Chapter Text
Callum had been sitting by the window scribbling random things in his sketchbook all morning. Rayla noticed they all had something to do with snow, or winter. A snowman, a snow covered pathway, Ezran playing in the snow, his favorite winter jacket, just about anything winter related you could think of was drawn in his book. Rayla was getting worried. It wasn’t like him to miss breakfast. She had tried asking what was wrong, but every time she had been dismissed with a wave of his hand and a “I’m fine. Just bored.” She finally went and asked Ezran.
“Hey, Ez?” she asked.
“Hmm?” he said absentmindedly, with a two foot stack of papers to his left and a two inch stack to his right. He had tons of papers to sign, and he wasn’t stopping.
“Do you know why Callum’s been so upset this morning?”
“Umm, come to think of it, maybe I do. There’s no snow today, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And it’s the first of December, right?”
“Right…”
“Well, that’s why. He’s probably missing Mom. There hasn’t not been snow on the first of December since the year after she died.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“It’s okay, I don’t take it as hard as he does. I mean, I was two! I didn’t even know what death was! He, on the other hand, was six and Mom had been the only solid thing in his life. His dad died, Mom was there. They were working for a blacksmith for a while, Mom was with him. He was told he was going to move to this huge castle and become a prince, Mom made it sound fun. He got a new dad, Mom showed him Harrow was nice. He got a new little brother, Mom told him there would always be room for both of them. But when the party came back without the three queens, Mom wasn’t there to tell him it would be okay.”
“Wow. I guess that would explain a lot. I...don’t even kno-wait, three queens?”
“Yeah. Sarai, Annika, and Neha.”
“Who’re the last two?”
“Aanya’s moms.”
“Ohh. That makes more sense. Okay, thanks.”
“No problemo.” Ezran went back to signing the papers he had in front of him, and Rayla went to her room to devise a plan. Half an hour later, she came back down and grabbed Ezran, who had finished signing and was playing with Bait.
“I’ve got a plan, but I need your help.” she whispered. They ran out to the West courtyard, and stopped behind a small statue. Rayla pulled him down and started talking at 70 miles a minute.
“Whoa, Ray, slow down. I can’t understand you.” Ezran said.
“Oops, sorry. I want to take Callum on a date somewhere, but I don’t know where. I was hoping you could help me figure out somewhere really...sentimental.”
“Oh, that’s easy. Take him to Sarai's Point. It’s a cliff near the edge of the village. It has a huge statue of Mom, with a bunch of candles and flowers at the bottom. You can’t miss it.”
“Okay, great. Now I need your help figuring out some other stuff.”
They sat talking and figuring things out for half an hour, then left to go mark the path they would be using.
‘I’d better go tell Ray why I’m actually so sulky. She’s probably worried’ thought Callum. He’d been drawing for he didn’t know how long and Rayla had disappeared. Now that he actually looked around, he noticed Ez wasn’t at the table he was at before, but he had probably gotten dragged off by Opeli to do some kingy stuff. Sometimes, he was glad he wasn’t Harrow’s actual son, because he didn’t have all the duties of a king. Nope, that was Ezran’s problem. He closed and locked his book, then stood up, and walked off to find Rayla. After half an hour of searching, he couldn’t find her in the castle, so he started looking outside. He walked out into the front courtyard. Nothing. He walked into the East, South, and North courtyards. Nope, nada, no sign of her. He was about to give up when he heard two voices coming from the West courtyard.
“Eeee! This is going to work so well!”
“I never thought you’d get this excited about something, even if it had something to do with my brother.”
“Yeah well, I’ve done something like this for Cal before.”
Okay, well, what’s next?”
“Favorite jelly tart.”
“I...don’t know. Hmm…”
“Yeah, I don’t either.”
“Well, he eats the iced lemon ones the most.”
“Okay, that’ll work!”
One of the voices was female, and had a distinct Scottish accent. The other was childish, male, and very sweet.
