It was another sweltering day, the air flirred. Rayla wheezed through her covered mouth and nose. What made the situation worse, was a gigantic, evil looking solid black anvil cloud slowly moving north-east, bringing a likely storm right on top of their path. She'd have to make a decision soon whether to settle down for the night. If they did, they would be clear of the storm but would lose valuable travelling time.
Azymondias was curled around her neck, sleeping. She was envious.
Ahead of her, Callum seemed to do better in the searing heat, even with both their packs on his back. He was still taking energetic strides across the dusty, dry terrain. They had walked all day without any larger breaks. The mountains now loomed closer in the east, stretching the entire width of their horizon. They were snow capped and so tall that it seemed like the earth had taken a wrong, skyward turn.
Suddenly there was a whistling sound in the air which alarmed Rayla. "Duck!" she yelled and both of them hit the ground. An eagle arrow impacted the ground next to Callum, startling him.
"Man!", he breathed heavily, picking up the device. "Please tell me they can't be used to track people."
She shook her head. "You have to have some kind of friendly bond with the person you're trying to reach. We could send one to Helmond, but we couldn't send one to, say, the nutty human bounty hunter."
He nodded, opening the head of the arrow and extracting a rolled up piece of paper. He got excited. "It's from my Aunt!"
"Oh, the Rayla-stabbin' `I-killed-monsters-before` aunt? Yaaaay!", she smiled wryly but sat next to him in the shade of another leathery, spiked tentacle tree. There was her decision, made for her. She was not getting up again today.
He slipped off the backpacks and they used the opportunity to have some water and a packet of Lembas each. This elven version of nonperishable bread was much more filling than human hardtack. It also tasted a lot better. The downside was, it was light on salt - and they were sweating a lot. To make up for that deficiency, Rayla had thought ahead and traded for a good chunk of rock salt for each of them.
After they had settled down, Callum unfurled the letter.
"To Callum", he started reading out loud, still chewing, "and the young elf woman."
She blinked. "Come again?"
"Well Ez would've told her about you, right?"
"Oh, that's right. She totally forgot my name though. Keep goin'!"
"I first want to make sure you trust this letter to be genuine. The food at Banther Lodge is still weapons grade.", he chuckled, remembering the excellent quip she'd made more than three months ago, "Second I would like to give a short overview of the ongoings in Katolis. Ezran is a good, responsible King..."
Rayla elbowed him, spilling some water on herself from her canteen, "See! I told you he was gonna be good at it!"
"Let me finish! Ezran is a good, responsible King, but he is taking a lot of time to make decisions, ensuring he understands all the details of an issue and speaking to his advisers."
She sighed, "Fine, he's a responsible slowpoke." As she finished the sentence, she scanned her clothes for water but couldn't find any. "Gah! It's so hot!"
Callum chuckled, then continued, "Viren has shown himself to be a traitor and we've arrested him on charges of murder and subversion as he killed several guards in an escape attempt. Subversion, because he posed as Katolis' Regent at a meeting of the pentarchy, trying to stoke the fires of war. He has since succeeded an escape attempt and is nowhere to be found."
"That's great. Crazy dark wizard just runnin' about! Now that drawin' of him bookin' it makes sense."
"I'm sure you're burning for news of Claud...", he immediately closed his mouth, staring at Rayla.
"It's fine. Claudia is never goin' to tickle you to a wheeze under a disgusting tree in the middle of nowhere. Me on the other hand..."
She lunged for him but he swiftly rolled out of her range where he sat up laughing and coughing with her in the dust. Once they had settled down, he continued reading.
"I'm sure you're burning for news of Claudia and Soren. I'm sorry to disappoint, but they have left the court for Del Bar after their father escaped.", Callum put the letter down. "Oh, so they went to see their mom."
Rayla motioned for him to continue, chewing. She was not interested in Viren's spawn.
"Your father's bird seems to have escaped during that turmoil, as well. Sorry Callum, I know you guys really loved him.", he let the letter sink and put a hand to his face, "Aww no, poor Pip. He deserved better."
"He's a bird! He doesn't need humans to look after him, does he?"
"I don't know. He was born in captivity, so he probably doesn't have a lot of bird life-skills."
"Kinda like you. You're only now turnin' into a proper survivalist", she razzed.
Ignoring her barb, he continued, "That's all I know of home. I'm at the frontlines myself, trying to execute on Ezran's orders to prevent as much fighting as I can. We really hope you can make it to the Dragon Queen soon. The other kingdoms are furious about elven incursions into their borders and the situation is getting worse by the day. Everyone is spoiling for a fight since the elves assassinated the queen of Evenere."
"Whaaat?!", Rayla exclaimed, "How would that even work? Evenere is so far away from the border it would've taken months of prep work to get there! Seems odd. There wasn't really any talk about 'n attack on them, it was always just Katolis! You guys are the largest, closest and most dangerous."
