Now that i'm back on track with things, i'm going to start laying down my laws a bit. So, here's what's going to go down. I'm going to skip over all the journeys and stuff to get Filo her magic clothing. I'll touch on it a bit during this chapter, but it was just something that felt like it wasn't needed. So, we're skipping it and moving on to the next plot point! Plus, the time for expansion is drawing closer and closer *Wink, wink, nudge, nudge*. And with expansion comes new developments for some characters. Meaning the hidden power inside Ayu will finally be released soon! Oh, I cannot wait. Enjoy!

After, um.... much discussion, everyone was finally able to come to their senses and be convinced that this little naked girl before us was indeed Filo. Somehow.

I gave Naofumi my old cloak to cover her up as we took her back to Melromarc. And because Filo was no longer a filolial, we all had to move the carriage on our own. It was a long morning to put it nicely. 

But eventually, we arrived in Melromarc and headed to Erhard's shop. When we entered, Erhard was sitting at the front counter, looking like he was about to have his lunch as he was holding a sandwich in his hands. But he put it down when he saw us come in. He then examined the little blonde girl that was in front of him. 

"Come on, don't come here to show off every time you get a new slave." Erhard said to Naofumi. 

"Guess again." Naofumi said to him. 

"Another young girl? You really are a lowly kind, huh?" Erhard said as I felt I was becoming part of the conversation. 

"Look, it's not what you think. It's.... complicated." I told him as Filo was eyeing his sandwich. 

"Master, can I please just have a little bit to eat?" Filo asked Naofumi. 

"Here, have a bite." Erhard said as he handed Filo his sandwich. She gladly took it and held it in her hands. 

"Just don't overdo it, Filo." Raphtalia said to her. 

"Hey, relax, miss. How big of a bite can she take anyway?" Erhard said as Filo suddenly transformed again. She turned back into her giant, fat bird form and swallowed the sandwich whole. She also ripped up the cloak I had given her. 

"Well... I certainly wasn't expecting that..." I thought as Filo turned back into her human form. Naofumi removed his cape to cover her up this time. 

"Um.... so... what's the story here?" Erhard asked us. 

"Well, according to legend, filolial's have a king or queen in each flock. And those kings and queens are highly skilled in transforming and they blend in to the flocks by disguising themselves as normal filolial's." Raphtalia explained. 

"And they can transform themselves into humans too? That's nuts." Erhard said in disbelief. 

"What's more, it turns out they need a special crest to be tamed. But it seems Filo already obeys me like one that has a crest already." Neela explained. 

"Interesting. But, I assume you didn't just come here to show off this filolial queen, did you?" Erhard asked as we all shook our heads. 

"We're here to find her some clothing. Some that doesn't rip apart every time she transforms. Got anything?" Naofumi asked as Erhard now shook his head. 

"Nope. Sorry. Those are special orders and i'm fresh out of materials. But just down the street, there's a dress maker's shop. If anyone will have materials for transforming clothing, it'll be the lady at that shop. And.... so you don't have her walking around in public naked... I'll give you something that a recent customer left." Erhard said as he reached under his counter and pulled up a child sized pink dress. 

"That'll do for now. Thanks, Erhard." I said to him as we quickly changed Filo into the dress. We then left Erhard's shop in search of this dress maker. It didn't take long to find her and she was very eager to make a magic dress for Filo. The lady might as well have went head over heels just at the sight of Filo. She thought she was a literal angel because of the wings coming out of her back. 

After about an hours wait, the dress maker finished making some new clothing for Filo. She was now wearing a beautiful and adorable white dress with a blue bow over the front of it. 

"Thanks to the magic thread I had, I was able to construct this outfit for her. Now, she can transform without any worry of ripping her clothing." The dress maker told us as Naofumi payed for the clothing. 

Shortly after, we left the shop and Filo instantly transformed into her bird form. The clothes literally vanished and there was no ripping sound like before. She then changed back and her clothes reappeared on her. 

"Wow! This is amazing!" She said as she twirled in her outfit. 

