Completed [Fire Challenge] Learning To Dance With Fire I

[Tazrae]

Timestamp: 85th of Winter, 521 A.V.

Taz strode across the deck and down onto the sand. It was towards evening, a usual beautiful Syka afternoon with everything washed fresh from recent rain. The sun was out again, though riding lower on the sky. The two guests had been fed and Oralie had slipped away to roam in her cat form which she was growing more and more comfortable with. Rainmere Shantu had asked Tazrae to meet her on the beach. Taz had eight torches with her, and a large jug of lamp oil for them along with eight smaller oil lamps in a basket hung over her free arm. She also carried a thick towel and a bucket made of metal in the basket as well. The torches were constructed of bamboo poles with a second piece of jointed bamboo attached to the top of each to form a cup that held a small oil-burning lamp with a deep woven wick. Draped over her shoulders was a thick Isuas Blanket she used when she was setting up anything on the beach.

Taz went down to the water, well above its high tide line, and set the torches and basket aside. She spread out the blanket at the edge of the hard sand. The tide was going out so there was no threat of the little camp getting washed away. Then, she picked up the basket, the torches, and using the blanket as the northern part of the circle, paced out a twenty-foot diameter and planted a torch at each quarter and another torch halfway between the quarters.

Into each torch, she filled and placed one of the small oil lamps. Then, once the lamp was placed, she concentrated, formed a tiny tendril of djed, and touched each lamp, converting the djed to res and willing the lick to light. It took her a breath or two at each torch for her Reimancy wasn’t that strong or well-practiced to her. But she had the torches going and a second trip to the Inn and back, this time bringing Bree with her, with a basket full of foodstuffs and a couple of skins of wine.

The whole time Bree didn’t say much to her. Tazrae didn’t blame her. They’d been talking less and less because Tazrae, since she’d been back, had been quieter, more contemplative, and a little lost in her memories. Bree had been giving her space, and Tazrae appreciated that. Everyone had been giving her space, though they’d been dropping by the Inn for breakfasts and lunches, even dinners by the hoards.

Taz was starting to suspect it was to keep her busy because everyone knew cooking made her happy. Only, these days she wasn’t as hungry as she had been. Taz found if she stayed in the sun most of the day – perhaps working outside or running on the beach – she just didn’t get as hungry. Her normally burnished gold skin had taken on a bit more of a deep olive undertone as well. The mark on her arm, since she’d crossed Ialari’s path, was prominent now. Mathias had raised an eyebrow to it and immediately sat her down to get the story out of her.

[Tazrae]

Once she was done, Mathias had simply nodded and told her it seemed fitting for a denizen of Syka to be a Wildling. But he’d made her promise, in his oddly knowing sort of way, not to retreat into the jungle and leave them all. Mathias had been adamant about it – that it was something Caiyha’s Witches were known to do. He’d told her the Settlement needed all its denizens for the times coming and because of her guardian status, she’d be important for Syka’s defense.

Taz had simply nodded, promising him she’d be there.

She hadn’t felt it until he’d mentioned it. But the idea of vanishing into the jungle was… appealing.

Taz hadn’t even met with Alric since her capture. She was reluctant to face him. Though she regularly took food through to the Outpost and left baskets of sandwiches, fresh fruit, and baked goods in the apartment which she knew he used. There was always a little note saying she was busy or had multiple guests, which rang hollow even to her since it was the heart of Winter and rarely did people travel.

Word hadn’t gotten out that Syka was warm and inviting all year round.

No one would believe it anyhow. Most things about her home were unbelievable; World Gates, Magic, the culture and the atmosphere. One time she’d headed to the apartment to restock it, she’d caught Alric arriving there earlier than usual, standing at the door and unlocking it. She’d turned before he could see her, and left, giving a small resident child the basket she’d carried and paying him a copper Miza to leave it at his door with a knock.

His door. Not theirs. It wasn’t a home they had together. It was a place… just a safe place for a son of Sunberth to sleep without being molested at night. Taz didn’t like the crowd at the Outpost. She felt the weight of people’s stares and caught herself looking at the faces of the strangers that passed, wondering if any of them were the same as the men in the jungle that might have gotten away.

And while she missed Alric terribly, she didn’t feel right about showing up to talk to him. She felt unclean, tainted somehow… less than she had been. And he of all people, she suspected, would not be as fooled as the people of Syka were that thought she was dealing with what happened just fine. She could plaster on a smile, cook up a storm, and feed everyone in sight and people thought she was okay.

But if she stared into Alric’s beautiful eyes, she’d break down and cry. She might even fling herself at him wanting a comfort only he could offer. And truthfully, she didn’t want him to see her that weak and desperate. And she certainly didn’t want to touch him after that monster had touched her.