"Well, all they seem to know is that it was elves." Callum shrugged, "Maybe you weren't included in that meeting."
She shrugged, still sceptical.
"I ran into this guy Helmond at a border fortress. He seems like he has a broom up his rear end, bristles first..." The two erupted in laughter, "...but he let me know that you two are getting along maybe a little too well which raises some questions in my mind…" Callum trailed off, silently reading the next few paragraphs. He flushed to a boil and looked up at his girlfriend, gaping.
Rayla blinked curiously, but couldn't help feeling some spiteful satisfaction at the thought of the stabby General imagining the two together and losing her marbles. `Too well`?! She motioned her boyfriend to continue; she couldn't wait to hear an explanation for that one.
Haltingly, he did. "Uh…, which raises some questions in my mind like `Did Harrow ever talk to you about women... and where babies come from?"
Rayla flushed. Not what she had expected, at all.
He laughed flatly at her flustered expression, "She's giving us `the talk`. My dad got that out of the way when I was, like, 13. He said he wanted to make sure I understood how it all worked. To help me avoid mistakes and regrets."
"I… don't know anythin' about... `it`, other than what I've gleaned myself", she said, studying the ground with embarrassment and a bit of sorrow in her eyes.
He understood what she meant. A lot of people had issues with addressing this topic with kids their age. Not everyone had the luxury of having the King of Katolis as their stepfather. His dad had always been good with awkward and hard topics. It's what had made him an amazing orator.
Callum swallowed hard. He was not an amazing orator.
"D-Do you… want me to read it?", he said, "She must've been sweating stones while writing this, she is not great with this stuff."
She gave him an odd glance, then nodded slowly.
Her boyfriend sighed, then looked down at the letter.
"We know that elves work in many of the same ways we do in this respect. At some point in your travels there might be a moment where you're being close with her. Your body might react in a way that you don't expect. That's called arousal. Men will show their arousal clearly, their…"
He flushed an even deeper shade of red and stuttered, "uh... um… y-yeah. I-I g-guess I'll say it!", he laughed nervously, then quickly rattled off the rest of the sentence, "...penis getting stiff. For women it's a lot more subtle and you'll probably have a hard time telling if she feels the same way. She might just breathe faster, or feel warmer to the touch. She might experience some... w-wetness between her l-legs. It's really n-not easy to tell."
Callum took a deep breath, avoiding to look at Rayla.
"So, if you feel like touching her in ways you haven't yet, you need to ask her if that's okay. She might have a similar feeling and you should expect her to ask before touching you, too. You need to agree to everything you're doing from that point on and respect your answers. If she says `no`, it's not happening. If you say `no`, it's not happening. It is very private and very special to share in these things. In any case, it will have consequences. Good ones and bad ones. That's why you need to be absolutely sure about everything you do."
He looked around as Zym attempted to catch a grasshopper.
Catching his girlfriend's expression made him snort a little. She had her face buried in her hands, the bits of her that he could see a solid, inky purple.
This was uncomfortable on so many levels - he understood why it was so difficult. The topic was taboo, in both their cultures. Amaya's usual tone didn't come through in this part of the letter. She had clearly struggled to find the words.
"If you and her agree on sleeping with each other, be gentle and careful and demand the same of her. Take it slow and listen to your head and heart, don't follow the urges you will feel. Trust me when I say that you won't have trouble understanding how the actual act works, it's as easy as eating. What's important is that you'll have to be very conscious of the consequences. If you were in Katolis, I'd tell you to use sheepskin condoms, they would help with this next problem. I obviously doubt you'll find anything like that on the road. There are a lot of nasty diseases that lurk around one's private parts and you'll want to be sure to get very clean both before and after. That doesn't always help and you can still get very, very sick."
The prince blinked. Harrow hadn't told him that in such clear terms. He flipped the letter.
"Then, there's the issue of babies. When people have sex, there will come a moment where they feel intense and very good. That's an orgasm. At that time, a liquid will come from the p-penis and, if any of it gets near or inside a w-woman's v-v-vag-ina, she could become pregnant. The best way to avoid all these problems is to not have sex, obviously, but I've been young and I know how tempting it all is. Trust me when I say that waiting for the perfect person and the perfect moment is something you should absolutely do with this. A good experience isn't any more special than an amazing meal. A bad experience might haunt you for a lifetime, keeping you up in the wee hours with self-doubt and regret."
Rayla snickered into her hands, "That last part sounds vaguely familiar, at least!"
"What do you mean?"
"That's the most I've ever gotten as answer to my questions. `Don't ever do it`, and `A pregnant assassin is as useless as a dead one`", she replied with some frustration, "Not like I don't get that. There's no way I'd let anything... `happen` while we're on this mission."
"I know what you mean. Still; It's strange thinking that you know how to kill and survive in the wild and all that, but they didn't give you this?"
