Chapter Text
Callum dies and is reborn each time
Reset at the cave? at the end of season 2
Live this incarnation through ? Or does this life Callum desire to take a much needed rest go around on the wheel of Fate .
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The wind rapidly whipped around callum as the sounds booming thunder and blinding lighting surrounded him. He had hoped that with him choosing to fly through a storm , that he would have been able to use the gargantuan dark clouds that filled the skies as means to cover his escape from the elven city . Instead it seemed that he had flown himself into the heart of his pursuers.
A near deafening roar of thunder surrounded him drowning out all other sources of sound around him .
All except for the beating wings of the hippogriff below him and the panicked wimbers of the his small draconic charge that lay inside his satchel along his back.
The rain fall was cumbersome falling in mass around him soaking him to his core.
He remembered a time where the cold rigid air mixed with rainfall had been sort of a sign of enjoyment for him and Ezran .
Ezran
Just thinking his brother name had a melancholy effect on him .
Despite all of the chaos he now found himself in he now found himself thinking back to the little brother he always seemed to be forced to leave behind. He realize how much he truly missed those precious time with him
How much, he had always missed him whenever they were apart.
And how he may never have the chance to go back to the way things where before
It would have be on stormy nights like this where they would spend their nights together wrapped in thick woolen blankets around a fire ,
They would haves enjoyed their time together complaining about there peaceful and mundane lives around the castle
Callum would complain about the newest training routine that Soren would be insistent on trying to drive into him . or his latest blunder at trying to capture Claudia's eye.
While Ezran would tell of his and baits latest escapade around the castle, where usually their center focus would be on their newest strategy in trying to acquire larger quantities of jelly tarts.
They would laugh and enjoy their time together, while the chaos of the storm engulfed the world outside the walls.
Though on more sombering nights when Ezrans mind would wander back to the memory of their mother he would ask Callum if he could tell him more about her.
He would share with Ezran everything he had ben told and every memory he could recall of their Mother .
He had been so young himself at her passing that he soon ran dry on what new stories could be told
Though even as Callum’s stories began to repeat themselves night after night Ezran had always seemed to enjoy them time and time again simply happy with the idea of hearing more about Mom he never had the chance to meet..
Ezran had always be grateful that he still had family that cared for and loved him.
That even though his mother was gone Callum was still here from him, like he was in those moments as they both sat safe and warm together,around the fire
The tragedies of the past weren’t important, instead all that was , was that they were both together safe here and now .
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A bright light breaks across the darken sky pulling Callum back from his thoughts
That last bolt of lightning had been closer
A lot closer ...
It was closest that any other ark of lightning had come to him since he entered the storm
And to the way the light seemed to be making its way across the sky steady approaching him it was a clear sign that magic was to blame
To an onlooker it would have seemed as if the very storm itself was in pursuit of him.
This remind of the sense of eminent danger brings Callum out of his mindless daze of warm and comfortable night so long ago .
Now the only feeling of warmth he felt he knew was misleading as it came from the still growing crimson stain along his right thigh,
The prior owner of the winged creature he now rode upon had been far from accommodating when he had demanded the use of her mount.
He still bleeding wound was evident of that
Callum had not foreseen that stealing the hippogriff would have such a burdening and costly task.
For both his body … and his mind
Callums hope was that In the early hours of morning ,the cover of darkness would have given him enough some sort of a advantage against the keen senses of the elves in the city. He prayed that it would be enough to sneak his way out of city that Rayla and he had been staying in, without being discovered.
He had snuck away while Rayla slept, though that in itself had been his first challenge in trying to sneak past a trained moonshadow elf assassin.
He had waited until he could hear the subtle sounds of Rayla’s steady breath and could see the slow rise and fall of her chest for a few hours before deciding to move.
Tucking Zym away into his satchel, Callum had made his way to the stables, he knew was located along the outer city walls. He approached the stables which had a lit lantern placed along the outer doors, letting him know that the building held a occuptant inside
As he was approaching the skywing elf, he found her tending to the steads in the stable of the city.
Unfortunately unlike Rayla a sleeping elf was nowhere near as difficult to sneak past then a fully awake and conscious one. Callum knew that Elves had keener senses, sight and hearing than humans, though he wasn't truly aware how acute a sense of hearing their pointed ears provided them.
Even with the surprise that her eyes clearly showed with Callum’s use of magic the elven rider had still proven that she had been diligently trained. She may have been slender, but she was also graceful and strong, another blessing of her elven heritage
Callum first charge of Fulminis ,that was meant to immobilize the elven warrior had gone wide , as she attempted to duck the blown resulting in it striking along her shoulder . She had closed the gap on Callum brandishing a knife in her good hand, that remained unimpaired .
The knife that had quickly and skillfully found itself driven into his upper thigh.
With his panic from the assault the second spell did not contain the same level of restraint as the first
Using the close proximity of his attacker Callum’s second use of Fulminis had been delivered from grabbing onto the face of the elven female riders and delivering the full impact of the spell through her.
.Her horns proving a cruel fully accessible grip to deliver the full force of the spell through her body.
