RP:A new toy for the wyverns
Somewhere in frostmaw
As you travel down a path which moves between large snow covered boulders, you stumbles into an area with large dead trees. Upon the trees you see several nests, and upon further investigation, as you look up you can see frost wyverns gliding as they look for prey. The nests contain some young, while others are empty, or with eggs. You can leave this place by heading back to the north.
Everything tastes like chicken
Kirien had dragged Veriun, probably unwillingly, out to this forested spot amidst Frostmaw's wilderness. Or, maybe Nameless had, as the wyvern had been the one tugging the empath most of the way by his trench coat, the fox's fingers clutching in turn at the poor avian's jacket. What had he gotten himself into, agreeing to tutor this reckless, quirky individual in the ways of style personalisation and terramancy? He'd likely have to get used to this impromptu adventuring and being dragged all over the place; for neither Nameless or Kirien were very good at ignoring things which captured their interest. What had drawn the two (and by virtue of this, Veriun) to this area in particular was the presence of the wyvern's kin, and the chance to get to know Frostmaw's wildlife a little more intimately - when they reached the nesting grounds, Nameless would be releasing his companion so as to turn and bound through the snow toward the other wyverns, whom it seemed he'd already made 'friends' with at some point beforehand. Puffing his cheeks and exhaling a chilly breath, Kirien tilted his head to Veriun and said, "Let's hope they don't have an appetite for chicken, eh?" He might've smirked a little before turning to trudge after Nameless.
Veriun was pulled along by a fold in his white cloak which would have otherwise made him rather difficult to spot with all the snow, hadn't Kirien been pulling it and thus break the camouflage effect of the garment. Veriun didn't bother complaining about the sudden adventure, having come to expect something of the like to come up sooner or later from what he'd seen of the empath and his wyvern so far. Looking over Kirien's shoulder at the wyverns and the nests with his signature enigmatic smile gracing his face as he folded the hood down, revealing his head to the cold air. He let out a plume of misty breath into the space between them as he responded. “Oh, I wouldn't know. I think most things eat chicken in a pinch. Seeing as everything tastes like chicken, yes?”. He ran a gloved hand trough his snow white hair as the took to following in Kirien's footsteps.
Kirien :: "Hm," said Kirien thoughtfully, pivoting about on the snowy ground so as to grin at the other while he continued to walk slowly backwards in the direction of the gathered wyverns. "I suppose that's true. To be honest I'm not all that fond of chicken. Maybe they ain't either." He might've winked, or maybe blinked but it was hard to tell considering he only had one eye, before spinning back around, his coat a whirl of white fur amidst silken grey skies and powdery snow. Nameless was busy greeting each of the wyverns present in turn, rubbing snouts with them and rumbling low in his throat. Kirien's head fell to another, curious tilt as he approached, a small smile curving his lips at the interaction. Hands half-wrapped in fingerless gloves raised to touch to the very tip of one ice wyvern's snout before his palm pressed a little more fully against blue-grey scales, chilly skin heating up as the beast exhaled a warm breath. "They're, ah…mostly friendly. I think."
Veriun wiggled his eyebrows rather playfully at Kirien in response to his comment the chicken before the man turned around to face the Wyverns. Veriun chuckled a bit and stepped out to the side, veering from Kiriens path and stood in the snow at a few steps distance. There was now fear emanating from the avian, yet he kept somewhat of a distance for whatever reasons. “Mostly indeed. Until our representative leaves and they grow hungry, yes?” he said in a amused voice, clearly an attempt a humor. “one never knows.” he added, looking over at the closest creature somewhat thoughtfully. “Not that I’ve got any.. animal problems.”
Kirien rightly should have been afraid of these beasts - being dragon-kin of a sort, their blood was indigestible to him and more of a poison than anything. He'd grown up this past year and a bit with Nameless though, raising the wyvern himself, and seemed to have a bit of a talent for dealing with scaly creatures. So, even as a vampire, he harboured no fear of the wyverns when a couple of them coiled round him for inspection, their serpentine bodies brushing against his here and there as they took in his scent. With Nameless keeping watch for any adverse reactions, Kirien allowed himself to be examined and scrutinised by the intelligent, icy creatures. He glanced in Veriun's direction. "I'm not sure I'd make a good meal for them, so if anythin' they'd go after you. You're the one with a heartbeat, after all." There was a yelp then and he jerked slightly, eye widening slightly. "D-Don't pull the tail!" he reprimanded one of the more playful youngsters hurriedly, and winced.
