Dam shelves, why must they be so difficult, I can defeat creatures three times my height, lived through harsh punishment and the simple task to hammering nails into wood to make a unit to store books has me….annoyed.
Petty growled as he pulled out one more bent nail and threw it on the pile which seemed to grown in size just to mock Petty and his attempt at DIY. All said and done, the unit was nearly complete and was looking pretty good and most likely would even hold the hefty bulk of the tomes, even the 10 set series of Fizrold’s "Anthology of inland, coastline flora and fauna, habitats, bestiary and a herbal tea recipe for sniffles"
"Now, that last one…." Almost reluctantly whispered Petty, the ordel being annoying but nether the less fun in some twist way.
Petty raised the hammer and looked at the nail, putting his whole concentration into this last hammer blow. He didn’t want to use up any more nails and the books had been a nuisance for his toes sitting around in their perfectly ordered alphabetical state thanks to Rebekh’s need to pre-occupy herself.
The hammer flew downwards towards the nail, the nail being held in place by Petty’s hand…
"Heeeeello, Jeggred" came the voice of Rebekh behind Petty
Petty grumbled as the hammer missed it’s target and impacted on his thumb due to the breaking of concentration from the task at hand.
"…..Hello" Petty managed to say surpassingly calmly through gritted teeth as he took to a standing position, and turned to Rebekh.
"…..you’ve hurt yourself!" Rebekh flustered and flounced over to Petty as he looked at his thumb, blood trickling down from the thumbnail and across his jet-black skin.
"It’s fine, I will heal" nodded Petty totally disregarding the thumb
"But that could take a while, I want to help! I caused it, I want to heal it" Rebekh panicky said
Without even waiting for Petty’s compliance chanted a few simple words and with a simple gesture towards Petty creating a soft white glow of sprit and air around Petty. Slowly it moved around him and sank into his body, permeating his being and the wound on his thumb slowly closed and to normal it became.
"There" Smiled Rebekh "all back to normal just as new"
Petty nodded "useful skills to have"
Rebekh nodded "..a skill I think you should learn, cos, I won’t ALWAYS be around to heal those lil cuts and bruises" Rebekh teased.
"…No, don’t know the first thing about learning magic though"
Rebekh could help but giggle "It’s simple! But I have been learning, working with and been in contact with magic for a loooong time. But basically it is just words, a very basic way of it working but still, it does work…who knows! Could learn to get better at it. You have all these books, I have books and scrolls about learning magic."
Petty shook his head he had always disliked the taste of destructive magic he had seen and felt it, it was bitter and chilled him to his soul, his very being.
"I dislike some of the spells I’ve seen and felt casted"
"Oh, but this is different, this is naturalist, the power of nature, body and soul working as one to strengthen and preserve, it’s good to know" Rebekh nodded
Really could help knowing to heal, those little wounds, cuts, grazes and maybe help to heal bigger wounds so they don’t effect me so much…………worth a try.
"…Ok, so where do we begin?" Asked Petty
Rebekh smiled "first, just repeat after me and we will see if you can do something basic and then you will have to practise and read, read A LOT about the whole bases of the magic, understand it and then you can learn to use it more effectively"
Petty nodded and listened as Rebekh spoke a few words and then spoke them back, this repeated over and over for hours as slowly Petty committed to memory the arcane chant of a simple heal spell…
"Ok, we are done!, now try to string all those little bits into a larger word and see what you can do, or and can you give me a blade of some kind?"
Petty blinked "..why would you want a blade?"
"I’m the teacher here, do as I say!" Rebekh said adding a reinsuring wink confirming it as a bit of humour.
Against his best feelings of handing a blade over to someone as irritate as Rebekh, Petty did so, holding out the hand of one of his concealed blade to Rebekh who smiled as she accepted it
"Good boy, you get a gold star!" She said patting Petty on his head much to his irritation.
"Enough of this foolishness, what do I do?" Petty said, not meaning to be harsh but the need of to know overcame his normally indifferent self.
Rebekh giggled "ok ok, you repeat all those words you been practising all together in one sentence."
Petty nodded "and sorry for snapping" he added before chanting words, as he did his mind started to fill with a strange feeling, it made him dizzy but he kept concentrating, behind all the dizzy haziness in his mind he felt something forming. Then it formed and sat in his mind, a soothing feeling, all the good times, all the happy memories all the warmth was there in a ball in his mind.
"…………I’ve finished!"
"Good, now we need to see if it is the right spell" smiled Rebekh before in a flurried blur took the concealed blade and racked it across her arm. Silence crashed in as Petty looked down at the pale flesh as it parted where the blade had cut it’s marked, a few seconds later deep crimson blood swelled and seeped out from it’s once covered home in Rebekh to the surface tarnishing her skin as it dripped.
"….."
"Okies, you needed a wound to heal, you have one, just gesture towards my arm and mentally push the spell from inside to out here"
Petty nodded and held out a hand towards the bleed wound, closed his eyes and mentally picture the soft ball of light moving from his mind down through his own body and out the palm of his hand to the wound, then…it was gone!
Opening his eyes he blinked and looked at a still bleeding wound and sighed
"It didn’t work…"
"Oh, it did! It is your first time, so don’t worries, it healed a little bit, just not a lot" Rebekh smiled, pride emanated in her voice and eyes.
"Just need to practise and read, read a lot and let me help" She smiled adding nods here and there for effect.
Petty nodded, his mind still dancing and something about him was drained slightly, but contented on what he learnt and even more eager to learn it to greater, more developed and useful highs.
"Then….I will start tomorrow gathering what I need to improve"
"Good!" Smiled Rebekh clapping her hands together