"Manifestum incorpus."
Zill drew a rune and cast a spell on one of the walls of the Katolis's castle, turning a small part of the wall incorporeal before walking through it.
"Too easy." He whispered as he began wandering the castle while invisible. "Wanna go explore the story for fun?"
Shade frowned. 'What if we get caught? You're being too reckless. We should've stayed back in the forest and watched from there.'
"Firstly, Rayla could've found us if didn't leave, second we wouldn't be able to see anything from there because, you know, everything happens on the in-side the castle. We might as well just go back home if that's what you want." Replied Zill in exasperation.
'I actually find that to be a good idea.' Shade replied calmly.
Zill ignored Shade's remark and continued exploring the castle. His first stop was, of course, the throne room...where the princes were heading.
As Zill was about to walk through the wall and head inside to witness the scene better, Shade stopped him.
'Please! Don't do anything stupid!' He warned sternly, prompting Zill to stop in his tracks.
Zill pondered for a second and sighed. He leaned onto a corner where he stood away from any spying eyes before gesturing for Shade to enter.
"Let's share senses." He whispered with a smile.
Shade weighed the option and agreed 'Better than your first choice.' He commented with a nod
Zill ignored the comment and whispered. "Umbra Lunae." Under the effect of the spell, his eyes' sclera turned black leaving his golden yellow irises to shine among the shadows of his eyes.
Shade, now that Zill can see what he sees, slipped inside under an illusion and began watching the scene unfold.
"Boys! You're going on a trip..." said Harrow, the king of Katolis, excitedly upon seeing his children before swinging his fist in the air. "To the Banther Lodge!"
"But...it's spring. That's the winter lodge." Replied the elder prince, Callum, in confusion.
Harrow put his hand on his chin. "Eh. Winter's coming eventually."
"What will we do? Everything fun there has to do with snow or ice." Ezran asked in confusion.
"Maybe you can invent new versions using dirt and rocks. You could build a dirt man! Or what about mud-sledding? That could be a thing!" Harrow suggested enthusiastically.
Zill forced himself to hold a giggle at Harrow's excuses. 'Zill, no. This is serious.' He thought to himself as he refocused on the conversation.
"Look" Harrow put his hand on Callum's head "this is something i need you to do."
"Dad!" Ezran objected as he held his pet glow toad, Bait.
"It's decided." Said Harrow sternly. "You'll leave before sundown, now go get packed up."
"Yes, sir. Come on Ez."
Zill went back to wandering the castle.
xxXxx
"When is sis coming? I'm getting bored watching Ez the whole time." Whispered Zill tiredly as he watched Ezran under the veil of his illusion. "It's been hours."
'Do anything stupid and i won't act the next time you use my help' replied Shade sternly. 'We're in one of the secret passageways, something will happen soon."
Zill whimpered. "Okay." He said dejectedly.
"Callum?" Ezran asked as he heard his brother's voice.
Zill's ears perked upon hearing that. "Yes! Something exciting!" He cheered immediately.
Ezran headed towards the sound of his brother's voice and Zill followed excitedly.
Soon they made it to the end of the passage behind a painting.
"Callum!" Whispered Ezran causing both Callum and Rayla who was trying to kill him to look towards the painting he hid behind. "Psst, Callum!"
Zill struggled to hold in his laughter at the scene playing out.
"Shh, go away." Callum whispered back.
"I found something." Whispered Ezran
"Are you talking to that painting?" Asked Rayla in confusion.
Callum chuckled nervously. "Uh, why would i do that? Cause it's not a good time."
"You mean, because you're with a girl?" Asked Ezran before Rayla just opened the passageway to reveal him holding a jelly tart. "Uh, jelly tart?"
"Kid! Get out of here!" Callum cried out.
"Callum? What's going on?" Asked Ezran
"Callum? I thought you were Prince Ezran. You lied to me-" Exclaimed Rayla angrily before feeling the presence on another. She turned to Ezran and saw Shade behind him making a 'shh' gesture.