So, what do we do now, eh, leader?" I asked as I nudged Naofumi with my left elbow. 

"Now that Filo's at a high enough level, we can finally travel further outside the kingdom. I think it's time we go on a trade journey." Naofumi suggested as I became interested in the idea.

"Not looking to level up more before the next wave?" I asked him. 

"The next wave comes in a little over a month so we have plenty of time to level up. Right now, I think it's more important we gain some more money. The payment for Filo's clothing wasn't cheap, you know." Naofumi said as I agreed with his idea.

"Alright, so then, where should we head first?" I curiously asked him. 

"We'll head North for now. We'll spend a couple days up there and then head East. There's some towns I heard of that are having problems right now. We might be able to give them some supplies that'll help out. And if we're lucky, they'll agree to some of our prices." Naofumi explained as I agreed with him. 

"Okay, North it is. Let's get out there!" I said as Filo cheered with me, transforming into her bird form at the same time. We hooked her up to the carriage and loaded it with supplies before finally taking off. Our first stop was pretty far away. We'd make it there by morning so I decided to sleep most of the way there. 

-10 Hours Later-

"Master, the plants here are amazing!" Filo said as she woke me up from my sleep. I let out a yawn then crawled my way to the front of the carriage. What I saw was more horrifying than amazing. 

There were vines everywhere for as far as the eye could see. And, it looked like they were spreading. 

"This must be one of the problems you were talking about." I said as I saw Naofumi give me a nod. 

"Look there, it's the village." Raptalia said as our destination came into view. The village was being overrun by the vines, or, it seemed as though the village was the source of the vines. 

"Filo, get us up there as quick as you can!" Naofumi ordered as Filo picked up speed. We arrived after about a minute and the villagers gladly let us enter. Things on the inside looked way worse than the outside though. 

The vines spread all throughout this village, even going inside the villagers homes. 

"I don't know how to thank you enough. This place was about to fall prey to all the vines, too." The village elder said to us. 

"Well what about burning them Or have you already tried that?" Neela asked him. 

"Certainly. We've tried everything we could think of. We even resorted to summoning adventurers but the situation has only gotten worse than before. Our village was already overrun by the vines . And what's worse, the plants began to turn into monsters and started to attack us." The elder explained as we heard a man scream far off in the distance. 

"Some adventurers went to level up but when they left the village they had no idea what was ahead of them. I begged them to stay." The elder said as Naofumi let out a sigh. 

"Filo, go find the adventurers and bring them back to the village." Naofumi ordered her as Filo nodded and took off down a trail just outside of the village. 

"While she's out there, that'll give me time to make our solution to this problem." Naofumi said as he held up his shield. The jewel in it began to glow, as did his eyes with a small green light. 

"What are you doing?" I asked him. 

"Seeing if I can concoct anything that can kill these plant monsters. And.... it looks like I can." He said as a small vial of purple liquid appeared in his hands. 

"This should do the trick. Now, hold out your axe." He said as I held it flat out in front of him. He dripped some of the liquid onto it and it caused my status to open up. It unlocked a new axe for me, one titled "Pesticide axe."

"So you literally just made an overpowered weed killer, am I right?" I asked as Naofumi nodded. 

"Yep. I'll try and make some more. Who knows how much we'll need." Naofumi said as he began to create more and more of the pesticide. 

-10 Minutes Later-

"I'm back!" Filo said as she brought three adventurers with her. They all seemed to have fainted and Filo just plunked them all on the ground. 

"There were plant monsters all over the place. Some of them even spat poison or acid or something at me. Why would these guys go there if they're so weak?" Filo asked herself as some of the villagers took the adventurers to a medical building. 

"Nice work, Filo. Was that all of them?" Raphtalia asked her but Filo shook her head. 

"No. There was one more but he refused to let me take him. He was the only one who seemed to stand a chance against the plant monsters." Filo explained as I let out a sigh. 

"Great. Now we've got a hard head who's gonna get himself killed." I thought to myself as Naofumi finished making some more pesticide. 

