Closed Falling Arrows (Clyde)

[Kyra]

Time Stamp :85th Of Fall 512
Who: Kyra/Clyde

It was another bright fall morning, a new day fresh from the rewards of the nights rain, leaving the surrounding forest lively and a blissful calm in the trees. The fields of Syliras, those that were once filled with crops and workers tending to them, were all but empty, as the season's end came close, and the workers had harvested all that they could in preparation for the winter.

Kyra sat quietly, nestled against a thick branch, hanging somewhat low from a leafless tree. She stared out into the distance, noticing people here and there, some out for a walk perhaps, and others doing some type of work. She was growing bored now, after having been sitting there for some time now. Clyde had asked that she meet him there for another experiment and after the fun she had with the last one, Kyra was all too happy to agree.

Still, he was late, and while she didn't mind waiting for him, she was starting to feel really bored. A subtle sigh slipped from her lips and suddenly, she turned her body and allowed it to slip off the branch. She landed on the ground below with a thud, both feet planted firmly on the ground as she kneeled down. Standing again, she looked around for him, then turned and started to walk around a bit.

This forest was unknown to her mostly, somewhat different than the wild lands, although fairly similar. As she walked, she noticed a wayward branch, reaching out, it's bark twisted and almost limp as it barely touched the ground in front of her. It wasn't a large branch by any means, and she surly couldn't have climbed up, but she had another idea. Reaching to her hip, she pulled the dagger free and wrapped her fingers around it tightly.

Taking a step back, Kyra lounged forward striking at the branch with her dagger and then pulling back. She repeated this step, lounging forward again, stabbing at the branch with her dagger and pulling away. She moved around a bit, taking in the sight of the branch, and the cuts and grooves in the bark. Again she dashed forward, stabbing the branch with her dagger, only this time it became stuck. The confused kelvic, blinked twice as she looked to her hand, now dagger free, before following the invisible trail back to the tree. "There you are.."
Moving back to the tree, Kyra pulled her dagger free, and started the steps over again.

[Clyde Sullins]

Once more, Clyde had a little experiment to test himself in magic... This time, it was reimancy, a magic he was getting to be quite good at. But he still needed to refine things, practice new techniques, work on things in a safe way before being thrown into using them for real in combat. He hated using an idea for the first time in a fight, and did not want to end up getting killed, so this new idea, would be worked out in a safe way right here and now. His idea now was to use earth reimancy, to stop or block ranged physical attacks before they reached him. Once he got it all worked out, he could shoot up a small reimanced rock, and intercept the arrow or weapon with a minimal of fuss. Or maybe a earthen spike... Probably better to start there... Who knew, it might save his life one day, to have such a skill. Clearly being in Syliras, he did not want to practice to close to the castle... So he had palnned to meet Kyra well outside of it, and away from anyone they might run into. Far from the road or some random hunter. Better to plan ahead and find a good spot, than to have to kill off some person who saw him. For he knew he would have to, to protect his secret. Not out of any ill will towards such a person, but out of necessity. It was all out of necessity. And while he preferred not to kill, he valued his own life as higher than one person. As he finally found Kyra, Rye having alerted him, he saw her... Fighting a tree? She was a bit odd at times, being a kelvic... But no, he was not even going to ask what her issue was with the tree, what it had done to her. Though knowing her, if she was really mad at it, she might just ask him to burn it down... He vaguely recalled her having asked him to do so before... Or something like that... Something to do with when he did lightning reimancy... He could not recall. Regardless, he stood there ready to get some work done, his ever present robes on, his wooden staff in his hand, and a half set of arrows for a shortbow, with him. He had bought them along with some other things, and they might as well be used now. Since likely any arrows would eventually be destroyed if he succeeded. "Hello Kyra. Having fun?" He asked, a question on his face, but leaving it unsaid. He walked up and gave her the 10 arrows, and then took a few steps back. "So, I suppose you are wondering why I asked you here?"

[Kyra]

Once she had swung her dagger against the tree in as many ways as she could think, Kyra decided to try a different approach. She clinched her free hand into a fist and raised it opposite the hand wielding her dagger. The kelvic moved against the tree again,leading with her fist as she attacked the thick bark in front of her. It was a tactic, her tiny fist never actually reaching the tree and stopping just in front of it as she drew back and brought her dagger into it once again.

She stepped back again, dashing forward with the same tactic, only varying the approach of the dagger from different angles as she slashed away at the tree. Sliding back again, Kyra readied herself and dashed forward. She used her legs to kick against the trees, allowing her to race up the wall of bark a few feet, before she pushed herself off and back onto the ground again. She stood up then, raising her hands as she skipped forward and twisted her hips, bringing her leg up and slamming her foot flat against the front of the tree.

