70

"I'm amazed she's still here," Ttilia stated, handing over the soap to her teammates and catching it without looking. She worked to scrub the blood stains from her clothing, "I'm amazed Aero hasn't punched her again." Inna commented, throwing back the soap. Dunking the clothing in order to wash out the suds. She frowned as the stain was still pretty visible. She liked this one; it was a two-color outfit. It covered one leg more than the other.

"at this point, I think she trying to win some unannounced competitions, she commented, ringing out a towel and setting it to dry on the rake where the rest of her clothing was drying.

"ha," Inna laughed," I don't think she's going to win with how Aero is just ignoring her." she went another go at the stain, rubbing hard enough that Tzila was worried she scrubbed a hole in it. The team members had varying levels of sewing skills.

Aero sewed himself up the best; he stated this with a hint of pride, uncaring for the slightly disturbed look some of his team gave him. Basic hunter training includes sewing up wounds until you can get a real healer to look at them. But it was usually your teammates that did this. 

They had to state several times they would sew up any wound Aero ended up with. While he physically nodded in response to this, they agreed that when it came down to it, he probably needed a reminder. Even the lord himself saw this as a possibility.

It was a years-old habit," a very bad one." Inna felt the need to point it out. Aero, this was a half-truth as it was a necessary habit and skill. "what do you do when your hands are covered in blood?" Tzila asked, unsure if she wanted the answer:" Lick the blood off."

When they were done with their laundry, the girls left their things to dry and focused on training. Currently having some melody focus sparring matches, rather tame ones. They weren't doing any special damage to the ground and trees. A part of the lake was ice, but that was easily fixable, and it could be harvested for their drinks. 

Some great after a long day of working out and striking each other, sparring with Aero usually left you with one welt. He hit hard even when he wasn't trying to harm you. "can not believe you're all being so rough with him?" of course, they were hitting back just as hard." they all shared a look." she's joking, right?" 

"Have you not seen what he has been turning our way?" Galia took over," ignoring how foolish that is why sparring, it rude when he's taking us so seriously." the women only looked at her confused, and Gailia ran a hand over her face in a sign of expression." look, I understand where your coming from, but it's not going to fly here!" there was no room for argument in her tone, and she didn't receive any.

The day came to a mildly uneventful end, but the next day was not. Largely because someone else showed up." how many people treat this place like a vacation spot?" he looked at the small family that was setting up a tent/cart at the edge of the lake. The parents are trying to keep their children from running into the lake. 

"I know a dozen who come here yearly," Aero grumbled before turning to his team, discussing their course of action. These people were different from the people who came specifically to harass them. They were on vacation, and they still might harass them. Plus, they couldn't take the whole lake to themselves. 

"Well, we could move, but other bodies of water are probably populated. I wasn't aware this was their vacation season." Tzillia stared off their planning session as the team gathered in a circle with sweet drinks for them all." yeah, that was a planning error, not knowing about any event over the cross of the timeline." Gallia stated.

"no," Inna cut in," we checked holidays and such. but focused more on the things that would get us arrested or set off our short-tempered captain." she looked at Aero, who was only silent for a moment." so next time we expand our search perimeter. For now, we stop doing anything big enough to catch up with the other lakegoers. I'm not risking the drowning of someone's child."

"Well, so we're stopping melodies or at a big effect one. Cause I still need some practice with how sounds move down there and remembering which melodies to not use!" she shivered, remembering the light mistake of using an ice melody. It froze her arms; if she had been alone, she would have likely drowned.

"yeah, and I'm doing great at gathering my heaven and earth energy." the water-aligned girl commented. "Lucky you, it's hard too. I'm not getting much from the campfires. Too much water in the air."

"so we should go somewhere hotter next time, maybe more windy. Where would we go?" they discussed something between them until they were interrupted," There is this beautiful valley, always a breeze going there and just overflowing with flowers. Always a pleasant smell going through it."

"you're a noisy person, aren't you," Aero accused." just a bit," she responded. But for hot spots, in the more literal sense, I don't know many." 

"We're looking for training spots, not vacation spots." in response to Idit's statement. she asked why you couldn't do both. "...you know I don't have an argument for that, but we're prioritizing training more than pleasure."

"noted, but if that's all I do know, a moderately active volcano inhabited by some creatures. They are mostly not a problem as they stay close to the molten rock, but there is a great amount of fertilizing ash. So missions there are more stealth than combat." 

"We can work with that; in the end, we're trying to grow stronger, and combat is not the only sign of strength." idit wisely said, "lead to sneak attacks." Aero pointed out, "Very useful when you're outnumbered."

"That sounds like a tactic. Don't you usually change them out in the open?" tzilla teased Galia, joining her. Aero gave them both a look before huffing and turning to look at the sky. Before heading to the cart to pull out the map they had of the continent. "what kind of path are we supposed to be charting?"

"so we're ignoring the question?"

"I'm prideful, not stupid." Aero replied, not looking up from the map, "So where are these locations you mentioned?" they pointed at the map and started working out average crosschecking the settlements between the locations. " if this map is to be trusted there, it would be better if we went through the valley before climbing the volcano, but it's going to be a pain of return trip to get on a creature back home.

