Continued from here.
"I figured I'd find you around here somewhere." A melodic voice cut him from his thoughts as he focused, which led Rickter to look past his shoulder toward the arriving bard as she greeted him with a smile. "I see you opted for magic today."
"Yeah, figured I'd give myself a break from shifting all day." The wolf responded as he turned to face her, a few steps taken to close the gap between them as she watched his approach. Rickter saw the brief surprise in her eyes when he knelt down a bit to place a kiss gently at her lips, the woman chuckling lightly as he pulled back with a grin directed at her. "I love you, by the way." The bard perked up at the statement suddenly, caught completely off guard by the expression as her eyes widened.
"You... You do?" The shock of her inquiry brought a short chuckle out of him as he heard confusion in her tone, a reaction that gave him cause to wrap his arms around her sides so she was pulled in close from her back.
"I do. I'm sorry it took this long to realize it, but I mean it when I say that's how I feel." The astonishment in her eyes withered away as excitement developed within them, Telion's eyes still remained widened a bit but there was enthusiasm within them now. "You know you and I hadn't had the best of starts so-"
"I love you too!" She quickly interjected to stop him from rambling, which of course, gave Rickter reason to softly chuckle as he rubbed her lower back affectionately a few times. Telion's smile widened as she pulled herself closer to him then, and gave him an earnest squeeze with her arms as her head rested into his chest. "No matter what." When the moment came for them to pull away she looked up at his eyes once again, her radiant smile evoking butterfly feelings in his stomach as he reciprocated the expression. Gods she smelt sweeter than ever now, before it was always akin to honey but it was more. Sweeter than nectar the scent of her often tickled his nose, which he often memorized for the periods they'd spent apart from one another.
"So, been practicing your new magic yet?" She inquired with a finger pointed at the top of his Kinetics rune, the tip of the digit just barely brushing along the marks born into his flesh when she did. Rickter brought his hands up to grip her's gently, a playful smirk given to Telion as he remembered one person already found a 'soft spot' of his.
"Hardly. I plan to, but first..."
"You're honing your other magic skills first." The bard finished not even a moment after he started to trail off, which gave Rickter cause to raise his eyebrows before chuckling softly with affectionate eyes on her. He nodded in response to the guess, which led her to clasp her hands together with enthusiasm as she smiled up to him. "Okay! What can I do to help?"
"Help huh?" She nodded eagerly in response to his inquiry, and Rickter pressed a thumb under his chin to contemplate it for a moment. "I've sort of picked up on a few things with Elementalism."
"Oh!?" She quickly perked up with a sudden realization, Telion's eyes quickly lowering to the ground around her as she noticed the blades of grass littered with water drops. "Go figure, making progress already?" To that he quickly gave a few slow nods as Telion brushed the wrinkles out of the thighs of her dress, her arms brought behind her as she tucked one of her wrists into her other hand before looking back up to him. "Well then, did you want help with that?"
"Actually I wouldn't mind some shieldcrafting practice." He remarked in turn with a couple scratches of his finger over his cheek, the suggestion led Telion to chuckle heartily as she shifted onto her other foot.
"Sure! Seeing as how you've created plenty of water I can just manipulate it, and we can use that to test your shieldcrafting skills while we're at it." He had to admit Telion had a knack for creating an exercise routine, though from the sound of it this one would seem kind of fun to try to say the least. Sure he'd only be deflecting whatever she threw at him, but still, they'd, in essence, be playing with each other using magic. Her tenacity and passion for being a part of his life not only broadened the smile on his lips, but also reminded Rickter of the reasons as to why he fell for her entirely.
"Alright, sounds like a plan." He agreed as he began to walk backward away from her, turning as to create a more larger gap between them while he walked. After several steps he stopped to turn back around, the bard had already lowered her hands to begin manipulating her aether. Moments later the water droplets found across the ground began to rise, and even drift their way through the air into a cluster as she willed it to gather with a thought. As her arms elevated slowly water continued to gather from the places where it had seeped, from Rickter's earlier attempts at practicing before he'd drenched the area. Two water orbs the size of watermelons floated beneath her palms then, as the last of the droplets floated into the larger bodies while her eyes opened to focus on Rickter once more.
