Dakka the Dragon (1/2)

Haalfrin doesn't get to walk very far away from the pond before he hears the roar of a large cat, then some furious, frantic splashing.

The mage turns around, half expecting his reptile friend to have found a meal. Instead… he sees a giant, yellow cat with black spots coming out of the water with the giant crocodile in its mouth, and its teeth puncturing straight through the back of the croc's skull.

"Phew!" Haalfrin whistles. "I'd have died if that jaguar ambushed me. Man. They're strong though."

Speaking of "dying by jaguar", the cat comes out of the water straight towards Haalfrin. Haalfrin, of course, doesn't bother running away, since it would be interesting to fight such a majestic beast. Haalfrin likes cats after all, and besides tigers, jaguars are his favorite cats.

...Besides, it might kill him, right? "It's what I came for after all!"

And so, Haalfrin starts waving his arms at the jaguar and hollering at the top of his lungs, "Oi you! I was fighting that crocodile, and you stole it!"

Magical beasts are essentially the mage version of an animal, since they opened up soul gates of their own. Just as their bodies become bigger, so do their minds. Hence, it's not completely unheard of for a magical beast to understand some speech.

Indeed, the jaguar perks its head over at the human. The giant cat hears the human yelling something about a stolen kill.

"The human's probably thinking about my reptile in my mouth. Well, I was attracted to the pond because I heard fighting… so it was this human who was fighting my food."

Haalfrin sees the jaguar veer off its course and comes toward him. He grins and thinks triumphantly, "Yes YES! It was annoyed by my strange demands and came to fight me!"

In the next moment, all of the human's expectations are shattered once the jaguar uses its claws to rip a chunk of meat off the alligator, then swipe its paw to the side, sending the bloody chunk of meat tumbling towards Haalfrin, like some sort of apology token.

With that said, the jaguar turns back and continues on its way.

Haalfrin stares down at that the lump of bloody meat as large as his head, and he feels a little conflicted. "Oh well," he says, "the cat was being polite, I guess. I suppose we can fight another day."

However, Haalfrin catches the jaguar as it turns back one last time to glance at Haalfrin. With the spirit magic his master taught him, his perception of emotions – especially simple emotions like an animal's – has been strengthened a lot.

Hence… Haalfrin definitely doesn't miss the look of pity in its eyes. "Oi!" he laughs out, "That's not very nice!"

He picks up the bloody chunk of meat and sets about collecting fire materials to roast his meal.

"Hmph. I'll beat you some other time," Haalfrin raises his fist and curses. "Then I'll be the one giving you pity meat!"

'Well, I have the rest of the morning to do whatever I want, so mind as well enjoy myself.'

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Towards the end of his stay in the forest, Haalfrin, who was using a perception reinforcement spell on his own nose to track a pack of wolves, picks up a strong scent of blood. For no reason other than his curiosity, he abandons his hunt, then traverses the terrain to go check the new smell.

Upon arriving in a glade, Haalfrin sees a giant beast with green scales and brown striped patterns. It has a long neck about the length of its torso and a whiplike tail longer than the rest of the body. Atop its back are giant leathery wings, and erect on its head are 2 horns curling forward asymmetrically.

From what Haalfrin is seeing, the dragon is easily twice as long (not counting the tail) as the crocodile he fought earlier.

Of course, Haalfrin already knows what this creature is, as his master made him study these things in his textbooks about the Otherworld. Even though Kalastros didn't make Haalfrin go too deep into researching the Otherworld, he can still recognize the races found there.

"Dragon...," he mutters, "But what's a dragon doing here? Aren't they supposed to be in the Otherworld?" What's more puzzling is that there's supposed to be an impenetrable fortress at the world gate that not even dragons can cross.

Coincidentally, the dragon appears to be arguing with the jaguar in the cat's own tongue, as the cat was attempting to eat its meal in peace.

"Master mentioned that dragons have versatile vocal cords, so they can communicate with most species," Haalfrin remembers. "Being VERY intelligent and living practically forever, they usually pick up a lot of strange knowledge."

From what Haalfrin can see, the cat's not very happy as it's trying to negotiate for its life… but in the end, it leaves behind the half-eaten crocodile corpse, then sulks glumly away after being tossed aside casually by the dragon's tail.

