Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-38113021-20190323232505/@comment-26510374-20190819232307

god i suck im sorry here it is IT MUST NOT DIE I ........ IT IS FUN

also i know i shouldnt use "humanity" because theyre animals but i wanted to allude to a certain silly webcomic that i and nobody else reads

(sorry for lack of detail in some parts i just wanted to get this done because i feel bad)

Frigga winced as he lurched forward again. The car stopped. "We're here," Amaterasu announced, opening the front door to step out. Frigga shifted anxiously. He felt dehydrated, nauseous, and suddenly quite frightened of what was to come.

As he stumbled out of the car after Amaterasu and the wolf and snow leopard, he allowed himself the slightest breath of relief. It was still quite hot outside, but Frigga was content with standing in the heat and the breeze of fresh canyon air that swept past the flat peak of the mesa they stood on. And there was, of course, the looming shadow behind him providing shade and a fleeting comfort that was replaced with a startling realization. He had closed his eyes out of pure nausea in the past few minutes and when he had stepped out of the car, and despite Amaterasu's statement, Frigga had not realized that, yes, they were, in fact, at the school. The one he would live in for the next few years before going off... into battle.

Was it possible to fail here?

Eros flapped frantically through the sky, followed closely by the babbling and the ever-present faint warmth of the nine golden flames behind him. Just a moment ago, he had attempted to sweep left towards the mountain, only for one flame to suddenly catch up to him and veer dangerously close to his head, forcing him to stick to his original direction over the forest. The magically spawned gust drawn from the still air by his shining wingtips was helping him in staying adrift in the air much easier, so it would take longer to grow tired, he thought to himself, but felt quite worried nonetheless about the current situation.

He had stopped attempting to manuever upwards or downwards away from where the flames were behind him, because the last few times he had attempted to do so, they multiplied again. The eight new sparks were just as large as one another, about the size his beak and appearing similar to the sort of "wisps" often depicted floating about drawings of fire elementals, said to be made of spiritual energy but with the potential of carrying the same properties of "natural" fire if the user wished. The first fire, the original, was noticeably larger than the other eight. Whenever Eros made a move that it could not prevent in time, it created two new smaller copies. Eros had strayed away from studying the virtually limitless capabilities of elementals, but he knew that there was no way of gauging the full capability of what was pursuing him.

Eros noted, regretfully, that the flames seemed to grow exponentially hotter and more oppressive the more there were. Briefly, the eagle was caught off guard by the sudden sight of a particularly large treetop before him, and he banked sharply away, dipping down briefly. To his despair, Eros was met with two flames at his talons, forbidding him from going downwards any further. Barely able to recover from the momentum he had already created in time, Eros flew as fast as his wings could take him, silently screaming at the winds to go faster. They did not bow to his will. No matter how much he urged it, the air did not quicken, and in fact seemed to be... slowing.

Eros flew past the tops of the last few trees of the forest and felt a conflicting canyon headwind resist his path. He wanted to cry out in frustration. Where was his power now? Where was it when he needed it? Why did it disobey him?

''The wind... I am the wind. ''

Despite the urgency of the chase, Eros was struck by a moment of clarity as he struggled against the gusts.

''I am the wind, bending the apex of the pine. I am the wind, swirling through the world, moving past, through it. Moving on. The world below is nothing to me, because I surround it from all sides. I am the air. Moving through the passage of time, the charade of humanity's "control."''

Eros took a deep breath, and felt himself sweeping through the clouds.

The headwind dissipated, curled around him, and pushed him forward, through, allowed him, merely allowed him to soar...

...straight towards the school of the elementals.

So that was what this was about, he thought to himself mildly. The golden fire, herding him through the air straight to Amaterasu. This was most definitely a destruction of somebody's pride and dignity, though Eros wasn't sure whom. It was also something that seemed kind of illegal because he had never consented to it.

Well, he thought, distantly, he had nothing better to do. He would allow control, for he realized that this was a part of himself now. It had always been, perhaps, waiting to be awakened. Eros would allow them to use it for their own benefit, and one day he would break away when he had finished serving them... no. When they had finished serving him.

"Follow Moonchild, he and the monkeys will help you get settled." As he spiraled downwards, Eros could hear the faint, familiar voice of Amaterasu, who appeared to be speaking to a deer, a wolf, and a snow leopard, all elementals, being led away by a larger wolf and three monkey subordinates of some kind. He neared and swooped down onto the ground a few feet away from the fox, affixing her with a mixture of contempt and bare, slight tolerance.

Amaterasu's golden eyes met his coolly. From the corner of his eye, Eros saw the flames behind him join back into the largest one, which floated genially past him and halted a half inch above Amaterasu's upturned palm.

"So you came."

"I didn't have much choice." Eros raised his wing and coughed into it. "But I've decided I want to, uh, respectfully train here, and respectfully go into battle to my respectful de--" He coughed again and cleared his throat. "I changed my mind about what I thought," he said firmly, which wasn't entirely false.

"You know... you can't go back from this. You're dedicating yourself to the cause and your training when you go in there." Amaterasu gestured towards the large wooden door some distance behind them, drumming her other hand's fingers on the empty air around the flame as she did so, causing it to slowly grow smaller.

"Yes, I know," Eros grumbled, shuffling his feet.

"Good. Well, I ought to give you a talking to... you've got some nerve, disrespecting our nation as you so shamelessly did back at the ceremony, but I'll let it slide because I think that you..." She paused. "I think that I can still slip you into enrollment by the end of today. We'll send a letter to your parental guardians, and..."

"I don't think that'll be necessary. Well, I mean, you can, but they won't care either way." Eros yawned.

The fox frowned at him. "Regardless, I'll send one. And the monkeys will bring you to your room, and later explain your schedule to you. Good luck." Amaterasu gave the slightest trace of a smile as she dipped her head towards him. Eros begrudgingly nodded back, liking her just a bit more. He stepped past her and towards the two monkeys waving towards him.

"Oh, and Eros? The thing I chased you with is what I created for my thesis in order to graduate from the school," Amaterasu called. Eros turned briefly to watch as the flame died down and slipped into her paw, out of sight. "Refer to it as Golden Fire."

"Are you going to tell me what the hell it does, past scaring me into academics?"

Amaterasu smiled again, a hint of a laugh in her eyes. "Perhaps when you're farther along... But know that it is much more powerful than the level of its form you saw today."

Eros tilted his head in a sort of nervous acknowledgement and turned away, allowing, permitting the monkeys and the school to receive him.