The Prophecy of Five

I: 17 :I

Callum

Walking through the woods with Rayla perhaps wasn't the most romantic thing Callum could think of, but he enjoyed it nonetheless. The cool morning air, the smell of the trees, it was all so peaceful. He only wished Kalli and Max were here to witness it too. He enjoyed the alone time with Rayla, but he hated the circumstances that led to it. 

They walked hand in hand towards the mountain in the distance, Zym's home. The lair of the dragon king. The closer they got, the more happy but also more depressed Callum became. He knew that they had to return the dragon price to his home, but he also knew that he would have to leave Xadia afterwards. He would have to leave Rayla. He tried to avoid showing this mixture of emotions, but Rayla must have felt it to. She held tightly onto his hand, but wouldn't meet his eyes. At least Zym seemed rather happy, bouncing along as they made their way towards the mountain. Callum eventually tried to break the deafening silence.

"So... uh, what happened back there?" he asked.

Rayla looked at him, confused. "What?"

"Oh, you know. With Max. What happened?"

"Oh, yeah." she said rather distantly. "I'm... I'm not sure-"

"If you don't want to talk about it that's okay. Just know that I'm here for you."

She smiled at him. "Thanks Callum. I wanna tell you about it, I do, but I'm still not sure what I saw was real."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because... because I saw Runaan."

Runaan. Runaan. Nope, no clue. he thought to himself.

Rayla must've seen from his puzzled expression that he didn't know who she was talking about.

"He was my mentor. Well, more like my father. He came with me to Katolis and I haven't heard from him since. Then, he attacked me back there. But it wasn't him. Something seemed off about him. Like... dark, and... I don't know if I can talk about it anymore."

She shivered as if the memory itself have her chills. Callum felt terrible for her. To be attacked by someone who had raised you, who you looked up to? He couldn't even imagine that. He stopped and pulled her into a hug. He leaned back so he could look her in the eyes.

"If there's anything I can do to make you feel better, just say the word. Okay?"

Rayla smiled at that, her face starting to glow a warm red. She nodded and planted a kiss of his cheek. That seemed like as good of an answer as any so Callum left it at that and they continued their walk in silence. 

-----

They took a break at around noon and decided to look around for some food. It had been a while since they had eaten and Zym was starting to whimper a lot. While Callum and the little dragon went on the hunt for whatever was out there, Rayla disappeared into the woods to scout ahead of them. She returned within a couple of minutes looking rather worried.

"Hey. What's up? What did you find?" Callum asked.

"Nothing good. It looks like they've doubled the guard since the last time I was here." she said nervously.

"Okay, but we're bringing Zym home. Won't they like that?"

"I'm not sure. The elves will let us go past, its the golems I'm worried about."

"Golems? As in 'big sentient rocks' golems?"

She nodded. "The Earthblood elves must've found a way to create them. These ones don't give off the same magical energy that natural golems do."