Work Text:
After they arrived to Nod Krai, Durin took some time before he met any of the knights of Favonius.
He took some time before he went to meet anyone really, but still it was a little unexpected. The people from the expedition were the actual Mondstadtians around, so surely Durin would want to meet them after travelling so far away from home.
But no, he spend three days in his room writing letters, the only person he talked to was Albedo.
On the fourth day however he was finally brave enough to go with Albedo to the camp. It was less noisy than the inn, or even the city. The smell of wine and forest reminded him of home. It was a little cold, but not too much, the warm clothes definitely helped.
A few knights passing by waved at them and greeted them with smiles. Albedo did the same, while Durin slouched behind him and could only muster up few awkward nods.
They got to the main tent and Albedo turned to his brother: “I just need to relay a message from Aunt Alice to the Grandmaster. It should only be a moment. You can stay here if you want to.”
“Sure thing.” Durin nodded and watched as his brother entered the tent.
A few moments passed. Durin was watching some of the knights sing and drink by the campfire as he felt someone poke one of his horns. Durin whirled around and saw a man with smoky blue hair dressed in a knight uniform.
“Sharp stuff,” the guy said with a wide grin. “Not like a blade, but definitely sharper than those goat horns. I could see them making more than a dent if you tried hard enough.”
“Um, I’m sorry, but who are you?” Durin asked, wrapping his tail around his legs instinctevily. The man stared at him blankly. “Oh, that was probably rude. I’ll introduce myself first, then. My name is Durin. I’m Albedo’s brother, he’s also one of the Knights.”
Durin reached out his hand to shake the man’s, waiting for his introduction. The knight was about to take it, when he glanced down and stopped and instead took a step towards Durin.
“Is that a tail? And wings?! Why did Albedo never mention he had a brother with horns and wings?” The man said with amezement. He looked up into Durin’s red eyes and finally shook his hand, his grip a little firmer than Durin would’ve liked. He couldn’t help but wince a little, when he finally let go. “Name’s Lohen. I’m the Vice Captain of the Fifth Company. Say, what did you drink to get all those extra spikes? Was it something from Albedo’s lab?”
“No, it’s nothing like that. It’s uh- a long story. I used to be a dragon, so that’s why I have wings and a tail.” Durin tried to explain as best as he could. He really wished Albedo was here. Maybe he should’ve went into the tent with him. But what if the Grandmaster would have the same questions as Lohen?
“A dragon you say?” Lohen grinned twisted in disturbing way. It was like nothing Durin seen so far. “Then you must be pretty strong, right? Maybe something like claws that can slash rocks? Or fire breath that can burn anything to a crips.”
“No no no! Nothing like that!” Durin shook his hands defensively. He couldn’t do that even when he was a full on dragon! “I have powers, but they’re quite dangerous.”
“Dangerous? How dangerous are we talking?” Lohen leaned closer. “Will the death be long and painful? Or so quick you can’t see it coming?”
“No! I mean- I don’t know. I never- I would never try to kill someone with it.” Durin stammered. The abyssal power was wild and hard to control, but Durin would do everything he could to keep it from harming others.
“There’s no harm in testing the limits. Especially on someone who’s willing to see you go all out.” Lohen fidgeted, like he was trying to stop his body from shaking from excitement.
“I don’t want to fight you.”
“Bummer.” Lohen blew a raspberry and stuck out his tongue. Then he hid his dissapointment behind a shrug and added: “I’ll be waiting on the day you change your mind.”
“Durin, I’m finished.” Albedo sounded as he exited the tent. “Oh, hello Vice Captain Lohen.”
Varka quickly followed the alchemist. “Little dragon is finally out of his cave! Welcome to the Knight’s camp, make yourself at home. Oh hey Lohen, need something?”
“I do, but it can wait.” Lohen said with a chipper tone, while Durin looked like he was about to melt into a puddle next to him.