"That should do it. Now, let's get going. Filo, show us where you found these men." Naofumi said as the five of us left the village, heading down a path which lead to a smaller, ruined village. The vines seemed to congregate even more there, no doubt meaning this was the source of them.

"I think it's best we spread out. We each take some pesticide and use it to destroy these plant monsters." Naofumi suggested as everyone agreed with him. He handed each of us a vial of the pesticide except for me because my axe could already use its effects. We then split up into the village, each of us going our separate ways. 

About a minute of walking through the viillage, I came across my first monster. It was barely taller than I was and it looked like a spiral shaped tree with flowers on the ends of its branches. It also had large eyeballs coming out of the ends of the flowers. 

"You're one ugly mothaf-" I started to say as the eyeballs shot out what I assumed was a green poisonous liquid. Now, my armor was immune to some types of poisons but I wasn't taking any chances here. I jumped back before I could be hit by the attack and I changed my axes form. 

"Now, pesticide axe!" I said as my axe now looked like it was wrapped in vines and spore puffs. The blade was all white now and it was releasing this dust from the end of it. 

"Well, it may look harmless.... but let's see what it can do!" I said as I rushed the monster. It attempted to spew more poison at me but I managed to jump out of the way again. I then got close to it and slashed its body with my axe. 

The monster let out cries of pain as I watched it start to shrivel up. Its body was becoming hard and was falling to pieces. Pretty soon there was nothing left but some dead roots. 

"Man, Naofumi really went all out with this pesticide. Looks like these plants die just from simple contact with it." I thought as someone began to shout in the distance. 

"Is that all ya got, ya blasted bush!?" A man yelled with what sounded like a Scottish accent. 

"That must be the guy that decided to stay. Guess I should go over and see if he's alright." I said as I let out a sigh and ran over to where I heard him shout from.

When I arrived, I saw a man wielding what looked like a mix of a club and bagpipes against a giant venus fly trap type monster. The man was short and on the.... ehm, larger side. He had short-medium length orange hair with a large beard to match and he... wait....

"Wait a minute..... That's the other person from my dream! There's no doubt!" I thought as I watched the man swing his weapon around. He was smashing up incoming vines but it didn't seem to be hurting the monster. 

"Stop sendin' in yar vines and face me head on!" The man shouted as I saw two vines wrap around his legs. They tripped him up and made him let goo of his weapon. They then raised him into the air and over the monster which had its mouth wide open. 

"Oh my gosh, it's gonna eat him! I can't let that happen!" I thought as I rushed in with my pesticide axe.

I slashed away at the main body of the monster and like the one before it, the venus fly trap began to shrivel up and fall to pieces until nothing remained. The man broke free of the vines when they were weakened and he fell to the ground, landing on his back. He got back up though and went to pick up his weapon. 

"I give ma thanks, lassy. I might've been a goner if you had-" He began to say but I interrupted him. 

"Are you insane!? Why didn't you go with the fat bird when it came to retrieve you!? What if I hadn't come in time!? You would've died!" I yelled to him as he did nothing but laugh. 

"And isn't it great!? I leave my hands in fate every day and she's done nothin' but send good things ma way! And now that you're here, lassy, with that weapon, we can take down the rest of these creatures!" The man said to me as I just let out a heavy sigh.

"No. I'm going to stay here and clean up this mess. You're going to leave and go back to the other village where it's safer." I ordered him as he just laughed even more. 

"Leave? Yeah, right!" He said as he took out a flask from his pocket and started drinking from it. 

"So he's hard headed and an alcoholic..... Terrific." I thought as I just turned and walked away. Whether this guy was in my dream from before or not, there was no way I could fight along side someone like this. 

"Where ya goin'!?" He asked me. 

"Away from you!" I shouted to him as he started to follow me. 

"Now that's not very smart! We should team up and work together!" The man said to me. 

"Weren't you fighting alone just a few minutes ago!? And besides, i'm not alone! The rest of my party and another are here too! Now just go away already!" I said to the man but he continued to follow me. Eventually, I met up with Neela and everyone else in the middle of the village. 

