Angel Breath [Lilly/Sammi C]

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Bloody goddamn bandits were like a freaking plague, Lilly decided. They were as intrinsic to life on the continent as death and taxes these days, but approximately thrice as hard to eradicate, and they ruined everything they touched. At least they were amusing to set on fire and excellent stress relievers - about as much actual use as they would ever provide for society. At least no one had died due to the chicanery of whatever swine had decided they would rather have bandits around than allow to group to finish them off, but her merry band was... not so merry anymore. All of them had been shaken to some degree, and many had spent blood as well as sweat in the name of justice.

It didn't feel right to leave the girl along, and so Lilly had gone hunting for the distinctive blonde ponytail, hoping to find Sammi in a reasonable timeframe. The idea of bringing a child into battle had been iffy with her from the start, but in the end it had been her decision to allow the girl to follow her into the fray that had led to the injury, and Lillianne was feeling more than a little guilty about that. First a teenage girl, and now a boy who might not even be in his teens; what a curious combination of additions. She sighed, perking up slightly on catching sight of Sammi near the fortress wall. Willing a smile to her face that Lilly wasn't convinced she actually felt, the mage approached her younger companion with measured steps, Given that the girl had taken an arrow to the leg, that seemed like as good a place as any to start. "Hey, Sammi. How are you holding up?"

[Sammi]

Sammi was glad that they were out of the woods now. Since she, Lilly and whatever the hell the other persons name was were finished on their side of the battle. However she didn't know how long the moment would last. She leaned against a tree and untied her boot, so she could check on her foot. She could walk on it, although it caused pain, so she guessed that was a good sign. Despite her foot, she had managed to strike a few bandits which had helped them get this far. She figured at first that the others in the group didn't want a younger girl with them. She hoped that she had proved them that she could handle herself.

However now there was another guy who was following them who was even younger than her. She didn't know what to make of him because she hadn't noticed him during the battle. On that thought, she ripped a piece of unnesisary cloth from her belt and tied it around her foot to supress the bleeding a little. As she was doing that she noticed Lilly approaching her.

"Oh I'm fine. Nothing in my foot seems to be broken badly, but I can't put alot of pressure on it," replied Sammi. She wasn't sure if the mage would take that as a sign of weakness, but it was best to be honest. Maybe she would think it was a bad idea to bring her along in the first place. "I can walk on it though, so that's a good sign," she reassured her. "I'm sure I can manage", she said jokingly with a smile. She was at least glad that somebody cared enough to ask her how she was.

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Lilly smiled gently down at the girl, equal parts relieved that it wasn't crippling and impressed that the girl could put on such a brave face. She was no doctor, but as she understood it, arrows hurt - the mage was quite aware that she wasn't the toughest squishy alive, and was less than sanguine about her ability to put up with that much blood. "Just - don't push yourself, all right? You can't help anyone if you run yourself ragged and ruin your leg permanently. And I'd feel pretty bad about letting you get hurt that badly here anyways, so now you've got two reasons to be a little more careful!"

She moved to pat the girl on the head, but hesitated, realizing that a move like that might be too patronizing. Teenager or not, Sammi was trying too damn hard to pull her weight - and more - to treat her like just a kid. Lilly ended up resting her hand on the girl's shoulder, trying to show a little support that hopefully couldn't be taken too badly. "Are you going to, uh, be okay?" There were layers of meaning to her words; Lillianne wasn't entirely convinced that Sammi wasn't just putting up a brave front to hide the severity of the wound, but she was also probing the girl's reaction to the fight. She'd killed several human beings today, even if they were bandits, and while this wasn't Lilly's first fight, she wasn't super experienced in the matter either.

The mage continued cautiously, not quite as experienced a psychiatrist as she would have liked to be but determined to give it a shot anyways. "If you want to talk..."

[Sammi]

Sammi was glad that Lilly understood so she didn't need to worry.

"Right I will take it easy," she replied. "I can always fire from a tree," she said with a smile, remembering that she had shot a bandit earlier in the fight from a tree. Lilly seemed a bit uneasy and although she wasn't sure why, she tried to lighten her up a little. She looked up, noticing that Lilly had rested a hand on her shoulder.

