Weapons for the innocent (Luther and Darcie)

Luther was waiting at the edge of the pier for Darcie to appear. He'd tried to find a place to train her that was both open and wide and at the same time, not often visited. This area of the creatures' domain happened to be both open and secluded.

Sitting down on one of the pier's posts, Luther watched the stars. It was twilight and the stars were just starting to poke out.

Darcie was more than a little nervous when Luther had told her that they were going to have their first defense lesson together, it was going to be so difficult to have the strength to do the spells when she was being expected to perform them.

Spotting Luther she could not help but smile, and Darcie quickly hurried over to him, waving from a distance she sat down next to him slightly out of breath as she did so, a large smile on her lips.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Hey Luther!" Darcie greeted happily "I'm so nervous about this lesson."

Luther raised an amused eyebrow as Darcie waved at him and came haring down the pier to meet him. Chuckling a little bit, he waved a hand lazily as he stood up from his position on one of the pier's supports. She was unlikely to show any great aptitude for combat spells straight away but he was confident that he could turn her around so that she was a force to look out for.

He smiled a little bit when she approached him. She made him feel happier about everything in his life, including him. He shook his head slightly,

"No need to be nervous Darcie." he assured her before tapping his chest, "Hit me with a cutting curse please."

Darcie smiled happily and she tilted her head to one side as she looked out over the peir it really was a beautiful place and she wondered why she had never been here before, it was probably because she had been busy with school lessons and marking tests.

"Well how have you be-" Darcie started to ask but the rather blunt manner in which Luther began the lesson made her blink a little bit and she bit her lip.

When he asked her to send a cutting curse his way, Darcie's eyes widened and she blinked again, looking between her wand and Luther, then back again.

"W-what?" she asked "B-but I dont want to."

Luther had decided that shoking Darcie into doing something was going to be the best way to teach her how to fight. Why? Because it was in her nature to assume the best in people. That meant that 9 times out of 10 any attack would be surprising to her. She needed to learn to act on the surprise quickly. He smirked slightly,

"I've been very well thank you. I hope you have as well. But now, as I said before..." he smiled a little bit, "Cutting curse to my chest please."

He sighed a little bit before tapping his chest. When she didn't seem inclined to attack him still, he smiled a little bit,

"Come on Darcie." he encouraged her, "I need to see what I have to work with so I know where to go from. So just use the spell and we can move on from there alright?"

Darcie pouted a little bit, she did not want to attack Luther! She had only wanted to attack a dummy or a tree or something, what would she have to do if she managed to hurt him by accident, she would never be able to live with herself.

"W-well I don't want to hurt you so..." she said quietly, nibbling on her lip trying to make sure that she took as much time as possible before she had to cast the spell.

Holding out her wand, she closed her eyes and she squeaked out;

"Lacero!"

Feeling the spell leave her wand she opened one eye and wondered where it might hit, after all there was a long time between now and the last time she cast this spell.

Luther could see that Darcie was pouting that cute little pout of hers and he almost buckled under it for a moment but didn't. She needed to learn how to attack another human being seeing as most of her enemies would be humans,

"It's alright Darcie, I promise you won't hurt me." he told her with a reassuring smile, or at least thats what he hoped it turned out like, "You can fire away and I'll be fine."

As soon as she let loose the spell he knew that it was weak. It wasn't even a solid colour, it was pale, and that was a sure-fire way to tell when a spell was weak. So he did something to prove a point to Darcie.

He didn't block it.

The weak cutting spell sliced through his shirt and the first layer of skin. He looked down and saw a thin line of red across his chest. He smiled up at Darcie,

"See? I'm fine." he told her before looking down at the minor damage again, "I think I know what areas we need to work on. You ready to start properly?"

Darcie opened her eyes fully and she let her jaw drop, unable to stop herself from tearing up she looked at Luther, she could not believe that she had actually made him bleed!

Almost wanting to cast the spell on herself for being so mean to Luther Darcie sniffled and she wiped at her eyes, wiggling her hands in the air in an attempt to stop herself from crying fully.

"No, no I am not ready to start properly!" she cried unable to stop herself from sniffling again.

Wiping at her eyes again Darcie looked at her feet and shuffled them on the floor, turning around she folded her arms across her chest;

"I don't think I want this training after all, I can't hurt anybody...not even if I wanted to."

Luther saw the panic in Darcie's eyes and decided that now would be a good time to repair the limited damage to both his skin and his shirt. With a wave of his wand the bloody line disappeared and his shirt pulled itself back together perfectly.

Seeing that she was distressed by this turn of events, Luther walked up to her and hugged her lightly, not wanting to hurt her. Gently, he stroked her hair,

"It's alright Darcie." he told her quietly, "I'm alright and there's nothing wrong. We can work with dummies now alright?"

He frowned a little bit and lifted her face to face him by gently lifting her chin up,

"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right Darcie." he told her with a small smile, "But sometimes you have to fight. You know this right?"

Darcie was a little bit surprised when she was hugged by Luther, she loved being hugged by him there was no denying that, however, she hadn't thought that he would be wanting to hug her now, given his almost business like approach to their training.

Purring lightly as he stroked her hair, Darcie smiled gently and wiped away the last few of her tears with a happy sort of laugh, embarrassed at her behaviour.

"Working with dummies would be a good way to help me I think, it would make me stop being so upset when I cast a harmful spell at least." she laughed lightly.

Nodding her head, Darcie pouted and then blinked as an idea started in her mind; "Would you be able to teach me protective spells instead, so instead of hurting people, I could just protect myself."

Hugging was still not something that Luther was very good at but he knew how much it meant to Darcie so he was hugging her now as best he could. She deserved some comfort after he'd basically scared the living hell out of her. The purring she began when he began to stroke her hair was a bit strange to him. But then again she'd done it before and she'd explained that it was the way she reacted to nice sensations,

"I think we're going to need some dummies by the sound of it then. Good thing I packed some." he chuckled slightly and waved his wand a few times. Shrunken training dummies flew from his pocket, enlarging as they went, until they were standing a few yards from them, "There we go."

He looked down at her for a second before nodding slowly,

"I could teach you defensive spells and nothing else. But..." he held up a hand for her patience, "What happens when someone gets past your defense?"

Darcie was now far more happy that she had the chance to practice on dummies, that was before she was comfortable with the spells, after she knew them and was comfortable using them, she would be able to do them on a real person, but only in a battle situation.

Lord help her if she was attacked by someone that she knew, like Richard, she knew she would not be able to retaliate very well and that was her downfall. But she wouldn't change herself.

"Yay!" she said happily "Thank you for understanding that I can't do it on a person yet, its one of the hardest things for me, to have to use them to hurt other people."

Biting her lip she smiled gently and shrugged her shoulders; "I would have gotten away from the fight by that time I would think."