Chapter Text
They have finally made their way back home. All the other delegations have already left except the royals and their advisors and crown guards. They were the last ones to leave. They all said their goodbyes to the dragon queen and of course to Zym, and left at sunrise.
"I miss him already."
"Me too Ez." Callum said. They all knew who they were talking about. "But we'll stay in touch. And you have that weird connection with Zym you told me about."
"Well yeah, but I'm still not sure how it happened."
"I'm sure you'll figure it out."
"Alright everyone!" It was Opeli. "We're headed back to the human kingdoms. We have enough horses, however we are not going to use them all of the time. They'll need rest too. King Ezran, Queen Aanya, crown guard Soren and I are going to lead the way."
They didn't exactly have enough horses. Most of them were going to ride in pairs. Soren Helped Ez climb on their horse and then swung his legs over it and sat behind Ezran. Ezran patted the horse on its head as a 'thank you'.
"Want to be the one with the reins? We are going to ride at a normal pace." Rayla asked Callum.
"Oh err… I don’t know." He blushed. He and Rayla were about to ride on her shadowpaw together. He remembered the last time it happened. It was the best feeling, but also extremely embarrassing.
"You'll be fine." She gestured for him to get on first.
A little hesitant, he clumsily climbed on the shadowpaw and fixed his sitting. Once he was comfortable enough, he looked at Rayla and caught her smiling at him, trying not to laugh. "Enjoying the show?"
"Very much."
She mounted as well, much more gracefully than Callum and wrapped her arms around his waist. Callum jumped at the sudden contact and blushed crimson. He glanced at his back and saw that she was blushing as well.
"Uh… Okay. Swipe the reins." He lifted them up above him head. "GENTLY!" she stopped him before he could bring them down. "You don't want to fall off, do you?"
"Oh huh." He lifted one of his arms behind his neck and lost his balance in the process. He would be on the ground if it weren’t for Rayla.
"Careful. Both hand on the reins."
"Right! Right!" he lifted the reins again and lowered them down, gently this time.
"There you go!" Rayla encouraged him.
A small proud smile escaped from his mouth.
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They kept riding. Callum lost his concentration on the task at hand every once in a while for the sake of staring at the various magical plants and animals and Rayla snapped him out of it before they collided into a horse or a tree.
"Sorry! Sorry! Ha ha… I think I'm better at just sitting."
"You're getting better. You just have to be more aware of your surroundings."
"I think I'm pretty aware of my surrounding." He pointed at a cute, weird, colorful animal not too far from them.
"Your closer surroundings."
"Don't worry, it’s pretty hard to not be aware of you."
She blushed. "Dummy… you know what I meant."
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They kept going. Rayla was giving Callum notes about riding a steed, and Callum made horrible jokes about horses.
After about an hour, he noticed that Rayla hasn’t said anything for a while. Not even when he almost got themselves hit by a large branch. He felt Rayla's cheek resting on his shoulder and felt her breathe evenly. He proceeded to stride next to Ezran and Soren, a little unsteadily.
"Pssst. Ez." He whispered. Ezran and Soren looked down at him. "Is Rayla asleep?" He couldn’t look at her properly without falling off with her.
"Yeah." Ez whispered back. "She's sleeping.
Now Callum felt dread creeping into him. Not only because there was a beautiful girl sleeping on his back, but also because there was no one to guide him through the ride if he didn't know what to do. He didn't want to fall. And more importantly, he didn't want Rayla to fall.
Unfortunately, the shadowpaw picked up on his nerves and began to move around, taking his dread as a dangerous threat that's waiting around the corner. He began to lose his balance, and Rayla woke up just in time to catch the reins and steady them.
"Sorry! I didn’t mean to…"
"That’s fine. It takes time to learn."
"Actually, people already tried to teach me. I'm just not good at that stuff."
"That's because you didn’t have a good teacher." She said, her voice playful. "Anyway, you can fly. I think it outmatches riding."
"Yeah, you're probably right."
"I'm always right. Except when I'm not."
"Which is unlikely."
"Exactly."
"As much as I like riding, can you take the reins now? I think it's best for the both of us."
"Tired, aren't we?" There was that playful tone again. "Sure, let's switch."
They switched places. Callum felt much more comfortable although he did felt a little guilty for waking her up. It was probably for the best. Now he could stare around without losing control... And he could hold Rayla.