HOWDY! Surprise, I am not dead, and neither is this story!
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I woke up a bit earlier than others, I barely even slept at all, I just felt really uneasy knowing that Soren and Claudia were here.
I was casually having a stroll in the garden of the place, just trying to get my thoughts straight ((*cough* they will never be straight *cough*)). I sat down on a nearby rock, trying to calm down my frustration.
Why do they need to be here? I thought that we were finally all becoming a good team, why not just send them back on their way to the castle?
"There you are, y/n!" A cheerful voice snaps me out of my thoughts, I look up and see a happy Ezran looking back at me, I guess he is really happy to see his friends again after this whole time... I guess I can tolerate them for his sake...for now.
"Oh, good morning, little dude! Is everyone else up as well?" I asked with a smile.
"They are, that's why I'm actually looking for you, Claudia made pancakes for us." He said, his voice filled with happiness.
"Huh, really?" I said, skeptical, but still trying to seem as normal as possible "Then let's not make them wait" I said and got up.
Ezran did a little jump of happiness and started running to others, I followed him close.
When we got to the table, everyone else was already sitting at it. Ezran quickly took his place next to Callum, I saw a free spot next to Rayla and started making my way over, and sat down. I looked at Rayla with a unsure face, she returned the same emotion.
"Pancakes!" Claudia exclaimed with a plate filled with pancakes in her hands.
Everyone exclaimed excitedly at the table, except for me and Rayla.
Claudia started putting pancakes on our plates one by one. I slightly pushed my plate away "I'm good, thanks" I was just too skeptical.
Rayla shrugged and ate a small peace of the pancake and her eyes widened slightly in surprise "I gotta admit, these are really good!"
"Impossibly fluffy, right?" Claudia asked.
"Mmm, how do you get them so light?" Elis asked whilst enjoying the pancake.
"The secret is, you need to septate the eggs, and beat the whites into a stiff meringue..." She started, I took my fork, shrugged and put a peace of pancake in my mouth, just out of curiosity "...and a hint of black magic"
I immediately spit out the pancake on the ground "Fucking knew it" I said "this was too good to be true"
"So, now that we know you aren't kidnapped, how about you come home with us, with the egg of course" Claudia said batting her eyelashes at Callum, I swear to God, I felt like I was going to throw up the peace of pancake, that I didn't even swallow.
I stood up from my chair and put my hands on the desk "How about you, knowing that the boys aren't kidnapped, leave us, and let us go on our marry way" Claudia shot me a slight death stare.
"Talking about eggs, these pancakes would go great with some" Soren said and stuffed another peace of pancake in his mouth.
"Also, there is no egg anymore" Callum said calmly and Ezran stood up, I'm assuming, to get Zym.
"What? What happened to the egg?!" Claudia exclaimed, standing up.
"You'll understand in a second" Callum said and looked at Ezran, who was carrying Zym over, Claudia turned around to look at them as well and gasped as soon as she saw the dragon.
"It's so cute!!" She exclaimed and started running to Zym "it's a baby dwagon! It's-" she was about to try to pet Zym, but Rayla got in her way.
"What happened to 'it's not an egg, it's a powerful weapon'" Rayla sad, crossing her arms in front of her.
"Still true" Claudia said, and straightened herself "one day he could bring death and destruction to all of us" she said with a serious tone "but not now, he's just so wittle!" She said in a baby voice, and tried to pet him again, but Rayla smacked her hand away.
"We are bringing him back to Xadia, back to his mother, so have a good look, because you ain't having him" I said whilst walking up to them.
"Y/n is right, this mission is too important, we can't go home, not yet" Callum said.
"You all do need to come home..." Soren suddenly spoke out from the table, we all looked at him ".. because the king, your dad, really misses you" he said, and as soon as he finished his sentence, I was ready to pull his damn head off.
Callum and Ezran shared happy looks with each other, I looked at Rayla, she was just as mad as I was. Soren himself looked really fucking proud of this comment.
After the eventful breakfast, everyone kinda just split up to do their own things.
"y/n?" I turned around to face the talker, it was Rayla, she had a very concerned look on her face "can we talk?" She asked, I nodded, and we went a little bit further from everyone else.
