Dakka's Hunt (2/2)

The baron's heart skips a beat hearing this. He bows his head deeper and cries out, "Oh, great and powerful dragon of Alasta! My people are humble farmers, and we only ask for our lives to be spared!"

Dakka's displeased hearing this, and he slaps his tail on the ground… though being as big as he is, his tail is snaking off far enough in the distance to not actually destroy anything in town – just a few trees and a dirt road.

"Whattt…?" Dakka hisses in agitation, "The Drakkinnn are rrrighteousss and ccchivalrousss! Do I look like I woullld kill you allll rrrandommly?"

'Yes!' all the humans down below think in unison, though their faces barely twitch as they stare stiffly at the ground - unwilling to speak their minds.

Seeing that these humans are scared far too stiff to actually ask anything from him, Dakka feels a little frustrated. Why do these humans always assume he's about to kill them all? Just now, he was only slightly agitated at being reminded that everyone thinks he's just a violent monster… yet all these humans freak out and suddenly stink of fear.

Sighing, Dakka looks up and briefly thinks of that puny human child he met deep in that one forest; that boy actually talked to him like a normal person and wasn't afraid of him.

Smiling at the memory, Dakka thinks, "That was refreshing. I hope to meet that boy again one day. He seems like a good guy! I have a few sisters, so I'll definitely introduce the boy to some of them once he grows up… Having a son-in-law that's interesting and brave would be a nice change!"

Comparing that little mage boy with these quaking little pansies, Dakka suddenly loses all interest in paying back these peasants for their sheep. So, he just lowers his head and starts silently munching away at his offerings.

…Once he's done with his meal, Dakka looks back up to the humans and addresses the baron standing in front, "Do you all knnnow a Haalfffrinnnn? I'm in thesssse landsss becaussse I nnneed to kill him!"

The baron gets a perplexed look on his face and shakes his head slowly. Out of fear of angering the dragon, he quickly adds, "I don't know a Haalfrin, b-but I'll make sure to talk to the king and let him know about this H-haalfrin person!"

"Very goood." Dakka then pinches his own skin and drips some of his blood into the cow trough. (The cow's not going to need it anymore). "Your reward..."

Dragon blood, when drunk, strengthens a person's body permanently - a priceless thing for any mage; who would skimp out on buying something that can permanently boost their magic?

The baron knows this very well, and he bows his head vigorously.

This one gallon of blood isn't nearly as valuable as the dragon scales, though if sold to the right mage, he could recover all the expenses of the town twice over. Even if the king finds a reason to not reimburse them, the farmers certainly won't suffer a loss with this dragon blood… and his town can get back to normal sooner than he anticipated!

With his business over with, the dragon takes off into the sky, leaving a baron and teary eyed villagers feeling like they're the luckiest people in the world to both survive AND strike it rich.

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Due to a certain baron contacting the king about news on the dragon, it quickly becomes common knowledge in the king's court that the dragon is terrorizing their land looking for Haalfrin – the Archmage's apprentice, no less!

Other than the confusion this causes the dukes and royals, Kanus (a 2nd Gate mage now) is probably the only one in court who actually knows what's going on.

Even after all these years, Kanus still remembers how his spies told him how Das is trying to protect Haalfrin… And of course, he also remembers how Haalfrin himself confessed that he has 2 death reapers after his soul.

While swiveling a glass of his favorite wine in one hand, Prince Kanus remains seated in his chair as he stares intently at the door to his office, utterly lost in thought.

'That dragon,' he correctly guesses, 'seems to have been sent to kill Haalfrin for the Crow goddess, just as Kalastros was sent to protect Haalfrin for the god of Longevity.'

Just as he's getting deeper into thinking about the complete implications of this news, the door to his office slams open, and a man in his late 30's strolls into his room. Tallus is only a 1st gate mage, so despite being several decades younger than Kanus, he looks significantly older by now.

"Brother Kanus!" Tallus calls out, "What's this about Haalfrin?"

Kanus rolls his eyes at this; ever since Haalfrin's position became known in the court decades ago, Tallus' status has been rising in high society. By now, the bastard prince has long forgotten to keep up his meek behavior in front of his brother.

Of course… due to his reliance on Haalfrin, as well as his own inability to secure connections outside what accidentally fell onto his lap, Tallus is understandably anxious after hearing that a monstrous dragon is after Haalfrin's life.

Kanus sees Tallus panic, and he smirks for the first time in years. "Yes… I know all about the situation… But I have no reason to tell you… Now get out of my office!"

Soundly ignoring his younger brother's newfound arrogance, Kanus swishes his hand in a shooing motion, and his brother is remotely dragged out of the office by a magical grip, and the doors shut with a click.

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Unlike his little brother, Prince Kanus knows how to take hold of an advantage and use it. He knows full well that the nobles and commoners alike just want the dragon gone through any means… even if that requires giving up one mage's apprentice.

In fact, sacrificing a royal in this situation wouldn't be out of the question, much less the Archmage's apprentice!

Kanus's political position aside, it's the Archmage who's his real opponent in court on this issue, as it's the old wizard who has the most stake in shielding Haalfrin from the nobles who'd like to offer him up on a silver platter with an apple in his mouth.

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Now that there's chaos cooking at court (well, more chaos than usual), Kalastros has a feeling that he won't be able to protect his disciple forever at this rate. The only thing he can do is double (even triple) check his disciples training in the hopes that he survives an encounter with the beast later on…

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With the debates in court going on for so long, Dakka goes several days without hearing any word from the locals about his goddess's sacrifice.

With the constant need to store up calories for his hibernation and exhaustion from his pending slumber, the budding dragon grows destructively hangry.

After burning down a couple kingdom battalions patrolling the roads, he starts incinerating a forest with the energy of a prepubescent little boy throwing an embarrassing tantrum.

As he's doing this, Dakka looks around and feels a strong energy condense as the trees seem to come alive in answer to his attack. Then, he hears a voice in his head, "TURN BACK NOW, SERPENT!"

"Ah... it'ssss a local land god!" Dakka remarks aloud – with none of the respect in his voice that a human normally would've had towards a diety. Land gods are usually the weakest of all gods, after all.

You see, land gods are born from the land when a certain place becomes Significant enough.

For example, perhaps a god was born on the side of a certain stream, so the stream was deemed "Significant" by the universe, and was granted intelligence. Perhaps a great demon lord had set up his castle in a certain mountain, so the mountain birthed a land god. Or, perhaps lamest of all, a certain place was held in fear and superstition for so long (like a creepy, dark forest), that it birthed a land god of its own.

Either way, land gods are extremely limited in the divine realm, and they can rarely interfere with anything, really.

Still, Dakka isn't quite a 3 horned dragon yet, so as he fights the god of the forest, he's whipped around pretty bad.

A few minutes later, we see Dakka limp away while bleeding everywhere. One of his wings has been torn pretty badly, so he can't move very well, much less fly at all. Still, that fight has pushed him past his limit… and he can feel himself going into hibernation once again.

Instinctually, Dakka rapidly digs a deep hole in the ground and curls up inside after sealing the entrance and leaving a few air holes for him to breathe through.

And of course… his little hole is well away from the forest…