• Suddenly, one of them jumped at Kalathor while the other one nearby it followed from behind. Ellie quickly side-stepped and let him fall as she ducked the attack from the third leopard.

    The leopard’s sharp teeth dripped with venomous saliva; one drop from it made a small hole on his black armour. But he was somewhat lucky; he had his sword at its mouth. Kalathor pulled the sword back and drove it all the way into its mouth, twisting it here and there.

    “Take that!”

    The leopard fell back and knocked onto its other one, clearly growling at the pain. But it was still alive; all three of them, including the one whom he had just stabbed. That blow could have killed a normal leopard, but not this one.

    Kalathor stepped back, gripping his sword even tighter; “Ellie, what was it that you said about malachi leopards?!” he turned back, only to find her gone; “Where the heck-”

    They lunged again, but this time, it was all three of them.

    “Damn!”

    He rolled back quickly and looked up to see the leopards charging towards him. The sword was useless at this point, he thought, remembering the part where he drove the sword through the leopard’s mouth. Ellie, where could she be? As he backed away, he suddenly stopped, feeling the hard, solid structure of the tree behind him; he was cornered.

    The leopards slowed down and prowled around their new prey with their gold eyes. They had that odd look, making it seem as though they were thinking on where to start once they got him down. The head? The legs? Or maybe the arms? All seemed tantalizing for their hungry stomachs.

    Kalathor gulped; am I going to die here?

    They stopped and drew their teeth back into a growl, flashing their gold eyes dangerously. Long tails whipped across their tensed body, hind legs rose from behind, ready to pounce; he was seconds away from the inevitable doom.

    “ELLIE!” he cried.

    Kalathor shielded himself with his arms, expecting a series of ripping flesh and sizzled armours. Then something else happened.

    The malachi leopards cried out in pain, followed by a cacophony of shrilled sound that could kill his ears if he had not worn his helm. He grabbed his head in an attempt to filter out the terribly shrilled sound, but of course, it never did him any good. The leopards were falling back, he noticed, and that was the good part. They continued to cry out, pawing at their ears as their body shuddered at another long shrill of deafening cacophony. Not long after that, the three fled and disappeared into the lush greenery of the forest. Mystery dives back into mystery, returning back to the root of all mysteries, he thought as they left.

    Sighing in relief, he sank to his knees and breathed hard, taking the opportunity to take in the air greedily after holding back his breath earlier just now. One question remained though; who drove them away?

    But just as he was about to recover, the bushes shook again. Cursing softly, he grabbed his sword and got into his defensive stance, turning to face the bushes.

    He was wrong this time, though, for what stepped out from behind the bushes was something –no, someone- else.

    Long lithe legs with perfectly carved calves and thighs stretched forward. The sight, however, stopped at the middle part of the thighs by something white and concealing. His eyes moved higher and caught a hint of the nicely shaped waist and perfect curves of the bosoms. Her hair, long and rich in silver gold, tumbled on her white shoulders like bouncing clouds. There were hands, long and beautiful, that held something in its graceful fingers. Whatever it was holding, it was brought up to its luscious pink lips. Those pairs of pink were pressed on what seemed to be a flute, but after much inspection, it turned out that the flute belonged to him.

    And the beautiful young woman was none other than Ellie herself, still dressed in her nightgown.

    “Swords wouldn’t harm them or it’ll be like driving the blade through the air itself. Malachi leopards are like forests, the very air in it,” she stepped forward, bringing the flute down to her side, “Since I saw this on your horse the other night, I figured it might work,” she winked,
    “Everyone hates bad music,”

    Kalathor was still at loss for words. The memory of him looking at her in such a way played over and over again in his mind.

    Seeing that he was not making any effort to reply to her, she fumed and kicked him, “What, I don’t get any form of gratitude from you after all I’ve done?”

    The kick snapped him out from his shock, “E-Ellie, I didn’t know you…” his voice trailed off when his eyes caught the flute in her hand; “How did you get that?!”

    Giggling triumphantly at this, she clicked her tongue and his black steed stepped out from behind. “I’m quite useful myself, thank you,”

    “You were horrible with my flute,”

    “HEY, I saved your life! The least you could do is be nice,”

    Kalathor stood up and snatched the flute from her hand, “I’ll show you how it’s played properly tonight,”

    The princess cocked her head to one side, watching him walk to his horse as she caught hints of frustrated mutters from inside his helm. He heard her, all right, but he was simply keeping off the subject to not injure his pride anymore by talking about the flute. She smiled; at least she will be hearing him play it tonight.

    I wonder how that’s done, with the helm and all. Will he be taking it off when he plays it?

    - - -


    They stopped by another clearing and camped there. Everything seemed better than before. Conversations were never given a moment to spare for there was always so many to talk about. Of course, there were the occasional teasing and taunting from each other, but aside from that, everything seemed fine.

    Once everything was ready for the night, Ellie sat by the fire and warmed her cold feet and hands while Kalathor tended to his steed. They had their dinner earlier, but that was simply because Ellie insisted them to eat first so that he would keep his promise to play the flute tonight.

    “You called my name when you were cornered by those leopards,” she giggled at the memory of it.

    Kal patted his horse and returned to the fire, where he was greeted by her peals of laughter. He snorted at this and took his flute out, “If you keep teasing me, you won’t be listening to this,” he waved his flute to her face, “When a player’s pride is wounded, his musical wonders won’t come out right. So you’d better be nice,”

    “All right, I’ll stop,” she grinned, and then smiled softly, “But still, you called my name,” She realised that he was still looking at her through that helm of his and for some reason, she could imagine the raised eyebrow on his face, “That’s something I haven’t heard for a very long time. Everyone seemed to busy to be calling me that nowadays,”

    He put his flute to the side and continued to watch her, “What do they call you then?”

    Ellie wondered how she should say it while trying not to reveal her true identity; “They just call my name, not me,”

    Kalathor was trying to put her words into some sense, but they seem rather vague for him to do so, “I…see,”

    “How are you going to play it if you’re not going to take the helm off?” she asked, curiously peeking from below his helm to catch a hint of his face.

    He felt himself smiling at her question but just as his hands were about to reach the sides of his helm, he stopped. Kal suddenly found himself back in the past when he was standing before the mirror, inspecting his face. But when he saw his face in the mirror, the flashback ended and he was here again, with Ellie in front of him. He remembered why he had this helm on and never took it off.

    Kal released his hands from his helm and handed her his flute; “Not right now,”

    She blinked at him, sensing the sudden change in him. “But you promised,” she frowned, “You promised you would play,”

    But he only stood up and walked off, “Some other time,”

    This is odd, she thought, not a moment ago, he seemed so happy. Ellie quickly got to her feet and grabbed him by the arm, yanking him back to make him face her. “Is it because you’re hiding yourself from behind that helm of yours? Is it because of that?”

    Kalathor only stared at her. She had such a determined look, and those eyes of hers. They seemed so strong, so gallant. Those eyes would put him to shame, he thought. But truly, what has he got to hide from her? His face was only kept hidden from her because she was his hostage, but that was not the only reason for him to hide it. There was something else on his face that he did not wish to show to her.

    “I’ll play it to you next time,” he sighed and shrugged her off softly, “It is best that you sleep now. We’re in for a longer journey by dawn,”

    The princess stood there as she watched him disappear into the forest, leaving her alone by the fire.

    Kalathor…what are you trying to hide?