Old Friends

Once the 5 humans set off on their journey back to the Threshold, Jay is sure to ask Haalfrin about the stranger who rescued them from Fheldin's prison; he would've asked her himself, but the girl "mysteriously" disappeared (went back into her bottle) the moment he took his eyes off her.

"Hey," Haalfrin protests, "you always ask so many questions, Jay."

"I'm responsible for our missions if we fail," Jay makes sure to point out, "so I need to always know as much as I can."

Haalfrin looks down and to the side, and he says, "Her name is Frey. She's a friend. We go way back."

"Is she related to Lord Fheldin?" Jay assumes this because… why else would she conveniently be in the prison just in time to rescue them, if she didn't live in that palace?

Haalfrin waves his hand, "No, no. Remember how she can turn ethereal?"

Jay nods.

Breathing slowly while he comes up with a lie, Haalfrin answers, "She turns ethereal like that most of the time. Since she literally can't be detected or felt at all, it's always impossible to know where she goes. We always help each other out whenever we see each other."

Hearing this, Jay shrugs. He wasn't expecting Haalfrin to give up as much information as he did, so he's pleasantly surprised. "Thank you, Haalfrin." He turns to the others. "Let's go home."

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Since they were imprisoned, the caravan who brought them here had left without them; thus, the trip home takes much longer than the trip to the Clan Meeting. Still, they do reach the Threshold in a (relatively) timely manner.

Having received Captain Jay's report on the mission, Commander Fisco feels the 5 of them did such a good job that he's sure to keep them busy.

… And that he does.

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Immediately after getting back, Jay and his 4 subordinates (including Haalfrin) are sent on another mission – this time; they're to invade a fort and steal evidence of corruption on one of the Wolf Clan's princes; that way, the Wolf Clan heir that plans on getting along with the humans can take power.

The mission seems to be a lot simpler this time, since Fisco doesn't care if they get found out.

Knowing that their dragon slayer can fight with all his might, all 5 of them feel a lot more casual and lighthearted about their trip.

And so, they set out without delay with a good feeling about the upcoming mission.

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Meanwhile, we see a scaly dragon in his humanoid form. He's still fairly unpracticed at transforming, so he's covered in unsightly patches of scales all over his smooth skin.

If they saw his face, Haalfrin and his comrades would recognize him as Fhulk – the dragon who kicked away all his siblings and fled through the air vent.

As Fhulk is hiding prone in the tall grass, he watches as 5 humans run down the mountains with magic-enhanced endurance. Most of the humans look like indistinguishable blobs to him, but there is one that stands out to him.

No way can this young dragon miss that long, illustrious, blood-red hair fluttering in the wind. Whenever Fhulk manages to tear his eyes away from the woman's hair, he always notices the slender, yet toned muscles all over her body – much better than those skinny, useless-looking bodies most girls from other races have.

While looking at this human woman from the distance, Fhulk can't help but imagine Faylin's "blushing" when he meets her again.

'Ever since that day, when I saw the warrior maiden Faylin take down all of Father's guards like a silent shadow...' He looks down and blushes thinking about it.

He had always heard the Rehkin servants talk about how weak humans are, but his future mistress Faylin was just... so cool. He has to take her heart!

'I'll lock her up in a tower and pamper her every day! Yes, YES!' His slitted eyes look up briefly at his newly grown second horn. 'Once she sees how awesome I am, she'll immediately fall in love with me!'

He can easily imagine himself carrying her away in his arms as her heart beats with the same wild passion that his does now... every time he thinks of her red hair...

'No...!' he nearly stands up from his hiding place and shouts, 'calm down, CALM DOWN! There's a big scary dragon slayer right next to her. That ax on his shoulder came from a higher-ranked dragon than me. I'll have to be cunning... just like the day I escaped from Father. Yes. She'll admire how brilliant I am once I manage to snatch her.'

Needless to say, this youngster has never had a crush on a girl before, and he's completely lost his mind to his raging hormones.

Silently, the dragon creeps on ahead and tries to predict the humans' path. He spends some time burying himself in the ground and carefully placing foliage over himself to avoid detection. After studying how humans do magic, he's even learned to mask his body heat and muffle the sounds of his movements.

Confident he'll be undetected, Fhulk thinks, 'Heh, heh. I'll wait till they're over me, then I'll yank her down into the tunnel I made!'

But, after waiting for far too long, he peeks up and notices that the humans had completely sidestepped him by going down another path.

Fhulk doesn't grow discouraged by his failure, though, as he just chalks it up to the Drakin's bad luck...

... but no matter! He'll have to be patient. It's better to miss a hundred times than hit the wrong target!

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The 4 humans abruptly stop when Faylin halts in her tracks and carefully studies their surroundings. "I feel like we're being watched," Faylin tells them all.

"I can't sense any Death aura or killing intent," Haalfrin adds.

"We'll just wait and see then," Jay concludes. "For now, on with the mission."

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A short while later, a loud explosion lights up the twilight sky. While the dead and soon-to-be-dead Wolf Clansmen flee, Haalfrin raises his bone ax and is smashing apart all the walls of a fort.