“Ezran? Rayla?” he called. The voices went dead. Callum ran into the courtyard calling to them. “Come on guys! I know you’re there!” He yelled. He caught a flash of dark purple, teal and red out of the corner of his eye. He guessed Rayla took Ez up on the roof, so he hid under a ledge and listened to them.
“We can’t stay here!” whispered Ezran. “He’ll find out!”
“You and Bait go grab this half of the stuff” Callum heard paper ripping. “I’ll go get this half. We’ll meet at Sarai's Point in half an hour. My list has the ribbons, so you take the path, I’ll take the improvised route. I can put the ribbons up as I go.” explained Rayla
“That’s a good idea. Assassins are really smart.” complemented Ezran
“Well...most of us are. Some of us couldn’t tell left from right.” said Rayla. They both giggled and ran opposite directions. Callum decided not to follow them. He didn’t want to know if they were planning a surprise for him. If they were, it wouldn’t be a surprise! So he went back to the castle and drew for a while.
Later, Callum’s curiosity got the better of him. He decided to go find out what they had been doing for the past two and a half hours.
They walked through the door right after he got up. Callum turned around and they had clothes draped over their arms.
“Hey, guys. I was wondering if you left. What’s that?” He asked.
“Well, this one is yours, so go put it on.” said Rayla, shoving the outfit into his arms.
“What...”
“JUST go.”
“Okay, fine.” He walked away and went to his room. He took a shower, put on the clothes and combed his hair. He walked out of his room and headed down to the main hall.
“Hey there, Sad Prince.” Callum turned around to find Rayla gliding down the stairs in her dress.
“Woah….” was all he could mutter. The dress was long sleeved and made of periwinkle silk. The skirt part only came down to her knees, but she had on leggings to make up for it. The leggings were dark purple-ly blue and had silver star designs all over them. Her shoes were light brown ankle boots with silver buckles on the outside. She had on pale blue fingerless gloves and a deep purple shawl was wound around her arms, hanging low around her back. Her hair, pulled to the side in a twisted and curled ponytail, hung over her shoulder. A jeweled flower crown made of white flowers was draped over her head and horns, with three blue flowers slightly off to the left. She had light blue eyeshadow fading into light purple as it went farther towards the inside corner of her eyelids. Her lips were coated in a shade Callum had never seen before. It was like a pinkish-silver. Her cheeks were dusted with what looked like rose colored fairy dust, and her ears had tiny blue crescent moons in them. She looked supernatural as the sunset shined on her through the castle’s huge windows.
Rayla had to stop herself from gasping when Calllum turned around. She had seen him in formal clothes before, but he had never looked like this. He had on crisp, clean, khaki pants and sleek brown boots. His cream colored shirt clung to his body. His neat blue overcoat fit snugly along his arms. His red scarf was still wrapped around his neck. To be honest, she would have been very confused if it wasn’t. His hair was still wet, and it was obvious he had tried to comb it, but...it wasn’t exactly cooperating. But it was okay. She actually liked it better when his hair was messy. The slight nerves that had popped up in her stomach quickly subsided when she saw the look of astonishment on his face, and the quiet “Woah..” that he practically exhaled. She had been hesitant about wearing the dress at first, but told herself the leggings made up for it. The breathless look on Callum’s face was worth it. Claudia had said she looked “absolutely radiant” but she didn’t really care. All that mattered was that she pleased Callum. And from the way he had grabbed her waist and pulled her close as soon as she was in arm’s reach, she had done just that.
“I never thought you could look more mystical and supernatural then when you’re in your Moonshadow form, but you have proved me wrong.” he breathed
“I’ve seen you in formal wear before and I loved it, but this...this is more than you ever could be when you’re in your Royal Princely clothes.” she whispered back. He chuckled a little at that, then slid one arm all the way around her waist, and off they went. He pushed the door open with his free arm and they walked through the courtyards, through the gates and across the bridge. As soon as her foot hit the edge of the bridge, she was running, dragging him along and tripping every 40 seconds because of her 3 inch heeled boots. They got to a clearing in the trees and she started to pull him through forest.
“Aren’t we going on the path? I assumed that’s where we were going.” he asked.
