The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Rayla, she was still sleeping with her head on my shoulder, she looked so peaceful, so... adorable.
The boys were still asleep as well, I decided that waking up Rayla first would be better, we don't need no questions from them, not now at least.
I gently shake Raylas shoulder "hey, Rayla" i whispered and her eyes slowly fluttered open "good morning" I whispered with a smile.
"Good morning" she said whilst scrubbing her eyes, and then she looked around and understood in what position she's in right now. Were sitting against the rock, the blanket still over both of us, were quite close together, and her head is still on my shoulder. It was comfortable.
Her face turned a light shade of pink and she looked up at me and then she looked around at the boys who were still sleeping "we should get up, huh?" Rayla whispered.
"Probably" I answered quietly. She got up silently, and I stood up right after "now we should wake them, huh?" I asked and pointed at the boys.
"Probably" she said and looked at me.
I cleared my throat and yelled "Ay! Wake up!" both of the boys shot up quick and were looking around, visible panic in their eyes "good, you're awake, we have to go now, get ready" I said and went to grab the blanket which we were sleeping with, rolled it up and placed it in the bag.
"Where are we going exactly?" Callum asked, still a little sleepy.
"Me and (y/n) saw some smoke yesterday, we think it might be a village, or maybe just something or someone that could potentially help us" Rayla said.
"At least that's something" he said "alright" he stood up and clapped his hands together "no time to waste, let's go"
***
We finally arrived at the edge of the village.
"Yes! It is a village!" Rayla exclaimed "we can find help!"
"Sure we might find a dragon expert, but what we'll definitely find are elf hating humans" Callum said and crossed his arms.
"Worry not, I have a perfect disguise" she said and went to take her cloak out of the bag and put it on "be ready to meet" she put the hood over her head "human Rayla!" She exclaimed, demonstrating her perfect disguise.
She looked at me and gestured for me to join her, I playfully rolled my eyes at her and put my hood over my head "and human (y/n)!" I tried to sound as enthusiastic as possible.
"Yeah, good luck with that" Callum said unsurely.
"Wait till you hear our human impressions, the illusion will be complete!" Rayla said and turned away from everyone, and then with a quick, dramatic turn she turns back "greetings fellow humans, human fellows! I sure like hanging out with other humans and talk about human things like money, and starting wars!" Rayla stopped and nudged me with her elbow, signaling that it's my turn.
"Oh, uhhh, fuck elves!" I said the first thing that came to mind and Rayla looked at me with a surprised look "what? That's what humans always say, isn't it?"
"I guess that's true" Rayla said shrugging and turned back to the boys "so?"
"That's pretty good actually" Ezran said.
"It sure is, fellow human, bring it in, high four!" Rayla said and put her hand up, and high-fived, or, i guess, high-foured, Ezran.
"this is cool and all, but how are you going to fake a fifth finger?" Callum asked.
"Hmm, we're going to need some kind of hand disguise" Rayla said and looked around, and shortly after she started rushing to something.
"Ah, a snow elf!" I said and went with Rayla.
"Pretty sure that's a snow man" Ezran said and him and Callum started following us.
The 'snow man' was wearing a pair of gloves, Rayla took them and put them on her hands and showed us "hand disguise!" She wiggled her hands in front of us, but it was clear that she does not have pinkies under those gloves.
"Just don't shake hands with anyone" Callum said to Rayla then turned to me "but what about you?" He asked.
"Oh, don't worry about me" I said and put my hands in my pockets "I'm not planning on shaking any hands ether"
"Ok, very well then! Let's go" Callum said and started making his way to the town.
I started following him, so did Rayla, but she stopped and ran back towards the 'snow man', I turned back to look at her. She took the 'snow mans' nose and broke it in half, and put the two pieces on his head
"Snow elf" she said and let out a little laugh, she looked at me proudly, and I couldn't help but laugh a little myself. She quickly ran past me, grabbing me by my arm, and we quickly cought up to the boys.
