A Fall Day in the Forest (Aurora, invite)

Aurora hated this. All of it. WHY had she thought that this would be a good idea, to go down to the southern hemisphere of the planet?! It was absolutely boiling for the Arcosian, but she had still forced herself to try and experience all that Earth had to offer. Not only that, but Mt. Paozu was seemingly the southern counterpart to Mt. Frappe, and she had been... admittedly curious as to whether or not there was a southern equivalent to the Mountain's Heart up within the northern mountain. Unfortunately, as she made her way through this humid, hot dense forest and over the rock of the mountain she found that there was a surprise amount of... well, everything she hated. All that was around here were some annoying animals, far too many bugs, and large mounds of rock and dirt that she supposed were collectively referred to as the mountain. A sigh leaves her as she walks through the forest, doing her best to ignore the horrible feeling of the humidity upon her exposed skin. Even the grass didn't feel right, far too... warm, she supposed. And seemingly filled with a lot more hostile insects than up north. This had been a mistake, not to mention a complete waste of time.

Rising into the air, she turns to leave. But before she does so, her scouter suddenly pinged her, alerting the Arcosian to the existence of a being nearby with a... not insignificant power level. Finally, something of interest in this horrible, far too warm place. Flying through the air, the Arcosian soars in the direction of the being and stops just short of where he could see it, sinking back down below the treeline and choosing to approach from the ground. Whatever this being was, it wasn't flying and she didn't want to scare it off. Well... not yet anyway. Walking forward, she follows the guide of her scouter towards the... earthling, it seemed, judging from the outline given to her. Her foot then stepped upon a branch and it let out a loud snap, echoing out through the forest as she flinches. There was then movement from the earthling as they moved towards where she was standing, torn between fleeing to try again or showing herself. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending, she spent so long trying to decide that the earthling found her before she could even move.

They looked... rather like what she had seen on the television when there were descriptions of the earthling military forces. She could recognise the weapon by her side, this planet's equivalent of a blaster, and the rather like blade in its hand. Of course, it was nothing compared to the ones she could make. The real question, however, was what was an Earthling with a power level of nearly 30,000 doing with a crappy blaster and a steel knife? At that strength, they might have been able to bend it between their hands. Yet what confused her the most was the fact that... despite her rather terrible knowledge of Earthlings and their ages... he looked almost far too young. He had to at most be an adolescent, correct? While children with high power levels wasn't exactly rare in Aurora's life (see: Belle), ones with knives and guns that just hung around mountains definitely was. "Uh... Hello there. I'm here to explore. Why are you here?" She responds, somewhat indignant at the demanding tone of his voice. She could crush him with a single hand! 

Aurora's brow furrowed as the human began to speak, evident that he had no idea of the sheer difference in their power levels. Fortunately, and wisely, he cut himself off before he could say anything more and began to speak in a far more respectful, and even welcoming, tone. He even offered to show her places of curiosity, and while she was nowhere near able to read the expressions of an earthling to understand if they were lying, let alone that of one who's face was covered by a bandana, the Arcosian figured that the only person it could hurt would be him. So she nodded. "I think I will take you upon on that." She responds, giving him a... well, not a smile, but a slightly lessened version of her usual frown. Before they moved, however, she continued. "However..." Aurora begins as the temperature around them begins to drop. Plants and leaves wilt as frost begins to creep from her and over the ground and bark of trees, and as she takes a step towards the armed earthling a small icicle appears over her shoulder, rotating and pointing towards him. "If you try anything, you'll be left a statue."

Then everything seemed to almost... snap back to normalcy. The frost vanished, the temperature returned to normal, and the rotating icicle vanished into blue light and flowed back into Aurora, who then stood there looking at the earthling... child? She guessed? With a sort of expectant look upon her face. Of course, this was completely different inside as the Arcosian secretly celebrated as being able to use that much magic without being sent trembling or hitting the ground. The encounter with Nashua had been... something she wasn't looking forward to repeating. That scale of power... but at least one or two good things came out of it. The most immediate example was the fact that her magic had suddenly become a lot easier to use, or at least on smaller scale things such as this, even if she still felt the drain upon her body. "What i'm looking for... it should be something like a cave? Or an oddly shaped rock? You'd know if you saw it." The Arcosian wasn't entirely sure how much she wanted to disparage to this earthling, but she figured that it couldn't hurt to let him know that she had been looking for something specific. 

