"Hey Ayren..."

Ayren almost cried inside once he heard Loon's voice calling him, as he was looking around the forest, trying to get some point of reference to see if he was going the right way. Without walking on the road, it was easy to get lost in that big forgotten forest.

"Can you please shut up, I am trying to focus." he said with an annoyed tone, as he was moving towards a creek, hoping it was the same connected to a waterfall he walked back to when he was looking for the child of the village chief.

He felt his heartbeat faster, and his red eyes opened up when he heard a big thud behind him.

He turned and he felt weird as he saw the half dragon on the ground "What... What happened?" he asked, rushing towards him instinctively. Loon was showing his back, and Ayren raised his eyebrow "What are you doing?"

Ayren's stare became an even more frustrated one, once Loon slowly turned to him with his hands trembling "I... wanted to catch that rabbit, I am hungry." he said with teary eyes, making him feel like he was dealing with a child.

"Are you... seriously crying?" Ayren sighed heavily "This isn't really happening to me, it isn't." he kept telling himself, feeling hatred inside, the more he was looking at Loon's teary eyes.

"I have been without food for centuries, the hourglass was keeping me alive just to get my mana, you don't know how it feels." Loon crossed his arms, showing off an annoyed, grumpy stare.

He then opened his eyes when he noticed Ayren crouching down, staring at him with a neutral stare.
"I don't, but do you think I care as long as you have energy to walk?" he asked and Loon looked at him, to then surprise him by touching his cheeks and pulling them a little "What the..."

"Aren't you hungry?" Loon asked and Ayren for a moment looked at him with a confused gaze. Loon's eyes were glowing of a malicious blue as his tail was laying on his lap. Loon's hand was actually cold, but it was a good sensation for Ayren to feel on his cheeks.

He raised his eyebrow, once he noticed Loon smiling when he moved a few strands of hair that were covering his left red eye to have a better sight of it.

"Can you please explain why you are that much into touching my face?" he asked and Loon looked at him with a neutral stare. Ayren began to question himself if he had any idea of what he was doing.

I mean, he wasn't used to people touching his face? Nobody would dare to even try, yet that damn half dragon was doing it without even thinking twice, like it was something totally normal.

"Explain? Your eyes are the first thing I saw after years of nothing, I am quite fond of them!" he smiled, and Ayren sighed heavily. He put back his sword in its cover, and left the chains to quickly grab the hands of him, to stop them.

"I don't know in what world you were living in back then, but this is not normal." Ayren stood up under Loon's confused stare. The swordsman stroked his own hair out of frustration "Don't do that to any other men or women, you might get into trouble." he said, leaving Loon sitting on the ground with a puzzled stare.

"How strange..." Loon muttered, staring at his own hand. "I don't usually get this kind of reaction from creatures... Or was it always like this?" He crossed his arms, his expression growing grumpy as he tried to recall fragments of his past. But after fifty years of imprisonment, his mind was still hazy, and the memories seemed just out of reach.

Ayren looked up at the sky, seeing the colors of the sunset being clearer. After that bloody rainy night, that one was about to be quiet and honestly, he was glad as he didn't want that weak dragon to get soaked.

His thoughts got broken when he noticed Loon throwing himself in the water of the creek under his blank stare. Loon was literally swimming, trying to catch some fish, and he sighed as he noticed they kept playing with his tail.

The half dragon laughed but he tilted his head once he noticed Ayren staring at him with his eyebrow having a nervous tick, and his hands trembling, ready to probably rage.

"... Want some?" Loon asked, holding with a soft smile a fish from the tail, to then laugh innocently as he could definitely see flames around the swordsman.

"Get out of the water! I will go hunting and get wood for the campfire, you better do whatever the hell you want." Ayren said out of madness leaving Loon there... still swimming.

Ayren of course took his time to catch some rabbits in the forest, but he didn't mind at all. He was quite fond of solitude after all.

"Honestly, I just hope he took the chance to get away, I don't care anymore, he's just a nuisance." Ayren told himself as he tied some rabbits around his belt, to then focus on getting some branches for the fire.

