Not So Mundane Arrows[Kyra]

[Clyde Sullins]

"Petch!" Clyde exclaimed, as once more the magic device had failed to do as he had wanted... What had gone wrong now? He walked over to look at the arrow, and piece things together, from what he had seen... What the petch had gone wrong? The scroll had worked, the fireball had shot off.... He stood there looking at the tree deep in thought, looking at the arrowhead... Then he let out a surprised "Ohhh..." As he realized what had happened... The scroll had done exactly as it was supposed to... Had shot out the fireball just as planned... But due to its positioning, the fireball had struck the arrowhead... Some of it blew by, to hit the target, but most of it hit the arrowhead... He walked back to Kyra, and looked at the arrow offered, before finally taking it... "Its the arrowhead... Somehow... I need to get the magic from the scroll, along past the arrowhead, for it to come out..." But what could he do... How could he... He tried to think of what avenue of thought he could go... What path would lead to an answer... And that was it! "A path! A road! A literal avenue for it!" Clyde exclaimed out loud, looking over at Kyra with glee on his face from his sudden inadvertent realization, from his odd word choice, in calling the thought process different paths... "A path, my good woman, is a glyphing term. What is a pathway you ask? It is just as it sounds, a road. I need to make a pathway, from the scroll to the end of the arrowhead, so the spell pops out there, not out of the scroll into the arrowhead." He ran over to his pack, and took out something he often kept with him, his engraving kit. This little kit, had all that he needed to fix the problem. He could engrave a pathway, onto each side of the arrowhead, and thus do as he needed to. He took out one of the odd implements, which worked rather like a quill. Except this implement was diamond tipped, and could cut into the metal of the arrowhead. "This is what I need!"

[Kyra]

Kyra almost whirled around as Clyde quickly slipped passed her to examine the tree closer. She turned to watch him, bringing a hand to her hip and allowing the other arm to drop to her side. She looked on, a quizzical look on her face as she watched him from the place where he left her standing. From where she stood, she could clearly see the small scorch mark burned into the tree by the arrow he had used his magic on. She knew that the effect hadn't been big enough and it was disappointing, but he seemed to take it harder than she had.

It wasn't hard to understand, since the experiment was his and she was just a helping hand. It was common for those like him to become enraged over such small things. To express strong emotions, while other times barely showing any at all. She watched him closer, seeing him frustrated for the first time, when he was usually so calm and collected was interesting if not amusing."Is everything alright Clyde Sullins?"
Her ears perked up when he suddenly spoke, relief spelled out in his voice.

"Oh?" She whispered to herself. She looked at the tree again, trying to see if she could figure out what he saw that caused him to change his tone. Even though he seemed to have figured it out, she was starting to get a little bored with it all. It would be more entertaining for her if he just set the tree a blaze himself.

When he returned to her, she offered him the arrow again and listened as he explained his thoughts. As she listened, and he mentioned what he needed to do, she thought back to the idea that she had. However, before she was able to finish the thought, he surprised her as his voice picked up and he was practically yelling. " A...path, you say?" It was interesting, or perhaps ironic to see him behave in this way, when not a few chimes ago he had asked her to calm her own excitement.

Kyra stared at him harder now, his demeanor was entertaining but his words were a bit hard to follow. She nodded as she took in what he said and tried to solve the puzzle of jumbled words. She started to giggle, a purr growing in her throat as she watched him race to his backpack and sift through it before calling out in triumph that he had found it. Kyra wasn't sure if he had figured out the problem or simply gone mad. Either way it was fun for her to watch. "Well I hope this time that it burns more than a bit of bark."

