And as much Temple enjoyed staying home a bit and teach them, he is called back to work Elsewhere.

And Topher takes over. He is a much more structure teacher, but at this point it's more about reinforcing the basics and getting them to attune to the vault.

They'll miss him dearly! Learning magic does take the edge off, though, as does exploring the area around the Graywards' home, which they spend a fair amount of time doing in between Topher's lessons. 

Are they willing to help out Franklyn taking care of animal life too? He knows the area the best.

They'd be delighted! 

Awesome! Franklyn and Topher have combined their powers to teach the area's birds (they have a raven flight called The Evermores) to patrol the area, but even with that they don't spend all their hiking time going to or from hurt animals. They can just enjoy nature. Franklyn even has the opportunity to truly demonstrate his Pocahontasness by playing with a black bear family he knows (though the twins need to stay up in a tree just watching).

And they can also train in the forest. Since that's their regular battleground and everything.

Jamie is frequently attacked by bouts of 'Franklyn: Adorable!!' Whenever they go on hikes together. He's very sad he can't play with the bears. 

Alex is happy enough just to watch. Working with animals like this... it's nice. 

When it comes to fighting... well, he has a few new hang-ups. The biggest one becomes apparent pretty quickly. 

Yeah, it was predictable in hindsight. They are having a double session, the Starr twins, Aaron and Sawney sparring. Aaron with Alex, and there is a moment when Aaron pins down Alex down on the matt.

Aaron's eyes go wide before Alex himself reacts.

As soon as he hits the mat, it feels like his head fills with static- he can't breathe- there's someone on his back- white noise and screaming and nononono- the smell of burning flesh-

Yeah, that's definitely not a good smell.

"Move away!" Aaron tells the other two in the room before pouring using his health gift to enhance the muscles of his legs and black flip as fast as possible.

As fast as possible still leads to the smell of burning some burning flesh.

It's like an explosion, the fire blasting out around him in all directions- he screams- it chases Aaron out away from Alex's body, until it's spread out ten feet from him in all directions, burning hot and bright and growing slowly.

Jamie is far enough to avoid the immediate radius. He still falls back to the wall at Aaron's shout, turning to watch the inferno bloom around his brother with wide eyes- he barely notes Aaron flinging himself away from it, and then he hears Alex's screams-

"'Lexei!" He lunges towards the fire. 

Sawney holds him back. "No." He says automatically. "Alexei! Stop! Don't use your magic!" He says, trying to win over the roaring inferno while pulling the other twin away.

Aaron has landed on his feet, but he then skitters away from the growing fire.

He wouldn't be able to make sense of his words even if they could be heard over the roar of the flames. He curls into a ball on the ground, arms tucked between his torso and his knees. The fire keeps growing.

Jamie keeps struggling against him for a moment, and even when he stops he stays tense. "He can't hear," he says, "He's not here, Sawney-"

"We should leave the room. The wards won't let the fire spread further than this, but we need to leave." He says still pulling. "Aaron! Don't try casting, go get Topher!"

He just had raised his hands for that, but yeah, that was stupid to even consider. He runs out of the room, to grab his cold-producing brother.

He grits his teeth, but... yeah, he's probably right. He gives a nod which is more like a jerk of his head, and follows them out of the room. 

The fire keeps burning. 

They probably can't appreciate the leaps and bounds Aaron is taking to reach the upstairs as fast as possible.

"Do you think you can get his mind back? I can cast a fire ward on you, but it's going to take a few minutes. And Topher might just be faster at it."

"It- I don't know. He hasn't had one like this until now, with the fire and everything. Usually I just talk him through it." Of course they haven't run into this particular trigger before. "I don't think it would hurt to try?"