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The scenery on tetsukazu was pretty much entirely unchanged from the last time she had been here and that was kind of comforting. No matter how much change occurred in her relatively short life, this place stayed largely the same! Frey could still remember the first time she had come to this place, back when Fairy Tail lived here and Silver brought her to them in an effort to save her life when she had just really been unconscious. Some nights she lay awake wondering if all of those things had really been good, if she wished to have never encountered the fairy’s or if it was alright, if the pain of knowing Kanix was dead was worth having known her adoptive mother in the first place. Rune honestly often tried to forget what Mashyuu had told her, convince herself that the male was lying and that the water mage had thrown her wedding ring back at him when they broke up or something, that Kanix did not have to be dead for the bone piece pressing against her throat to be there. Frey suddenly realized that thanks to her most recent growth spurt she did not actually have to wear the bone ring on a choker, it would likely fit on her slender fingers. However she did not care to try this, it did not feel right doing it, so the white object stayed hanging around her throat barely being affected by the wind as she stood looking out over a grassy plain on the planet. Shaking her head the girl remembered that the planet itself was not her object for tonight, but rather a place hidden on it, a very exact place that she had been many times before.
Feet clad in black combat boots treaded against the slightly damp ground, green optics looking around a scenery briefly remembering how broken everything had felt the first time she walked this path. That night? Frey had thought her life could never be put back together, she had lost what she wanted right when it was in front of her, momentarily had forgotten that she had not wanted some fake family, she needed to look for her biological mother. Eventually she had remembered that she didn’t want any of the things she had and the pain subsided, but it had caused so much to change! The first time she was here, Silver had agreed to lay beneath her blankets pretending to be her, a tactic she now realized was dull and Kanix would have noticed if the woman had checked that night. Frey glanced up at some large insect flying over head and wondered why she cared in the first place, why this was all coming back now. Just because one corpse had come back to life thanks to a god or something, it didn’t mean the other one cold in the ground would rise to warmth again. Kanix? Shouldn’t mean anything now, especially since she was gone, and yet walking towards the place she was going, Frey could only think of her adoptive mother and the man the woman had married. She had what she wanted now, she had Marceline, but the thought of the other two still haunted her mind for some reason as she headed towards the Dragon who had given her Slayer’s magic.
“Hemlock?” her voice was soft almost meek as she entered the large clearing in the wood of Tetsukazu, tree’s hundreds of feet tall on all sides giving way to smaller saplings and foliage a river flowing to one side feed by a massive waterfall that hide the cave she now knew to be the home of a dragon. That night? The cave had been very dry and she had missed the sight of the waterfall she’d walked alongside to get into the cavern, but she had noticed them on the second trip she took for training. The girl glanced around the clearing once more, finding no sight of her Dragon Mentor she thought the creature must still be asleep in his cave, so she likely had to go there to let him know she was here for more training. Of course while she called it training, she only really sought out Hemlock off her normal training dates when she was in turmoil. Even their first meeting the night he had given her dragon slaying magic to use? She had been distressed over the fear of never finding the village she grew in, never seeing Kanix smile again, Mashyuu being gone, so many things making her feel helpless and shattered. Even though he could do nothing to change how she felt that night, Hemlock had lay there and listened to her, kept her comfortable until dawn would allow her to return home. Than topping everything off the earth dragon had bestowed some of his magic onto her! Of course she had changed a lot since then and she sometimes wondered if he regretted giving her the magic he had gifted her. The night he gave her the magic? He had said she was perfect to learn it because she would be careful with it, but she didn’t really see the things she did with it as careful or caring. Of course she never told Hemlock anything about her life after that night, she was too frightened to do so, he accepted her so easily and she did not want to lose the affection he had for her. Thus she blocked the drake out of her life, only coming for training and focusing on it intensely. Yet today was not the day he had said to come next for training, she had come here of her own will today, hoping to become stronger or something, just wanting to train with him. Frey really did not understand why she had done this, why her brain was so occupied with everything and why she thought to train with Hemlock while she was so distracted. The second he realized her brain was not on the thing’s he was telling her the drake would likely tell her to leave and not come back until she had a clear head! It was not like he was her confident or her person to cry to, he was her magic teacher, that was all. Yet she still found herself at the border of the cave, suddenly worried about what he would think of her new form.
