[Madin Shrine] Madin Mighty Morphin' Masterclass (PM to join)

Demeter wandered to and fro around one of the yards attached to the shrine of earth, feeling the warmth of the bare soil between her toes.  The late March sun was starting to make it feel positively springlike, and Demeter's spirits were bursting into blossom out of their wintry slump, bouyed by the beauty of the cherry trees doing just the same.  The yard was freshly dug, recently forked over by some of the acolytes, and in the corner a pile of hazel sticks was slowly diminishing as the Harbinger lined them up one by one, sticking them a couple of feet into the ground and heeling them in. They were being arranged into two rows of squares, each measuring a few feet across, and there was a walkway in between every square.

After she'd placed all of the uprights, Demeter fished a spool of twine out of one of her many pockets. Collecting another three short sticks at a time, she started to set up a rudimentary trellis. She bound two of the sticks together at their centres and splayed them into a cross, fixing each of the corners to the uprights. She put a cross bar atop them and then carried on with the next set of sticks.  Before too long she had a small collection of booths, though they were hardly very private.  At least the finishing touch would see to that.

Moving to the centre of her area, Demeter closed her eyes and let her mind fill with thoughts of the earth. In her mind's eye she saw the framework she had just built. "Madin Adaugesco" Demeter had long ago reached the time in her life when she no longer had much need for incantations, but especially now she was the leader of her element and very much in a teaching role she liked to practice them often to keep them fresh in her mind.  This particular spell caused a number of ficus carica to sprout out of the ground and start growing rapidly up the trellis she had constructed. They wove their way around the hazel rods, branching off and training themselves obediently along all the cross bars. All the time large five-lobed leaves erupted from the stems and grew to form a thicket that could protect the modesty of even the most virile of biblical characters.  Whilst the harbinger channelled her energy into the rapidly growing shrubs, she allowed herself a little smirk at her little joke to herself, and wondered whether any of the discipuli would notice.  They probably wouldn't say if they did though, but who knows, one of them might surprise her.

After a few short minutes, the barren plot had been transformed into some kind of outdoor dressing room, with two rows of cubicles that would give the occupier a good level of privacy, but still allow Demeter to see in and make sure everything was okay. Morphing was a difficult skill to master and she knew that some of her students today were not yet confident in taking their clothes along with them. Especially considering this was to be a co-ed class, it had not been prudish but rather prudent to erect some kind of barrier.  Satisfied with her work, she morphed herself into an extra fig tree and snaked her way around one of the structures for a little bit of a rest and communion with her element until she was needed.

Soon enough, even though she was in her elemental state, she could strongly sense the presence of Manuel, the acolyte that acted as her personal attendant. With him were the young madin elementals whom he had escorted to the plot. Wanting to demonstrate quite how much fun it was possible to have in their elemental state, Demeter extended a low lying branch behind the discipulus least able to see it coming, and tapped them on the shoulder before retracting all her stems quickly inwards towards her main trunk which was bulging and returning to a humanoid form. Within a few seconds a genial-looking short woman took the few steps between where she had recorporealised and the group of students. There was still had a faint green glow about her, but that faded quickly.  She greeted them with a smile and a voice full of joie de vivre. 

"Good morning my eager young earthlings! I trust Acolyte Santiago made any necessary introductions between you all, but for those of you who don't know me, let me introduce myself.  I am Demeter Gray, and for some reason the cosmos thought it would be a good idea for me to be Harbinger Madin.  I don't stand on ceremony, so you can call me whatever you find comfortable. Demeter is fine, or Ms. Gray or Oi You or Crazy Tree Lady. You do not need to constantly refer to me as harbinger. I'd prefer not to be reminded!" She beamed at her young audience, hoping they would at least be able to recognise her last comment was made mostly in jest. "We're here to learn about morphing, but first I'll give 10 house points to whoever can tell me what kind of shrub I just was. Well, I would if this were really school. But a bit of comparative botany is actually quite useful for helping to guide and choose your morphed form. Even if you don't know, lets have a bit of a chat to begin with. How far are you all with your studies?  What are you capable of?  What do you hope to get out of today's session?" She looked to one of the discipuli she knew to be reasonably confident and willing to speak up to get the ball rolling.

