The Dragon Prince: After the War

12-Soren

12

Soren

I wonder what Claudia is up to. 

This last month has been awful. It feels like I am a hollow shell walking around with a smile plastered on my face, hoping that will make everything okay. Not even squats can make me feel better. It feels like a small part of me is gone.

My baby sister.

"Soren!" I hear a voice call out. I whip around to see Rayla looking at me with a smirk. It looks slightly pained, but who am I to talk?

"Hey elf," I say to her. She rolls her eyes. I admit it, she has character. "What do you need, lessons in sword-fighting or something?"

"You're asking me?" she answers with a small smile.

"Why," says another voice, "do they insist on trading insults when they so much as look at each other?" 

I hear a laugh. "Are you really surprised?"

"Of course not. But that's not the point." I whip around to see Callum and Ezran sitting under a tree gazing at us. 

"Callum," I hear a Rayla say, her voice nervous.

"Rayla," he answers and gives her a smile even more pained than the one she gave me. Seriously, what is with these two? They both look worse than I feel.

"Soren," says Ezran. He seems oblivious to what is happening, though a quick suspicious glance makes me wonder if notices more than he lets on. "I asked Rayla to ask you if you could go out among the crowds and advertise the festival tonight."

"Of course!" I say with that same smile plastered on my face as it has been all month. 

As I walk outside the palace grounds and my mind reverts back to Claudia.

Callum, Ezran, and Rayla have been almost like family since we returned to the kingdom without her. Still...

Can this new family every replace what was lost?

My baby sister.

I don't think I will ever be able to stop loving her.