Breaking A Sweat [Faval]

[Seluj]

Day 18, Summer 512 AV...
Early Morning...

The day before he had went out of his way to buy an entire set of supplies to go fishing, and though before he had only ever improvised, he would be going at it today for the first time and seriously at that. Hardly ever did he wake up when the sun was still over the horizon, but today he had decided to do just that. One would think that he was motivated to turn his life around; to go from living a meager life to perhaps bettering himself. While that was generally the idea, he had rose so early because he was more afraid of wasting the 15 gold mizas he had spent to buy all of this stuff. So he made a point to be at the beach early in order to put them all to good use. It would take thirty minutes of tinkering with instructions to figure would exactly who each component worked and how they were put together. Already frustrated by the time he figured it out, he cast his line and then did as all good fishermen would do. He waited.

Some said that the early bird caught the worm, that being early would somehow increase your chances of catching something! Well that was entirely true, because you simply had more time to wait if you started earlier. As far as he was concerned there wasn't any trick to fishing, you just had to be patient and be ready to do nothing for a long period of time. Thankfully, he had nothing to do and in fact enjoyed the rest before another night of being wild and crazy partying. It was almost a little backward that what was a pretty successful profession would ultimately be the most fun thing for him to do.

He continued to think of his eventual plans and all the other ways that he could improve the quality of his life. After all he didn't have a steady place to live, but he did have enough saved up to buy one if he really wanted! He hadn't set food in the University before even though it was most likely one of the greatest resources at his hand, and the two magics he had in his arsenal could be honed to greater levels of mastery. After all, some of the most influential people in the world had been that way because of magic! Hell, even the academic he met the other day at the beach in this exact spot used magic to create her tinkers. Apart from Hypnosis, he could also use flux. It was used originally to pull off dance moves that he couldn't without a little extra speed or strength, but he had heard that flux was used for accomplishing super human power, glorified for great warriors.

Yeah... why not him?! Knights like his father were wealthy by their ability to fight alone. He posted up the pole so that if it caught a snag he would see it literally jerk, pinning it between a couple of rocks... cracking his knuckles he focused his thoughts. Some magic practitioners used gestures, but he used dance. That's how he learned to focus his magic first! A simple step repeated. Step-touch, Step-touch, Step-touch, Step-touch. And with a flux of energy to his legs, he took a single powerful step forward.

Speed like he had never imagined before, in only two steps he had seemed to cover 20feet. It was only second in his mind but as soon as he stopped, startled with himself he instantly felt the side effects... his legs became like lead. Flooded with lactic acid he would have no choice but to collapse on his hands and knees, breathing hard. The pressure in his legs would be like nothing he had experienced before, it was an agony unlike pain, that rather begged him to move and at the same time made forced him to rest. "Ohh wow, this sucks! What is this!!" He said out loud, clenching his eyes as though in incredible fatigue.

Who thought a second and 20feet would suck so much.

[Faval]

Faval had been walking rather…let us say distractedly for awhile now as he contemplated his future. His life was happening too quickly at the moment and he was very much worried that he was signing on to things he was not capable of handling. In the span of a few short months he had gotten a job, lost a job, and was now signing on for a job that he not only did not fully understand, but was most likely going to be incredibly dangerous down the road as well. Faval did not have the most experience with mapping out his life choices, but even he could appreciate the vast amount of risks that this venture carried and he was not immune to the senses of worry and dread that accompanied it. Walking was all the more difficult when your brain was focused on everything but the road ahead of you however and after Faval had crashed in to his eleventh pedestrian, he decided he would go on a less beaten path in an attempt to clear his head and the newly acquired headache that accompanied it. With a quick movement denoting the lithe boy’s physical acumen and his knowledge of his home, Faval ducked out of the crowd and down toward the many coasts that Zeltiva possessed. Hopefully, there would be less people, walls, buildings, signs and other assorted obstacles down there.

