Completed [Fire Challenge] Learning To Dance With Fire IV

[Tazrae]

Timestamp: 85th of Winter, 521 A.V.

Continued From: [Fire Challenge] Learning To Dance With Fire III

Taz walked up, took the poi, and nodded. “No, but I want to try. It’s dark and this is going to be beautiful.” She said, musing softly. Taz took a deep breath, tapped her well, pulled more djed, and transformed it to Res. She let it drip down her hands onto the chains and further down onto the wicks of the poi. The Innkeeper narrowed her eyes, focused, and concentrated the djed around the wicks, holding them in place. Then, ready to get the poi moving, Taz ignited it with her will and set the poi aflame.

Flicking her wrists in a hallway motion, Taz set the poi moving forward, in tandem, both forward. Then she hesitated with one wrist, flexed it, and split the motion, finding that rhythm harder to keep up. Backing down, slowing the motion, she moved back to the pendulum situation Rainmere had shown her earlier and started them moving back and forth, only adding in a circle in the center of the pendulum when she got more comfortable.

“Good….” Rainmere coached. “You tried too much at once, realized you were overstepping and backed down. That’s good. Now… just get used to the sound the fire makes swirling around you. It burns hot, intense… and its almost a living thing. Feel that… get used to the sound of that passing by your ear in a whoosh.” The Firedancer said, encouraging Tazrae yet not making her nervous.

Taz took everything in. She had started to tense as the whooshing fire passed by her head, close, roaring slightly in her ears. But she maintained her breath, reined back the force of the swing, and kept control. In her mind, she felt the size and shape of the djed and held it there, tightly on the poi, not splattering all over like wet loose fuel would as a normal Firedancer without a spinoff would have had happened. When she was comfortable with the pendulum and feeling good about it, she started dual forward motions, dual backward motions, then changed her spin.

Then she split her spins and smiled as things seemed to come together in her mind. Playing with the fire was wonderful. It was powerful, beautiful, and she suddenly started to feel … almost elemental. Fire whirled around her in a beautiful mix and she danced with it simply… almost like she was introducing herself to the flames and the flames were introducing themselves to her in turn.

Rainmere smiled. “You are a natural at this, Tazrae. I am not surprised because fire is your first Reimancy element. You have a lot of fire in you.” She laughed as Taz circled, not standing still, controlling the poi as they moved in a circle with her.

“Good… good…. Get comfortable but not careless. Remember, it still will burn you. Many fire Reimancers have terrible burns because they didn’t respect the fire. Your poi is getting larger and I think you are feeding Res into them unintentionally. Pull it back, Taz.” She urged a little bit of concern in her voice.

[Tazrae]

Tazrae did so, realizing that was exactly what she was doing. A little fire was a good thing, but a lot of fire was better, right? Wrong… it could easily spiral out of control. She hadn’t realized she was doing that… so breathing a bit harder than normal, Taz brought the poi to a halt and snuffed the fire with her mind before the flames could lick up the chains to the handles.

Rainmere rose held out her hands for them, and Taz passed the wicked poi off to her. “That was amazing. Can I learn a few more things before we stop tonight?” She asked, hopefully. Rainmere nodded.

“Of course. Let me take it a step further.” She added. “I’ll teach you a couple of tricks to master. The first one is hit the ball then we’ll move on to over the rainbow… and I can probably go one step further with that and teach you hip reels and shoulder reels.” Rainmere said softly, thoughtfully, watching Tazrae with a moment of concern.

“Don’t practice these with your wicks lit on this set of poi though, Taz. Practice with your weighted poi and we’ll light them and get you burning when I think you are ready. Promise me? I need to come back and give you a few more lessons too... about warm-up and some of the more advanced tricks that involve balance. Warm-up is very important and I always forget to teach that first!” She chastised herself, then laughed.

“What is so important about warmup? These objects seem very light… like I won’t strain or hurt myself swinging them.” Taz asked, curious.

Rainmere smiled. “You do a lot of swinging, and honestly it's not a typical motion for everyone. You can strain muscles and tendons in your back or shoulders. You can cause chronic pain in your wrists and shoulders. Warm-up is very important because it loosens your muscles and prevents injury.” She added, knowing that might not make sense to Tazrae, but once she practiced with the poi a whole lot, she’d completely understand and be glad for warm-up lessons. But until then, she wanted to teach her a couple of tricks to get started.

