"Do I love her?" Callum asked himself.
No, he couldn't. He was a human prince. He'd be married off to some noble. He wasn't meant to marry for love. Besides, that is not how he felt about her, even if she felt that way about him.
Humans and elves could never mix that way, anyway. It was forbidden on both sides. Maybe it was enough for some to be put to death, others would be outcast and condemned.
They would never reach the point of peace. Rayla was probably dead, anyway, and Callum couldn't do this alone. He would die soon, too. And so would Zym. They would die, and the world would go to war. They would go to war and everyone would die.
Callum sighed as he pulled out the last of his food. He suspected the dragon had been sneaking into it while he was asleep. Oh well. There was nothing he could do about it anyway. No need to do anything about it.
The prince recalled his astonishment at the sights, smells, and sounds of Xadia when he was with Rayla. Now he knew they would eventually be his doom.
"Enough of that," he reprimanded himself. "Rayla's still alive. She has to be. She's still alive, and I have to find her."
He had to find her and wrap his useless arms around her. He needed to ask for her forgiveness for leaving her. He needed to cry into her shoulder. But he knew he didn't deserve any of that.
He had been a horrible friend to her. How did he not notice that she loved him? She was probably crying over him because she knew he didn't feel the same way. It made sense. With the way she clung to him he had suspicions that she might feel something for him. Her behavior changed, too, after Ezran left. She was more awkward and careful, blushing frequently. The casual intimacy between them had to have been so hard on her.
He didn't love her, and he didn't deserve her as a friend. It wasn't fair to her. She was too sweet, and kind, and caring, and he treated her so terribly.
Callum was hungry, but there was nothing to eat. Zym has eaten all the food. Callum didn't care. He just trudged along, hoping to find his friend alive, and not dead like he thought she was.
He was dangerously low on water. There was no source of clean water nearby that he knew of, so he tried his best to conserve it until he could make it back to the river. Until he could make it back to Rayla.
Callum heard a rustle in the bushes, snapping him back into reality. He readied his hand to draw fulminis again. He scanned in the direction the sound came from. Everything was still. He waited. It's what Rayla would do, right? She would hear a sound and then wait.
The prince was still weary after a few minutes, but resolved that is was nothing. Just the wind blowing.
"That was scary, wasn't it Zym?" He asked the dragon, knowing full well he couldn't answer anything beyond a bark or a chirp. But he was silent.
"Zym?" Callum called out. He looked around, but saw nothing that resembled his companion. He knew he would inevitably fail his mission to return the Dragon Prince to his mother. What he did not know was that he would fail this quickly. It had only been a day since his separation from Rayla and he already lost the princeling.
"ZYM!" he cried out, desperate. His voice startled a flock of birds, sending them skyward.
Callum sunk to the ground, a failure. Rayla loved him, and he left her. Zym needed him, and he lost him. The only person he had left was his brother, and he had no way of returning to him. He was hopeless.
He took a deep breath and let it out before sucking in another one.
"Come on, dummy. Would Rayla give up so easily?" He reprimanded himself, attempting to channel his inner Rayla. "That's a rhetorical question. You know she wouldn't, and neither should you."
He pushed himself to his feet. If he could find his friend, maybe she could help him find Zym. It would be embarrassing to admit that he lost the dragon, but he didn't care. This was bigger than him and his ego.
Callum walked west for about ten minutes until he heard the sound of the river. He then diverted his course south to meet the flowing water. He wasn't sure how far north or south he had diverged from his original course. He trusted his memory enough that he should be able to decide which direction to go in once he reached the river.
It was another five minutes before the prince arrived. Recognizing none of it, he resolved to follow it north west, towards the lake.
His stomach began to turn as he approached a familiar bend. His mind filled with questions. Would Rayla still be there? Would she want to see him again? And most importantly, was she still alive?
Dread set in. He saw the aftermath of their first run in with the hunter. She would have died had Callum not attempted to intervene, and even then they only survived out of dumb luck.
Callum slowed his approach. If Rayla was dead, the hunter was likely still there. Waiting for him. His senses sharpened by fear and adrenaline.
He heard a yipping noise, like a dog trying to wake its master. It seemed out of place to him, but he didn't think much of it. He had more important things to worry about. He needed to find his friend so they could in turn find Zym.
The massive form of the hunter came into view. Callum halted. His heart hammered in his chest.
"Stop and wait," he muttered to himself under his breath. "That's what Rayla would do. Stop and wait. Survey the situation. Don't just jump into it."
The yipping continued. It was starting to get annoying, and made it hard to focus.
Callum decided it would be against his better interest to attempt to climb a tree. He was a rather inept climber. The last time he tried to scale a tree, he ended up landing directly on his butt and had a root jammed into his tailbone.
He watched the hunter for a few minutes, inching ever so closer. After reducing the distance between them he realized just how unnatural of an angle the massive elf was laying at. He wasn't moving, either.
"Was he dead?" Callum thought. It didn't make sense. He doubted Rayla could do it physically, and he knew she would never kill anyone.
He dared to stand, to close the rest of the way. Something he would regret immediately.