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde had been so focused on his reasoning, he had not even noticed most of what Kyra had said. He did catch the bit at the end, commenting her hopes that this one would do more than burn bark... Yes... That was true... He had similar hopes. "Yes, I am sure it will. We are nearly there, I can tell it! Just a few more, maybe one or two more, and we will have a working prototype! To bad we have to try each out. You don't know if you have a working model, till after using it..." Clyde went over to get another piece of parchment, ready to be glyphed. Now that he had done the same thing several times, it was simple enough to do the same again here, duplicating the scroll... It was quite easy now. And making another reimantic fireball, well it was the third one, but they had all been tiny fireballs initiates could make. Easy for him. This one dropped into the focus glyph, the same as the others. But now was the hard part, the tricky part. The part he had not thought to do before, and had to know for it to function properly. He had to engrave a path on the arrowhead. Both sides actually, just to be safe. So Clyde took out his engraving tool, with its diamond fleck tip, and rubbed it down the arrowhead to one side... And on the other side of the same side of the head, he did the same thing. Then he copied the same dual strokes, to the other side of the arrowhead. All that he had done was laid a few scratches on each side. But they were the initial way. Once he got that tiny scratch on it, he could repeat it, scraping down the arrowhead over and over, in the same place, switching between the four lines... Each of the lines would act as a barrier rune, and together, the two lines would make a path... A path on each side of the arrowhead... Hopefully, if all worked well, when the magic left the scroll, it would be carried along the paths, avoiding the arrowhead, and spitting out the spell past it. Over and over again, he stroked the implement on each of the spots, forcibly sliding it down, and slowly scratching deeper and deeper into it... Till finally, it had a proper engraved line on each side, two to each, a total of four. It took him a good 10 chimes to do it, for just this one arrowhead, but perhaps when he was a bit more practiced, he could do it faster. And also, when he was better at engraving. Simple lines were easy enough, even for his skill, but anything harder, was out of the question. But perhaps eventually, when he was good enough at engraving and glyphing, he could forgo the scroll, and simply seal the spell within the arrowhead, using engraving to glyph it? Wouldn't that be amazing? Wrapping the scroll around the arrows shaft, Clyde handed it to Kyra, wiping a bit of sweat from his brow... He had been at work for quite some time, and needed to stretch. Getting back to his feet, he bent his back a bit, and looked over at Kyra. "Well, when you are ready. I have a good feeling about this one. I think this one will work for sure." oocSo, this one does in fact work, and the spell shoots out of the arrowhead, guided by the paths. The fireball will scorch a big bit of the tree, and possibly catch it on fire.

[Kyra]

After waiting for a while, Kyra took the offered arrow and placed it against her bow as she had done with the others. Her eyes stared into his as she rasied the bow and pulled back on the arrow into the string as she aimed it towards him. If she did fire it at him, even if he didn't catch fire, it would be entertaining to see him attempt to dodge it. Interesting as that would be, she had no wish to kill him and only sought to tease him further.

She winked at him, a smile to her lips, as she turned away to face the tree again.
Aiming for the center of the tree again, she released the arrow and watched at it struck the tree inches above the second shot. The fireball ignited, causing a small blaze to burn around the area where the arrow was fired. It wasn't as much as the young kelvic had hoped for but it was progress. The fire didn't engulf the tree, and it would probably go out on it's own eventually. Kyra turned back to face Clyde, she could already see the joy on his face and the pride swelling in his chest.

"So it works, well done Clyde Sullins." A wicked smirk curving her full lips, and a new fire burning in her golden eyes, she walked towards him once again and stood at his side. She could understand it all better now, that the arrow acted much in the same way as his magic had when he burned the bandit. If he would apply his magic to more of her arrows, ones she would be allowed to keep, it would make defending herself that much easier. "Are you satisfied? Or are you looking for something more?"

Silently she hoped that he wanted to do more. It wasn't as if she wanted him to burn the forest down, far from it. Without the forest she wouldn't have anywhere to hunt and she had already grown to enjoy herself in the wilds as well. What she did want, was some sort of action, whether it be a fireball into a tree or a earthen stake into a unsuspecting bandit. Still, she calmed herself and waited to see what he would do next. There were plenty of arrows left in her quiver and more target practice was a good way to increase her aim.

Turning back to look behind them, she noticed that the animals she had spotted before were all gone and so too was the hunter that was probably following them. It wasn't something new, but just different than what she preferred. She enjoyed the night, the moon's gentle glow was easy on her pale skin, compared to the harsh rays of the sun. The air was different, even the smells seemed more distinct. Hunting at night allowed her not only to blend in with the grass but to hide in the shadows as well. It was easier in a way, while most human's chose to hunt in the day, so did most animals. It was a lot quieter at night, and her sight was just as keen in the night as it was during the day making it easy to pick off prey.

