Failed You - Mystery of Aaravos/The Dragon Prince Fanfiction

Screams Above Deck

Rayla slammed her shoulder into the bars of her cage again. Pain flared up in her arm for a moment before it faded. Then she hit again.

"Rayla, it's not going to work!" Soren tried to say, only for the Moonshadow Elf to hit the bars again. Barnacles that had grown on the metal fell onto the wood ground in her cell. Rayla didn't know how barnacles managed to grow on the hard metal on the Tidebound Elf's ship, Sea Legs, when there was no water but she hardly even cared. 

"Even if you do get out, your hands are bound. All of us are." Ezran's voice came from her right where he was in his own cage. Soren was somewhere to the right of the young king as well. But what bothered Rayla the most was the fact that Callum, Zym, Stella, Bait, and the baitlings were not with them. 

"Keep the boy separate," Finnegrin told his crew. "I have special plans for this one." 

Those seven words were enough to cause shivers to creep up and down Rayla's spine. She didn't know what the Tidebound Elf meant, but it wasn't anything good. 

"'Course the matey had to flip tails," Villads muttered from his cell. He hadn't spoken much since they got there. Nyx had a "meet" with Finnegrin and was free already. Rayla didn't know what the Skywing Elf gave Finnegrin for her freedom, but all Rayla cared about is that the traitor had abandoned them. 

"Can't you tap into Zym or somethin' and see what he sees?" Rayla asked Ezran and pulled at her metal cuffs. "You can see what he sees, can't you?"

She heard a sigh. "You don't think I've tried? Zym is keeping me out from seeing anything he sees. But...I can still feel his emotions."

Rayla sighed and sunk to the floor using the wall behind her. She was glad for the talented boy whose mind was connected to the Dragon Prince. It could come in handy. But why was Zym keeping him out? Was the dragon sleeping? Hurt? 

"What does he feel?" Soren asked from his cell. Rayla could hear the clinking of the chains around his wrist.

There was a pause before Ezran spoke. "...Fear. And anger, I think. But mostly fear. That would make sense though, wouldn't it?" Ezran asked. "Who isn't afraid right now?"

Rayla almost said "Not me" before she thought better of it. "I-I am afraid," Rayla confessed out loud. "But...not for myself. For Callum." It was true. At least she knew where Soren and Ezran were and how they were. But as for the human mage? She could assume he was in Finnegrin's office but that didn't make anything much better. Rayla didn't know if he was hurt. 

"I think that's what Zym is feeling," Ezran said. "He doesn't seem scared for himself."

"Selfless fear," Villads said with a chuckle. "The fear of the loyal."

That's when the screaming started. 

At first, Rayla couldn't identify who was screaming. Her blood ran cold at the muffled scream as it repeated over and over throughout the giant ship. She thought it was one of the crew on the top deck. One of the elves or humans, she really couldn't tell.

Then it finally came to her. Who was screaming. It was someone she knew. Someone she loved. 

"Callum!" She screamed and jumped to her feet. Her hands gripped the bars in front of her until her knuckles turned white. That was Callum screaming! He was hurt!

Another scream ripped through the air. Even though muffled from how far Callum was away from her, it still tore at her heart to hear it. 

Ezran gasped from his cell and Soren, usually talking lots to lighten the mood, had gone silent. Villads didn't say a word either.

With new found strength, Rayla backed up to the back of the cage and ran full speed into the bars, hopeful to knock them down. 

The force from hitting the metal sent Rayla flying back. She gasped for breath, each one rigid with anger. She got up to hit the metal again, Ezran and Soren were yelling at her to stop. Even Villads warned her not to. They fell deaf to her ears as she let out an angry yell when she kicked the bars in front of her. The only thing keeping her away from getting out and getting to Callum.

Before Rayla could hit the bars once again, the screaming stopped. The entire ship went silent, even the shanty the crew had been singing before. The only sound that could be heard was the rumbling of clouds above them and the creaking of Sea Legs on the water. Rayla felt even more sea sick then before.

"Why did it...stop?" Ezran asked in a whisper. 

The sea shanty from the crew continued outside. "Woe to the man, the dark-eyed sailor. Ships adrift and the sea's his jailer..."

"I don't know," Soren said with venom in his voice. Rayla assumed he was mad as well.

"That's why Zym was trying to keep me out," Ezran suddenly realized. "He didn't want me to see what Finnegrin was...what he was doing to..." Ezran's usually confident voice started breaking as if he was on the verge of tears. 

"We'll get him back. They won't hurt him again," Rayla promised. Exhaustion was taking over her. Whatever adrenaline she had earlier was all gone. Her body ached from hitting the metal bars in front of her and her wrists were rubbed raw from the chains around them. 

"Yeah," Soren chimed in. "Don't worry."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Villads muttered softly, even his voice was full of worry.

The door to the room of their cells opened and let in natural light from outside in. Rayla blinked to see Deadwood standing at the door with an Earthblood Elf by his side.

"The captain needs a word," Deadwood told them 

.....

Short chpt but the next one will be longer! Hope you're liking it so far! It gets better as it goes as it falls into the story line of the episodes.