Kyle had gotten the invitation from Stephen and had read and reread it many times since. It was hard for him to believe that it was the real thing, but Stephen wasn't really one to joke when it came to Council matters. Just to be sure, he unfurled the scrap of parchment once more and read over the slanting handwriting of his elemental teacher. As his eyes moved over the familiar words, he smiled again. The harbinger had invited him and several of the other elemental students to join her at the council over the Easter break before the start of third term. Kyle had written his parents and talked to Jared as soon as he received the note and they all seemed to be quite supportive of his plans. That being said, the last day at school had been hard for Kyle as he knew it would be almost two weeks before he saw his brother again. While some of the other discipuli may not stay the entirety of the break, Kyle wanted to spend as much time there as he could and this was the perfect reason for him.

Having spoken already to one of the shop keepers in Hogsmeade about using her fire for travel, Kyle made his way down to the village and to the shop. Upon entering, the boy thanked her again for letting him use it, before grabbing a handful of fine powder from a small bag he had in his pocket, stepping in front of the flames, throwing the powder into the fire and saying confidently, "Inverness, Scotland" Stepping into the flames, the boy began to feel the familiar sensation of spinning as he began his travel. Closing his eyes, he waited for the trip to come to an end. After what felt like hours, the boy emerged at one of the local taverns near the entrance to the council. Brushing himself off, the boy made his way out of the shop and to the council where he found Manuel waiting for the group of them.

After everyone had arrived and some brief introductions had been conducted, Kyle followed Manuel to the shrine. Kyle wasn't surprised to see other school aged students making their way around the council as many of them, like himself, were on holiday. When they finally entered the Madin shrine, Kyle immediately felt a very strong elemental presence. He couldn't be sure, but he assumed that it was their harbinger. Having never met him, Kyle was sure that he was a great elemental who was projecting himself from his council chambers and would be joining them shortly. Taking in the sites of the shrine and thinking to himself about how long it had been since he had been here, Kyle just barely noticed the bough of a wide reaching fig tree brush him as he looked around. Glancing over his shoulder, the branch was retracting back to the trunk of the tree off towards what looked like several phone booths of vines. It took him a moment to put two and two together, but when he saw a human shape beginning to form from the tree, he knew he was about to see the harbinger for the first time.

The boy was slightly surprised to see that it was not in fact an old, sturdy looking man who stepped forward to greet them, but one of the Zealot's he had seen once or twice at the council. Moments after her human form had taken shape, the harbinger began to address the students before her. Kyle had never known her name, but she introduced herself to the group as Demeter. Kyle felt a little strange at not addressing her by her council title of harbinger, but liked that she allowed them to be more personal with her. Feeling much more comfortable with the whole situation, Kyle relaxed a little and listened as she asked what kind of tree she had just been morphed as. Kyle wasn't sure of the classification of the tree so rather than answer that little question, he decided to move onto her second line of questioning, ability.

Not entirely sure if it was expected to preform magic or not, Kyle reached into his pocket and pulled out two of the runes he had carved in preparation for his trip to the shrine just in case. He had spent the last few months in the solitude of one of the greenhouses practicing his elemental magic and attempting to develop his morphing skills. Stephen had slightly accelerated his instruction as Kyle had been preforming well since his slight debacle at the Hogwarts restoration project. Not entirely sure how to put it into words, Kyle decided he would just show some magic and let that talk for him. Looking over at Demeter, Kyle held tight to one of the runes he had and knelt down on the shrine floor. Putting his hands together over a patch of ground, Kyle concentrated hard on a small, daisy flower springing out of the earth and said, "Madin Adaugesco" as he concentrated and the rune dissipated, Kyle opened his eyes and saw a daisy where his hands had been joined over the earth. Somewhat drained from his first display of magic, but eager a little more, Kyle decided one a spell he had all but mastered almost a year ago. Closing his eyes once more, Kyle stood this time and said, "Madin Dicubo!" At his command, two balls of earth rose from the ground and began to float in front of the boy.

