Patreon LogoYour support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)

The Miracle of Defiance (Starring Lorelai Dannehur and Erit of Eastcris)

He raised two fingers, "One," he wagged his middle finger, "I can tell by how awkwardly you say it that it's a problem. So call me Irasel if it's just us. Two," he wagged his index finger before folding his arms, "the answer to your question would be to not let yourself rely on reflex anymore, for anything. From now on, you will conduct yourself as a Sorceress. That means that you will always be in absolute control, and always be conscious of what you are doing. Your mind is a far greater weapon than all the world's armies combined. Or, rather, it will be once you come into your power or whenever I so invoke our contract. Now," he smiled and offered her another chocolate square, "shall we begin my darling Apprentice's reading lessons?"
 
Lorelai heaved a sigh as Irasel told her the solution to her problem would be not to let herself rely on her reflexes and replied, "I know that, the problem is I don't know how te train meself outta relyin' on them at all. I truly do wish te do as ye say, I just have no idea how te go about it. Um...d'ye by any chance have any advice or suggestions on how I could start?" Lorelai once again graciously accepted Irasel's offer of chocolate with a smile and a, "Thank ye kindly, Irasel." At the mention of reading lessons Lorelai's eyes lit up with excitement as she enthusiastically declared, "Oh yes, please!"
 
He couldn't help but laugh a little at the energy in her reaction, dismissing his cloak and Calling a few of the books from her shelf, which came floating in from her room and setting themselves down on a small table he'd conjured. "Now, then, Lorelai," he smiled at her and sat down, "let's teach you how to read, starting with your letters. This one..." He was a very determined teacher, taking everything one step at a time and only moving on to the next step when he knew she understood the last one. He began with the alphabet, of course, the ABCs as he'd learned them—which admittedly were a bit different from the current language, which had simplified itself amongst the commonfolk and nobility alike. But since, as a Sorceress, Lorelai would mainly be associating with Wizards—who preferred the archaic methods from Irasel's time since it allowed a sense of mystique in the handwriting—it would not be too large a problem. After the alphabet came the interesting rules to what sounds certain combinations of letters made, and the rules about them.

Her lessons carried them well through the day, in fact, to the extent that they were still working when an urgent, chaotic whispering reached his ears. His Treants were under attack. He paused his instruction and cast his awareness into the woods, finding where two of his Servants were being hacked at with woodsman's axes and set ablaze with thrown torches. The villagers, it seemed, had not taken kindly to murder in their town. "Oh dear," he muttered as he returned to himself, "it seems we may have trouble approaching."
 
Lorelai became instantly fascinated with the written word and how it was sounded out. Once Lorelai had the vowels figured out and what they were supposed to sound like in the words Irasel showed her, she was able to easily figure out what the rest of the letters spelled out in simple words like "duck" and "cake". Once they moved on to slightly longer words that had an unusual letter combination or vowels next to eachother that didn't make their usual sounds, Lorelai was even more intrigued as she tried figuring out exactly what a word was spelling out. In Lorelai's mind, deciphering the meanings of the letters was yet another attention-grabbing puzzle that Lorelai thoroughly enjoyed as she dearly loved puzzles. Soon Lorelai was correctly reading out words like "elephant" and knew the difference between "night" like the night sky and "knight" which was a castle guard. Lorelai gave Irasel a wide grin at her progress as she eagerly asked, "D'ye think I might be able te start readin' sentences soon?" So far they'd only been going through picture books that helped explain the basic structure of different words. She tilted her head to the side in polite confusion as Irasel seemed to trail off in the middle of an explanation. Her eyes widened in alarm as he mentioned trouble approaching and she uneasily asked, "Trouble, what sort o' trouble? Is there a basement I need te hide in? Is that the sort o' trouble yer talkin' about?"
 
He sighed and smiled at her, a tender but slightly exasperated smile. "How many times do I have to tell you that I will keep you safe?" He reached up and stroked her cheek with one of his hands, "Don't you fret a whit, Lorelai. I'm here now to shelter you from all the world's woes, and dote on you like a darling little princess. You just sit tight, I will handle this." He stood, then, and summoned up his cloak again; he liked to look impressive when so dealing with ruffians. Almost at a que, they came rushing up the hill with torches, pitchforks and kitchen knives, evidently seeking to lynch him. There were raucous cries of many kinds, ranging from the simple "Kill'em!" to a more pathetic wail about him eating babies. It was around this time that Irasel decided them beyond reasoning, the mob mentality of mere men had so tightly grappled the sanity of these men. So he raised his arms out to his sides, leaning his head back to gaze at the night sky, at the Crown in which rested the star of his heart, and sighed, a resigned frown taking up his expression.

