Another day of training // ENG

He nodded. "Only two more than us, in our entire family, knows how to use it. The others didn't have the knack for it, apparently."

"It's strong magic." she said, mostly to herself. "Stronger and more dangerous than anything else..."

He nodded. "It is, if you don't know what you're doing." It could be very dangerous for others still, though, if you wanted to hurt them.

"And you do?" she asked, now looking at him over her shoulder. Her dog had finally stopped growling at him, and he were now just laying between them.

He nodded. "Fourteen years of training tend to do that." he smiled, and testingly offered Charlie his hand to sniff at, palm up to show he didn't mean the dog any harm.

She laughed softly. "Well, yeah. I have one month of training and I can only do what I showed you earlier. It's hard." she said and looked at Charlie, who growled a little bit, but still sniffed at Fenrir's hand.

"If I could, I would help you, but unfortunately I'm not skilled with fire." he chuckled.

"It's fine, my aunt helps me when she can. I think she likes helping me, she keeps telling me that I remind her of my parents." a sigh and she looked at her hands. "I just want to make them proud."

He nodded. "Well... I kinda need a place to practice my magic besides the forest. It's a little too risky, you know. Do you think it would be okay with her if I went there with you to train, too?"

She gave a quick nod. "I'm sure she would be delighted to know that I have actually found a friend in this village." a smile.

"Well, perhaps you could show me the way now, already, so I know where it is in the future, and so that she knows who you'll be bringing home once in a while?"

A nod and she slowly stood up. "Sure. But, be warned, my aunt can be very loving and likes hugging people." she smiled, offering him a hand to help him get up.

"I'll make sure to be prepared for that, then." he gave a weak chuckle, and let himself be helped up by her, taking a few deep breaths. "So, which way?"

A soft laughter and she pointed the way before she started walking back towards the village and into the part of the village which belonged to the Tortilian-clan. Soon Charlie had figured out where they were going and ran ahead.

Fenrir calmly followed, the magpie on his shoulder once more.

Soon they reached a small house, not unlike the many others around here. Lucy just walked straight inside, a smile on her face. "Aunt Tilda? Are you home?" she called out, and in less than seconds an woman at about fifty - not looking that much different than Lucy, except her hair was red and she was much older - came to sight.
"Lucy!" she said happily and walked over to hug her, then she seemed to notice Fenrir. "And who might this be?" she asked.

"Ah. I'm Meili the Faithful, ma'am." he introduced himself with a smile and a polite nod.

Tilda smiled and let go of Lucy. "Please, call me Tilda." she said and with no warning pulled him into a hug. Lucy giggled softly and just shook her head at her aunt.

A small noise of surprise, then he just smiled, even as a few metallic clings were heard - he was still wearing the chainmail, after all, so made sense it'd be a little noisy if he was hugged.

Tilda soon let go of him and looked at the two 'youngsters'. "Now, what brings you two home at this hour? Are you taking him home for dinner Lucy?" she teased her niece, and Lucy actually blushed slightly.
"No. I wanted to show him... the room." she said.

Fenrir gave a weak cough. "You see, um. Yeah, I'm a magician, too." he said it in a low voice, just in case. And kinda hoped she didn't know too much about the Lokitan clan - luckily, the large majority of people hadn't seen that many Lokitns, but the few who had seen more of them, back around the time they were banished... They would possibly see some of the traits that were very common in his clan, in him. He was close family to the leader of the Lokitans, after all. He was his nephew. But people cared so little about the Lokitans that no-one had given it any thought that he didn't quite look like a 'true' Tortilian.

Tilda nodded. "Well, just follow Lucy, she knows the way by now. But be quiet, the guards have been extra careful today." she said and left them. Lucy smiled softly at Fenrir. "It's this way."

He breathed a sigh of relief. Good. She didn't seem to notice anything special about him. He nodded in response to Lucy, and followed.

Lucy lead the way through the house, and opened a door into a very small room, barely two foot long and two foot wide. In that room she opened a trapdoor that lead to the basement. She crawled down the not so stabile ladder, and waited for him down there. "Remember to close the hatch, in case the guards come."

"Okay." once he climbed down, he did remember to close it, and soon stood beside her, even if his magpie was fluffing its feathers in slight stress - it didn't like being underground, naturally.

She looked at him, and then at the magpie. "You could've left it up there, I'm sure it would be safe enough." a smile and then she took a torch off the wall, snapping her fingers and trying to set it on fire, so they had just a little light in the otherwise very dark - and cold - basement.

"Well, he doesn't really want to leave me, even if he doesn't like underground spaces." he smiled and pet the magpie lovingly. It seemed to relax a little more after that.

"He's protective, like Charlie." she smiled and finally got the torch on fire, which made it slightly lighter down there. "Now, this way."

He nodded, smiled, and followed as he was told to.

They had to walk through a few dark corridors before they reached an old wooden door. Lucy opened it with a key from her belt, and pushed the door open. As she entered she lit the other torches in the room, and soon there were enough light to show what looked like an underground cave, with several targets that were usually used for practicing bow and arrow. "Welcome to our training area." she said with a smile.

"Oh. Nice." he smiled and looked around. "Just curious, but would there be any way to say, keep rats or something down here? Most of my magic needs to be used on a living target."

"I'm sure we could work something out. The carpenter next door might even help us build a cage or something, if we ask nicely." she smiled.

He nodded. "Cool. It's easy enough for me to catch the rats or even rabbits and hares, but I don't have any means of keeping them locked up." he chuckled.

"We'll find a solution." she smiled and looked at him.

He nodded. "Great. I'd rather not practice on you or your aunt." he gave a weak chuckle. "It's... Not that 'nice', most of the magic I know."

She gave a soft laughter. "I think we would appreciate to not being used as training targets." she smiled at him, a really friendly smile.

"Yeah... I'd rather not accidentally remove any important memories or the likes."

"I'd be better to use animals, at least the small ones that would be killed or eaten either way." a small smile.

He nodded and smiled. "That's why I'm thinking rabbits and hares... If they get completely messed up, we can just kill them and eat them, they would've been either way. And perhaps get a tanner to tan the hides for small pouches or such..."

A nod and she smiled. "Sounds like the perfect plan. I can go and talk to the carpenter right away?" she suggested, maybe a tad too eager.