"This will be a great day! that Zaltes were smiling at me!!" Moses Tzilla was trying to hype herself up. but it was kind of hard, the task before she was daunting and she was well aware of them. but that didn't stop her but cheering herself on, she changed it to mental cheer as she pulled into the town. finding a place to store her cart, she asked around for directions until she found the place she was looking for.

"Hello, I'm looking for Abiathar Aero! I'm looking to join her team!" the room she barged into had three occupants, two males, and one female. she was probably the mother of the younger male, who was giving the older male a hell of a glare. but the moment Tzilla spoke the younger male moved, 'by the zalts and zaltes!' she ducked under the kick. back out of the doorway to get more room and the teen pursued her!

"I guess your Aero!" punched and kicks kept coming her way. it was graceful, but every movement was strong. he fully intended to hurt her, she felt it when she blocked his attacks.

"yes, that's my name! now show me if your worth having on my team fight me!" even though the thought of hurting him didn't sit entirely right, she caught one of his punches around the wrist. immediately throwing him over her shoulder. he was smiling as she did,' and seem to be making a good impression.

aero landed on his hands flipping with his momentum, "let's take his up a notch," aero stretched before charging. Tzilla met him half and they were quickly trading blows in the middle of the street. 'this isn't a free show!' aero thought as his legs were knocked from under him. he rolled as he hit the ground, gaining some space. "let take this into the forest!"

"fine by me," she didn't feel like getting in trouble with the local law enforcement. they raced full speed on the path out of town. 'he's fast! he doesn't look too tired either,' she found it hard not to be amazed by aero. not only was he good-looking with his marble skin. his carapace showed a few marks, no doubt from battle but it only added to his appearance, "WOW!"

she had gotten so caught up in admiring him that his sudden stop and kick almost caught her in the face. luckily she bent back in time for it to sail over her face, but that didn't stop him from following it up with other attacks forcing her on the defensive.

"chance!" Aero made the mistake of putting too much weight behind an attack on tzilla. which got him flipped again, he knew he could recover from such a movement. sadly so did tzilla, she didn't let go of his arm as his feet left the ground. instead jumped herself.

"AH!" aero couldn't hold back the shout as tzilla landed on top of him, that was an unexpected move and immediately she moved into a hold. aero recovered and tensed his limbs preventing her from completing the hold, "you doing well so far," he complimented through gritted teeth as aero moved his limbs slowly breaking his hold. "wow!" that was above average strength," how much have you trained?!"

"every day I can!" aero said digging his feet into the ground and pushing himself up as tzilla clung to him attempting to complete the hold." AH!" he body-slammed her, the shock was enough to loosen her hold and he slipped free. he gained a bit of space looking at her as she pulled herself up," so how much more do you wanna see?" she still took a ready stance as she spoke.

"however much you have to give!" the battle started up once more. it lasted a long time as well, aero was stubborn and he wouldn't admit it for a while but he was having fun. he had decided by the time they reached the forest that he was okay with her joining his team. as long as she was still willing when the day came to an end.

[ah she was the first wasn't she, the first person your age you considered interesting.]

[shut up and read the story]

"so did I pass your test," tzilla asked from the ground as she forced her organs to move. she was so tired, she has never been this tired in her life. seriously what the hell was this boy's stamina? the thought for half a day, "oh zalts I'm thirsty."

"come back to my mother's house, we need to talk about your employment."

"so I passed?" instead of directly answering her aero proceed to walk faster. not slowing down until they reached his home. "seriously could you just say if I passed your test!" aero didn't speak just walking through the entranceway." can she stay the night?" tzilla was flabbergasted at the way his posture and tone changed when he spoke to his mother.

Neora turned away from the dishes she was cleaning, she looked at the mess that the teens were. "sure she can stay the night so why don't the two of you get cleaned up." the teens nodded and aero lead the way to the bathroom, usually the unmarried didn't bath together but aero point out on missions they wouldn't have other choices.

tzilla came downstairs first, not having most of her supplies through some did bring her things over so she had some clothes to change into. "so how did the test go?" tzilla shrugged stating aero didn't tell her, Neora laughed before stating that probably meant she passed. "but aero doesn't like to admit to certain things, very closed off. but spend enough time around him and you'll learn to read him."

"Alright, any other advice for dealing with your son."

"Just be careful and watch his hands, they say more than his face," tzilla raised an eyebrow but kept it in mind as aero came downstairs with loose clothes and a few scrolls in his arms. "we have things to talk about," he spoke to tzilla.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"After you eat," his mother cut in. the teens sat down and ate the food she prepared for them. thanking her and cleaning their dishes before aero set the scrolls across the table. the first one aero made tzilla read over was a set of rules that he had put together for the team. if she didn't like them she was free to leave in the morning.

