At dawns first light, the pair head out to begin the hunt.
After the biting incident nearly a week ago, Alfred has taken to simply calling to wake Arthur from a safe distance. The entrance to the barn is a close as he's willing to get.
Armour clad, he peers around the stable doors and between the two horses standing within to find his wolf. It's not hard, giving how big Arthur is, and his white fur stands out from the wood and straw bedding he's curled up on.
"Hey, Art, time to go." Al frowns when a twitch of the ear is all he gets in response.
"Arthur, come on."
He knows he's being ignored when the wolf rolls over, flicking his ears away from the sound of the knights voice. So, in retaliation, Al throws some horse dung he finds by his feet.
The ball makes a satisfying smack as it bounces off the wolfs head, causing Arthur to turn around to glare at him.
Al smirks back. That poo ball was frozen solid, and it was a pretty strong throw too.
The wolf starts to growl at him, but Al pays him no mind, turning and heading out, only calling back, "We're wasting daylight."
He can feel Arthur's eyes on him as he stomps out, but they have a full day ahead of them, Al can't worry about Arthur's morning temper today.
"We wish you luck." Fredric waves to them as they leave.
"Oh, come on. Your not still mad at me?" Al sighs, following after the grumpy wolf.
Arthur is being difficult it seems.
The wolf has refused to talk to him all morning. This wouldn't be a problem, except he's relying on Arthur's sense of smell to track down the Aigiddyrn. For all he knows, Arthur could be leading him in circles.
"I said I was sorry!" He tries to plead his case for the fourth time, quickening his pace to catch up with the other.
But each time he tries to catch up, Arthur kicks snow back at him, then runs off ahead again.
"Peh!" He spits out snow that made it's way into his mouth will talking, dusting himself off once more.
"Fine! Be that way! Your acting like a child you know!"
That seems to do the trick, as Arthur finally stops and turns back to face him, snarling and showing his teeth.
'I'm not the one who threw shit to wake someone up!' He snaps and Al winces at the volume of Arthur's voice in his head.
"I said I was sorry!"
Arthur glares, flattening his ears back.
'No, you did that intentionally. You can't be sorry for something you meant to do.'
"What else was I supposed to do?! You wouldn't listen, and there's no way I'm getting close to wake you up again!"
'You didn't have to use horse shit!'
"It was the only thing at hand!"
'That doesn't mea-' Arthur suddenly stops, ears pricking up, he turns looking around.
"What?" Alfred blinks at the sudden change in attitude.
"What is i-?"
'Shh!' Arthur hushes him in his mind, 'Something's coming.'
Like a switch had been flipped, the knight drops into a fighting stance, drawing his sword. He looks around, straining his ears to hear, his eyes to see, anything that might be coming.
The wolf flicks his ears about, before spinning, fixing in on a single point in the sky out in the distance. Alfred takes that as his cue, and joins him.
It's just like how training patrols with Gilbert were, he follows the lead of the one who can see the danger before everyone else.
A screeching fills the quiet and now Alfred knows exactly what's coming. An Aigiddyrn.
From the patchy clouds, the grey beast appears, descending rapidly, coming right for him.
It's a direct approach, straight on.
He takes a breath, placing his right foot back, and raises his sword, angled from ribs to shoulder across his body, and waits.
Beside him, he distantly hears Arthur growling, but the beast isn't interested in him.
The creature caws as it stretches its talons out, making to grab the knight.
Al smiles faintly as he makes his move.
With perfect timing honed from his years of training, he steps his right foot forward, and swings.
"Aigiddyrn. Which one of you scrubs can tell me what that is?" Commander Beilschmidt asks, smirking as he paces on front of them.
It's the first time he's seen the man in person.
Commander Gilbert Beilschmidt, the Red Seer.
Alfred is both awed and absolutely terrified. The man's a living legend. The one responsible for single handedly securing victory at the sand pits of the Krineln Desertthree years ago.
He doesn't know if he should squeal like a love struck girl or piss himself and assume the fetal position.
He does neither.
Instead, he straightens his back as he shouts "I do, sir!" Drawing the man's attention to him.
"Oh?" Red eye's land on him, looking over his scrawny twelve year old frame and smirks, "Well, do tell." He drawls challengingly.
"Aigiddyrn, classed as one of the Caelum bestia. They're aerial humanoid hunters, notorious for stealing children and livestock in small settlements. Fully grown ones have also been known to go after adults."
