4: Questions of the Past and Future
It was really hard to understand, why such a perfect magical creature, powerful and majestic, could spread only terror and death.
Deep under the mountains the great dragon named Fafnir was sleeping on a piles of gold. He sniffed nervously several times and opened one golden eye. Something was wrong. The air seemed colder than usual and unpleasant smell of rotting leaves teased his nostrils. The winter was coming quickly and the old reptile realized, that he's hungry and needs to feed well before another long sleep.
Fafnir slowly raised his giant head, letting the coins slip down freely, like a clinking waterfall. He didn't like the idea of leaving the gold unprotected, but quickly calmed down. He was a dragon, no one will dare to came to his lair just like that! Facing him was a suicide, he was simply invincible with his iron scales. His wings made a hurricane! His teeth were like sharp swords, his claws – spears, his breathe – a raging inferno. Who would be stupid enough to ever challenge him?
No one, of course! The last idiot, who'd tried to rob Fafnir, to lay his dirty hands on dragon's treasure, tasted awfully. His horse would be probably must tastier, but the dragon was not really in the mood to chase this stupid creature back then…
He slowly crawled out of the cave, stretched his wings and flied into the cold air, to seek prey.
"Rin, there's no need to rush. We have one more night to think about tactics."
"How do you know?"
They were traveling back to the Regin's household. Their horses were willingly speeding up to reach a warm stable as soon as possible, already feeling the winter breeze in their manes.
"Allfather said it," Siegfried explained simply. "We won't be attacked before the full moon, so you don't need to be so nervous."
"What?!"
One powerful kick of angry Tohsaka was enough to send Siegfried to the ground. But why he's started to laugh in such a miserable position?
"What's so funny?!"
"This is the first time I've ever fallen off a horse." He was laughing like a lunatic. "Easy, Rin, it was only a small talk, nothing more."
"A small talk with the head of local pantheon? Great, just great!" She rolled her eyes. "Do you realize how it sounds?"
"Panthe… what? It's not a Latin word, I guess?"
"No, it's Greek. From 'pan-', which means 'all' and 'theos', which mean 'gods'."
"So… 'all the gods'? Awesome! I would like to learn this language too!"
"But it's not important right now! I'm here to protect you, but I swear that I will kill you with my own hands instead, you… you… annoying brat!"
Even woodpeckers fell silent, alarmed by her screams. Siegfried raised one eyebrow, surprised to see her so emotionally involved in this quarrel.
"Why?" He finally stopped laughing and stood up.
"Because… I have no idea, what's in your head! I don't know, what you're thinking! How can I trust you, not knowing, what you're planning to do in the nearest future?"
"Rin, you have some secrets too, right?" He smiled, again in the saddle. A sparkle appeared in his cold eyes. "Let's talk honestly tonight, ok? About everything."
Tohsaka did not agree, but the fact, that she didn't oppose, was enough for Siegfried. He took a shortcut through the coniferous forest. Soon they could see the smoke from furnaces and hear the sounds coming from the small town ahead.
"Why are we going to the town?" – Rin asked, more likely to break the silence than out of curiosity.
"To buy you local clothes. I need some things for winter too."
"Right," she muttered, clearly not convinced.
"Rin, winter is a very serious matter in this region. You see, many people die every year, from cold and hunger. To survive, we must prepare, like any other living creature here and… Wait!" Siegfried stopped his horse and looked around, mostly at the sky. "What's with this sound? A storm is coming?"
She could hear it too and was somehow sure, that no storm could come so fast and be so terrifying, even if caused by Thor himself. It was something much more dangerous coming this way, an ultimate predator, a death incarnated.
The raising wind bent some trees to the ground, when the dragon came, casting his enormous shadow on the forest below. It was a strange, but majestic beast, and a huge one. Rin had to admit that she hasn't expected Fafnir to be THIS huge.
The horses started to make wild noises. Grani was fearless, but the other one has gone mad and no one could blame the poor mare for panicking. Tohsaka barely managed to stop the animal from running blindly and crash into a tree.
For a short moment, when Fafnir was right above their heads, Rin could clearly see a glowing crest on his chest. She knew this pattern just too well, but she couldn't expect, how nostalgic this view would be for her. What's more, it was really hard to understand, why such a perfect magical creature, powerful and majestic, could spread only terror and death.
"It's so big!" – that was everything what excited Siegfried said, watching the dragon with his eyes wide open. As Rin expected, there was no sign of fear in his gaze, only pure admiration, maybe even some kind of respect.
"Of course, it's a dragon!" She looked around, trying to analyze the situation. "Too bad there are only pines here, they will burn like torches…"
Siegfried wanted to answer but he suddenly changed his mind, realizing where the beast was heading. His face turned pale in an instant.