Veriun nodded briefly “me or the tail, apparently.” as he proceeded to approach the group at a slow pace, seemingly unbothered by the snow, snickering lowly. “It would be quite troublesome with this climate, I’d bet. And their numbers.” he added, as an afterthought, rubbing his forehead idly to generate some heat in the frigid atmosphere. “Most are not made to live in this climate. Much less fly. Yet you come here often. Due to the isolation and your... family here. No?” he looked around over the snow covered landscape yet again. Something that seemed to be a habit of his. “I'd have asked sooner.” was all the explanation for the untimely question he offered. As if the rest of the sentence was obvious. Perhaps referring to the fact that Kirien had kept him busy with questions and urges during the journey, leaving little chance for the Avian's own queries.
Kirien honestly looked a bit flustered. His tail wiggled about a bit of its own accord and the youngling went to snap at it again, but he managed to pull it out of the way in time. The sleek and highly sensitive appendage retreated to safety under his heavy coat to wrap itself comfortably around the vampire's waist instead, while Kirien huffed out a breath and nudged a cold cheek against an equally chilly wyvern snout. "There's warmth in all this snow," he said quietly, in answer to that question as shoulders rolled in an insouciant shrug. "Family, aye. That's what it is. That an' the spaces between all the trees that aren't filled with memories I need outta my head. Rynvale was full of it an' I couldn't escape it." A hand delved into one of those deep pockets, which a couple of wyverns had been sniffing at curiously, to withdraw a dead rabbit he'd gotten from -somewhere- (and it was probably better not to question when or how exactly he got it). It was ripped out of his grasp almost immediately, becoming a plaything for the youngsters. "I like it here, too," Kirien added after a pause, blinking. "But I am mostly here as a runaway." From the girl who stoked up a fire in his heart, then whipped it into a bitter whirlwind of confusion. He was lost. Sometimes, he looked it. "But that's-- that's stupid things to be talkin' about!" he laughed, a pleasant emotion not quite carrying into its tone. It echoed.
Veriun stopped quite close to Kirien, putting a hand on the side of one of the wyvern. He, unlike the others, had body heat. Which most probably made him quite the bit more noticeable. Yet his presence seemed to emit some sort of calming effect. Listening silently to the vampires response and false laughter with a unreadable expression. “Stupid things tend to be rather important, don't they?” he responded, rather calmly. Apparently not the type to be so easily fooled. But he didn't push the issue any further, leaving it to his more-or-less self-ascended student to pursue the conversations development rather than try and arrange it himself. He seemed quite comfortable despite the danger and awkwardness of situation, quite obviously not the kind to be easily put off.
Kirien watched, or felt with some curiosity, the avian approach to lay his hand on one of the wyverns. He kept a close watch on their reactions and emotions, aware of that odd aura of calm drifting from Veriun - it intrigued him, certainly, but he made no comment on it. A hand had raised to toy with his beloved ring, however, hanging on its dainty chain about his neck, the action of feeling its smooth contours a relaxing one to Kirien. "…They are. Stupid things are…not supposed to be important." He might have almost pouted. "But somehow they sometimes end up more important than they should be." Swallowing what could have been rising emotion, he shook his head to clear it of straying thought before he produced another rabbit that was torn away from him as quickly as the last. "It's somethin' I try not to think about, is all. At the moment I need distractions. Like lessons! An' wyverns, apparently." Nameless nodded at that.
Veriun chuckled and patted the wyvern he'd toughed as it excitedly bounded away to play with the dead animal Kirien had produced. Turning to face the vampire, still with that smile on his dark complexion. Nodding briefly in confirmation, letting the comment about stupid things slide back into the silence where it apparently belonged. “Lessons and Wyverns, hm? I suppose one is missing then, no?” he responded, finally. Ignoring the young creature shooting by behind him, sending both snow and his own cloak swirling about in a white storm, slowly falling back onto the ground. Leaving a few snowflakes on the avian's face. “I will, as I have said before, need to gain a grasp of your current skills with the earth. Are you familiar with static movement, for example? Or more importantly.... you are blind, yes? Your sigh has been replaced with a terrametic sense of sorts?”
