A Boy and His Dragonwolf

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

Mahara nodded and turned to face Claire as Meena and Temin watched Tyler carefully. After a glance back she nodded and then spoke directly to the female human. "You don't have a Pandrylyr, so first thing we need to do is figure our your focus. Sit down cross-legged." she said, waiting for Claire to do so before placing a small pearl on the ground in front of her. "Focus on that. Think about nothing but that pearl. And I mean it, no other thoughts." she explained before stepping back to watch.

 

[Quiet One]

"Ha! I got it. I got it!" The crystal was glowing brightly in his hand, but as soon as he turned to the others to show off what he'd made work, only for the crystal to go dark again as soon as he stopped focusing on it. "Aw..." Judy snickered.

Claire sat and crossed her legs, looking up curiously as Mahara placed a pearl in front of her. "Where'd you get the pearl?"

"That's not important," Judy butted in.

"But I haven't seen any oceans in this world..."

"Focus on the pearl, not where it came from."

Claire sighed and stared down at the pearl, doing as she was told and focusing her attention on the little white oyster deposit. For a few moments nothing happened, and then the pearl started to fizzle and burst into flames, until it started to burn into ash. She looked up at Mahara, confused. "Does that mean fire?"

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

"Keep at it, Tyler. You need to be able to keep the glow sustained." Mahara said off-hand to Tyler while watching Judy. She smiled a little as the Pearl burnt into ash, though rose an eyebrow. That happened much faster than normal - Claire really must have a very deep well of magic inside her. With a nod, Mahara pulled out now a shiny cube and handed it to Claire. "Yes, that meant fire. Now, this stone is sensitive to magic. I want you to focus on it, and will it to burn until it catches fire."

 

[Quiet One]

Tyler focused on the crystal again, getting it to glow once more. Now he had to figure out how to sustain it. He clutched the crystal tighter, thinking on the magic and making it glow brighter. He held it aloft and looked at the others, then back at the gem in his hand, which still glowed thankfully. "Okay...I think I'm getting the hang of this..."

Claire held the cube and looked at it, then at Mahara and Judy. "So is this all I'm doing? Magically burning stuff?" She looked down at the block and thought about fire, thought about it burning...

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

While Judy continued on the first test, Mahara would look over to Tyler and nod approvingly. "A good start. Now find that sensation and memorize it. That's the first step to figuring out how to use magic - figuring out how it feels, and then being able to draw on that sensation at a moment's notice." she nodded and then looked back at Claire, who's stone had once more caught on fire. "Alright... that's good. It seems your focus is fire-" she cut off as the fire turned blue, to ice, before crackling into lightning and finally floating away as mist. She blinked in surprise, and licked her lips to wet them. "Claire.. try again. This time think of something other than fire..."

 

[Quiet One]

Tyler looked at the crystal some more, but this time only casually, as he was instead focused on memorizing the feel of energy flowing from him to the jewel. And it was definitely flowing from him; he could almost feel the tingling sensation running down his arm. He focused on that, and mentally shut it off. Then he squeezed the crystal and tried focusing it back through, and it lit up once more.

"Okay..." Claire held the strange block and thought of the opposite of fire: water. She focused on the idea intently - so intently that all the images of running water in her mind kind of made her have to pee.

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

Since Tyler was doing so far a good job, and hadn't yet said anything about thinking he had it memorized, everything was focused on Claire. Soon enough, water began to pour from the stone, flowing down to the floor. Then it suddenly transformed into stone as it contacted the ground, melted away into magma which was picked up and swirled away as a small whirlwind. Mahara's eyes were wide, and she looked over to Judy, wondering her thoughts as she herself was speechless.

 

[Quiet One]

Claire looked amazed at the water pouring out of the stone, but then freaked out and dropped it as it turned to lava when it hit the floor. Tyler paused in his own training to watch, not realizing that his crystal didn't lose its glow once through it all. "What the hell was that?!"

"That was the stone saying you have a very wide range," Judy answered, getting down and picking up the stone. "It was saying you're capable of all our schools of magic, which is quite impressive. Time to test your control." She walked out and came back into the chamber with one of the wooden archery targets. Then with a few fire-making tools she set it on fire and handed Claire a bow and arrow. "Put the fire out."

She looked at Judy curiously, and knocked the arrow, thinking about water again. The arrowhead began to drip, and when she fired it, it was like popping a water balloon and everything was doused. "Whoa! That's awesome!"

"Yeah," Tyler nodded. Judy looked over at him and down at the crystal. She smirked.

"I think you've got summoning the power down, Tyler," she said. "Now let's see if we can get you to use it. I'd recommend my husband."

