Seeking Something Higher [UD/BP]

Leopold Puerulus arranged his scant belongings. He had few to pack, of course, but what meager supplies he had he made sure to pack. He had his weapons, his armor, a few changes of clothes... he had little food, though, so he'd have to find some on the road.

The boy was going on a long journey; the squad had no other magic users, and he could tell he wasn't going to match any of them martially; they all had far more training and experience than him. If he were going to be useful around here, he was going to have to augment his fighting with magic. To that end, he had gathered information around town, learning eventually of a master mage in the mountains. He had managed to temporarily clear all his obligations to go train in the magical aptitudes. Even if he couldn't convince this master to help him, perhaps he could at least learn something by observation.

Satisfied with his preparations, Leo locked up his room and set off. First he'd have to go to the town square and see if he needed anything else...

The redhead went over her possessions, double-checking if they were securely packed. She was wearing her armor, her clothes had been neatly folded into her pack, her swords had been packed together into one tightly wrapped package after she had tied a length of robe around the crossguards and sheaths to ensure they wouldn't slip out on the way, and her halberd had been wrapped into a long pack of cloth and paper, the blade itself covered in a thickened leather guard so it wouldn't poke out.

She had food and water for about a week, and honestly, if she didn't reach her destination within a week then Din would have to be playing tricks on her. "Lamia?" she looked up as she heard her mother's voice. Latifa entered Lamia's room through the open door, looking around and inspecting her daughter's pack, herself.

"Mother," Lamia said, "I can pack for myself."

"You forgot these." Latifa held out a map and a compass, which Lamia hurried to stuff with her other belongings. "The road shouldn't be dangerous, but may Din watch over you nonetheless."

"She always has," Lamia said, slinging her pack onto her back and leaving the room. "Farewell, mother." With that, she left the room, as well as the entire temple, heading towards the town square. Maybe she could find a Green Potion or so to help her travel more quickly.

Leo scanned the square, running his eyes over the throngs of people. It was a definite switch to be among them, to be sure. He hadn't had much money before, so he had rarely ventured out to buy anything more than food.

All manner of booths were open today, ranging from food, to cloth, to books, but he saw no equipment. Perhaps a more specialized store... and after he had stored a few more rupees. For now his current things would have to do.

He dropped by an apothecary on his way out, but the store was closed. Not that the proprietor's presence would've actually helped him; some nearby patrons grumbled about the price of potions as of late. So... he was on his own for this. He'd just have to take extra care not to get hurt on the road...

Hmmm. No potions for today, it appeared. Oh, well. Lamia didn't really need them anyway, it would just have been nice to have had one or two for the road, just in case an emergency came along. Looking up at the sky, the redhead decided she had to get moving. It was almost time for her daily training session with the glaive, and she couldn't very well bust it out in the middle of a crowded plaza. Not only could people get hurt, it would severely damage the Order's reputation if she were to do questionable things here.

As she turned to leave town, she bumped into someone. "My apologies," she said, stopping. "Are you alright?"

"Oh... no, I'm fine, ma'am," Leo replied, "Yourself?"

As he awaited her answer, he noted something odd. This was the path leading out of town, but she seemed to be alone. That wasn't common practice, and even if she was taller and more well-built than him, it left him with a sour taste in his mouth. He tried a few moments to gather the courage to ask, and after several seconds of silence;

"Um... are you heading out? ...Alone? That... isn't safe." Hyrule field was by no means a battlefield, but it certainly wasn't something to take lightly. It wasn't as though he was in any position to argue, but... well, even if he wasn't officially a guardsmen anymore, his heart was still the same as one.

"It takes more than a little man to bowl me over, I'm afraid," Lamia said, smiling at him. When he brought up that she was leaving town alone, she chuckled. Really? Was that still a thing? She crossed her arms as she let him stumble over his own words, before using one hand to swing her hair over one shoulder.

"There's no need to worry about me, sir. I'm an Acolyte of Din, I've been trained for out-of-town situations." She smirked. "I doubt anything out there will last long against my fire. I'm pretty sure I can make it to the mountains without dying. If I can't, then I won't be able to handle my other duties either."

She then turned, raising a hand in greeting as she started to leave, believing the matter to have been finished.

She clearly wasn't taking anything about the outside seriously. Training or no, underestimating anything was a recipe for disaster, and Leo had scars to prove it. "Uh, wait." He stepped forward and stopped her. He immediately took his hand off after realizing what he'd done, but he wasn't going to let this go one way or another. "Ma'am, I may not look like it, but, I am a former guard here."

He didn't know why he was so adamant about not letting someone go out alone, but this was one thing he was determined not to let pass. Something about the whole situation gave him a very bad feeling... "I'm not letting you go alone. I'm headed to the mountains, too, so if you really won't find someone to accompany you then the least you could do is let me come with you."