The first thing he noticed other than the demons that were haunting his thoughts was that there was a peculiar man resting along the water. Well, perhaps resting was an inaccurate description, he looked far from comfortable as he wrestled with the, what Faval assumed was a, fishing pole. As the man fiddled with the pole, occasionally glancing at a piece of paper which struck a small pang of jealousy in the illiterate young, Faval silently slid in to the background and watched. Perhaps another man’s momentary misfortune would help alleviate his somewhat. It was a cruel thought and one he was rather ashamed of but to be frank, he was willing to accept whatever small comforts he could find at the moment, regardless of how immoral they were. Leaning back against the wall, Faval exercised his capacity to hide. Even as a child, Faval understood that sometimes the best way to deflect attention to yourself is to be obvious. People who are expecting danger are always looking for what they can’t see, not what they can. By standing in plain sight with both hands visible, you can completely deflect a lot of unsavory attention, typically from people looking for a fight, just by appearing as unthreatening as possible. He highly doubted the man on the beach would even notice Faval, and if he did he doubted he’d acknowledge him as any more than a random passerby, despite the fact that he’d been standing there for the latter half of his fishing pole expedition.

The man finally solved the mystery of the fishing pole and lodged it between two rocks, apparently so that he could leave fishing entirely up to time, which seemed like the best approach to be perfectly honest. What happened next was the most surprising part for young Faval, as he had very rarely seen magic, despite his military training and as a child, he was always told horror stories about the big bad wizards and their fireballs and how they’d turn you in to a toad that could only croak vowels. It was scary stuff, especially since Faval didn’t know what a vowel was. As the man turned around, which was the time if any that he would notice the blonde youth leaning against the wall, and cracked his knuckles, Faval wondered what he could possibly be doing. He doubted he realized Faval had been watching him, Faval was well practiced in seeming irrelevant, but he knew that cracking ones knuckles was a universal threat. It was one thing that did translate from his life on the streets to his life in the military. The man turned away from him soon after though, denoting that he wasn’t attempting to threaten anyone, specifically Faval. Then the man displayed a feat that Faval knew should not be possible simply by the confines of human capability. The man leapt twenty feet through the air with barely a running start and at an impossible speed, which meant it had to be magic and to be honest, it did frighten Faval slightly. It wasn’t nearly as bad as turning him in to a toad that could only croak vowels however, so Faval found himself accepting it more and more.

What came next was something Faval had never seen. His immersion to authentic magic outside of children’s tales was always in an incredibly controlled environment, there was little to no chance of magician overexerting themselves. There were always confined and always surrounded by people who were ready to take care of them. This man didn’t seem to have anything like that and he suddenly fell to all fours, his face contorted in pain. Faval’s instincts kicked in and he instantly tore off toward the beach. He, despite the small inward mal-intent before, was a good person at heart and before his brain processed what he was doing the boy was rushing to aid the fallen man. Of course, when his brain caught up and his feet were only a few meters off from the hunched over magician, he realized that he didn’t know how to help. They mentioned this during training but he had trouble remembering the word for it. Was it upgiving? That made sense; the man was in the position to throw up at any moment. How would he help someone who was drunk and about to vomit? Faval’s eyes flickered off the man and toward the edge of the water as he sprinted past the collapsed form before skidding through the sand at the water’s edge. In frenzy, Faval violently kicked at the water, flinging whatever he could squarely get his foot on toward the man’s face. Hoping the cool water would bring him back to normal.

[Seluj]

It wasn't the first time he had ever experienced lactic acid before, but there wasn't yet a scientific name for the phenomenon that was taking place in his thighs. It was the result of work without oxygen; his muscles unable to metabolize the build up of Lactic acid which was a product of anaerobic activity. This usually took a fit individual a decent length of time to accumulate. A sprinter would probably be feeling it's effects after about three hundred meters of heavy effort running, but what he had done is forced his body passed it's limits by using Flux. During his focus he usually held his breathe and as a result no oxygen at all was translated. As a result he was now suffering from the effects of sprinting an entire quarter of a mile after only twenty feet of movement. It wasn't a pain but pain was the only word that could sum up the sensation. It was like torture; hyper sensitive but at the same time chaotic. It was completely unforgiving in that it strangled his muscles in a way that worked on his will power. He was super aware of his legs and ever small feeling they had accumulated.

