Teenage Infatuations

Jetamio · Post by **Jetamio** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 2:53 pm

She was sitting peacefully on the floor in front of the fire, her nimble fingers weaving a wreath from long strands of ivy stripped of their leaves. On the floor around her lay various sprigs of plants that were beginning to change colour from the lush green on summer to the reds and golds of autumn. She carefully weaved these sprigs into the wreath, along with some late flowering shrubs she had found.
Suddenly a skitterish white wolf bounces into the hall and over to her, scattering the sprigs of colour all over the place.

"Sidheag!" The Druid shouted, half in irritation and half in amusement as the wolf bounced around her licking her face. While her son might still make a show of ignoring her, his warder had no such reservations.
Sure enough the youth came through the door soon after, his golden eyes that were so similar to hers scanning the room. He gave her his usual cursory glance, although this time his gaze lingered on her a moment longer. Mother and son regarded each other intently for a moment. Despite the flame red hair and gold eyes, they looked little alike. Tortha had taken his fathers build, appearing mostly Barbarian though when one looked closer one could see the subtle Draconic touch. He was not quite so stocky as a full blooded Barbarian but few noticed at first, not even the girl who came in with him.
She appeared to be around sixteen, almost as tall as he with long jet black hair and piercing blue eyes. She smiled easily, lighting up her beautiful face. They were laughing about something, Tortha breaking the gaze with his mother and smiling at his new...friend. The girl noticed Jetamio and looked questioningly at Tortha. He looked again at Jetamio who regarded him with the same calm indifference as she normally did. She refused to play these games of rejection and simply left him to his own devices until he saw fit to acknowledge her.

In her son's silence she stood up and addressed the girl. "I am Jetamio Wolfheart. Welcome to Surefall Glade." She made no reference to her relation to Tortha, leaving that up to him. But the girl looked at her as if she knew exactly who she was, and the Druid felt uneasy under the piercing gaze.
As if sensing the discomfort, the girl smiled again and offered a bow. "My name is Cara." She looked around the room for anyone else that might be present then grinned at Tortha again.
Jetamio shook her head as her son grinned back. The boy was infatuated with this stranger.

Alsurin · Post by **Alsurin** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:55 am

The mage rolled his eyes and looked back to the weathered charts spread across the table before him, carefully measuring portions of the diagrams with a silver stylus. Feeling the his temples ache as the esoteric symbols swam before his vision and puddled together in a confused mass of nonsense, Alsurin sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyelids. Fire and light, he was going to have to get sleep at some point, gods knew how. Yet, there was still so much he must see to, so much prepare....far too much.

"My name is Cara."

The young man chuckled and mimicked her statement under his breath, giving the girl's voice a shrill quality. Five years Tortha's senior, Alsurin never passed up the chance to make his friend's life difficult when it came to idle attractions. It wasn't as he didn't deserve it, the conjurer thought with growing amusement. The boy seemed to think that every time a girl quickened his heart that it must be "love," or some such nonsense. Love, in the truth of the word, was not blind, but mankind certainly held mastery over that quality. Ever the cynic, Alsurin watched the "friends" with a broadening, if somewhat mischievous, smile.

Gilliadson · Post by **Gilliadson** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 4:23 am

The Koada`Dal arcanist watched the exchange quite amused. "Youthful infatuation." She thought as she remembered feeling that way toward her beloved a few circles ago. "Maybe it will grow into something real... Maybe not." She had come to Surefall Glade with Gilliadson to visit Lady Verlaine, Gill's Grandmother and to receive her blessing upon their Lifebonding.

Jetamio · Post by **Jetamio** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:05 am

Jetamio heard the Drakkin mimicing the girl and quickly lowered her head back to her wreath before she could be caught giggling. When she looked up again Tortha was giving Alsurin a shrewd look, obviously having heard something, but even with the elven infusion of blood, his hearing was not so good as hers.
Judging by the girls expression she had heard and wasn't sure if it were she or Tortha who was being mocked. Jetamio looked at her closer, wondering how she could have heard where Tortha did not. In all appearences she was full blooded Barbarian. She decided to ponder that small mystery later, now watching in amusement as Tortha swept a wet cloth off the bar and threw it at Alsurin.

Alsurin · Post by **Alsurin** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 11:11 pm

Alsurin deftly caught the rag in the air before it could become intimately acquainted with his face and laughed, transforming the small victory into a challenge. "Heh not quite so....arghhh! Bloody screamin..gah!"