Without a fort, there's no protected supply route for the Wolf Clan rebels, so realizing how important this place is, he'll serve as a suitable distraction for his other comrades.

Meanwhile, the rest of his crew are running away into the forest with some account ledgers in their hands, while a mob of pissed-off Wolves is chasing them – desperate to get this vital information back.

Obviously, the wolves are faster.

As the wolves are getting closer and preparing to surround them, Jay is about to shout the order to have them stop and prepare for a fight..., but he never gets the chance.

Without warning, a large, serpentine figure descends from the sky and crushes over a dozen Wolves beneath his paws. Jay looks at the dragon with sweat coming down his face, but he manages to keep his cool. The dragon didn't kill them immediately, so perhaps it could be reasoned with?

'Well,' Jay thinks, 'even if the dragon IS hostile, I just have to delay it long enough for Haalfrin to finish destroying the fort and catch up to us. It's just a 2 horned dragon, so Haalfrin could beat it easily.'

Unexpectedly, the dragon speaks in Brancotte with a very unpracticed accent, "Haalfrin's communication bracelet is broken. He's my grandfather's drinking friend, and I was in the area. Haalfrin said that he needed the one named Faylin's help. I offered to bring her to him."

"Hey, wait-" Jay yells, sensing something bad is about to happen.

"No time!" the dragon growls, "I take her now!"

Jay, Resburn, and Myra watch as the green dragon hops forward and plucks Faylin right off the ground – ignoring the fact that she was in the middle of trying to run away into the woods.

With their comrade clutched in its claws, the dragon flies off into the sky and completely disregards the 3 humans on the ground.

As Jay watches the dragon fly off toward the sunset, he curses profusely before adding, "He's going the wrong direction! Haalfrin is THAT way!"

This whole situation is so confusing to the 3 humans left on the ground. Why would a dragon just show up? How in the world are they supposed to interpret its actions?

Still, on the off chance the young dragon was telling the truth about Haalfrin needing Faylin...

Jay holds up his communication enchantment on his wrist and calls for Haalfrin.

Their dragon slayer immediately answers the call. "What is it? I'm a little busy... Well, I'm almost not busy."

"A dragon just showed up and flew off with Faylin. Did you know anything about that?"

"I don't," Haalfrin answers, "what's this about?"

"No?" Jay curses again. "We need to go after her right now!"

Jay shakes his head, then immediately turns to Resburn as he continues giving instructions to Haalfrin, "We'll follow Resburn's spirit thread he had tied to Faylin. He's making it visible to you now. We'll run on ahead after the dragon, and you'll catch up. The mission comes first."

"Sure thing."

After thinking about it, Jay isn't as distressed for Faylin as before, since it seems that the dragon obviously wanted her alive.

To a certain point, it's a lot easier to guess the motives of a creature when they're strong enough to kill you easily. If they mean you harm, then a weak person would lie and cheat you, but a strong person will just step on you and be done with it.

That dragon took Faylin, but if it meant to harm her, she'd be dead already.

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All the while, Fhulk continues flying off with the struggling Faylin in his talons.

While he's grinning maniacally, Faylin screams at the top of her lungs, "Oi! Stupid dragon! Turn around! You're really not taking me to Haalfrin, are you!? PUT ME DOWN!!"

The giddy dragon just curls his long head down and looks at Faylin. "Hee, hee! Wasn't I clever!? I saved myself a few extra seconds to escape with you with that lie. Now the scary Haalfrin will never find us!"

"US?" Faylin gets chills hearing this creepy dragon say "US"… Besides that, what the crap is this creepy dragon planning? How does it know her?

She then thinks of Resburn's words during their last mission involving dragons. 'Dragons are attracted to the color red. Gingers like you are top-class beauties to them.'

Well, he didn't say that word for word - that's just how she remembered it.

With this in mind… Did... this random dragon literally just fall for her at first sight or something? "Oi! I know we just met, but... I won't make a good wife or anything!" she hollers back – this time a little less angry and a little more pleading.

"What are you talking about?" Fhulk roars back – a little hurt, "I'm one of the young dragons you helped escape!" He then shakes his head proudly and says, "Look at this second horn! I'm 1,000 years old, so I'm a real grown-up now! I'm old enough to have a family now. Why don't you just come live with me?"

This seems to tick Faylin off even more, so she screams at him through the harsh winds, "You're F###ing creepy! Have you been following us this whole time!?"

"Haha!" Fhulk boasts with a sinister roar, "I was like a tiger quietly stalking its prey. After months and months spent finding you, then days and days waiting for the right moment... I didn't know I was capable of so much! I have a new respect for the tigers and panthers!"

He curls his head down again – looking at her with eyes begging to be praised.

Unfortunately, the mental disconnect between a dragon and a human is too big. To the dragon, his patience in stalking his prey is only proof of how capable he was. He was able to go that long without being noticed - a very good skill for a mate to have.

Unfortunately for Fhulk, he believed, with all his heart, that Faylin really would be proud of him...

Instead, the human girl only sees him as.... "YOU CREEPY STALKER! PERVERT! MONSTER! PUT ME DOWN!"

"RRAAAAAAA!" Fhulk roars out his hurt feelings while crying in his heart, '*Sniff*... She'll understand soon.'