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 Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 8:41 pm
Effortlessly? Well, she wouldn't go that far. It was more mental exercise than anything. Vlasia was very, very well practiced when it came to mental exercise, so that made it easier. And if he had asked for anything more than a circle, well....yeah. Hah. Sure. She'd be better off getting a chisel and a hammer. Smiling a little at her own mental picture, she concentrated on keeping the ice cold with part of her mind and speaking with another part. "That's a good idea. Insulation would definitely help, since that water isn't exactly cold to begin with."
When she looked up, she barely held in a laugh. There was this greenish brown...goop, on his head. Focus. Laugh later.
"I can.....I think."
Of course she COULD - moving it wasn't the problem. The problem was moving it without jarring the egg. Her control over water wasn't very advanced, so it could be difficult. Ah, well. No sense in giving up before she even tried. The girl relaxed her hold on the temperature of the ice just enough that it could start to melt, but still stay solid enough to remain afloat. With that much more of her concentration freed, Vlasia carefully focused on the water beneath the ice and algae. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to add force little by little...until it began to shudder, uncertainly, in the direction of the wisps. The movement calmed and smoothed out as it went, but this was still somewhat uncharted territory, so...though her outward appearance remained stoic and collected, her mind was rather nervous. Oh, if she did anything to his egg....
Her brow furrowed. Worry about that if it happens.
"You're going to have to help me," she said quietly, keeping her focus on the smooth movement of the water. "It's difficult to judge distance in the dark, and on water...and with a bit of ice and algae."
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Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:10 pm
“… do you realize the irony of asking me about anything to do with sight?” Nall asked before tapping a finger meaningfully against his glasses. Still, he was in his element now, at least metaphorically speaking. There were plants---leaves---everywhere. If he focused enough, he could practically hear the sap moving in the verdant life around them. But, this was hardly a time to get all poetical about swamps. Once again adjusting his glasses, he considered the problem. Vlasia could apparently control either flow or direction, but would have trouble with both. Well, that was ok. Working together had worked so far. There was no reason why it wouldn’t continue working now.
“If you can just move it slowly, very slowly… I can get the algae to make sort of a path to keep the egg going towards the right place.” Hopefully, the wisps would stay there long enough. From what Nall could recall, they didn’t generally stay very long. Oh God, it would suck to go through all this work only to have them disappear… but, on the bright side, if that happened, at least they would be prepared for the next wisps. “…Err… please?”
Oh, damn, he was forgetting his manners, wasn’t he? There was no excuse for forgetting common politeness, like please and thank you. It wasn’t like Vlasia was getting anything out of this. Well, except helping a friend, of course.
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Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:57 pm
"Well, I can't exactly do it myself," she replied, not bothering to look at him. Ok, so no, the fact that he already had glasses didn't occur to her earlier, but....it really didn't matter. If he didn't want a soggy box and a soggy egg, he'd have to manage. Continuing to concentrate, she smirked a little at his 'please', or rather, the way it was added on. Heh, she had hardly noticed that he wasn't saying it before, honestly. That was probably because he wasn't asking her for anything huge.
"Is this slow enough?" she said, nearly laughing at the sluggish pace it was already moving. Vlasia was afraid to make it move any faster even if he asked for it, and afraid to shop should she not be able to get it moving again. She could feel her ability begin to stretch a little as it moved away from her, but it was still well within controlling. So far, so good.
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Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 4:34 pm
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to let you do this by yourself. It’s my egg.” His egg, his responsibility. Admittedly, there was some added pressure from the fact that this was an experiment… in the back of his mind, he occasionally worried that, after the egg had hatched, someone might come and take the dracling away, on the grounds that it was an experiment. Admittedly, he hadn’t seen anything about that in the letter, but… it was hard to tell. Bringing himself back to the current era, he figured that he could worry about that later, perhaps when his egg wasn’t precariously perched inside a wooden box on a small ice floe surrounded by swamp water.
Yes, plenty of other times to worry about possibilities. “That’s perfect, Vlasia. Just fast enough to move, but not fast enough that it can’t be stopped easily.” Yeah, it would definitely suck something awful to have the floe go past the wisps and then being unable to retrieve the egg. It was easy enough to modulate the algae growth to make a sort of a pathway to the wisps which, surprisingly enough, were still there, like a ghost’s breath. Once the egg was perfectly placed, Nall managed to stop it from traveling any further with a small algae wall. On the scale of great walls---the one in China being at one end---then the Tiny Algae Wall of the Swamp occupied a whole new scale, one covered in revolting green slimy stuff.
Some seconds after the floe had coasted to a stop, the wisps dissipated like dew, simply fading out of existence. Nall didn’t allow himself to breath out until after the egg was returned to him, safe and sound. “Thanks, Vlasia. This was a huge help. If you want to expose your egg to a ruby, I’ve got one. We can meet up in the library.”
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Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:13 pm
Vlasia visibly relaxed when the egg was back in Nall's hand, a quiet sigh of relief escaping her lips. That had ended up being a bit more work than she expected - she could feel fatigue sneaking up on the edge of her consciousness. Ah, well. Sleep would be good tonight at least.
She smiled and nodded. "You're welcome, I'm glad it ended well." Truly, she was. The mental image of him all balled up crying over his egg - a thing she wasn't sure would actually happen or not - had been replaying over and over since they started. Not that she'd ever admit it. Vlasia? Not totally confident in her abilities? Why, that was absurd! To allow such an opinion to begin forming of her was unacceptable to her hopelessly prideful mind. Despite her thoughts the girl continued smiling.
"I'd love that, actually," she said, returning to pick up her crystal box delicately. Her notebook went under one arm as she turned to face him. "We'll schedule a time later, if that's alright with you. I need to head back and check on all my dragons....oh, sorry for ignoring you, Nirvikara."
She directed her words downward as the little swamp creature chirped up at her, tail waving back and forth slowly. The dragon didn't seem too upset at being all but forgotten while she assisted Nall. Good.
"Good night, Nall," she said, turning and walking back t'wards civilization. Oh, wait.....
"By the way, there's some swamp goo on your face....bye!"
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