*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ ༄ؘ 𝑺𝑬𝑽𝑬𝑵 ༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
𝑨 𝑪𝑨𝑽𝑬 𝑾𝑨𝑺𝑵'𝑻 𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑰𝑵'𝑺 𝑰𝑫𝑬𝑨𝑳 𝑷𝑳𝑨𝑪𝑬 𝑻𝑶 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑷 𝑭𝑶𝑹 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑵𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻, 𝑩𝑼𝑻 𝑹𝑨𝒀𝑳𝑨 had built them a fire to make sure they stayed warm during the night instead of traveling through the snow in the below-freezing temperatures. Ezran was bundled up in a cloak to use as a blanket to try and keep him warm so he wouldn't get sick, and Marin was cuddled up to Callum's side and watching him draw in his sketchbook.
Both siblings saw Ezran roll over out of the corner of their vision, and Callum paused his drawing. "Ez, you should really try to sleep."
"I'm... I'm..." he sneezed, wiping his nose. "I'm fide."
"You're not 'fide,'" Marin chuckled. "You need to rest."
Ezran got up and stood on Callum's other side, sniffling. "What are you drawing?" he glanced at the paper. "Oh."
"When you were down there, under the ice," Callum spoke softly. "I was so scared. Marin went after you, but minutes went by and... I thought I was going to lose you both like we lost her. But you both made it. And now I can't stop thinking... Maybe she was watching over us."
Marin huddled closer to her brother's side and leaned her head on his shoulder. "If she knew what we were trying to do, she'd be proud of us," then she glanced up at Ezran and narrowed her eyes playfully. "And she would yell at you to go sit closer to the fire and bundle up!"
He sniffled again, walking over and putting his hands out in front of the flames to warm them. "I know."
Footsteps got Marin's attention, though it was only Rayla coming in from outside in the snow. She'd left a bit ago to go looking for some food to eat. "She's beautiful," Rayla said from behind her, looking at Callum's book. "She's your mother?"
"Yeah," Callum quietly said.
Rayla lad out a little pouch on the ground. "I found some moonberries. This should keep us full... for a day," she took two different berries out of her pocket and held them out to Ezran. "And I found these for you. Bogeyberries! Ancient Xadian cure for the common sniffles."
Ez took them and went to eat them, but Rayla stopped him. "Mmm... nope. They don't go in your mouth. To cure a stuffy nose, you've got to stuff 'em up your nose."
The other two siblings smiled at Ezran and Rayla. "Oh," Ez said. "Seems doable."
"How's the egg doing?" Rayla asked them, frowning.
"I don't think it's getting better," Marin said sadly.
Callum nodded. "It was glowing so bright before, but now it's dim and flickery."
"It's even darker than when I left..." Rayla sounded pained.
"We gotta find help," Ezran said, his voice slightly messed up from the berries stuffed up his nose.
༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
𝑾𝑯𝑬𝑵 𝑴𝑶𝑹𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑪𝑨𝑴𝑬, 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑮𝑹𝑶𝑼𝑷 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑫 𝑻𝑹𝑨𝑽𝑬𝑳𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑨𝑮𝑨𝑰𝑵, 𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑰𝑵 𝑾𝑨𝑺 relieved when they finally came across civilization again. Trudging up snowy hills and mountainsides was exhausting when still recovering from being ill. She was mostly better, her fever was gone and the aching in her bones had mostly dissipated, but she still felt tired and slightly weaker than she normally did. A slow recovery, but a recovery nonetheless.
"There it is! A town!" Rayla sounded excited. "I knew I saw smoke. Maybe we can find help."
"Okay, sure," Callum nodded. "We might find a dragon egg expert. But we will definitely find a bunch of elf-hating humans."
Rayla scoffed and waved her hand. "No problem," she took Ezran's cloak out of his bag and put it on, spinning in a circle and putting the hood up to cover her horns. "Get ready to meet... human Rayla!"
Marin held in a laugh while her brothers looked completely unconvinced. "Yeah," Callum said. "I'm not sure that's gonna cut it."
"Just wait," Rayla grinned. "Once I pair my disguise with my perfect human impression, the illusion will be complete," she cleared her throat, attempting to use an accent to cover her already prominent one. "Greetings, fellow humans! Human fellows! I sure do like hanging out with other humans, and talking about things like money, and starting wars."
"That's... pretty good, actually," Ezran and Callum glanced at each other.
Marin, though, was cracking up laughing and holding her stomach. "It's..." she wheezed. "It's so accurate! Do another one!"
"Totally, my good human friend! High four!" she raised her hand.
