“Kastri. What do you think you’ll find in the humans?”

“I don’t care for the humans...But I believe them to have potential.”

“Potential? More potential than us? Their Idols, their Gods!?”

“Yes. Even more potential than us.”

“…”

“We are a stagnant people. We have reached the peak, but the humans still have space to grow.”

“They will never surpass us! End your traitorous thoughts.”

“A growing race has infinitely more potential than a stagnant one.”

“You stupid child. You don’t understand the words you speak and the people you are part of.”

“Worry not mother. I will not help them… it is not my duty. However I will observe them closely when I am banished.”

“I can still convince your father… just give me a little more time. Why won’t you listen!?”

“There is no need, I am my own god, I do not follow my father’s ways.”

“Is this it then? Are we never to meet again my son?”

“Mother, I will be back before you notice. Treat it like a little trip.”

“Oh my child, I don’t know what I expected…”

“What did you expect?”

“That the child of Chaos and War would listen to his mother.”

“For a God of War and Wisdom, you are unexpectedly naïve my mother.”

“Indeed I have much to learn.”

“Good. You have more potential then.”

“Your father calls. Be good in the mortal realm.”

“I will.”

“Show your father your potential.”

-----------------------------------------

Wow… this letter… it must be a joke right?

The World Health Committee… History of my travels… Social experiment…

Well. If somebody else read it they’d have no qualms for sure.

Throwing the paper away I laughed maniacally at my disposition and lay down on the soft surface of my bed. 4000 people huh? Purged… The message was roundabout, but simultaneously crystal clear. Sure wish Ka-

“Kastri you want a drink?”

I snapped up at Rostar’s voice and found his head poking through a crack of the door.

“Ah water will be fine.”

“I’ve got some of your favourite ginger beer?”

“No thanks hahaha… I’ll leave that for later.”

For a moment Rostar frowned in disbelief, then shrugged and turned to leave. I let out a breath of relief.

Ginger beer? Was that a thing? 

I sh-

“Hey sorry to interrupt again.” Said Kastri, his head popping out again.

“Yes?” I smiled weakly.

“You’re not burning anything in here are you?” He asked, sniffing the air.

“No…?” I replied.

Slowly I looked around for signs of fire and there in the corner of the room my mission letter was disappearing slowly, cinders on all four edges.

“That would be the culprit.” Rostar laughed pointing at the note.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!”

I rushed to the page and stamped at the little fire, but no matter how much I smothered, the letter continued to disappear slowly. The fire never dying completely.

There was nothing I could do as the remaining page finally turned to ash.

When the deed was done, Rostar frowned at the extensive burn marks that the page had left on the wooden floor and patted my shoulder.

“That was one weird note wasn’t it?” He scoffed.

Apologetic, I turned to him with puppy eyes. “I’m sorry Rostar, I didn’t know.”

He waved his hand limply in response.

“Don’t worry about it. It’ll be a cinch to fix up. “He said, “I probably should’ve gone and gotten your water huh?”

-----------------------------------------

Rostar and I sat in his living room reading some customer requests. It was decided that since I’m going to be staying here, I might as well help out with his chores.

“Seventeen requests for dragon scale armour…and ice too!” Rostar grinned, “These guys are just throwing money.”

I frowned.

“Couldn’t they just go visit Hail and ask for graveyard scales?”.

Rostar stopped reading, stared at me for a solid while, then burst out laughing.

“Who do you think they are?” He wheezed, trying to catch a breathe in-between his laughter, “They can’t just rock up to Hail the Ascended and say ‘Oh yeah bro, can I have some scales’ hahaha!”

“Well they probably could.” I said, “Hail was a pretty decent dragon if I remember him correctly, just naïve and young.”

Rostar frowned.

“What happened to your ‘Don’t trust anyone’ regime you had before?” He chuckled, turning back to the paperwork. “Be courteous and kind to everyone you meet, but be ready to kill them at any time right?”

“Uh...Y-yes… but uh… My journeys have changed me.” I smiled awkwardly, “I’ve gathered just the tad bit of empathy for others.”

Rostar glanced at me once again, and then dismissed my statement with a quick ‘pssh’.

“Since you have such a positive opinion of Hail why don’t you visit him?” He smirked.

I shrugged, not opposed to the idea.

“Just as a visit or…?” I smiled slyly.

Rostar feigned a kick at my stomach and looked on sourly as I dodged it smoothly.

“Only you would go to a dragon for a visit.” He pointed, “Get those scales and I’ll consider your living expenses paid.”

“But I have plenty of credit here?” I laughed.

“Oh Shut up.”

-----------------------------------------

I knew the path to Hail’s dungeon well. It took two weeks by foot northbound from Brikard. There stood the infamously freezing mountain ranges of ‘Winter’s Jaw’, more commonly known as just plainly The Winter God’s Domain.

