Nature's Best Friend [Apprentice Training. Druidism]

[Kayla]

First of Immanis, Winter. Era XVI PF.

It felt fresh to start the first day of the first month of the new season off with classes. Something about it made Kayla feel like she'd just gotten out of a shower. She remembered when she'd had her first Druidism classes, so much had changed since then and yet some things had stayed the same. She was still a follower of Kaimelea and Carmelya. She still had a love for animals. And she still felt the need to protect the balance of nature.

Kayla realized that at times it might seem that she was more of a Carmelya worshipper, being a druid such as her. But Kaimelea was the one who opened up these possibilities for her. If she hadn't gotten those dreams that lead her to Demios none of what she had now would be hers. She might still have been back in the streets of Jaedaxia, struggling to get by. So even though she more often served for the cause of Carmelya, Kaimelea was still her mother deity. The Planetar of dreams was still one of her strongest faiths. Some said that you couldn't split your faith between multiple gods, but Kayla had a strong connection with Air'rielle, the creator of her people, Carmelya, the protector of nature, and Kaimelea, the keeper of dreams.

But who she worshipped or not was her business and Kayla was never quick to preach to others or flaunt about her religion. Those things were personal and best kept private. But her study of arcana was different. This was one aspect of her character that Kayla had no problem in showing. It wasn't something evil like Necromancy or untrustworthy like Mysticism. No, Druidism was for the most part a peaceful art mostly used to protect and heal. She was proud to be a druid and proved so everyday in her shop where she'd give people druidic help by healing them, putting their minds at a serene ease helping to tame pets and more. Kayla loved being a druid and like anyone else who loved what they did, she sought out more knowledge.

Today she came to the familiar door she'd so frequently passed through in the past and opened it once more. Stepping in she wondered what Professor Oakenfingers had waiting for her.

[Catalyst]

As before, Kayla found the room full of mist, and wandering through it, she arrived at a glade in the forest. Kell Oakenfingers sat underneath the bole of a massive Oak tree, eating a large sandwich. When he saw Kayla he put it back inside a picnic style basket and wiped his hands, which looked to be entirely clean, on the front of his shirt.

"Ah! Kayla! It is a pleasure to see you again. So few mages make it to Apprentice, but I had a feeling about you. Come, sit down." He gestured to a wide flat root that projected out of the tree next to him.

"As before, we shall start with an unbinding, which shall increase your ability to access your vis. Unlike last time it we know that we will succeed, as you've already proven yourself to be a competent mage. I do not usually rush things, but we might as well advance past this stage. It is quite fatiguing and we can save our chatting until you are recuperating. Are you ready? Good."

Kell produced a large blanket from the basket, and spread it on the ground for Kayla to lie down on. For a moment nothing happened. Then a strong gust of wind blew through the glade, tugging at Kayla's soul, and all at once her world seemed to expand. Almost immediately, she fell asleep and began to dream.

OOC: Time for an unbinding dream! Have fun.

[Kayla]

oocthese dreams don't have to be completely about the arcana do they? :O

She greeted her professor and laid down on the blanket. Within seconds she'd passed onto a different reality.

"Wake up, dear. Sweetheart, we will be late."

Kayla knew that voice. Long had it been since she'd heard it but this was a voice the young gypsy would never forget. It was smooth and serene running through lips that showed on a classically beautiful face. Kayla's eyes opened to look up at this face. The face of her mother.

Warm brown eyes looked down on Kayla's hazel orbs. "Darling, please hurry. Your grandmother awaits us back in the city and she will not see you if you are dressed this way"

Pushing herself up from the colorful bedroll she was wrapped in, Kayla yawned and turned to see herself in the reflection of the mirror. Everything about this place seemed familiar. This was where she'd lived. This was her vardo, colorful and small with barely enough space for two bedrolls and a trunk. Everything was exactly as it had once been. Everything that is, but the mirror. This wasn't here before, this mirror was foreign and out of place. Framed with a mosaic of broken gems the diamond-shaped mirror stared back at Kayla with a different image she expected to see.

