Sky and Sea Event

“Well?” Cael asked, gesturing towards the poorly drawn image of the titan. Asenath had to stifle a giggle; Raon smacked the back of the teen’s head chidingly, whilst the others pursed their lips disapprovingly.

Alterion merely glanced at Asenath before looking back at the leader of the group. He watched the carefully concealed smile behind the man’s eyes, silently observing the strange lion who appeared proud to lighten up the mood just a little.

Kreig was the first to pipe up, raising an arm half-heartedly as he spoke. “Why can’t we just… y’know… charge right in? Advantage with making the first move and all, right?”

Cael frowned at the suggestion, but out of respect, he decided to write it down on the paper pinned right next to the image. As he very slowly wrote, he listened to the arguments his people made. Alterion did the same.

“That sounds,” Maehwa started enthusiastically, before her entire demeanour was transformed, and she spat with a scowl, “disgustingly stupid. You’re frighteningly dull.”

Kreig gasped good naturedly despite the insult, falling almost immediately into a grin. He shrugged his shoulders. “Just throwing it out there. It’s worked before.”

Maehwa growled. “Against people unaware of an ambush, maybe, but an ancient entity that may as well destroy the world? I highly doubt it. You underestimate this… beast. We have no knowledge about it, other than the fact that its name is Epinoim-”

“-and that it is very angry,” Asenath chimed in helpfully.

Maehwa sighed at the interjection. “Yes, the titan is angry.”

“At disharmony,” Asenath added sagely.

Maehwa paused, then squinting at the younger, “Are you saying we’re angering the titan further with our discussion?”

Alterion watched in amusement as the lions began to banter further despite Asenath’s words, dwelling on it for longer than any other lion would have. He began to piece it together with the stories the ancients had told of Epinoim. But it just didn’t sound… feasible.

Glancing around the room, his eyes caught on the leader watching fondly over the lions, chiming in whenever they would get too rowdy, or if insults would teeter too far. He watched Raon, who would physically prevent fists thrown across the room.

“We need to be stealthy! There’s-“

This time, it was Alterion who interrupted Maehwa as she spoke.

“Maybe we could just try to talk to the titan.”

There was silence in the room.

“Excuse me?”

Alterion shrugged. “I mean, they’re waking up because of the fighting, right?”

“Yeah,” Asenath answered. “But how – just how is talking to Epinoim going to resolve this?”

“They talked about an error of some sort – this error was probably something that the kingdoms repeated to have Epinoim. The titan is clearly intelligent; if we could just talk to them, then maybe we could find the mistake and we could maybe appease it. For a little while. Maybe.”

He flicked his gaze towards Cael for a moment, feeling proud of himself, just a little, as the lion’s expression transitioned from surprise to pleased. As he scanned across the room, sentiments seemed to change from disbelief to understanding.

“Sounds better than trying to defeat the undefeatable,” Lantos finally spoke up in acknowledgement, nodding thoughtfully.

Kreig scratched his chin. “But how are we so sure the titan isn’t gonna crush us before we get a word in?”

“We bait them into a trap. Somehow, we’ll need to restrain Epinoim, and then we’ll be able to try to make contact,” Maehwa said. “Even for a second – no, we’ll need at least three. If we can stop him for three, we’re in the clear.”

“Hopefully,” Asenath half-laughed.

“Hopefully.”