"Who is in command here?", the canon guard yelled, almost running down Zym, Callum and Rayla as he galloped into camp, "Why are you not following your Legion?"

The milites threw a few glances toward the elf and her boyfriend which made her bristle. With a swift motion, Rayla flipped Callum's hood over his face and backed away from the richly armored rider. Callum was struggling with Zym, trying to get him to sit still in Rayla's hood.

"You there! Moonshadow! Speak!"

"Yes, princeps", Rayla replied nervously, "The commander is Tribune Lessa."

The guard looked at her expectantly. After a moment he barked, "Well?"

"Princeps?"

"Fetch her, woman!"

Rayla swallowed her boiling snark, shuffling off with Callum in tow, Zym between them, shielded from view.

Lessa was sitting in her tent, agonizing over a few letters she was writing. There was a knock at her flap board.

"Come on in", she said, and Rayla stepped inside.

"We have a visitor and he wants an explanation", Rayla pulled Callum through the flap, "Canon guard."

Lessa looked at them, pensively. After a moment, she asked a worried question, "Do you want to stay hidden or should we try and appeal to their better nature?"

Rayla thought for a moment. "Callum, what do you think?"

"I don't know. It doesn't seem like we're making a whole lot of headway. Maybe we should try and talk to the senate directly."

Rayla frowned. She was afraid he'd say something like that. Sure, it made sense, to some degree, try and talk to the people at the helm. "Uh, alright. We can try, I guess."

"What's the worst that can happen?", Lessa said and immediately regretted it. Rayla was motioning at her boyfriend's head and her stomach, her mien one of bovine incredulity, "Point well taken, sorry."

The tribune got up and walked outside, ahead of them. On her way, she also knocked on Honsa's board, who poked her head out of her tent.

"Howzit, auntie?"

"We're gonna talk to a snob herder. You want to come?"

"Oh! For sure!"

Honsa stepped out of her tent. She was a diminutive, round oceanwave elf whose dark blue hair stood in stark contrast to her light green skin tone. She wore a coral red dress and hair-clips, making for a shocking, colorful appearance in summary. Stub-nosed and perky beyond description, her cuteness radiated. She was about a year older than Callum and Rayla.

Rayla stopped short. She had imagined Honsa to be sort of old. Why had Callum not mentioned how close to them she was in age?

Together they marched further down the road to find the canon goard yelling at the Milites, who were lined up for an inspection.

"If you would please direct your fury at me, Templar…?", Lessa called to him and he whipped around.

"Canon guard Pert.", the moonshadow elf gruffly introduced himself, "What sort of odd posse are you leading, Tribune? Who is this person?"

"This, princeps, is Honsa. She is my counselor. An attached civilian."

"Her dress is inapprop…", he started.

"That ain't for you to decide, dude!", the oceanwave elf interrupted, "I'm not a soldier, so your opinions are mist to me!"

The guard was clearly not used to being interrupted. He'd lost his train of thought.

"Be that as it may", he started, "You would be a shining beacon to any enemy observers."

Lessa gave him an incredulous look. "We're part of a Legion. Kind of hard to miss as it is…?"

"Uh. Oh. Yes, I suppose that is true", the guard deflated by several circumferences, his bluster worn off by failure, "I… still require an explanation. Why are you not grouped up?"

"We've… made an error in judgement, princeps, that will likely not enthuse you on any level", Lessa warned.

The guard frowned, "I had worried so."

"Nah, no way you're expectin' this, brah", Honsa chuckled, grabbing Callum and startling Rayla. The assassin clandestinely loosened her blades. If this was going to turn into a fight, she was not taking any risks.

"This guy's name is Callum. He can do sky magic", the counselor continued.

Pert looked at her as though she was insane, too annoyed by her to notice Callum's obvious lack of wings. "I will say his name is odder than his abilities. He's a skywing! Of course he can do sky magic!"

"Show him some tricks", Honsa said.

