Fall 46 114
Caelum left his house and started to stroll down the path, passing the markets. Even with the brewing dark clouds overhead, it was genuinely beautiful place to live. He continued walking for miles until he eventually came to a stream and he followed it around a bend. At last, he caught sight of it - the clump of trees concealing his clearing was situated directly across the river.
Caelum arrived at the clearing's edge after a quick fly and stroll through the trees. Strolling among the trees, he arrived at the pond's edge and took a seat to consider what he wanted to try out first. "Let's see," he thought to himself, laughing. He knew he needed to work on his fire breathing but, where to start?
"I could start with something that seems pretty simple - making birds out of hard light - but what's the real fun in that?"
He'd seen his mother do it to entertain him as a young dragon. They hardly even been able to light up a dark cave. She'd also been able to make a concentrated beam of light. THAT was quite powerful. "No, no, I should start out easy… I know…"
Caelum got up and remembered the method his mother had taught him. Caelum looked around, and found a fallen tree to the left of the pond, just what he needed. He dragged a piece of tree away for the dead mass and buried it in the sand close to the pond.
He stopped as soon as he had completed using the log and started to concentrate. "Fire" he thought as he slowly brought imagined the thing bursting into flames. He thought about the entire forest going up in flames which made his throat feel burning hot!
Even though there was a little bit of flame, it wasn't really living up to what he'd wanted to do. With a sigh, he attempted to identify his mistakes. Then it dawned on him that his mother had inhaled deeply and exhaled continuously through his mouth. With restored confidence, Caelum went back to work. He built up his emotions once again. He started feeling his energy rising, intensifying, and building in his upper body. The energy now grew, concentrating even more inside his chest. He roared, sensing the technique was ready as he felt that familiar spark, the knowledge that he was, in fact, a dragon.
He quickly brought his hand to his mouth and took a deep breath, feeling as though a wave of air was passing over his throat and burning his lungs to the point where they felt as though they were about to catch fire. He exhaled, concentrating on maintaining a constant breathing pattern, and then all of a sudden he let go. The air shot out of his lungs and into his mouth, steaming hot against the clean fresh air. He felt the breath touch his hand and then saw the searing flame shoot straight out of it! Holding his breath, he watched as the fire spread, igniting the log in front of him and shooting hot ripples across the smooth surface of the pond.
He kept exhaling, expelling air from his lungs one breath at a time, sending a blast of heat out of his mouth and hand. He discovered abruptly that he had run out of air and was unable to release any more fire. Caelum gasped for air as the stream abruptly stopped. He then proceeded to refill his empty lungs. His accomplishment made him smile, and when he looked up, he saw that the log in front of him was still blazing hot from the superheated breath that had brought it to this state.
Caelum sat to catch his breath, winded by his attempt. He closed his eyes and thought back to another one of his mother's teachings. He remember fire erupting from her mouth and covering the area in front of her as Caelum watched. Less than a second later, the fire shot forward and the stream had turned to hardlight. The light took the shape of a dragon itself. The dragon mimed a roar as it expanded and shot forward, growing to larger proportions.
It was a display of skill, skill that he had never demonstrated. Caelum started by removing his cloak and setting his weapon down on the muddy ground. He then covered the weapon that was sitting there with his cloak. He closed his eyes and started to concentrate.
He could feel the energy inside him starting to take shape as he started to focus. Saol seemed to be coiling around on his insides, close to his stomach, deep down.
"Dragon," he uttered as he thought as his surge of energy grew larger. He felt as though he had a roaring, twisting mass of energy in his stomach.
"Dragon," he uttered once more. He could feel saol in his stomach racing up through his throat and into his lungs.
"Dragon" He felt the necessary burst of energy as he pictured a dragon in his mind. He could feel the fire blazing in his lungs and throat as they came together.
Remaining focused, he pulled himself back and inhaled deeply. Putting his hand in a cup, he held it to his mouth and let go, causing his breath to shoot forward in a thin stream of light. It was so hot that it started to well up in front of him. The stream of light started to advance and take shape transforming into a very ugly and misshapen dragon as it did so, and after it had gone about ten meters, I crashed into the earth and sputtered out.
Feeling a sense of pride for having achieved so much in a short period of time, Caelum refocused and prepared his energy for additional attempts at the technique. He was god awful at shaping hardlight, but 'throwing' something so large was surely going to be dangerous.
Caelum started to form the movements again, trying to figure out what went wrong that the dragon he produced was so small. He concentrated for a brief period of time, allowing his energy to expand inside of him, wondering if he had not used enough energy. He could sense it thrashing wildly inside of him, waiting for a way out—a way Caelum would make sure took the shape of a huge, raging dragon!
Caelum took shape again and started to take the steps to build up his energy once more. It was easier this time. He cried out as he felt the recognizable energy spark take on its final form and turned to the sky. He roared just before inhaling deeply and fully. Feeling his lungs expand and grow larger than he had imagined, he concentrated on breathing in as much air as he could!