A sense of pride began to grow in the boy as his presentation continued; but the magic had taken its toll. He was tired and drained from the intricacy of the spells and his concentration was fading. After just a few moments of the balls floating around himself, Kyle let them fall to the ground and rejoin the rest of the earth below them. Smiling weakly, the puff spoke to the group, "I have also just started practicing morphing with Stephen. We've only practiced a few times, but I love the feeling of connection I get from it." Kyle felt like he could be himself here, he could open up and no one would have any issues with it. "As for what I hope to get out of it, I would like to learn a little more about morphing and just spend a little time in my morph, meditating and finding my center before we head back to close out the school year." Kyle had enjoyed the last term, but he needed time to reset. This was going to be the perfect opportunity to reset before heading back to Hogwarts for the last term of his sixth year.

sorry for writing a book, I just couldn't really see where to stop...and if it's not realistic, someone please let me know, I'll make a few edits.

Being back at Inverness was a treat; Allana had been away for far too long. Between the lull of school and the lack of formal training from Iuliana, she’d been drawn back home to the country side more and more. Today was different, however. Today, the new Harbringer wanted them to all learn more about morphing. Allana smiled slightly as she waited with the Acolyte; Acolyte Santagio was a nice man, one who she didn’t feel pressured to talk around. She’d gotten to know him a bit over the years in and out of Inverness, and it was no surprise that he was the one taking her to where the Harbringer would be waiting considering that he was basically her go to.

Except, she wasn’t there.

Allana waited for a second, fidgeting with her clothing as she did. Her fellow discipli may have looked around, or maybe not, but Allana was a bit too far in her own head to notice. No, she was busy trying to figure out if this was a test or not. If it was a test, why were they being tested? I’m going to fail… I’ve never been good with tests, and now there’s something happening and… oh. She almost missed Demeter’s entrance as she stared down at the ground. Almost. But the way the fig tree had moved was a clear sign that it wasn’t just another plant, and frankly she should have been expecting that. Allana watched as the tree neatly morphed back into a person, and she bit her lip. Although she’d seen Demeter in passing, the two had never really talked terribly much; Allana was busy being trained by Iuliana most of the time, and Demeter had her own issues to worry about (she’d heard some rumors, but nothing more than elemental gossip).

The jovial nature of the woman made it easy for Allana to warm up to her, nerves melting away as she spoke. This wasn’t a place she had to worry about being judged; it wasn’t Hogwarts, and she wasn’t surrounded by others who weren’t like her. No, here she had friends and familiarity, a sort of comfort that Hogwarts couldn’t quite give her. For a second, she was worried about what to call Demeter as the joke flew over her head. Eventually it sunk in, though, and she let out a soft sigh; perhaps this was going to be a long session, even if it would be fun. As Kyle spoke up, Allana found herself smiling slightly. She remembered giving him tips and helping him learn not too long ago, and it would be nice to see him get something out of all of this. While she would happily help with smaller spells, she wasn’t sure enough in her own morphing to help others. Seeing him cast was a treat, the two floating balls of earth making her quite proud of what her companion had managed to accomplish. When he was done, she considered letting someone else go. But no one had answered the earlier question that Demeter had posed, so…

“The common fig tree…” Her words were muttered, hardly louder than a whisper. She didn’t know the scientific name for it (Nicole would) and she didn’t really know anything else about its symbolism (that would be Ari), but she knew the shapes of the tree, the way the leaves formed, the slight variations that make it the common variant and not one of its cousins. Her next words were a little louder, although not by much. Her normal stutter was absent, nerves calmed by the presence of her element and the people who understood what she could do. It didn’t take away her natural shyness, however. “I can morph… I’ve finally managed to keep my clothing while I do it, and am working on bringing other objects with me. ” Technically that was a bit ahead of her year, and she knew that. The fact that she’d managed to get an early start with her training helped quite a bit. Besides, she knew what came next where spells were concerned, and part of her didn’t want to learn any of them. They all seemed so harmful, like they were meant for fighting. Or defending, she thought. Since her answer was done (for the most part at least), Allana took a small step back, keeping herself out of the focus of the group.

