Welcome to Gaia! ::

Akara yawned as she flipped through the tome laying on the ground in front of her. She’d never understand how her brother could sit, hours on end, reading books. Every now and then she didn’t mind it, but it didn’t seem as if her brain was built for reading for long periods at a time. She’d much rather be moving around, doing something with her hands. This, though, was important. She had to help Lyari learn his magic. They had recently learned, by accident, that Lyari belonged to the ysali clan and Kara knew nothing of its magic. Luckily, she had a tome that’d been stored on Ata and Kara’s shared shelves. A present from a past birthday and one that she had meant to read before now but had forgotten about it.

So now she found herself laying on her stomach, in the grass, down by the lake. Kara looked up, gaze finding Lyari pouncing at something small — an insect of some kind, maybe? She smiled when he seemed to catch his prize and he chirruped happily. She’d picked the far side of the lake for today’s practices, wanting to not be interrupted as easily should Mother or Father come looking for her. She could still be seen, but it’d take longer to reach her. “Lyari...c’mere, please?”

At Kara’s voice and question, Lyari looked up and tilted his head. She never gave him an order — it was something she had promised her father — and therefore she always asked. At first she thought he would ignore her and go back to his pouncing on unsuspecting insect victims. His tail twitched before he rose and moved over to her. He nudged his snout under her hand — his, effective, way of asking for pets. Kara obliged him and laughed as she scratched just under his chin, receiving a very happy sounding purr.

“Do you want to learn some magic?” she asked, bringing her hand away from him and pointing towards the tome. “I’ve been reading about ysali magic. This tome teaches you how to help plants grow.” Kara reached into one of her pouches, pulling out a few small seeds she’d taken from the house. “It helps you learn how to heal plants and help them grow.” Her gaze flit back down the page she’d stopped on. “I know it’d come natural to you but I’d have to use the spell words.” She mumbled the incantation, written down, to herself before turning back to Lyari. “Let’s try it?”

Lyari bounced in place, chirruping in what Kara could only assume was agreement. Their bond was strong, and while it hadn’t fully formed as far as the connection to each other’s minds were concerned, Kara could still tell how Lyari was feeling at certain times. So they got to work — Kara buried the seeds with enough space between each one and they both worked on learning the spell. Lyari’s attention seemed to fade at times, a random insect flying by distracting him, or just losing interest if it took too long. By the time they reached the last seed, though, it seemed as if they somewhat had the hang of the spell. A giant melon laid before them and Kara grinned as she looked up at Lyari.

“We did it!” Kara said and Lyari twittered in response, licking Kara’s cheek and trilling some more. Kara was too busy laughing and hugging Lyari, that she didn’t see the approaching trouble. Down from the mountains came two, rather large, baowis. Lyari stiffened as he caught scent of the creatures and a low growl escaped his throat. “What is it?” Kara asked as she pulled away from him slightly. Her gaze jerked around at the sound of a snapping twig. “Baowis…” She swallowed, heart instanting feeling as if it was trying to pound right out of her chest. “Lyari, we have to get out of her.” She’d never been up against the creature before and was reminded of what happened to Ataya when he’d been out hunting with Father. The last thing she wanted was to be pitched up against two of them.

Kara pushed herself up from the ground, grabbing her tome and tucking it into her pack before backing away from the baowis. So far, they hadn’t noticed them and seemed to just be interested in getting a drink. As Kara was backing up, though, her attention was focused soley on the creatures, forgetting about the rather large melon her and Lyari had grown just minutes ago. She yelped as the backs of her legs hit it and she went tumbling over it. She whimpered as the back of her head hit the ground. Lyari darted around, sniffing at her and nudging with his snout.

“I’m alright,” she said as she patted his snout. The relief of not being hurt was short lived, however. The noise Kara had made, when she’d toppled over, had gotten the attention of the baowis and they were making their way towards them. Kara reached back, instinctively going for her bow. When her fingers grabbed nothing but air she whined. Of course it wasn’t there. She had decided she wouldn’t need it. They were just going to practice magic, after all, and they would be close to home. Kara hadn’t expected baowis to show up.

