Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I think maybe just settle down to the ground." Flipping might be a bit much when her arms felt like they would give out any moment now. To be honest, she wasn't even sure she could do another handstand after this one; her arms were really starting to hurt. Honestly, she needed to get more arm muscles.

As she settled back down on the mat, Leo gave a sigh. It wasn't unhappy by any means, but she'd thought she could do more than this. She might slightly have been imagining that she'd try this thing out a couple of times and then be as good as Mei. Yeah, fat chance. This was obviously another thing she needed to work on, like her schoolwork and her battle skills. "Thanks for doing this, by the way. It's really nice of you." She sent a smile Mei's way. Maybe she could return the favour somehow...? She couldn't quite see how, there were no particular area she excelled in, but surely there was something. "I really owe you one."

Her smile upgraded to a grin at Mei's words. "I couldn't have done it without you, honestly. I'd probably just have went 'jack it' after the first one failed and went off to pout." Her grin was a bit crooked at the last bit.

"That'd be awesome! I've been failing at battling pretty hardcore lately. Well, I say 'lately' but really I mean 'all the time'." She sent a reassuring smile Mei's way. "And I doubt you're the worst, the way you can move! And even if you're bad at something, you can always work hard and get better at it." Leo had to believe that, or she'd end up giving up on improving her schoolwork and her battle skills before she'd even strrted. "We should totally spar sometime. Help each other out." She sounded quite resolute - two heads were better than one at figuring out where you were going wrong, and surely that counted in sparring as well!

"I appreciate it." She'd have to work on her endurance a bit more before they moved on to anything more advanced, but Leo was sure she could do it. Of course, it could end up taking a while, but then again, sometimes you got surprised with these things. She really hoped it was the latter; the lesson with Mei had been fun, and she quite wanted to do it again soon.

"Hmm, I guess. But aren't there fighting styles that don't focus so heavily on strength? I'm sure there must be one that'd fit you, especially since you're already so agile and all." She took Mei's offered hand, heaving herself up and straightening out the shirt that had ridden up her stomach a bit when she hadn't noticed. "Alright, it's a deal!"

"I see your point." She nodded seriously. "I've lost pretty much every fight I've been in too. Well," she grimaced, "one of them might technically have been a mercy draw, but it's kinda bad when you're so pathetic the hunter just lets you go." Kinda really pathetic. That might even have bruised her ego more than the awfully miniscule amount of damage she'd done to said hunter.

"I'm sure you will!" Leo gave Mei the thumbs up. "It's just training and hard work, just like everything else. And if you can get this good at gymnastics, you can definitely get just as good at fighting." She fiddled with her pants' pocked for a second, wondering if she could share this with someone else without sounding ridiculous. "I've.. I went to Dragonfell to help out a boil, and I found this really cool looking sword hilt, and I've, well, I've kinda been wondering if something like that can be reforged." She shrugged, looking sheepish. "I don't know anything about sword fighting, but I could learn, ya know?"

"Yeah, me neither." She'd kind of tentatively tried to find some books on it at the library, but despite the large amount of time she spent there studying, she'd never actually explored much of it. As a consequence, she had no idea where to start looking for books on forging, or re-forging, weapons and she hadn't quite worked up the courage to ask someone else for their help.

"Really??" Leo turned a tentatively hopeful smile on Mei. "That would be... that would be amazing, seriously!" If he was as old and knowledgeable as Mei seemed to think - and Leo was inclined to trust her judgement - this could probably be her best bet. She hadn't even anticipated finding a clue on her sword when she woke up this morning, but this day had turned out more awesome than she'd ever imagined; meeting Mei, learning something fun that could end up benefitting her in battle and getting some help on how to proceed with her sword hilt. "If he reads that much then I'm sure he knows something! Even if it's just where to start looking, it'd be tons better than what I have now."

"I really appreciate it." She grinned. "Yeah, mine have been getting a bit too rowdy lately as well. Best get back and do some damage control." She paused and smiled softly at Mei. "But it was really awesome to meet you - I'll work on the handstand and flipping over and next time we can try something harder!"

She checked one last time to make sure that she was presentable for walking around in public before making her way towards the gym exit. "I'll see you around, Mei!" Leo was quite looking forward to it already.