Ezran and Marin both slapped her hand, Marin still laughing, but Callum still looked unimpressed. "Uh... Can you impersonate a fifth finger?"
"Right, right," Rayla pulled her hand back. "I need some kind of a... hand disguise," she looked around and saw a house nearby with a snow-man in front of it and she grinned. "Look! Snow-elf!"
"I'm pretty sure that's a snow-man," Ezran said as she ran off.
"Oh, let her have her fun," Marin chuckled and jogged after Rayla.
Rayla took the gloves and put them on her hands, proudly showing them off to the three siblings. "Hand disguise!" The pinkies fell, due to her not having any, and Rayla frowned.
"Just don't shake hands with anyone," Callum said.
He and Ezran walked toward the town, but Marin took the carrot nose and broke it in half, handing the two pieces to Rayla who stuck them back into the snowy head. "Snow-elf."
༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
𝑾𝑨𝑳𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑾𝑰𝑻𝑯 𝑹𝑨𝒀𝑳𝑨 𝑻𝑯𝑹𝑶𝑼𝑮𝑯 𝑨 𝑯𝑼𝑴𝑨𝑵 𝑻𝑶𝑾𝑵 𝑾𝑨𝑺 𝑯𝑨𝑵𝑫𝑺 𝑫𝑶𝑾𝑵 𝑶𝑵𝑬 𝑶𝑭 the funniest things Marin had ever experienced. The impression was so horribly bad that it was good, and Marin loved seeing the strange looks they were receiving from others. Rayla's fake accent was also horrible, but Marin thought that it was amusing so she didn't tell her.
"Just walking into town, without a care in the world," Rayla mused fakely. "Despite my sub-century life expectancy."
"Shh!" Callum shushed her.
Ezran grinned and turned around. "That's the spirit!"
The group came to a stop at the back of a crowd, and Callum put his hand out in front of Rayla and his sister to stop them from going any further or walking in front of him and Ezran. A man stood in the center of the two square, boosted up on top of the fountain ledge for everyone to see him while he boasted about his accomplishments.
"I defended the border against all manners of horrors and monstrosities!" the man shouted. "Things you can't even imagine! There's nothing I fear now!"
Around so many people, Marin usually would have double checked her armbands to make sure they were secure around her forearms to cover her spots of blue-colored skin, but now that her armbands were gone, she didn't even care. There were multitudes of excuses she could use. Callum was an artist, so she could just say her brother spilled paint on her or something and it stained. It's not that unbelievable.
"In fact," the man continued boasting as the four of them made their way to the front of the crowd. "I wager I could defeat any challenger here, with nothing but my dagger. What about you?"
Another man stepped forward to accept the challenge, but his wife dragged him away before he could. "Maybe..." he looked around, and eyed Rayla suspiciously. "You?"
Rayla's eyes widened, as did all of the siblings', but they were saved when a huge guy stomped up behind the man and the crowd gasped. The big guy chuckled lowly and pulled out the biggest sword Marin had ever seen in her life, and her best friend was a sword-lover, so she'd seen many. "This isn't even my biggest sword," huge man laughed.
A woman in the front pulled out some money. "Oh, I'll take that bet!"
Others around them began placing bets on the huge man with the gigantic sword. But when Marin looked back at the man who'd been bragging about his feats, Rayla and her shared a silent gasp. He was slowly pulling out a glowing red and orange blade covered in runes. Marin recognized it from a book she'd read once on Sunfire elves.
Callum reached for Rayla's hand, grabbing Marin's with his free one. "They're distracted. Let's go."
"Wait," Rayla stopped him. "You'll want to see this."
"I've never seen one with my own eyes," Marin breathed.
The larger man swung down his larger sword and would have crushed the smaller had he not dodged and fully removed his dagger from its sheath. The crowd grew excited at the sight, and they all watched as the smaller man sliced through the sword like it was paper.
"Well..." he tapped the sliced sword. "I certainly hope that wasn't your biggest sword."
The crowd laughed and the big man ran off crying. He turned to the rest of them. "Ha. Anyone else?"
"What was that?" Callum asked Rayla and Marin.
"A Sunforge blade!" Marin squealed excitedly.
"Wow!" Ezran said. "I can't believe I just saw a real Sunforge blade! What's a Sunforge blade?"
Rayla smiled. "In Xadia, Sunfire elves can make magic weapons that stay as hot as the moment they're forged for hundreds of years. See that?" she pointed at the sheath the man placed his blade back into. "The sheath in inscribed with special runes to protect him from the heat. Otherwise, well.."
"His pants would be on fire?" Ezran suggested.
"Yeah," Marin chuckled. "His legs, too."