The conjurer looked on in horror at brown soap-water issuing from the rag now clenched in his hand, the downpour already drenching the star charts and sheets of figures before him. Muttering frantic words of influence under his breath, he rifled through the parchment, free hand flicking through a series of motions above the mess. After a moment, the moister rose in a cloud of vapor above the red faced magus. With another motion he bid the cloud to condense into a sphere of liquid that hovered above his hand. Draping the rag over the back of his chair, Alsurin stared into eyes of his younger friend with a expression that seemed an odd mixture of anger and a question. After a long moment, a glimmer of understanding seemed to pass through white-less blue eyes, softening them somewhat. With a nearly undetectable nod to Tortha, he chuckled, tossing the bauble of water between his hands. "Forgiveness... my work distracted me.. I am Alsurin Sunveil, it's good to finally know why Tortha seems to be wool-gathering so much of late."

Gilliadson · Post by **Gilliadson** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 2:03 am

A young Halfling Druidess entered the room and approached the Koada`Dal.

"Lady Sineliniel Eledhwen?" She asked looking up at the elementalist.

"Yes that is what I am called." Sineliniel smiled.

"Sir Gilliadson sent me to escort you to him. I am Linella, grand-daughter of Willanaome Bramblerose."

"A pleasure to meet you, my dear. Please lead on." Sineliniel addressed her friends in the room. "I will see you all later. Be Well." and then called her companion. "Come Fluffy"

"Following you Mistress." Replied the Elemental. The three of them left the house.

Jetamio · Post by **Jetamio** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:18 pm

Jetamio couldn't help but laugh at the Drakkins outburst as his charts got soaked.
While he attended to the mess, Jetamio smiled at Sineliniel. "Good Luck!" she called after the retreating Koada'Dal. She turned back in time to see the girl smile back at Alsurin, though with a somewhat confused expression. "Wool gathering?" Despite speaking the Elvish tongue perfectly, the girl had a faint accent. Jetamio had known many Barbarians in her time, even now married to one, and her accent was nothing like any she had met before. She was intrigued as to where her son had found this dark haired beauty.

Alsurin · Post by **Alsurin** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 11:57 pm

Alsurin pondered the hovering water sphere as if gazing into the depths a scrying bowl. "Wool-gathering is a colloquial expression meaning to daydream, aetherwalk, digress into inner wandering....or in other words.." With a blur of sudden motion, the mage hurled his liquid bauble at Tortha like a shimmering discus, silent laughter nearly making him lose balance. "Not paying attention!"

Jetamio · Post by **Jetamio** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:49 am

Jetamio had seen this action coming but clearly her son did not. Still grinning stupidly at Cara, the orb hit him square in the chest, bursting open and soaking both him and his lady friend. Now Jetamio was in hysterics while Tortha looked over in stunned disbelief at Alsurin. Cara shook the water off herself and raised an eyebrow at the Drakkin then at Tortha, seeming to ignore Jetamio completely.

Tortha finally found his tongue and fixed Alsruin with a wicked grin full of promised mischeif. "Right, this means war!" He departed the building, grabbing Cara's hand on the way out.

Jetamio eventually composed herself and grinned at Alsurin, suddenly feeling more open with the normally so serious and vague Mage than usual having seen that he did have a sense of fun after all.

Alsurin · Post by **Alsurin** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 3:10 am

Alsurin returned the druid's smile with an amiable nod and looked after the departing pair. "This should be amusing. Interesting girl he has there, well, interesting accent anyway. I can't place her tribe, it sounds nothing like Storm, nor does it have anything of Celene's lilt." The mage snapped his fingers and scrolls and parchments dutifully rolled themselves up behind him. "She is better then the last anyway, giggled like a Karana hyena that one. This may indeed last past three weeks, or maybe I have simply grown hopelessly romantic."

Jetamio · Post by **Jetamio** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:14 am

"A Karana hyena?" She laughed. "I must not have had the...pleasure of meeting that one. But then he doesn't actually bring them to meet me, he still won't even speak to me." A touch of sadness enters her voice. "Sometimes I wonder if he ever will."

Alsurin · Post by **Alsurin** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:30 am

Alsurin sat back down in his chair, chiding himself silently. What a fool! How could he waste carefully gathered energy over a child's game? His soul be cursed if all was lost due to frivolous indulgences! One must never lose substance in grasping of worthless shadows. Just a time longer and he would have everything, all else was nothing. He must remember this.

all else was nothing....

