After they left Morrigan’s room in the old castle, they walked outside and the next few hours were spent with Baelor teaching Morrigan some of the basics of using her cane and other aspects of battle. She had learned a good amount from Zecora, but Baelor took it to whole other level.

“Keep your weapon in motion. When swinging a whip, or a chain, or a flail, or anything else that swings freely from where you hold it, all of its power comes from how taugt the chord is from its momentum,” Baelor instructed Morrigan as she spins it around her on one side and then her other, completely different from how the game portrayed the threaded cane.

Morrigan panteds as she did as told, sweat lining her brow. “Like this?” she queried, whipping the cane in one direction and then moving her hand the opposite direction, always keeping it in motion.

Baelor nodded. “Good. You’ve got the idea down. Now it’s time to start teaching you.” He said.

Morrigan did a double take. “Wait, what?!” She cried.

“Keep the motion,” He reminded her. She’d stopped swinging, the whip falling flat.

“Hold the fucking phone, you mean you weren’t just now teaching me?” she queried, shooting him a glare.

“No, I was definitely teaching you. I just wasn’t teaching you aspects of how to use your weapon in combat. Now that you’re warmed up, we can start getting into technique,” Baelor said to her, getting up to walk over to her. Morrigan groaned.

“Fucking hell, dude. You’re gonna be the death of me,” she said as she went back to practicing the motions.

“No, I’ll be sure to stop just before you die. The point of this training is to make it so something else isn’t the death of you, so I’m going to have to push you to the brink,” Baelor commented, before standing up on his hind legs behind her and getting a little too close.

“Um, what are you doing?” Morrigan asked him, almost stopping the motion of her whip.

“The strength of the weapon is in its tautness, but the strength you put into it only needs to come from your wrists and fingers. Try to keep your arms and body still as you swing it, and keep your elbows in close to your body.” Baelor told her, lightly moving her elbows closer to her body like he told her, and holding her forearm still so that she has to use her wrist strength to keep the whip swinging. Morrigan blushed at the close proximity, but did as instructed. Baelor stepped away from her to let her get the new style down.

Even as only a minute passed, Morrigan could feel the intense burn in her wrists from maintaining the swing with only them for a prolonged time, and she had to stop to let them rest.

“Alright, now’s as good a time to take a break,” Baelor told her, much to Morrigan’s relief. “Now give me 100 sit-ups.” He added. Morrigan gave him a blank stare.

“...What?” she said.

“Whips need a lot of stamina and strength to use, and since they’re lighter weapons, that means they’re not likely to bring down an enemy with one hit. Which also means you’re going to have to use them for prolonged periods of time. So to inspire you to build up your wrist strength and stamina, you’re going to do 100 sit-ups every time you need to let your wrists rest. Then you’re going to start up the motion again,” Baelor told her. Morrigan groaned again, but did as told and laid down to do the sit-ups.

Her attention got drawn to her side though when she heard Baelor laying down next to her, and he started doing sit-ups as well. She blushed, but continued her exercise.

Once she finished them, she got right back up and went back to swinging her threaded cane. Baelor kept watch and pointed it out when she started to slip with her technique, and she managed to last for five whole minutes this time before dropping down to do 100 more sit-ups. Once again, Baelor joined her in her “break”.

After a short while, a certain zebra walked up behind them. “Now this is a treat. A beast training my student, without missing a beat.”

Morrigan snapped up to her feet, facing the zebra. “S-S-Sorry, Miss Zecora, I-!” she tried to say.

“Hush,” the zebra ordered, and Morrigan clammed up. Zecora looked to Baelor. “So, Beast, what do you have to say? I hope it is more than mere growls and brays.” She asked him with narrowed eyes.

“Don’t worry good huntress. I do growl sometimes when I’m trying to be intimidating, but that’s usually a conscious decision, and I usually do that to someone I don’t like. And compared to Morrigan here, you’re actually greeting me a lot better than she did.” He said to the zebra.

Zecora arched a brow. “Oh really? How is it that she greeted thee?” She asked, dropping her rhyme.

“By grabbing everything in sight and throwing it at me. Kinda hilarious in hindsight,” He remarked.

Zecora let out a tired sigh and rubbed her temple from that info. “Then receiving instruction rather than death from a beast is the best news yet. Honestly, that reaction gives much reason for me to fret,” She rhymed once more, seeming disappointed in Morrigan.

“What?! Come on, anyone would react that way when some scaly dragon shows up out of nowhere as they’re trying to sleep!” Morrigan argued.

