The holler drew his eyes to the wave, and a grin split his face at the fire-bright head that bobbed towards him, mischief on the wind. "Melita!" he greeted warmly. "Good to see you!" Even better to see her with a spring in her step and a gleam in her eye, free of the blight and LongNight's captivity. She had come dressed as an armory, bedecked in weapons, and Jigano grinned at the sight - and sound! - as Isuma swooped from the sky to greet Fangorn and tempt him into playing tag, the little gryphon folding her wings and bounding along the ground to make the game fair.
"I'd like to see if I can get better at using this new power for defense," Jigano explained, reaching out with his mental 'hands' to grip the sparkling green and brown threads of his earth magic and tug at them. The earth between them rumbled for a moment and then thrust upwards roughly four feet in a slab that could generously be called a barrier if the tall mage ducked behind it. "Do you have any distance weapons among your many munitions that you could fling at me? Preferably something non-lethal," he added with a lopsided grin. "Bird-blunt arrows or pebbles for a sling?" Not the larger stones or metal bullets that could drop a man dead or break bones on impact, but smaller stones that would only bruise if he was too slow to react.
"I thought we could start with that and then move on to something more close-range if I survive the ranged onslaught." Honing his timing and control with the possibility of pain as a motivator if he screwed up would be more effective than simply playing about on his own, he thought. And he trusted Melita's aim and instincts to strike to wound, not kill, if something went horribly awry in this training. "Do you have anything you'd like to work on today?" There was no reason they both couldn't benefit from the day, though perhaps trying to hit him was its own reward? For some, at least, but he didn't think Melita was one of them. Then again... with her penchant for mischief, perhaps it was better not to underestimate her!
"I'd like to see if I can get better at using this new power for defense," Jigano explained, reaching out with his mental 'hands' to grip the sparkling green and brown threads of his earth magic and tug at them. The earth between them rumbled for a moment and then thrust upwards roughly four feet in a slab that could generously be called a barrier if the tall mage ducked behind it. "Do you have any distance weapons among your many munitions that you could fling at me? Preferably something non-lethal," he added with a lopsided grin. "Bird-blunt arrows or pebbles for a sling?" Not the larger stones or metal bullets that could drop a man dead or break bones on impact, but smaller stones that would only bruise if he was too slow to react.
"I thought we could start with that and then move on to something more close-range if I survive the ranged onslaught." Honing his timing and control with the possibility of pain as a motivator if he screwed up would be more effective than simply playing about on his own, he thought. And he trusted Melita's aim and instincts to strike to wound, not kill, if something went horribly awry in this training. "Do you have anything you'd like to work on today?" There was no reason they both couldn't benefit from the day, though perhaps trying to hit him was its own reward? For some, at least, but he didn't think Melita was one of them. Then again... with her penchant for mischief, perhaps it was better not to underestimate her!
