Lord Fheldin (1/2)

After the 9 dragons fly off at once in different directions, Haalfrin shakes his head and activates his flight magic. "I'd mind as well help capture some of the dragons… for no other reason than that I'm pissed at them for ditching their duel with me."

And so, Haalfrin flies in a direction opposite of Hraldin. He soon enough catches up to a fleeing 2 horned dragon, and he readies the mana in his fist to punch the creature out of the sky.

The beast looks at Haalfrin flying behind him, and he sneers, "Hummannnn, you'rre pretty fassst… Toooo baddd I donnn't havvve time to eat you up." The young dragon beats his wings even harder in his attempt to escape Hraldin, but he cries out in shock when the human punches the base of his wing – dislocating the bone.

After the dragon boy tumbles to the earth, the human punches his skull and knocks him out.

"On to the next one, I guess," Haalfrin shrugs.

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Even though Haalfrin and Hraldin are faster and stronger than the other dragons, 3 of them manage to fly away.

Haalfrin doesn't feel like carrying the 2 dragons he caught back to the place he was SUPPOSED to duel Tefka, so he sits on a rock and waits after piling the two on top of each other.

He doesn't have to wait long before he hears the earth rumbling. He looks up and sees Hraldin walk towards him with 4 dragons in tow. All 4 unconscious dragons are being gripped by the necks – 2 in Hraldin's jaws, and another 2 tucked under one arm.

Haalfrin can tell by the extra forceful footsteps and smoke billowing out of his mouth that he's VERY angry. "I got two for you," Haalfrin says while pointing to his own pile.

"Tch," Hraldin spits while he turns back into his smaller form. "that means 3 got away." He looks at the faces of the dragons Haalfrin took out, and he says, "So Tefka, Kree, and Faalk got away."

He then looks at Haalfrin's uninjured body, and he remarks, "Huh, you actually are tough. I didn't know a human could defeat a dragon."

Haalfrin shrugs, "I'm a god candidate."

"Ah!" Hraldin exclaims, "That makes sense then. So am I!"

"…Really?" Haalfrin can't quite believe it.

"Yeah," Hraldin explains, "Father says that every dragon is a god candidate."

"Dude," Haalfrin disagrees, "That sounds a little farfetched."

"Meh, don't matter to me," Hraldin shrugs while dropping magically lifting up his own stash of dragons and dropping them on Haalfrin's pile. "Dad's always right, so it must be true."

"Who's going to fight me, then?" Haalfrin asks while picking up his ax. "Is it you?"

"The deal was that you get to fight Father if you defeat Tefka," Hraldin smiles. "Tefka ran away, plus you beat up 2 of his brothers, who happen to be stronger than him. I'd say you're qualified."

"Good. Let's get going."

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Unlike the long trip up, Hraldin doesn't bother walking down the long ramp. Instead, he turns into his draconic form. Then, he chucks the 6 unconscious dragons down the huge pit, and he uses magic to slow their descent. Once they're all set on the ground – expertly aimed to flop right in front off the main gate – he grabs ahold of Haalfrin and jumps down as well.

Rather than being left in the garden again, Haalfrin is led directly into the deep cavern while riding atop Hraldin's head, while the 6 lesser dragons are dragged by their horns across the floor like how a toddler drags her favorite teddy bear through the door.

"Father!" Hraldin roars out in a "normal" voice, "I'm home!" The cavern in the front entrance is so large that even as big as Hraldin is, his voice is lost in the endless black hallways.

Haalfrin looks all around and marvels at how tall the cavern is. If he were to compare its height, he'd say it would be as tall as 7 floors of the Pit. The long hallways are even more exaggerated. Even if you were to flip the entire Pit on its side, it's not nearly as tall as one of the hallways are long.

"Makes sense," Haalfrin thinks. "Fheldin is probably so huge that he needs this space." That makes him even more excited to meet the Lord of all dragons in this world.

Other than the gargantuan size, the halls are mostly bare of decorations and furnishings, except for the intricate, artistic carvings on the walls that were etched in glowing mana stones.

As Hraldin passes through the endless hall, the human looks closer at the carvings, and he sees that there are many different mana stones embedded in the wall to make many different colored paintings.

What's insane about this is that mana stones come in only 6 different colors, with only slight variations in the hues. Finding so many mana stones with a whole array of colors must have been… well… more expensive than all human kingdoms combined could afford.

Another thing Haalfrin notices is that every now and then, there are tiny doorways with tiny hallways branching off. Way down there, he sees minuscule figures of little Rehkin scurrying about with various cleaning equipment.

