The End of the Horizon

III - The Imprisoned Strength

Walking on their way out of town, Mello snagged a map of the southwest end of the Great Continent, making the planning of their route to Ventus a little bit easier. They still had to pass through Moonriver, one of the cities along the way to grab a boat that crossed the biggest river in the continent, Camerick. A little bit further from the river, lies the Namerick great ocean, and finally stopping by its southern shores, where Ventus was located.

Before telling Lizzie that they were already leaving town, he took her to do a little walk outside of the city but said that she had to grab all of her stuff. Great strategy? Nah. He just didn't want to make her upset... What didn't help at all, because she still was angry about leaving the town in a hurry.

"Hey Liz, take a look at this." – He showed their next destination on the map. – "A city on both sides of a river. Is that cool or what?"

"Man, how do you do this?" – She said, still angry, but curious.

"This what?" – Mello folded the map and put it in his pocket.

"Like... Steal stuff and nobody notices it."

"Heh. Stealing is an art. It's made of many secret techniques. One day I can teach you if you want."

"Secret techniques?" – These words piqued her interest.

"Yeah. For example, to steal from someone that knows you're there..." – He closed onto the girl. – "You have to distract them..." – With one hand, he grabbed her shoulder and with the other, touched her on the chin, approaching their faces together and making her red from head to toe. – "And then..." – He approached their lips nearly together, but he backed off from her, showing her book in front of her. – "There."

Lizzie had her eyes closed, waiting for that unexpected moment, really thinking that something would happen, but when she opened them again, she saw the guy waving her book in front of her, with the most cretin smile ever.

"You... You... Gimme this back!" – She took back her book and Mello started laughing.

"It never fails. Well, let's go. There's still a long way ahead of us between here and Moonriver."

*

They traveled for a couple days, skipping the roads and small villages along the way by Mello's decision. He wasn't sure if he could trust the people in those places anymore, so he chose to travel between the forests and resting on caves and improvised camps. Lizzie was feeling confident to practice her spells, and trained every day, following the man's advice that he learned from his sister's training. Between the cold of the rain and night and the hotness of the day and forest humidity, she practiced whenever she had a chance. Concentration was the key to use magic.

She found out that her fire spells were the easiest to make. Water and wind were also no problem at all. Her only problems were with the ground spells, whose she couldn't really make and the lightning. Besides from the night on Margewicht, she could never make another spark form in her hands.

Between her training, some curiosity came across her mind about the man.

"Yo, you're really that good with swordplay or only when necessary?" – Said the girl.

"You want to know if I'm skillful?"

"Yeah."

"Hm... Well, lemme show you something then." – He did some stretches. – "Hah... It's been some time since the last time I've trained."

He took the girl to some trees nearby, took off his jacket, and asked Lizzie to step back a little. He kicked some trees, making some leaves fall down. He closed his eyes, held the sword in front of him, and concentrated on the falling leaves. When he opened his eyes, he drew the katana and cut every leaf in a single wink of eyes. It seemed as if time had slowed down, and when he sheathed the sword, time went back to normal again. Lizzie only saw him drawing his sword, leaping forward, and then sheathing it again. He was so fast in so little time that the leaves started to divide themselves in half one by one until they fell on the ground.