The Meeting (1/3)

After Haalfrin wakes up the next morning, he thinks of the mission ahead, and how he's likely to meet with some level of danger.

He then thinks of Freyya, and how she always comes with gifts for him. By now, it would be fair to say that they're good friends.

It's just... for some reason, when Fisco saw himself and Freyya interact, Haalfrin had become a little self-aware of something between himself and her, though he's still not sure of what it is.

'Oh,' Haalfrin reasons with himself, 'it must be because she brings cake with her every time we see each other, but I only give gifts sometimes. I gotta do better than that!'

So, after they all wake up, Haalfrin has a quick talk with Myra. She's a freak that knows most of the Rehkin languages and cultures, right? She should be able to help him get something for Freyya.

So, just before they get ready to head out, Haalfrin asks Myra about what kind of gift to give a Crow Clansmen that they would like.

Unsurprisingly, she says, "Food" with a resolute authority in her voice.

Haalfrin groans upon hearing this. Giving Freyya food feels pointless to her because she has an endless supply of it back at her house. What's the point of a gift if it's something they already have in abundance?

Seeing Haalfrin's hesitation, Myra asks Jay if they can spend an extra hour visiting the market to get some extra supplies.

Once they get some cooking materials, they're on their way.

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That night, when they stop to camp, Myra pulls out all the cooking materials they bought earlier, and she says, "Ok, let's get started on your cake."

"Ugh…," Haalfrin groans. He then slaps himself awake and cracks his knuckles. "Let's do this."

While they get ready to work, Resburn asks lightheartedly, "Oh? You volunteering to make dinner for us, Haalfrin?"

Haalfrin scoffs at this while barely suppressing a smile. "No. It's a gift for a friend."

"Aww…"

"Dude," Haalfrin adds, "Be grateful I'm not making dinner. The only thing I can do is cook meat and scrambled eggs."

...But meat and eggs are good...

While Resburn gets to making dinner, the others watch Haalfrin mess up over and over again doing the simplest parts of cooking.

There aren't any detailed cookbooks around, nor are there any standardized measurements for cooking - no cups, pints, teaspoons, gallons, or liters.

According to Myra..., "You just gotta eyeball it, you know? See? Mine turned out perfect."

Needless to say, her advice is completely unhelpful.

Only after Haalfrin's third attempt at making the batter does Myra get frustrated and offer to help make it.

The "cake" she makes with him is more like honey scones, but it still looks really good after it's taken out of the black pot they were using.

Just before Haalfrin is about to put the scones in his space bag, he hears a rattling on his waist. He looks down and sees the Spirit Container shaking on its own. 'Oh, Frey must want out.'

He suddenly looks up and chuckles. 'Heh. Nobody knows about Frey yet. That's kind of funny.'

Haalfrin excuses himself and goes into the forest for a moment. Then, he uncorks the bottle. Some of his Black Aura flows out, and little Frey's form emerges from it.

The girl puts her hands on her waist, and she scolds, "Took you long enough! Come on, share some of your food with me. What you're making looks good."

Haalfrin pulls up a chair from his space bag, and the two of them start splitting the scones.

Of course, when Haalfrin starts putting a third of the scones away, Frey gets a disappointed look. "Haalfrin…"

The man shrugs, "What? I gotta save some for the Crow goddess too. We can't eat them ALL…"

Frey looks down thoughtfully at what Haalfrin just said. She doesn't talk much as she slowly munches away on her share of the scones.

"Who's this?" Jay abruptly asks as he comes to check on Haalfrin.

In between mouthfuls, Haalfrin says, "This is Frey. We're good friends."

They're currently in the middle of nowhere right now, so it's pretty strange that some random person just SHOWED up in the middle of the night.

Jay narrows his eyes at Frey, then grabs Haalfrin by the scruff of the neck. Once he pulls the tall dragon slayer a little further away from Frey, he hisses into his ear, "Who the F### IS that? When did you make a friend who has 6 gates open? Who's princess is she?"

Jay is quite reasonable to demand an answer from Haalfrin. Out here, despite Frey looking human, he can only assume that she's one of the Rehkin clansmen who happens to be good at hiding their animal features.

Even more, there's no way a clan would have a mage with 6 Gates open without giving them a VERY high seat in the tribe. Even if they weren't royalty before, they'd be crowned as one on the spot.

Rehkin get their powers and Names by being blessed by their ancestors. The Rehkin girl having 6 soul gates open, coupled with the fact that the Rehkin worship their ancestors, means that she MUST be a princess or equally important figure.

