Solo First Birthday Alone

[Terag]

42nd of Spring 515AV This day, Terag woke just as he always did. However, he wasn’t going to go in to work at The Ironworks today. He didn’t even plan on going to grab himself a drink, today he was supposed to just be able to relax and take the day off. However, already he could feel that he was going to be hard pressed to become relaxed at all. After all, today was his birthday. His first birthday alone and away from family and the few friends he had been able to make in Pitrius city, which wasn’t easy in a city like that. With a soft sigh he tossed back the covers and sat up, swinging his legs out so he could sit on the edge of the bed. The room was dark, there was no window so he could see sunlight, and none of the lights were on. The only incoming light was from under the doorway, the light from the torches in the hall making its way barely into his room. The darkness didn’t bother Terag at all; his natural nightvision from being an Isurian made it much easier to function when there was only a little light to go by. Besides, when you spent most of your life underground, situations like this seemed as normal as the sun did to humans. Even with the semi-familiar environment, he couldn’t ease the knot that was slowly tying itself in his stomach. He stood and stretched, his short form not even getting close to the ceiling as he reached as high as he could, and then stretching his arms out to the side. Terag leaned down to pick his clothes up from the pile he had left them in last night. That was when he realized that the unease had been setting in for a few days now, reaching its peak on the day of his birth. Usually he remembered to at least fold his clothes nicely, but apparently last night he didn’t even care. The clothes were tossed onto the bed for easy access as he got dressed, finishing with his boots as he decided he was going to at least spend the day outside, away from here. With a casual stride he made his way to the door and grabbed his spear from its place against the wall before walking out to the hall and locking the room behind him. As he made his way back to the outside, where the sun had yet to even reach its peak in the day, he couldn’t help but let his memories flow back to his life before he left. The memories of the smiths, the time he spent with them making new weapons, armor, or whatever the customer had ordered. These were happy memories at least, and so as he walked out into the sunlight he had a small smile on his face. The city was bustling and alive, as it should be since the day had started a few bells ago. The spring air hadn’t been chilly the past few days, so without his cloak it would be a bit harder to blend in and not attract attention – but he decided it was something he should try, the looks from the humans were something he doubt would ever go away. He only knew of one other Isurian in the city, so it wasn’t a surprise that he got looks when people saw his arm, his skin, or the bony ridge across his forehead. Doing the best he could he entered the crowd and tried to avoid the eyes of everyone, though he could still feel a few stares on his arm. In response he pulled down his sleeve, but it covered only a small amount more. At least it didn’t seem to take more than a few chimes to reach the gate, and he hurried out and rounded a corner to begin making his way into the Bronze Wood.

[Terag]

He made his way deeper into the woods, trying his best to remember how to make his way back to the city. It wasn’t along until he made his way into a clearing, wide enough for a couple of people to spar and practice without stepping on each other’s toes, though it wouldn’t leave much room for anything else. However, for a single person this would be perfect. Slowly, he walked around the clearing. His hand ran along the bark of the old trees that surrounded it. “I suppose here I could probably find myself a branch or two and pick up carving finally…”, he smiled to himself due to his realization. It would be great to pick up something new to make, something new and exciting to craft and perfect. He stopped at the far edge of the clearing, to take a moment to listen. He thought he could hear the soft sound of running water. With a larger smile he took a fist-sized rock up off the forest floor, setting it on top of the roots of the nearest tree. This would serve as his mark towards the river, at least for now. He would need it later after he had worked up a sweat. He walked back to where he thought he had entered the clearing, setting a smaller rock on the roots of the closest tree. This was to be the marker for which way he had come in so he could make his way back to the city. However, he was off by a few feed. A mistake that he was going notice later when it was much too late. He began to hum, which soon gave way to singing. Since he felt alone, far from the city without worry of others hearing he let it out in full. He pushed out from his stomach, and opened his mouth wide, which was something he had recently noticed made his singing sound much better, and let out a face paced song from his people. To the beat of the music he swung his spear about his form, ending with his knees bent, the spear parallel to the ground and next to him, and holding his left arm up as if it were covered with a shield. Even without it, his black isurian arm was dense enough to be used as a shield in an actual fight – a skill all Isurians are told when they begin to learn how to fight. The rest of his body was vulnerable, but the arm gifted to them by their god would protect them.

