Welcome to Gaia! ::

The swish of the blade through the air felt loud in the young man's ears. The blade heavy in his grip. He planted his feet a little bit apart, holding it out in front of him with two hands, trying to imagine someone else was standing there ready to strike. Elias had been out here for what he suspected might be two hours, swinging around his heaviest sword in order to improve his balance and arm muscles. Though his mother would argue he was fine the way he was, he felt otherwise. Nothing was good enough to him. He needed to be stronger. Better. Of course, the best way he knew to do this was to seek out others to spar with. Learn the different skills of someone else and how to adapt to it. But the thought of going blade to blade with someone else he wasn't very familiar with still made him nervous. Funny that. As a youngling, he always admired every swordsman around him. Every hero in his books. He had always aspired to be just like them. Now that he was old enough for it, he felt the opposite.

What he also felt was tired. The sword wobbled a little in his hands, his fingers slick with sweat. Maybe for a few minutes, he could allow his body to rest. It did no good to force it beyond its limit. And every day, that limit got longer and longer. It made him feel proud. Never mind the fact that he had no idea what to do with his newfound skills.

A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he lowered the blade, leaning the tip of it against the soft ground. This was a good spot to go to. Close enough to him he could easily be back before his over-protective mother worried. Far enough away to offer him some solitude. The only thing was, nothing to sit on. No bench. Not even a large rock. If he continued to come to this same spot, he should really do something to fix that problem.

The youth remained oblivious to anyone watching him. This far away from the town or most other houses by the ocean, it wasn't something he would expect to find. Which was why he went out here. Knowing someone who wasn't Cahira or Eingel would only make him nervous. Self-conscious. Would interrupt his training session with all the fumbles he'd do. The blade wasn't sharpened, but that mattered not. It was still dangerous in the hands of the clumsy. He took no chances when it came to swords or any kind of weapon, for that matter. He'd already encountered problems with that as he grew older and discovered people were watching him. Were they secretly masters, criticizing his techniques? Did he still look too weak to hold anything? Why else would they watch?

Elias traced the tip of the sword in the sand, making a little circle with it, when his thoughts were interrupted by a loud noise behind him. He wiped his head and body around, now holding the weapon up in defense, expecting to find something terrible was going on behind him. That had sounded like a feminine scream. Rushing over, he saw it wasn't as bad as what his mind had been conjuring. Still a scary situation, but much more easily handled. Hopefully.

"Just keep backing away," he said, keeping pace beside the shorter girl, pale eyes locked on the creature. "It will go back if we get far enough away for it."