Welcome to Gaia! ::

Dran eyed the unlikely duo steadily as he took in the strange suggestion. On the surface the notion was patently ridiculous. Stay with a complete stranger and his giant reptilian friend?. However, the strange twoesome might also be the best way of discovering what had happened to his companions. In any case, there was little to hold him here.

"That sounds intriguing," he responded at last. "Perhaps we can discuss it further after viewing the body. This way then."

Turning abruptly he began to lope with easy ground-covering strides back towards the clearing where he had been attacked.

I hope the body is still there, this could be rather embarassing otherwise...

Perhaps an hour later the group arrived in the ash-strewn clearing. From there it was but a short distance to the clearing where the body lay. Once they had arrived in the clearing Dran waved a hand in the general direction of the body and seated himself on a nearby stone.

The man's body lay, head cocked at an unnatural angle against the rock that had ended his life so abruptly. His armor was simple but in good condition, no rust or other signs of neglect. The general muscle tone was also good, and his hair was cut professionally short. The eyes were tightly closed.

Dran shifted his position slightly to get more comfortable as he observed the scene and its other viewers.

Kreen's eyes snap open, the motion of the awakening elf alerting him to his surroundings. He, too, slowly rises from his seat on the bed, stretching slightly as he drops off the bed. He pauses a moment to readjust his equipment, then steps out of the room with a silent nod to Artes on his way to the cliff. Once there, he does what he seems to be doing rather often lately: stand and watch the horizon, basking in the peace of nature and the warm sunlight as he hasn't had time to do in years.

Kreen slowly turns his gaze toward Artes, being forced to look upward at him in order to see his face thanks to his Fae status. Never let it be said that his people are tall.
His gaze then moves back to the horizon, pausing for a moment before he speaks. "Elves and Fae use two very different magic techniques. My people have leaned to project our abilities outward, manipulating the world around us in ways that brute force cannot do. Your people have focused on projecting their abilities inward, to objects and even to themselves, allowing them to perform similar feats. However, there remain a number of parallels. I cannot claim to teach you everything, or even more complex enchantments. However, I can train you to use your abilities to their fullest potential, and even to devise your own techniques independant of what others have produced before you. Are you prepared?"

"Very well," Kreen says, moving to the ledge he warmed up on that morning and gesturing for Artes to follow.
"The first thing you must learn is concentration. Once you learn this, you will be able to maintain working an enchantment despite your environment. A time will likely come when there is no such thing as a quiet spot, or you are falling to your death and your ability to cast is absolutely key. We will begin with this."

Coming to a stop, Kreen turns to the elf behind him and looks upward to the boy's eyes.
"Now, decide on an enchantment which can be maintained and cast it. Be warned, however, that my training will not be easy. It is unlikely that you will escape entirely unharmed."
"You will not, however, be permanently or even suffer long-term injury. This is a promise."

"Good. Now, we begin," Kreen says. He raises a hand and the air around it begins to ripple as he focuses his power into a spell. He thrusts his hand forward, and the energy erupts from his hand and streaks past Artes' left cheek. It continues along over the ocean until it dissipates, but in its wake an expanding wave of heat just short of burning washes over his elven companion. Kreen pauses, then decides to scale back the power just a bit. If he is to maintain this training for the length of time he needs, he cannot afford to expend the energy even for that amount of power for that low-level spell. Not after the fourth-degree spellbraiding using third tier spells he did earlier.