Then suddenly a person had come up to him, and they too seemed to be in haste. It was hard for him to think but they were most likely coming to his aid after watching him collapse. The thing that did flash through his mind was that he may have accidentally exhibited himself using Djed in front of a complete stranger. Hopefully they wouldn't think it taboo as most of the human population did. Especially here were only last season a great natural disaster had caused havoc, and some blamed the gods and their divine magic for those very events. He hoped that no consequence came from his actions, though the attack on his legs were quite enough of a reality shock. In reality, he had been lucky. Lactic Acid would eventually digest and work its way through the system, but he could have very easily have done real and more permanent damage to himself. Even a pulled or strained hamstring would have a person hurting for weeks on end. Seluj couldn't help but think how anyone could ever pull the use of Flux off in a fight!

The individual that had seemingly come to investigate ran about his person to the water. Seluj, while heavily fatigued, spoke to him, "Hey man, I'm cool.. I'm cool.. I think I'm starting to feel.." And then he got a face full of salt water mid sentence. The taste automatically made him spit and cringe as he turned over to his other side. The quick motion once again triggered the aching response in his legs. The cool water did feel good, and now with the sand clinging to his skin and the sweat that had accumulated from his increased calorie burn, he didn't think twice about why the person was kicking water at him. But as he look up, he saw something he didn't expect to see...

His fishing pole was twitching... there was apparently a fish on the line...

His eyes jumped open as he attempted to crawl back to the line but after a scuffle or two felt dizzy and dropped to his forearms. It would almost be funny watching his struggle if someone knew that he wasn't actually in any danger, he was just incredibly tired. Seluj looked then to the stranger and pointed forward to the pole, "The fish! The fish! Pull it in!" he said, almost as though he were choking on his words, the salt water taste still on his lips. It was all a very fast paced happening, but by the gods Seluj wasn't about to lose the first catch of the day! Even if he was in oxygen depression based agony.

This would be Seluj's first lesson in "Overgiving"... the hard way.

[Faval]

Faval had no idea if he was helping and that knowledge did absolutely nothing to deter him from kicking water on to the man’s face with every fiber of his being. He had grown up adhering to the philosophy that if something was not working, you simply needed to keep doing it harder and in this situation, the kicking water just got more and more ferocious. That mentality had kept him alive for this long and he was certain that it’d save this man from whatever magical indigestion was ailing him. The water apparently hit him with enough force, take that countless instructors who told Faval he had the physical strength of a twelve year old leper, to knock the man on to his side as the water continued to splash down on his face and neck and consequently drenching Faval’s rather active leg. Spending the last couple years training to be a marine however did do wonders for dispelling any potential aversion the youth had toward water and the cold feeling of it.

This situation was certainly not helping that search for a relaxing walk to clear his thoughts and to slow the particulars of his life down. Ignoring the whole debacle of finding a marginally steady income, Faval had to deal with all the stress that came from trying to live somewhere other than under a bridge. Thankfully he was able to use his leftover military funds to afford a less than healthy apartment and get himself out of the rain and wind, but the chaos was doing nothing to subside and it was quickly getting to his psyche. Now he had to drag this man back from the jaws of magical vomiting and pain and it wasn’t at all helping his stress levels, not in the least.

As the man seemed to regain some of his senses and overcame his overwhelming pain, he tried to jump to his feet, his focus toward the water. Not the water that Faval was kicking at him, to be specific, but out toward the massive blue expanse. Faval’s restless leg slowed to a stop as he saw the man trying to regain his footing, now quite happy that his masterful and ingenious plan and completely revived the fallen man in the sand. It certainly was a proud moment for young Faval, he had finally done something right. Him, the “dummy,” was proving all those naysayers wrong and showing them who the dummy was! Of course the celebration was premature as the man almost instantly collapsed back to the ground before he got any real traction and seemed to struggle in place. Perhaps he would have to put off writing his thesis on the benefits of kicking water at people until he could perform further experiments…or until he learned to write, one of the two. After the man collapsed to his forearms, Faval hastened out of the water, the legs of his pants drenched with salt water as he tried to move in to help the struggling man. Before he could get very far however, the man’s attention jerked to him before screaming out words that took Faval a few moments to understand. The boy’s head turned slowly toward where the man’s eyes were previously and stared at the wooden rod for a few moments before he realized what the man meant and that the pole was jerking rather irritably in between the two rocks.

