Sommarsun Sojourn (Leonidas)

Leonidas closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again.

"Yeah, he was a big guy. He was a few inches taller than me and every bit as muscular as I am plus he was a bit wider. When I got into my teens he wasn't nearly as intimidating because of the growth spurt leveling the playing field a bit, but being around him when I first started was really intimidating. It was like looking at a mountain looming overhead... a mountain that could talk and had a good command of foul language." Leonidas recounted the size of his teacher and his propensity towards swearing. As harsh as he was the blacksmith never laid a hand on Leonidas, not even for the worst mistakes. He was sure that the man was sorely tempted to punch the youth in the face, especially after that time Leonidas fumbled a hot piece of metal when using the tongs to transfer it to the metal trough of water and nearly dropped it on the blacksmith's feet. The blond was lucky it had missed or he might have been picking his teeth up off the sand.

"My teacher wasn't one to shy from a fight, Felicia. Whenever a bandit or slaver raid happened he was among the first to pick up a sword and defend the village. I forgot how many of them he killed before the raid that took his life, but after each raid he usually had five or six kills by himself. I know that when I found his body there were seven lying dead in front of him. I wish I could have killed the bandit who killed him so that there was some poetic justice to it, but it didn't happen that way." Leonidas recalled his teacher's death.

"The sad thing is that he was a lot more friendly to me in the days after my training was finished. Maybe he finally saw me as an equal. Maybe he knew what was coming and wanted to make peace for treating me so harshly. I'll never know." Leonidas added a bit more about his teacher before changing gears to his time as a teacher.

"I wasn't nearly as foul-mouthed as my predecessor. However, I did give tongue-lashings when they were deserved. The most memorable one was when my apprentice swung around a piece of hot metal when I spoke to him while he was holding the metal in a pair of tongs. He spun around to speak to me and almost burned my chest with it. It was a good thing I was standing just far enough to avoid being burned... I only gave him a two-minute lecture because it really was an accident and it was when he was first starting out, but it was a preventable accident. It never happened again." Leonidas recounted one of the causes of a lecture he had given his apprentice and what had caused it. The time he had trained an apprentice might as well have been a lifetime ago... he hoped that his apprentice was still alive and still the blacksmith. Until the scar-faced mage returned to Desierto he would never know.

"My sister was always one to be looking off in the horizon wondering what was out there and I'm sure she's been on a lot of adventures since she left Desierto. Everywhere she's been that knife's been too. I'm sure that it's seen plenty of use. It's a good weapon for her since she's not afraid to get into someone's face during a fight." Leonidas commented on the probable fate of the weapon he had given Leona before she left home. The knife suited her well because she had been trained to use one-handed weapons and magic in tandem and she had demonstrated a preference for edged weapons. He had no need for it at the time, so he had given it to her and the rest was history.

[Post Word Count: 660]
[Leonidas' Word Count: 6,200]

It was not all that difficult for Felicia to imagine the appearance of Leonidas’s teacher. Her own father was a tall and rather wide figure, who seemed to give off an intimidating aura. It was no doubt due to his being in the military, where naturally he was taught how to be commanding and even when he was in a good mood, the sniper found it hard to talk to him sometimes. She had nice times with him and when he had taught her to shoot, he seemed to have been enjoying himself but there was always that feeling that he could turn on a dime. One missed shot could cause him to come down on her like a ton of bricks. Still, he was her father and she loved him all the same but she wished that he could have been a little kinder to her, instead of rough and somewhat harsh. “He sounds like my own father, who is rather gruff too.”

A frown crossed her features as Leonidas spoke about his teacher's death although at least it had been in the defence of those closest to him. She was not all that surprised to hear that he had killed so many before going down himself and after a moment’s thought and eventually replied with. “Fighting seven bandits alone is a grand achievement and the fact it took so many to defeat him is a testament to his skill. I hope that one day you manage to find the bandit that did it.” An unlikely scenario in her opinion but it was possible. To hear that he and Leonidas got along far better towards the end left a sour taste in the woman’s mouth. Life could be so cruel sometimes.

When he spoke about how he had trained his own apprentice, the frown turned into a slight smile. “I am certain that he no doubt learned as much from you as you did your master.” If their conversation had taught her anything, it was that Leonidas seemed to be a firm but fair man, which was somewhat admirable given what was going on in the world. So many people had seemed to have lost their principles due to the war, which was part of the reason why Felicia had come. There needed to be more peacemakers and she hoped that she would be successful in time.

Felicia chuckled when he mentioned his sister and replied. “From what I have heard so far, up close and personal seems to run in the family, combat wise. Do you have any idea where she is these days?”

