“Chieftain,” Withering Spring stopped his volandium next to me and bowed. Hearing this, I turned my attention away from Bliz and the conversation we had been having. She’d actually done a good job at leading the battle in my name. We were at the verge of victory at that point. “I have spoken with their leader,” he nodded in the direction of the third army. “They demand the return of their husbands and wives, Chieftain.”

“What?” I inquired. “What do you mean by that?”

“The kirins in the other merriment are mostly from bigger cities to our east, according to them. It seems that your opponent claimed quite a number of kirins from them. The remaining citizens didn’t take it well when their special somekirins, parents or children were,” he paused while considering how to put it. “They aren’t too happy the kirins they cared for were drafted to serve in the merriment. Obviously there were a lot of interspecies relationships going on in those cities.”

“But it is our right to claim them,” Bliz replied. “They are following their azure willingly. Like they will as soon as Fiery has claimed Candid Division.”

“This may work for kirins under the influence of the ‘Call’ as you called it.” Withering Spring explained. “But that isn’t and won’t be the case for their families if they are not kirins themselves. To them, you’re simply stealing their loved ones.”

Bliz growled, which had no effect on Withering Spring. He simply stared at me while pulling his volandiums reins a bit now and then when his mount got restless.

“Bliz!” I chastised her over my shoulder, causing her to stop growling. “It is not his fault they are blind to our right to claim them.” I turned around, looking at the last few spots were the fighting was still going on. Not much longer before my kirins would bring Candid Division to me, bound and completely at my mercy if I had my way. “That must be the reason he was so eager to claim me and relied on desperate methods. Given the equipment they have, these mercenaries are a foe you have to take seriously.”

“It may also be a problem for him to send his kirins to fight against their families,” Withering Spring added. “While maybe half of that army are mercenaries, the other half seems to be a townsfolk militia of some sort.” He shrugged. “I think it would be possible to send his kirins to fight the mercenaries, especially with the advantage they’d have since the mercenaries are probably being prohibited from hurting them. However, with their families in the mix, Candid’s kirins would also not be giving their all in the fight, so it’s hard to say how that would play out.”

“It would be a mess,” I agreed. “My kirins would have no problem fighting the mercenaries or the townsfolk though.” I stomped a hoof. “Maybe it wasn’t only the Call forcing him to charge at us so quickly. He was already on the run from those angry townsfolk! Running into my merriment must have looked like a blessing to him! From his perspective, half the size of his merriment, easy enough to overpower, but still enough ‘free’ kirins to fight that army following him.” My lips curled up. “Clever colt of a witch!”

“Turned out it was a bigger bite than he could chew through,” Bliz smiled with a purr.

“That brings up the problem of what will happen next,” Rythil added. “As soon as you add their relatives to your merriment, they will then see you as the enemy. Your merriment isn’t in the position to fight another battle today.”

Sadly he was right about that.

“Chieftain, we may be able to beat them if we gather all of the remaining forces on both sides to this cause. It would be a close call, but from what I saw,” he paused a moment to look over the battlefield, “the current number of kirins still standing might be barely enough to win that confrontation. If you were able to pull back your forces and claim that other azure directly, you should be able to deal with that other problem as well.”

“We are winning!” Bliz yelled. “It is only a matter of time till Fiery will claim them all! Pulling back our forces now would only grant them time to recover!”

“Also, a direct confrontation, azure versus azure, would put you at risk,” Rythil said, addressing me. “It would be uncertain who would win. It seems like it would be better to let your merriment handle this for the time being.”

I snorted.

“If we end up with only a fraction of kirins in good enough shape to still fight, no matter who wins this, they will lose to the mercenaries anyway,” Withering Spring brought up.

“Did you or the others have any a-a-r’s left,” I asked with a pinch of hope in my voice.

“No, chieftain, we used them all during our assault on that azure. A few hours of rest and we may be able to provide a few more. But I don’t think that would be of any use in the current situation.”

“Not really,” I pulled a snout.

“We are more than capable of winning this fight and beating back those mercenaries afterwards!” Bliz proclaimed. “Just let us handle this,” she purred and rubbed her head against my shoulder.

“And if we just give them back?” Rythil inquired quietly. “I mean, like, if they are family, you’re more or less tearing them apart by forcing them to be part of your merriment.”

Both Bliz and I growled at the thought.

“It was just an idea,” Rythil admitted and took a step back on my back.

“Silly noodle!” Bliz snorted.

“It is an issue though,” I grumbled. The thought of somecreature trying to pull me away from Illu, or somecreature trying to pull Dad away from Mom was on my mind. There would be bloody snouts in the first case, and a lot of dead bodies in the second…

“Maybe we could offer to let them accompany us, serving me willingly like the kirins from the swamp,” I voiced my thoughts.

“Yeah, willingly…” Withering Spring said under his breath.

A quick roar from me caused him to fall off his volandium and the poor creature to growl in irritatation. My few guards were quick to calm it back down though.

“My apologies, Chieftain,” he said, rising from the mud this battle had created. It was obvious he wasn’t though.

“Hades is suppressing her head injury,” Rythil pointed out. “Though she is still sensitive to challenging her dominance. You better do as your God intends and be obedient for the time being.”

“I do as Lord Hades commands,” Withering Spring replied as he set a hoof into one of his volandium’s stirrups before swinging himself onto it again. “How I feel about it though is my business and mine alone.”

