Dragon Kin 2

02

Vlad

"I did not challenge you, Ocean," Alexis stated. No fear hung on his words, but there was respect in his tone.

"No," Ocean said, stopping his advance fifteen feet away and raising his voice so he could be heard by all, "you challenged the King of the city. I am the King's protector. You know the law. The king may not face challenges in person. He must use the proxy of a champion. That champion, until I am vanquished, is me -- by binding contract. And ..." he lowered his voice slightly, and leaned toward the larger man, "and you can't use that falcon on me..."

"There's no rule that says that!" Alexis countered. A tongue of flame licking out of his mouth and across his brow,  as a swarm of orange flickers sparkled down to the tips of his long brown hair.

Ocean waited until Alexis finished, then he nodded understanding, as noting where the confusion lay. "No, I apologize for my mis-communication. It is not a matter of legality, but of dignity. And a large portion of reality." 

"Why?" Alexis asked, appearing by every account, truly interested.

"It can't hurt me," Ocean said, in the tone of dragging out the obvious and beating it with a yarrow whip. "Pick something else. What about that club you like? The red one. Or get a better sword or something. I can't have you using that, they'll say I cheated."

There was mirth in the crowd. I heard laughter from several sections. Low, restrained, but it could be heard. If Ocean's goal was to rile Alexis up, he succeeded.

Ocean saw this as well, and while Alexis stomped his foot into the ground he politely asked, "Are you sure you want to...?

He wasn't allowed to finish. Alexis charged with a beat of his wings, which hurtled him forward, the heavy blade coming down, and dust billowing out between them, covering the blow which sounded like steel on steel, with a massive ringing crack shot out ringing every ear.

The crack rang through us strong enough to  jar the back teeth.

The collective groan from the crowd came like a curling wave off the sea. The dust cleared and Ocean stood, his right hand holding half of Alexis' blade, with the other half in Alexis' hands, remaining attached to the hilt.

Eyes wide, Alexis recovered fast as any trained fighter would, and threw the broken blade at Ocean, who avoided the missile by leaning back a few inches, letting it pass, and then crossed his arms. "Really? What do you hope to achieve with this? I mean, there's a goal right?"

"He killed my brother!" Alexis yelled, and there was true emotion there. Pain. The large and fiery dragon lord's rage was true to his heart and it shown in his furnace.

"That's true, no one is saying otherwise," Ocean agreed, with a candid tone. "He killed him in single combat with the dagger at his hip. One throw, and caught your brother before he could shift into his armor. The blade cleaved Philip's heart. Philip died before his body hit the wooden floor."

Alexis raised a brow, "He tricked him into going to that meeting. Tricked him to kill him," he said, his voice filled with rage but the low seething made it difficult to understand.

"Now," Ocean said, lifting a finger, and giving Alexis his full attention, "you know that's not true. Philip raged for hours after his spies told him about the meeting. He huffed and cursed and ranted about not being invited. Then he went there on his own, forcing himself on the gathering. You tried to talk him out of it, right?" Alexis looked confused now, but weakly nodded his head.

"Come on!" Demanded someone in the crowd. "Enough talking. Is this a challenge or a debate?" Ocean tossed the blade half he was still holding. It whirled with unexpected speed and bit deep into the post next to the complaining speaker who yelped and fell from the fence.