Oh yay, Inverness! There was only one place that Kyllikki loved more than the elemental headquarters and that was her home back in Finland. It was almost like her second home, except in the fact that her parents denied its existence. It didn't matter though, she had long ago stopped trying to convince them.

This visit was extra exciting, Ms. Gray had invited what appeared to be a large group of discipli to practice morphing, a skill Kylli had yet to fully master. As usual, The Odd Man had arranged her transportation and Kyllikki had been beyond giddy for the entire trip. It wasn't quite as often as she would have liked that she got to see any of the other discipli, especially other madins.

They had arrived the previous afternoon, and Kyllikki had spent her time so far re-exploring Inverness before meeting Acolyte Santiago and the other discipli. She was so excited that as soon as she was within earshot of the group she burst into a rapid fire babble of complete randomness, speaking to absolutely nobody in particular. "Oh, hi! Hi! It's so good to see you! Did you know that that man's favorite food is something called haggis?" She asked, pointing, "I didn't! I don't even know what haggis is! My favorite food is karjalanpaisti I just love karjalanpaisti! What about you?" And continued in this fashion until they reached the Shrine. "At Durmstrang we - Oooh!" She ejaculated, taking in the scene before her.

Everything was so . . . plant-y! And there were a bunch of leafy, greeny, cube-y things, what were those for? Kyllikki bounced on the balls of her feet in anticipation. Unfortunately, Ms. Gray wasn't with them yet. Or was she? The blonde's eyes bulged in surprise as the branches of one of the trees began retracting and the trunk morphed into Ms. Gray. "Cool!" She breathed when the transformation was finished. The fifth year could not suppress a giggle as Ms. Gray introduced herself and told them that they could call her what ever they wanted, including Crazy Tree Lady. Unsurprisingly, the fact that it was a joke flew completely over the Finn's head, and she wondered who would be silly enough to call Ms. Gray, or really anyone Crazy Tree Lady.

Ooooooh, and trivia too? Except, as Kyllikki felt Ms. Gray's eyes land on her, the girl realized that she had absolutely no idea what kind of tree the older woman had been. Trees like that didn't grow in Finland, or Russia for that matter, and studying the plants from those areas was what Kylli was currently focused on. Just as she was about to admit that she had no clue what the correct answer was, one of the other discipli, an English boy, decided to move on to Ms. Gray's other question and began performing magic. When he was done with the magic, Kyllikki wanted so desperately to jump up and down while pointing and exclaiming 'Ooooh, yes! That! All that!' And she almost did, doing sort of a mini hop and emitting an excited, strangled sort of sound as she realized that he hadn't finished speaking, then contented herself with bouncing and clapping softly in place.

When the boy was really finished, Kylli decided to wait a moment before contributing her answer to the pool and was glad that she did. A voice so quite that the Finn would have covered it up with her own, naturally louder tones spoke up. In fact, if Kyllikki hadn't been standing immediately to the left of the girl, there would have been a good possibility that she wouldn't have even heard her first words. The Finn waited patiently, but distractedly, for her fellow madin to complete her bit on morphing. And then she exploded.

"I'm much the same as that boy!" She began, pointing, "Especially with morphing, I've only done it a few times and I don't really know how I did. There wasn't a mirror in the room when I was practicing, so I couldn't see. Can you even see when you morph? Is that what those leaf-y stall-y things are for? Morphing? I hope so, because I'm pretty sure I can't take my clothes with me and that would be really inappropriate if we all just did it in the open!" The blonde gasped for air. She had said everything very quickly and had apparently forgotten to breathe, but she was just so, so excited!