“Frey?” his voice finally broke through the silence and she trembled a little bit, wondering if she should reply or run off. Right now she could still get excused as a figment of his dreams right? No a mighty dragon would not dream of a confused immortal female who couldn’t even decide if she was a grown woman or little girl. The drake was laying half asleep when he had heard the child's voice, but it sounded as if it was older which he guessed was possible since she had seemed to age with the strength of her magic in the past. If the lacrima implantation had been successful? The girl certainly would have become much stronger than she used to be, thus Frey having grown older once more was not outside of what the earth dragon thought possible, his light eyes opening to try and get a look at the girl he had chosen as his pupil in the art of dragon magic. Honestly? He was surprised he had chosen to teach anyone, he had always never thought to train a slayer because most tended to end up slaying dragons in his opinion. However when he met the girl that night, something was just different and the thing he swore to never do became the only thing he could think to do! It had only taken moment’s for that child to change his mind, but lately she seemed to be changing what with the pink hair and stuff. Yet the sight he could make out in his sleep hazed vision was different than what he expected. Hemlock shot to a waking state, staring at Rune slowly realizing something was indeed different about the little girl he had gotten used to seeing. “Damn” that little girl? Was now suddenly a grown woman and he couldn’t get over that fact enough to look at anything else for the moment. He had long ago accepted she was likely to age at an accelerated rate due to her rather unique body, but the drake had never expected his lacrima would do this to the child, he shook the thought of her being a child from his head, because his eyes could clearly see she was no longer a little kid and likely would never be one again. Had he taken her childhood from her without trying? The dragon wondered how he could have been so cruel to her, but then he remembered she had always been mature anyways so he didn’t count it as ripping anything from her. Sure she would make one slightly awkward adult since she still had some childlike tendencies, but it wasn’t like she would be trying to eat toothpaste or something childishly stupid like that, he trusted her. As he continued this train of thought the male suddenly realized the eyes he stared into were not pink, instead they were green the color he was used to from her, the shade he loved seeing on Frey! Hopefully he had not imbedded his ideals for Rune into the lacrima he provided Razia to implant within her, he never meant to potentially change her in some way, the only thing he wanted was to provide her with power enough to protect herself and such. Large optics kept trailing and he noticed the long hair, bat like wings extending where her ears belonged “C-Can you hear me Frey?” he was now frightened the lacrima had not been compatible with her for some reason and had disfigured her, taken one of her senses. “Yeah, they work just fine.” he heard her voice kiss the air again, relief flooding him as she chuckled slightly, letting his gaze rake the rest of her rather attractive new form, finally coming across the new wings she sprouted. Maybe she was starting dragonification? Nah it was too early for her to truly be enduring that quiet yet, wasn’t it? Hemlock shook his head chuckling once more. “Well don’t you grow up well?” he couldn’t really think of what else to say, extending one taloned forepaw to touch her new wings, trailing the top of it softly as if to test they were real. Maybe he should start giving her lessons on effective flight, if she had wings there was no reason why should not be trained to use them properly. “Can you fly?” he asked another question slowly rising from the space he had been using for slumber. Clearly Frey was going to be here for a while to answer his questions even if she did not mean to come here or something, so he might as well take them into the sunlight. The girl seemed to catch up onto his motive as she turned around and jumped from the cavern. “Yes.” she responded to his inquiry as he crawled forward, slinking from the cave, taking several moments to do this due to his sheer size, taking up a good fourth of the huge clearing.
