Completed [Fire Challenge] Learning To Dance With Fire III

[Tazrae]

Timestamp: 85th of Winter, 521 A.V.

Continued From: Learning To Play With Fire II

“We all need a change of pace and new hobbies at times, Taz. I hope this brings you joy and helps you practice your magic. I find Firedancing incredibly therapeutic and relaxing. I think you’ll love it too.” Rainmere added, smiling at the other woman.

“Thank you for helping me… for doing this. Now… are there some techniques for swinging the poi?” She asked, curious. She wanted to dive right in and get started.

Rainmere laughed. “How about I use burning Poi and you practice with the weighted ones designed to teach Firedancers how to dance?” She suggested, indicating the other set of poi that she hadn’t touched yet. Taz walked over, picked them up, and gave them a bounce up and down as if testing their weight.

She nodded, grasping one in each hand, and gave it a practice swing. It hit her straight in the belly. She grunted, groaned, and Rainmere laughed. “That’s why you aren’t using burning poi yet. Though I want you to concentrate while you use yours unlit on keeping mine lit.” She said, throwing Tazrae a challenging grin

Taz bowed her head, concentrating, and sent a breath of her sunset-colored Res over towards Rainmere. The shimmering Res formed a shell around the poi as Rainmere held them out to her, their current fire burning low due to the Res running out. Once the Res had recoated them and lit, they burned happily as Tazrae moved to begin swinging her poi again.

“Now… how do I do this?” Taz asked, fumbling with the poi awkwardly.

“Loosen your shoulders. The action should all be in your hands and your wrists at this point. Stand tall with your back straight but relaxed. Feed spread apart but not wide… only about shoulder blade length apart. I want you to visualize four walls around yourself, and you swing the poi to line up with the walls. For example… here… I’m swinging them as if I am standing in a hallway… and they align with the walls on either side of me… invisible walls. I can swing them together…. Both going the same direction or I can swing them one going forward, one going backward… I can do that together in tandem or opposite.. with one being up when the other is down. So, think of it right now as forward, backward, together, or the opposite. You can swing them both together… both forwards, both backward, or forward and backward at the same time…. both together or opposite at the same time. Those are your eight primary directions.” Rainmere instructed, demonstrating as she did so. It was nearly full dark now, so the burning poi was beautiful in the dark.

Taz had to keep concentrating on what she was doing to make them spin how she wanted. That was challenging also keeping Rainmere’s poi lit.

“When you want to change directions, slow the twist of your wrist, bring one slowly forwards, only a half-circle not a full circle, then swing it backward with a snap of your wrist picking up speed.” She said, showing Taz how to change directions with them.

[Tazrae]

The poi Taz had and was using didn’t actually have a bottle brush metal apparatus called a wick on the end. The ones Rainmere did. Taz knew that was for dipping in the fuel and keeping fumes in the air for burning. Her plain weighted balls were easier on her when she smacked herself a few times trying to change directions. She didn’t always spin them ‘in the hallway’ position. Rainmere showed her how to move them so she could trace the line of wall as if she were in an invisible square box, so she could have both going in front of her forwards, backwards, and opposite, to the right side the same three directions, behind her those three directions as well, and of course on the other side of her. The poi could be moving together in multiple ways… but the swinging on either side was the safest and easiest for a beginner.

“Taz… think of the poi as a prop. There are many kinds of props in firedancing. We use staffs, sticks, and poi mostly, but there are even burning hoops and a whole lot of creative things out there. You aren’t here learning to spin a prop around your body. Don’t think of it that way. You are learning how to extend the normal motions of your body by using a prop. You are creating a relationship with the prop, in this case the poi, that will become the firedance. The poi must be an extension of yourself.” Rainmere stepped away, stopped spinning her poi, and just started rocking it back and forth with her body motions, coming up on her toes, and rocking back on her heels as she was casually swinging the poi back and forth. It was mesmerizing after dark because she was creating elegant streaming arcs of light off her arms.

“That’s beautiful.” She said, stopping to adjust the multi-toned glittering sunset Res on the poi Rainmere was utilizing.

She sent more to them to keep them lit, having burned off most of it already. Taz was starting to see Res like the lamp oil fuel that Rainmere had brought. If there was nothing for the fire to catch and burn, like logs, then the Res eventually burned up and the fire snuffed out. But she kept it going, concentrating, trying to hear and understand Rainmere’s words at the same time.

“Now, your turn. Swing your poi back and forth with your whole body.. .use your shoulders, your arms, even your wrist now… like you are pendulum on a clock. Keep the poi moving slowly parallel to the ground arching back and forth, rising up then changing directions at your chest level to fall back on either side of you and arching up falling back behind you… like a pendulum. This is called side stalling.” Rainmere showed her, and Taz obliged, trying it with her unlit burning weighted balls.

