Down at the Lawn, as usual, Nathaniel was experimenting. Maybe not the next scientific or magical breakthrough, but to see how far in ability he has come since he first stepped into Brunnhold.

Not minding the cool ambiance, he went to work setting up equipment that he brought along with him. Before too long, what seemed to look like something of a bizarre obstacle course took shape.

Several wooden posts of varying heights (anywhere between three feet and eight feet)where stuck in the ground, spaced at seemingly random distances from each other, ranging from three feet to twelve feet apart. At the top of each post was a hoop each a foot wide.

Next, Nathaniel placed a pot full of soil on a footstool he found laying around on the Lawn. On the ground next to it, he placed a bowl of water.
And finally, he took out a three foot metal rod and vertically stuck it in the ground.

Finally exhaling, Nathaniel stepped back to admire his setup.
I'll have to finish my tests on someone with Preception, he thought. But I'll worry about who I'll recruit for it later. Let's get things started.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, Nathaniel's mind turned towards what he was about to do. Reaching into his satchel on the ground, he brought out a stitched-up leather ball about six inches in diameter. Laying aside his satchel, he tossed the ball onto the ground a couple of feet in front of him. Focusing completely on the ball, Nathaniel spoke only Monite, requesting for the ball to Levitate.

Nathaniel's field was calm and centered and his recitations were clear. The mona about Nathan made a sound like a sigh past his ears. He thought he could smell rain, a sign of a successful cast.

Gravity around the ball weakened, leaving a strange ident in the grass peripheral to the spell. The ball rose three feet in the air, bobbing slowly. Ceasing to concentrate on the spell would cause the ball to drop, though other varients of the spell lasted longer.

Without pausing, Nathaniel vocalizes his intention to Push the ball through all five of the hoops in Monite.

((Hey mate, you're just slipping out of past tense a bit, otherwise you're golden.))

The mona listened to his request, humming quietly as they performed the task. There was no reason for them not to. The ball moved slowly through the air, passing through the first four hoops while moving slightly to the side. The ball missed the last hoop by the narrowest of margins. This would have been of interest to Nathaniel, as it indicated that even though he could cast the spell, he still needed to aim very carefully. The ball landed on the ground with a soft thump, rolling forward for a few metres as the spell slowed and then stopped.

((Ooh, I just noticed. Thanks! It was probably me typing when I was sleep deprived. ))

Nathaniel didn't see the task as a complete failure. After all, he made very good progress since he tried the same thing a week ago.

Hmm, thought Nathaniel. I've built up a good relationship with the Mona, but I see that it needs work. I'll have to talk with someone to see if I can improve it even further. Next is the rose seed in the pot. Now let's see.....

Nathaniel turned to the pot on the stool.

Nauleth was a fan of weekends; sleeping in and a leisurely jog around campus made the craziness of the week melt away like moisture in the sun. With a few more hours before lunch, the older boy decided to walk across the Lawn on his way back to his dorm. It wasn't early, but the scorched field was relatively empty.

Half-way across, he noticed the collection of what seemed to be random items in what could only be considered an obstacle course of sorts and was reminded of his own training with the Librarian a week ago. Curious to notice the student practicing was apparently alone, Naul changed the course of his walk to wander closer. He caught a whiff of rain on the air while he was still quite a distance, and thus was able to watch the younger boy's casting.

The older student smirked, recognizing the spells, and decided that he could practice being social for once. He cleared his throat and eyed the hoops, remembering his experience with targets and marbles,

"It's too bad the Mona can't aim for you, too, eh?" Nauleth spoke up, sounding more cautious than friendly.

Nathaniel hadn't noticed anyone approaching, and so was a little startled when an older boy he didn't know called out to him.

Good thing I didn't cast right when he spoke, thought Nathaniel. Hehe, that would have been rude.
Taking a moment to turn around and get a good look at the speaker, he recognized the boy as Nauleth? I think his name is Nauleth. Nathaniel had only seen the boy around a couple times, in the hallways and maybe in a class or two. But they've never spoken to each other.
Glancing at Nauleth's white hair streak, Nathaniel remembered the rumors of that being the result of a brailing accident. What would a guy this infamous want with me?

"Yeah, I should have put more thought into that. What's your name? You look familiar and I'm bad with names," Nathaniel grinned.

The older boy scoffed a little, "My name?" It'd been a while since someone asked him that question; usually everyone knew or didn't care, "Nauleth Siordanti." He chuckled, curious to see if his reputation preceded him, "And you? You're what ... fifth? Sixth year, perhaps?"

The younger boy quietly noted the subtle air of surprise from Nauleth with some amusement.He seems nice enough.

"You can call me Nathaniel. My name is Nathaniel Robinson. And yeah, I'm a fifth year." Nathaniel paused, unsure of what to say next. It's always a rare event that anyone would come up during his training and talk to him. It was usually a professor or two. They would usually ask what he was doing, listen a little, and then wander off. But no student, until now. This boy was different.