I revealed my fangs and had already taken a step forward when Bliz rubbed her head against me once more and asked,” What are we gonna do now? You have to make the decision.”

“We try for the peaceful solution,” I replied, snorting once at Withering Spring before turning to Bliz. “Once I’ve claimed Candid Diversion, I will offer to let them join their loved ones on our journey to Shakirin-La. As long as they promise to follow my commands, that is!”

“Fair and square!” Bliz agreed.

The two of us quickly turned around not too long after this when we felt the presence of an azure approaching us.

“Fiery!” Wind Root shouted proudly. “Look who we captured!” He and a few others were carrying one of the enemy azures on their backs. Tied up like a bale of hay. They dropped her in front of me, right into the mud. “She fought like an angry raccoon! But we bravely overwhelmed her!” Wind Root explained, lowering his head to receive some head pats.

Despite how much this display was to my delight, the corners of my mouth went south when my gaze crossed over my now dirty flag, waving from his back where he had attached it. Mud was sprinkled on it and it even had a few tiny holes, like someone had bitten it.

“You got my flag dirty!” I said accusingly before walking past him towards the azure, ignoring his apologetic whimper. “Now to you…” I looked down at the captured azure, my claw tapping the ground impatiently. I expected something to happen, like an urge to claim her, anything now that she was laid out before me, bound and helpless. But nothing happened.

“You are not going to claim her?” Bliz asked

“I don’t feel any urge to do so. Do you?”

“No, me neither.” Bliz trotted around our catch, sniffing at her and even tried to press her head against hers, but nothing happened. Except for our prisoner’s growl intensifying.

“Seems we still need to catch Candid Diversion,” I sighed. “Still, good job everykirin,” I said to the crowd and distributed some head pats. “And you,” I turned back to the captured azure, “you can tell your leader I am coming for him!”

She stared at me, anger and rage in her eyes. Then her eyes got distant for a moment. Seems she was willing to do as I said and relay my message to Candid Diversion. When she focused back on me, her horn glowed before she removed the gag from her mouth. I quickly threw a glance at the rope around her, happy to see it was still securely tied behind her back and she wouldn’t be able to simply pull it open like she had to free her mouth.

“Candid wants to speak with you,” she spat out, suppressing a growl.

“I hope it is his offer of surrender,” Bliz inquired and took the spot next to me, looking down at our prisoner.

“I doubt he will be that wise,” I replied. “Anyway, what is the message?”

“No message,” our prisoner corrected me, “he wants to directly speak to you.”

“He must be very stupid to think I wouldn’t capture him the second he shows up! After his attack on me when I was unconscious, he lost any rights to demand free passage!” A spark of fire erupted from my back, but Rythil quickly stomped it out. He then hopped over to Bliz, for safety reasons.

“No, he will not come in person, there is no need for that,” the azure snorted. Then, her forehead glowed blue, and a moment later, the anger and rage were gone from her eyes, replaced by determination and a darker blue light.

“I see you are not as badly wounded as I feared you would be,” She said. “Strangely enough, I am glad about your well being. I was worried when my kirins reported to me you were carried away from the battlefield by your dragon. I mean, your dad.”

“Candid Diversion?” I wondered, giving the azure closer look.

“In mind, not body,” she replied. “Once you are able to mindtalk, you should be able to speak through your merriments’ mouths as well.”

I exchanged a look with Bliz. “That would be a cool new ability,” she said approvingly. “I wonder how it would feel for me though if you do it,” she added with some hesitance in her voice.

I, on the other claw, just waved a claw in front of the azures eyes.

“Yes, I can see you,” she, or better Candid Diversion said. “I can see, hear and feel what Tidal Estuary does.”

“Indeed a useful spell,” I had to admit. Then I smirked. “So you already know how it will feel to be tied up and layed at my claws.”

“I have a proposal for you,” he said, ignoring my words. “As you have noticed by now, these mercenaries are a problem for both of us.”

“You mean since you drafted their loved ones?”

“Yes. You would have done the same, and, if you win this fight, you will claim them a second time. Making these mercenaries your enemy.”

“And?”

“You will not be able to beat them on your own. More so given they are armed and willing to fight. They may be hesitant to injure any townsfolk I claimed, but they will surely not be holding back against your foreign kirins.”

“Their mercenaries are also not immune to dragonfire,” I pointed out. “I most likely will have nothing to worry about regarding them.” Secretly, I wasn’t sure about how good they were regarding fighting dragons, but Candid Diversion didn’t have to know that.

“Two dragons of medium size,” he replied. “They are good in claw to hoof combat, I give you that, but an armed force is something different. We are both trying to prevent any casualties in this fight, they, on the other hoof, will not be extending that same courtesy against your kirins. That is the reason I am reaching out for you, or at least one of the reasons, to avoid more bloodshed than necessary!”

“You are reaching out because you are losing!” Bliz threw in. “This battle will be over within two hours and you will be part of Fiery’s merriment!”

“Before that could happen, I would gladly surrender to these mercenaries and let them deal with what's left of your merriment.”

“You wouldn’t!” I yelled, outraged. “You wouldn’t give up freely on your merriment just so I couldn’t have it!”

“It would be the most strategic thing to do,” he retorted

“The Call will not let you do that!”