"I have a feeling that I know what we're gonna talk about" I said and glanced in the direction of the boys, they were talking happily with each other in the distance.
"Yes...they hav-"
"They have to know" I finished her sentence "I know" I said and looked back at Rayla.
"They are so happy now...I can't imagine how they'll feel when they found out" Rayla looked at the boys with a sad expression.
"How should we break the news to them?" I asked.
"Well, I was thinking...maybe you could tell Ezran, and I could tell Callum...you just have such a good relationship with Ezran, I think you'll be better at confronting him with this" she looked back at me.
I let out a sigh "It won't be easy, I don't know how obvious this is, but I do admit, that boy has grown on me" I let out a slight chuckle, then went serious again "I'll try"
"Ok...today, we have to do this today" she said and burried her head in the palms of her hands "ugh, how did we get to this point"
"Hey" I took her hands in mine "we did what we thought was best" she looked up at me "and now we'll do what we know is best" she nodded slightly, I leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead "They are strong, so are we, we'll get through this together, we'll help each other"
"Y/N!" I heard someone running and yelling my name, me and Rayla quickly stepped away from each other. Around the corner Ezran suddenly appears "Oh, hey Rayla" Ezran said happily and Rayla gave a little awkward wave "Can you help me with something really quick?" Ezran said whilst looking at me.
"Uhh, yeah, sure...with what?" I said with a slight smile.
"Come and I'll show you" Ezran said with a mischievous smile and turned to Rayla "what about you? The more the merrier"
"Oh, no thanks, I'll...go and check the perimeter" she said, and started backing away slowly, and soon she disappeared behind the trees.
"She worries too much" Ezra said and turned to me "let's go!" he said and started running, I went after him.
Elis, Ava and Zym were all waiting in a small clearing.
As soon as Zym saw us coming, he instantly started running to us. He jumped at Ezran, bringing him to the ground, Ezran just let out a laugh. Zym then perked up, and looked at me, and started running full speed at me, he jumped, and I just cought him in my arms "Hello there" I said and he licked my face, I put him down on the ground and wiped my face "happy to see you too, bud" I said with a chuckle. "What are you all planning on doing?" I asked.
"Well, we thought about making this another flying lesson for Zym, but why not just have fun?" Ezran grabbed a stick from the ground and Zym instantly tried to grab it "catch" Ezran yelled and threw the stick away.
"Ok, and you needed my help for...?" I asked and looked confused at Ezran.
Ezran perked up "oh, right, about that" he pointed up a tall tree, there was a balloon stuck up there "Zym was playing with it, but then the wind picked up and blew the balloon up the tree" he looked back at me with an expecting look "we were wondering if you could get it?"
"Sure I can, but why do I feel like this isn't all" I said and in seconds I quickly ran up the tree, grabbed the balloon and dropped back down, Zym instantly grabbed the string of the balloon and started running in circles with it. I looked at Ezran, who seemed like he wants to say something "well?"
"Well I just thought that you and Rayla deserved a brake, that's all, but Rayla ran off searching for danger, which only proves my point, you both need to relax more" he said with a heartwarming smile "so, what's better than relaxing whilst playing with a wee dragon" he said and pointed at Zym, who was just adorably playing with the balloon.
"You might be right, Ez" I said and smiled back at him "but there still could be danger, we can't let our guard down, so Raylas worries are reasonable" I looked around at others, Elis was sitting and laughing at Zyms adorably funny playing and Ava was jumping around Zym excitedly, they weren't paying too much attention to us, so... I decided to try braking the news to him "Hey, Ez, can we have a talk?" My tone suddenly turned more serious.
"Of course, y/n, what's wrong?" Ezran also sounded more worried.
"Well, the thing is I-"
"Hello there, friends!" I turn around and see Soren walking up to us. Are you serious? The timing with this guy is just perfect! "Ez, Dragon, wolf-girl...wolf, and...elf" he said pointing to each of us
"Soren" I said, my voice filled with venom.
"Y/n, I was actually looking for you" Soren said.
"Why?" I asked
"Well, Rayla was actually looking for you" Soren said casually.
I hesitated "ok then" I slowly started stepping away "watch yourself" I said to Soren and gave him a death stare.
