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Melissa was in the exquisite back garden of the extensive local library. There were a few tables and chairs scattered about for leisurely reading, and one such table had a big, thick book laying open upon it. It was this book that Melissa was constantly checking. She was trying a spell, and if she didn't get it right, things could get rather messy.

Melissa was well-known in the area for her accidental havoc that she caused. It wasn't her fault, but often when she tried even the simplest of spells, it ended up making a mess. She was determined though to be able to make this work. So she stood there, reciting the spell in her mind several times in hopes to get it right when she spoke it aloud. Hopefully, she could keep her concentration.

Nearby, a man stepped out of a swirling blue rift floating in the air and placed a single, polished hessian boot onto the ground. He looked around, his featureless red eyes scanning his surroundings for any signs of life, and then pulled himself the rest of the way through the portal. Once he was out, he walked around for a few steps, his arms crossed and his fingers beating a quick tattoo as he looked around the alley he had found himself in. Seeing no other signs of life, he turned back to the portal and raised a hand, which caused the rift to disappear in an instant.

Arnes Teranyn was in a new place because he had gotten bored with his old place; the rent had been three months overdue on the homey little sleeping bay he had rented in a space station orbiting Giren XI, so the landlord had called station security on him. Arnes had opted to change scenery rather than have his face bashed in and be thrown in debtor's prison on the planet's scorching surface, so here he was. Somewhere.

He stepped out onto the street, his white brocade travel robe swaying gently in the wind, and he rubbed the thin black goatee that he had grown in his time orbiting Giren XI. He saw a building nearby, possibly a library, and walked off to it.

An explosion would probably deter Arnes from his course, probably making him check out the back of the library before going inside. Indeed, that was where Melissa had messed up yet another spell. She was flat on her rump, wings spread out in shock. The front half of her, covered in soot. The ground in front of her bore a three-foot-deep hole and scorched earth. Melissa coughed a bit and wiped at her face. "Oh come on! This can't be happening. I had that!" She got to her feet and brushed herself off.

She focused on the hole again and murmured a different spell. Instead of repairing the hole, as she had intended, it made the hole three feet deeper. "Well," she said to herself with a sigh, "At least it's deep enough for a grave if anyone wants to bury themselves standing up." She wiped the soot from her face again and shook her head. After a moment, she twirled her hand around, summoning a gust of wind to swirl around her and blow the soot and dirt off of her body. "There...much better!"

Arnes stopped in his tracks as the explosion rocked the area around him. He wasn't the sort who usually ran towards explosions, but he did need to find out where he was, and everyone else appeared to be too frightened to talk. So, he hurried across the street and jumped at the fence surrounding the garden. It'd been a while since he had to climb over things, so he lost his footing on top of the fence and plummeted to the ground with a cry. He looked around him with an embarrassed expression and slowly got himself to his feet; now his expensive robe was dirty, and he'd made his entrance like a fool. Still, he saw the woman in front of the smoking hole, and flashed a shy grin while brushing himself off.

"Are you alright, milady?"

Melissa looked over as someone fell off the fence, and she walked over to him. "...I'm the one who should be asking you that." she said with a bit of a chuckle. She smiled nonetheless. "I'm fine, thanks. Are you okay? That's quite the tumble you took!" She held her hand out towards him. "I'm Melissa, by the way. My friends call me Mell." She smiled at him, and would flick a finger to send a similar gust of wind to blow off the dirt from his body. "There we go. All better!"

Melissa walked over to the spellbook and closed it. "The uh, explosion brought you, huh?" She smiled sheepishly.

He noticed the spellbook and cocked an eyebrow, but quickly looked back at the woman and gave a short laugh, which came out closer to a cackle than anything.

"Well, not exactly. A portal brought me here, while the explosion brought me...um, here."

He blushed and rubbed the back of his head, his long black hair mussing up as he did so. Once again, he was making a fool of himself. He gazed back at the spellbook, however with the way his eyes were it was impossible to tell just where he was looking.

"I see you've been practicing some magic there, Mell; do you mind me calling you Mell? We haven't been properly introduced yet. I'm Arnes Teranyn," he said as he placed his right arm over his chest and bowed low.

Melissa chuckled a bit. "Well, good, at least I didn't suddenly bring someone out of nowhere." She smiled at him. "I don't mind if you call me Mell. And it's nice to meet you, Arnes." She glanced at the magic book and sighed, though the smile was still on her lips. "Well, yeah, trying to. Me and magic don't really go well together, as you might have noticed. It just kind of makes a mess of everything. Sometimes I can get it, but most of the time...it ends up like this." She laughed a little bit.

Arnes laughed as well; he remembered his days as an apprentice, and the near-daily accidents he caused. If he hadn't come from a long line of talented wizards, it's quite likely he would have been drummed out of university in his first semester. To relieve the tension, he gave Mell a friendly smile.

"Hey, magic takes time to master; I'm nearly two hundred and thirty years old, and you can bet that I've blown up a lot more than just some dirt while I was learning the art. Would you like any help?"

Mell looked at him for a moment, then laughed. "You don't look like you're that old, you know." She smiled though and nodded. "Hey, honestly I'll take any help I can get. I'm doing this all on my own so if anyone wants to lend a hand, I'm more than happy too." She laughed sheepishly. "Problem is, I've caused so much accidental trouble that nobody around here wants to help. I feel like I should give you a fair warning. The last guy that tried to help kind of um...had a frog tongue for a couple weeks..." She blushed and rubbed the back of her neck.

