Chapter Twenty-six: A Little Miracle
"No! Absolutely not!" Gren's voice was firm, but he avoided yelling despite the furious look on Amaya's face. There was no doubt that if the woman could speak for herself, she would be yelling.
"I have to come." Ezran argued, unflinching in the face of her anger – a feat not many could claim to have done. "He was my brother."
Soren was settling up the last of four horses, his face unusually serious. He tried to ignore the feeling of familiarity; Ezran reminded him so much of the way Callum had been years ago. He knew deep down that there wasn't much he would be able to do, but he was willing to ride into danger for his family. It was admirable, but very foolish, of both of them. After a moment he realized, Ezran was nearing the same age Callum had been then. Maybe he'd find that amusing when this was all over. He stuffed that down along with his own sorrow; in the past years, Callum and Rayla had become his closest friends and to know he'd never see them again...No, he told himself as he blinked down the tears before they could build up. He needed to be strong now. This wasn't the time to mourn. For now, all he needed to know for the moment was that they needed to find Viren or Claudia at least, and make them pay.
Along with them, Lain would be coming on his own insistence. He had looked at the horse designated for him in an odd way; his mount of choice had always been a moonstrider and he hoped these beasts weren't that different. He gave a tender kiss to his wife's forehead. Their argument had been quicker; her wishing to come on the grounds that it was her daughter, too, who had been slain, and who's memory that young dark mage was now insulting by wielding her swords. Lain had quickly shot her down with the observation that their second child needed her more and that they had no idea how long they would be away, and she had relented to this quietly. His hands covered hers, which were cradling the barely-there bulge that was growing in her stomach.
"Ezran, I've lost your mother, your father and now your brother." Gren translated, Amaya's eyes narrowing to avoid the buildup of tears she felt just from this recount. "I'm not going to even risk losing you, too. You will be staying back here where it's safe."
"I'll watch him while you're gone." Tiadrin stepped up, her voice shaky, and Amaya nodded understandingly. It was hard to sit back and do nothing, Amaya doubted that she would be able to in Tiadrin's position; she loved those kids, too.
"Wait!" Out of seemingly nowhere, Zephyr ran up to them. Ibis was walking slowly, but he was clearly following her. Her eyes were red and puffy as though she'd been crying, and Ibis's mood hadn't lifted at all. Oh yes, that's right, she, Callum and Rayla had been friends, as well. Soren payed her full attention, but before he could say anything, she tackled him. His eyes stretched wide when her lips pressed against his. This was seen by all of them, though truth be told, the spectators were all too emotionally numb to react to this sudden development. Soren's heart, though, raced in his chest as she broke away. "For luck. You guys have to come back."
Soren was frozen for a moment before his expression hardened in determination. He took her hands, which he assumed was okay. As deliriously happy as this made him, in the month that they knew and spent time with each other, he and Zephyr had never really sat down and defined what they were. But by the way she was looking at him now, it looked like she would be ready to talk when he got home. All the more reason to make sure he returned. "We will, I promise."
Soren almost didn't want to go, but he had to. Zephyr walked back to join her father, Tiadrin and Ezran, her eyes not leaving Soren as he mounted his horse, along with the other three. With one last cluster of goodbyes and wishes of luck, the four set off, the horses moving like a mighty force of nature.
It seemed that luck was on Callum and Rayla's side because so far, they had been undisturbed in their little side journey. They'd made it out of the mountains without much trouble, just with the hiccup of coming across the bodies of Rayla's former captors. Amazingly, the child only turned away to avoid looking at it and took Rayla's hand. Such a brave child. Fortunately, all it took was a quick look-over to see that her swords weren't here - he'd lost them, probably to whatever had done this.
Now they were taking a break just outside the mountain range. Seeing the wide sprawl of the land, the little girl was amazed; she had spent her whole life surrounded by mountains. It accorded to Callum and Rayla that she had probably never seen miles of outstretched land before. Seeing it for themselves, though, they saw that it was a long way to their destination.
"I think, we should try the mage wings." Callum said, gaining Rayla's attention.
"Are you sure your arm's up for it?" she asked. The child, meanwhile, was still looking at her new surroundings in amazement.
"It won't even be that high up." He promised. "A few feet off of the ground at least. Can risk either of our new passengers falling." Hearing this, the little girl snapped back to reality. Was the human threatening her?
"Promise?" She looked skeptical, but he could see the worry in her eyes. Rather than a verbal response, he gave her a small kiss, assuring that even if his arm was still too hurt to fly, no harm would come to any of them. Neither took it personally when the child made a face at this; with how young she seemed to be, it was possible she was still repulsed by the idea of romance in general.