"What's the situation here?" I asked Naofumi. 

"I don't think there's many monsters left here. And.... I  think if we take that out, the rest will die with it!" Naofumi said  as he pointed as a huge green tree with a monster sized flower growing out of it. It had teeth along the petals and a huge eyeball in the centre of it. 

"Filo and Raphtalia tried to get in close but even with Filo's speed, they didn't get anywhere near close enough. Any suggestions?" Naofumi asked me. 

"Let's see how this'll go. Neela, light it up!" I said to her as she took aim with her staff. 

"As source of thy power, I order thee! Decipher the laws of nature and burn away all that oppose me! Scorching Inferno!" Neela cried as she unleashed a huge wave of flames from the end of her staff. She engulfed the entire monster tree in flames but it didn't seem to do a thing to it. The tree was not crying out in pain. 

"Looks like fire really doesn't work. So the pesticide really is all we've got." I said an Naofumi agreed. 

"I'd say our best chance at taking this thing down is using the pesticide right on that flower's eye. But it's not letting us get near it at all. I'm gonna distract it. When I give the word, you go in and take it down." Naofumi said as I went along with his plan.

"Hey, ugly! Over here!" Naofumi yelled as he started to run around the monster. The eyeball seemed to lock onto him and it began to send its vines at him.

"Filo, come over to me! I may need your help getting close too that thing!" I said to her as she ran over to my side. I climbed onto Filo's back and waited for Naofumi to give the order. 

"Ayuma, do it now!" He shouted as I tightened my grip on Filo. 

"Hold on, Ayu! We're going full speed! High Quick!" Filo said as we took off like a bullet towards the monster. It quickly noticed we were coming as its eyeball started looking at us. 

"Filo, look out!" I shouted as some vines were attacking us from the right. Filo took evasive maneuvers as I tried my best to hold on to her. However, Filo was struck by the vines and they began to wrap around her. 

"Ayu, jump off! Keep going!" She said as I did as she told. I leaped off her and kept on running forward, cutting down any vines that got close to me. 

But as I got very close to the main tree, I stepped on some roots that shot out of the ground when I stepped on them. It caused me to lose my balance and the roots proceeded to wrap themselves around my wrists and ankles. I was immobile. 

"Damn it! I.... I can't move! Neela! Use more flames! Try to make it let go of me, please!" I yelled out to her but I could see she was too busy defending herself from more vines.

"She can't hear me.... What do I do now!?" I said as a familiar but annoying laugh filled the area. I turned my head the other way and I saw that man from before. He had his bagpipe club in his hands and he looked like he was about to blow into it. 

"I'll tell ya what you do! Ya get stronger and fight harder! And i'll help ya do just that! Now listen ta this!" The man said as he began to play his bagpipes. The sounds filled the air and I could feel my body shaking for some reason. And then, my body began to glow with a faint yellow outline. 

"What is.... this? I feel.... strength. Could he be giving it to me by playing his instrument?" I thought as I tried again to break free of the vines. With one hard tug, I snapped and pulled apart the vines, freeing myself and allowing me to keep moving forward.

"Hey, thanks for the assist!" I said too the man as he went back into combat with the vines. 

"No problem, lassy! Now get back in there and kick some ass!" He yelled to me as I was now within feet of the monstrous eyeball on the tree. 

"Alright.... I hope this works!" I said as I jumped up, holding my axe over my head, ready to strike down this monster. But as I just started to bring my axe down on it, I felt more vines wrap around my legs. They pulled me away and held me upside down. I could feel the vines moving up my body, so i had to do something quick before they potentially strangled me or something. 

Come on, Ayuma, focus! You can do this!" I thought as a huge venus fly trap opened its mouth below me. 

"Crap! That's not good! Now or never!" I said as I steadily aimed my weapon at the eyeball. I took some deep breaths and lined everything up as accurately as I could. And when I was ready, I threw my axe at the monster. 

