Dungeon Life

Fluffles

The serpentine scion knows he shouldn’t find the Stag’s concerns so humorous, but he does. While he can understand where the Southwood’s scion is coming from, it’s not like they’re going to hurt him. He will probably be sore for a while, and likely fatigued in both mana and in mind.

He effortlessly glides behind the Stag as he leads the group to a different clearing. Having a good spar in and around the core would just be a bad idea. Teemo, Honey, and Leo won’t be joining them, as they want to either coordinate with the delvers, or check on the denizens on expedition. There’s a lot of organizing to be done with both, and Fluffles is happy to leave them to it.

Rocky and Nova are both looking excited to train, which isn’t surprising at all. Rocky is always eager to practice, and Nova still seems determined to live up to her name. Fluffles has tried to tell her there’s nothing to really live up to. It’s not like he’s fluffy, wings aside. They don’t count. But she’s still young and needs to find her place, even if it’s a bit strange for him to call her young. He’s not even a year old yet.

Slash seems to want to practice his music, specifically in supporting a fight, so this will be good practice for him, too. Fluffles is looking forward to it as well. It’ll be a good chance to teach, and to make sure he understands the way affinities interact as much as he thinks he does.

The Stag leads them all to a clearing with quite a bit of leaf litter, but it’s simple enough for Fluffles to sweep it away with wind and a bit of kinetic. Even that earns a startled look from the Stag.

“You have wind affinity?”

Fluffles nods and coils comfortably on a rock, glad it’s modestly warm from the sunlight. “Wind, Storm, Kinetic, Lightning, and Fate.” Rocky perks up at the mention of lightning, but is polite enough to not interrupt. The Stag looks rather intimidated by the list, though. Fluffles just smiles. “My Stormeater title earned me three of those. Maybe we can get Slash to tell you the story some time… or I can. I was there. I’m not as good a storyteller as he is, though. How about your affinities?”

“I… have Life, Kinetic, and Light.”

Fluffles can feel the Denmaster’s interest in the Light affinity, followed by a few nonsensical flashes of association. Experience has taught him they’re probably not so nonsensical after all, but he can’t fathom how both fire and lightning relate to light. “Ah, we share one! I started with Kinetic, specifically telekinesis. I’d be glad to give you some pointers with it.”

That has the Stag slowly nodding. “I started with Light, and picked up Kinetic from becoming my Lord’s Guardian. I’ve not practiced with it much, beyond empowering my hooves.”

Fluffles prepares to respond, but Rocky grunts to interrupt. “I think I can get him into fire from light.”

The Stag looks worried at that, but Fluffles is intrigued. “Already?”

Rocky nods and steps forward, eyeing the Stag. “He’s real good with light, I can tell. You want fire affinity?” he asks, causing the worry to shift to confusion.

“Fire affinity? What?”

“I think I can teach you to expand your light into fire. I’m missing something to turn my fire into light, but I think you can bridge your gap with a little push.”

“Expand… is that even possible?” The Stag looks at Rocky with a mixture of incredulity and hope, and the pretend-lich nods.

“Yeah. I started with fire, and expanded it into ice and kinetic, then kinetic into sonic. I’m working on lightning next.”

It’s still weird for Fluffles to hear it put like that. Part of him still wants to say that’s impossible, but Rocky doesn’t talk about it as a boast. It’s just simple fact. The Stag looks inclined to not believe, but if he got to see what Rocky did to the Harbinger, it probably isn’t as unbelievable as it might be.

“...how?” asks the Stag, and Rocky grins.

“Make some light. Just some regular light. Fluffles, get a pile of dry leaves, please.” Fluffles eagerly does so and watches as the Stag conjures a glowing sphere. Nova inches closer to watch, too, while Slash plays a soothing tune, to help with concentration. Rocky conjures a ball of fire, forgoing the usual ball of ice for now, and scrutinizes the two orbs. The ball of flame intensifies for a few moments, waves of heat washing over the clearing, before he calms it down.

“Yeah… I can make it hotter, but that’s not what I need for light. Change the color,” he grunts, and the Stag sets the light to rapidly strobe for a few moments, before Rocky waves a hand at him. “No, slow. Slow as you can.”

The Stag obeys, and the ball of light starts shifting smoothly through the colors of the rainbow. “Slower,” comes Rocky’s grunt, and the Stag focuses more on the orb as the shifting colors go even slower.

“That is… remarkably difficult,” admits the Stag as the colors continue to slow, and Rocky continues to stare at the light.