“Be that as it may, had it been a real beast, you would not be here to speak to us on this day,” Zecora countered.

Morrigan was getting ready to argue further, but she was interrupted by Baelor. “I think that’s enough of a break for now. Back to the exercise Morrigan. And Miss Zecora, if you would be so kind, we would greatly appreciate it if you could sit in with us to help out with the training.” Baelor said.

“With this, it would be a delight, and with our combined efforts, our student will most certainly be able to put up a fight,” Zecora answered with a smile that sent foreboding chills down Morrigan’s spine.

And Baelor grinned right back at her. “I’m glad we’ve come to an understanding.” He replied.

“I feel like I’m about to go through the worst time of my life…” Morrigan said fearfully.

“Oh good! That means you’re starting to become more in tune with your instincts! Keep on listening to that and you’ll be in fighting shape in no time!” Baelor said to her cheerfully.

-------------------

The next Day

Morrigan slumbered in complete agony. It was a wonder to her that it was possible for her wrists to hurt this much.

“UP AND AT-EM’! TIME FOR SOME MORNING WARM-UPS!!!” Baelor called into her room, startling her awake.

“JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!” Morrigan yelped, jumping out of her bed in surprise.

“Alright, you’re up! Get yourself ready, cause Zecora just got back and she’s got us breakfast. If you miss breakfast, you’ll be slow for the rest of the day and we won’t make as much progress on you, so hurry up please!” Baelor told her before walking away. Morrigan groaned as she stood up.

“Motherfuckin’ semi-sexy dragon asshole…” she cursed under her breath as she quickly got dressed and went to find Zecora and Baelor. She found them outside, sat beside a campfire where several rabbits hung from a makeshift spit, roasting over the fire. “Rabbits? Cool, always loved the taste of rabbit.” Morrigan said as she sat down to eat.

“They’re not bad. I was never very good at hunting though. In the past, whenever I needed food, it was usually from squirrels while in the wild, and the occasional berry and nut that I figured out weren’t poisonous. But fish were usually the easiest for me,” Baelor responded.

“Huh… I never took you as a fisher,” Morrigan noted.

“It’s kind of easy when you can just levitate the fish out with an orb of wate,.” Baelor said with a smirk.

“Doesn’t sound as fun or relaxing as doing it normally,” Morrigan said as she took a leg of rabbit and bit into it. “Shen agin, Ah kep’ shallin’ ashleep whene’er Ah did eet.” Morrigan said as she chewed, seemingly not caring for how she looked as she talked with a full mouth.

Baelor sighed while eating. “When I fished in the past, it was to get food after going for weeks without it, since I kind of sucked at finding other sources. I didn’t do it for fun, I did it to survive. Some areas I was in didn’t have rivers or forests, so I was essentially without food or water for several days at a time. I’m really glad this body doesn’t require as much water as often as a human body. Otherwise, I probably would have died over a thousand years ago.” Baelor told her while finishing off his rabbit. She idly wondered ow the hell he was able to talk with that much food in his mouth and still be that coherent.

She just tried and she didn't even come close!

Baelor stood up. “I’ll be in the area we’re going to be working in. Zecora’s teaching today’s lesson. I’ll just be assisting.” Baelor said to her.

“Somehow I feel that that is even worse for me,” Morrigan muttered, taking another bite of her rabbit leg.

“Please hurry child. Lest your lesson turn out even more… wild,” Zecora said with a dark chuckle.

And with that, Morrigan scarfed down the last of her breakfast at record pace. She did not want to find out what the zebra’s definition of “wild” was.

Morrigan and Zecora made their way to where Baelor waited patiently. “Your weapons must remain with me for today. Your wrists still need to rest from yesterday.” Zecora told Morrigan.

She blinked. “That rhyme… sounded like it cheated a bit.” Morrigan pointed out.

Zecora leveled a flat glare at her, and just held out her hand for Morrigan to put her gun and cane. Morrigan sighed in resignation and handed them over. Zecora gave a nod to her, and then turned to Baelor. “Begin.” She said.

And then Morrigan was sent tumbling backwards from a heavy force hitting her in the midsection. “Oof!” She grunted in surprise and pain.

“Today, we are focusing on “evasion”. Specifically, four-legged beasts and animals,” Baelor said from where he slammed into her.

“Fucking asshole…” Morrigan cursed, holding her stomach. Then she let out a yelp of fright before she rolled out of the way of Baelor charging her again.

