Chapter Thirty-seven: The Link

The raging winds could be heard from inside, regardless of the tightly closed glass window. To any other child in Novus, this would have made their bed seem all the cozier as they were protected from the roaring icy winds and pelting snow of the night. Mira looked out the window from the safety of her bed, wondering if Callum, Rayla and Ezran were safe tonight. She could still hear the screams that had her awake at whatever this hour was now. Even getting out of her bed, leaving the warm covers, made her shiver. She couldn't imagine what it was like outside.

She clutched Moon – her shadowpaw – to her when she walked over to the bedside table, where sitting beside the book Callum read to her sat a bound-up bunch of small papers and a pencil. With her not willing to speak and Amaya being unable, this was how they would be communicating when her interpreter wasn't around, even if she herself could barely read yet. Amaya had endeavored to teach the child at least some written language, but it would take time and it was only the first night of this arrangement. So, all Mira could be expected to do was make her best guesses. She scribbled barely legible and harshly misspelled words on the paper that came out in a meaningless string of only just recognizable letters and spaces. If one had the patience to decipher, though, they might have come up with the intended message; 'Nightmare. Bad lady killed Callum and Rayla. Me alone again.'

Mira's fear increased when she left her room. Even if Amaya's room wasn't very far away, something about being out of bed at night felt unsafe. Maybe being up and wandering around this late at night wasn't something that her parents had liked; honestly, it was getting harder to remember their faces or their rules. The one thing she certainly remembered was that lady, who killed her mother and almost killed her twice. Far more vivid in her mind was how she almost killed Callum. And it had come out after they left that the lady escaped and no one could find her. Maybe this was why she had that nightmare. She didn't want that lady to take Callum or Rayla from her the same way she took her parents. She didn't want to forget them, too.

Mira slipped into Amaya's room, finding it after some searching thanks to the other rooms. She was sleeping. Mira knew Amaya couldn't hear, so she climbed up onto the bed and tried to slip the paper into the woman's lazily closed hand. She always got up early, so she'd probably see it in the morning. Mira snuggled in, already feeling warmer and much safer than before. The general only stirred a little bit, but didn't wake.

"Really, it's fine." Rayla said, following Callum back to the others. The couple could see the rest of their little band watching them for a moment before turning back to what appeared to be a small camp, so they knew they were getting closer.

"No, it's not." Callum persisted. They had been going back and forth like this for the past few minutes. Honestly, his being so caring was usually something she adored and was grateful for, but now…well, she regretted telling him about her nightmare. "We don't have the time to make another trip back home, so Claudia's going to have to stay with us for a couple more months. We don't need you loosing sleep while she's still after you."

Rayla sighed. "Callum, I swear, it's okay. Compared to what we have to do, a couple of sleepless nights is nothing."

Callum stopped short, causing Rayla to do the same. He turned around and brought his hands to her face, forcing her to look at him; green and violate eyes barrowed into each other for what could have been seconds our hours. Callum was trying to pull off a stern look, but it wasn't easy with those beautiful eyes looking at him. "I'll tell Arro there's been a change of plans. I'll borrow a book like I did for sun magic, and we'll find something smaller, like a river or a lake; it's all connected to the ocean, there won't be a difference. Once we defeat Aaravos, we can come back here if you want. Just the two of us so it's safe."

Somehow, Rayla knew further arguing would be useless. She lowered her eyes for a moment and covered his hands with hers, pulling them away to free her face. Their fingers intertwined as their hands dropped to rest between them. "You're too good to me."

The disagreement might have ended there, but as they made it back to the others, Rayla still wished Callum would take their time limit into account; who knew how long it would take to find a good enough water source to train in the magic?

It was probably Soren who had put together that fire and caught those fish which, together with forged fruits, made up breakfast. He was the only one of the four of them who Callum knew for a fact had basic survival training. It seemed that Callum and Rayla's less than chipper moods were apparent because the only acknowledgement of their return was a few looks their way.

"Are you sure the Tidebound elves said this is okay?" Zephyr was the first to speak, her question directed at Ezran. She looked warily at her fish.

"They're okay with it, fish is a big part of their diet, too." He told her, already finishing off his meal. Looking over to Claudia, it seemed she had been un and rebound in a way that would allow her to eat – which she seemed to refuse to do – but would still hinder her in attack or escape. All the same, there was a makeshift plate in front of her going untouched. Over the meal, Callum informed the others that he had mastered the ocean arcanum, but for a reason he didn't reveal, they would get going immediately after he made one last trip to Fluctus and spoke with Arro about borrowing a book or two. By Rayla's uncomfortable – almost guilty – look when he explained this, it wasn't hard to figure out what happened regardless, but after Callum's example, the group had the tact to keep quiet.

