Arkshan was awakened to the loudest snoring he has heard in all twenty seven years of his life.
He looked towards the source of the sound and found out it was coming from Jun.
Who had his head on his lap.
"Ya!" Arkshan shouted in disdain as he poked Jun with his nail. But Jun just kept on snoring loudly.
He then decided to push him off of the rock with his tail. As Arkshan did so, Jun reached behind him, grabbed Arkshan's tail, and hugged it tightly to his chest. An immensely frustrated grumble came out of the half-dragon as he looked up at the starry night sky.
He's one of those heavy sleepers.
A wave of relaxation came over Arkshan all of a sudden that caused him to look back down at the snoring person again. He watched as Jun was slowly rubbing the scales of his tail with his thumb.
Arkshan flicked the back of Jun's head, but he still got no response nor would he stop rubbing his scales. Jun was probably the heaviest sleeper he had seen. And probably in the whole world for that matter.
And Arkshan was probably the lightest sleeper in the world.
Even though Jun rubbing his scales was oddly relaxing, he still couldn't go to sleep from how loud Jun was snoring.
This wanton is going to attract everything within a ten mile radius...
Arkshan thought in exasperation as he messed with Jun's unkept hair.
It was a lot thicker than his own hair. As Arkshan's hair was as thin and fluffy as a rabbit's. He stared into the crackling ambers of the campfire while he decided to get lost in his thoughts.
He flickered his tongue and immediately was invaded by the fragrance of lilies and roses. That particular vial and scent was a gift to him by the three sisters that raised him.
As it was a way to remember them in his travels since that was fragrance they often wore. Arkshan continued to flicker his tongue to smell the floral scent.
Even though it was pretty peaceful and calm in the mountains where they were, it was also pretty cold from the breeze and the altitude.
The elements never bothered Arkshan as he could easily regulate his body temperature at will. He looked down at Jun and realized he was still in a deep sleep, not shivering or seeming to be bothered by anything.
It was probably his tail that was keeping him warm. A long sigh came out of Arkshan as he looked back into the dancing flames.
Jun was a curious case to him.
He knew his name wasn't his real name and his bow is special.
Though he couldn't put his finger on who, or what, he was.
As he was far too weak or naïve to be anyone of power or importance. Or any hero of sort.
Though he did want to find out if he was one of those Eastern dragon slayers or not. As dragons were the second strongest creature to Arkshan, the first being himself.
To have a human who's job and skill was to take down dragons, seemed like a battle worthwhile and challenging. As he needed a challenge already.
Everything Arkshan has encountered has been weak according to his standards.
And if having to drag this person along with him so that he could get that battle, he was willing to do.
Though begrudgingly.
But he also wasn't willing to scour the entirety of the Lands if Jun decided to run away from him. Which then made him question why Jun even decided to keep by his side throughout their time together.
Probably wants to get in my pants or something because of my wealth.
Arkshan scoffed as he looked down at Jun.
The last thing he would ever want to do was to stoop so low as to have sex with a human.
Or anything for those matters. It disgusts him on how people would even want to do anything like that, let alone make a whole living doing it.
Arkshan jolted in his seat as he heard a screech that drowned out the sound of Jun's snoring.
It sounded like it was coming out from a dying animal, more specifically a wolf, and something that had liquid in its throat.
Surely that would've wakened—
But Arkshan was sorely mistaken as Jun was still sleeping like the dead.
Arkshan grabbed a nearby large rock with one hand and threw it over the fire with ease.
What he heard just now was the screech of a Strákurlupi, or just Strákur. It was a type of class two demonic entity that often were found in packs roaming the darkness, especially in the deep woods away from villages or lots of people.
And they, and many more demons, were active at night during early spring.
What made them more deadly than the class one demonlupi was that you couldn't allow their shadow to cross over yours. Or else you fell extremely ill or died, depending how long both shadows were together.
That would be an easy task if it was against one, but since they often traveled in packs people who have encountered them are dead. Though the easiest way to avoid their shadows was to have no light source, but then they were hard to see in the night.
Strangely moonlight wasn't necessarily considered a type of light.
Arkshan didn't need to worry about the dark as he could see pretty clearly in it, though not perfectly.
Suddenly Arkshan felt his hears ringing as a screech was heard even closer.
Like it was right behind him.
He leaned back on the rock and looked up. A thick, rotten smelling liquid dripped on his face.
"Fuck." Arkshan muttered as he was face to face with a decaying black wolf that had a jaw hanging by scraps of muscle, staring down at him.
Its eyes glowed a pure white as the liquid dripped from its mouth and open wounds all over its body.
Arkshan swiftly grabbed the Strákur by the neck and threw it forcibly on the ground.
Giving him enough time to grab one of his silver swords out of their sheaths and throw Jun over his right shoulder.
More screeching was heard as he saw five more coming out of the forest in front of him.