As Rayla secured the satchel that held the egg, Callum reached a hand toward the girl. Seeing the human reaching for her, she panicked and smacked his hands away. He took a step back and tried to look none-threatening, but she still scowled up at him. Oh well, he wouldn't be able to hold her while flying anyway. Taking a few more steps back, Callum spread his arms out. Rayla smiled and watched the girl's reaction as the words were spoken and the wings appeared, shredding the bandage.
The girl was stunned, allowing Rayla to easily pick her up and secure her. "Hold on tight." she said, gesturing for the girl to lock her arms tightly around her neck, which she did. To the girl's displeasure, she found herself sandwiched between the Moonshadow elf and the human when the elf locked her arms around his neck. He began flying before she could wiggle herself free. It wasn't very high; she could probably jump down and hope to live, but it was too fast to try, and she clung to the older elf for dear life.
The low flight took about an hour and Callum lowered himself slowly, but they had come to the very outskirts of the forest. Callum tried to hide his exhaustion as his wings dissolved back into his arms; the former arrow wound had healed in a surprisingly short time, leaving just a tiny scar.
Rayla let go of him and had to pry the child off of her; her arms were clinched as tightly as her eyes. She only opened them when Rayla took her hand, gently pushed her down into a crouch and placed her hand in the grass. The girl opened her eyes let out a sigh of relief, glad to be back on the ground.
The little girl allowed Rayla to take her hand and lead her though the forest, the human making sure to keep to the opposite side of the Moonshadow elf. The child looked around in wonder. Like the open field before this, she had never seen a forest before. The ground covered in grass, huge trees reaching for the sky and teeming with life. Callum and Rayla smiled at the stunned fascination she had with everything, Callum remembering his own uncontrollable excitement in coming here for the first time. The walk was peaceful, almost relaxing.
The sun was dipping into the trees when they finally made it to the meadow. At some point, Rayla had begun carrying the girl when she got tired; she had expressed this by plopping herself where she stood and refusing to get back up. The two walked through the long grass to the stone that loomed just over the top of the grass. Callum climbed onto the rock to oversee things, Rayla only joining him setting the little girl down and giving her the rein to wander this place by herself, so long as she didn't go too far.
The little girl crept slowly at first, constantly looking back at the Moonshadow elf and the human to see them keeping watch over her, before carrying on with her exploration. This was all so new; her parents rarely let her explore a place by herself. The Moonshadow elf reminded her of her mother, having kept her within arms reach at all times, until now. This must have been a safe place. The human, on the other hand, couldn't be more different from her father. Her father hadn't been a warm man, even she knew that at her young age, and usually ignored her unless it was something about training, but deep down she felt the love he had for her and her mother. This human had made a couple of attempts to get close to her, no doubt to trick her before he killed her. All of the older kids back home always said humans would do that.
The girl put her parents out of her mind. She had resolved this morning upon finding her mother, and again after coming across her father, to force herself to forget them; there was no use in remembering. She knew this strange pair of grown-ups were taking her to a new family, or at least they claimed so. She'd have to forget the life she had before; her parents, her home, her friends, maybe even her name if her new family wanted her to have a new name.
A sharp lurch interrupted the girl's musings and she found herself on the ground, in the grass. She'd tripped over a rock. She could hear the laughter of the grown-ups, somehow more gleeful than mocking. She rose to her feet, feeling something in her hair.
Callum and Rayla's laughter grew, seeing the girl emerge from the grass now with four adoraburrs in her hair, and a fifth on perched happily on one of her horns. She looked perplexed for a moment before noticing something on her head and looked mystified to pull one of them out of her hair. She gave a startled yip as it squeaked at her. She couldn't help the smile that came to her face – her first since before those strange elves had arrived – somehow these little things seemed to chase away all of the stress of the day. When she ducked back down into the grass, she was delighted to see more of them, in every color imaginable, that stuck to her clothes and hair. A burst of laughter escaped from her mouth.
Callum and Rayla continued to watch her. Well, Rayla watched her, Callum had taken out his sketchbook and began drawing this sweet little scene, partly just in case they wouldn't have the opportunity for play in the next weeks. Rayla smiled as she cuddled up to Callum.
"This was a good idea, Callum." she said.
"Thanks." he replied. "Ibis knows a couple of things about this kind of stuff. He says he needed to help his kids move passed their mom's death. Apparently, getting a kid to play or something gives them a distraction and helps them figure out that life goes on. Something about letting their brains rest for a little while, which'll make it easier to process what happened, and that'll help them heal."
