Kirishima's PoV

It was still early in the morning when Katsuki and I walked down the narrow path to Miss Farney's cottage. The sun stood deep over the mountains and dried the morning dew. I held the hand of my mate tightly and prepared myself for what was coming.

The news that there had been a dragon attack had reached the Order only after it had happened. It had shocked me because I had secretly hoped that such a situation would never happen. Nevertheless, I felt the urge for action in my veins. Because that, a dragon attack, was exactly what the Order had prepared me for the last few years. Prepared for my role as mediator between the two cultures.

"Are you all right?" hummed Katsuki, who knew me too well not to notice my nervousness.

I nodded and smiled at him soothingly. "Do you think they'll send me straight to the scene?" I asked hesitantly.

At first, the only answer received was a disapproving growl. He supported me actively with everything he was able to do, but was very critical of the order itself. He was constantly at loggerheads with Miss Farney or another of the members of the order.

"I don't know", he finally grumbled. "But if so, I'll come with you."

I grinned at him and pressed his hand briefly and firm. No matter how much the Order awarded me, no matter how much more self-confident I had assumed my identity as a half dragon in the recent years: Katsuki was the only one who really gave me support and the only one I really trusted.

Miss Farney's little wooden house came into sight and I saw from the corner of my eye how Katsuki gritted his teeth. I suppressed a sigh. Sometimes I felt as if I was standing between the two.

I raised my fist to knock on the somewhat rotten door. But before my knuckles could touch the wood, the door was torn open from the inside. Miss Farney stood in it, loose grey strands hanging from her otherwise so austere bun and her glasses sitting pretty crooked on her nose.

"What took you so long? It's been two hours since I asked you to get ready and to come down," she asked me sternly and examined me.

Anger flashed in Katsuki's eyes. "You can't order him to do anything! Just be glad Red's here, you old bitter bi-"

I elbowed him in the side to stall him and prevent another argument between the two. Instead, I smiled at the older woman, whose light blue eyes looked sharply and disparagingly at my mate. "Excuse me. But now we are here. How can we help now?" I asked in a friendly manner to ease the situation.

Her eyes wandered to me and her gaze became softer as she returned my smile. "We should go down to the village. The council must decide what to do. But they certainly want you to travel to the scene."

I just nodded before the three of us went down the mountain. Katsuki hadn't made a sound since I had interrupted him in his rant. Nevertheless, I could almost feel the anger boiling in him. But I couldn't blame him, because I had noticed it too. With every word Miss Farney had spoken about the coming mission, she had explicitly addressed me. Not us. Only me. And he didn't like that at all.

The village where most of the members of the order lived was much lower than Miss Farney's cottage. Why she didn't live in the small settlement like everyone else was a matter of its own. She herself claimed that she had moved up because it was too dark and narrow for her down there. But I had my own theory. Although Miss Farney held an important position in the Order and was highly regarded, I noticed that she did not get along very well with the people, perhaps also with people in general. She was too strict, too focused and pursued her task with almost religious intensity. From her I had learned all about the history of the war and her indignation at forgetting or confusing anything almost gave me goose bumps. Nevertheless, one had to credit her with having a good, righteous heart.

At that time when I had headed for the small plateau nearby, completely exhausted, I hadn't noticed the small settlement at the bottom of the mountain. There was a very simple reason for this: the village was under a rock overhang. The rock was a little indented there, almost as if it had been washed out there in the past by a river that no longer existed. The many separate huts were arranged in a line along the rock and formed almost something like a promenade. In addition, the rock itself was crossed by a cave system. There were huge meeting and shelter rooms, which stood from the time when the war was raging, and the dragons had regularly invaded. The dimensions of these rooms alone showed how many people had once lived here. But nowadays the order was small, and the village consisted of at most fifty people.

Even though there were not too many people, the supply situation was still difficult. If they hadn't had a few outside supporters, it would have been impossible for the Order to exist this way. Since the members of the order were reverently respectful towards me, they were always ready to provide me with everything. But soon I got a guilty conscience and began to help actively with the transport of the goods into the mountains. For me it was only a monthly day flight, for the inhabitants it was days of drudgery. So I could at least return the favor a little and accept the goods, which consisted mainly of grain, fruit, vegetables and soap, with a clear conscience. Only the meat I always refused, because I preferred to hunt myself and I liked this fresh meat better anyway.

We reached the village and immediately after the first people recognized me, they nodded at me friendly or greeted me with a happy, "Good morning, Kirishima". That made me happy, but since they didn't greet Katsuki or Miss Farney, it always had a bitter aftertaste. It was not only the hard to overlooked admiration for me, which I could not drive out of them even after all these years. No, I rather had the feeling that they would impose a burden on me. That they had an expectation towards me that I couldn't fulfill.

I ignored the oppressive feeling and squeezed Katsuki's hand a little harder. Together with Miss Farney we reached the entrance to the cave system. As I already knew, the meeting room was directly to our left. Exactly where the older woman led us. I breathed in deeply before I put my hand on the iron door handle. Now they would decide what to do next. Now they would decide what I had to do.