Callum hummed. "Rayla... If that blade can cut through a steel sword like it was butter... Would you say it could cut through pretty much anything?"
"Not just pretty much, it can cut through anything," Rayla crossed her arms with a smug smile before her eyes widened and she gasped. "My wrist binding!"
Callum nodded. "You have to go get that dagger."
Rayla started to walk off to go do just that, but she hesitated. "But what about the egg?"
"We'll find help for the egg," Marin insisted. "Just meet back here at the statue."
"How will you get that dagger?" Ezran asked.
Marin withheld a chuckle as Rayla lowered her hood even further over her forehead with a sly smile. "I'm going to ask nicely."
༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑰𝑵, 𝑪𝑨𝑳𝑳𝑼𝑴, 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑬𝒁𝑹𝑨𝑵 𝑨𝑳𝑳 𝑾𝑨𝑳𝑲𝑬𝑫 𝑻𝑯𝑹𝑶𝑼𝑮𝑯 𝑻𝑶𝑾𝑵 𝑭𝑶𝑹 𝑨 𝑾𝑯𝑰𝑳𝑬 𝑩𝑬𝑭𝑶𝑹𝑬 managing to find somewhere they could possibly find help. They'd avoided asking around to avoid suspicion, and now they'd finally found a place that looked promising. The place had a sign hanging over the door that showed two animals on it, right over a carved heart in the wood.
"Look!" Ezran pointed to the sign. "Do you think this is some kind of animal doctor?"
"I think so," Callum said. "Or... a dating service for pets?"
"Probably an animal doctor," Marin chuckled. "Let's check it out."
The three walked inside, and the smell of stables hit Marin's nose and she felt a sense of nostalgia wash over her. A small memory of her and Soren around ten or eleven years old, running around and playing tag through the kingdom stables in the middle of the night and trying not to get caught.
"I'll be right with you!" a man brushing one of the horses inside said.
Her brothers walked a bit further in, and Marin stopped beside one of the horses that had whinnied at them. She reached out and stroked the horse's nose. "Hey, sweetheart," Marin cooed, giggling when the horse brushed its face against her cheek in response. "Aw, thank you!"
The animal doctor turned and looked down at Bait, whom Ezran was holding, and sighed. "Oh, I'm so sorry. There's nothing I can do for that poor creature..."
"What?" Callum tilted his head, before looking down at Bait and trying to hide a laugh. "Oh, no, no, no. He's fine. We have, uh, a different problem."
Another horse whinnied, and Ezran frowned, walking toward the one that the doctor had been grooming when they'd walked in. "Oh, what happened to you, little sweetie?" The mare whined in response, almost like it could understand Ezran. "Aww. You saw something really scary, didn't you?"
"She sure did," the doctor said. "This one ran away up the Cursed Caldera. Whatever she saw, she's lucky it only scared her. Won't make that mistake again! So, what can I help you with?"
The three of them all exchanged looks. Could this man really help them? Marin hoped so.
༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑨𝑵𝑰𝑴𝑨𝑳 𝑫𝑶𝑪𝑻𝑶𝑹 𝑾𝑨𝑺 𝑽𝑬𝑹𝒀 𝑵𝑰𝑪𝑬 𝑻𝑶 𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑴. 𝑴𝑼𝑪𝑯 𝑵𝑰𝑪𝑬𝑹 𝑻𝑯𝑨𝑵 𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑰𝑵 had initially expected. He'd noticed that she looked a bit pale━which she had been for a couple of days now, but it was better than before━and he sat the three of them down at one of his tables and made them all some hot tea, giving Marin a small blanket to wrap around her shoulders which she thanked him for, though she didn't think she needed it. Even so, she wouldn't deny the man's kindness. It was hard to find people like him in the world those days.
"Tell me exactly what's going on," he said to them, handing them cups of steaming tea.
"Well, uh.." Marin paused, looking to her brothers. "A friend of ours has a problem."
"Jofus," Ezran supplied.
The doctor fixed his glasses on his nose. "Your friend's name is Jofus?"
Ezran gave him a look. "It's a real name."
"Mmm-hmm. Yep," Callum nodded. "Real name. Our friend, Jofus, has an egg. A-An animal egg. He's been taking really good care of it. You know, keeping it warm, and safe... wrapped in blankets."
Marin nodded. "Except one time he dropped it into an icy lake for several minutes," she cleared her throat. "Anywho..."
"Uh, sorry, what was that?"
"He dropped it into an icy lake," Ezran repeated.
"Joseph. Uh, Jofus. Jofus did. This was J-Jofus," Callum stuttered.
The doctor gave them all strange looks. "Right, of course. That sounds bad..."
