A Moonlit Sky
The cave mouth was only twenty-seven steps wide, and roughly eighty or so deep. She would know, after the twentieth time she had paced the steps out. The only thing that broke up that fun little routine were the odd coughs and sleep-ridden muttering that Callum rambled out in his delirious state. 'How dare he… her stupid insolent no good of an excuse for a ten-fingered…'
"I wasn' kiddin when I told ya I would kill yah, if you died on me!" Rayla growled, pointing down at Callum's still form. Her perfectly good hands tapping out a steady rhythm of annoyance at her hips.
"Yer lucky that Ezran and that chain loving friend o' his are gone, or I'd probably do it too! How many times do I have to tell ya, dark magic isn't natural, foolish human!" Rayla continued, whirling around again, boring her gaze into Callum's form.
He coughed, his bruised eyes darting behind his clotted eyelids.
Right. She was talkin to a sick, unconscious human.
"Oh, what's that point!" Rayla exclaimed, plopping herself down next to Callum. "I might as well be talking to Bait, an he ain't much better than you." Rayla glanced back in the interior of the cave. Zym was fast asleep, the lucky bugger, but Bait just stared at her, swiping his thick tongue over his drooping eyelids. First Ezran went off into the forest, and then that Corvus fellow. Rayla paused, before she brought her knees to her chest, as she remembered the look on Ezran's face when he had realized what had befallen the King. She glanced back to Callum.
"I wish I had told ya earlier." Rayla began, her eyes sliding away from Callum's face. "So far, I only seem to bring hurt to you, you and Ezran both. Some friend I am."
Rayla sighed, her eyes drifting over the valley below them, full of life and natural beauty, with a calm breeze fluttering down through the trees. She thought back to the past couple of weeks… almost a month now. How much her life had changed… all for the better. Callum and Ezran were so dear to her, so different than most humans. Through them, Rayla had seen the possible future of peace. How could she not? Especially when Zym and Erzan played together, both future rulers of Xadia and Katolis, both the best of friends.
She leaned back, content to relax until Callum needed her to change her wet cloth, or until Erzan and Corvus returned. Only, as she leaned back, she didn't meet the cold sweet embrace of stone beneath her shoulders.
Her back caught the corner of something hard and dully sharp.
"What the?" Rayla murmured, twisting her neck to look down at the object- it was Callum's drawing book. She stared at the intricate brown emboldened cover for a long moment. She remembered first seeing it when Callum was drawing the primal stone he possessed… had possessed… well, at least he still had a drawing of it? Unthinkingly, Rayla reached for the book, just to browse through the sketches. She picked up the heavy books and crossed her legs, letting the book rest in her lap. She opened the book to the bookmark, searching for the drawing of the primal stone. But the bookmarked page was not the primal stone drawing… there were at least a half dozen drawings instead… all of her.
Rayla froze, her horns bastions of empty sensations amidst the fuzzy feelings that sparked and crawled over her hair and skin.
There were drawings…. of her!
Rayla found herself staring at the images. She had been caught lounging against a tree, in a state of uncontrollable laughter, looking pensive in a forest, along with a warm smile, sitting in the blasted boat they had used earlier in their journey.
She slammed the book shut, as she felt her face erupt in a fiery heat.
"And… you… you and I are gonna hav' some words... maybe…" Rayla muttered, tucking a hair behind her pointed ear, "About… things."
Or maybe, she'd jus' let it slide. Since, for the life of her, she couldn't quite get the smile to rub off her face. She hurriedly set the sketchbook back next to Callum's things, but the images drawn there in immaculate form were seared into her brain. What did Callum think of her?
What did she want him to think of her?
She buried her hand into her knees, kneading her head with her fingertips. Callum was fighting for his health besides her and she couldn't stop to thinking about the intense furled look he got when he was drawing. And now, she knew that look was made when he was drawing her too.
I mean… she couldn't like him… right? She'd never liked anyone before, anyways, so why would she have feelings for Callum? It wasn't like it mattered though: Callum and Claudia were so lovey-dovey that it wouldn't matter what she thought about him anyway.
A scowl formed before she could stop herself, her four fingers clenching together in a fist. She didn't trust Claudia with Callum. She used dark magic, continuously, murderin' any magical creature she could find to do it, she was sent to bring them back to that human sorcerer, and she hated how Callum looked at her stupid purple highlights-
Rayla jolted herself out of those thoughts. She glanced back and saw Zym looking at her with a cocked head, his little tongue lolled out of his mouth.
"Oh, nononono, I see that look, I am not! No sir! I don't have feelings for him. You've seen Claudia, she is evil! Purple highlights and all!"
Zym wagged his tail at that, and Rayla cursed herself once more. If she couldn't convince a baby dragon, she didn't have much hope against Ez or worse, herself.