Pyrotechnics. (Jibrielle)

[Evil Hobgoblin]

There was a knock on Jibrielle's door. "Jibrielle," Hob called. "'tis Hob. I've a lesson ye will be burnin' to learn."

The irony in the dwarf's words did not translate to his voice. He wanted to see his apprentice's surprise when she opened the door and saw him standing there engulfed in flames.

[Jibrielle Abunai]

She was sitting in one of the room's corner, staring at the stone wall. It fascinated her, to think that someone had actually built this castle with their own sweat and blood, relying only on their knowledge and strength.

A knock on the door stirred the Apprentice as she rose to her feet, walking over to it. It was Hobgoblin, and immediately the door was flung open.

"Yes?" she asked, then saw the fire.

Her eyes widened as she took a step back, but he didn't seem to be affected by it. Immediately she calmed herself and canted her head to the side.

"Is it real?"

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob gazed at his hands, as though unaware he had been on fire. "Oh, this?" he asked, then blew on his hands. The fire there went out, and he began to brush himself off, sending bits and pieces of flame scattering into space, then fading.

"Yes, quite real," he said, then paused. His hands crept up to the top of his head, and then he began to whap the back of it. A flame there that Hob had missed flared up briefly, then disappeared.

"There," he stated firmly. "All finished."

The Hob grinned mischievously at his apprentice and gave her a broad wink. Jibrielle giggled.

"Fire is a powerful element," he said, tilting his head in the same fashion Jibrielle had before. "Useful in many respects. Would you like to learn how to control it?"

[Jibrielle Abunai]

Fire ... Yes, fire was indeed a powerful element.

"Yes, Sir, I'd like to ..."

It would be the first thing she ever had control of if it was taught to her, for she believed that even her life wasn't in her own hands.

"Will you teach me?"

The way he had made the fire appear and disappear fascinated Jibrielle, and she yearned to do the same. Maybe, just maybe, if she did the same things Hob did, he would notice her...

[Evil Hobgoblin]

"Then I will show you," Hob said.

He strode over to Jibrielle and began to stare into her eyes. "Open your mind to mine," he said.

Jibrielle had no sooner done so that abruptly the world around her changed. No longer could she see solid walls and plush furniture. Now, it was as though millions of tiny electric swirls were flooding everything. The solid objects she viewed were all swirls- atoms and molecules trapped within fuzzy glass cases of gravity.

She stared at them for a moment, then jerked her hand up to look at it. Like the walls, it was made up of swirls, but her swirls seemed to glow with a certain luminescence to them.

Jibrielle dropped her hand to look at Hob. He alone remained solid, but there was a brightness to him that was greater than her own.

Hob reached up and traced a finger along her cheek- it was tracing her scars, she realized. "Curious," he commented, then withdrew his hand. "Press your hands together."

Jibrielle obeyed, and was surprised to see some of the swirls she was of slowly leap from her hand to join the many swirls already in the air.

An aura of blue stretched from Hob to encompass her hands, catching up those escaping swirls. They gathered and gathered, and then the aura rose above her hand with all those tiny little swirls trapped in a neatly created sphere.

Jibrielle's vicion returned to normal with the speed it had altered, and floating gently above her hands was a fireball.

[Jibrielle Abunai]

What had just happened amazed her, and now she found herself staring at a fireball. Her eyes widened slightly and a crooked grin broke across her face. Looking at Hobgoblin, the grin grew wider. It was real; The heat could be felt on her skin as every-so-often a spark would fly out from the fireball.

"It's wonderful," she whispered breathlessly.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob reached out with a huge, hairy hand and batted the fireball at his face with it. When it was close enough, Hob opened his mouth and swallowed it, puffing his cheeks out as though the fireball were in there and taking up space. Jibrielle felt a small surge of power- Hobgoblin was doing something to the ball of flame.

After a few shifts from cheek to cheek, Hob inhaled through his nose and blew out from his mouth, flames fountaining out and up into the air. Jibrielle giggled at his antics.

