Averting Disaster

[Marta]

Marta took a step back as the unknown man formed a ball of fire above his hand and moved as if to throw it. Splash moved in front of her sensing danger. Nox moved in front of the other and pinned him against the wall. Marta heard the words he spoke, quiet but dangerous. Nox wasn’t happy.

Splash had raised her lips to show fangs, a slight rumble in her chest. No, Splash! It is okay. she thought to Splash. The wolf looked back at Marta, but stopped. When she sat on the floor, the wolf’s eyes stayed on the unknown man.

Marta’s golden eyes moved back and forth between Nox and the twitchy guy. Nox had asked if she was okay. ”Yeah I’m okay. A little startled but okay.” she looked at Nox. ”Im sorry, I didn’t mean to cause a problem.”

[Sasha]

In a flurry of motions Sasha's hand was pinned to the wall behind him and the cold look in Nox's eyes sent fear through Sasha' body. The power fluttered away and he was left feeling empty and devoid of all the colors of the world. He'd lost the power because of fear and manhandling. Why? But Sasha just stared up at the man who pinned his hand to the wall and totally ignoring him for the moment to check on the girl.

"You've done nothing wrong. Sasha's just a bit skittish. We won't bother you." Nox said in the same empty voice he'd used to tell him off. He turned back to Sasha and leveled an unemotional look at him. He wasn't angry. He wasn't sad. He wasn't even happy when he spoke. "Did you do that on purpose?"

"Do what on purpose?" Sasha asked truly having no idea what he meant.

"Did you touch the source of your power and create the fire on purpose or did you do it because you were afraid and it just happened."

Sasha shrugged. "I was holding the power like you told me to. The fire was in my control. I made it." Sasha's voice was a whiney and he knew it he stood up tall. He was a few inches taller than Nox and that made him puff his chest out a little more. "I made it!" He said proudly.

The look on Nox's face never changed but he nodded. "Good. You won't die them while I figure this out. Sasha." His voice was still cold but it was low and just for him. "Can you promise me you'll never draw more power than half of what you can. Can you promise me you won't let it hurt you?"

His voice didn't seem like it cared but there was a tenderness a warmth that seemed to be passed through to him. Like he cared but his voice said otherwise. "I'll try." Though he didn't quite understand how he'd even know.

Nox pointed to the threads still hanging in the middle of the room. "Practice the fine threads and make balls out of them. Master that and I can help you understand more. Just don't draw upon all your power."

"Are we done here?"

Nox shook his head. "Only if you want to be. You can practice here, follow the threads on the holo screen."

That didn't seem like much to do. Sasha stared at him as he moved from the mat to the girl who'd scared him. Her little dog was strange and still baring its teeth at him. Sasha wasn't sure if he wanted to stay. He wanted to learn. He looked back at the hologram hanging in the air and decided that was better than not knowing anything.

[Nox]

Nox left Sasha with a choice. He wasn't sure what he could teach him without the ability to touch the power himself. He tried again, but there was nothing. It made his whole body ache the loss of the power. He remembered the feelings as he walked towards the little girl who had prompted a fireball. "I'm Nox. You aren't one of the Blackthorns so you must be Marta. We met before haven't we?" Though Nox couldn't exactly remember from where but it wasn't long ago. He wasn't real good at remembering passing faces.

Nox knelt down in front of the little wolf at her side. He'd heard of some wolfkin having wolves as friends. Elyse had once asked for help for her pup. There was a stab of longing at the memories of Nova, though it wasn't a feeling that stayed long, lost in the sadness of his lost power. Though he didn't feel that as he should. The power was gone and he felt empty.

Nox held out his hand for the wolf to sniff. He didn't want to be alarming or send the dog into a frenzy, there wasn't much he could do if it did. His gun was locked up and his power... his power was gone.

[Marta]

Splash turned from the twitchy man, Sasha as Nox approached. It’s okay, Splash. Friend Marta thought to the wolf, who calmed down and sniffed the offered hand.

”Yes, I’m Marta. This is Splash. She’s a good girl - just very protective. I do online school here and at Kallisti with Sterling and the others,” Splash wouldn’t have reacted at all if Sasha hadn’t attempted to attack her. Marta nodded at his question of having met her. ”You came to Ricky’s bar when I lived in Mexico.”

When Marta had recognized Nox is Sterling’s video, she had come close to panicking. She was a little surprised this meeting didn’t have a similar effect, but her thoughts were on Nox’s scent. She had smelled it a great deal from Elyse in the past couple of days. Nox was sad.

”You’re sad,” she said, her eyes showing compassion. ”Why are you sad?”