"Little rascal, once we enter the village I want you to behave yourself." The girl suddenly stopped before they reached the line of trees and kneeled before Aaron then sternly warned him in a commanding tone.
It made the boy squint his eyes slightly once he heard the hint of worry in her voice, still he decided to play along for now and nodded his head while keeping his thoughts to himself.
No matter what's going to happen next, he's going to make sure that no harm is going to reach this kind and somewhat beautiful sister.
She's about the same age as him, of course dear Aaron would never accept that "demotion" from a sixteen years old to a boy who's five!
His age is still the same, at least it still goes for his mental-age... humph.
The girl smiled in satisfaction and patted his head while saying : "Hehehe... I'm so glad that my little rascal is okay, how lovely it'd be if he's always so obedient," Afterwards she frowned once the intense smell of his body filled her nose, "Let's go clean you up."
Aaron found her reaction amusing and muttered : "Maybe I should give the ones you don't like a big hug."
"Wouldn't that be great! Hahaha..." The girl suddenly crumpled into a fit of deep laughter.
Aaron found it fun to watch and simply enjoyed her being herself.
"Alright little Ron. Jokes aside, remember your promise," After inhaling a deep breath in of this cold morning air to calm herself she continued to say : "Here, cover yourself with this. Let's go."
The boy noticed a fleeting shadow of deep ruthlessness and pure savagery within the teenage girl's pair of hazel-colored eyes, he almost doubted himself once it instantly disappeared.
'Somehow I'm feeling cold all of a sudden, as if my very soul is shivering from fear!' Aaron thought to himself while tightening his hold on her hand and holding the piece of linen fabric close to his waist.
Once they exited the forest he saw a vast circle of man-made clearing where trees were chopped down, the only trace left of their existence is the thick and the fresh-charred black roots between the lush layer of tall grass.
Far at center of this circle high wooden-walls could be seen stretching more than a kilometer or so, the destination where the girl is leading him is the open gates at the center of these walls.
Rocks the size of his head and gravel-stone were spread about five-hundred meters from the village walls, probably to prevent the forest from gaining what it once lost to these humans who settled here.
'Despite being called a village it's big enough in size to compare a small town back on earth, security is tight too... there's ten archer-towers on this side alone with at least 5 guards within each tower!' He and the girl weren't questioned by the team of about twenty muscular and well-armed men or the four charming ladies when they entered the village, Aaron felt more than a single pair of eyes staring at his back from these charming women who sat at the side talking and sipping tea without a care for the gate-guards or the few people who exited the village.
Soon he was dragged to a muddy and narrow alley to the side by the girl, but for some reason he felt relief once he left the area of the village gate.
*****
"Am I seeing things?" One of the four ladies at the gate muttered while being at a loss for words.
Another one squinted her eyes before saying : "That girl is one of the candidates, I've been keeping my eye on her for a while now. The quality of her soul has always been above-average at best, now it's clearly of the practitioner-standard."
"The boy you silly thing, Nina meant the boy! Didn't you see how bright and colorful his soul-waves were before he did something to hide it." The mature-looking lady rolled her eyes before explaining it to their foolish sister.
The fourth lady smirked once she saw their sister grumble in silence while feeling embarrassed and said : "Lucy was looking the other way that time and missed seeing it."
Lucy jumped at the opportunity and practically shouted : "That's right!" While giving Heena a grateful look.
Sera rolled her eyes again before ignoring the duo of mischief and looked at Nina for answers, since she's the most experienced and strongest member of their team.
Nina was in deep thoughts for a long while before getting up and saying : "Follow me." Then she went after the strange boy and the girl who's a diamond in the rough.
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*****
"It's cold!" Aaron complained once the girl rudely pulled the linen fabric off of his body then slammed his body with a bucket of water!
She smiled and said : "And you stink just like a filthy pig," Afterwards she gave him a handful of dry hay, "Now keep scrubbing or I'll do it for you." The girl's tone of voice was commanding and the glare she gave made the boy sigh inwardly before doing what she said.
She refused to let him enter the house and gave him this bath next to the water-source which is some small pool right in the middle of the street!
'At least give me some soap or let me clean up in private, I might seem young and shameless but I'm in fact a lot mature and shy.' Aaron thought to himself while glaring at all the men and women who walked by as if to say : "What? Yeah right, I thought as much... keep on walking."
Honestly it felt good to carry himself with this gangster attitude while being butt naked first thing in the morning.
Meanwhile most of those who shared an eye-contact with the boy thought to themselves : 'This little brat is certainly going to turn up rotten and become a pervert.' While shaking their heads, these grown-ups quickly discarded the matter and went on to do their jobs to provide for their families.