…
Durin was ordering some hot tea to help him sleep. A few hours have passed since their celebration over Rerir’s defeat, so almost everyone involved was gone. Durin liked the party, it was really nice, but he would be lying if he said the constant praises from Grandmaster Varka, Albedo and the Traveller didn’t tire him out. Not to mention the stress he built up over the pass few days. Durin was just glad it was over and he could rest.
“Sooo…” a dangerously familiar voice sounded next to him, making Durin tense up. “Grandmaster just filled all the knights on what happened.”
“That’s good.” Durin chuckled nervously. “He wasted no time.”
Lohen hummed. “Never expected the Wild Hunt to have a head honcho. But it’s not like I care, I would slash through their lines even if I knew before hand. What took my attention was something about you.”
He wanted to lift his wings and hide himself into a small ball. But there was no room for him to do that and Lohen occupied whatever sliver of personal space was left.
“What makes the Moon Maiden worthy of your power but not me?” Lohen leaned closer. “Do I have to make the Frostmoon Scions worship me too in order to see go all out?”
“No I… we didn’t fight. I just lend her some of my power to help.” Durin explained, clutching the cup with both of his hands like a lifeline.
“That’s perfect, I also need help!” Lohen mused. Durin was temped to look at him after he could hear how vice captain perked up. “You see after you took out that Sinner guy, the Wild Hunt has been much milder lately and the Lightkeepers are more than enough to handle them. Which caused me to fall gravely ill.”
Durin’s worry overpowered his fear and he finally lifted his head to meet the Lohen’s gaze. Although he wasn’t sure how an abyssal energy could help someone’s sickness.
“You’re sick? What’s wrong?”
Lohen smirked as if he already won the battle, even though none had ever started. “I doubt a guy like you would know about it. It’s called boredom, you see? There’s nothing to do and I’m sooo bored. But I’m sure an abyssal dragon sending a few sword strikes my way would cure me in no time!”
Durin opened his mouth a few times, but no words came out. He wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t know what to say or that there were no words for this situation.
“I don’t think that would help you. In fact, I think it might do more harm than good. Maybe you should check in with the Lightkeepers to see if they need help.” Durin offered, trying his best to sound as assertive as possible.
Lohen rolled his eyes and blew a raspberry. “Already did. They just shooed me away. Ah well, what can you do.” He shrugged. “I’ll just have to spice up training somehow.”
With a sigh, Lohen stood up and left the tavern. Durin was finally allowed to take a sip of his now lukewarm tea.
…
Despite the threats passing, everyone had to work hard to bring Nod Krai back to the way it was. The Lightkeepers were fighting as much of the Wild Hunt as possible to keep the roads safe for the evacues, who were travelling back home. The Frostmoon Scions and Voynich Guild were helping transport people back to their homes. The Knights of Favonius and some of the fatui assisted whenever they could.
Even though Durin didn’t belong to any of the factions yet, he still wanted to help in some way. Albedo and Varka agreed he would do best with scouting and fighing monsters on the roads, then reporting to either the Knights or the Lightkeepers.
So Durin did just that. He flew over the outskirts of Nod Krai, looking for potentional foes that needed to be taken care of. If they were something Durin could handle on his own, he would fight them, and if they looked too powerful, Durin would just note them down in a small notebook Albedo gave him.
For the most part, the roads were clear. As he flew past multiple lanterns lighting up the paths, Durin had to admit the Lightkeepers were doing an excellent job at keeping the Wild Hunt at bay.
As he got further away from Nasha Town and closer to Hiisi Island, he noticed corpses of monters slowly turning ash on the side of the road. Durin thought that maybe the Lightkeepers passed around here recently, but he couldn’t see any of the lanterns he saw previously.
The Knights maybe? Or the Frostmoon Scions? Surely they have to deal with the Wild Hunt too, Durin thought.
As he flew towards the beach, the number of corpses continued to rise. Some of them were on piles, while others were just scattered about. And despite the alarming number of the monsters, Durin couldn’t see a single lit lantern around.
Durin landed on the dark sand and pulled out his notebook.
