Author's note: This will be the last chapter of Scarlet Fire for a while, as I'll focus on finishing Regalian Thunder for the moment… It's not helped by the fact that Monster Hunter Rise is swallowing all of my free time as well. But do not worry, Agrîn's adventures WILL resume, and I hope not that far away. In the meantime, enjoy this chapter I wrote, and I think I'll try to make more action pick up soon, though I cannot guarantee that yet, still doing the plan for the future.

In response to reviews:

Undead Night Fury: Thanks, I hope I can resume writing this fic soon enough as well.

Vognar-The Legendkeep: Can't wait to see what I come up with in the future aswell…

Guest: I know about these rumors, but I won't act on them until they're confirmed by an official source. I agree, I'll definitely like writing the interactions between Stark and Agrîn! About why it seems he got pretty good overnight… I'll admit that's my fault, he actually spent way more time practicing than what it seems like, but… I didn't really have ideas as to how to express that, but I'll try to show him training some part of his physiology in the future (there's especially 2 things he's not aware of yet.) But consider that also that his in built instincts allows him to perfect these faster than what an human can, until a certain level, then he'll still have to practice regularly as anybody else.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers or Monster Hunter, all rights are reserved to Marvel and Capcom respectively.

Beta read by Slack Frost, Sleepysaurus Rex and Wizz.

Cover Art by HungryDragonArts

Chapter 7: An Almost-Certainly-Fine Comet

… Well let's say it has been several days since I last talked. I continued my training on hovering, and now I daresay I got the hang of it. Still a bit wobbly, but that will disappear with experience. What was more interesting was what happened a couple days after I started patrolling in my realm… Somebody came to Bluepeak, and it wasn't an intruder, but it was one of the missing members, Rosa, who had the form of Alexstrasza, from… World of Warcraft if I remembered right. She had pushed herself to the point that she was about to die of starvation.

Me and Regal were sent to go get a medic to try to heal her, but once we came back, we found out that the problem was solved by itself. After grumbling for a bit, we brought the medic back to the hospital, but when we were about to leave, Regal noticed somebody in one of the rooms. He was actually a big, golden dragon, named Glaedr and he was brought by Cade and Amara so that he could be healed, along with his rider, Oromis. I then realised he basically lived in a fantasy world, and thus I asked if I could come to… Visit it, as I always was interested to see how different a fantasy world actually looked compared to a modern world like Earth… He gave me his blessing, but reminded me that I should actually ask the walkers of his realm, thus Cade or Amara… I kept that in mind.

After this enlightening visit, we went back to Bluepeak, to confirm the crisis had ended (it did) and to enjoy the reminder of Eragon and Saphira's visit that Cade brought today. We enjoyed a movie and all went to sleep after.

I wasn't able to talk with Amara until two days later, as we had woken up too late to ask her permission to go into the realm, but thankfully she needed to grab something and thus we caught her when she came into Bluepeak.

"Amara? You've a minute? Scratch that, several minutes?"

"Sorta." she grumbled. "Although if I have to learn any more of the Ancient Language today, heads will roll, so I guess I'm free."

I did my best to form a wince, but I'm pretty sure the results were… Lacking. "Yeah, learning new languages is never fun. Magical languages? I can imagine it's even worse… Still I wanted to ask you, you know that me and Regal talked with Glaedr the other day?"

"You did?" she asked, swinging two of her heads to look at me. "He didn't mention it."

I nodded. "Yeah, we talked with him when he was at the hospital… He asked some questions about Cade, though they were more for Regal, as for me? I… Actually asked if I could come to his- your realm."

"So you want me to be your taxi?" Amara clarified.

"Well… That and also asking if you were fine for me to visit as well. I actually am interested because… You know that I'm in the MCU?" She nodded. "So, I know it's pretty similar to Earth, if not a bit more advanced technologically. But what I really want is to see how different a fantasy world is. I wish to see Elves cities from above, medieval looking settlements… I wanna see the farms without having the fields being big squares… You get what I mean?"

"There aren't really farms and cities in Ellesméra in the way you're expecting, but I get your point." the five-headed dragoness shrugged. "Come on then. And let's not mention this to Kevin, Driscol and Sparta unless they ask. I know they're off doing their Riftheart training now, but they still don't have to know. Sparta will probably get in a hissy fit, Kevin will think it's cool, and then they'll start arguing which will cause Driscol to get pissed off."

"I see. Hmmm, you think I need my stealth generator or not? I know there aren't radars, but the enchantment on it makes me harder to get noticed."

"We may as well throw a spanner in the works of the rumor mill. Although… damn, what's that guy's name… Gildiren or something, I think. We'll have to see him so you don't get blasted out of the sky by whatever the Flame of Vándil is. But apart from him, try not to get spotted. Elves revere dragons to a stupid degree, and would definitely talk about you being around."

I tried to wince again, yeah didn't really want to be revered… "You've got a good point… Lemme grab the generator, I'll join you at the pools." I replied while going up the ramp to my room, entering it and picking up the backpack that contained my generator, checking the energy levels. I nodded when I saw they were full and picked it up with my beak, then I opened the window and after inhaling enough air in my chest, took off towards the riftpools.

