"Llyr, thank the nature spirits that you're alright." Mittar sighed, cupping the face of the former Foreign Minister of the Cold Sea in his hands.
"I had the situation well in hand. There was no need for you to intervene." The former minister retorted with a grimace. Usually, whenever he acted this way toward the predator, the latter would take a step back, and things would return to their usual rhythm. Not this time, however. Mittar simply let out a soft laugh and pulled the man into a tight embrace. "Hey, what are you doing?" The undersea-walker exclaimed, blinking in bewilderment.
"I'm just so glad you're alright." The President whispered. "What were you doing out here? You know it isn't safe to be alone outside of Dead World Trench." He continued. "If you wanted to come out, you could have just said so. I would have accompanied you." The Mullen boy closed his eyes.
"I'm not a child who needs looking after." Llyr grumbled, letting out an exasperated huff. "I just wanted to take a walk along the base of the walls. I didn't expect anyone to attack me." He muttered, finally prompting the predator to release him.
"Oh, your cloak." Mittar remarked, bending down to pick up the garment. He was just about to hand it to Llyr when his eyes widened. He glanced back over his shoulder toward the mountain, where his family and the hegins were watching them. "Damn it." He blurted out.
"By the deep trench! You weren't alone?!" Llyr asked, a rather foolish question, given the circumstances. "Well, at least no one else knows that it's a problem, that it fell off of me." The undersea-walker sighed, taking the cloak from Mittar and draping it over his shoulders.
"My family knows. My father and my younger brother are undersea-walkers, too." The President of the Warm Sea said, his lips twisting into a grimace. "You'll have to explain things to them." He rubbed the back of his own neck.
"You weren't surprised that I survived, and you aren't asking any questions now, either." Llyr began in a serious tone. As Mittar turned towards him, the former Foreign Minister fixed him with the same cold, icy stare he had worn when they first met, a look that made Mittar question whether he was even worthy of being alive. "How long have you known that I don't need protective garments?" The man inquired, his voice slow and measured.
Even now, Mittar remembers that particular day with minute-by-minute precision. It happened years ago, the first time he ever met Llyr. Or rather, on the final day of the undersea-walker ambassador's visit to the Warm Sea Association. At first glance, the Mullen boy found Llyr intriguing, and he didn't deny that he rather liked the way the undersea-walker looked.
However, that didn't mean he couldn't separate his professional duties from his personal life. Just because he found the ambassador appealing didn't mean he was free to pursue him. Quite the contrary, in fact. Llyr was an ambassador from a rival nation. Consequently, Mittar had decided he needed to learn as much about him as possible. The fact that this would also allow him to get to know the striking, mysterious man better was another matter entirely.
"Allow us to escort you to the border, Ambassador." Mittar said, smiling at the man once the final documents had been processed.
"There is no need for that, sir. This is not my first time traveling through No Man's Land." The man replied calmly. "I wish you the best of luck in solidifying the Association." The undersea-walker extended his hand to Mittar, who accepted it.
"Thank you, Ambassador Llyr." The predator said with a nod, then walked the ambassador to the door. "Kiwa, I'm leaving you in charge for a while." He announced as he headed toward the upper floor.
"Why?" The young undersea-walker asked, taken by surprise.
"I'm going after him." The predator shrugged.
"I don't know if you're brave or just crazy." Kiwa exclaimed, taken aback. "Llyr isn't the ambassador of the Cold Sea Empire as a joke. They say he holds more power than their royal family itself." The undersea-walker explained.
"All the more reason to follow him." Mittar grinned.
"You're going to get yourself killed." Kiwa declared. "That's it, from this point on, it's no longer my responsibility. I've warned you." He raised his hands beside his head and turned his back on the man. Mittar merely chuckled and shook his head. Kiwa had no idea that the predator had absolutely no intention of following the undersea-walker in the way he might have expected.
No, Mittar was far more cautious than that. So, upon reaching the upper floor, he locked his office door behind him and opened the window. It was just a single thought, as it had been ever since he first assumed his animal form. In a mere heartbeat, a shark appeared where the man had stood, and promptly swam out through the window.
At that time, the wall surrounding the Deadworld Trench had not yet been built. It was still common for wild animals to wander in among the houses. A shark drew no one's attention, allowing Mittar to easily track down the foreign minister in question. The undersea-walker hadn't gotten very far. He hadn't even reached the edge of the city yet. Mittar watched from a distance as the man walked away, his back straight and his steps confident, going farther and farther from the city center. Then, once they had traveled far enough that they could no longer be seen from the city, Llyr visibly relaxed. His shoulders dropped, and he even smiled as the occasional fish swam past him.
The predator following him in animal form found the man increasingly attractive with every passing minute, and had to constantly remind himself that his feelings could not be allowed to interfere with his professional relationship with Llyr, no matter how charming he found this undersea-walker, who seemed to transform into an entirely different person when no one was watching.
Mittar was just considering turning back, leaving the man to his own devices and returning to the Deadworld Trench, since Llyr had clearly been telling the truth and was indeed capable of looking after himself, when something entirely unexpected happened.
The attack came almost out of nowhere. A group of undersea-walkers assaulted Llyr, who let out a piercing scream and began to flee. Mittar followed. The attackers were relentless, but the ambassador did not go down without a fight. It soon became clear that his initial flight, accompanied by that scream, had been a diversion. He quickly composed himself, leaped around to face his assailants, and watched as they became ensnared, one after another, in a patch of seaweed stretching across the seabed. Then, the jellyfish appeared, and there was no escaping them.
"I survived." Llyr sighed, closing his eyes.
"Not yet." A new voice rang out, one of the attackers had managed to bypass the jellyfish and lunged at Llyr. "Time for you to die!" The man shouted, grabbing the cloak, the very item that enabled travel between the two seas. That was all the cue Mittar needed. Acting as if he were merely a passing shark whose interest had been piqued by the commotion, he bit into the attacker, tore him away from Llyr, and swam on.
But the intervention wasn't soon enough, the cloak remained in the attacker's grasp. Mittar only realized this after slamming the man against a rock. Naturally, he immediately turned back toward Llyr, who, to the predator's utter surprise, was not dying at all. Instead, the man continued along his path, calmly stroking a seahorse and talking to himself.
Yet he was a bit more cautious now, casting anxious glances this way and that. It is no wonder, then, that Mittar secretly followed him all the way to the border of the Cold Sea. Only then did he return to the Deadworld Trench, deciding that he didn't care about the job anymore, he was going to court the Minister of Foreign Affairs regardless.
"So, how long have you known?" Llyr's voice snapped Mittar out of his memories. He let out a long, heavy breath. This wasn't how he had intended to reveal it.
"Ever since your first visit to us."