And he was interesting. Nathaniel was dying to know if the rumors were true, but at the same time, he knew most rumors were either not true or just exaggerated. I don't know what to say, I don't want to insult this guy who I just met.

He decided to at least say something.
"I'm just here practicing my magic. See how far I can go."

Nauleth smiled tentatively, one side of his face at a time, crossing his arms, "Well, I wouldn't really get your hopes up for professors to teach you what you need to know ..." He glanced about Nathaniel's set-up again, curiously, "It's always worth it to study on your own."

The older boy thumbed his nose thoughtfully, huffing at his white-streaked bangs, as if it was a bit of an effort to think of things to say. It was a stretch of his character to be conversational, but he was working slowly on personal improvements, "Anything in particular you're working on?"

"Yeah, it helps you stay ahead in class."
Nathaniel gestured at the setup behind him: "I'm just working on a couple of different things from each type of magic I know. Going through the basics and then trying to work on harder stuff."
He seems like he knows a good bit about magic, maybe he can help me. Hmm, I think I could maybe trust him. He looks like he's trying to open up. Nathaniel turned red a little. "This will sound silly, but I'm trying to master everything about magic."

Naul laughed; it was noticeably sardonic but not terribly mocking. His smile thinned, but he wasn't intentionally trying to be discouraging, "Good luck with that, kid."

He could respect ambition. The older boy used to have more of that, but now found himself wishing he had more direction. It was hard to want more when you had nowhere to go with it.

He rolled his shoulders and seemed to study the younger boy from over the sharp curve of his nose, curious. It was hard not to sound condescending, but he made an effort, "So, have you chosen your specialization yet? It's quite a hefty ambition to become the master of many disciplines before you've mastered one." He smirked at himself, wondering if he just sounded like some clocking professor. He'd been spending too much time around the Librarian or something.

He probably didn't mean it like that, but he sounded like a clocking professor. Nathaniel suddenly felt shy around someone who has more experience with magic than he does.

"Well, I really like Physical and Static magic. If I were going to specialize in anything, it would be those two," Nathaniel said in a pensive voice. As he spoke, he noticed the slight Static-y tinge of Nauleth. "But then again, some things are very useful from both the Living and Perceptive magics."

The lawn was not Ali's favorite place. Her favorite form of magic did not really have physical ramifications like the others. However, it was the weekend; she'd been bored to tears all morning, and now it was time for a walk around the Brunnhold campus. She'd walked most of the way, but she wanted to get a few chapters in before lunch, so she was going to cut across the practice field. Might as well have something resembling a productive morning.

Smoothing her dress, Alisoina wished she could have worn something as beautiful as Athrym's icy blue dress. While she wasn't too fond of the first time she'd seen it, she had to admit Athrym looked lovely. The green and cerulean frock she had decided upon was pretty enough for a walk around the school, at least. And it had that snug, high waist that portrayed certain aspects rather well... better dressed for confidence, at least. She wanted to hurry back to her room and start novel; recently she'd lost interest in the historical romance she'd been reading.

However, the lawn was inexplicably taken. There was a boy around her age with all sorts of gadgets around him, and someone a little taller. Although she normally hated introductions, something about the scene interested her. Walking up to the pair, she smiled.

"Hello there! What're you up to, with all these things?" She bobbed a respectful nod to the blonde boy. "I'm Alisoina! Who are you-" She recognized the black hair, the field. She froze, suddenly awkward and unsure. "Oh. Hello, Nauleth." Alisoina looked at her shoes, wishing she had never left her room at all. What do I do now?

If Nathaniel was looking, he would've seen the older boy in front of him lose what little color he had in his pale cheeks at Alisoina's sudden appearance. His face softened and his brows furrowed a little as he turned to stand between the two younger students. However, he managed to keep his thin smile to hide some lingering guilt from their previous unpleasantries in the East Garden.

I should really say something about all that ... now that things have found a resolution on their own.

"Hello, Alisoina." His voice held no malice; it might even have been apologetic if it weren't for the blond boy's presence. He let his hands unfold from his chest and slide into his pockets as was his usual habit, glancing at the red-head through his bangs, "It's, uh, good to see you."

Nathaniel spun around at the new voice. Two student visitors! This is unprecedented!
"Hello! I'm pleased to meet you, you can call me Nathaniel. I - " Nathaniel cut himself off when he sensed the cautious air hanging between both Alisoina and Nauleth. Boy and girl, they must have had some sort of romantic trouble between them. Yikes. This is awkward.
The pause only lasted for a second.
"I was experimenting with how far I could go with my magic, and try out some second level spells I've been researching," Nathaniel said quickly.

"Yeah. Um. Good to see you too." Her cheeks pinked, however it wasn't in affection or delicate embarrassment. She wished she could have had this conversation elsewhere, but now was as good a time as any. I can't believe I'm going to say this in front of a complete stranger... She gripped the ides of her dress, unable to meet Naul's eyes.

"Yes. Well, thank you for... um... the discussion we had in the garden. Your advice really sca- helped me." I'm sorry for ruining things for you and Athrym, she thought to herself, genuinely contrite. I really am, I just wanted a someone. Biting the inside of her lip, she turned to the other boy.