“The Call forces me to lead! There is no point in fighting on if I end up as a subordinate anyway!”

“He is just provoking you,” Rythil pointed out from Bliz’s back. “He wants to lure you into some kind of scheme!”

“I agree,” Bliz said. “He is losing, he will end as your subordinate. He will do everything he can to prevent that! Even lying about his intentions regarding those mercenaries and the townsfolk.” She snorted. “If he had given a stock of hay about their interests he would have done so the day he claimed them! Now he is just bluffing like a toothless dragon!”

“Even a toothless dragon can tear you to shreds with their claws, Bliz.”

“Don’t tell me you believe he would surrender to the townsfolk!”

“No, not really. “ I let my gaze wander over our surroundings. “But it is true that we both want to prevent anykirin from being killed. So at least let us listen to what he has to propose.”

“Fiery, you…”

I raised my claw, demanding Bliz to be silent.

“Alright, Candid Diversion, what do you propose? I am not saying I am willing to agree to anything, but I will listen.”

“That we team up, fight off the townsfolk and their army, and then, have a duel of leaders. You against me, no magic, no flying, no other kirins involved. You versus me, hoof to claw.”

“Ridiculous! I have the upper claw! You are already losing, and just need my help to fend off the army that is after you! I could simply sit here, pull back my forces, and let them handle you, and only have to deal with what is left after you lose against them!”

“You are a few hundred kirins short for that. If they attack my merriment, we alone will be no match for them. Therefore, we will not reduce the force you have to fight after that. If you do that, we both lose.”

“And if I team up with you, my merriment has to do the dragons share of the fighting, leaving me in no position to win against you as easily as I would be able to now. More so, in the small chance that you win in a hoof to claw fight against me, you would win everything, with me gaining nothing!”

“Seems we are between a rock and a hard place then. Neither of us can win a fight against the townsfolk alone, despite what you said before. And, neither of us wants to be the subordinate of the other. If we do nothing though, we both may end up in a prison cell or deep dungeon somewhere in one of those cities.”

“You would! I have done nothing to anger them so far!”

“And you would be willing to let me, my fellow azures and all my merriment go back to where they came from? More so if I am forced to let go of my merriment, meaning all of them would be free and unclaimed again. Would you be able to let them just go?” He snorted. “That is as likely as me freely surrendering them to the mercenaries.”

I growled. Not because he was wrong, but because he was right. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to just let a few hundred kirins, more so a pack of azure-kirins, just slip through my claws! “Fighting alongside you is out of the question,” I pointed at Tidal Estuary. “The friction between our merriments, and more so us, would cause us to either attack each other directly, or, the mistrust and desire to conquer each other would hinder us from being an effective force. If we want to team up, we have to settle the rules question first!”

“Firey!” Bliz yelled. “You can't seriously trust him!” She faced me and spread her wings in disagreement. “We beat him! He is losing! just give me another hour and let me lead your merriments forces and I will bring him to your knees anyway!” Now her tail had risen too and her forehead was glowing in a dim blue light.

“It may indeed be better to calculate the chances of the different outcomes before agreeing to anything,” Rythil mentioned while hopping off of Bliz’s back. “And I would appreciate it if you would limit how much risk you put yourself in, especially since Fortuna charged me with your safety!” He now hovered in the air next to me, not really daring to land on my back for the time being. He also tapped his talons together nervously. “I would very much like to avoid another incident like what happened back at the underground village.”

I raised an eyebrow. “It sounds more like you are worried about yourself than my well being.”

“No, not at all!” He hecticly spat out. “My top priority is your safety!” He flew a circle around me and swung his tail nervously left and right. “I just have the punishment for failing on my mind too.”

“Fortuna?” Candid Diversion asked through Tidal Estuarys mouth. “You mean like the goddess?”

“Yes!” Bliz proclaimed. “Fortuna has sent her priest to watch over her…”

“Silence!” I yelled, causing Bliz to duck and whimper apologetically. To Candid Diversion I said, “Fortuna, the goddess of luck has a special interest in my success. Therefore she has sent one of her priests to aid me.”

Tidal Estuarys eyes hung on Rythil for a moment. “That does explain a lot. Quite a lot of things went wrong that shouldn’t have during our battle. And there I was wondering if I had become a worse strategist. Now it is revealed that you just have a lot of luck!” Her eyes wandered to Rythil. “You can continue your devotion to your goddess when she is part of my merriment. I am not looking to harm her but to simply claim her, as you may know.”

“Be warned,” Rythil replied before pointing at me, “If you do her any harm, my goddess will assure that your remaining days will be nothing but a series of misery and misfortune.”

“Well said Rythil.” I picked him out of the air and placed him on my back. “Anyhow, it is still on me to decide how we continue from here. I will consider my options and let you know in a few.” I gestured to Wind Root and his team to carry Tidal Estuary away. As soon as she was out of earshot, Bliz addressed me.

“Why don’t you want him to know that Fortuna is your godmother? It may intimidate him and make him submit to your superiority!”

“That is the point, Bliz. If he knows, he may be too frightened to fight me one on one.”

She tilted her head. “But isn’t that a good thing?”

