Lessons Learnt [Magi_Monk & Erotica Maxima]

[Magi_monk]

Rain had begun to fall over the valley. Large, heavy droplets peppered the dark blue cloak that shrouded a young woman as she made her way along a deserted dirt lane. She paused, tucking the basket in her hand beneath the heavy fabric and tugging up her hood to conceal shoulder length dirty blonde hair. Only then did she continue on, winding her way through tall trees and deeper into the forest which she had called home for three months now. Ten minutes later, she stepped off the path and began to pick her way through the undergrowth, following a familiar yet unmarked trail. It wasn't long before she came upon a rather well kept hut, not doubt it had once been the home to a woodsman.


With home in sight, Fraya ran the last short distance, hurrying up the few short steps to take shelter beneath the porch. Despite her hood and cloak water had seeped through, dampening the simple vest beneath as well as her hair. Sweeping aside the heavy material the girl inspected the contents of her basket which had thankfully escaped the rain. Satisfied, she stepped into the dimly lit interior before pulling the door to, shutting the cold out.

Setting the basket down, the young woman unclasped her cloak and hung it carefully next to a darker, larger one. Her teacher was home or at least nearby. It had been sheer good fortune that the sorceress had passed through the hamlet that Fraya and her parents had called home for all her short years. She had shown affinity to magic from a young age and unaware of the dangers that such abilities could bring. In desperation, her mother had hidden her from sight, confining the girl to the safety of their farmhouse and the barn behind it. Not that this stopped Fraya, often she would sneak out into the forest that wound its way around her family's fields and spend hours exploring or exploring her talent. It was here that she had first come across her teacher, or more accurately that her teacher came across her.

The girl had hidden herself away in a small clearing, her back settled against the trunk of a large and ancient tree. About her danced ten or fifteen butterflies all of different colours and shapes, flitting back and forth in the rays of the sun. The slightest snap of a twig had startled the girl and the butterflies had vanished, dispersing into whisps of colour before disappearing completely. Fraya had only caught a glimpse of a shadow before she scrambled to her feet and fled, locking herself in her bedroom without a word of explanation to her mother. An hour later there had been a knock at the door and muffled voices in the kitchen. She herself had received very little explanation, only that it was safer for her to be with her own kind and here she was.

"I'm back, Ma'am. I managed to get everything you asked for." There were several rooms leading off the main living space, the nearest being the kitchen which Fraya stepped into and begun unpacking her basket. Bread, cheese, some cuts of meat, several bundles of herbs and so forth. The floorboards creaked further into the lodge and she paused in her task, turning to watch the doorway as a figure moved to stand within it.

 

[Erotica Maxima]

Life for Roselyn had been... interesting... to say the least. She seen the world, she'd tasted it's flavours, both the bitter and the sweet. She'd seen the most majestic of sights, as well as the most depraved, and yet, she would still be considered a 'young woman', if one were to look at her. In these lands though, any who looked upon her, would instantly thing she was some kind of dangerous foreigner that they had to keep their children from. It was rather interesting to see the different reactions she'd garner when she'd walk down a street without her hood raised.

There were many remarkable things about Roselyn, from her incredible talent with the arcane, to her overall intelligence, some would draw attention to her figure, and her skills of dance and song. All of this, in Roselyn's own opinion, paled in comparison to the strange way that she was still able to smile, and laugh, despite all she'd lived through. Being born as she was with the gifts that she had, she was destined from birth to be shunned by the people of the world. Magic was mistrusted, oft openly hated, or feared. In many Kingdoms, it was even outlawed, punishable by death. What those Kings and Queens didn't seem to realise though, was that Magic was something that was born into a person, not a skill that one learned. If one was meant for Magic, then there was little that could be done about it.

Roselyn had fled her home country, escaping the prosecution that her kind had suffered for so long, only to end up in something of a similar situation. This new, adopted home of hers, held similar beliefs about Magic, believing it a blight upon the good, honest, hardworking, superstitious, foolish, masses. They believed it an affront to nature, focusing on the evils of the past, rather than the good that could be done with it. She was happy to let them keep such notions, as this Kingdom was significantly more habitable than her home, simply because they did not take the hypocritical notion of using Magic to find and rout Magic. Without those that could track her from leagues away, it was a simple matter for Roselyn to keep away from towns, and not show her Magic in the open.

