The Lost Heroes Guild

Nina looked down at her palm as she flexed her hand against the tight, worn leather. She traced over the gauntlet strapped to her right palm with the tips of her fingers, feeling the golden circle, framing the strange glass-like substance that bulged outward slightly against her hand.

"How does it feel?" Daalen asked, watching her inquisitively.
"Good," she replied simply, still getting used to the feel of the leather on her skin. Dom watched her from the very edge of the clearing, leaning against a tall pine tree, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Not too tight is it?"
"No, it's good, comfortable." Nina assured him. He watched her carefully as she grasped the bracer that fixed the gauntlet to her and attempted to shift it, testing it's fastness.
"Good, now try a simple spell, when you've selected spell you wish to cast, simply point the face of the gauntlet towards where you want your spell to be directed." He instructed, still intently watching her.

Nina contemplated which spell to use to test her new piece of equipment. Blowing a hole in the ground was too disruptive, snapping a branch would be too loud and too much effort. In the end she opted to simply mute the small sparrow singing from a branch not far from her potition in the clearing. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the wording of the spell. She decided to go with the simplest option, as she opened her eyes and extended her arm in the direction of the small bird.
"Quiet." she spoke. The bird stopped singing, but continued to make odd squeaking and spluttering noises. She felt her hand grow warm where the circle rested as the magic flowed through her. She ceased the flow and the bird, although confused, resumed his singing. Dom stifled a chuckle at the odd sqawking of the sparrow. Nina shot him a narrow eyed look, with a half smile on her face.
"That was a sloppy spell," Daalen critisized, his eyebrows raised.
"I thought that simple was best?" Nina asked, confused.
"Simple is good yes, but you still need to be accurate in your commands. You told him to be quiet, not silent, and you failed to specify how to be quiet, should the sparrow stop singing? Or should he stop his claws scratching on the branch? A more effective spell, yet still simple, would have been to say, 'Cease Singing' or 'Mute larynx'. This is where magic becomes difficult. To be skilled in magic, is to be knowledgable in most things, for if you do not know the term of something, you cannot shape it with magic." Daalen explained.
"I'll try again," Nina replied, eager to feel the warmth from the gauntlet once more.

Again Nina closed her eyes and thought of a new spell to try, and this time, thought longer on her choice of wording. As she opened her eyes, she held out her arm to point her palm at a small spruce tree on the opposite edge of the clearing.
"Stir branches," she whispered firmly, and to her relief, as the magic coursed through her veins, the small branches began to shake and whip back and forth as if the wind were caressing them softly.
"Woah," Dom murmered, his eyes wide. His intrigue at Nina's use of magic was apparent in his awe-struck face. He looked over at Nina and his face resumed its regular relaxed composition and he smiled kindly at her, proud of his little sister.
"Very good," Daalen said, "You could still use some work, but that is a much more affective spell, remember - using two words doesn't take much longer than using one, but the outcome is exponentially more specific." He finished.
Nina smiled. She was glad that she had this new found piece of equipment to help her control the flow of magic. When she'd first experienced it, the magnitude had alarmed her, not to mention the intangible nature that had rendered her control of it next to useless. With the gauntlet, she could direct and bind her magic, so that it wouldn't leak or escape to items that she didn't intend to effect.
"You should never remove that bracer," Daalen began again, "Should you ever need to use magic, that will be your only control over it, as you grow more experienced, you can begin to control the bounds of magic without aid, however you're far from and the results should you even think to experiment could be disastrous, as you have learned." he added, a twinge of sadness in his voice. "If fate should look kindly upon you, you may also discover a more comfortable gauntlet, this one is crude in it's design, and one of the most basic available. There will be opportunities for you to upgrade to gauntlets that you can affix to your palm with magic, without need of a bracer, however until then, you should only remove this one for bathing." He finished. Nina could tell from his tone that Daalen was finished talking for the day and she busied herself with removing her bedroll from her pack and laying it on a mossy part of the clearing.