“WHAT ARE YOU WEARING!” Frey flinched as she heard the dragon scream for the first time ever, backing up slightly and glancing at herself to see if she could tell what he spoke of. Rune quickly knew he was referring to the purple bat stockings she wore beneath a black leotard with a heart carved beneath her breasts, fuzz wrapping around the lower part of her upper arm, pink sleeve like fabric extending from that. If the drake was flipping this much over it, she was glad she had not let silver see her obtain it and not yet allowed her mother to see her in this outfit, the girl realized she may have to rethink it, no matter how much she liked this current look. “I’m sorry, I thought it was cute but I guess it's not.” her fist formed over top of her now large chest, swaying her hips slightly as she squirmed and batted up a timid little look, lashes fluttering. Was something really so wrong with this outfit? Frey had thought she looked good in it! “No, No it’s alright, I just never thought I’d see you in something like that.” he couldn’t be an overprotective father thinking about how people would stare at the girl in that lewd outfit, after all he was her teacher not her parent, she had parents, she had her mother and he knew that was all she wanted. Frey glanced up at him happily when he admitted that he did not have any particular offense towards the outfit she had apparently selected for herself, he guessed that since she had been a kid than lived in her mother’s castle the girl had not really ever dressed herself properly before and this may be her first attempt at such a thing. “I just figured I would wear whatever felt right, this feels better when I’m fighting it’s easier to move in than the dressed I had been wearing.” she explained it putting her clawed hands together, fiddling with her fingers timidly. Both of the magic users laughed at the same time, small chuckles of slight awkwardness and relief. The two of them had been equally worried but it seemed they quickly feel back into the way they normally treated each other. Hemlock moved to one side of the clearing, leaning against the mountain his cave was carved into, laying down right there. Once the drake was down Frey used her wings to fly the short distance, sitting his shoulder, leaning against his body, one hand gripping the moss growing on the earth dragon. “I’m sorry I came early.” he glanced at her from the side of his vision, craning his neck to see the tacky dressed woman. “It’s fine Frey, you're always welcomed here, you should know that, I’m your teacher after all.” the male spoke it, placing one claw beneath her chin gently as best he could considering their size difference. Rune chuckled a few tears slipping from her eyes and onto his claws, soaking into them. “Are you alright?” she nodded with a small laugh, lying against him and closing her eyes enjoying the feel of his earth made body inhaling a deep breath to take in the scents of the forest, ears listening to it’s sounds.
The pair lay like this for several hours, nothing disturbing them because honestly what would want to fight something large as Hemlock, he could knock the tree’s down by mistake if he bumped them wrong. “To be honest.” suddenly her voice broke the silence and a huff from the dragon let her know he had heard her statement and was waiting for her to spill the beans about how she was feeling, what had drove her to visit so early when she normally waited until they both agreed it was time for another training session. Feelings rose up and she struggled to speak past the things going on in her head, mayhem reeking it’s chaos within her as she breathed slowly, fingers gripping the soft foliage growing from the creature she lay on, syncing how she breathed with the way he took in and expelled air. “A while back, I meet HIM.” the dragon made a confused sound as she spoke and the girl knew she needed to provide more information but it was hard to speak about this, she did not really even want to address it but something about her teacher made her feel safe enough to. “Mashyuu.” the female uttered his name and felt her body tremble a choked sound emitting as she blinked away tears, remembering what he had told her. “So he was just missing not dead?” the beast’s inquiry made her laugh butterfly, her wing ears tucking in close as she sighed. “No he died and was revived by a god, but when I met him, he told me Kanix, my adoptive mother, he told me she died.” the tears flowed somewhat after that, a small sound escaping her throat as she sat up and tried to laugh in spite of herself. Frey thought she shouldn’t care because she had what she wanted now and her time with Kanix had been so short. “Do you remember why you told me that you were upset when he met?” she wiped her eyes, glancing at the male as he gazed at her fondly, placing his paw behind her back to support her sitting form lying on his side to accomplish this. “Kanix was upset that Mashyuu was absent and in term despite never having met him, you were upset.” the girl sighed slightly knowing he recalled correct, but now able to make the connection onto what the past had to say in the current events. “I offered you my magic and you were afraid to take it because you thought that you’d hurt me while we trained.” she crawled forward to lay in the crane of his neck, sitting on the ground now as she listened to him with an ear against his throat, hearing everything amplified as she closed her eyes to focus on remembering that night having no trouble doing so. “Frey it's alright to not know how you're supposed to feel about things, you're different and that has complications, but your amazing, I wouldn’t give my magic to just anyone after-all .” he spoke to the girl who was laying against his neck, wondering why she was doing that, utterly confused as to how that could make her feel good but not complaining about it since the action seemed to give her some form of comfort and he did not when she was upset. “I’ve changed so much, you still think I deserve your magic?” his eyes widened at her self doubting statement, a rush of air escaping his body as he tried to figure out why she would think that she did not deserve to be the earth dragon slayer.
