Chapter Text
Unfortunately the day of the great K'uhul Ajaw started as usual.
He could have woken up in his lavish palace and be worshiped by his servants, like he used to, instead he woke up in Kinich’s shabby house.
The sun’s light shone through his green curtains. The double bed had been placed underneath the small windows. He had two nightstands. One was decorated by painted vases of succulent plants, the other held a phlogiston lamps that illuminated the room. Natlan’s landscape pictures hang from the wall. By the door there was a small wooden desk and on his left a bookshelf. His bedroom came with a carved wardrobe, that Ajaw never used for obvious reasons. However, Kinich had stored there the old pillows and blankets that used to be in Ajaw’s bed.
When they first met he didn’t hold it against him if he couldn’t offer him a house worthy of his status. He had just annoyed the other until he presented him another bed.
Years had passed, and the mortal hadn’t redecorated or moved. Anyone else except Kinich, would have understood that if they had so many jobs and were successful, all the merit belonged to Ajaw. Hence, all the mora they gained was supposed to be spent on making Ajaw’s life a dream. Instead, all he got was worn down pieces of furniture, an untrained servant (he had no doubts the boy was human, but there were so many things didn’t add up about him, that Ajaw could have sworn he had been adopted by a pack a Yumkasaurus at some point) and if the dragonlord wasn’t mistaken the human mentioned he makes his juice from fruits that were not good enough for the another useless human.
The moron had a nerve.
He did not regret signing a contract with him though.
Before Kinich, all he knew was a dark, damp and moldy ruin. He had been trapped for so long, he couldn’t remember what it was like to feel the warmth of the sun on his skin. It was torture, and the worst part was the knowledge that ever since his punishment the world had been a colder place without Ajaw’s light.
Yet, after centuries of living the same day over and over again, suddenly a battered up teenager entered his prison.
The human was insufferable, but in K'uhul Ajaw grand scheme, the moron was supposed to last maximum 48 hours after their contract.
Apparently his years of isolation lead him to be a tad mistaken. The disrespectful heathen went on and got himself an ancient name and a vision, much to his dismay.
And to add salt to the wound, Kinich had even the audacity to send the Almighty Dragonlord into timeout.
He kept trying to get Kinich body, and being ecstatic whenever they received a dangerous commission, but nowadays it was more a habit and genuine curiosity as to what would take to get Kinich dead.
His main concern was not being ridiculed again by the stubborn idiot.
He was annoyed and was going to take it out on the mortal.
Speaking of which, what was he doing?
Why wasn’t he up anyway?
As he got out of his room, Ajaw wondered why he needed to do all the work in the house.
“Hey, you moron, how incompetent can you be? Why do I always need to explain everything to you? Where is my breakfast?!” he cried as he pushed Kinich bedroom’s door open.
The boy was still in bed. The green warmer blanket lay on the floor like he pushed it away during his sleep. His body was only covered by a white lighter blanket and he was shivering.
Kinich didn’t seem to have heard Ajaw, he stayed asleep.
Upon closer inspection, he could tell something was wrong. The hunter was sweating and his breath came out in gasps… It looked like he was chased by something in his dream, at least that would explain his panicked expression and irregular breathing.
Ajaw got closer. He never saw the other show fear and it set him off.
Kinich’s eyes were moving behind his eyelids and he was mumbling some incomprehensible words, his voice was so low he couldn’t make out what he was whispering.
A few days ago Kinich had started to get sick. It was barely noticeable, the only reason he was aware was because he was stuck to the idiot almost every hour of the day. So far, the only change had been that he would hear Kinich sneeze and blow his nose a few times a day. And that when he teased him for being gross, the hunter wouldn’t argue with him as much as usual.
Like every other creature, humans were weakened when sick. His annoying servant though had pushed though the abyss contamination without breaking a sweat.
Maybe it was nothing, but staring at the shivering boy on the bed, Ajaw wasn’t sure today would work the same.
He could let him sleep, they had almost single handedly solved all the tribe’s problems after the attack. Nevertheless it didn’t look like a pleasant dream, Ajaw was pissed enough he considered to leave him to it, but he knew the burden of being a superior being fell upon him, and as such he had the virtue and dignity to match. He slapped him with his tail.
“Kinich, wake up! It’s late and you’re testing my patience!” he screamed in his ear.
How humiliating.
He used to be a powerful dragon and now he was reduced to waking up the worm.
“NO!” Kinich cried, his voice broken by his heavy breaths. “Leave me alone,” he pleaded.