He put his hand to his mouth and stuffed as much air as he could into his lungs without popping them. It was as if the air inside him was expanding and itched to burst forth in all of its roiling splendor. He finally let go, blowing the stream of light into a single, fast-moving pillar of power, unable to let it mix with his energy any longer without setting it ablaze.
The air in front of him erupted into flames, taking a moment to cool down before accelerating forward and expanding rapidly. That wasn't what he wanted. He focused and stopped emitting flames and switched back to light. When the light finally started to take shape, a massive, misshapen blob shot forward and rose high into the air as the surrounding air rushed away, becoming extremely hot due to the light's searing heat. Caelum, willing to destroy his target, willed it to crash into the nearby pond as it was flying. The massive blob roared like a thousand furnaces, bellowing and hissing as it moved before crashing into the pond.
In contrast to before, the light blob continued onward, colliding with the water and ejecting massive waves and hot steam that were heightened by the heat from the hardened and hot light. The technique came to an end when the last of the blob sank, leaving a turbulent wake of rushing water and rising steam in its wake.
Caelum rested and then started searching his surroundings for potential targets when he came across a lone tree about twenty meters away from the others, close to the west edge of the clearing. He took his cloak and weapon and threw them up to rest on his shoulder as he crossed the clearing, deciding it would be best not to risk making a large fire again. When he got to the edge of what he thought to be the "safe zone" surrounding the tree, he carefully covered its edge with his coat and replanted his weapon in the ground.
Caelum stood up straight, his legs shoulder-width apart, and set about concentrating. Using the techniques he had learned in his weapon training, he turned his attention inward, reaching within to discover inner serenity. He felt the energy start its regular job of circling around inside of him and pushing him to direct it as it slowly mixed and formed. It was an actual component of his being, his power and instrument. He forced the energy to swirl around, increasing its "density" within him as he focused even more.
He could feel the heat radiating from him as he opened his eyes. His lungs were like a furnace inside, twisted and twisted with a wicked hot energy. He felt at last that he was ready, and as he inhaled, he focused forward, pressing inward on the energy. His target, that lone tree that was only a simple skeleton of its former greatness, was sitting in front of him.
His imagination caused the tree's limbs to gradually give the appearance of arms, the trunk of a torso, and legs, and the general aesthetic of a vokhai, a hunter. He was a vicious creature who took great pleasure in killing humans.
Something within the energy Caelum had created shifted. Rather than expanding as it usually would against his lungs, it seemed as though it had a single goal in mind - to ruin Caelum's perception of the man in front of him. With his body drawn back, he inhaled deeply, forcing air into his lungs for the first time. It caused his chest to swell, and he could feel the fire blazing up his throat and pulsing through his lungs. The dragon roared, opening its mouth as it shot forward, slithering fire through the air and twisting and contorting. The fire coming from his mouth changed color as he blew harder and forced more energy out of himself. It started out red, turned orange, then yellow, and finally, as it flew, it turned a scorching bright white, giving him strength and a brightness akin to the sun.
Caelum's heart skipped a beat as the flames shot forward, appearing to suddenly veer away from its intended target. After all that, he'd missed, but only slightly. The edges of his attack had still hit the tree to some degree. As the fire started to fade, the white began to change back to yellow, then orange, then red, and finally vanished into a puff of smoke. The smoke was blown away by an abrupt gust of wind, exposing the damage Caelum had caused.
The once-majestic tree had vanished, having allowed itself to rot over the years following its passing. All that was left was a blackened, scorched patch on the ground, and a few handfuls of ash that blew across the dry, cracked mud that ran along the ground close to the scorch. He walked right over to where the tree used to be and slept on top of it.
Caelum tried to roll over when he woke up early in the morning and tried to fall back asleep. He turned over again and rubbed his arms, which had become a little numb from the cool air. He had trained a lot in the past few days. Caelum wanted to take a day off to reset his internal clock. As he looked up at the sky into the morning twilight, he silently muttered to himself, "I hope I don't get used to getting up at this hour." He could already see some aelves wandering around and going about their morning business – they'd probably be asleep soon.
Getting out of "bed", he started stretching after realizing he wouldn't be able to sleep even if he wanted to. He slowly pulled his clothes over his chilly body, and minutes passed. He saw his reflection in a nearby pond, his eyes still a little bloodshot from the restless night's sleep.
Caelum left the clearing and made his way through the forest. He bent over to investigate the tiny glint he had just noticed in the mud. At that moment, he slipped into the water as the muddy bank beneath his feet gave way. Caelum hit the pond face first, his mouth filling with murky water as he stopped breathing. He slowly got to his feet, using his arm to right himself, and spit the water from his mouth in a stream.
He suddenly had a memory from years ago of one of his human teachers teachers trying to make his students laugh by spraying water on a nearby window using Aqua. He wondered what that would be like – to have a different metaphor swirling inside him. And water, not fire, being the end product.