Her gaze flit to the lake and she was instantly thankful they had chose this place to practice. With the water, she at least had one of her weapons readily available. The lake made drawing on that magic even easier. She scrambled back, trying her best to put more distance between her and the beasts. “Lyari, go...I’ll take care of them.” Lyari growled in response, head shaking in a definite no — as if to say he wasn’t leaving her behind.

Kara didn’t have time to argue as the first of the baowis charged, teeth gnashing together. She quickly pushed herself up, pulling at her magic at the same time and bringing up a wave, larger than the baowi, and letting it crash down onto her target. She didn’t stop there — with a flick of her wrist, the water droplets clinging to the baowi and that had landed on the ground started to merge together, forming a bubble of water around the beast. Inside the bubble, it growled but no sound could be heard. Instead, it just inhaled water in its efforts to make sound. Its claws scraped at the water, trying its best to escape. With each step it took forward, however, Kara moved the bubble. Until the beast was no longer moving.

Reluctantly, she let the water fall from around the baowi and braced herself for it to attack. When it didn’t move, however, she relaxed. It didn’t last long, however. The other baowi was roaring and standing up on it’s hind legs, angry that it’s friend had fallen so easily. As soon as its front paws hit the ground again, it was bounding towards her. Lyari growled, and despite his magic not being very strong, and a baby himself, he took off head first towards the baowi. “No!” Kara shouted pushing at her magic and funneling water into a battering ram that she threw at the baowi’s side. It roared in pain as it was thrown off course, away from Lyari. “Stay away from him.” Kara grit out as she pushed at her water more, making the beast stumble back, farther away from Lyari. She made her way to Lyari, placing herself between the beast and the small khehora. “I know you want to help, Lyari, but you’re too small. I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you. Her attention flicked back to the beast in front of her. As it opened its mouth to roar, Kara flicked her fingers, sending water flowing down the beast’s throat and into its lungs. She kept pushing, feeding more water into the baowi until it finally collapsed, dead, at her feet.

Kara’s shoulders sagged as she let herself relax. She let out a sigh as she turned back to Lyari. “Thank you for wanting to help.” She collapsed to her knees and hugged him tight around his neck. Lyari chirruped quietly, nuzzling Kara’s neck. When she pulled away, Kara patted his head and stood. “Let’s go home, ok?” They headed in the direction of home, traveling around the lake at a slow pace, energy almost zapped from the fight with the baowis. Lyari bounded off ahead, with Kara lagging behind.

Just as they rounded the lake, a screech sounded over head. Kara’s gaze flicked up just in time to see a peisio dragon swoop down. It’s claws extended as it aimed for Lyari. Kara jerked to action, running to catch up with her friend. Too late, though, the peisio had hold of Lyari and was already pulling back up into the air. Lyari screeched, the sound cutting through Kara in an instant.

Kara growled, pulling and tugging at her magic and aiming it into the sky towards the dragon. Her energy was renewed, the threat of losing her friend pushing it over the edge. The water snaekd through the air, grasping at the dragon’s tail and pulling it, stopping it’s flight. It thrashed, wings working at full speed to try and get away as the water trailed over it’s body, getting a better grip. The dragon had no other choice but to drop Lyari and turn its attention back on Kara. Thankfully, she had pulled it far enough down, that there wasn’t much distance between the drop and the ground.

Kara heard Lyari whine and knew she would need to see to him and soon. She clenched her fist tightly together, causing the water to press in against the dragon untils he heard bone crack. The dragon gave a final cry before disintegrating and leaving behind an orb in the grass. Kara ignored it, for the time being, and rushed to Lyari’s side. Blood seeped out of the wounds on his side — wounds caused by the dragon’s claws — and his breathing was labored. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. She placed her hands gently against his sides and pulsed her magic into him, using the last of her energy reserve to seek out the injuries and heal them from the inside out.

When she was finished, Lyari was good as new. She collapsed back away from him and panted. Lyari, able to move again, was instantly by her side and nudging at her. Kara wrapped her arm around his neck and tucked close, just letting herself breath and relax against him. Finally, when her breathing calmed, she pushed herself up and, with the help and support of Lyari, they made their way back to the house.