"I am starting to get a bit hungry." She thought to herself before she turned back to see what he was doing. Kyra looked to the tree again, the flames all but burned out and leaving the bark black while smoke poured off and hissed into the winds. "Do you want another?" She asked as she tugged on the butt of another arrow resting in her quiver.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde waited a bit impatiently, as Kyra stood holding the arrow. He did not get that she was taunting him, teasing him, and pretending like she might fire at him. It went clean over his head. He just waited impatiently, for her to finally turn and be ready to fire. Finally, she did turn, giving him a slywink, and turned to the tree. As she shot it off, it sped through the air, to land on target and hit the tree. Finally, what he had been hoping for happened. The fireball exited the scroll, guided cleanly past the arrowhead, to smash into the tree. Bits of flame and sparks went flying, and a good patch of the tree was scorched and set ablaze. Perhaps if the fireball had been a bit bigger, or if the tree had been a bit drier, it would have gone up in a glorious blaze. But it did not, which was probably a good thing. And then she asked a good question... Were they done? Was that all he wanted to do? Had he completed his goals? Or did he have a further idea? Some better spell? "Just one more... And this time... Some lightning... That should make for a good one... You haven't seen that yet..." Clyde smiled to her, wondering how effective a lighting bolt would be in this... Usually lightning was of the fastest of spells, however it was tough to aim over a distance... But with this, precision would not be an issue. He set to work, being very careful to make this scroll and these glyphs sturdy. He worked the focus, as the same circle, this time carefully making the waving lines out of it equally long, and as close to the same as he could... The barrier he improved upon... He slowly made the first curved line, arcing all the way around the focus, slowly enveloping it. But this time, he did not stop there, instead making a second curving line to mirror the first, so that all along the barrier, they would interlink like chains. Combining what had worked well alone, and doubling it to two, should make for a very sturdy sigil. And just to keep things going, he made a dot at the center of each of the eye like openings, were the two curved lines moved furthest apart, before they moved in to meet and cross once more. That done, he made the trigger the same, linking it into the one side of the barrier, which would drop... Then on to the pathway, leading off and along, up out to the edge of the scroll, each side of the path made up of the dual curving interlocking lines, with the dot in the middle... Ending with the half of a focus, he had on the edge of the page... Finally, it was time for the engraving... He carefully engraved the two lines on each side of the arrowhead, taking his time to make them even and straight as he could, scratch by scratch making it deeper into the metal... After many a chime, he was done... Luckily for him all he had to do was engrave simple lines... He doubted he could do anything more complex, even a slow curve would be to hard. "Now just for the lightning bolt, and I am ready. Though we need to move back for that, we don't even want to be close when it goes off to enter the glyphs. Best to be as far away from lightning as possible."

[Kyra]

Kyra was surprised when he mentioned using lightening. Was there no end to the mysterious power that this man carried? For one to control fire was amazing in itself, but lightening was something else entirely. It was possible to predict the course that fire would take, but to predict how lightening would strike was something she wasn't even sure was possible. She looked at him closely, trying to see if he were merely teasing her or if he were actually serious about it.

It would seem that he was indeed serious, as he quickly sat down and began to work. Kyra followed, and sat down in front of him so that she could watch what he did. If this worked, it would produce an effect more powerful than the fireball and possibly cause the tree to catch fire also. Kyra knew of this, having seen the destruction caused by storms in the wilds first hand. However that was to be seen if his plan worked, and although he had proven himself so far, this was still an experiment as he had said himself a few times.

Waiting patiently, Kyra watched him use another piece of parchment to create another scroll to wrap around the arrow's shaft. He did more, using a kit to add lines onto the arrowhead but by this point she had stopped watching and was paying more attention to the chattering squirrels in a near-by tree. Standing up again, Kyra slipped away and approached the tree in which the squirrels were nesting. Her stomach had started to growl and since they were keeping up such a fuss, they became her next meal.

Reaching over her shoulder, she pulled another arrow out and placed it against her bow. With her eyes on the squirrels, she raised her bow and pulled the arrow back against the rear string and aimed the tip towards them. If she could get a good aim, and timed the shot right, she could possibly nail them both on a single arrow. She moved closer to the left to get a better shot of the squirrels while they sat closely beside each other. Taking another moment to focus, Kyra fired the arrow.