“Not if I need him to fight with me. What he said about the mercenaries, and what Withering Spring told us matches up.” I started to pace around while explaining my thoughts. “We both know I would not be able to just let Candid and his merriment walk away. And taking on those mercenaries, plus the townsfolk, plus the remaining forces of Candid, may indeed be too much for my merriment. Therefore, it may be wise to accept his offer of a duel. A duel he would surely refuse to attend if he knew that I am Fortuna’s godchild. He saw with his own eyes how Calmly landed a lucky strike on his advisor during our mind battle. If he was aware of how much luck I have, he wouldn’t have overlooked such an event.”

“It would still be safer for you,” Rythil said, “if you simply let your merriment handle him and allow the kirins from those towns to return home if it appears that you would not be able to win a fight with them afterwards.” He lowered his gaze when I hissed at him. “I am just concerned for your safety, not questioning your skill as a leader.”

“I know,” I admitted, still unhappy with his proposal. “But if I am going to lay claim to the throne of Shakirin-La, always playing it safe is not one of my options.” I turned back to Bliz. “Bliz, you join the frontline once more. You’ve done a good job so far. Make sure we focus more on a slow and steady advance than taking out as many kirins as possible. We may need them in a bit.”

“Will do,” she eagerly nodded and rubbed her cheek against my shoulder before flying off.

“And what will we do?” Rythil asked.

“We take a look at these mercenaries ourselves,” I replied, spreading my wings. “Then, I will decide what to do.”

*

With a sour expression, I hoovered above my merriment while surrounded by a few of my guards. What Withering Spring had told me was only half of the picture it seemed. I couldn’t blame him though. As a non-flyer, his perspective was earthbound, therefore, he hadn’t been able to see the trail of deer and a few other species trotting in our direction behind the hillside. From what I could see, there were barely any flyers in their ranks, so there’s a lot, and I mean A LOT of groundbound creatures, but thankfully, only about a third of them, the mercenaries, were properly armed. Even with both my and Candid’s merriments combined, it would be a challenge to beat them.

“Seems I have to accept Candid Diversion’s challenge,” I said. “No way I can fend those creatures off on my own. Not without asking Dad to turn most of them to ash.”

“That would indeed be unnecessarily cruel,” Rythil agreed.

“Even then, it will be a Tartarus of a fight if they don’t back off.”

“You could still…” Rythil started, but I silenced him with a hiss.

***

Thirty minutes later

“Since you gave him your word, I am not able to rip out his spine in case he wins,” Dad half complained, half stated. “An unwise choice.”

“It was the only choice I had, Dad,” I replied, then swallowed the whole jar of milk thickened with cattail starch and pulverised kunzite that I was holding in my claw. “Not bad,” I said, and gave the jar back to Rapt Glance. I was pretty sure there were other ingredients in it, but they weren’t that important to me at the moment. I shooed Rapt Glance back with a wave of my claw and continued on my way to the duel. It was thoughtful of him to care for my well being seeing as I had more important matters on my mind right now. I then turned to Dad and said, “I am not willing to let you burn down a hundred worried villagers just to scare them off. Not to mention what Mom would have said to that. So I need his kirins on hoof to fend them off without casualties.”

Dad snorted and threw a look at the circle that had been marked between my merriment and Candid’s. My flag was waving proudly at one side, held by Wind Root, while his was uninspiringly and limply hanging in the wind, held by one of his few remaining azures. In fact, about half of his azures were currently captured, safe and sound in one of my carriages. Not only Tidal Estuary, but those that had been hit by an a’r’r as well. Once they wake up, they would be ready to be claimed again, by me or Bliz of course.

“Still, it would have been faster and more secure for you if I had just fetched him, broke his legs and horn and let you claim him then,” Dad complained.

“You forget that he can teleport, Dad. I don’t doubt you would have gotten him eventually, but the results would have been the same as if I had let my merriment fight this out till the end. Not enough kirin power left to hold our ground against the town's creatures.”

“Still, what you’re doing is incredibly risky. You are already injured.”

“And incredibly lucky,” I retorted.

“Fluffy will give you a lecture about this eventually.”

I flinched back my ears. “She will be happy when she finds out I claimed the other merriment,” I said, not really convinced. “She will be proud.”

“If you say so,” Dad replied, stopping at the edge of the circle. He formed a circle with his thumb and pointer talon while extending his other talons and turning his claw palm side up before shaking it back and forth in the air.

“Mom,” I agreed, making the same gesture, familiar with our little way of communicating Mom being Mom.

Dad then lowered his head and fatherly purred at me while rubbing his nose against my neck. “I hope you will win.”

“Don’t you worry,” I purred back. “I will.”

When I was ready, I turned around, gave a little nod to my seconds, Bliz and Caustic Mercy, and stepped into the circle, grabbing the spear that had been stuck into the ground as I did so. Wind Root saluted me and stepped out of the circle. On the other side, Candid Diversion took his time, however, to rub snouts with the azure mare holding his flag. My suspicion was confirmed a second later when she sent him off with a kiss. She was more than just his herold! This leecher! Taking advantage of his position! Unimpressed by my snort, he stepped forward and grabbed his sabre with his magic and levitated it in front of himself.

