The Dragon Prince: Breath of Hope

Chapter 9- Antacuda

Night had arrived since the two princes had fallen under the ice. Luckily, they had managed to find a cave to make a fire while Rayla had left them to try and find food. Ezran had dropped their supplies in the water during the dilemma, but they didn't care. He was safe, and that was all that mattered.

Callum sat by the fire while Ez slept, his 'frozie-toesies' having made him sick with a stuffy nose and a bad headache. He watched the human for a bit, but then felt a pain in his arm, and carefully pulled his jacket off to see what could be causing it. He froze when he saw two lines of three, tiny, black marks on his scales, the flesh swelling around them. He poked one, but then pulled back when the pain filled his entire arm. 

He hissed a little in pain before putting the jacket back on.

"Callum?"

He turned to the human, "Ez? You should be sleeping."

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing," he said with a smile, "You need to sleep."

He frowned, but then sneezed, "Alright..." he moaned as he laid back down.

Watching him, Callum sighed and looked at his arm. The bite hadn't damaged his clothing, so there was no way to see what had happened. With a frown, he pulled out his sketch book and found a clean page, beginning to draw the creature from under the water. 

"What's that?" 

He looked up to see Rayla had returned. He opened his mouth to tell her, but then saw the ribbon on her arm and remembered her lies. So, he simply closed the book, "Nothing."

"Oh," she sighed, sounding hurt by his words, "Well... look, I found some Moonberries." She placed a small cloth on the floor and revealed a handful of small red berries, "This should keep us full... for a day." 

Callum frowned at the fruit, then picked one up and ate it. He found that he liked the taste. 

Rayla smiled at him then turned to Ez, "And I found these for you!" she pulled out two lime green berries from her pocket, "Bogeyberries! Ancient Xadian cure for the common sniffles."

Ez took them from her and tilted his head, about to eat them. 

"Mmm nope." Rayla smirked at his mistake, "They don't go in your mouth."

"Uh..." the human looked confused. 

"To cure a stuffy nose, you've got to stuff 'em up your nose." 

"Oh. Seems doable," he said before proceeding to do just that.

Rayla smiled as she looked over the two, "So, how you both feeling?"

"'etter. 'ut my 'ead still urts'."

Callum gave the little boy a funny look, "You sound weird Ez." 

The human stared at him, then went to the fire, "'hat abou' you 'allum? You 'ere under the 'ater too."

"I'm fine. I was a little cold, but I'm alright now. I was just worried about you." 

"Well, since you're both alright, we need to plan our next move. Mainly the fact we have no food."

"Luckily, we still have Callum's bag, and he had all the money, so all we need is a village and we can get more. There should be one near here."

Rayla pulled an unconvinced frown, "Yeah, that's not gonna work. Elf and dragon remember?"

"I could go alone."

"Not gonna happen."

"Well..." Callum said, thinking, "I could go with him?"

"How, you can't shift yet."