April is the Season of Budding Love -- Meeting at April Springs II
Type of Story: Ficlet
Genre: Romance, Campus, Fantasy
Original Character #1: Aries Marquis - 20 years old male student with brown, wavy hair, usually has it slightly spiked. Ice blue orbs that flashes gold when annoyed.
Original Character #2: Vincent Caligari - 38 years old advanced elemental battle/survival teacher. Always calm, but not relaxed, very strict but never raises his voice. Pure gold eyes, jet black and perfectly straight hair. He keeps it long and wears it tied to the nape of his neck with a piece of leather. His clothes are loose but cling in all the right places. He tends to like dark colours.
Pairing: Vincent x Aries
Setting: Freestyle. Vincent chases Aries
Length: As long as you like. At least 3,000 words per chapter maybe? I'm not too bothered. I don't have a max length.
A/N: Gaiaonline request.
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Sadly , the battlefield survival professor had yet had the opportunity to teach the younger, as Aries had yet to clear his credits needed to advance, despite being labelled as a prodigy by some of the teachers in school. It doesn't matter, Vincent knew one day they would meet, just not quite the way he expected it.
It was a few weeks ago - or was it months? - that the two first met, outside of the school compound. Vincent was looking for a new space for his practical sessions. Sticking true to the essence of a real battlefield, the professor never liked teaching his students in the faux setting within campus grounds. Those harmless plants and man-made equipment just isn't going to make the cut, if they ever have to be thrown in a desert plain or humid rainforest to fight for survival.
Undoubtedly, the Black Forest at the foot of the mountains where the school is located is a perfect spot for training the students' technique in elementals usage, basic camping skills as well as their survival instincts. With different sector of the forest having different kinds of vegetation, with each season posing different challenges to overcome.
He was just entering the out-of-bound sectors of the west side, finding his perfect spot, examining the various plants to makes sure that the class stays clear of botany that they couldn't handle just yet. In a lush forest like that, learning the uses of these plants could be key to their survival. While the out-of-bounds parts are set up so that students are warned of the dangers beyond the markers, students can set foot in it if there is a professor supervising, so it is not a rare sight for Vincent to round his class to various parts of the Black Forest, much to most of the students' silent complains.
The raven went deeper in then he originally wanted to that day, when he heard the rustling of the waters, accompanied by crackling sounds, liken to that of a crystal cracking and then shattering into pieces. Vincent blinked, muscles tensed as he narrowed his eyes at the sounds of a beast's cries, and then, silence. He stood up from his crouching position, the wild vines lain forgotten. Beasts, he can deal with, but that sound - someone else is definitely there. Keeping his steps as light as possible, his golden orbs made a quick scan of his surroundings, hands raised in case of potential battle. When all that replied his battle stance as an eerie silence, Vincent flexed his fingers, feeling that slight tingle of electricity running at his fingertips as he made his way towards the source of the sounds. Soon enough he found a wounded Drop Bear, huge carnivorous creature with resemblance to the average bear, lying on the floor. The two hind legs are locked in ice, while the chest is marred by what it seems like huge jagged cuts. Vincent arched his brows, not liking this combination; not only is the person an elementalist, but also good with weapons - a double threat, most definitely.
Threading on, he spotted a shadow amongst the trees, and followed him on instinct - and he had never regretted since. It was that action that led him to this April Springs, the place he himself hadn't actually step foot in for a very long time. The first time he wandered into the clearing, it was an unexpected find. Like usual, he was looking for a space for his next practical when he stumbled upon the serenity, but since then he wasn't able to find this space successfully, especially when rain had erased most of the markings he made on parchment.
Unlike the tranquillity of the first time, Vincent kept his guard up as the figure by the waters noticed him. He watched as the surface started to solidify into a thin layer of ice, and just when the older man was about to set up his offensive, his eyes trailed to the black uniform of the other. A student, from his school, no doubt. He took a deep breath, evening it as he eased the electricity formed by the tensions running through his spine. The student looked up to face him, teeth clenched and even with that blood dripping from his left temple, Vincent recognized him. That spiked brown hair and facial features were hard to forget, and he was slightly surprised when his golden orbs meet the other's matching eyes. That flash of gold, albeit for a moment, did not go undetected by the experienced man.
The eyes of an elementalists always reflect their element abilities, which was why his was a rare gold to represent that he is a wielder of the lightning element, while ice-elementalists like Aries is a beautiful ice-blue, until that moment that is.
The sounds of cracking ice brought Vincent's attention back to the student, and noticed the torn uniform on his right shoulder. The elder retracted the electricity running at his fingertips and straightened himself, trying to show that he meant no harm with his body language. Aries blinked once, twice, and let the ice surface melt under his palm as he hunched over.
The first day Vincent met Aries outside of the campus grounds, was the day he had striped the younger of his blazer and actually sat down to treat his wounds. He almost never does that in class; you don't waltz into a battlefield survival class without being prepared to head to the infirmary at the end of the day, and one is always expected to learn how to use what they have around them as emergency first-aid in case they are injured or poisoned. In other words, Aries had special treatment, and why, Vincent never really understood back then. As far as he knew, he was intrigued by the possibility of Aries being a double element wielder - for that was definitely going to make things interesting.
<-- P A R T I --