Callum balanced wearily. This was much like riding a horse, in that he was just barely alright doing it. At least Zym had decided to sleep in a saddle bag rather than perching on his shoulder. To his right, Rayla handled herself gracefully, as expected. To his left, Honsa looked like she was going to die.
"I ain't made for riding", she said, her complexion greener than usual, "My legs are killing me"
Rayla shot her a sympathetic glance. She was still wearing a dress and given that she was probably not a frequent rider, the rub was likely terrible. They had made very good progress to the east, leaving Larwein behind. The animals were in good spirit, still, and Rayla didn't intend on stopping anytime soon. She wanted as much distance between them and Ivine as possible. Now, she brought her doe to a halt.
"Honsa", she said cooly, "Don't ride yourself to bits. Let's check if we can't find somethin' for you to wear here."
Honsa smirked at her painfully, slapping at herself. "Sistah, bless you for thinking of it, but your stuff would never fit this chubby babe."
"Not mine, you turnip!", Rayla scoffed, dismounted and rummaged through her saddle bags. Callum and Honsa followed suit, the latter standing square-legged.
Between them, they found a pair of thick brown canvas pants, worn boots and a dirty beige linen shirt.
"That color is downright rubbish", Honsa squirmed, "but ya. I'd be happy to not feel like there's coral scaping on my thighs anymore. I'll be right back."
She vanished in the woods on the side of the road.
Lucky for Rayla and Callum, they had slept through a good portion of the afternoon, so riding through the night would not be much of an issue. She figured they'd pass by the place where they'd fought Kel in a day from now. The forest around them already started to look a lot more tentacly. Perytons, on average, could go about five times faster than an elf on foot. It was a welcome difference in speed.
"So. We got ourselves a second moon", Rayla frowned, her expression clearly hinting at the fact that she thought Honsa's presence was redundant.
Callum gave her a reprimanding look, his brows furrowed. Now was as good a time as any to have the conversation. "If you blow up like that again… if you say stuff like that again… Rayla, that was just… beyond hurtful. She's… not even a friend yet. She'll never have what we have. I'm sorry us being together like that upset you, but why are you so worried about her?"
She studied the ground. "Well… I mean, there's the fact that she was touching you. Under the open sky. I told you, that has meanin' where I'm from. But yea, I was terrible. Everything I can say to explain it would sound like an excuse."
"I hadn't thought of that, sorry", he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, "But… you used to hug me and touch me all the time when we were still friends."
"That's exactly because I wanted to be more than a friend. So you see why… I had a bit of a fit."
He said nothing, frowning. It was the understatement of the century.
"I love you?", she offered sadly.
He walked over to her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Then show it."
She breathed deeply, trying not to cry. Her eyes darted. She could not believe that him not saying it back would hurt so much. What did he expect of her?
"I… I…", she lost the battle against the tears and he carefully drew her into a caring if not comforting hug, "What do y-you want from me?"
His voice was unsteady, but clear. "I want you to never raise your hand against me again. To never stab at me with words like you did. You didn't mean to argue out the problem, you meant to hurt me. That can't be how this stuff goes from now on."
The full extent of her actions dawned on her then and she grabbed him, pulling him into herself so desperately that she hurt her stomach.
"I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!", she sobbed, "I… I was just… so mad! So worried! About you and her and the Interpreter and… myself... and the war and... ugh…"
He frowned at her.
Yeah. It did all sound like excuses, even in her ears.
"It was a huge, dumb mistake! I won't do this to you again! Ever! I'm really sorry I hurt you!"
His mien softened.
She palmed at her eyes. "I felt like I was bein' abandoned again. None of that's an excuse. I'm sorry i took that all out on you."
After a moment of gazing into her violet eyes, Callum sighed deeply. "Alright.", he kissed her, "Thank you for working on this with me. I love you. I really, really do. Don't ever doubt that again."
She pressed up against him, glad to hear him say it.
"I'm sorry I made it hard and loaded.", she said sadly.
"You didn't. Loving you is still easy. We worked it out. We're gonna do better next time. That's all that counts in the end."
"You guys okay?", Honsa called respectfully, walking toward them from beyond the treeline. Dressed in the ill-fitting, muted colours she looked like a green-blue head floating above the muddy roadside. Her startling dress was folded into a neat package she carried under her arm.
"Yeah", Callum replied, wiping Rayla's tears off her cheeks, "We're fine."
Honsa took them in. They were standing, arms firmly wrapped around each other, expressions serious, but not unfriendly. Behind them in the eastern distance, another massive thunderstorm was discharging against the mountains. Rayla's hair was still wrapped up in a messy ponytail that she had put together quickly to avoid hair flying in her face during the ride. They both were wearing their spotless new armor.
The ocean elf cooed, then gushed, "Gosh; I wish I was a painter! You guys are a picture for the ages! Confident prince and determined princess!"
Rayla smirked wryly. "We should get goin'", she continued in a scolding tone, "and don't call me that! I'm not a princess!", kissing Callum, she whispered, "Yet."
He shivered a bit.
They all mounted their animals, Zym giving a small, annoyed coo at being woken by Callum. "Oh shush, you slept all day."
The little dragon jumped out of the bag and started drawing.
Honsa blinked. "What is he doing?"
Callum explained it. The ocean elf was understandably amazed. "I need to write a paper on that! It's assumed that elves are the only people who can interpret for a dragon! Do you think I'll be able to meet your brother at some point?"
The prince and Rayla were too enraptured with the image that was taking shape in front of them now to answer. Instead of a series of smaller ones, there was a single large drawing, showing dragons attacking one side and a massive dark shape descending on the other side of what was obviously the Breach.
"And I thought we had a lot of fightin' goin' on… this looks really bad!", she dismounted for a moment to erase the lines in the gravel, "The sooner we can get the little guy home, the sooner this will have a chance of stopping.", she let her ride fall into a canter and the others followed suit, "I think we should be skippin' Veltis-Tiram, goin' straight up to Mons Ornatam. On the stags, we should make that inside six days once we're past the mountains, if we ride eight hours each day. Then another day to climb it.", she mulled it over for a moment, "So we could be done... in five plus seven days, give or take."
"Do we have enough food for that?"
"No. We'll have to stop to find some", Rayla said, "Especially with three people around."
"Oh", Honsa said, "I don't think I'll cross the mountains with you guys, as much as I'd like to. I still have to go back to check on Lessa", there was a flash of worry on her face, but it vanished quickly, "If she's still alive, I'll go with her to the front or whatever else she's gonna do next", she smirked, "To be honest, I'm only here cause you shoved me onto this monster and I think Callum still needs my help."
Rayla seemed to think on this.
After a moment she said, "Would you be alright if I sat down with you too, at some point?"
Honsa blinked. "S-sure?"
"Don't worry. I just… need some advice."
Callum looked at his girlfriend inquisitively, but she didn't explain herself further.