Chapter Text
I can do this.
Rayla thought as she was standing before a small river stream, trying to move her legs for the last three minutes, but nothing happened. They nearly arrived to the castle. They could see it now from where they were. All she had to do was to just cross that stupid river. Not so hard, right? Well no. it was horrible.
Callum offered to fly her above it, but she refused, saying that it wasn't fair that everyone was going to get wet except them.
The waters were knee high at max and the streams were soft. There were only a few feet to the other side. Everyone had already crossed and continued their way to the castle by foot. She realized they didn’t wait for her because they wanted to give her space so she wouldn’t feel pressured to cross. She appreciated the gesture, but still felt bad for delaying everyone. The only person that hasn’t crossed yet except her, was Callum.
He stood next to her, looking at her patiently as she eyed the river with wide fearful eyes. Even just the sound of the moving waters made her feel nauseous. When it became clear she's not going to move anytime soon, Callum spoke for the first time.
"I still have three more questions left."
"What?" She said, her voice distracted, a contrast to the confident tone she usually had.
"From when we used a boat down that river, Remember?"
Talking about boats didn’t help to still her nausea and Callum noticed he made a mistake when she moved her head to the opposite side, shut her eyes tightly and her face became pale with a shade of green.
"No! No! I mean… When I asked you about Xadia." He desperately attempted at fixing what he had just said.
"Ugh. I do." She didn’t mean to sound mean, but the nausea made it impossible.
He took her hand and that little gesture helped her feel better. "I still have a lot of questions."
She knew what he was trying to do and she didn’t care, it worked the last time, didn’t it?
"Like what?"
He turned to face her while taking her other hand, his feet on the edge of the dry side. "Like…" He wanted to ask her about her home, like how moonshadow schools are like, or when did she get her swords, but he knew those are too painful questions, he needed to think of something else. "What… is your favorite color?!"
She looked at him, one of her eyebrows raised. "Really? That's your question?"
He blushed. "Huh, well… I'm curious."
She snorted. "Alright. I don’t think I have a favorite color. I guess I like green, like the color of the trees, but I also like purple and maybe blue, like when the skies are getting dark, but still hasn't reached full darkness. Like the time between dusk and midnight."
"That sounds nice." He said as he took a step back and dipped his foot in the river, the water reaching his ankle.
The slight splash that it caused made Rayla jump and grip tightly on his hands. He smiled at her and she relaxed her grip on him. "Next question."
"Okay. What's in a moonberry surprise?" he asked with a grin.
Rayla dropped her tense shoulders and smiled. "Nice try, dummy."
He giggled. "I had to. That doesn’t count as a question, does it?"
"No. Ask a different one."
"Hmmm…." He took his other leg and put it in the waters as well, encouraging Rayla to step closer to the edge. "What would you rather eat? A grub cake or the same stale bread from the Banther Lodge?"
She smiled. "That’s a tough one." But her smile disappeared the moment Callum guided her a little closer, making her dip her foot into the river. Her breath hitched and her grip on Callum's hands became strong again. The waters were cold and she felt the stream running beneath her. When her other foot came down, she struggled to keep her meal down her stomach.
Noticing her distress, Callum tried to get her mind back to his questions. "What do you say?" he looked at her, a little worried. Maybe asking her about grub cakes and stale old bread wasn't the best idea when she felt like this, but it seemed to work.
"Um… grub cake." She said, trying to stable her breathing.
"Really? You would rather eat grubs over real food?"
"Those stale cudgels weren’t food."
He giggled. "Well, good thing I lost them."
"Yeah." She giggled too. "Last question." She said with a furrow brow.
"Let's make it ten."
"Alright." She said, trying not to show how relieved she was.
"So I figure you are an only child." they now started to slowly walk towards the other side, with Callum carefully walking backwards.
"Right."
"Have you ever wanted a sibling?"
That was actually a good question. "There were times I did. When my parents were training, Runaan went on a mission and Ethari was busy." Her face fell.
Oh no, he probably shouldn’t have asked her that.
"But then I'd go to the adoraburrs meadow and then I didn’t care about that thought anymore." She continued.
"What about friends?"
"Uh. It wasn’t my first choice when I was out of company."
"Why?"
She shrugged. "There were some kids that were nice to talk to, but nothing more. I preferred playing with the adoraburrs or training with my swords.
"Oh." the waters now reached their shins. "I get what you're saying, before I went to live in the castle I used to be in a kindergarten where some kids were nice, but I really preferred to just sit and draw."
She smiled softly, but then she was suddenly aware of how far they went. The waters now reached their knees and the stream started to run faster.
"Another question!" Callum chirped as he noticed she was getting nerves again. She looked up at him, starting to regret his offer from earlier. Flying seemed like a much better idea.
"Ask away."
"Actually… I'm out of questions. Why won't you ask me something too?"
Hesitantly, she nodded. "Okay. Uh… When did you realize you liked to draw?" They continued to walk slowly.
"Wow, I have no idea. I've drawn for as long as I can remember. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t. Even when I was a baby and drew on the walls.
She giggled. "I didn’t know baby Callum was a trouble maker."
He giggle too. "At some point my mom got tired of cleaning them and just let me draw."
"I also drew on the walls, but for different reasons."
"Did you like to draw?"
"Nah. I just enjoyed making a mess."
They laughed, and suddenly she noticed they were one step away from the other side of the river band. She dropped one of Callum's hands and stepped with him out of the water.
"See? I knew you could do this." He smiled widely at her.
"Thanks. Now let's get back to the others."
___________________________________
They went into the forest that was at the side of the river and she was surprised to see that everyone was sitting on the rocks around, chatting quietly. Oh no. how embarrassing. They all waited just for her.
"Hey!" Soren yelled when he saw them approaching. "There you are! We were just taking a break. Didn’t wait or anything." Corvus face-palmed behind Soren.
"Sorry." She said while holding her wrist, a slight blush on her cheeks.
"We were taking a break, Rayla." Ezran started. "There is nothing to be sorry for."
She gave him a small smile, but he wasn’t a fool. Ez knew she still felt bad. So, he used the best way he knew to cheer her up. "Want a jelly tart?"
Rayla's smile looked more at ease now. She could never resist Ez's charms.