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He raised the jug of mead to his lips, thought better of it, and merely took a sip that wet his throat rather than chugging the entire thing down in one go.
He’d learned his lesson.
While he didn’t recall exactly what happened the night he decided to over-imbibe, he surely didn’t enjoy the morning after when his head felt split in two.
More than that, he was left with a strange vulnerability and hollowness.
Especially when Eir was near.
It was as if, after that night, she could see right into him. See his thoughts and dreams more clearly than he knew them himself.
He could not meet her eyes ever since. He knew he was a coward for it, but…
He didn’t want to feel that kind of pain again. He’d rather die a thousand times than feel her look into him, find him wanting, and keep on lookingthroughhim as if he mattered not at all.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to cease all stupidities, including getting a number of new tattoos he hadn’t consciously planned to get.
“You should plan for every possibility. Perhaps the Red Witch is a stop on your journey, not mine,” Kai murmured.
While he didn’t explicitly state his likely demise, he couldn’t help planting the seed.
Despite his best efforts, over the course of their shared adventure, Ere had clearly gotten attached to him again. And Kai admitted to himself begrudgingly that he’d gotten attached too.
It wasgoodto be part of something again. To have brothers in Ere and Sorin. To know that when he was gone, someone would remember and miss him.
At the same time, he didn’t wish for Ere to be sad. Perhaps helping him adopt the right expectations would dull the pain when it came.
“Of course you’ll come out the victor!” Ere exclaimed immediately. “Since when does the mightiest earth dragon that ever existed fall to Big Foot? Battle’s in the bag.”
“Preparation is key,” the taciturn Sorin inserted unexpectedly.
“Tell us what you have gathered about our foe,” he bade Ere.
“Well,” Ere began, his startling turquoise eyes taking on a shrewd, considering glint.
“We already know that the jötunn is physically imposing. Stories vary, but I’d estimate that he’s twice or three times your dragon form’s size and strength,” Ere said, scanning Kai from head to toe.
“You can breathe fire right? Remind us, what other powers do you have?”
“I can construct a wall of smoke that protects everyone on the inside but scalds anyone who attacks from the outside like acid,” Kai explained. “My skin can turn harder than stone, and my wings can form an additional shell like the strongest metal. I can persuade the earth to bend to my will if I focus enough energy.”
“You can hurl rocks by telekinesis?” Ere asked. “I don’t seem to recall this trick when we fought together eons ago.”
“No, it is not that,” Kai replied. “I can make them move as they would have moved on their own. Like a rockslide, an avalanche or an earthquake. It is more that I induce the earth to do what it would have done on its own under the right circumstance, rather than force my own will upon it.”
Ere nodded.
“That will definitely come in handy. So, your powers aren’t like those of Elementals.”
Kai knew that Ere referred to a Kind of Immortal who could control the elements—earth, fire, water, air. He’d met only a few in his various incarnations across tens of thousands of years. This race came after the dragons and Beasts.
“Elementals manipulate the elements for which they have affinity, while I am one with my element,” Kai said. “If I died as a dragon and it was forever, I would turn to stone and become part of the earth again.”
“Huh,” Ere mused. “I never thought about that. I guess Sai would become the ocean, and I’d be what…part of the atmosphere? Air? A fluffy white cloud?”
He turned to his Mate with a mischievous smile.
“Or maybe a storm cloud that follows Sorin around, striking him with lightning if he ever looked at anyone else.”