It was her, but it wasn't her now. The face of a young girl looked at Kayla. Thick brown hair and round cheeks, the same hair she still had but the cheeks that had flattened over the years.

"Honey, hurry up!" Talena's delicate hand pulled Kayla's nightgown over her head and replaced it with a lavender dress coated with white lace. "Put on those nice white shoes mommy got you last Summer."

Kayla followed her mother's orders but she didn't really think about doing so, her body acted on its own accord. Talena took Kayla's hand in her own and they left the vardo. A bright light consumed Kayla's vision and seconds later she was looking at large oaken doors. Her hand was still being held by her mother's. The doors swing open and reveal a long hallway ended by another wooden door. Her feet move forward, walking toward the other door, this one smaller but ornamented with a stained glass doorframe. The colors of the glass, though darkened by the lack of lighting, still glimmered ruby, emerald, topaz, sapphire and amethyst.

Through this door was another hallway, its walls covered in tapestries depicting scenes of faefolk dwelling in forests and sitting on flower petals. And through the door of this hallway was a large expansive room filled with luxurious furniture. In the center of the room was a love-seat in deep tone of green, so dark it almost looked black were it not for the faint light provided by the wall sconces and the crystal chandelier. Sitting on this seat was a woman clothed in a rich violet fabric accented with gold trimmings and black lace sleeves. Her hair was pure white and pulled up into an elegant style.

Kayla's hand was tugged forward and soon she and her mother were sitting on another love-seat opposite the already occupied one.

"And so it is this time of year once again." The woman's voice was aged and raspy betraying her true age. Her face although slightly fallen held few wrinkles, too few for the sound of her voice.

"Hello mother" Talena's voice could be heard. The older woman's eyebrow raised at the sound of that word, mother. She didn't seem completely satisfied with its sound.

"Ahh, and here is the child. Come to me, girl"

Talena placed a hand on Kayla's back and encouraged her forward.

"That man's blood runs deep in your veins, child. Hot-headed and unstable. Do not let your emotions ever compromise your poise." With a wave of the hand the matron dismissed the young girl.

"Do you need gold?"

"No, I did not come here to ask you for money. I came as your daughter asking for her mother's advice!"

"Do not get flustered with me! I have no patience for your outbursts of undisciplined emotion! Off with you, go back to that traveling circus you call home! And keep that child pure, let her not be anything like you!"

Tears fell from Talena's face, as they hit the ground Kayla could hear thunderclaps. Soon the tears grew, not only falling from her mother's face but from the ceiling as well. Kayla looked up but her eyes were not met with the sight of a chandelier or any such thing. Instead she saw sky, or rather clouds.

Her surroundings faded away to be replaced with a forestland and a pond where her legs stood. Around the pond odd colored stones circled the perimeter, purples, red, blues and greens. She looked down into the water, its surface continuously sprinkled with the dripping of the rain. But then, it stopped. The rain ceased to fall, instead it froze midair. Kayla blinked and the ponds surface was now free of any disturbances. Its smooth, flat surface mirrored Kayla's face. Not the face of a child but that of an adult. From within the water Kayla could see the ripples forming images.

A lotus flower, grew out of a stone. From its bloom music was played, wonderful calming music, the voice of an angel. The lotus's petals spread to reveal a baby in its center. Wrapped in a periwinkle blanket, the baby slept peacefully. A ripple changed the image.

She looked down on a young girl sleeping. A smile spread across Kayla's face

"Wake up sweetheart. Come on now, we must go."

The young girl moved under the covers. A laugh escaped Kayla's lips as she looked up. Up against the wall was a mirror. The same mirror as before with its jeweled lining. Then, all in her vision began to waver. Ripples made the images fade.



Her eyes blinked open, she was back. Kayla felt refreshed but couldn't discern how she felt. There was sorrow mingled with hope swimming around in her mind as Kayla laid there. After a few minutes she sat up and took a deep breath.

