An hour or so later the two finally arrived at the East Khans' castle. Darren was finally able to get over his previous shock when the sounds of giant doors slamming closed was heard behind him. The inside of the castle wasn't that much different than the outside; not too showy or fancy, it was almost bare of any decorations. But then again, warriors don't really have any need for stuff like that. Raimi then lead him to a hall of what he guessed was the barracks, from just how many room there seemed to be. Stopping at one of the first doors there, Raimi turned to face the teen.

"You may stay here for now," she told him. "Food will be prepared shortly, as will your meeting with the Khan." With that, she quickly left the now stunned boy, who had until then been dreaming about food, to stare at his now closed door in frozen shock.

"No way…" he finally managed to whisper out.

–-–

The Other Way - Chapter Four

–-–

'Grimaaa! Heelp!' Darren mentally screamed at his partner. He was now inside his room, pacing around like a madman. His hair was ruffled by the many times her ran his hand through it. The room was pretty decent by his standards, there was a bed, a desk supplied with an ink container and quill, a small wooden closet, and a window that had a nice view of the houses surrounding the castle.

'Khan Flavia?' Came the confused voice of Grima. 'What are you doing getting the attention of the Khan for?!'

'I don't know! Raimi just showed me where my room was, and then told me about meeting the Khan when we're going to eat!'

'Well it would most likely be just a thank you fo– wait, did you just say eat?' The dragon interrupted his own thoughts. His voice all of a sudden becoming more curious (and hungry) than reassuring at the mention of food.

Darren shook his head in disbelief, but after remembering Grima can't see it, settled for complaining to the fell-dragon.

'Now's not the time for food Grima! How close are you so you to here?!'

'I haven't eaten anything in over a thousand years Darren.' Grima reminded the boy. 'But I guess I'm about an hour away. Sneaking around this place is tough work you know? Maybe as bonus training we should have you try not to get caught by the guards here.' The dragon mused with an evil tone in his voice.

'No way!' Darren vehemently denied. 'I'm sure they suspect me for something! I don't want to die because I was 'training' and got caught!'

'It was a joke Darren, calm down.' He advised. 'Meeting this, Flavia as a giant bundle of nerves is just asking for bad luck.'

Taking a deep breath, Darren tried to calm down as he was told to. Then repeated the process for another minute until he thought he was more level-headed. 'Okay, I think I'm ready.' He thought confidently.

'Good luck then. I'll see if I can show up later. Remember, if you really need help, just scream and call for me.'

With that, their mental conversation ended, leaving Darren to stare out in open space as he was left to wonder what this meeting was about. 'She could just be thanking me for helping out, and probably to give me a few rations.' He reasoned. 'Heck, she could probably point me in the right direction of finding someone to train me.'

A knock at the door and a voice telling him that dinner would be set in a minute broke the boy out of his little trance. Suddenly becoming a bundle of nerves again, Darren tried to calm himself down as he made his way down the halls. Following the smell of food, he found himself at the doorway to a very large room, which was probably the mess hall.

In the room multiple people were already seated and eating. Many were talking among themselves, about what, he couldn't make out. The table layout was so that they were perpendicular to the door, with benches running along the sides of the chairs.

"Ah," said a voice from the end of the table. "So the guest of honour finally arrived." Silence filled the room as multiple people stopped their chattering and stared at the newcomer. The one who had spoken, was the East Khan herself, Flavia. Who was seated in her own chair at the end of the table.

Like a deer caught in headlights, Darren stood there frozen as eyes passed over him. Before catching himself and nodding, not trusting his voice not to crack because of his nerves.

"Well don't just stand there, sit down, there's plenty of space." She said gesturing to an empty spot to her left. Quickly moving to the seat, the black haired boy sat down stiffly, with his back straight and arms at his sides. Not even daring to move a muscle.

Flavia laughed at his behaviour, immediately losing most of her intimidating looks. "You don't have to be so stiff you know? You aren't in any kind of trouble, I just want to talk about a few things." She told him in an amused tone.

He relaxed slightly, but not by much as he eyed the other table occupants warily. Soon he was looking down at his food, also looking at the dish before slowly eating.

Flavia was silent during the whole display the teen was putting on, watching in amusement. A few of those sitting nearby chuckled to themselves.

Coughing into his hand, Darren decided to get out of this awkward mess he put himself through.