Arnes gave her an curious look.

"Frog tongue? I don't know what school of magic would have that as a side effect, but I'm fairly capable in most of the basic spells. If you could explain to me what it was you wanted your spell to do, I could probably help you get it right."

He paused and thought for a moment.

"You know, technically, I'm over fifteen thousand, seven hundred and thirty five years old, but I was in suspended animation for most of those. For someone of my race, two hundred and thirty isn't that old; however, while I was away, I did manage to reflect on what I already knew and, hopefully, worked out any problems in my technique."

Mell stared at him as he spoke of his age. "...wow." She would shake her head a little and turn her focus to the book. "Ah, nevermind. Um...well, it's really silly. I wanted to grow a flower." Yes, she managed to explode something by trying to grow a flower. "I know I said the spell right. I just...I'm not sure what went wrong, where." She showed him the spell in the book.

"I think sometimes it's just me. Something about me, the magic inside me or something. But whatever it is, magic doesn't really like me much."

Arnes shrugged with a disarming smile. He's known plenty of people who claim they can't do magic and then later surprise themselves with their ability. Still, trying to create a flower and blowing things up instead isn't exactly the same as turning a wound purple after healing it.

"It sounds like you're trying to channel a different state of mind through your spell, or else you're trying to channel the wrong element. If you're trying to cast a spell which is unfamiliar to you and you're in a troubled mindset, you're liable to cast a different spell, even if you get the words right."

Arnes glanced at the spell, but he couldn't make heads or tails of it. His spells were cast without words, by channeling energy into the hand and releasing it, and he couldn't read the text on this page; he'd never had any experience with human languages.

Mell listened to him and smiled softly, nodding. "Yeah, that's probably what is wrong. I can't keep my mind clear." She smiled and would rub at her hands, looking at the book. "Are you really good with magic? You know a lot about it, it seems." She would sit down on the grass. "I'm really good with the element of air. Maybe I should focus on things with that element more."

He nodded and walked over to the area where the crater was still smoking, faintly. After raising his hands, Arnes closed his eyes and carefully reassembled the earth around it until the hole was repaired and the ground in front of him was flush with the ground around it. He then moved his arms again and a flower sprouted from the ground in front of him. Afterwards, he turned back to Mell.

"You've been doing the spell right, but you just need to focus your thoughts a little more. I think you tried to grow a flower but ended up causing the ground to collapse under the pressure. Would you try something for me, quickly? Can you see if you can levitate me off the ground? Don't worry about blowing me up, I'll be casting a protection spell on myself. What I need you to do is clear your mind of any worries, focus your air energy on me, and then slowly lift me up."

He wasn't worried about the spell failing again, because he was almost sure that he had pinpointed the source of her difficulties. Almost sure, though; so he cast the protection spell and hoped that his little experiment would end with him only a few inches in the air rather than flying miles across town.

Mell looked at him nervously. "Well....okay." She watched him, then took in a deep breath and nodded. "Okay." She would wait for a few moments, then take in a deep breath and close her eyes. She focused, trying to keep her thoughts solely focused on levitating Arnes. Air energy was something easier for her to work. She could imagine it in wisps of air, going to wrap around Arnes and lift him a couple inches off the ground.

Mell got scared, though. She got scared of hurting him. The wind suddenly vanished, backfiring and knocking her back a couple feet. She stumbled, but managed to keep her footing. She looked at him worriedly. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay? I didn't hurt you, did I?"

He had lifted, just barely, but he had lifted. Arnes gave her a grin.

"I'm fine, Mell. You had the spell, but it seems like you're getting a bit too nervous to completely focus your energy. Is there something on your mind? I'm a good listener, and I can assure you that easing your worries will allow you to focus on the spell."

He gently closed the spellbook, as if to say that now was not the right time to be practicing magic, and took a seat on a nearby bench. He would have offered to take her to a restaurant, but as it was he was broke already and he didn't know the local currency. Hopefully she wouldn't mind talking with him, because he really did want to help Mell work out her spell troubles; he had been in her shoes once, as an apprentice mage, and liked being able to help others out.

Mell sighed softly and went to sit beside him. "Um...well, everything I do kind of messes up. So I was nervous and worried that I might hurt you. I don't like doing things where I can hurt others." She would smile at him. "I mean, I generally try to ignore the magic. But sometimes I just can't stay away from it. Normally, I'm happy, peppy, fine! But with magic, I just...get so nervous."

He nodded in sympathy and understanding; she was sounding more and more like many young apprentices he had known in his time, and the problem was common enough.

"It's fine, Mell. I think that if we could clear your mind, maybe go for a walk somewhere, and you calmed your nerves a little, you could get that spell. Back when I was going to university, a very long time ago, I knew plenty of people who were just fine learning magic from a book or from a scroll, but if they were to actually cast a spell, they would start getting nervous and missing things."

He gave her a friendly grin and stood up, expecting her to stand too.

"I don't know this place very much at all, so if there's somewhere to go for a walk around here, you'll have to take us there."

Mell sighed and nodded. "Okay. Well...it's worth a try." She smiled and would get to her feet. "There's a nice place I like to walk. Follow me." She headed out of the area and made her way towards the nearby woods. "So, tell me about yourself. While we walk." She kept going through the forest, not following any path but quite sure-footed in where she was going. She knew her special place and could get there with her eyes closed.