And then the rioters started to die. A hail of white-blue flam poured from the clear sky, causing anyone struck by them to quite literally explode in a gout of flame and boiling blood. The earth at their feet exploded into shrapnel, tearing those caught in the blast into pieces. The very air was whipped into a frenzied expression of the Sorcerer's judgement, flinging this or that one to and fro, hoisting them into the sky to let them fall to their deaths, or simply manifesting in blades of raw wind to dismember them. There was a period of horrendous, hellish screaming while the simple farmfolk were decimated, and then came silence as Irasel lowered his arms and allowed the barest handful to escape alive. After that, he went back inside and, with a simple "Hold on tight," to his Apprentice, he pulled his humble house out of the earth with a rumbling and the shriek of old, gnarled roots being splintered. And then up, up they went, the house now soaring through the night sky in absolute silence. With a few small touches to the spell to ensure it wouldn't crash into anything, he turned back to Lorelai. "Now then," he smiled at her again, "where were we?"
 
Lorelai gave Irasel a sheepish smile in apology as he exasperatedly told her not to worry and he would keep her safe. "Sorry, Irasel. I believe ye, I really do. I guess in some ways I'm just still wrappin' me head around th' fact I'm livin' with an actual Sorcerer."

A few moments after Irasel left, Lorelai's face paled and she gave a terrified shriek as she saw what appeared to be blue fireballs falling from the sky outside the window. Lorelai knew Irasel was somehow behind it, but firmly believed he'd summoned up Armageddon and had gone way too far. Upon hearing the anguished screams of the dying rioters, Lorelai cowered under the table shaking like a leaf with her hands firmly clasped over her ears to shut out the horrible sound. She could actually feel the wind hitting the house from outside as it whipped around and Irasel used it as a weapon to tear into his enemies. The very ground seemed to shake as it exploded where the farmers had been standing.

Even after all the chaos outside finally settled and Irasel came back inside, Lorelai was so shaken from the destruction she'd seen and heard she couldn't bring herself to leave her little shelter under the table. Sure she trusted Irasel would always protect her. She was his treasured Apprentice, but what about those other people? Surely nobody deserved to die in so horrible a fashion! Lorelai was so disturbed by what had transpired and was so wrapped up in her own thoughts, she barely even noticed the house lifting off and sailing through the night sky like a very oddly shaped UFO.
 
He frowned slightly when she simply continued her trembling beneath the table. So he got down on his hands and knees, crawled up to the girl, and pulled her into him, holding her and petting her, whispering "Shhh, shhh, it's okay, it's okay" to his Apprentice until she stopped her shaking, whereupon he simply held her and decided to enjoy a brief snuggle with the frightened young woman he'd promised to protect, and whom he'd give everything she ever wanted at a word. He smiled at her and brushed a loose strand of curled red hair out of her green eyes, his own peering into them like amethysts into emeralds. He would keep it like that unless she pushed away. "Now, are you feeling better? Would you like a sweet to calm your nerves, maybe a story before bed?" He chuckled softly and conjured up a silver platter piled high with various forms of chocolate pastries and candies, picking out one in particular he knew would be filled with a minty paste, holding it between two fingers and holding it in front of her lips. He did not dwell on what he had just done; they might have harmed Lorelai. So, in his mind, they had deserved to die; they meddled in the affairs of a Sorcerer, and thus paid the price.
 