"of course, we could go the other way, taking the tough way as training before we climb the volcano. But that path had more sheer cliffs. easier going down them than going up them." Aero continued talking to himself. Considered the options and paths they had to get where they wanted to go." 

"you know you could rent a creature for that trip," Aero paused and turned to his team. They did agree it would save them time and would be simpler than trying to climb a mounting by hand." but we couldn't afford to rent it and the carts; we'd have to leave them behind."

"which meant tracking with bags over my shoulders; I haven't done that in a while," Galia commented," my tents are in good shape, how about yours?" there was a round of agreement,"-need to wash it soon," tzilla added on.

"so we're agreeing to rent a creature for the trip up and down the motion, following that were valley. The question is how much time we spent at each location." Aero would rather have it far between the two.

"We could split up; this could get a more even time between us." Aero nodded, "So rent to take up and rent one to pick us all up... but what to do in an emergency? Also, have to plan out supplies."

The group talked about it over the next few flows, drafting out a plan. The day was coming to an end, and Aero went through his usual routine of spending his energy to forge chains and bind down the beast.

The next morning, they put dates on their plan, partly when they were heading off. "it's going to take us four days to get to the town. Longer in the mud is too much of a problem." it was looking cause it rained again last night; it rained the next days. These heavy but short showers were long on Aero's nerves. 

'if I didn't think it would stain them, I would top washing by boots every night.' but he didn't bring many spares, and he took pride in his appearance. 'mud on everything I own, my tents going to be a mess when we leave. Should I go to Vally or the volcano?'

Personly Aero thought he could work with either, but being comfortable was a different matter. 'neave climbed a volcano before, but I'm curious about the flower scents.' would he try and take the heat or the wind,' In terms of training it's probably better to head for the volcano. Increasing my ability to withstand heat.'

The helper and Tova had explained how life could find a way even in the strangest of places. Like a planet that was nothing but a constant thunderstorm, yeah, it was heavily populated by several native species and a few tourists and immigrants. 

"though it's not a tourist location I would go to, while there are portions for people like I heard there moving none stop, and I don't like getting motion sickness." was her opinion of that planet. "I heard it pretty, pictures are nice."

"a storm, pretty?"

"yeah, a storm, it's part of nature, isn't it. a fierce part of nature." Aero had to agree with that, nature was very fierce and brutal. But that didn't change its beauty. As a lord, he'd travel a lot, which meant some of their fierce and brutal places, and he needed a way to survive them.

'long it would really be better to go to the volcano, plus I could always visit the valley on the way back.' yeah, that could work for him; he was just a little curious about it. But it was nothing vital if it came down to it. 'okay, raise heat resistance; let's hope the zalts and zaltess smile my way and protect me a little.'

He's rather not burned to death...who did you pray to protection from fire again? 'I'll have to ask?' I don't remember the story for them either. Which made it a very bad idea to try and invoke the being; they were known for their stories and didn't take well to being forgotten after the labors they completed.

Aero knew that double as he sent the queen a letter, "actually, I probably could send a letter directly to the one whose labor dealt with protection from fire." Aero mumbled to himself. "best to do it after I get their name; he could start drafting their letter, though.

"Mmm, that is a great point. There isn't an active volcano near where I live, so I know who to invoke for forest fires and house fires. But something on the scale of a volcano?" tzilla tapped her chin, "I think calling on her is a good place to start. When we reach the village near the volcano, I'm sure they'll know."

"oh, they will definitely know," Inna stated. It's going to be a long while for the story. Are you both aware of that?" the question was answered with a grimace from both of them. Zoltess and Zolts' stories were not short stories, and you couldn't skip over the details. The less you knew, the less effective it would be.

"Hope it's no more than a day long," Aero would have to take a break if it was longer than that. Putting that part of their plan out of mind for the time being, they decided to leave at the end of the week for a bit more training while they packed up cleaning with the lack of water.

'so much star damned mud,' glade this isn't my personal cart... man, I hope nothing went wrong with that.' sighing, he put away his laundry and, after that, took a seat to watch the cloud roll by.

finshied watching them, the young lord stood up and walked into the forest. He made little noise as he moved through the bushes and trees. Closing his eyes, he started to focus, letting his pride energy spread out like a wave. 

It bounced back against a few things, but nothing that was really worth attention besides a few people. One person drew his attention, pride over what he was supposed to let by. It also felt particularly dense, 'My lord, I don't think you should guess about such a matter.'

'it's an educated guess; I plan to test it.' he refused to be arrogant and assumed he was correct on the first try. 'okay, time to test this out.' focusing on his usual sectioned staff. Rearing his body back, he turned to focus on the direction of the target, sending out another wave and making sure they hadn't moved too far.

Once he was sure, he swung the chain around to build up momentum; once he had what he believed to be a sufficient amount, he separated the chain that connected the end section of the sectioned staff. Casting it to fly off in the general direction of his target.

"need to practice that." sending out a wave and spread his awareness as far as it would go. he could tell he managed some kind of hit. Not a heavy one; from the faint feedback, he could feel down his construct. 

It only took a moment to reform the section and another to wind up again. "and the second!" he muttered to himself, seeing the section fly off with a little better aim. Striking true and harder than the first, "mmm. Well, that might be a problem; they were coming at him.