Not A Love At First Sight - The Dragon Prince fanfic

Not A Love At First Sight

Rayla remembered how nervous she was the second time she stepped into Katolis. She thought that her elven appearance might invoke some animosity among the citizens due to her involvement with King Harrow's assassination. She suggested that she could use her "Human Rayla" disguise if something went south, but Callum immediately shot her proposal down despite Ezran's claims as one of her biggest fans.

The boys assured her that she would be safe, and she believed them - after all, they were the Head and the Heir of the monarchy. And with the support of their aunt General Amaya and their High Council cleric Opeli, she knew that she could consider Katolis as her second home.

Her first week was a horrible mess. The kingdom was still trying to recover from Viren's usurpation, and there were casualties from the battle in the Storm Spire that required immediate assistance. There was also a lack of manpower, so Rayla volunteered to assist some of the affected communities like transporting essential goods and tinkering mechanical stuff.

Some people were giving her wary eyes, while others were obviously anxious and would scramble away at her mere presence. Then there were serious talks in the High Council about her residency in the castle, which she tried not to get involved with.

It was hard.

Everything changed drastically in her third week, the day after Ezran was publicly crowned as the King. He could have introduced her as a Xadian ambassador for Queen Zubeia since technically she has not been relieved from her role as a Dragonguard. Instead, the young king presented her as a Katolian hero who saved the Dragon Prince, a claim that she denied adamantly.

It was unfortunate that the Katolians preferred their king's version much to the boys' enjoyment, so she had no choice but to suck it up. And with Callum's shameless display of public affection, everyone became invested in their fairy tale romance.

Which brings her back to her current dilemma.

Several kids - both humans and elves - gathered around her as she sat on one of the playground's stone benches, and if she was not mistaken, most of them were in their pre-teens. She wasn't sure how she ended up in that situation; as far as she remembered, a human child approached her pleading to get a balloon that got stuck in a tree, and then it snowballed into an afternoon storytime.

"Lady Rayla! Lady Rayla!" one of the girls raised her hand enthusiastically. "How did you and Prince Callum met?"

"They met on a night they saved the Dragon Prince's egg, dummy," her companion scolded her lightly. "Didn't Auntie Greta tell us that last time?"

"But Lady Rayla, how did you find Prince Callum when you first met?" another kid asked, drawing some long oooh's and aahh's in the crowd. "Did you fall in love at first sight?"

The Moonshadow elf chuckled, shaking her head at their curious glares. "I'm sorry to disappoint you all, but I never fell for Prince Callum when we first met. Actually, we never liked each other to begin with."

There was a loud gasp, followed by a 'What?!', 'But you're so pretty and so cool!' and a 'Nobody can ever dislike Prince Callum!'

"You see, there's this misunderstanding among us elves that all humans are bad, and to humans that all elves are monsters." she went on, tucking her hair behind her pointy ear. "But when we saw the egg of the Dragon Prince, we decided to cast all of our differences for the sake of one goal - to return the Dragon Prince to Xadia."

"And then you fell in love with him, right?"

"Not so fast, sweetie." Rayla booped the kid's nose with her index, earning her a giggle. "But eventually, yeah."