Shooting forth in to action once the action that needed performing sunk in, the boy bounded through the sand and given the difficulty he faced getting his sloshingly wet pants to drive through the sandy beach, no other verb but “bounded” would do. The boy heroically strode through the sand and valiantly wrapped his fingers around the fishing pole. Knowing nothing about fishing, Faval was not sure what to do once he did valiantly grab the fishing pole, but he knew he needed to get the fish out of the water and the most common way to do that was to pull. He didn’t have any idea how hard to pull though and like was mentioned earlier, Faval survived by going one hundred percent at all times. With a grunt of exertion, the boy violently tugged up on the fishing pole, dragging the line and whatever had latched on to the end of it out of the water and…high in to the air. Not prepared for how light the fish actually was, the force of the boy’s tug caused it to go straight over his head with the fish on the line and incidentally becoming an aquatic flail as the scaly creature crested over the boy’s head before flying backward toward the struggling man’s head.

[Seluj]

It was almost a thing of beauty! The breaching fish broke the surface of the water and was flung into the air with a spray of ocean mist in it's wake. The rising morning sun reflected off of it's scales and glisten with all the colors of the rainbow. It was like something straight out of a Bass Pro commercial. For only a moment Seluj was caught up in a satisfaction that glazed over his previous agony and yielded only a feeling of euphoria that came along with the first catch of the day! Granted he wasn't technically the one to catch it, but it was his alright! He hadn't yet prepared a place to put his fish once he caught them, after all he had just posted up moments before and wasn't expecting a bite so soon. Perhaps it was his lucky day and he could somehow prepare the fish for breakfast! Sure he didn't know how to cook but he had plenty of time to figure out!

However, as the fish seemed to fly through the air in majestic slow motion and Seluj was already counting his blessings, things seemed to take a turn for the worst. The fish almost swam through the air, flailing it's little fins from side to side as for a moment it's eyes were square on with Seluj as though they were looking each other face to face. It was then that he came to the realization that not only had the fist been plucked from the water but it had done so with intent to avenge itself! The fish was coming right toward him and by the time Seluj had figured this out his fatigued self was almost to slow to react. Instead he pulled an evasive maneuver known to some as a barrel roll and flopped out of the flight pattern of the fish leaving it to plop harmlessly on the sand. The excitement of the moment was almost enough to pump him full of adrenaline and breathe him back to life. He had enough time to recover lifting himself to his feet and brushing the sand off of himself. He was still a little sluggish, however.

"Yeah! Nice one! Good job man!" he said, celebrating. His breathe was staggered in between his words, "That was the first one of the day! I was afraid we would lost it!" He said slumping over to inspect the first. He reach out and pinched it by the tail, lifting it up to present it. It was tiny, only six inches, but still, a fish was a fish, "Close call huh?" He said. He almost had forgotten that he was just seen attempting to practice his fluxibility. (see what I did there... flexibility, fluxibility. -snicker-)

[Faval]

(Hurr hurr)

Faval’s butt had landed flat on the sand with a delightful sounding “plop” as he successfully wrenched the scaly creature free from the water and for a few moments, the boy sat there stunned. Did he just successfully catch a fish? He did didn’t he? Oh joyous days, Faval had finally accomplished something that didn’t involve hitting something with an arrow or hiding from someone who he probably should have hit with an arrow. While it might not seem like that big of a deal to some, to Faval it was a rather large accomplishment. His lack of an expansive skill set to survive the ordeals of this less than ideal world was always a trying expedition for him and now he knew that he could fish as well. Well, he could pull on a stick after someone else had done all the work for the fishing, but there was no reason to crush his dreams so early was there? Gentle blinking was the only sign of consciousness from the young man as he tried to chase away his own negative line of thoughts that were demeaning his fascinating fishing fantasy. It was a lovely little trance he found himself in.

A trance that was soon to be broken; a voice behind Faval broke through his concentration and cause Faval’s head and shoulders to slowly swivel around to meet the voice. It was a man and he was congratulating the boy for a job well done, which had momentarily distracted him from the reality of the situation as he exasperatingly forced his words out. He was right; Faval did do a nice job and he was so out of breath at being in awe of Faval’s prowess. Faval, fisherman extraordinaire did have an awesome ring to it that it did. Perhaps he could leave this whole soldier business behind and go in to the fishing industry. He could see the pamphlets that someone else would read to him now and the glorious enterprise that awaited him. He would have such a lucrative life and eat fish every day, no more would he be relegated to stale bread and week old cheese, no sir.