"Professor, do you believe dreams can show us things to come?"

[Catalyst]

Professor Kell had been sitting with his back against a tree, his eyes closed. It seemed that perhaps he was asleep, but when Kayla spoke, he answered with a voice that exuded great calmness, his eyes still closed.

"Yes, child. Especially here. Demios is the battle ground of Kaimelea and her sister Risthal. I believe that dreams are different here, and care a weight of fate. But you should neither despair or exult overly much in prophecy; the future is not yet written, and we can overcome our dooms and must protect or successes to see that they occur."

His eyes opened and he sat up. "I have brought you lunch, check the basket."

Inside Kayla would find a variety of sandwiches and cold pasta salads, as well as a jug of cold milk. As she ate, Kell explained how the class would go.

"You will find much similar to our last class. There are three techniques I will teach you, in addition to the apprentice spells. These techniques are magic circle, activation, and reshape spell. Have you heard of these techniques? Tell me what you know."

[Kayla]

As Kayla quietly nibbled on a tomato and basil sandwich she wondered if her teacher shared her faith. Could he also be one that held Kaimelea and Carmelya before other gods? She thanked him for the food and continued to nibble on the sandwich as she thought of what she knew of the things he spoke of.

"I know that the magic circles are used to prevent anything from entering, leaving or both in a certain zone. And activation, I think, is to unleash a spell that was already cast on an object or something. Reshaping spells and mana would be... well, exactly how it sounds, right? Like to use the essence that has already been cast and mold it to do something along the lines of a spell you know already.

I have a very strong interest in magic circles, though. I'd love to know more about them in detail."

As she began to listen, Kayla went back to taking small bites of her sandwich. The dream had taken a lot out of her and she knew she'd need to have her energies about her.

[Catalyst]

Kell smiled. "You are essentially correct. It is nice to have a student who pays attention to the road ahead in their studies. In actuality, the magic circle prevents arcana and physical movement only one way across a barrier. You can achieve a two-way effect by putting one circle inside another. At your level you will be able to make a circle that allows air, sound, and light across, although when you advance you will be able to restrict whatever you wish."

"Activation allows you to use items that have been imbued or enchanted with a spell. It's really quite straight forwards."

"You are entirely correct about 'reshape,' it allows you to reuse mana that has already generated. There is another use for this ability though. It can be used to take two existing spells of one level below your own and combine them into one spell. This is rather dangerous and I don't recommend you try it until you've had some practice."

"Well this brighening we shall go easily, since you have been unbound and are no doubt tired. Try casting the spell "warp wood" upon that log over there. You will find it similar and yet more fatiguing than a lower level spell."

[Kayla]

"Professor, how high does the reach of a magic circle go? For example, if you are outside and you create one, would the barrier be like a dome around you, a closed cylinder or forever rising upwards?" Kayla could just imagine all the incidents that could go wrong with a forever running invisible barrier. Birds flying into it was her main concern. "And also, if I am inside this circle and it is set to not letting anything in, but I have left my shoe on the other side. My arm can still reach out of the circle but will the shoe be able to enter it? Would my arm be able to get back in?"

The melting of two spells together caught Kayla's interest. She knew it was dangerous but that didn't really faze her. As she remembered, she had consecutively cast several spells one right after the other in her first session of training without even thinking of the dangers. But still, she'd listen to her teacher and refrain from trying it until her hold on arcana was firmer. For now at least.

Kayla had heard of a druidess in Enamoria who had a business like her own. The gypsy had heard of this woman soon after she'd opened her shop of druidic services and of how wonderful her skill in reshaping wood into objects and trinkets had been. With this in mind Kayla moved towards the log. She placed her hands just above the log and took a deep breath. Accessing her clara was familiar to her but she'd never cast this spell before so focus was probably best.