My weapon landed a direct hit, dead centre in the eye and it stuck there. The monster was reeling in pain as it let out incredibly loud and agonizing wails. And like the monsters before it, it began to whither away. All the vines and roots were decaying and falling to pieces. 

The vines that were holding me upside down in the air crumbled to pieces and I fell to the ground. Luckily for me the venus fly trap that was below me had died by now. Everything was falling apart as we all watched as the monster eyeball disintegrate until nothing remained. 

"Looks like the grass..... has been cut." I said as I realized how stupid that must've sounded. 

"Could you have taken any longer? I told you i'd distract it and I did. What took you so long?" Naofumi asked me as I picked my axe up off the ground. 

"Excuse me? Some distraction you made! You were good for about a minute. The monster pretty easily noticed me and Filo approaching it and it quickly went after us instead of you. So don't give me that BS." I said as Naofumi simply turned his head away, his cheeks turning red a bit. 

"Way ta go, you little lassy! I knew ya had it in ya!" The other man said as he started chuckling. 

"Uh, Miss Ayuma, who's this?" Neela asked me as I just sighed and shook my head. 

"He's the guy who Filo couldn't bring back. And he's annoying." I said as the man stopped laughing and just looked shocked at this point. 

"Wha!? Annoyin'!? How am I bein' annoyin'!? He asked as I let out a small giggle. 

"But.... even though I think you're incredibly stupid for staying to fight that monster on your own.... I... thank you for your help before. I might not've beaten the thing if you weren't here. So.......... Thank you...." I muttered quietly as the man just started to laugh very loudly. 

"Don't mention it! And ya know what!? I know a way I can always be there to help you! Let me join your party!" The man said as I just gave him an intense glare that could've melted ice. 

"No."

"Aw, come on! At least give me a chance! Please!?" He asked me as he dropped to his knees and started to beg. 

"Nope. And that's final. We'll take you back to the village and then that's it. End of story. Goodbye." I explained to the man as he yet again started laughing. 

"Why do you keep doing that? You just laugh whenever i'm mean to you." I asked him. 

"Oh, sorry, I can't help it. I know that i'm being shot down by ya and it does hurt, but laughing just makes all tha pain go away! Now, let me join you!" The man asked again. 

"For the last time! I said NO!" I shouted as I could see all my friends had backed away, looking a little afraid. 

"Look, let's just head back to the village. I don't want to hear a peep out of you on the way back, you hear?" I told the man but like all the times before, he did nothing but laugh. 

"Great.... just what I thought he'd do.... Fan-Tucking Fastic." I thought as we all headed back to the village. The entire way back, the man kept on asking me to let him join my party. And every single time, I answered with a "no" that got more and more intense every time he asked. 

When we arrived back at the village, I quickly packed all my things into the carriage and I tried to hurry along everyone else so I could finally get rid of that nuisance. 

"Thank you so much, Shield and Axe heroes!" The vilage elder said to us as he handed us a decent sized bag full of silver coins. 

"We exterminated all the monsters. But as for all the vines that were leftover, you'll have to clean those up by yourselves." Naofumi explained as the elder thanked us again.

"Excuse me, but, how did this mess start anyway? What made those vines grow like crazy and turn into monsters?" I asked. 

"A few weeks ago, the spear hero visited this land. He and the princess of Melromarc brought with them a seed that supposedly was handed down by the gods themselves. They said it would bring a harvest that would feed our village for years to come. My, were we mistaken..." The elder explained as I just sighed. 

"Oh for the love of....! Why am I not surprised at this point!?" I said as Naofumi sighed too. 

"Nothing we can do about it now. We've got our reward so let's get out of here." Naofumi said as I agreed with him. We headed back to the carriage but before I could enter it, I was blocked by that same man. I looked to Naofumi, giving him a look of "Help me." But in return, he gave me a look that might as well have said "He's your problem. You're on your own."

"What do you want now?" I asked the man. 

"Ya already know what i'm goin' ta ask ya." The man said as I just put my head down. 