His second little day dream was interrupted when the man spoke of how close a call was and Faval’s brain finally came back down to Earth and out of the fishy clouds. The man was wet, why was he wet? Oh that’s right, Faval kicked water on him, why did he kick water on him? That repetitive line of thought continued until he remapped everything that had happened since he had sped off toward the water and after a few moments, the boy’s face matched his initial shock at the man’s magical adventure of twenty feet. Faval, slightly panicked, kicked off the sandy ground, spun, and fell backward a few feet and away from the actual fisherman. Unsteadily dragging himself to his feet and pointing and accusing finger at Seluj, Faval began to speak.

“You were…and then you were…and then you we…mrfmmrmrtif”

Faval was very poorly pantomiming the man’s previous use of magic as he stood upright before jumping a tenth of the distance Faval had before falling face down in the sand and continued speaking unintelligibly in to the sand. Faval wasn’t usually this excitable, he tended to be more composed, but the sheer excitement of catching his first fish, seeing his first upgiving and seeing a magician randomly zooming around like an intoxicated chipmunk seemed to get to him. The face full of sand did quite a bit to calm him down though, suddenly not being able to breathe will do that. Slowly picking his head up and out of its grainy trappings; Faval spit out an unsavory wad of sand before turning back toward the man and gazing at the tiny little fish in his hands, blinking slowly.

“It felt bigger than that…”

[Seluj]

It didn't take Seluj too long to figure something interesting about the individual in front of him. Many of his mannerisms where similar to his own in that they seemed for the majority playful and full of expression. He himself did so out of habit, that as a person that considered himself a performer, his first reaction in public, especially when meeting a new person was to put on the facade of a performer and be some what bigger than life. It was an interesting contrast that the fisher by day was by night a dancer, inspiring and giving life to parties. In the same way, his outward expression was far more childish than the much more 'mature' thoughts that transpired through his head. It was probably this being able to relate that brought Seluj to laugh out loud at the strangers little performance as he mimicked picture by picture his own actions as though he were a manikin. It has a comical and almost cartoonish quality to it that would make anyone laugh, especially in a place where comedy was often hard to come by. Seluj instantly like the fellow, as he had not only attempted to help him, but also succeeded in fetching the fish and made him laugh.

Seluj was no habitual liar, but what the stranger had described had sounded something of a tall tale! He could pass it off as if it hadn't happened and he who was he to tell him otherwise, right? He would sound crazy if he was expressing the same story in the same way to another person other to himself at that moment. So instead he would just deny that it had ever happened in the first place. Peoples eyes played tricks on them all the time, maybe he could convince him that he had just seen wrong? "Me? Haha, what are you talking about. I've just been here fishing the whole time." He said. It was a blunt and obvious lie but not everyone was an academic and even if he called him out on it he would just deny deny deny! Seemed like a fool proof plan to him. Granted there wasn't anything wrong with magic itself, but there were more than a fair share of people who hated magic for its abundance and abuse of possible uses. It was just best to keep it to yourself and hidden; like personal business.

Quickly distract-able, the stranger commented on the size of the fish being particularly small. It was maybe because of the size of the fish wasn't exactly proportionate to the effort that he put in pulling it in. There was in truth an art to pulling a fish in gently, and normally just yanking on the thing would make the fish let go, but in this instance, it seemed as though luck was on his side.. While the conversation had a chance of shifting, he figured he would take the chance, "Well, I mean... you got it, you can have it if you want?" He said. This sort of slipped out of his mouth, as at this point he had pretty much caught his breathe. He swallowed only moments afterward, realizing that he was giving away what could potentially be a meal. But having said it, he couldn't just take it back now. He had to grin and bare it, "I'm sure that's a sign of good luck! The fish are biting today!" He said, reassuring the stranger but also himself. "By the way I'm Seluj, thanks for the help, what's your name!?" He said, hoping at that point the conversation would progress past his embarrassing failed use of Flux.