Kirien had run out of dead animals to draw out of his pockets, it seemed. He made no move to reach for another, seemingly content to hang around the elder wyverns while their hatchlings played with the 'presents' he'd brought and Nameless, after a moment, moved to join in. One hand scratched fingertips absently across the frosty scales of one wyvern while the other continued to toy with his ring, quietly tracing its circumference and the amber stones inlaid. "Indeed," he murmured to Veriun after a short pause, blind gaze pulled in the direction of the playful younglings and Nameless as he spoke. "Static movement? It's kind of-- oh. Yeah. I am. What's that to do with anythin'? I've been usin' the ground to see since I was young." Another slight shrug. "Only been relyin' on it more over the past year. An' static movement is…where you're not movin' much." He snorted despite himself.
Veriun nodded to himself shortly, as if a theory of his was coming together successfully. He held up a hand, four fingers extended. “Then excuse the question, It's related to the education: How many fingers?”
Kirien squinted a bit at the question, as though doing so might help him to see the answer better. It didn't. He was quiet for a short while, fingers itching to reach out and inspect the raised hand to garner a better feel of everything - as of right now, his view of that hand was vague at best. "…Four?" he managed after a few minutes and after much silent deliberation and comparing to previous instances and movements. Though he might have gotten the answer correct, he sounded a little unsure of himself, and perhaps mildly frustrated by that.
Veriun let his hand fall “Yes.” and started walking around the area at a slow rather casual pace, as if marking a specific zone or looking for something in particular, leaving lines in the snow behind him as he strode through it. “I suppose we should start by adding the one piece that will be your main tool, seeing as you have almost already achived it. In fact, it might allow you to see better, emplying the mystical nature of your element, and not purely the physical one. Terramancy is, after all magic.” he stopped, leaned his head on a held up hand and remained silent for but a moment before continuing. “have you ever heard of a trick called an elemental mind-meld, Kiren?” he asked, ignoring yet another Wyvern passing him by. But this time followed by its kin, chasing it and the fuzzy corpse it had gotten in it's possession, albeit most likely momentarily. Veriun didn't move as the snow swirled around him in the miniature storm called up by the draconic creatures.
So, What's a Mind-meld?
Kirien remained with the wyverns for a couple more seconds before excusing himself from amidst them. He followed Veriun, whether he was meant to or not, to fall in line somewhere behind the avian and trace out the same little pathways he'd already carved into the snowfall. "Something that'd let me see better?" Judging by the way his white-tipped ears perked up, the empath was clearly interested in gaining further knowledge on this. There were times, after all, when his lack of true vision hindered him and was terribly frustrating. The enquiry following had Kirien pausing briefly to mull the words over and dredge up any information he already possessed on the subject. "…I don't think so, no. Maybe? It sounds familiar - it might be in my book, only I've not read that section properly yet, or some such." Wyverns played and flew around him and it seemed to make the man a little jumpy; mostly because he could not see them as anything more than brief blurs in his vision when they were airborne.
Veriun stopped and turned towards Kirien, folding his arms idly across his torso, tiling his head a bit as he peered at the vampire following him in his pattern. A thin line would start drawing itself around them in a circle of, perhaps one could call it, medium size. Taking no note of his companions disapproval of the wyverns as he proceeded to answer. “Well. It matters little, as I have no doubt you are capable of doing it. You have already partially achieved it, in fact. A mind meld is when you -truly- see, feel and move with the element in question. In your case, it would be to insert your mind into the ground below and forming a bond with is, making it equally your vessel as your body. This would, to most, be difficult and dull, if not completely confuse their senses. You have, however, been practicing it your entire life by constantly using a passive form. As such, it should, in fact, make your senses much clearer than usually. As well as allow you to take your magic to new levels.” while the line proceeded to form out a separate zone, marking the area intended for use, most likely. And then finally stopped, showing no sign of having been drawn by anything else then a mortal hand, beyond perhaps being a bit too flawless for such.