Dom too, seemed tired from the days activities, but still he retreived the two crudely carved wooden swords from the packs and threw one to Nina as she ground the ball of her foot into the dirt 10 feet away. She held the sword in her left hand, hoping to learn to wield it just as skillfully and if she were holding it in her right. So that she wouldn't be tempted to switch, she held a small leather shield that Daalen had supplied her with in her right. The siblings circled the clearing for a few paces, before Dom leapt forward, flicking out his sword arm and attempting to slash Nina's left arm. Her delayed reflexes in that arm saw her bring up her sword to block the blow at the very last moment. Her block was clumsy and she pushed awkwardly with her sword against her brothers to regain some room between them. Again they paced as she held the shield in front of her body. This time she advanced towards Dom, more slowly than he had before, and feinted left before swinging her sword around to jab at his left knee. Dom hadn't noticed her feint and so her wooden sword struck just under his kneecap, making him gasp in suprise that she'd landed a blow. As she retreated, Dom brought his left hand to the hilt, to hold his sword with both hands. They circled for longer this time, neither wanting to make the advance, should the other read their move. Nina lost her patience first and lunged towards her brother, who placed a blow across her chest that she blocked with her shield, however as this also blocked her vision, she did not see him retract his sword and only lowered her shield in time to see it swinging towards her left arm. She couldn't raise her sword in time with her weaker arm and Dom's wooden blade smashed against her left shoulder, sending shots of pain down her arm and into her hand. She stifled a cry and returned to her position across from Dom. Throughout the evening's session Dom landed two more hard blows to Nina, one to her right knee, and another to her left shoulder again. Nina got two touches on Dom, but only just jabbed his belly, and knocked his ribcage. They continued until Nina could no longer lift her sword with her weak left arm, and sweat beaded upon both their brows. Nina was getting stronger, she noticed that Dom was working harder in each session they spent together. Neither of them were skilled swordsmen, but they were improving, she at a faster rate than Dom, which pleased her, although she could not explain why. They returned their swords to their packs and made their way through the trees to wash for the night.

She wandered over to the babbling creek and removed her bracer for a short time to clean her arms of the sweat and grime of the day, before hastily replacing it. After washing clean her body after the exertion of the sparring that afternoon, Nina sat on a smooth stone and watched the busy water rushing over the pebbled streambed. It was a pleasant evening to sit quietly by the gurgling water. Perched halfway up a peak, Nina could look out over the valley through a short distance of trees, and she thought she could almost see the farmers in the fields, seeding their crops. She wished she could stay on this rock for longer, just gazing out over the land and not having to contemplate what her future may or may not hold. She was happy here with Daalen and Dom, if not with all the people she loved, she was with the very most important. Fear still gripped her heart at the thought of hurting anybody else, but the pleasantness of the evening made it hard for her to concentrate on such disturbing topics for long. When the sun was no longer in the sky, Nina made her way back to the camp to see that Dom had already put out the fire with a shovelful of sand. Nina leaned down and kissed him on the forehead before laying on her bedroll. The warm spring evening made it comfortable for her to sleep without a cover, and she rolled onto her side to see Daalen and Dom both dozing off on their own bed rolls, before closing her eyes and succumbing to welcome sleep.

The next morning, Nina awoke to the sun shining through her still closed eyelids. She bleerily opened her eyes to see Daalen and Dom sitting by the rekindled fire and stirring their oats in their bowls.
"Morning sunshine," Dom greeted her with his usual grin.
"Finally decided to join us did you?" Daalen asked through his beard.
Nina rolled from her makeshift bed and rolled up her bedroll and stored it in her pack. She moved over to the fire and dropped her weight onto the hard stump next to Dom's. He handed her a bowl and she poured in some oats from the hessian sack on the ground, before adding boiling water from the pot on the fire. It was a bland meal, but a good one, for it filled their bellies and readied them for the day ahead. Once they'd all finished their meals, they swiftly packed their supplies and swung their packs onto their backs, ready for the miles in front of them.
"We shouldn't have too far to go today," Daalen started, "We are merely trying to make sure we can't be followed, we'll head further up the mountain, it'll be colder, but it will keep you two more alert for your sparring, you're not improving fast enough." He said, before he set off, the gravel crunching beneath his feet as he picked his way through the trees. Nina sometimes felt herself growing impatient with this strange man. Who was he to tell them that they weren't improving fast enough? She'd like to see him get off his rear and spar occasionally, but something held her back from voicing her opinions. She knew they'd only cause trouble. Instead she turned her thoughts to the trail ahead, delighted that she'd be seeing more of the green foliage of the forest today.