The Strákur nearest to Arkshan lunged towards him with its rotten rows upon rows of teeth barred. He swiftly sliced through the air that sent the creature's head sailing through the night.
Arkshan side stepped the bloody body and looked at the rest who began to circle him.
He dodged the first two that jumped at him. Whacking a few far away with his tail.
Another swift slice cut the two in half, their blood splattering along his arm and side.
Arkshan clicked his tongue in disgust as he swiped the blood from his sword.
A bite was felt on his tail, but nothing penetrated his scales. Arkshan whipped his tail around to fling the Strákur to the ground in front of him.
He stabbed his sword straight through its head.
The remaining two Strákur leaped at him. He kicked one and grabbed the other by its throat.
And finally finishing them off quickly with his sword.
Arkshan huffed tiredly as he laid Jun back on their rock. He was still sleeping peacefully, not seeming to have been disturbed once.
He moved the rock off of the campfire and relit it.
The bloody, decomposing corpses of the Strákur littered the campsite. Arkshan decided to kick and throw the bodies and their parts off of the cliff of the mountain they stayed on. He grabbed his canteen and used the remaining water to clean him and his sword off.
As he was cleaning up his surroundings, Arkshan heard the soft sounds of hooves galloping in the distance.
"For fucks sake..." Arkshan's stated angrily, not even bothering to keep his voice low at this point.
He turned around to see three white stags that had dark grey colored legs. Three identical looking women sat on each deer.
They had long blonde hair that flowed in the breeze elegantly. Along with simple black cloth dresses. He heard the women murmuring to themselves as they looked at him.
Vilanká...
Arkshan watched as the women gracefully jumped off their stags and walked towards him.
They weren't demons or supernatural spirits, but rather fae folk. Vilanká and other fae folk were unique in that they were morally neutral. Being either benevolent or malevolent depending on the actions of the person they encountered did.
They are said to enjoy night hunting, as it was when human hunters are asleep. And sought the love of men they deemed handsome to either fulfill their unrequited love or to help aid them in a trouble they had.
If someone were to try and call their attention or didn't do what they asked of them, they would kill them by eating out their heart.
Since Arkshan didn't want to deal with fighting another onslaught of whatever else dwelled in these forests, he decided to heed what they wanted of him.
Though he still had limits that couldn't be wavered.
"What do you want?" Arkshan demanded as he felt one of the women trace the scales along his arm.
The woman looked up at Arkshan with awe in her eyes. "A half-dragon? I thought you were just myth!"
Nods of agreement came from the other two as they fawned over Arkshan's draconic appearance.
Steam came out of his nose as he did a hard breath out. His patience didn't have the qualities of endurance.
"I'm not the only one here."
He tried to direct the faes' attention somewhere else as he pointed at Jun's snoring figure. The women looked to where he pointed and squealed while they ran over to Jun.
A wind of relief went over Arkshan while he watched the women gather around Jun.
"He's so adorable!" One of them exclaimed as they played with his hair.
"Look at his cute little face sleeping!"
"His snoring is so adorable!"
And many other comments were made as Arkshan's presence slowly faded from their minds. He looked out from where they came from, which was also the direction one of the Strákur came from.
Though the Strákur probably all came from that direction and the other five decided to try and ambush him from the front. It was also the direction to the mine.
And apparently an Easterner resided in a nearby area that the incompetent shaman had told Jun about.
It was most likely not a coincidence that the fae also came from that direction. As it was supposedly the source of where all the demonic activity is spilling in from.
Arkshan breathed in deeply as he leaned on the stone of the mountain. There was going to be a lot more fighting than he anticipated.
"Oh by the way!" Arkshan turned to the fae woman who called him. "We need you to protect us from the creature!"
She sounded a little too happy saying that that made Arkshan slightly uncomfortable.
Before Arkshan could even question what it was, a loud guttural roar came out from the forest down below. Birds squawked as they flew out from the fir trees in large clusters.
The stags that the women rode in quickly made their way towards Jun and sat around him and the women.
Drake's Mouth my ass...
Arkshan lazily unsheathed both of his swords from his side and stood at the edge of the cliff. Movement could be seen knocking down trees, but nothing could be seen.
As if it was invisible.
Must be a camouflaging demon.
The ground shook as dents were made on the face of the cliff. It was still utterly invisible. Soon a wave of silence fell over the forest and mountains.
Arkshan took down his guard slightly and looked down. Maybe it had gone because it couldn't climb.
All of a sudden a huge creature leaped upon Arkshan and pinned him to the ground.
It roared in his face, sending salvia and blood flying onto his skin. The stench of blood and rotten decay emanated off of its breath which nauseated Arkshan.
He kicked the creature with all his might in its stomach as he pushed it off of him.
The creature went flying over Arkshan which allowed him to quickly jump onto his feet.