The boy had practically jumped into a sitting position. Instinctively he had raised his arms to protect his face, as if he was expecting an attack.
It did not make any sense, his companion wasn’t even trying to look at the room to find the threat. He just decided to protect himself… like fighting wasn’t an option. Then as a puppet whose strings had been cut, Kinich started coughing and curled up on himself again. The coughs were wreaking his body as if his lungs were trying to escape it. Needless to say, that didn’t sound good at all.
Getting rid of Kinich had proved to be a challenging task at best. He had resolved to patiently wait for his demise, in the meanwhile he had unfortunately been forced to get used of him.
However, if the boy’s body was finally weakened, K'uhul Ajaw might have a decent shot.
All he had to do was get him out of his bed and have him fight with the Saurian that happened to be their last target.
The question was if he would actually take the opportunity.
“I’m fine,” answered Kinich but he was still breathing hard. Ajaw wondered if the hunter was actually trying to convince himself rather than him. Curled up on his bed with both of his hands holding his head, trying to catch his breath, Kinich was definitely a sorry sight.
“Can you not wake me up screaming into my ear? I overslept... but it’s not a good reason to give me a heart attack…” he said in a raspy voice, he sighed and turned to look at him, his head still resting in his left hand. “Not that you’d care,” he flatly added.
“Of course I don’t care! Explain to me the reasons why you didn’t die from a heart attack, so I can do better the next time. I scared you? Serves you right!” mocked Ajaw.
Now that Kinich wasn’t hiding his face anymore, Ajaw knew for a fact that his condition had worsened. His piercing green-amber eyes were glaring at him, but they were also watery, his tanned skin was a few shades paler and he seemed to be breathing with his mouth.
“An inferior being like you cannot afford to make the Almight Dragonlord K'uhul Ajaw wait. If you’re fine, give me my food, mortal.”
It was fun provoking Kinich, he’d never get tired of it. However if Ajaw had pushed him it was because he wanted him to admit he needed his help and guidance, or to send Kinich to the Night Kingdom. Whichever came first.
Kinich raised his right arm to chase him away. “Get out. I’ll be there in a moment.”
A new body then. That also suited him.
Ajaw graciously granted his request and went to wait in the kitchen.
The sun was already starting to rise above the painted mountains, illuminating the valley in its pale light. In a normal work day at this hour his servant would have already packed lunch and supplies and be ready to head to whatever job he’d have for the day.
After a few minutes Kinich emerged from his bedroom. He had changed into his usual black tank top, gear and blue trousers, but he decided to wear his jacket instead of tying it around his waist.
He got some quenepa berries out of the cabinet and put them in a bowl on the table together with some juice.
“It was about time,” commented Ajaw as his only form of thanks.
Kinich gave him a dirty look. He looked like he was going to say something, however he only turned away and sneezed into his elbow.
“You are sure you’re not too sick?”
“It’s just a cold, nothing that will kill me, Ajaw, don’t get your hopes up,” he dryly pointed out before blowing his nose into a napkin.
“If you say so, I really hope your aim will be as good as ever when you’ll jump from one tree to the other. Otherwise we might get lucky, your neck might snap and let us take our rightful place in the world,” taunted Ajaw with a grin on his face.
“You wish,” replied Kinich, but after a few seconds he gave up and went to look for something in the cabinet’s drawers. He fished out a vial and drowned the contents down his throat. His grimace suggested Ajaw the savor wasn’t particularly good or his throat hurt. Afterwards, probably to get the taste out of his mouth, he picked some berries for himself.
Half an hour later they were ready to hunt.
…
It had been a week after the attack of the Abyss.
Ajaw remembered the tragedy that was the day of his imprisonment. The humans and saurians got to experience a small part of his biggest regret.
The Almighty Dragonlord K'uhul Ajaw, sacred ruler of the flame nation had been a fundamental part of the battle. He could still feel the addictive taste of power that had once answered only to him without the worm’s help to release what used to be his true form. He had owned the skies one more time. During that dark day, Ajaw had been the light that brought ungrateful humans to safety. Oh yeah, Kinich had also been there. He went on to show him off at as many sieges as he could cover. His human body required for him to take some breaks, but the dragonlord had to admit his companion was just as good as any other hero of Natlan. The only difference was that Kinich had the honor of having a deal with Ajaw and was therefore outstanding.