“Whips are deadly weapons in the right hands. But no matter how skilled you are, they don’t have nearly enough stopping power in them to hinder enemies that are just trying to brute-force their way through you. So that means you need to know how to avoid taking damage through dodging while also attacking, and finding the “weak points” on your opponents, if they have any,” Baelor informed her as he skidded to a stop.

“Coulda said that before busting into me!” Morrigan yelled.

“And you still seem to have yet to learn, that beasts and monsters will not sit around for you to 'take your turn',” Zecora called to her from the sidelines. Morrigan jumped out of the way of another charge.

“Can you at least tone down the depraved need to see me get hurt for one day?!” Morrigan cried, dodging another rush, but barely.

Baelor relaxed his stance to stand up straighter. “You’re panicking. Stop and calm yourself Morrigan, you’re only hurting yourself by thinking about the pain you might feel. We’re not trying to hurt you, but you are going to get hurt at some points during this training. It is inevitable. Just like it’s inevitable that you’re going to get hurt one day in real life, in real combat. You’re going to need to push past that fear, push past that pain, in order to survive those encounters. This training is meant to prepare you for that, even if it only ends up being your pain tolerance, although I’m sincerely hoping it’ll be a lot more than just that,” Baelor told her in a calming voice.

Morrigan panted lightly, looking at her mentors for a long moment as she collected herself. “Right… Right… Okay, got it.”

“Alright. Then let’s get back to it, shall we?” He asked her, crouched and ready to charge again.

When he did, Morrigan surprised her teachers by jumping over the dragon, although she landed hard on her face. “Ow.”

“...” Baelor and Zecora simply stared at her.

“Please don’t do that again.” Baelor deadpanned.

“I thought it would be cool. But now all I got is a nosebleed,” Morrigan said, lifting her head from the dirt to show her slowly bleeding nose. “Fucking karma.”

“That’s not karma. That’s just the universe trying to beat the stupid out of you. Here,” Baelor stretched out his clawed hand and a spurt of water blasted her in the face, drenching her. “And then this,” He twisted his claw and Morrigan felt a chunk of ice wedge itself into her bleeding nostril. “Now just try to breath through your mouth a bit until the blood clots, then I’ll take it out.” He instructed.

Morrigan did as told, shivering a little at the ice in her nose. “So… Fuck the universe then? Because I’m pretty sure I hate it as much as it hates me, if not more.”

“Eh, it doesn’t really hate you so much as it just wants you to learn from your mistakes… by beating you over the head with the consequences of said mistakes… which may or may not include death if the mistakes are bad enough,” Baelor said awkwardly.

“Great pep talk, coach. Loved it. Five stars,” Morrigan snarked.

“Well sorry. Life sucks, and then you die. Not much else you can do to change that little life fact sweetheart,” Baelor said. He pointed at his muzzle. “How’s your nose?”

“Better than your love life,” Morrigan said offhandedly as she stood up. Zecora slapped her upside the head. “What?!”

“Do not be crude, and lose the attitude,” Zecora said sternly. Morrigan just shrugged.

“Ah he’s fine. He’s a dragon, he can take bigger hits,” Morrigan said casually. Zecora smacked her upside the head again. “Ow!”

“Yeah, I think you’re good,” Baelor said. He flicked his wrist in her direction and she felt the ice disappear from her nose. “And you’re right. I can take bigger hits. But the better question is…” The air around Baelor cooled by several degrees. And then Morrigan watched in one part fascination, and two parts worry, as bluish-white scales of ice slowly overlapped and encompassed the dragon’s body. “Can you take bigger hits?” He asks her with an unsettling grin, his body now covered in hard, less impact-friendly, ice shards.

“I hate my life,” Morrigan said before getting plowed over by the ice-covered dragon.

---------------------------

Day 3

Morrigan jerked awake with a groan of pain.

Everything hurted.

‘Well at least it can’t get any worse than yesterday.’ Morrigan thought to herself blearily.

“~Who’s ready to fall on their head all day~!” Baelor called softly into her room in a singing voice.

“Ugggghhhhhhh….” Morrigan answered.

“Sweet! Your stunt yesterday gave Zecora and I an idea, and we figure that learning acrobatics will be a great addition to your skillset for using whips. You need to be able to hit something from all angles at any angle to be able to use them effectively. See you at the usual spot,” Bael told her.

‘Fuck!’