"Although it might not have seemed so in," the mage waved his hand through the air in an uncertain gesture, "wherever you were, but it has been a long time since you left,... Tortha grew up his whole life without a mother. Not even a substitute for such a figure presented itself." Alsurin closed his eyes and leaned back, his soft yet audible voice flowing with the natural rhythm gained from countless hours of incantations.

"To be frank, he doesn't know what to make of you, or that mystery that you represent. Your boy is almost a man, in some cultures he would already have a family of his own. Suddenly, you come from the great beyond, fulfilling one of the deepest and more desperate desires of the heart. Yet, what does it mean to have a mother? How do you relate to her? How can you be asked to reopen a long healed wound, or mend a cut you were too young to feel?"

The Conjurer was silent for a long moment, giving the brief impression of prayer. "While you were within the mists, time's river has swept us mere mortals along. You seek to drag us back upstream to where your stone first sank to the riverbed. Jetamtio, time doesn't work that way ...nor do the people that make their homes within it."

He rose, submitting to that restless schizophrenia of motion that always accompanied his thought process. "I must take these materials upstairs, I shall be back down shortly."
With a nod, Alsurin vanished up the stairs, his bare feet only making the slightest of sounds upon the wooden surface.

Stormfollower · Post by **Stormfollower** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:24 pm

Outside the booming voice of Stormfollower was heard to greet Tortha and his friend. "Good day to thee and thee, proud young adventurers both, and such fine good looks to ye both!" His harty laugh rattled a few glasses as he entered the gathering place.
"That son of mine!"
"Jetamio, I have returned, and with many a fish to skin, perchance you would aid me in thier carefull preparation?" He smiled at her, holding up a string of several large fish.
Noticing her look he questioned her sarcastically "Doth the faraway look in thine eyes proclaim the gladness you feel at my return?" He smiled again but when it was met with only a halfharted grin he questioned again. " Whats wrong my love? Why for art thow so forlorn?"

Jetamio · Post by **Jetamio** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:52 pm

The mages words struck a few chords within her. Afterall, she had reappeared from the dead with the only explanation being given to believe in miracles. But it was so much safer than the truth wasn't it? But on the other hand she had not pushed herself on anyone since her return, least of all her son. The first rejection had been enough, and was not a feeling she cared to relive everyday. She had simply let him be, knowing he was not her two year old son anymore, but a young adult with his own beliefs and morals. But it didn't really make the pain any less. He idolised the memory of his mother, the Dragon infused version of a woman who seemed to be spoken of almost as legend by those who knew her past.
The boy could simply not associate this being with the simple Fier'Dal woman presented as his mother. At some level she did understand him.

Suddenly Stormfollowers booming voice rattled the glasses behind the bar, and she looked up, though wasn't able to veil her look in time to hide her feelings from him.
Instead she simply smiled, and stood up again, leaving the wreath on the floor. "Tis nothing dear, nothing that time will not heal eventually. Now, let's see these fish." She moved towards him and took some of the fich from his hand before heading to the worktable with them.

Alsurin · Post by **Alsurin** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:55 pm

Alsurin looked about the ordered mess of his room and sighed. He must be far more tired then he realized, lashing out at those around him at almost any opportunity. It was not like him, at least so he hoped. The conjurer looked at the charts and recondite diagrams now spread over a large table he had imported to his room to accommodate the taxing nature of his recent works. Maps of constellations and paths of comets lay atop a huge expanse of parchment covered with spheres and geometric shapes, writing hovering about each drawing like ambitious courtiers attending royalty. Was Jetamtio really the one trying to enforce whim upon reality? Whom has his bout of self-righteous rhetoric really been directed at...

all else was nothing...

The young man shook his head, scattering the moment of reflection like half remembered dreams. Indeed he must be quite tired, meandering though romantic notions like some foppish poet. Things were coming to a head! The time for second thoughts lay far behind him. Alsurin leaned against a bedpost, staring intently into the depths of his own eyes reflected back to him by a mirror hanging upon the wall. Still, his outburst downstairs has demonstrated a lapse in control that could not be allowed.

Leaning over the wash basin, he ran warm water over his face, breathing in the heat with patterned breaths. After drying himself with a rag, he changed into clothes of simple wool, left his room, and started walking down the staircase, heading back towards the commotion. The mage frowned slightly. Even after looking at a map of the northern provinces he couldn't place that girl's accent.

"Strange.."