Aurora watched with something approaching amusement as the earthling retaliated with his own, rather quaint threat. Half of her brow raises in an approximate recreation of the earthling facial expression to denote disbelief or lack of... she wasn't entirely sure of the word, if she was honest. A lot of the finer, more subtle aspects of earthling society escape her (for now), but she knew enough that this was the proper expression to be using when something that may have been a child tried to threaten her. She didn't bother to follow the knife, although at the speed it moved she easily could have, instead opting to wait as the human was forced to go over and retrieve it from the corpse it had landed in. A small scowl comes to her face at that one, wasting life over a threat like that... it left a bad taste in her mouth. Any life had value, and to simply kill a beast in order to make a point that wasn't even factual... well, it spurred her to speak. "A word of warning." She begins, crossing her arms as she looks towards him. "A threat only works when you have the strength to back it up, and I promise you, that... quaint little toy of yours? It would break long before my skin does. Do... that again," She gestures towards the corpse of the animal, "and I'll show you exactly what I mean." She was tempted to flare her power then and there, to show him what he was threatening and that she most certainly could back p her threat, but... judging by this child's reactions she was almost certain that he was incapable of reading Power Levels, so it would simply be a wasted effort.

"I suppose I should inform you of my name as well." She says in response to the human, Mac, sharing his own. "You may call me Aurora." It was... a little surprising to her, that he would share his name with her after trying to intimidate the Arcosian. But then again, this earthling... well, he seemed somewhat off, compared to the rest of them. Perhaps his social ability was less developed than most? A small flash of a grey alien ran through Aurora's head, before she shakes it to clear the memory of Safe from her mind. Later. Right now... right now Mac had turned and walked away while she was thinking, stating something about them needing a few hours to reach the top of the mountain. Putting aside the question of which mountain, she lifted slightly off of the ground and quickly caught up with the plodding earthling. Now that was curious. Multiple hours to reach the top of a mountain? Even at his Power Level, he should have had little to no difficulty simply flying up there. But the fact that he insisted on walking either meant some sort of stupid, self placed restriction or... or he didn't know about his own power. The thought brought a small smile to Aurora's face as she looks down towards the earthling.

Not being entirely aware of his own power level would also explain why he insisted upon using such quaint little tools. "Tell me." She begins, looking up at the forest canopy as they walked. "Why don't you simply fly? To the mountain, I mean." There really wasn't a reason to 'beat around the bush', as it was said, as she gestures down towards her own feet that had left the ground. "Your power level is certainly within the bounds of being able to do so. Are you incapable? Is that why you resort to such tools?" She gestures towards the weapons at his side, brow raising in a questioning look as she simultaneously taps her scouter. It was sheer curiosity that spurred her, fuelled by her need to ask and to know. After all, all information could be used. 

"Hm." Aurora replies in thought to the earthling as he speaks, taking in what he was saying. There had momentarily been a shift in expression immediately prior, but the Arcosian hadn't really understood what it meant. Non Arcosian features still eluded her, despite her time spent on Earth having reached rather a significant length by now. She hovers slightly beside the human as they continued to walk, brow raised as she mulls over what he told her and how to respond. "I'm... surprised, I must admit, at the fact that you are aware of Scouters." She starts off, glancing towards the display that covered one of her eyes. "I haven't actually found many upon this planet that use them, beyond a couple of... Aliens." She wasn't going to bring up Saiyans if she could help it. Despite her distaste for them lessening, that still didn't mean she had to like them, especially since a large majority of them deserved hatred in the first place. She was also surprised that he had managed to break his scouter somehow, as it was something that was notoriously hard to do. The manufacturers knew exactly what business those who used them were in, so they were built to last. Even a trek into the Mountain's Heart hadn't damaged her own scouter much at all, so Aurora was admittedly curious about what he had done to pull such a feat off.