In Haalfrin's own imagination, he feels that the Rehkin servants here are like tiny mice with their own little doorways leading into little mouse-sized tunnels in the walls...

... except the "mice" are people-sized Rehkin, and the "people" are giant-sized Drakin.

Since the halls are so long, Haalfrin's imagination keeps working pointlessly; another image he thinks of while atop Hraldin's bobbing head is that all the Master's servants look like grain-sized children's toys who somehow came alive.

Ignoring all the branching paths (both big and small), Hraldin takes them directly down the center of the palace without deviation. Over time, Haalfrin notices that they're steadily going down… and down… and down… as the hall has a gradual slope that's hard to notice with its absurd length.

After finally reaching the end, there's another set of enchanted gates identical to the ones up front. "This is father's section of the palace – the central Wing. Nobody is allowed here without permission – not even the children.

Hraldin then starts beating on the door with his tail, and Haalfrin's ears are ringing from the loud noise echoing endlessly in the confined space.

They don't have to wait long before a tiny door at the base of Fheldin's grand door opens up. A small dragon in his humanoid form comes out and looks up. "Back already, Hraldin?" asks the man.

Hraldin shifts back into his humanoid form so abruptly that Haalfrin tumbles to the ground. If he didn't have a body as tough as a dragon's, he'd have died from the fall.

Once Haalfrin is back on his feet, he takes a hard look at Lord Fheldin's humanoid appearance. Surprisingly, the man's Transformation is so complete that no scales, horns, or any draconic feature is visible. Other than being over 7 feet tall, he looks just like a human man.

Unlike his burly son, Fheldin doesn't have bulging muscles. Rather, he has finely toned muscles and a well-proportioned body. Even by human standards, Fheldin is more handsome than average…. Compared to other dragons, though, he's absolutely gorgeous! (Drakin usually have a brutish look.)

Even more strange is the feeling Fheldin gives off. All the dragons Haalfrin has met gave him a barbaric, unhinged feeling.

Fheldin, on the other hand, feels... refined... and civilized? The man wears neat clothing, his face is clean-shaven, his posture is straight and rigid, and he has scholarly wisdom in his eyes. Nothing about this man's appearance screams, "I CAN KILL YOU LIKE STEPPING ON A BUG!" like the other dragons' do. In fact, Haalfrin thinks he feels quite pleasant to be around.

"Father!" Hraldin solutes, "I tried to accomplish the mission you gave, but there were some complications."

Fheldin rubs his temples and lets out a frustrated sigh. "I see some of my sons are knocked out… So… what happened?"

Hraldin takes a moment to explain, and he doesn't even get very far into the story (the part where the 9 children lied to Hraldin and Fheldin) before Fheldin's eyes light up, and Hraldin starts shivering in fear. The 6 unconscious dragons wake up out of some sort of self-preservation instinct.

Of course, most of these dragons don't dare move for fear of drawing their Father's attention to themselves.

The 6 guilty dragons look up at their father and shiver as he stares down at them. Fheldin's gaze is so measured and controlled that the 6 children aren't quite sure how angry he is; that's part of what makes him so scary to his children.

"...Tell me...," Fheldin says softly while walking towards the runaway child in the front, "what crime have you committed...?"

The eldest of the runaways yelps in fear, scrambles onto his knees, and pounds his forehead on the ground while crying, "We are liars and traitors! We've lied to our father and abused his trust! Please punish us!"

Fheldin looks down at them with the same calm expression, except the fire in his eyes still burns brightly in displeasure. Even Haalfrin can feel a subtle ripple of power shaking his soul.

Just as abruptly as it came, Fheldin's pressure is gone. Before anyone is sure why his attitude suddenly changed, they all hear soft footsteps coming through the large door behind Fheldin.

From the darkness emerges an impossibly pale woman with 4 colorful, reflective wings on her back. In all honesty, this really is the most beautiful woman Haalfrin has ever seen - even more beautiful than Freyya. In the woman's hands is a small dragon boy with a single horn on the side of his head.

Once his wife settles next to her husband, Haalfrin notes how comically different their heights are. Fheldin is over 7 feet tall, and his wife is just shy of 5 feet tall - slightly smaller than Freyya.

Fheldin then turns back to Haalfrin and Hraldin, then says, "Continue with your story."

On his father's command, Hraldin continues the story.

Once he gets to the part where the 9 dragons break free at the start of the duel and flee, the child in the Felkin's (phoenix's) arms starts wagging his tail up and down, and he wiggles in excitement at the story's climax.

Fheldin's only reaction is folding his arms and giving a slight smile.