Summer 4, 122
Caelum had woken up with the idea of learning how to make some simple bandages out of leaves. He wanted to be able to fashion a bandage out of the materials around him if he ever needed to. Caelum focused on seeding the palm of his hands with saol. He grew a leaf then attempted to shape it into a strip. To his dismay, though, it continued to look like a normal leaf. It was much simpler to shape a branch, in his opinion, than a leaf because it was so delicate.
After a short while, he focused on forming it into a bandage. It appeared like a bandage when he looked at his results. The lack of stickiness was the only issue. He dipped the leaf in some water then concentrated on adding a great deal of saol to the leaf. The leaf was then shaped by him into a thicker, bandage-like strip. Flora then covered her arm with the bandage and offered an encouraging smile... But the bandage came off in a matter of seconds.
Caelum sighed and focused again creating another bandage out of a leaf. However, he was going to try to make it a lot longer so he could wrap it several times around Flora's arm. He re-immersed his hands in saol, adding more and more until it was ridiculously long. To get the bandage to stick to an arm, he also added a sticky ingredient. "I think I'm getting the hang of it."
After that, he bored of bandages and went back to his book of herbs and flipped through it. He saw a herb with branching, angular stems. It features light pink flowers and divided, green leaves, growing to a height of approximately three feet. Then there was another herb that was a tiny blooming plant with light green leaves and vivid yellow flowers. Most interestingly was a plant with egg shaped leaves with pink flowers.
The morning passed in blur as he studied the herbs. He could have spent all day studying but luckily Flora was there to keep him on track. She reminded him that he was supposed to do a bit of training too. He begrudgingly put down the book and got dressed to head outside. He was going to leave Flora behind, however.
"Tidy up while I'm gone. If you've extra time then feel free to enjoy your time elsewhere. Be back by midnight."
"As you wish, Master."
Caelum made his way outside, choosing to fly awkwardly up into the trees then from branch to branch. He didn't particularly enjoy flying nowadays, but he still made an effort to make sure that he could still fly. He'd considered learning another magic to help with flight many times, but he was always too busy trying to become a more competent druid. He eventually tired of the physical motions required of flight and decided to take a nap.
Caelum groaned as he opened his eyes. He was in a semi-level clearing, leaning against a small rock. With a few strands of residual fog hanging in the air, the sun was reflected by the damp grass. A short distance away from his position was an unmarked target, essentially nothing more than a stick buried in the ground covered in a shirt
He let out a deep breath and stood up, eyeing the target. It was exactly as he'd left it last time he'd been to this clearing. Raising his right hand, he muttered to himself, "Let's see if I've improved." He closed his eyes and focused, carefully aligning it so that his ring, middle, and index fingers were aimed at the target. He focused saol into his hands and began shaping wood. It twisted and bunched up… then he clenched his eyes shut and tried to flex his fingers to hit the target.
There was a loud crack... Nothing took place. He opened his eyes and looked at his hand, noticing the wood had splintered and cut his hand, but the saol he fed into it ensured that it was already healing. He noticed that the wood had indeed left his hand when he looked down. And landed a hair's breadth away. Slumping against the rock, he let out a frustrated growl as he considered what had gone wrong.
Returning his attention to his hand, he concentrated on growing the wood back before reevaluating his strategy. After making a few terrifying noises, he stood up and glared at the unhit target while scuffing his shoe in the dirt and growling again in frustration. He got up and examined each of the three wood shards that were lying on the ground.
Caelum lifted his left hand and examined his hand. Rubbing his jaw and biting the inside of his lip, he was lost in thought. "So, trying to shoot wood out of my body is not possible, or perhaps I'm doing things wrong." He let out a slow breath and closed his eyes to focus. Lifting his left hand once more, he directed the three fingers toward the object. He shaped wood into multiple pieces while focusing on them, but he tried to push them out rather than twisting them. He threw them this time, but they only dropped after a short distance. "Progress."
Caelum fixed his attention on his middle finger, putting his left hand in front of his face. When that didn't work, he tried the same thing again and got so angry that he punched the nearest tree. It didn't make him feel better. His left hand tensed in an angry way as he exclaimed, "Damnit!"
He aimed at the target once more and shut his eyes to focus. He held the wood in place by twiddling the muscles behind his middle finger until he felt that the tension was sufficient. Letting go of it caused the wood to fly through the air. Caelum smiled as he carefully lined up his left hand to aim at the target and stared it down. He tensed up again, twisting his muscles, then let go. It still wasn't anywhere near as strong as he wanted it, but he supposed he couldn't complain. It was impossible for him to control the wood once he stopped touching it.
Caelum shook his left hand, the tendons and nerves aching from constant twisting and releasing. He looked up at the setting sun, wincing as he used his left hand to push himself up off the ground. With a slight frown on his face, he murmured to himself, "I wish someone was here to teach me. Surely there's a better way of doing this." He moved to the line he'd marked in the ground, checking to make sure he'd grown the wood out of his left hand properly. Raising his right hand, he massaged his jaw. He grimaced at the thought of having to keep performing costly floramancy.
Showing off to a couple of aelves that passed by sleepily, he lifted his right index finger and gazed at it. The muscles on the inside of his finger were contorting as he grew some more wood out of his body. He pushed himself, wincing slightly at the pain, then let go of the tension as he threw it. His wood launched above the treeline and then fell back down, becoming embedded in the ground with a thud. He focused and regrew the wood, making sure it was in the right spot by flexing the finger. He nodded appreciatively and mentally noted it. "Gotta work on my aim." He scrutinized the "target," scowling at the comparatively small punctures he had made in the past.
He began by using his right hand, specifically the thumb. He brought it up to eye level, flattening it to the straightest humanly possible position. He quickly twisted some wood out of his finger to line it up with the target and held it there for a few seconds before throwing it with a loud grunt. He was not pleased when the wood whirled to the left and completely missed his target. Caelum scowled, not understanding why he had vanished. He tried again, the wood growing back. He held it, twisted his muscles, aimed, and let go.
"Missed."
He gave it another go, going a little slower this time, after the pain subsided and his thumb had returned to its normal state. He twisted his muscles carefully, careful not to make the same mistake twice. This time, when he let go, the wood embedded itself in the tree to his target's right.
"Master, someone came looking for you," Flora's voice called to him. Caelum appreciated the interrupting as he was starting to get frustrated.
"Who was it?"
"An aelf, Raenton. Said he wanted to ask you for a favor. I told him that Master was training but I would relay his message." She handed him a note with incredibly neat handwriting.
"Thank you, I'll see that this is attended to." He started back to his home.
"How was training, Master?"
"Let's not talk about it."