"Alright, you ready?" The wolf nodded as he shifted one leg away from his body, his toes pointed away as he positioned it further behind him, while his other knee was bent to allow him to stand in a more forward slant. "You remember your shapes?"
"Of course!" He assured her with a grin still on his face, his eyebrows furrowed in determination as he brought both hands close together. "Only thing to do is work on my pacing." Telion giggled aloud as the water orbs under her palms rippled dramatically, while Rickter's hands were aligned with fingers clutched near one another, before he bent his hands outward and kept his wrists aligned with one another. The bard flexed her fingers to release a barrage of bubbles that came soaring at him, while the wolf himself flexed to generate an anchor from his palms, so that the generated energy could be funneled quickly yet efficiently once his aether spread out. Yet it did no good. The spread of his aether was still too slow from the anchor, thus the small bubbles of water pelted him quickly, dowsing him upon contact as he lowered his head defensively.
Telion couldn't help but laugh a loud, much of the water in her grasp drizzling back down to the ground, before she regained control of her focus and recollected it once more. "Silly! You can't just expect to create a shield from your anchors instantly!"
"I know, but, I thought..." No, actually, he didn't think that through properly... Aether had to weave into the fabric of the shield effectively, and if those bubbles were an actual magic attack he would've been seriously injured. Still, he chuckled for a moment as he shook the water off his arms, ignoring the few droplets that fell from the tips of his hair as he resumed his earlier position. "Alright, so creating a shield quickly is a bad call. How do I shrug off attacks effectively when I can't even generate a shield before they hit?"
"You mean in the event you don't have any anchors stored away?" Telion inquired curiously with a raise of her eyebrows, though the slow nod of the wolf led her to smile at him thoughtfully once more. "Well, the best thing to remember is that anchors are the core of your shield. The point where they're strongest yet also weakest, if you remember the lessons I first gave you."
"So?"
"So!? Find a way to make it work!" She teased as she raised her hands a bit more, the water spheres beneath them floated up closer, which indicated to Rickter that she was bracing for another launch. But seriously? Make it work!? Rickter looked to his hands in thought for a moment, before his eyes fell upon Telion casting another flurry of bubbles his way. The wolf growled at the short amount of time he had to figure it out, his hands brought together to generate the anchor the same as before, only to be pelted by beads of water as it seeped into his hair and clothes. Telion couldn't help but giggle more, while Rickter shook the water out his hair and face, and looked to her with a playfully stern expression. "Come on, Rick, I know you can do it!" Another flex of her fingers and more bubbles came soaring his way, Rickter quickly projecting one of his hands out to generate the anchor, while his mind focused on the task of negating the water.
"That's enough!" His thoughts demanded as his anchor flashed for a moment, the aether within barely even pouring out as the bubbles closed in. More than half of them pelted his lower chest while a few zoomed past his hand, yet where there was bubbles destined to collide into his anchor, the water came to stop there momentarily before he lost focus. Telion's eyes widened for a moment as his anchor diminished quickly, the bubbles that did stop immediately dropped to the ground as he wiped his face with his other hand. "Thought I was onto something there for a moment." He remarked with a sigh as he looked to his left hand, disappointed that the anchor didn't generate fast enough to his standards.
"I think... you might be." Telion remarked as she lowered her arms again, the water spheres drooped down before they slowly bounced off the ground. "Just now, when you created that anchor, you managed to ward off a couple of the bubbles I threw at you. If you can learn how to do that more, then you might be able to generate a longer window of time for more shieldcrafting!" Rickter looked to her with surprise after hearing her observation, which led him to look back down at the palm of his hand once more in retrospect.
"Again then." He pressed as he resumed his stance once more, the bard grinning toward him as she raised her hands again, and willed the water orbs to float beneath him with her thoughts. Like before Telion flexed her fingers and so too did Rickter when he did, generating an anchor with his left hand as he held it out in front of him. While his right hand hung down at his side he focused on it too, channeling aether through it as well to create another anchor the same time he made the first. As the bubbles came soaring right toward him, Rickter stepped back with his left hand brought closer to his body, sending aether out through both of them as he waved in a sweeping motion before his being. Water still escaped past the areas he could not negate, but, the bubbles that were on the collision path with his anchors had deflected away from him entirely.
