Lily lies awake in bed, staring at Roger's back. 'He does this every night,' she thinks, 'he doesn't get enough sleep.' She turns to her other side and faces the wall. The dull brown wood insulates the house from the cold outside. Her hand touches the wall. She sighs, then shifts to lay on her back. She stares at the slanted wooden ceiling, and the support beams that cross the ceiling. Lily raises her left hand as high as she can reach.
Her eyes softly glow green. Invisible green mana swirls like silk ribbons from all around the room, condensing into a softly rotating cone. The tip of the cone rests on the palm of her hand, and the cone appears to be split into 5 pieces rotating separately from each other, giving it the appearance of a small tornado. Like her eyes the winds glow softly, enough to illuminate the room slightly.
As she holds up her right hand, her eyes begin to glow even brighter as she channels swift green mana in a similar way, but slightly different this time. If her left wind was flowing clockwise, the small tornado she was trying to form now was blowing the opposite way, counter-clockwise.
Lily begins to sweat as her left tornado begins to destabilize before collapsing with the right as well. She throws her arms down to her sides in exasperation. She sighs again, and then sits up in a cross legged position on her bed. She then decides to practice counterwinds instead. Instead of forming and controlling two at the same time, she makes the counter-clockwise one first, and commands it to stay still. She observes the small twister for about a minute, continuously feeding it mana before creating a separate clockwise twister.
She disconnects her mana from the first twister and it starts to run wild, before she launches the second twister into the center of the first. For a split second, there was a bright green flash, and the twisters burst into a soft breeze that blew until the mana in the room settled. Lily smiled brightly.
[+1 INT]
'If I can do that in ten seconds, as well as produce two different winds at once, I will have to ask Granny for some more practice methods. As expected of an old mage! I can feel myself improving whenever I practice this!' she thinks. It is only after her happiness dies down that she realizes how low her mana has gotten.
[MP:] 3/45
She frowns before laying back down beneath her blanket, 'I waste too much mana,' she thinks. Lily proceeds to fall into a deep sleep. As the night goes on, she begins to dream.
A little girl, 3 or 4, runs through a field of flowers. She giggles loudly, but it seems as if the sound came from the end of a long tunnel. The girl turns right, to see the figure of a large man, smiling warmly. He has dark hair and a very muscular build, his face is covered by a shadow, but his white teeth can be seen. He runs towards her and lifts her onto his shoulder laughing loudly.
They run together for what feels like hours before the man sets her down. His simple clothes have changed into cold steel armor. He walks towards the girl before passing her. When the girl turns she sees the great red sky in front of the man. The sounds of destructive magical spells, as well as an array of pained voices echo around her. Smoke billows off of the land and fire consumes her vision. "DAD!!," she yells, the man stops for a second, before putting on a helmet and walking forward, consumed by the great fire.
Lily jerks awake, drenched in sweat. She looks quickly to her right to see if Roger has woken up yet, and sure enough, his bed was empty. The morning sun beams through the window, highlighting the room with bright light. Lily rubs her face, still shaken up by the dream. After calming down she cheerfully jumps out of bed ready to start a new day.
Downstairs, Rena can be seen eating breakfast. "Good morning Lily!" she says, smiling widely, "Breakfast is on the table. Your brother brought home a boar last night, so I won't have to buy much from the market for a while."
"A boar!?" exclaimed Lily, her face stuffed with food, "I saw him come in late last night, and remember him stinking, but I thought that's just how boys are." she shudders, feeling gross just thinking about it.
"Yes," Rena said, chuckling softly. "He works very hard, and he is helping us out more than I expected at this age. He has always seemed like a reliable boy. I let him off with minor scolding this time since he brought food to the table. He left to go train by the forest after eating, at the usual spot of course." Rena looks towards the door smiling with a tinge of sadness in her eyes. "They grow up so quickly."
"We're the same age!" Lily retorts loudly.
"Not so loud sweetie, Arne is still sleeping" said Rena.
"Sorry mom." Lily pouts after being scolded.
"You should go see how Roger is doing, and maybe some of his fanatical training will rub off on you." says Rena. Lily turns her head away, not wanting to be compared with her brother. "You should polish your magic as early as possible," Rena sternly said, before mockingly saying "So I don't have to marry you off."
Lily's face turns bright red and she turns to her mother saying "You can't make me!" and rushing out towards Roger's training spot. In the house, Rena chuckles heartily at how innocent Lily is. She then cleans up the dining room, and returns to the bedroom to feed Arne.
Outside the forest, a young boy lays on his back sweating profusely, while a black scarf is tied around his forehead. He stares up at the sky. "Still can't get number six" he says. As he stares at the clouds, his vision is filled by the face of a girl the same age as him.
"You should refine your magic, not just you body." said Lily.
"I could say the opposite to you Lily." said Roger
"Could we do both?" Lily asked questioningly.
"We could spar? My earth magic would be hard on your body, and your wind would need me to get better at combat at range." said Roger.
"That could work," said Lily, "but you should go ask Granny for some tips on earth magic first, the training methods she gave me have give me great improvement."
"Alright, I'll do that," said Roger, pondering over something, he turned before he left, "can you fly?" he asked. Lily looked at him, confused.
"A little, yes, but only a little bit off of the ground and it takes a lot of focus." she replied.
"Nevermind then." he turned away, slightly embarrassed as he brings his scarf over his mouth, visions of being carried around by a flying Lily disappearing from his mind. He ran towards town to search for Granny.
Lily sat alone in Roger's training "arena" and pondered about his question. 'Flying huh,' she thought, her mind racing with images of her twirling in the sky amongst the stars, while Roger looks on jealously from below. Her eyes flaming with newfound purpose, as she searched for any way to fly that she could think of. She looked at her status card.
[Name:] Lilliana
[Race:] Human
[Titles:] N/A
[Rank:] 1, 0/200 (0%)
[HP:] 15/15
[MP:] 50/50
[SP:] 25/25
[Affinities:] Wind
[Attributes:]
[STR:] 2
[DEX:] 2
[AGI:] 4
[INT:] 6
[WIS:] 6
[PER:] 1
[LUC:] 2
[CHA:] 3
[VIT:] 2
[Cards:] N/A
[Unique Skills:] N/A
With Lily's resolve showing itself, and Roger's will to get stronger, a monstrous duo is soon to be born from Lumin Village.