"ah none of these are that bad," it probably had something to do with the helper filtering aero's rule creation. they had a proverb about it, which aero saw the reason in. also he didn't fully care what his team did as long as they got the job done, but that could also cause some problems that he didn't want in his name.

the next thing they went over was the kinds of missions that tzilla was okay going on. aero didn't have anything else after that, tzilla did. she hadn't let off of getting aero to admit if she passed his test or not. 'she will get the truth from my corpse,' on the outside aero remained as quiet as a stone. he was quiet even as they went to bed, tzilla let the matter go in the morning, for now, but that was because someone else arrived for his test. aero put them through the same motions as tzilla.

while she didn't fight back, which enraged aero to the point that he had to stop the test before he did something bloody. what infuriated him more, was that while she didn't attack she made great attempts to subdue him along with the great defensive and evasion abilities she portrayed. 'she's too skilled to kick out!' he wanted the best for his team and she showed she had the best.

serval days went by like this until aero had tested every person he invited to try out for his team.

"why did I make such a good choice!" aero wanted to scream. he invited five people, good or bad they all passed. even though only two of them fight back when he tested them, one girl spent four flowers just straight dodging him. he threw dirt in her eyes and she still managed to evade him.

'my lord the group you've put together has a large amount of potential. it only remains to see if you can use the potential.' aero pressed his face deeper into his bed before sitting up," I know what you're trying to do!" he was being a challenge that would stock his pride. a test to see what he could do, one day this wouldn't work but unfortunately, that day was not today.

"Alright, I guess that I have to get to work." grumbling unpleasant things about his manipulative helper aero started working on a plan with his team. he needed to know who was on his team before he could do this. guided by the helper, he put together a simple training plan.

"you work fast," aero took it as a compliment as they spoke about the training. the plan he didn't want any mission taken yet. until they could work at a level he was satisfied with, he wouldn't let this team stain his record. he only failed a few missions and he would like to keep it that way. he said this much to them," dear zaltes your a lot."

aero didn't respond to this, instead waited until the first meal was finished and pushed them all to his usual training spot." okay time to show each other what you can do!" they already proved to him their skills even if they infuriated him on some level, now it was time to show each other. they did this through small sparring matches that aero joined in on.

they were skilled, strong, and fast. aero would only admit that they were more so than him because they were older than him. they all had graduated from their respective schools. why they joined his team aero could think of a few unpleasant reasons but he couldn't let him think about it or his emotions would fluctuate.

'i wonder if I can convince them to teach at my school?' he would keep it in mind but he wasn't going to offer such a thing at the moment. his trust in them was minimal, he was going to sleep with his weapon in hand.

the training wasn't much, aero only need to see how they worked together. so the entire week was constantly seeing how well they did against and alongside each other. he saw what melodies they could wield, how many notes they could push out, and how they dealt with the blowback of the melodies. retreating through the forest among more things that had them all tired when they came in for the night. for some reason, his mother agreed to host them all for the moment.

"you know your face is going to get stuck that way!" Golan Lior commented as they came back from the forest edge of a busy day of training "my face is already stuck this way!"

"I can't tell if he messing with us or not," Grois Galia responded adjusting the straps for her bladed polearm. he didn't look at her, instead, he looked at the final two members of his team, Okin Idit, and Graezt Inna. they did the best at today's training, they could fight the best while singing out their melodious. though none of them used their weapons to create the phenomena.

'i just can't see this going well,' so how did he change that? the helper would probably know something but he wasn't going to them just yet. instead, he thought about his knowledge of instruments and weapons.

"ah what would go together?" he couldn't find any matches, didn't help that he had to account for the individual styles of his teammates. "ugh," he realized he probably had to bring them into this conversation. that if he wanted to get the best results. so that was a no-brainer for him, the big problem by the grace of the zalts how did he bring it up. he grumbled over it for the rest of the night.

the next morning he insulted their weapons and use of melodies," you would be better of modified your weapons to double as instruments so you can play as you fight." behind Aero Neora prayed to the high mother zaltess that her son would learn to talk to people better.

"that was unnecessarily rude, but at the same time your right," that didn't make Inna any happier with his words. the soft-spoken girl mentally fumed before turning her thought to an instrument. he did play one when she was learning to do melodies, but the woodwind instrument wasn't compatible with the knives she used.

"That's the only instrument I know how to play," Inna said the first to leave her thoughts. aero blinked going over something in his head," can you play something that your skills will transfer over to? or you could just learn another instrument." Inna blinked looking at his weirdly right statement. "that isn't how most people would solve that problem."

"but, it works right?" Inna nodded and wondered what would work instead. the rest had problems with how they would mash the two but believed their weapons and instrument of choice would work. Aero points out he let the instrument crafter and the blacksmith of that time figure it out, it was almost a fight. "I'm glad a push them to work together!" there was something hidden behind his smile and Neora sighed remembering that time.

this led to a discussion about who they would go to get their new weapons redone, they all knew the weapons smith they personally went to. everyone knew how to make and repair their own weapons, but the time it took to do so. plus these people made weapons for a living, not to mention they could do it faster. so they didn't find it too strange that aero didn't have a suggestion and just let them work it out between themselves.

at some it turned to plan this road trip for all of them, aero still wasn't paying attention and instead holding a conversation with the helper about when he sure burn more of the energy he was storing up, it was becoming a problem again.