She tried the same move again and again before stopping. The kelvic decided to try another move then, one that would likely work on a person much taller than herself. She had found herself in that very situation some days ago and had been ill prepared for the attack. Kyra focused her mind, envisioning the opponent in front of her as a person and not as the tree that was actually there. Again she moved against the tree, lifting off the ground as she placed a foot against the trunk, pushing herself up as she raised her other leg to follow.

Instead of pushing herself off as she had before, this time she pushed her foot firmly down, turning her leg as she twisted her body and brought her other leg swinging at an higher point of the tree. The tiny girl whirled around as she descended, barley finding her footing as she landed on the ground crouched to her knees and hands. The kelvic stood up then, a sudden familiar smell rising, growing stronger with each tick.

It was Rye, Clyde's dog. Kyra still didn't like the dog much, in fact she didn't like any dog. Not since that day so long ago when she had been frighten by one. Still over time she had started to get used to Rye and didn't feel as hateful those the animal. Perhaps it was Clyde that brought this change in her. Kyra accepted the dog, but she had no thoughts of ever petting it.

However, the presence of the dog also told of Clyde's arrival. Kyra smiled and turned towards their direction as she slipped her dagger back under her cloak. "Hello Clyde. I've been waiting for you." She paused as her gaze lowered to Rye a second time, and she fought the urge to wrinkle her nose. "Practicing....But it is always interesting with you're around." she said in an answer to his question. She took the arrows from him, looking to them and back at him with a curious stare. "More arrows? Are you going to use your magic as well?"

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde smiled at Kyra, as she looked down at Rye. She tried to keep her face passive from it, but he had an inkling what she was feeling toward it. Probably just from spending so much time with her, Clyde reasoned. Smiling though, in and of itself, was a bit odd on Clyde. He seemed to often do it around her, though he could not recall often doing so around others. She seemed to sort of exude something into him, which got him to loosen up a bit, and not be so serious. While he was alone though, he tended to be very focused, and settle on his task with all his might. "Yes, I am going to use one of my magics, but not like last time. This time, I want your help to try something out. A new skill. You have seen me do reimancy... Well I was thinking. What if I learned to use earth reimancy, defensively? Sending up a precision spike or chunk of earth, to block and intercept a arrow, as in this case? Would not that be a good skill for me to have?" Smiling at her once more, he scratched at the surface of the dirt with his foot, looking down at it. It seemed to simple in this state, but when combined with his reimancy... It had unlimited capabilities, as he shaped it and molded the very earth below him with his magical might. "So, are you up for it? Obviously you wont be shooting at me. That would be a bad idea. Instead you would be shooting past me. I will try to stop the arrow mid flight as it passes me. Well, before it passes me, really. What do you think? Are ready to try?"

[Kyra]

Kyra listened as Clyde explained what he was planning to do, and started to spin one of the arrows around in her free hand. She nodded as he continued, grasping onto what she could remember about his magic and how he used it. She had watched him perform what he called earth reimancy more than once and found the ability to form sharp spikes from dirt impressive.

"Your magic is very impressive. I can't wait to see what happens."

She glanced down as he did, and watched his foot patting the ground beneath them. Kyra tilted her head and lightly patted her foot down also. She wondered if there was something special about the dirt that he used, or a certain amount that he needed for it to work. It would have made sense to her if that was true. Even Marcelo had used special items for his magic, things that couldn't have worked with normal everyday items.

"Yes I am ready, this should be loads of fun."

The young kelvic smiled and began twirling the arrow faster between her fingers, before stopping and lightly tapping at her shoulder as she looked to him with amusement. In this newest trick of his, he said that he would stop the arrow in mid flight with his earth reimancy. This she had to see, by now Kyra was used to shooting arrows and knew that they moved really fast.

If Clyde could do what he said, the she would be more than impressed with his magical ability. There was also the fact, that the girl enjoyed using her bow and she liked shooting it, even at people. Of course, Clyde had already told her that she wouldn't be aiming at him directly, but what were the odds that her shot would be that far off. In the worst case, Clyde would either form a rock or something to catch it with, or the arrow would impale him, both possibilities were interesting and amusing.