She was quiet for a few minutes before casting the spell, gathering her energies. Then, as she let out her breath, she cast the spell. Her goal was to bend the wood inwards so that it would resemble a chair while keeping the rustic look of the bark.

[Catalyst]

"Good questions!" replied Kell. "The magic force may be in the shape of a dome or a sphere, but it does not continue up forever. If you reached out of the field to retrieve a shoe you would not be able to draw your arm back, or bring the shoe in."

As it turned out, molding a chair out of a log was a bit ambitious for a first try at the spell. The wood moved sluggishly and did not seem to want to hold its shape, but with effort Kayla was able to make something that was quite definitely a chair, although it was not exactly a thing of beauty.

"Very good!" said Kell. "With practice it will be easier. That will be all for today, you should go home and rest, and tomorrow we will be more ambitious."

Kayla arrived home exhausted to find that a handful of tents had been erected in front of her house. The tents were made of animal hide and pegged down with rough cord of a fiber she did not immediately recognize.

[Kayla]

A bit disappointed at the results she got, Kayla's face fell a little. It wasn't exactly how she'd imagined it would look but at least it was somewhat of a seat. ....I'm going to have to work on that....

She thanked Kel for the food and his time and bid him goodbye until the next brightening.

On her way home Kayla thought back to her dream. What was it trying to say? Would she have a daughter one day? Was her grandmother still alive? Maybe this was a message for her to return to Jaedaxia. I'll go soon, it's been too long anyway.

Kayla was just thinking about where exactly she'd be staying once she'd reached the chilly city when her feet reached their destination. But something was different. I don't normally have tents just standing there... do I? No, I'm sure I don't.

With a curious but wary mind Kayla neared the tents. She couldn't see her larger pets but that didn't worry Kayla as they often wandered about. She could, however, see the rich green eyes of her alicat as it watched from the branch of a nearby tree. As she approached the tents Kayla spoke up.

"Umm... can I help you?" she said as she looked into on of the tents.

[Catalyst]

The thick hide of the tents allowed very little light through, and when she opened the tent flap it was at first hard to see what was within. Then a face appeared in the opening, squinting and blinking in the sunlight. It was Seckle, the hobgoblin who had adopted Kayla some time ago.

"We come." She said. "The Tribe is hungry, you are the leader, you lead us for raid."

A small hobgoblin appeared behind Seckle and looked at Kayla from around her leg. She extended a small arm, handing a small tightly woven mat to Kayla.

[Kayla]

When Seckle's face showed through Kayla was surprised, to say the least. She had hardly forgotten about the hobgoblins but the druid still hadn't figured out how to deal with that situation. What was she supposed to do with a tribe of hungry and ready to fight hobgoblins on her yard? What did I get myself into?

"You want me to lead you on a raid? A raid of what? Demios?!" her brow crinkled as she looked at the smaller hobgoblin. "Why didn't you just go into Weaver's Wood, I'm sure there is enough sources of meat there to feed you all. Or perhaps you wish to eat fruits and vegetables? I can definitely help there."

She wasn't confident of the hobgoblins wanting to feed on vegetation but even if there was a small chance that they would she'd have hope. Kayla couldn't raid the city where she lived in, the city where her friends lived in. She couldn't just go lead a group of hungry fighters to take away the food from other people's mouths, people who worked for that food. But neither could she go into the woods and slaughter innocent animals.

[Catalyst]

Seckle frowned and shook her head. "No!" she said emphatically. "Raid humans is bad luck. We raid on the Troglodytes of the mountain, they do not avenge their dead." The Hobgoblin moved away from the tent flap and back deeper into the darkness of the tent.

"We sleep now, talk when the darkness comes."

From one of the other tents, the sound of chanting could be heard, although the language was not one Kayla understood. The chanter was obviously male, and someone was playing a small drum in accompaniment.

[Kayla]

Oh, good. At least they didn't want her to lead an attack on her own city. Troglodytes... Kayla had heard of them, the humanoid creatures that lived by the mountains. She'd heard stories about how horrible and monstrous they were but never paid any attention to them, passing them off as local folklore.

