Since I've come to a writer's block in my Spiderman
series, I decided writing something was better than nothing, no? So, here goes, I hope ya'll review for
this. Somewhat off track to what I've
been writing now, was inspired by a dream, and I though it was pretty
interesting.
The room
was unnaturally dark, void of light, no colour, no shades, no nothing. Just black.
Leastwise it was to the average human, but to Ryeth, things were
different now. Even in the absolute absence
of brightness, he could see. He was
stealthy. And all of it came to him
instinctively.
A knife
came swooping down towards his face, and he bent to the side, sweeping his own
dagger at his attacker, but only hitting empty air. Another came at the back of his legs, and he jumped, twisting
around to try to get a glimpse of the flitting shade. But it was all over in mere moments, a side-kick landing on his
ribs, and a knife reaching the nape of his neck.
Blonde hair
draped around his face, as Chaya's eyes hovered into view, grinning mischievously
as she sat upon his waist. In one,
fluent motion, the dagger disappeared from her hand, and she stood up, giving him
a helping hand. "You've got to be more
careful about what's coming to ya," Chaya lectured, while she turned on the
lights after Ryeth managed to stand. "That
kick should never have landed, considering it wasn't even that fast."
A simple
meal followed, consisting of some more exotic foods than those humans are
accustomed to. Where she got the food baffled
Ryeth, but since his stomach agreed with it, his mouth made no complaints. Once full, he left the dishes where they
were, trooped up to his room, and went to sleep.
In his
sleep, he vividly recalled how it all happened…
Who'd have ever thought that for 14 years, he had
been an elf. All suppressed, his
potential in strength, agility, sight, kept at bay. That all changed, of course, when things started going bad, his
life flipping upside down, and his emotional distress violently threw open the
doors, unleashing his true nature. Sort
of like X-men, he thought when it first happened, while he was up in a tree in
a park. Certainly it was fascinating to
him, but something nagged at him constantly.
Some link was missing.
How Chaya found him in the first
place, he still doesn't know, but since then, she was like his savior. She taught him everything he knew now about
being an elf, how to control emotions, how to tap into his full abilities, even
a bit of simple elfin magic. Of course
he was grateful to her, and deeply respected her, for her kindness and her
skill. Chaya's skills surpassed his
tenfold, but it was expected. She was
the teacher, he was the student.
But, he often pondered, she
couldn't be all that much older than him.
She sure didn't look it. So how
does she know so much about elves, and magic, and all those other things that
are beyond his understanding. If only
he could…
His entranced thought broke as the morning light
poured through the window. He was still
staying in the city, so he could slowly acclimatize to the living out in the
bushes, as he thought of it. But to a
/real/ elf, the other side of his mind quipped, the bushes are home. Chaya stayed there, and he was supposed to
meet her at the holt soon. He had to
learn how to change the way he viewed everything, but it wasn't too hard, after
all, since being an elf was his nature now.
His human side was a façade, and was never his stronger side.
The holt was way out of town,
but Ryeth managed to get there in half an hour, sprinting through alleys,
parks, places where he couldn't be seen easily. Inside a forest, the holt was centered around a magnificent oak
tree. Hollowed out, it served as a den and
living space for Chaya. The wind blew
softly, hissing through the trees providing a faint chill to the early
morning. Maybe a foreshadowing of
things to come. As a chill rippled
through his spine, Ryeth entered the den, as he had been doing each morning for
the previous week.
"Today's lesson will be magic,"
Chaya noted, as she fizzled into reality from thin air. Hearing the word, "magic", triggered an grin
from Ryeth. Finally, he'll learn
something other than fighting. "A
simple invisibility spell, and an invisibility rune." With those few words, Chaya started to whiten, and then faze out,
until she was invisible, as far as Ryeth could tell. "Now, what I just did was the spell, and mark my words, at the
start, it will take you a long time to disappear completely. Keep that in mind. You must concentrate hard on the idea of invisibility, simple as
that, and then you'll notice you'll start to fade out, the same way I did. Try it."
And so he concentrated. He concentrated long and hard. He concentrated until his brain hurt, until
his eyes felt like they were bulging from the strain. He concentrated until Chaya told him to stop. "You're concentrating /too/ hard!" Ryeth's mind looped around itself. Didn't she say to concentrate hard? Sighing with distaste, Chaya told him to
relax, and concentrate hard, but at the same time, without conscious
thought. "Tap into that raw nature, the
primal force."
Ryeth tried, oh how he tried,
but he couldn't keep his mind focused.
Chaya was always so different when she was teaching, compared to when
they happened to lounge about, which was not often. She was so… professional when teaching, but so loose, and so
14-year-oldish when simply chatting. But
he was supposed to focus now, and with some difficulty, Ryeth pushed out the
ideas from his head, clearing it all except for the single thought of not being
able to be seen.