,
The full untempered spell being allowed to flow unregulated bye Callum through the small frame of the Skywing Elf had resulted with the target falling to the ground with a deafening”Thub” at Callum’s feet.
It had happen a such a quicken tempo with him acting out of sheer impulse alone for the fear of his life that the gravity of what had just occurred didn't dawn on him until the Skywing Elf lay still motionless ,yer cindering on the ground beneath him
“No… “ his voice barely a whisper from his lips
“No..No No not again!!” Nearly screaming his denial
Staring down at the embering form of the elf now at his feet he finally realized how young the elf actually was
She looked around the same age as him… the same age as Rayla….
And now here she was dead here at his feet…. just like Rayla
Wait no?
No not like Rayla ...not this time
He closed his eyes as his face constricted trying to will the away the memory that tried to force its way to the surface.
He tried to close and stain his eyes to stay as tight as possible to point of straining his eyes so tight that it began to hurt.
He had to focus. He had to try and focus and remember that it was just that a memory .
Rayla was safe he was sure of that, he had made sure of that.She was still back in the tavern where he had left her....
it wasn’t Rayla
.
Despite trying to tell himself this, the image of rayla’s face briefly flashed in his mind replacing that of the elven rider..
And his blood ran cold
shocked to his core at what he had just done.
He had to force down the small amount of bile that rose from his throat.
Slowly opening his eyes as the pain of forcing his eyes closed began to be to excruciating he looked down hoping that the corpse would not be there.
Though there she still layed
Her eyes still weld open with the last reflection of emotion she felt , that of shock and panic …. and fear staring blankly at one of the far walls.
The longer he looked at the crippled from of the young girl now laying at his feet the more he felt discussed at the sight,
The more he felt discussed at himself
Though his guilt for the young girl found him unable to look away ,as if he seeked to chastise himself as a act of penance.
The hair around the base of her skull where it met her horns had been reduced to cinders.That combined with the smell of burnt hair and skin permeating the air, only brought a more sickening feeling to him.
He was horrified at the result of his loss of control.
He had taken a life ,her life…
The thought of it sent a paralyzing cold chill down his spine, as he felt as if his very bones ached from the grief he felt
His actions had robbed her of her life, of her existence,
She had likely had loved ones, someone she had loved, and had loved her
And he robbed them of her as well.
Through all of his past lives he had hurt other before with magic, but only if he had to, only if he truly no other choice.
but he had seldom been in a circumstance where he had been forced to rob someone of their life’s
.
So seldomly in fact that he was still haunted with the count that held for each time he was forced into the deplorable disgusting act.
A count that has just risen once more
“This was the third” he had to state it to himself, for force himself to come to terms at what had just transpired.
And just like when the two cases before the poor Skywing Elf girl he felt as if a piece of sanity died along with her
How long would it be, how many more incarnation would it before that number would rise to four .
“No!”
if he still moved fast there would be no next incarnation, this would all be over , there was still time
Afterwards he would return and willingly accept any form of punishment that elven justice sought to place upon him
Both he and rayla both had always promised that they would be better than the ones that attack them.
A promise that he had be steady unable to keep.
A Moonshadow Elf assassin that refused to take a life, no matter how hard there travels had been or how tough of a opponent she faced ,she had always handicapped herself bye refusing to take a life.
That type of discipline and control only spoke more about how skifull she truly was..
A skill that apparently that even through his several attempts he still lacked
She really was as skilled as she was beautiful .
Her love and respect for both the lives of elves and human was one of just the few reason that callum loved her.
That he had loved her , he had to rember to correct himself
This repeat , this version of Rayla was not” his” Rayla
Not the same Rayla that shared sleepless night with him that had turned into tinder embraces. His Rayla that they had both bound themselves to each other in body mind a soul .
That version of his best friend and lover had been painfully all left behind several lifetimes ago
. Such pain of the separation and the loss of memory as Callum awoke again in the mouth of the cave , with Rayla having no idea how much they both had grown to mean to one another.
It nearly broken his mind as he swore to simply accept the pain that he knew vs the new forms the loss of his love time and time again .
Choosing to keep Rayla at a safe distance
He knew he had little time to spend in his reflection of his lapse of control, shoving the thoughts and dread he felt deep down that he could reflect on in a later time.. If there was time.
He had removed the blade from his thigh trying his best at a quick bandage and mounted the beast and flew off into the night , praying the poor girl's corpse would remain hidden until he was long gone
Clearly it had not
“KAWWWW”
The multiple sounds of hippogriffs screeching along the night sky , the lighting casting shadows on the clouds around him. Clearly the young riders form had been found .
That combined with the rushing wind chilled him to his core. The cold was troublesome, causing his limbs to lock up making it difficult to keep his legs gripped his mount as it bobbed along the wind.
His breath was sporadic as his eyes where rapidly scanning the sky all around him for signs of the caused of what had him travelling along the sky lines of xadia on a stolen hippogriff, with the words most powerful creature whimpering in his satchel.