"Yeah," Marin stared down into her mug of tea, feeling the warmth of the steam rising from it warm her cheeks. "We're worried it's hurt."
"The egg is colder, and it doesn't glow like it used to," Callum told him nervously.
Marin smacked Callum's arm with wide eyes. Was he trying to out the fact that they were carrying around a dragon egg? Callum yelped and grabbed at the place where Marin hit him, rubbing at the place to ease the sting.
"Wait, a glowing egg?" the doctor questioned.
Marin coughed. "Uh... yes?"
"Look," the doctor stood. "I can tell you have a real problem. I want to help, but I won't be able to unless you tell me what's really going on." He watched the three exchange looks of uncertainty. "I promise you, I'm not going to get you in trouble."
Ezran set his cup down. "You can't tell anyone."
"I won't, okay? But you need to trust me."
The other two nodded at Ezran and he pulled his backpack up onto the table, carefully opening the straps to reveal the dimming light of the Dragon Prince's egg. The doctor gasped, and the three all frowned at the flickering life of the egg they carried with them.
༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
❝𝑻𝑯𝑨𝑻'𝑺 𝑨 𝑫𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑶𝑵 𝑬𝑮𝑮, 𝑰𝑺𝑵'𝑻 𝑰𝑻?❞ 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑫𝑶𝑪𝑻𝑶𝑹 𝑺𝑶𝑼𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑫 completely mystified. "I've never seen one before. Only pictures in books. I-I'll do what I can,"
He rubbed his hand gently over the shell, leaning down to place his ear over it before lightly tapping on it. Marin guessed he was trying to listen for the life inside. "I do hear a heartbeat," he told them.
"That's good, right?" Ezran asked.
"It's faint, and slow," the man slowly raised his head, and Marin saw the words before he even said them, her heart sinking. "I'm afraid it's dying. I don't know what I can do to save it. I'm so sorry."
"There has to be something you can do," Marin begged.
"Anything! Please..." Ezran wrapped his arms around the egg, Callum joining, and Marin standing and walking over to do the same. The doctor walked away to give the three of them their moment alone.
Callum leaned back. "Come on, Ez. Let's go. We'll find another way."
As the three went to walk about with the egg back in the pack, the doctor stopped them once more. "W-wait," he said. "I'm hesitant to tell you this, because it might be incredibly dangerous. There was a miracle that happened a few years ago, but it happened... on the Cursed Caldera. There's someone you should meet."
༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑫𝑶𝑪𝑻𝑶𝑹 𝑮𝑨𝑽𝑬 𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑴 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑫𝑰𝑹𝑬𝑪𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑺 𝑻𝑶 𝑨 𝑯𝑶𝑼𝑺𝑬 𝑨𝑻 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑪𝑶𝑹𝑵𝑬𝑹 𝑶𝑭 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑽𝑰𝑳𝑳𝑨𝑮𝑬, and Marin had to admit she was a bit surprised when she found a girl around Ezran's age answering the door with a large wolf standing by her. They told the girl who had sent them and she invited them in almost right away.
"I'm Ellis, and this is my sweetie wolf, Ava!" she cooed as the wolf rubbed her cheek with her own lovingly. Marin thought it was adorable as could be. "The doctor's right, there was a miracle. I still don't really understand how it happened. But I do know this... without it, Ava would be dead."
Ellis told them her story. How she'd found Ava two years ago out in the woods in the snow. Ava had been stuck in a hunter's trap, and her front paw was crushed in the jaws of the trap. The doctor had told them that the leg was too hurt, and needed to be removed. Ellis' father didn't want to take care of Ava and wanted to put her down, but Ellis refused an ran away up the Cursed Caldera with Ava.
She spoke of the terrifying creatures in the shadows; the higher up the slope, the scarier they got. They'd hidden in a cave for safety, and then Ellis said that a mystery healer had appeared picked up Ava, and when she'd gone, Ava had her fourth leg back. When Ellis looked to thank the mysterious healer, she was gone.
Callum stood at the end of the story, and Marin hugged her knees from her place on the floor by the fireplace. She'd given up her chair for Ezran to sit down since his back was bothering him from carrying the egg. "We have to find this miracle healer," he said. "Is she can save a cub's missing paw..."
Ezran got up as well. "Maybe she can save a dragon egg!"
"Wait, a what?!" Ellis' eyes widened, glancing between the three of them in surprise.
"Uh, he said, uh... maybe she can..." Marin struggled to make up for her brother's slip.
"...Shave a wagon leg!" Callum filled in, and Marin smacked her forehead. Idiot.