"That's it!" Telion cheered as she released her grip on the orbs, the water balls fell back to the ground with a splash, while the bard renewed her footing after a minor sway happened in her form. "Woo..."
"You okay?!" Rickter checked as he dropped the stance and moved closer to her, ignoring the fact the pads of his feet got wet when he reached her.
"Yeah, just got a little dizzy all of a sudden..." She clarified with her fingers brought up to brush her hair past her ears, Telion's eyes fallen to the wet ground for a moment before she looked back up to Rickter thoughtfully. "But you did it! Since you didn't have enough time to generate full shields, you used your anchors to serve as the warding points instead."
"Well, I had to, it was either that or get drenched more than I already am." He remarked wryly with a playful shrug, his lips tucked into a smirk as brought a hand to rest on her shoulder. "I figured if I could just shrug off the magic with my anchors though, then perhaps I can use that to my advantage by generating a window of opportunity for shieldcrafting."
"Not a bad strategy, but you have to remember anchors aren't that reliable initially." She debated with a point of her finger, before she leaned back to match Rickter's gaze. "You were able to ward off the bubbles sure, but do that with a sword or axe and you could lose a hand!"
"Or a head," Rickter added which led Telion to give him a look, "just saying is all." The statement brought small mirth from the bard, before she shifted to lean into him with her arms wrapped around his ribs.
"What say we go get some food, huh? You oughta be hungry after all the practice you've done already?" Admittedly Rickter already loved the suggestion of food, to the point where Telion giggled the moment his stomach grumbled a bit.
"Sounds like a plan." He agreed as he bent forward to lower himself, Telion pulling away so that their lips met once more for a tender kiss. "Let's get some grub." The wolf whispered to her with a nod of his head to the side, before he took Telion by the hand and started to walk with her through the gardens.
"I figured I'd find you around here somewhere." A melodic voice cut him from his thoughts as he focused, which led Rickter to look past his shoulder toward the arriving bard as she greeted him with a smile. "I see you opted for magic today."
"Yeah, figured I'd give myself a break from shifting all day." The wolf responded as he turned to face her, a few steps taken to close the gap between them as she watched his approach. Rickter saw the brief surprise in her eyes when he knelt down a bit to place a kiss gently at her lips, the woman chuckling lightly as he pulled back with a grin directed at her. "I love you, by the way." The bard perked up at the statement suddenly, caught completely off guard by the expression as her eyes widened.
"You... You do?" The shock of her inquiry brought a short chuckle out of him as he heard confusion in her tone, a reaction that gave him cause to wrap his arms around her sides so she was pulled in close from her back.
"I do. I'm sorry it took this long to realize it, but I mean it when I say that's how I feel." The astonishment in her eyes withered away as excitement developed within them, Telion's eyes still remained widened a bit but there was enthusiasm within them now. "You know you and I hadn't had the best of starts so-"
"I love you too!" She quickly interjected to stop him from rambling, which of course, gave Rickter reason to softly chuckle as he rubbed her lower back affectionately a few times. Telion's smile widened as she pulled herself closer to him then, and gave him an earnest squeeze with her arms as her head rested into his chest. "No matter what." When the moment came for them to pull away she looked up at his eyes once again, her radiant smile evoking butterfly feelings in his stomach as he reciprocated the expression. Gods she smelt sweeter than ever now, before it was always akin to honey but it was more. Sweeter than nectar the scent of her often tickled his nose, which he often memorized for the periods they'd spent apart from one another.
"So, been practicing your new magic yet?" She inquired with a finger pointed at the top of his Kinetics rune, the tip of the digit just barely brushing along the marks born into his flesh when she did. Rickter brought his hands up to grip her's gently, a playful smirk given to Telion as he remembered one person already found a 'soft spot' of his.
"Hardly. I plan to, but first..."
