[Soren] Trailblazing Tailwinds

[Soren]

Breathe in… Breathe out… Seek your inner fire. Sunlight peeked its golden rays through windows in a modest home. Soren was sitting on a seat with a large rounded cushion whose edges pointed upwards while the center dipped. It was positioned like a nest, if that nest was made of pillows rather than twigs and downy fluff. His eyes were closed and he was very still. The young birdman was meditating with a mantra that most fire mages grew up understanding as the core of their magic. Their inner fire.

It was something that gave them purpose for using the magic. It could be anything from survival, to love, to passion, to justice. It never was mentioned that it was a single set thing, but it almost always seemed to be the case. Some wrote songs, typically love songs. One being their fire, their one desire. Without this inner fire, it’s often said that a fire mage was without direction, a way, a purpose. Those who don’t know what their inner flame is are often known as a Wandering Wisp, one that seeks their purpose. Those who lost their flame are known as The Smolder, only left with little will to produce their own fire outside of certain outbursts and scenarios.

Soren took a breath in, keeping it slow, and then a breath out. A steady flow of air kept his mind calm. There was the sound of birdsong that rang softly in the air. Golden light from the sun seeping in with warmth and glittering with bits of dust that always seemed to be there. His current purpose felt clear. It was something he could pour his whole being into and feel right doing so. Strengthening up to join the ranks of the Phoenix Guard and commit to great justices. Man those guys were so cool. With a nod to himself, he stretched his arms up and his wings outwards.

The birdman opened his eyes and got up to fix up a breakfast for him and his needy plants. They did add some weird variety to life as a kind of floral pet. After all that was taken care of, he cleaned the dishes, fixed his bed, and rearranged the cushions in the hanging nest-chair thing. A clean house made a happy home after all. It let all the light in and made things feel warm and roomy. He grabbed his spear and holstered it behind his back and walked out of the front door, locking it, and then crouching to set off on some adventure.

Flight was liberating. Soren was truly happy to feel the wind beneath his wings and the sunlight over his back. The breeze was warm itself, carrying a gentle and comfortable feel with it. He could feel the breeze through each feather. He flew towards the edge of a forest, latching to the treetop with his talons first and then using his hands to secure his landing. Today was going to be a simple practice. He was just going to go for a hunt. He climbed down the tree carefully, making sure to not shake the branches too much to disturb anything. He leapt from the branch he was on to another in the tree next to it. Thankfully, Soren’s had enough practice to climb through trees. The man was practically a cryptid in the forest with how agile he was in the treetops while on all fours.

Soren snuck through the branches until something caught his eye. A boar sniffing around. What for? Truffles, probably. Soren's pace slowed to a crawl in the branches, only shaking the branches slightly but not enough to really alert anything. He carefully maneuvered closer to the edge of the branch he was on, daring to go as far out as the branch would allow for him to. If it snapped, that would be a wreck and he could get really hurt, so he had to be extremely sensitive of the branch's strength.

He slowly reached behind him, grabbing his spear  while keeping eyes trained on the boar. He was slowly poising himself for a strike. Soren shifted his feet slightly to alter his position as he got ready to dive. His wings slowly opened, lifting some of the smaller branches above him. He had to make this strike in one fell swoop. This dive would make a lot of noise and it would cover the sound of his spear extending to its proper form rather than being sheathed. One slight lift to prepare for the spring, his thumb resting on the release on his spear and then he was off.

A soft series of clicks and the sound of a sudden shake of branches alerted the boar. Soren tucked his wings to reduce the drag of the air on him to drop. He shifted to point the spear at the boar while it was struggling to react. Drawing closer to it, it was a sizeable creature. The boar started to dart off in the forest, Soren's spear barely missing it on the hock. He silently let out a hiss of a curse as he quickly looked to find where it went as his feet finally hit the ground. He used the momentum to spring up, unstick his spear from the ground and ran after the boar, hopping from trunk to trunk. He used his wings to glide from tree to tree to close the distance with the fleeing creature. A perk about tree hopping is that he could easily make the sharpest turns on the rounded surfaces while angling himself. 

