Enoria is preparing for war with Irithara, and the team sans Kaleth are doing the best they can to put a stop to it before it progresses even further.
Their plan? Find Mereria, get her help with killing Relioth, and save Kaleth in the process. They...
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"I'm really sorry," Mel said for what felt like the fifth time, but it still didn't seem enough to him.
"I told you, it's not your fault. We're not on a tight schedule," Kaleth replied, studying Enor's sword with a slightly raised eyebrow. Or Kaleth's sword now, Mel supposed. Enor was dead after all.
They'd been trapped in a rather large cave for almost half an hour now because a sandstorm had appeared before Mel could get away from the desert, and they'd been forced to land. And as soon as the sandstorm dissipated, the regular kind of storm started.
So, really, this was all Mel's fault. If he'd been a little more powerful, he would be able to fly in this weather, but he wasn't, so all they could do was wait. Mel had heard that the storms here could be really terrible, both sand and regular, but he'd had no idea.
"Still, you must be really bored," Mel said sadly, curling up on the stone floor of the cave next to Kaleth. Mel wasn't really that familiar with boredom. When he had nothing to do—which had been very often this past century—he usually either thought about stuff, or he went to sleep. Both of those options felt very rude right now, though.
Kaleth huffed out a laugh. "I can't get bored with you around." Mel blinked in surprise, his heart flipping with happiness, and he grinned up at Kaleth, who was now blushing and looking everywhere but at Mel.
If anyone else had reacted this way, Mel would most likely think he'd done something wrong, but he knew Kaleth. The man had trouble saying things like this without being embarrassed. To make it easier for him, Mel decided to change the subject.
"You know, I heard Enor's sword could split into two parts."
Kaleth hummed thoughtfully, running his finger over the line in the middle of the blade that ran all the way to the end of the hilt. "I did notice this divide, but I haven't really thought about it that much. Do you happen to know how this works?"
Mel watched as Kaleth tried to pull the two parts apart with no success.
"No, sorry, I've never actually seen it this up close before," Mel said with a sigh, letting his head fall to the ground in defeat. He really wished he were more useful in these situations, but at this point Kaleth probably had greater knowledge when it came to these topics than Mel.
And wasn't that depressing? If Kaleth ever learned how to switch forms, he wouldn't need Mel for anything anymore. At least Kaleth seemed to enjoy his company, so there was that.
Mel jumped as half of the sword suddenly fell to the ground right next to his face. Apparently while Mel had been pondering his usefulness, Kaleth had figured out the mechanics of splitting the sword into two.
"Uh, excuse me," Kaleth apologized, picking up the other half of the weapon. "There's a button in the dragon's right eye. It apparently separates the sword."
Kaleth showed Mel the sword that included the upper part of the golden dragon head. There indeed was something like a button in the right eye, but Mel probably wouldn't have figured that out if he hadn't been told.