I soon realized that he was, indeed, lying. I was skeptical at first as well, because Rayla wouldn't have asked Soren for help finding me. So, instead of looking for Rayla, I started to look for Soren again.
In the distance I heard some screams, but not screams of terror, screams of joy. I quickly followed the sound.
"Whenever you're ready" I hear faintly from the bushes, then again comes the scream, which now I know is coming from Ezran, Soren has made a Zipline.
"Whatcha thinkin about?" I also heard Raylas voice from the other side of the bush. I guess she was also sceptical about Soren and Ezran.
"I- nothing, what are you thinking about?" He said.
I stepped out of the forest with my blade over my shoulder, just trying to look as cool and as intimidating as possible "I'm thinking that you should go next" I said and they both looked at me, I felt cool as fuck, if I'm honest. Rayla seemed glad to see me, Soren tho, not so much.
"Wha-" Soren started.
"Unless you think it's unsafe for some reason" I said and glared at Soren.
"No, it's safe, so safe" he started slowly walking to the peg in the tree, which held up the Zipline "let me just double check this...peg" he said nervously. He smacked the peg many times, to put it deeper into the tree with his sword. After multiple swings, he turned around and walked up to the edge of the cliff "yeah, so safe, super safe" then using his sword he jumped and started sliding down the Zipline. With her blade-hook Rayla wobbled the Zipline, making Soren wince in fear a little bit. Then we both looked at the peg, it looked like it was about to fall out.
"I knew they were bad news" Rayla said angrily then turned to face me "what are you doing here exactly anyway?" She said and raised an eyebrow.
"I was stalking you, obviously" I said, rolling my eyes jokingly.
"Knew you were obsessed" she said with a smirk.
"Oh, and by the way, was my entrance badass enough?" I asked.
"Super badass, couldn't even tell that was you"
"Well thank you" I paused for a second "yeah, that wasn't really a compliment, was it?" I said shrugging, Rayla let out a small laugh.
"On a more serious note" Rayla turned her gaze to the edge of the hill "did you try talking to Ezran yet? I mean, I see that you didn't tell him yet, he wouldn't be this happy then"
"I did, I tried, but Soren came in and ruined the moment" I said annoyed "what about you?"
"Well, I also tried...Claudia was the one who interrupted me" she also started to sound irritated.
"Ugh, they are the spawns of Satan" I said "here to ruin everything!" I punched a nearby tree "shit!" I said and held my arm because of the pain.
"Alright, y/n, we just got our hands back, calm down, we need them, remember" Rayla said with a slight laugh.
I looked up at her, the image I saw was magnificent. Her cute smile, the sun perfectly shining around her, her eyes glittering in the sunshine. She is beautiful, perfect even. How come I got so lucky to meet her? I don't deserve her, this is too good to be true, she is too good to be true...
"Hello, earth to y/n" Rayla said, waving her hand infront of my face, I realized I was staring this whole time, and I snapped out if it.
"You are really beautiful" I just blabbered out, forgetting about my anger or my possibly broken fingers.
I could see that this was very unexpected for her, because her cheeks turned a light shade of red, and she looked a little shocked as well, but soon shook it off and just smiled at me again.
"You are such a charmer" she said sarcastically with a smirk.
"What can I say, I was born with it" I said, and wanted to lean on a tree with my hand, but quickly regretted that as it was the hand that I just hurt whilst punching the tree "damnit" I clutched my hand in pain again.
Rayla chuckled and stepped closer to me "I still agree with what I said, a charmer" she took my hurt arm in hers and, with a small bow, placed a soft kiss on it "I should go now, dear, duty calls" she said.
"So formal" I said jokingly, trying to hide the fact that from the inside I'm actually panicking.
She turned to leave and was about to let go of my hand, but I grabbed her hand before she could do that. I spun her around and pulled her really close to me, she looked surprised. She thought that I'll let her have the last word? Oh no no noo.
"You think I'll let you just go after that?" I said with a smug smile.
She looked at my hand, I was holding her with my injured hand "Doesn't your arm hurt?" She asked, trying to be smug herself.
"Oh, it does, a bit...a lot, but that's really not important right now" I placed my other hand underneath her chin and brought her face closer to mine. One more inch closer and our lips would touch, I could tell that she was waiting for it, but then I suddenly just stepped back "look at the time, important places to be, important things to do" did I do that to annoy her? Yes, maybe, and it seemed to have worked.