"We're secret keepers, Callum. An assassin's kill is horrifyin', but not personal or awkward. Runaan didn't deal well with awkward. Loads of people are comfortable with the thought of me covered in mine and other people's blood, just as long as everyone's wearin' clothes."
Callum nodded, disgusted by the mental image.
He went back to reading.
"... hm… ah, here. You're spending a lot more time with each other than people who are your age normally would, so please, be careful and apply your good sense to everything you guys are doing. Your mission is so important. There's a saying; `Fight puts together what goes together`. It means that no matter who or where you are, if you do something mortally dangerous together, there's a good chance you'll develop very strong feelings for each other. I was glad to hear you've found someone you feel you can trust and I really hope it all goes well for you two."
He shared a warm glance with his girlfriend who was now feeling like a jerk. She had expected at least a paragraph telling him to leave her, not the exact opposite.
Callum kept reading, now more comfortable with the subject matter. "Helmond seems to be a good egg. He burst into our ceasefire meeting and turned the place into a battlefield, but he made sure I knew what was going on. That gives me a good gut feeling about this Elf in particular. It seems they are still discussing what to do about him while I'm sitting in his office writing this so I'm going to go keep him company. Maybe freshen up his signing a little. He almost made me lose it, greeting me with the most butchered figures I've ever seen. If you can, send me a message back and don't forget to give me a secret so I know it's really you. No Banther Lodge stuff. Your girlfriend was there and I obviously can't tell if this is just a ruse to get information out of me somehow. While Helmond seems nice enough, I don't really trust him yet. Remember, use your heart for love and your head for everything else. Be smart. Aunt Amaya."
Callum smirked at her signature because she had first started writing 'General' out of habit, then crossed that out and written 'Aunt'. He then looked up, smiling. "I never thought a piece of paper could make me feel so good. I mean, sure it was a page of her wagging her finger at us, but… still. It's like a piece of home. I'll just write her an answer."
"Can I write my own?", she asked.
"I don't see why not."
After they had finished writing their letters, Callum picked up the eagle arrow they had received from Amaya.
"Don't bother. They aren't reusable.", Rayla told him, "We'll have to use one of our own. Plus, you'll have to shoot since I don't have a bond with your aunt."
"Yet!", he said confidently and received the bow and arrow from her, "How do I make this work?"
She took the devices back and showed him the stance and how to draw back the string and arrow.
He tried it, barely able to draw the sinew under his chin. "Oh! Oof!", he gasped, "You made that look so easy!"
"That's 'cause it is, you wet rag! Come on,you can do it! Try it with a normal arrow first. Shoot at that tree."
He stood sideways, like she'd shown him, lining up the tree. Then he struggled with the sinew and aimed. The entire affair shook like a young tree in the wind. When the arrow came off the string and landed harmlessly on his boot, he jerked away, letting go of the bow, causing its intricate wooden body to fly back into his face. To top it all off, he fell backwards stiff as a bent lead pipe, landing straight on his butt.
Rayla buckled over laughing, attempting to make sure he was alright while not being able to stand herself.
He was reassembling himself on the ground, rubbing his reddening cheek. "Ha, Ha! Very funny!", he mocked with his head between the bow's body and sinew, amusement reflecting in his eyes despite himself, "I told you before; I'm really bad at everything!"
Crying tears of laughter, she wheezed, "Not… any… more! Try… again! That… was… so funny! I'm… so sorry!"
After a moment, they both got up and she showed him the proper stance again, firing the arrow and missing the tree barely.
"See, it's not an easy thin' to do. I'm not a good archer myself. Lucky for us the hawk arrow does most of the work. It just needs a bit of a jolt, is all."
He set himself up again. This time he sent the arrow flying, hitting the tree smack dab in its center. "Nice shot!", Rayla commended.
"Let's do the hawk arrow, then, before my arm falls off.", he complained, placing the device on the string. Firing, he thought of his aunt's face and shouted, "General Amaya!"
At first, the arrow just limply sailed through the air like one would imagine a somewhat heavy metal object to do. Then it started picking up speed and was soon gone from view.
"That's it?", Callum asked and Rayla nodded, taking back the quiver and bow.
"We should camp here. I don't want to be walking into this thing. Bad enough it's probably gonna get blown over here once night falls.", she threw a hand over her shoulder at the anvil cloud whose far edge had impacted the mountains. Below it now reigned pandemonium. By the looks of it, a solid column of water was descending from the formation.
"That's really gonna swell the river", said Callum, furrowing his brows, "You think we should get to higher ground?"
"We better", she agreed, impressed with his improving instincts, "We also need to refill our canteens. The water's goin' to be muddy beyond good and evil."
"I'll do that, if you want to find us a hill."
She nodded, already climbing one of the creepy tentacle trees.
As Callum was descending the Ibalin's banks, he noticed a few flowers, rustling in the hot breeze. How did that song go again?
He smirked.
If she could have a secret, so could he.