A Fiery Heart (Solo)

Ilda had woken early that morning when she decided to get some training done. This training, however, was a recommendation from her pet fox, who made sure to stay outside with her during the fire mage's practice. They'd come to the conclusion that Ilda needed to rely on people more- it was made obvious now that she lived with the spirit Aoi, who was always supporting her in any way necessary. Ilda wanted to be able to give back just as much as she was being given, and she had a feeling her magic might have a way to do something about it.

"Fire is the power of the heart," Said the fox, standing atop a large rock to be eye to eye with her owner. "I may not know how to fight, but I know how you fight from watching. I'll tell you what I've seen, and what I think will work. You're going to need to focus a lot to do this though, Ilda."

"I know, I'm impulsive... But I'll do anything I can to concentrate. I know how to focus when it's important, and that's what this is. So come on, Vanna. Tell me what I should do first."


The fox sighed, musing stoically, "Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Now, move your focus to your heartbeat. Feel its rhythm, the flow of your blood. Notice the warmth, and try to focus the heat towards your heart."

"I think I get it..." She clenched her eyes as she did this, earning a reprimand for not relaxing her muscles. "Okay... My chest feels really hot now."

"Good. Now, try to move the heat the same way, but out of your body. Imagine its form, and the level of heat. Imagine it against your skin first, and train it not to burn you. If it won't burn your skin, you can try moving that into someone else."

Ilda spent about an hour just concentrating and trying not to burn herself. It was surprisingly difficult, but she was getting the gist of it. In about two hours total, she was making a ball of flame she could safely touch. Opening her eyes, it vanished. "Vanna, I made one! I made it!"

"Well done, Ilda. That's step one complete. Now we have to focus on step two... Doing it with your eyes open, so that at times like right now you won't have to waste the power when you open them."

"How do I do that exactly?" Ilda huffed, placing her hands firmly on her hips. "You make it sound so easy. This is already hard work. Details, Vanna!"

"Start by calming down. Remember, this is all about concentration. And what I am telling you to do is simply what I said. Now you're going to go through the same steps with your eyes open. You need to learn to focus even if you're in the middle of a battle, after all. This is old magic I learned about. It's going to take a lot out of you, especially mentally. Would you rather we just meditate first?"

Ilda shook her head. "No way. I've got this. I just have to concentrate with my eyes open. No big deal, right?"

Okay, so it wasn't as simple as when her eyes were closed. It turned out keeping her eyes open made it hard to keep the fire from burning quite literally, her gloves the only reason she was avoiding excessive damage to her fair skinned hands. It fizzled out quickly, leaving her with nothing but the smoke to stare at. She coughed into her hand as she breathed the smoke in deeply. "Yeah, this isn't good at all is it?"

"This is why I think you need meditative training, Ilda." Vanna muttered. "Unless you learn to better control your mind, you won't be able to do what you could be more than capable of."

"I appreciate the pep talk, Vanna. It almost didn't suck." While Ilda was laughing loudly, she meant the words overall. Vanna trying so hard to help her was a blessing she didn't expect when she took in the fairly independent fox. She'd normally guess Aoi would be the one teaching her things, but as a water user, Aoi wasn't the best teacher there was for fire power.

Ilda continued to try her previous practice. Deep breath in, focusing on the fire in her blood, and then a heavy exhale that would push the flames towards her hands, in a tight knit ball. Five more tires and the mini inferno was really starting to heat her up too high. The amount of energy this training was taking- it was too much to bare. She fell to the ground exhausted, leaving Vanna to fetch some water for her.

Another hour passed. Ilda rested for most of that hour, downing glass after glass of water to cool down her climbing fever from overwork. As she moved to shake her pet's hand in thanks, she unconsciously felt a heat escape into her hand- the fire she'd been working so hard on.

Vanna perked up just a bit. "Ilda, how did you do that all of a sudden?"

"Do what?"

"That flame in your hand just now wasn't hot. It had a certain warmth to it, but it wasn't burning. And it felt strangely nice, too!"

"How was it nice?" Ilda's stare was suspicious and skeptical. Vanna's face had a plastered smile across it, as she ran around in circles surrounding her owner. "What's gotten into you?"

"Don't you see it? I'm energetic and faster right now, all because I touched your flame! I don't know how, but you did it in your worst condition the best. So now, we have proof you can do it if you try. So we just need to keep trying. Let's try it with you relaxed instead of focused next time. Maybe the stress was getting to you. Well, rest for now, though. You use a lot of energy doing that, and if you're doing it subconsciously you're bound to be tired longer. I'll keep an eye on you to remind you. Try to take a nap here and when you wake up, we can start from the beginning. Okay?"

