Avery poked her head out of her office as the captain called the crew to training. She had nothing else to do, and figured somebody would need some care considering the type of training she suspected Rous had in mind. Joining the flow of crew members she found a spot on the rail to watch. Pyromancy held no interest but she decided to follow Rous's directions, replacing a drop for the flame. Thinking of her family, her loss, frustration at being judged for being a female medic, joy at seeing people recovering, fear of failing at her job, pride at standing up for herself and others, and her fear of dying into the puddle, imagining it becoming a larger drop, then a swirling ball of water as she pushed more of her feelings into it.

The process was similar to the one she'd learned herself for calling up her water magic. She could feel the trickle of cool water flow over her fingers into a swirling ball no bigger than her fist. She grinned, before all she did was think of the ball of water, now she had another way to form the water ball. She willed the water into a small tornado, imagining in first in her mind. The doctor grinned, the water responding more quickly to her will than before. She let it fall back into the ball of water. She was content to watch the clear liquid ripple and swirl, bouncing light off from the other crew members flames.

Warm joy rushed through her, learning to control what she had was a wonderful feeling. The ball burst into a larger ball, the size of a watermelon and she lost focus, sending water splashing onto the crew members around her. "Heh, sorry guys." she said sheepishly, embarrassed for getting the others wet, forgetting that she was supposed to be calm and collected. She settled for watching the others, resolving to try whatever Rous was teaching the rest of the crew in the privacy of her own room. Instead she watched the others, hoping nobody was going to burn themselves.

Rous was still pacing, stopping to watch Avery take his teaching and apply it to her own powers. A small grin played at the edge of his lips, and he patted her on the shoulder as he passed, flicking his hand to rid it of water.

[I]"Excellent! Some of you are getting it down pretty well. Let the flame go out, and call it back. Get it to where you can do it quickly, without closing your eyes. You must get that step down before we can move on."[/i] He continued to pace. He stopped in front of one hopeful, whose fireball was growing a bit too much. He reached his hand out, and snapped his fingers, the fireball disappeared. [I]"Be careful, pull too much from the Father Flame, and something bad will happen."[/i] He said, snapping his fingers again. [I]"Go ahead and try. Keep going."[/i]

Wyrn was watching, and he cocked his head to the side when Rous snapped. He walked up behind the shorter man, asking. [B]"Comrade, what did you do just then? I felt...something."[/B]

Rous looked sideways at the big man, and smirked. [I]"I've learned some things, I'll tell you all about it later."[/i] With that, he continued to pace.

Blackfire sighed as Rous called training; once again she had to leave her new pet, leaving him in a sunlit spot on her bed as she made her way upstairs. Learning pyromancy, huh? She shrugged to herself; might as well try it.

"Um, Rous?" she called after a few minutes. "I can't get my gloves to work. Did you do them right? Of course I'd get stuck with the faulty pair." She shook her hands a bit, staring down at them. So far she hadn't made even the smallest flame. In fact, every time she tried, she felt a weird static run through her body. Before he even had much of a chance to answer, she shook her head a bit. "I might have to be a rifleman. I just can't get these damn things to work properly for me."

"C'mon, Feathers, let's go up on deck. You head up and I'll join you in a sec -- I gotta go fetch my gloves," Nikki called to the boy, heading quickly to her bunk where she grabbed the pair of pyromancy gloves Rous had given her back at the castle. She pulled them on as she joined the growing group up above.

She listened intently to the captain's directions, imagining a fire in her head, but other thoughts kept intruding. Roasting marshmallows, the smell of barbecue, the dazzling array of stars visible when out camping...how much she wanted to be able to do cool magic. when she opened her eyes, there was no flame in her hands. She sighed, and tried again.

Nothing but the fire. What if she accidentally lit /herself/ on fire? It'd be a cool trick, but it would probably hurt a lot. That wouldn't be much fun at all. No, don't think about anything but the fire. She ventured a look around. A lot of folks had already gotten it, and she still had nothing to show for her efforts. Her ears drooped. Man, that sucked! She didn't want to be the only one with no magic! Nikki redoubled her efforts, but she just couldn't think of nothing. It was so frustrating!

"I can't do it either, Blackfire," the nekomimi said, her face scrunched in concentration. "Not a single spark! Maaaan~"