Almost Home

Astro was just clearing the base of the mountain, wiping sweat from his brow with a closed mouth smile on his face. 'Almost Home' he thought to himself, with his guilds home less than a few hours away now. From his left his heard something moving through the few trees scattered here. He could smell the sweat too, he peered over the land. "Whose there?" He asked, not in a scared tone but more so an excited one, hoping maybe it was a guild member come to greet him.

Owain was train himself, he punched at the trees, focusing on strengthening himself. He heard the faint sound of someone calling out to him. "Huh, what. Who's there." Owain rushed out from the forest, pulling his sword with him. "Huh? Could of sworn." Owain rubbed the back of his head, he turned back to return to his training.

When he turned around he would see Astro standing behind him, looking confused. He had run to see who was in the forest while Lodin had ran out. "Sorry, I thought you were someone I knew." He said walking up to Lodin sticking his hand out for a shake. "Astro of Cardinal Phoenix, you are?"

Owain turned around and bowed to greet Astro. "The name is Owain." Owain shook Astro hand. "Pleasure to meet you Astro." Owain went to go rub his nose.

"Tell me Owain, what is you are doing out here on Flame Mount?" Astro asked watching him rub his nose. "It's desolate except for a few sparing trees, and the 400 degree temperatures. A fire mage of some sort?" He asked, thinking aloud.

"Oh no I wish, sadly I'm no fire mage. I've come up here to train myself." Owain wiped the bead of sweat from his forehead. "So I take it that you're a fire mage or some sort?" Owain inspected Astro, he didn't look like a fire mage. But then again many thinks didn't seem like the regular norm.

"Me a fire mage?" Astro shrugged his shoulders. "To some extent I guess that's true." He said smiling "Why train here? To Experience dehydration, Heat Exhuastion? and How can I help?" Astro asked thinking perhaps if he expedited Owain's training process he could get him out of this heat and possibly deadly scenario and not feel guilty.

"Well to be a great warrior, one must experience all the trails that he may face. What's not to say that I may fight someone in the future in a place like this. Or someone with skills like a fiery beast. Gotta always train." Owain said in a bright tone. "Help? Hm... not sure. Maybe if you could teach me some magic."

"Mmm" Astro said pondering what the man had said. "That makes sense, you never know and its good to be prepared, but on that same token one will never be able to prepare for everything. Adventure though and experiencing all you can before you pass on is a great way to live however so I support your plan!" Astro enthusiastically replied before turning to his magic request. "Unfortunately my magic isn't the type that can taught human to human and I know no other types." He said dejected he couldn't help out.

"You see!" Owain had a smile on his face, he stared off to the distance. His smile however quickly dropped when he heard Astro's response. "Hmmm... I see, must be some magic like that of a slayer." Owain recalled that Slayers had to learn their magic from the main source, although he could of been wrong. "Ah, same boat we are in you and I, but at least you can use useful magic. Unfortunately I have to travel to find a master to teach me." Owain started to fan himself, it was getting ridiculously hotter than usual.

"Indeed a Phoenix Slayer." Astro said proudly "We are in the same boat aren't we? The quickest way to learn magic would to be to join a guild, or you can spend your time running around hoping to run into a dragon, phoenix, or god hehehehe. Wait!" He said lookin at Owain dumbfounded. "You mean to tell me you are out here training with no magic? What exactly are you training then beside your body to attune to heat?"

"My swordsmanship but more importantly my Chi." Owain turned his back, he looked off to the distance, as he explained. "I'm sadly only know Sword magic, but I fight using my fist, and my trusty partner here." Owain pointed at his sword. "Why is it bad to train out here without any magic?"

"It's not especially bad, just odd that someone would be training something other than magic within Fiore." He said glancing at his sword. "Nice blade you have there, I'm not much of a weapons man, prefer to use my fist as well. Being able to manipulate Chi will help you manipulate Eterano when you begin to learn magic." Astro reasoned. "How long have you been training out here?"