The boar itself ran towards a bramble thicket, suddenly darting in another direction as Soren lept. His wings unfurled in full against the direction he was heading but it was too late and he landed in the brambles. Thin scratches lined over his skin as he was struggling out of the brambles. He found he was a bit more than stuck and the thorns poked into his skin in a way that made him want to struggle out of them more to not get pricked a ton by this insufferable plant.

He settled down and took a deep breath in to calm his mind. Breathe out... He took another breath in and exhaled a flame to burn the brambles. This might taken some time but that would at least be a better escape that to continue getting scratched up. He waited until he felt a slack on the brambles as they weakened from the fire. To prevent it from getting through the whole forest, he quickly righted himself on the newly burned ground and quickly crouched with his wings fully out. Soren's wings snuffed out most of the flames, quickly hitting them with a force that did not allow for it to use the air as additional fuel. When he got up, there was a bit of smoke. Surely this wouldn't get worse unless a wind mage stoked the embers, but that would also rely on a wind mage being nearby.

Smoke filled the air as a thin fog and Soren completely lost the sight of the boar other than the direction he went. "Darn it.", he said with a sigh. He ran his fingers through his downy hair and rubbed the back of his head. Though, a hunt wouldn't be a challenge if each one was successful. He stared at the smoke a bit longer, making sure the embers weren't getting kicked back up and also using the time to figure out where things went wrong. Too high up maybe? Maybe if he was lower, that would reduce the time, even by a bit. Soren twirled his spear and hit the butt end on the ground while holding the release to activate its retraction mechanism. He put it away to his back once again. The scratches from the thorns were finally starting to itch, slightly even more irritated from the smoke. Soren did his best to ignore them, though.

He started off in the direction the boar went, keeping his steps as quiet as he could and eyes open for any sign of the tusked animal. It couldn't have gone far with the chase he gave it, right? He stopped upon hearing a snort. Soren quickly ducked behind a tree and climbed up to its lower branches before scouting around. His tail flicked slightly as he clambered around the branches on all fours again. He didn't think the same tactic would work twice, especially now that this animal is a bit more on edge. No doubt the boar could also smell the scent of smoke on him now too, so there was even less time for him to dive on it.

He creeped through the trees to close the distance based on the sound of the boar moving around. He could see the animal pause to sniff and look around, but it didn't seem to bother looking up unless something was far enough away for that to be minimal. Maybe it couldn't look up? That was a possibility. The boar stopped and quickly turned around, letting out a squeal to intimidate whatever was chasing it. It seemed to whip around exactly in Soren's direction.

It was now or never. Soren grabbed his spear and in a single motion, jumped from the branches to use himself as a distraction while the spear extended to its full length and threw it. The boar itself was dragging a hoof through the ground to ready a charge and set off about the same time Soren threw his spear.

The sound of a loud squeal echoed in the forest enough to shock a few local flocks of birds and maybe some people traveling by. There was a short disruption in the dirt as the boar collapsed and slid a small bit due to their own momentum carrying their body. The spear made its mark, through the boar's left eye and leaving the socket bloody. Soren fluttered to the ground, trying to catch his breath. That happened. That really happened just now. Oh man! He did it! He got this creature! A small celebration aside, his attention immediately went to the spear.

He went over and grabbed the spear's haft, and moved it slightly to get a feel of how far in it went. It seemed to go in deep enough to reach some section of the brain. He let go of the spear and dipped his fingertips in the blood seeping out of the boar's eye. He drew a line from its brow and down its snout, letting out a small pray. "Mother of Life and Father of Fire, thank you for blessing this creature with the gift of breathing and feeling the warmth of day.", he said between breaths. He let out a breath and sucked air in while grabbing the spear again. He made sure his grip was firm and then rested a foot on the boar's head before beginning to pull as hard as he could. There was a sound of a crack before the spear was released. He broke the thing's skull, which means its value was worthless for those that collected bones intact. Oh well.

He wiped the bladed head of the spear on the grass, to at least clean it a little bit so it wasn't too gross when he actually went to clean it. The next challenge was to actually move this boar back to the city. He wouldn't be able to do that alone, but he also needed to make sure that it wasn't going to get scavenged. Soren sheathed his spear, and then focused his magic to cast a ring of fire around the boar. He stepped out of the ring as he closed it, a runic orange bubble appearing around the boar. The scent of burning grass would stop predators from straying near it and mask the scent of blood. The bubble itself was a ward placed to prevent others from getting to it easily. He clambered up a tree and looked around to try to find a marker of where he was. Nothing. Soren made his own marker, rubbing his hand over the top of the tree and singing its leaves in a patch. At least from there, it would be easier to find over the air. A bit of a clear spot showed a path marked out. He flew over the path to make his way back into town as well as rally the Hunter's Guild to get some help getting this beast back for some eating.

Fire Affinity 5 Training - Word Count 2101/2000

[Sparky]

Very lovely read, training approved. Make sure to update his sheet to show his new affinity.

[Soren]

A chill sent shivers into Soren. It was cold inside, and even more cold outside. Just a few more minutes... Even Soren had days like these, ones where you want to just stay in the comfort of your own bed, where it was nice and warm and soft and you can just sleep. Unfortunately, hibernation wasn't a trait of his kind. Things likely weren't going to get any warmer, but some days it was just nice to be lazy in bed and just keep to the small spot of warmth that fought off the cold.



About ten minutes later of contemplating whether or not he should do something, Soren finally guessed that he should probably be a little productive. He got out of bed, tidying it up and quietly bidding a subconsciously teary-eyed farewell to the warmth that would fade away in a few minutes. Though, he figured a bath may probably remedy that a bit more. It was times like these that Soren was actually glad he knew fire magics, it came in handy for things like this.



His bathroom was somewhat traditional. There was a tub slightly elevated over some volcanic rocks. All Soren had to do was light a fire underneath and he had his own toasty tub to sit in. Now of course, a shower was in order. Soren couldn't relax in a bath when he had some kind of dirt on him, even with the thinnest layer. Clean water felt better anyways. As someone who is part bird, the oil glands hidden in his feathers helped keep him dry but that also challenged keeping dirt off him too. Thankfully, a vigorous scrubbing wasn't all in order. It was more a matter of using the right soaps that didn't harm the structure of his feathers but also left any downy feathers very soft and fluffy, as they should be. Soren was at least incredibly thorough with being clean, at least whenever he was able. Since he wasn't particularly busy as of late, keeping pristine wasn't too difficult, though he had a slight hope that would change if he could get recruited with the Phoenix Guard.



While working through his plumage, Soren would at least put the shower head at the edge of the tub so it would fill. It took a while for him to get completely scrubbed, after all there were a lot of feathers to go through. But once he was totally clean, he lit a fire on the rocks and settled into the tub. Nothing beat a naturally heated bath, but this was as close to a volcanic spring as he could get to. Still, it was enough to be perfectly toasty and the steam from the water warmed the air around, save for the window that threatened to bring in the cold. This was one of many good places in the home to think about what to do, either short term or long term things. Today, it was more what Soren was going to do today.



He looked out the window, a grey sky with flurries of white whipped around outside. A blizzard. That meant extra cold. He sunk into the tub and blew bubbles out from his nose. Staying inside wasn't all that bad an idea was it? On the flip, he could go outside, but how many were outside in the middle of a blizzard? Not too many. Merchants definitely wouldn't be open, and some wouldn't dare hazard a venture out in this weather for visitation. The winds were too harsh for most to walk, or even fly. Snow threatened to freeze wings and lungs to those that weren't prepared for it. One of Avalon's biggest traits was that the way it was built allowed for windy extremes with alleyways and buildings funneling it into a heavy gust of air. Even when in hot water, the idea of the ice freezing up his wings made him shiver. Then he remembered, it's really hard to freeze his wings over naturally. Yay for fire magic!



It was quiet in the house. Well, more quiet than usual. Soren at least had plant to talk to, but they slept in this kind of cold. That was typical of a plant, to reserve its energy to stay alive in the winter chill. During this time, it was more of Soren on his lonesome. It wasn't like he didn't get used to this, and sometimes days like this brought forth a pleasant kind of peace that allowed him to think or relax. Certainly hanging out with folks like Luke had a different energy to it, but it was also nice to take some time to unwind and just not do anything. No harm in that.



When he felt like he was marinated enough in the tub to make a broiled chicken jealous, he clambered out. The steam in the air dampened how cold it was to a degree, but it was still very much cold. Soren dried himself off quickly and got dressed, wearing something a little more appropriate for winter outside of his normal clothing. He wore sleeves, ones altered so that the larger feathers on his arms poked through holes. The sleeves themselves met in the middle, strands tying together around the back so the fabric didn't obstruct his wings. It was nice to have another layer of warmth in winter. It made things easier to deal with in the cold. He wore his usual vest over the sleeves, just so his torso was a bit more covered. Rather than a skirt, he wore baggy pants that cinched around his heels. There was a hole in the back that allowed for tail feathers to poke out, also to be secured by tying strands of fabric over them.



After that bit of getting dressed was done, Soren gave a large stretch and flopped back down on the bed. "I really don't want to do anything today..", he mumbled to himself, interrupted by a yawn. He could feel the heat from the bath already leaving his body in exchange for cold air, which just in turn made him feel even drowsier. He stayed there contemplating what he could do, stranded in the house. Of course, a cleaning was always in order, but some of that required open windows which was not really recommended at this time for a number of reasons. With a large stretch, he kicked his legs up and swung them down, using the momentum to sit up and get off the bed. He started with a large stretch upwards to the ceiling and then down to the floor with a few satisfying pops throughout the body.



Soren figured he should at least make something to eat and wondered over to the kitchen. What to make? Soup was always good in cold weather. He figured that was going to be his meal for the day if not the next few depending on how long the cold wanted to stay. Soren gathered a large pot and filled it with water. He lit a fire underneath and then went to gather what meats and vegetables he had to make a soup with. Thankfully from his hunts, he managed to secure some great cuts, keeping the bones intact with the meat. The bird man shaved off the meat, cutting those into chunks and trimming thick layers of fat and only leaving thin bits. The fats he could use for something else later and put them in a container to freeze for later. With the bone, he placed it in the water, it added flavour. The knife he used looked like a feather, one side completely smoothed out but the other ridged with the finest details. Perhaps it was a feather that was hardened, perhaps it was just simply ornate.



With vegetables, Soren cut those into similar sizes by length and sorted them all by ingredient. It was a healthy balance of foods and there were extra cuts so he could simply heat left overs. He placed the ingredients in the water in a blend and placed a lid on the pot so that way the heat didn't leave as fast. He sprinkled in a few spices just as an added touch. Now it was just time to relax and let the soup simmer to its savoury perfection. He stared out the window, the snow was really raging out there now. One of these days he may have to see how much he can withstand that kind of weather, who knows what kind of conditions he'd be put through. Today was not that day though.



After several minutes, there was a soft bubbling as the water was now boiling from the flames lit underneath. An aroma wafted in the air, the soup itself smelled delicious enough to make his stomach rumble a bit. It was hard to ignore but he knew that he was going to make something that filled his soul and stomach. It was almost done anyways. Just a few more minutes. Waiting felt like it took forever and winter was such a lonely month. Things were sleeping, people weren't really outside socialising. He lived on his own, but even then things like this were a double edged sword.



A light clattering caught Soren's attention away from his own thoughts though. "Soup must be done." He got up from a seat and walked over, lifting the lid to let out a puff of steam accompanied with a soft bubbling noise of the soup. He picked out a ceramic bowl and a wooden ladle, leaving the fire running to keep the soup warm in case he wanted to have more than one bowl. It was beautiful. Everything glistened slightly with a fresh wash over of bone broth, the heat of the soup carried into the meat and vegetables used in it. He set a bowl down on the table and looked out the window again. Despite the weather being so unfavourable, there was something pleasant about it. Maybe that it was allowing the man to have some time to himself, or that the weather was just good weather to laze in. He didn't know.



The soup itself was lovely. Everything was savoury, the broth carrying the flavour of the marrow and the texture was relatively smooth. The first bowl was finished in almost no time. He must have been a bit hungry. Soren came up for a second bowl, but that was all he'd have for the time being. Even if he could handle a third bowl, eating in moderation was important and the rest can be stowed away for later anyways.



After he was finished with the meal, he had to put the soup away for later and clean up. Though, without anyone to converse with, such chores were done rather quickly and Soren was left pondering what to do now.



Maybe a little tidying up? It never hurt to clean up here and there. The middle of winter brought forth wilt and dead leaves as plants went to hibernate. Soren walked over to each plant and picked out the leaves that were practically shriveled and disconnected from the plant. “There, much better now.” The leaves could compost into mulch, so he would put them in a small composter he had outside.



Oh, right. Outside. A blizzard raged out there. Well, the compost bin wasn’t that far out, just open the door and dump it in right? Easy.



Soren walked over to the door and opened it, only to be met with a wind forcing it shut back in with a slam. Okay, maybe he can do this later. Leaves didn’t really compose overnight. He walked over to a cabinet and grabbed a bag to put the leaves in for later, hanging the bag at the doorknob so he could remember the next time he tried to go outside.



Soren figured that he could chance being outside a bit as some kind of training. He didn’t have much else to do since his house was relatively pristine, at least that’s what he thought. Because of the direction the wind was going, his first task was opening the door.



He pressed his body against the door and turned the knob to open it. The wind was still raging with a brute strength, applying a nonexistent weight with its rush. A burst of cold seeped through the opening, taking heat out of the house steadily. Soren pushed a bit more and shoved open a spot clear from the snow.



The sky outside was a bright grey, snow flurries violently thrown around in the wind but catching the warm light of the city around. Soren quickly stepped around the door, careful to keep it held open so it didn’t slam on his wings or feathers to crimp them. One, that would mess with his ability to fly for a bit, and two, that would hurt. It would hurt a lot. When Soren and all of his feathers were out of the doorway, he let go and jumped as it slammed shut.



The heat from the home was sealed off now, and only his body heat was the only source that kept him from fully freezing inside out. Soren stepped forwards and sat down on a step, closing his eyes and leaning a bit back. It was almost welcoming the cold to take the heat from him like a starved animal, and it was ruthless. Even with it tearing chunks of heat out of him, he could still feel his core remained alight. The wind knocked bits of air out of his nose, cutting in at angles that made it hard to breathe comfortably. Now it was time to start.



Soren inhaled as deep a breath as he could and exhaled, letting out a steady puff. He continued this exercise, in no rush as this wasn’t something to be done quickly in the first place. The next breath out would turn up in heat, as would the next. Eventually, he’d build up enough heat to more than feel that escaping his body. Starting a fire in deep cold was difficult, but even the smallest spark for a flame would be enough to make Soren happy with his progress.



The wind cut any inkling close to a flame to pieces, and the cold ate the heat as soon as it was presented. That wasn’t enough for Soren, but now he’d been out for a few minutes and he could feel the ends of him starting to tingle as he was combating the frigid air with his own natural body heat. Just a little more… A little more and then he’d go inside to warm up. Maybe another soak?



Soren kept his breath steady, puffs of air changing from moisture to something that seemed to be too warm to be normal breath. Because his eyes were closed, his only frame of measure was the temperature he felt alone. When it hit a certain feeling, he opened his eyes slightly to see the smallest and faintest flame sparking every time he let out a breath as long as he kept it steady.



Of course this immediately broke when the widest grin spread on his face and he hopped up onto his feet in excitement, only to slip and land on his back on the stairs. “Owowowow…” He slowly got up and struggled with the wind to open the door to get back inside, but the dumbest grin on his face remained.



He was a mix of feelings. The warmth of his home set in a pinprick tingling sensation on his face, hands and feet, but he was overjoyed with the progress he made, even if it wasn’t much.



Fire Affinity 6 - 2627/2500

[Sparky]

TRAINING APPROVED! Please update your character sheet to show his new affinity.