“I can see your little priest of Fortuna is not accompanying you. Very good. It would have been an unfair duel otherwise,” he stated. Prior to our meeting here, we had discussed the terms for our duel of course. The rules were more or less similar to the ones the duel between me and Calamitous Blossom had, with just a few exceptions, like not having a priest of Fortuna around to boost my luck and that the intention was not to kill each other. Unknown to Candid Diversion, I didn’t need any boosts from Rythil when it came to luck…

“Yes, I ordered him to stay in the back for the time being while we have our duel.” I smirked widely. “I brought Caustic Mercy as a substitute.” I then pointed towards him. He was wearing his scary mask again and had pulled his aura of mystery and danger around him once more at my request. “He is a priest of Hades, lord of the underworld. Hope you don’t mind?”

The light signs of shock along with his face turning a bit pale was very much to my delight.

“You have a priest of the god of the underworld in your merriment?!”

“Yes,” My smile only increased. “Hades himself put him under my command. He also granted half my merriment protection from the influence of the Call, or any other form of our azure abilities.” I added a fine hint of innocence to my expression while lifting a talon. “Ah ah ah, you really should be careful right now.” I pointed at his hind hoof, which was very close to overstepping the line as he had unconsciously taken several steps back. “If you step back any farther, you’ll automatically lose.”

With a hiss, he quickly stepped forward again. It was clear though how much this revelation had shocked him. Good, the more concerned he was, the easier he would be to beat!

“Well,” he gulped before releasing a cough. With new, faked confidence, he said, ”I don’t have a priest in my merriment yet. They’ll both be great improvements to it once I’ve claimed you.”

“That would only be the case if you or one of your subjects was a follower of a god they represent, you know? For me, a great deal of luck and protection from the Call is among the benefits. For you, however,” I made a dismissive gesture through the air with one claw, “they… I assume they would do nothing.” I finished with a happy wave of my tail and got into a more ‘ready to attack’ stance. My spear was now pointing directly at him and my wings were wide open. “Now, shall we?”

He, in return, raised his sabre higher and got in a combat stance himself.

Now we only had to wait for Allerian. He, accepted by Candid DIversion as a more neutral party than any of the other alternatives, had been chosen to oversee the duel. He took his position at the upper end of the circle between us.

“Fiery Leadership,” Allerian asked, “are you ready?”

I nodded and dug my hooves into the ground, ready to rush forward.

“Candid Diversion, are you ready?” Allerian now asked.

Candid Diversion hadn’t even looked at him, instead keeping his eyes fixed on me. “Ready,” he simply said.

“Alright, this is the last chance to back off and surender willingly. If anyone wants to do so, he may now step out of the ring.” He waited a few seconds with neither of us moving. “As you wish,“ he said, and plucked out one of his feathers. “Once this feather touches the ground, the duel starts.” He flew up a bit and let go of his feather.

With anticipation both of us followed its way down with our eyes.

The moment it landed, I stormed forward, swinging my spear like a scythe, planning to use its longer reach compared to his sword to my advantage. I wanted to push him back or give him a fine cut across his forelegs, but he simply swung his sabre and blocked my attack. In contrast to me, he didn’t have to watch his hooves while doing so.

Almost immediately after he had blocked my attack, I had to let go of the spear with one of my claws due to his sabre coming sweeping down the shaft. Without both claws to handle it, and because I was holding it so far back, I lost nearly all control of my spear! This meant that, unlike him, I wouldn’t be able to block or redirect his attack with my weapon. Thinking fast, I immediately beat my wings to push myself back and put some distance between us again. When I regained my footing, I re-grabbed my weapon and tried another time, but made sure not to over commit like that again.

Over and over, our weapons clashed against each other.

It quickly became obvious that, while I had the larger range, he was more dexterous and comfortable with his saber than I was with my spear. I was able to force him to trot around the ring a bit, but I wasn’t able to do anything that would provide me with an advantage. It was sad that I didn’t seem to be able to do anything to really threaten him, but fortunately, the same could be said about him. Despite the comfort he looked to have with wielding his saber, he didn’t seem to be able to make an attack that I couldn’t block just as easily as he was able to block mine. It appeared that when it came to our weapon skills, neither of us seemed to be the obvious superior. We both growled, striking and evading over and over again with neither of us able to get the upper claw, or even an advantage.

“I thought I would have already beaten you by now,” I growled.

“Same here,” Candid replied while simultaneously grinning and bearing his fangs. “Not that bad for a kid.”

“The same goes for you, old stallion,” I replied. He wasn’t actually that old. Based on his appearance, he was likely in his best years, maybe somewhere between fifty and a hundred at best.

He smiled. “Let me show you ‘old stallion!” He picked up his pace, and with a change in momentum, pushed forward. This time, however, instead of maintaining his posture and attacking me from the front, he danced around me, striking at me from the side. If he would have had his sabre in hoof, I would have shown him what this would have gotten him. Unfortunately, I had to parry these attacks while not being able to make a counterattack due to him being just out of reach for one.

“I shouldn’t have agreed to letting you hold your weapon with magic!” I spat out.

“Too late for that now!” he retorted. Faster and faster he danced around me. One could have assumed he was a luftirin due to how fast he had become. Fortunately, as a luftirin myself, I had no trouble keeping up!

It was at this moment that I noticed a mistake in his pattern! If I could just push forward at the right time, I would be able to reach him with my spear before I had to swing back to block his next slash!

Two fast swings, a turn, another swing, followed by a push, another turn, and then a series of three slashes followed by another push forward before continuing to dance around me and repeating. That was it! That was his pattern!

