We walked through the forest. Even though it was prohibited for people to wander off if they were in such a small group. We were allowed to leave. Mainly because I could probably take out all the wendigos in this forest on my own.
I knew full well that I could have asked the same thein to Elisa. But I believed that it was important to seek out knowledge from different perspectives. If you only look one way you might not see the treasures that lay behind, you.
Eventually we reached a lake. Here we stopped and she turned to look at me. "I need you to make a flame, so I can properly explain it to you."
I did as she asked. After that I slightly controlled the flame so it would danse just above the tip of my claws.
"Alright then. Can you try to make the flame stable and firm like a rock?"
With just a mere thought I raised the heat of the flame and it turned blue. The air around it started to wrinkle but the flame stayed in place.
"Now make it flow with the currents of the wind like it is a part of it."
I cooled the flame down a little. And despite me holding it in place the flame shifted along with the soft wind the blew through the forest.
"Now let it flow trough the air like water in a stream."
I did as she asked. To be honest, it looked quite weird when I made the flames move downwards to better imitate water.
"As you can see. The actions of each element are not limited to one. Water can evaporate and earth can roll down the mountains like a flood. To deepen ones understanding and control of one element you need to look at the others. Otherwise, it would never be complete."
"But I don't think that that ever was the problem. I have seen things like that myself. The problem is that I am a djall, a fire demon. I have a verry hard time, controlling water."
I slowly let the flame that I was holding fade out of existence.
"Yes. But you can walk on the ground, you can fly through the air. And I am most certain that you won't die the moment you touch water."
I shrugged. "Yea, I won't. unless it is really holy. But the fact that I won't die from it does not mean that I can control it."
"Then why don't you focus on other aspects of the water instead of immediately trying to take hold of its essence? You can focus on the minerals in it, the oxygen, or the temperature. There are other ways than facing something head on."
I looked at the lake that was reflecting the sky and the trees like a mirror. I walked towards it and dipped one of my claws into the water. Wrinkles immediately started to distort the clear surface.
I tried to focus solely on the temperature of it. it was hard to tell but I could slightly feel how the small waves that came back caried a different temperature than the rest of the water. It was ever so slightly colder.
So now I tried to raise the temperature a little. It was like controlling a flame underwater. It was hard to do. But eventually the water started to bubble. Then I tried to lower the temperature. When I passed the point where it would have extinguished any flame it became tougher to do.
I took a deep breath and repositioned my wings. Then I continued to try and lower the temperature further. after a few minutes I saw how a little bit of the water that surrounded my claw started to freeze.
I let out a sigh of relief and stood back up. It had not taken much of my magic, but I was mentally exhausted, and I felt like throwing up.
I might not have been my brightest idea to freeze the water. But now I knew for sure that there were ways for me to learn ow to control it.