"The town… the people!" – he shouted and galloped ahead without a second thought.
"Wait! What are you going to do?!" Tohsaka followed him, visibly angry.
"I don't know, I'll come up with something on the way!"
"Stop right now, you idiot!"
A moment later the fire has fallen from the sky and a roar of the raging beast drowned out the cries of the scared townsfolk, burning alive.
"It was just stupid! So stupid, that I have no words for you!" Rin was cleaning Siegfried's wounds and she was not delicate. After all, he needs to be punish for his recklessness! The skin on his hands and arms up to his elbows was burnt and covered with blisters. "You're so stupid! Stupid, stubborn brat! You could have died from burn shock or something!"
But Siegfried wasn't listening to her scolding at all. With a wide smile, he was looking at two children, now safe in their mother's arms. For him the outcome was clearly worth the risk.
Rin still couldn't believe what this crazy kid had just done. The town was in chaos when they came, people were screaming and running around, trying to save themselves. There was a woman, rescued by her husband, who was desperately trying to go back to the burning house. It seemed that the two of their four children were still inside but the situation was already hopeless. The roof was about to collapse at any moment and no one could break through the flames untouched.
Seeing what was happening, Siegfried jumped off his horse, dipped his coat in a water from the nearest barrel, barely wrapped himself with the wet cloth and ran into the burning house. It was so reckless, that Rin was struck speechless by his stupidity back then. She followed him inside and found him just in time to stop the burning ceiling from falling on his empty head. They wouldn't have made it without magic, no doubt.
One of the kids, with a face still covered in black ash, smiled back to Siegfried and waved his little hand in thanks. Tohsaka sighed heavily, defeated. The view was just too cute to be angry anymore.
"Rin, I'm sorry for scaring you," Siegfried said finally, lowering his head. Tohsaka was sure, that he did it mostly to hide a painful grimace on his face, not because he was really sorry. These wounds were serious enough to knocked him out for some time, yet he still insisted on arguing with her.
"I wasn't scared!"
"So for worrying you then…"
"I wasn't wor…!" - she hesitated and let go eventually. It would be a shameless lie. She was scared and worried, for a moment she even thought, that she has lost him, and it was not a nice feeling. Not at all.
But the brat like him doesn't have to know everything, right?
"Anyway I'm very sorry for causing you troubles. But I think I can't promise, that I won't do it again. No one knows, what may happen in the future."
Rin gave him a gaze as burning as the dragon fire, but stopped complaining at last.
"Fine. I accept your apology." She pointed her finger at him in an accusatory manner. "But don't think that I'm not angry at you!"
"Of course."
For a moment Rin wondered, if they were still acting according to the legend, but she couldn't remember such episode. Maybe it was meaningless? Well, it mattered for this one family, maybe for all citizens of this town, but it was not epic yet, right? It would be good for some wandering local deity, a stray god, desperately collecting prayers, but not enough to be put into a greater story… Not yet.
A smile vanished from Siegfried's face when he looked at the ruins around. Some people were still trying to find members of their familes among charred corpses, others were trying to save the remnants of their property from the ashes. All animals and many of the people have been eaten by Fafnir, the dragon did not spare even cheese and grain reserves for the winter. The beast devoured everything they had and it was only a snack for him.
"It's too late, they will not survive like this." Siegfried clenched his fist in frustration, but it turned out to be too painful for him now, so he only sighed. "I've told them to seek shelter in the capital. There's a chance that Alv has enough food for them all." He shook his head. "He must take care of them, it's his duty as a king."
"So there's a chance that the king would not give them shelter?"
His silence was too long to be meaningless.
"He's a honorable man. And a good king," he said eventually, trying to convince himself, not Rin. And something more was clearly still troubling him. "It's just hard to believe that this… Fafnir came, took what he wanted to take, set the village on fire and flew away."
"This is how dragons behave."
"This is how dragons ask to be killed, Rin."
Again Tohsaka couldn't deny that he was right. There was something more in his words, in his burning gaze, and she soon realized, what it was.
I see… So this is how heroes and legends are born.
"You should rest now, don't you think?"
Siegfried glanced at Rin over his shoulder. He was sitting on blanket, on the edge of the campfire, and was staring at the stars. Tohsaka was really worried about him – his injuries caused him more troubles than just a pain and risk of infection, he couldn't even eat or drink normally with his burnt hands.
Moreover, he was not as talkative as before and seemed a little nervous, like before making an important decision or something…
"I am resting." He gave Rin a thin smile. "As a child I used to do it very often – sitting like this, watching the sky and overthinking things… In a place like this I can feel like the earth is filling me with energy. Strange, isn't it?"
