"Now, class, what do we do when there is a fire?" several of them raised their hands, and she pointed and picked one of them." get as far from it as we can."
"good," she clapped her hands. Looking over her class, she smiled, seeing everyone paying attention. Expect one student, one who was reading a scroll, completely ignoring her. Her lips twitched as she called out to him. " Aero looked up, glaring at her. Someone that young should not have that kind of animosity in their eyes. "aero, come on, pay attention to the lesson."
"you're not teaching anything useful," the boy stated, turning back to his story." I'm teaching you how to survive a fire."
"you teaching how to run? I'm not going to run." Aero turned his back towards her as she asked what he planned to do then." I'll ask someone else." he paused to find his place in the sentence." but I will not run; I'll fight the fire." the teacher sighed having long given up on this boy. He'd learn after he got burned anyway.
"hah, take that, teacher. I didn't care to remember." Aero, many seasons later, chucked as he threw another water melody into the stubborn fire. Chucking until the fire was little more than smoke and ash on the ground, Sam sighed.
"Man, who would have guessed the wind would blow a spark from the campfire so far," his teammate stretched her back as they stelled back around their better-protected fire. "ugh, so how did your experiment go?"
"ugh, I found something." what he found was still up for debate; Aero had managed to infuse light and heat with his pride energy. It did nothing; he managed to find the beginning of infusing them. But beyond that, nothing. He also felt like he was using way too much energy.
"I've got to work on it," Aero took a seat by the fire. Staring at it, reaching out with a stream of his energy. Pushing it into the fire. Attempting to infuse the energy into the crackling fire, he kept the stream up for a long while to see anything kind of change. Kept getting feedback; getting feedback from his energy was still something he was adjusting to.
The feeling of heat or energy of the fire. He wasn't sure.' are those different things?' sighing, he pushed more energy into the fire and tried, well really, he was observing. Getting used to the feedback, the slow things known as scientific processes.
He observed, making mental notes that he wrote down before he went to sleep. After making sure the beast chains were strong, he went to sleep. Dreaming faintly. The next day, they hydrated some food and collected some water before focusing on their training.
Aero took a spot further from camp and then, usual, 'If this goes wrong, it's not setting any of our shit on fire.' he stretched out and got his blood flowing before he grabbed one of the orbs floating behind him. Removing a section of it, "Right, here we go?" holding up the section, he closed his eyes and reached out for the feeling of light.
It took long moments before he started feeling the energy of sunlight through the energy of his pride. At least, he thought it was; it felt like it was coming from the direction of the sun. It might be something else. "fuuh, focus aero."
Reaching out for the light energy, he pulled it into the portion of the pride energy; it was slow, very slow. His legs were cramping before he got even halfway, "Alright, haa." stretching his legs and wiggling his feet, he looked at his progress with his physical eyes.
"a hazy ball of something," sighing, he swallowed his disappointment, instead focusing on increasing the amount of viability. 'even if it wasn't something immensity or incredibly useful. It's the first steps,' he tried to remind himself.
He was doing something no one else had done, adding light to pride energy, making it viable to normal eyes. he could probably do other things, like heat. Burning things with his pride sounded useful. Especially against the things the beast sent after him, trying to kill him.
Aero worked for the rest of the day, but the energy didn't go beyond hazy visually. If that was the limit or just his skill, he didn't know, but he'd figure it out. he did it twice more on the next day, getting a varting in the hazy visibility.' okay, so it's a skill issue. Good thing Aero was a fast and stubborn learner.
"they're starting to get on my nerves," Inna commented as Aero added motion to the hazy mix of light and pride. Though she was staring at what he was doing, Inna was still paying to the eyes watching their camp. "they might be bodyguards."
"annoying one, Aero responded, twisted the energy into a shape, then formed into a ring. Followed by a square. Shifting through shapes as they talked, temporarily moving away from their watchers, catching up on each other training even though Aero's was much more visible.
"controlling heat is surprisingly hard," Aero admitted, trying to pull some from the fire. Ignoring the chill in the air, the layers helped ignore it as he worked, and they walked. "I wonder who sent them, or maybe they came on their own."
"if possible, I'd like it if they just decide to come on their own, " cause that was quicker and probably easier to deal with. Either Aero's group had to talk or fight. Aero kind of hopped for the latter; it would be simpler and more fun. But he also knew it would be a different kind of pain for them to deal with.
So, for the time being, that meant trying to talk to the group. Tomorrow or the day after. He was going to do with it when he decided they were worth his time. Probably when they became something more than a minor annoyance.
But they did nothing over the next day, so Aero focused on his training. The viability of the energy lave wavered, but he pushed and worked even as he started to grow tired. A pulsing formed in his head as he tried to make it brighter, but that only seemed to make the light waver.
'my lord, some advice, The Laws of Light by Hude. a very thorough book about light and all the forms it comes in.' Aero paused, dispersing the collected light," You don't think enough about light to fully understand what I'm doing. You're right, but I wish you had brought it up earlier." they apologized to their lord, 'I wanted to confirm how usable this skill would be. Then I went researching for something that could help you.'
"thank you for the looking," Aero stretched, then he sat down on the ground back towards the sun," let's start reading, shall we." the projection appeared within his sight, 'the first principle of light. There is more than your eyes can perceive. Very few species can see all the forms of light, and not all can feel the forms of light. So to understand light, you must go beyond your body's limits.'