Irasel had a very calming effect on Lorelai and once again she found herself snuggling against him while she wrapped her arms around him in a hug as he held her. Once her shaking stopped, Lorelai was content to stay where she was since Irasel didn't seem to mind it. In response to his question if she felt any better Lorelai softly replied, "A little...but I don't understand, what made ye think ye had te kill all those people? They were only FARMERS fer pity's sake! What of their families they left back home, what'll happen te them now? And what o' the children whose parents both came here tonight? I know I heard at least two women in that crowd and it's not like a man te just stay home and watch the young'uns when there's a chance fer a fight. Ye didn't just punish their parents, in turn yer punishin' the children as well fer their parents' bad decisions! Who will look after them now? I don't see why ye couldn't have just put up a barrier around the house te keep everyone out." Lorelai was temporarily distracted from her urgent string of questions by Irasel waving a mint chocolate just in front of her mouth and Lorelai couldn't help but draw back a bit as she caught a whiff of it. "Um...nothin' with mint thank ye, I don't really like th' smell of it." In an effort to get herself back on track Lorelai shook her head as she protested, "Irasel, I really don't believe this is th' time fer chocolate! How can ye be so insensitive about this?! The only thing I want from ye right now are answers to me questions, if ye please." Despite being thoroughly upset with him over what he'd done, Lorelai hoped if she kept asking nicely Irasel might be more willing to give her an explanation which Lorelai felt she really needed right now.
 
He sighed, a mix of slight bemusement and mild exasperation, "Such a philosophical one, always wanting the why and the wherefore. Lorelai," he held her head close to his chest, curling himself up a little protectively around her, "there were thirty-six people in that crowd. Seven died out of all of them, and of those seven all were men of the age where their children can live without a father. I have more control over who lives and who dies than it might first appear, my dear." He replaced the mind, instead offering her a small cube with caramel in it. "I could have put up a barrier, certainly, but that would have made them think I was afraid of them. What happens when something else comes along that they don't like, something with less control? They had to be taught not to be so quick to strike at things clearly more powerful than they, or else they might well all get themselves killed." He smiled gently at Lorelai, taking a chocolate for himself and speaking after he finished it. "Do you understand, Apprentice? Sometimes, people must suffer to learn the most valuable lessons. The duty of a Sorcerer," he stroked her cheek with the backs of his well-manicured fingers, "and of a Sorceress is not to coddle humanity, but rather to let them experience the suffering they need to grow, while safeguarding against those forces which would lead to their doom." He truly did hope for her to understand; it would be her own duty soon enough, and besides that he didn't want her to hate him or be afraid of him.
 
Lorelai sighed in resignation as she grumbled, "Yeah...I understand. I don't like it, but I understand. I still think ye overdid it with the fireballs and whatnot though. Ye nearly scared me te death, I thought th' world was comin' to an end." After Lorelai had stated her opinion, she absently popped the chocolate caramel in her mouth. She found it pretty tasty as it strongly reminded her of a toffee she'd had the privilege of tasting once. Feeling rather tired from all the excitement, Lorelai stretched and and gave Irasel a hug and kissed his cheek before carefully crawling out from under the table. Once she stood to her full height, Lorelai stretched again as she announced, "It's late, so I think I'll have another bath before headin' off te bed. G'night, Irasel." After bidding Irasel goodnight, true to her word Lorelai went to take a nice relaxing bubble bath before getting ready for bed. Once she dried off and put on her bathrobe, Lorelai found a soft nightshirt and matching pajama bottoms to change into along with a night cap to help keep her hair from getting tangled while she slept. Now prepared for bed and a good night's rest, Lorelai got into bed and burrowed underneath the warm clean covers, promptly falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She was still completely oblivious to the fact the house was flying as she had been too rattled before to really pay much attention.
 
Himself, Irasel blinked slowly when Lorelai kissed his cheek, and was too poleaxed to reply as she bade him goodnight and closed her door behind her. After a long moment, he touched his fingertips to where she had kissed him, before transporting himself onto the roof of the house, where the chill night wind snapped at his cloak and blew his hair back away from his face. He stared at the stars, then. At the Crown. At Ea. He stared for longer than he'd ever stared before, his mind empty of all thought for the first time since he'd lain curled up against his Master, his head held against her bare, ample bosom as she sang him to sleep that night. And, slowly, a thought rose to the surface of the calm; a single word. Damn.

It was then that he decided he'd meditated long enough. He transported himself to his own bedroom, dismissing his cloak and transforming his clothes into more comfortable eveningwear, incinerating any dirt or grime on his person at the subatomic level. Then he laid down, pulling the covers over himself, and tried to go to sleep. Eventually, he succeeded, enjoying a dreamless sleep until dawn.