I changed my grip on the spear and waited for the right moment.

…turn, swing, push…

I folded my left wing.

… turn, slash, slash…

The sound of metal against hardened wood echoed through the air as I blocked each of the slashes.

Slash pu…

I stormed forward, deflected his push by hitting the blunt edge with my wing and … was hit in the face by the handle of his sabre.

Darn magic!

When I recoiled, another slash cut through the air. This time though, he managed to score a hit on me. His sword sliced across and through my wing, cutting a good number of my feathers in half. Only luck had prevented him from hitting anything else!

I pushed him back with a swift swipe of my spear. Giving myself a second to regroup.

“Willing to surrender yet?” Candid mockingly asked. “I really hate to hurt a child!”

“Tis but just a scratch, grandpa!” I retorted.

He meaningfully looked at my feathers covering the ground. “For now,” he added.

“Next thing down there will be your snout as you surrender,” I proclaimed.

“Bold words coming from a kirin who has yet to land even a glancing blow!”

“If you surrender now, I’ll consider not placing you at the bottom of the hierarchy,” I offered. “Well, maybe not last place, since that is reserved for Ascending Fall, but somewhere fitting for your age, like a cleaner of the carriages or something!”

“If you surrender now, you still can lead your protected kirins. Under my command of course.”

I quickly stabbed at him. “No, thanks.”

He deflected my attack incidentally. “I will allow you to reconsider after I’ve plucked you some more.”

With a roar, I sent a series of jabs at him, keeping him too busy parrying to speak.

“Wait till I pluck your scales, you prick!”

“You need to get me first! You overgrown chick!”

“Chick?!”

“Hey!” Allerian threw in from the sidelines, but I ignored him.

“Time some kirin teaches you some manners! Pikehead!”

“Woho!” He laughed. “Are we going down that route now?”

“The only thing going down here is you! Take that!” I yelled and struck at him with the blunt side of my spear.

He, of course, blocked it, just as I had hoped. With a summersault, I kicked at his head. He barely evaded, but it wasn’t too bad. I still got a good hit on his foreleg. When I landed, I immediately released a challenging hiss, joyful about the bruise I had inflicted.

“That’s all you got?” He laughed. “Tingles a bit,” he added while shaking his foreleg a bit.

My hiss turned into a growl.

“What do you say, chicken? Let us throw our weapons aside and do this hoof to claw?”

“Are you afraid of getting injured?” I mocked. “Seems my spear is sharper than your horn!”

He sighed. “I just have some hesitation to cut a kid into pieces, that’s all.” He swung his sabre around in a circle, trying to intimidate me. “One careless move and you lose a wing or an eye. I confess, it would linger on my mind if I was to be responsible for that.”

Actually, he had a point. Roary wouldn’t mind, but Calmly and I agreed that impaling him on my spear wasn’t something we particularly desired.

“We are weaker without a weapon,” Roary pointed out. “Your chest is already injured! Hoof to claw puts us in closer range, making you more vulnerable!”

“A sabre in our chest would make us more dead,” Calmly retorted. “Hooves are also no match for claws.”

“That is true,” Roary agreed. “If we can avoid being hit, our claws are far more effective than his hooves.”

“Fine!” I said aloud. “A Grandpa stick doesn’t sound so enticing to me as well!”

We kept our weapons ready but slowly backed away from each other towards the edge of the ring.

“Allerian!” Candid Diversion shouted. “We both have agreed on switching to hoof to claw combat!” He presented his sabre. “You accept that?”

Allerian first threw a look at me, then nodded. “If both of you agree, then the duel will continue without any weapons.” He raised a talon. “That means any weapons! Not even a stick from the ground will be allowed!”

“Fine with me!” I yelled.

“I agree!” Candid confirmed.

“Then you may claw over your weapons to your seconds.”

As I gave my spear to Caustic Mercy, he leaned closer and whispered to me. “Remember that Lord Hades only granted you freedom from the consequences of your wounds for a limited time, Chieftain, and you have already received serious wounds to your head and chest.”

“I know. Not getting hit is very high on my list right now.”

He slowly nodded, then looked over to Candid Diversion. As I had hoped, the effect of having a priest of Hades on my side wasn’t being wasted. “I assume your victory would be more beneficial to our people than your loss. Therefore, I would prefer it if you could manage to come out as the victor, Fiery Leadership.”

“Don’t you worry, that was my plan all along.”

“I wonder if going in for a brawl really serves that goal.” Without waiting for my response, he turned around and moved back to the place of my seconds, coming to a halt next to Bliz, who threw a worried look in my direction.

“Are you ready yet? We don’t have all day!” Candid Diversion shouted over to me. He had simply thrown his sabre over to his second with his magic and was now prancing around in his part of the circle.

“Ready to scratch the scales off your nose!” I shouted back while making my way over to him.

“You can most certainly try,” he laughed.

Right before we clashed into each other, Allerian shouted that we may continue. As if we needed another invitation!

With a mighty, intimidating roar I burst towards him. Like a dragon I opened my claws to slash at him, tear him apart. Only for this fool to fall for this raging dragon trick of mine! I really had dragons at home to fight with, so I knew how foolish it would be to storm at Candid Diversion in a blind rage.

He pranced to the side, aiming to duck under my wide slash, which never came. Instead, I slid and turned around to kick him with my left hoof! Completely unprepared for a tactical move instead of an angry and childish one, he was hit, and ended up flying several steps through the air, landing on his scales.