Arkshan heard the faes were cheering happily for him as they watched him fight. He looked over at the creature getting up and recognized it as a lesser drake.
It was about the height of the trees and had spiked scales all over its body. The drake's belly also glowed a bright red as piercing red eyes stared down at Arkshan.
The creature was a mountain drake in particular as Arkshan could easily tell by its almost transparent, reflective scales.
It roared as it lunged towards Arkshan, claws and teeth all directed towards him.
He jumped out of its way and shouldered the drake in its side.
It went crashing into the side of the mountain with a earsplitting slam, causing the stone to crack all around it.
Arkshan had to find a weak spot in its coat of scales so that he could penetrate it.
Directly ripping its heart out through its mouth was too dangerous as he could easily cut his exposed underarm.
Then he would be in too much pain to do anything.
He looked down at the drake's patch of scales underneath its legs. It looked to not be as thick as the rest of its body.
Arkshan jumped towards the creature to attack but was soon hit by its leg.
Sending him flying into the trees of the nearby forest.
He coughed from the wind being knocked out of him and looked up at it.
The creature had just turned its attention to the women who screamed in panic.
Jun just continued to snore away.
The rage poured over Arkshan's cup from the sight of Jun sleeping. He pushed off one of the trees and dashed towards the drake.
Before the massive creature could breath its flames on them, Arkshan jumped and knocked it off of the cliff face.
Tumbling downhill alongside it.
Arkshan let out a roar of agony as he felt a cut on his face and multiple on his arms.
The pain burned throughout his wounds as he curled up in a ball of scales. A shaking of the ground caused Arkshan to look up and see the drake pouncing onto him.
He writhed in numbingly excruciating pain as he blacked out of reality for a second.
One of the drake's claws was embedded into his left shoulder as it went to bite down on his head.
He barely managed to grab the creature's throat while he weakly held its mouth mere inches away from him.
Arkshan panted heavily as the drake's mouth slowly got closer to him.
Even though the pain was making Arkshan start to pass out, he managed to grab under one of the creature's forelegs. He dug his nails into the softer scales.
The drake let out a loud roar of pain as it stopped pushing against him. Arkshan was then able to push it off to his side.
He reached for one of his swords that fell with him and stabbed it through the creature's eye.
More roars of intense agony came out of the drake as Arkshan twisted his blade in its eye socket.
He took advantage of the creature's pain and lifted its head up. Then he took out his sword and thrusted it through its foreleg. Into its heart through the ribcage.
It struggled and writhed loudly in his hands but he held it firmly in place. Twisting and thrusting the sword until it stopped moving.
When he took his sword out, warm blood splattered all over his front and sword.
Arkshan dropped his sword as he fell to his knees.
The pain came back as he tried his best to endure it. Especially in his injured shoulder. He laid huddled up as he waited for his body to heal itself.
The regeneration properties his body held were useful for situations like this. But it did little to dumb down the excruciating pain he had to endure.
A long time passed before Arkshan weakly got himself up off and the ground and made the trek back up to the campsite.
Once up there, he was greeted by the faes flinging their arms around him and pecking his cheeks.
He was too tired and worn out to care as he made his way next to Jun. Arkshan was so fed up with Jun snoring and sleeping peacefully the entire time that he slapped him with his tail.
I'll make sure he awakens to something nice.
Arkshan thought bitterly as he leaned back on the rock.
One of the women sat on his lap and looked at the wound in his shoulder.
"For coming to our aid. You get to be healed by us!" The woman said in a soothing voice as the other two gathered around him.
Arkshan saw warm glows emanating from their hand and placed their hands on his shoulder.
The pain started to go away and soon the wound was completely healed. No scars or signs of previous damage.
Though he never scarred anyways.
The women continued to the other various cuts on his body. Arkshan felt like he had never fought the drake or Strákurlupi after they were finished healing him.
He grunted as a way to acknowledge what they had did for them. Though he still wasn't very pleased with what he had to endure for them.
"It's time for us to leave then." The one on his left said as she kissed his cheek.
"Many thanks for you protecting us you handsome and strong man!" The fae on his lap said before kissing him on the lips, cupping his face with her hands.
Arkshan wiped his face and lips with the back of his hand in disgust. Trying to get the taste of their lips off of him.
"Yeah go away," he dismissed which caused the three to get off of him and back on their white stags.
They waved before riding back into the forest.
Arkshan melted into the large rock as he tried to finally go to sleep. But once he closed his eyes he immediately opened them once again.
He looked down at Jun who, for whatever reason, was still snoring loudly.
A frustrated groan came out of Arkshan as he decided to just focus on the stars in the sky. It seemed like he wasn't going to get any sleep tonight.
Though he could go days without sleep fine, Arkshan prized his beauty sleep. Especially when he was out in the wilderness away from people.
Arkshan hated how he just protected Jun who didn't deserve it.