He awoke with the sun rising to the left of the house, thus shining directly into his room and Lorelai's below. He laid still for a moment, though, contemplating the significance of his Apprentice's actions the night before. And then he dismissed the notion, thinking he had simply let his ego get the better of him after flexing his power for the first time in a while; a single kiss on the cheek did not mean she felt for him as he had for his Master. It meant nothing. He continued to tell himself that as he rose and transformed his clothes from the eveningwear to the simple cotton clothing and cracked, brown leather boots he usually went in; because Irasel was capable of projecting his power without using it, he could lend himself the aura of majesty requisite to his position in any form of attire. Besides, he liked these clothes. After he changed, he went downstairs, summoning up a breakfast for Lorelai on the table next to her books. She'd probably awoken by now as well, so he called out as he descended the stairs, "Lorelai, your breakfast is on the table."
 
Lorelai was still somewhat half-asleep when she managed to pry herself out of bed the next morning. In response to Irasel kindly letting her know breakfast was ready, Lorelai gave a sleepy grunt before calling out in reply, "Thank'ee, I'll be in shortly." A corner of Lorelai's blanket had wound up wrapped around her ankle at her trying to get up, causing her to tumble out of bed as she made her way over to her closet and puzzled over what to wear for the day. She finally settled on a practical white long-sleeved shirt with a black vest that had a nice subtle embroidery pattern along the edges depicting budding flowers which still gave it a nice dressy look. After finding some light tan pants to wear, she paused in the middle of putting on the same boots she'd worn yesterday as she noticed a tree moving past her window. It took her a moment to register this was very unusual behavior for a tree since they usually remained stationary and walked over to the window to investigate further. Lorelai was jerked into full wakefulness as she realized the house was off the ground and moving at a good clip up in the air! As her eyes widened in amazed excitement Lorelai found herself giving an exclamation of, "Ehhh?!" Still clutching one boot in her hand, Lorelai hurried out to join Irasel as she asked, "Irasel, the house! How long has it been flyin'?! and where are we goin' exactly??"
 
He looked up at her with a curious expression that spoke volumes along the lines of "Is it that surprising?" before answering her question, returning to his book with "I set it up last night after the rioters ran off; didn't want to deal with that nastiness twice. At the moment, we're heading north, for Essenstadt; you were curious about dragons, were you not?" He smiled, holding out a hand and continuing before she panicked, "No, not drakon—those are the fire-breathing lizards everyone needs to fear—but actual dragons. Oh, sure, they can also breath fire, but they're capable of far greater magic than that. I also happen to be on very good terms with them; every Sorcerer since Thae Vania himself has." He smiled at her, thinking back to when he'd been taken to Essenstadt as an Apprentice. "If you're good, you might even be able to talk one of them into letting you ride for a while. Now eat your breakfast and we'll continue your reading lessons."
 
Lorelai's eyes grew round as saucers and her jaw dropped in complete awe at Irasel's statement. "Yer acquainted with real live dragons? I've heard stories about dragons, but I never knew they truly existed! Though I've heard plenty o' folk often tellin' about people they knew who have had unpleasant encounters with drakons." Lorelai sat down at her place at the table and started putting a little bit of everything on her plate while asking in curiosity, "So what are dragons really like? I hope they won't mind us ahowin' up unannounced in their territory like this."
 
He laughed a little at her question, marking his place in his book before setting it down on his desk—he'd just come to the part where the Archmage's Apprentice met with a Sorcerer, a handsome man with violet eyes and long, straight hair that shifted colors between night and day. A dear friend of his, that young girl had been—she'd even offered to be his wife, but Irasel liked a bit of playful power struggle in a relationship, sometimes getting his way and sometimes smiling and letting his partner have hers, and that girl was too sporadically volatile in her switching between domineering and conceding, always making it an actual battle for control rather than the flirty game the Sorcerer loved. He took a seat across the table from Lorelai as he answered her questions.