Certainly Aaron would've blasted these fuckers with an Energy Bolt had he known what kind of opinion they have about him while shouting : "I'm the victim in this situation, alright!"
*****
"Now I remember! Wasn't this kid dragged out of the village by the local hoodlums yesterday before sunset?" Lucy said and gave Sera a smug look, clearly taking credit for her good memory.
Heena raised an eyebrow while watching the candidate girl go into the house before coming out a few seconds later with some clothes for the kid, "I remember seeing these annoying boys entering the village right before the gates were closed for the night, I'm certain that this boy wasn't with them." She mumbled.
Sera rolled her eyes at the silly woman before saying : "That boy must've spent the night outside the village, it's a miracle that he's alive."
"This was no miracle," Nina interjected, "The smell of rot and death on the boy was shockingly intense, the only place around here with such environment is that abandoned ancient-well." The team-leader seriously looked at the Aaron with a pair of penetrative eyes, even she found this situation beyond comprehension.
"Impossible!" The three women said the same thing at the same time while giving their friend disbelieving looks.
What Nina just said is simply absurd!
Nina frowned at her teammates before shrugging helplessly while saying : "Won't we know everything about it once we ask? It's about time we recruited this candidate to our sisterhood anyway."
Sera nodded then made up her mind to keep her eye on this strange boy from up close.
*****
Snow is this kind girl's name, he heard one lady from their neighbors greeting greeting her earlier and felt thankful for the old hag that he almost gave her a kiss but she gave the boy a look of disgust when he looked at her and smiled.
Aaron thought to himself once she pinched her nose and walked away at a hurry : 'This old hag must've never missed a cardio session in her life, I've never seen someone this old walk this fast my entire life... and I've seen a lot!'
While Snow was waiting on him to dry his body, Aaron saw the four ladies from the village gate coming towards them and frowned.
'This doesn't look good, are they here to make trouble.' He thought while pulling the much cleaner and less torn linen cloth over his head to cover his body, 'I'm diffidently inventing underwear in this life, my poor buttocks wouldn't survive this prickly clothes for long... I just know it.' The boy positioned himself between the girl and the four women, his action was made purely out of instinct.
Nina immediately noticed the protective gesture from Aaron and stopped once she noticed the dangerous glint in his eyes!
The team-leader made sure to maintain a safe distance of three meters which eased the tension from the boy's body somewhat, the chill in the air scattered slightly and he gave her and her team a puzzled and confused look.
"What?" Aaron said.
"Little rascal! Didn't I say to behave?" Before he got a reply from any of the four ladies, he was smacked rudely at the back of his head by the one which he was trying to protect! "Yesterday you picked a fight with a bunch of grown-ups and today you dare talk that way to the honorable sisters! As if getting tossed into the ancient-well wasn't enough huh!"
"But-"
"But what? Do you know how worried I was all night? Do you know how helpless I felt?" Again Aaron was interrupted by Snow who began to shake like a leaf in a storm while shedding tears, the sight made him feel like a piece of shit despite being thee "victim" in this whole god damn scenario!
"Alright," He sighed then hugged her legs since she's practically a freaking giant to someone of his stature, before saying : "Don't cry, I'm still alive... Aren't I?"
"I... sniff, I really thought you drowned, sniff." She squatted to his level and it made it easier for him to do the hugging, and she kept ranting her lines of complaint between sniffles.
Honestly the boy was somewhat annoyed by the snot and tears being smeared at his clothes in the beginning then remembered what time he's actually in and what type of cloth he's actually wearing!
"Seeing you all naked and alive going down that tree made me doubt my eyes, I really thought you drowned in the well and all I'm seeing is your ghost." Snow cupped his small face and began to deform it between her fingers, as if doing so would confirm her doubts.
Aaron finally had enough of her silliness and escaped after struggling for a while then he said while pulling at his wrinkled cloth : "Humph. As if there's any ghost that's this handsome! Girl, you better get these stupid ideas out of your head. I'm me, the greatest A- Cough, Ron that ever lived. Be Honored."
The boy found the following silence annoying, really annoying.
"Bfft..."
"Hahaha..."
"What an interesting kid!" Sera murmured to herself while doing her best to hold back her laughter.
The wave of giggling and laughter was like a hot knife through butter and scattered the tension and negativity from the air.
Aaron sighed inwardly before looking back at Nina while thinking to himself : 'Now that we've got that nuisance out of the way, let's hear what you've got to say.'
The team-leader instinctively understood the meaning behind the gaze and looked towards Snow before saying : "We're here to recruit you to our sisterhood."
'Wtf is that? Some sort of cult!' He tilted his head to the side before looking behind him at Snow who gawked in silence, clearly at a loss for words.