“Hopefully, you’ll get good enough we can perform together one of these days at a Tenday Celebration or something.” She added, looking wistful.

Tazrae nodded. “I think this would be fun to do at a Tenday Celebration… and even with a partner. I’d like to sing as I do this as well. How pretty would this be, honoring Ivak or singing songs about him while we Firedance?” Taz said, smiling. “I could even sing while you Firedance. I think that would really add a nice element to your lovely performances.” Taz suggested.

“Light me up….” Rainmere said, holding forth her poi.

Taz was further away, but she was getting more and more used to sending Res across space and having it land on something and light it up. She could probably, after tonight, light every candle in an Inn Room by just breathing out Res across her palm and sending the tendrils of it across the room, trailing its iridescent glitter and alighting on wicks or things like poi before catching fire.

And she did so then, focusing and concentrating, making sure her Res flowed where she directed it, glad it was ethereal enough to cross the distance and ignite the poi.

[Tazrae]

“If I forget to tell you later… this was such good Reimancy practice for me. Thank you for coming and teaching me this.” Taz said sincerely as Rainmere’s poi lit up with fire. They were burning hotly now as if the Firedancer had just freshly wet the wicks, but they weren’t spilling fuel and Rainmere didn’t have to set them in motion right away because Taz was much better now at controlling the burn so flames weren’t licking up the dangling chains.

“You are welcome. Now, let's learn a couple more tricks first. First things first, step forward, face to the right, and get both poi spinning forward in tandem.” Rainmere instructed. “We all played ball as a child, hitting balls around with sticks. We are going to do this with poi. Pretend there is a ball in front of you, while you are spinning forward in tandem, and, at the same time spin forward from the right side, bring the balls down as if they are sticks, not poi, and twist at the hips which will bring your forward spin around your body evenly until you are spinning facing the other direction." Rainmere directed... then paused for a breath.

She continued on shortly thereafter. "It’s just a neat visualization to get your hips and body moved from right to left without walking into one of the poi… you swing them with you… and by pretending they are swinging down to hit a ball in front of you, it keeps them away from your body and lets you change directions. Watch.” Rainmere said as she demonstrated the move once, twice, both fast and incredibly slow.

“I see it!” Taz said rising with her own weighted poi. Her poi had no wick so she had no worries of hurting herself by getting burned until she learned the move. She tried it a few times, and the visualization, helped her to easily switch direction with the poi, turning her body easily in time with the swings.

“That’s easy!” She said, surprised because it looked complicated with Rainmere’s beautiful burning poi. Taz frowned, exhaled, and sent more Res over to the poi that was burning, noting that she was about to lose the burn altogether since she’d let Rainmere demonstrate for a few minutes without renewing the Res.

It was good practice, throwing Res towards Rainmere, and letting the burning swirling poi slide through the tendrils which then wrapped around the poi on the move, igniting and adding magical fuel to the burn. It wasn’t easy, and it certainly wasn’t easy while Taz’s own poi was in motion and she was practicing hitting the ball.

“That was really good, Taz.” Rainmere praised the young Innkeeper, who hadn’t halted in her practice as she renewed the Reimancy driven burning poi. “You are getting better at sending the Res over… matching my spin and coating them. Just in the short bells, we’ve been working on this.” Rainmere said with a grin, pleased.

Taz blinked. “Bells? We’ve been at this bells?” She laughed, having forgotten all about time.

[Tazrae]

“Yes. Now… Over the Rainbow.” She said, then demonstrated. It was the same move as hitting the ball, but instead of the poi coming down as she moved, she moved as the poi came up spinning over her head.

This was where the dancing came in.

Over the rainbow was incredibly graceful when Rainmere did it. The fire arched up the Firedancer spun with it. Both the hit the ball and over the rainbow moves were carried out with the poi and the turns happening in front of the dancer. It turned out that the hip and shoulder reels happened with the poi changing direction behind the dancer. Rainmere demonstrated those as well, and the first time Tazrae tried the shoulder reel, she pegged herself in the back of the head so hard with the poi she saw flashes of light in her brain.

