Harlan stepped out of the room along with Blackstone, putting on his best fake happy face and walked directly to the servers.

He ate and drank at a pace that would be considered slightly rude but not overly so, though the worrying thing was that he seemingly never stopped. Harlan was stressed out and wanted to eat and drink and not think about it.

Eventually he felt somewhat sated and went to speak with his family.

“Are you alright?” Harlow had always known Harlan to be nearly unshakable, outside of the werewolf incident he was always mild mannered. To see him so clearly distraught upset him greatly. Harlan wondered if he should talk about how he really was, but he didn’t want to worry them.

“I am fine. I just have more duties to fulfill, and I am leaving you all so soon.” Harlan convinced nobody with his words.

Harlan felt it in his bones, his sixth sense blaring that something was coming.

Jet tripped behind him and spilled his drink on Harlan’s head. But Harlan didn’t try and dodge, he wanted justification.

“Oh I am so sorry for that. Must’ve drank too much.”

“Fuck you.” Jet had the look of a wolf with a lamb, his fangs had bitten into his target and gotten a reaction. The rest of the room gasped, to insult the son of your host so directly and with vulgar language was grounds to be thrown out.

“I apologized, there are no problems right? Wouldn’t want to cause an incident, do you?”

“You tried to push yourself on both of my unmarried sisters, I think you didn’t try Autumn because you know she could beat you to a pulp if you tried it.”

Now Jet was getting slightly annoyed, he wanted to embarrass Harlan, but Harlan just didn’t care.

Harlan walked to get another glass of water, he downed in one gulp and placed it back on the tray.

“Duel me. Unless you are a coward.” And a coward he was. While his sisters persused magic and his older brother was a force of nature on a battlefield, Jet had wasted his time indulging himself, only working out to get a better physique to try and attract the daughters of Barons. Only putting in the bare minimum for his swordsmanship training required by his mother.

Harlan could see Blackstone from where he stood. And she was smiling. Maybe he was meant to teach two of her children?

“Well, I couldn’t fight a child, that would simply be unfair.”

“Coward.”

They went back and forth for another 5 minutes, with Harlan only replying “coward” to each of his excuses.

At some point it had switched from everyone shocked at Harlan’s crass words to people murmuring that Jet might actually be afraid of fighting a child, or that he should put Harlan in his place, eventually he felt his pride could take no more and accepted.

Now it was Harlan’s turn to put on a wolfish smile.

Onyx didn’t share his mother’s smile, he looked furious at Harlan as he led the two of them outside to the garden to a raised platform of stone tiles 30x30 (9x9 meters).

“Under what rules shall the fight end? First blood, or announcement of defeat? The challenged shall answer” Onyx asked.

“First blood.” Jet said. He hoped for a single quick strike to end the fight and preserve his rapidly dwindling pride.

“No matter the size of the cut, once a single drop of blood has been drawn, or any fighter leaves this arena, this duel shall end. Or it may be called by a judge should it be required. I shall be your judge for this duel. Do both parties accept this?”

“Yes” They answered.

“You are to be provided with weapons and armor. No lethal blows are allowed, no spells of any kind are allowed, this is not a fight to the death.” Onyx’s eyes practically bored a hole into Harlan as he spoke those words.

After a minute servants arrived carrying sets of armor to cover the vitals but leave the rest of their bodies exposed.

Harlan decided to fight bare chested. It was less intimidating than he was hoping since he was still clearly a child. But he didn’t want his nice shirt and jacket to end up damaged.

“What about hand to hand?”

“I will consider it a valid weapon.”

Looking at the crowd, Harlan's family were worried, but not all for the same reason.

Harlow and Aida still just saw their little boy.

The rest of them carried a genuine worry that he would brutally beat the man beyond reason.

“I shall ring the bell to signal the fight to start. No movement toward your opponent is to be made before that moment.”

There was a tension in the air as they waited for the ringing, a noble who was subtly taking bets stopped accepting changes at this point.

Harlan looked at the crowd. Older men and young women asking for bloodshed with their eyes, greed and worry as they bet for or against him. But he noticed something, most of them simply looked at this like watching children play, for them it was a joke. Something to kill time on.

Harlan wanted to take control over the fight, to strike out against someone who infuriated him. But that was expected, he was the child from the woods who didn’t know better than this. Harlan was torn. He wanted to beat Jet, to strike where he wouldn’t bleed, to drag the fight out, but it was just bloodsport for most of the people watching, they were apathetic and wanted to watch a fight. Was it worth denying himself the satisfaction just to spite them?

He thought back to his talks with Dahlia, or rather when she talked at him.

If he didn’t want to be seen as a monster or a child in over his head, he needed to just not act like that.

He hated what he was about to do. He hated it so very much. But it was what he thought was the right move.