“Frey, I won’t tell you that the way you change doesn’t unsettle me, I never expected you’d grow up so quick or that your mother would be a dark mage, that you’d join a truly dark guild, but you're still the little girl who came crying to me that night, albeit you're all grown up now.” he uttered the words and she lifted her head, sitting back on her haunches and looking up at his face, blinking softly a few more tears slipping from her emerald optics. The girl decided she was happy to be at his side right now, laying back against the grass beside his neck, relaxed to be simply chilling out with Hemlock. The Drake worried slightly when she went silent for so long, wondering if he had said something wrong, anything to make her think too much, normally Frey always had a comment to make of some sort the fact she seemed to have nothing right now worried him somewhat. However neither wanted to break the silence for no reason because it was painfully comfortable compared to the issue that had been brought up, an issue neither of them could truly answer with a solid response. “I was really mean to mashyuu but i don’t know how i feel about him.” she could recall how pissy she had been with him just because he was alive and Kanix apparently was not, how she continuously thought he should have died before he ever met the blind woman. He listened to her admit she didn’t know how to feel, admit she likely regretted how she had treated her adoptive father the first time meeting him. . “Frey, you love him.” he surprised her and gavee the girl a straight response, telling the woman how she felt without hesitation clearly stating that she had to love Mashyuu.The green eyed woman glanced over in shock but then she began laughing at the drakes statement and how stupid it was she couldn’t come to the conclusion on her own. “Is that why I’m so mad?” she never really had family before she got lost from the village because no one ever told her she was theirs, now she had Marceline, Mashyuu and everything was so confusing. “Likely I can’t see you to be one to take being left alone well and he did leave you alone, despite it not being on his own will.” she was a possessive girl after all, protective of what she had due to having started out with so little. Frey smiled slightly reaching her finger towards the sky. “Yeah, I just, why did he have to go and die on me before we got to meet?” she grumbled it out with a little chuckled, clenching and releasing her fist slightly.
They went in silence a little longer and after it started to get to sunset this time it was the woman who broke the silence between them. “Can I stay here tonight Hemlock? I don’t want to go home quite yet.” she really couldn’t decide where home was right now, it was difficult, she had her birth family, but than she also had part of the family she had been offered before she found them. It didn’t help that Mashyuu thought bad of her birth family, in fact it was painful she had not wanted to admit it earlier but his opinion did matter to her and hearing him tell her that the guild she was with, that they were bad people, it struck a deep nerve. “Sure Frey” she smiled at his response to her, sitting up cross legged her wings wrapped around her body for warmth. “What makes a person good or evil?” her question made him widen his eyes as they stared at each other. How did one answer that question? It was one of the great mysteries of the world and yet Rune seemed to want a real response to it, seemed unaware of how difficult the question actually was. What was he suppose to tell her, how could he make her feel good or keep her happy? Why was she even asking such a question. “I think it depends on who you ask.” he started with the response, keeping his gaze away from her as he was unsure of the words he spoke to the young woman, rubbing one of his horns against the nearest tree. “An act one considers right and heroic, can be something another considers the source of all evil.” clearly this might not be helping her because she was staring at him blankly. Frey was trying to understand what he said but it was not as simple to understand as his other explanations of the night. “So my mother doesn’t have to be a bad person even if someone else who I consider a good person says she is? Savage Skull doesn’t have to be evil?” oh no her guild was definitely bad news, they were gonna corrupt her one day and it would be horrible especially with the strength he gave her. However he knew now why she asked and he couldn’t bring himself to break the bubble she was trying to build for herself. “I think someone can be good and evil at the same time.” he finally uttered and she chuckled slightly, flopping back against the ground once more with a tiny smile. “Good Night Hemlock.” it seemed his response was enough to make the woman decide it was time for them to go to sleep for the night and he was relieved because he didn’t know how he would answer her next question since they seemed to get progressively deeper. “Good Night Frey.” his deep growl filled the air one last time before he lowered his head to rest for the night, nearly falling into sleep before he heard one final phrase uttered from her lips. “Thank You.” and with that they both faded off to sleep.