"Yes, I'm acquainted with actual, living, breathing dragons. Good friends with most of the ones in Essenstadt, actually, and a few of the dragonelles more talented at shapeshifting would have given their wings to accompany me as a lover, but dragons can be quite, erm... risky to dabble in that way. They have a very straightforward nature, you see, at least the younger ones do." He conjured up some wine and took a sip—he'd long since built up a nigh-on immunity to intoxication, much to his chagrin. Fortunately, a Sorcerer's power fizzled out when they didn't hold control, so a drunken Irasel was harmless as a kitten in terms of magic. "They're also quite a deal more intelligent and powerful than simple drakon, being capable of magic to make the Archmagus blush with just their instincts. They can communicate with most any creature with a social mentality, as well, though only the Aldari—dragons exceeding two hundred years of physical age—can actually speak. They enjoy several kinds of partial immortality, you see. Dragons cannot die by violence or disease; they simply live a thousand years and then they go to sleep before dying some time in the night, and they reincarnate as a hatchling, repleat with snippets of memory from all their past lives, a hundred years later. Very wise race, obviously—wise enough to know wisdom is better given when it isn't in the form of some archaic riddle, which is something Wizards never seem to catch on to—and very happy to divulge such wisdom. They happen to love company, as well," he smiled at his Apprentice as she ate, "so no, they'd welcome us with a good deal of enthusiasm. Just don't be upset if an Aldari blows smoke in your face or a hatchling pounces on you and starts nuzzling your chest; the former is a sign of affection, the latter a compliment of sorts because it means that hatchling would want to mate with you later in life." He chuckled, "But don't worry; they won't do anything more than flirt after that if you aren't interested." They were also wise enough to know that forcing attentions on someone was something far from worth whatever minute pleasures would be gained from it.
 
Lorelai was so astonished at Irasel's explanation she actually stopped eating just after she'd put her fork in her mouth, and there it stayed to the end of Irasel's discussion without Lorelai even realizing she was holding it there. Once he'd finished, Lorelai finally noticed her fork and slipped it out of her mouth while absently chewing a bite of scrambled egg she'd had on it. When her mouth was empty again Lorelai pondered thoughtfully, "They certainly sound like an interestin' race, I'd love te have th' chance te meet them." Lorelai gave Irasel a wide grin as he told her not to get upset if an older dragon breathed smoke in her face or one of the hatchlings pounced and nuzzled her. "No need te worry, little things like that don't set me off in the least. Now I know what te expect, I s'ppose I'll just have te make sure I'm already breathin' out if any smoke is blown in me face so I don't wind up chokin' by accident." Lorelai's face turned down in a slightly worried frown as she added, "Oh dear, now that I know th' meanin' behind the pounce and nuzzle, I wonder how I can break it to them I'd just like te be friends." She tilted her head to the side in curiosity as she asked one last question, "They certainly seem te have different ways o' expressin' themselves. How do they show they wish te be friends with someone?" While she patiently waited for answers to her questions, Lorelai finished off her breakfast and drained her glass of fruit juice.
 
He chuckled softly at her silly little worries. "A dragon will natter the ear off of it's friends—they communicate with each other by thought, so exchanges are typically quick as lightning; but don't worry, they can't read minds."

He picked his book back up, smiling at the long-dead Archmage's Apprentice's love for him, as he continued on absent-mindedly. "But don't worry; once they find out you're my Apprentice, and thus due to be the next Sorceress, they'll all back down a little. They'll still flirt, of course, and they'll follow you to the ends of the earth if you do declare interest, but dragons all are well aware that our kind are upfront about our wants; after all, if we want for some material item we simply flick our wrists and voici, there it is." He chuckled softly—the Apprentice had been caught peeking as the Sorcerer bathed, which Irasel had not done in a long time simply because he had not needed to relax in such a manner for a long time, and was now trying very hard to seduce him. "I remember," he muttered, "this girl was so shy, then, stammering and blushing and trying so hard to avoid eye contact. A pretty young thing, but as with all the rest she was a mortal." He'd taken her virginity that day, so long ago. And she'd followed him around for a few years, letting him enjoy her comforts when she felt submissive and trying to strong-arm him into marrying her otherwise, before finally settling down with a normal Wizard far to the west, bearing him many happy, gurgling children. Sometimes Irasel wondered if his philandering had left him with unknown descendants, but he doubted it; his hair and eye traits were a rare thing, a kind of benign genetic disorder, but when they manifested in a bloodline they never left it, always appearing in every child. Hyper-dominant to the point that they overtook any other genes that might affect those traits; a fitting mark for one so dominant that they could rewrite the laws of reality with a spare thought.
 