"You're honing your other magic skills first." The bard finished not even a moment after he started to trail off, which gave Rickter cause to raise his eyebrows before chuckling softly with affectionate eyes on her. He nodded in response to the guess, which led her to clasp her hands together with enthusiasm as she smiled up to him. "Okay! What can I do to help?"
"Help huh?" She nodded eagerly in response to his inquiry, and Rickter pressed a thumb under his chin to contemplate it for a moment. "I've sort of picked up on a few things with Elementalism."
"Oh!?" She quickly perked up with a sudden realization, Telion's eyes quickly lowering to the ground around her as she noticed the blades of grass littered with water drops. "Go figure, making progress already?" To that he quickly gave a few slow nods as Telion brushed the wrinkles out of the thighs of her dress, her arms brought behind her as she tucked one of her wrists into her other hand before looking back up to him. "Well then, did you want help with that?"
"Actually I wouldn't mind some shieldcrafting practice." He remarked in turn with a couple scratches of his finger over his cheek, the suggestion led Telion to chuckle heartily as she shifted onto her other foot.
"Sure! Seeing as how you've created plenty of water I can just manipulate it, and we can use that to test your shieldcrafting skills while we're at it." He had to admit Telion had a knack for creating an exercise routine, though from the sound of it this one would seem kind of fun to try to say the least. Sure he'd only be deflecting whatever she threw at him, but still, they'd, in essence, be playing with each other using magic. Her tenacity and passion for being a part of his life not only broadened the smile on his lips, but also reminded Rickter of the reasons as to why he fell for her entirely.
"Alright, sounds like a plan." He agreed as he began to walk backward away from her, turning as to create a more larger gap between them while he walked. After several steps he stopped to turn back around, the bard had already lowered her hands to begin manipulating her aether. Moments later the water droplets found across the ground began to rise, and even drift their way through the air into a cluster as she willed it to gather with a thought. As her arms elevated slowly water continued to gather from the places where it had seeped, from Rickter's earlier attempts at practicing before he'd drenched the area. Two water orbs the size of watermelons floated beneath her palms then, as the last of the droplets floated into the larger bodies while her eyes opened to focus on Rickter once more.
"Alright, you ready?" The wolf nodded as he shifted one leg away from his body, his toes pointed away as he positioned it further behind him, while his other knee was bent to allow him to stand in a more forward slant. "You remember your shapes?"
"Of course!" He assured her with a grin still on his face, his eyebrows furrowed in determination as he brought both hands close together. "Only thing to do is work on my pacing." Telion giggled aloud as the water orbs under her palms rippled dramatically, while Rickter's hands were aligned with fingers clutched near one another, before he bent his hands outward and kept his wrists aligned with one another. The bard flexed her fingers to release a barrage of bubbles that came soaring at him, while the wolf himself flexed to generate an anchor from his palms, so that the generated energy could be funneled quickly yet efficiently once his aether spread out. Yet it did no good. The spread of his aether was still too slow from the anchor, thus the small bubbles of water pelted him quickly, dowsing him upon contact as he lowered his head defensively.
Telion couldn't help but laugh a loud, much of the water in her grasp drizzling back down to the ground, before she regained control of her focus and recollected it once more. "Silly! You can't just expect to create a shield from your anchors instantly!"
"I know, but, I thought..." No, actually, he didn't think that through properly... Aether had to weave into the fabric of the shield effectively, and if those bubbles were an actual magic attack he would've been seriously injured. Still, he chuckled for a moment as he shook the water off his arms, ignoring the few droplets that fell from the tips of his hair as he resumed his earlier position. "Alright, so creating a shield quickly is a bad call. How do I shrug off attacks effectively when I can't even generate a shield before they hit?"
"You mean in the event you don't have any anchors stored away?" Telion inquired curiously with a raise of her eyebrows, though the slow nod of the wolf led her to smile at him thoughtfully once more. "Well, the best thing to remember is that anchors are the core of your shield. The point where they're strongest yet also weakest, if you remember the lessons I first gave you."
"So?"