Timofei likened his returning to Inverness to a wrecking ball being lifted from his shoulders. He had known that the holiday would most likely mean that he would be visiting at some point. His sense of time was warped at best the morning he was set to travel; he could feel himself nearly bouncing off the walls with excitement, though whenever he checked the time, mere minutes had passed. He regretted his decision to rise early, and found himself wandering about his brother's home aimlessly, most certainly agitating the two cats with his commotion. Tima had slept in Nikolai's guest bedroom; he would have never guessed that nearly six years after his discovery that he would still be trying to find the right words and time to tell his parents that he was an elemental. Nevertheless, that was his current reality, and staying with his brother was the easiest, minimally questioned way of explaining his absence.

Eventually, he had just found himself standing in the kitchen, staring at the empty tin can serving as his portkey. Finally it was time, and he nearly swatted the can off the table, gripping it as the familiar hooking feeling pulled at his stomach, something he had no come to associate with Inverness. He simply closed his eyes and ignored it, reminding himself the discomfort was temporary and very worth it.

An ear-to-ear grin spread across the seventeen year old's face as he dutifully help out the tin can, letting the Garth Acolyte freeze it for him until he was ready to leave, making sure no one else would accidentally touch it for any reason. Tima kindly greeted all of his fellow madins, especially Kyle and Allana who he had not seen in months, and followed Manuel to their first meeting with the recent Harbinger Gray. His jitters had been replaced with an unusually calm demeanor, a stark contrast to his usual self. Inside his excitement had only intensified, but as every step carried him closer to the Madin Shrine, a warm, comforting feeling was beginning to spread over his body. His proximity to the shrine generated a a sharp, almost emotional connection to his element that he could not reach anywhere else. Timofei would get used to the sensation - he always did, but for the short trek, the boy felt as though he were in a trance, not fully conscious of his actions or surroundings.

Having officially arrived at their destination, Tima was coming into full cognition. Mentally, Timofei had many places he felt comfortable, but every time he came to Inverness, this was when his soul felt truly alive; this was the only way he could ever think to describe, and this didn't do it any justice in his opinion. Though he had picked the fig tree out as seemingly out of place, he had not made the connection that this was their harbinger. He immediately recognized her as a Zealot Iuliana had introduced him to, but in all honesty he could not have made any sort of educated guess as to her name. Thankfully, she filled these blanks in for them.

Timofei's natural instincts in any sort of educational setting did not lead him to jump to be the first to answer, even if this was not necessarily the case. He allowed the others to speak. He was momentarily reminded of the traumatic End of Year fest as Kyle performed his spell, which was the last time he had performed the same one, though his mind had entered a state that didn't allow him to pay any mind to negative thoughts.

"Morphing isn't too much of an issue." The words sounded foreign; not only did he not talk much about his elemental abilities out loud, he was also fairly confident in his abilities being questioned. "Well, morphing myself that is. I can control it easily, but clothes are proving rather difficult. I still haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet. And to be honest, I haven't been practicing much; one time I managed to morph my clothes, but they didn't make it back, so I was stranded in the middle of the forrest at school, a Russian winter mind you, stark naked. It's getting warmer now though, so hopefully soon!" Timofei's answer didn't feel complete, but at the same time, he felt finished with it, so he stopped, turning his attention to Demeter.

Demeter listened intently, paying heed to each of the discipuli in turn though taking care not to crowd them or put them under too much pressure or scrutiny. She kept her warm, welcoming face on as she watched and listened, happy to see everyone willing to contribute to the study session. On the whole the younglings all seemed relatively at ease and happy to be in Inverness which was definitely a good start.