He didn’t knew what had happened right after being sealed, but the Scions of the Canopy had sustained considerable damages. Not purely on a structural level, but also many inhabitants had been affected. The couriers had taken the blunt of it, trying to keep the warriors updated; many buildings had been destroyed in the fights along with some crops; and they had to bury many of their own, human and saurians alike.
The abyss contamination had been a nasty problem. It only took a wound to get infected, and many animals had been contaminated during the attack. A week later they were still cleaning up the mess. Ajaw had barely had time to rest that the idiot was running off saving the day again.
Seriously, he had started to grow quite fond of Kinich’s ability to extort enormous amounts of mora. However, the kid must have taken too many blows to the head, because he started to accept a reduced fee to deliver medical or building supplies and hunting infected saurians and animals.
The previous week had passed in blur of places, people and corrupted animals to execute. Ajaw had been forced to camp in the woods so many times, he had seriously considered pushing Kinich off a cliff to buy himself some peace. He would never do that because killing him with his own hands meant dying as well. And Kinich wasn’t worth it.
Now that he was thinking about it, he got to finally sleep in a bed because his servant had probably started to feel sick and decided to head back home.
The dragon stole a glance at Kinich that was jumping from tree to tree. Normally, this level of exercise wasn’t even a workout for him, but today he was sweating as if he had been doing that for hours.
Ajaw rolled his eyes. Why was he bound to this idiot?
They had gotten ridden of most of the Abyss’ infected animals, only an infected Yumkasaur that lingered beneath the Canopy was left. After his corruption it had stayed in the canyon, just below the canopy, between the statue of the Seven and the lowest waterfall. Unfortunately most of their supplies had been spent in the endless hunt, leaving them with no choice but to take care of that.
In normal conditions the first part on the “Hunter’s manual” was following the beast around and learn where it fed and slept. The second would be get the poison to slow the animal. Third was to set out the traps and finally the fourth was execution.
Because of many reports made by the few other couriers left, they already knew the area in which they could find it. If they were lucky enough, the Yumkasaurus and animals nearby hadn’t been infected by it.
Annoyingly but predictably, the mortal reached the usual spot in which he collected poisonous berries, without falling to his death.
Ajaw didn’t understand how could anyone mistakenly eat those berries. The whole field of green berries smelled rotten. The only reason why Kinich could stand it was because of his less advanced senses.
When the latter collected enough, he started to crush them and applied the mixture to his arrows.
After moving away from the field (Ajaw had insisted quite fiercely) and carefully washing his hands, Kinich offered him the tatacos he had packed for the both of them.
Currently they were busy with the third and final phase of the preparation: get to the area the bounty was in and set the traps and baits.
Or at least trying to, if only the moron would cooperate.
The sun had already begin to set, yet they hadn’t still finished putting out all the traps. If he had thought Kinich had been slower the previous day, now he was as fast as a Tepetlisaur on land. Not underneath it. He wasn’t sure if he was just tired or it was the fact that he had to cough or sneeze every few minutes, the point was that he was wasting both of their time.
On his good days the idiot was extremely fast, efficient and agile… too much, if someone would ask Ajaw for his opinion. Though, the boy was definitely having a bad day, he had just finished setting the last trap when he started coughing again.
At the moment he was resting against a flammabomb tree, and was trying to regain control of his lungs, which seemed more difficult than what it was supped to be.
In the afternoon light, between the vivid colors of the canyon and his blueish clothing, Kinich looked as white as a ghost.
Ajaw knew he was going to regret this, but in all his glory, the Almighty Dragonlord, didn’t feel like it would be fair to try to get rid of him when the boy was a far cry from his usual self.
It horrified him having similar thoughts, but unlike humans, dragons were honorable creatures and even Ajaw had to admit his servant carried himself well. Not that he’d ever bother telling him that.
Some things are better left unsaid. Though he wasn’t above making fun of him.
“Are you dead yet?” he asked when the other’s breath stabilized.
Kinich glared at him and said: “I’m fine.”
If how hoarse and congested his voice sounded was a new way to define fine, then he surely was.
“You’re leaking”.
The hunter wiped his face with his sleeve and stood up: “We have a job to do.”
“Kinich, has the snot went all the way up your brain, and killed whatever was left there? Am-I the one that’s making us lose time? You should consider things before you speak you useless worm.”
Any other day, at this point Kinich usually ran out of patience and Ajaw would find himself uncomfortable inside the wristband. Instead, the boy sighed and said: “I’m sorry Ajaw.”