“Wha…?” He choked out. But I didn’t give him the time to recover. Instantly, I jumped at him, using my wings to burst forward and cover him in a series of kicks. He deflected them, but made a grave mistake when I switched to slashing.

This fool grabbed my claws with his hooves! Never fought a dragon before it seems!

“Claws are for piercing!” I shouted into his face. Just like Dad taught me, I forcefully closed my claws around his hooves and drove my talons deeply into his wrists!

He neighed in pain, but replied with a heavy kick to my chest. I had to let go to evade! Ponyfeathers! I already had him! If my chest hadn’t been hurt before…

“That’s my daughter!” I heard Dad loudly proclaim, followed by a reprimand of Allerian to be quiet.

I ignored them and lowered my stance, wiggled my tail, and presented my fangs, showing Candid Diversion that I was now hunting him. I even raised my wings, though with one having some cut feathers, it might have reduced the intimidation a little.

“Your magic will not save you this time, grandpa!”

He, on the other claw, still stared at his wrists in disbelief. “You little brat! I offered to fight without weapons to not injure you! And this is how you thank me?” He raised his hooves so I could see the damage I’d caused.

I just wiggled my tail more intensely and started to circle him.

“Okay! The gloves are off!” He shouted and stormed at me. When he was close enough, he began to kick and hit me with whichever of his hoofs was the closest at that particular moment. He was careful to avoid my claws though.

I got more than just a couple of bruises this way, but he received his fair share of scratches in return. It was a shame he was so fast. Like I said, nearly as fast as a luftirin! I blinked and quickly rubbed over my nose when a sudden urge and a sense of numbness came over it. I nearly got hit by one of his kicks because of this little distraction. I shook my head to get rid of the numbness and made a few wider swings at Candid to give myself a bit of room. He pranced back, but instead of fading, the numbness spread over my mouth, tongue and down my throat.

“What the hay?” I spat out, a bit unclear due to having lost a good deal of control over my tongue.

Sensing my lack of focus, Candid wasted no time in coming at me for another exchange of kicks and punches. I tried to make him pay for his boldness by giving him a few shallow scratches, but he was too fast! I could barely prevent him from landing any critical hits. As a result, I wound up with some more bruises!

“Running out of breath, huh?” He mocked me when he had jumped out of my reach again.

For some reason, his mouth was moving a little bit before I could hear his words, and stopped even though I could still hear him talking for half a second or so.

The numbness spread along my belly and over my upper legs. I placed a claw on my head and looked around. Everything seemed to be a lot faster now. The flags waving in the air, Allerians wingbeats, everything…

Adrenaline shot into my bloodstream when the realisation hit me. Hades protection must be wearing off! For a moment, everything returned to normal. It wasn’t sundown though! How could this be? I felt my heart beat hard in my chest, a flicker of panic washed over me.

“Can…” I took a deep breath, gathering my breath. “Can we have a pause?” I asked, looking at Candid Diversion. “I suddenly… somethings off.”

“A pause? In the middle of our duel?” He laughed. “Now that I got the upper hoof, you suddenly want a pause!” He rose to his hindlegs and snorted forcefully. “After what you did to my front hooves, you expect me to give you a pause to recover!” He looked at me in displeasure. Though after a moment, watching me panting and having trouble staying on my hooves and claws, his gaze softened for a split second. “Arg! Fine! No one shall say I only claimed you because you were exhausted at the time of our duel! I won't have my reputation be besmirched over something so insignificant!” He turned around. “Five minutes! No more, and stay in the ring!”

I nodded a thank you over to him. Despite my pride, it was clear I needed a break more than him. While he went to get his hooves bandaged, I stumbled over to my side of the ring and gestured Caustic Mercy to my side.

I more or less fell into his forelegs the moment he arrived.

“Chieftain! What is the matter?” He turned me around so I could look him in the eyes.

Before I could answer, Dad had pushed Caustic Mercy aside and picked me up.

“Fiery, what happened? You nearly had him! Are you okay?” Dad sniffed at me, but it was obvious he couldn’t smell anything off from the normal. Also, Bliz had laid her hooves on his arms, looking at me too, worryingly whimpering.

“My Tongue,” I half said, half bubbled. “Something is wrong with my tongue. I feel, numb and unsteady.” I paused and blinked a few times.” It’s hard to focus, the spell of Hades must be wearing off.”

“Unlikely, Chieftain,” Caustic Mercy contradicted. “Lord Hades' help lasts till the end of day. Whatever injury you received, your mind should be free of affliction until then.”

“It is not,” was all I was able to reply. I felt Dad’s tongue licking over my head and his fatherly purring. All grown up or not, he still cares. A moment later, he roared out and Rapt Glance quickly appeared by my side.

“Where is the injury?” He asked, his hooves quickly gliding over my chest and throat.

“No injury,” I panted. “Just feeling dizzy, out of breath too.”

“I knew this was a bad idea in your shape,” Dad growled unhappy. “You should have let me clawle this!”

“She said her tongue is feeling numb too,” Caustic Mercy added. “The support of Lord Hades lasts till the end of day, it therefore can’t be her head injury. It must be some other cause.”

“She got one punch to the nose,” Dad said. “Could have made her injury worse.”

