[SOLO/TRAINING] Feel the Burn!

[Dyrdas]

[Timestamp: 5th Day of Summer, 510 AV]

A path opened uneasily through the people crowding the cobbled streets of Zeltiva that night. A tall, spare man made his way slowly through the crowds as he tried to make a way back to his tiny cottage. A street peddler tugged on the edge of his hooded cloak, but the man would pay him no heed. He pulled free of the peddler's grasp and strode on, eager to reach his destination. As he continued on his way, Dyrdas' head swam with ideas about his Reimancy... new techniques and the like he had been knocking about inside his head for a few days now. He was eager to release his energy, as he had been unable to do so for several days. It was like an itch you couldn't scratch, as Dyrdas did not want to reveal his magical qualities to the general public unless it was absolutely necessary. He grew more and more uncomfortable, as the pent up energies inside him built. Something caught his attention then. A group of men huddled a good distance away from his house, in a tight circle as if conspiring. Maybe he was reading their Auras wrong but there was something there, albeit the evidence was fuzzy. They just looked... dangerous. He though about it for a second, creasing his brow in a frown, then ducked into an alleyway. Dyrdas trod quickly over the alley's cobblestones now, more eager than ever to reach his cottage. A couple of turns later and he was back in the street, having circumvented the possible danger of the thugs. He turned again and arrived at his cottage, fumbling in his pocket for the key. A moment later, he pulled it triumphantly from his pocket and shoved it into the lock, Enjoy the solid snick of the dead-bolt sliding back into the door. He pulled it open, stepped inside, then locked it once again. Once inside, he dropped heavily into a sitting posistion on his bed. He listened intently to the familiar squeaking of the well used matress. Dyrdas enjoyed a few moments of rest before steeling himself for the hard work ahead.

[Dyrdas]

Dyrdas sat on the bed for a few moments more, then rose slowly and crouched in front of the chest at the foot of the bed. Using his house-key again, he opened the lock, freed it of the chest, and set it on the ground. He threw the heavy Oak-and-Iron lid open, and rummaged around in the chest for a few moments. Finding what he sought, Dyrdas rose to his feet balancing a stand not unlike one an artist would use to support their paintings, two or three stone tablets with bull's eyes painted on them in gaudy red, and a simple straw stuffed cushion in his arms. Setting the objects on the bed, he set about rearranging the entire room. He pulled the table to the wall near where the bed sat, then flipped the chair over and sat it on the table, much the way they do in taverns and restaurants when the chairs are not in use. He snatched up the stand and the tablets Once again, striding to the far wall opposite the furniture and stood it up. He set one of the tablets on the stand so as to be supported at chest level, then laid the other two on the floor nearby. He grabbed the mat and set it at the center of the room, then sat on it cross-legged. Dyrdas proceded to meditate in an attempt to clear his mind. He found that it helped to focus for a few minutes before attempting anything involving prolonged use of magic. He focused for a while on a peaceful meadow, in bloom with bright flowers and tall grass that swayed gently in the breeze. He imagined himself sitting on a flat stone under a tall tree, feeling the warmth of the sun on his skin mingling with the cool tingling feeling of the wind brushing past him. In his mind's eye, he glanced about at his serene mind-scape, and emptied out of all thought. While not entirely willing to leave his "happy place", Dyrdas withdrew from it none-the less. He stood slowly and easily, cracking his knuckles to relieve the tension in his hands. He decided to get to work and actually start his training. He let the Res flow out of the palm of his right hand slowly, forming a perfect sphere floating a few inches from the center of his palm. He practiced moving it about first, shifting it between his hands, reshaping it into a tendril that wove between his fingers and around his wrists like an ethereal serpent. After a while he recollected all of the Res into a sphere again. Dyrdas grinned as he ignited the outer layer of the Res-ball. Shifting his stance a little, he let the ball settle hovering over his right palm. Suddenly, he kicked his leg up like a baseball pitcher and launched the flaming projectile, over-hand, at his target. It soared through the air and struck it's target squarely, though nowhere near the bull's eye. Well, he thought, Maybe I shouldn't be so theatrical about it all the time. Dyrdas felt the impact upon his Djed, and so he hesitated when going to conjure up more Res. After a moment, he felt his Djed expand to fill the gap left by his previous usage, and so he readied himself for another shot. This time, however he conjured several smaller spheres, instead of one large one. Each sphere was about an inch and a half in diameter. They hovered at the tips of his outstretched fingers, five in total. One for each finger. Dyrdas contemplated their use, swirling them about and switch their guiding fingers in the meantime, then decided to fire 'em in a sequence. He ignited the outer layer of the res-balls, and leveled his arm carefully at his target. Dyrdas realized that brash spells could turn his little cottage into a swirling inferno. With that in mind, he fired off his first shot, which hit the target an inch above the center of the bull's eye. The second shot hit a bit to the left. The third, a bit below. The fourth, to the right. However, on his fifth shot, Dyrdas struck gold with a perfect bull's eye. Grinning to himself, Dyrdas approached the target and pulled it off the stand, careful not to touch the simmering front. He set it on the ground face-up, and grabbed a second target to replace it. With the target set, he strode back to his place in front of the meditation mat.

