A+Class+of+Experience

Valren stepped through the misty magic door of his classroom. Spark was sitting on a raised dais in a closed darkened corner of the room where stars swirled around him. Seldana was lying on her back on a table where Minoa was laying out spell materials while Dane lingered close, flirting shamelessly with both of them. Minaun was sitting next to him occasionally backhanding his friend on the shoulder, "That's my sister, you know." They all looked up and nodded to the tall blonde elf, "Master Embermoss." Valren nodded to them in greeting, "Is everyone ready this afternoon?" His eyes swept over the room one more time, and he paused, "Where is Lairesul?" Minaun glanced at the doorway a little concerned and back to his teacher, nodding with confidence, "I'm sure he's on his way." Valren nodded, "Perhaps we'll meet him on the way then... Shall we?"

Lairesul led Lorwynelle back up the tower, holding her hand. As they rounded the top of the stairs, Lorwyn gasped, blushing pink, "Master Embermoss." She bowed her head in greeting. Valren looked from one to the other and nodded to Lorwyn, "Lady Thaldain." He turned to the pale-blonde sorcerer beside her, "You're late." "My apologies, Master Embermoss, I volunteered for an extra class today... and it ran a little later than I thought," Lairesul bowed to his teacher, not mentioning a word about the "class" was teaching Nelle how to dance. Valren raised an eyebrow, again looking from one to the other, "Is that so..." he nodded, "Alright then... Lady Thaldain, I was unaware that you would be joining us in the hills today. Do you have parental consent?" "Oh," Lorwyn shook her head, "The Hills? I..." "Forgot it was today," Lairesul nodded, finishing her sentence, "So I found her and brought her along." Valren struggled not to smile at the obvious lie he was being told, but it might do the young arcanist some good to get out of her books. He was sure Ahnahi would approve of her daughter accompanying him. He put a hand on Lorwynelle's shoulder, "Do you know spells to protect yourself?" "Yes, sir, of course," Lorwyn nodded, starting to weave a magic armor around herself. Valren interrupted, "No, no, my dear, that's not necessary. Save it for the hills."

As they walked toward the city entrance, Lorwyn blinked wide eyes, "Are we really having class in the hills outside of the city?" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Valren smiled and nodded, "Indeed. Unlike Master Thaldain I'm a firm believer in field training. You learn a lot more and a lot faster in dangerous real life situations than classrooms and books, Lorwynelle... I assume this is your first time out?" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">She nodded, fidgeting with the sleeves of her robes, suddenly nervous. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">He nodded and smiled, "Then stay close to me." He laid a soft reassuring hand on her shoulder. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Lorwynelle walked alongside Lairesul with Valren directly behind them. She leaned closer to the pale-blonde sorcerer beside her, "So where are we going exactly?" Her head was spinning. She had never missed a class before... first she had snuck off to learn about dancing, and now here she was walking down the mountainside and had no idea what she was doing. She never imagined she'd do such things... but it was exciting!

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Spark, the bloodrager in the group, led the way down into the valley among the hills. He said little, and walked carefully, sweeping his gaze across the landscape. Dane and Seldana followed behind him with Minaun and Minoa following them, walking just ahead of Lairesul and Lorwyn. Valren watched their backs and kept his students in front of him where he could keep an eye on all of them.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Lairesul stepped a little closer to her, "There was an evil summoner near here once... called Duradel Theloch. He created a lair down in one of the valleys in the hills. He was killed years ago, but goblins and occasional imps still show up from time to time... and sometimes bigger things that tend to cause havoc, trying to claim the ruined tower for their own purposes... so we come down to keep the area under control, to learn, and to practice."

"Wait..." she blinked wide eyes, "We're really going to be in some sort of battle?" "Well hopefully..." Lairesul winked at her, "Sometimes there's nothing at all... and we wouldn't want your first trip to be boring." "We're not marching into war, Miss Thaldaine," Valren interrupted, smiling behind them, "You'll be perfectly safe with us." They traveled down the mountain to a long and nearly-impossible-to-see bridge that extended from the mountain path out to the top of one of the nearby hills. The bridge seemed to reflect everything around it, blending in to the landscape of lush green hills and trees. Lorwyn stared with disbelief as Spark stepped out onto the air with parts of him obscured by the hand rail. She watched as one by one, the others in front of them stepped out and followed him across.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">As they moved up, she touched the bridge with her hands, fascinated by it's magical presence, "It's... beautiful! How did you ever find this?"Lairesul grinned and gestured toward their teacher, "Master Embermoss showed it to us years ago... when Seldana, Minaun, and I took //our// first trip down... Dane and Minoa came with us a year later, and Spark joined us last year... and now it's your turn. Come on... I'll lead."He stepped onto the bridge and offered her his hand. She slid the perfectly silky smooth skin of her hand into his, and as he clasped hers, her cheeks blushed pink and her heart beat a little faster. She stepped tentatively onto the bridge to find that it was flexible beneath her feet and moved slightly with the winds. Her eyes widened a little in surprise, but she stepped with both feet and held onto one of the rails with one hand, and looked around. Valren followed them out, watching Lorwyn's face beam with delight as she looked out across the hills.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">The young red-haired elf pulled the sorcerer beside her closer, pointing down into the mists of one of the valleys, "What's down there?"He grinned at her, "Duradel's broken tower." He pointed to the hill they were walking across to, "We'll rest and then go down from there."She nodded, taking it all in. It was warm, the sun was bright in the cloudless blue sky, and they could see miles of the rolling green hills of trees below them. Bright colorful birds occasionally drifted into and out of the trees. She could hear the rush of a waterfall somewhere in the distance of echoing bird songs. As they stepped onto the top of the hill, it smelled heavily of rich earth with a hint of charred wood and in the valley below she could see remnants of a charred rock and wood tower poking through the mists with an ominous haunted feeling.Spark and Dane were walking the perimeter while Seldana, Minoa, and Minaun set up a spot for lunch.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Minoa lounged in the grassy clearing of the hilltop near Lorwyn, staring at her in shock, "You mean you've //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">never //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">been to the full moon celebration? ...but... the temple of Hanalil hosts it every month! ...and you're the high priestess's daughter... How does that even happen?" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Seldana shook her head, lounging on her back in the sun next to them, "We'll make sure you're dressed for the occasion... I mean you're going to want to make an entrance if it's your first time there... plenty of available boys... more than just these lackeys, that's for sure!"Lorwyn laughed and glanced over to where Dane was telling a story to Minaun and Lairesul as they laughed. Spark was looking down the hill, nodding to Valren as he was gesturing to the path they would take and giving him instructions.

