While the people sent arrived in the town in good time, they were tad too slow to reach Aero and his teammate before they boarded their ride the day before. a bit of investigation and asking around gave them bits of information that gave them a direction to work in. not that they had the right to conduct a search in another country.
At least not before dealing with a good amount of bureaucracy, but doing so would require them to talk about some topic. Usually, this kind of matter was about criminals, as rare as they were they happened. and more of the time they didn't have the strenth to run, cause the only place to run was into the massive forest that covered the planet and inhabit many hostile creatures.
To run meant confidence in your survivability to just plain stupidity if they weren't the kind who rant into the forest to commit suicide. Which then left them at the hands of the Zalts and zaltes of the dead. Beings whose stories were bound with death so tightly it almost defined them. Their group wasn't that big, nor were they strong, but they were respected. In the end, everyone ends up in their hands.
"you know this isn't a bad sight, Inna commented from her spot on the back of the flying creature, its large four wings beating steadily to keep them aloft. Under them, the endless-looking forest ocean passed by. Under the sounds of the wind, if you listened, you could hear the sounds of life coming from it.
Part of Aero was curious about what life grew there untouched by his people. Of course, he knew there was a reason no one was willing to touch it. In the distance, he saw something house-sized briefly move over the treetops.
Looking up, he watched the could pass by; well, it looked like he was. In truth, he was observing a projection the helper was showing him. It was a list of galactic laws. Honestly, Aero wasn't that interested in it. Still, he knew he needed the knowledge before he went out into the stars. So, at a time like this, when nothing was really going on yet, he wanted to be productive.
That isn't to say he wasn't entertaining himself; in his hands was a half-read scroll containing a rather good comedy. His sides were currently too sore from the laughter he had tried to impress. The story was good. The comedy didn't feel forced, which was the downfall of so many comedy stories.
After several flowers of dry laws and incredibly strange ones. he lacked context, like why it was illegal to fuck a specific animal during a certain day. Why were people fucking it? Why, especially on that day, was it illegal? Why not be illegal on all days?
In another sector of space, it was illegal to mine this one kind of rock. This was classified as a cultural law. That made more sense to Aero; his planet would probably set up its own cultural laws. Every other species did this, even artificial ones and more animalistic but still sentient races.
Speaking of bestial life forms, they had several laws about other races taking their lives. From his understanding of the law, people probably tried to argue legal definition, but the court created several laws with different wording that just meant the same thing. Kill and get arrested.
Aero personly wasn't worried about this, he was likly to get arrested for fighting people. Which meant he was going to need a law speaker or people to speak in his defense. It would probably be one of the first things he would have to do when he entered space. If there was one thing Aero knew, he would get into a fight.
He wasn't sure how or why, but it was too likely for him to think otherwise. 'then again, I might not get arrested for fighting cause there were many exceptions to fight. essentially if the two parties agreed and signed from virtual paper. Which was definitely interesting; legally fighting people that made him mad was good.
now he just have to remember to summon when things happened, as a precasution he explained these laws to his two teammates. "why are you making preparation for possible fights?" galia asked," wouldn't it be better to think of ways to avoid fights?"
"your right, but i preferred to be real to myself, and I'm aware i have a short temper and slowly improving. i have no interested in developing any delustions about himself." that would lead to him devoping arrogance which Aero didn't want, beside he took pride in how he fought. downside he struggled to feel about the fights he got into, despite being aware what it did to his reputation.
another flower passed before they came to a stop to let the creature rest. resting in a very large tree that stood very above it faimly, setting in the branches aero washed his hands after answering nature's call.
"so how much further are we going today?" he asked nibbling onhis food. the driver, a women about Aero's mother age. paused." well with the weather is good, but not pushes us forward so i guess well make it pretty far. unlike the rip i brought your friend on which enoucted a storm. we still made goos imte, but being wet was not fun."
Aero hummed in response and asked about the trip the other half of his team went on and if anything seemed bad when they got off. She answered without people deciding not to comment on his worry. While she was traveling with the other half, they had a few stories about the boy's anger. She was kind of thankful her children were much calmer.
'though they might just be pushing it down,' she would ask. She didn't want her children to bottle up their emotions; at the very least, they could trust her. She was going to make sure of that.
Within two flowers, the group took off again, high in the clouds, as Aero returned to his story. Inna and Galia are talking. The next few days contained this peaceful pattern, with only a brief interruption when this furry thing tried to steal aero food. He fought it and won, "I can't even say anything."
When they arrived on the next land mass, Aero drew no attention to his relief. Right up until they found the rest of their team, well, lior, who was trying to barter with this stubborn woman over a piece of fabric. It looked soft, but Aero didn't see anything too special about it. It was a rather dull color.
"Hey, Loir!" Inna called out, drawing her teammate's attention. "oh, you guys made it!" she snapped away from her negotiation, but not with a look that declared they were far from finished." so, did anything interesting happen on the way here?" she asked.
"Well, I fought this furry thing over food, but most of the action was before that." lior asked how, and Aero pointed out that wasn't a public conversation. After she got her stuff, she led them to the inn where they were staying. "Just a warning: We could not get Aero his own room, so someone will have to room with him."
