"Why did I do this? Why did I save her?" Duman wondered as he looked at the sleeping fairy lying on the simple bed.
He had brought Tecna back to his base, a cave filled with simple furniture and stock that he had either managed to create, modify or acquire from someone else- whether they wanted to give it up or not.
But he'd seen her walking into the territory of one of the roving gangs and for some reason, he felt like he needed to keep an eye on her.
It was a good thing for her that he did, or she would have been done for...
And besides, he sensed powerful magic within her. Fairy or not, she could be a valuable ally once she got up to full strength again...
He was roused from his thoughts by the sound of the girl... Tecna... rousing from her sleep.
"Urgh... Where the hell am I?" she muttered in a daze.
Duman couldn't help but chuckle at her expression.
"My dear, you're in the Omega Dimension. Remember?"
Tecna grew a little more awake. "Well, of course I remember that! Who wouldn't remember something like that? Just where... is here exactly, Duman?"
"It's my little hidey-hole. My territory. Been here since a day or two after The Great Thaw." Duman explained.
"The one caused by Valtor..."Tecna muttered.
"What do you know about it?" Duman asked. "No one here really knows how it started anyway..."
"One of you... A convict named Valtor was freed by three witches who managed to break free of their ice blocks. One of those witches was an ice witch..." Tecna started.
"Kinda stupid sending her to a realm filled with ice, then..." Duman snorted with laughter at the stupidity of whoever made that call.
"...long story short, he got them all out of here through the physical portal on Andros and it destabilized. It had to be forced shut. From the inside..." Tecna grimaced at the memory.
"And you were the one to do that." Duman said in realization.
Tecna nodded. "If I hadn't, then Andros would have been completely destroyed. One of my best friends is the Crown Princess of Andros. I couldn't... I couldn't just stand by..."
"They say that loyalty is an admirable trait, but not to the degree where you get imprisoned in a place you don't belong..." Duman pointed out.
"If you had friends like mine... You wouldn't understand. You, unlike me deserve to be here." Tecna scowled at him.
"Yeah, I do. I deserve to be here after the 'horribly evil' things that I have done." he spoke in a tone that he could clearly see was annoying her further.
And she obviously saw that it amused him, annoying her even further.
"Anyway, it's my turn to ask a question. You said that 'I survived in this frozen wasteland for so long'... How would you know how long I was down here?" Tecna raised a suspicious eyebrow.
"An hour, a week, I don't really know. All I could sense was that you were a fairy not up to your full strength and you'd be easy pickings with the type of people who dwell down here. No idea what fairy stage you're at though. All I could tell was that you were weak." Duman shrugged.
"Enchantix. I'm an Enchantix fairy." Tecna answered quickly.
"Ah. Full-fledged fairy, huh? There's at least one other fairy I know of in this place, but she's only at basic level..."
"Other fairies? In this place? Really?" Tecna raised an eyebrow, sounding genuinely surprised.
"Yeah, there are. I don't know what kind of black and white morality you had wherever the hell you came from, but fairies can be evil too and are perfectly capable of committing horrible acts." Duman said coolly.
"I've never met an evil fairy in my life!" Tecna scoffed.
Duman stood up and looked her in the eye. "You have a lot to learn then, my dear."
"Don't call me dear." Tecna clenched a fist.
Duman chortled. "If you're going to get riled up that easily about a simple fact, then you're not going to last much longer down here, dear."
Tecna twitched.
"Now. Onto more pressing matters at the moment. Do you think you can use more of your magic yet?" the shape shifter pressed.
Tecna summoned a ball of energy that crackled and sizzled, but didn't dissipate until she actively let it.
"My magic is stronger and more stable now after my little... nap. How long was I... sleeping for anyway?" Tecna wondered.
"The better part of two days." Duman answered. "According to your device."
"Wait, what?" Tecna practically jumped out of the bed. "Two days?! I was out for two days?!"
"Yes," Duman sounded nonchalant. "You were. I assume you were never really able to sleep since you had to keep one eye open, so you just crashed eventually."
"And you kept an eye out for me the whole time?" Tecna raised an eyebrow.
Duman simply nodded.
"I... wow. I guess I should be glad that you didn't murder me in my sleep..."
"Oh please. If I were inclined to kill you, would not be alive right now. Besides, I liked my victims to put up a fight. It was much more entertaining that way."
"You've killed people?"
"Several. That and a lot of other things is what got me iced. You never heard of me back in Magix or whatever realm it is that you came from?" Duman raised an eyebrow.
"No, never."
Duman remained silent. She'd never heard of him, even with what he'd done when he'd been free? Crimes like his were certainly not the kind that you could hide easily...
Or... perhaps they were so scared of the memories of the trouble and terror that he'd helped cause, that they wanted to forget all about it...
"Maybe later I'll tell you. For now, we need to get some food." Duman stretched and cracked his knuckles, before reaching for one of the weapons hanging on the wall.
"Hold on. You can hunt down here?!" Tecna asked in surprise.
