Callum could hardly breathe as his thoughts all slammed together through his mind. So much had happened, so much had changed and so much was still at stake.

He squeezed his eyes tight for a heartbeat as the wind whistled past his head. It lasted for a moment but a moment was all that was needed for something amazing to happen that he hadn't experienced in almost five years.

When he opened his eyes again, he noticed something was off. No sound. There was no wind moving past him. In fact that wasn't the only thing that had stopped, so had he.

"Hello again Callum."

That voice! Callum jerked up and found himself floating as he frantically looked all around for the source before he saw them.

There, coming from his left were two faces he thought he'd never see again; Teacher and his first best friend, Clay.

They got close to him and seemed almost hesitant to come closer. Callum quickly remembered why. The last time they had spoken was...painful to all of them.

"Cal?"

He looked up at Clay's hopeful eyes. How he'd missed that friendly reptilian gold.

"Are you still angry at us?"

He asked floating slightly closer to him.

"If you are we understand. We shouldn't have even-"

He stopped as he felt tiny arms wrap around his muzzle and happy memories flowed back from a time before.

"I'm so sorry."

The words were so soft that Clay thought he'd misheard, until Cal repeated himself as he pushed away to speak clearly.

"I'm so sorry to both of you, I was just angry about what happened. I didn't mean to just shove you both away. You're my friends and it was wrong of me to say those things. I don't even know why you're wanting to talk to me, after everything..."

Clay opened his maw to say something, anything to comfort his friend, but was cut off by a rough snout gently nudging him aside to look at Callum directly.

"Callum look at me."

Slowly the young male looked up to his Teacher, fresh tears flowing from his eyes.

"You will always, and I do mean always, be one of my students. Just as Clay is. However, you are not like Clay, you needed to find your own path in life as a human should, not as a dragon. Only then would I be able to help you to grow to your fullest potential that I once saw you attaining and I still do. Unfortunately what happened was the catylyst that was needed to encourage you to severe the ties that held you. Now here you are, just look at you now and how far you have come and grown."

He opened his wings to Callum and his eyes gleamed with a smile of pride.

"In spite of everything you have held true to what I have taught you and used it to guide you further than I could have imagined, though it would seem there are things you will have to teach me as well now. My student."

Callum's tears fell freely as he hugged his Teacher's muzzle like he had Clay's. He pushed away and looked at them both, remembering the words he once heard Teacher tell him so many years before.

"Mu los gro together, ful together mu fent spaan."

He wasn't sure those were the right words in Dragon, and he knew he forgot the word for 'together,' but from Teacher and Clay's smiles he'd gotten what he meant to say across.

"You remembered."

Teacher smiled at him as Clay flapped his wings happily from Callum's right.

"I have a great Teacher."

Callum smiled again before taking a deep breath and reaching out, taking Teacher's claw while he felt the familiar tingle reignite the once strained bond between teacher and student.

Callum barely noticed the wind beginning to whistle past his ears until he opened his eyes again.

As he reoriented himself and caught sight of who he had jumped off the Storm Spire for, he heard two voices echo in the back of his mind.

'We are with you Callum. Always.'

In that moment, he wasn't afraid anymore and he finally breathed out the words he'd been holding in for a while now.

"Rayla, I love you."