“Owie!” She said, dropping the poi and grabbing the back of her head. Taz staggered a moment and went down on one knee. “That hurt like shyke.” She hissed, rubbing the tender spot on the back of her head.

Rainmere laughed as soon as she saw Tazrae wasn’t hurt. “That’s why you are doing this with weighted poi and not burning poi. You would have lost all your beautiful hair… up in flames.” She said gently and brought her burning poi down into the wet towel to snuff them.

Then she headed over and helped Taz back up and picked up her poi. It was dark out, but the circle of torches fueled by the lamp oil kept their circle flaming bright. She could clearly see Rainmere in front of her. “Many people have problems with reels. That’s why they are called reels. We can control things we see, but things we must feel to do behind us are harder. Here’s what you do to get used to them.” Rainmere said, moving around so she could be seen by Taz, turning her back on her.

Taz nodded, still rubbing her head, but on her feet again. She watched carefully as Rainmere demonstrated for her.

“Start off swinging the poi behind you, with the tips of your fingers up, and get used to swinging them where you can see them behind you. Do it in tandem, swinging them together… just back and forth with your arms behind you like this.” Rainmere said, swinging the poi back and forth about at the level of her rump, arms gracefully curved around her back.

“You want to get a feel for moving the poi behind you in your blind spot where you can’t see them. Don’t worry if they knock together a bit or it’s a bit harder, you’ll get used to it.” She said confidently, then kept going.

“Now, once you have pendulum swung them back and forth, boots it a bit, still in your blind spot, and swing them forward to your front… bring them back to behind you, and do it again. Repeat that over and over, pausing behind you to pendulum swing them, adding in a full circle…. You are teaching yourself to feel the poi… not just do it by sight. Keep practicing… bring them forward… do a few over the rainbows and hit the rocks, then bring them back behind you again.” Rainmere coached, grinning as she kept her back to Taz with her head turned to the side where she could see her student and where her student could hear her yet still see what she was doing behind her back.

[Tazrae]

Taz copied Rainmere, doing what she suggested, and after a few awkward starts, some hard ball knocks, and whacking herself in the ass twice so hard she flinched – causing Rainmere to almost burst into laughter – she got the idea of it and started to get the hang of the pendulum behind her with the added in full circles and direction changes where she couldn’t see them.

It was harder doing the shoulder reels, but once she started swinging from behind, hands and fingers pointed down, Taz was able to master the over-the rainbow and shoulder reel given a few minutes. However, once she was done, she was covered in sweat and a bit weak in the knees.

Rainmere was pleased though. “Let's pick this stuff up.” She said, finally snuffing her poi for the last time, and helping gather her own things up and Tazraes in their respective baskets. When the little burning camp was broken down, blanket refolded, Taz reached out with her power and connected with the flames in the burning torches and lanterns.

She snuffed them with her mind, willing the fuel to be cut off from the heat and thus shut down the torches. Then she walked around gathering the lanterns and lamps, pouring the unused oil back into the oil jug, and stowing the little lanterns in the basket with the blanket and oil lamps that were now emptied. Rainmere walked her up the beach back to The Protea, and left her with the two sets of poi.

“Promise me you will practice… even if it's not with the lit wicks.” She urged, studying Tazrae intently.

Tazrae nodded. “I promise. It was a really fun lesson. Will you come back and teach me more tricks… maybe we could do a routine or practice me singing and you firedancing… something like that for the next Tenday. I won’t be ready for a while, but that can’t stop us from doing something pretty for the Community.” Taz added, causing Rainmere to nod.

The two women hugged at the Inn deck, and Rainmere slipped away in the darkness to walk home. Bree slipped away with her, Taz suspecting the Ixam wanting to make sure the woman got home okay before she returned to the Inn.

Words: 2,556

[Tazrae]

Grading

Tazrae –

Reimancy +5, Firedancing +5, Acrobatics +1, Endurance +2

FD: Getting Used To Fire Whipping Around Ones Body, FD: Split Spins, FD: Controlling The Feed Of Djed Into Poi, Reimancy: Controlling The Flow of Djed, FD: Hit The Ball, FD: Over The Rainbow, FD: Shoulder Reels, Reimancy: Managing Multiple Lanterns & Torches, FD: Moving Poi Behind Oneself In One’s Blind Spot, FD: Back Reels