"I wanted to bring him to the village and leave him there to go back to my path anyway" he sighed at himself annoyed, getting enough branches. The swordsman looked at the forest getting almost fully dark and closed his eyes for a moment enjoying the quiet.

He kept walking towards where the sound of the water was "At this point he should have escaped alread..." he stopped his feet as he noticed Loon floating on the water, as around him there were fish imprisoned inside the bubbles of water, glowing of blue clear mana.

Loon had one arm resting behind and the other laying on his chest. His tail's fur, the horns and his eyes were shining under the moonlight of a magical blue. It felt like the swordsman was looking at someone completely different from the clueless half dragon he thought Loon was.

Ayren let the branches fall off his arms and Loon turned, leaving a serious and deadly side eye towards him, but once he noticed it was the swordsman, his serious stare became a happy one, making Ayren almost feeling uncomfortable by that switch.

"You're back! I did get some food as well!" he smiled and Ayren sighed heavily under Loon's confused stare as he was walking off the water with the imprisoned fish floating around him and following his movements.

"Why didn't you just set yourself free..." Ayren said without even looking at him, as he was preparing the fire "It was the perfect opportunity."

Loon sat in front of the campfire in front of him and crossed his arms as his own tail was on the side moving a little. Ayren raised his head a bit, as he was turning on the fire, to look at the half dragon smiling.

"To go where?"

"Away from me." Ayren said like he was begging, making Loon feel even guilty he hadn't done it as the swordsman looked like he was losing patience with him.

Loon's eyes shined as he saw the fire turned on. He moved his hand towards a bubble with the fish inside, and that collapsed once the half dragon's finger touched it. Ayren looked at him, apathetic towards the man's happiness as he was holding proudly the fish he did "catch" and sighed.

Ayren put the rabbits to cook under Loon's confused stare "Put the fish back to the water, no need to eat more than we need." he said as his eyes were focused on the fire "Those are still living unlike the rabbits I killed."

"But..." Loon sighed and made the fish he had in his hands float as water was forming around it to get him back in a bubble. In a fast movement the bubbles full of fish flew back to the water freeing the littles ones back to the river. Loon looked at Ayren a little bit upset and the swordsman tilted his head to the side.

"Once we reach this village, our paths will never meet again." Ayren stretched his legs while sitting on the ground under Loon's curious stare "I couldn't leave you inside that sanctuary, you would have got the blame for the deaths probably, so..." He pointed his sword at him "Once we get to that poor village, you will get away from my sight, understand?"

"But why?" Loon asked, and Ayren felt again the nervous tick on his eyebrow and lips tilting, trying to betray him as he wanted to keep himself in his calm stance "Do you wish me to help that village?"

"No, I don't care, I wish you to get back to enjoy your life away from mine, my path is filled with deaths and murders." Ayren crossed his arms as he was staring at the half dragon who looked not even scared a bit "And I do work alone, only a fool would walk my roads."

"I don't know where my home is anymore." Loon said as he was holding his knees close to his chest under Ayren's serious stare "I might have told you that I don't remember much right now about my past, but I am sure it was filled with..." his blue eyes were stuck on the fire "... deaths... and suffering."

Ayren tilted his head to a side, as he kept staring at the half dragon who turned a bit his stare towards his own hands as water was forming around it. The swordsman felt that man was actually strong, but he had no idea who he was.

A little curiosity was trying to kick in as he was probably something related to the previous Emperor, his doom, his reason for cursed life. But after fifty years... What was the point?

"Do you remember how to use your powers?" he asked and Loon looked at him after he gave him the cooked rabbit on a big leaf.

Loon's face got happy once he tasted the meat and Ayren laughed a little without even noticing. That dragon man looked so innocent for some things he couldn't believe it.

"I do, but I can't do anything against those, it's pretty annoying having them. It feels like a collar..." Loon said annoyed, pointing at the chain around his neck "The Emperor wanted to make sure I would have never been free again with those chains, they're made with my own mana, and I can't do anything to free myself...It makes me have nightmares of my past."