I should report this to the Lightkeepers, Durin thought as he marked down the areas. Even if they knew about it, Durin wanted to make sure he got all his bases covered.
“Whatcha writing there?” A smooth voice sounded right into his ear. Durin spread his wings and jumped away, almost dropping his notebook in the process. He looked up to see the Vice Captain of the fifth company smiling at him, polearm in hand.
“Vice Captain Lohen! What are you doing here? Are the other knights around aswell?” Durin asked and looked around. He didn’t spot anyone while he was flying above the beach.
“No, it’s just me.” Lohen shrugged. “I got tired of training and happened to hear the Grandmaster talk with one of the Lightkeepers about the Wild Hunt on the beach at Hiisi Island. So I figured I’d have a little fun taking them out.”
“You did this…? All by yourself?” Durin looked around again at the piles of dead bodies, his grip on the notebook tighening. He looked back at the Vice Captain. For someone who fought multiple hoards of the Wind Hunt, he didn’t look at all tired. Durin noticed a few bruises, but no major injuries.
A chill ran down the dragon’s spine.
“Yup, just a bit light sparring. They don’t hold as much now as they did when that Sinner guy was around.” Lohen threw the spear over his shoulders and looked at the corpses with a dissappointed pout. After a moment of silence his crimson-tinted eyes trailed back to Durin. “Heeey, since you’re here, how about you keep me company for a little while, until the Lightkeepers get here? I’m sure your strength hasn’t depleted.”
Lohen started to approach him and Durin took a step back. “If you’re waiting for the Lightkeepers, I could fly over and get them for you. I was going to report this to them anyway.”
“Why the rush? They’ve got enough work already.” Lohen cocked his head with a lazy smile. “We can use those punching bags as dummies if you’re not ready for a head-on spar.”
He gestured towards one of the piles. The way his polearm moved made Durin flinch. For a second he thought Lohen was going to attack him, even though rationally it wouldn’t make any sense.
“It would be best if I got the Lightkeepers before any more mosters show up.” Durin said with slight wavering in his voice. “You should get back to the Knight’s camp.”
“Hmm, nah.” Lohen hummed. “I think I’ll stick around. This is one of the few areas which hasn’t been lit yet.”
“Alright, just… take care of yourself, okay?” Durin told him before unfurling his wings and taking off to the skies.
…
The dragon stood in front of the Cat’s tail.
It wasn’t his first time passing the place. He never was able to enter though.
All thanks to the pub’s fluffy owners.
Durin never meant to make an enemy of the cats there. He tried to be gentle as he possibly could, like with all animals. He expected the worst thing that could happen was that the cats would just hide away from him. He never considered they would wage war against him. He even got berated by the small fierce bartender, who thought Durin was picking on the cats. After he explained the situation, she seemed to calm down and gave him some tips on how to befriend them.
So Durin tried, and failed.
He ended up coming to a conclusion that he should at least try making a truce with them, so he doesn’t have to worry about an ambush. His attempts went as well as his previous attempts to befriend them.
Even still, he tried.
This time he prepared a peace offering. A special dish Jahoda tought him how to make. She said she would sometimes make this for Ashru whenever a mission didn’t go well, so he wouldn’t snitch on her.
Durin stepped foward and carefully placed the dish on the top of the stairs. The cats looked at him with curiosity, twitching their whiskers as if to give him a code to descipher. So far they didn’t attack him. When he was about to stand up and leave, someone opened the door and knocked Durin down right on the plate, making his face plant into the fishy dish.
“Oh so sorry! Didn’t see you there.” The person apologized. “Let me—“
Before either of them could do anything, about four small shadows decended upon Durin, covering his vision. Durin stumbled around, trying to get the cats scratching him off. Between his and the other person’s screaming and the cats yowling, it was utter chaos. Durin then tripped on the stairs as he got to the edge and fell down. As he tumbled down, the cats finally jumped off him, but then he was faced with a new problem. Along the scratches on his face, he had to deal with all the bruises he got when he fell down.
