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Wonderful [Alex Mood]
#1
Winter is a time for slowing, for dormancy, for rest. Plants die off, their seeds waiting for the oncoming spring to continue the new cycle of life. Animals go into hibernation, sleeping away the harshest parts of the year. People become less adventurous, especially near mountains. It gets too cold for most people to find the wilderness a pleasant place to be. Many still seek relatively-safe adventure up on the groomed and pisted slopes of the mountain ranges, where there’s a warm bed and warm alcohol waiting at the end of the day.

To some people there is still an appeal of the mountains and forests when the snow is falling and rivers have frozen. To some, there’s peace to be found away from the city, away from the light pollution, away from the noise and the chaos and the people. Peace that is sometimes in short supply.

Which brings us to the middle of nowhere in late evening. The sun has long set and the full moon lies low in the sky. There is little cloud to obscure the view of the stars, and a hard frost is already starting to settle on the softer snow on the ground. A trail of footprints leads up to a shallow cave in the mountainside. A tent has been set up inside, protected from the worst of the elements and keeping what remains away from any occupants. A small fire circle has been set up to one side of the cave mouth, keeping the firewood dry and allowing the smoke to drift away harmlessly. A bedroll has been laid out in the tent and a well-insulated sleeping bag has been unrolled on top of it.

Alexander sits just inside the cave leaning back against the opposite wall from the fire. The only sound is the quiet crackle of the fire as the wood that had earlier been tucked away inside the cave to dry slowly burned. The air is still – a lull in the weather bringing a strange serenity to the area. The world, at least for a few frozen moments, feels at peace.

His thoughts had wondered in the time that he’s been sat here. From his old life in Seattle and the things that had been lost and left behind. To the new life and his career in the force, where that could possibly lead. To the Awakened life and what it had brought him. Things come to mind and pass on, fluttering away like… like snow in a breeze.

Eventually, though, even that snow ends.

So he sits there watching the fire, mind emptying of thought and worry and need. All there is, in this place and in this moment, is Alexander and the fire. Somewhere there’s a memory from high school, a memory that the air and the wood and the heat from the flint and steel he’d used created it. Another memory that this fire will always be here and Alexander will always be watching it, like he’d always be sat by another fire with Kalen and Sera. Again, the thoughts drift away from conscious thought.

The flames dance and flicker and shift over the wood as it chars and blackens and turns to ash. Yellow turns to red as the air over the fire cools in the wintry air. The view behind the fire dances as the heat haze distorts the air, drawing upwards over the centre of the fire and drifting downwards again as it cools.

Time passes, although Alexander would never be able to quantify it. It’s still night when he looks away, although clouds have blown in and masked the stars from view. The fire is still burning but has died right down, needing fuel before it fades away into nothing. He shifts, feeling his cold muscles complaining as he pushes up from the ground to walk over to the wood stack to resurrect the flame. He pauses mid-step, looking again at the fire. There’s a nagging feeling of something… forgotten? Yet to be learned? But the feeling passes as soon as it arrives. He throws some more wood onto the fire, feeding it enough to last the rest of the night, before ducking into the tent to settle down to sleep.

******

Everything changes so quickly. There’s a storm. Wind dredges up snow from the ground, adding it to the sharp flecks of ice that swirl in from the sky. All is white. His exposed skin stings where the frozen water hits it, cooling and burning at the same time. He pulls up his collar, shrugging down into his coat, as he walks. There’s something familiar about it all. And there’s something he’s looking for in the storm. There’s a voice drowned out by the wind, just on the edge of hearing. He seems to be getting closer, almost close enough to distinguish the words.

Almost.

******

Alexander sits up suddenly, still wrapped in the sleeping bag that he’d drifted off to sleep in. He shakes himself free and opens up the front of the tent. Nothing has changed. It’s still night, the sky has clouded over but is otherwise calm. The fire… The fire seems to be... More colourful? More intense? More… More?

He moves to crouch by the fire, holding his hands out to feel the heat radiating off the still-burning wood. The nagging feeling returns, a feeling that there’s something he’s forgotten and just on the verge of remembering. The sensation of warm air flowing around his fingers seems to… Remind him?

Alexander’s senses extend in some way and the patterns of thermal energy around the fire become clear. The radiation from the burning fuel. The eddies of heat convection in the air. The conduction of heat through the stone in the floor of the cave. It’s almost like realising that you have more than one eye to see through, and having it gives everything… depth. He looks down at his hand and watches the lines of heat curl up into the cold air, fading as it cools to the ambient air temperature just as the deepening of his vision fades.

Some had told him once: You need to see the world. Look for things. Take it apart and put it back together and feel the way it moves inside you, again and again and again. He remembers the advice, even when it was hard to accept that his world had shifted sideways. Here had been times when it would have been easier to put away the new toys and shut it all out, go back to his old life and try to forget any of the weirdness had ever happened. But didn’t that way lie insanity? Or worse?

So, now, he walks out of the cave and into the wind that had blown up outside. It was nowhere near the intensity of the memory of the storm, but it was enough. Arms stretched out wide, he feels the way the air blows over him and... and this time he pushed his will against reality. It bends and, for a few moments, his eyes open to the kinetic energy of the moving air. Lines of force appear in the air, for those few moment, it’s beautiful.

Wonderful.



******

Alexander
[Arete, sensing Forces, +1 diff for the first time, -1 for taking time. Be gentle, dice roller.]

Dice: 1 d10 TN4 (7) ( success x 1 )

Alexander
Woot!

ix
Yay! Witnessed!

*****

Vesta
[Arete, Sensing the kinetic energy of the wind, +1 first time, -1 taking time]

Dice: 1 d10 TN4 (3) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

ix
Witnessed!
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