Ilda didn't want to admit it, but she was extremely fatigued. This was more a workout for her mind than her body, but the two were naturally interconnected and, as such, she felt the mental fog partially as a physical form of exhaustion.

With dismay, she slowly let herself touch the ground- first squatting, then sitting, and then finally laying back, her hair spread out on the grass before her house. She was even too tired to go into her home. There was just something about the sun. Was it its blinding light making her cover her eyes with one of her long arms? Was it the warmth it provided, like a mother's body when swaddled in her arms?

The sun had always mystified Ilda, and so for a moment she simply stared at it through the small bits of light her arm couldn't completely block out. Perhaps it was because she knew the sun was a giant ball of fire that she adored it.

It didn't really matter why though. Just as she was starting to contemplate, her eyes fluttered closed, leading her to the darkness of slumber and to be the prey of her own mind. Her inner demons echoed their usual cries, easily distracting her from the rest she was desperate to get. Shooting up off the ground, she came to realize why she couldn't get this skill to work.

Her inner demons. They surrounded her, burying her ability to trust in others, let alone give her energy to them to aid her. What she needed wasn't sleep, it was self reflection. And so she laid back once more, no longer closing her eyes. Instead, she kept them open, staring at passing clouds and holding a hand up to it.

"The sun has always been my ally." She mused. "If I think of my allies as a form of the sun, it might not be impossible to do this. What do you think, Vanna?"

"I think you're on to something. But, it's not solving the problem."

The woman sighed. She knew the fox was right. "But how am I supposed to do this?"

"Tell me, Ilda. I am your pet, am I not?"

"Yes, I suppose."

"Just yes, thank you." Vanna shook her head. Even her position was being questioned. "I'm your pet, Ilda. Your companion. I'd much rather hurt your enemies than you- not that I can, of course."

"I appreciate that, but-"

"And what about Aoi? Do you forget you have a pact with her?"

"Yes, I'm aware. I was present when it was made. I initiated it to protect her."

"And what does she always say her goal is in life?"

"To support me as I do her. But I don't do anything now besides have a pact with her."

Vanna wished for just a moment she could strangle the woman in her company. "Ilda, she wants to support you because of the pact. Not just anyone would make a pact with a spirit so close to death. And you, someone who hates touch, are especially unlikely to make one, yet you did. Do you not trust her after all this?"

"It's not that I don't trust her, but... Someday, she won't need me anymore."

"That's not how pacts work, nor is it how friendship works. I've seen the two of you together enough to know you're truly dear to each other. She's not faking it."

"But how does this kind of knowledge help me? I know with my head, but my heart..."

"Focus with your mind, not your heart. Focus on the facts. The facts are, Aoi would never harm you. I would never harm you. Aoi is with you by choice, not just the pact. And I'm definitively here by choice. I could run away whenever I want... Yet I always come back after my adventures into town, don't I?"

"Those are all generally true, so you've said."

"Remember, those are truths. Trust is not something that is solely in your heart. It takes logic, too. I know that's hard for you to understand, but if you give it time, you can use that fact, as a whole, to master this technique."

Ilda turned herself over, face first in the dirt. She pushed herself off the ground with both hands, kneeling and staring where her face had just been. With her sleeve, she rubbed the dirt off her face and out of her eyes, turning to look towards the fox that lectured her so deeply. "I think I understand. Let me try again, Vanna."

"Are you sure you don't want to rest more first? You look a little woozy. You barely got a wink."

Ilda shook her head, a surprisingly meek smile on her lips. "No, I want to do it now. While it's fresh in my mind, and until I've tired myself out so much I can never forget." She spun on her heels to face her faux mentor, taking a deep breath in. She closed her eyes and imagined the light flowing through her veins and out to her hand as a ball of flame. With her exhale, she tried to picture the flame warmly embracing Vanna like a protective bubble. When she opened her eyes, a single word slipped out of her mouth.

"Ignirium!" With the word called out, the fire began to soak into Vanna's fur and burrow into her skin, slowly feeding her energy that hadn't been there before. As the fire faded, she rushed to a wall and scratched at it, her claws feeling sharp enough to do damage.

Surprisingly, even though she lacked combat abilities, she was able to leave a mark she'd never done before. "Ilda, it worked! It seems that this really is part of your calling."

Ilda smiled gently, stretching her arms toward the sky. "Thank the sun! I finally get it now!" And that was their training's end.