"Darren," he said, sticking a hand –not the one he just coughed in– towards the Khan with a nervous smile. He was a little surprised when Flavia actually shook his hand with a laugh.

"East Khan Flavia, that was something else you pulled at the gates you know? I never thought anyone would be crazy enough to do that." She shook her head in either amazement or shock, he couldn't tell.

"Y-yeah that," he muttered while rubbing the back of his head, reddening slightly from the praise. "I have no idea what came over me there. I'm guessing myself as lucky that I didn't die."

"Well from what the report said, it seemed to have been quite interesting. And there was something else," she eyed him curiously, "'an odd looking blade'?" She quoted.

Thinking that the 'reporter' must have been Raimi, he nodded his head in affirmation, Darren raised his right arm to show Flavia the blade compartment. He gripped the small cord that laced around the inside of his hand, which in turn pulled the two blades out. Flavia stared at the two blades for a few moments, before nodding and appeared to go into deep thought. Quietly, Darren released his grip on the cord and continued to eat. Listening to the conversations around him as he shovelled food into his mouth.

"The reports had said that you were here to re-supply on foods and look for a place to sleep," Flavia finally said. "Was that all you came here for?"

Remembering the main reason for his travels, Darren quickly said, "I was looking for someone to train me how to fight."

Flavia looked surprised, before quickly recovering. "Really? You seemed to have been fine on your own from what I was told." She mused.

"That was luck." Darren deadpanned.

"Okay then," she relented. "So that's it? You came to Regna Ferox so you could find someone to teach you?"

Another nod from the boy.

"I see…" she trailed off.

Darren was left to ponder what was going to happen in silence as Flavia had drifted off once again into deep thought. Staring at his now empty plate that he had finished not too long ago. When the East Khan spoke again, it took a while for him to register what she just said.

"How would you like to be my champion Darren?"

Mind whirring, he could only utter an unintelligent, "Huh?" Before his eyes widened in realization and he started to panic in confusion.

"Why would you want me," gesturing to himself wildly. "As your champion?!" He nearly shrieked.

Flavia smirked before answering nonchalantly, shrugging to add to the image. "I've got no one else to be my champion. And the tournament to see who will be the next head Khan is around next week."

"And what if I don't want to be your champion?" Darren challenged. But knowing full well that only outsiders can participate in these tournaments, otherwise there would be blood feuds between both sides, they wouldn't give up on an opportunity to gain an outsider with potential. Even if that outsider was himself.

"I don't know." Her nonchalant voice still there. "But I know that if you were to stay as one of my champions, you'd be able to stay here free of charge. Not to mention I could easily get someone to train you while you stay."

Not wanting to pass up the precious opportunity to accomplish one of his goals –even if he was risking his life by doing so– he accepted the offer.

Flavia grinned widely at the boy, reaching over to roughly pat him on the shoulder.

"Good, good. Now," she got up before walking to an exit meanwhile still talking to him. "I'm going to see if I can get you started on those lessons. So feel free to wander around, just remember to get to sleep early. I plan on starting you very early in the morning." And left, disappearing past the door to do whatever Khans do.

Darren also got up, picking up his plate in the progress, before walking out the door in search of more food.

Having finally found more food to eat, Darren took his plate to his room to eat in private.

Now seated on his desk, the boy was ready to dig into the food that has evaded him for almost an entire week. Raising both arms, one fork in his right hand, knife in the other, his expression now a mouth-watering grin as he was about to dig in.

*sniff*

Slowly his face turned from extremely feral hunger to completely disgusted in the span of a few seconds, immediately losing his appetite.

"Oh god…" he groaned, raising a now forkless hand to his nose. Now noticing just how horrible he smelt, with the sweat from travelling in the desert, to the rusty smell of blood that had been there since his fighting the risen, to the deaths of the bandits a few hours ago. Anyways, he did not smell good.

"I'm gonna have to take a shower before I do anything else, sheesh I reek." He muttered wrinkling his nose in the progress.

Walking to the closet he found extra cloths, clearly a bigger size than he was, but it was clothes nonetheless.

Exiting the room, carrying the extra clothes in his arms, Darren set off in search of a way to bathe himself in before he could become capable of knocking himself out just by his smell alone. Unknown to the teen, something small dashed into the room and closed the door behind it. Confusing the hell out of a Feroxi servant who had been there to see it happen. But when a low chuckle could be heard from the other side of the door, the servant dropped her things and ran away as fast as she could.