"Really?" Even with the figurative elephant standing on the lawn with them, Alisoina couldn't help but be interested in what Nathaniel was trying to do. Second level? How did he learn so much? She was suddenly paying a lot more attention to the blonde than before.

"I've been trying to work on second level spells. Not really found the time, recently, but it's amazing that you're doing them!" She looked at the articles around them, wondering what he was going to try next.

Nathaniel turned pink at the new girl's sudden rapt interest in his experimenting.
"Aheh, yeah. I've been studying this spell called Conflagration for about a month now." Nathaniel was eager for anything that would focus both of the visitor's attention from each other. "I'm going to try it for my first time, would you both like to watch?"

Nathaniel strode out twenty feet away, scooping the skeleton remains of a crate. It was an object, it was all that mattered for the experiment. Placing the crate in an open area about twenty more feet away, Nathaniel jogged back to where his observers were waiting.

"Okay, this spell has a chance of misfiring, so be ready for anything. Ready?" Nathaniel asked matter-of-factly.

Nauleth scowled, glancing briefly at Nathaniel before deciding it really didn't matter what he talked about in front of the boy ... it wasn't going to make sense out of context. He knew things were better between the younger girl and Athrym, but he wasn't quite sure how to express that he hadn't intended for things to become so messy. It was frustrating, this whole social thing. The delicate balance was somewhat uncomfortable at best, and the older boy wasn't quite sure he was equipped to keep up.



He opened his mouth to go ahead and apologize, only to realize the girl was intent to continue talking.



Naul took the chance as the younger boy walked away, speaking quietly from under his bangs, "Look, Alisoina ... about ... before, uh, in the garden. I'm ... I'm sorry. It wasn't my intention to ... ugh." He looked away, frustrated with words already, and tried not to growl, "Things are fine. Better than fine, actually. You're fine. I'm fine. Athrym's fine." He tried to smile, but it was really all too awkward. He sighed, shifting his glance to see what this Nathaniel kid was up to, "So ... yeah."

By the time Nathaniel came back to the pair, things seemed to be more relaxed between them than it was a minute ago.

"Okay, here we go."

Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly to relax himself, Nathaniel began to recite the Monite language for the Conflagration spell, focusing solely on the broken crate thirty feet away.

The mona tingled around his fingertips, jittering around and causing him to feel a warmth of magic. He could taste peppermint and carbon as the magic took effect. The heat focused into a thick dart of flame the length of his arm. It shot off at a high speed... toward the Keepe Ye Off The Grasse sign. The back of the signpost caught flame, dropping lit splinters into the dry grass, where it erupted in flame. The lawn was aflame, and a gust of wind threatened to spread it quickly.

Pleasantly surprised the didn't backlash, Nathaniel was disappointed by the misfire of his Conflagration.
All the same though, this was serious. The whole Lawn could catch on fire, and ruin his setup. The professors would put out the fire, and he would possibly get in trouble for it.
I'll deal with fine-tuning later, thought Nathaniel as he sprinted toward the flaming sign and grass.

Uttering the Airlessness spell in a polite, but urgently pleading voice to the Mona, he gestured at the area that the fire occupied.

That's... cryptic. She smiled slightly at the older boy, pulling on her skirt, almost ignoring Nathaniel's spell.

"Um... that's fine, then. I'm sorry that I, um... made it necessary to come find me there." She felt utterly unable to make coherent speech. "I'm glad we had this chat." Oh goddess, I am so terrible at this sort of thing. Sighing, she turned to look after Nathaniel. "Yes... good to know that- wait, did he just set everything on fire?" The scent of smoke was thickening, and she felt herself at a loss for words and actions.

The Airlessness spell was as effective as it could be in such an open space. Nathaniel noticed that he was feeling breathless and almost shaken, from having cast his first second level spell. He felt a pressure on his lungs, as his fatigue caused spell runoff. Ali and Naul would likely have been able to feel it as well. The mona focused mainly on the sign, the burning wood slowly becoming nothing but embers. The flames on the grass sputtered out and died, still too wet from morning dew to come alight.

Professor Doreen Dallium walked by sighing.

"Oh look, another one." She was a master of perceptive magic but that didn't mean she couldn't use static.

Her hands fluttered in the air as she spoke the monite for Hydrosmosis, flinching both her hands into fists. The grass around the sign went black, all the water instantly drained from them. The water floated up and coated the embers on the sign, putting them out.

She turned to give the three students a pointed look when a young man jumped out from behind the sign, choking.

"You idiot!" The boy shouted. "Are you trying to choke me to death."

Dallium raised her eyebrow at Nathaniel. "Well? Are you?"

The boy bent over coughing. Nathaniel had yet to stop focusing on the spell and he was dangerously close to falling over from weakeness and lack of air.

"I'm sorry, professor! I didn't mean to!" exclaimed Nathaniel. Quickly releasing his focus on his spell, he let Airlessness dissipate.
"Are you okay?"