“Oh great Anemo Archon, are you okay?!” The person hurried down to offer help.
“Yeah, I think so.” Durin chuckled nervously.
“But your face- you should go see one of the sisters at the church. They’re great healers. Do you want me to take you there?”
Durin shook his head. “It’s fine, thank you. I can just fly there, it should be faster.”
“Okay…” the person replied hesitantly. “Sorry again, if there’s anyway I can do to make it up to you, just name it!”
“It’s really fine. I don’t mind.” Durin replied and rushed to fly away, the embarresment of the situation finally catching up to him.
He landed on one of the benched near the windmill and sighed, as he let his limbs hang loose like clothes being hanged to dry.
Durin had to admit he envied a little bit to all his Nod Krai friends. Jahoda, Lauma, Columbina, they all were loved by animals. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get a single critter to like him. Not even a house-cat. The only thing he could think of that came close was his friendship with Kirara or Hat Guy in his storybook form, but Durin was pretty sure that didn’t count.
The dragon just had to accept animals didn’t like him. He would forever have only human companions.
“Wow you look rough, what happened to you?” A familiar amused voice asked. Durin turned his head and saw Lohen standing next to him, holding his polearm in one hand.
“O-oh Lohen, you’re back?” Durin stammered out.
“Just making the rounds, delivering letters.” Lohen pulled out one of the small envelopes out of his coat. “I’m returning to Nod Krai once I’m done. What I want to know is where did you come out of that you ended up looking so battered?”
Durin couldn’t sense a single trace of worry in his voice, just impatient excitement.
“The Cat’s Tail.” He admitted with a sigh and Lohen’s face dropped. He tried to hide it behind the envelope. “I wanted to offer some food to the cats there, but I messed up and they attacked me.”
Lohen let out a soft giggle. “If they’re as fierce as that little hunter behind the bar, then no wonder they’re strong enough to take down a dragon.” He sat down next to him and Durin folded his wings to make space. “But you know… I battled beasts of all shapes and sizes. I could give you lessons on how to deal with foes like that.”
“No, that’s alright! I don’t want to hurt those poor kitties!” Durin just wanted to be on friendly terms with them, or at least make them tolarate him.
He looked at the scratches on his face. “You sure? It would save you a few band-aids.” He reached out his hand and wiped a trickle of blood coming off Durin’s face.
Durin quickly stood up, or more so jumped away. “Actually that reminds me, I have to go visit the church. Sorry!” And with those words, he soared into the sky towards the large building, leaving Lohen with the letters and a bloodied glove.
…
Durin wasn’t sure what to do with all this new power he aquired.
The first meeting with Rhinedottir was strange, not just because it came through her butler, but also because it felt devoid of any emotion. Like Rhinedottir didn’t see herself as Durin’s mother anymore. Well that was partly true, she wasn’t this Durin’s mother. Still, it didn’t deter from the fact that the “gift” she gave him felt too formal, distant, like it could’ve gone to anyone.
Despite that, Durin still wanted to put it to good use. He asked Albedo if there was something he could do and he suggested asking the Knights of Favonious if they had any missions he could take care of. So Durin went to the Grandmasters office.
“Sure, if it’s battle training you want, I can assign you to some smaller mission. However since you’re not officially part of the Knights, I need to have someone accompany you.” Varka looked at the papers, his eyes scanning the text. Durin stood on the other side of the table, so he couldn’t see what the Grandmaster was looking at, but he guessed it was some sort of list. “Hm… I wanted to pair you up with Mika, since you might get along, but he’s out scouting so that’s a no go. Same with Amber. Let’s see… who’s free?”
His eyes suddenly stopped at one section and his lips pressed into a hard line. Varka then looked up at Durin, then back at the paper, back at Durin, back at the paper.
“Hey, just out of curiosity, is this an emergency? I could schedule you for another day once somebody is available.” Varka asked with a strained smile.
