The Promised Duel

When night falls, Dakka's mind shoots awake, 'It's Grandfather! Wake up Haalfrin! He's coming!'

"Bleh!" Haalfrin mutters in between dry heaving. "Wai, wu...?"

Instead of Fheldin's titanic dragon form, the tall dragon lord steps into the moonlight in his human form. With bare feet, he walks slowly towards Haalfrin.

The host of Fheldin's children is sprawled so tightly together that Fheldin can't even walk anywhere without being obstructed by them.

With an annoyed huff, he gently moves his hand to the side - sweeping a large swath of sleeping dragons off to a corner the way dead bugs are swept out the door by a broom.

Before any of the waking dragons can protest, Fheldin just glares at them, and they shut up immediately.

The mythic dragon then sits down next to Haalfrin and crosses his legs. His back is so ramrod straight that Haalfrin can't help but think that his sitting position is VERY uncomfortable.

"Hey, Haalfrin," Fheldin asks the human, "What's your world like, nowadays?"

"Eh... it's pretty boring. Finding a 3rd gate mage there is pretty hard."

The dragon lord snorts at this, "Sounds the same as I remember it, then. How boring. Anyway, I believe we have some business with each other.

" 'ear what?" Haalfrin sputters out drunkenly.

Fheldin rolls his eyes and gives Haalfrin a cup of water. "Drink it. My wife made it; she said it clears alcohol out of the blood."

Haalfrin drinks the "water", and it tastes like strawberries. Then, he feels lightheaded for a moment as the drunk feeling clouding his mind suddenly dissipates.

The human shakes his head and asks, "Can you repeat that?"

After Fheldin repeats himself, Haalfrin fumbles to his feet with a wide smile on his face. He looks around quickly for his weapons.

When he can't find his weapons anywhere, his eyes go wide, and his heartrate increases. "Where...?"

"Looking for this?" Lord Fheldin says while flicking a finger. Dakka's bone ax flies over to Haalfrin, and the man catches it.

Haalfrin takes a moment to stroke the ax. Then, he looks up at Lord Fheldin, who is calmly standing in front of him in a rich, unwrinkled robe and a patient expression. "Have you come to fulfill your promise?" Haalfrin asks slowly.

"Of course," Fheldin replies. "I'll wait for you to be ready."

"I've been ready for several months now," Haalfrin says as he flips the bone ax in the air casually.

"You don't need to say goodbye to anyone?" Fheldin asks curiously.

Haalfrin looks down at the Spirit Stone bottle at his waist, and he gets a complicated look in his eyes – especially when the bottle starts shaking violently.

The man knows that Frey had just heard about Haalfrin "saying goodbye" or something. Plus, with the way Haalfrin lunged for his weapon, and the fact that he's talking to Lord Fheldin… she has a bad feeling.

It's too bad that she's can't speak spirit to spirit with anything that she's not touching; with the Aura trapped in the bottle, she can't protest to Haalfrin, nor scream at him that he definitely shouldn't do whatever it is he's about to do.

Tenderly, Haalfrin takes the bottle off of his waist and holds it in front of him.

"Frey," he says with a rare kindness in his tone, "I'm probably going to die right now, but this isn't goodbye. It's…" He scratches his head. "It's complicated. I don't even know if I'm supposed to tell you. It's just… We'll see each other soon. Don't worry. I've got it figured out."

Ignoring the way the bottle is frantically shaking, he sets it down on the ground and walks away from her toward where Fheldin is leading him.

"Lord Fheldin?" Haalfrin says to the lord of the dragons, "I have a friend in that bottle. Please make sure she's looked after."

Fheldin looks over at the bottle, which has knocked itself over by now. "I know who that is, the dragon admits. "That's the Goddess of Defeat's replacement, right? Is the Crow goddess retiring already?"

The spirit stone bottle suddenly goes still once Fheldin says this.

Haalfrin shrugs, "Not really, but kind of." He wiggles his toes a little in agitation, and he says loud enough for Frey to hear, "I happen to know some of that girl's future, you see. However, I'm not at liberty to say; having another person inform you of your future isn't usually a good idea, after all."

"Oh?" Fheldin rumbles with interest, "Did she share her Yiir Name with you? How could you know her future?"

"Oh, the Crow goddess accidentally let something slip a few centuries back," Haalfrin admits. "I put a few things together recently."

He hoists up his ax and points it at Fheldin. "Anyway, should we get this duel started?"

Fheldin abruptly stops walking, and he turns around without moving his arms. "I'm ready whenever you are."

Grinning, Haalfrin uses all his Dra Name, as well as the Crow goddess's Reinforcement technique to make his body as strong as possible.

However, the split second after he launches off the ground and explodes the ground beneath him, a sudden force presses down on his body, as if he were a bug pressed onto the ground by a shoe.

As if his body won't obey him anymore, Haalfrin is pressed onto the ground, and he can't even command his limbs to try resisting anymore.

Haalfrin's eyes roll over, and he barely sees Lord Fheldin – still standing in place, and having not moved an inch.