Amaya simply hadn't known what else to do other than to bring Mira up to the Dragon Queen's layer. Maybe hearing about some of her nephews' and the Moonshadow elf's exploits would put the child's worries to rest. They had traveled from the capital of Katolis to the Storm Spire over a mere month, saved the Dragon Prince and fought in a war; surely, they could handle themselves against a dark mage who didn't even have access to her own magic.

So, it was Amaya, Gren, and Mira who scaled the Storm Spire and arrived at the royal chambers, with a couple of extra guards to help Mira feel safer on the journey up and down. That morning, Amaya had deciphered Mira's note, relayed it to Gren in a more complete fashion, and Gren was now reporting it to the Dragon Queen, with the Dragonguard, Dragon Prince and newly proclaimed Dragon Princess also in attendance. While Zym had a more complete picture of what was happening, Kimaare was only able to pick out names and certain words.

Kimaare didn't understand what 'kill' meant, but by Mira's expression, it couldn't have been good. Was it like being hurt? She understood hurt. Was someone trying to hurt Callum and Rayla? Mira seemed to think so by the way she clung to Amaya. Kimaare wished Callum could be back, than maybe Mira wouldn't be so scared. Besides that, and even though she loved her new mother and brother, the smaller dragonling also missed the mage's comforting presence.

Suddenly, shivers overtook Kimaare despite the chambers being quite warm and her eyes stretched wide. In her mind, she could see Callum, Rayla, Ezran, Soren and, to her surprise, the dark mage whose hands were tied up, and she was being led by Soren. They were traveling somewhere, but in the distance was the biggest water she'd ever seen. What confused her more was that, somehow, she knew that Rayla had had a bad dream, and for some reason that meant they couldn't stay at the big water.

Callum stopped in his tracks. Somehow, a vision of Queen Zubeia's chambers entered his head, and for some strange reason, his aunt, Gren, Mira, and a couple of her soldiers were there, as well. The word 'vision' is only used because this didn't feel like a typical random thought, especially out of the blue, this did not feel like it was imagined. He knew what they were doing there, as well, and his heart ached for Mira: he could almost feel her fear that something would happen to him and Rayla. Strange; his mother had always said he was a very empathetic child, but nothing like this had ever happened before. Finally, he had the sneaky feeling that Kimaare was at the center of everything. If his heart went out to Mira, he was feeling Kimaare's emotions as if they were his own. She felt incredibly fortunate to have Queen Zubeia and Zym, and wanted Mira to have that same security. She wished she could make her feel better. Most of all, the little dragon was…confused. She was seeing…this? She was thinking about him, in this exact situation, in this exact place, himself frozen in place and his companions now looking at him with concern just as they were doing at the moment. What…what was this?

Callum felt the revelation of Kimaare's that whatever this was, it wasn't a vision. It was…a link of some kind. Strange, Callum had never heard of such a thing before. Well, Ezran had told him and Rayla about his mysterious connection to Zym, but Callum had assumed that was some odd extension of his powers. Callum couldn't understand animals.

"Callum?" Rayla's voice broke Callum out of his…whatever this was. They, Claudia included, were looking at him questioningly.

"Uh, let's stop here for a little, I need to focus." he told them. "I'll explain everything once this is over."

"What's happening?" Ezran asked. Callum looked at him.

"I have no idea." he said honestly.

Amazed, Kimaare began chirping and yipping excitedly at the queen, who clearly understood those noises that the humans could not. Zym understood, too, and began his own series of excited noises, seeming to back up whatever she was saying. The pair of them seemed delighted to have this in common. Whatever the little ones were saying, it certainly got their mothers' attention, her large black and blue eyes widening, which in turn alerted the humans to something happening.

"What is it, Your Majesty?" Gren translated for Amaya.

"This is interesting." The queen said, looking at the humans. "Somehow, Kimaare seems to know where Callum is and that there is some sort of connection between them. And Azymondias claims that the same thing has happened between him an Ezran in the past. I've never heard of something like this before. She says they are walking away from a large sea. It must be the sea of Fluctus. Callum has successfully connected to the ocean arcanum, and they have found and taken the dark mage Claudia prisoner."