Rin smiled gently and sat on the blanket next to him. It wasn't strange at all for someone with such unique magic circuits. Every magus of this era could literally take the energy from the air, what was enough to make Rin extremely jealous, but Siegfred was… like a child of the land itself.
But it was not a good moment to enlighten him in this matter, not when he's just proved to be so uncontrollably enthusiastic about taking the unexpected risk.
"You wanted to talk?" – she said, simply to change the subject, and he nodded in response.
To Tohsaka's surprise, he didn't want to know much about his future and legend (she summarized it anyway, to make things clear), but all about her, Alaya, Counter Guardians and the modern world. He was curious about literally everything, just like she remembered from the Holy Grail War.
"Sounds strange… What kind of war was it?"
Cursing her own carelessness, she decided to tell him everything about Servants, Masters and all the stuff, which he should not know, yet or ever.
Siegfried needed a long while to completely absorb this new knowledge.
"So… if nothing unexpected happens, I'll become a Servant too?"
"Yes, you'll be very famous, so there's no other way." Rin touched the bandages on his hand. The skin beneath them was still hot and it had to hurt like hell, but he bravely ignored the pain. Maybe even too bravely, Rin thought. He should care of himself more. "I've summoned you once. In a Rider class."
"Really?" He chuckled. "Not a Saber? Ah, so that's why you know me...?! And you've won?"
"Yes, yes, yes and yes." Now Rin smiled to her memories, but it was a very sad smile.
Siegfried was thinking in silence, after all there were many completely new and insane facts to analyze. It seemed that, of all those revelations, he found one thing especially interesting and important.
"Was I… a good Servant?" – he asked, looking Rin in the eyes.
"Yes," she answered with no hesitation. "I felt safe with you."
Siegfried smiled widely, truly happy. For Tohsaka it was an extremely strange reaction. Why did he bother?
"Why you're so excited about it?"
"Because it means that we will meet again and I will be able to show my gratitude."
"You're showing it pretty well… for an annoying brat."
"Wait, is this the first time you've actually said something nice about me, Rin?"
"Don't be mean!"
"Sorry."
He smiled but Tohsaka could see that he's really tired. In a random act of kindness she even let him lay down on a blanket with his head on her lap.
For a few moments they were just looking at the sky together. Rin thought that it's true – the best friend is the one with whom you can just sit together in silence and still understand each other.
"Rin, I know it's a strange question, but I'm just curious." Siegfried took a deep breath before continuing. "Would you like to stay here? I mean live here, if you could?"
A truly unexpected question, indeed. And a suspicious one. It meant that he cares too much and may do something extremely stupid… again.
"It's not possible."
"I'm not asking, if it's possible, but what do you want, Rin."
She sighed. Siegfried was right, but she's never thought about it. There was no 'later' for a Counter Guardian. There was only a current task. No future, no 'live happily ever after'. Not for her, who was long dead and deserved no second chance.
"I have a debt to repay. I can't just abandon this task halfway, can I?"
"No, it would mean that you lack honor and cannot be trusted," he said, but he sounded extremely sad. "So I guess it can't be helped."
Rin had no more strength and desire to get angry, but he did it again. What was he thinking? What kind of suspicious arrangements did he make with Odin?
"You can't just trust me, Rin, can you?"
She blinked, utterly surprised.
"I didn't say anything."
"You did." He smiled to her from below and she could feel a warm blush on her cheeks. "Your eyes said everything. And by the way… I'm not a kid, you know? I'm an adult for three, no… four years. If not in the woods, I would probably have a wife and children already." He sighed. "I guess that the king wanted to use me to form an alliance or something. But there was no offer good enough… yet."
"You're so calm about it?"
"Well, you've said that it won't happen, right? And it still sounds better than a lonely life here."
"Maybe. But why you just don't leave to find happiness elsewhere?"
"I've thought about it, more than once." He shrugged. "But Regin said that he needs me to do something important, as a payment for his care. And I thought that mothe…" He stopped suddenly and closed his eyes. "No, it doesn't matter anymore."
Although she was curious, Rin did not force him to continue. The night was so calm and his company so nice, that she did not want to ruin the atmosphere with stupid questions.
"Well, for me you're still a brat," she said with a smile. "You still would be just a kid in my world."
"But we are in my world now, so please respect our rules."
"Why you're so stubborn about this?" Not that he wasn't stubborn about everything else, but she wanted to know anyway.
"You'll see." His wide smile did not bode well for the future. "But let's meet our fate and survive the next night first."
Yes, he's right, Tohsaka thought. The night of the full moon was coming and she would not let anyone mess with the Counter Force. She will defend this kid without fail even against a whole troop of Fafnirs.
Come, all the creatures of the North! I'm ready.
Thank You for reading this far, I hope You enjoyed it!
Yes, I made some references this time, I couldn't resist. I will be glad to know, what You think!