Well, that was new. And terrifying. The dragon knew he didn’t wear Kinich down to the point of worshiping him and value his time and opinion. Was the brat actually dying? The mortal said he had just a cold, but Ajaw had spent hundreds of years locked inside a blasted hovel, what did he knew about human biology? Why would he ever cared?
And more importantly, did he care if finally the boy ended up killing himself out of stubbornness?
He was about to make a snarky remark when he heard the sound of leaves rustling behind them. They both turned.
Oh… the humiliation.
The beast violet silhouette loomed against the painted mountain just south.
They took too much time, the afternoon was almost over and the Yumkasaur had come back home for the night. It didn’t look like it was hurt, so the possibilities it fell for their traps and was poisoned were slim.
If they were doing this, it was going to be the hard way.
Side note: things weren’t going exactly according to the plan. Be damned this whole day. At the very least there wasn’t a pack of them.
“Ajaw,” urged Kinich. The dragon reluctantly moved closer to him. All in all he should have been feeling ecstatic at the possibility that the hunter might actually kick the bucket, but for some reasons he didn’t understand, that was not the case. Dreading it would describe it better.
Upon seeing them, the Saurian roared, the Abyss purple miasma started oozing out of his eyes as an omen of doom.
Kinich fiddled with his pockets, until he found a poisonous arrow and threw it at the Saurian.
Even in the dark, the brat managed to hit the target. Still, it would be a few minutes before it’d take effect.
The beast roared and bent to spit out the Flamegranate pectin to get closer to them.
Ajaw felt his body being called into the wristband, but instead of lingering on the inside, the object demanded he fused with it and his body took the shape of a cannon.
Becoming an object that spit laser beams at the mercy of the moron was an undignified feeling for a dragonlord. But the contract said the mortal could have access to a part of Ajaw’s power. He really should have checked better before agreeing to those terms, but then again, prison hadn’t done him any good. Regrettably what was done was done and Kinich would never let anyone back from a pact. Especially one that involved his body.
Kinich summoned his dendro grappling hook and aimed it at the Saurian. They were linked to it.
Now that the beast was closer, it propped itself on its dark tail and used its claws to attack. Without losing a second, Kinich dodged that, tying a little more the rope as he circled the animal.
They both knew they were running low on phlogiston (too much time jumping around without recharging), so they aimed for their last attack combined.
They made enough damage, but the creature was still standing, and not paralyzed enough.
Ajaw felt himself returning to his usual pixelated body, hovering just above the mortal’s head.
The human had summoned his claymore. Ajaw had seen him handle that barbaric weapon with more ease than how he was holding it right now, his breathing was labored but his grip and foot stance seemed steady.
On the other hand the overgrown lizard still hadn’t surrendered to its fate of death by the end of the omnipotent K'uhul Ajaw.
This time it attacked using its tail and Kinich dodged to the left at the last second falling to the ground.
The yumkasaur confused by the poison tried to regain its balance and stayed opened for a few seconds, Kinich seized the opportunity to stand up and strike. The beast took a step back to use its tail to jump forward, but Kinich was ready. He had used Ajaw’s tail to stay suspended into the air, (a thing Ajaw hated, but again he hated lots of things) and proceeded to attack the beast in midair. In the end the Saurian disappeared leaving behind a seasoned and a few juvenile fangs.
Kinich fell to his knees and breathed hard.
“Still annoyingly alive. Come on, stop being so dramatic. We let you live through it, shouldn’t you be thanking us and start building us a temple to honor our glory and benevolence?”
The boy laughed, his lungs didn’t take it well though.
Ajaw was baffled, this was the second time he had heard him laugh like that, like he didn’t have a care in the world and the infuriating part was that Ajaw was completely serious.
Why between all the humans in Teyvat the only one that managed to find him and break his seal was this impossible moron who wont die?
Kinich wobbly got up on his feet. He was shaking.
“Come on, I know a cave nearby, we are taking a nap.”
“How dare you leave us, the supreme dragonlord K'uhul Ajaw sleep one more time in the forest? Our anger cannot being contained!”
His servant started coughing once more, so hard he almost fell back to his knees again.
“C’mon…” repeated the other breathless and hoarser than before.
Ajaw had to remind himself he was only concerned by the disrespect Kinich had shown by not picking Ajaw’s well being over his own. Going back home would take ten minutes at his speed, why would he decide to take a nap in the wild instead of going home? He was pissed at Kinich, and that was it. Because he was definitely not worried about the other’s well being. At all. It was detrimental to him. If he silently followed Kinich was because he was protesting. That’s all.