Training Gone Wrong. Ish. (Raven.)

[Red Wizard]

@bry


Sterling was training. Balancing a ball of water in one hand, and a ball of fire in the other, standing on one foot on a rather thin stump. His tent off to the side, campfire burning merrily in a self-made fire pit. A bead of sweat formed on his brow as he concentrated, shrinking the ball of water and moving it to a finger on the same hand as the ball of fire. He then shrank the fire enough to do the same thing with.

"Touna."

A small ball of lightning appeared in his free hand. This was going to be tricky. He attempted to do the same thing with it, shrinking it and moving it to a free finger on his right hand. This turned out to be a bad idea, as the water and lightning touched, lighting him up bright enough to be seen for at least a mile as the fireball went out. He swore loudly as he hit the ground, still being electrocuted, as his cries of pain echoed throughout the night.


This went on for a full minute before he managed to dissipate the water and lightning balls.


"Ow...."

He stood up, walking to his tent and replacing his burnt shirt with a fresh white button down. His pants had managed to survive, but his shoes had melted. He replaced those with a fresh pair. He decided to rest for a bit, hoping nobody would come to investigate the light show.

He leaned against a tree, after retrieving his MP3 player from his duffel bag, and thumbed in his earbuds. Tonight suuuuuuucked.

[Bry]

     It wasn't every night that Raven witnessed a lightning show, especially not on the clear and cloudless ones such as tonight. The fact that the explosive light only took place for a couple of moments before dying out altogether was the empath's second clue that something unusual was up.

     Unfolding her legs and standing from where she'd been taking a momentary break from her meditation, Raven gazed out the wall of windows that made up one side of her room, waiting for the lightning to spark back up. But nothing happened. Pulling her cloak around her shoulders, Raven pulled her Communicator out and left a message on it.

     "Heading to check out an unusual light. Unconcerned at the moment, will radio with coordinates if back up is needed." And with that, she tucked the Communicator safely back onto her belt, and took to the air, gliding over the bay in the form of an inky black raven, preferring this form until she knew with more confidence that the light wasn't a threat to her.

     A second or ten later, Raven flew quietly over the spot in the woods that she'd seen the light. A tent was pitched, a campfire burned brightly, and a boy stood against a tree, lost in his music. It was Sterling.

     Hmmmn.

     She knew enough about his family to question how much they respected the magic they used, and the sulfuric smell of burning still in the air caused her to wonder if Sterling also knew no reverence for the power he wielded.... But drawing conclusions without facts wasn't a smart practice. She knew better than to judge by appearance, no matter how conclusive that appearance may seem.

     So she touched down, taking her human form once again to avoid alarming the magician. She stood on the edge of the light for a moment, to see if he'd notice her, then took a gradual step into the light, meeting his eyes.

     "Sterling," she greeted with a nod of her head. "Are you okay?"

[Red Wizard]

"Y-yeah, I'll be okay. Especially once I find a more reputable training regimen than the one my father came up with."

He nearly spat the word "Father" as he said it. His disdain for his father wasn't mutual, August wanted nothing more than to impress his son, but the eccentric went about it all wrong. Anime and video games were all well and good, although Sterling wasn't overly fond of anime. What Sterling really wanted was to spend some time with his dad without magic getting between them. He'd even watch that Madoka Magicka anime his dad went on and on about if it meant August would stop working on magical stuff.

Sometimes, a guy just wanted to be normal.


"It was supposed to help with my concentration, but he far overestimated my abilities, as per usual. The man thinks I'm some kind of prodigy, but to be honest..."

He patted the spellbook that was hanging from his belt for emphasis.

"I'm not much good at this stuff."

He gave a small laugh. He had a healthy respect for magic, especially after seeing Raven and other high power mages use it on TV, but he knew it wasn't likely he would ever reach that level. He knew he was likely to be second string his whole life, and he didn't mind. Someone had to be there to make the others look better, after all.