A Dangerous Craft (Kanzora)

[Syfec Morbus]

Timestamp: 8th Day of Fall

The sun was 3/4 it's way across the sky when Syfec finally had time to make his way out to his customary practice spot. He had set aside the day for practice, but he got a late start and mundane tasks kept him from setting out when he had planned. Though, it didn't matter too much, it wasn't too, late so he still had plenty of time to practice. He felt completely comfortable with Fire and was hoping to figure out how to start on his next area of practice: Water. Luckily, he had several hours of daylight before the sun fell behind the trees and he would be forced to make his way home.

Setting down his pack of food, water, and scholarly materials, he surveyed the area before starting to enter his casting state of mind. The little grassy clearing was devoid of game for the moment, likely scared away by Syfec's entrance. Though the nearby stream had a few grazing animals taking a drink. Reimancy was a serious thing, and Syfec didn't like to have anything else on his mind when he tampered with the powerful elements. Pushing all of his other issues from his mind, he stood up and shed his cloak; loose clothing was not smart to have around fire.

Closing his eyes, he let the grey Res seep from his body, pooling above his right, outstretched palm. The ball of fluid Res, sized at about half a closed fist, began to circle Syfec's hand, powered by pure force of will. The ball then suddenly stopped, again over his palm, and Syfe'c ignited the outer layers of Res , creating a fireball. The fireball was then sent straight at the stream, in the middle of the drinking animals. Syfec kept control of the ball as long as he could, igniting the middle Res just a seconds before it left his area of control. The ball hit the water, erupted in a ball of steam and scared the animals shitless.

A smile formed across Syfe'c face, and such he was done with his warming up and ready to start taking new strides in his art.

[KanzoraSehol]

No customers tonight. Like normal, Kanzora was used to it, it was only once in a blue moon did anyone even realize he sold items, yet alone bothered to take there time to step in. It didn't bother him though, he had plenty of time to make a living, it didn't have to be at this exact moment. After a few more minutes of waiting, Kanzora walked over to the door in front of his little house, and turned the sign around to closed. Taking a long, quick stride back to the back of his house, Kanzora slipped out the back, took a jump, and transformed, like the snap of his fingers. Bam. Human. Snake. Another hunting trip, his third of the week, he knew he shouldn't as the young snakeman would sure get fat, but that didn't stop him.

He slithered through the familar back yard of his house, going quite quickly through the already known areas. He wanted to explore today! The mountains, that would be a good place, he had never been there before, he had never had the time. Well, now he had as much time as he could ever think of! Kanzora made his way through the trees, following a stream, stretching the whole way from one side of the contininent to the other he had heard. Testing that out would be a pain wouldn't it? As he drew closer, his sense of smell or taste, which ever you would like to call it, picked up quite a few things. Mostly the delicious prey, it was all over the place up here! There were also a few berries and such, but he didn't concentrate on those.

Slithering through the forest, he got to a break in the trees, and saw straight ahead of him a luxorious amount of animals ranging from small dear, rabbits, squirrels, everything he could imagine was in front of him. It'd be like a buffet! A smile worked across his scaly face as he crawled closer, making his presence unknown to the soon to be dinner. He was almost there, the taste almost in his mouth of his very first prey, which he decided would be the squirrel. He was about to jump, when a giant ball of what seemed to be.. fire?

The fireball so it seemed crashed into the stream in front of him, startling all of the animals in front of him, running away before he could do anything. It had startled him as well, Kanzora lay in shock for a few minutes, unable to move his slithering body. Shock soon turned to anger as he realized he would not get his food until he could succsefully track something down again. A snarl came across his face as he looked for an answer to what had caused the fireball. A murderous intent now on his breath. He looked to where the fire had come from, seeing only one possibility. There was a single human form standing in a clearing not that far away. Kanzora moved slowly as he could in that direction, having no other thoughts then killing the pesty wizard on the spot. He got into range, was ready to strike, and realized it. He could make use, of the wizard before he killed him. He would still kill him, but he would learn the arts of magic first, something he had always wanted to do.

Kanzora took his time, slowly moving out in front of human, raising his head a bit off the ground to show his head, flaps extended to there full extent. To any normal being, they should be afraid of what they saw. In a quick jerky movement, Kanzora slithered and transformed, moving at the same time, appearing at full human size, a few inchs shorter then the wizard who cast the spell. His face was right under his, and he whispered in a deep voice.

"You will repay me for the food you have caused me to losssssse"

[Syfec Morbus]

Thinking all the animals had been scared away, Syfec was surprised to see a snake behind a distance tree. His surprise only increase the snake moved, revealing to him it's gigantic size. Syfec eye's widened and his jaw dropped as the seemingly angry snake looked directly at him and started making it's way towards him. His pulse quickened as he desperately tried to rationalize the situation. What exactly was going on? The snake was far to large to be a normal Viper, and the look behind it's eyes was far too unnatural.