Kirien :: "I have?" Achieved it already, that was. Kirien seemed a mite surprised by this, at least until he thought back to the time he'd created that golem for Satoshi recently. The recollection of it was enough to bring back the feeling; the pulse, growing louder underfoot, filling his ears and all his perception. He shook it off, blinking, focusing back on the here and now and Veriun who was still talking. Ears were pricked up and turned in his direction as the empath listened intently to the words filling the frigid air around them. Another wyvern swept past, throwing snowflakes up to stick to his cheeks. "How do I-- how do I do somethin' like that then? Just…go at it? Or is there some incantation..?" As much as he did not use many words for working with his own magic, Kirien did understand that many of them required something recited in order to gain the intended result. Despite it all though, he did look eager to give it a go.
Veriun shrugged at kirien's question about incantation, ignoring the snow whipping across his face from the passing wyvern. “I would not know about incantations, as I am not mage. Perhaps you could do it without. Perhaps there is an incantation that would help. There, you have a book that can help you, no? Other than that, you would know how, I believe. You are... listening to the earth now, yes? Why don't you try doing more than that? Take it at your own pace, however. This education is about you, yes?” he proceeded to answer the empath in the same factual tone of voice as he'd been using before. Squatting down with his cloak around him like a carpet and placing his hand down through the slow and onto the frozen earth “Far as I am aware, earth is the least talkative element, to use such a way of expressing it.”
Kirien couldn't stop himself from wrinkling his nose when a passing snowflake landed on it, and stuck. He tried to squint at it and probably would have ended up cross-eyed had he still possessed both eyes. "I don't need incantations anyway," he said somewhat distractedly, "if I'm workin' with the earth at least. I only need command words for that." A pause followed in which he spent half his time listening and the other half trying to lick the snowflake, which had yet to melt considering his body emitted no real heat. Abruptly though, his head snapped round to fix a stare on Veriun, though the empath's expression remained unreadable. He still had his tongue stuck out, actually, and probably looked quite foolish but he did not notice that for a couple of seconds. "It's always speakin'. It's just-- quiet. You gotta be listening properly in order to hear it." Trudging over, Kirien came to a pause in the snow, within that circle drawn out, standing in front of Veriun. "I'm listenin', aye."
Veriun peered at Kirien all the while, listening as he spoke. How intently would be anyone’s guess. About half-way through the avian redirected his gaze from the empath to the ground his hand was placed upon. After but a brief moment the snow started melting away gradually, making a slowly growing area of clear, if frozen, earth. “Listening is the most important part of any relationship.” the melting stopped at the drawn out circle and Veriun rose back to his full length, shaking his hand idly as to remove any droplets left on it. “But, if only one part is listening, it's not a relationship at all. I suppose the same would apply to the elements, perhaps?” He said, thoughtfully, not unlike a scholar voicing their hypothesis upon a subject at least partially outside their area of expertise.
Kirien finally reached up to simply pluck that damnable snowflake off his nose with a finger, and licked it. He seemed a bit pensive as he watched Veriun blindly, listening obediently to the man's words. Once, his gaze drifted down to the melting snow as though he'd picked up on it, but the mildly confused furrowing of brows that followed the glance suggested he wasn't sure of what exactly he could sense occurring there. No comment was made on it however, the vampire straightening back up a little, as he'd been leaning over Veriun slightly. He worked out what had happened when he took a step back and did not hear the gentle crunch of snow underfoot. "We're both listening though," the empath said after a moment, blinking before his head canted slightly to one side and he elaborated. A sharply-spoken word sparked and left his lips, crackling with raw, golden mana; and the earth responded to the call with a soft tremor, the ground within that traced-out circle rising smoothly up by a foot or so to form a small platform. Kirien tilted his head the other way, grinned a little, then lowered it abruptly back to its regular level. "We're a team, see~!"
Veriun nodded briefly as he brushed off his cloak with a hand. A busying process, not unlike fiddling with a button or the like. Sending stray flakes down onto the bare earth upon which they stood. “Then I suppose this should only be a minor finalization of something you've been practicing for a long time, yes?” he tapped the earth tryingly with a heel, three times. “Missing but one piece of the puzzle, as they say...” brushing his hand off on his sleeve before taking a gentle grip of his own wrist with hos other hand and slowly stretching his fingers for a bit as he gazed as his newly appointed student with slight curiosity. ”the method.”