"Gruff is one way to describe my former teacher... or was. That was his dominant personality trait and it's what I remember most about him. It's only natural when you spend a decade or so around someone that you remember something like that." Leonidas remarked on the personality of his late teacher. He supposed that in a way his predecessor had been like him... Leonidas' life was marked by growing up in the desert and having to deal with overwhelming heat and the constant threat of bandit and slaver raids gave him a somewhat pessimistic outlook on life. His predecessor had been around longer than him and had had more time to experience the rigors of desert life. However, the scar-faced mage did not possess a foul mouth like his teacher.

"My teacher was as good using a sword as he was at making them, which were handy skills to have in the village. It figured that it'd take a lot of bandits to finally do him in and even with a bunch of them they likely had to pay more than they bargained for." Leonidas commented about his teacher's fighting skill. Like the blond's own abilities it had been trained in combat over many years and the man had been alive at least two decades longer than Leonidas, so he had had plenty of time to accrue experience. The scar-faced mage thought about the topic of getting revenge for his teacher and was moved to comment.

"It'd certainly be appropriate if I killed the bandit who killed him. If I ever find the one I won't pass that chance up, but I doubt it'd be an easy fight. Whoever killed my teacher had to be pretty good, but that won't stop me." Leonidas announced that he would find it fitting if he managed to take down the bandit who had killed his predecessor. He also stated that it would likely be a tough fight because whoever had managed to kill his teacher had to have some serious skill or maybe even magic. He finally added that even if the bandit was going to be tough that would not stop him from taking them on in the name of revenge and on principle.

When the subject of training his apprentice and successor was brought up Leonidas changed gears from a mood of somewhat sad reminiscence to a somewhat happier one.

"It was weird to have an apprentice, but with the uncertainty of life in Desierto having an apprentice trained and ready to go was a necessity in case the worst happened to me. My apprentice made a lot of mistakes and he wasn't the quickest learner, but that comes with teaching someone a trade that's complex. But when he did learn something he never forgot it and after my departure he became the main blacksmith. I wouldn't be surprised if he's even training an apprentice of his own." Leonidas briefly described what it was like to have an apprentice after having recently "graduated" a few days before his predecessor's death. He also stated that his apprentice was far from the best but added that when he did learn something related to the trade he retained it for good. Now the apprentice was in charge and might have sought out his own apprentice to train to succeed him in case something happened.

Hearing the question concerning the whereabouts of his sister prompted Leonidas to change gears.

" Our mother taught us close combat because that was what she was proficient at... using weapon and magic in tandem was another hallmark of our mother's and she passed it on to us. I don't have a definite location for my sister, Felicia. All I know for sure is that she's somewhere in Fiore and that she's a Wizard Saint." Leonidas told the blue-haired young woman both the origin of the Jarnefeldt siblings' predilection for close combat and what little he definitely knew about Leona. He did not keep up with his younger sister as well as he should for various reasons, most of them of a personal nature. For one thing she had likely become a lot stronger than him, so she did not really need a babysitter. Another reason was that he had considerable resentment towards Leona for being free to do as she wanted while he was stuck in Desierto with their mother for all of those years. A third was that Leona did not write home, so news from her was not exactly abundant.

[Post Word Count: 754]
[Leonidas' Word Count: 6,954]

The more she heard about Leonidas’s father, the more she recognised him as almost a mirror image of her father. Alright, her old man was not as foul mouthed but he seemed to live his life in a similar way. Felicia had honestly expected him to try to encourage to join the military as he had but no, instead he still had his code about men being the breadwinners and defenders while the women stayed at home. Urgh, it irritated her so much and the fact that there were people in other nations who thought the same was hardly a positive thought. Yet, she had refused to follow along with it and he would have to accept it. The sniper desired to explore the world and save those in need, just as he did, whether he liked it or not. “I would not have wanted to face him in battle nor be on the end of one of his tongue lashes.” She eventually said, a touch of admiration in her voice. “I am sure that he took great pride in your accomplishments though and knew that he was leaving the village in good hands.”

His words about his time as a teacher seemed to confirm that and Felicia was soon smiling again as he spoke. Clearly, it had taken a lot of patience to explain things to his student but that was simply what was required. A teacher without patience was not much of a teacher at all in her opinion and it was a necessity. Her father had been a little impatient with her at times, being overly critical of her shooting at times but he never truly lost his temper with her and instead simply had her keep trying until she got it right. “I hope that the blacksmith tradition of your family continues to be passed down for generations. No doubt that it will be needed in the times to come.” It was said partly because of the bandits but also because of the war, which would no doubt spread across all of the nations of Fiore, sooner or later.