“That’s good. Now pay attention to what you’re doing. Feel what’s changing. That’s the important thing. Feel what you’re changing.”

The Stag slowly nods as he continues to focus, and soon his tongue lolls as he pants from the effort. “I… I think I can feel it. Different colors are… less?” he thinks aloud. While it doesn’t make much sense to Fluffles, Rocky nods.

“Yeah, that’s it. I haven’t figured out how to change that on my own yet. Make it more less, and put more power into it at the same time.”

Fluffles gives his fellow scion a bewildered look, but the Stag seems to understand. The ball starts shifting into warmer colors, from green through yellow and orange, and into red. But warmer colors should be more, not less, shouldn’t they? The Stag pants harder with effort as the redness seems to grow both duller in shade, yet brighter in intensity.

It takes Fluffles a moment to realize he might be the only one there who can truly appreciate the transformation as it continues. He watches the ball fade from his sight, but fade into his heat sense. The transition is difficult to describe, even while watching. Rocky’s excited grunt refocusses Fluffles.

“Now! Into the leaves!” The ball of heat dives into the dried pile, which quickly bursts into flame. The Stag collapses onto his belly, panting from the effort. Mixed in with the exhaustion are equal parts elation and disbelief, and Rocky grins as he takes a seat. “Make a lick of flame,” he orders, and the Stag grunts as he obeys.

A small wisp of fire appears right before the Stag’s snout, and the scion just stares at it while Rocky smiles.

“Coach says yer on the team, so you get in on the secret.”

“How?” whispers the Stag, still staring at the small flame under his control.

Rocky just shrugs. “Coach knows a lot of stuff. I dunno how, but he does. He tries to teach us, but it’s hard to get. Teemo’s gotten hurt before just from getting it all without the filter we do. Just from Coach thinking.”

The Stag’s eyes widen at that, and he looks at his little flame with trepidation as Rocky continues. “You’ll be fine. You can make the light even less if you want. I’m pretty sure Coach isn’t worried about that. It’ll act a lot like fire for a while, I think. Definitely be careful about making the light more, though. That sets off all sorts of warnings.”

The Stag nods before letting the fire wink out, and sighs in exhaustion. “I believe I’m satisfied for now. I never imagined I’d gain an affinity like fire. Just changing light that far was utterly exhausting. Now that I’ve done it… I believe trying to make the light more would be even more trying. I’m in no hurry to try to make it even less, either. I have a whole new affinity to explore already.”

Rocky nods at that and leans back, relaxing, as the Stag eyes the other scions. “Have you all done this?”

Slash nods while Nova looks away, and Fluffles speaks up to explain. “Slash got to sonic affinity from earth. I got my title by using my kinetic affinity to take advantage of perhaps one of the Denmaster’s greatest pieces of knowledge.”

The Stag eyes him, head still firmly on the ground as he recovers. “Oh? Will you share it?”

Fluffles nods, fighting back a grin. “Like Rocky said: you’re on the team. It’s not an easy thing to understand, though. I still feel like, besides the Denmaster, only Rocky really understands it. I’m pretty sure Denmaster Thedeim puts it differently, but even Teemo hasn’t seen fit to try to correct the phrasing Rocky uses. It sounds stupid and obvious, but it really is a vital piece of knowledge to comprehend.”

Fluffles motions his tail for Rocky to continue, letting the grin onto his face as the zombie scion reveals the truth.

“Stuff is made of stuff.”

The Stag gives a flat look to all involved, and Rocky and Fluflfes both laugh.

“A good joke,” grumps the Stag, and Fluffles shakes his head.

“It’s not a joke. Everything is made of something, even the air. I ate a storm by stealing away the kinetic energy in it. I focused it into a sphere of air I kept contained, forcing more and more energy into it, until I unleashed it on one of Hullbreak’s scions. I wasn’t kidding about it sounding stupid, but it’s true. I don’t know exactly what air is made of, just like I don’t know what rock is made of, but both are still made of something.”

Rocky nods. “That’s the wisdom of Coach Thedeim. Things don’t just happen, and things are a lot more related than they look at first. Take a close look instead of just accepting things. Coach does that with a lot more than just magic.”

The Stag still looks uncertain about all that, but Fluffles can at least see him chewing it over in his mind. That’s good. It’s not something to be understood just like that. Fluffles smiles as he sees the Stag toying with conjuring occasional wisps of flame, too. He’s got a lot to think about now, so he can hardly blame the scion for focussing his attention on a new affinity. A new affinity is a lot easier to understand than a secret of creation, no matter how humorously it’s worded.