Frost 65, 122 immediately following Frost 65, 122 viewtopic.php?t=4479
Norani soared up through the sky, bee-lining straight for the dark clouds as they rolled in, with Glorbp Glorbp, Ooshi, Urgurg, and Crackalackle racing after her. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed as she began to cut through the first drops of rain. As they raced past her, she could hear them laughing, and she could feel that they were part of the spirits there, similar to Glorbp Glorbp and the others. It was astounding, there must be so many spirits in the world, far more than there are people. She reached out her aether toward the storm, and she could feel hundreds of spirits there making up the massive tempest that hovered there.
And she felt the flitting little lightning spirit, dodging away from her touch, but staying curiously close.
She pulled in power from the storm, not enough to slow it down, just the ambient that was fading, pulling the errant winds and rain into herself, and she felt a rush of vigor. Her Orkhan scales grew out over her brow, the visor that came with being a flier in her village, but it was no longer necessary. Not a single drop of rain or small gust of wind dared to harm their favorite elementalist. They joined her as she shot deep into the darkness of the storm.
She hovered there with her companions, looking all around her. As a soldier, she'd never flown into a storm, it was something they avoided as often as they could. Storms were dangerous for the Ci'uvan, could rip their wings and break their bones with ease. But now, Norani found that it was comforting place. The winds here were many, not one. Winds from different lands and seas, of differing personalities and desires, coming together. She could hear them singing and dancing with one another, the waters mixing and mingling, spreading out in the cold mist that formed the heavy clouds. She could hear them talking, how it was too hot in one area, too dry in another, leading the clouds in the direction that was required. She arched an eyebrow, realizing that storms were balance bringers.That seemed to be the primary duty of the elements, not to simply exist unfettered, but to work together to bring balance into nature.
Just as she would.
Boom!
Lightning flared up the entire cloud, and she saw the zippy little element dash off. A challenge. She remembered back to the words she'd heard when flying over the blackened oceans that called to her. Return the Tempest, they'd cried. They had pleaded with her, they needed help. Had that been the Titan calling for her? Spirits asking for aid, needing the balance to be restored? Her tusks grew as her lips turn up into a determined smile.
"Let's catch her."
And with that, she shot forward in the direction it had gone. She spoke in her growing Acherani, saving her aether for this task at hand. She shot through the clouds, racing far faster than she ever had on the back of Ruvaf, the winds aiding her and her companions. She could see the tail of lightning behind the elemental, who was taking seemingly random paths. Every time she turned, there was a crack of thunder and flash of light. Norani raced forward, but just as she thought she was going the right direction, the elemental was way off over on another cloud. She was far too slow. Thunder cracked again and she could hear the elemental laughing.
If she couldn't chase it, she'd have to either know where it would be or bring it to her. But how?
Norani reached out into the storm with her aether, grasping wind and water alike. She spread herself into them, growing, and she nodded at Ooshi, Crackalackle, and Glorbp Glorbp. Those three raced toward the spark, but it knew they were allied with her, and it danced around them at a blinding speed. She watched as Glorbp Glorbp shot a wave of water at it, but it zipped right through it. Ooshi, tried to catch it in a cage of winds and it walked right through. Crackalackle tossed fireball after fireball, but they passed through it harmlessly. But they kept it occupied.
Norani was reminded of a lesson she'd learned, one that was taught on her first day as a flier, and that was the dangers of lightning. For a Ci'uvan rider, getting struck by lightning would mean almost certain death to rider and beast alike, so when it was seen in the skies, the riders were to go to ground. And it was told in the shadow of a story, of how lightning was in love with earth. Lightning was always trying to reach its beloved earth, through anything it could reach. If it could just touch something, it could find the earth. It was why it struck the tallest of trees and would hit people in the middle of a field.
Norani reformed her body from within the clouds after having watched the futile actions of her three companions. She would need the speed of wind to even remotely get close to the wind, but she looked at Urgurg who understood her intentions through their bond. She flew down, picking him up in her storming hands, and tossed him at the four playing elementals. She then raced forward to catch up to him. She pushed herself hard to go as fast as the fastest wind possibly could go. The storm around her seemed to slow, as she saw the lightning elemental flash, changing course, racing toward Urgurg, smiling, while the small earthen elemental seemed to be in shock at being tossed and tumbled in such a fashion. Norani saw the two connect, the lightning one wrapping Urgurg up in a hug, a quick peck on the cheek, and with a flash and boom that were building, started to race off.
Norani reached out, the tempests around her funneling into her grasp, and she caught the lightning by its tail.
Her mind electrified, the shock racing through her synergized body. But she refused to let go. Every time the elemental shocked her, she trapped that lightning inside of her, not letting it escape her aether. She pulled on it, drawing it closer as it boomed and cracked and flashed and yelled, trying to escape. Her hands, made of wind and water, were burning and steaming and vaporizing but she pushed through the pain, seeing that Urgurg was caught in the combined arms of the other elementals.
She could barely feel anything other than the bright flashes of searing pain. But she'd already died once, that didn't scare her. What scared her was not having the power and understanding to complete her mission. And so she pulled and pulled until the little elemental was writhing in her arms, but she flooded it with her remaining aether, to try and soothe it. As she did, she could feel what made it up. It raced with the speed of the winds, and with that, she called over Ooshi, who joined in the embrace. She felt the burning of fire upon her winds and waters, and with that, she called over Crackalackle, who also joined in. She recalled her time as a drop of rain in the storm, and how water provided a medium for lightning to move through, gave it life, and with that, Glorbp Glorbp joined in as well. And then she called over Urgurg, the grounding, the object of lightning's love, and her joined in as well.
And Norani began to Attune. She focused on all the parts of the storm around her, she focused on that which allowed lightning to live and thrive, while keeping ti embraced within her, against her, in the arms of her companions. Lightning, the child of wind and fire, born in water, chasing the earth, was one of many balances between the primary elements, tied them all together, in its own way. Norani lost track of time but she felt her aether grasp hold of the lightning, and she felt her Synergized body began to change. Among the tempest of winds and rains that made her up, cracks of thunder could be heard, beating with the time of her heart. Soon, flashes of light buzzed to life, racing through her as it did through her nerves.
And she opened her eyes, looking at the calmed elemental in her arms, "Hello, Zzzik," the last of her aether spent to bind the two together.
And she began to fall.
Like a stone, she fell, her magic in disarray at having been so heavily drained, now and in the last several days. Ooshi and Glorbp Glorbp tried to reach her, empowered by her being Arched with them, but her aether was wild, chaotic. Winds tried to catch her and they flew off in random directions. Water tried to slow her, and she sliced through it like oil. She shot out of the bottom of the storm cloud, racing toward Agst'rasera at speeds that were making her vision fade, her stomach roil, her world starting to go black.
The ground was coming fast, and she sent out a final prayer, 'I hope we meet again in the next life, Yeva Bleu,' and her world went black.