“No,” Caustic Mercy denied. “A simple punch to the nose wouldn’t cause this much problems on its own, and by its own it must be.”

Rapt Glance laid a hoof on my nose, inspecting it. “Are you sure about that?”

“As long as you don’t cut off our Chieftains head, any previous injury will not affect her current state, by Lord Hades' bidding.”

Rapt Glance thought for a moment, not stopping in his examination. “Okay, if this is the case, whatever is causing this is new.” He sniffed at me too. “High heart rate, smell of adrenaline, which makes sense, dilated pupils,” he paused, and laid his ear on my chest,” Her heart is pumping at the same rate it should given the adrenaline in her system, but it sounds weak, like it’s not contracting as strongly as it normally would.” He paused again, his eyebrows furrowed. He moved his hoof before my face and watched me following it with my eyes before grabbing one of my wrists, closing his eyes and mumbling a count of ten.

“What is it?” Dad wanted to know.

“I… I can’t guarantee it, but it sounds more like poisoning than an injury of sorts.” Rapt Glance lifted up his head to look at Dad. “From the symptoms, it looks like she’s been poisoned!”

“Poison?” Dad asked worriedly. “How does poison get into her?!”

“I could tell you if I knew which poison it was,” Something she touched, ate, or even stepped on! A snake bite, spoiled food or water, poisonous plants. There are countless ways it could have gotten into her system!”

“A poisoned weapon perhaps?” Caustic Mercy inquired, meaningfully shifting his gaze over to Candid Diversion’s part of the ring.

“That is a possibility…” Rapt Glance admitted. “However, to work this fast, and without being immediately obvious, it would have been a tricky question of the dosage.”

“This insidious son of a witch!” Bliz growled.

“It is not proven!” Rapt Glance hastily shouted. More so to stop Dad from flying over and killing everykirin there than to calm down Bliz. I could feel the tension in Dad’s grip.

“Who else would do this?” Bliz growled. “None of us would harm her at all! So it must be him or one of his followers!”

“If you would have paid attention…” Rapt Glance started. but quickly lowered his gaze and thought twice about lecturing Bliz as soon as she hissed at him. “I meant, as I said, there are a lot of natural causes which can lead to a creature becoming poisoned.”

“If he used poison to beat my daughter, I will slaughter him,” Dad stated.

“Let me rip out his scales first, please,” Bliz requested. “And rip off a limb or two!”

“You must be quicker than my wife to get a piece of him in that case,” Dad replied approvingly.

“The question now is, how do we figure out how she got poisoned?” Caustic Mercy wondered. “If we can’t prove anything, it will be of no use for this duel.”

“First we have to make sure it doesn’t kill her!“ Rapt Glance made clear.

“I shall go and tell the bard about this and postpone the duel,” Caustic Mercy said.

“We don’t have the time to postpone it,” Bliz objected. “We only have this duel because Fiery decided we ran out of time in the first place!”

I managed to raise my healthy wing. “I said out of numbers! We need their numbers, not that we run out of time!”

“Of course,” Bliz agreed.

“We still don’t have all day though,” Caustic Mercy said. “The help of Lord Hades is limited to sunset. After that, our Chieftain needs to recover from her injuries.”

“Allerian!” Dad shouted. “Come here!”

There was silence for a moment till Allerian landed next to me.

“What is the matter? Is Fiery alright?” He looked from one of us to the other. “You seemed to be having trouble the last few minutes,” he addressed me.

“We suspect her to be poisoned,” Rapt Glance explained, getting straight to the point. “We can’t prove it yet, nor do we know how this happened, but it is very likely.”

“It could be Candid Diversions doing,” Dad growled. “His weapon could be poisoned!”

“We must delay the duel so we can care for Fiery,” Rapt Glance continued.

“That is not possible,” Allerian said, visibly uncomfortable.

“What?” Several voices rose at once.

“By the rules of the duel,” Allerian scratched himself behind the head out of nervousness, “nokirin is allowed to leave the ring, and for a pause, both parties must agree on it. So if you can’t prove the guilt of Candid Diversion, or at least have a strong hint, I can’t interrupt this duel.”

“You will interrupt this duel if I tell you so!” Dad roared at him.

“If you threaten me,” Allerian hastily said while fleeing a few steps back,” I must decide in Candid Diversions favour and announce him the winner of the duel by the rules!”

Dad was going to raise up and intimidate Allerian into compliance, but Bliz held him back. “Please, Mr Big Softy! Don’t ruin this for Fiery!”

“What I can do is inspect Candid Diversions sabre and his hooves to see if there is any suspicious substance on it,” Allerian offered. “If I find something suspicious it would be enough to delay the duel and inspect it further. If not however,” He raised his claws. “If I don’t find anything, the duel will continue. Either that or Fiery surrenders willingly.”

Now even I growled at him.

“Don’t give me that!” He took another step back. “I didn’t ask to be the neutral judge here! You put this on me! Now deal with it!” He waited a moment to let this sink in, then turned around to do as he was told and inspect Candid Diversions weapon.

“At least that buys us some time,” Rapt Glance said. “Mr Dragon, please roar out for Fee-De, she is the expert when it comes to herbs and plants that can poison somekirin, or cure them.”

***

Author's Note

You have a clue or a idea who did it? Share your two cents in the comments if you like