The scenery on tetsukazu was pretty much entirely unchanged from the last time she had been here and that was kind of comforting. No matter how much change occurred in her relatively short life, this place stayed largely the same! Frey could still remember the first time she had come to this place, back when Fairy Tail lived here and Silver brought her to them in an effort to save her life when she had just really been unconscious. Some nights she lay awake wondering if all of those things had really been good, if she wished to have never encountered the fairy’s or if it was alright, if the pain of knowing Kanix was dead was worth having known her adoptive mother in the first place. Rune honestly often tried to forget what Mashyuu had told her, convince herself that the male was lying and that the water mage had thrown her wedding ring back at him when they broke up or something, that Kanix did not have to be dead for the bone piece pressing against her throat to be there. Frey suddenly realized that thanks to her most recent growth spurt she did not actually have to wear the bone ring on a choker, it would likely fit on her slender fingers. However she did not care to try this, it did not feel right doing it, so the white object stayed hanging around her throat barely being affected by the wind as she stood looking out over a grassy plain on the planet. Shaking her head the girl remembered that the planet itself was not her object for tonight, but rather a place hidden on it, a very exact place that she had been many times before.
Feet clad in black combat boots treaded against the slightly damp ground, green optics looking around a scenery briefly remembering how broken everything had felt the first time she walked this path. That night? Frey had thought her life could never be put back together, she had lost what she wanted right when it was in front of her, momentarily had forgotten that she had not wanted some fake family, she needed to look for her biological mother. Eventually she had remembered that she didn’t want any of the things she had and the pain subsided, but it had caused so much to change! The first time she was here, Silver had agreed to lay beneath her blankets pretending to be her, a tactic she now realized was dull and Kanix would have noticed if the woman had checked that night. Frey glanced up at some large insect flying over head and wondered why she cared in the first place, why this was all coming back now. Just because one corpse had come back to life thanks to a god or something, it didn’t mean the other one cold in the ground would rise to warmth again. Kanix? Shouldn’t mean anything now, especially since she was gone, and yet walking towards the place she was going, Frey could only think of her adoptive mother and the man the woman had married. She had what she wanted now, she had Marceline, but the thought of the other two still haunted her mind for some reason as she headed towards the Dragon who had given her Slayer’s magic.
“Hemlock?” her voice was soft almost meek as she entered the large clearing in the wood of Tetsukazu, tree’s hundreds of feet tall on all sides giving way to smaller saplings and foliage a river flowing to one side feed by a massive waterfall that hide the cave she now knew to be the home of a dragon. That night? The cave had been very dry and she had missed the sight of the waterfall she’d walked alongside to get into the cavern, but she had noticed them on the second trip she took for training. The girl glanced around the clearing once more, finding no sight of her Dragon Mentor she thought the creature must still be asleep in his cave, so she likely had to go there to let him know she was here for more training. Of course while she called it training, she only really sought out Hemlock off her normal training dates when she was in turmoil. Even their first meeting the night he had given her dragon slaying magic to use? She had been distressed over the fear of never finding the village she grew in, never seeing Kanix smile again, Mashyuu being gone, so many things making her feel helpless and shattered. Even though he could do nothing to change how she felt that night, Hemlock had lay there and listened to her, kept her comfortable until dawn would allow her to return home. Than topping everything off the earth dragon had bestowed some of his magic onto her! Of course she had changed a lot since then and she sometimes wondered if he regretted giving her the magic he had gifted her. The night he gave her the magic? He had said she was perfect to learn it because she would be careful with it, but she didn’t really see the things she did with it as careful or caring. Of course she never told Hemlock anything about her life after that night, she was too frightened to do so, he accepted her so easily and she did not want to lose the affection he had for her. Thus she blocked the drake out of her life, only coming for training and focusing on it intensely. Yet today was not the day he had said to come next for training, she had come here of her own will today, hoping to become stronger or something, just wanting to train with him. Frey really did not understand why she had done this, why her brain was so occupied with everything and why she thought to train with Hemlock while she was so distracted. The second he realized her brain was not on the thing’s he was telling her the drake would likely tell her to leave and not come back until she had a clear head! It was not like he was her confident or her person to cry to, he was her magic teacher, that was all. Yet she still found herself at the border of the cave, suddenly worried about what he would think of her new form.