Lorelai gave a wide grin as she asked, "Will they be able te mentally communicate with us as well? I don't really think I'll mind the chatter. How long d'ye think it'll take us te get there?" Lorelai neatly stacked her used dishes in front of her on the table. Normally she would have washed them in a sink but didn't really see the point to doing so if Irasel was only going to make them disappear anyway along with the rest of the breakfast items Lorelai hadn't been able to finish off. As Lorelai's sharp hearing picked up on Irasel's mutterings, Lorelai couldn't help but wonder who the 'she' was he referred to. It didn't sound like Lorelai, that was for sure and certain. Lorelai couldn't figure out why another girl claiming Irasel's attention, no matter how long ago it had been, would bother her. It certainly couldn't be jealousy, Lorelai barely even knew the man and as far as she could tell he wasn't interested in courting her anyway. Lorelai mentally shook herself out of such thoughts and carefully placed her dishes aside on the table to make room for her books in the hopes she could find where they'd left off her reading lesson last night.
 
"Quite easily; and they understand the spoken word as well, their vocal chords are simply too undeveloped to speak. I want them to see us coming, so we'll be there sometime tomorrow."

After a while, the Sorcerer looked up from his book to see his Apprentice had finished eating. He marked his place again and set the book on his desk, the leftover food vanishing without him having taken a bite. Irasel hadn't actually eaten in centuries, having long since grown accustomed to his absolute immortality rendering food and drink superfluous. He did drink, yes, but mostly because he enjoyed the taste and because it gave him something to distract from his silence when he needed to order his thoughts. He walked around the table, sitting down next to Lorelai and finding where they had left off—a well-practiced and strong memory being quite helpful to that end—and resumed his instruction. Today, they were going over grammar and conjugations of verbs in their various tenses, Irasel patient as ever in his instruction. After his Apprentice got herself through a rather tricky aspect of the language—their, there, they're—he smiled, hugging her close and petting her for a moment with a muttered "Such a smart young lady, learning so fast" and summoned up a small saucer filled with sweets for her to enjoy through the rest of the lesson. It was a calm day, that one; a day Irasel would recall fondly for the rest of his life.
 
The day seemed to pass fairly quickly for Lorelai. Now that she'd become pretty good at the way the basic structure of words worked and how they sounded, she proved to be just as eager a student in figuring out a word's meaning along with how certain words helped to build a sentence. At Irasel's compliment, Lorelai gave him a wide grin as she leaned into his hug and returned it with a hug of her own. "Yer a good teacher, and b'sides I find this fun. With th' words, it's like figurin' out one piece of a puzzle at a time and then findin' out where that word might go in a sentence. Reminds me of a puzzle I used te help Matthew put together in a way, 'ept th' pieces were wooden and ye had te put'em together just right te make a picture. He used te look after me b'fore I met ye, but...I ain't seen'im in two years." Lorelai paused before reluctantly admitting in quite a solemn tone, "Dragged off te jail, 'e was...'is luck ran out when 'e was caught thievin' from an apple cart." It was a painful topic Lorelai didn't like to dwell on and she was quick to draw the attention back to her lesson after that, only requesting for the occasional break when her stomach told her it was time for lunch or dinner. As tasty as the chocolates were, Lorelai only ate a couple since they weren't as filling as an actual meal and she didn't want even those sweet treats to distract her from her learning. Lorelai felt with every new word she learned, the invisible prison walls she'd been trapped in while living in such a small village were slowly starting to come down. Now that Lorelai had the opportunity, she wanted to learn everything she could about the world around her. Reading certainly seemed like a good start as she felt much of the world's knowledge was contained in books.
 
As the moon started to rise into the night sky, and Lorelai's lesson drew to a close, Irasel smiled and rested a hand atop her head, between her ears, and tousled her hair in a gesture of affection. "You take to your letters like a duck to water, Lorelai. I'm impressed. You should try reading some of the books on your shelf, I'm certain you can read on your own by now." He wrote down a few titles he recommended on a scrap of parchment, along with Dictionary- contains all known words, their proper pronunciations, and definitions. For independent study. His handwriting was very precise, elegant cursive, a beautifully artistic hand mastered after decades of practice that contained many looping flourishes. Handing the paper to her, he smiled. "You should try reading a little before bed. Tends to give more vivid dreams. And now," he tapped the table, a tall glass containing a peculiar type of iced cream called a milkshake, the making of which was rapidly becoming a lost art, "a reward for my beloved Apprentice doing so well in her lessons. I'll warn you now," he smiled, handing her a long silver spoon, "it's cold, and if you eat it too fast your head will get a mildly painful little tingle we called 'brain-freeze' in my time. No, your brain won't actually freeze," he smiled at her before she jumped to conclusions, "just enjoy it slowly."
 