When the British boy started rummaging around in his pockets, Demeter expected that he was just going to pull out some sweets or something, and readied herself to make him share his stash with everyone. It was a pleasant surprise then, when it was actually a couple of pre-prepared runes that he revealed (although now her mouth was starting to water as she thought about sweeties).  The presence of the runes was somewhat surprising, and most of the training manuals have elementals initiated into the order and implanted with their own bodily rune before progressing to work on morphing rendering external runes only necessary for particularly complicated rites. Demeter knew that her intrigue would be showing on her face, but hoped that it would be taken as anticipation as to what exactly the boy (she felt bad that she couldn't remember his name - she'd have to go check with Manuel once she'd put them about their first task) was going to cast.  Seeing Madin Adaugesco cast so masterfully by a young discipulus was a joy to behold and she could help but beam and clap her hands together. Both that spell and dicubo were usually taught to students during their fourth year of training though, again after initiation and he seemed quite old not to have been through the rite of passage. If memory served, it was Iuliana that was mentoring this lad. Demeter would have to catch up with her for a chat about his progress, but there was still plenty of this masterclass to get to know him. "That was an excellent display my child, very well done."

The next girl to speak, Allana, was so quiet and meek that it was only by process of eliminition Demeter knew who to congratulate on getting the answer right.  "Quite right! Ficus carica, the common fig. Don't worry too much about botanical latin though, you already have Gaelic to learn I only know bits of latin because my family are horticulturalists." She muttered an incantation and caused a fruit to form and ripen on it in seconds, plucked it and turned back to the group of children. She tossed the fig to the brunette as a reward, and then shut up and smiled interestedly whilst Allana continued. Clearly she had no reason to be shy, if Demeter was recalling correctly (it was so difficult to keep track of every earth elemental) this one was Iuliana's as well and she was sure the zealot had only good things to say about the child. She was making fantastic progress. "Clothes and objects? At your age? That's fantastic" Demeter gushed with enthusiasm. "I'm sure I was well out of school before I could be sure I wouldn't come back au naturel. I might just have to get you to help out in this class, although if you want any pointers for more advanced forms and techniques don't hesitate to ask."

Kylliki was, as always, rather excitable. Demeter couldn't help but smile fondly at the energy she brought. The harbinger found her joie de vivre irresistibly infectious, and hoped that the other youngsters would too. Of all the discipuli here today, Kylli was the child she was closest to, having been personally training her for three or so years but Demi didn't want to play favourites, and by the sounds of it she was the least advanced of all the students. She get the finnish girl a good-natured telling off. "You've been practicing without me? Oh Kylli, I'm sure I told you not to until you're more experienced.  Enthusiasm is a great thing, but an unstable morph can be very dangerous. What if you can't get return?" Remembering herself, and not wanting to embarrass her student any more, she trailed off and made a mental note to impress the dangers of morphing on the class as a whole and Kylli in particular.

The final child Demeter recognized as one of the council converts from Durmstrang. It was him that woman wanted to keep the closest eye on today.  Rogue factions were renowned among the council scholars for lacking skills and expertise in morphing and if the reports were to believed, almost as many colours permanently returned to their element through their own ineptitude as were dispatched there by council squads. As such, despite his confidence Demi took Timofei's reports on his abilities with a pinch of salt, but at least he didn't seem to be a reckless as her own student. "Very sensible.  I can't abide the cold.  Don't worry about not having much opportunity to practice - that's what this session is all about.  I'd much rather you did it in a safe environment under supervision until you were confident."  She looked pointedly at the finn, but allowed her expression to soften quickly, not wanting her to feel overly singled out.

"Kylliki was quite right about the purpose of these booths. They're to give you all a bit of privacy, because I remember being at your stage and clothes are indeed tricky to get the hang of. I find it helps if you're wearing cotton or hempen garments rather than silk or wool or whathaveyou. Plant based fibres just make the connection that much easier, and if you hold the fact that these things come from plants in your mind, it's much easier to take them with you and rematerialise them on your way back.  I've got some cotton robes lying around around somewhere if anyone wants me to fetch them some to make things a bit easier.

"Now, shall we start off nice and gently? If you all take a booth and can morph into a form you are comfortable with.  No need to try anything fancy or prove yourself in front of the harbinger, I just want to see what we're all comfortable with."