“Frey?” his voice finally broke through the silence and she trembled a little bit, wondering if she should reply or run off. Right now she could still get excused as a figment of his dreams right? No a mighty dragon would not dream of a confused immortal female who couldn’t even decide if she was a grown woman or little girl. The drake was laying half asleep when he had heard the child's voice, but it sounded as if it was older which he guessed was possible since she had seemed to age with the strength of her magic in the past. If the lacrima implantation had been successful? The girl certainly would have become much stronger than she used to be, thus Frey having grown older once more was not outside of what the earth dragon thought possible, his light eyes opening to try and get a look at the girl he had chosen as his pupil in the art of dragon magic. Honestly? He was surprised he had chosen to teach anyone, he had always never thought to train a slayer because most tended to end up slaying dragons in his opinion. However when he met the girl that night, something was just different and the thing he swore to never do became the only thing he could think to do! It had only taken moment’s for that child to change his mind, but lately she seemed to be changing what with the pink hair and stuff. Yet the sight he could make out in his sleep hazed vision was different than what he expected. Hemlock shot to a waking state, staring at Rune slowly realizing something was indeed different about the little girl he had gotten used to seeing. “Damn” that little girl? Was now suddenly a grown woman and he couldn’t get over that fact enough to look at anything else for the moment. He had long ago accepted she was likely to age at an accelerated rate due to her rather unique body, but the drake had never expected his lacrima would do this to the child, he shook the thought of her being a child from his head, because his eyes could clearly see she was no longer a little kid and likely would never be one again. Had he taken her childhood from her without trying? The dragon wondered how he could have been so cruel to her, but then he remembered she had always been mature anyways so he didn’t count it as ripping anything from her. Sure she would make one slightly awkward adult since she still had some childlike tendencies, but it wasn’t like she would be trying to eat toothpaste or something childishly stupid like that, he trusted her. As he continued this train of thought the male suddenly realized the eyes he stared into were not pink, instead they were green the color he was used to from her, the shade he loved seeing on Frey! Hopefully he had not imbedded his ideals for Rune into the lacrima he provided Razia to implant within her, he never meant to potentially change her in some way, the only thing he wanted was to provide her with power enough to protect herself and such. Large optics kept trailing and he noticed the long hair, bat like wings extending where her ears belonged “C-Can you hear me Frey?” he was now frightened the lacrima had not been compatible with her for some reason and had disfigured her, taken one of her senses. “Yeah, they work just fine.” he heard her voice kiss the air again, relief flooding him as she chuckled slightly, letting his gaze rake the rest of her rather attractive new form, finally coming across the new wings she sprouted. Maybe she was starting dragonification? Nah it was too early for her to truly be enduring that quiet yet, wasn’t it? Hemlock shook his head chuckling once more. “Well don’t you grow up well?” he couldn’t really think of what else to say, extending one taloned forepaw to touch her new wings, trailing the top of it softly as if to test they were real. Maybe he should start giving her lessons on effective flight, if she had wings there was no reason why should not be trained to use them properly. “Can you fly?” he asked another question slowly rising from the space he had been using for slumber. Clearly Frey was going to be here for a while to answer his questions even if she did not mean to come here or something, so he might as well take them into the sunlight. The girl seemed to catch up onto his motive as she turned around and jumped from the cavern. “Yes.” she responded to his inquiry as he crawled forward, slinking from the cave, taking several moments to do this due to his sheer size, taking up a good fourth of the huge clearing.