Lorelai's eyes lit up with pride and excitement at Irasel's praise as she eagerly asked, "Really, ye mean it? Ye think I can start readin' actual books now?" In her eagerness to get started, Lorelai made a bee-line for the bookshelf in her room and started scanning the titles for one she could easily read. After a moment of searching her eyes zeroed in on the title "Dealing With Dragons" which seemed to be the first in a series of fantasy chapter books called the "Enchanted Forest Chronicles". In addition, Lorelai also found the dictionary Irasel had recommended, plus another dictionary reserved for the pronunciation and meanings of names. With her three books in hand, Lorelai headed back to the table and carefully placed her finds next to her milkshake while giving Irasel a wide grin. "I wonder if I can read through at least one chapter before bed." With that goal in mind, Lorelai slowly enjoyed her creamy chocolate milkshake until there was nothing left so it wouldn't be a tempting distraction later while trying to read. With a determined frown of concentration, Lorelai began silently reading to herself from the first page of her chosen chapter book which conveniently had a short summary. She only hit one or two snags and had to look up the name "Cimorene" before she was confident enough to try reading the summary aloud: "Take one bored princess. Make her the seventh daughter in a very proper royal family. Have her run away. Add one powerful, fascinating, dangerous dragon. Princess Cimorene has never met anyone (or anything) like the dragon Kazul. But then, she's never met a witch, a jinn, a death-dealing talking bird, or a stone prince either. Princess Cimorene ran away to find some excitement. She's found plenty."

Lorelai actually laughed once she finished reading as she exclaimed, "This sounds very interestin'! Looks like I made a good pick." She'd been so focused on the correct pronunciations of the words she'd been reading, Lorelai didn't realize she'd slipped back into her usual grammar once she was done reading what had been on the page in front of her. Returning her attention to the book Lorelai slowly began reading aloud, "Chapter One: In Which Cimorene Refuses to be Proper and Has a Conversation with a Frog..." As the chapter progressed, Lorelai found the main character Cimorene to be quite amusing as the princess would rather take lessons in secret such as fencing, magic, Latin, and cooking just to avoid a princess's usual utterly dull lessons of dancing, embroidery and etiquette. Once Lorelai read to Cimorene's refusing to marry a mindnumbingly boring prince and claiming she'd rather be eaten by a dragon in her disgust, Lorelai again laughed aloud while exclaiming, "Oh, I like this character!" The chapter came to a rather abrupt end in Lorelai's opinion: upon following the advice of a frog, Cimorene ran away to avoid her unwanted marriage and to find someone who would be able to keep her from said marriage indefinitely. Once she'd reached the destination the frog had specified, Cimorene followed the frog's directions by knocking on the door three times and snapping her fingers before going in. Lorelai frowned in disappointment as she closed the book so she wouldn't be tempted to read further. After all it was getting late and Lorelai said she'd only read one chapter. Turning to Irasel she eagerly asked, "How'd I do? Am I makin' good progress?"
 
"I believe," he said, smiling at his young charge, "that you're far enough along that I don't need to teach you any more. Next, once you've had your fun playing with dragons," he stood up smoothly, giving Lorelai a hug and a light good-night kiss on the crown of her head, "we'll begin your writing lessons. After that, you have a choice; start on your Runic Majyc," the accent was wildly different from "magic", as majyc was a vastly simplified variety from across the northern seas, "or start lessons on physics and mathematics, which are integral in learning magic as you are familiar with it as well as Sorcery." So it came down to whether she wanted to have something basic to entertain herself with, or get to the meatier and more powerful arcane arts as quickly as possible.

"Don't decide just yet, though, as it will be a day or two before we start your writing lessons. Or lesson, rather, as learning your letters was the hard part of learning to write." He said, climbing the stairs and putting himself to sleep after changing and cleaning.
 