His mind searched for the answer, grasping at the edges of his consciousness. He wouldn't be able to concentrate on his reimancy; his only possible escape from an angry...Dhani. That was it! Syfec remembered reading something about the race a while ago, though he had never seen one in person. Of course!

The Dhani had closed over half of the distance between them by the time Syfec got a hold of his emotions and got back in control of himself. Acting on his fight or flight instinct, and his knowledge that flight was not an option when facing a Viper Dhani, Syfec forced Res from his body, pooling in again in his palm. Though, unfortunately, the snake was upon him before he could finalize his defense. Luckily the Dhani didn't pounce, but rather stopped to talk, rather condescendingly, to Syfec; "You will repay me for the food you have caused me to losssssse"

Syfec once again had a chance. He decided to use his experience with persuasion to play an over the top wizard to try to scare the snake-being off. "I shall?" Syfec asked with a smirk, while simultaneously igniting the outermost levels of his next fireball.

[KanzoraSehol]

The natural fear on the wizards face gave Kanzora a chuckle. The fear changed to a fake looking sense of confindence within moments, and another ball of flames alit in his hands. "I shall?" the wizard had said, seemingly unaware that at any moment Kanzora could bite him, sending him into a coma, or even death. The wizard had to be stupid not to realize this. Though, when it came to this type of person, it wouldn't suprise him. Not wanting to take the chance, Kanzora shifted again, back into a full grown viper.

Taking the element of suprise, Kanzora writhed his way around the wizards thin legs, and up them to his theigh, in one quick movement that took about a second altogether. Now, there was no way the wizard could hurt him with any kind of physical magic, he would only hurt himself as well, and he knew that the boy wasn't that stupid. Hypnosis was still in the question though, if the wizard knew how to use hypnosis, Kanzora could be in a bad situation. He quickly tightened his grip, and tried to put pain into the boys legs, hopefully taking away any form of complete concentration.

The snake looked back up at the wizards torso, not sure what he was seeing, was the ball of flame still alit? He couldn't tell, his vision seemed to be blurred slightly, though he didn't know what from. The plan was to continue his deathly grip, and if it came to it, a bite to the leg to send the boy into shock would do more then enough to pull him in to Kanzoras way of thinking.

[Syfec Morbus]

Though startled as the Dhani bolted at him with inhuman speed, Syfec still held off on a counter attack. The creature obviously wanted something from him and wasn't going to attempt killing him just yet. While intrigued at just what the impolite Dhani wanted, he was still considering forcing the partially transmuted mixture of fire and fluid Res down the Dhani's throat, searing its internal organs. He would only have to will it be done, and in no more than a few seconds, the creature would be screaming in agony. He would have full control over the Res at such a close distance and he could hardly fend off the voice in the back of his head telling him to burn the creature to the ground. But, he decided to hear the proposal before completely destroying such potential.

Syfec looked at the face of his attacker as he asked, "What exactly do you want?" The ball of fire was still hover where his hand was before the Dhani's sudden attack. Though he attention was now split, holding a fireball in existence was a trivial skill to him now. The only real risk of not concentrating was the the spell would backfire and maim, or at least harm both of them.

He decided to mention that risk to the Dhani. "I suggest you tighten your hold. I would hate to loose control of the Res and have us both end up charred corpses."

He tried to convey a sense of utter carelessness in his warning. Acting as if though he really didn't care one way or another if the Res exploded. It was now all up to the Dhani whether this ended in violence or peace.

[KanzoraSehol]

The human magician spoke, boldly it seemed. Was he really not scared of a viper holding a poison that could kill him in the spot in striking range? Maybe there was a spell that was protecting him. Or maybe he was just faking the nonchalant style. That was doubtful though. Kanzora decided to test the mage's willpower. As he spoke, the snake lowered his head gently to the wizards leg, placing his fangs down just barely touching the skin. If the wizard made a flinch, he knew it would be a fake, and if he didn't he knew it would probably be a good idea to get out of there.

As the mage continued to talk, he realized that he was trying to make a peace offering, sort of. The Dhani let go, and shifted back to his human form. He was about to speak, but realized that the man was still holding the fireball in his hand. He wasn't sure if that was impressive or not because he knew absoloutely nothing about magic, but he thought that the human might be somewhat good at it.

"Look, unless you have some sort of magical shield over your body, both you and I know I can kill you on the spot. So why don't we put our differences aside and try to learn from each other ok?"

The snake made a true piece offering. As much as he wanted to kill the human, getting scorched with a fireball wasn't on his top list of priorities either. It took all of his energy to gather up a smile to flash at the man. He continued on with the talking almost immediately.