"That's what I was told from several of my masters, but sadly nothing had help. I'm glad to see that we're not so different, being able to fight your fist eh. Think about your partner as an extension of yourself, and don't ever give it titles like 'weapons', just sounds rude." Owain tried to explain about the bond between himself and his sword, he never called it a weapon, or a sword. He rubbed his head thinking about to how long he trained here. "Hmm.... two week a believe, or was it three? I believe it's two weeks." He wasn't sure of the exact number, it was quite some time.

"Rude?" Astro didn't comprehend how he was rude, this Owain was an odd duck about weapons it seemed. "Two weeks? You either have a special ability or are just plain stubborn if you haven't died after two weeks out here. What was your food source?"

"Yep, rude." Owain had rubbed his neck, it was rather stiff and sore. "Well I ate off the land, slain a few beast, and tried to harvest for some berries. Of course I shortly found that to be near impossible." Owain had looked back at Astro. "So what about you?"

Astro gave him an unsure look, he wasn't sure how Owain wasn't emaciated, the berries here couldn't have been good or in abundance having to survive this climate, and the beasts he would have slain would have had tough exteriors and little to no meat to avoid over-heating. He felt sorry for his new acquaintance. "Me? I'm coming home after a 5 year mission, although I wasn't gone quite that long, only been away for 6 months."

Owain rubbed his chin, five year missions, ten year ones they all sounded interesting. "Ha sounds exciting, surely it's the perfect time to meet other wizards. Of course getting stronger too, so what miss required you to be away for so long?" Owain was getting a bit light headed from this conversation on top the mountain. "Mind if I sit." Owain said as he bent down to sit.

"By all means sit if you need too, or we could talk and walk, I've heard resting the body is just as important as training it. So after two weeks, a stay in town wouldn't be a bad idea?" Astro said trying to get this man off the mountain. "Besides your 'partner' could use a break don't you think? Or at least a wetstone visit." He said noticing with his keen eye the blade had dulled subetly, most likely from hunting the beasts out here.

Owain was a bit exhausted he nodded his head to Astro's comment. "Ah sounds about, right. This mountain serves as a wondrous place to test one's ability. But rest do sound good right now, as for my partner, I agree." Owain had got up, he slowly dusted himself off. "Well show the way good sir."

Astro started walking and talking just like he had suggested. "The mission was a simple one, snuff out an upstart Dark Guild. Nothing big, just had 4 B class mages and a few more C class ones, their guild master, if you wanna call him that, was maybe A rank. I started out by defeating 3 or 4 c class at a time, quick strikes too, one shots so they don't what happens, make the guild as a whole disoriented. Then they started to stick together in bigger groups which made my job harder and easier at the same time. B class mage is a good fight no matter what rank you are, but a B class mage with two supporting C lass mages is a tough fight." He said emphasizing the word tough. "After about three months of stalking, and picking them off, turning them over to the authorities, I didn't want to kill any of them. I digress, after months they were holed up in their HQ. I let them wait, let them know I was coming. Then when I finally did, I took the whole guild house down with me." He said proudly. "It was supposed to take 5 years because the most intelligent way to go about it would've been to either pick them off at a slower rate, or join the guild undercover. I just wanted to expedite the process."

Owain listened to Astro tell the story, he nodded his head hearing Astro's tale. "Ah wonderful, you sure must be a powerful mage to take down a guild by yourself. I can't lie, if there's an easier way to go about it, makes sense to do so. Rather work smart then hard."

"I'm not that powerful, these were just upstarts. We aren't that different you and I remember? You and your partner could've done the same I'm sure." He encourage Owain. "I agree worker smarter than harder, but in this case I just wanted to get back. To start learning some new magic so I can become powerful." He said looking up at the sky as if he saw his future up there.

Owain chuckled to himself when he heard Astro mentioned about how the two were the same. "True, I got an idea. How about we make a promise." Owain paused for a bit thinking about the pact. "Well we both wish to seek to get stronger, so as a result we should both seek that path. This should prove an interest, we should wager. Loser would have to do what the winner said." Owain looked back at Astro, awaiting a response.

"A rivalry of sorts?" Astro questioned, before a big smile grew on his face. "Every great mage has had a rival. Do you think you could keep up with me though? I've got a head start being that I know one type of magic already" He joked.