Felicia flung the leather back-pack onto the straw-mattress she slept on and took out the book, carefully storing it on the ledge, along with her other books about Morphism and Reimancy.
She took out the three iron animal snares she had bought from the Merchant's encampment and went off with them once more, into the lush wild. The exploration didn't take her much. She set a trap by a cranberry bush (Of which she foraged a pocketful of crimson sweet berries.), another trap next to a spring- where according to the Merchant the rabbits and animals would go to drink, and the last snare- nearby a well-dug earthen burrow, which still looked fresh and inhabited enough. She didn't know if the traps would succeed at capturing the unsuspecting wild animals, yet... she hoped they would. She was running short on Mizas and probably couldn't afford buying the food constantly. She didn't have a real source of income, anyway.
Felicia promptly returned to her cavern, and lied down on the rough mattress, reading the book she had bought, titled "Ink and Runes". A title which needless to say could be barely made out due to wear-and-tear of the old book. The title was worn off at several places. Abrasion at it's best. Felicia started leafing through the dusty book, taking in the complex symbols and explanations drawn upon it. The pages had several finger prints plastered to them, the book had been clearly very thoroughly thumbed, several times. This led way for Felicia to suspect that what she was about to read was common knowledge. The books which contained the secrets of an art were generally hidden away from common sight and grasp. Still, magic was magic and since this was a new type she never heard about, she had to start somewhere.
The book explained an art called 'Glyphing' which involved modifying and customizing eariier known types of magic through the instruction of runes. Felicia wanted to try this out for herself, but realized she had no ink. Sighing, she took out the cranberries she had foraged earlier and mashed them to a paste on the stony floor. She willed her finger turn to a twig, through morphism and it responded quickly, fogging up for a moment then elongating and becoming harder and tougher as the Djed within her shaped and carved it into the desired shape. She dipped her twig-finger into the cranberry paste and copied the glyph on the book labelled- 'Recollecting your Djed and focusing in a particular body part' to her other palm. The work was tough and took Felicia quite a number of bells, especially since she wasn't really good at art. By the time she was done the sun was about to make contact with the horizon, then set. Plunging the world into darkness. Felicia bit her lower lip and started adding the final touches to her glyph.
As soon as the glyph was finished, she was still pumping Djed to her twig shaped finger, so as to keep it in shape. She felt a pull on her Djed, to her other arm, as if a mysterious force was guzzling down her Djed thirstily, not intending to relent or pause. The twig she used to draw grew hazy and blurry, slowly returning to a fleshy finger. The glyph wouldn't let her send Djed to the finger!
Suddenly, the five fingers at the side where the glyph was drawn all became twigs. Felicia widened her eyes in amazement and wiped the glyph away with her free hand then willed them to turn back to ordinary fingers. Felicia didn't really know how Glyphing worked yet. But, she realized that it was a complicated yet exciting and broad area of magic. An area that led to countless possibilities when combined with other arts.
Felicia gulped heavily, starting to calm down from the panic of her first attempt at glyphing. She closed her eyes and tried as hard as she dared to sleep, but after thirty chimes, she realized that was impossible. Glyphing had surprised her way too much and unfortunately it was too dark to read. Felicia sighed and chewed on her lower lip, waiting desperately for the sun to rise again so that she could resume reading about Glyphs.
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