Callum breathed deeply, drew Ratis and touched a good-sized stone on the ground. He then kicked it and it went rebounding into the trees, making satisfying knocking noises all the way. Callum felt his energy being syphoned further before the tether that tied him to the stone through his pendant finally broke. It had probably hit the ground.

Pert's gaze wandered from the stone back to the target of his ire. He was too busy staring down Honsa to notice Callum's fifth finger.

"So as you can see, perfectly normal primal magic, right?", Honsa intoned.

Pert snarled, "I would agree, yes, obviously! Stop wasting my time!"

Honsa pulled off Callum's hood. The templar's chin hit the floor and his hand twitched toward his blade.

"Impossible", he said, roughly grabbing Callum's arms to examine his hands, "You… you're human? You clearly are not carrying a primal stone. What… is the meaning of this, Tribune Lessa?"

Rayla was impressed. She had thought this encounter would go much worse. "I'll add some thin's for your list of strange stuff first, Princeps", she smirked, stepping forward, "I am Rayla, charge of Legate Runaan, Sicarius Assassin of the Moonshadow. Callum and I are escortin' Azymondias, the Dragon Prince.", hearing his name, the little guy poked his head out of her hood, "and… he and I have a relationship."

Callum smirked at her, wryly. Was it a good idea to be so forward about this?

Pert gaped at her, "Dragon guard...?"

Pert gaped at Zym, "He…?"

Pert gaped at Callum, "Him…?"

Pert gaped in the direction of the stone Callum had enchanted, "That…?"

Honsa started laughing hoarsely at his expression, "You broke the moke, guys, good work!"

The templar looked between all of them, his mind in obvious chaos. "Would you please explain how this all came to be, Tribune?", he said,flatly.

Lessa humored him, explaining their presence and everything that had happened to keep them in place.

"Interesting. Very interesting. Startling, horrifying, yes, yes. Interesting", Pert was pacing now, throwing them confused glances ever so often, "This is… I cannot… er, I mean to say I will have to report to the senate."

"You do that, brah.", Honsa snarked, "You look like you need a bit of assistance thinking this thru'."

Pert glared in her direction and got into his saddle. A moment later, he sped off on his Peryton.

"Well. That was nuts.", said Rayla, making sure her blades were correctly holstered.

"He's really stuck up. Needs to meditate more", Honsa said, smirking at Callum, "You okay, pinko? You've got a bit of a sheen."

"Been doing a lot of magic today", he huffed, sitting down, "Feels like a workout."

Honsa dropped into a crouch, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Ya it is. Magic draws from nature, sure, but you gotta funnel all that somehow. Takes muscle. You got a nice bit, so you'll be okay. I'm sure the pendant also helps a bit, but it's a rough piece of kit. Take 'er easy for now tho'."

With that, the eccentric elf got up, noticing Rayla's suspicious glare.

"Woah there, sistah, put them eyecicles down!", Honsa laughed, pointing at her own crossed eyes, "I'm just bein' friendly, is all. I ain't nearly lolo or mean enough to try 'n steal this guy from ya. Seriously, you're a cute couple.", patting the still suspicious Assassin on her crossed arms, she recommended, "Have confidence, ya guys have been through so much!"

Rayla nodded curtly, "I kno' all that."

She shrugged and strode off, back to her tent, "Well, uh, 'k den!"

"What's her deal?", Rayla asked Lessa with some barely suppressed annoyance in her voice, "I thought she was supposed to be `good with heads`!"

"She is! She got into yours real quick!", Lessa smirked, "You looked like you were going to strangle her there. Callum's going to spend a lot of time alone with her, so she wants to make sure you know she's aware of your discomfort."

Rayla blushed. Was her ire really so transparent? "She's really cute", she admitted after a moment, "It's hard not to feel sorta kinda put off, especially when she's hatin' on my pendant!"

Callum got up, drowsily, "What does that even matter? She's nice, but you're my forever-girl"

Rayla snorted, "Did you get into the twist bell bushes again?"

With a worried look in the direction that Pert had left in, Rayla turned to support her exhausted boyfriend. He'd better get some rest, who knew what unhappy surprise would come their way, next.