"Alright then, shall we begin?" She asked shoving the arrows into her quiver, before pulling her bow around and notching the single arrow to it.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde waited for Kyra's response to his odd idea. Really, he often came up with such new ideas and things, and it seemed he trusted no one else to help him but her. He had already made a discovery in using arrows as a delivery method for glyphs infused with reimancy... So why not use arrows to test another reimantic skill? He could tell that even though his skill in using reimancy was quite prodigious, he still had a lot of tricks and quirks to learn, and nuances of the capabilities of his magical art. It had so many untapped resources and avenues of approach, for someone willing to put in the work, and find those new avenues. He smiled back at her as she complimented his reimancy, from anyone else he might have suspected subterfuge or sarcasm, but from her he trusted it to be a genuine compliment. "Thanks. Your not a bad shot with a bow either, you have certainly come a long way. Though in a different way than my reimancy." As she asked if he was prepared, he shook his head. "Not quite, let me prepare my res. Why don't you back up a bit of a distance. For starters at least, I need to be able to see the arrow coming, and have time to react to it. We can shorten the distance later once I get one range down." But now Clyde closed his eyes, trying to clear his mind and focus on his magic... He tried to force out all other things... Blocking out the wind on his skin... The feel of the sun and its heat... The smell of trees and grass in the air... He did his best to block them all out, or at least to not concentrate on them, as he did his best to meditate before using his magic... He knew it would make things easier to do, and make his magic a bit easier, though honestly he did not quite get how meditation was supposed to help... Instead, since he was going to do earth reimancy, he focused on the feel of dirt, the smell of it... The way it moved and turned to dust in the wind... Trying to let earth take up his entire concentration, and emptying his mind the best he could of anything else... For a second he had it, an entire second he was concentrated and focused on earth... Until a bird made a loud noise, and broke his concentration, and took him out of his shallow meditative state. Opening his eyes, he began to form res, feeling it bud across his body, bright silver drops of it as a liquid forming on his skin... His arms... His chest covered by his clothes... His legs... It began to dribble down him, until it soaked into the ground, as he slowly soaked in more and more, as he produced it... He kept this up till he had a reasonable patch of dirt infused with res underneath him, and in a small radius around him. "Alright, I am ready!" He shouted out to Kyra.

[Kyra]

Whenever she was around Clyde and he talked about his magic, it reminded her of the different type of magic that she had learned seasons ago. Tricks, and illusions to be sure, but for Kyra it was simply fun and was a lot harder to learn than people gave them credit for. Some of those people knew magics similar to what Clyde did, or was familiar with those who did, which could possibly explain their stuffy attitude about the whole thing.

However Kyra didn't mind she enjoyed it just the same and the fact that even the non believers ended up a few mizas shorter made it worth the try. She imagined that one day, possibly when she settled in, after her revenge was complete, that she might attempt to re learn those tricks just for the fun and memories it would bring out.

"Why thank you Clyde..I do try."

She answered to his compliment. It was an interesting story, the wave of her bow. There was a time when she took it with her always, and used it daily. Then later, a time arose when she barley used it at all, or any other type of weapon, and now she was back to using it, but not as much as before, nor less than the last time. The young kelvic wondered if the time would come where she wouldn't need to use it at all, or care too.

"Oh.alright.."

Kyra said as she waited for Clyde to prepare himself. He really was the structured type, always had a plan and knew the exact way that he wanted it to go. Kyra wasn't the planning type, and for most of her life there had been people around who were glad to direct her and make plans for her to follow. But not that she was on her own, she'd have to do it for herself, but only went needed. The girl waited with her bow lowered and holding the arrow in place as best as she could. "Okay..moving backwards.." she added as she took several steps backwards while keeping her eyes on him the entire time.

"Far enough I hope?"

From where she stood now, she could still easily see him, and the strength of her shot wouldn't lose out to wind or distance. With a smile, Kyra raised her bow and pulled the arrow back tightly so that she had it lined up with the bow and could clearly see down the aim of the shaft. She focused the tip of the arrowhead on Clyde as she watched him form his res. "Are you ready Clyde?" she asked pulling the string back a bit tighter.

The moment that he spoke up, giving her the go ahead, Kyra turned her aim two ticks away from his body and fired the arrow down the path.

[Clyde Sullins]

Paying attention once more, Clyde nodded in answer to her question... or at least... He thought it was far enough. He would not know for sure, until they had tried. He also had no idea, of how difficult this would be... Another thing he would not learn, until after an attempt was tried. But the way he had set things up, he felt relatively safe. Clyde watched as she readied her bow, and aimed it, finally setting it off by a few notches so it would go wide and not hit him. He supposed even in trying to miss, it required aim, so as to not accidentally hit what one wanted to miss. As she fired, there was a blur of motion on the bow, as the arrow left... Quickly enough, there would be another blur as it arrived at him, or if he failed, passed him... Or if they both failed miserably, as it hit him... Not fun... But he trusted Kyra. As he saw the blur of the arrow leaving, he wrenched his left free hand up, and along with it a small blunted spear of earth rose up out of the ground to a height of 4 feet, in a fraction of moments, about half a foot wide... A bit of the earth that he was connected to... From his res point of view, he could feel the soil on his skin, as he was a part of it, bled through it, slipped through it like a liquid along a river... He was the earth, and it was not the dirt that was rising alone, but a part of himself, towering up high and stretching up out of the ground, mated to the dirt and calling it to it in a swirling tempest of res and terrain. When the main part of himself that was Clyde, ordered for the dirt to rise as he asked it, it was simple enough for this bit of Clyde to oblige and lead the earth on the desired pathway, after all they were one and the same, a part of the same total. Unfortunately, he was off, or perhaps the spike was not wide enough, and the arrow whizzed by his spike by a good 6 inches... Clyde let out a sigh, which was repeated by his res, which communicated it via a rumble of dust on the surface of what he controlled moving about. A thin layer of dust from the soil would poof up a few inches, before settling down... That had not been intentional though... It was almost like his res was... But no, that was silly, the Clyde standing and holding a staff thought to himself. Surely it was just a trick of his eyes, that dust poof... It meant nothing... "Alright, my aim was off, lets try another. I think I need to move it a bit faster... And maybe make it a bit wider... That last one was only 6 inches wide... a foot wide this time... Perhaps... Ready when you are."