“Sedendum” The sound of the voice breaking with the sound of thunder Callum new what was to come
He aggressively yanked the reigns of the hippogriff to the left causing the beast to yell at the drastic pull causing it to sway to the right avoiding a lighting strike that bore down on his previous location.
“ No , No! No!!” none of this was going right, he had just wanted it to work out this time.He had planned to fly Zym directly back to his mother and to finally have all of this be over.To have this repeated cycle of him trying trying over and over again to be over.
“Stop this all of you I’m Trying to save you “ he shouted desperately into the erupting crackling of the storm .
There reply was shortcoming
“Sedendum”
“Sedendum”
“Sedendum”
Three separate lighting strikes stuck down at callum, and even with his attempt to dodge the falling lighting bolts one of the falling arc’s managed to strike the left wing of the hippogriff, turning the upper portion of the creatures left wing into a sendering heap of flesh ahd scorched feathers.
The creature riled in pain , and the hippogriffs agonizing screams filled the air rolling and spazzing throwing callum from its back.
Zym Screams soon followed as the leather straps from his pack had snapped on from the impact of the spell. Causing Zyms to slip off of and away from his human guardian. The young dragon prince stunned and confused from how quickly the event took place
The lighting strike left callum dazed and disoriented, as he felt himself in a sense of free fall as he saw the strap of his satchel had snapped in the impact as his saw the face of zym peering out of the satchel as he drifted in free fall away from him!
The little dragons crys filled his ears as callum tried to reach out to the satchel .
From the recoil he was having difficulty in focusing in moving his limbs
He struggle trying to force his left arm to reach out to quickly grab Zym before he drifted too far away .
THough His arm refused to move..
Trying to stain the muscles in his arm to answer his will to move Callum looked away from the distressed zym at the defiant limb
His arm still did not respond though now he could see why
Callum had been unable to force his left hand to move because ...
there simply was nothing to move.
though he didn’t feel any sort of pain
Just more a feeling of confusion, but no pain
He was in shock
he realized glaring down at the bloody lump .that now was now his left arm that he body must gone it a state of shock when the limb had been damaged , dumping a panic dose of hormones into his blood
Noo, he was done . He begrudgingly new that now with a crippled leg and missing arm with the ground rapidly approaching was finally time enough to accept , He was going to die,
this life was done
“Sighhh” still falling and with Zym now nowhere in sight he didnt have any sort of fell that , was already replaced with a feeling of acceptance
Instead he felt saddened that all of the time,effort and planning he had invested over the last four months had now be all a waste .
He tra
He realized looking down at his left arm .. where his arm should beee.. Its seems his reaction to the onslaught of falling lighting had been even less frivolous then he first thought.
Callum knew the fall very high, because he fell very slowly, and for he had plenty of time as he went down to look about him and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, he tried to look down and make out what he was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything. Second he looked at his side and saw the vanishing glimpses of Zym as he disappeared into the storm.Third he tried to think on what would happen next.
Zym…. the young dragon still could not fly very well, though he had seemed to a firm understanding on how to glide. As long as he squirm his way out of the satchel he would likely use his wings to make a relatively safe landing to the ground.
Rayla.. he still felt a pain of guilt for just leaving her behind, but at least this way she was safe . She wasn’t here with him caught in a violent storm being persuaded and struck down by lightning bye pursuing Skywing Elf mages.
This time He wouldn’t have to have the last thing he see be the fear and panic in her eyes, but knowing that it wouldn’t be the fear of her own death but ..for him
He wouldn’t watch her die again.
The sun would be rising soon .She would wake up and discover both of them missing.
She would likely panic for a while in search for them, though it's unlikely should would find any clues of him so far away.
Maybe with a bit of luck Zym would find his way back to Rayla and she could still complete her mission
This live held the possibility of a happy ending for his Moonshadow elf , still a chance of her name could be cleared,
Still hope
Even though Callum knew it wouldn’t matter soon everything he had done in these last four months would all be erased.
Though he still has hope that in the past versions of the worlds he abandoned that there remained a chance for her to be happy , for the slim chance that the different versions of the world continued on after his deaths
Though he prayed that was never the case .
Not every life , had ended with a outcome of a world that left the possibility of hope
There had been Lives where he had abandoned her like now , where he had pushed her away with the hopes she would be faster and safer on her own.
He had lied to her , even betrayed bye revealing her to others of her kind, hoping that at least detained she would safe and removed from the cursed journey
Even lives where his actions had resulted in a world Rayla had been forced into taking a life herself to protect him , Callum still thinking of the poor Skywing Elf girl cold eyes.
Or even worst ,worlds where Rayla has been force to take a life of even someone she had come to love
After all duty is the death of love .
Finally Callum’s mind drifted on what soon awaited him . He knew from experience that the the time in which he would experience any form of pain or process trauma would be way to slow falling at this rate .
That is given that he was fortunate enough to die immediately on contact
Depending on how far his fall was , and on what surface he landed on when he hit the ground, he could pass before his body could even process what had happen .
So submissively , Callum closed his eyes and waited of what was to come , and again swearing to himself that no what awaited him in his next life
That he would not be chained bye Fate
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