A/N: Thank you all so much for your support! I looked this up one day and BOOM! So much feedback! I kind of have an idea of where I want this to go, so I hope you all will bear with me. :D Also, after further review, I moved the rating down to T. I'm pretty sure the opening wasn't gory enough for an M rating and I really don't think I'm going to be adding anything deserving of a more mature rating. If something does come up that is more mature and I feel absolutely needs to be in this story, I will adjust it again.
To TheSeagullMilker, Galaxies2007, Shiranai Atsune, and 1228248: Thank you for your suggestions!
To Pippin: You have no idea how much I screeched when I saw that you had left not one, but multiple messages from you! Thank you SO MUCH for your kind words! 3
To TheWonderfulShoe: You caught it! I hope this chapter helps satisfy your observation from earlier. XD
Rayla was awash with that nauseating feeling that she was starting to become familiar with, although this time it was not only her memories colliding but the disgusting set up of Viren's lab. Magical and nonmagical creatures were jarred up on shelves beside books filled to the brim with notes on what could only be dark magic. She was ready to release her stomach upon the floor.
"I forgot how vile he is," she muttered venomously.
"What do you mean?" asked Callum.
She beckoned to everything around them. "This is all for dark magic," Rayla growled. "Your mage takes joy in stealing the magical essence out of nature for his twisted purposes."
Callum looked around unfazed. "I mean, it is kind of creepy down here but..."
"It's over here!" Ezran called. Callum and Rayla looked to where the younger prince was standing with the most beautiful egg in existence cradled in his arms. Her nausea immediately faded into something else; something light and sad and almost indescribable if she had to put it in words. Rayla fell to her knees, memories of their adventures with Zym up to the dragon's final breath hit her like a runaway wagon. Traveling with him, dropping the egg in the ice, hatching Zym atop the Moon Nexus, carrying the baby dragon across hill and dale, river and run. Ezran teaching the little hatchling to fly, in turn saving her and Callum from lava. Through human and elven towns, up to his mother's den. How he grew... how he died...
"Are you... are you crying?" asked Callum. To Rayla's surprise and relief, he actually sounded concerned. Sniffling and wiped her stinging eyes with the edge of her sleeve. Pulling herself up, she tentatively took a step forward, eyes never leaving the egg. She reached out a hand and lightly touched the egg's shell.
"Hey, Zym," she whispered shakily. "Its been a while since seeing you like this."
"You talked about Zym in your story," said Ezran. "This is him?"
"Azymodias," said Rayla with a fond smile. "We called him Zym for short. The dragon prince."
"It's amazing," Callum gawked in awe. "But what is it doing here?"
The fondness in Rayla melted to cold fury. "If I remember correctly," she answered quietly, reigning in her anger, "Viren took it to use as a weapon. He killed our king and stole his child for dark magic."
"That's... that's awful. I can't believe-"
"I need to get the dragon prince back to my team before they bind themselves to their mission," Rayla said stepping forward and reaching to take the egg. Ezran stepped back.
"Ezran?"
"I-"
Panic tore through Rayla's system. "Ezran, we don't have time. If I don't get Zym to my team in time-"
"Hey!" Callum cut in, stepping between Ezran and Rayla. "We get it, but try and understand this for us."
"I do understand," Rayla insisted. "I've lived this already. I know you don't trust me because I'm an elf and if we had weeks together than I would convince you otherwise, but we don't have that time. Your dad is in danger. You," she pointedly looked at Ezran, "are in danger. I can't lose you. Not again. And if I can spare you pain..." Rayla felt the tears burning and wiped them away quickly before they could cause an even worse scene. Since when had she become such a baby?
The two brothers eyed her warily, twisting Rayla's insides for what seemed like forever until Ezran finally, hesitantly, held Zym's egg out to her.
"Take care of him," Ezran said softly.
"Absolutely," Rayla sniffed in relief. She gingerly cupped the egg in her four fingers and pulled Zym in to hug him to her chest. "And once this is over, I'll be back, and we can prevent the war from ever happening in the first place. I swear it."
The two princes nodded with small, half-smiles. Rayla was determined to see her friends' actual smiles again. The ones that lit up their faces. The one smile Callum would give that sent butterflies up her spine- focus!
"Oh, I almost forgot something!" said Rayla, tucking Zym in the crook of her arm and digging into her pocket. She pulled out a ring and held it to Callum.
"You from the future told me to give this to you when I saw you. Don't ask me what it's for. You-he didn't say."
"Um, thanks." She set the ring in Callum's cupped hand. Whatever it was, it was for him. She bit down the selfish part of her that yearned to know what it was for, but time was of the essence. Rayla took a deep breath and was about to leave when the gears for the stairs began to turn.
"Hide!" Callum yelped, pocketing his ring.
"No! Run!" Rayla hissed, tucking the egg under one arm and grabbing his hand with the other. He, in turn, grabbed Ezran's and Ezran grabbed Bait as the elf and two humans bolted down the hall and out of sight with glow frog and egg in tow. When she was sure they weren't being followed, Rayla skidded to a stop.
"Uh, Ezran? Do you know how to get us out of here?"
The crown prince snorted with a mischievous smile. "Follow me."
"It's almost noon and no one has seen the princes," Viren fretted, pacing back and forth in the throne room.
"If they were in trouble we would know," Harrow said, more to himself than anyone else. "We have the best guard this side of the Breach. They would have seen something amiss."
"Your Majesty!"
The doors to the throne room were cast open as a guard stripped to his underclothes stood, shaken. "Your Majesty!" he cried again, throwing himself to his knee. "Elves! I saw elves!"
Harrow's stomach dropped.
"Elves? What elves?!" Viren demanded.
"In the forest," he answered, gulping for breath. "Moonshadow elves! On my patrol… I couldn't get a count… one knocked me out and took my armor."