Then, he sees Haalfrin casually munching away on some commoner food with her. What? Haalfrin said she was his friend? Being friends with someone that important is sure to complicate their mission.

Once Jay explains his concerns to Haalfrin, the dragon slayer holds his hands up and laughs, "She's not a member of any Rehkin Clan. You don't have to worry."

"Huh," Jay sighs, "Just… don't scare me like that again." He turns to Frey's direction. "Anyway, let's go ask her if she's coming in the same direction." Just in case she IS the princess of some Rehkin clan, he'd rather not try to chase her away and offend her.

Scratch that; she's a 6th Gate mage. He DEFINITELY doesn't want to offend her.

Once they go back to the rock they were eating the scones on, Frey is nowhere to be seen. The only thing different that Haalfrin notices is that his Spirit stone bottle is sealed up again.

Haalfrin shrugs. 'I guess she left.'

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As they journey on, Haalfrin notices that the local Clans are attacking far less often than he remembers during his travels. After asking Myra about it, she reminds him that some of the Rehkin clans are friendly towards the humans and trade regularly with them - hence, why Haalfrin and co. are able to travel without needing any disguises.

Besides, these humans are going to an official meeting, and they have the proper credentials as well.

… Well, only once do some assassins try to kill them, but the "mysterious Hawk clan travelers" were reeking so strongly of bloodlust that Haalfrin could feel them a mile away; their ambush failed miserably.

Shortly after the Hawk Clan's attack, we see Haalfrin and his companions in a forest, cleaning up their ambushers' dead bodies. In the middle of their chore, Freyya shows up to collect the fallen souls.

Nobody else notices but Haalfrin and Frey. (Frey is in the bottle right now; she can tell the Crow goddess is here, but she can't SEE her while she's stuck inside the bottle.)

Haalfrin immediately drops the shovel he was using to dig the graves, and he pulls out his storage bag. He says to seemingly midair - "Yo, Freyya! I got something for you."

His companions watch in confusion and ask each other, "What's Haalfrin doing?"

Jay bumps Myra (because she's closest to him) and whispers, "Remember? The commander mentioned this particular habit of his."

Myra gets a little curious and leans in. "Um... Who are you talking to, Haalfrin?"

Haalfrin pauses for a moment and says to midair again, "Freyya, are you able to show yourself to others?"

After a few moments, a powerful, oppressive aura sweeps over everyone, and the dreadful fear of death presses down on them all. 'This is like what the Commander does... except it's far more powerful,' the 4 humans think.

Being members of the Threshold, they're naturally resistant to Death Aura, though even they can't remain calm in the face of a goddess. On the bright side, if they'd been a human with an average will, they'd have died immediately.

As the aura becomes more and more powerful, the figure of a woman condenses in the black mist. She is short and demure looking, and her skin is light brown skin. More importantly, she has a pair of black wings on her back and eyes so black that they don't even reflect light.

'A crow clansmen?' they all think in confusion. Can spirit magic even materialize people like this?

The Crow woman turns to Haalfrin and says, "Well, I am just using the Death aura you've collected so far to materialize, so I'm really only able to appear like this because you've been so diligent so far in collecting it."

"Ah," Haalfrin scratches his head. "Well, do you wanna sit down now? I've prepared some food for you earlier."

"Oh you have? That was really kind of you."

Haalfrin and Freyya both sit down, and he makes a show of pulling out the scones for her and telling her all about how he learned how to make them.

While the two of them are having a casual conversation, everyone else is far too terrified to really move.

Frey, on the other hand, is bustling about frantically in her Spirit stone bottle. Haalfrin is about to let her out when Freyya puts her hand on his wrist and shakes her head slowly. "It's not a good idea, Haalfrin."

Haalfrin nods and moves his hand away from the bottle. He'd surely have asked why Freyya doesn't want to meet Frey face to face... if he hadn't guessed a few things earlier about those 2 girls' relationship.

If his guess is correct, then it would make sense why the two of them probably shouldn't see each other.

And so, Freyya finishes her honey scones in peace and makes sure to compliment him on the baking along the way.

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Finally, after the crow woman leaves, everybody turns to Haalfrin - some with anger, and some with confusion. "Oi! Haalfrin! What was that about!?" Faylin demands.

"Don't you know we're not on friendly terms with the crow clan?" Myra points out with concern in her voice while glancing at Jay.

Haalfrin just picks his ears and apathetically replies, "Eh. She's basically, no, she IS a death god, you know? Commander Fisco and I have an affinity with Death Aura, so we can both see the Death gods when they come to take away the souls of dead people. Here... it's like this...."