|Skill Gained [Storm Sense]|
The inside of this storm did not betray my expectations. The spectacle was grand beyond imagining. thick dark clouds being pulled and stretched, thinning and coiling whilst transforming like wool into yarn on a spinning wheel. veritable walls of rain were flowing sideways, and the endless screaming wind ran through everything like thick incomparably sharp blades that threatened to rend whatever matter it swept past.
all in all it had all the normal things an earthly ocean storm would have, but on a far grander scale, and the reason for that quickly came to light under my newer, sharper eyes. I was trying my best to absorb everything that was happening in this realm of water and wind and that was how I noticed that the lightning that raced through the clouds had two different colours!
there was the normal stark beautiful white lightning that blinded the eyes, and more rarely, an Iridescent streak of rainbow colours like a flood dragon flashed and danced among the clouds! the first was accompanied by the all too familiar roar of thunder, but the second was silent. only I noticed it wasn't quite traceless, as when these bolts of godly light flew past, the thrumming in my chest grew louder for a moment.
If I had to put money on it, I could only guess this would be Magic. and my mind quickly set to deciphering the reason for its presence, even as I navigated through the less treacherous parts of the squall.
my first impression was that the magic seemed too raw and too overpowering to be controlled, from how wild it felt, it probably was a completely natural phenomena, which meant it could be used to prop up some of my guesswork. while this wouldnt provide any hints on how to utilise mana once I had it, it would afford me the chance to understand how it worked in the world's framework of laws alongside things like gravity and physics.
Truthfully I already had two likely ideas. Experience with stories and novels from my old home gave me my first theory about how mana could work, but my previous scientific education had me leaning towards my second thought.
the first was a theory of convergence. put simply this idea was that places that had an extreme amount of something would birth - or maybe draw to it- mana of an aspect that matched it. for instance in a place full of nature, mana would appear from somewhere that was of aspects like plant, life, nature etc. and in a graveyard mana would congregate in aspects of death, entropy and decay. and this idea could easily be tested in my current location- the midst of a great storm.
but while that could be the case, I personally leaned towards another theory- less about the concept of 'genus locii' or 'places of power' my other idea was more about energy and conversion. the interesting thing though was that these concepts were not mutually exclusive, both could be true at the same time, and only by travelling and experiencing more things could i possibly come to a proper conclusion.
anyways my second thought was that mana was simply another form of energy, one that was especially malleable, so that it could be shaped and converted into almost any other type of energy, like light or heat, or even matter! but of course the energy required to create even a rock would be inconceivable, at least based on my grasp of physics... so then the idea would be that where enough energy gathered and collided, as with the lightning in this case- it would break into all sorts of forms upon its dispersion, like the primitive electric lightbulbs that ran electricity through a filament. the electricity would heat up the filament as it traversed through it, and that heat would bleed out light as a byproduct.
at the moment, based upon what i could see right now- I would treat both theories as true. and I would try to- shit! I would try to keep some of these boneheads alive, where did they even come from?!
I guess maybe I didn't have an IQ failure, that maybe it was once again my instincts kicking in, because I was not the only member of my flock to go storm chasing- or i guess storm diving?
anyway, I only noticed when a particularly fast youngling sped past as I was musing on the natural sciences. and, having a bad feeling, i naturally looked around to see if it was the only idiot to follow me. it wasn't.
except, I quickly found out that they didn't need my help, they were remarkable as they swept through stormclouds and windwalls as if they were dolphins leaping in and out of ocean waves. the tempest that threatened to tear apart anything that approached was like a second home as they approached deeper towards the most concentrated areas of lightning. and then, once again, my flock taught me more about my new life as a bird species, and my new life in this strange magic world.
the mix of very old and very young petrels sped toward the mana lightning and fearlessly did what I had considered suicidal, they dived under the bolts of lightning with spread wings and let it strike them, the way the thick streaks of energy consumed their forms entirely in a flash of irridescent light seemed to be strangely sacred. It was at that point a word came to mind, and things started to click a little with my expectations, it was a baptism, the storm was in some odd way blessing them. Earth, despite it being so developed by the great works and wonders of humanity, had rarely made me feel the way this world had almost every day so far, as all of my thoughts were swallowed by the feeling of purest Awe.
in the moment of the flash i was reminded of my earlier wonderings. I had, In my spare time birdwatching, been trying to remember everything I had once learned about Storm Petrels on Earth. admittedly this wasn't much, and even more so there were bound to be major differences under the Influence mana and the System, but I still found it useful because of things like this.
On Earth storm petrels were once considered by sailors to be birds that summoned Storms, this is not necessarily bad unless you grasp the key issue, which was that storms at Sea meant death to those early seafarers. they were basically setting sail knowing that were riding in oversized bathtubs that could tip under any wind that exceeded a stiff breeze!their claims didn't occur out of nowhere though, because despite their reputation for being superstitious, sailors would often see flocks of the birds running ahead of the destructive ocean tempests.
Later on, Natural Scientists discovered that, naturally Petrels had nothing to do with the creation of Storms, but they had an awfully high affinity with them. and an uncanny sense for when storms were on their way, leading to the common sighting of flights of birds fleeing ahead to find safe harbor.
the flash faded, and the courageous bird fell from the sky. luckily however its paralysis faded after falling for a short time and it spread its wings and turned fall into a calm glide. there was something different about it now, its colours and contours richer, almost unnaturally so. i could only guess that its mana lightning bath had changed something in it fundamentally, and it was only the first of those to take the plunge.
However it seems that my caution had not been unfounded, as it wasn't all glorious rebirths. it seemed that the first group to enter the storm had been the young and most promising up-and-comers, and their success emboldened those whose endowments were less impressive, but courage did not win the battle alone. the next group were made up of older birds, and as the light from their baptisms faded the scene showed that they had been consumed entirely, leaving only ash behind, as well as a pure glowing flame that I recognised, which soared towards the sky above before I could understand exactly what it was I saw. this continued as each of my kin went towards their salvation- or more commonly, their doom. it was odd, but seing this strange form of natural selection was both soothing in its similarity to earth, and heartrending as I watched those i had claimed as my family threw themselves towards death in an attempt to grow stronger for their flock.
but soon my eye was drawn to a small petrel, half the size of any other petrel I had seen so far, and as it raced towards the sea of lightning, my heart dropped as a sense of forboding filled me, and I knew this little one would not make it. and so did what my heart urged, and I dived after it.