"Why?" he got the feeling he wasn't going to like the answer, "Well, part of it is because apparently, this is a busy season due to a nearby festival... the other part is because you are a guy. apparently that has a policy for that."
"I see," Aero said through some grited his teeth, he tried to talk some calming breath though it really seemed to be helping, he felt that anger boiling very strongly. But letting it boil over at the moment was a bad idea, a very bad idea.
"Let's figure out who is going to room with me so I can get down for the night. his bed was heavy. he could carry it for another few hours but he didn't want to. "alright I don't know where the other two are but if possible I would not like to room with you."
"Alright," he could think of reasons she didn't want to share a room. he couldn't be offended because he didn't want to share his room either. so that left a few options, which they went over, inna and galia arguing about who would stay with Aero. 'so there arguing about my training.' Aero wasn't aware that it was a problem.
Of course, they all spoke about other things, like how one of his first instinct when being disturbed was attacked. There was a none zero chance he would hit you in his sleep. There was also a non-zero chance that you'd be very close to one of the beast attacks as well. Which was good because you could help him but bad cause you were now in the line of fire.
This quickly turned into a much more complicated argument than Aero expected, and when the rest of them returned, it turned into a very long debate. Aero watched them for a moment before going into the room he would have to share.
Whatever choice they made would be theirs; Aero didn't really have a preference. Beyond wanting to scream, Aero hadn't shared a room with anyone since the night scared him, and he wanted to stay where he was safe. By her side, he wasn't sure how safe he felt with his teammates staying in his room.
they only were good people. but good people would do bad things for good reasons. Of course, at that point, they were no longer good, just wearing the mask of good. he knew that from experience, too many people thought they were helping him when they were nothing more than a nuisance. some occasions they actively put him in danger.
just the hint of these memories caused his head to pound, but he calmed down. it was in the passed and he was in a different country, there was no way he could run into them. if he did he knew the zalts and zaltess were either testing or messing with him.
reaching the large room he set his bed in a concern so he could have the wall to his back before sitting down, there were a few things he could think of to distract himself. but he didn't instead silently waited for his roommate to arrive.
it took a while, but evently the door opened to tzillia which surprised Aero. he treated the axe user,"lost the debate?"
"Nah, I've shared rooms with boys before, so it wouldn't be any different from them." Aero nodded and watched as she set up her side of the room. She didn't pay too much attention to Aero besides making sure she wasn't intruding on his space. "you not," she released a bit of tension, but he could tell that she was a bit stressed about this situation.
aero was the same but his stone face and control of his body language were better, it helped that he was just sitting and watching. he kept watching before dcied to cehack on the beast, he found the chains damageged and worked to repair them.
'well have that conversation after the third meal,' for now he was more then reocevered to not bother anyone else until then. the change still took a decent amount of energy to repair and his extra stores weren't a full compactly yet. honelty that was a matter of time, he was more interested in trying to find a way to store the resonating pride.
'its resonation faded each time I tried to store it, becoming like my own energy. There were traces of something that made it different, but that wasn't resonating anymore. So he had to use the power or lose it, at least he was going to be sticking with his team to the nest few weeks. So the supply wasn't a concern.
A few flowers passed before they gathered for dinner, and a few drinks lined the table. But nobody touched them yet as they all knew an important topic was going up; things were silent at first as they savored the taste of their meal.
"Alright, I believe we're getting a story," idit asked, grabbing a drink but not bringing it to her mouth. "it an... interesting tale?" Inna said, unsure if intreating is the right word you would use to describe what happened to them.
"Well, to start with, remember these stories about the massive creature the zalts and zaltess took on?"
"yeah, why?" tzillia asked. she quickly learned as the other half of the steams started talking; her face quickly went through several emotions as she listened to the words they said. a part of her wanted to deny what they were saying. It was observed and terrifying. Massive creatures that might be living underground. that sounds like a nightmare. Would they burst up now, their massive teeth devouring her and the town?
But she remained herself the world was so much larger then she could observe. The universe was even larger, an amazing and terrifying thought. Of course, that wasn't the only kind she had. "Still it's amazing that something that large was live let alone."
Aero made a sound of disagreement, "according to my tutor there are planet or even star sized organisms." as he expected that sentace got many stunned looks," I'm terrified and really interested."
"I know, right? I really want to see them; I know they like to show off. So it probably won't be that hard to see them." idit asked what he meant," Despite the size, these organisms have developed gentle giant attuites towards most small lifeforms if you try and harm them, though." he'd continue, but Toza hadn't given him any details about the Horry stories."
"we're getting off topic," inna said, tzilla pouted wanting to hear more. But she quickly collected herself. There was nothing stopping her from hearing more later." so you were talking about the beast, the one Aero fought."
"yeah, it's strong, and I really didn't have a real way to restrain or really beat them. they were two strong, but I wasn't going to stop fighting despite how my body and spirit were doing. it wasn't until they came back that I came up with an idea that might have some results, resonating pride."
"Now, I would like to see if the entire team can assist with this."