"So!? Find a way to make it work!" She teased as she raised her hands a bit more, the water spheres beneath them floated up closer, which indicated to Rickter that she was bracing for another launch. But seriously? Make it work!? Rickter looked to his hands in thought for a moment, before his eyes fell upon Telion casting another flurry of bubbles his way. The wolf growled at the short amount of time he had to figure it out, his hands brought together to generate the anchor the same as before, only to be pelted by beads of water as it seeped into his hair and clothes. Telion couldn't help but giggle more, while Rickter shook the water out his hair and face, and looked to her with a playfully stern expression. "Come on, Rick, I know you can do it!" Another flex of her fingers and more bubbles came soaring his way, Rickter quickly projecting one of his hands out to generate the anchor, while his mind focused on the task of negating the water.
"That's enough!" His thoughts demanded as his anchor flashed for a moment, the aether within barely even pouring out as the bubbles closed in. More than half of them pelted his lower chest while a few zoomed past his hand, yet where there was bubbles destined to collide into his anchor, the water came to stop there momentarily before he lost focus. Telion's eyes widened for a moment as his anchor diminished quickly, the bubbles that did stop immediately dropped to the ground as he wiped his face with his other hand. "Thought I was onto something there for a moment." He remarked with a sigh as he looked to his left hand, disappointed that the anchor didn't generate fast enough to his standards.
"I think... you might be." Telion remarked as she lowered her arms again, the water spheres drooped down before they slowly bounced off the ground. "Just now, when you created that anchor, you managed to ward off a couple of the bubbles I threw at you. If you can learn how to do that more, then you might be able to generate a longer window of time for more shieldcrafting!" Rickter looked to her with surprise after hearing her observation, which led him to look back down at the palm of his hand once more in retrospect.
"Again then." He pressed as he resumed his stance once more, the bard grinning toward him as she raised her hands again, and willed the water orbs to float beneath him with her thoughts. Like before Telion flexed her fingers and so too did Rickter when he did, generating an anchor with his left hand as he held it out in front of him. While his right hand hung down at his side he focused on it too, channeling aether through it as well to create another anchor the same time he made the first. As the bubbles came soaring right toward him, Rickter stepped back with his left hand brought closer to his body, sending aether out through both of them as he waved in a sweeping motion before his being. Water still escaped past the areas he could not negate, but, the bubbles that were on the collision path with his anchors had deflected away from him entirely.
"That's it!" Telion cheered as she released her grip on the orbs, the water balls fell back to the ground with a splash, while the bard renewed her footing after a minor sway happened in her form. "Woo..."
"You okay?!" Rickter checked as he dropped the stance and moved closer to her, ignoring the fact the pads of his feet got wet when he reached her.
"Yeah, just got a little dizzy all of a sudden..." She clarified with her fingers brought up to brush her hair past her ears, Telion's eyes fallen to the wet ground for a moment before she looked back up to Rickter thoughtfully. "But you did it! Since you didn't have enough time to generate full shields, you used your anchors to serve as the warding points instead."
"Well, I had to, it was either that or get drenched more than I already am." He remarked wryly with a playful shrug, his lips tucked into a smirk as brought a hand to rest on her shoulder. "I figured if I could just shrug off the magic with my anchors though, then perhaps I can use that to my advantage by generating a window of opportunity for shieldcrafting."
"Not a bad strategy, but you have to remember anchors aren't that reliable initially." She debated with a point of her finger, before she leaned back to match Rickter's gaze. "You were able to ward off the bubbles sure, but do that with a sword or axe and you could lose a hand!"
"Or a head," Rickter added which led Telion to give him a look, "just saying is all." The statement brought small mirth from the bard, before she shifted to lean into him with her arms wrapped around his ribs.
"What say we go get some food, huh? You oughta be hungry after all the practice you've done already?" Admittedly Rickter already loved the suggestion of food, to the point where Telion giggled the moment his stomach grumbled a bit.
"Sounds like a plan." He agreed as he bent forward to lower himself, Telion pulling away so that their lips met once more for a tender kiss. "Let's get some grub." The wolf whispered to her with a nod of his head to the side, before he took Telion by the hand and started to walk with her through the gardens.
"Common" "Synskrit" "Norvaegan"
"Rickter" "Telion" "Hannah"
"Rickter" "Telion" "Hannah"