So the bell rang. Jet rushed at him, his stance was loose, but not to shift into another on a whim, but just because it was only half remembered. Harlan could see his every move from a mile away, it was insulting to even step into the arena with him.

Torn between his instinct asking him, telling him, screaming at him to commit violence against him, and what was proper. Harlan did the “right” thing.

He tripped Jet and kicked him out of the ring, no blood drawn, but he still got a very solid hit on him. He felt ribs crack and shift as his foot made its full unblocked movement

He was disgusted with himself. He wanted to ignore the feeling that he should’ve beaten him within an inch of his life, he wanted to force Onyx to step in and end the fight. He hated not feeling like he had gotten his pound of flesh.

He stripped out of the armor given to him and put his shirt and jacket back on. Then he started walking back inside.

Jaramis walked and spoke with him for the first time in months.

“Would you like to hold Jarik?”

Harlan reached for his nephew, who immediately tried grabbing at his hair, which Harlan allowed.

“I am sure that took a lot of restraint from you.”

“I wanted so badly to knock every tooth from his mouth after leaving a mountain of welts on his body.”

“But you didn’t. I know we had a… Tumultuous start. But you understand, right?” He deeply breathed, calming himself for a moment, ignoring every other word that came to his mind.

“I am not going to say that I do. I am, however, willing to put that behind me.”

Jaramis felt a little awkward that Harlan didn’t fully accept his half-hearted apology. But he was saved when Jarik started to cry, giving him the perfect chance to excuse himself and go back to Autumn.

Blackstone took his spot next to Harlan.

“You remind me of my husband. If he was still around maybe Jet wouldn’t need to be beaten by a child.”

“I am sorry for your loss.”

“We all are. I set this whole thing up you know? I didn’t stop Jet from doing anything at all, I sent him to introduce himself to your sisters, separated your friend from the rest, put the idea of marriage into your uncle’s head.” Harlan tried again to just breathe and calm down, but it wasn’t working.

“I can’t bring myself to lay a hand on him. Any of them really. Onyx and Ebon were at least old enough to learn how they should be. But the others simply didn’t learn enough, not enough time.”

He wondered if this was another trick, upset him and then pull at his heart strings, see if he was still going to lash out or not.

“What about me reminds you of him?”

“He was harsh when he needed to be, but I will always remember him as being fair. You could’ve done far worse to him, a known and intended flaw in the first blood rule. I am glad I didn’t need to have Onyx pull you off of him, and that a few broken ribs will teach him a lesson that I haven’t had the heart to teach him.”

“Which lesson?”

“Watch out who you antagonize. Since I won’t always stop them. You would not believe the damages to our reputation from his escapades.”

“Wouldn’t I?”

She giggled as she walked away.

Harlan bowed goodbye to her and gathered those who wanted to come back with him.

Everyone wanted to come it seemed, so he gave his goodbyes to Autumn and Redwall before he left.

The entire way home Harlan put on a happy face as the others said how proud they were that he was able to hold himself back like that.

Inside he was regretting not beating him worse. There was a gnawing feeling, a calling for retribution.

Eventually everyone else fell asleep.

Harlan woke them up when they arrived and led everyone to their rooms.

That feeling was still there.

Harlan went to his room, set Lugh and Balor next to his bed, put on his stonesteel chest piece and gauntlets, then over top a more common set of clothes with a hood, the same he had made for his golems to hide their inhuman features.

“Harlan, where are you going?” Balor had woken up.

“Out, I want to hunt. Pent up energy.”

“Really? You aren’t going out to pick a fight?”

Harlan had an annoyed scowl on his face.

“How long have you been awake?”

“I was never sleeping. I was just… Go, I cannot stop you anyway. Just don’t kill anyone. I… I want to talk with you once you get back.”

Harlan didn’t respond back, he just left.

“Balor… is Harlan ok?”

“He will be. But I won’t be a part of it.”

“Are you sure? I think you should stay…”

“Everyone has a path. Ours will simply split for a time.”

Harlan reached the place he knew he could get into a fight legally without problem.

The adventures guild.

He walked in the doors, stood on a table and yelled out with a coin in his hand.

“One gold coin to anyone who can beat me.”

Most just laughed, but a few thought about it for a moment. Harlan was far from intimidating, he was 4’8. Large for his age, but without knowing that the patrons simply thought he was a short idiot.

Finally a burly man with a bronze badge hanging from his neck who smelled like he only bathed once a month and in a keg of cheap beer decided to take him up on the offer.

“Aye… I’ll kick your ass… You little shit…” Harlan wondered if he would even make it to the ring before he passed out.

He jumped down from the table and walked to the sparring ring, it was empty, which Harlan expected. It was pretty late as it was.

The nice girl from the front desk came to officiate the match. He thought it was odd that he never saw anyone else ever at the front desk regardless of the time.