[Faval]

Faval dragged himself rather unceremoniously to his feet, his face coated in sand, as the man responded to him by denying Faval’s expertly iterated pantomiming performance of its legitimacy. As Faval rose to his not all that intimidating full height, sand fell off his clothing and an audible hissing noise as the grains of sand grated against anything it could lay its hands on. Faval’s attention was solely on the man and his eyes were narrow with suspicion and anger. His eyes seemed to tear through every pretense and every misgiving, not to be confused with upgiving mind you, that the man was putting forth. Faval turned toward him, placing one foot in front of the other in a frighteningly methodical manner as he closed the distance between them, his face not far from the fisherman’s and full of righteous anger.

“Oh, all right then!”

Faval plopped down in to a cross legged seat before the man, displacing sand away from his butt’s impact zone and knocking the grains on to Seluj’s feet. Faval couldn’t see anything wrong with the man’s story. Well, that wasn’t true, he could see plenty wrong with it, but Faval was a genuinely honest person and he tended to not fully appreciate when others were not equally honest. It was also a really hot day and they were on the beach, which seemed to only make the sun’s rays that much more exhaustingly hot. The heat could have made him imagine the whole thing; he did have a rather vivid imagination without the heat playing its part. Faval adjusted his bow back in to a more comfortable position, the jostling in the sand had knocked it out of place, as he listened to the man speak and offer him the fish! He knew it was right to believe him! No evil doing liar pants would offer to feed him. That was the realm of kind people and kind people don’t lie…right? Faval reached out and grabbed the fish out of the man’s hand, oblivious to the tongue in cheek nature of the offer. Though honestly, it wasn’t quite clear if Faval’s oblivity was genuine or if he was just starving. The young boy took a knife out of his pocket and put the fish out of its flippering misery, quickly and as painlessly as possible stabbing it just below the neck and ending its life as the man talked about their good luck and introduced himself as Seluj. It was a weird name and Faval was having difficulty repeating the man’s pronunciation in his head.

“Hi, I’m Faval.”

Then without warning and dropping the now lifeless fish on his lap, Faval reached forward and aimed to put his hands on Seluj’s shoulders as his face grew deathly serious, a severity that he had only shown earlier as he questionably glared at the man. Faval stole two quick glances to either side of him, to make sure that no one could hear him, before speaking in a soft, low tone.

“For a moment there, before the heat confused me, I thought you were doing magicky stuff. I’ve never met a magician outside of the base, but when I was young people told me of all the terrible stuff they could do. They can shoot fireballs or raise the dead or…turn you in to a toad that can only croak vowels.”

Faval had glanced both ways before revealing the last of his entirety of knowledge on the arcane arts, falling back squarely on his butt once he was finished. Faval shot the man a look of confidence, a look that said he had just been let in on one of the great mysteries of life, before he nodded his head in as spiritual a way as possible, like all those priests whose gods Faval could not pronounce. His attention leaving the man before him, Faval scanned the surrounding area and found very little that he could use or that he could access. His eating knife wouldn’t be sufficient for doing any damage to that tree and he didn’t see anything else he could use as a substitute.

“We have nothing to make fire on.”

[Seluj]

As he continued to study the stranger he would find his mannerisms more and more odd. It wasn't that he wore his emotions on his sleeve but rather they were even more over the top. Entertained by this boarder line sort of quick changing affect in this individual, he would hold back his snickers in an attempt to take him more seriously, at least when he was trying to be serious. Some people were hard to keep up with; they changed emotions so quickly that his emotions were still stuck. It was like having a break up where one party gets over it quickly and the other holds a grudge, sometime it was just difficult to keep up. This meant that the first impression that was mostly comical would stick with him. He would have a hard time not laughing at everything he was doing!

"Oh, all right then!" He said. He watched as he then sat and curiously inspected the fish that he snatched from Seluj's hand. It was clear to him now that this most likely wasn't a normal guy, he was too quirky really and in spite of his size sat at his feet. He didn't look all that old either, if anything he was a similar age as Seluj, though he wasn't judging or anything, he was just odd. It was also only then that he had noticed his bow and arrows. Was he a hunter or an archer? It wasn't easy to tell. For a second Seluj considered to use hypnosis to influence the odd guy to forget about his use of flux, but he deemed it almost unnecessary, "Hi, I'm Faval."

