26th of Saun 722
Despite his best assurances and cajoling of his apprentice, Renfreud was growing impatient with Rakvald. He wanted to learn magic, as Rakvald had promised, yet the master mage knew his student wasn't ready. Anymore than Rakvald was ready to be his teacher. So as he rested, he considered the ways he might shore up Renfreud's suitability as a student, and prepare him for what would be a great upheaval, regardless of his thirst for magic. Rakvald thought there were several problems with Renfreud that rendered him presently inadequate as a initiate. One he was undisciplined, and impulsive. He was over-eager, often to the point of blinding his approach to the objects of his desires. And finally, Rakvald wasn't entirely convinced that the man wasn't simply insane, driven batty by the assortment of horrors that dwelt and were unleashed in short order in Quacia.Rakvald had a plan, to figure Renfreud out, and also to help him prepare for what it meant to be a mage. That meant not only broadening his horizons, but also testing his temperament, tempering his eagerness with awareness of consequence. Rakvald wasn't the best teacher, by far. In fact, he was downright unsuitable. So it would b a growing moment for both of them as they proceeded. Rakvald readied himself by going to sleep, gathering some of the dust from his eyes, and applying it to his nose, sniffing up the sleep powder granted to him by Unity.
Then, he slipped into the formed realm of his Dreamscape. From there, he would find a way to bridge the gap between his own rest and that of Renfreud. He would learn what the Quacian apprentice really dreamt of, and what kind of a person he was beneath the obedience and obsequiousness.
That meant, however, first finding his way through his own Dreamscape. A place he'd rarely visited in recent arcs. There were changes that the immediately sensed. Much of the abilities that he took for granted were not in existence. He could not consciously manipulate his surroundings, couldn't move the landscape or make it rain or snow. But there was another change he noticed. His body was shimmering, unstable and mutable. He thought perhaps if he tried, he could alter his mortal shell in this land of dreams. Not to the point of carrying over those changes to the waking world. No, he'd paradigmed himself and thus assured that dreaming while using magic would not be a risk.
He found himself in a sunny field, with many dips and declines, in the form of small hills. He was in his human form, the dark hair, dark completed totem of Jim Fino, which he'd acquired some time ago and not tampered with in his mad dash to uncover strange new forms. Mercifully, the mutations had subsided with the application fo the ring of Paradigm, and so Rakvald was looking an ordinary person now.
That wouldn't do. He had to be unrecognizable to Renfreud, in order for him to pose a neutral test of the man's temperament. And he had just the form in mind to test him.
He walked up to a small truffle in the grassy field. Kneeling to grasp it, he stuffed it into his mouth. Then he spotted another not far away. He continued the process, and as he did he began to feel the change taking over his dream manifestation. He was looking more and more 'pig-like' as he proceeded, until at last he was left as nothing other than an ordinary, quadroped, domestic farm pig.
As if bidden to the idyllic and perfect countenance of the pig, two birds began building a nest swiftly about his crown, between his ears. This seemed to stretch on for the space of a few minutes, but then slowed as the birds settled down between his ears. Rakvald seemed to get the impression that these were his internal voices, speaking aloud and tweeting for all the Dreamscape to hear, what Rakvald wanted, versus what he needed.
The internal logic of Rakvald's dreamscape deemed it so that the tweets and chirps from the birds between his ears were at the very least comprehensible as words in a language he was familiar with. So he could only assume that they would also be to those who overheard their song. He wandered off, trundling after truffle beyond the next truffle, sniffing them out in those hills, and looking, hoping for a way to enter Renfreud's dreams.
