Forgotten Memories ||The Dragon Prince||

Chapter 3: An Insane Deal

[Callum]

Callum had been expecting Adalena's cave to be creepy. But instead of a dark cave with ominous stalactites, he and Rayla walked into an almost cozy cave. If you could call it that, it was more of a room then a cave. The room had worn mitch matching rugs, dated furniture, and an empty table in the center of the room. But the most unusual thing was the ceiling. It had been painted to look like the night sky, with swirling galaxies and glistening cosmos.

"It's beautiful isn't it," Adalena said, noticing them staring, "Took me ages to paint, but it kept me sane through the years. Isn't that right Vosey?"

Callum noticed that she had once again acknowledged her friend and he wasn't quite sure that painting this jaw-dropping piece of art had truly kept her sane.

"It's amazing Insa-...um... Adalena," Rayla said, stumbling over their host's name.

"Thank you, now why don't you two sit down and rest. I'll go get some refreshments," Adalena said motioning for them to sit as she bustled out of the room into what Callum could only assume was an adjoining cave, muttering to herself.

"Um... Callum?" Rayla whispering, "I think we should leave."

"Why?"

"She's insane!" Rayla said with force.

"Well..."

"She keeps talking to her friend who we can't see."

"Okay, that is a little unusual," Callum said rubbing the back of his neck, "She's probably just been alone for too long."

"Yeah, a couple of decades too long," Rayla muttered under her breath.

"It won't hurt to talk to her and at least see if she can help us," Callum said.

Rayla reluctantly nodded and Callum sighed in relief. He put his arm around Rayla and turned back around, but stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed that the table was set for four people. Adalena hadn't come back in, so who had set it?

"The table wasn't set when we came in," Callum said, sharing his concern with Rayla.

"This is getting even weirder," Rayla said, drawing her swords as Adalena re-entered, balancing a tray of food in her arms.

"Oh, I'm sorry, but there are no swords allowed at the table," Adalena said apologetically when she saw Rayla's drawn swords, "If you could please put them away before we eat, that would be appreciated."

"No," Rayla stated.

"Rayla," Callum said, placing a comforting hand on Rayla's arm, "Let's use our words not our swords."

"I'll put 'em down once she explains how the table set itself," Rayla growled.

"It didn't set itself, silly," Adalena explained, "Vosey set it because I asked him to."

"Vosey... set the table?" Callum asked.

"Of course he did!" Adalena exclaimed, "You act as though you can't see him. Now come on let's eat."

With that Adalena started to dish out the food.

"Insane," Rayla muttered as she sheathed her swords and sat down next to Callum. But Callum wasn't convinced that Adlana was entirely insane. It seemed that Vosey, her friend, was real, even though he and Rayla couldn't see him. Maybe it was due to some kind of Star magic that they couldn't understand. But no matter if Adalena was insane or not, she was Callum's only hope for stopping an awful future.

"Here you go dearies," Adalena said as she dished out delicious smelling food.

"Is this moon berry surprise?" Rayla asked with hope in her voice.