Well, the man was right about one thing. He didn't look the part of a former guard. Lamia was about to turn him down, but then he said that he, too, was headed for the mountains. Well, that changed the situation slightly. She still wasn't going to take a protector along, but a companion wouldn't hurt, would it?

"You should have said so right off the bat," she said. "We can travel to the mountains together, at least as far as we have a common destination. Where are you headed, precisely?"

Leo still wasn't convinced she was approaching travel with the necessary level of caution, and it almost hurt to have her so easily brush him off, but he attempted to shrug it off. "Er... hang on." He said, rifling through his sack before pulling out a map. He spread it out before him, and ran his eyes over he mountain range before locating it.

"There, where the forest ends and the mountain range begins. I don't know all the details, but there's a small village there and I've heard tell of a masterful mage here..." he folded the map back up and stashed it safely away again. "I'm not great with magic yet, but I need to go and get stronger." He didn't bother explaining further. He knew he was rather scrawny, and he'd just let her laugh if she needed to. That was his goal, and he would reach it, mocking be damned.

"That's a funny coincidence," Lamia said upon seeing his map, "I'm headed the exact same way." Whereas the man had to go to the master mage in order to gain magic power, Lamia was headed there in order to learn how she could better control hers- in hopes of lessening the risk of her incinerating everyone around her in the wake of a moment's mind lapse.

"Well, it's not gonna do either of our nerves any good if you have to perpetually walk behind me and it's just silly if we're headed the same way." She extended her hand towards him. "I'm Lamia. I'm headed for the mountains to learn control."

"Oh... yeah. I'm Leopold. Leopold Puerulus. It's nice to meet you." He shook her hand somewhat numbly. It felt uneven to have his companion learning to combat the exact opposite problem as him, to say the least. In a way, that she seemed to hold no ill will towards him at all almost made it worse; he felt as though it weren't even worth mocking. He distracted himself with the map again.

"Uh, anyway. I think from the maps I've checked I think we'll follow this road for a good bit, then we'll head due east and use a footpath to get through the smallest mountains here... then it should be a straight shot north. Sound good?"

His hand felt uncertain, Lamia noticed. Almost as if he was afraid of her. Which, all things well considered, wasn't a big surprise. She -was- a Gerudo, despite having a Hylian father; the curse of anyone born to their race. Most people had some sort of inhibitions towards them, not in the last place because they were big and burly. She decided not to address it, simply smiling.

"Sounds good," she said, "But I have one comment to add to it. Once we get clear of town, we'll have to make a quick stop. I'm almost due for my daily combat training. It's a religious thing, and I really can't skip it. Is that okay with you?" Asking was a formality. If he WASN'T okay with it, she'd still have to train and they'd have to travel separately after all.

"Oh... yeah, of course." Leo said absently. Normally he trained either early in the morning or in the fighting dens. But since he was going to be away from the city, the latter option was no longer valid. He supposed he was somewhat thankful, really, to find such an eager partner.

"Er... did you mind if I joined you, then? I need to stay in shape, too." If not, he supposed he could find the time to go out and beat on a tree or something along the way... In any event he couldn't afford to neglect his martial training in favor of the magical.

"I'm not sure if that would be a safe idea," Lamia muttered in response to Leo wanting to train with her. She couldn't be sure her magic would behave, and she wasn't confident enough in her own meditative capabilities to rein it in if she was actually under attack. That was the entire reason she was going to the mountains! "But if you insist, we can give it a try. Just as long as we're clear on this: when I tell you to get out of the way, you have to get out of the way. I can't promise that I won't accidentally immolate you."

Once they'd reached a relatively flat, large area far enough away from Castle Town, Lamia set down her pack and started tugging on the strings that kept her glaive within its wrapping. "Another warning," she said as she unwrapped the polearm. "This is real." Dropping the wrapping, she took a combat-ready stance with her beloved weapon.

Leopold nodded. He had had some bad experiences with bottles, chairs, and the like in the ring; it was never pleasant but he had learned to fight in spite of pain. As Lamia carefully unwrapped her own weapon, he gingerly drew out his sword, and then let its blade sink to the ground. It was a good, strong blade, but it was heavy and dull. Still... defensively he wagered it was great.

Focus. Treat it as another fight, lose yourself to the flow of combat... He took a deep breath before he actually raised the weapon. He had grown unused to it, and moreover, it sapped his energy to use for long, drawn-out fights. The first order of business was to try to disarm her so he could move in to hand-to-hand combat...