The Dragonguard present exchanged amazed looks among themselves but kept respectfully quiet. As Gren struggled to interpret all this to a confused Amaya, Mira looked very interested. It was almost enough to have her speak. Mira hadn't vocalized more than the occasional noise, hum or scream for so long, but words…Her throat felt dry and scratchy. What would happen? She didn't want to be swamped and asked tons of questions like she felt for sure she would be and besides that, the silence was comfortable to her now. All the same…she wanted so badly to know. Callum and Rayla had found her and brought her here, she owed them her life. She had to know, somehow, that they'd be okay, that they'd come back.

If the expression saying to thank one's lucky stars could be any more appropriate, none of them could imagine what that situation could possibly be. Bright green eyes looked straight into dark green, and Kimaare seemed to understand everything, saving the child from having to talk just yet, though they both knew it would have to be sometime. Somehow, she willed the information to Callum, that Mira was worried about them and scared that the dark mage would hurt them, and they wouldn't come back.

Soren was scanning the landscape keenly, listening to Callum's explanation passively; after the arrow incident those months ago, Callum and Rayla had decided to have someone on guard when they stopped out in the open like this. Callum had just gotten done explaining this strange link to Kimaare that he just discovered he had, with Ezran also suddenly revealing that he shared a similar link with Zym.

Soren took a moment to take in the girls' expressions; Zephyr and Claudia looked curious, but Rayla somehow didn't even seem phased. Zephyr noticed this as well.

"You seem pretty calm about this, Rayla." she said.

"One of them can do primal magic and the other can talk to animals." Rayla told her dryly. "Nothing these boys do surprises me anymore." Zephyr shrugged, supposing that was fair.

"What's going on back there?" Ezran asked.

"It's Mira." Callum said, and Rayla blinked, the mention of the child gaining her attention. "She's worried about us." For a moment, his eyes flitted to Claudia. "She knows Claudia escaped, they all do, and she doesn't want her to hurt us."

"Well, tell them we're okay." Ezran told him. Callum did the only thing he could think of and relayed this information in his head, willing it to Kimaare.

Kimaare received the message that they were safe, and again reported to back this the queen in a series of noises, seeming to have gotten the hang of whatever this connection was. The queen nodded and told the humans, and Kimaare's spirits lifted when Mira smiled and seemed to relax at the news. She gave a startled blink when, suddenly, the vision was over. She could no longer see Callum or the others near that big water. Before she could yet again turn back to Queen Zubeia questioningly, Zym chirped up and seemed to engage her in their own conversation of yips and purrs.

Callum made a confused face as the vision ended, and he could no longer see what was happening back at the Storm Spire. The last he had seen, the message of their safety had finally reached Mira, who he was glad to see was relieved to hear it. He looked back at his companions, seeing them each watching him closely, Soren doing so from the corner of his eye.

"That's it, the vision's over." Callum said.

Ezran tilted his head, confused. "So, Mira was just scared?"

"I guess." Callum said.

"The only two times that happened to me were when Zym was in trouble." Ezran said. "I thought it only happened in dangerous situations."

"Maybe star dragons are different?" Rayla speculated. None of them wanted to trivialize Mira's fear, every one of them knew what it was like to loose someone and that Mira was now especially attached to Callum and Rayla; of course she'd be worried about them and she had every right to be after what had happened to her parents and old village. Still, it was nothing life threatening like what had been shown between Ezran and Zym.

Soren interrupted Callum's thoughts with a loud yawn, and Callum remembered that he had been up all night keeping his eye on Claudia. Although the sun was still climbing high in the sky, Callum thought that tonight, maybe he'd take first watch and either Ezran or Zephyr could finish off the night; Soren was looking dead on his feet and Rayla also had circles beneath her eyes that spoke of interrupted sleep. As he and the others got back to their feet to keep going, Callum let them in on this idea, getting no protest but a couple of odd looks considering it was still morning, a bit early to be going over evening plans. All the same, the band continued to stray further away from the sea, with Callum and Ezran both contemplating that strange link that had just been discovered.

Author's Notes: The idea with the possible connection between humans and dragons is that it's a newly discovered thing here, not another buried piece of lure. It's never happened before because dragons usually guard their eggs with their lives, and the connection can only be made while the dragon is in the egg. Sounds Dragon Heart-y, even though it has nothing to do with the physical sharing of hearts! Anyway, next comes the month-long time-skip to have Callum learn a good chunk of spells, then it's the final arcanum; earth. Review.