of the day, the distracting girls, his father came rushing back into his senses. He lifted his hand to his face, massaging the sting that was on his cheek. "Wake up you damned fool! If you do not take this seriously, you can kill yourself! I will not be having my last son die because he was an idiot." Eldon looked at the ground, partially in shame, partially because he just didn't want to look at his father. He was getting a little pissed off to be honest. "Son, I can't afford to lose you. You know that right?" Nodded slowly, he knew his father cared about his safety, but he could only ever feel that he treated Eldon as a prize since his older brothers were dead, and his father was too old to reproduce anymore. The Sunkiss name's existence rested solely upon his shoulders. A thing he wasn't sure he wanted. "Alright, you finish up here Eldon. I'm going to deliver this. Please be careful." Eldon nodded silently again as he watched his darkened reflection in the pool of fresh pure water in his barrel, the cheek was faintly red from where his father slapped him. What was he so worried about? Eldon didn't know, but once his father was gone, Eldon looked up again, the three girls were still there, watching him as if they wanted to run over and embrace him. Were they pitying him? What for? Eldon felt his teeth grinding together as he watched them, something about them made him mad, probably because they were witnesses to his relationship with his father. "You girls want some water? It's fresh, still cool!" Eldon chuckled as the girls came walking over, practically as a unit as they were all about hugging and wrapping arms around each other. Eldon inconspicuously held his hand behind his sweat covered back as he once again felt that strong pull towards his palm. This time, he was manipulating the djed, forming a solid sphere. It would take only a moment for the djed to form into water, and only another moment to hurl the water into the small unit of girls. Eldon instantly began to ache from hysterical laughter. Let's just say the girls were shocked.

[Eldon Sunkiss]

Seconds later Eldon was running like a maniac around the cluster of tents and pavilions in the area, the girls were hot on his tail, mostly playful, but still had that evil little glare that told you that you really didn't want to get caught. So Eldon ran, he was faster than the girls, so it wasn't too particularly difficult to get away and lose sight of them, but he was far from being finished with them. He opened his hand, this was the third time in such a short period that he was digging at his body for the res. The tugging of the energy felt so interesting, every time it happened, like tiny threads were being inched through the arms of his body, down to his hands, and collected itself automatically. And there was his first taste of overgiving. It was more of a warning really, but that raw tangy taste of steel lingering on the roof of his mouth, the back of his tongue, it was an odd feeling. Eldon neither recognized it nor bothered to address it, instead he continued to pump more Djed into the palm of his hand, and water again was made. Eldon waited patiently for the girls to appear, but they never did. Had they given up chase? Probably, it was likely the finally realized and accepted the futility in chasing him. He smirked as he walked back, cautiously, to his barrel of water. With his seat once again taken, Eldon peered inside the barrel, it wasn't nearly as full as he had though it was just a moment ago. With a frown, the Sunkiss child returned his hand inside the barrel to continue his work. If maybe he didn't exhaust himself with those girls, he might have been done already. The djed was being more resistant now, but as Eldon took a moment to focus, his odd dark world came crashing back to him. The barrel was filling up at a nice pace once again, the once hot air had cool significantly on his bare chested body. The flow of Djed was so much easier now, he looked down for a moment to notice the barrel was quite literally overflowing, thankfully there was a second barrel direct to his right that needed to be filled. Eldon chuckled, his father would be pleased to see how great of a hydromancer he had become. And he was concerned about Eldon doing something stupid. Eldon became amazed at how many barrels he had filled in a matter of minutes, yet he felt so strong, so capable, like he could do this literally all day. But there was something wrong, something that didn't quite feel right. "Eldon! Son!" Eldon awoke in a haze with his father holding onto him, he coughed weakly as his eyes opened to a blurry view of his old man, his eyes burned badly. He smiled. "Did you see how many barrels I filled for you dad? We won't need to work for another two full days." Eldon glanced towards the ground, his body ached, it felt like he was sitting in a fire, yet was too exhausted to scream out in pain. However, when he looked towards all the barrels he had filled earlier, his heart sank, there wasn't even strength to keep himself from breaking into tears immediately. There was only one barrel, mostly full, and it had been tainted with blood. Blood? "Father?" The Elder Sunkiss embraced his limp bodied son, sobbing faintly into Eldon's bare and water sprinkled chest. Eldon looked at his hand from over his father's quivering shoulder, he saw a strange wound in the palm, the skin and muscle had literally split and was bleeding slowly. Judging by how much it hurt there, he assumed it was also on his forearm of the other hand. He had ruined his barrel of water. "I'm sorry father."

[Cardinal]

Eldon Skills Reimancy 4 Running 1 Lore The weight of family duties, Symptoms of overgiving Notes: This was short, but I thought it was really great. Reading Eldon's stories is really giving me a better primer on reimancy than I had. I look forward to reading more.