"Infiltrators?" Harrow asked, trying to keep his voice level.
"Yes, your Majesty. I-I-"
"Quick, guard!" Viren pointed at another Crownsguard. "Sound the alarm. Put everyone on alert for an elf in crowns guard armor!"
Harrow knelt down to the shaken guard's level… Marcos if he remembered correctly. "Marcos. Was there anything else to report?"
"She… she said that if I didn't help her then you and the prince would be in danger. Something about something stolen from Xadia."
"Stolen from Xadia?" Harrow echoed, more confused than anything. Did they mean Thunder's life? That was the only thing he knew they stole…
The king looked up at Viren and saw his mage's face pale. "Viren? Do you know what he's talking about?"
"I need to go check on something."
Viren, without permission, left his king and marched towards his laboratory. As soon as he was out of sight, he picked up his pace to the combination wall, pressing the stones frantically. The stairs released and he stumbled to the bottom; to the room with the mirror. Lifting the curtain, Viren let out a sigh of relief at seeing the frustrating mirror still standing there. But that meant-
The mage turned on his heel and made for the other side of his lab where he looked on in horror at the inconspicuously empty pedestal, once home to the egg of the dragon prince.
"No," he whispered, placing his hand to the pedestal as if a touch would wake him from this nightmare. When it didn't, he immediately went scouring his shelves and grabbed something from a jar. Crunching the slimy carcass in his hands, Viren leaned into the power of dark magic and chanted, "Laever taw sah neeb nelots!"
Glowing with power, Viren scattered his spell out in front of him. As the purple specks of magic landed on the floor, footprints began to glow. Three sets, down the hall. Viren rushed after as best he could, following the magical trail until it blinked out. The hall led into tunnels which led to the courtyard of the castle. In the courtyard, among others, were the two princes; their feet glowed purple before also blinking out.
The princes had stolen the egg? How? Why? Questions ran through Viren's mind as a deep fury settled in his chest.
"Prince Callum! Prince Ezran!"
The two princes jumped at their names being called.
"L-lord Viren? Is something wrong?" Callum asked.
Viren glared down at the two boys, reminding himself that these were Harrow's children and not some varlets off the street to be thrown in his dungeon. Steeling himself and forming his words before biting them out, he spoke, "Your father has been looking for you all morning. Where have you been?"
He watched them exchange a look- was that fear? Concern? Worry?- before Callum answered, "Ezran and I... were pretending to have an adventure and went exploring a little."
One would think the boys would know every nook and cranny of the castle with how much "exploring" they did.
"And did you find anything interesting?"
Viren saw something change in Callum. Confidence? Resolve? "We did actually," he said. "We were just going to go tell the king about it."
"I-"
"Boys!" Viren was cut off by Harrow running down the stairs of the wall to scoop the princes in a hug. "Where have you been?!"
"We went exploring, Dad," Ezran mumbled into the king's arm, squished against his brother in the embrace. "And we found something-"
"My king," Viren interrupted. "We should get you all to safety. There has still been no word on the elf infiltrator."
Harrow straightened up and cast a steely glance to his advisor. "You're right, Viren. We need to find the boys someplace safe and then we need to have a talk."
"But, Dad-"
"King Harrow-"
The princes tried talking at once, but Harrow shook his head and placed a protective hand on each of their backs. "Come on boys. Not here."
Viren glared at the princes as he followed, something clicking in his mind that unsettled him deeply. He found two of the footprints from his lab. Where was the third?
Rayla shot a look at the sky as she ran and jumped through the forest. In the brief glimpses, she saw the sun was at its highest point. She would be cutting it close, but she should be able to get to her team in time before they bound themselves. Hopefully…
Ducking, weaving, leaping, bounding, Rayla shot through the trees with a fire on her heels and the egg nestled safely in her arm like a ball. It was the patrols that were making this more difficult. There were more than she ever remembered and Rayla was kicking herself for not going the cliff and river route she remembered from the first time. But then, she had been going up. Going down a cliff and across a river with an egg was far too dangerous to Zym. This close to her goal, she couldn't afford any screw-ups.
The patrols began to thin and Rayla knew she was deep enough to where her team should be, but a glance at the sky sent her heart trembling. She was running out of time.
She could hear voices… from the left!
As fast as her legs could carry her, Rayla sprinted into a clearing where her team formed a circle. "When it is done, I will send a shadowhawk with a blood ribbon message to the Queen of the Dragons," Runaan spoke, sheathing a shadowhawk arrow into his quiver. When he looked up-
"Rayla!"
"No," Rayla whispered, frozen stock still. Her eyes flitted to each of their wrists and to Runaan's arm. Wrapped securely was the silver ribbon that Rayla could almost feel digging into her wrist... cutting off her circulation. Each of her team was bound. But… the time… she was so sure she had made it. "No no no…"
Runaan leaped over to her and wrapped her in an embrace, leaving Rayla even more broken. He had never shown this much affection since she was a wee child. He finally released her and held her by the shoulders checking for injuries and a gambit of emotion flitting across his face from relief to anger to worry at her despair.
"You foolish child! You could have gotten yourself killed! You could have endangered the mission! What were you thinking!?"
"Runaan… you… I didn't make it in time…"
"Of course you didn't-"
"Runaan," Ryenn said. "Look at that!" she pointed to what was in Rayla's arms. Runaan stepped back, and then stumbled even further. Rayla was holding…
"The Dragon Prince," whispered Rhylef.
"She was right. Her vision..." said Ryenn.
A wave of murmurs brushed through the team of assassins as what to make of this discovery. Runaan continued to stare in open awe. It was so beautiful!
Rayla fell to her knees, hugging Zym's egg for dear life as she was wracked with sobs. She was too late.