The boy looked at his opponent. "Are you ready?" he asked, suddenly steely-eyed. She was no longer a traveling partner; she was a target to be struck at. "Here I come..." His opening move was a lunging right-sideways swing, starting with both hands but then shifting mid-swing to one, as the left hand came off the handle to follow up with a palm-thrust. With the momentum, his right hand could not stop the blade easily. Risky. Very risky. But he needed an early hit to do away with her greater range, or his in-fighting would never pierce her defenses.

Unlike the man, Lamia wasted no breath talking. Instead, she shut her eyes and concentrated on breathing deeply and regularly, forcing her magic to flow through her veins and not out of her body through her pores. Her foe announced his attack, which was when she opened her eyes, moved her glaive to her left to block the incoming sword strike. The steel clanged on the treated wooden rod but did not cut it, although it sent a shockwave through Lamia's arm. The palm thrust to her collarbone forced her to take a step back, but she was not discouraged by having had to give the first strike away.

As she stepped back, she swung her glaive in towards her front, rather than towards her opponent. Grabbing it with two hands and holding it low, the blade pointed at the ground between her foe's feet, and started pushing her magic into it. The blade slowly but surely assumed a red color, although never releasing its metallic sheen. Whether it was wise to bust out the Gerudo Dragon this early into a battle was something that could be questioned, but it could give her an early advantage, if only by intimidating him.

Leopold was no stranger to magic. He himself could use little of it--it only augmented his physical attacks so far--but he knew enough to recognize the danger as it built. He shifted weight to one foot, pivoting so he was away from the direct line of fire. He also brought up the handle of the sword, and positioned it as such that the broad edge formed a makeshift shield. He could brace it with the back of his other arm in a crude defense.

When the energy reached its peak, Leo put all his weight behind it and pushed in response the Gerudo Dragon. If he was lucky, it'd leave her unbalanced... and then he could drop his own weapon and pursue her with fists.

The glaive's blade flashed brightly and Lamia leapt up, swinging the weapon up behind her and uttering a cry of exertion as she brought it down upon her foe. As glaive and sword collided, her blade exploded into flames, her enthusiasm enlarging the fire to engulf the man's entire sword momentarily. She landed on her feet, stepping back and twirling the weapon back into a position where she could block with it- the fire had forced the man to drop his weapon, but judging from the way he came at her barehanded, that had been his plan all along.

Normally Lamia would wonder why he'd take the huge disadvantage of fighting an armed woman with his bare hands, but she soon learned that he could attack a lot more quickly with his fists than with his sword. So the blade had been a distraction all along? At any rate, she didn't get the time she would have needed to launch another Gerudo Dragon or an Eruption- but maybe there was another way.

Creating distance on the ground was impossible with how fast he was, but vertical distance was distance as well. Ramming one foot into the ground, she used her race's kicking technique to launch herself into the air, where she flipped backwards and swung her glaive down once more. From the tip of the weapon, a small, but pretty fast fireball hurled itself towards the man, set to impact around the same moment Lamia landed back on the ground, miscalculating her landing and having to bend one knee so she could catch herself with one hand.

Leo hadn't managed a single solid hit. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He couldn't hit a civilian? So much to learn... Frustration drove his fists more and more the further he pursued. He couldn't let her gain a range advantage. Doing so would be death. He applied more pressure, trying to keep her off-balance.

This backfired quite badly when she found the opportunity to leap, and subsequently launched a fireball. There was no distance with which to maneuver; the best he could do was find some form of defensive move. In the split second he chose to catch it with both hands, flaring the magic in them instinctively to help him plow through the flames.

The boy winced and let loose a cry as he did so. It was still quite painful, but he didn't want to think about what might've happened had he not coated his hands in the magic. Leo honestly hadn't wanted to resort to it in a training session, but...

When Lamia hit the ground he only shook his head. "No. I've run out of moves." He had never been much good at ranged combat; his magic wasn't enough to hit far-off enemies and his archery was mediocre at best. Against an opponent who could counter his in-fighting... there wasn't much he could do without preparation.

He opened his pack to retrieve some food, and offered some bread. "Are all acolytes as well-trained as you are in combat?"

Much to Lamia's relief, but also slightly to her disappointment, Leo called off the battle. This meant she didn't get punished for her bad landing, and she reached towards the packaging material, picking it up and wrapping the glaive again while Leo busied himself with food. He asked her about her peers, to which the Gerudo smiled. "Yeah," she said, "I'm actually one of the less dangerous members. You should see the Priests. They'd vanquish me in the blink of an eye." Imagining this was confusing, she chuckled. "Do you think that's strange? We worship the Goddess of Power. How hypocritical would it be to worship hers, and not work on our own? You're more likely to find the Order of Power training than praying."

She took the bread he offered, biting a good chunk off of it. "What of yourself?" She asked after she'd cleared her mouth, "That was some pretty impressive technique you used there- countering the glaive, catching my fire... where'd you learn to do that?"