--------------------------

Day 4

Bael hadn’t been kidding when he said she was going to fall on her face yesterday.

All.

Day.

Long.

‘I can’t tell what’s worse, the ice pack keeping me awake, or the pain in my face when I take it off.’ Morrigan thought to herself despairingly.

Morrigan had just barely fallen asleep when Baelor came in to wake her up.

“Time for training.” He told her. And then he walked back out.

‘... I could just walk to the cliff edge, and take an extra step. The rocks at the bottom would be softer than this torture.’

--------------------------

Day 5

“Baaaaaaeeelll noooooooooooooo…” Morrigan whined in pain as Baelor carried her on his back outside.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine, today’s going to be easy. Just a bit of stretching to improve your flexibility. And to stretch out those sore muscles and knots you’ve no doubt acquired from yesterday.” Baelor consoled her, his steps unfaltering as he leads her towards the she-devil in black stripes named Zecora.

----------

Day 6

~On the sixth day of training, my evil teacher gave to me!~

Morrigan groaned as she heard Bael’s footsteps come towards her room. She knew what was coming, so she just pulled herself out of bed. At the sound of Baelor’s steps moving away from her room, she figured he realized he didn’t need to poke his asshole of a head into her room to wake her up. She slowly, but efficiently got dressed and ready for another day of training, and then made her way outside to their usual spot for breakfast.

When she made it to the fire they all normally eat breakfast around, Baelor and Zecora stopped talking about whatever they were talking about to stare at her in confusion.

“What?” Morrigan asked.

“... Why’re you up so early? I figured you would’ve wanted to sleep in a lot longer,” Baelor asked her with a tilt of his head.

“This is when you get me up for training,” Morrigan told him with a frown.

“Yes… but this is your day off. You could have slept in,” He informed her.

Morrigan promptly threw her head backwards with a shout of frustration.

--------------------

Day 7

Morrigan trudged tiredly into her bedroom to get some sleep, resigned to being exhausted and sore everywhere on her body for the foreseeable future.

“Hey, Morrigan?”

Morrigan stopped and turned to look down at Baelor. “What?” She asked with barely any emotion.

Baelor sighed and scratched the back of his neck with a wing. “I just… want to say thank you… for being so patient with me.” He told her.

Morrigan blinked in confusion. “Huh?”

“I know you’ve been having trouble adjusting to such an intense method of learning, and I’m really glad you’re taking it so seriously… despite what you say during the training. And I know this probably won’t inspire any confidence in me with you, but I haven’t really taught anyone before. And I’m honestly just trying to figure out how to transfer what I know about fighting into something you can learn to do, and also figure out how to build you up to that point. And like I said, I’m really glad you’re being patient with me while I try to do so,” Baelor explained to her.

Morrigan frowned at this, not able to do much else in her tired state.

“Regardless of what you may think about that though, I want you to know that I want you to learn something. I truly do. And I just want to help you to learn as much as I can teach you before I have to leave. Because I don’t want to lose you-.”

Morrigan’s eyes widened at his declaration.

“You’re my friend Morrigan. And it hurts to lose friends and not be able to do anything about it, especially when you can’t even be there to say goodbye. It hurts to know you’ll never get to see them again. And I’m hoping that teaching you how to stay alive will help to make sure that doesn’t happen with you. So thank you for your patience, and thank you for your willingness. And good night.” He said to her with a thankful smile up at her. Then he turned and padded to his own room in the castle.

Morrigan stared after him in silence, digesting everything Baelor divulged to her. She watched him go until he rounded a corridor, then looked out one of the broken windows to the blood red moon outside.

“A friend, huh…?” she muttered to herself. After a short while, she sighed and walked into her room to sleep on the idea.

Day 8

The next morning, Morrigan went down to the eating hall, only to find that Baelor wasn’t there, only Zecora. She looked around, trying to see if the dragon was just hiding to ambush her like he had done a few times before for training. But she couldn’t find him.

“Hey, where’s Baelor?” Morrigan asked the Zebra.

“To gather some fish, he has gone. He should not be long,” Zecora told her.

Morrigan blinked. “Oh.” She responded.

She sat down across from Zecora, and as she said, Baelor walked in with several river trout floating in a glowing sphere of water. “Sup.” He greeted them. Then he promptly dumped the fish and all the water on the ground. Several large splinters of ice impaled each fish through their eyes and they stopped moving.

“Jeez, I’ll never get used to how damned brutal that looks,” Morrigan said with a shake of her head.

