Alfrun

If Alfrun was to be described with one word, it would be "determined."

If it was two, it would be "ridiculously bullheaded."

Or, as his adopted Master prefers, three words: "damned stubborn moron."

But to start from the beginning of this story:

A beautiful spring day, when not even the perpetual gloom of the Hewn City could hold out against the cheer of sunshine and spring flowers, a small Fae appeared in the central Outpost garden.

Not "arrived," nor "was discovered," but "appeared."

The Guards were, of course, highly upset. Now, this normally equates to "highly murderous," but Alfrun insisted that he was there to join, and to learn. From Loke, of all dragons.

Hearing that, the Guards promptly decided that it was not their problem, and foisted him off on the peeved Mage.

...who in his turn promptly tried to first boot him out of the Compound, and when that failed repeatedly, spectacularly and thoroughly, Loke gave in (reluctantly) to the inevitable and reluctantly tested Alfrun's potential.

By that point a year had passed since Alfrun appeared, so let it not be said that Loke is weak-willed - it's just that Alfrun is, as mentioned earlier, extremely bullheaded, and will always win every contest of will put before him.

Anyway, it turned out that Alfrun had a, quite frankly, ridiculous natural gift for the arcane. Upon that discovery Loke couldn't really turn him away in good conscience, because a: it would cost the Clan a valuable resource, b: it would cost him a valuable minion and c: such a great affinity to magic meant that Alfrun needed to be trained, or else things would start happening.

(Or at least start happening more dramatically and with greater frequency, because thinking back, there had already been quite a few worrying signs...)

But on the other hand... training Alfrun would mean giving in, and no-one has ever accused Loke of being a gracious loser.

So he foisted his "apprentice" off on the other Mages and magically-inclined in the Clan, to give him "a well-rounded perspective on the many possibilities of Magic, so that you won't lock yourself into my branch just on some kind of idiotic principle, moron."

For all that Alfrun determinedly shadowed whomever Loke sent him to "torment", though, he never yielded on calling Loke, and no-one else, his Master.

He still learnt, though.

He studied raw elemental manipulation under Lynnar, Becka, Kolur and Hrim; though in that last case, it was more that he studied Hrim himself, rather than the Imperial actually actively teaching him something.

He studied curses and countercurses under Asfrithur and Nattr.

Dagrun, Torvindr and Regin snatched him away to give him a good foundation in theory, methods, history and strategy when it became obvious that Loke in his genius had forgotten that those parts might be necessary for Alfrun to understand the rest of what his Master was throwing at him.

Knud and Freyja let him know how magic interacted with their bodies, and how to reach into that flow and manipulate it.

Ithunn, Skadi and Lifa taught him about how the limits of the world they live in, but also how to reach beyond them.

Sverrir showed him that those limits are simply ideas, not facts, and that he should never limit himself to what "everyone knows".

And Fenris... Fenris showed him that not everything is knowable, or winnable. Alfrun never stops trying to figure the Wildclaw out, though. It's not in his nature.

And perhaps it was this last point that finally made Loke truly give in. Alfrun had tackled all the challenges his Master had thrown at him head on, and simply refused to give up, no matter what, until he had conquered them.

So, armed with knowledge from the rest of the Clan, Alfrun officially entered his Apprenticeship under Loke, and while they are often seen arguing (Loke shouting, cursing and gesturing frantically, fins reading agitation, irritation, frustration, impatience, dismissal, challenge while Alfrun keeps his voice constant, narrows his eyes and never moves other than his fins which read challenge, confusion, listen, idea, defiance, stubbornness), they undeniably make each other better.

Years into the Apprenticeship now, the Clan doubts that Alfrun will ever try for Journeyman, no matter how much his Master curses at him. He is simply too happy where he is.

• Alfrun's name means "elf secret".
• He's actually a Fey - a spirit of the land. Lifa knows, as he sprung from the Garden, and Asfrithur knows, since she's technically his mother. Other than those two, he's happy to be seen as a dragon, though, and they see no reason to give him up. It's not like the Outpost would care, anyway. (Loke might enter a Mad Scientist Frenzy (TM) if he knew about it, though...)