…When the jaguar leaves, it hides in the trees, watching the dragon angrily.

As Haalfrin is watching from the bushes, the dragon turns its looming head over to Haalfrin. Its neck is so large that its snout is hovering right over him, despite resting about 20 feet away. "Hhhuuumaannnn….," the creature hisses.

Haalfrin fans the air around his nose and complains loudly, "Mr. Dragon… I'm sorry, but could you get your head away from me? Your breath stinks." Haalfrin doesn't bother being polite, since he's heard that dragons are very prideful and treat insults as a capital crime.

Plus, it would be cool to fight a dragon... and seeing how dangerous the creature looks, there's a good chance he'll leave with Freyya today.

Hearing this, the dragon curls its head and bellows out a laugh so loudly that the trees shake and the ground vibrates. "Hahaha! Human child! If youuuu want to play ssssso badly, I'll play wittth you!"

Right before Haalfrin's eyes, the dragon shines brightly, and hot that the patch of grass it's standing on lights on fire. Rapidly, the dragon's form shrinks down into the form of a young teenage boy about 5 feet tall.

Instead of clothes, he has patches of scales that are built like armored plates. His fingers are like long daggers, and his toes curl down like sharp clamps – digging into the ground and anchoring him to the earth.

Grinning, Haalfrin runs forward with his sword swinging…

Despite using full body enhancements and being aided by the enchanted clothing his master gifted him, Haalfrin is still pushed back when his sword meets the long tail, as it whips over to block his strike.

Feeling annoyed, and knowing that the fight is going to be tougher than any he's ever had before, Haalfrin uses Freyya's own body reinforcement technique on his arm as he kicks up as hard as he can at the dragon's crotch area… yet the large "man" just stands there and… takes a blow to his balls.

Haalfrin lands on the ground with his leg bent the wrong way, and he looks up, expecting the dragon to curl over in pain at being hit in the crotch…, but the dragon just stands there and laughs at him – as if completely disregarding the human and his pathetic strike to the "manly treasure trove".

Almost speechless for words, Haalfrin stutters out, "H-how?"

"Boy," the dragon hisses. Now that he's in a humanoid form, his slurring and lisping has gone away.

"Body enhancement spells were inspired by studying our bodies. I must admit, though. Whoever taught you your spell did a great job. I've never seen a human imitate our spell so perfectly."

...Maybe because it IS a dragon spell?

Haalfrin is getting annoyed, so he shouts out, "We're fighting right now! If you're so strong, just get it over with!"

The dragon man has an expression of genuine confusion, "Oh? I'm not trying to kill you, though. I just wanted to know directions."

"Then why did you attack me?" Haalfrin asks cautiously.

"… Isn't it normal to play with children by beating-?" The young dragon catches his words and coughs, "I mean, play fighting. You know, roughhousing."

Haalfrin wrinkles his nose at that but doesn't directly respond. Instead, he asks, "What about my death energy? Shouldn't that have intimidated you or made you think I wanted to fight to the death or something?"

The dragon only cocks its head to the side and questions back, "Isn't that spiritual spell you used to mean that you wanted to fight? I don't understand what this is supposed to mean?"

Haalfrin pauses in shock for a second. He's only ever seen 2 reactions to his Death Energy - abject terror, and a strengthened fighting spirit. This dragon, however, had no reaction whatsoever.

'Do dragons just not understand death the same way humans do? I've heard dragons are extremely arrogant creatures, so is this dragon so sure he can't lose that he can't even consider his own death? Is that why he didn't even notice my Aura for what it was?'

Who knows.

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A few minutes later, Haalfrin and the dragon are sitting down at a fire, roasting the skinned crocodile over a huge pit of fire. The dragon had gotten the firewood by ripping trees out of the ground, akin to a human plucking weeds out of their garden.

As they're waiting for the meat to cook, Haalfrin looks up at the dragon and asks, "Are you sure you're ok sharing your meal with me?"

The dragon man reaches out with his clawed hands and pats Haalfrin's head. "You're so tiny, human, that sharing food with you is proportionally the same as sharing a few crumbs of your meal with a mouse."

"…"