After asking many of the people living within the castle, Darren had finally found were the baths were. It may have taken him an extra half hour, but it was surely worth it. And it already seemed to be getting darker outside, so it seemed to be good timing.

Now wearing the extra clothes that he had found, the teen was making his way to his room. It turned out, being one of the Khans' champions has its perks. All he had to do was ask one of the servants that were nearby to clean his cloths and they would say that it would be ready by the morning. Neat.

Now outside his door, he was about to open it, but then he heard noises on the other side. Quietly he pressed his ear to the door to hear the sounds better.

*omnom nom nom*

Munching? That couldn't be right. Flinging open the door, he stepped in and quickly shut the door behind him. The sight in front of him was either enough to make him burst out laughing, or begin burning in rage.

Grima was on the table, over his plate, and was clearly eating his food. While this probably should have set the boy in a rage against the intruding fell-dragon, he didn't, well, not immediately anyways.

Grima had his mouth open, and was ready to devour a piece of the chicken in front of him. Drool was visible on the fell-dragons mouth, as there was a small pool of it under his jaw. The funniest thing though had to be the way his eyes were; all six seemed to have been bugging out of their sockets at the appearance of the boy. It even looked like the dragon was nervously sweating.

'H-hey Darren!' Grima said in a nervous voice. Immediately backing away from the dish. 'I wanted to surprise you when I got here, b-but then I saw all this food here and I didn't want it to go to waste. So I ate a bit of it.'

Slowly the teen lowered his gaze to inspect the plate. What used to be a small mountain of food was now devoid of any of its previous contents. The only thing left was a single chicken leg and a half-eaten piece of bread. Looking back up he saw Grima was –if possible– looking even more nervous than before; his multiple eyes shifting around the room.

Darren decided that revenge could wait until later, he sighed sadly. Before giving small smile to the dragon.

"Fine, I'll forgive you. But only because of the whole 'I haven't eaten in over a thousand years' thing, I'd hate to have to go through that too." He shuddered at the thought, and then walked over to his bed to lie down.

Grima, who had been watching the boy just in case he made a dash to extract revenge for the food, relaxed visibly when Darren had went to his bed. And then quickly went back to eating the remaining food.

"Turns out, I'm apparently Flavia's champion now." Darren said suddenly.

The news must have been startling to the fell-dragon; because the moment the word 'champion' came out he choked on the chicken leg he had been eating.

Darren watched as the small dragon began rolling on the table, his upper wings curling around his neck while the others were flailing around helplessly. Soon, he also began rolling around in his bed, although, it was out of laughter instead.

Eventually Grima managed to get the offending piece of chicken out with a cough. And was panting from the lack of air he had.

'What… do you mean… champion?' He eventually managed to gasp out.

Darren sat up and looked at the dragon. "I think it had to do with me being the only person capable of entering the tournament at the time."

Finding his breath, Grima asked calmly. 'Did they at least give you the option to decline?'

"Yeah, she did –and I only accepted because of the deal she offered."

Grima closed his jaw, preventing the angry berating that was about to be released. Instead he asked again with mild curiosity in his voice. 'So, what was this deal?'

Darren brightened visibly. "Flavia offered that if I become her champion I could stay here for free! And, that she would find someone to train me as I stayed here."

'And you're sure about this? Absolutely sure?' The fell-dragon pressured, wanting to know if there was any trace of doubt in the choice.

A response of confidence followed by a smirk was what he got. So with a sigh he relented. 'I guess I can't stop you, but, just be careful. Doing this means you're in a lot of danger in the arena. And I can't have you dying on me.'

"Trust me, I won't let that happen anytime soon." Darren yawned. "Ah well, guess I'll go to bed now. Flavia said she'd find someone to begin my training with in the morning, and I don't want to be tired for it. 'Night Grima." And with that he lay down on his bed again and closed his eyes. A minute later his breathing slowed, and came out softer, signalling his drift into unconsciousness.

Grima flew up from the table and went to the base of the bed. Curling up into a coil, the fell-dragon was also soon fast asleep.

AN: I hate distracting myself. Honestly, I had like half of this chapter done the day after posting the other one, but then I decided that I should do a whole bunch of other things and never got to finish it. Anyways, if you've enjoyed this chapter and want to be there when more come out, favorite and follow this series. Also leave a review if you want. Until next time.