"Your husband?"

"Yeah. A lot of our cooking tech uses the crystals."

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

Mahara went over to Judy and retrived the stone from her, while a very excited Nym bounced around in glee and barked while nuzzling Nemune. He was quite happy with his humans and very proud of them. Mahara, seeing this, chuckled and then looked between Claire and Tyler before speaking.

"Right, time for a lunch break. Except for you, Tyler." she said, going over to him and taking the crystal back as well. "You will be working with Yemis to make our meal. This will teach you control - you are to use only your powers, not the controls on the stoves." then she smirked a little. "Don't burn down the place."

 

[Quiet One]

"Um...what?" Tyler said. He looked at Claire, who shrugged and smirked. Judy came up to him and put an arm around his shoulders.

"We mean learning to use your magic isn't going to come from combat. My husband's restaurant uses crystal-powered equipment, so he'll be your best teacher for this. You can cook, right?"

He nodded. "Sort of. I can make a decent fajita."

Judy chuckled. "Come with me." She led him out of the little magic cave and back towards the Cliffside city and to Yemis' little restaurant. Trailing behind them were the three pandrylyrs Nym, Nemune, and Dartmoor. Nemune would occasionally stop to groom her mate, who she assumed was following for the chance at some pickings for lunch (not that she wasn't looking for the same). Dartmoor...he just wanted to see Melody.

Upon entering through a back door she called out to her man. "Yemis! Babe, I've got an apprentice for you! We need to teach him how to use crystal, as that's his power, and you're our best teacher." She came up and kissed him. "Keep him from burning our lunch, okay?"

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

When Nemune would stop to groom him, so would Nym stop and groom her. And every time they did so, they would have to sprint for a little to catch up with the humans and Aer. Nym, though, would go in the front door and lead Claire to a table with Mahara, where the two of them would need to sit and wait for Judy.

Yemis blinked and looked over at Claire and Tyler, losing track of Melody who he had been watching which gave her a chance to slip away. "Alright then?" he said a little, unsure about it but if this is what Claire and the Taelsol needed than he would be more than happy to oblige. He looked to Tyler and then pointed at a stove. "You'll use that one. Practice turning it on, up and down to find the heat you want. once you feel comfortable, I'll give you something."

 

[Quiet One]

As Tyler was situated in the kitchen, Dartmoor sprinted off, on the hunt for Melody. If he found her, he'd catch her collar in his mouth and take her over to Mahara and Claire, where Judy headed off to after handing Tyler off to her husband.

"Okay..." Tyler extended his hand and put the same focus he had on the crystal back in the cave. "WHOA! TOO MUCH!" he cried out as the stove's heated metal auto-ignited the air into a column of fire. "DOWN! DOWN!" The fire dissipated as he lowered the temperature. But now it was too cold. After some fiddling about between hot and cold (with thankfully no more sudden bursts of heat) he was finally happy with what he'd set it to. "Okay, my guess is it's on medium now. What're we cooking?"

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

Dartmoor had been able to find Melody just before she pulled out a ball of dough, the young girl pouting a little as she was carried out to her mother. Who, once they were all sitting down, would hear Mahara ask of Claire: "So.. tell us about Tyler." she asked with a giggle and small blush

Yemis had to hide his face In his palm at the start, shaking his head, but once everything was set up he looked at one order that had just come in. It seemed that Mahara had ordered a menu sampler, and Yemis couldn't help but laugh a little. "Right. We're making a little bit of everything. We'll start simple, surf-and-turf medallions of Shoryl and fish." Yemis said, quite fond of the human phrase.

 

[Quiet One]

Claire blushed at Mahara's question, looking over at Judy who had Melody in her lap. That automatically precluded talking about some things she wasn't comfortable bringing up anyway. "Well, I guess it depends what you want to know about. He's a good boyfriend, if that's what you mean..."

"He's struck me as a bit of a doofus so far," Judy added with a smirk. At Claire's glare she chuckled. "Not like an idiot or anything. Just...kind of lost."

Claire nodded to herself. "Well...okay, that's kind of true. He's always just sort of taken life as it comes. No real direction."

"I wasn't too different from that before coming here," Judy offered sympathetically. "I think it's something the pandrylyrs look for."

"That sounds like they're throwing on tests for me," Tyler acknowledged with a small smirk. With Yemis' instruction, he began rolling the medallions - shoryl on the outside, a lettuce-like green, some thin sauce made with fish oil and spices, and a slim slice of raw fish on the inside. Per his guidance, he rolled each of them up and put them on the pan to cook. Yemis added a tiny bit of the sauce to season the outside of the meat as well.