"Hey!" She sounded a little mad, sad and confused.
"Sorry, darlin', duty calls" I said and winked at her, turned around and started leaving.
"I'll get you for this" I heard her yell behind me.
"Don't threaten me with a good time" I said to myself.
That was the best distraction from the real world I could've asked for...but now, back to business.
Ok, to be honest I have no idea of what to do now...I have to break the news to Ez, but I also don't want to.
"Ugh!" I let out a frustrated sigh and sit down on the grass in a small clearing. I glanced up, the sky was staring to darken, the sun almost completely gone, the moon taking it's place "shit..." I muttered to myself and glanced down.
"What's the matter?" My head snapped up and in front of me was Ava and Elis. I let them sneak up on me, I should really pay more attention to my surroundings.
"Nothing" I answered plainly and looked back down.
Elis jumped down from Avas back and sat down beside me, Ava flopped down next to her "there's clearly something on your mind" she actually sounded worried.
"I said it's noth-" I stopped myself. Maybe she could help me? I don't know, give me some advice or something. "Actually, can you give me an advice on something?" I said looking back up at her.
"Sure, but if it's about what's going on between you and your girlfriend, sorry, not sure I can help with that" she said, trying to keep her face serious.
"Wha- no- no no no, we're not- it's just-" I took a calming breath, trying to make the slight blush on my cheeks disappear "ok, let's say you have a secret, a really big, serious secret that is connected with your best friend but they don't know about it, so you have to decide, if you want to tell them or not, but the thing is, if you do, then this secret could run their whole life, and you may never be friends again but the longer you keep the secret, the worse it'll be if it comes out" I glance at her expectantly.
"I'd tell them right away" she simply said.
"That's it?"
"Well, I'd think about how I'm going to fraise the words, maybe not lay it all out at once, just go little by little so it's not a shock, but I don't think you have to worry too much" she said and I tilted my head in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
'I'm sure the feelings mutual" she said with a cheesy smile.
"THIS IS NOT ABOUT RAYLA!" I jumped up and started stomping away angrily but then I stopped. I might actually use her advice with my actual situation. I turned around and looked at her "thank you" I quickly said, turned away and started running.
I need to find Rayla, we need to do this now.
I ran into Rayla who was also running to somewhere
"Where's Callum?" I asked her
"What? Aren't you supposed to go talk to Ezran?" She asked.
"Well, I thought that it would be easier to go slow with this, one person at a time?" I said.
"If you think so. I'm actually running to Callum right now, I know where he is, come with me" she said, grabbed my hand and started running, I tried to keep up with her.
We saw Callum in the shadows coming our way.
"Callum, we need to talk!" I said with worry in my voice.
"We're sorry that we didn't tell you this sooner! But-" Rayla started but was cut off.
"I know" Callum came out into the moon light, now we could tell that he's been crying "he's dead"
"We're so sorry Callum" Rayla said with sadness in her voice "we should've told you sooner" Callum walked past us angrily.
"We really tried to tell you the king is dead" I said and me and Rayla started following him.
"My stepdad, he wasn't just a king to me" he said whilst turning around to face us, trying to sound angry, but all that I could hear is just how heart broken he is.
"Your stepdad, I know, I'm sorry" I said and averted my gaze from him. I couldn't really bare to look into his eyes right now.
"We really did try to tell you, but every time we tried something else was in the way" Rayla said, stepping a few steps closer to Callum.
"Just stop, Rayla, I can't really talk about this right now" he said and looked away "All that I can think about right now is how I'm going to tell Ezran that our father is gone" I flinched at that. It's impossible, it really is. Callum turned around and started walking away.
"I'm so so sorry" Rayla said with a sniffle. Callum was now out of sight. We stood there for a good minute or two, nether of us dare to break the silence.
I step closer to Rayla and put my hand on her shoulder "come on, we should probably go have some rest" I said, knowing damn well that nether of us is getting any sleep tonight.
"You go ahead, I just need a moment" she said and walked away. I signed and started walking. To where? I don't know, all I knew, I ain't sleeping this night.
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Boo