We walked into the town, the streets weren't so crowded, everything seemed fine for now.
"Just walking in the town with no care in the world, despite my sub-century life expectancy" Rayla said whilst walking overly confident. I just smiled to myself and shook my head.
"Shhh!" Callum turned towards us but soon turned back.
"That's the spirit!" Ezran said to Rayla.
"Indeed it is" I said whilst looking at her with a smirk.
Callum suddenly stops and puts his arm out in front of us, signaling for us to stop, we arrived at what seemed like the town center, there was a crowd of people, I slapped Callums hand away, and just kept going, i wanted to know what all this was about.
In the center stood a man, he was telling everyone a story about how much of a hero he is. Man, I already call bullshit.
"I wager that i could beat anyone here with nothing but my dagger!" He said and started looking around at everyone, searching for someone to challenge. His eyes fell on me "You, with the hood over your head"
I was a little surprised about him calling me out like that, but I soon recovered "Oh, you're on!" I said and started walking towards him whilst cracking my knuckles, but Rayla grabbed me by my arm and pulled me back.
"Oh no you don't!" She said, I just scoffed and suddenly there's a giant man in the middle.
"I'll take the bet" he said with a deep voice and pulled out a giant sword "this isn't even my biggest sword!"
Everyone around started yelling "I'll take that bet!" "My money's on the big guy!" "Mine too!" And stuff like that. C'mon there's no way that little boy-man can beat the giant man-man.
The smaller man started taking out his dagger, it was glowing, then I understood that it's a goddamn good thing I did not go against him "a sunforge blade" I whispered to myself.
"Ok, they're distracted, let's go" Callum whisper-yelled.
Rayla grabbed his arm to stop him "wait, you're gonna wanna see this" she said and pointed at the fight that was about to go down.
The big guy swung his big sword again and again, but with each swing, the other dude cut through his sword with his dagger like butter. When there's nothing left of his sword anymore, he turns away and starts running whilst crying.
"What was that?" Callum asked.
"A sunforge blade" Rayla answered.
"Wow, I can't believe I just saw a real sunforge blade" Ezran said "what's a sunforge blade?"
"Only one of the coolest weapons there are. They're forged by sunfire elves, the blade stays as hot as the moment they're forged for hundreds of years" i say with a little enthusiasm in my voice, i clear my throat "I mean, yeah, they're cool" I said and crossed my arms.
Rayla let out a little laugh "Also, look" she said and pointed at his belt where the dagger was strapped on with a sheath "The sheath is inscribed with special ruins to protect him from the heat, otherwise, well.."
"His pants would be on fire?" Ezran asked.
"Yeah, his legs too" Rayla added.
"Aha, also his di-" I started but Rayla punched me in the shoulder "ow! I was just joking!" I said with a laugh.
"Hey, if that blade can cut through a steel sword like it was butter, wouldn't you say that it could cut through pretty much anything?" Callum turned to us.
"Not pretty much anything, but literally anything" I said defensively crossing my arms.
I heard a gasp come from Rayla and looked at her, she was looking at her binding "our bindings!" She said excitedly.
"You have to get that dagger" Callum said.
"But what about the egg?" Rayla questioned.
"We'll take care of it, but you both go!" Callum said.
"How are you going to get that dagger anyway?" Ezran asked.
"We're going to ask nicely" Rayla said calmly and I couldn't contain myself and let a little laugh out, she rolled her eyes playfully "let's go" she said.
"Ay ay, captain" I said and started following her.
We followed the man into a small alleyway. We tried to be quiet but he must've heard us, he quickly turned around, but we managed to hide from him behind some barrels that were lying around. Unexpectedly he just took off running.
We got out of our hiding spot and went running after him. We both jumped on the roof, me on the left, Rayla on the right, we tried to keep him in our sight.
He soon ran into a dead end, we both jumped down the roof right infront of him.