"What do you see in those nightmares?" Ayren asked and Loon took another bite of the cooked rabbit, using that moment to elaborate a fast answer. He looked a little uncomfortable from that question as if it was something that was meant to stay hidden even to his own memories.

"I guess I was the Emperor's favorite entertainment," he explained, shrugging his shoulders under Ayren's surprised stare.

Loon locked his blue eyes on him with a neutral stare "I am an immortal sage, the Keeper of the Life Essence." He giggled "Probably you have no idea who I am or... was... I don't know..." he muttered, getting lost in his own thoughts for a moment "So many years... have passed..."

Ayren's eyes opened "Didn't you say you didn't remember your past?" he asked and Loon laughed innocently.

"I lied." he replied under Ayren's hopeless stare "But I don't think anyone knows me... I was a legend back then, and the Emperor tried his best to keep me for himself."

"Keeper of the Life Essence..." Ayren repeated in his head "It sounds familiar but I don't think I have ever really heard of a half dragon God."

"Huh?" Loon blushed happily "Do I look like a God?" he asked and Ayren sighed, feeling a little bit irritated from how lightly he was talking about that matter..

"Magical creatures are pretty common, but you're just different.". Loon got serious under Ayren's stare "I have fought for a long time, traveled across the country, and never met a half dragon, or maybe you're a dragon in a human disguise, but those pointy ears..." he shrugged "Whatever, it's not going to be my problem once we reach the village."

Ayren untied his tailcoat and made a sort of pillow to use against a tree where he would lay his back, to keep watching Loon, explaining a bit of his past.

"Heh? You're not trying to absorb my power? Or to know what I can do?" Loon asked and Ayren tilted his head, unbothered by that question.

"Why would I care to see what you can do with your mana if you don't want to fight me." he asked with a calm stare, making Loon surprised "Why do you even look that surprised... Just what's your deal with the Emperor anyway?" he asked as he was feeling confused by Loon's questions.

"I was... a humble servant of the Emperor, I wanted to support the kingdom, but I got betrayed it seems... and imprisoned... Kept away from my people... my world... till they thought I did disappear..."

"You don't look sad." Ayren commented and Loon raised his head to look at the moon as its rays were playing with his long black long hair.

"I've been with the Emperor for so many years... and then imprisoned," Loon said, leaning back against the tree as he slowly released some mana, catching Ayren's curious gaze. "I want to believe it was my fate... After all, even immortals can't explain everything in this world—things just happen." He smiled softly, though there was a trace of bitterness behind it. "But why... all this suffering? It's not... fair." His voice quieted as delicate blue strands of pure mana formed gentle, flowing waves around him. His eyes focused on his hands, casually playing with the waves like it was second nature.

Before Ayren's eyes, a water dragon materialized. Loon rested his hand on the dragon's muzzle, and the creature slowly coiled its large tail around him, letting Loon rest his head against its body as if it were a pillow.

"I am not sure what's my purpose in this Era anymore." Loon eyes slowly closed under Ayren's fascinated stare.

The dragon he summoned was shining of a mana he had never seen before meeting that strange man. The eyes of the two were similar, like they were... the same? Ayren felt himself reacting to that big amount of mana, but he wasn't feeling threatened.

It felt like that mana was... harmless... at that moment.

The summoner indeed wanted to just sleep comfortably, wrapped around his own magic released in the form of a dragon, like an extension of his own spirit.

"Waste of talent." Ayren sighed, annoyed, feeling how strong and mysterious that man was. He almost felt irritated as he knew, he could feel Loon was strong, but why was he acting that weak? And who was the sane person who would happily stand by the Emperor's side?

"Fool." Ayren commented as he stand up and looked at Loon sleeping.

He took his tailcoat and slowly reached the dragon to cover his body as his clothes looked light for a night like that in the forest.

"Don't get sick or you will be even more of a nuisance tomorrow" he said annoyed, before getting his sword and laying against a tree to guard the little camp.

He then froze on the spot and asked himself why he did that "Argh..." he grit his teeth, moving the hand on his own face frustrated "Do half dragons... immortals actually get sick? Idiot."