Gilbert uses his height to tower over him, staring him down.
"Primary method of attack?"
"Use of cloud cover to catch prey unawares. Rapid descent, uses talons to grab and kill."
"Habitat?"
"Mountainous terrain. Dark damp caves."
"Weakness?"
"Uh," He stumbles, trying to remember anything that could count as a weakness, "They're not very smart?"
Gilbert's red eyes flash, and suddenly it feels like he's paralysed, he can't even breathe.
"Wrong." The elder stares hard at him, before smirking and his eyes flash again, releasing Alfred.
His smirk grows at Al's terrified face as he gasps for air.
"True, they're not very smart, but that's not a true weakness. Something could be as dumb as a rock but it could still kill you. No," He paces away, back to the middle of the line up, turning on his heel to stare them all down, "An Aigiddyrn's weakness is..."
"That they always attack in the same way!"
Sword slicing through the air, Al positions himself just right, crouching slightly, so that both legs miss, passing him by on either side of his head, then rising up again for the kill. Now, the creatures is open and, just like that, he brings his blade down on the exposed body, cutting easily through its thick hide thanks to the power of his sword. The lower half uselessly collides with his chest, while the upper sails over his head to land in the snow behind him, black blood staining the ground around him.
He sighs, wiping blood from his face and hair. It was a strange day indeed when he stopped being bothered by dead creature parts hitting him.
"Heh, Gil's method never fails." He smiles cheerily, looking to Arthur, but the wolf is already fast at work, devouring the carcass.
"Yuck," Al makes a face as he watches, "That can't taste good, can it?"
Arthur doesn't answer, only tearing the body apart more, and pulling the legs away from Al.
"Hehe, relax dude, you can have it, trust me. There's no way in hell I'd eat that."
That seems to satisfy the wolf as he relaxes, lying down to eat at a more leisurely rate.
Watching only makes Al's stomach turn, so he looks away, standing guard instead. He's always gone by the rule of Bleeds Red, be well Fed, Black, Yellow or Blue, more fool You. He'll snack on some of the Frost Bread Fredric's wife gave him later.
At least some good came out of that attack, Arthur is now in a much better mood, and is now back to talking to Alfred. Accord to the wolf, the Aigiddyrn from yesterday is close.
'Just up there.' He nods to the mountains towering over them.
Not the Quivering mountains at least, but these don't look any less hostile.
The knight sighs, looking at the climb ahead.
"Let me guess, it's in a cave at the top, right?"
'Smells like it.' Arthur agrees, causing Al the groan.
"Urgh, let's just get this over with."
If there was one thing in Alfred's life he hated worse than the cold, it was hiking up a mountain in full armour. Which also happened to be one of Gilbert's favourite 'character building' exercises.
But doing so in the freezing cold...
"This is my personal hell." He says with all the emotion of one who has given up on the hope of better days, accepting their fate.
'Hmm?' Arthur looks back at him from his place several feet ahead.
He wasn't kidding when he said he came from the mountains, the wolf leaps from ledge to ledge with as much ease as a fish swimming through water.
"Gil always said," Al grunts as he struggles onwards, "That I'd know when I found it. Well, I've found it." He pauses, doubled over to catch his breath.
"What do you think of that? Mister Red Seer." He huffs breathlessly, tired, but pushes on regardless.
As close as they got, the man still never told him everything there is to know about his power, his gift. Gil likes to keep everyone guessing, but personally, Al thinks he does have some sort of prophetic power, and that maybe, Gil, is still keeping an eye out for him.
"Heh, wishful thinking..." He huffs under his breath, knowing full well he's on his own out here.
Well...
The knight looks to the wolf and, despite himself, gives a wobbly smile.
Maybe he's not as alone as he thinks.
Now if only they could find this damned cave before he keels over...
Authors notes: And off they go, plus some good old flashbacks. I love writing Gilbert, he knows the newbies are shit scared of him and uses it to mess with them. And his power is, well, in the words of another fandom: Spoilers.
And can I just say thank you too all my wonderful reviewers, you make my day. Really, your words are like rays of light in an endless black of self doubt. Your what motivate me to crank out these chapters quicker. Okay that's enough pretentiousness from me.
For now, I'll leave you with the image of Gilbert devising the most embarrassing way to kill creatures, then teaching it to terrified youngsters, while looking completely serious, but internally laughing.
R & R people.
Until next time, stay awesome!