[Dyrdas]

Still grinning to himself, Dyrdas prepared to bombard the target again. He conjured up his Res again in the familiar shape of a sphere, and allowed it to bounce lazily between his hands a moment before igniting it’s outer layer and hurling it over-hand at his target. The bolt found it’s mark a fair distance away from the center of the bull’s eye. The accuracy was nothing to write home to mother about. Dyrdas’s grin disappeared. He had never had a mother. Clearing his head, Dyrdas prepared for another round of fire-tossing. He thought his three targets looked a lot better when they were covered in scorch marks, for sure. His cottage was too small to conjure up any fire larger than a fist, but he was primarily working on his ability to generate Res, and his ability to move it about freely. The target practice was just a bonus. Glancing around, he wondered if a small cottage was the ideal place to be playing with fire. He decided to take a break from his practice, and go and get a pail of water, just in case. He grabbed the bucket that sat by the door on his way out. The first thing he noticed when stepping outside was how much time had passed since he’d arrived at the cottage. It was quite dark out, the sun having set long ago. Despite the time of day, Dyrdas felt no fatigue beyond the strain on his Djed from the extended use of Reimancy. He pondered the possibility of his cottage catching fire, but he’d been lucky so far. Hopefully the water he was fetching would help extinguish any smaller fires that caught indoors. Reaching into his pail of fresh water, Dyrdas splashed his face to rejuvenate himself and be rid of that sticky feeling one gets when the sweat on your face dries. By the time he returned, Dyrdas’s fatigue from the Djed expenditure felt dulled, almost relieved. Replacing the pail in it’s place by the door, Dyrdas decided to leave the door unlocked in case he had to get out in a hurry. In case the cottage caught on fire. Besides, he wouldn’t be entire helpless if someone assaulted his place. Not that that happened very often in Zeltiva. He strode quickly over to his place before the mat, eager to continue training. Dyrdas conjured up his Res yet again, enjoying the familiar process of exuding the stuff. He concentrated it into the equally familiar shape of a sphere, but this time, did not hurl it. The Res he generated was usually a gas, a light, airy concentration suitable for burning. This time, he practiced shifting it into a liquid, then back to a gas, then into a liquid. He spent a fair amount of time experimenting with the physical properties of his Res, changing it back and forth between liquid and gas. He didn’t think that a “solid” mass of Res would be feasible, especially when it comes to the element he specialized in. It might have a slow-burn quality... but he decided against it. He ignited the Res he already had, and launched it over-handed at the already blackened target. It struck fairly enough. His accuracy was starting to show. Dyrdas figured he had the basic fireballs down. He conjured up yet more Res, and formed the ubiquitous sphere. This time, however, he let his palm fall to his side, controlling the Res with only his mind as a guide. Dyrdas would be seriously inhibited if he could only do his thing with an obscene amount of hand gestures. So he practiced some more, moving the Res gently about in his area of control. Forward, back, up, down, left, right. He picked up the pace after a while, until the Resball was whirling about the room like a demented bird. He ignited the outer layers of the ball, and launched it with the force of his mind. He only barely managed to complete it’s transformation to fire before it slammed into the tablet. Dyrdas decided he wanted to practice something other than firebolts. He walked quickly across the room and grabbed the target stand, taking it with him back to the center of the room. He grabbed the top of the stand, target included, and inclined it back on it’s swivel to face directly up. Dyrdas stepped back and began to exude Res again. He collected a decent amount into a central mass floating before him, then shifted it into a liquid. Grinning, he coated the top of the tablet with a thin layer of the good stuff. Stepping cautiously back, he transmuted the Res into fire and watched as the entire tablet burst into flames. However, Dyrdas had overlooked a few things. The first of which was that he could not control the flames. He glanced wildly about the room. Spying his bucket of water, he sprinted across the small cottage in a few bounds. He turned to sprint back, but something stopped him short. He couldn’t breathe. The fire was sucking all of the oxygen out of the room. Dyrdas fought his dizziness and ran over to the one window, only a few paces away from the door. He threw it open, sucking in the air that rushed into the room. A late night passersby hurried on, as if Dyrdas had something contagious. Gripping the handle of his pail, he crossed the small space between him and the fire and emptied all of the water out over it. Immediately, Dyrdas’s face was assaulted by a cloud of hissing steam that rose up from the thankfully extinguished fire. He stepped back and allowed it to rise. Dyrdas collapsed onto his bed, finally feeling the fatigue of his late night experiments. He decided to give it a rest, considering that the smoke and steam leaking from the cracks in his house would draw some figure of authority the next morning. He should at least have enough energy to answer their questions, to blame it on a small house fire or some such. So he drifted off into his dreams, finding himself again in his place of meditation. He sat lazily under a shady tree, watch the wind blow the tall grass and flowers around him back and forth, back and forth. Push and Pull. Action and Reaction.

Thread End

[Gossamer]

. Character: Dyrdas Experience: + 1 Observation, +1 Meditation, +2 Reimancy Lore: Safety Practices When Training Fire Reimancy, Not Controlling Flames, Throwing Firebolts and Fireballs. Additional Note: I didn’t actually award you any autistics because even in the first post you didn’t state you were doing so, only that ‘maybe you were reading their auras’. .