It almost made Seluj nervous how little respect Faval had for personal space as he sprung up and with a fishy hands on his shoulders and spoke to him seriously about how he had never seen magic. He then readily plopped back down. Seluj maintained his friendly smile but his eye twitched a little bit as he was just a touch freaked out. So when the boy said, "We have nothing to make fire on." Seluj was quick to prance away. He went back to the fish pole at first, winding it up and then re-setting the bait quickly from the small fishing kit he had next to the stones. He then quickly raised his hand and then flicked his wrist, letting the hook and bait fly back into the water. He watched it, adjusting until he was content and then shoved the back end back into the ground, swiveling the pole so that it would take to the ground of sand. With his feet he would push the stones around the pole to allow the pole to remain stuck into the sand. After waiting for a moment to see if it was stable, he pranced back toward the tree line.

He said that he had nothing to make fire on but before he pulled his Gladius out and started chopping at something he wanted to confirm. "So wait, if i give you wood to make fire with you can make it?! Can you Cook!?" he said, but before he even answered Seluj had already jumped the gun. He had asked so that he wouldn't have to use his sword if he didn't have to but only moments later pulled it out and started indiscriminately chopping into a relatively thin, low hanging branch, showing that he was just a touch scatter brained himself. Faval would have time to respond as he slashed at the trees limbs however, as it would take a few good wacks to make progress.

[Faval]

Faval, while having a tendency to miss things when excited or stressed, was actually a rather observant individual and despite his complete lack of education on social etiquette (touching was apparently a no no) he was a rather quick, naive learner. You needed to be to survive in the environment he grew up in, you either learned to read people’s emotions and dispositions quickly or you got beat up and didn’t eat. As soon as Faval’s hands touched his shoulder, his demeanor changed and despite the strained smile on his face, all his body language pointed to him being uncomfortable. The manner in which he quickly hurried away was again evidence that Faval’s actions had provoked a sense of discomfort and rattled the fisherman in some way. Faval’s face dropped slightly, ashamed of himself as the man pranced away to his fishing rod with not but a word. . Faval really should be more respectful of other people and try to curb his invasiveness. It was very obvious to Faval what had happened; he could understand the man’s distress. Only being able to croak vowels was horrifying, especially since Faval did not even know what a vowel was. He just knew it was nefarious.

Faval’s head perked up slightly as the man situated his fishing pole back in to the crevice that Faval had heroically drew it from moments earlier and his eyes watched him, continuing to jovially prance around the beach and now toward a tree, apparently responding to Faval’s plight. The small sword, he believed his instructor called it a Gladius but Faval had no aptitude for such things and as such, wasn’t sure if that was the name or not, that hung around the man’s belt would be far more efficient at prying loose burnable material from the tree than Faval’s puny little eating knife would have been. Faval’s curious eyes followed the sword as it was pulled from its container before sliding back over to the man’s face as he spoke. The boy responded with a wide smile which apparently was cue enough for Seluj to start hacking away at the tree, though Faval wasn’t sure if he was responding to his smile or if he just wanted to vent some aggression out on the nearby plant life. Either one suited their purposes at the moment so Faval was simply going to accept that a tree was being brutalized and leave it at that. The boys face shifted to a look of wonderment as he thought of the man’s question. Did he know how to cook? He did know how to use a flame when food was involved and keep from burning it and he could put together something vaguely passable if he had the materials, but he wasn’t really sure if he would call that cooking. At most, it was “not burning.” Either way, Seluj probably did not need or want specifics.

“Not fit for the rich folk, but I can cook some, yeah.”

Faval’s hand reached for his pack as he spoke, his fingers shifting through some stray sand and his other belongings as he dug for his objective. An excited smile escaped him as his fingers pressed against and then wrapped around the flint and steel he was issued after his discharge from the military. Faval triumphantly wrenched them free from his pack, pulling some of the sand with it before victoriously hoisting them up over his head and turning back to Seluj as the dark skinned man kept hacking away. The proud grin on Faval’s face seemed to stretch from ear to ear as he waved his amateur pyromaniac kit over his head.

“I can make fire!”