"Sure you can. Quite a few ice-loving creatures roaming around. Some are actually edible. What did you do for food?"
"Um... I changed bits of ice into food?"
"Transfigured food is never as good as the real thing, dear. Now come on, I'll teach you a few hunting basics, dear." Duman twirled the sword in his hand, belted it and reached for a crossbow and some arrows.
"What did I say about calling me that?" Tecna reached for a sword, albeit hesitantly.
"What, dear?" Duman chortled.
"Don't dear me!"
"Well, dear. If you're going to get rankled over me calling you dear, dear, you're going to be so much fun to mess around with, dear." he broke out in full blown laugher at Tecna's expression.
"Just messing around with you. Come on, dear." Duman motioned for her to follow him, a smirk still on his lips.
Tecna grumbled under her breath and clenched her fists, but followed him anyway.
"That... was absolutely disgusting!" Tecna squirmed, obviously disgusted by the dead... thing Duman was currently carrying over his shoulder.
"You said that you wanted food, I got food. Now chow down or go hungry." he casually dropped the dead creature onto ground outside his cave.
"How do you even know that this thing is edible?" Tecna gingerly poked it with a booted foot, as if expecting it to resurrect itself and attack her.
"I ate it before and I'm not dead yet." Duman shrugged.
"Yet being the key word there. You're disgusting."
"Eh... been called worse." Duman rummaged around in the cave and managed to find firewood.
"How do you even find firewood in an entirely iced realm?! There's no trees here!"
"Magic." Duman gathered the pile together outside the cave.
Tecna rolled her eyes, but lit the fire with a spark of electricity from a finger.
"Say, what are your powers anyway?" Duman watched as she lit the fire.
"Technology. Stemming from that, I can control electricity and probably draw power from lightning too." Tecna's eyes followed his every action as he started cooking the animal.
"Not much technology around here for you to draw power from, is there?" he noted as he poked at the now roasting animal with a stick.
"Nope. But I should be fine for a little while."
"How long is a little while?" Duman raised an eyebrow.
"I haven't tried to test my limits yet." Tecna replied wryly.
"Everyone has limits. You should know what yours are so you don't find out at a most... inopportune time..."
The fire crackled and sizzled; the only sounds around for several moments.
Duman studied Tecna's expression as she watched the fire, seemingly analyzing it.
For a fairy, and one so naïve at that, she wasn't doing so bad here.
A lot of other fairies and other light oriented beings would have probably died already or be close to it. The other fairy he met here was different since she had dark magic running through her veins.
But Tecna was somehow able to endure this place...
She was stronger than she realized. He'd only known her for a few days and he could already tell...
"So... is this thing done cooking yet?" Tecna asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.
"Yeah. Thought you said you didn't want any though. Maybe I should eat it all myself."
"You wouldn't dare." she glared at him.
"I would. I'm so evil, remember?" he mocked a statement from one of their earlier conversations.
"Hand it over. Now." Tecna's hand crackled with energy.
"Hmm... You may just have some fight in you after all." Duman ripped off a leg off the meat and handed it to her.
Tecna gingerly took a bite and paused. "It's... actually not that bad. Tastes like beef as a matter of fact..." she began to eat it more eagerly.
"I personally think it tastes more like pork." Duman shrugged as he ripped a chunk of meat from another leg, getting bits of it on the ground, much to the fairy's disgust.
"You at like such a... barbarian!"
"This is the Omega Dimension. No need for manners here. Manners could get you killed down here, actually." Duman spoke through mouthfuls of food, which disgusted her even more.
"Tune would hate your guts." Tecna thought sadly at the thought of the pixie and Musa, her friend, the fairy to whom she was bonded. Her thoughts wandered over to her own bonded pixie, Digit. How was she doing without her bonded fairy?
They continued to eat in silence.
"Well," Duman broke the silence as they both finished eating. "I think the rest of this can be stored away for now. We can eat this later." he reached for a chest and locked the remainder of the roasted meat inside.
"Now, for sleeping arrangements. One bed, two of us. Someone's going to have to sleep on the floor." Duman said.
"Well, it's not going to be me." Tecna got to her feet, closed her eyes and concentrated, holding her hands out in front of her.
A black hammock appeared in a corner opposite the bed, blanket, pillow and all.
"See? problem easily solved." Tecna smirked at him as she got into the hammock.
"Now, you stay over there and don't try any funny business when I'm asleep." Tecna glared at him.
"I wouldn't dream of it." Duman spoke dryly.
"I'm serious!"
"I'm Duman. Nice to meet you, Serious." Duman kept his face straight.
"You are so infuriating!" Tecna turned her back to him.
"Thank you."
"Urgh!" Tecna put the pillow over her ears.
Duman chortled as he left the cave for a walk.
Her mannerisms around him. She tried to act all prim and proper, but she did have a spark of something in her that was anything but. He saw that when he took her hunting.
She needed to get rid of that prim and proper side if she wanted to survive down here.
And he would have more fun than he ever had down here, helping her to do that.