#leif support

The deeper they venture into the wood, the more suffocating things become. The fog closes in around them. The trees boxing them off. The air so thick it could drown.

Each step feels less confident than the last, but this was the only path forward--until it wasn’t.

The group comes to a fork in the trees; a path left, a path right. With the forest shifting as it was, there was a chance they would not be able to backtrack from here. Their decision may be final. Crimson eyes dart from here to there, trying to decide which direction to go, before he tosses his head over his shoulder and commands.

“Which direction?”

It is to all of them. Morgan, Leif, Hushen; but to Dhanvi most of all. She was suppose to be leading this merry band, but it seemed more and more evident that she had her own goals in mind.

Morgan, acting strangely, has run off into the dark somewhere, but Dhanvi urges Arvis and Leif to ignore him and continue onward through a tunnel carved out of the warehouse in the basement. It is at this time that Hushen decides to confide in Arvis, where neither Leif nor Dhanvi can hear: Morgan is cursed, he says. He had sensed it when Morgan had melted one of the forest’s trees. It is better to leave him behind.

The regent’s attention is sparred for little else than the dingy path they walk, and echoes of water droplets. It is only when Hushen’s fan slaps his shoulder does Arvis look to his pact-spirit.

The fan spreads to dampen their voices, as canines whisper against his ear.

Cursed? Arvis looks to the shambling outline of Leif walking a few paces ahead of him.

“If Morgan is cursed, what of Leif? Please Hushen,” Tone sober, gaze resolute. The fox spirit was the only thing Arvis could trust in this moment. “Do you know anything of the toxin affecting him? The condition he is in?”

Hushen will tell Arvis that what's happening to Leif (with a rash now spreading from his wounds) looks frighteningly similar to what happens to humans infected by the forest blight

The words stop the beating of his heart. More than self interest, more than foolish pity. Something deep and animalistic in Arvis fears these words. A vision of Julius in such a state has the regent snapping his eyes shut against dry eyes.

With an exhale, something dawns on him however. ...Was this his purpose in this story? If not, it may doom him to spending eternity in it.

Perhaps that would be just. Maybe this was his purgatorio.

Arvis leans close to Hushen’s ear, enough that fur tickles the curve of his cheek.

“The herbs. Will they cure him?”

The fox barks a single laugh and bats Arvis away with a strike of his fan.

‘You mean those weeds you presented to me some time ago?’ Hushen waves his fan in front of his face, but his voice is more subdued than before. ‘They are just that: weeds that grow along the bank of a spring. Some magic lies within them, but it is inconsequential to someone as great as yours truly.’

Weeds... weeds?! No... they couldn’t be?! All this couldn’t have been for weeds!

Foolishly, stubbornly, perhaps contrary in the face of facts, Arvis forges on. He can not swallow that all was for naught. Just then,

There's something moving nearby and seems to be attracted to your fire, but won't come closer to it. You can barely make it out in the dark beyond the circle of light, but from the shuffling and the stench, it's likely one of those flesh monsters

Arvis walks slowly, and keeps his fire carefully controlled, but ready to throw if need be.

Leif holds out a shoddily wrapped box for her, encouraging her to accept it. Upon opening it, a pair of boots can be found.

“You were caught in a bind during the downpour at the Ethereal Ball, so I wanted to get you something that'd run better in the rain. That way, you wouldn't be stopped again. I had to ask your sister for your shoe size though.”

They're nothing overly ostentatious, but Leif did try to go out of his way to make his choice one that would be presentable even in formal occasions— a sleek pair of white boots with gold accents. He holds no doubt Minerva has enough for combat situations, being a sort of combat instructor herself.

As she heard the familiar call, a turn was enough for Minerva to curled her lips into a surprised yet blithe smile: in front of her, after reaching out for her position, Leif was standing with a simple box in his hands, offering the package to her.

"For me..?" she stared at him in awe, not really sure how to reply, but after a genuine "Thank you!", the red-haired woman took the box from his hands and eagerly opened it, just to find out a rather pleasant surprise inside it; despite she wasn't into fashion and wearable items, she deemed the pair of boots actually useful for her future trainings, especially due to the rainy season, a very tedious one for her and for her training sessions.

"I'm so proud of chosing you and of course, I will be waiting to train with you to improve your skills" she was amused by the gift, mostly due to the fact he actually put some deep thoguhts on it, remebering the fatigue she had with the Ethereal Ball's outfit. he truly was a genuine boy, with a candid heart.