“We may or may not be. But we’re going through here either way.” she responded, dragging him along the path she had marked earlier.
It was early winter, so the days were short. It was getting darker, but there was just enough light to see the blue and white ribbons she had tied on the trees earlier. She dragged Callum along the path, then stopped and told him to wait.
“I’m going to go do a couple things. Stay here” she said. She ran off, leaving Callum excited for whatever she and Ezran had planned. Eventually, she came back and told him to close his eyes. He did so and she dragged him to the clearing.
“Okay. Open them!” she said. He opened his eyes and had the breath knocked out of him. It was beautiful!
There were tiny string lights emitting a soft glow onto the entire area, illuminating the clearing. In the center of the space was a large checkered blanket with a spread of his favorite foods on it, including iced lemon jelly tarts. To the left of the food, there was a picnic basket and two wine glasses full of moonberry juice. The blanket was set up in front of the huge statue of his mom.
"You like it? I've never done something like this for anyone before and I wasn't sure if you'd li-mph" Rayla was interrupted by Callum's lips on hers.
"I love it." he whispered as they pulled away.
"I'm so glad you do." said Rayla. They walked over and sat down on the blanket. All of a sudden, Callum wasn't worried about the food anymore. All he cared about was his girlfriend. When she sat down, her dress had flowed out around her, creating a rippling circle of silk around her waist. She was sitting mermaid style, showing off her legs. The swirls and stars on her leggings shined and shimmered in the purple night. The jewels in her crown caught the shine from the lights surrounding the space and cast dancing shades of gold on her pale face. Her white hair looked silver in the half moon glow, and the makeup that she rarely wore shimmered like a thousand stars. The hazy purple shawl was now draped across her shoulders, revealing blue lace at her wrists. She caught him staring and a small smile crossed her silver lips.
"Something wrong, your majesty?" she asked smugly.
"No, it's just....you are the most beautiful creature in all of Xadia and the human kingdoms. I'm so lucky. And to think that I was going to be your target." he replied.
"Who says that you're not?" she said, scooping some lemon filling out of a jelly tart with her finger and plopping it on his nose. She giggled as his hand raised to his nose and wiped the jelly off. A smile appeared on his lips.
"Oh, I'm gonna get you!" he yelled. She shot up and started running towards the statue.
"You'll have to catch me first!" she exclaimed, ducking behind one of the horse's legs. They kept running and chasing each other until Rayla tripped on her shoes again. Callum tackled her and they both fell to the cold ground laughing. All of a sudden, they felt something cold on their faces.
"It's snowing!!!" yelled Callum, tugging Rayla up. He grabbed her hands and they spun around in the snow-fall.
"Looks like your wish came true." said Rayla as they walked back to their dinner.
"Yeah. I guess it did." Callum replied. They finished eating, then went under the statue of Sarai for refuge from the snow. As they stargazed through the snowy night, Callum felt a weight on his shoulder. He looked over and saw Rayla's head resting on him, her eyes almost closed.
"You getting sleepy, huh?" he said quietly.
"No, no. I'm just...resting..I can...make..it..." she mumbled, her head getting heavier as she drifted off. Callum chuckled, then moved her head to his lap. As he stroked her hair, he started singing quietly.
"Sleep, sleep, our time together, I'll treasure forever.
Rest, rest, your dreams shall be sweet, while you sleep.
Dream, through the night, sleep, through the evening.
Hush, my darling, smile while you're sleeping." He looked up at the brightest star and a small tear slipped out of his eye.
"Thank you, mama. I knew you wouldn't let it be December without snow. I love you. And I love her. I know you'd be supportive of me dating an elf. She'd never do anything to hurt anyone unless she had to. And she'd do anything for me, as tonight has proved. I miss you, mom." He wiped his eyes, then stood up with Rayla in his arms, and walked home. When he got to Rayla's room, he laid her down in her bed, and kissed her forehead. He started to walk away, then changed his mind and laid down next to her.
"Goodnight, my love. And goodnight, mom." he whispered, then drfted off with a smile on his lips.