Rayla x Callum (Rayllum)

~ The Moon Beneath The Lake: Part 1 ~

Rayla went ahead leaving Callum alone, and as soon as she was out of his view, he dropped the act. His shoulder was killing him and as the hours dragged on his vision became more and more blurry. He sat down fearing he would faint. 

"You ok?" Rayla asked, coming back through the shrub.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just needed to rest for a bit" He said standing up again.

Rayla didn't seem convinced, "Ok, well there's a river up ahead we can stop and refill our canines and try get some of those bloodstains out of your clothes."

"Ok" Was all Callum could say, he worried that they might not make it to the moon nexus after all.

After a few minutes, Callum could hear the peaceful sound of water lapping gently along the river's shore. It was a relief to finally rest and quench his thirst. But no matter how hard he tried to suppress the pain in his shoulder he was unsuccessful.

"Here, we should probably change that bandage, it's saturated in blood," Rayla said trying to stay strong.

Careful to avoid his bandaged wound Callum took off his jacket and vest, revealing his toned abs and muscular torso. Rayla couldn't believe this was the same wimpy kid she had met all those years ago. Rayla slowly peeled off the bandage and the blood began to seep out of the laceration again. She soaked the piece of cloth in the river, washing out as much blood as she could, then brought it out of the water.

"This is probably going to sting a lot"

"Just do it," Callum said reluctantly.

Rayla hastily squeezed the water onto the bleeding gash, and Callum bit down on his belt to try and distract himself from the burning sensation in his shoulder. She washed off all of the blood around the wound before wrapping it in a fresh piece of clean cloth.

"Where'd you learn to wrap a wound like that?" Callum asked, trying to take his mind off the pain.

Rayla began washing the bloodstains from Callum's jacket as she spoke, "I never wanted to be an assassin." She began, "My dream when I was younger was to become a healer. Most afternoons I would sneak off to the adoraburr meadows and practice wrapping bandages and making poultices, but I was never that good at it."

"You seem pretty good at it too me" Callum insisted.

"Yeah, well after my parents... after I was told that they had betrayed us, I felt the need to prove myself, to make up for their wrongs; I was sick of all the looks I was getting, and the whispers going around about my parents. So one day, I think I was about 6 or 7, I came to Runaan and asked if he would train me. Of course, he was excited, but I think Ethari knew it wasn't because I took a liking to combat." Rayla chuckled solemnly.

"I'm sorry Ray."

"No I'm sorry, this blood stain's just not coming out!"

Typical Rayla, always changing the subject, Callum thought to himself.

"We better get going. We've still got half a day's worth of light left, we may as well use it." Callum said throwing one of the backpacks over his uninjured shoulder.

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry that?"

"No Ray, it's fine. Ellis' village is just over that hill, and you've been carrying the bags this whole time." Callum reassured her.

"Ok, well just tell me if you feel faint."

Callum looked at her puzzled, he thought he had hidden his dizziness and drowsiness pretty well.

"I'm not dumb, the number of breaks you've had to take, and the amount of blood you've already lost. I'm surprised you've got this far."

"Surprised?"

"It's not like that Cal, you've come a long way from the first time we met. I just meant that even some of the strongest warriors wouldn't make it this far."

"So you're saying, I'm just a bit stronger than your average warrior?" Callum chuckled, "I'll take the compliment I guess" 

"Come on, let's get going," Rayla said rolling her eyes.

----------

Callum's dizziness had far from subsided when they reached the town centre of the village, and he was definitely ready for his wound to be wrapped by actual bandage instead of shoddy cloth.

"You ok?" Rayla asked cupping his cheek with her soft hand and breaking his train of thought.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine. But we're a day late and Claudia's probably worried about me. Once we get to the doctors, would you be able to go up to the moon nexus and let her know I'm ok?"

Callum was expecting a huge sigh and sour look from Rayla, but that was not what he received. She was so thankful that he was ok, that the prospect of talking to Claudia wasn't nearly as terrible. 

They made their way through town and Rayla dropped Callum, and their stuff at the doctors before making her way towards the Cursed Caldera. Her feet ached from walking for so long and the rocky slope around her didn't help. Not to mention she was sick of Lujanne's stupid illusions jumping out at her. Even though she knew they were fake, every jump-scare reminded her of the night before. She so desperately wanted to take a break, but the sooner she got up there, the sooner she could be back down there with Callum. She exhaled a massive sigh of exhaustion as she reached the top of the moon nexus.

"Elf! Over here!" Rayla heard a voice yell.

She groaned quietly as she replied, "You do know I have a name right?"

"Oh yeah, sorry. Raya wasn't it?"

"Rayla." She corrected.

"Right!" Claudia glanced around, "Where's Callum?"

"Your little buddy Aranos-"

"Aaravos."

"Right, whatever. He sent a demon creature after us and thanks to you Callum almost died." Rayla liked to think that she was over-exaggerating the prospect of his death, but she wasn't, and the thought of that frightened her.

"What?! Where is he? Is he ok?"

"He's fine, no thanks to you." Rayla hissed.

"Well then we'll have to hurry if we want to be back in time, Callum won't want to miss this!" Claudia said trying to lighten the mood.

"Miss what?"

"The full moon! Didn't I tell you guys?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"We're doing an ancient ritual, to open a portal. It's a place between life and death... The moon beneath the lake..."