Emerging from the sea, Leif's clothing weighs on his body like lead. The continually pouring rain only adds to this feeling, and the loud and bright strikes of lightning ripping through the sky feel as if they are attempting to cow him to inaction out of fear.

But he cannot stop. He can never. He has known this for as long as he can remember being allowed to pick up a blade.

Running, undeterred by these factors and forcing himself to ignore them all, he only takes his eyes away from his goal when he spots a head of crimson hair in the distance, growing steadily blurrier by the water in his eyes, dropped there by the heavens.

Yet still, he feels as if he ought to go to that person. Answering that inner call, he changes his route, yelling out,  “ Hey!! ”

And he sprints, pushing himself up as quickly as he can. When he gets closer, the person's visage becomes easier to focus on.

“ Minerva?! Is that you?! ”

The sudden change of the weather did catch the Macedon princess off guard, but this certainly did not let her morale down: she was used to drastic changes and difficult conditions, her own homeland wasn’t exactly a welcoming land, but the only problem for her was the… dress: she wasn’t used to move with such impediment and to much of her surprise, she needed to be careful with the heels, despite they were not that high.

She tried to fret her pace, walking fast among the crowd, but as she heard the call, she suddenly turned, feeling the balance and the shoes losing the grip with the terrain: “Leif!” she yelled as she almost slipped, feeling the presence of the young man way too close to her face and body. “We need to run, now!!” she took his hand by force and she drag him into the most closer shelter she found –a roof of a small shop. It was quite cracky and trembling, but that was enough for the two to cover a little from the downpour. At least for now.

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"Leif is a determined student—sharp, focused, and always ready to learn. We've spent a some time training together, lastly in the skies" she thought back about their ground training sessions too, but she was obviously more eager to teach him about the sky and the ride of a wyvern.

Even on a holiday, he'd show a good habit and his best foot forward in attempting it. It was a short lesson today, so as to not take too much of her time, but it also gave him the opportunity to ask:

“ Before you dismiss me for the day, may I give you something? ”  He goes to his belongings he had set aside, and from it, he pulls out a wrapped present box for her. Inside the box was a pair of gloves.  “ They're for the Winter Festival. I don't know you too well yet, Professor, but... in my country, we're well known for our cavalry. Our riding gloves are pretty good quality. So I wanted to give you them too, since you'd find use of them when riding your wyvern too. ”

Perhaps that was presumptuous of him. But at the very least, it'd be something she could use, and as two people who met through a practical situation, he'd wish to do his best to support her in her path just as she tried her best to support him in his attempts to master every discipline he could.

“ I hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday, Professor!! ”

Despite the festive period, Minerva was the type of person who didn't like to slack off and whenever she had the occasion, she kindly accpeted students or soldiers who would love to train or to learn something from her; one student in particular was asking for her help and since they recently started Flying lessons, the red-haired instructor was more than pleased to spend some time with him, especially practicing a discipline that she held dear.

The two of them began the training session, but since it was a festive period, Minerva decided to not stress too much her student, making the most of their time together. Son after they finished, a question leaked from Leif's mouth, making the Macedon princess made a perplexed expression.

"Sure" she simply replied, not really expecting what was coming next: as the boy returned to her, a gift was hold in his hands and too much of her surprise, it was a gift for her.

"What..?" she stared at the gift with sincere curiosity, still not acknowleding the fact that it was for her. "It's for me?" she questioned, but seeing that he was offering it to her, she gently picked the package from his hands, observing it with catious eyes. "Thank you for this gift.." she slowly remove the bow, unwrapping the paper just to discover… a pair of gloves.

Before she could say anything, Leif expleined the gift to Minerva, in the hope that she would use them during their flights. "This.. is very kind of you" she felt exposed, hues of red covered her cheeks, but she managed to overcome embrarassment, in some way, "I will use them whenever I fly with Freyja… and with you" she stated, a bit of commotion could be sensed from her lips.

@inhabiliis

He probably should have been ashamed that he wound up in this situation, but really, he just found himself more amused by how temperamental folks of this nation were because of it.

People must be bored to death ‘round these parts if they can’t even take some gambling in good humor. Or cheating. Yeah it was probably that last one, but ah, details details.

This cell wasn’t too awful even. Certainly no place he’d like to spend the night, but the matter was being attended to.

“Hey now, you can’t arrest me. I’m a King y’know! Just passin’ through and trying to take in the sights. Games of chance are custom in my homeland; I was only doing as I’ve always done.” He’d claimed as excuse.