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The first thing he noticed was the piercing sunlight. The second was the baby dragon jumping on his chest, making his sweet little chirps at the process. He must have overslept.
"Zym! I'm awake!" he tried to stop him.
When Zym realized his eyes were open, he got off Callum's chest and went to give him zappy kisses on his cheek. If Zym's jumping and whining didn't wake him, those kisses definitely did.
"Zym!" he called out with a raspy voice, sitting up and taking the wee dragon with him. Now seated in his lap, the sweet dragon looked up at Callum and smiled that cute smile with his tongue hanging loosely out of his mouth. Callum couldn't resist smiling at him. He scratched Zym's neck and Zym closed his eyes and lifted his head up for him to scratch.
Where is Rayla? Normally she would wake up way before him, looking for food and water. When he looked to his side, he was surprised to see that she was still sleeping soundly. Her chest rising and falling at a steady rhythm, her facial features calm and her hands were close to her body, one of them is used as a pillow. She looked so peaceful. He then looked at her neck. His scarf was still around her. She took it after they ran away from Sol Regem and then he just forgot about it. Letting her keep it. It gave him a weird feeling, seeing her wearing his scarf. A good weird feeling. Like his heart was lighter. She looked so content and cute. It was nice that she had something of him.
Unfortunately, Zym took his staring as a sign to wake her up. He took off Callum's lap and ran towards her. Callum caught him just before he jumped on her and lifted him in his arms, holding him high so they were at the same eye level. "No Zym. We don't wake sleepy people. And Rayla is very sleepy. She didn't sleep last night." So did he. They were crossing the border together and then they didn't have time to sleep, but she was busy worrying about him while he was out of it and then she was busy distracting Sol Regem and almost getting crashed by those rocks. Really, it was a miracle she was fine now, but he knew she was hurt. She lifted her arms above her head when it happened, which was a good thing, but he could see her skin on her arms was starting to shade with blue and purple. She didn't say anything and he didn’t bring it up. She never showed vulnerability and Callum didn’t pester her. He could do nothing to help her anyway.
He let Zym down and stood up. "I'm going to look around for food. Stay here and watch Rayla for me." Zym chirped and Callum put a finger on his lips to shush him. "Shhh, and stay quiet." Zym tilted his head and closed his mouth.
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When Callum came back, he watched as Zym patted Rayla's sleeping face with his little dragon paw. "Zym! No!" he whispered loudly.
But it was too late. Rayla was waking up, stirring in her sleep and eventually slowly opening her eyes and taking a deep breath. "Hmmmm… Hi there wee one." She smiled sleepily at the wee dragon. Callum stopped in his tracks. That was so cute. Zym gave her the zappy kisses and she stopped him by holding his little arms and gently pushing him away from her face. "As much as I like your kisses, I would like my hair to stay down."
She sat up and wiped the dust from her shirt. Satisfied, she looked up and found Callum, standing close with a handful of berries.
"Morning!" he blurted out as she looked at him, embarrassed to be caught staring.
"Morning."
She was still tired. He could see it in her eyes and hear it on her voice.
"I brought some berries. I was hoping you could check them and tell if their edible."
"Sure."
He sat next to her and brought his hands closer to her so she could examine the berries he found. She looked at them and then shuffled between the berries. Occasionally gently touching his hands in the process, which sent zits all over his body, and it wasn’t because of the zappy kisses.
"They're fine." She took her hand back and Callum missed her touch already.
"Take some." She should eat, they barely ate yesterday. "My hands are full anyway."
She took enough berries from him so he could hold them all in one hand now. They ate silently, giving Zym from their berries when he asked for more.
After they finished eating, Rayla let out a big yawn, her eyes were getting drowsy, well… drowsier.
"You should sleep more if you're tired."
"Nahhh… we should keep going anyway." He should have expected that answer.
"I'm a little tired myself." He wasn’t so tired, but that was the only way he could think of to get her back to sleep. "We should rest a little more."
She sighed. "Okay, but just for a few minutes."
Happy with her answer, he wiped his hands on his pants, getting rid of the remaining juices of the berries and laid down on his side. Rayla was about to do the same and then realized something. "Oh! Your scarf, you should take it back."
She was about to take it off, but then Callum stopped her. "No, keep it. I'll take it back when we wake up.
"Okay." He wasn’t sure if he was imagining, but he could see a small smile hiding behind his scarf. A blush maybe? He was probably imagining.
Rayla laid down again, facing him and closing her eyes. He was pretty sure she fell asleep the moment she laid her head down. Good. She was exhausted. She needed the sleep.
Zym went to cuddle next to her, attached to her tummy and curled up like a ball. Callum had to draw it. He took his sketchbook, turned on his back, and flipped through it, looking for a blank page. When he found one, he sat up and started drawing. When he finished, he looked at his work for a few moments and then lifted his head and watched the scene before him. It was so cute.
He tore the page out from his sketchbook, looked at his drawing once again before folding it and tucking it in his pocket. He liked it, but he didn’t want Rayla to find out about it. It might seem creepy to her and he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable. Maybe he shouldn't have drawn her, but he couldn’t resist.
He closed his sketchbook, put it aside and laid on his back. He glanced at Rayla one more time and then closed his eyes, letting his sleepiness get ahead of him.