The arrow soared through the air, piercing one of the squirrels and nailing him into the tree. Her aim had been off by just a few inches, and when the arrow struck one squirrel, the forward motion sent the other tumbling off and into the brush. Kyra pouted, heavily dropping her arms to her side. "I suppose that one will have to do." She thought to herself, since the squirrel that had fallen was likely already gone and she didn't feel up to chasing it. Kyra loosened her grip on her bow and allowed it to slip from her fingers and fall to the ground. Arching her back, she raised her arms above her head and spread her legs shoulder length to stretch her body before she climbed the tree.

Once she was ready, Kyra moved against the tree, first bringing her hands to grasp the bulky trunk and pull herself up to where she could reach the lowest limb. She wrapped her arms to both sides of the branch and pulled her slender body up while using her feet to balance her weight. Once she was atop the branch, she reached out for the next one positioned in front of her on a higher level and just below the branch where the squirrel was nailed. She reached out and held tightly to the branch, her feet climbing the wall of the tree until she was high enough to pull her legs onto the higher branch. "Just a bit more."

From where she stood now, she could clearly see the squirrel pinned to the tree just above her. With the final climb, she pulled herself onto the higher branch and sat down on it before she slowly stood up and reached out to nab the squirrel danging above her head. Standing on the tips of her toes, she reached up and wrapped her fingers around the shaft of the arrow and pulled hard to snap the shaft from the arrowhead and take the squirrel. She placed the squirrel in her mouth, and slowly sat down on the branch again before slipping off and lowering herself onto the next one. A fall from that height wouldn't kill her but it could injure her easily.

Kyra continued her decent, taking her time to allow her feet to balance on the branch before she released the one above her and started down another. Once she reached the lowest branch, she slipped off and dropped to the ground below. Kyra removed the squirrel from her mouth and slipped it over her shoulder into her quiver, before she retrieved her bow off the ground and made her way back to where Clyde was. He was so wrapped up in what he was drawing that he probably didn't even know that she had wondered off for a bit. "Whenever you're ready." She said as he mentioned moving away from where the lightening would hit.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde looked up to see Kyra standing there. As far as he knew, she had not left the spot. He did get rather caught up in his work. Though she did look a bit dirtier than before, he noticed as he looked at her... But he could not be certain what that meant. For all he knew, she had been rolling around in the dirt when he was not looking. Everything else prepared, all that was left to do, was to make the lightning bolt, and send it into the glyph... Then Kyra could use this last arrow design. What would it do, a lightning bolt at such close range? He did not plan to make the biggest type he could, but at least a decent sized lightning bolt, a little difficult. More than a initiate could do, like those petty fireballs of before. Would it blast a hole through the tree? Perhaps damage it so that it was felled? Surely it would leave a large mark, a big burnt out crater, sending bits of wood and bark flying like shrapnel. It depended how big of a tree she hit he supposed. Bringing out his hands over the glyphed scroll, Clyde totally focused on his work... Blocking out all else... Focusing on the image of fire flickering in his mind... A calming centering image, he found helped as he tried to concentrate or meditate... And fire had that effect on him... Out of his hands, he could feel bits of himself leaving, as thin intangible bright silver gas billowed off, his res leaving his body... A part of him leaving and entering the world... Still intimately connected, and a bit of his being... Still able to be controlled by his will, as if it was his thumb attached to his hand... It came out of his pores... Out of his mouth on each breath... And a joyous warmth and happiness and satisfaction spread throughout his being, feeling so good... Later, he would pay for it and be exhausted, but now, it felt so good... He molded it with his mind, with his will, shaping it into a long spear, as tall as himself, floating in front of him... Once he had it all ready, he let out a pent up breath, stopped exuding res... Floated and manipulated the last bits into place, to become a part of the whole that was the lightning bolt... "Alright, lets go." Clyde would say, turning and taking Kyras hand, and leading her off a bit, over behind a tree a good bit away... He could still feel a part of himself, now shaped into a lightning bolt, floating outside of himself... As if it was another limb... He made sure not to get out of range, and made a slight final adjustment... Once the lightning went off, it would go right into the focus... Clyde closed his eyes, and turned away, motioning for Kyra to do the same, forgetting he was still holding her hand... And then... *Crash! Boom!* The crack of the lightning, the resulting sonorous boom, as Clyde transmuted the bolt of res, into lightning... In a bright flash of light, it was gone, to quick to be seen. The reverberations still pulsing in the air... A odd burnt taste to the air he was breathing... Clyde headed back to the scroll, opening his eyes and blinking a few times, still some spots before his eyes, even with looking away, and closing and covering his eyes, and dragging Kyra back. Taking up the scroll, Clyde let out a tired huff, and wrapped it around the arrow that's head had been prepared, pulling it tight, and handed it to Kyra, recalling to let go of her hand. "This is it. The last one. A lightning bolt. Lets try it out. And make sure to be far from the tree, when you do. I don't want to get hit by flying bits, when the explosion goes off from its reaction. Or if the tree falls." oocSo, this one does work, you can decide how. It will at least leave a burnt out crater, and blast a hole in the tree, perhaps set it aflame. But depending on the size of the tree, and were you hit, it might blast far enough through it, and topple the tree. A lightning bolt can do some serious damage.

