Two birds with one stone

Lotus ignored the ethereal nature of his abilities and smiled with glee, the circumstances appeared quite serendipitous for him, he could see stores, food markets and everything he was missing on earth. In addition the brick-layered streets and vintage buildings gave a more refreshing and congenial look in contrast to the modern noxious atmosphere of his earth.

The sun was finally at dusk which gave a noticeable coolness to the skin, whilst he was jumping effervescently he noticed Ariel's taciturn expression, "what's wrong?", "Nothing lets just-" before she could finish her sentence a horse could be seen galloping at full speed, heading straight for an unaware Lotus', Ariel raised her hands in Lotus' direction "what are you- ", she opened her palm and shot her common wind attack causing him to immediately dip his head down, the horse immediately stopped and raised its two front legs frantically when the wind ball hit the ground in front of hit causing it to gallop in another direction.

"Oi, what are you doing" the adolescent voice of a short plumb boy belled from down the street, "that's my horse, you damn dimwits!". Ariel's eyebrows scrunched up, 'just who is this boy talking to?'. "your horse almost ran into us, how can you explain yourself?" Ariel folded her arms, giving the boy a confident look. "hmph it matters not to me, whether or not you peasants lose your lives". until now Lotus was silently spectating the interaction but he raised an eyebrow at that comment. "are you not afraid of the authorities?", 'if they even had authorities on this planet' they both thought inwardly. "Do you know who I am, my father owns this county and authorities have authority over me haha". Lotus rolled his eyes, "pestilent kids like you are so annoying". The boy could be seen visibly shaking in indignation like a caricature, Ariel almost burst out laughing.

"pestilent! no one has ever dared, guards, guards!" emerging from further down the streets to burly-looking men in derivative medieval uniforms. once arrived the guards exuded an aura of power, they were unenthusiastic towards listening to the kid however, but they still were attentive to him "take these peasants and drag them outside my county, there's no need for them". as they proceeded as if about to grab hold of Ariel and Lotus, Ariel waved her hands in front of her frantically "woah wait, we don't mean trouble".

some of the civilians looked at the altercation as if it was a movie scene.

"you peasants brought this upon yourself" unconcerned the boy shrugged in response to her pleads, however, Lotus had enough, he felt the fiery sensation in his upper chest, he was aware it was anger boiling inside but alas there was nothing he could do to control it, "you little shit!" he grabbed the boy's throat dragging him up lifting his feet off the ground.

"Just who do you keep calling peasant". In response to seeing the kids bulging eyes and gasping for air the guards immediately attacked, their arms lit in flames and swung their firsts straight for Lotus' head, everything happened before Ariel could react but within herself, she felt fear, but it mattered not that she could react for Lotus quickly distorted the space around him and ended up a bit further behind the guards causing them to carry their momentum and end up hitting each other in the head, knocking them back in a daze, Ariel took advantage of the guards' staggering steps and sent blows to their stomachs seemingly boosted by wind using the palm of her hands which knocked them out and sent them flying back, sliding across the streets into one of the markets.

"Hey, my stall!" one of the marketers shouted in anger

Ariel ignored the complaint and gave a worried look to Lotus "Lotus let him go, it's alright, he's sorry". "don't ever reappear in my presence or I won't be so kind next time" he released the boy from his grasp causing hum to instantly fall to his knees, picking himself up and running away in fear Lotus knew it was more cumbersome to leave him to cause more trouble later than to just get rid of him now but he couldn't do such a thing in the presence of Ariel and others.

"People are staring" Ariel sighed,

"you have an acute sense of awareness don't you," he said sarcastically in response. Shortly at that moment, Lotus' eyes widened as he stared at one of the markets down the bricked street

"what's with those wide eyes, you would think a lightbulb appeared above your head", "let's kill two birds with one stone," he said rubbing his hands together menacingly