Rayla's eyes widened in realization only to be shut tight a second later when Ezran used his glow toad, Bait, to blind her with his light.
"Ugh, looks like I'm killing two kids today." Said Rayla angrily as she followed the two princes and her brother with them.
xxXxx
"You're only making this worse!" Yelled Rayla from behind them.
"Somehow i feel part of that is directed at me." Whispered Zill with a hand on his chin as he secret followed the princes.
"Worse? How?!" Exclaimed Callum in a panic as he ran.
"This way!" Ezran guided then through the passageways only to lead them to a dead end.
"We're trapped!" Exclaimed Callum in a panic. "What do we do now?"
"You know, why didn't Viren just hide the king and these two over here? I mean, without Ezran's jelly hand prints, no elf would've found this place." Zill asked curiously as Ezran solved the puzzle.
'C'mon, you know why.' Replied Shade as Callum and Ezran celebrated the appearance of their escape route. 'Plus, shouldn't you be worried about Rayla ending your life?'
Zill shrugged as he continued following the two princes into the new passageway entering Viren's secret room.
Upon entering, Zill couldn't help but try to get an early peek at the egg and it was at that moment he remembered how much elves revered dragons by instinct.
It was so beautiful that he couldn't put it into words. The show's depiction felt like an utter insult compared to the what he saw.
The only thing that stopped him from staring at it in a trance was the shaking from the entrance to the hidden room being opened by Rayla.
"But how did you...?" Asked Ezran in confusion and shock as Rayla entered the room.
"I just pressed all the stones with the jelly hand prints." Replied Rayla prompting Ezran to facepalm at his mistake. "What is this place? Runaan is right. There's nothing in humans worth sparing. Time's up. Humans destroyed the egg of the Dragon Prince. There must be justice."
"You'll have to get through me." Said Callum as he stood in front of Ezran protectively.
"Really?" Said Rayla as she approached them with her blades out, ready to kill.
"Wait!" Ezran stopped her as he nudged his head towards a corner. "You need to see something!"
"I'm not falling for that flashing frog trick again-" said Rayla before noticing Shade on the wall behind the princes.
Unknown to the two princes, Shade continuously transformed into different shapes and words, trying to convey a message to Rayla. Words like "trust him" with an arrow pointed at Ezran and "important!" With a hand pointing at the egg of the dragon prince.
"He's a glow toad. But there's no trick this time. Please, look." Continued Ezran as he pointed towards the egg.
Deciding to trust her little brother, Rayla sighed.
"Fine, you uncover it...slowly." said Rayla menacingly.
"I can hear something inside, something alive." Added Ezran before revealing the majestic egg of the dragon prince.
"*gasp* It...it can't be" Rayla muttered in disbelief.
"The egg...it wasn't destroyed." Said Callum in shock.
After a few seconds of silence, Rayla spoke "This changes everything." She said still in shock.
"So, this is it? The egg of the dragon prince?" Said Callum
"I can't believe it. If the egg lives..."
"Maybe it could stop the war!" Callum finished the sentence.
Rayla approached the egg before crouching in front of it, admiring it.
"He's okay in there, i can feel it." Said Ezran with a happy grin.
"But how?" Callum stammered. "Why wasn't it destroyed?"
Then, someone new entered the scene.
"Because my father saved it." It was Claudia and she was holding a primal stone, ready to fight.
"Claudia!" Exclaimed Callum in surprise.
"Callum, Ezran, get behind me. I can protect you from the elf." Said Claudia as she glared at Rayla.
"Your father didn't save it. He stole it." Rayla, who had her blades ready, said angrily before she saw a glimpse of Shade behind Claudia.
"That's a lie!"
"Then explain how it got here?" Asked Rayla, venom in her voice.
Callum looked at Claudia, hoping for an answer before she gave what she had been told.