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

Mahara looked between the two and then nodded at Claire's statement. "The Pandrylyrs here tend to come to us at a younger age than I think Judy and Tyler got theirs, but the principle tends to be the same. Those with little direction who like to just mess around, go with the flow.." she rubbed her head. "I don't know how it is for humans, but often Aer children find their calling quickly."

Yemis looked over at Tyler as he worked and was rather impressed by how he was doing. Once the medallions were on the heat, Yemis would hand the human a bowl of batter and strips of fish. "Right, next is some fried batter-fish. Careful with your heat on these."

 

[Quiet One]

"Humans can go their whole lives without knowing their calling," Judy said. "There's more possibilities in our world, but some are pretty exclusive, and most are just hard to see. Aimlessness is probably the most common problem in our world. Right, Claire?"

"Unfulfilled expectations, too," she added. "There's a ton of people with dreams that - for some reason or another - they just never meet. Thousands flock to California in the hope of becoming actors or singers, but the odds are like one in a million that they'll actually succeed. I guess it's a blessing and a curse; you can be almost anything, but no one knows how to be what they want, or even what they want."

"Always wanted to make fried food at home," Tyler said, nodding as he took the batter and fish. "Just never had a deep fryer in my apartment."

Applying the batter itself was pretty easy, as was - surprisingly - finding the right temperature. He just had to get the oil to boil, which given how hot he learned he could make the stove already, wasn't that hard. While he put them in to cook, he noticed Yemis hollowing out mushrooms. "Stuffed 'shrooms, next? I hope I get to eat some of this."

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

" I would theorize that the pandrylyrs are attracted to those who don't much worry about it. Who go with the flow of time and the world to see what it brings them." Mahara nodded, looking to Melody who squirmed in her mother's lap, wanting to get down. "You and Tyler ever make plans for the future?" came the next question

"I'll let you go once it's all finished so that you can eat with them." Yemis said as he finished hollowing out the mushroom. The stems went to the side and the caps went to a plate where they were filled with a stuffing. "Right, put these inside the oven and be careful to keep the two heats separate." Yemis said, as Tyler still had fish to fry while he went to prep the next thing.

 

[Quiet One]

Claire looked at Mahara and nodded in thought with what she said. Perhaps the pandrylyrs looked at what she saw as aimlessness and saw adaptability instead. She didn't get much time to ruminate on that when Mahara then embarrassed her with her next question.

"Um..." she blushed, unsure how to address the question. "W-We were just friends until Nym came into his life. I always sort of suspected he had a crush on me, but I was going to school to be a veterinarian. Still am, actually, so I should probably head back soon...Anyway, this little guy - " she pet Nym's head " - sort of pushed us together, and I have to admit he's a really sweet guy. I don't see him coming back to our world now, since this one's so nice and he actually has a job here."

"Knight here to protect thousands from big, furry monsters...'job,'" Judy smirked. "Yeah, that checks out."

"Anyway, I might stick around too. But I do want to finish my education first," Claire finished.

Tyler focused on the oven and slowly raised the temp, this time much easier for him to get it right. The stems of the mushrooms - while the fish fried and the medallions were flipped and put on a lower heat - were mixed in with stringed beans and baby onions with garlic and seasonings to make a sort of hot salad. "All vegetables. I bet Melody hates this one," he smirked to Yemis.

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

Yemis would smile at Tyler's progress and lead him through the rest of the dishes on the menu sampler before letting him go, taking the food platter out with him and then serving all of them the sampler. "Well, he learns control quite quickly. I'm sure once you find a way to harness his power he'll be quite good with it." the chef nodded, kissing his daughter on the head and wife on the lips before going back into the kitchen to keep on working.

 

[Quiet One]

"This means I can eat now, right?" Tyler asked with a smirk. He eyed everything - except the cooked veggie salad thing - with hunger.

"Yes, you can eat," Judy chuckled. When Tyler reached out for one of the medallions she took it before he could and batted his hand away. "After everyone else."

"That seems a little cruel," Claire suggested as she took a medallion and some of the stuffed mushrooms.

Judy grabbed another medallion, having given the first to her daughter, who was cutely struggling to cut it on the plate. "If he's going to be a cook as much as a taelesol, he's got to learn the golden rule of both: you eat last."

"You're eating," he retorted.

"Seniority."

After everyone else had grabbed their share of the food Tyler was finally allowed to grab and sample his handiwork. He cut into one of the medallions and sighed at the flavor, the fish and meat blending perfectly together. "Okay, that's worth the wait."