His hands lost a bit of their
colour, and slowly, the lightness flowed up his arms and into his chest. His clothes, too, were draining of their
colour. And in the same way, in waves,
he became more and more invisible, until only the faintest trace of colour
remained. After about 5 minutes, Ryeth
managed to become entirely invisible to the eye, naked or not. "Now," a voice said, coming from his right, "you
simply have to relax, and clear your mind, and you'll become visible again." At that moment, Chaya winked into sight.
His mind was clear from
everything, and Ryeth came into sight as well, though with a bit more
difficulty. Still being somewhat human,
he found the idea of not thinking somewhat difficult, and it took him around 30
seconds before he popped into view. But
feeling accomplished from his feat, a smile popped into view as well on his
face, and he waited patiently for the next lesson.
But the rune magic wasn't
exactly a lesson, as he found out later.
Without a word, Chaya withdrew her dagger, took his right hand, and drew
a line from his little finger to the opposite side of the wrist. The blade was unearthly sharp, and though
blood would slowly drip out, there was only the faintest ping of pain. Opening his mouth to protest at the sight of
blood, Chaya signaled him to be quiet, and simply watch.
With her thumb, she drew a
marking on his hand, the blood tracing her finger. When completed, it roughly resembled a water droplet with a dot
in the middle. Once satisfied with the
rune, she took out her blade again, and carved a triangle around the rune,
starting from the top point, and working down and left, then right, then up and
left. But she also added an extra side,
extending the right side of the triangle a bit more from the top, and then
drawing another line perpendicular to the left side.
The cuts sealed up
instantaneously, and then his whole body disappeared, like with the spell, only
without taking up any time at all. He
watched as Chaya traced the rune quickly upon her own hand, with speed he could
barely even follow, and she, too, disappeared.
"Now, the advantage of runes are that they allow stronger magic, because
they are channeled through you, and that they work quickly. However, it requires a large amount of
training, since there is no way to simply make the spell stop working. It will only wear off. You do control, however, how fast it will
wear off by cutting deeper or shallower.
A shallow cut will make the spell last shorter, and deeper one, longer."
As if on cue, the two of them
came into view from nowhere at the same time, after about 2 minutes, thanks to
Chaya's expertise on the magic. "Now,
take out your blade, and I'll teach you what each marking means." Withdrawing his own dagger, Ryeth gently
placed the edge upon his hand. Chaya
grasped the handle as well, to guide her student in the magic.
"The first slice indicates the
strength of the magic. Two strokes next
to each other will allow a stronger spell, but they will also drain you more
considerably. The number of strokes can
go up to very high numbers, as magic can get stronger and stronger. For spells such as ones that will give you
power, these will determine how strong the powers will be. The depth of this stroke isn't all too
important, though you naturally don't want it to be too deep, or it will
hurt. Since the invisibility spell is
basic, it only requires one stroke. And
always use your right hand." With this
explained, Chaya slowly guided the blade in a shallow slash across the hand.
"The finger is supposed to trace
the rune, which determines which spell will be used. It is important that you start drawing your rune from the top
right corner of the first stroke, and that you draw them in the right
order. Runes may look the same when
completed, but the order of the strokes may make the difference between an
invisibility charm or a weakening charm."
She adjusted his grip on the handle of the dagger, allowing his index
finger to be freed, and slowly drew the same rune.
"Now, the final marking is the
finishing rune, which you add to all your runes, no matter which one it
is. It dictates how long the spell will
last. The deeper the slash, the longer
it will last, as I said before. But be
careful, since the magic is extremely sensitive. The faintest marking will usually last for around a minute, human
time." With that, she traced a barely
visible finishing rune, the triangle with the extra side, and he disappeared,
only to pop in once again. "You'll get
a feel for it later on."
Ryeth marveled at the
magic. His hand had no trace upon it,
no scars, not even a tiny scratch. But
he was not one to argue, since fortune had already come his way. "We'll be doing some… field work tomorrow,
so for now, you're free to try out your spells, or chat, or whatever." And with that invitation, Ryeth fell into a
simple conversation with Chaya, about nothing interesting in particular. He always enjoyed talking to her, normally,
as he thought it, since it was like talking to an old friend.
This night, he ate with Chaya,
and decided to sleep in the holt. Having
done some magic, he felt like he had accomplished much, and was more an elf
than ever before. During the meal, the
two conversed some more, and he tried to pull off the invisibility spell once
more. It required a bit less time, and
he decided that it would be good to work on it, so he could disappear
faster. Surprisingly tired, Ryeth
trooped off into the den, and fell upon the remarkably comfortable furs, as his
eyes fell shut. A good day, he
realized, as sleep claimed his spirit, and his eyes closed. A good day, and a good teacher.
Review?