"My father took it to protect us, Callum, so the elves and dragons couldn't use it. It's a powerful weapon!" Explained Claudia.
"Okay, I've had enough of this. It's a 2 versus 1, it's best you surrender and save us the trouble." Said Rayla with a smile, getting a confused looked from Callum.
"You think Callum's gonna fight with you?" Asked Claudia mockingly as she prepared a sky spell with her primal stone.
"Nah, two's more than enough." Rayla smirked confidently
By the time Claudia put two and two together, it was already too late.
"Umbra Lunae."
A shadow wrapped around Claudia, restraining her in place forgetting to restrain her hands.
"Hiya!" said Zill with a mischievous smile from behind Ezran and Callum, scaring both of them.
"Uh, where did he come from?" Asked Callum in shock.
"Don't worry, he's an ally. One that will be in a lot of trouble when this is over." Said Rayla with a deep frown not taking her eyes off Claudia, causing Zill to wince at his fate.
"Callum, Ezran, take that thing and run away!" Claudia ordered as she began drawing a rune for sky magic while still trapped.
"It's not a thing! It has a mother, and it needs to go back to her." Argued Rayla angrily.
Claudia didn't listen and as she was about to attack, Zill called Shade back to defend himself, but before they could clash, someone stopped both of them.
"Ful-" "Umbra lun-"
Callum interrupted Claudia's spell by tackling her and stealing her primal stone away.
"Callum! What are you doing?!" Exclaimed Claudia in shock
"The right thing. I hope." Replied Callum with the stone in hand before chaining Claudia's arm to some handcuffs chained to a table.
As the four left the room, with Ezran holding the egg, Claudia only found herself able to call out to Callum before she found another answer: dark magic.
xxXxx
"There's something after us!" Exclaimed Callum.
Rayla pulled out her swords and Zill readied himself for what's to come.
"You two, keep running!" Rayla ordered Callum and Ezran as she faced two smoke like wolves with Zill.
"You're not gonna tell me to run away from the danger?" Asked Zill raising a brow with a smile.
"You infiltrated the castle and wandered around for who knows how long without being spotted. You could've even killed the princes at any moment." Said Rayla with a smirk. "You're the real danger here."
"Guilty as charged." Said Zill despite knowing that he wouldn't be able to do much against the wolves.
And like Zill thought, Rayla's blades went through them and Shade did so as well.
'I see you aren't using any illusions.' said Shade as Zill and Rayla retreated. 'Good; don't want to mess this scene up.'
"I can't stop them. They're just smoke! My swords pass right through." Said Rayla as she stepped back when the smoke wolved stepped forwards.
"Shade too." Added Zill as he followed Rayla's movements.
And in this mix of fake and real panic, Callum stepped up with a possible solution. "There might be something I can do, but I don't know if I can do it." He said not feeling too confident.
"Is this a guessing game? Just do it!" Yelled Rayla as the wolves pounced on her.
Only to be stopped by Callum's first step towards becoming a mage.
"Aspiro!"
A cyclone of wind blew away the smoke wolves and saved the situation.
"You did it!" Cheered Ezran
"You never mentioned you were a mage." Said Rayla in mild surprise.
"Who, me? No, I'm- I'm not really anything." Replied Callum in confusion.
"You just did magic!" Chirped Ezran
"Yeah, that's what a mage is. You're a mage." Added Rayla.
"Welcome to the mage club! High four and a half!" Added Zill as high fiv- four and a halfed Callum.
"Oh, really?" Callum said excitedly. "Wow! I'm a mage! I'm a mage!"
Rayla immediately shushed him for being too loud. "Nobody likes a loud mage." She said with a frown.
"Sorry, sorry." Whispered Callum. "I'm a mage!"
As Zill struggled to hold back his laughter, Shade stared at him judgingly. 'You weren't much better than him when YOU first did magic.'
That didn't stop Zill's urge to laugh.
xxXxx
Tell me how i did. Leave a review.
Toodles.