Chapter Text
The house was nice, quaint. Different from what he was use to in Katolis, but still pleasant. It didn’t help Callum feel at home though. He could hear the couple of sunfire elves whispering from the next room. Meanwhile a young sunfire girl peered at him from the hallway. He felt more like an intruder that a guest. If he looked at the girl's direction, she ran into a room terrified. So he didn’t. He kept his eyes trained on the curtains, closed tightly to prevent any peering eyes from looking in.
“And you really think it’s safe to bring that… human into our home? With our children here?” The woman hissed.
“He’s just a child himself. And if what they claim is true...,” the man trailed off.
“And if they lied? What if the moonshadow girl is just possessed with dark magic or something? And he is taking that poor baby dragon for dark magic? We can’t trust humans, you know that,” the woman shot back. Callum didn’t fight the small, bitter smile that crept across his face. Was this how Rayla felt? He remembered when they first met, how he thought she drank blood. How he told Amaya that she was a monster. In reality she was one of the best, kindest people he knew. Granted, she had the skills to slaughter an entire village, but she didn't have the heart to hurt a fly. Still, Callum mused, he would feel so much better if she was actually with him.
“I need to tend to the patient,” the man excused himself. “You should offer some food to our other guest,” he added before leaving the room. When he appeared in front of Callum, he was sure to put on a polite smile and pretend as though their walls weren’t so thin he could hear every muttered word.
“Thank you again for doing this,” Callum realized how lucky they got. Pretty much any elf would opt to kill him. He suspected it and Rayla agreed, they couldn’t trust anyone inside Xadia. But a cut on Rayla’s back had festered and got infected. She needed medical attention and that left a delicate matter of either revealing Callum to a doctor, or having him fend for himself and Zym in the woods.
“Yes, well…,” his eyes moved from Callum’s face to Zym’s sleeping form on his lap. “Who am I to deny a couple of young princes on a peace mission?” He nodded, assuring himself he made the right decision. “But I need to tend to your friend.” He left the room and moved down the hallway. Callum shifted uncomfortably when the woman appeared. She didn’t say anything to him. He just realized with some surprise she was watching him from a doorway.
“You can have our food, if you care to eat it. I’m not sure what humans prefer to eat, but I don’t suppose we would have it.” She scowled. He slouched down in the chair. He weighed his options on how to approach her. He didn’t want to get revealed to the guards, or kicked out, or poisoned for that matter. He could see this woman doing any of the above.
“I can eat whatever you eat,” he tried to explain. He didn’t drink blood, he almost wanted to add as a joke to himself. “Me and Rayla have been sharing meals for a few months now,” he added. The woman’s eyes narrowed. Her dark hair glinted in the moonlight as she turned and left the room. Callum didn’t know if she was going to get food or just retreat from the monster that resided in her living room.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the little girl stare at him again. This time she was accompanied with an older boy, probably just a few years younger than Ezran.
To his mild surprise, they didn’t run he snuck a glance himself. Though they both seemed to stiffen.
“I’m not going to hurt you guys. Your parents are being very nice hosts,” he spoke softly, trying to assure them. The girl hugged her brother’s leg and whined. Callum smiled at the sight. They reminded him a lot of him and Ez when they were younger. There was rattling coming from the kitchen. Maybe the woman was preparing food? He glanced back to the hallway in a vain hope that the doctor would appear with news about Rayla.
There was no doctor or Rayla, but he was surprised to see the boy, sans the little girl, much closer to him.
“You’re a human, right?” His voice was meek, but Callum got the feeling that wasn’t normal for this kid. The question forced a smile out of him.
“Yeah, last time I checked,” Callum always liked kids. Not that he was much more than one himself. The boy crept closer to Callum and within moments they were right next to each other. They both seemed to take the moment to study each other. Callum hadn’t ever really seen a Sunfire elf up close. It was always either from a distance, or while running for his life. The boy had dark skin, black hair, and eyes that were a shocking golden color. He had golden lines running down his face from them. His ears seemed particularly long too, longer than Rayla’s anyway.
The boy stepped closer until his face was right next to Callum’s hand. Ah yes, hands. The boy of course had four fingers, a point of interest Callum had when he first started studying Rayla. Callum humored him by presenting both his hands, palms up, and counting off his fingers.
“You know, where I’m from, everyone has five fingers. I thought Rayla’s hands looked so weird with only four,” Callum carried on the conversation.
“Your hands look silly. Does the extra finger ever get in the way,” the boy asked curiously.
“Nope,” Callum shook his head. “But I guess we don’t really need it for anything. Rayla had eight fingers and she can beat me up, easy.” The boy smiled, seemingly getting comfortable around Callum. He begun playing with Callum’s fingers, which Callum allowed. It was nice, just relaxing. The differences between humans and elves really weren’t that large. The little girl appeared by the boy’s side soon enough. She instead honed in on Callum’s ears.
“Your ears are so tiny. Can you hear with them,” she asked. She was younger, maybe five or six years old.
“I can hear well enough. Though I think elves do hear better. Rayla is always hearing stuff way before I do.” The little girl had climbed up the side of the chair and reached for his ears. Callum didn’t protest right away but he found the touches to be too ticklish for him.