"B-back off" he stuttered "i won that money fair and square!" He yelled at us.
"Calm down, we don't need your money" i said.
"We need your help" Rayla added and showed him the binding "we just need to borrow your blade really quick"
"Sure 'borrow', and then you're just going to run off with it" he said, still not trusting us.
"Fine, you can hold it, just cut this, please!" She begged.
"But it'll burn you" he said
"I don't care, just cut!" She said a little louder now and reached her hand out towards him, the man took his dagger and he slowly started lowering the blade on the binding. The blade touched Raylas skin, she let out a little yelp from the pain. Suddenly her glove catches on fire, she shakes it off revealing her four fingers.
"W- you're one of them!" The man said with disgust.
I stood there for a while looking between them both and looked at Rayla with fake surprise "wha- oh my God! An elf?!" I stretched out one of my arms towards Rayla, pointing at her, forgetting that I don't have gloves on my hands.
"You-you're one too!" he pointed his dagger at me.
"Uhh- the elf bit my finger off, oh nooo!" I said and pointed at Rayla, who was looking at me with a 'are you serious' look, I just shrugged.
"No, no, you're both elves!" He yelled.
"Yeah, fine, we're elves" I said rolling my eyes and Rayla took the man to the ground and grabbed the dagger from him in one sweep "holy shit, that was amazing" I said.
Rayla gripped the dagger tightly, and started lowering in on her wrist binding. As the dagger touched her arm, she yelped in pain. I watched her, worry visible in my face. She tried again, but nothing happened, all she was doing was hurting herself. I grabbed her hand as she was about to try again "please stop, it's...no use" I said and let go of her hand, she let out a frustrated grunt and laid down the dagger.
"You know what, just keep the dagger, just please don't hurt me!" The man said whilst still on the ground.
"We're not going to hurt you!" She said with a frustrated voice, she looked down at the blade in her hand "and we're not going to steal from you ether!" She said and trew the dagger on the ground.
Rayla started to walk away, I stood there a little bit longer, looking at the blade "maaayybeee we could-"
"No, (y/n), we're not taking the dagger" Rayla turned to me and said.
"Fine" i scoffed, and we made our way back to the towns center.
I sat down next to the big statue that was in the center. Rayla sat next to me, she looked super bummed out, I was too, of corse, but this seemed to really have brought her down. She was looking at the ground, deep in her though.
"Hey" I said and sat closer to her, she looked at me, I could see there was sadness in her eyes "don't worry about this, we'll find a different way to get them off" i said, trying to bring some hope in this whole situation.
"What if we're not going to? I can't think of a single thing that could help us right now" she said and looked at the ground.
"Listen" i took her hand into mine and she looked back up at me "Don't you lose hope in us, I bet the guys are going to come back with some good news, for the egg, and for us, we'll figure this out, I promise" she looked at me with a warm smile, suddenly I feel her arms around me, I don't hesitate and hug her back.
"Thank you, even if there's a big chance that it's not true" she said and we broke up the hug.
"Oh, it's definitely true, believe me" I said with a smile.
"You know, I'm really not used to you being a motivational speaker" she said with a little laugh at the end.
"Believe it or not, I'm not used to it either" I said with a nervous laugh.
"Did you find the knife guy? Did you get his knife?" We hear Ezrans voice, we turn to look infront of us and see both of the guys coming to us.
Rayla showed them both her arm, that the binding was still on it, I looked at the ground, not really knowing what to say.
"Long story short, it didn't work" I said and stood up, stretching my arms.
"Oh no, I'm sorry" Callum said.
"Please tell me there's some good news about the egg, is it better?" Rayla asked.
"No, yes, well, no, not yet, but yes in a way, maybe?" Callum said stumbling on his words.
"Well that is averaging out to be a maybe-minus" Rayla said.
"Yeah, sounds about right" Callum said.
"We found out about a miracle healer, who could help us with the egg!" Ezran said excitedly "and maybe your hands too!"
