A Land of Flowers and Fae

Teaching

The sun was burning orange on the horizon when they reached the edge of the Rambling Redwood forests. Though many fairies found Lavan's lands unsettling, in his opinion, this was one of the most unsettling places in Fairytopia. The redwoods were almost too big to fathom. Their trunks were so large, each tree felt like a mountain. Their branches spread so far into the sky, Pyrrah would have to do some exhausting work to get above them. While he wanted them to get a good ways into the forest before stopping, he realized that the orange sunlight of early evening simply couldn't penetrate the thick leaves of this forest. Once they made it past the first line of trees they were in twilight.

Pyrrah's wing flaps grew labored as she lost the sun's warmth. Her feathers dulled.

"I think Pyrrah needs to stop" Elina observed. Bibble jabbered his agreement and desire for a rest.

Lavan assented, the small firebird landed in the wide boughs of one the redwoods. The branches were so wide it was more like perching on a wide cliff face than anything else. Lavan helped Elina slide off the bird's back. "We should rest in the trees. It will get very cool nearer to the ground" he said.

The female fairy nodded and hopped down. Stretching her arms out and cracking her back.

"I'll get started on making camp" she said, strolling off.

Lavan turned back to the young firebird.

"Good job my friend. You can rest for the night" patting the side of her neck. She curled her beak around and tapped him on the side of the head. She let out a squeal. Probably meaning to sound cute and endearing. Instead she sounded like a the whistle a log makes when it's thrown in the fire while still wet.

He smiled and backed away. Allowing the young firebird to tuck her head under her wing. Going to sleep almost immediately.

Bibble trilled then settled on the bird's back. Those two had made friends over the course of the day it seemed.

Lavan turned to see that Elina had plied her magic to form a small tent, encouraging the redwood to grow thin green branches to form the structure.

"You're improving. Very quickly, I might add" Lavan commented, watching with interest as she added her own flair. Small white flowers blooming along the edges of the structure.

She giggled, seeming a bit embarrassed.

"I can't really stop the flowers from growing off everything I make"

"It's a feature of how your magic manifests. It's quite lovely"

"Thank you".

"Since you've picked up structure building so well, would you want to learn a different type of magic tonight?"

She straightened, as he expected, that same excited smile bloomed across her face. He wondered if he could live the rest of his life like this. Showing her every interesting thing he'd ever seen. Earning that smile as many times as he could.

"Yes! What kind of magic were you thinking?"

He settled next to the tent and flicked a dead branch hanging above them with his magic. It floated downward and stripped itself into kindling. With another spark of power he had a fire going. The night's chill was already approaching since they were still under the cover of the redwood trees.

"Since you've shown yourself to be unusually gifted at learning spells, I'd say you're ready to learn some defensive magic"

Her hands were clasped in her lap, but she nodded along. Eyes sharp and focused. It was obvious her usual flood of questions was trying to bust out, but she was determined to hold it in.