"Then you already know what i'm going to say in response. Now, step aside, please." I said as I pushed the man to my right and climbed into the carriage. 

"Oh, don't worry, lassy! I'll follow ya to the ends of the earth until ya let me join ya!" The man said as I felt worried for a second. For some reason, I knew he meant it. 

"Hey, Filo! Time to go! Now!" I said as we took off, leaving the village and that blasted man behind. 

-4 hours later-

We managed to find a suitable spot to camp for the night. It was a small open area surrounded by trees right next to the main road. The sun was beginning to set at this point and we were all exhausted. 

"And here I thought this trade journey wouldn't have all the life threatening crap." I said as I sat down on a log. 

"We can't always expect things to go the way we want." Neela said as I sadly agreed with her. 

"I guess you're right. I'm just glad that we're finally free of that damn laughing ma-" I started to say as a familiar, agonizing, dreadful sound started to be heard in the distance. It was the laugh. 

"No..... It can't be..... We're miles from that village! How the hell was he able to follow us! Please! Someone tell me this is a dream!" I said as I looked to everyone. They all just shook their heads, making it very clear that this sadly, was the reality. 

"I told ya i'd follow ya! Now here I am!" The man said as he ran into our campsite. I walked right up to him and I took out my axe, clenching it in my right hand. 

"What the hell do you want from me!? And how the absolute hell were you able to catch up to us so quickly!? We only got here like 20 minutes ago!" I asked him as he began to laugh once again. But this time, I put my hand over his mouth and stopped him. 

"Stop doing that, or else i'm going to remove your tongue." I said as he finally shut up. I then removed my hand and let him talk. 

"I caught up thanks to this beauty." He said as he held his weapon out to show me. 

"I call it ma "Battle Pipes" and when I play it, anyone who hears it song that I deem an ally will be granted a stat boost. The boost depends on what song I play. Like before, I gave ya the strength boost song. And as for how I caught up to you's, I used a speed boost song on ma self." He explained as I ever so slightly became interested. 

"It's just like the Hunting Horn weapon from monster hunter...." I thought as he continued. 

"Please, miss.... will you let me accompany on your journey?" He asked very politely as I was shook a bit. And... I knew there was only one was to end all this. 

"Tell me.... what is your name?" I asked the man. 

"Seamus(Shay-muss) MacMillion." He said to me. 

"Get on your knees." I said as Seamus kneeled down in front of me. I then held out my axe over him. 

"Okay.... let's get this over with. I, Ayuma Saruwatari, the Axe hero, hereby grant Seamus Macmillion permission to join the ranks of my own party." I said as I might as well have knighted him with my axe. 

And after I said my speech to him, my status opened up and asked me if I wanted to add Seamus as a companion. I was very hesitant at first.... but I said yes. 

"There. You're a member of my party now. But hear me out, right now. You're not allowed to play any songs without my permission, unless we're in battle. If I tell you to shut up, then you shut up. Got it?" I intensely asked Seamus as he simply nodded his head. 

"Good. Now get some rest. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." I told him as he simply plunked his butt on the ground and laid down. He then started to snore and it sounded like a massive bear was close by. 

"My god.... what have I done!?" I asked myself as I walked into the carriage so I could sleep with a bit more quiet in the air. I drifted off pretty quickly and the last thing I thought about was "I really hope this was a good idea. This guy's gonna be great for support.... but can I handle everything else about him?"

Hey! It's me again, the writer! Just wanted to add this in so you all know what's going on. So, from this point onward, i'm issuing my new schedule for all of my series. So, my production order will now go as follows: Team DLTA-Pokemon Unlimited-The 5th Hero-Class 1-C-The Tempest Furies-Class 1-B's Ace. And after the full cycle, we'll repeat it all again! So, it shouldn't be too long of a wait for the next chapter for this series. Team DLTA doesn't have as long of chapters and Unlimited won't have long ones either. Both have about 3,000 word chapters usually. So, i'll be back for this series fairly soon! Just stay tuned!  New chapters for at least one of my series hopefully out every week! Enjoy!