'How…?' he thinks to himself. 'Physical Force spells require you to move your body… so how did Lord Fheldin do it?'

He never gets an answer. Instead, the 7-foot-tall thing with the appearance of a man slowly walks towards Haalfrin with silent steps. After a few moments, Fheldin gets on one knee, bends over, and looks the human in the eye. "You've lost."

"F-finish it!" Haalfrin spits through clenched teeth.

The dragon reaches forward so slowly with one hand that time seems to stop. Frey's stone container shakes in despair, and Haalfrin closes his eyes with peace in his soul…

…when Fheldin's hard fingernails flick Haalfrin's forehead. Instead of blowing his face off, Haalfrin yelps, "OW!" as his head is knocked up, and a bruise forms.

"Stupid," Fheldin says – this time smiling, "I agreed to duel you – not kill you."

Haalfrin is released from his restraints, and he stumbles onto his feet. "YOU KNOW WHY I WANTED A DUEL, FHELDIN!" Haalfrin yells angrily, "DON'T TOY WITH ME!" He picks up Dakka's ax again and is about to charge again.

Fheldin fixes his eyes on Haalfrin again, and this time, the human notices that the dragon's eyes are briefly burning ruby red. "Sit down, little human," Fheldin commands.

Without a word, Haalfrin's body plops onto the floor on its own, regardless of what the man himself wants.

"The first thing you need to remember, little human," Fheldin reminds Haalfrin, "is that I'm more powerful than you. Since I'm more powerful than you, I get to do what I want. I happen to like you, so I don't WANT to kill you."

He smiles again and holds out one arm. "Come. Chat with me." He looks over at the Spirit Stone bottle, and the thing flies over to him. "Let your little friend out too. I'm curious to meet her."

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"HAALFRIN!" a little voice yells as an equally little fist punches Haalfrin in the arm. "How could you go on a suicide duel with a 5-horned dragon like that!? I was worried enough when you went to fight Dakka. I didn't say anything then because it was unavoidable. But now!? You started it! Idiot!"

He hadn't thought about it before, but making Frey worry... probably… Yeah. He definitely feels guilty now that he thinks about it.

"All right, little girl," Haalfrin awkwardly laughs. He puts his hand on her skull and moves her face away from him, "I get it. You don't need to yell anymore."

Fheldin leans back against a rock and watches the two banter for a bit before he opens his mouth. "So…, what's your relationship?"

Frey immediately looks at Haalfrin, and Haalfrin immediately answers, "I raised her."

This makes Frey upset, so she punches Haalfrin in the arm again. Now that she remembers that a stranger is watching her, she suddenly grows self-conscious and refuses to say anything to elaborate.

Haalfrin has a feeling what made Frey upset at his answer, so he curls his toes and adds, "As for if we're anything different, I'm thinking about it for now."

Frey raises her voice a little, "What about what those 2 Crows said?! You're not seriously thinking of sending me away, are you? Because if you are…"

Haalfrin puts his hand on her head, "I know it's probably for the best that you go with them, since the future will probably go the way it's supposed to if you go."

"But I'm not going…," Frey protests.

"I know," Haalfrin assures her, "if you don't want to go, it's not like I'll force you or anything. I've already made my opinion known, but it's your life.; you don't have to ask anyone for permission on what to do."

Frey looks at Haalfrin – this time a little softer in the eyes, and she whispers in his ear, "Is this about part of my future you know about?"

When Haalfrin nods, Frey looks down and sullenly holds up her spirit stone bottle. "I'm feeling tired. Put some Aura in."

"If you're tired," Haalfrin points out, "shouldn't you be resting in a bed or something? I thought turning ethereal consumes mana?"

Frey shakes her head. "After I practiced with my Yiir Name, my natural mana regeneration outpaces the mana spent on being ethereal." She looks down at the bottle again. "Besides, it's comfy and dark in there, and I don't have to worry about anyone disturbing me."

Haalfrin recalls how she really did prefer staying alone in the darkness since it's what she's used to. Even though he thinks living like this is bad for her, he sighs and relents.

Moments later, the girl is gone, and it's just Haalfrin and Fheldin again.

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Some time passes spent sitting next to the peaceful, nighttime fire. Haalfrin has kicked his feet back and is leaning against a rock – enjoying the cool, refreshing breeze.

In all the places Haalfrin has traveled to ever since he escaped the Pit… this canyon behind the dragons' den is probably the most special… and he doesn't quite know why.

Since he'd spent so much of his life underground, confined on a single floor, that had become his world. Even after he escaped, it didn't quite seem real that his world has expanded again, and that he really is free to do what he wants.

…Strangely enough, it's only now that Haalfrin realizes that his life has moved on – that nothing of himself remains in that dark hell on Stanrock Island.

Being in a valley where no human has (legally) gone before, surrounded by a large family of dragons, and having his favorite person hanging on a belt, he finally feels at peace.

So, he breathes in deeply and basks in that inner peace that wasn't there before.