Kirien licked his lips once or twice, tasting residual mana on his skin following that single command word. Veriun was scrutinised carefully for a moment once the platform had lowered again before the empath spun and turned away so as to wander to the other side of the circle, seemingly meandering aimlessly. A light groove slowly carved its way into exposed, frozen earth, tracing out the same pattern Veriun had drawn in the snow beforehand. "I suppose so?" Pivoting back about, Kirien stared across at the avian, or perhaps at a point just over his left shoulder - it was difficult to tell. "The method," he repeated after a short pause, flicking an ear in an absent, pensive manner. "…How, then?"
Veriun raised an eyebrow and momentarily paused all his movements to look back at Kirien with a slightly given up expression. It was almost parental, in a way. But not quite as loving, to the surprise of no-one surely. “I already told you. I don't know. I am not a terramancer.”
Kirien 's white-tipped ears wiggled in response to that. In contrast to the avian's expression, he looked as if he were still dutifully working to form a plan of some sort, perhaps, or figure something out himself. "Okay then." Shoulders rolled in a slightly shrug and he shifted to plant his feet slightly further apart on the ground. A boot began to tap almost idly. "To, er, clarify then-- it's when you an' your body feels like it's fully part of the earth and you're not just contained to…yourself? You're part of the whole area, an' such?" His gaze raised briefly from where it'd been staring down at the ground to peer expectantly at Veriun.
Veriun simply nodded at Kirien. “Indeed. That's it exactly.”
Well. Atleast it sort of worked!
Kirien quirked a brow then nodded in understanding. He might've been grinning broader by this point, as though the avian's answer had set a piece of his internal puzzle into place. "Right." Though there was little need as he was blind, his eye fell shut thereafter and all of a sudden, everything within the circle seemed to go deathly still. Just for a second it might have appeared as if something vital had stopped here, waiting; then Kirien spoke and once again his voice was alive with raw mana, sparking from his lips to fill the air and kick-start whatever had paused back into motion without warning. The ground trembled when the empath lifted his arms to stretch them out in front of him and it gave a roar when those arms snapped abruptly out to each side, cracks forming in the frosty earth exposed within the circle. He poured himself into it like he had when working to create that golem, forcing himself and his mana down into solid ground and rock, the earth's steady rhythm sounding louder and louder in his ears. After a long couple of moments, Kirien slowly opened his eye to squint around him - and he might have blinked, and maybe sharply inhaled a chilly breath. "…huh. I never opened my eye last time." Another pause and then he blinked again, though he wasn't really looking at anything this time. "I can-- is that a snowflake?" A few were drifting through the air within that circle on a light wind.
Veriun watched as Kirien made his attempt at the melding, tilting his head somewhat at something he might have seen. There was no real visual change except the cracks, and the avian was not looking at those. “Yes. It's a snowflake.” he responded in a calm, almost amused tone of voice. “I take it you became able to spot them? Curious, as they are not connected to the zone..” he continued with some hint of curiosity. Flicking his hood back up with a quick movement of a single hand as he started slowly wandering around the clear circle of earth.
Kirien 's actual gaze drifted some, blindly, not really watching anything in particular. His focus extended up from the earth instead to observe the movement of that snowflake with a sort of childish wonderment, the empath taking note of others that swirled across the abyssal expanse of white sky above him and into his perception. "Yeah, I--" His voice sounded strangely far away, or perhaps distracted in one way or another. "--I can't see them normally. But it's weird, like I'm kinda lookin' up a bit." Attentions strayed from the snowflakes to Veriun when the man moved and drew him in that direction, Kirien's voice taking on some hint of surprise as he continued, "I can see you more clearly too. An' how you're movin'."
Veriun stopped walking and looked down at the earth while the wind picked up, sending his cloak whipping mildly about him. The avian almost childishly started jumping double-footed upon the ground a few times with the air of someone trying something out, seeming somewhat amused. “I suppose it worked then?” he said as he finally landed without bouncing up again. Rising his gaze from the ground and looking around the area, throwing a short-lived glance at Nameless and the other Wyverns. “I suppose the limitations still apply yes?” he stuck a hand into a pocket and brought out the same cube he'd used when repairing Cornelius' corpse, and send it hovering about four feet into the air, leaving it hanging with no physical connection to anything. “can you see it?”