So, she’d stayed away, and at Rainmere’s urging, had given in to trying something new.

Firedancing.


Taz opened her palm, drew djed from her core, and pooled a tiny bit of Res in it. She willed the Res to light up, and it danced on her palm, undulating and licking like a flame. She hissed as it burned her, the Res between her and her skin consumed, and she shook her hand to take away the minor sting. The flame had been small, almost inconsequential, but it still hurt when the Res went from actual Res to flame.

In a better world, a more fair world, the fire wouldn't burn the mages that created it. Tazrae, finally at long last, realized that perfect world only existed in her mind.

[Tazrae]

On her second trip down to the beach, Taz had brought more lanterns and fuel. She’d carefully filled them like she had the torches. Concentrating, a second pool of djed was released slowly, and at her will transformed to res. Taz extruded the res in the form of breath – just a gentle exhale – and her sparkling purple and green with flecks of blue mist coiled down and encircled the wicks of the hurricane lamps before she willed them to light.

The mist reminded her of the smoke from Alric’s pipe and that almost brought tears to her eyes. She missed him. And glancing around at the little spot, she wished for a moment he could see how pretty the beach could be in the soon-to-be twilight sky. The little glass hurricane lanterns sat at the four corners of the blanket, lighting up the meeting sight just as Rainmere strode into view, her own thick basket over her arm.

“Well met.” She said to Taz and set her basket down.

Taz smiled a greeting and gestured outward. “Is this alright?” She asked.

“More than perfect. It looks utterly suitable for a firedance. Are you excited?” She asked with a smile. Taz could tell Rainmere loved firedancing, because the woman seemed excited to share the hobby with Tazrae.

“I actually am. Fire is my first Reimancy element but I’m so unused to working with it." Tazrae said, demonstrating a moment. She took the time to call Res, but having learned from her last attempt, she tossed the Res into the air forming a ball, and willed it to ignite. It lit up in a brief flare, burned brightly as it danced there, then winked out. It was only as small ball, to demonstrate Taz's ability, not to show off.

"I didn’t know if this would be a way to help me get a little more used to it. Duncan says I have a respect for fire, but its bordering on fear too and I need to move past that… and make friends with it. I’m glad you are willing to help.” She admitted, returning the woman’s smile. Taz didn’t know Rainmere well, but she’d seen the woman at most of Syka’s events and had spoken briefly. The woman nodded, smiled at Tazrae, words, and got out her gear.

“I want to talk about safety first. Basically, what I want to do is walk you through everything you need to know … the birds and the bees of firedancing. I brought all the startup equipment you need, some poi… two sets actually … one burning and one that is just weighted for practice… and some fuel for your first attempts. I know you are a reimancer, but just learning, so we’ll use fuel until you can figure out how to utilize… what is it called? Res? To keep your poi or staffs burning. We actually dance with staves, both long and short, and poi. But I’ll teach you poi and move you onto other things the further along you get in the learning process.” Rainmere said with an enthusiastic smile.

Tazrae nodded. She sat up and really wanted to look through what the other woman had brought.

[Tazrae]

“We’re firedancing, so in order to keep the fire going, we need fuel.” Rainmere pulled out a large jug that looked like lamp oil out of her basket. She then took a metal bucket and opened the jug and dumped a great deal of the oil into the bucket. “This is a sort of thinned-down lamp oil. You coat the poi in it and you have just enough time … about three to five chimes… to dance with the poi on fire before the fuel runs out.” She explained.

"But to help you with your Reimancy... I want you to supply my other sort of fuel... Res. Can you extrude some and coat my poi from there?" Rainmere asked?

Taz wasn't sure if she could. She concentrated a moment, tapped her djedpool, and drew up power from her core. She transformed it to Res and exhaled, blowing blue and purple sparkly mist towards Rainmere. She directed the mist, willing it with her mind and it sought out Rainmere's wicked poi and coated them.

Taz nodded. "Actually, I can. I wasn't sure." She added.

Rainmere nodded her approval. "Good. But in case you don't have a Reinmancer who deals with fire handy, you'll have to use fuel." She said, gesturing to the bucket and her jug of oil.

“Always keep this bucket and its fuel well away from fire and where you light your poi. You want it even out of reach of any fuel that can spill off the poi.” Rainmere added. “You see… when you dip your poi and coat them, not only does the fuel burn but the vapor from the fuel burns. And if the poi is sopping wet with fuel, you can fling fuel all over the place. That’s how you get burned… getting burning fuel spilled on you from the poi. It’s not ‘if’ you bet burned doing this… it's ‘when’ you get burned doing this. But trust me, Tazrae, you’ll love it.” The woman said, enthusiastic about the work.

