Haalfrin's Blessing
-In the Alasta Capital. The previous morning-
An old man in white plain white robes is kneeling down on a cushioned step, bowing his head respectfully. Before him are 10 statues – each about the size of his head, and they're all placed on red mats propped up on an altar.
Every day, the head priest of the Divines comes here morning and night to pray for the gods' blessings. It's usually a boring job involving speeches to the few nobles who choose to show up on any given day.
While the priest is bowing his head and praying, he addresses each of the gods in turn…
…And when he finally reaches Divine Das – the god of longevity, the statue suddenly starts to shine a brilliant, silver color.
The priest and the few nobles who showed up that morning flinch in their seats, then gasp when the statue starts floating in the air.
"IT'S A MIRACLE!" the priest shouts in joy as he raises his hands to the sky, "The gods have sent a blessing!"
Eagerly, the archpriest stands up and lays both hands on the statue representing Das, which is carved in the image of a skull with a flower growing out of the eye socket.
The nobles (mostly high-born ladies with their children) are leaning toward each other and gossip quietly as they see the priest attempt to interpret the Longevity god's will.
After a few minutes of intense effort, the archpriest takes his hands off the shrine and steps back – panting and sweating.
He leans back and grips his chair anxiously.
"My lord," one of the deacons to the side asks, "What happened? What did Divine Das say to you?"
"…He said he's given his blessing to a mortal in our kingdom… but he doesn't want to tell me who he gave it to…" The archpriest clutches his head with his hands and cries out, "Am I unworthy?"
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Far away in the Death Realm, Freyya stomps her way through the Death King's palace and kicks down a door. "DAS!" she screams out, "Where are you!? I need to hit you!"
She doesn't have to search for long before she finds Das in one of the hallways, sitting down on a chair and polishing a vase. "What can I do for you, my dear?" the old god asks nonchalantly.
"Stop acting like you don't know what you did!" the Crow hops on her feet and squawks at him. "You gave that mortal your blessing! That's cheating!"
"My dear," he says without looking up from his vase, "you can always give him your blessing too."
"You know I can't!" she protests, "My blessing would make him an absurdly strong warrior! If he's too strong, he'll never die in battle! Your blessing though…"
"Yes, yes," Das finishes for her, "my blessing will bless him with powerful luck to protect him from an early death. I'm called the god of longevity for a reason by the mortals, girl."
"…Let me hit you…" she insists.
"Fine." Das turns his cheek towards her. "Be soft please."
SMACK!
There's a loud explosion in the dark hallways, and the entire Death King's palace rumbles as parts of the structure threaten to be torn off its foundation.
Das stirs to his feet in a daze and looks up at the forest scenery above him. He looks off in the distance and sees the King's black palace off in the distance – high atop a bleak, snowy mountain. Smoke is rising from the side, where Freyya had launched him from.
The god rubs his cheek and mutters, "Sheesh. Such a temper for one so young."
"Still," he stands up with a straight back and starts walking back to the palace, "It's the elder's duty to be forgiving towards the children."
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Freyya lets her avatar dissolve and return to her in her house.
Now that she's let off a bit of steam, she looks up and tries to think of a way to get around Das's curse – er – BLESSING.
"Das must've put a lot of divine power into that blessing; it's not something a mortal's going to be able to get around at all."
She slams her fist on the ground. "There's literally nothing that's going to kill the mortal now… Well, except me."
She sits up and grabs her favorite cookies to snack on while she thinks. "I'm a goddess of equal standing with Das. That means… Haalfrin will never get killed unless it's through my direct interference."
Narrowing her eyes, Freyya resolves herself. "I'm going to have to stop being so casual when coming up with my assassination plans from now on."
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-Back to the Day of the Battle-
While the battle is raging down below, Freyya circles invisibly above, watching apathetically as these mortals butcher each other. Of course, animals kill each other all the time – for territory, mates, and resources, mostly.
To Freyya, these humans going to war are acting like a bunch of animals - something she's neither disgusted with nor delighted by. "It is the way it is, so why should I care?" she usually reasons to herself.
She then glances down below and smells Haalfrin's familiar soul over all the others.
Just thinking of that little boy, she also thinks of someone ELSE she knows, and she spits down on the ground in frustration. "Curse that stupid Das."
(She may never notice, but some random soldier down below suddenly has the top of his head melt into a pile of black goo the moment her spit finds its destination. The soldiers down below thought it was just another enemy mage spell, and they went on with the battle.)
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After the crazy mage with the powerful fear spell is dragged off the battlefield from his wounds, the Alsa'ree clans are quicker to recover, and once the 2 armies clash again on the left side, the clans are the ones pushing the kingdom's forces back.
On their hasty retreat back to the Alastan lines, Haalfrin, Haman, and Nay are nearly overtaken by the incoming Alsa'ree soldiers. Haman is practically crawling across the field with him right now… and they're close enough to their own lines to get back to safety in time.
Even after they're behind their own lines again, everybody's looking at Haalfrin with wary looks in their eyes. After making such a big show of himself just now and giving them that dark, horrible feeling everywhere, most of the soldiers don't even want to look at him and be reminded of what they just went through.
Haman clicks his tongue irately at the men around him. "Why're they doing this, Haalfrin? You're a hero... and they're the ones who shot you."
"Leave them alone, Haman. Most people are afraid of dying. It's not their fault."
Much to Haalfrin's and Haman's surprise, a few other soldiers step forward and help carry Haalfrin the rest of the way. One of them also takes Nay from Haalfrin's arms, and wraps his body in the loose shirt he dropped earlier. He then carries the "5-year-old child" further behind the lines, where it's safer.
Before anyone really has time to question Haalfrin about his little stunt, they all look to the side and see an army of cavalry charging at them from the hills.
"Ah!" one of the soldiers screams, "Where'd they come from?"
It's not just the soldiers who are confused – the Alasta captains and general are even more concerned.
There are rolling hills on the left wing of the army, and one of the northern clans has specially trained their horses to lie down on command.
With the hills blocking the way, nobody could tell there were entire cavalry units just a few hundred feet away.
When the thousands of horses crash into the Alastan lines, most of the soldiers around Haalfrin panic and try running away…
Haalfrin, however, sees this and applauds the enemy in his heart for their cunning.
He doesn't get to marvel at their enemy for long, since one of the more bulky trainees slings him over his back and carries him with them as they run away.
Even still, more than half of Tallus' troupe is obliterated in the cavalry's first run. They're only safe from another cavalry charge when the remaining soldiers manage to gather around a boulder in the middle of the field.
Around this boulder, they have some more protection against the arrows, and the enemy horses are unwilling to charge directly at them now.
Haalfrin looks all around and sees his fellow troupe members looking around in fear; they have that same look in their eyes when a bunny looks around after hearing loud footsteps nearby. They might be safe from the immediate danger, but they all still feel like they're about to die.