[Terag]

His singing softened, turning to a gentle hum as he stopped showing off to the imagined crowd in his head and went back to the basics. Carefully and slowly he put his body through the motions of the different thrusts, a parry with both weapon and shield, a parry followed by a thrust, and how to retreat back when you are being pressed. Each motion was repeated over and over, slowly gaining speed in strength each time it was done. He was going to force his body to remember the moves so he wouldn’t have to think when the time came. For nearly a bell this went on, a burning beginning to form in his limbs through the practiced motions. Time to stop this set, he figured. With one of the practiced throwing moves, he grunted and put much more effort into it as he threw his spear at the nearest tree. It hit, though it hit the tree next to it and the blade only sunk in a few inches. He frowned with disappointment as he stood straight, looking at his spear as its vibrations slowed down to stillness. “Well then. I’ll need to work on that quite a bit, won’t I?” With a sigh and a shake of his head, Terag turned his mind to the next task, starting up a new song. The song had a strong rhythm and ran at about two beats a chime. This time he worked out not just his arms with the movements, but also his legs. First he practiced different punches that he had seen in his time: forward jabs, wide hooks, upper cuts, and the like. They weren’t that effective, mostly due to his inexperience with hand-to-hand fighting, but he did his best. His posture always kept his left arm in front slightly; ready to block the imaginary blows and hits. He next covered how to counter, pretending to take a hit and then attacking back. He did the best he could, he even remembered to turn his body with the punch to put more power behind it, but even he could tell his inexperience was hurting him. Next were kicks, and it came out much worse than with his arms. While he was at least experienced in using his arms and hands for fighting, his feet were a whole new story. He understood the idea at least, kicking directly in front of him, swinging his leg out and forward, and even using his knee. Multiple times he hadn’t held himself correctly and his other foot went flying out from beneath him, and he’d fall right down to the ground onto his back. “You gotta be kidding me, it’s just a few kicks. It shouldn’t be this hard!” He exclaimed after the third time falling on his rump, but he got right back up and kept trying until he could feel a deep burn throughout his arms and legs. At least it got his mind off of the memories. That was, until the next part he wanted to keep in his training regimen.

[Terag]

At first were the memories: The day his father had taught him reimancy and initiated him into it. He clenched his fists as he remembered the pain as it wracked his body, how much he had wanted to just give up and give in to it. But no, he stayed awake for its entirety. He remembered the markings in the floor where he had grabbed the stone with his left hand, how deep the marks were only showed how much pain he had been in. He remembered the days of practicing with his father before heading to the forge. How strict he had been, and the disappointment in his eyes when Terag had decided enough was enough and told his father he wouldn’t do it anymore. They stopped having classes, but he never forgot that face. He shook his head to rid them of the memories, and instead tried to focus on a different one. A memory of when his mother had brought him to a building dedicated to Izurdin, and the music that he heard his people sing inside; a song he tried his best to repeat now. This time the song had a continuous flow, no strong evident beat. He often preferred to think about this sort of music, the kind one might hear in some of the different homes devoted to gods, when he began to channel the res within his body. It helped him remember this it was more about being a continuous flow of control before it took the shape of the elements, rather than just a short burst of energy all the way through. He outstretched his hands, palms down, and focused on expelling res out and into the ground. It left his body as a white, ethereal, mist and floated down toward the ground. There it seeped into the dirt, and spread out around Terag. Once he was satisfied he pushed the res deeper before pulling back up, bringing the stones in the ground up with it. ‘Attracting the elements is much easier than creating,’ he remembered his father say in one lecture. So through this he pulled the stones up until they pierced through the earth around him. He rotated his wrists to face his hands together, and brought them together slowly. With them came the stone, condensing on a single point in front of him. The stone collapsed in on itself until it formed a rough sphere of rock, and when Terag brought his hands close to his body the sphere came close as well. With a strong thrust of his hand, after opening his eyes, the sphere was sent flying towards a thick oak in front of him. He watched as the sphere left his control and went flying through the air, crashing against the oak and shattering back into its original pieces with one stuck into the tree itself. The sapping of his strength was already obvious, he had never really practiced reimancy except for the basics with his father. Already he could almost hear the sweet voices, ‘something a mage must always avoid’ his father said. “One more, I have to get stronger. Better. I need perfection.” He grit his teeth and raise only his left hand, palm up. In the space above his hand he expelled more res, and with it he could feel more of his strength fading, and he kept condensing the ethereal mist. Finally he had a palm sized stone in his hand. It wasn’t a perfect sphere like he had imagined, more like a shapeless mass, but it was there. As he stared at it, he only felt the desire to work it more. ‘You must make it perfect!’, he swear he heard a voice in his head say as he kept looking. If it hadn’t been that his father taught him to avoid strange voices in his head Terag probably would have just taken it as his personal desire and kept going. “Sweet whispers right? I can’t… Wow I forgot how bad I end up wanting to keep going though…”, using every ounce of willpower he had he tossed the stone, throwing it deep into the woods. Of course it wasn't actually the sweet whispers he had been told about when he was younger, it was just his own desire this time. He was being too paranoid for his own good - but at least with magic it seemed better to be paranoid than keep going. “That’s it, I’m done…”, and he finally looked up as he spoke. He couldn’t see the sun anymore, probably only a few more bells until dusk. “I guess it’s time to go wash up and relax huh?”, with that he walked off, passing by his spear and yanking it from the tree it was stuck in and passed by the first stone he had set up that day. He just followed the sound of the river from there.