It wasn’t hard… not at all. And once she thought of the poi and their tethered chains as an extension of her body, she moved better, easier, and the balls didn’t jerk as hard nor as much. The simple motions were easy to control and soon Tazrae found herself smiling and relaxed. The movement came from her beltline, where Buraga called her core center. And it was awkward to just move one, so she naturally began moving both of them.

Rainmere smiled her approval.

[Tazrae]

“Just feel the motions, Tazrae. Don’t overthink it. The more you just relax and swing the poi, the more you will teach your muscles and incorporate the motions into muscle memory and the better of a firedancer you will be.” Rainmere added, still moving the poi she had like a pendulum. Her motions were much smoother, elegant, compared to Tazraes, but the Innkeeper didn’t care. She was having fun.

Rainmere’s poi snuffed out suddenly and Taz cursed softly under her breath.

The Innkeeper paused a moment and Rainmere shook her head. “No, keep moving. Light them while you keep yours in motion.” She called sharply. Taz muttered, inhaling and exhaling deeply to build her Res again, then she breathed out as Rainmere held her poi out, coating them with the sunset-colored Res again. Taz lit them with a thought.

Rainmere nodded. “Good.”

Then grinned devilishly. “Keep them lit.” She ordered as Taz kept her own unlit poi moving. “Side to side with your pendulums, Taz. Forward and back. Keep them moving and practice changing directions.” The Firedancer called, as Taz did change directions and kept the smoothness of the poi’s motion going. She was building up a sweat now, as she sent even more Res over to the Firedancers moving poi. It was hard, hitting an object with Res, lighting it on fire, or keeping it burning. It was far easier keeping the moving poi rocking around her smoothly.

“The idea, Taz, is to not use enough energy so the poi jerk. You use just enough to keep them moving smoothly. Keep thinking of them as an extension of your body. Keep them moving with minimal energy and they will be smoother. And work on them both together, and both individually. You’ll need to know how to spin one forwards and one backward, switch directions, feel them both for the right moment to do so, that sort of thing." Rainmere said, watching Tazrae carefully.

"Once you get used to the pendulum back and forth, add in one complete turn, then stop it and go back immediately to the pendulum. You’ll know how much force or energy to add to them and to the flick of your wrist as you add in one turn. Then go back to control… control being the pendulum. Once you can add in one turn and go back to the pendulum… do a few more pendulums, and then add in a backward complete turn… circling the poi up and over just once before you go back to control. Feel how your chest responds." The Firedancer instructed.

"When you are doing a pendulum forward and backward, you can open your chest up a bit and close it, adding to the shift of energy in your body.” Rainmere instructed, then watched with a critical eye as Taz started to do what she asked, copying her motions, even as Rainmere’s poi went out.

Taz groaned, but managed to follow Rainmere’s instructions both forwards and back adding in one circle to moving the poi in the pendulum motion before she went back to her ‘control’ and while she was still swinging the poi, send more res over to Rainmere’s poi and lit them up again.

Ugh!

This wasn’t easy, Taz decided, but it had taken her mind completely off of her problems and she’d spent the better part of a bell as of right now, not thinking about the Tenday or what had happened there or who she’d killed.

[Tazrae]

“Now… thanks for the relight.” Rainmere grinned and moved into the next task.

Taz focused on keeping the sunset-tinted Res burning, and then produced more to send to Rainmere's poi when they started to burn low. It was an endless process, and Taz was starting to think using actual lamp oil, even thinned out, would be easier. Practicing the magic alone was exhausting... but coupling it with learning a new skill was going to have her sleeping through the night without nightmares.


The Innkeeper turned her attention back to the Firedancer.

“We want to go back and forth… one controlled pendulum, one full circle on the way to the pendulum, and then back, one controlled circle the opposite way, and back to the pendulum…. Forwards, circle, back, circle, each time you circle it should be going a different way. Good good… you got it.” Rainmere said as Taz copied her actions.

“It gets harder from here. Now that you have the forward pendulum, circle pendulum, back pendulum circle, pendulum… I want you to start slowly turning in a circle as you do that… don’t lock your body in one place. Be aware of the poi, where they are, and keep moving with them, sending them in a circle with you as you do the individual motions.” Rainmere demonstrated and Taz followed suit.

It actually wasn’t hard moving with the poi, continuing the rhythmic motion. She was comfortable with it, using the right amount of energy, and then managed to relight Rainmere’s poi without pausing. She received a pleasing smile from Rainmere who then changed it up, having her circle the poi opposite of each other as she continued circling with the pendulum motion and the circle in the center.

“Gods.” She breathed, almost panting, as she kept it up.

Rainmere soon called a halt, asked Taz to refuel her Poi with res, and began what Taz decided was a new chapter of the lesson. “There are four directions you can move the poi. They are… forward same time….” She demonstrated as Rainmere showed Taz the directions.

