"I can make shields now! I don't know how many I can do before I get too tired, though, so maybe you should fly me home and we can try stuff in the garden."

"All right!" He holds still for her to climb on. 

Aboard she goes. She practices grounding while she is not on the ground but not actively expending magical energy to stay up.

It's definitely harder the higher she rises in the air, in the sense of taking more concentration and effort, and for some reason gusts of wind also make it harder to maintain, but it's doable up to fifty feet in the air, and it seems likely she could increase that height with practice. 

Huh. It seems weird that it should be harder. The first inch should be difficult, sure, but after that why... She writes this down when they land, and then she makes shields for Skan to pounce on. She has to tell him where they are so he can aim at them instead of having to pretend to attack her.

"Maybe you could put a - ball on a sstick or ssomething sso I could pretend it wass an enemy to attack? And sshield that?" 

"I'm not sure how to attach a ball to a stick! Hmm..." She picks a flower, and shields the flower end.

Pounce! Pouncepouncepounce! Best game EVER!!!

She giggles and makes refinements to her shield till she's too tired and needs to have a nap and dinner.

Skan will with great reluctance peel off. He thinks that Azabel is the BEST and her being a mage is so cool and she's going to invent so much amazing magic and maybe they could go to the library to see if there are books there on other kinds of shield? 

Yawn. "Tomorrow maybe."

"Mmkay." He flies off. 

"Byyyye."

She has a nap in the garden, 'cause why not, and then has dinner, and then goes to bed early.

In the morning she shows up to practice!

Ma'ar is early, waiting for her. He's made a shield a yard away from himself so he can practice tossing his ball at it; he waves. 

"Good morning!"

He carefully takes down his shield so he can pull back the energy from it. "Did you practice more yesterday?" 

"Yeah, lots! Skan came over and tried to break through my shields and I figured out how I want them different for if he's using his claws or just pouncing or what."

"That sounds like good practice." Ma'ar is both kind of jealous and tempted to ask if he can join next time, and also very nervous about the idea. 

"It was but I was tired after. I can't wait to learn how to tap nodes. I'll look great with white hair."

He can't help smiling a little. "Probably! All right, did you want to do yours first and I can throw -?"

"Sure!" Here is the version that held up best against blunt force, stemmed and seamless.

Ma'ar waits until she's done and then tosses the ball with medium force, retrieves it and checks if harder is all right, winds up to throw it as hard as he can -

A shadow passes over them, then again, much closer. 

Ma'ar drops the ball and goes perfectly still, instinctively shielding his head and torso with the version he practiced yesterday afternoon until he could barely stand up. He doesn't make a sound. 

"Hi Skan!" calls Aza.