“Hey, that tickles,” He shook his head, giggling a bit. Both the kids looked at him curiously.
“Humans are ticklish too?” the girl seemed to vocalize the question they both had.
“Of course we are. We really aren’t that much different from elves,” Callum explained. He was still getting over how elves viewed humans as the monsters in Xadia.
“Tekyn, Mekyn, get away from him right now,” The mother’s panicked voiced rang through the room. She sounded like they were playing with a banther, but they just looked at her with sad eyes. Callum decided to intervene before the women came at him with murderous intent.
“Listen to your mother,” he said to shoo them away. He shifted away from them, disturbing Zym’s sleep next to him. Why they chose to study him over a dragon was still confusing.
The woman had a plate of what looked like various types of fruits and crackers. Callum looked over curiously, interested in trying the foreign food.
“We don’t know if he is safe,” she whispered to her kids. Not really whispered, as Callum could easily hear. He wondered if they thought he had bad hearing, or if she just didn’t care. The plate of food was presented in from of him. There seemed to be some kind of sandwich, cut fruits, maybe berries, and some cheese and crackers.
“You should try the pimnims, they are the best part,”the boy opened his sandwich and pulled out a slice of red. Callum couldn’t tell if it was some kind of meat, or maybe a roasted vegetable.
“I think I should eat it how your mother made it,” Callum politely bit into his sandwich. It was very flavorful. It hit a lot of notes, some of them too strongly for Callum’s taste. Still, he happily ate it all. It was the first real meal he’s had in months.
“Take a couple of plates to your friend and my husband, would you?” the woman asked. Callum got the feeling she just wanted him away from her children. He knew not to push her though. Wordlessly he took two plates and brought them down the hallway. He stopped in front of the door the doctor entered and shifted the plates around to knock. Within moments the doctor appeared.
“Oh, you have food,” he looked at the plates hungerly. He didn't wait for permission to take one. “Go on in, your friend is doing well. I want her to stay a few days to make sure the infection dies down, but it’s just a precaution.” He walked away without giving him a chance to respond. He was probably exhausted from dealing with Rayla. Callum knew first hand she can be fussy when she’s hurt.
“Rayla,” he announced himself entering the room. It was a foreign dynamic for them to have designated rooms and he felt like he was invading her privacy. His eyes scanned the dim room and found a figure by the window. He stopped in his tracks.
For a brief moment, he didn’t register that it was Rayla. Instead all he saw was a beautiful woman covered in soft moonlight. Her blades were gone as well as her regular attire. Instead she was dressed in a white, simple gown. It wasn’t scandalous, but it did show curves that Callum hadn’t picked up on before. More than anything, it made a simple thought strike him. Rayla was a girl. Of course he always knew that on a rational level. But somehow the idea that he was camping out alone with a girl for the last month escaped him.
“So is that food for me, or do I just get to look at it?” Her words knocked him out of his stupor. He still couldn’t fight the blush on his face. He found himself looking everywhere but at this new moonlight soaked woman.
“Ah, yeah, sorry. I’ll just put it here.” He found a table to rest the last plate on “I’ll just let you rest-” he tried to leave the room but Rayla wasn’t having it.
“What, you aren’t going to ask me how I’m doing?” Her voice was thick with amusement. He forced himself to look at her. His heart hammered in his chest and his blush deepened. She just look so… Intimate? Private? Exposed? Beautiful. He kept going back to that word. Beautiful.
“Right, sorry. How are you feeling?” He tried to still his beating heart. It’s just Rayla, after all.
“Better, but it's still sore,” she started to roll her shoulders causing her chest to puff out and her back to arch. The thin gown twisted with her, pulling taunt in some parts and clinging to her body. Callum knew he was staring. He knew he should look away. But he just couldn't. His eyes moved across hey body, putting every detail to memory. Would she be mad if he drew her later?
“That's good. The doctor said we should stay for a few days,” he managed to say but still couldn't pull his eyes away from her. They settled on her face. Her long hair seemed to glow silver where it caught the moonlight. Dark horns interrupted the white strands, extending and curving away from her hair. Her face was soft and pale, broken by the dark purple strip. And Stars above, how had he never noticed those eyes before? A smile was spread across her face, one that he couldn't quite place. A mix of amusement, mischief, and pride. Did she realize what she was doing to him? What was she doing to him?
“I don't know if I would want to stay that long,” she snorted at the idea. She really was just Rayla. “Probably should leave tomorrow.”
Callum hummed, not sure what to say. His mind wasn't willing to stay on the topic of the conversation. Instead he just watched her from her spot in the moonlight. Her expression had changed, dropping it's humorous tints. Instead her eyes were passionate, smoldering. Silence fell on them but neither could be bothered to be embarrassed. Finally Callum pulled himself out of the trance.
“We should go to sleep,” he stated.
“Yeah,” was her only reply. Contemplation flickered across her face, but he didn't give her the chance to act on it. He was gone from the room within a second. He didn't know what exactly that was, but it was definitely something, and he didn't think he was ready to explore it.