After a quick trip, I slowed myself down and touched down on the edge of the exit pool, looked around and noticed I beat Amara to it. So I waited for her.

She dropped by a few minutes later in her human form, carrying a baseball bat over her shoulder. "All ready to go?"

I nodded. "Ready when you are!"

"Are you fine with walking? Carrying something this small when I'm at my usual bulkiness is rather awkward."

"I'm not bothered with walking don't worry, I may fly fast and love being in the sky, but I still enjoy being on the ground."

"Fair enough." She nodded. "Now then, let's go."

And with that, she simply stepped off the edge of the pavement and vanished into the rift. I was quick to follow, as I needed her to guide me to the realm, and thus I trailed behind her, in the corridors of the rift.

The journey was brief and we exited on top of a long cliff edge that stretched out in either direction for miles and miles. At the bottom of it, and behind us, forest carpeted the landscape, with the occasional pocket of a natural clearing here and there.

Amara gestured to the expanse with her free arm. "Welcome to Du Weldenvarden."

When I looked around, I'd have whistled if I could, because frankly, that was an amazing sight, it was just a sea of trees, stretching to the horizon, and with seemingly no end to it, and I couldn't wait to see how it would look like from high above. "Wow that's… Breathtaking."

My clanmate's posture suggested that she disagreed, but she didn't comment.

After admiring the view for a bit, I asked. "So… Where should we go to meet the one you talked about?"

"I think that he's supposed to find us or something." Amara shrugged before pointing to her left, at a hut about a mile away. "That's Oromis' place, though. He's teaching both Saphira and Eragon today, so Glaedr should be around somewhere if you want to meet up with him."

"Yeah I should meet up with him… I think I'll need a map so we can decide on a circuit for my visit. From what I've heard, I should avoid certain parts because of a mad tyrant?"

"Galbitchtorix, yeah. Just… if you see a city, avoid it. Like, keep it over the horizon avoid it. Although as long as you stay over Du Weldenvarden, you should be fine."

"That bad uh? Uh that's sad, I've heard that there was giant fucking mountains here… And I don't know why but… It calls to me, like it's something I wish to see."

"The Beors would be almost directly south, if my geography is right. And maybe a bit east too. But yeah, they're excessively large. I think that Driscol once mentioned that they were taller than Everest or something, but don't quote me on that. Still, they're high enough for air to be scarce enough that it causes people to black out, so you may have some… thrust issues if you try to go over them."

"... Unless they were higher than storm clouds I should be fine. That's the highest I've managed to go. Still, so that we start planning how long it may take for me to visit… You know how wide this forest is?" I asked her.

"Oh, they're higher than storm clouds all right." Amara smirked. "Higher than I can go without any magic, even. As for the width of Du Weldenvarden… I don't know. Let's just say big."

"... I'll just try to estimate when I fly it I guess. Anything else I could visit without any risk or that's all?"

"Probably the Hadarac. It's only desert, but you'll need to go over it to see the Beors. Oh, and maybe Surda, although they're likely to think that you're with the Eggbreaker instead of us."

In a sudden flash of light, an elf who looked so old that he could be considered ancient appeared before us. He wore long, flowing robes and had a circle of silver on his head.

"This is Gilderien." Amara whispered to me before taking a few steps forward and saying "Sir, this is Agrîn. He's one of my people- from beyond Alagaёsia. May he pass?"

The old elf nodded and spread out his arms in welcome. When he didn't move after that, Amara gave a subtle gesture that we should carry on our way. Doing just that, I glanced over my shoulder and watched as Gilderien dematerialised in a shower of light.

Once I saw he was completely dematerialised, I asked Amara. "So, where to now?"

"I'm going to hit an elf in the face with this." she said sweetly, gesturing to her baseball bat. "You can do what you like- as long as you remain unseen. My cuzzes would lose their shit if something falls out of what they expect to happen."

What the… "You know what, I'm not even gonna ask… And sure, where should I take off from?"

A sudden, titanic shove sent me plummeting off the cliff edge, my clanmate grinning as she yelled "There's fine! Have a nice flight!"

That little- I hurriedly turned on my wings, to regain control of my flight. I've never actually done a non-standstill takeoff, as I found it safer to fill my chest with air before taking off, but she didn't give me time here, so I just did with what I had, and I'd fill it in flight…

Levelling out, I accelerated a bit, then immediately went straight up, going full power, wanting to reach the clouds as soon as I could. Thank Gog I already turned on my stealth generator when we exited the portal else… That'd have been a bother to do. Anyhow, as I climbed, I kept an eye down, and, if I wasn't focused on keeping my mouth shut at the moment, I would have done my best emulation of a whistle.

I went west at first, wanting to see the edge of the forest. I didn't go very fast, barely going at half the speed of the sound; I wanted to enjoy this visit. It was also because I tended to get tunnel vision when going too fast, so going slower was a better idea. I could barely discern the Elves' cities from the top, as their houses blended so well with the forest, but my sharp vision let me see through that. Tree houses always fascinated me, and it was a delight for me to be able to see them in person. Though I very quickly saw the edge of the forest, and that surprised me, I expected it to be bigger, or was I going too fast compared to down below… Remembering Amara's warnings, I turned around and headed the other direction, doing a lazy turn, not wanting to stress myself for just a pleasure flight.