[Terag]

He went deeper into the woods, using the sounds of the river to guide him to his destination. A few chimes later he got to the edge of the water, as it hadn’t been too far from the clearing. It also helped that he had his spear with him to steady himself as he walked over the mess of roots in some places or to push low hanging branches out of the way. After taking a short moment to look around and ensuring that there was nothing around, or at least nothing he had to worry about, he began to strip. First he took off his pants, then his shirt, and then his undergarments; all of which were folded neatly and set atop a rather large root. Against the trunk of the tree he left his spear leaning against it. And then with nothing else, he walked into the water. It was cold against his skin as he walked deeper into the water, but it was refreshing after a hard day of training. The water was a little higher than waist deep when he reached the center of the river, and he dived under so he was completely submerged. Under the water he opened his eyes since the water had been nearly crystal clear. He even attempted to swim up the current; to catch some fish that had swum away from him was he dived under the water but to no avail. In a short moment his already used muscles were beginning to burn, and he had to surface for both air and to plant his feet on the bottom of the river so he wouldn’t drift away. It was refreshing though, and he stayed in the water for a few chimes more before walking back out of the river and taking a seat in the grass right in the center of a ray of sunshine that was peaking between the leaves. It wouldn’t be long until it started to get darker, but for now he just enjoyed the warmth of the sun and let it help him dry off as he just sat there and thought things over about his life so far and his plans for the future. He thought about the house he would want to build one day, or at least some general ideas he’d like for it. He wasn’t too sure yet if he really wanted to stay out in this world or go back home and make a living there. He also thought about the possibility of having a family, he had always imagined that it would be an isurian woman he would marry but his short time above ground was already beginning to change some of his ideas. Humans weren’t as bad as he had thought, and the same went for the other races that he had met. What if he ended up with one of them? The thought confused him for a long time, why would he even think about that? Back home they wouldn’t really approve of the relationship, and he remembered a few stories about half-isurians and how poorly they were treated sometimes. No, that wouldn’t be what he’d put his children through if they were half-isurians. He shook his head and stood up, walking back to the tree to grab his clothes and dress himself before the thoughts continued on. Taking the spear in hand he made his way back to the clearing easily enough, and walked on through to the other rock he had placed that was supposed to lead him home. Unfortunately he had misjudged which way he had come through after walking around the clearing, and so after only a few chimes he was already lost. Each tree looked the same to him, and with the sun beginning to fall he had to move fast. Trusting that he would at least know the general direction when he placed the rock he headed straight, following the straightest path he could take through the woods. It took many long chimes before he finally broke through the woods, and to his surprise in front of him was the wall of the city. The sun was beginning to set but at least he could see the wall, and he followed it until he reached one of the gates to the city, getting in just in time as nighttime fell. “Well that could have been bad… I’m going to have to have some sort of better marking system to make my way back next time…”

[Sayana]

Terag Skills: Skill EXP Observation +4 Stealth +1 Land Navigation +2 Singing +3 Weapon: Short spear +2 Unarmed Combat +1 Tactics +1 Bodybuilding +2 Acrobatics +1 Reimancy +1 Swimming +1 Planning +1 Lores: First birthday alone Stealth: Trying to appear less noticeable in a crowd Land Navigation: Using rocks to indicate which trail was used Singing: Open mouth wide for better quality Short spear: Basic throw Basic Punches: Forward jab, wide hook, upper cut Basic Kicks: Front kick, forwards swing, using knee Reimancy: Attracting elements is easier than creating them Reimancy: Throwing a stone Sweet whispers: Tempting to keep on going Comments : Nice training thread. I also really enjoyed his thoughts about his future such as where he’d like to build a home and start a family. Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request in the grade request thread. However, make sure to keep the link so that the DS can review graded threads with ease. If you have any questions or concerns about your grade please feel free to send me a message (like really, I’m all ears if you feel like I missed something). Enjoy.