The Random

Chapter 18: The Eltar Entanglements

Chapter Eighteen: The Eltar Entanglements

    "Can it be an omen?" Schneider asked Fabian.He tilted his head to his left shoulder to have a better view of the gathering hint of red under the almost blinding brilliance of the blue beams coming from the light tower in Servidron, dividing the firmaments into irregularly-sized wedges. He followed one of the beams as it cut through the sky from its source in Servidron to somewhere in the horizon. He marveled at the stream of red and the seemingly burst of the color in varying intensities, his eyes consumed by both amazement and confusion.

     "The dragon..." he said, still trying to still his voice. He figured out he might still tremble at the mere thought of the colossal winged beast. He closed his hand, shrugging off the thought.

     Fabian's eyes gleamed green, his brows arching up and a grin carving out of his lips. He cast his eyes at the lights briefly and took in drafts of air, inside him. He had a fiercer predatory presence tonight. His attention had been shifting to several attacks from the government and that pissed him off so much that he would attack back himself.

     "I've seen these things coming, Schneider." he turned to Schneider to face the merman.

     "No matter how hard you try, I still can see how you seem so consumed by fear..." Fabian let out a faint laugh.

     Schneider cleared his throat, fixing his gaze on the horizon. "It's just that all those attempts we made—

     "You're in doubt we won't make it?!" Fabian snapped in a rising voice, raising his trident in the air to point at Schneider.

     Schneider flinched back, his face registering surprise and dread. He looked at Fabian and saw exasperation flood there, his trident's prongs starting to reflect the haunting moon's glow before bouncing back to the air.

     "I am sorry my Lord"

     Those were the only words he was able to say as he bow before rushing away.

     Fabian followed him with a disgusted gaze, his left hand firm folded in fist while the other tightly gripped around the trident's handle.

    He cast his gaze over the horizon, a malevolent grin forming around his lips. They twitched sideways before letting out a devilish cackle.

***

     "Where's Hans?" Katherine kept her voice low as she whispered on Ryan's ear. In front of them was Craig Heathersmith, giving another talk about what they need to know more in being a random. She laughed at how these things were just being taught that late when their batch had already gone to the battlefield before they even got properly briefed. And now that another impending battle was almost upon them, she couldn't just feel anything but fear. Frightened, maybe she was, realizing two of his newfound friends—Charlie and Bertie had gone missing several days already.

     "I don't know-don't actually care" Ryan said, faking a smile when he was obviously looking irked at the mere mention of the name.

     Ryan belonged to the mermen group. He initially hated being cast in that category. He always thought of merfolks as feminine and he-being a huge man and having tanned complexion. He felt he was a miscast. But after realizing how he could use as huge advantage his being real swimmer was, he began accepting the apparent fact—at least for him—that being a merman was actually cooler than he used to think before.

     "You don't look cute when you do that-"

    "When I'm doing what?" Ryan cut Katherine short, his lips shuddering. He instantly bowed when he himself found his voice already distracting the speaker in the front.