Leonidas did not sound overly enthusiastic about talking about his sister and Felicia was not one to pry, so she let the matter drop and instead asked him. “I assume that your mother was a pretty harsh taskmaster too then when it came to training? From what I have heard so far, she is as formidable as any bandit.”

"From what little we said before his untimely passing, he finally considered me an equal after I finished my training. He seemed to be proud of me, but he wasn't one to wear his heart on his sleeve, so it was hard to tell." Leonidas commented about his teacher again. It was hard to forgot spending years training under someone like his predecessor, who had been training Leonidas to be a blacksmith since the blond was ten. He remembered all the lectures, all the hands-on training, everything that it took for him to become a blacksmith. In a way his predecessor was more of a father to him than Samuel Jarnefeldt, Leonidas' real father.

"Since I'm not having children of my own unless I marry, my apprentice will have to pass down the blacksmith tradition in my village. I taught him everything he knows and he'll likely take an apprentice if he hasn't already. I'm sure that he'll do just fine because he's got a good memory and he's a diligent worker." Leonidas expressed confidence in his successor. The scar-faced mage had picked an apprentice who got off to a slow start but when the latter finally came into his own he proved to be a worthy successor who had everything it took to keep the village going. He was also sure that the new village blacksmith would pick a good apprentice of his own... maybe if the scar-faced mage ever returned to his home village he would get to meet the apprentice.

When the issue of his mother came up Leonidas was grimly amused by Felicia's name for his mother.

"You're absolutely right, Felicia. Our mother Sophia was quite the taskmaster... with me, anyway. Since my father traveled a lot it fell to me to be the male presence in the household and I wasn't ready for that. I had to learn how to use a sword and how to use magic fast because the bandits and slavers weren't going to wait for me to learn how to defend myself before they struck." Leonidas calmly informed Felicia that her description of Sophia Jarnefeldt was right on the money.

"When it came to my sister our mother wasn't nearly as demanding. She did everything she could to get out of teaching Leona anything, so as the older brother it fell to me to teach Leona how to fight. I did what I could to teach her because our styles were so different, but our mother wasn't happy about it. She kept saying my sister didn't need to learn how to fight because her responsibility was to marry and have children." Leonidas reiterated the story of how their mother held back Leona because of an outdated belief that his sister's biggest responsibilities were marriage, children, and running a household. He paused for a moment before his next statement.

"I eventually had to tell my mother point-blank that bandits and slavers weren't going to spare Leona if she were a housewife like our mother wanted her to be. That seemed to get the point across, but I always knew that Sophia wasn't happy about training my sister to fight. It didn't matter how our mother felt because Leona wanted to learn to fight so that she didn't need to depend on someone to protect her." Leonidas recounted what it took to finally get his mother to reconsider her stance. After that he paused to give Felicia a chance to speak.

[Post Word Count: 578]
[Leonidas' Word Count: 7,532]

A wry smile crossed Felicia’s features as he confirmed what she had expected about his mother’s teachings. She generally sounded like a rather firm and hard woman from what Leonidas had said so far and the sniper was completely unsurprised by how he spoke of how she had worked him hard. No doubt the old dragon cared deep down but it just seemed to be the way of more old school parents that they struggled to express it. Felicia had not had the same amount of pressure from her own mother, who had been happy to support her and had done so much to help her get off the ground as a mage. Her father might have taught her to shoot but it was her mother who had kept her going during her moments of doubt. She had always been there for Felicia. “Your lessons with her must have been fun.” The blue haired woman replied with a touch of dry humour in her voice.

His mothers reluctance to train Leona struck a chord with Felicia and her smile faded as she listened to him talk about that particular comment. She knew exactly how it felt to be patronised in the same way and had been forced to be incredibly direct with her father to open his eyes to what she wanted. “My father was the same way with me. Constantly telling me that I did not need to learn to fight and instead learn to become a housewife. It was not what I wanted and my mother backed me up when I told him so. He was taken aback at the time but it seemed to wake him up finally. Sometimes, you just have to be blunt.”

She was soon nodding in agreement when he spoke about how he had ended up stepping in and telling her mother pretty much the same thing about his sister. “I am glad that your mother was finally able to see reason, as my father was. They might not have liked what we had to say but the truth of the matter is that it is not up to the parent as to how their child lives their life. Deep down, I am sure your mother does care and wants the best for you both but she is just so stubborn and old school that she struggles to show it. I know what it is like to have a parent like that.”