This is a story about Alexial and Ardinieux, the two halves of death. These characters were created by <a target="_self" href="https://warningsofamber.deviantart.com/"><img class="avatar" src="https://a.deviantart.net/avatars/w/a/warningsofamber.gif?2" alt=":iconwarningsofamber:" title="WarningsofAmber"/></a> and this story is part of a gift to him.<br /><br />This story was written to try and emulate the matter-of-fact style that you see in childrens' fairy tales, folk stories, and mythological stories like <i>The Tain</i>. <br /><br />I kind of wanted to portray them as Death in its purest form, albeit with sentient influences. Death is the ultimate loss; loss of money or loss of love. In this tale, Alexial and Ardinieux grow remorseful at the constant loss of the villagers, and try to fill the void with gain - rather than simply trying to prevent death.<br /><br />Except for when he gave him a suit of <i>+3 Armor</i>. I did not entirely follow through with my intent.<br /><br />This story was based off of the traditional Han folk tale, <i>The Golden Horse and the Fire Dragon Shirt</i>.