“So… the bucket, its contents, and the vapor all are flammable… I would suspect highly flammable right? So well away from where you are actually dancing with your poi lit. I got it.” Taz nodded, watching and listening closely.


Rainmere continued. “Once you dip your wicks… your poi… into the fuel, you need to assess your situation and do a spin-off. What a spin-off is just refers to getting the excess dripping fuel off your poi. IF you don’t, you’ll be flinging flaming fuel all over yourself, your crowd, and the immediate area around you. Sometimes you’ll want to spin-off before you light up your poi, and other times you can spin-off with the poi lit as part of your performance. Until you get better at it though, you’ll spin off before you light up.” Rainmere said, then pulled out the two sets of poi she had for Tazrae.

One was just a simple wooden ball – heavy looking – on the end of a length of chain.

The other one was a metal ball with spikes of metal surrounding it reminding Tazrae of a porcupine comb or a bottle brush rather than just a simple weighted ball on the end of a set of chains. "Those are wicks." Rainmere supplied, watching what Tazrae was studying. The chain's other end was attached to another metal ball that fit nicely in the palm of one’s hands.

“These are the weighted practice poi you use dry. The brush ends are the wicks of the burning poi you will be using.” She added, then proceeded to dip the poi with the metal brush ends into the bucket of fuel.

[Tazrae]

Then Rainmere grasped each poi, one in the palm of each hand by the dry ball end, and walked backward from the bucket, into the center of the ring of torches, and she spun both the poi flinging fuel both front and back of her in two lines. She walked backward as she did so, swinging so the poi bumped against the compact sand with each swing and step back she took.

Taz could see the faint line of wet starting out thickly from the first strike to dwindling to nothing at her last. Rainmere brought the poi to a halt and gestured to the line of fuel in twin tracks where she’d started swinging, walking backward, and lightly slapping the poi against the sand where she’d stood.

“You can see the spin-off lines and how thick they are at the beginning and how they narrow down to nothing. Now, these poi are ready to light.” She added. “If you did this while they are burning, that line of fuel would still be burning and makes a cool effect for a firedancing show. So, when you are familiar enough with the poi where you won’t forget to spin off in a safe way without flinging fuel all over yourself and your audience, your golden with learning more advanced tricks. Never forget to spin-off.” She emphasized. “If you don’t control the spin-off, you’ll wind up getting fuel on yourself and all around you creating fires you aren’t controlling. Firedancing is about controlling fire.” She added.

“The next thing to remember is that while you are standing here holding the poi still… if you light the poi… the fire will burn up the chain following the fumes which rise. You’ll end up burning yourself. So, while you have the poi lit, you need to keep them moving.” She added, holding the poi out so that Taz could clearly see how she’d burn the pants off her hands if she held the poi still enough the fire could climb the chain to her hand.

Then she walked back over to the fuel bucket and re-dipped the poi so they were drenched in fuel again. “I’ll show you one now with the poi on fire so you can see the difference.” She added.

“Do you mind?” Rainmere asked, holding the poi up to Tazrae’s level. “Light me up and I’ll show you for real.” She said, knowing Tazrae should be able to do that with the little enough experience she’d had learning Reimancy.

“Not at all.” Taz bowed her head, concentrated, and tapped her well. Djed surged into her awareness, concentrated in her hands, and she converted it neatly to Res and coated the poi. Then, with a flick of her will, they lit up.

Rainmere carefully stepped back and Taz could see not only the poi itself on fire but the fumes around it. The fire began to lick in tongues up the chains that held the poi, so Rainmere started spinning them to keep the fire from burning up the chains and thus her hands holding the poi. Angling away from Tazrae, she spun the poi forward but stepped backward each time, slapping the sand lightly with them and leaving twin trails of burning fire away from Tazrae.

Word Count : 2,832

Continued In: Learning To Play With Fire II

[Tazrae]

Grading

Tazrae –

Reimancy +5, Firedancing +5, Planning +2, Arcanology +1,

Tiki Torches: Setup & Lighting, Rainmere: Mannerism & Appearance, Mathias: Promised Him Not To Retreat Into The Jungle, Alric: Afraid To Face Him, Tazrae: Feeling Unclean, Tazrae: Socially Isolated, FD: Safety, FD: What Poi Are, FD: Fuel, Arcanology: Combining Firedancing With Reimancy, FD: Uses Poi, Staves, & Wands, FD: How Long Poi Stay Lit, FD: Using Res As Fuel, FD: Spin-Offs/Burn Offs, FD: Spotter And Safe Words, FD: Wet Blanket, FD: Will Result In Burns, FD: Parts Of A Poi, FD: Fire Burns Upwards