[Kyra]

As Clyde stared at her, she looked back at him curiously and wondered what was going through that mind of his. Following his eyes, she looked down and noticed the dirt stains from the tree, dark greens and brown smut marks stretched across her chest and thighs. Kyra quickly dusted off her clothing as much as she could and looked back to him. She liked to stay clean and enjoyed baths and as many as she could take. However when she was out in the wilds it was nearly impossible not to get at least a little dirt on her. "I suppose that a bath is in order now." She thought to herself as she watched Clyde finish up his task. "Is it ready?"

When he didn't answer, she stood quietly as he started to concentrate to use his magic again. She had watched him do this a few times now and still found the small event fascinating. Silence had gripped them both and seemingly the forest around them as well. Kyra watched closely as the strange silver gases escaped his hands and other parts of his body. Words alone could not truly describe what she saw, and even if she saw it several times, it wouldn't be any less interesting. Even this seemed different in some ways, as she could almost feel the change in herself as she stood close to him.

When he had finished with his preparations, she saw before them a floating lightening bolt. It was bright and it's shaped obscured by the blinding light that reflected off her golden eyes as it caused her pupils to retract to thin, blacks slit. It was hypnotizing, and she stared closer, finding herself drawn to the light but she didn't dare reach out to touch it. When he called out to her, she heard his voice, although it seemed far away and it would have taken her a moment to react if he had not pulled her away.

She didn't mind that he took her hand, or that he was pulling her along. She went with him easily, her mind focused, anticipation sending her almost into a frenzy. She looked to him as he stopped and motioned for her to turn and cover her eyes. She found it odd that he would take such measures, which made her even more curious to see what he shielded his eyes from. However she didn't look back, trusting that he would know better than she would, and closed her eyes tightly. The thunderous sound that followed echoed in her ears and sent a chill into her body.

Kyra opened her eyes and turned back to look at him, she hadn't realized that he was still holding her hand until he started to pull her along for the second time. She moved quickly to keep pace with his longer strides and stood beside him as he examined the scroll. It didn't look any different than it had before they left, but she understood by now that the magic was somewhere inside it. When he finally released her hand and gave her the arrow, she was a bit hesitant to take it. Unlike before when she saw what he did with the fireball, this was something different, and apparently so dangerous that they had to step away and turn their backs as he finished it.

Finally, she took the arrow, her curiosity could no longer wait and she had to see what this new created scroll could do. "In that case, we should move back." Reaching out, she grabbed his sleeve and pulled him toward her as she stepped back and further away from the tree. She could only move a short distance more to be sure that she could nail the target. The arrow she held possibly wasn't as important as she thought, and he could probably create another just like it. Kyra wasn't sure of this, as he had mentioned before that magic had a cost.

Keeping his words in mind, she placed the arrow in line on her bow, being careful not to allow it to slip off and explode right in front of them. When she was ready, she raised the bow, and pulled the arrow back against the rear string. She aimed the tip of the arrowhead higher to account for the extended distance it would have to cover. Taking a deep breath, her eyes focused, she pulled the arrow back tighter against the string before she released it into the air.

The arrow soared, cutting through the thin air and landing with a thud as it pierced the tree. As the arrowhead stabbed the tree, or possibly a tick before, a bolt of lightening flashed across the sky and crashed into the tree. It was bright, and faster than the young kelvic could blink. The sound was much like the one she heard moments before, echoing loudly and ranging in time with the sudden burst of fire that quickly began consuming the tree. Kyra's eyes widen, her lips parted as she watched the growing flame aggressively devouring the tree. A cracking sound, slow and eerie whispered through the thick flames, as the upper part of the tree slowly titled and broke off.