Hail the Ascended was of course not a god. But to the simple people of the north he served as both protection against larger countries and religious stability. ‘Close enough’ would be the correct terms to describe the dragon. Though not a god, Hail was by no means weak. In fact, despite being the youngest of the five ascended spirits he is usually considered part of the top three in terms of pure destructive power. Furthermore, Hail’s origin as a Monarchic Ice Drake gifts him with the ability of camouflage and illusionary magics. I for one know that entirety of Winter’s Jaw is a demonstration of Hail’s ability of illusion. Aside from being told, there is quite literally no way to tell the difference. His illusionary magic is so extremely powerful that it guides your mind into a trance, causing a phenomenon commonly known in the north as the Mind Freeze. Every few years, a wandering straggler would stray too close to Hail’s domain and end up getting trapped by his spell. Their mind bound by its power would imagine itself wandering the icescape of the district, unable to escape until their psychological self left the region as well.

If I remember correctly Hail was an Ascended Spirit that we had trusted immensely. His keen objectivity coupled with a lack of empathy hit home for Kastri. We were best of allies. Why didn’t Hail come to rescue us then? Well, I put no blame on the dragon. His role here by far outweighed the importance of a single human. It was merely a result of his objective reasoning in action.

But you know what I am pissed off about?

That I’m currently exploring his freaking domain in my psyche trying to find his sorry ass, and he still hasn’t come out to greet me. To be expected I guess? I was always the less liked of the two.

Sighing, I stepped out of the psych-region and back into the real world. It was not safe to linger too far into the mountains; the risk of getting lost was too great.

But man, Hail’s magic is certainly impressive. Illusion as far as I could see ahead, endless flourishing jungle for many, many kilometres behind. The line between the two worlds was jarring, yet surprisingly natural. Little fangs of frost effectively transfer you from the dense, green Jungle into a snowy mountain ranges.

Looking about I spotted a large rock right near the border of the illusion-scape and sat down to chew on a sandwich. Biting into the juicy meal Rostar had skilfully crafted, I looked away from the ice and snow to observe the jungle.

A rabbit was what caught my attention. It had scurried out of its tunnel, likely seeking a quick vegetable snack. I watched closely as it wandered towards the border of the domain, prepared to help the poor thing if it ever got lost within the magic. But strangely, right before entering the snow covered land, the little animal sneezed at the border as though it had encountered a nasty smell, then proceeded to meander away.

“Huh.” I smiled.

It seems Hail hasn’t changed too much. He still has a weakness for non-human critters.

-

“You seem to understand my magic human.”

Suddnely, a ground-trembling voice invaded my thoughts.

 “Perhaps…”

“Perhaps it’s someone you know?” I interjected.

“Perhaps it is.” It said.

I smiled and took another bite from my sandwich.

“I guess you wish to visit me…filthy mortal.” It said, spitting out the last few syllable.

I chuckled at his endearing tone. “Sure, why not?”

The voice paused before responding.

“I see..." It said, "Then you should probably hold on to your food.”

-----------------------------------------

Life is usually boring, monotonous. Filled to the brim with duties and schedules. Patterns and order. People rarely ever glance away from the beaten path, let alone leave it. But there are some who are unsatisfied with conforming to standards. Thrill-seekers, they are called. The rare few who peer into the gaping jaw of death, find comfort in the reapers cradle and toy at his scythe with the naivety of a newborn child.

I, am not one of those thrill seekers. I am perfectly fine with not getting the opportunity to fall down a seemingly endless hole, uncertain of my fate until the very last microsecond.

But unfortunately that’s exactly what I had to experience in the past two minutes.

As soon as the voice gave out his warning, the rock I had been sitting upon disappeared from existence. What replaced it was a cavernous hole about five metres in radius that fell deeper than the light could reach.

The initial surprise was uh… upsetting to the stomach. But I’m proud to inform that every scrap of what came up to my mouth went back. The no waste policy was in full swing. It was about thirty seconds in when the ever weakening glow of sunlight finally disappeared altogether and I travelled at breakneck speed in complete darkness. In those anxiety ridden seconds, the fear of accidently scraping the walls and tumbling down uncontrollably became very real. 

All of that eventually led up to the position I have landed in now.

Head. Five centimetres. 

Shoulder. Six centimetres.

Knees. Two centimetres.

Toes. Three Centimetres.

From the cold and merciless floor of the ice cavern.

“Oh…Who is this?” Hail’s voice reverberated through the freezing air.

“An old friends of mine?” He smiled, “Or simply a piece of filth?”