“It’s quick, and that’s all that matters. It isn’t right to make them suffer any longer than they have to,” Baelor answered. Morrigan just shrugged.

“Whatevs, teach,” she said before reaching for one of the fish so she could eat it.

Baelor arched a brow at her. “Eating it raw?” Morrigan just stared at him as she took out a knife, showing she had no intention of eating it that way. She held the fish out to him, knife in the other hand.

“Cook, please,” she said simply.

Baelor rolled his eyes before he snapped his claws. A burst of fire surrounded her fish for a second before it disappeared to reveal a cooked fish. She licked her lips and just dug in, eating it like that, knife forgotten in her hand. Once again, the sight of cooked meat had overwhelmed her already small need to look like a lady.

Fortunately though, not enough to stop her from hearing Baelor’s next words to Zecora.

“So do you think you can keep up the same training regimen we’ve all been doing for the past week?” He asked her.

“Yes, and with any luck our student will have just a little less stress,” Zecora said with a titter.

“Alright, then I think it’s time I take my leave. I leave her in your hands Zecora,” Baelor told the zebra.

“Wait what?!” Morrigan exclaimed in surprise. “The fuck you mean ‘take my leave?!’”

“Exactly what it means. I need to head back to my world,” He answered.

“Seriously?! I still haven’t gotten close to mastering the Split Axe, though!” Morrigan cried.

“It’s an axe, swing it around and hope you hit something. I can’t really give you any other advice other than that. I use whips, I don’t have any experience with heavy weapons,” Baelor suggested unhelpfully.

“And you’re just gonna fucking leave me here? With the knowledge that I still can’t use that weapon to its full potential, and get killed because of it?” Morrigan countered.

“Morrigan, do not try and guilt him, the chances of it managing to work are slim,” Zecora chided. Morrigan grit her teeth, her food forgotten.

“Morrigan… I was never going to be able to stay here forever. I don’t know how it works, but I have a feeling that if I stay here too long, I’ll be pulled back to my world whether I want to or not. It’s better to go of my own volition when I’m ready instead of getting yanked away with no warning,” Baelor told her.

“...Fine, whatever,” Morrigan said. She picked up her food, then walked towards the door. “I’ll be in my room.” With that, she left.

Morrigan sat on her bed, back against the wall behind her.

“Can I come in?”

Morrigan looked up to see Baelor looking at her from just outside her room.

“...Yeah, fine,” she said after a short while, returning her gaze to the broken window across the room from her.

Baelor entered her room and sat down on the floor. He was silent for several seconds before he spoke.

“I know what it’s like, you know,” He told her.

Morrigan blinked in confusion but didn’t look at him. “What?” She said.

“I know what it’s like to be afraid and feel alone,” He elaborated. “I was alone for over a week when I was first Displaced. I was alone, tried to survive with minimal amounts of knowledge of how to find food or water, and I was also struggling to figure out how to use my completely changed body. Then I saved a mare from a griffin, brought her back to her home, and met some of my oldest friends because of that,” Baelor said.

Morrigan frowned. “What’s your frickin’ point?” She asked him.

“You’re not alone, Morrigan. Zecora’s still going to be here to help you, and she knows a heck of a lot more about this world than I do. And if you ever do need my help, I’m only a token call away,” He said glancing at the stone that summoned him here that was resting on a dresser off to the side.

“...” Morrigan was silent. The silence filled the room, broken only by the sounds of insects and frogs and the like chirping and croaking their nightly calls. Finally, Morrigan spoke up. “...It’s just hard, knowing that I’m the only real human around here, knowing that my family and my friends are all…” Morrigan stopped, not sure how to continue, and starting to choke with barely restrained emotion.

“I know. They might not be gone, but being unable to get back-” Baelor began, before Morrigan interrupted him.

“The fuck do you know? I saw them! They had blood leaking from every goddamned orifice, like damned waterfalls!” Morrigan yelled, her anger and despair getting the best of her.

Baelor stayed silent after that. “I didn’t know… I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well…” Morrigan trailed off, not knowing how to express herself after that.

Another long moment passed between them. Then Baelor sighed. “Like I said before. If you need me, only a call away,” Baelor told her. Then he stood up, and walked out the door to her room. Morrigan watched as the door closed, then sighed and flipped over on her bed, burying her face in one of the pillows.

She was alone.

Again.

Author's Notes:

The final part of the crossover. I honestly like how it ended, and after this we will return to our usual doom and gloom.