Kirien watched the whirl and dance of that cloak on the wind, those same gusts of air also casting even more snowflakes up from the ground to arc across his vision like shooting stars. He twitched a little at all Veriun's movements, though his body remained otherwise very still. It felt difficult to move his limbs properly, Kirien noted; probably because most of his mind, sight, and general concentration had flowed downwards into the ground around him. He was everywhere in this circular space, but beyond that groove cut into the earth, there was nothing. "I guess so?" That it worked, he meant. "The limitations… like colour? I can't see in colour, no." If the empath had been disappointed about that, he made sure to mask it entirely. Blind gaze was drawn upwards to follow the path of the cube as it levitated upwards, curiosity written clear on fine features. "…Y'mean the thing? That little, er, boxy thing?" He paused. "Just. It's like it's at the very edge of my vision."
Veriun nodded and took the box, snatching it out of the air and into his pocket. “I see. That's better then I had expected. It can still be improved, however. Most likely.” he half spoke half thought aloud while tracing across the area in a straight line, seemingly not bothered by his sight being obscured by both his hair and the cloaks movement. “As for the beneficial effects... why don't you attempt something? Using terramancy, of course. Most anything will do, I'd suppose.”
Kirien arched a brow slightly but remained mostly silent, curious, staring at that cube until it was tucked away out of sight again and his focus strayed elsewhere. There was an extended pause before he said anything to Veriun, his body static as ever but managing after a couple of moments to shift some. "Attempt somethin'…lemme see…" Trailing off, the empath was still for a second more, looking decidedly thoughtful. Then, without much warning, he flung an arm skywards with as much force as he possibly could muster and the earth within the circle shattered in a veritable explosion of rock and frozen soil; it thrust upwards, startling the wyverns and even Nameless as the construct steadily continued to climb and climb higher. Suddenly it shuddered to a halt and Kirien slumped some, his knees trembling slightly as he stood before a massive pillar that stretched a good fifty feet or more into the cold sky. "…I-- I didn't mean to make it that high," murmured Kirien weakly, bemused. "I expected more resistance?" he managed, before collapsing to his knees and retreating into himself to conserve his remaining energy. The pillar swayed.
Veriun sat up on the edge of the flattened top of the pillar, looking down at Kirien far below, leaning with his elbows on his knees. Dangling his legs somewhat childishly. "You don't say?"
Kirien looked up with some effort and took a second to work out where exactly Veriun had ended up. "…Sorry." He looked a bit sheepish. The pillar tilted dangerously toward him, then fell away toward the opposite side of the circle, tumbling down now the empath lacked the energy to maintain it properly. "Ahaha. Oh s***. You okay?" asked Kirien.
Veriun came sliding down the pillar at a seemingly unnatural speed as it fell, not unlike a child going down a icy hill on a plank during winter, taking ground with a few bouncing steps from the momentum before regaining his balance and brushing himself off as the heavy structure slammed into the ground behind them with a deafening noise. “I believe I'll live.” he said and turned somewhat to look over his shoulder at the pillar. “It appears using the meld is something you'll have to practice.”
Kirien , seemingly quite comfortable where he was as he made no effort to move, cast a glance in the direction of the gathered wyverns as that pillar slammed into the snow in front of him, sending white spraying all over. Some of the younglings approached after a bit to play on the fallen construct, leaping across it and attempting to slide down it in a similar way to Veriun, while its creator tried to regain his strength a least a little. "I guess," he said with a tilt of head toward the avian, before sighing. "So it's easier to move things when I'm like that. I'll…have to remember that."
Veriun turned to observe the playing Wyverns with a clearly amused air about him, not all that bothered by his being half covered in snow as it took him a short while to get around to brushing it off of himself. “Quite..” he responded rather absently. “I'd say that's enough practice for now, however.”
Kirien might have grinned before he flopped onto his back in the snow, arms spread wide, eye closed, calm. "Aight."