Step One: Unintentionally ‘Attack’ an Escaped Leklan and Incite Its…‘Rage’
“Oi, oi, oi, oi — get it
up already, it’s gonna—”
Lithian winced from afar, watching as the miscommunication between two dockworkers resulted in the slow tipping and eventual resounding
CRASH of some unidentifiable cargo, off-balance and now upended on the pier beside the ferry they’d been unloading it from. Fruit, it looked like, Lithian decided, watching as half of the contents tumbled out — a good share spilling directly into the bay itself. A long string of curses followed, a large portion of which Lithian had never even heard before, and he shook his head to clear it, pushing his focus back to the task at hand: practice.
Choosing the peisio clan had heightened his affinity for water, certainly, and his magic now responded to it readily. Other than purely the most basic of maneuvers, however, Lithian still felt his performances with it were horribly sloppy. His form soft and inconsistent, and his magic unstable. Accucius told him he needed to learn focus, stability. Ysette told him he needed to learn to feel the moment, let his energy power his motions. Syrikk thought absolute spontaneity could get the job often as not, but no one in his family practiced
his element, leaving Lith to feel a tad off kilter about it.
Pushing his concerns from his mind, Lithian turned his attention back to the ocean’s edge and breathed out, settling his stance and opening his hands, palms down. Push, pull, that is the way of the current. Lithian rocked his weight, trying to balance his timing with the slap and recede of the waves against the dock.
“Up,” he whispered beneath his breath, more to himself than anyone else as he tried to twist his wrists and pull at the water with his magic. For a half second, it almost responded, a tiny mound lifting up from the surface as if to rise for him, but then his fingers wavered and—
“Mmmbaaaaaahh!”Lithian yelped, stance and focus completely broken and water falling flat back into the ocean as he whipped around towards the source of the sound, heart thrumming wildly in his chest to face — a leklan. Lithian frowned. What was a
leklan doing on a dock on Eowyn? There must be a farmer’s market nearby, he rationalized; it made sense to bring livestock down to a busy area to trade. But what the animal was doing loose with no one tending to it —
that, he couldn’t discern.
A quick glance around showed there were two more waiting just down the way, seemingly distracted with their own business, and Lithian rubbed at his ear, turning his attention back to the one closest to him and eyeing it warily.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he informed it solemnly. “I’m sure you have a master around somewhere, and I promise I’m not very interesting.”
The creature stared at him mutely, large, dull eyes seeming to peer into his soul and reflect nothing back. Lithian swallowed. No matter how he reminded himself these were technically
docile creatures — entirely domesticated and raised solely as farm animals — compared to
him at his current age, the beast was still fairly massive, and no amount of animal stupidity could make their long, twisting horns look any less foreboding.
After some time spent in a silent staring contest and then some more time trying to shoo it off quietly without success, however, Lithian gave up, huffing to himself and turning his attention back to the ocean. “Fine,” he informed the beast as he did so. “I warned you I’m boring, but if you want to watch, you can.”
That said, he went back to work as promised. Having a large, unmoving horned animal breathing down his back did not precisely help his concentration, but after some minutes, Lithian did manage to begin pulling successfully at the water again, twisting it to his magic and then even lifting a portion completely up from the rest. He held his breath as he accomplished this last feat, heart giving an excited flop that he’d managed to manipulate more at once than ever before, and he shifted his stance very gradually, pulling the large, gradually undulating ball closer in towards himself, over the ground, and—
“Mmmbaaaaaahh!”Lithian yipped, the sudden burst of noise after so much complete silence making Lith startle more than enough to break the fragile hold of his concentration, and the hovering sphere of liquid broke apart as though it had been contained within a balloon, the walls of which abruptly melting to nothing. All of it upended on the animal’s face. Lithian’s pulse beat hard in his throat.
“I, ah…that…that…was an acciden—”
The leklan snorted, front paws pawing at the ground in front of it as though prepping to charge, and Lithian gave a muted whine.
“Abronaxus, help me…”
The animal charged.
