Adalhard

o o o oAdalhard, Hilbert's Standard Bearer

Hilbert's best friend or greatest enemy depending on how you look at it.

While most of Hilbert's followers from Rasfura were poor working dragons, Adalhard was the eldest son and heir to a wealthy family which held considerable power in the clan. By all rights, Adalhard had no need to follow Hilbert, nor was it natural that they would even have met in the first place. Perhaps it was fate that brought Adalhard to watch the soldiers' training one day, where he found himself attracted to Hilbert's frankness and to the way that he seemed to look out for everyone around him.

Adalhard would be the first to scoff at the idea of fate. But no one knows what he would be now if it weren't for Hilbert, least of all himself.

Not to say that anyone knows Adalhard at all, except maybe Hilbert, who is too good-natured and trusting of him to see his true nature. To most people, Adalhard is a good-natured if sometimes mischievous dragon, who jokes at everyone's expense but is always willing to lend a hand where it is needed. But most Rasfurans recognise that there is a certain distance to him. They generally believe it to be due to him having completely different origins from everyone else, yet the truth is that Adalhard is simply a distant person to whom genuine affection and warmth does not come easily. While he is amiable to all, there are only two people in his heart, with no space for anyone else at all. These dragons are, naturally, his king Hilbert and his brother Ludger.

Adalhard certainly shares Hilbert's convictions that their fellow dragons deserve food, shelter, and security, despised his peers from Rasfura who looked down on the dragons beneath them, and wished for a place they could all live as equals in peace. But what form these convictions would take if it weren't for his first meeting with Hilbert, it is impossible to say. After he met Hilbert and came to be close to him, Hilbert became his world.

In all honesty, the other Rasfurans are suspicious of Adalhard, or at best consider him an outsider. Though Adalhard certainly has prowess on the battlefield, he uses spells instead of weapons and physical strength like most other Rasfuran dragons. He is also Hilbert's flagbearer which means he prioritises the safety of Hilbert's banner, which leads his people into battle, over fighting. Adalhard's natural distance from all doesn't help matters. All in all, the Rasfurans trust Adalhard because Hilbert trusts Adalhard. Most of them don't like him at all. Adalhard is fine with that.

After arriving in Fleuyer, Adalhard took on the role of Hilbert's steward, overseeing management of the castle and its staff. It's a life that suits Adalhard well. He was never the biggest fan of all that shouting and fighting that the other Rasfuran dragons seem to enjoy so much. Strangely, at least to his perception, the dragons of Fleuyer appear to like Adalhard very much, even when they were initially suspicious of the Rasfurans (the only exception to this is Queen Solange, who perceived Adalhard's true nature instantly, but eventually warmed up to him due to Hilbert's trust in him). His outwardly amiable and polite nature endear him to the Fleuyens who see him as a gentleman amongst brutes. As such, Adalhard ended up becoming closer to Fleuyan dragons, which solidified his satisfaction with their life in Fleuyer.

Ludger won't tell you this, so I will: Ludger was the dragon who convinced Hilbert to take his friends out of Rasfura and to plunder the next clan for food, thus starting their decades-long journey across Sornieth. One might wonder why the second son of a wealthy family felt the need to press for such drastic action over anyone else who had nothing to lose. Hilbert is of the understanding that it is because Ludger feels strongly for their cause. Ludger probably believes that too. In Adalhard's cynical little heart, however, is the belief that Ludger felt able to make that choice because he knew in his heart that if all went wrong, his parents and his older brother would defend him. If Hilbert and the others were dragged back to Rasfura and seriously punished, Adalhard and Ludger's parents would shield him, so he had nothing to fear.

Well, even if it is true, what does it matter? Things did go well, after all.

Here is another truth which is perceived by Adalhard and no one else. After Hilbert's first defeat of another clan leader, he was celebrated by the dragons of the clan for slaying their evil leader. That was the day that Hilbert knew what it was to be a hero. He has confided in Solange that if that did not happen, if the dragons there had feared and hated him, he would have become nothing more than a power hungry despot like all the other tyrants he killed himself. If that had happened, Adalhard would have continued following him unquestioningly. He would disagree with Hilbert's principles and actions, to be sure, but he would continue to be his most loyal follower. Such is Adalhard's love for Hilbert. This fact does not bother him at all.

Author's note: In the original story, Ludger died of illness before the Rasfurans arrived in Fleuyer, a fact which Adalhard is deeply bitter about. Solange, for example, never even knows Ludger's name until over 20 years later when Hilbert mentions it to Armand while describing the circumstances that drove them to leave Rasfura. Adalhard cannot bear to talk about Ludger no matter how long it has been, but that just goes to show that he never stops thinking about his brother. In here, Ludger is alive and well, so Adalhard is at peace. Well, I've made him suffer enough, I think.



I DIDN'T REALISE FLAUNT WAS BUGGED ON MALE AETHERS MY SON YOU WERE BEAUTIFUL



rip that beautiful dark belly