Pesky Dragon

After the 5 humans (and secretly Frey) make it back to the Threshold, the VERY first thing Faylin does is send an urgent message to Commander Fisco with a memo that she urgently needs to adjust her assessment on her last report regarding the Drakin, and the feasibility of a marriage alliance with them.

Before, she had written that she thinks the Drakin are adorable in their own way, but now, she has a new message written down: "The Drakin are completely crazy. Stay far away from them."

Other than Faylin still being in a sour mood, Jay delivers the recovered documentation they were told to bring back. Instead of their normal commanding officer coming to greet them, there is, instead, a stranger with a note.

The stranger makes them all on edge (except for Haalfrin), since he appears to be of higher rank than they're used to dealing with. It gets even worse when the officer hands them a note, telling them to go meet Commander Fisco to report.

The last time they received a mission from Commander Fisco himself, they had to slog all the way across the world and do business with a freaking 5 horned dragon.

"What happened?" Myra asks nervously.

Jay just shakes his head. "Dunno. We'll find out."

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They arrive at Fisco's office, and kneeling on the floor in front of the commander's desk is a young man with his hands guiltily on his knees.

What's startling about this young man is the 2 horns and patches of green scales on his skin.

Fisco points at the dragon and explains, "This one came knocking on the front gates of the fortress and said he wants to be where Miss Faylin is. Obviously, killing him when he didn't strike first would hurt our relationship with his father, so here he is... in my office."

Of course, the boy's face is completely unknown to Jay and Myra, while he only looks vaguely familiar to Haalfrin and Resburn.

Faylin, on the other hand, is staring at the young dragon with death in her eyes.

Glaring at him, Faylin smiles with feigned politeness at her supreme commander, "Sir, can we just throw him out?"

The Commander holds his hands out with his palms open (signifying that he's helpless here). "Well, he's already offered to work for us if he can be assigned near you. I appreciate your sacrifice."

Hearing this, Faylin's face turns red from anger, but she doesn't dare lash out in front of her commander.

Instead, she salutes, pivots on her heel, and leaves first without being dismissed.

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Over the next several days, the team of 5 humans aren't sent on any more missions. With all this time left to lounge around and rest, you'd think everything would be peaceful and uneventful.

Instead, random chocolates, treats, and bags of money are frequently found on the ground in front of Faylin's sleeping quarters.

Of course, since Faylin herself shares a room with several other women, there's always a note addressed to her on all the gift packages, as he's paranoid of others stealing her things.

Each time Faylin finds some random trinket for her, she always just leaves it there, then writes her own note and posts it on the front of her door – rejecting the gift.

8 days later, the 5 human comrades are all sitting at a table, eating their food. Faylin's appetite is alarmingly ravenous – even for a mage. She's also acting so irately that Haalfrin mistakenly asks her if she was on her period.

As it turns out…, this stupid Fhulk is driving her mad. What frustrates her the most is that she doesn't dare beat the dragon off herself.... He's a freaking dragon, after all; her kicks would be so weak that the dragon would think she's tickling him as a sign of affection.

Knowing that he's the only one here strong enough to really do anything to the overpowered youngster, Haalfrin just puts his cup of water down and says curtly, "I'll be right back."

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Next, we see Haalfrin looming large in the doorway, and a barely composed humanoid dragon is foolishly standing up to him.

"My comrade wants you to stop," Haalfrin glares. "Just go about your business."

Fhulk glares and readies his fists in a battle stance. "D-do you like her? Is that it?"

Seeing Haalfrin stand between him and his love, the young dragon can only think of the instance where his father and dead uncle fought to the death for his mother's hand in marriage. Why else would this human meddle unless he was interested too?

Looking at Haalfrin, Fhulk knows he'd lose if he had to fight the man... but he's a real man! Real men don't back down! It's better to die trying than to give up!

Before he can muster up his courage to attack Haalfrin, he's anticlimactically grappled and pinned to the ground.

"Listen, kid," Haalfrin snarls, "The only reason I'm not killing you right now is because you're not a human. If a human had done everything you've done, you'd be deemed a creepy loser to be avoided. Anyway, you were raised by Fheldin, which explains some of your insane ideas about morality and marriage."

Haalfrin presses harder on the youngster's skull, and the dragon tries his best to hold back his tears. Then, Haalfrin finishes. "Since I'm so understanding of your upbringing, this is all the kindness I'm going to give you."

The dragon tries struggling some more, but Haalfrin shuts him up again, "Oh, be quiet. I'm not competing for her or anything. I already got someone else I'm thinking about. Just seeing you prance about like an idiot is annoying. Plus, my ally won't be able to do her job properly if you're getting in the way."

The young dragon actually gets emotional hearing this, and he asks urgently, "S-so... What am I supposed to do then?"

"First off, you can work hard in your training. No matter how big your muscles are, if you haven't been professionally trained, you'd be too useless to take on missions. Rather, you'd just get in the way."

"But-"

"Also, stop trying to cling onto her before you've built yourself up first. You know nothing about her, and you're too young to know anything about yourself. Go out into the world, get some experience, and learn how to ask human girls out like a human man would. Got that? If you can't do that, then I'll throw you out of this fortress myself. Am I clear?"

Fhulk goes limp and he looks up at Haalfrin hopefully, "What am I supposed to do to make her like me?"

Haalfrin himself doesn't know how to answer that question. So, he looks down at Frey's Spirit Stone bottle, and he replies, "I don't know about you, but what all I've done is live in a way where I can respect myself, and I've been sure to respect her back."

"What if she still doesn't like me if I do that?"

Haalfrin frowns and presses the dragon's head harder onto the floor. "Listen up! Part of respecting her is allowing her to say no when she doesn't want to be with you. Part of respecting yourself is letting go of your feelings and moving on, since there's nothing more self-degrading then giving all your attention and resources to a woman who will never love you."

The man reaches down and helps the dragon boy onto his feet. "There's plenty of women in the world, and so long as you are worthy of respect and respect others, you'll find your luck eventually."

Fhulk stands up and frowns a little. "So… you're saying there's no guaranteed way to get her to like me? You're saying it's up to luck…? But… Dragons have terrible luck…"

Haalfrin abruptly grabs Fhulk by the head, pulls him in closer, and looks him in the eye. "Fhulk…! Why are you so fixated on this…? You don't even know her very well! Do you think so little of yourself that you think you'll have nothing and be nothing if you can't have HER? Get ahold of yourself! No decent woman will ever like you if you're so needy! AM I CLEAR!?"

Smiling now, Fhulk taps one of his clawed hands over his forehead in a rather sloppy solute. "You are clear, sir!"

"Good. Rest up and show up at the training hall. If you're late again, I'll break your arms."

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When Haalfrin leaves, the Spirit Stone bottle shakes violently, so Haalfrin finds a secluded room before uncorking the bottle and releasing Frey. "What's up?" he asks.

Frey just smiles and motions for Haalfrin to sit down. "Nothing. I just felt like chatting."

"So…," Haalfrin says slowly while stretching, "What did you want to chat about?"

"… Dunno…," Frey mutters.

"…"

"…"

Haalfrin figures she must have felt lonely and stuffy in the bottle, so he doesn't feel awkward as they both just sit there in silence.

Out of nowhere, Frey opens her mouth, "… That was pretty cool, by the way."

"What was?" Haalfrin already zoned out during the long silence, so he's confused by what she just said.

"Nothing…," she sighs. "Anyway, do you have any cake left in your storage bag?"