"Now it is your turn," he told her, pressing his hands together and holding them out. "Use your mind. Catch the heat."

[Jibrielle Abunai]

She nodded towards Hob, and, taking in a deep breath, opened her mind to the impossible. Or so it seemed.

After a few moments, the same world Hobgoblin had showed her reappeared, showing the same splendorous swirls which fascinated her so. Cupping her hands together, she watched as the swirls she was made of float into the air to join the rest, as if dancing to an unheard song. But then ... they were beginning to float away.

Desperate, her eyes widened as she concentrated, trying to draw them together like her Master did to no avail. "Use your mind. Catch the heat." His words repeated themselves in her mind, and as a final attempt she used her mind to try and gather them - and it worked. They formed a perfect sphere, each swirling around the other peacefully, and Jibrielle drew herself out of the world Hob had introduced her to.

And a smaller fireball than the one Hob had made floated above her hands, and eagerly she looked at him. Did she do it right? Would he be proud? Questions swarmed through her mind while she waited for a response.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob reached out his palm, and gently, the fireball hopped into it. "We shall have t'see what kind o' fireball this be," he noted, peering at it. He prodded it with a finger, then rolled it around his palm.

As he poked and prodded it, he also manipulated it with the Force to keep it going as Jibrielle had created it. The pressures and techniques he employed were light and subtle, interfering with his apprentice's control only in small ways that she would be able to maintain if she kept her concentration. It was, in a way, preparing her for lessons to come- her will would need to be strong enough to defeat those who would sabotage her efforts.

After a bit more investigating, Hob nodded satisfactorily. "'tis small, but feisty, like yerself," he said, depositing the fireball back into the air where Jibrielle had created it. "An' it will become very great."

Hob glanced around quickly, looking for and spotting a small stack of wood. "Give it a toss," he said, pointing at the woodpile.

[Jibrielle Abunai]

She felt a tinge of pride when he remarked about the fireball, relieved that he was satisfied with it. When he pointed towards the woodstack and asked for her to throw the fireball, Jibrielle nodded eagerly. She would please him, make him happy, make him proud.

Still concentrating, she forced the fireball to move through the air and towards the wood, even though it wavered in the air a great deal before it landed on top. After a few cracks and pops, the flames licked greedily at the dry wood as the oxygen helped it grow. In no time, there was a steady fire in the room.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob smiled. "Well done, lass," he said warmly. "Many dinnae take to that lesson so quickly. Ye will undoubtedly prove to be strong in working energy."

The dwarf suddenly did a handstand. "Make another," he said. "Be certain ye remember how 'tis done."

[Jibrielle Abunai]

How could she forget ? The experience, the sensation ... She cupped her hands together again and cleared her mind once more, opening her senses. She held her eyes closed for a moment or so before opening them, eveling in the sight before her. The swirls seemed to greet her as she entered their world, making her feel tranquil.

"Form together," she muttered without realizing it, concentrating. Using her mind to draw the swirls from her body, Jibrielle formed another sphere, but slightly larger than the last. Jerking herself out of the fascinating realm, a new fireball floated above her cupped hands.

[Evil Hobgoblin]

Hob gazed at it, gauging it. He put a hand out and the fireball flew over to it, sedately awaiting the dwarf's judgement. After a moment, Hob nodded. "More stable, more sedate, it is. A knack for wielding energy, you have. I will teach you more than this soon."

Hob nodded. "Today's lesson is complete. Practice creating the fire every day for one hundred days. I wish to see you set your own hand seemingly afire by the end of that time."

[Jibrielle Abunai]

The little grin that had appeared every time she created a fireball disappeared at Hob's mention that the lesson was over.

"Yes, Sir," she replied softly, her head hanging.

That probably meant that for one hundred days, she wouldn't be able to see Hob. This thought struck despair in her heart as she turned away, lifting up her right hand and staring at it. Yes, she would become one of the galaxy's most powerful energy wielders to make Hobgoblin proud.

She would do this for him.