Fall 45, 114
Finally, the time had come for Caelum to start his training. He knew that in order to avoid bringing up certain issues related to his past he needed to practice alone, away from other people. Caelum made his decision at this particular moment for a straightforward reason - after weeks of searching, he had finally located a place where he could practice and become an expert in his craft alone, without interruption. It was on the edge of the firelands and the dense forest. Far from where most aelves lived, but he imagined that there were probably some in the area.
He had often learned new techniques on his own, so he knew this would be challenging, but this time it would be different. He was certain that he would become an expert in his own skills by himself in this gloomy, isolated location. His only issue at the moment was that he was lying spread out in the lush grass because he was at a loss as to where to begin.
He was aware that he needed to gain more proficiency with fire since his innate aptitude and skill for fire always supported it. It was similar to how he had first learned how to use his breath weapon in different ways, but even back when he was a dragonling, his mother had provided him with guidance.
A thought flashed through his mind, and he smirked to himself, "Hmm..." Even though his mother had never taught him how to do anything fancy, it didn't mean he had never seen it. Remembering from a past experience, his mother had used an example that Caelum found quite helpful in understanding the inherent weaknesses in different types of energy when compared to each other. The method his teacher had demonstrated for him was quite easy. a fast series of movements followed by opening his mouth to create a tiny ball of flame that he shot into a puddle of water right away.
He strained his memory, trying to recall more details. He was able to recall the movements his mother had made but not the order. With a shrug, he decided to go with his gut feeling and started meticulously going through a dance of sorts.
He put both hands together, thinking. He raised his left foot as he moved it around to the ground. He could already feel the power of his body focusing as it formed this one position, drawing it in around him and starting to flow through him. Doing movements were known to boost the power of one's spells.
He went through a few more motions then stood on all fours much like a dragon would. He took a moment to gather his thoughts before opening his mouth but to his dismay, nothing happened other than a sharp pang of failure that caused his energy to fragment, his concentration to falter.
After gathering himself, he started the process over again, this time carefully going through the motions as he finished with a roar. This time, he felt no reaction to his surroundings as he pushed forward through the air. Even before he roared, he sensed that something had connected within. As the saol moved within him, he felt a burning sensation and the raw power of his fiery passion surge through. "RAWR" he let out as he exerted all of his strength and felt the hot air as well as see the fire forming and igniting in front of his mouth.
He saw it, much to his surprise and encouragement, as a tiny ball of fire shot out of his mouth and flew several yards before smoldering in the muggy air. Caelum braced himself for another attempt, hoping to solve the problem with a single, small modification to the entire technique, knowing he was getting close to the desired outcome.
Once more, he started preparing another go. Finally, with as much emotion as he could muster, he opened his jaw, and to his great surprise, a much larger ball of fire, nearly one foot in diameter, flew from his mouth and careened off for about seven yards before striking a rotting tree that was struck and scorched by the fireball.
Caelum watched as the tree started to wobble and eventually topple over, confirming his suspicions that he had actually caused some damage with the small projectile. He thought to himself, "Might as well try it a few more times while I'm so pumped up," and grinned to himself as he started to move some more…
In a matter of minutes, Caelum had gone from hopeful to excited to ecstatic after his success. He went into a zone where he thought he could do anything at this point, even attempting to launch a rapid-style attack with multiple firebolts! To his dismay, streams of fire have a tendency to do one thing exceptionally well - start fires! The line of trees that was just five yards ahead of him had caught fire! Even though the fire wasn't particularly dangerous by conventional measures, the rapidly dispersing smoke from the decaying wood made it difficult to hide his safe haven.
Caelum sat on the ground, trying to calm himself, and considered his options. It was not spreading, but the fire was a little too big to put out with cups of water from his flask, and he would have preferred to put an immediate stop to the smoky show.
Now frustrated at his lack of ability to use Aqua magic, he thought to himself. At last, he recalled an idea that just might work. He flew up into the air and tried to channel his energy into his mouth. He then started raining down fire to more quickly burn the trees and dried wood that was lying around. The fire flared, but soon smoke covered the surrounding area.
Caelum, scarcely inclined for shenanigans, remained elevated while attempting to gather his thoughts. He had very few "great" experiences with trying to put out fires, but in this instance, he was not only familiar with killing fire by starving it of air. Now, all he needed to do was make sure the fire had nothing left to eat, and the small fire in front of him would undoubtedly go out!
Caelum composed his thoughts and concentrated on monitoring the flames. He focused his energy by putting his hands together then throwing them to each side. He became focused when he opened his mouth and he gradually felt his energy start to expand.
He pulled his lips apart, roared, and closed his right hand over his right pointer and middle finger with his left hand to help direct the flames. He felt his energy spike as he started to blow.
He felt the energy within burst, turning some more dried wood to ash so the fire couldn't spread.
Thinking to himself, he willed the smoke to rise, raise it up, and suffocate. He could see steam slowly rising slowly from the muddy puddles all around him, going higher and higher, until at last his firefighting attempt was over
Inhaling deeply, he brought himself back to the moment. He thought slowly, calmly, serenely, like a cloud. The water above him slowly evaporated as it broke apart and spread high into the air. Not spectacular by any means, but an incredible triumph nonetheless! He pivoted, sensing its gentle touch on his face and shoulders.
The mist stopped after about thirty seconds as he glanced at the slowly dying fire.
A passing aelf wasn't so entertained by his attempt. They looked at him annoyedly and stepped forwards to help stop the fire from spreading further, just to be sure. Bringing his hands together, the aelf reached deep within himself, fusing his energies into a flow Goku couldn't even comprehend.
The aelf pushed the energy past the mud puddles and all the way to the stream's edge behind the trees as he felt it pour out of him. Leaning over it and extracting it from the river itself, he groaned under the weight of moving so much water. As Goku watched, amazingly, a small stream about a foot in diameter started to flow up from the stream, causing the stream's level to drop.
The aelf continued to dig and felt his energy dwindle, drawing on his inner strength to lift the weighty water surrounding him. Feeling that the water from the a puddle far behind him was starting to fly up and join the center point of the streams, he pushed what he had gathered farther, not content with what he had so far.
He knew he was getting close, so he pulled it harder and harder for a few seconds. His focus shifted from drawing up water to dispersing the mass of water that was forming above, as he expertly prevented it from simply flooding onto the ground. He grunted, aware that he had to be fluid with his motions.
Caelum dropped to his feet and wondered when the aelf would actually use the water to put out the fire, then he realized that he'd already done a lot of work. The aelf had wettened the surrounding foliage to make it harder to catch fire. He waited for a few more minutes, not understanding what was going on.
It was finally beginning to drizzle a little. The rain came down hard at first, smothering the fire completely and quickly washing away the surrounding ground as it rushed. As the stream pulsed with its replenished reserves, the area surrounding him surged. It rained for minutes. Caelum was lying on the ground now, enjoying the cool water. He hadn't realized how badly his body had been aching to just relax.
The aelf gave him a sour look before leaving. Caelum didn't know what to think. He thought he had that fire under control, but he could see how an aelf might think he was being a little too dangerous. More proud of himself than ever, Caelum fell asleep quietly as the rain started to lessen, returning to a light drizzle that was soon followed by the same earlier sunny sky.
