the sun was bright when Aero woke up, it gave him a fucking ache through his bones. his thoughts felt like they were going through something solid and sap. With his eyes closed he tried to make sense of his surroundings...' I'm in a tree.'

"high!" sighing he opened his eyes turning his face from the sun. "at least I'm still dressed." he's heard some people stripped when they got drunk, but he was glad to find that he wasn't that kind of drinker. his knuckles were sore a bit so he might have gotten into a fight. 'hope it wasn't too bad,' with that he tried to determine the location he came from.

thankful he could see some buildings peeking out from the trees. so he headed to the location stretching his body and trying to figure out what he did last night. he knew it got fuzzy after tasting three full cups. 'did I dance on a table? did I really take her axes to do it?'

'it was quite the sight, my lord,' Aero paused when he heard the helper's voice the impactions of what they said hitting him a moment afterward. taking a deep breath he turned his attention towards them,' Alright what happened last night, how bad was it.' for a moment the helper did say anything which only made him feel worse before the helper started speaking. telling him it was much worse than he could have imagined.

'After drinking enough due you began to switch between being high clingy while wanting your mother and extremely aggressive changing anyone to show them your skill you got into several small competitions before shortly passing out then waking up and walking out of the village.' aero tried hard to not try and hide, 'i believe you intend to see your mother but got tired climbed a tree then slept till morning.'

"That's what I'm doing out here!" aero took a deep breath as he walked over to a tree. gathering the swirling emotions in his chest, with another breath they flowed through his shoulder his arm, and right into his fist. he pulled that fist back before slamming it into the grey bark of the tree. knocking leaves loose as he continues to stick and punch at the tree. it took a few minutes for the lord to calm down.

"alright let's head back to the village and wash up for that day," he ignored the stinging in his hand and the slight blood. he felt better after striking out his emotions, for the moment he walked into the village and sought out his teammates who were still dozing at the inn. not neatly either.

two of them were at the same, one on the floor. another was at the table across the room, clinching a cup and drooling the fourth was held dressed in someone's lap, and then finally he found the last member on the inn rooftop.

"I'm throwing water on all of them," aero didn't waste much time doing just that. smiling how they each jumped to their feet. with swears, some of them jumping into a battle stance. he got a drink thrown in his face, but it didn't dilute his amusement as they moved into getting ready for the day feeling there might of half-remembered memories with the pounding in their heads.

"ah yes, last night was fun!" Inna commented. looking dead at Aero who glared. he vaguely recalled clinging to her for some time. but she was smart enough to try and not test his limits, but she was also fast enough to dodge a causal hit. the look he gave her as the team got ready only had the lady smirking.

when they were ready, carts ready, creatures in their reins, and alert. The group exchanged their last words, it wasn't a heartfelt goodbye. they knew they would be seeing each other before the seasons turned. aero was pretty stone-faced the entire time, he did say that he would try to keep in contact with them.

"I think he's going to miss u-!" the rest of what idit was going to say was cut off by the pebbles Aero tossed at her before urging his creature forward. " is her embarrass-" Aero threw a bigger stone this time, the girls cackled right up until the rocks came there way.

soon they were quiet and exiting the town, throwing around final goodbyes before they split across the road. the group transforming into smaller groups of people going in the same direction. aero was silent even with the cart following his own. he was kind of busy talking to the helper. getting an update from his scientist, and checking in the funds he made. how much he had to pay the lord of greed.

aero thought and planning kept his thinking for a while thankfully, tzilla was quiet. as she played with her axe, a small melody coming off it. ones that didn't do little more than make colorful light or fun sounds. it would keep her busy and at the same time let her practice, it wasn't until they stopped for the night that Aero spoke.

"do you have any plans for when you get home?" he knew tzilla lived in the same town as her weaponsmith but not much more than that. She shrugged, her eyes focusing on the lighting dancing among the trees. "I don't have any plans, might send mail to my sister, to see how is she doing?"

aero latched on to the sister as it would be a topic they could talk about, Tzilla didn't say much about her sister. beyond their reaction ship was a little awkward, but they talked. the sister worked with fabric. tzilla didn't get any more specific than that.

aero didn't push.

"so any sibling?" aero shrugged for a moment." there might be more because of my dad but I don't know, plus my mother might get her new partner pregnant." he frowned at the idea. but there wasn't much he could do about that. despite how much he tried the man hadn't been scared off, which Aero guessed he should be impressed by. "so I might get a younger sibling," which was a nest Aero wasn't picking right now.

tzilla offered some advice as a young sibling, which Aero appreciated and would try and keep in mind in the future. at some point they changed the topic, talking about the stars and what was among them, "there aren't any black holes near our planet right?"

"how would you define near?" he then explained that near could mean the next planet to a couple of hundred lightyears depending on how powerful of a Transporation you had. because it genuinely made a fucking difference," what a light year?"

"how much space light travels in a year, it is quite the incredible distance." Aero smiled getting to show off the effort of his studying under Tova. he had a bit more to show off to her before they turned in for the night, which was peaceful. it was the morning that was a pain.