“Guild rules for personal fights are as stated, the fight will end in the case of knock out or yielding of one party. If I say the fight is done it is done. Both of you understand me? I’ll wake up Gilly to break up a fight if I need to.” The large man seemed wary at the mention of Gilly, but Harlan was more confused about the attendant sounding so harsh, was it because he was always clearly a noble before?

“What about weapons? magic?”

“Just don’t kill each other.”

She abruptly rang a bell to start the match.

The drunken man swung, lost his balance, and hit the ground.

Harlan was about to walk over and check on him when he heard a snore coming from the man. He was unhappy with the fight to say the least. But the few people who were watching burst out in laughter, calling others into the room.

Harlan had no intention of turning this into a comedy routine. So he repeated his offer as the man's drinking buddy drunkenly dragged him from the ring.

Another man, this time sober, hopped in the ring, he had a bronze badge as well.

“Do I need to explain the rules again? No? Great.” She rang the bell again.

The man played defensively, waiting for Harlan to make the first move. It wasn’t a bad idea, but it really didn’t mean much.

When Harlan rushed him the man swung his sword, but he was slow, Harlan deflected the blade with his armor and punched him straight in the gut. The man vomited and doubled over in pain, Harlan figured that he was trying to yield but couldn’t so he waited until he caught his breath.

“Yield…”

“Little guy is the winner.”

A woman helped the man out of the ring and Harlan could see she was casting some small healing spells.

Another man hopped in as soon as the 2nd was out of the ring. The attendant rang the bell immediately.

This went on for another 40 minutes, someone either drunk or barely sober jumps in the ring, gets hit once or twice, and then someone drags them out to be replaced by another idiot who can’t fight.

But with a crowd forming people started fighting for the chance to fight next.

Harlan was also upping the price, after 10 minutes it was 5 gold to the winner, then 10, then 25 gold.

Harlan was about to leave when a man with a silver badge hopped in the ring.

He was young, or at least he was small, maybe 5’4 depending on his boots.

The bell rung and he was off without a weapon in hand, he was in the crowd for quite some time watching the fight.

He noticed Harlan’s favorite style was low to the ground and deflecting blows with his armor. So he was going to try and grapple Harlan to the ground.

But it wasn’t going as planned, they each had a grasp on the other, but they were evenly matched, Harlan was a lot heavier and stronger than his opponent was expecting, he couldn’t shift his stance without the risk of Harlan taking advantage.

But after a minute it was starting to wear on him to constantly push against Harlan’s advance, and without Harlan’s inhuman stamina he was actually starting to worry about losing their little game.

He disconnected with a kick, trying to get some distance away from Harlan. He thought it was too easy to get away, and it was.

Harlan wanted to beat someone, he didn’t want to just stand around holding hands.

His opponent grabbed a handful of dirt and turned it into soft stone over his hand.

He realized what Harlan was going to do next and wanted to end it with a good punch.

Harlan realized that his opponent realized, so he let it happen.

They circled around the ring, the crowd was tense, waiting for it to happen. They rushed each other.

Both not bothering to dodge or defend, simply to land a good hit.

And it was a good hit.

Both of them knew they had broken the other's nose which sat crooked on their faces.

Then they repeated their attacks.

The man spit out two teeth, Harlan only spit out one.

They both smiled, showing the crowd that they were just starting.

Violent blow after blow landed, dodges and blocks were completely foregone in this fight.

Harlan lost vision in one eye from the blood pouring into it from cuts on his face; he had more teeth in the dirt than in his mouth. And he was having the time of his life. Everything felt so simple, so right in just having a brawl, the one he denied himself earlier.

To just beat someone who wanted to fight him, instead of beating someone who couldn’t fight back.

Both sides staggered towards each other, every last ounce of strength left in them went to a final punch.

Harlan blacked out for just a moment, but he won.

The cheers caused the guard to come over to break up the party, but the adventurers weren’t having it. They wanted to party after a fight like that.

The attendant left the room, returning a minute later with a woman.

She was 6 foot at least, what skin could be seen under her full body tattoos was dark, she had barely any armor at all. Harlan wondered if she was pulled from a bath, he hated to think she would fight wearing so little.

“For the FINAL fight of the night, it will be the stranger vs our local highest ranked, GILLY.” The attendant rushed over to heal Harlan so he could at least think about putting up a fight.

With his vision restored he could tell the tall woman wasn’t happy to be pulled from wherever she was before.

Harlan entered his stance, ready to block and get in at least a punch, he had no idea how strong she was. But he wasn’t thinking he would be winning this time.

He looked at her eyes, deep blue, shifting slightly like the ocean waves. He thought about the comparison with his own eyes, pale blue and shifting like smoke from a smoldering fire.

The bell rang and Harlan saw her start to move. Then he blacked out, thinking how his jaw hurt.