I perked up "Really?" Me and Rayla both asked at the same time.
"There's one problem, the healer lives up there" Callum said and pointed at a giant mountain in the distance "the Cursed Caldera"
"Please tell me that it's named that because it was discovered by the great explorer, Sir Phineas Cursed" Rayla asked.
"Actually it's called that because it's infested with horrible monsters that-" Callum started.
"Yeah, no, i know" Rayla said defeatedly.
"There they are!" We hear a man yelling behind us, we quickly turn around and see the same man we borrowed the dagger from.
"Oh, you're getting it now!" I said and took out my blades, ready to fight.
Then I noticed that he has a whole crowd of people behind him "they are elves!" He yelled and the crowd started running at us.
"Maybe not. Run!" I said and me and Rayla instantly started running, the guys were a little stunned at first, but they recovered quickly and started following us.
We were running as fast as our legs could carry us, we saw an opening where there weren't any humans or houses to be in our way, it was the same way we came in the town. I was looking back, not noticing the snow elf in front of me from before, I ran straight in it, tumbling down "fucking snow elf" I murmured. Rayla noticed and quickly helped me up, and we started running again.
"You know, you are really good in the battlefield, but when you're not fighting, you can be really clumsy" she said "and how many times have you fallen again?" She smirked.
"Just shut up and run" I said with a laugh.
The crowd seemed to stop, we still kept running, you can never be too sure. We ran into the dark forest, we ran for a while, finally we stopped, we collapsed behind a giant dead tree.
"I think we're safe" Callum said, still out of breath.
"You think?" Rayla asked sarcastically "how are we supposed to find this miracle healer anyway?"
We all hear some branches snapping from within the forest, we all get on our feet quickly and get ready for anything that comes out of the dark.
We see a black figure in the distance, the figure came closer to us, and I could slowly start seeing what came out of the dark. It was a big wolf with a young girl riding it.
"I'll help you find her" the young girl said, and we relaxed from our fighting stances, understanding that she is no threat to us "follow us. This way" she said, turned and started walking. Callum and Ezran started following her whilst me and Rayla just looked at each other confused. We both just shrugged and also started following them.
"Uhh, hi, who are you exactly?" Rayla asked the girl.
"Me? I'm Ellis, and this is Ava" she gave the big creature a pet on the head "she's a wolf" she added.
"Oh, really, I thought bird" she said with a smirk, and I let out a quiet laugh.
"Oh, i should've introduced you guys" he said and cleared his throat "Ellis, this is Rayla and (y/n), we met them because, uh...well, they broke into our castle, trying to kill Ezran" he said nervously scratching the back of his head.
"But it's all good, we're past that now" Ezran chirped in.
"People meet in so many interesting ways" Ellis said.
"Alright, now that we all know each other, let's answer the most important question, how exactly do we find the healer?" I asked and looked at Ellis.
"The thing is, we didn't find her, she found us" she said and looked up at the mountain "we were hiding in a big, twisty, hollow tree. Up near the rim"
"Then we need to find that tree, even if it takes a whole night" Callum said full with determination.
"Wait that's it? That's all we have to go on? A weird tree, where this miracle healer showed up three years ago?" Rayla asked.
"Well, do you have a better idea?" Callum asked her.
"As a matter of fact!......i do not" she said defeatedly.
"I'll get us to that tree" Ellis said "the healer will find us there, and she'll save the egg!"
"And maybe she can help with your hands as well" Ezran said.
"Don't worry about that right now" Rayla said and looked at me, I nodded.
"The egg is our priority right now" I added.
"Alright, let's get a move on then" Ellis said and started leading us to the tree.
______________________________________
Holy crap, you guys, thank you all for 2k reads! Thank you for actually enjoying this story! I know there isn't enough alone time with Rayla in this part, but don't you worry, there's gonna be enough of it in the next part (◕ᴥ◕)
~love y'all~