It was quite a lucky thing, as it was for this very reason, that she came upon the young woman who would become her protégé. She saw the young woman huddling within the roots of a grand tree, butterflies fluttering about her, but as soon as she was aware of Roselyn's approach, the butterflies, conjured constructs, vanished into the ether. Despite the seeming ease that the girl had cast the spell that had formed these little creatures, Roselyn knew that it was not as simple as she would have thought. It didn't take her long to track the girl to a small farm, and convince her parents to allow her to take her under her wing. They seemed to be desperate for an answer to the problem of the girl's magic, and seemed to thing that Roselyn could 'cure' her. She let them keep those notions, if the girl wanted her parents to understand, she could enlighten them when she was a master of her gifts.

Roselyn heard the closing door in another room, and knew that Fraya was home from gathering some foods. Roselyn preferred to let the girl do this, as she always seemed to cause a stir whenever she turned up in town. She had to admit, that her appearance was rather outlandish in these lands, despite how common it would be in her own lands. She smiled and stood, closing the book she was reading, and walked toward the kitchen, stopping at the doorway. She would be lying if she said she did not have ulterior motives for taking the young woman in, she thought, as her eyes roamed up and down her figure. She smiled, keeping the images and thoughts of Fraya at that particular moment, to herself, and stepped fully into the kitchen. "Wonderful... we can have a proper meal tonight while we practice. I'd have to say that it would be a welcome change, from wild onion soup and hard bread..." She said, the corner of her mouth twitching. It was one of the very few things that she knew how to cook confidently, mainly due to the difficulty of finding proper rations over the long journeys her life had lead her to take.

"I would have preferred to get some study in before supper, but the hour is drawing late, and I believe food in out stomachs would be a better comfort than incantations and magic at the moment." She said, standing next to Fraya, only a very slight difference in height between the two of them. She pressed her hands together, the light of a student addressing her teacher filling her eyes as she smiled, "Should I help you with dinner tonight? I'm sure I was getting better at... cutting things evenly..." She said, some of the air going out of her bubble. While she was masterful at her art, Roselyn was not exactly proficient in most other things. She wouldn't be abashed to say that Fraya paid her tutelage in the chores she did around the house for Roselyn.

 

[Magi_monk]

Fraya paused in unpacking her basket to unhook the coin purse from her belt and set it carefully before her guardian. The young woman was an honest soul, not a penny was spent that wasn't required and not one coin of change was absent from the pouch that now sat upon the table. With this done, she finished unloading her acquired purchases, setting them out neatly - a fresh piece of beef wrapped in brown paper, several carrots, a handful of potatoes, a turnip and two little bags containing salt and pepper. A warm smile spread across Fraya's lips as she dipped her head gently in agreement, "Of course, Ma'am. Perhaps you can chop the carrots and the potatoes into chunks about....." She held up her hand, indicating about an inch with finger and thumb, "...this big?"

The young woman was used to the daily chores necessary for a clean, tidy home and satisfied stomachs. In fact she rather enjoyed carrying them out, it was a means to repay Roselyn for her kindness and in some strange way sated the homesickness that occasionally crept up to choke her. Meals were concocted from memory for recipe books were useless to Fraya; the simple existence that she had had thus far had not required for her to learn to read, nor write. "I thought we might make a stew, it should last us a few days and will keep us warm..." As if on cue the rain lashed against the roof and shuttered windows, drenching the forest that surrounded them.

Leaving her tutor to begin cutting up the vegetables, Fraya crossed to the small fire place constructed of many small rounded stones to the side of which were several worn iron hooks at varying levels that could be swung out over the fire. First, upon her hands and knees, the young woman coaxed the fire back to life before placing a couple of logs in the hearth. Rising to her feet and dusting off her knees and hands inspecting Roselyn's handiwork. "I'm just going to collect some water, Ma'am." With that, the girl stooped to collect an empty bucket that sat in the corner and hurried out into the rain only to return a few minutes later laden with the weight of the collected water.

As Fraya prepared the stock and then proceeded to cut up the meat and remaining vegetables she filled her guardian in on the local news. Mostly it was mundane stuff, though it seemed to interest the young woman enough, but eventually she turned to more relevant information. "A woman was arrested in the last village we passed through, she was a healer... but they say she was a witch. The King's men took her away, up to the castle." She paused her, a small frown furrowing her brow as she brings the knife down a little harder than before. Certainly she had heard what happened to those who were discovered to have magic, but never about specific people. They had only been stories, dreamt up by her mother to keep her at home, to keep her careful - or at least that is what Fraya had assumed.

"But they say...she's just disappeared. No news of an execution, she's just vanished. One of the villagers said that that was the third one in so many months..." The young woman paused in her speaking, glancing at Roselyn out of the corner of her eye, awaiting her reaction to such news.