“Forwards split time…” That was a bit trickier. One poi was exactly half around an invisible circle they were tracing before Rainmere set the other one moving so they seemingly were opposite of each other as they spun… or one was half a circle behind. Taz would have had a hard time explaining it without Rainmere demonstrating. But she understood.

Taz sent more djed over to Rainmere’s poi and added a bit as well to the torches and lanterns causing them to flare up nicely for a moment as they were refueled. The lanterns didn’t take as much res because Taz had oil in them keeping them lit… but the pesky sea breeze that was wafting about was teasing the torches and threatening to blow some out. The res augmentation made them burn stronger and kept the two women well-lit as they played with the poi.

“There’s reverse same time, and reverse split time…” Rainmere said, urging her newest student to follow along with her unlit weighted poi. Tazrae gladly did so picking up this lesson easily. Rainmere continued. “Those can be done with two planes. Planes are imaginary angles all around you… math…” She said with a grin.

“If you imagine the hallway I spoke of before…..” Rainmere gestured, and Taz could see her standing in a hallway swinging the poi parallel to each wall. “Swing the poi between you and the hallway walls… keeping them straight up and down… don’t let them rock side to side... if they do they will burn you. Think of them as a wagon wheel coming off your body… keep the wheel straight up and down.” She said, swinging and gesturing with her poi for Taz to do the same thing.

Taz did so, copying her.

[Tazrae]

“Now, you have four wall planes… front, right side, back, and left side…. You can swing them in front of you on the front plane… like a shield…. On the front you can do one direction same time…. one direction split time….” She added, and Taz, picking up suddenly on what she was doing nodded and kept her poi copying Rainmere’s.

“Opposite direction same time… opposite direction split time….” She said, suddenly reversing the spin of the poi…. first matching the spins then making one poi lag so it was opposite the other one at all times. Taz understood, and copied the motion, her transitions jerky but following Rainmere’s.

Taz’s arms were starting to ache a little as she exhaled more of her purple bluish Res and sent it straight over to recoat Rainmere’s poi. The poi didn’t even flicker this time as they kept burning. She was getting more used to doing this, normalizing the burn. “Taz… learn these directions. That’s your first baby steps as a Firedancer. Once you master these, we can move on and I can teach you some other moves that will improve your Firedance.” Rainmere nodded, then brought her poi to a halt.

“Snuff them, Taz.” Taz did so with a thought, willing the ignited Res to pull back and stop burning. What was left drifted off, harmlessly dissipating into the air around the poi.

Rainmere sat down on the blanket, well away from Taz, and let her practice. “Show me what you’ve learned.” She added, and let Taz show her.

Taz ran through the directions, sometimes beautifully, sometimes awkwardly. Her pendulum was smooth, so too was the circle in the pendulum… but then she’d taken quite a bit of time practicing at that as she did so. Her moves using the planes were more awkward, especially split time, which was harder to do than the same time.

Even though she was relaxing on the blanket, Rainmere was still calling directions. “Ease up on the energy. It’s only when you go too fast you’ll hit yourself… ease off the energy… you aren’t running, you’re walking… “ She called…then seemed to think of something.

“Do something deliberately wrong and hit yourself. Get used to hitting yourself… and what you do to cause yourself a blow. Then don’t do it… jerky motions, unbalanced stances, wrong turns…. that’s not what you need. Smooth and easy… that’s how you do it.” Rainmere said, calling directions, then called a halt.

Taz stopped, set down the weighted poi, and stretched without them. Rainmere held out her own wicked poi. “Ready for some fire?” She asked, once Taz had a bit of a break and had taken a pull from her waterskin and caught her breath.

Words: 2,755

Continued In: Learning To Dance With Fire IV

[Tazrae]

Grading

Tazrae -

Firedancing +5, Reimancy +5, Interrogation +1, Acrobatics +2, Endurance +4

FD: Swinging Practice Poi, Reimancy: Keeping Poi Lit While Swinging Them, FD: Start With Weighted Poi Not Burning Poi, Reimancy: Keeping A Distant Fire Burning, FD: How To Swing Poi, FD: How To Visualize Walls, FD: Four Cardinal Directions, FD: Swinging Forward, Backwards, Opposite, FD: Eight Primary Poi Swing Directions, FD: How To Change Directions, FD: Types of Props, FD: Creating Relationships With Props, FD: Poi Extension Of One’s Body, FD: Move From Center Core, FD: Teaching Muscles Memory, FD: Use Enough Energy The Poi Move But Don’t Jerk, FD: Forwards Split-Time, Backwards Split-Time, Forwards Same Time, Backwards Same-Time, FD: The Imaginary Planes, FD: Opposite Direction Same Time, Opposite Direction Split Time, FD: Avoiding Self-Inflicted Blows