Lorelai beamed such a wide grin at Irasel's compliment, it threatened to take over her face. "Thank ye kindly, Irasel. Ye explained things so well and made it so easy te understand, ye deserve some o' the credit too ye know. A student is only as good as their teacher." Lorelai hoped she'd pick up writing as easily as she had learning how to read. She knew how to draw a little and hoped that might help when Irasel started teaching her how to write out the letters she'd become so familiar with by now. Although he'd told her not to make a decision just yet, Lorelai still felt it would be prudent for her to learn the Runic Majyc after Irasel taught her how to write so she'd have a little experience under her belt in how magic worked. Of course, she understood writing would come first and she was perfectly willing to wait a day or two. Not only was Lorelai looking forward to meeting living, breathing dragons, but she also felt two days away from lessons was a well-deserved break no matter how fascinating her reading lessons had been. As much fun as those were, it became tedious after a while spending more than one day poring over books. After exchanging hugs with Irasel and giving him a goodnight kiss on his cheek, Lorelai gathered up her books and placed them on her night table beside her bed. Once she had a relaxing soak in the bath, Lorelai changed into nightclothes herself and promptly went to sleep.

The next morning, Lorelai woke to sunlight shining through her window and was actually able to get up a little earlier than usual as it seemed she was both mentally and physically getting used to a proper amount of sleep every night. After a quick bath and a hair wash, Lorelai exited the bathroom in her robe with a towel firmly holding her hair captive so it wouldn't drip on anything she changed into. She had dried off her tail as best she could and it was still slightly damp, but at least there was no danger of her tail dripping water all over the floor. After doing a little searching in her closet, Lorelai found a dark blue shirt the color of the night sky with little silver buttons down the front in the shapes of stars and constellation patterns around the collar. She found a nice cloak a rich shade of purple like one of the hues seen in a sunset. She had a hard time picking out pants to go with her theme and finally decided on black. She planned on asking Irasel for his opinion and hopefully he might be able to put some kind of enchantment on her clothes to keep them from getting dirty or torn since it sounded like the younger dragons could get a bit rough without exactly meaning to. Not that Lorelai minded, she just wanted to make sure her clothes didn't have a chance of getting ruined. Her race of Shapeshifters were a rather durable lot and could fall long distances without getting a scratch. A Shapeshifter might get banged up a bit, but at least there wouldn't be any broken bones to worry about.
 
Irasel himself was slow to rise, having had a rare dream that night and, even rarer, it was a pleasant one about his mother, from whom he'd inherited his hair, eyes, and love of doting on people close to him. A beautiful, kind, gentle woman, herself a dabbler in the arcane who taught her son runes alongside letters and was never too busy to snuggle with her baby boy. Irasel was the kind of man who loved his mother, which was why while his Apprentice was getting dressed, he was still in bed, asleep and preferring not to wake up. But, in time, wake up is exactly what he did, and he did so with a marked reluctance and a sad sigh, rising to meet their first day in Essenstadt. The house was no longer moving, for they had arrived in the night. He was mildly surprised he hadn't awoken to a shuddering cacophony as Lorelai screamed and the welcome wagon flew about roaring them deaf, but he supposed they remembered what he'd done last time they did that. He changed and went downstairs, snatched up his Apprentice and immediately transported them seven hundred feet below, to the center of the den wherein the dragons and servants of Essenstadt waited for them. He barely banaged to erect a SoundSeal in time to stop their unanimous roaring from making him or his Apprentice go deaf—or worse, give the Master a headache. When they were finished, he let the barrier drop and gave the traditional return to such a greeting. He raised his hand and worked a miracle.

And so it was that out of the sky came streams of all the seven energies—fire, water, earth, air, energy, light and darkness—from the cycle of Life, converging into his palm in a writhing mass of power only those initiated in the arcane arts could percieve, over which he closed his fist. And then, into the azure sky, he let loose a gout of raw magic, which even the simplest layman could see quite clearly, and which all knew best as the manifestation of the wrath of God. A simple trick, for him, to wield an energy capable of sundering both the physical and the metaphysical, but still impressive.

He smiled down at Lorelai, then, saying "Welcome to Essenstadt, Apprentice; a land of the draconic."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom