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 Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:16 pm
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Class Decision: No Weapons!
From the moment Avridi was born, she had been a stiff fighter for her right to explore and gather knowledge of the world around her. As soon as she could walk, she was running, as soon as she could talk, she was telling others exactly what she would and wouldn't put up with, taking after her beloved grandmother in more ways than one, according to her exasperated mother. Her spirit was wild and untameable, and her ability to negotiate as strong as a boulder, making her a favorite among her peers. Most adults saw her as a warrior in the making, a steadfast gem-in-the-rough, and anticipated the day that she would choose her weapon and join the forces alongside her kin and her ancestors before her. However, upon one warm spring morning, they would learn just what they're dream warrior had to say to that.
"No weapons." Avridi stated, her voice firm and bitter. She stood, strong, upon a rock, her tiny body posed in a way that made her seem almost mature, or at the very least, heroic. The adults before her appeared shocked and confused, as if something had just been thrown past them, like a rock whizzing by. However, it wasn't too long until one of them pursed their lips, seeming to finally understand that the words they had heard had indeed come from the seven year old sitting cross-legged in front of them. He looked to her calmly and placed his hands in his lap, his mouth still making a twisting motion as he thought. Soon, the others followed, each attempting to figure out just what words to use in response to Avridi. Should they even bother? She was still a child, perhaps she felt uneasy about them, children were often intimidated by adults at this age, it wouldn't be illogical. Still, her posture and stare suggested that she knew exactly what she had said, and wasn't about to let it go. If so, they had to think of something, anything, to convince her to change her mind.
"Avridi, don't you want to join your peers?" One inquired, after much deliberation. He peered towards her, his expression almost hopeful, as if he were pleading with her.
Avridi paused and arched her shoulders upwards, displeased at being distracted from the butterfly she had been watching. She frowned, her eyes moving into a soft, narrowed, position, and folded her arms across her chest.
"No weapons." She repeated. "I want to heal."
"Don't be ridiculous, Avridi." Snorted one of the adults. "It will be a waste of your strength."
"Yes, I agree." Piped another, a smile stretched across his features. "Why not a hammer? I could see you growing to be quite a magnificent warrior with one of those in tow."
The adults began to chatter amongst themselves, appearing to disagree about what weapon Avridi should be permitted to wield, and failed to realize that the child herself had slid down from the rock and wandered her way straight up to the one who had criticized the idea of her becoming a healer. She paused a moment, her demeanor very much like a stern mother, and stamped her foot against the dirt.
"You're wasting your strength!" She exclaimed, jabbing the man's nose with her finger. "Healers make you better after you mess up, dummy! They're very important and I want to be one!"
Her hands quickly went to her hips, her mouth scrunching up, before she turned around and moved to head back to her house. However, about half-way down the path, she turned to face the adults once again.
"By the way, if you keep asking me stupid stuff," She sneered. "I'll tell my daddy that you're bugging me and you'll be in a lot of trouble. You got that?"
And with that said, she spun on her heel, and wandered her way back home. The adults, though disappointed, heeded Avridi's warning and never once tried to talk her out of learning how to heal again. They all sighed and agreed that she might have made the perfect fighter if she had chosen to do so, but, perhaps it was better she became a healer anyway. She might just keep the weaker ones in line, if she continued to be as firm in her tone when practicing her chosen career, as she was with them that spring day.
(Word count: 731) |
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:16 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:16 pm
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Apprentice Solo #2: Grandma's Lucky Charm
Avridi loved it when her grandmother came back from her trips and adventures. She often went to strange places and brought back equally peculiar presents for Avridi and her family. Her mother wasn't terribly fond of her mother-in-laws taste of gifts and politely refused the crazier things, but Avridi's father encouraged his mother's love of traveling and trading, mostly because it got her out of his hair for a while. He got the more 'practical' gifts, like old pencils and scented papers, while everything fun or sweet was reserved for Avridi. A rusted wind-up doll, iridescent buttons, a comb supposedly used by a Khehorian mage, and jars upon jars of sweets, all of which the child broke, lost, or devoured within the first week of having them. It was always a holiday when Grandma came home, no matter what weather they were having.
"Grandma! Grandma!" Avridi cried, clinging to the edge of the elder's skirt. She buried her face into the fabric and nuzzled the hand stitched designs that covered it. Her hair was promptly rustled and her tiny body lifted into the air. "I missed you, Grandma! Did you have a safe trip?"
Avridi's grandmother, Aditi, cuddled her granddaughter close and tickled her chest with the tips of her fingers, a smile stretched across her face.
"Yes, my dearling, yes!" She chuckled, giving the raspberry haired child a peck on the nose. "It was a very long walk home, but nothing this old body of mine can't handle. Nothing could ever keep me from getting safely home to you and your daddy. He needs me, you know."
Aditi carried Avridi, along with several bags, into the house and through the door to her room. It was a wildly decorated room, filled with trinkets and carpets and various fabrics from the window to the closet door, all with a huge canopy bed in the center that was adorned with pillows of all sizes. She plopped Avridi onto the bed and dropped the bags onto the floor, before digging through them.
"I've got quite a lot of goodies this time around, Avri!" She chirped, grasping a jar of wrapped toffees in her left hand and a few beaded bracelets in another. "For your mother, since she's such a fuss pot, some lovely bracelets a friend of mine made from stone and marble. I hope she'll at least try to look appreciative this time." Then, she handed the jar of toffees to Avridi. "And for you, my sweetheart, your favorite toffees from the sweet shop in the town I grew up in! She made a few new flavors this time, including sour apple and blueberry cream, which you'll have the pleasure of being the first to test out!"
Avridi squealed at the sheer volume of candies inside of the jar and quickly unscrewed it's cap. She didn't know who made the toffee personally, but whoever they were, they were clearly blessed by their goddess. How else could they make such incredible candies? It had to be gift, there was no other explanation. She dug her hand inside the jar and pulled out a toffee, which she quickly unwrapped and devoured. It was obviously one of the new ones, because of the fruity taste, but it was just as magnificent as the regular caramels that her grandmother had brought before. Avridi allowed herself to flop backwards against the fluffy comforter under her and immerse herself in the new flavor, while her grandmother looked on in amusement.
"I bet she makes candy for Soudana!" She exclaimed, once she had finished getting the caramel off the roof of her mouth. "Her candy making powers are just, like, too super awesome to not be from Soudana!"
"Shhhh! That's a secret!" Aditi exclaimed, winking down to Avridi. "She's the best sweet maker I know, and I've had many a sweet treat in my years! I wouldn't be the least bit shocked if she told me that Soudana or Lord Draco themselves came by for a sugar rush or two!"
While she allowed Avridi to continue fantasizing about the impossibility of her sweetcrafter friend knowing their Goddess's favorite chocolate name, she dug into her pocket and pulled out a small skull-shaped charm.
"Come sit here." She beckoned, wiggling the charm at her. "I want to give you something very special."
"Your lucky charm...?" Avridi gasped. She wiggled herself to the edge of the bed and beamed as her grandmother threaded it to the side of her dress. Tiny dark hands ran against it and made circles around it's eyes and tiny carved teeth, before she moved her gaze up to her grandmother again. "Are you sure? Don't you need it? It's your lucky charm!"
"Nope! It's your lucky charm, now, Avirdi." Aditi replied, giving Avridi a pat on the head. "You'll be old enough for adventures soon, my dearling. I can't let you go out there without it."
She moved towards the bag again and began to pull out a few more things. She tugged out endless balls of yarn, vials of perfumed liquids, powder dyes and pieces of shredded tarp, among other miscellaneous things, all of which she left upon the floor, until she pulled out yet another jar and held it up to the light. Inside this jar, floating in a transparent yellow-green liquid, was a heart.
"What do you think of this?" She mused with a grin. "It belonged to one of my old boyfriends."
Avridi's lips pursed as she gave the jar a once over and, slowly, she echoed her grandmother's grin.
"You're so cool, grandma." She said, reaching out to the jar. "Can I touch it?"
(Word count: 943) |
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:17 pm
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Apprentice Solo #2: Time For A Distraction Teacher!
Mother had been sick for a year or so now with some sort of lung issue, and it made it nearly impossible for Avridi to bond with her. She was almost always with her father or grandmother when she wasn't wandering the village on her own or trying to catch wild animals in the forest, which, honestly, wasn't all that boring. But, still, she missed her mother and worried about her just about as much as her father did. Why couldn't she come home and rest in her own bed? Was her illness contagious or something? Why wasn't anyone ever nice enough to explain things to her? Like, really, she wasn't a baby anymore. She could handle the hard subjects with a bowl of cookies! ...Or was it a grain of salt?
"EN-DI-OOOON! I'm here to visit mama and you can't do anything about it!" Avridi cried as she opened the front door to the healer's house. She leaned herself to the side slowly as she waited for the usual protest from across the hall and grinned. En'dion either hadn't heard her or wasn't in the house... Meaning she could skip right in and not be tossed out! She scurried through the kitchen and hopped across the creaky parts of the floor, before peering through a door towards the end of the hall. There, nestled among the blankets, was her mother. She held a small cup of tea in her hands and looked sort of glum, from what Avridi could see through the crack she had made. Poor mama, it was like she was being held hostage! She pouted, pushed the door open, and crawled onto the bed.
"Mama! I came to see you!" She exclaimed, promptly pressing herself into her mother's chest. "You just missed grandma! She brought me toffee from that lady who makes chocolate for Soudana and Lord Draco, and got you some marble bracelets!"
Avridi quickly dug into her pockets and placed the three bracelets on her mother's wrists.
"I like that one, it's smooth!" She chirped.
Avridi's mother, Nai'vida, placed her teacup down on her nightstand and enveloped her daughter in a hug as soon as Avridi climbed onto the bed. Her baby, her beautiful, sweet, baby, had come to visit her. She caressed Avridi's hair and kissed her forehead, before allowing her to chatter on about her grandmother's visit. Though she wouldn't admit it, Nai'vida found Aditi to be a bit of a bad influence on her daughter, at least in the realm of sanity. However, due to her illness, she wasn't there to supervise what sort of information Aditi was exposing to her precious daughter, and had to wait until her child had the opportunity to sneak in to visit to find out. She wished Arrick, her husband, had more of a backbone when it came to monitoring his mother around their daughter, but he proved to be a mama's boy early on in their marriage when he invited her to live with them shortly after Avridi was born. She didn't harbor any ill to the woman, on the contrary, she appreciated the fact that there was another woman around to influence Avridi, it was just her strange habits that made her less favorable. But, what was a sweet, bedridden woman such as herself supposed to do about it? She was powerless.
"Oh, Avridi, it's lovely!" She chirped, nuzzling Avridi on the nose. "I'm pleased that you've had a lovely time with her, darling. How's your father? Has he been cooking as I've asked him to?"
"Yes, but he's not nearly as good at it as you are!" Avridi whined, rolling onto her back. It was so nice to have her mother to lean against, even if she was still sick. She wanted to take a walk with her and show her all of the places she could climb and watch animals in. She wanted to go gathering with her and eat toffees with her, but all she could do was lay about and drink medicine. It was like being a prisoner!
"Mmmmmm..." She grumbled, her lips pursing. "I want to show you all the stuff I'm doing, mama, and all the new things grandma got from her friends!" She flopped onto her belly again and leaned her chin upon her mother's chin. "She got a heart from one of her old boyfriends and put it in a jar! She let me touch it, it was all slimy and smelled a little like pickles! You should've seen it!"
Nai'vida's face went white as Avridi told her about the heart that her grandmother had shown her. Though she knew full well that Aditi liked to eat pickled hearts from animals, she couldn't comprehend why she felt the needed to tell Avridi that it had belonged to a former, obviously deceased, boyfriend! She took a deep breath in and looked upon her daughter thoughtfully, just as the sound of a door swinging close echoed in from outside. En'dion, her healer, was finally back from his shopping trip, and would be coming to check on her at any moment. She bit her lip, looked to Avridi, and smiled.
"You know, Avridi, En'dion and I were talking..." She began. "He said that he was looking for an apprentice to teach the art of healing too and was very interested in training you! How would you like to learn how to heal here with En'dion?"
"Really? He wants to teach me?" Avridi gasped, jumping up from her place on the bed. "NO WAY! I'm going to learn how to heal from the best healer around! Endy is the best! THE BEST! EEEE!"
Just as she began to jump up and down, En'dion burst through the door to see what all the noise was about. Avridi squealed, hopped off the bed, and latched onto his legs.
"Thank you for offering to teach me, Endy! I'll be the best apprentice ever, I swear!" She exclaimed.
En'dion's body became stiff as Avridi latched onto him and stared awkwardly over to Nai'vida. He had clearly been gone too long and landed smack dab into a trap of some sort. Still, by the look on his patient's tired face, he knew that it couldn't be so quickly undone. Thus, he sighed, and patted Avridi on the back.
"I... Uh... We'll start tomorrow morning, bright and early!" He stammered, forcing a smile. "Just... No funny business while we work, okay?"
(Word count: 1076) |
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:17 pm
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Learning Solo #1: To Eat Or Not To Eat
The sun rose after Avridi the morning that she was to meet En'dion for her first healing lesson. She had already eaten, washed up, and put on her favorite dress, and had to sit outside for an hour until it was light enough for her to see the outlines of the path outside her house. She kept herself occupied with thoughts about just what she would be learning about. Would he teach her how to fix wounds? Would he show her how to tell a broken bone from a sprain? She didn't care what she would be learning, all that matter was that she learned something in the first place.
As soon as she could navigate her way, she was off like a shot, pencil and notebook in tow.
"En'dion! I'm here, just like you said!" She squealed, banging on his front door. It felt like hours until it opened and the healer himself wandered out, his hair in quite a disarray. "What are we going to do, Endy? Tell me, I'm dying to know!"
En'dion, who was still in his bed clothes, gazed to Avridi in disbelief. What sort of child was she, getting up at the crack of dawn in the literal sense? More importantly, why had he agreed to teach her in the first place? Sure, he was the only healer available, sure, he was the healer attending to Avridi's mother, but he wasn't a morning person, not at least until an hour or two after the sun rose! How was he supposed to teach, or better yet, function, in the state he was in? He sighed and shuffled Avridi inside, before leading her into the kitchen.
"Okay..." He mumbled, pulling various objects off of the shelves. "Your first lesson is to not to take everything I tell you literally, unless I tell you to."
He paused and gave himself a quick slap to the cheek.
"No, no, wait. You should always listen to me, just, don't ever come here at the crack of dawn again, ever, okay?" He mumbled, slumping against the kitchen table. "Healers need sleep and I haven't slept. I can't teach you until I wake up..."
He allowed the objects he had grabbed to roll onto the table and felt himself begin to drift off.
---
He could have sworn that his eyes were closed for only a minute, just a minute, when he found that Avridi had made a mess of the room. He pounced up from the table and grabbed the sides of his head.
"Avridi! What are you doing? Those berries are rare and very hard to obtain!" He cried.
Avridi paused in mid-squash as En'dion woke from his slumber. He'd been out for close to two hours, slumped over like a dead log, and left her to her own devices. She had procured a tome from the next room over, which she had splattered berry juice on, and opened all the cans and boxes En'dion had 'given' her. Various types of berries and powders littered the table, the kitchen floor, and, of course, Avridi's mouth and hands. Not the least startled by his flailing, she smile and wiggled her finger at him.
"You're not supposed to nap, you're the teacher!" She laughed, wiping the juice on her lips off with her dress sleeve. "I don't know what any of these words mean! Oh, and these berries are what you gave me to work with before you fell asleep! How was I supposed to know not to use them?"
En'dion leaned up against the wall and let out a long, slow, breath. How could he have been so careless, leaving her with all these things! He was such an idiot! His own teachers would have gone apoplectic if they had seen this! He took a deep breath and began to move the remaining powders and berries aside, until his hand grazed against something sharp and prickly.
"Avridi! Did you eat any of these berries?" He shrieked, moving her hand over the berries he had touched. "These are very poisonous!"
"No, those hurt my fingers!" Avridi replied, making a face. "But, I did squish them up and put them outside. The juice smelled like bad cheese..."
Before she knew it, En'dion had raced out the door. Almost instinctively, she covered her ears, just as her teacher came back in. He had stepped in the bowl that she had placed the squished berries in, and he didn't look too happy. She knew she was going to get yelled at, tossed outside, and told to go get a new teacher, all just by the silence in the room. However, instead, she felt a hand pat her gently on the head.
"Hey, hey, it's alright." En'dion said, giving her hair a ruffle. "This is my fault, Avridi, I'm the one who fell asleep and left you alone. Let's try this again tomorrow after lunch, when we've both had enough rest, okay? I'm just glad you haven't eaten anything that could've hurt you, sweetheart, that's all."
Sure, he wasn't happy about the mess and the loss of some of the more rare, edible, berries, but he really couldn't blame her. At least no one had been there to yell at him for it, either.
(Word count: 879) |
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:18 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:18 pm
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Learning Solo #2: Spilled Potions
En'dion was, so far, the best teacher in the world, at least in Avridi's book. He was calm and patient with her and only gave her the amount of work he felt she was able to tolerate. After all, she was only nine, almost ten, and wasn't ready for anything too crazy, even if she was certain that she was. Her mother was pleased with the progress she had made in the first few weeks, and even more pleased knowing that Avridi was being exposed to someone positive, and not crazy, like her mother-in-law.
Weeks into her training, En'dion announced that he needed to go into town and left Avridi with a book and a few ingredients. She was instructed to practice potion making according to the instructions left for her in the book, and left to get to work. En'dion had given her the basics for potion making already, but had only relayed them through speech and action. Avridi's type of sight allowed her to see the outlines of things and certain textures, but not words written on a page, thus, rendering the book and it's instructions, useless. Still, eager to please her teacher, she decided to make the potions by memory.
She knew when she had made a terrible mistake by the way the kitchen floor began to slide underneath her feet. Befuddled, she felt around the counter she had been working on and, to no shock, discovered that the five bottles of base she had made had begun to froth and spill out.
"...I'm going to need a mop." She stated, turning upon her heel. The broom closet was through the hall and to the left, as En'dion had mentioned close to fifty times, and wouldn't take too long to find. However, as she came trotting back to the kitchen with the mop in tow, she bumped into someone waiting for her at the door. She knew that it wasn't her mother or En'dion and stared up to them blankly.
"Uh... I need to clean the mess I made, please move?" She said, nudging them aside.
"Oh, I apologize." The person replied, scooting to the side to allow Avridi to pass. They eyed her curiously and smiled as she quickly went to work, before taking a seat at the table. "...Is Endy coming back soon?'
"Uhhh, dunno." Avridi muttered, gazing to the door. En'dion had been gone for close to three hours now, which was longer than expected, but not entirely worrisome. She quickly mopped up the rest of the mess and cleaned the potion bottles out, before rearranging the ingredients. Then, she paused, looked to the book, and then turned to the person at the table. "I can't read these instructions, the letters don't show up! Can you read it to me?"
But as her gaze met the chair behind her, the outline of the man who had been sitting there was gone. Avridi blinked, tilted her head to the side, and sighed. Well, maybe her mother would be able to use her third eye to read the directions to her until En'dion came back.
(Word count: 520) |
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:19 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:19 pm
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Profession Master Solo: Sooo, I'll Be Training With You, Like, Forever?
Months after the potion incident, Avridi was gearing up for her next big test with En'dion. He had mentioned something about working on a patient, which meant he had someone sick that needed healing. While she was still small, all she could really do was fetch things and do some minor soothing magic, as she had been carefully practicing on animals she found. So far, all the Boukens in the woods had someone they could trust when they were injured, if she found them in time, that was. She wished she was allowed to take them all home, though.
"Endy? Are you here?" Avridi called, poking her head through the door as she had always done. The house was still and quiet, which wasn't any cause for alarm, as En'dion often stepped outside and wandered off. However, as she wandered through the kitchen and into the living room, the sound of hurried mumbling entered her ears. "Endy?"
She moved down the staircase to the side and into the cellar, where En'dion kept most of his light sensitive potions, and smiled when she spotted her teacher seated at his desk.
"Hey, didn't you hear me calling you?" She asked. "Where's the patient?"
En'dion paused and turned slowly to look at Avridi. His posture seemed stiff and, possibly, pained, but a smile soon moved to his features. "Oh... Yes." He said. "The patient... He... Left."
There was a significant amount of silence that followed his words where Avridi stared and En'dion smiled awkwardly. The patient left? Had they been healed? Was she too late to help out? The girl folded her arms and sighed, disappointed.
"Don't worry, you'll have another chance." En'dion assured, patting her head. "After all, I'm going to be training you for a long time, sweetheart. There will be plenty of others to heal during your time here."
"Does that mean you'll be my teacher until I'm just as good as you?" Avridi asked, a grin replacing the frown on her face. A giggle escaped her lips as En'dion nodded and she moved to wrap her arms around him. "This is going to be awesome! I can't wait to learn about everything with you! I'm so excited!"
En'dion chuckled along with Avridi and snuggled her close, before setting her down on the ground again.
"Why don't you go tell your grandmother? I'm sure she'll be proud of you." He said, ruffling her hair. "I'll be waiting for you in the kitchen when you come back."
"Okay! I'll be back soon!" Avridi squealed, racing up the stairs again. Her grandmother would be so proud to know that she was going to be permanently mentored! And so would her father, and her mother, and her neighbors... She would need to tell the whole world! Hopefully En'dion wouldn't mind if she was a little late!
As soon as En'dion heard the front door slam upstairs, he raced to the back corner of the cellar, where a series of drapes had been hung over a door. He entered the room and knelt by a pale-green colored man who had been sleeping on a makeshift bed. En'dion grasped his hand gently, caressed his forehead, and smiled as he opened his eyes.
"She's gone and I don't anticipate her to be back for at least an hour." He said, leaning his head against the other man's shoulder. "I've got all the time in the world for you until then."
(Word count: 574) |
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:19 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:20 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:20 pm
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:20 pm
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