“WHAT ARE YOU WEARING!” Frey flinched as she heard the dragon scream for the first time ever, backing up slightly and glancing at herself to see if she could tell what he spoke of. Rune quickly knew he was referring to the purple bat stockings she wore beneath a black leotard with a heart carved beneath her breasts, fuzz wrapping around the lower part of her upper arm, pink sleeve like fabric extending from that. If the drake was flipping this much over it, she was glad she had not let silver see her obtain it and not yet allowed her mother to see her in this outfit, the girl realized she may have to rethink it, no matter how much she liked this current look. “I’m sorry, I thought it was cute but I guess it's not.” her fist formed over top of her now large chest, swaying her hips slightly as she squirmed and batted up a timid little look, lashes fluttering. Was something really so wrong with this outfit? Frey had thought she looked good in it! “No, No it’s alright, I just never thought I’d see you in something like that.” he couldn’t be an overprotective father thinking about how people would stare at the girl in that lewd outfit, after all he was her teacher not her parent, she had parents, she had her mother and he knew that was all she wanted. Frey glanced up at him happily when he admitted that he did not have any particular offense towards the outfit she had apparently selected for herself, he guessed that since she had been a kid than lived in her mother’s castle the girl had not really ever dressed herself properly before and this may be her first attempt at such a thing. “I just figured I would wear whatever felt right, this feels better when I’m fighting it’s easier to move in than the dressed I had been wearing.” she explained it putting her clawed hands together, fiddling with her fingers timidly. Both of the magic users laughed at the same time, small chuckles of slight awkwardness and relief. The two of them had been equally worried but it seemed they quickly feel back into the way they normally treated each other. Hemlock moved to one side of the clearing, leaning against the mountain his cave was carved into, laying down right there. Once the drake was down Frey used her wings to fly the short distance, sitting his shoulder, leaning against his body, one hand gripping the moss growing on the earth dragon. “I’m sorry I came early.” he glanced at her from the side of his vision, craning his neck to see the tacky dressed woman. “It’s fine Frey, you're always welcomed here, you should know that, I’m your teacher after all.” the male spoke it, placing one claw beneath her chin gently as best he could considering their size difference. Rune chuckled a few tears slipping from her eyes and onto his claws, soaking into them. “Are you alright?” she nodded with a small laugh, lying against him and closing her eyes enjoying the feel of his earth made body inhaling a deep breath to take in the scents of the forest, ears listening to it’s sounds.
The pair lay like this for several hours, nothing disturbing them because honestly what would want to fight something large as Hemlock, he could knock the tree’s down by mistake if he bumped them wrong. “To be honest.” suddenly her voice broke the silence and a huff from the dragon let her know he had heard her statement and was waiting for her to spill the beans about how she was feeling, what had drove her to visit so early when she normally waited until they both agreed it was time for another training session. Feelings rose up and she struggled to speak past the things going on in her head, mayhem reeking it’s chaos within her as she breathed slowly, fingers gripping the soft foliage growing from the creature she lay on, syncing how she breathed with the way he took in and expelled air. “A while back, I meet HIM.” the dragon made a confused sound as she spoke and the girl knew she needed to provide more information but it was hard to speak about this, she did not really even want to address it but something about her teacher made her feel safe enough to. “Mashyuu.” the female uttered his name and felt her body tremble a choked sound emitting as she blinked away tears, remembering what he had told her. “So he was just missing not dead?” the beast’s inquiry made her laugh butterfly, her wing ears tucking in close as she sighed. “No he died and was revived by a god, but when I met him, he told me Kanix, my adoptive mother, he told me she died.” the tears flowed somewhat after that, a small sound escaping her throat as she sat up and tried to laugh in spite of herself. Frey thought she shouldn’t care because she had what she wanted now and her time with Kanix had been so short. “Do you remember why you told me that you were upset when he met?” she wiped her eyes, glancing at the male as he gazed at her fondly, placing his paw behind her back to support her sitting form lying on his side to accomplish this. “Kanix was upset that Mashyuu was absent and in term despite never having met him, you were upset.” the girl sighed slightly knowing he recalled correct, but now able to make the connection onto what the past had to say in the current events. “I offered you my magic and you were afraid to take it because you thought that you’d hurt me while we trained.” she crawled forward to lay in the crane of his neck, sitting on the ground now as she listened to him with an ear against his throat, hearing everything amplified as she closed her eyes to focus on remembering that night having no trouble doing so. “Frey it's alright to not know how you're supposed to feel about things, you're different and that has complications, but your amazing, I wouldn’t give my magic to just anyone after-all .” he spoke to the girl who was laying against his neck, wondering why she was doing that, utterly confused as to how that could make her feel good but not complaining about it since the action seemed to give her some form of comfort and he did not when she was upset. “I’ve changed so much, you still think I deserve your magic?” his eyes widened at her self doubting statement, a rush of air escaping his body as he tried to figure out why she would think that she did not deserve to be the earth dragon slayer.
