Beneath the Red Dragon

But Paul was still able to recognize those blue eyes. Although many of the Fremen had blue eyes, he had seen this girl’s beautiful face and figure, and those eyes, wild yet gentle and confident, many times in fragments of his dreams.

Paul slowed the sound of his rapid breathing caused by his hurried movements, and slowly put down the gun in his hands. The girl’s fierce gaze also softened, and the hand clutching the dagger withdrew. Her tense posture became relaxed.

The Fremen girl slightly turned her head, her raised eyes looking at Paul, then removed the mask covering her face, scrutinizing this young man.

”They say you are the Mahdi (also called Mahdi, meaning someone guided by the True God), but you just look like a pretty little boy!”

The Fremen girl, like all warriors, patted the sand off her backside, then stood up and walked toward Paul.

”You’ve chosen the hardest path to walk, and I admire your courage. Come with me, we have to go.”

A man and a woman jumped off the canyon wall and joined the Fremen, preparing to head to the Teb Cave.

Paul knew that the caves of these Fremen harbored millions of Fremen people.

Yet, the Leo Empire and the Harkonnen Clan were unaware of the number of these Fremen.

Because of the Dune Planet’s uniqueness, because of the unspoken public Rule, satellite scrutiny was not allowed in this area.

And these Fremen rarely appeared in the desert during the day, so the Nobility thought that after long-term slaughter and hunting, there were only over ten thousand Fremen left.

Fremen leader Stilgar took the gun from Paul’s hands and spoke to the girl beside Paul: ”Ensure the outsider’s safety, Chini. Take care of the newcomer, let’s move!”

”I don’t accept them,” came a voice of opposition,

Previously Jamie uncovered the fabric hood from his face, stepped forward, and stared intently at Paul and Lady Jessica.

Stilgar stood in between them, facing this warrior from a different faction than his own, and said: ”Jamie, I’ve already given my word, don’t cause trouble.”

Jamie with his blue eyes looked at Stilgar unafraid. He did not mock nor sneer; instead, he spoke in a calm tone crafted through the desert’s grind like every Fremen: ”Stilgar, the way you speak sounds like a leader,”

”But only the strongest can lead; she has defeated you,”

Jamie’s blue eyes swept over Jessica calmly, then said: ”I will use the Emteir Law (destructive test, commonly used on primitive planets to examine the faults and limitations of the tested),”

Jessica turned calmly, put down her burden, and with a gaze as sharp as a she-wolf watching her prey, she was not afraid of this Fremen’s challenge.

”You can’t challenge the Sayadina”—the Fremen term for a priestess not yet a tribe’s Holy Mother.

”Then who will fight me in her name?”

Stilgar turned his head, his gaze icy sharp. ”Jamie, stop fooling around, it’s enough, the night is ending!”

”Then let the sun witness this death!” Jamie’s dark face was calm, indifferent, and stubborn. Even the previous leader could not change his mind.

His voice turned rough, ”Where is her defender?”

Paul Atreides looked at this stubborn warrior, with eyes full of complex emotions—resistance, pity, calmness, and depth.

He had to take on the challenge in place of his mother Jessica, as Jessica’s defender, defeat Jamie, or else he would not gain Fremen recognition, nor their protection.

But in Paul’s dreams, he had long foreseen, blood and death, this was predetermined destiny, but he had no choice but to act.

Paul dropped his gaze, then raised it again, stepping out from among the Fremen, and stood before Jamie.

”I accept her defender.” Fremen Warrior Jamie acknowledged this young man’s courage, and then slowly turned away, quietly waiting at the side, for the moment when the sun first rose.

And Paul looked back at the stubborn figure of the warrior, as if seeing the profound web of destiny sweeping toward him, trying to entangle and wrap him, deeply binding him within it.

His hand rest on the wall, facing the Atreides family’s heirloom Ring on his hand, he entered a state of deep tranquility.

Under this eerie tranquility, his mind drifted over images and fragments of the future.

In the sunlight, he and Fremen Warrior Jamie initiated the duel, the clash between bodies and daggers, the collision of combat skills.

Completely opposite from what he had predicted,

In the fight, Paul, who had never killed before, out of a moment’s kindness, died under the Fremen Warrior’s dagger.

The flashing images and voices from ancient bloodline female ancestors echoed in his mind like a chant, ”Paul Atreides must die!”

”Only then can the Kwisatz Haderach rise!”

”Do not fear,” the male ancestor’s voice also arose, like a strange murmur, echoing in Paul’s mind.

”Do not resist, for when you take another’s life, that’s when yours ends,”

Until the sun at the edge of the sky gradually rose, Paul then emerged from his indulgent thoughts.

The Fremen girl Chini walked over, looked at this young boy, yet deep in thought, and she softly said: ”I don’t believe you are the Lisan al-Gaib, but I hope you die honorably,”