"zalts damn you!" tzilla swore as she three four armored primate-like creatures from her food supplies. they tried to claw and bite back at her, but one lost their head and another on their hands. drove them off. the one without hands got caught by aero for a mercy kill. "it won't survive long and I don't think this species had much regeneration."

"I'm not complaining, tzilla said tossing him her decay powder. before trying to get the blood out of the cart, maybe when she got to her town she would get it professionally cleaned. for the moment she did the best with water that had been sitting in her water pouch all day and some cloth she had for this specific reason.

soon there had eaten and were on the road again, talking more about family." okay I can understand your hesitation with your foremother. My forefather doesn't like my fashion sense," she pointed to the grey tight-fitting outfit. in terms of her limbs, it only coved one arm and leg. "like what's wrong with this," aero shrugged he knew more about making friends.

but that seemed to have set her off, or tzilla had been pushing this stuff down for a while. she kept talking for several flowers, aero had to admit he was impressed by how little she needed to breathe. he heard a lot about different forms of fashion and how some were viewed as inapposite, most of it was news to him, he spent way too much time ignoring what people said to him to notice what they said about his clothes.

"how do most people think about the way I dress?" his question got her off the topic so fast that it gave the boy some whiplash. "what the zalts does that mean?" she didn't answer for serval moments," I have to think how to put this to you gently."

after a moment aero gave her a blank look," No matter what you say I'm not going to take it well nor am I going to change how I dress or how little I care!" she nodded before taking a deep breath,' at least is he get mad it will take a while before he can get his hands on someone. then she started. for almost a flower and a half, she directed his entire wardrobe and told him how each part of it could be negatively viewed.

"that is so much nonsense!" how could just about everything he wore be viewed in a bad way. "forget it!" he wasn't going to waste his time or thoughts on such useless beliefs. especially not the belief of people who couldn't say anything to his face. "have you ever smacked someone about what they said about your clothes?" aero asked trying to change the subject.

"not really," because she didn't have a bad temper. well, compared to her team's leader anyway. if you asked someone else she snapped pretty badly, her sister certainly thought so. they traveled for the next few days straight to avoid topics that would upset each other. instead of trying to find more common ground between them.

there wasn't much, being hunters have taken up much of their time and they didn't have much in the way of hobbies. they were both interested in the larger universe, for different reasons. aero needed the information for his job as a lord and tzilla was just curious.

but he didn't mind talking about what he learned with her, not to mention he bounced some ideas off her. while she wasn't a scientist she wasn't slow, so she did manage to follow along while Aero kind of ranted about some of the problems he knew were waiting for him. not to mention the ones off the planet.

the helper wasn't much to rant to, they accepted everything he threw at them while offering solutions. which was nice, very nice, and also logical. but sometimes he wanted a more emotional reaction like the one that Tzillia was currently giving him. even though he detected a hint of pity that he despised. but he didn't react to that.

"oh god I've signed on for quite the ride haven't I," she stated. looking at the sky mind wiring bout what Aero told her. mostly about the political headache, they were going to face, from what Aero asked he knew that introducing plenty to the larger galaxy was a big and complete mess. there was an incredible amount of paperwork need to be done.

then there was the faction that you had to join, there were neutral factions, well as neutral as you could get in the universe. there were also the people who would definitely try and take the planet from its people. the weak survived, but they didn't prosper. this was the reality.

the days might have passed a bit too quickly because soo they arrived at the point they had to split up, aero wouldn't admit it to her face but he was going to miss her and dread the loneliness that was to come until he reached his home village. yes, he had the helper, but they didn't have a physical presence. he didn't want her to leave, but he didn't want to admit it more. so he stayed quiet and gave her a subdued goodbye before guiding his cart down the road.

'my lord would you like to hear a story or practice mapping star routes?' the helper came in offering distraction for their lord's loneliness. something they figured Aero wasn't used to, the only people he cared for before his team was his mother. but he was used to being separated from her, which was usually in what Aero considered a hostile environment.

"yeah, I'll do the maps maybe a story later." the helper projected the information into his mind and Aero worked on navigating through the stars, around black holes, and asteroid fields. pirate territories and into neutral ones before. avoiding hostile ones as well, as planning out maintenance and supply stops.

so far it was the longest route he's had to make. something that would take months even with faster-than-light travel, of course, that wasn't a trip he would be taking any time soon, instead, he focused on the net route. which went through more peaceful territories but had tight security and checkpoint that he had to account for in his travel time.

between that and some book he listed to, time passed nicely soon he was back in his home village and arriving. first, he checked for any mail before building his cart to his house when he stopped he unhooked the creatures so they could laze and eat while he headed inside.

the house was quiet, mostly taking a moment to listen he identified the steps as Adir and proceed to ignore him as he brought his stuff back into his room. setting his bed down and running a finger through the cloth. "this needs a good wash, maybe some touch-up as well." he noticed a few loose threads. as he sorted out his room, whipping what little dust there was. he considered what he should do, he didn't know where his mother was.

"let's wash up I've been on the road all day," there was dust clinging to him.