Lesson Tiiiiiiiime

Eos walked into the magic ring and set down the potted cactus he had gotten for Eri to practice on... at least once she learned control he might be able to teach her to work with her power from a distance.

He sat and waited, knowing there was a chance she wasn't going to show up and a chance she would only to make fun of him some more. (The pink clump in his hair was still bright and hidden behind his ear.)

While he was there he figured he might as well try using fire magic again, the last few times Addi had helped him with it hadn't even ended badly. So he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and thought of a song so he could keep a tempo. Soon there was a little flame floating above his hands. He grinned feeling victorious... now all he had to do was keep it burning for more than five minutes.

Eri approached the magic ring feeling, in all honesty, a bit stupid. She and Eos hated each other... right? Why in heaven's name was she willingly taking more lessons with him?

Well... if she had been being completely honest with herself, she would have said that it was because:
1) She was curious
2) He seemed to genuinely want to help her
3) As little as she wanted to admit it, she needed all the help she could get.

Thus, she made her way to the ring, to find Eos seemingly concentrating very hard on a tiny flame in his hands. She came up behind him, watching for a moment before suddenly whispering in his ear
"Sooo... ya worshiping some pagan deity or somthin?"

Eos flinched and the flame shot up suddenly and died. He turned around to glare at Eri for breaking his concentration, but then shrugged it off and stood up.

"Actually I was practicing my fire magic..." his pathetic excuse for fire magic.

Eri jumped back a bit as the flame shot up suddenly, raising an eyebrow as he turned to glare at her. "You having trouble with it?" she said grinning in her usual Cheshire way, slightly amused by the weakness of his concentration.

"A bit," he admitted.

"Sit down," he told her, and sat back down in the ring, crossing his legs. Then pulled the cactus toward them.

Eri rolled her eyes, but sat down as instructed, her legs crossed and her arms folded, with a bored look on her face - the very picture of stubborn insolence.

"Sooo what's that for?" she said eying the prickly plant with suspicion.

"Hmm," he murmured. "Oh the cactus is for once you learn control.... We'll see if you can learn using your power from a distance," he explained.

"But first... control."

Eri raised an eyebrow, and peered at the prickly plant again. "and... how do I control it exactly?...." she said wondering vaguely what cactus energy felt like.

Eos shrugged. "Practice," he said simply and held out his arm. "Meditation helps too..." he mused wondering how to go about this lesson.

Eri sighed and pulled off one of her gloves, placing it on the ground and looking at Eos. "Shall I just give it a whirl then?"

"Sure," he said with a shrug. "Demi's have ridiculous amounts of energy, which is why we're always jittery and get in so many fights. So don't be afraid to hurt me, but remember you are trying for control... the point of this is to learn how to shut it off at will," he explained as he offered her his arm. And hoped that Eri wouldn't use this as an opportunity to kill him.

Eri gave a gulp and puled her glove back on. "In that case.... I'll try with the glove on to start with.... The last time I tried to drain a plant by directly touching it with my hand, it felt like fire in my veins.... Who knows what that would be like with a demi..." she said eying his arm apprehensively.

With a sigh, she put her, once again, gloved hand on his arm, squinted hard in concentration, praying that she wouldn't hurt herself again, and gave it a go.

She let out a shriek and fell back, holding her hand, coughing, and uttering a number of foul curses learned from the iron workers back home. She finally let a fireball fly before slamming her fist into the ground with frustration. "BLOODY HELL!... You demi's have the weirdest energy...." she grumbled shaking out her hand. "Sorry... you ok?"

Eos leaned over and coughed for a good ten minutes. It felt like something was trying to crawl out of his throat... with claws. Then sat back, cleared his throat for good measure and said: "I'm fine... but maybe we should just practice on plants for now..."

Eri grinned genuinely for the first time in what felt like ages. "That might be better sir."

She couldn't help but laugh as she shook out her hand again. "Sorry about that sir.... I don't get quite as bad a shock from... un-living life... If that makes sense." she said with a contemplative frown.

Eos nodded as he thought, so he would need to go get another plant... one without large spiky thorns on it. I need a nap after that, he mused.

"How many 'living' thing shave you used your power on, and is it always the same reaction? I noticed you start shooting fire after, is that like... letting go of it?" he asked needing to understand more of it.

Eri scratched her head and thought about it. "Well.... the only other time I've ever tried was when I was in the dungeon a few weeks ago. I was..." her cheeks turned ever so slightly pink though she retained a stoically stubborn frown.

"I found myself in a rather... undesirable situation, and had no choice but to try and drain the creature attacking me..." She grimaced in embarrassment as she remembered how Phrixos had been present to witness her agony.

"It... It felt like fire in my veins. And then it shriveled up like a corpse... even though it was still alive" she said with a shudder, rubbing her still tingling hand in a distracted sort of way. "Though with you its more like daggers" she said with a frown. "Not pleasant."

She nodded in response to his question about the fire magic. "I can take life energy from any thing that has life, but evidently there is a limit to how much energy my body can hold before it starts to tear me apart. My brother thinks that this might be part of the reason I'm always so...er... hyper" she said with a sheepish grin.

"He thinks I might be subconsciously taking energy from my environment all the time without realizing it."

He took a minute to think over everything she had told him. "Well then that's what we work on first... being able to turn it completely off. Though we might need to strengthen it before we can do that..." he mused. Abilities were a strange thing to teach, seeing as how everyone that had one had a different one. It had been easy to train Allana since her power was simpler. All he had to do was keep giving her heavier and heavier weights to lift... only with her brain.

"I might have a book on meditation..." He sighed exasperated. The only way to figure out how her power worked was to use it himself, but that ability didn't come in his demigod power pack.

Eri sighed. "Ugh... more books... can't you just teach me this... medi... ta.. mien... Bah.. whatever its called. Can't you just teach it to me?... I really hate reading... I can and will if I have to... but " she trailed off looking truly embarrassed. "I learn better by doing than by reading.... Words aren't my strong suit... blunt instrument my tutor used to say."

"Hmm... maybe I can... but tomorrow. I'm pooped. And I have the feeling you are too," he said and leaned back glaring at the sun, then glanced at Eri.

Eri grinned evilly. "Heh, not really. Actually, I'll probably need to go for a run to get rid of whatever extra energy I still have from you... after my body stops feeling like a train hit it, that is." she laughed.

"That makes sense," he admitted sheepishly as he stood. He felt a little wobbly on his feet, and his next cough threatened to knock him over. But he still stood and starting walking, waving to the little lampad as he went.

Eri saw him wobbling, feeling very guilty. "S-sir... are you sure you're all right?....." she said trying very hard not to look like she cared at all.

He walked a few feet then steadied himself against a tree. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with him, it was just his throat, and he was a little tired. But that usually happened when you avoided sleep like the plague.

"Fine..."

Eri rolled her eyes. "Oh for Heaven's sake.." she muttered, stalking over to Eos and putting one of his arms over her shoulder.

"You look like you're gonna pass out just standing there..." she said with a cheshire grin. "Now back to the Athenaeum, or I'll tell Miss Tahirah about how you gave me back that dye" she said with a mischievous wink.

"You think she'll bel-" he cut himself off and hit his face against the tree. He was an idiot. WIND MAGIC... WIND MAGIC IS EQUAL TO SUPER EAVESDROPPING POWER! That meant Tahi knew... everything.... She knew... kolo... kolo, kolo, kolo.