The flaming bush hit the ground with a triumphant thud, leaving only a half burned stump in the place of what used to be a full tree. Kyra's eyes marveled at the flames that had so quickly consumed and toppled the tree and was now burning the grass around it. She had finally gotten what she wanted and realized just how dangerous of a man this Clyde Sullins really was. Turning back to face him, an astonished look etched across her face, she smiled and let out a gentle sigh of her own. "You've impressed me today Clyde Sullins. I think you might find yourself a rich man if you choose to sell your special arrows."

[Clyde Sullins]

Lightning... Lightning was powerful stuff... He could do some mighty damage, when he went full force with his lightning... If he put himself fully into it, he could manage a bigger one, but still, this lightning bolt was of pretty ample proportions. And he knew how easily it could kill... Like the time he had killed a man, blasted a hole right through his guts killing him... The time he had used it to kill an assassin... And left nothing of him, but a pile of burnt ash and dust... And a decent sized explosion, that had even knocked him flying. Ah, that had been a mighty spell... He really wished he could recall crafting it, and not just its effects once it was released... Kyra dragged Clyde a bit away, similar to how he had done to her, so recently. Best to steer clear, as far as possible, as he had just told her. As Clyde saw her handling the arrow, being extra careful with it, a realization struck... Something he needed to add to the trigger, to make it safer and better... A clause, in the trigger, that not only did it need to be fired and hit a target, but also be a safe distance away from him, for it to go off. That way if someone tried to use it on him, it would not activate, and would not go off by accident when it might hurt him. He would definitely add that as part of the trigger next time... Then, a crack of thunder, a blast, the tree was in flames, and then the upper part of the tree snapped, the main mass of the tree and trunk falling over and breaking off. He had blasted the tree and broken it. Clyde simply smiled, at first, in response to her words, and seeing the look on her face, of astonishment... Yes, these could be mighty weapons of conflict... Who would not want them? Though he had no clue how much they might sell for... Really, he could not mass produce them, it would be far to costly djed wise. He was done for today, but perhaps once he had rested a bit, he could make some more. "I suppose so. Though I would need to be careful of whom I chose to sell them to... Don't want them falling into the wrong hands now do we... As for this... Well I guess we are done... I dont think the fire will spread to much, the grass is to sparse here, and not enough flame to light another tree. It will burn out." Clyde went over, and picked up his staff, which he had set down to do his work. He smiled once more at Kyra, and offered his hand to her, a smile on his face. "Should we head back? Don't want to stay out to late now do we. Never know who you might meet in these woods."

[Kyra]

"It sounds like you might have enemies, how many?" He spoke of the magic arrows falling into the wrong hands, but who did those hands belong too? She was curious to learn if he had enemies, and if they were as powerful. It wasn't inconceivable to believe that there were others as powerful if not more so, but could such humans be trusted?

Kyra nodded in agreement that they were done for the day and would leave the fire to extinguish itself. Followed him a as he took up his staff again, and took the offered hand. Kyra had made a friend in him, at least she hoped that was the case, and that she could persuade him into creating more scrolls for her to use with her arrows. The experiment had been a huge success in her mind and using such magic against other, possibly moving targets would surly be entertaining to say the least.

"Yes, I suppose staying here would be pointless...Unless you wanted to burn the forest down." She smiled mischievously and licked her feline fangs. His words held truth, it was impossible to foresee what would happen in the wilds, just as their first encounter had been plagued shortly by bandits. Still, at this point Kyra wasn't worried about any form of animal or bandit that could lay a finger on either of them. "So tell me, what lies ahead for the great Clyde Sullins?"

It was much later in the day, and the sun was at the height of it's bright performance. There was still time before the sun would set, however with the time it took to return to the city, the day would be gone. Kyra could still smell the dead squirrel she hid in her quiver. She had attempted to nail both of them, and sadly one squirrel wouldn't be enough for a meal, and so she would need to visit the market before the end of the day. "I suppose that I should practice more, that shot should have taken them both."

What's left?I guess that wraps up the thread, unless there was something else you wanted to do?