Rupert who was standing near the wheel and the captain, who was on his knees at this point, heard Maelen and realized the problem. Quickly Rupert dashed up to Edwyrd, nearly touching the flames themselves. Maelen decided then and there that that child had no common sense of danger what so ever. Given the heat, that even Maelen could feel it from midship, radiating from Edwyrd, it should have been unbearable for the child. Nonetheless he was shouting in Edwyrd’s ear.
Suddenly Edwyrd’s flame’s flickered as he realized what Rupert was saying and tried to compensate. His flames flickered and for an instant seemed about to go out. Within less than a second they reappeared in full strength as Rupert backed away to stand safely behind Edwyrd. The deck, while slightly blackened, no longer seemed to be charring. Edwyrd’s flames reached back in full force against the wizard.
The waves of intensified flame became stronger and stronger, faster and faster. Maelen projected his sight over to the other ship to observe the wizards. The stronger wizard who was maintaining the cold shield was beginning to sweat with exertion. He was motioning something to the younger wizard, who was once again on his feet. Before Maelen realized what was happening to shout a warning, the younger wizard stepped out from the side of the cold shield and fired off a lightning bolt larger than anything he’d cast previously. The bolt streaked right for Edwyrd even as Maelen yelled.
As he yelled, Maelen realized it was pointless. Edwyrd was pure flame, lightning couldn’t affect him. Especially since lightning was simply another Aspect of the Element of Fire, even as Edwyrd was at the moment. Maelen’s relief was short lived, however. The bolt did pass right through Edwyrd, but Rupert was standing behind him!
Rupert screamed heart-wrenchingly as the bolt struck him in the chest. While not quite as powerful as the bolt that had struck Edwyrd, Rupert was enough smaller of a target for the discharge that the effect was similar. Due to the angle this time, however, Rupert’s electrified and glowing body was knocked backward into the wheel and then bounced off and around.
Apparently, Edwyrd heard the scream and turned to see Rupert’s body go careening off the wheel. Once again his flame nearly died. However this time, Edwyrd roared, extremely loudly. Suddenly, the Living Flame that was Edwyrd nearly doubled in size and breadth. The arm of flame across the water was no more, but a living giant of pure flame stood upon the deck of the ship. Slowly the giant of fire seemed to be growing a large cloak around it. It took a moment for Maelen to realize that it wasn’t a cloak though! They were giant pinions, wings! No longer was there a flaming giant on the deck, but rather now an angel made of flame, a living Avatar of Fire. Essentially an intelligent Fire Elemental!
The Avatar of Fire spread its wings and rose into the sky. As it did so, it shrieked blasts of flame that rocketed across the water to the enemy ship. Frantically the two enemy wizards tried to douse the flames with limited success. Suddenly, however, the flame that was Edwyrd turned blue-white. Arcs of blue-white flame streaked across the gap between the ship and the Avatar of Fire. The more powerful wizard flung up his cold shield. The shield however, lasted but a few moments before the onslaught of blue-white flame, then collapsed. Down streaked the blue-white flame, striking the wizard full in the chest.
Fire exploded on the enemy vessel all around the wizard. The blue flame continued for several seconds pounding on the wizard. The wizard’s last line of defenses gave and suddenly he began to burn, charring. Charring even faster than the body of little Rupert had from the lightning. The wizard’s body crumbled to ash as the flames continued to sweep the deck. Within moments the entire ship was a single huge bonfire.
As the ship became completely engulfed in flame, the Avatar of Fire flickered. Its flames went back to yellow, then to orange and finally red. At that point it seemed to lose all energy and fell from the sky. It plummeted like a rock to crash into the sea, raising a great cloud of steam.
Animages
As everyone most likely knows, animages as a profession are neither well known nor extremely common. This is due to a wide variety of facts, including the fact that the term animage is met with uneasiness and trepidation in many parts, and even fear in others. Why this should be so is unclear, but many feel that in large part it is due to the fact that many animages are rumored to be able to read and control minds. Things that Sorcerers and Enchanters may also do, but which, nonetheless, animages have gotten a bad reputation for. These beliefs in the invasion of mental privacy have made many uneasy.
These paranoid beliefs in fact have led to a rather strong code of ethics about this very thing, subscribed to by most animages and instilled in almost all pupils. Nonetheless, the rumors still persist. For the sake of literary honesty, historians hint that there may have been cause for such trepidation a long time ago, before the ethics were enforced. Certainly legends of the rule of the Anilords and their elite forces the Time Warriors still instill terror in young children everywhere. Such fears are not helped by periodic resurgence in rumors about mad mentalists and the supposed Twenty First discipline. Fortunately, there is no such discipline and the few remaining organized animage groups do much to publicize this fact.
Regardless of the reason for such fears, the fact remains, the number of individuals actually referring to themselves as animage is pointedly few. Almost no schools referring to themselves as such exist in the world today. This not to say none such exist, rather none exist under that name. The great animages of legend are thought to be true liberal scholars, rather mixing and matching disciplines as a matter of personal interest, and being fairly well versed in all of them, regardless of the sacrifice in power this cost them by not concentrating in only a few disciplines. As stated, such ‘true animages’ today are few. Due to the lack of schools, all known such animages are generally taught by a single master with a single pupil as they wander the countryside, or live in a tower or whatever. Naturally having only one teacher does not give a truly liberal education, thus most eventually leave to seek other masters or try and teach themselves.
If there are few such ‘true animages,’ and this an admittedly annoyingly vague term, where are the rest? These other animages are not actually uncommon; they just go by other names. The names they go by are generally representative of their specialization. Common animage specializations often thought of by laymen as separate professions include Seers, Elementalists, Summoners, Mentalists (or any other of a dozen pseudonyms), Healers and the now extinct Time Warriors.
Of these other ‘subprofessions,’ most actually do have schools here and there, especially the Healers and Elementalists. The Summoners occasionally do, and while there are Seer schools, Seeing is most often taught on a one to one basis with a single master, like traditional animages.
Mentalists or whatever they may call themselves in different countries to avoid suspicion, do infrequently have schools, or temples, but are also just as often outlawed altogether.
There are no Time Warriors left alive, as far as any one knows, but given the very nature of their disciplines, they may only be on hiatus.
Anilords