Frost 65, 122 immediately following viewtopic.php?t=4471
Norani was feeling sluggish ever since she'd pushed herself really hard with Urgurg. She felt wobbly, unable to ever find her balance or see perfectly straight. She was constantly tripping over roots or elementals. She tossed and turned when she'd try to sleep, her skin, still covered in the stony scales, itched to no end and felt as though it was constantly pulling. She'd accidentally scratched herself multiple times with the draconic claws that still had not yet receded. She'd sought advice from Astrid, who had told her to find her balance. Norani was stumbling down a path, not really paying attention to where she was going. She found herself in a small clearing, stopping to rest on her haunches there, warming in the sunlight.
She cast her face up to the sky, letting it bathe on her skin. She knew she'd need to leave her soon, she couldn't delay or train much longer before having to go face whatever primordial darkness could threaten a Titan. She was scared. How could someone like her, a mere Orkhan lass, a budding mage, someone of no significance in the world possibly have any effect on forces as large as this? Even after the lessons she'd learned from Glorbp Glorbp, Urgurg, and the others, she still felt as if she were merely a grain of sand in the desert of the world, thinking that she could fight something as big as the sun.
And she was scared to do it alone.
Tears streamed down her face as she pulled Yeva's face into her thoughts. She was thankful that she could still remember what her dear friend looked like, what her hair smelled like, what their hands joined together felt like. She missed Yeva dearly and prayed to the elements that she was safe, wherever she was, whoever she was with. Norani sniffled, wiping away at her nose, scratching it with the scales there, wincing in annoyance. She had to keep going though, this was the only path that she could see that even remotely had a chance at saving Yeva.
But it also meant that Norani would have to survive what came next. And when a grain of sand faced down the sun, death felt inevitable. A few days ago, she'd pushed herself beyond her limits, and that was just to make some dust. If she were to somehow defeat a great and powerful and unknown entity, she'd have to do way more than that. And if she did, would there be anything of her left? Or would she simply become dust as well, to go on and nourish a plant one day, leaving Yeva lost?
Why would a prophesy predict her? Why would she be picked when there were great heroes? Chieftains with their Relics, the Triumvirate, Arcas of the North, and all of the others whose tales spun around the world. No one told stories of Norani, none knew her name for her power was small.
Fwoosh!
Norani's watery eyes snapped open as a giant fireball was launched her way. She hesitated, going to dodge, when a wall of wind and rain summoned in the path, snuffing the fireball. Norani looked through the wall, seeing that the fiery elemental was there, preparing another fireball. Why was he attacking her? She was quickly on her feet, as the wind and rain separated, revealing themselves to be Glorbp Glorbp and the little wind elemental, hovering at her side. Norani summoned her aether into her throat, tinging it with fire, as she shouted at the fiery one, "Why do you attack me?"
"You become you!"
The little fiery one pumped himself up, the fireball splitting into two and still growing. Glorbp Glorbp and Ooshi moved forward, but Norani held out a hand to each. She shook her head. She was the elementalist here, and he had challenged her. This would be her fight. The two elementals nodded, standing down, watching on. She reached deep into herself, finding the two elements she knew best there, the two that had chosen her, water and wind. She pulled them into every fiber of her being, just as she had when she'd become a drop of water. She became the water and the wind, and where the Orkhan had stood was now a visage of her, a typhoon in her shape.
The first fireball was hurled her way and Norani dashed forward, running as the winds had done that night upon the lake. She didn't try to dodge the fireball, but rather, sent forth a plume of water up at it, deflecting it. But this also sent out a spray of steam, and Norani seized it with her aether, sending it at the elemental. He blocked it with his remaining fireball, dissipating both attacks. But Norani was gone. He looked around the clearing, only seeing the many other elementals there, watching on with worried looks. A light breeze blew, and a pair of limbs made of swirling wind grasped the fiery elemental. He squirmed and raged and writhed, but Norani did not try to hurt him, merely hold him. She turned him to look at her, to look upon his face, to figure out what it was he was trying to do.
All of the elementals had been here to help her, and she knew he was the same. But they all did so differently, communicated differently. As he wriggled and huffed, the fiery lotus tattoo over Norani's heart flared up as well. She had discovered fire through her love for Yeva, it was time to trust it. She fed a large chunk of her aether into the fiery one and released him. His shape changed and he grew, standing now as tall as she, a living embodiment of flame and fire. The surface of her own body was steaming away just in his presence and the two stared each other down. He pointed at the lotus and began to walk toward her.
Trust the love, trust the flame, trust the elements.
Norani deactivated her Synergy, standing there before the empowered fire elemental, naked, alone, as the clearing went silent. She bowed her head, opening herself up, lowering her defenses. Balance, Astrid had said. Norani closed her eyes as the elemental touched the flower upon her heart, and her body ignited entirely. Her world went white with pain as the flames consumed her flesh, roiling through her, somehow happening in an instant and feeling like an eternity. When there was no flesh left to consume, she felt cold, colder than she'd ever been in her life as the flames ate away at her muscles and her organs. She saw nothing, she could feel nothing. Soon, they consumed her bones then there was nothing left but a pile of ash, as Vomi Vani and the others gasped.
Norani was gone.
The flame elemental shifted back into his smaller, normal state, looking at the pile of ash curiously. He prodded it, and a small orange bud peeked out. Dust fell from it as it grew upwards, shining and stretching and glowing as it reached for the sun. The lotus of fire burned bright and hot, and many of the elementals had to shield their eyes as they looked upon it. Then the Lotus called to the winds. Ooshi and the winds answered, and they came to the Lotus, swirling around it, stoking the fire, giving it shape, giving it a voice.
'Come.'
Then the waters were called, and Glorb Glorb herded them forward, bringing life and motion to the shape that was forming around the Lotus.
'Come.'
Urgurg trudged forward and he brought with him the earth of Agst'rasera, and he stepped into the shape, giving it body and structure. The shape turned toward the fiery one, 'Come, Cracklackle.' The fiery elemental sprang forth, bringing with it all the fires of the island, and it gave warmth and love and passion to the shape. The four elements swirled in a storm impossible to follow, in the shape of a woman, they mixed and merged and split and formed and raced nonstop, growing faster and faster.
There was a bright white flash, all the other elementals looking away.
When they looked back, they could see Crackalackle, Urgurg, Ooshi, and Glorbp Glorbp all floating there, and in the middle of them, Norani Windwalker. Her lotus burned brightly, and the determination in her eyes burned brighter. Ooshi and Crackalackle's forms shined upon the rune on her back, joining her in the fight to come, in all the fights to come. She cast her gaze to the skies above, a grin growing upon her face, "A storm is coming."
She looked down at the four elementals around her, "Thank you."
She felt invigorated, renewed. She had been rebuilt, in harmony with the elements. She had built herself with their hands, to be the person she wished to be, in balance with herself, with her desires and with her world around her. She looked no different, for she liked who she was but she felt different. She had burned away her anger, her pain, her worry and her doubt. She watched as the sky darkened, storm clouds rolling in. She would find the Last Titan, she would aid him in his fight, and she would find Yeva once more.
She looked down at her companions, smiling, "And I won't do it alone."
She synergized with the wind and water once more, and shot upwards into the sky, seeing the zipping lightning elemental racing about the clouds. One more lesson to learn.