"Ibis is a wise man." Rayla said and continued to watch the little girl. "So, are we flying home, then?"
"I don't think that's a good idea." He said, now looking sheepish, "It took a lot out of me to get here. My arm's doing better, but I think the mage wings need a little bit more healing to be used in any meaningful way."
"It'll take a while to get home from here on foot, especially if we're avoiding the dessert this time." Rayla turned back to the child, who was still playing. "We can't just keep calling her 'little one'."
"Any ideas?" Callum asked. Rayla thought for a moment.
"There's an old elven name, Mira." Rayla told him. "It means 'a little miracle'."
"That's…that's really pretty." Callum said, and looked up from his drawing to see the child still playing. Far from the reserved, distrusting girl they had met this morning, she was smiling wildly and laughing as she tried covering herself in as many adoraburrs as she could, at one point having her horns completely hidden. Being the sole survivor of a village-wide massacre, perhaps the child was a little miracle. Callum smiled warmly at the scene before he returned to his drawing. "So, any idea of what to do with that egg? The star dragons are gone, right?"
Rayla opened the bag to look at the purplish-pink egg. It now gave the same glow that Zym's egg once had, the glow of a life. "I guess the only thing we can do is take it back to Queen Zubeia. If nothing else, she'll probably know how to take care of it."
"How do star dragon eggs hatch?" Callum asked. Rayla just shrugged and Callum looked up at the sky. It was starting to get dark. The child yawned as the adoraburrs began to disperse for the night, a couple staying in her hair. Rayla leapt from the rock, went over and picked her up. She carried her over to the rock where Callum was settling and slid next to him. He performed the warmth spell, and the child was amazed at the rush of warmth that enveloped her. It was soothing. Still, she started squirming when Rayla tried to set her beside Callum, so she was forced to place her on her other side, away from Callum. The older pair looked at one another sadly; it seemed she still didn't trust Callum, even after today. He would just have to content himself with keeping the egg warm.
"Little one," Rayla started, her arm around the child. "We've thought of a name for you. How do you feel about Mira? It means 'a little miracle'. Callum and I think it fits you pretty well." The half-asleep child nodded her approval of this new name and contemplated it as she drifted off. A little miracle…
Claudia winced under the glares she was receiving. More so from her father than Aaravos. They had just returned from the astral plain where they had seen the three in the meadow, the little girl in particular. The Startouch elf looked displeased, but far more mild than the fury in her father's eyes.
"I-I don't know what happened!" she tried to say, feeling a fear she hadn't felt since she was a small child.
"Claudia, do you have any idea what you've done?" Viren asked, his voice full of the scorn that had usually be revered for Soren. This realization only made her feel worse. "That elf is going to grow up knowing what we did, and it won't let us live! That's why they couldn't be allowed to live, none of them!"
"I'll fix it!" she promised quickly, a sort of primitive fear building up in her stomach. "We'll find them, and I'll fix it, I swear!"
"No." Aaravos said. "We have plenty of time before that child is even old enough to hold a sword. We'll do what must be done before next summer. One child will be of no danger to us. That star dragon egg, on the other hand…"
Ezran didn't know how he could be expected to sleep. His brother was gone, and now his aunt, the only family he had left, was marching off into danger. He didn't have as much experience with Aaravos as Callum had, but he knew for a fact that Claudia wasn't to be trusted, and Viren was downright evil. And now they'd killed Callum and Rayla.
Ezran got up and out of bed. He wasn't going to lay in bed while his brother's murderers walked free. He dressed warm, packed a bag of warmer cloths, grabbed a surprised Bait from his bed and gently opened the door to his room.
Tiadrin had agreed to stay at Amaya's place, probably to make things easier on Ezran. While he supposed he appreciated the gesture, it was an unwelcome one. He was older now. He'd traveled Xadia, fought in a war and led a kingdom, and everyone still thought he was some fragile child? It was insulting! He'd done more in the past three years than many adults have done in their whole lives. And he wasn't going to let the last of his family go on a suicide mission. After stopping in the kitchen to stock up on food and drink, he silently left the house, braving the cold. Bait wined at the cold air, but Ezran didn't seem to hear.
Author's Notes: The name Mira (in this case, pronounced the same as in its fake origin, miracle) is a name in several languages, but doesn't actually mean 'a little miracle' in any of them. I just thought of it myself and thought it sounded like a pretty name with an absolutely precious fake meaning. Also, I looked it up; A properly cleaned arrow wound can heal in as little as two days. Who knew, right? Review.