Lorwyn's eyes caught movement on the other side of the clearing as she was looking over toward the boys. Something small and red... there it was again, peering around the tree. It was only about a foot tall, had a devilish face, wings, and barbed tail. She'd read about them... this had to be an imp. A hellish creature that some were foolish enough to summon as familiars. The books all said that these creatures were known to manipulate their masters into giving their souls to one of the nine hells to face damnation at death. It stepped forward and vanished.

She vaguely heard Seldana's feminine voice beside her mentioning something about hair and nails and then Minoa's calling her name, "Lorwyn? Lorwyn? Hello? Are you even listening?""What?" She turned her golden eyes back to the two women beside her, "I'm sorry... did you guys see that?""See what?" Minoa turned to look where the red-haired arcanist had been staring. Seldana was already on her feet, sweeping her gaze along the treeline, "Spark! Master Embermoss!" She pointed into the trees, "Goblins!"

Spark pulled his blade and charged across the field in a blur with cheetah-like speed! She didn't even know it was possible for anyone to move so fast. And this very quiet stand-offish man became a seething violent warrior, flames licking off of his blade as he struck, lopping off a small grey head with beady red eyes and a wide sharp teeth filled mouth, blood spattering the elven bloodrager and the ground around him! Everyone else was up and moving.

A deep gutteral voice came from the trees, "What's all the noise?!"A very thick and muscular green skinned orc appeared in the tree line as two more goblins went down. Minaun and Dane spread out quickly, 1 sending in a barrage of magic missiles while the other sent out a mighty wave of water to bull rush the orc backward.The imp appeared next to Lairesul, stabbing him with his poisonous tail! Lorwynelle sent out an arc of flame over the red-skinned fiend, but the fire washed over it, leaving it unharmed."Imps are immune to fire, Nelle," Lairesul staggered back, and waved a wand at her, allowing her to see the once again invisible imp who was weaving fire magic to blast at the sorcerer.She gasped, sending out a magic missile into the red-skinned nuisance. Minoa stepped up beside her, opening her mouth to release an ear-piercing scream that only the imp could hear. It staggered back, holding it's ears as blood seeped through it's fingers and it fell to it's knees just before Minaun walked by, impaling it with a longsword on his way.

"Are you alright?" Lorwyn turned her attention to Lairesul."Fine," he nodded to her, sending out a barrage of magic missiles into the goblin at the edge of the tree line, dropping him to the ground, "Are you?"She nodded.Minaun raised his foot, stomping to the ground with such force that the others felt the tremble in the earth and the orc fell to the ground, allowing Spark to leap on top of it, dealing blow after blow with his blade, scorching the orc's flesh as he tore open wounds!Seldana sent a ball of ice and snow into the orc as three more goblins surrounded Minoa, biting and scratching her! While Spark dealt the final blow to take down the orc, Dane took down two of the goblins with a cloud of thunder and lightning, striking goblins down as it moved.As that orc fell over dead, a second orc charged out to gash his axe deeply into Lairesul's back."Noooo!" Lorwyn screamed, turning toward the large grey-skinned orc looming over her. His body was thick and muscular with tough skin and long tusks. She brought up trembling hands and sent out an arc of flame that burned his skin. In a flash, Spark was on him, thrusting his blade deep into the orc's back.Lairesul brought his hands up and sent out a powerful burst of darts of silver that staggered the big orc backward, swinging his axe wildly at Spark.Minoa screamed at the final goblin on her as Valren stepped beside them, delivering a punch of force into the orc's chest that broke his ribs and sent him to the ground where Minaun finished him off.

"Scouts," Valren looked over the bodies of orcs on the ground, "Hopefully the others will see that this is not a place to move in and will move on... Nicely done. Is everyone alright?" He looked over his students to see everyone standing and mostly healthy and waved them all in closer, using bandages to patch up scratches and pouring a drop of dark, almost black blood into Lairesul's back wound, healing it faster."Enough for today. Let's get you all back to the city so you can join in the celebration tonight. I hear it's supposed to be one of the best," he smiled at them, nodding his approval.

As they walked back across the bridge, Valren looked at Lorwyn, "So did you learn anything today, Miss Lorwynelle?"She nodded up to him, "So many things! Imps are immune to fire... I should have known that. I've read about them." She sighed, disappointed with herself.He smiled and nodded, "But I bet you'll never forget it now. That's the difference between experience and book learning." He winked at her.She grinned and nodded. She would never forget.