After defeating Irif, everyone assumes that the hardest part is over, and that they can finally relax for a moment. But while flying back to Enoria, Kaleth and the others are attacked by an ancient enemy, who they thought was long dead. And he has a...
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"Did they get...closer?" Mel asked as he landed on a beach, the frozen black pebbles that made up most of it moving underneath his paws, the ice cracking.
"They also increased in number, even more than we've been told," Kaleth added as he climbed off Mel's back, but he was still keeping a hand on it. Mel could tell Kaleth was not exactly happy about either of those things, but he also didn't seem too worried. Mel had heard some things about the Iritharian military, but was it truly that strong?
"How many do you think there are?"
"Not enough to win," Kaleth replied. A little vague, for Mel's taste, but he supposed Kaleth knew more than him about this stuff. "Either way, our main objective will be to take down as many of those aircrafts as we can. Once that is done, Irithara's ground forces should be able to stop any Eternal that makes it out of the crash."
Mel watched him take his shield off his back, revealing his sword and a sniper rifle. It was kind of amazing Kaleth could carry both at the same time, but Mel had gotten the feeling Kaleth wasn't planning on bringing everything with him during the actual attack.
That was what he'd thought until Kaleth aimed the sniper rifle at one of the aircrafts.
"Wait, we're doing that right now?" Mel exclaimed, his eyes wide as he drew his wings close to his body.
"Calm down, love," Kaleth replied, looking away from the scope with a smile. "I'm just taking a closer look."
Feeling a little foolish, Mel lay down on the beach next to Kaleth, watching the enemy cautiously.
"Hm, I'm fairly certain that a few well aimed shots to the engines would make the entire aircraft crash, but I promised Hidarion not to engage the enemy first," Kaleth said, putting the sniper rifle away with a sigh. A sudden wave of sadness crashed into Mel, which immediately made him focus purely on Kaleth.
Before breaking his heart, Kaleth added in his mind, no doubt not intending for Mel to hear that.
"I'm sorry," Mel said, nuzzling Kaleth's shoulder with his head. "He's in love with you, isn't he?"
Kaleth didn't even look fazed by Mel knowing what the problem was. He just gave one small nod and started running his hand over the scales on Mel's snout.
It really made Mel wonder though. Wouldn't Kaleth and the Iritharian king be a better match than he and Mel? They were both involved in politics, they were actually smart enough to understand politics—actually much smarter than that. Hidarion was also much more charismatic, wise, attractive—
"No," Kaleth said suddenly, bringing Mel out of his depressing assessment. "No," he repeated as he grabbed Mel's head with both his hands, making him look Kaleth in the eyes. Or he would if Kaleth weren't wearing the goggles.
"But it's true," Mel argued, his ears drooping. He didn't like the way Kaleth was emanating anger. It wasn't aimed at Mel, but he still didn't like it. He wished Kaleth would just be happy all the time, but he supposed that was impossible, especially for Kaleth. Rayni had been right about that.
