Training by the Lake (Rivers, Serenity)

[Rivers]

The spear grew until Serenity would be able to feel the cold very acutely over her palm and arm. It began to take the form and shape that she was envisioning in her mind it the picture, Serenity showed excellent image clarity though Rivers noted it took her a bit. Then he smiled at the thought given the fact he couldn't even do what she was doing, what right did he have to critique, in truth Serenity had a lot more potential as a mage than he did.

He is broken form his thoughts by Roxanne's question and he shakes his head. "No, I can't use mana for any but the most basic spells. I'd say the light spell is the upper limit of my magical talent." He admits, though that statement seemed strange as he stood naturally several feet in the air.

"My tunnels and wind magic don't use mana." he explains.

[Roxanne]

Roxanne continued to watch Serenity's progress. She had a lot of potential and was picking this up quickly. Perhaps she'd find fire equally as easy, though she still had a ways to go before she'd be a competent mage of any sort. She gave Rivers a strange look as he admitted he couldn't use mana, watching as he stood on the air above the ground. "How are you doing that then? How else would your tunnel and wind magic work?" she asked, curiously. The idea of magic without mana was quite baffling to her, as strange as the idea of a place that had none at all such as Serenity's 'Earth'.

[Serenity Caine]

Serenity saw and felt the spear above her palm. She was proud to have made it as far as she had, but the spear didn’t fly into the flames like she’d hoped. She looked back and forth at Rivers. Seeing as she didn’t fully understand mana, his inability to use it didn’t confuse her as much as Roxy. She felt both their eyes on her from time to time, and for the first time in a while, noticed that Rivers wasn’t even on the ground. She let out a breath and blinked twice. She turned her body once more to face the flames Roxy created. She moved her palm out, pointing towards the flames, willing it to shoot away from her.

[Rivers]

Rivers opens his mouth to respond to Roxanne's question when suddenly the spear of ice fires from Serenity's palm out at the fire on the lake. Rivers suddenly begins clapping nods his head. "That was a good one. it looks like you are getting the hang of this. Though as fair warning, as with the sword, the boring part of practice begins now. You need to practice casting the spell until you no longer of conscious of how you go about it. If casting a spell is not second nature then it is difficult to rely on it in a time of genuine desperation." He explains, then descends to the ground and walks towards Serenity, arms spread wide.

"But if you practice then I am sure you will achieve great things." He insists, a broad smile playing across his face as he watches the redhead.

Once everything dies down he shifts gears to respond to Roxanne's question. "You said you wanted to know how I use my magic, promises and talent. I was born with the tunnels I do not know why they exist or the finer points of how they theoretically work. As for the wind magic, let's just say the wind and I have an understanding." He explains then returns his attention to Serenity to see what would happen next.

[Roxanne]

As Serenity's ice spear suddenly shoots across the lake, Roxanne makes a convenient target with her fire, still playing around. She claps along with Rivers, smiling warmly at the other redhead. "That was very good!" she says, listening as Rivers then instructs Serenity to more practice and nodding in agreement. That was the best way to get familiar with it. By the time this was over, the new mage would be physically sore and mentally exhausted from the two different types of training. "Out of the three of us, I think Serenity's made the most progress and gotten the most out of today," she said thoughtfully, setting up some more fire targets. They were basically just large circles that would be rather hard to miss.

As Rivers replies to her question, she thinks on it for a moment. He spoke of the wind as if it were a living thing, almost. "That's an interesting story, I'm sure," she says, smiling, "I can understand being born with something like that but the wind understanding? That's different." Roxanne stretches again, enjoying the water on her bare feet. After a moment her wings and tail appear, the former dipping into the water as well causing more ripples in the lake as she stretches out her wings briefly to their full length. Satisfied, the half demon splays out on the ground, wings still outstretched and one arm under her head for support.

[Serenity Caine]

Serenity jumped up, thrilled the spear left her grasp. She’d done it! She whirled around and saw Rivers coming towards her with open arms, telling her she needed to keep practicing what she’d done to get better at it— she understood that, but she was so happy at what she’d done, that she skipped over to him, and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

I can’t believe I did it! She released him, but before stepping away, and pecked his cheek, her face absolutely glowing with self pride. She turned to Roxy, and nodded her thanks at both of the statements. She had both of them to thank later for her progress.

After a deep breath, and shaking out her body to relax again, Serenity sat back down on the grass, starting all over again. She could hear the words they spoke, but she wasn’t paying close enough attention to understand the context in that moment.

[Rivers]

As Roxanne makes the targets and then mentioned Serenity is making the most progress today. He smirks, it was true and at this rate she might reach the level where she could defend herself at some point in the next week or two which on the whole was quite impressive. As she suddenly flings herself into his arms and hugs him Rivers looks a bit startled, but he takes it in stride and grin at her after she pecks him on the cheek.

“You did well.” He says simply, feeling that anything more would diminish the meaning behind the words.

After the moment passes he turns to Rox and asks. “Are those targets going to remain even if you start doing something else?” He asks her curiously. “I would like to go another round of sparring with abilities this time.” He suggests as he walks back over towards the water.

“Serenity you should keep working at it and try to hit targets with the ice spears.” He suggests, then after thinking for a minute he decides, “to commemorate your accomplishment tonight I will cook something fancy, we can pop open a nice bottle of wine and I will tell a tale.” He announces, moving back to the pile of practice weapons.

[Roxanne]

Roxanne looks up to Rivers as he asks her about the fire targets and another sparring, her lavender eyes immediately sparking with the challenge. She stands, brushing herself off with a simple flap of her wings and makes a gesture towards Rivers. A tiny flame materializes at his feet growing and changing into what soon resembles a squirrel, which then proceeds to scamper up Rivers, circling his middle, nuzzling his cheek and finally settling on his head. He would notice that instead of burning, the tiny flame creature instead was simply warm and even tickled a bit. The targets on the lake remained unchanged and Roxanne grinned, laughing. She reached over with her tail and picked up the wooden sword from before, tossing it in the air and catching it a moment later. "I could be up for another round, if you are," she said.

As Rivers mentioned a dinner, Roxanne nodded. "That sounds appropriate and quite wonderful. Serenity has made a lot of progress and certainly deserves the treat," she agreed, looking over to the other red head and smiling.

[Serenity Caine]

Serenity peeked an eye open, watching as Roxanne used fire magic. It was so cute, and fun that she lost focus entirely and turned her body to watch completely.

That is adorable Miss. Roxy! A tinkling laugh escaped her as she watched, utterly enthused. She glanced at Rivers when he mentioned dinner, and offered a wide smile.

I would be honoured to attend. Thank you. She looked at them both kindly before turning back to the lake and the fire targets set up before her.

[Rivers]

Rivers laughs a bit as the squirrel nuzzles him. He had to admit this was an impressive trick, but he found himself wanting to mess with it. As he raised his hand a light wind picked up and then began to focus on the squirrel. The fan of the squirrel's flames was large and the small creature grew several times larger.

Rivers grinned at the two girls and bowed. Though as Roxanne picked up the weapon and prepared for battle Rivers stepped back onto the air, preparing himself.

[Roxanne]

Roxanne grinned as Rivers made her squirrel larger by feeding its flames with his winds. She readied herself as he stepped up onto the air, hovering over the ground with her wings as well. This was bound to be an interesting match.

The three of them would continue to train and practice into the afternoon until they were all tired. Serenity made the most progress of all, with Roxanne and River coming out only with some added soreness and a few new bruises from their matches.