Lesson Four - First Years

[Doctor Florence Nettle]

The Doctor stood in the standing stones awaiting his class, twirling a walking stick he'd never been seen carrying ever before. It was made of a dark and heavy wood, most likely oak from the look of it alone. But what was curious was that the entire length of the wooden stick was engraved. Every inch, every centimeter and every millimeter of the dark wood was covered with the small valleys of engravings. They were, even to amateurs, runes.

[Christielle van Gysel]

Christielle walked into the classroom and sat on one of the chairs. She wanted to get over the lessons as quickly as possible. She looked around, hoping someone else would walk in, when she noticed the Doctor's walking stick. Her eyes traveled down and saw certain engravings.

Narrowing her eyes, she noticed they were runes. Some of them were ones she has never seen before, and some were extremely familiar. She looked up at the board and noticed that the Doctor didn't write their lesson. She shrugged, as she was used to this.

Opening her book, she flipped through the pages idly.

[Doctor Florence Nettle]

The Doctor flicked his stave towards Christielle and her text book was flung away from her by an unseen gravitational force. He moved the stave and flew to the ceiling of the classroom and stayed there. He smiled a little bit,

"Today you will not need that." he beckoned with a hand and a smaller stave, a blank one, flew to his hand. He gestured for Chrisielle to come closer, "Today you will give a stave of your own one spell. A light spell. You point your stave and a ball of light will shoot from it. It can be so bright that it blinds a person. Now... what type of wood do you want? Pick any."

[Christielle van Gysel]

Christielle looked up as her text book was flung away. She looked at the Doctor and came closer when he gestured to her. She listened carefully to what he said. She looked from wood to wood, thinking whether she would pick this or that.

She sighed. "I think... that one..?" she mumbled, but loud enough to hear clearly. She pointed to an oak-like wood, but she wasn't sure if it was oak.

[Lars Ulric Wilhelm]

"No way, we get to make our own stave. This is the type of thing I've always loved doing. My father, and my uncle, they do this sort of thing all the time. I'm Lars Ulric Wilhelm by the way, Professor Nettle." he said, remembering to introduce himself at the last minute. "Pleasure to meet a rune expert, I love runes. Particularly Sanskrit, that is my favorite glyph language.

Browsing over the staffs, he picked a thin Hickory one. From his weaponry training, and inventing, he had learned which woods were denser. Hickory was dense, so it could be thinner, but just as strong as the other woods. "Is it okay if I use this staff, Professor? It is an excellent Hickory stave, nice and sturdy."

It may be thin, but when Lars lifted it, he knew it would be heavier than some of the larger ones. Density was more important when selecting a wood than almost anything else. He tested bending it, no bend hardly at all. Good, so it wasn't rotting in the middle, or too freshly cut. It had been treated properly, maintained to keep it the right texture, and the grains tight together.

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