So Rayla talked to him, this time even about the things she didn't really want to, and maybe in the process ended up crying a little. But Tinker was understanding, and he didn't think it was her fault even if she did, even if she did mess up on her mission.

But he didn't really see it that way, he didn't really seem to consider it as her messing up. He thought that what she was doing was great.

"Runaan knew what he was doing, Rayla." He told her, "They all did. But you made the right choice. Returning the dragon prince could change things."

He hugged Rayla. She quietly said, "I should probably do that, then..."

"Perhaps."

Rayla attempted to focus on returning Zym to his mom, and they left. She hugged Tinker again before leaving, alongside Callum, Claudia and Zym.

This time, they actually walked through the town insteading of sneaking out. They didn't have to with these disguises, since they actually looked like elves.

Callum and Claudia tried not to look amazed at the architecture, or any of the magical creatures that were around. Or any other magic, since Callum realized Rayla was right when she said it was pretty much everywhere.

It was kinda difficult, but no one seemed to notice them, anyway. Or maybe they just didn't care, like that one elf. It was hard to tell.

It wasn't long before they were out of the town, even if they weren't that far from it. Rayla looked at a map, which was in the supplies they had been given.

"Okay, so..." Rayla looked at the map, and then continued walking in the same direction.

"Hey, can I see that?" Callum asked, out of curiosity.

"Sure." Rayla turned around and gave it to him, and returned to walking. Callum looked at it while they walked, Claudia beside him as she usually was.

Claudia waited in anticipation while they walked, expecting that at some point Rayla would realize they didn't need Claudia to teach Callum magic. But as they grew further and further away from the town, it started to seem like maybe Rayla wasn't going to.

Maybe she had forgot or something, because it probably wasn't that Rayla trusted her. Rayla was very clear that she didn't, and yeah, they did recently have a few conversations where Rayla didn't bring up Claudia betraying them, but that probably didn't mean a lot, if anything.

Maybe Rayla just wasn't there yet, or she hadn't realize they don't need Claudia.

She wasn't sure, and she wasn't sure if Rayla would ever actually trust her. But she didn't look like she thought Claudia was going to take Zym or attack Callum, or at least as much as she usually did. And maybe that was a step.

They noticed some elves up ahead, and hesitantly walked past them. They did seem to notice them, but they it was different. They didn't know they were human, so they didn't attack them. It was a good thing.

"A human?" They heard one of the elves say, which made it seem like maybe their disguise fell off, or their elf impression was just that bad they didn't even have to do it. They turned around, but the elves weren't focused on them.

They were focused on the human sitting on a giant, dangerous creature, so they all immediately ran towards the elves.

"Rayla!" Ezran said, getting off of his new friend, "There you guys are. I looked everywhere."

One of the elves looked at Rayla, Callum and Claudia confused, "Wait, so you guys know this human? Why?"

Ezran pet the animal, and walked over to them with the animal. The elves did seem a little alarmed, maybe even confused. It probably wasn't a common occurrence for them to see human children riding on giant, magical creatures.

They might have attacked him if his new animal friend wasn't giving them that look. Ezran pet the animal again, "Thank you."

The animal ran off, and they immediately hid Ezran behind them. Zym was very excited to see him, immediately jumping into his arms. Callum prepared to use a spell, if necessary. But the elves didn't seem to care, so they hesitantly ran away from them.

"Ez, what are you doing here?" Callum asked, taking his disguise off once they were a reasonable distance away, "I thought you were going home."

"I did, but... Things aren't really great right now, Callum." Ezran replied, "When we got back, Viren was acting kinda weird. Everyone was."

"Weird... how?" Callum questioned, hesitantly.

"Just weird. And then he tried to attack me-"

"He tried to attack you?" Callum didn't intend to shout it, but he did. Callum and Rayla looked at Claudia, a little bit confused and suspicious.

"That doesn't make any sense..." Claudia said, "Why would my dad attack you?"

"I don't know, but something was weird about him. And then there was fighting and he did something weird and Gren and Corvus both told me I needed to go here until things clear up." Ezran explained, "Something's really wrong, Callum."

It wasn't really making any sense. Soren had told her... It wasn't really making any sense. Why would he attack Ezran? Claudia didn't really like this.

Bait added in his opinion, "Even Bait thinks there's something going on."

"But what is going on?" Callum asked, "I mean, we know something's up with Viren but we don't know what. I mean, clearly something's been up with him for awhile."

"Whatever it is, it sounds dangerous." Rayla commented.

Ezran pet Zym, who was still really excited to see him. It made sense, with how long it was since Zym had seen him, "He started talking to... a mirror?"

Ezran sounded confused about it, but Claudia wasn't, "A mirror?"

Claudia wasn't sure about it, but she was starting to think that maybe he had learned whatever it was that... Maybe he had learned something about it. But it didn't sound like a good thing.

A/N: I really don't think Ezran is just going to leave the group, and I also don't think Viren is just gonna... stay there.

anyway, here's Ezran. I also wanted to give callum the map, probably because of his voice.