my sheltered little boss [Amerie]

Unaware of the silent conversation between Aran and Gamma, Amerie continued playing with her new-found power, moving her hands around and trying to manipulate the current in different ways. The sparks twirled around her fingers and up her arms, coming out in little bursts and dissipating into the air.

"Solas is so pretty," she commented, watching the electricity. "This was never what I wanted to settle as, but I'm kinda glad I did now."

Aran, still mentally annoyed at Gamma, came back to reality when Amerie spoke up about settling as Solas. "Yeah, other people were surprised when I picked Solas," Aran replied. "They said it was weak, and that I'd have been better off with Adhbhar or Ughdaras or something. But I knew they were wrong, and I showed 'em."

Solas, like any eilemaiden, was only weak if you didn't know how to use it right. And it was maybe true that Solas was hard to get right for a lot of people, but if you could get it, it was pretty powerful.

"When did you settle, Aran?" Amerie asked, realizing that she didn't know much about her. It seemed only right that she know a little bit about Aran's story, now that she had told her about hers.

Amerie clasped her hands together, and then pulled them apart, creating a ball of light. It expanded when she pulled her hands further apart and then got smaller again as she drew them closer together. This was amazing!

"Me? Fifteen," Aran said. At the time she hadn't known this, but most people considered settling at fifteen to be early. However, her and a lot of the other kids who had grown up on the streets with no one to take care of them settled around fifteen. Maybe they just had had to grow up faster, having to take care of themselves from a young age.

Anyways, early or not, settling had been a blessing because Aran had finally been able to really defend herself and her friends. It wasn't that she didn't know how to fight before settling, but when she was fourteen and all she had was her fists, it was damn hard to fight someone who could shoot fireballs at her face.

"Jeeze," Amerie said. She couldn't imagine her life if she had settled a year ago. She could barely handle her life now.

She was quiet for a moment as she and Aran watched the glowing ball in her hands. Then she pushed it away from herself. The ball flew a few feet, getting smaller the further away it got from Amerie. Before it had completely dissapated it crashed into Aran.

Amerie knew it wouldn't hurt Aran, and she was pleased when it hit it's target. She smiled up at her trainer. 10 points for Amerie!

Aran smirked when Amerie hit her with a little ball of light. She really was getting the hang of this! Pretty quickly too.

It's because you're suuuuch a great trainer! Gamma said teasingly, imitating Amerie's compliment from earlier.

Shut up, Aran replied.

Getting an evil idea in her head, she shot a jolt of electricity at Amerie. It didn't hurt her, of course, but it did make all her hair stand up on end. Aran laughed.

The ball of electricity hit Amerie square in the chest, causing all the hair on her head to spike up in weird angles.

"Araaaan," she laughed, reaching up to pull her hair back around her shoulders. She patted down the frizzy mess, trying to straighten it. "You're a brat," she said, looking back up at her with a silly sort of pouty face.

If she had some sort of other move besides "ball of light" or "finger current" she would continue this little spar.

Try harder! Caviar said from his spot in the air. He enjoyed watching Amerie's confidence grow.

So Amerie did. She gathered up some more electricity and sent sparks all around. They didn't even come close to Aran, but it did make Amerie smile. She hadn't even needed to think about that one all that much. She was getting better!

The ball of electricity hit Amerie square in the chest, causing all the hair on her head to spike up in weird angles.

"Araaaan," she laughed, reaching up to pull her hair back around her shoulders. She patted down the frizzy mess, trying to straighten it. "You're a brat," she said, looking back up at her with a silly sort of pouty face.

If she had some sort of other move besides "ball of light" or "finger current" she would continue this little spar.

Try harder! Caviar said from his spot in the air. He enjoyed watching Amerie's confidence grow.

So Amerie did. She gathered up some more electricity and sent sparks all around. They didn't even come close to Aran, but it did make Amerie smile. She hadn't even needed to think about that one all that much. She was getting better!

The two continued to mess around and train for awhile until it was time for Amerie to go work on some overloridian stuff. It was a good day.