“Oh of course not! I don’t want to intrude—”
The door suddenly slammed open. “Grandmaster~ I heading to the training grounds. I was wondering if you found a mission for me before I go?” Lohen drawled as he waltzed down the office. Durin froze up, while Varka face palmed. Lohen stopped next to Durin and looked at the youth with his empty smile. “Oh, hello little dragon. What are you up to?”
“I just wanted to ask the Grandmaster if there’s some jobs I could help with, since I wanted to practise some new moves I learned…” Durin explained, his voice going quieter with every word he uttered.
Lohen’s brows raised. “Oh would you look at that! I know just the thing to help you.” Lohen mused, his face beaming. It resembled sunlight reflecting off of the frozen river in Dragonspine.
“That won’t be necessary.” Varka interjected, before Durin got the chance to say anything. “I have a job for you, Lohen.”
The Vice Captain turned to the Grandmaster. “What kind of job?”
“A very important one. Guarding cargo going from the Dawn Winery.” Varka said matter of factly and handed him a piece of paper. “Someone from the fifth company is best suited for this kind of job. You can defeat any thieves or enemies without destroying the goods.”
“You should assign this to someone else then,” Lohen replied, skimming the notes on the paper. “You know my style is to get more up and personal anyway.”
“Then why did you join the company specilizing in ranged combat?”
Lohen’s eyes squinted. “Touché.” He turned around on his heel and spared one last glance at Durin before he left. “Guess lady luck wasn’t on my side this time. Perhaps another time. Don’t forget those new moves though, I’d love to see them one day.”
Durin didn’t say anything. Once the door closed behind Lohen with a click, he turned back to Varka.
“Thank you for not assigning him with me, Grandmaster.” Durin gave him a weak and awkward smile.
“It’s no trouble. That guy wouldn’t be good for you anyway.” Varka waved his hand. “He’d be done with the enemies before you could get a single attack in.”
Varka let out a hardy laugh. Meanwhile Durin tilted his head. Then he looked between the Grandmaster and the door to his office with utter confusion. Did he fail to read the room or was the Grandmaster who didn’t seem to grasp the situation?
Durin wasn’t sure…
…
While heading to the Mondstadt library, Durin overheard some commotion coming from behind the Knights of Favonius headquarters. If he remembered correctly, that was where they had one of their training grounds, usually reserved for the knights in training. Durin watched them a few times when he was practicing of his own swordwork.
Curiosity got the better of him and he went to check out who was training. Since he still didn’t get the chance to practice his new power, he figured he could at least work on his fundementals. He stopped behind the corner when he noticed a familiar midnight blue uniform.
Lohen was aiming with his polearm at a dummy tied to an anemo slime floating in the air. The Vice Captain narrowed his eyes and threw his weapon into the air. The spear lodged itself into the training dummy, suprising the anemo slime and making it pull slightly back. Lohen quickly jumped into the air, grabbed the spear still piered in the training dummy and in one swift motion pulled out the spear and slashed both the slime and the dummy. The anemo slime dissappeared into a puff of air, while the dummie’s severed head and body fell to the ground.
The Vice Captain had a much more graceful landing then his “opponent”, with a spear in his hand and a bored expression aimed at the decapetated dummy.
Durin stared in awe. He guessed Lohen would be pretty strong considering he’s a Vice Captain, but he’s never actually seen him fight. No wonder Varka said he’d be running circles around Durin, his execution was flawless.
He moved closer to Lohen, who still stood in the middle of the training ground. “That was amazing! I didn’t know you could jump so high even without your vision.”
Lohen tilted his head lazily, a sly grin spreading across his face. “I can show you how to work on your speed if you want.” He offered.
Durin nodded without thinking.
A dangerous glint flashed in Lohen’s eyes. “Well well well, looks like I finally lured the dragon from his lair.” He leaned closer to Durin. “Now let’s see how long will it take me until I slay him.”
Durin’s face dropped after he realised what kind of deal he just signed.
Oh no…