"My name would be Kanzora, and yours?"

[Syfec Morbus]

After the initial confrontation, the Dhani shifted to it's human form and realized the futility of killing Syfec. He couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief when the creature loosed it's grip on him. Becoming snake food was really not what he had sought to accomplish out here. He made a mental note to himself to refrain from scarring awake animals when out here. It was surprising just how pissed off people could get about it. He tried to return his attention to the situation at hand, it seemed like the Dhani was trying to make nice; "Look, unless you have some sort of magical shield over your body, both you and I know I can kill you on the spot. So why don't we put our differences aside and try to learn from each other ok?"

Syfec nodded, glad that the Dhani was hoping to end this the same way as he was. It didn't take an Ebonstryfe spy to figure out that the snake-man wanted something from him. The only question was what.

"My name would be Kanzora, and yours?"

"Hello Kanzora. My name is Syfec Morbus. I realize that you want something from me. Let's not dance around it, what do you want with me?"

[KanzoraSehol]

Cutting right to the chase, eh? That was fine with him, the skies were starting to get a darker tint to them, the sun wasn't quite falling yet, but Kanzoras Dhani eyes could see even the slightest change. He smiled at the young wizard, aparently named Syfec. Interesting name that was. He walked a little away, turning his back to Syfec, putting trust in him that he wouldn't blow him to smitherines. It was probably a dumb thing to do, but Kanzora trusted easily unfortunately.

"Ok, Syfec. I want you to teach me some of that fancy wizardry you know."

He turned back to the wizard, trying to judge the reaction. If he wouldn't teach him, the Dhani would simply kill him. It was a simple way of ending him, he was certainly hoping to gain some ability today though, it wasn't often that he found a wizard alone that he could handle alone. He hadn't been wanting to learn Reimancy for a long time too. This was quite the oppurtunity in front of him.

Kanzora knew it was going to be a tough project from the beggining, since most people outlawed magic, and it was a very dangerous thing that almost destroyed all of man kind. But think of the power, he kept thinking to himself. The power that he could have just by possesing magic along with his natural abilities, if he learned enough he could be close to unstoppable! The thoughts were overtaking his mind, and he cleared it, it would take more concentration to learn this then he was currently giving.

"Well?"

[Syfec Morbus]

Syfec couldn't deny that the desire to char Kanzora's body beyond recognition was strong, but he held the thoughts at bay while the Dhani made it's proposition. It would do him no good to kill it, in fact, he might even be able to work this situation out to his advantage. Maybe a trade could be worked out. He had to wait just a moment before hearing the proposition.

"Ok, Syfec. I want you to teach me some of that fancy wizardry you know."

A smile formed across his face. This guy must not understand. Well, if it did come to teaching him, it wouldn't cost anything of Syfec monetarily. Syfec decided he would make sure the Dhani knew exactly what he was asking for.

"Do you even know what you are asking for?" Syfec asked, condescendingly, "I can't merely 'teach' you Reimancy. I would have to make your body able to control Res, which is an extremely painful and uncomfortable experience. Not to mention that it's incredibly taxing on me." He pulled back his sleeves to reveal the hundreds of tiny scars that ran up and down his arms, "Those are just a little souvenir from my initiation... Which reminds me: What do you have to offer. To be initiated is a privilege, and I myself paid a fortune to have it done. Make me an offer."

[KanzoraSehol]

Kanzora had to admit, he didn't know there was actual body training to do, he thought it was just an automatic thing with chanting and such, but he still wanted to learn. As Syfec pulled up his sleeve, he became even more cautious, maybe it wasn't something he wanted to do.. Then again he did make a promise to himself that if he didn't learn anything from the wizard he would have to kill him, and he didn't want to kill him, so he supposed he would take his initiation, and he knew the perfect things to trade as well.

He looked at the wizard for a moment, a strange wind picked up, and for a moment he wondered if the mage had done it. Then he remembered that he had seen the wizard using fire earlier, and he was to young it seemed to use more then one element. So it must have just been an oddity in nature. It soon died, and he could hear himself speak again, so he decided that he would offer the mage leatherworks of any kind, since he did afterall, work at a leather shop in the town.

"If a trade is what you want, then I have plenty to offer. See, I work in a leather working buissness in town, quite the popular one I presume. I can make you anything you want so long as you dont mind it being made of the finest leather in Syliras. I can make anything from clothes to saddles. You name it I make it, however you must teach me and initate me to this wizardry."

He thought it would be a fair deal, one or two pieces of leather products for a lesson, he didn't think that the lesson would be worth that much, and if it was he would improve his offer, but as of now that was where it would stand. He looked at the wizard in anticipation. Syfec had said it was going to a painful process, but it couldn't be more painful then some of the things he had been through, could it? He didn't think so.