“Frey, I won’t tell you that the way you change doesn’t unsettle me, I never expected you’d grow up so quick or that your mother would be a dark mage, that you’d join a truly dark guild, but you're still the little girl who came crying to me that night, albeit you're all grown up now.” he uttered the words and she lifted her head, sitting back on her haunches and looking up at his face, blinking softly a few more tears slipping from her emerald optics. The girl decided she was happy to be at his side right now, laying back against the grass beside his neck, relaxed to be simply chilling out with Hemlock. The Drake worried slightly when she went silent for so long, wondering if he had said something wrong, anything to make her think too much, normally Frey always had a comment to make of some sort the fact she seemed to have nothing right now worried him somewhat. However neither wanted to break the silence for no reason because it was painfully comfortable compared to the issue that had been brought up, an issue neither of them could truly answer with a solid response. “I was really mean to mashyuu but i don’t know how i feel about him.” she could recall how pissy she had been with him just because he was alive and Kanix apparently was not, how she continuously thought he should have died before he ever met the blind woman. He listened to her admit she didn’t know how to feel, admit she likely regretted how she had treated her adoptive father the first time meeting him. . “Frey, you love him.” he surprised her and gavee the girl a straight response, telling the woman how she felt without hesitation clearly stating that she had to love Mashyuu.The green eyed woman glanced over in shock but then she began laughing at the drakes statement and how stupid it was she couldn’t come to the conclusion on her own. “Is that why I’m so mad?” she never really had family before she got lost from the village because no one ever told her she was theirs, now she had Marceline, Mashyuu and everything was so confusing. “Likely I can’t see you to be one to take being left alone well and he did leave you alone, despite it not being on his own will.” she was a possessive girl after all, protective of what she had due to having started out with so little. Frey smiled slightly reaching her finger towards the sky. “Yeah, I just, why did he have to go and die on me before we got to meet?” she grumbled it out with a little chuckled, clenching and releasing her fist slightly.
They went in silence a little longer and after it started to get to sunset this time it was the woman who broke the silence between them. “Can I stay here tonight Hemlock? I don’t want to go home quite yet.” she really couldn’t decide where home was right now, it was difficult, she had her birth family, but than she also had part of the family she had been offered before she found them. It didn’t help that Mashyuu thought bad of her birth family, in fact it was painful she had not wanted to admit it earlier but his opinion did matter to her and hearing him tell her that the guild she was with, that they were bad people, it struck a deep nerve. “Sure Frey” she smiled at his response to her, sitting up cross legged her wings wrapped around her body for warmth. “What makes a person good or evil?” her question made him widen his eyes as they stared at each other. How did one answer that question? It was one of the great mysteries of the world and yet Rune seemed to want a real response to it, seemed unaware of how difficult the question actually was. What was he suppose to tell her, how could he make her feel good or keep her happy? Why was she even asking such a question. “I think it depends on who you ask.” he started with the response, keeping his gaze away from her as he was unsure of the words he spoke to the young woman, rubbing one of his horns against the nearest tree. “An act one considers right and heroic, can be something another considers the source of all evil.” clearly this might not be helping her because she was staring at him blankly. Frey was trying to understand what he said but it was not as simple to understand as his other explanations of the night. “So my mother doesn’t have to be a bad person even if someone else who I consider a good person says she is? Savage Skull doesn’t have to be evil?” oh no her guild was definitely bad news, they were gonna corrupt her one day and it would be horrible especially with the strength he gave her. However he knew now why she asked and he couldn’t bring himself to break the bubble she was trying to build for herself. “I think someone can be good and evil at the same time.” he finally uttered and she chuckled slightly, flopping back against the ground once more with a tiny smile. “Good Night Hemlock.” it seemed his response was enough to make the woman decide it was time for them to go to sleep for the night and he was relieved because he didn’t know how he would answer her next question since they seemed to get progressively deeper. “Good Night Frey.” his deep growl filled the air one last time before he lowered his head to rest for the night, nearly falling into sleep before he heard one final phrase uttered from her lips. “Thank You.” and with that they both faded off to sleep.