Lilly's words, "If you want to talk", caught her attention. She wasn't sure what to make of that. Sammi trusted Lilly and all, but she wasn't sure exactly what there was to talk about. Yet she still did want to talk because earlier in her life, she didn't really have anyone to talk to.

"Um sure," she said. She managed a smile although she wasn't sure how she felt right now with her mix of emotions. She figured now over anytime would be best. She gathered her courage to ask what was on her mind at the moment.

"Did you even want to bring me along?" she asked with caution."I mean im not really experienced in battles and the rest of you seem to know what you are doing. Was I helpful?"

As soon as she said that, she wished she hadn't. She hoped that Lilly wouldn't take that the wrong way. She had been determined to prove herself to them, however she wanted to know if they were only acting and in reality they didn't even want her to fight with them. She figured that she needed to know the truth now before it got too far into the battle.

[Sammi]

((OoC: this is continued from my last post. For some reason it didn't go through. That's why it's really short. I didn't notice until just earlier today.))

After all, Lillianne was the one who wanted to talk anyway.

"What I meant was that this is my first real battle and I wanted to know if I did anything wrong or not," she said. After all, the others weren't that experienced either, but more than her.

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She let out a breath, a sort of single exhaled peal of laughter. Sammi certainly had a talent for directness. Lilly was more than capable of playing the game of verbal chess with anyone who so pleased, but she'd always been a fan of the blunt approach, at least when it was appropriate; she wouldn't deny Sammi an honest answer, even if it might not be exactly what the girl was looking to hear. "Well - no one wants to be remembered for using child soldiers, I guess. That attitude does a disservice to those who are willing and able to fight despite their age, but it saves a lot of children from having to deal with the horrors of war." Pretty much every name she could think of involved in that sort of behavior had ended up a tyrant, to boot.

"So I'll be honest here: I had my doubts." Lilly smiled apologetically, raising both hands placatingly as though it would magically solve everything. "Might not have taken you along if Selk and the shaman had joined up earlier. I ended up taking a chance on you, and - for what it's worth, I'm glad that it paid off. And it did. You're quite handy with a bow, and made of tough enough stuff to not fall apart as soon as you got hurt. That's impressive enough in its own for any new recruit, regardless of age." She smiled encouragingly, pleased that the girl was willing to open up a little bit. If only leading people was just making the occasional inspirational speech! Each problem that she surmounted made her a little better as a leader, as a person.

The question on what she might have done wrong stymied Lilly a little, though, forcing a more cautious answer. She didn't want to say something wrong that might end up interfering with the girl's practice.
"Well, I'm not an archer myself, but I know there are two major approaches; sacrificing a bit of accuracy for mobility, or sacrificing mobility for accuracy. Or trying to balance the two, I suppose, but most tend towards one extreme or the other. Most military archers tend towards the second one. Same as mages, actually; in larger fights we're often used as covering fire or magical artillery. In smaller skirmishes, mobility is much more powerful, especially if there is no solid front line to ensure we're protected. You did fine, but I would suggest considering exactly when moving is necessary and when it is not. Doing so throws off your aim pretty badly, which will interfere with your number of overall attacks in a fight as well as the accuracy of each, but sometimes you just need a new vantage point to land an arrow or avoid return fire."

[Sammi]

She gave a short sigh of relief. Lilly seemed to be pleased that Sammi was being open with her and honestly, Sammi wasn't sure at first that she would think that. However if Lilly had had her doubts at first, she had done a pretty good job of hiding it. She seemed welcoming to everyone, but then again, Sammi wasn't a mind reader.

However Sammi was secretly relieved when Lilly said that her actions had paid off. It was nice to hear that, she needed the experiance and was glad that her companions weren't secretly plotting to leave her on the streets. She had trained and hunted and had gotten plenty of injuries before, so this was nothing strange to her.

Lilly also had mentioned sacrificing movement for accuracy, and she remembered portions of her training. It was talked about a few times, when actual battles were mentioned, but not often.

"Oh ya I remember that from my training," she replied. "I might have been a little slow before though, because I wanted to directly hit, but you're right because there were some points when-like you said- moving was or was not nessisary."

Sammi had been the one to ask the question, and was used to constructive criticism. She decided to open up more to Lilly. After all she was Sammi's leader and she had learned to trust her.