"But why would she... But━"
"Sorry! Gotta go!" the three were already up and hurrying toward the door, trying to cover their tracks and pretend like they hadn't said a thing.
"Thank you so much!" Callum said.
"Helped a bunch!" Marin added, shutting the door behind her and letting out a held-in breath as they escaped the questioning they were bound to receive had they stayed.
༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑰𝑵 𝑯𝑬𝑳𝑫 𝑶𝑵𝑻𝑶 𝑪𝑨𝑳𝑳𝑼𝑴'𝑺 𝑯𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑨𝑺 𝑻𝑯𝑬𝒀 𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑬𝑫 𝑩𝑨𝑪𝑲 𝑻𝑶 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑻𝑶𝑾𝑵 𝑪𝑬𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑾𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑬 𝑻𝑯𝑬𝒀 had planned on meeting back with Rayla, her grip tight in his own. Since she'd overextended her abilities when fighting that river monster, he'd been strangely protective over her. Which was strange because it had always been the other way around their whole lives.
They found Rayla sitting on the edge of the fountain, looking forlorn and down. Ezran ran ahead of them. "Did you find the knife guy? Did you get his knife?"
Rayla held out her arm. Binding still very much intact, and hand more purple and bruised than before. "The bad news is that the Sunforge blade didn't work," she took her hood down, and Marin glanced around anxiously to make sure no one was looking. "The good news is that the binding will fall off naturally... when my hand does."
Callum winced. "Ah, Rayla, I'm sorry."
Both boys sat down on either side of her, Callum dragging Marin down to sit on his other side and keeping her close. She gave him a weird look that he ignored and she shrugged.
"It's fine," Rayla sounded dejected. But she brightened up when she remembered where they had gone. "Tell me something good happened with the egg."
"Yes and no," Marin told her. "Well... Well, no. Not yet."
"But maybe!" Callum added. "So, yes? In a way?"
"Okay, that's averaging out to be around a maybe-minus," Rayla looked confused.
"Yeah, that's about right," Callum nodded.
Ezran leaned forward. "We learned about a miracle healer. Someone who might be able to help the egg. And maybe your hand, too!"
Rayla perked up. "Really?"
"The only catch is," Callum looked hesitant, but pointed off into the distance. "The healer lives up there..."
"The Cursed Caldera," Marin finished for him.
"Please tell me it's named that because it was discovered by the great explorer, Sir Phineas Cursed."
"Well, actually, it's because it's infested with horrible monsters━"
"Yeah, no, I know," Rayla sighed.
The four of them sat in silence for a minute. Callum's grip on Marin's hand was tight. Like he didn't want to let go. It concerned Marin a bit, but she would never complain. If he needed some sort of comfort in this whole situation she'd give anything she could to make him, or any of them, feel better. She supposed she was a bit overbearing sometimes when it came to how much she coddled them, but it was just instinct to do it at that point after so long.
His arm was brushed up against hers, and he glanced over at her every few seconds. Marin raised her eyebrows and squeezed his hand. "Are you okay, Cal?"
Callum nodded too quickly for Marin to believe him. "Y-Yeah, I'm━I'm fine. Mhm, totally━"
"There she is!" a voice shouted. "She's an elf!"
All of them whipped around to see a mob led by the man with the Sunforge blade, and Marin let go of Callum's hand quickly. "Oh, right," Rayla groaned. "I forgot about the other bad news."
"You guys go," Marin told them. "I can hold them off."
"How?!"
"The fountain! How else?!"
"Just come on!" Callum grabbed her hand back and dragged her along as they started running.
They were chased all through the town. Through an alley, across a bridge, down another alley. But they weren't fortunate, because another part of the mob crowd cornered them as they tried to exit another alleyway they'd cut through. A large man with a missing front tooth laughed menacingly and stalked toward them and they ran back the way they'd come from and across the bridge a second time.
Once they'd made it out of the town, Marin wanted to release a relieved breath but realized the mob was still following them because of their footprints in the snow. Her lungs ached from running, panting and breathing in the cold air made her feel like she was burning on the inside. Marin looked back to see that the mob had stopped, and only then did she realize where they'd started running toward.
Up the slope of the Cursed Caldera.
༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
OKAY SO I don't usually do author's notes bUT this one I have to because of some things.
First of all... ARCANE REACHED #1 IN THE TDP TAG AND IT MADE ME HIGHKEY CRY MKAY.
AND ALSO I'd like to thank ( Khaleesi-Of-Trolls ) for drawing young Marin for me! I was so touched and it looks so adorable, thank you so much!! Everyone give this a round of applause because I can't even draw stick figures correctly so-
༄ؘ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*