Title: Story Beginnings
Characters: Callum, Rayla
Genre: Introspective
Summary: Sometime in the future Callum thinks back to where his and Rayla's relationship began.
Note: This was written for WattNaNo's first challenge for NaNoWriMo 2018 which was about story beginnings. The implication of the introspective is meant to be Callum/Rayla.
Dragon Prince One Shots
Story Beginnings
When Callum looked back on his relationship with Rayla he saw a place of no beginning, or a place where his self at the time didn't see the potential.
Of course, back then Callum found himself interested in Claudia. Truth - the young prince honestly didn't know any females close to his age, but he did know back then that Claudia was pretty. He found her clumsiness cute, again in part due to how he lacked experience with other females. The only other two were his mother and aunt, and their fiery tongues made him think he never wanted to be with such a person. After all, a fiery tongue meant lectures.
He then met Rayla.
Making friends with an Elf of any kind never crossed his mind, yet Rayla was a Moonshadow Elf. Moonshadow Elves assassinated his stepfather, but countless others. Rayla, however, wasn't like the tales. Her sharp fiery tongue might lecture him at times, yet she did this with a wit Callum not only understood, but appreciated. He also never expected an elf to be clumsy, yet Rayla's clumsiness was different than Claudia.
Could he call it clumsiness? After all, Rayla was far less clumsy than he. No, Callum found himself relating to the young Moonshadow Elf like he was due to the fact they both messed up. He spent enough time with her to know neither one of them meant to mess up, yet they did in each their own way. They each came down hard on themselves at the thought of potentially failing.
The strength of their relationship came from the fact neither wanted to give up on their mission, yet there was this mutual understanding he'd never had with Claudia. He in truth never knew Claudia; Callum simply looked at her from the distance, yet Rayla he spoke with and interacted with on an equal levels.
They were equals.
Despite the fact he was a prince - or a step prince as Soren pointed out - they were equals.
He personally doubted he would have ever been equals with Claudia, which in turn was a stark difference.