[Kyra]

Kyra wasn't disappointed as much as she was confused. The girl had thought that she understood him clearly enough and had expected some sort magical trick that ended with dirt snatching arrow out of the air. But nothing happened, at least nothing close to what she had imagined. Lowering her bow, she looked on in silence as she watched Clyde's frustration.

"Did...something just happen?"

Something had gone wrong, and whatever he was trying hadn't went as planned. Kyra wondered if she had shot too closely, or too quickly. After all, his directions had been to shoot passed him and nothing more, so she didn't know if she should moved over, aimed higher or simply try again from the same position. She waited then, standing several paces back and listened for his instructions.

"So it wasn't me after all..Alright then..again."

Kyra pulled another one of his arrows from her quiver and notched it to her bow,she raised it, slightly turning her arm to angle it out. She stared down the skinny shaft of the arrow while pulling the string back passed her cheek. Once she had Clyde in her sight again with the arrow head pointed at him, she turned away three ticks. "Ready!" the girl called out just before she released the arrow. It was a solid shot, with no wind to push it off course and it headed down the path that she set. Now she would wait for Clyde to do something impressive.

[Clyde Sullins]

Magic, was not quite as flashy as most believed. This was especially shown true, when you were training magic. Generally things were done on a smaller scale, slower, safer, in a series of increments. It was a system of trial and error, in which you were never really done, instead you reached a level when you were good enough. It was more or less how all magic was trained, the same way of trial and error Clyde had used when Kyra had helped him develop his glyphed reimancy arrows. When he used such things in combat, they were more dire, faster, and exact the first time, as was needed in a life or death situation... But in training... Well, it gave a good look behind the curtain, to see Clyde. Perhaps this was who Clyde was. If he had never had a messed up childhood, hunted for being what he was... Betrayed time and again by his city, its people, and a bunch of others along the way... If none of this had happened, perhaps he would be this studious and systematic person, not in a hurry, calmly going about his business... Sadly, those things did happen to him, so it was hard to know what might have been. What he might have been. Almost as hard as it was to truly understand what he was today... He looked onward for a moment, with a dull look on his face... His neutral expression hiding the thoughts inside of his skill, whirring away fast as could be... Thinking... Deciding... Moving things about... Tearing things down and rebuilding them in better forms... All at the speed of thought... Finally down after thinking for half a chime, he nodded, and was ready. Ready to move. He watched her as she prepared the arrow, pulled it back the same as she always did... Watched as the string trembled with tension... Just as he saw movement, saw the blur of the arrow firing, he made a move. He had his hand out at hip level, fingers hanging downward from his hand... He breathed in... Out... Then he lifted his hand straight up till it was at head level, bending his wrist so his palm stayed parallel with the ground, pinching his thumb and middle finger together like something invisible was held there. As he did, the command for his planned defense echoed in the part of him soaked into the soil and dirt... Of course he understood what he wanted, they were both a part of the same thing, with the same thoughts and mind. One in total, yet alone now, separated by space... The him in the ground willed the earth to shift as he had demanded, this time forming a small wall segment. It was a inch thick, 2 feet wide, and a good four feet high by the time it was done, with the top rounding off and only ending up 1 1/2 feet wide at the top. From Kyra's point of view, the earth would sort of go soft looking on the ground, and then would suddenly surge upward, bits of earth and soil climbing and growing on top of each other and past each other, as it formed into the desired wall shape, finally hardening into a substance of stone and dirt. This time it worked, and the arrow thunk-ed right into the wall segment, standing out of it with the head imbedded. However as Clyde stopped focusing on the wall, and the last of the res in it was spent, a few ticks later it would begin to crumble, and finally would tip over and fall, landing with the arrow inside of it and breaking the shaft. "Well, my wall did not stand to long, did it... I guess it needs work..."