After passing over where I took off from, I noticed a small cluster of mountains, which made them very distinguishable among the sea of trees, and I looped around them a couple times before heading eastwards again. Not far from the mountains was a lake, where there was a city on one of the edges, I looked at it as long as I could, taking note of the canoes at the shore, then noticing the desert wasn't that far off south anymore, turned around and decided to see these gigantic mountains for myself.

Flying through a desert… Is always the same. Almost all deserts I've seen have been the same, emptiness all around, and just… Sand. And no, I won't do the Star Wars reference. Anyways, that means that nothing much could be said about the desert. The most I could say was that I spotted what I guessed was some nomads… However what I discovered next… Was the real deal.

As I was still in the desert, I looked at the horizon, and what I saw… It marveled me. Giant fucking mountains, the kind that I would rarely see. They for sure pierced the clouds, and you know the worst? I was nowhere near them yet. Excitation rose in me, and I might have upped my speed in anticipation.

These mountains… They called to me, to a primal part in myself, and I knew that if I gave in to them, I'd settle here and claim a territory for myself. Thus, as disappointing as it was for me, I had to repress these urges and carry on. From where I was… I estimated the height of these mountains to be just under twenty kilometers… Which wasn't skirting far from the maximum height I could fly, and it was limited by the oxygen input I could have, as I still needed to breathe. I wasn't exactly aware of how my body functioned but I made a point to know my limits at least. I knew I could hold my breath, even from my chest for a while, though I found it more comfortable to be able to breathe easily while flying.

Anyhow, I was now flying through the mountains, and lemme tell you, it was exhilarating! As I was weaving between the tall peaks, some so pointy that they seemed to be able to impale me… I felt free. This was where I knew my species would reign supreme, uncontested. Nobody would be able to beat us on this turf, we were built for this, because as other flying species would struggle reaching those heights and weave through the peaks, we would do it effortlessly, without breaking a sweat, like we did it all our lives.

Feeling invigorated, I boldly flew closer and closer to the peaks, getting so close I could touch them if I extended an arm. This is also when I started doing acrobatics. I won't list them all but you can imagine I did a lot. Loopings, barrel rolls, immelmans, you name it, I did it. I love this body.

Eventually, all good things must come to an end… and as I noticed the sun was starting to go pretty low, I decided it was time to head back. Turning towards what I knew was north, by trusting my internal compass, which was a weird sense to have but let's say that I felt something when my head was towards the north… Don't ask.

As I was leaving the mountains, I gave a last look at them, already missing them, it was truly the first time I felt I belonged while flying through them, and I'll cherish this memory forever. Then I was too far to see them anymore and I focused on finding Ellesmera, then the cliff which Amara threw me off of.

I landed down when the sun was setting. And waited for Amara to confirm I was indeed back.

Soon enough, I heard the leathery flap of wings in the evening air, and looked up to see her land beside me in her dragon form.

"So how was your flight?" She asked with five grins. "I noticed you had a bit of a ropey takeoff, but was the rest of it good?"

I looked at her with a unimpressed face. "If I wasn't in a good mood, I'd have paid you back for that stunt… Still I enjoyed the visit though… The Beors, they called to me, and I never expected it to be so strong, it was like I belonged there." I finished this sentence with a faraway look, reminiscing the feelings I had while flying in them.

Three heads smiled at me, although the other two looked understanding. "I've had that feeling once or twice. Here and in Locostral. I get what you're feeling, but don't dwell on it too much. Sure, remember it fondly, but if you're too engrossed in it, you'll lose yourself."

I pondered her words for a moment, then sighed. "I guess you're right... Still, I hope I won't need to only have this memory for the future and find a place where I can really feel at home one day. Somehow, Bluepeak isn't… Grand enough to satisfy me." Then I shook my head and chuckled. "Guess as the most unusual dragon, I've the most unusual desires, eh?"

She deadpanned at me. "Trust me, you really don't. My occasional goddess complex trumps your mountain wistfulness. Now let's go before Vanir wakes up and hunts me down with knives."

I rubbed my head at this remark. "Yeah… Kinda forgot about that, though I was more talking about body shape… And especially my wings. Still I agree, let's go back to Locostral so that I can start cooking for tonight's meal, I've to take Darius' role in his absence…" I said while plucking my key out of my backpack and opened a portal to Locostral, and jumped in.

Amara winced as she jumped into the rift after me, but quickly covered it with a slightly pained chuckle. "Yeah… I hope it's good."

I went to sleep with a huge yawn, even though I flew less than what I normally did, doing all these fancy manoeuvers took a lot of me, and I cooked a traditional french dish tonight, which was a Flammekueche, I know I'm from the Alps, and it's an Alsatian dish, but it is still good as a mountain meal. Still, the longing I felt today reminded me that there was part of myself that I didn't know well and could take me by surprise, so I vowed to not fall in a trap of regrets and make the most of what I had!

Posted the 29/04/21