Claudia glanced at Ezran and Rayla, as they sat down briefly. Ezran checked on Zym and Bait, while Rayla seemed to be thinking about if Callum was okay.
"He'll probably catch up soon." Rayla said, and walked towards Claudia to sit down near her and Ezran, "But we probably shouldn't go too much further."
Claudia nodded, and then looked down at the book again. She considered opening it, but they were interrupted before they had the chance. Rayla quickly stood up and pulled out her swords, and Claudia grabbed Ezran.
It looked like some sort of star moth or something, though it was kind of unusual to see one around. Rayla would have put her swords away, but then there was Viren, sort of.
"Dad?" Claudia quietly asked, looking at what seemed to be an illusion of her dad.
"Claudia." Viren replied, "I see you found the princes. Which is great, but I think I can handle it now. Where's the other one? And the egg?"
Ezran held onto the bag Zym was in, making sure he stayed inside of it.
Viren glanced at Rayla, "I'm surprised you haven't managed to do something about the elf yet."
"Well..." Claudia wasn't sure exactly what to say, especially after everything Ezran told her.
"What are you doing here?" Rayla questioned, walking towards him.
Viren ignored her, "I'll help you with the elf now. I assume you've recently caught up to them, which isn't surprising. You are human."
"I don't really need any help with the elf." Claudia mentioned, "I've got it covered."
"This is a moonshadow elf assassin, Claudia." Viren argued, "It might have been fine when you had Soren with you as well, but after that dragon attack-"
"Right. How is he?" Claudia interrupted, and kind of looked at Rayla like maybe she should take Ezran and leave. She seemed to get it, as she slowly started moving towards Ezran. She grabbed Bait and then took Ezran's hand.
"He's fine, but-" Viren didn't finish his sentence, glancing towards Rayla and Ezran as they ran away, "They're getting away!"
"Oh, darn!" Claudia shrugged, "I guess there's nothing we can do."
Apparently, Viren could still do magic, even if he was an illusion. He started off with something quickly and attacked them. Rayla managed to dodge with Ezran, though with difficulty.
"Dad, wait-"
Viren attacked again, and Rayla managed to get Ezran out of the way, though she did get hit a little bit by his magic, "Ezran, go!"
"I'm not leaving you here."
"Just go." Rayla told him, "You have to get Zym to safety."
He nodded, and relunctantly left. Viren sighed, "I suppose at least we have the elf."
"You really don't need to attack them-" Claudia attempted to tell him, though he didn't seem to be listening.
Rayla ran towards Viren with her swords, even though he was an illusion and it really didn't do anything. Viren attacked her again, though she just barely managed to dodge it.
"Dad!" Claudia shouted to get his attention, and he turned towards her.
"Claudia, I don't know why you keep insisting that I can't help out." Viren said, "This is a moonshadow elf, and it seems she's too strong for you to fight alone."
"She's my friend." Claudia replied, since not explaining her recent friendship with a moonshadow elf wasn't going particularly well.
"Your friend?" He asked, "Claudia, she's an elf. One of the elves that attacked us, one of the elves that kidnapped the princes!"
"Well, she didn't kidnap them." Claudia attempted to explain, "She's just helping them with a mission."
"A mission?" Viren questioned, "Returning that egg? That egg will be the most powerful creature in world, and the elves and dragons will use it against us."
"Or, maybe it'll actually change things." Claudia suggested, "I mean, it could be a chance for peace."
Viren sighed, "Claudia, I don't think you understand. We can talk about this some other time, but currently..."
He turned back towards Rayla, who hadn't left for some reason.
"Do you really think returning that dragon will be enough? After everythiny that's happened?"
"It could change things." Rayla argued, "Returning the dragon prince is our only chance for peace."
Viren sighed, "Claudia, there's too much history-"
"That's not important." She said, "I mean, maybe we're just... Maybe those are just kinda... In the past."
He sighed, again, and then attacked Rayla who wasn't able to dodge entirely. It hit a little bit of her, knocking her back.
"Rayla!" Claudia shouted, running towards her to see if she was okay. Claudia turned towards her dad, and sighed. He seemed to be attempting to attack Rayla again, though she wasn't sure if Rayla would be able to dodge quick enough.
Callum still hadn't caught up with them yet, and unfortunately there wasn't really a lot she could do.
Claudia stopped his attack with magic, though it wasn't primal magic. But she had to protect her friends. It gave her enough time to grab Rayla and run, however.
She placed Rayla near Ezran after she caught up to him. Rayla didn't seem particularly pleased, though she didn't say anything immediately.
"You shouldn't have used that." Rayla eventually told her.
"Yeah." Claudia agreed, "But there wasn't any other option, I mean, it didn't look like you'd be able to dodge or anything."
"That doesn't matter." Rayla replied, and sighed, "Let's just wait here so Callum can catch up."
Claudia sighed, as well. She sat near Rayla, while Ezran let Zym out of the bag.
"I don't get it." Claudia mentioned, thinking about what had previously happened, "Dad was acting so weird... I mean, I've never seen him do anything like this before. That illusion..."
"Yeah." Ezran agreed, "He's been really weird lately, and stronger..."
"Well, whatever it is," Rayla added in, "We just have to avoid him for now. We're really close to returning Zym."
"Yep." Callum walked up to them, "You guys went pretty far."
"We kind of had to." Rayla pointed out, "Claudia's dad showed up, but like an illusion or something. I couldn't use my swords."
"You ran into Viren?" Callum asked, sitting down near Ezran.
"Yep. He attacked us again." Ezran explained, "Mostly just Rayla, though."
"Did you run into any elves?" Rayla asked.
"No, not really." Callum replied, "They didn't really seem like they wanted to fight us, anyway."
Claudia sighed, and leaned back. She felt kind of... weird. It was probably because she hadn't used magic in awhile. Until she eventually, sort of just fell asleep.
A/N: you know, we've only seen callum unlock the sky arcanum after that dream he had so... claudia's getting one of those dreams.
probably a little bit sooner than expected.