"Well I suppose it can't hurt to let you know that you've grown stronger." She continues, ducking under a branch as the earthling continued to walk through the forest. While such a thing had started off as almost... cute, or quaint in a way, by now Aurora was beginning to grow annoyed at their slow pace. "You're now over twenty thousand in terms of power level. For perspective, I myself am at eighty thousand." She wouldn't lie to herself and say that she didn't get some satisfaction over proving her superiority over the human, but Aurora quickly repressed that. It was her Arcosian nature to behave in such a way, and Arcosian nature had... well, it had lead to everything that was going on in the galaxy. Thus, it was better to keep that particular trait suppressed.  She continued to listen as he talked about the little tools he used, to which she could only shake her head in derision. "They may be what you know best, but that doesn't mean they're what's best for you." She comments.

"There comes a point when the average power level of one's body outstrips tools such as those, and you have long since managed that." Aurora continues as they come to a ravine. She watches as the masked earthling goes through a serious of leaps and hurdles just to make it across, before floating over the ravine herself with her arms crossed, a smirk on her lips. "And if you can't even manage to boost them with this... Plasma, or whatever it actually is, I must say I feel as if I should inform you that you're wasting your time. Although, perhaps not if you are currently incapable of flight." Truly, what a curse it must be, to have such strength but to be limited by... something or other. Aurora wasn't sure, incapable of sensing Ki as she was. "As for what I am... I am an Arcosian. We come from the ice planet Arcose." Aurora was... a little surprised that she found herself not only answering the earthling's questions, but explaining what her people were. She had thought everyone could recognise her species! 

"While we are rather prolific throughout this universe, I must admit that I'm surprised you've met so many of my people here on Earth. I know there have been a few around before, as I've had to deal with the prejudice they created, but you say you've met many? How curious. Where, might I ask? Are there any still around? What did they look li-" Aurora cuts herself off before she can go any further, forcing herself to calm. Despite her curiosity towards there being other Arcosians on Earth... chances are she did not want to meet them. Not to mention, she couldn't afford to show any sort of weakness in front of a mere earthling. That would just be embarrassing. Clearing her throat, she nods and moves on to the next topic he had asked her about. "Ahem. Uh, yes. The ice... The ice makes sense for you not to know about. It's what you earthlings would call Magic."

Her hand extends, palm upward as a large snowflake begins to form out of ethereal blue light. It floats there, solidifying as the air around them began to grow somewhat colder whilst it grew. Such a display was... taxing, but nothing Aurora couldn't handle as she continued to show off. "As far as I'm aware, it's different from Ki, which is what powers beings like us." She instructs as the continue to move. "Although it's not too dissimilar. The more complicated the structure, or the larger is it, the more magical energy you drain. Take too much too quickly and you fall unconscious, or worse." She was well aware of the former consequences, having pushed herself too far on many an occasion as she had struggled to master her new power. Then she flicks her wrist, and as quickly as the snowflake had appeared it disappeared, the temperature returning to normal. "Anyways... This is taking far too long." 

That was the only warning Mac would receive before Aurora would reach out to grab him, her hand wrapping around his arm and hauling him somewhat forcefully into the air. She knew that with a Power Level like his she'd need to be a little careful not to rip his arm off, but that he'd also survive what she was doing as well. Leaves and branches burst forth from the tree canopy, along with them as she brings him into the far cooler air on top of Mt. Paozu. A small sigh leaves Aurora as she feels a little bit of the humidity lessen, the Arcosian automatically feeling much better as she then looks down towards the somewhat struggling human in her hands. Heaving him up to wrap her arms around his shoulders, she looks down and yells at him over the wind. "Where to?!" She calls out to the semi-struggling boy.