Troglodyte or not, a raid is a raid. The hobgoblins should learn to earn their own food. If it is vegetables they want then they could farm. If it is meat that the seek then they could herd animals and breed them. Soon these Troglodytes would strike back, and then what would they do?

But Kayla didn't voice her thoughts. She might be their leader but she wasn't one of them. She didn't think they way they thought and she didn't feel the way they felt. So instead of instilling a new way of life in these beings that might not even want it, Kayla just agreed to do things their way.

She wasn't the biggest fan of violence but somethings had to be done. And she was after all responsible for these people and she'd do everything in her power to help them out.

"Okay, then we raid the Troglodytes. I will until you are ready" she pointed to the greenery underneath the shop and then began to walk in its direction. The chanting was uncomfortable to hear. People shouldn't be motivated by violence. Or perhaps they are thinking of the food rather than the combat.

First Kayla went upstairs to the shop and came back down with a book. She made her way back to underneath the shelter and sat down with back against a large terra-cotta pot and the opened book in her lap. It was the encyclopedia that had been given to her by her herbalism teacher in Jaedaxia, Madame Adelie. She opened the book to wear a piece of ribbon had already marked the page. Kayla had been skimming the book whenever she found the time and a couple of brightenings ago she found a very interesting chapter. Mandragora.

"Imagine that, plant children who can be used in druglike hallucinogens or curatives. They can go good or bad. Plants are so often so much like people. I do wonder what it would be like to get my hands on a mandrake. One day I will."

After a minute or two, Kayla went inside the house. Better to be prepared and wait for them than to having them wait on me. Off came the dress and sandals and on went her green tunic. Above that she wore a leather vest, leather pants and boots to match. Over it all she had a ragged woolen cloak to keep away the cold and help her blend in to the shadows. Once she was ready, Kayla came back outside and sat by her front step.

Jade, her alicat, flew down from the tree and sat herself down on Kayla's knees. Running her hands over the feline's fur, Kayla began to meditate. Her focus was the sound of the wind with its swaying and blowing.

[Catalyst]

OOC: We don't have to do that hobgoblin stuff now, I just thought you should now they're still around.

Tiredness overtook Kayla. The unbinding was more taxing than she had supposed, and after a time she awoke, her face pressed against her book. The sunlight streamed in through her window, and Kayla could see that it was now morning, and she had slept the night. A hobgoblin child sat on her lawn in the shade of a tree, examining an apple suspiciously.

Before long it would be time for Kayla's Druidism lesson, and she would have to hurry to be ready.

[Kayla]

Kayla awoke with a jolt and caught herself drooling on the cover of her book. Quickly wiping the volume and rolling her eyes Kayla looked around, yawning. It was morning. Damn. As the supposed leader of the hobgoblins she should have lead them in that raid. It was what should have been correct. But how would a human lead hobgoblins in battle? It just seemed wrong and out of place. She was still their leader despite her lack of knowledge of their people and complete dismissal of the leadership quality one would assume to be necessary when heading a large group of creatures.

What did this mean? Were they always going to start using her yard as these meeting point before something happened? This might cause some inconvenience. What would her neighbors think? True, she didn't really have many neighbors in her area. She'd chosen this place on purpose for its lack of action. She was probably closer to Weaver's Wood than most would like to live but Kayla enjoyed the encroaching wildlife. Until now. She'd have to figure something out with these hobgoblins, she couldn't go on waiting to be surprised by a mob of goblins waiting at her doorstep. There had to be some organization in this whole 'leader business'.

She stood up and shed her vest. Too much leather made her feel uncomfortable but she didn't have time to go in and change her pants. Plus, the green tunic seemed much more druidic than the leather vest. Kayla stood up and began walking briskly to her classes, which she might just be late to if she didn't hurry. On her way she patted the hobgoblin youth on the head and yelled out as she left, "Try it, its good!"