I lifted my head and checked my pants for wet patches then flailed wildly mid-air for any sort of grip. I've spent too much time in the air…must…touch…ground.

“Disappointed once again.” Hail sighed and flicked his tail in my general direction.

“But better than expected I suppose.”

As the force that had held me before disappeared, I fell once again, but hit the floor tumbling. Eventually I stood back up for the first time in what seemed like an eternity and took a proper inspection of the magnificent beast before me.

Standing at thirty metres tall and ten metres wide, his figure resonated with his status. An armour of black veined ice covered his body, shedding a cascade of colours upon the cavern walls as they refracted the brilliant light of his bright, sapphire heart. His face was extremely handsome for a dragon. His teeth stood out with a fearsome glint, tipped with shadowed white poison. One could stare into his jaw and think they were viewing the mesmerising peaks of snow blanketed mountains. In fact, I have no doubt that the ‘Winter’s Jaw’ was a name to honour his ravenous canines. His eyes, the final piece, glowed with the wise flare of empowered Fei Tsui Jade, judging those who stood beneath him.

Even as an old acquaintance, I began to understand perhaps why the adventurers weren’t willing to rock up with a request for graveyard scales.

Hail stood before me and frowned as I looked him over. When I finished he suddenly disappeared in an explosion of mist and reappeared in a much younger form. Smaller, and much less dignified, this was the Hail I had remembered.

“Ten years is really a game changer huh?” I nodded at younger Hail.

The dragon gurgled with laughter and I watched as powerful magic broiled casually in his mouth.

“Yes…Even for a dragon it seems.”

Suddenly his eyes glinted with suspicion, “Though it seems you have perhaps changed even more than I.”

I scratched my head, thinking of a proper response.

“I-“

“What happened to Kastri?” Hail frowned, cutting me off and swiftly destroying the friendly atmosphere.

“I am Kastri.” I rebutted.

Hail shook his head and smashed a nearby boulder with an infuriated swing of his tail.

“He suffered for you didn’t he.” He growled. “Something happened in Zeria that would have threatened your existence and he protected you.”

I stayed silent. There was no good in talking here.

“Have you ever not being a burden upon him?” Hail vented, “He sacrificed his freedom to save an utterly useless lost soul like you, yet you can still find it within yourself to accept even more charity.”

“Do you not have dignity? Moral obligations?”Do you have any shame?" As Hail continued his barrage of accusations he slowly reverted to the much more intimidating form of his current state.

Surprisingly, the dragon stopped himself from going further.

“…Have you hated me?” He asked from above. His voice was calm despite his emotions. “Have you ever thought that my treatment towards you was unfair?”

I sighed and nodded. If it was the truth he wanted, then it would be the truth he gets. Ever since our first encounter, there had never been a positive exchange between us. It was inevitable that such feeling had spawned sometime or another.

The dragon watched me nod and sighed a depressive sigh.

“I have never hated you.” He looked away, “But Kastri was an important friend and it became obvious that you were detrimental to his wellbeing.”

“I do not blame you.” I mumbled.

"That is too bad." The dragon said. "Because I have nothing nice left to say."

“Sorry to break it to you so suddenly... But in his ten years of absence, the times have begun to change and the gears of fate have begun to turn.” Said Hail as he wrapped his tail around him. “The Ascended Spirits have all felt its approach in the air and confirmed its wicked nature. To say they only fear it, is an understatement.”

I flinched at every word. This was no mere information. It was a command.

"I'm sure you know what has to be done." He sighed. "If it comes to it, I will force your hand."

I sat down on the cold floor and rubbed my hands together. I understood my purpose, and was prepared. But the cave still seemed to grow colder as Hail spoke the final words.

“We need Kastri to come back” He said. “And Restari to return to sleep.” 

-----------------------------------------

Hey guys BeeBaBoop Here! The duel is on once more. I'm Proud to announce chapter 2/3 of my friendly fiesta with J0nn0. Read up and feel good. I'll be here all da- Actually... About that... I won't be here for the next 3 weeks. YEAH YEAH "OMG BEEPS YOU DID THIS LIKE LITERALLY FIVE WEEKS AGO" I know. But Exams are life. Deal with it. t('.')t 

Lol jokes. I won't be here for the next three weeks because of exams, but the duel will be continuing afterwards. I'm actually kinda feeling guilty for even posting this chapter instead of studying so I'ma get off RR real quick.

Read J0nn0's Noodle Knight here -> http://royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=73337 The poll for voting is also there as well!

Have fun and pray I get good results. OR ELSE A-ZERO WILL BECOME EVEN MORE DEPRESSING THEN IT ALREADY IS. OMG

As always if you want some early chaps and extra content visit my site: https://aspiringnewbie.wordpress.com/ I promis it'll be a good time <3[/i]