"Okay, good introduction. Aero smiled as he started reading into the long technical text about light, color, and thermal light. Mundane and mystical lights, thankfully, the book didn't use too complex words or try and sound too smart. Which the young lord was highly thankful for he read.
"Okay, I think I know what's going on," sorta. It was the part about psychic light manipulation. Light birth from and controlled by psychic energy. While pride and psychics weren't one-for-one, it was close enough to make some connections.
Sitting up, he brushed loose petals off him before raising his hand up, letting the energy surge and collect the light as he usually did. "then I do it light this an-AH!" he immediately cried as the hazy light transformed. To the point it was like looking into the sun; whipping his head away, he threw the light away, sending it flying through the field. Disputing several pollinators.
"ugh," rubbing the spots from his eyes took a moment. When they were gone, he "That was much more effective than I was expecting. Note that getting more text about psychic powers. It seems to be a path to explore."
'of course, my lord, word of caution, it's well known that untrained physics have bran hemorrhage from overusing their powers. ' he promised to keep in mind as he worked to regulate his new power. Getting blasted in the eye a few more times as he worked.
"oh, that is pretty." it was a ball slightly twisted and shifted like the skylights. It was beautiful." this is the light born of my pride," quirking a lip, Aero tried to think about the next step. I've got something, but what do I do with it?" besides using it as a light to a party trick." I wonder if Mom would like this?"
Thinking of her made his shoulder drop a bit, and his face twitched at the thought of the time she was probably spending with Adir. 'but at least she won't be lonely.' for that, he was begrudgingly thankful. "back to the idea she would probably like this if I could find a way for her to keep it that'd be great.'
"and profitable," he realized. Light like this was a rarity on this planet. With how big the universe is, there had to be someone interested in it." make a note to talk to xoqax when he gets back from his break. In the meantime, how does one weaponize light?"
The vague answer the helper gave him told the young lord he had to figure it out for himself, so he started experimenting. "first step, figure out how to not flash bang myself." cause that was just a problem, the easiest solution was just to train in the habit of closing his eyes when the light went off.
A more versatile idea would be to find a way to protect his eyes from offensive light. "I could get some kind of equipment. Or maybe he could have to use his pride energy to shield his eyes. he does mostly use the power offensively. So something like that was far from a bad idea. "I've proven able to manipulate light; if I can manipulate more things, then this could definitely make me safer."
"his mother and teammates would like," Adir as well." grumbling a bit, he looked at the sphere of energy he had hovering around his back and decided they were still good enough size to experiment. "But Just in case." take a spot in the flowers, and with the gentle winds blowing against him, he reached out into the beast prison.
"what do you want, you pathic mortal!" rolling his eyes, Aero checked the binding, then looked at the edge of the prison. Not that he could actually see that much about it as he could observe space in its truth. But seeing as this place was nothing but warped and reinforced space, any changes were obvious.
After making sure nothing was wrong, Aero stepped back into his body, "Oh, this is just to start with." bending the energy around him, he created a small bubble. Reaching out with the bubble, he felt out the light, "The theory of light says light is mostly bent. Very few events can destroy it."
Reaching out with his power, he tried to bend the light around him, but the bubble shimmered. Adjusting it, he slowly grabbed hold of the light hitting the bubble and bent it, turning it away." not this!" he decided immediately when the world went pitch black on him.
returning the light, he felt his shoulders drop, letting out a breath of relief. "not fun." he mumbled.' but it is a training opportunity; learn to compensate without your sight." Aero paused and considered it." I'll file it for later," he already had a project to focus on.
"Oh, someone has made progress for the day." Aero rolled his eyes as he took his seat by their fire, getting out of the endless breeze of the valley. What about you," the wind-alined girl admitted her energy was rising steadily.
"Man, does it make my head hurt, pulling the whisp of energy from the wind. It rarely stays still."slumping back into the vegetation, she turned, pressing her nose into a large and dark flower. "I had a perfume like this," picking the flower up, she smelled it again. "it was a gift from a guy I was dating at the time."
Rolling onto his side," "What happened to him?" she shrugged," Nothing really. We weren't just that seriously into each other. Last I heard, he was dating someone else, and they're really into each other."
"you didn't sound that upset."
"it might not have been a strong relationship, but there wasn't anything bad about it. It was fun, but it might not have lasted. It might not have led to marriage, but I had fun, and I refused to regret it. Instead, I think that's something Aero should consider."
The mentioned teen looked over, giving her a dull look." Sure, have fun while being looked down on." She immediately said that was not what she meant," I fully agree you should have a partner who doesn't look down on you."
"I'm saying that even though you date to find someone to marry, not everyone is going to end up in marriage. But everyone can be fun, a good memory for both of you." Aero nodded," Nice thought, but I do not think that's going to happen for me." he wasn't that lucky.
'Oh, I must have tempted the beings that watch over the words of fate or something. He thought, looking at the things surrounding the camp, insectoid definitely. 'Can't be caught by those pincers,' he thought, looking down at the arm-length appendage.
The pincers menacingly clinked in a pattern. Aero did his best to ignore it, but it was like it was drilling into his head. Making his vision swim, 'some kind of hunting tactic,' an annoyingly dangerous one. Clicking his teeth, he looked at the claws. They didn't look too hard, but he could be wrong.
"Time to see what this power can do?" A slight aura started to form around her as she looked at what would soon be her prey.