Still Here

Home, Sweet Home

Callum and Rayla approached the cliffs that led to the Katolis castle. Callum let out an audible sigh of relief. Finally home. They turned their mounts to the gates. The guards, upon seeing Rayla first, readied their weapons and jumped into battle stances. Slightly irritated, Rayla showed them the insignia that was sewn on her clothes. Then Callum appeared behind her. "Oh!" The guard pulled the gates open.

As they rode through the town, they felt a little... forgotten. The townsfolk treated them as if they were just some other townspeople. Callum half-wanted to pull a Soren and start yelling, "High Mage, here!" But he didn't. Rayla was used to this treatment, so she held her head high and kept going. Callum admired that. He smiled as she just kept going, face completely blank. Barius waved to them, though. "Hey, Barius!" With a hearty laugh, the baker responded, "Welcome back, High Mage!"

Upon reaching the castle, Callum slid off his horse and was immediately engulfed by a hug from his brother. "I missed you so much!" Rayla nodded and whispered, "Wow..." Ezran chuckled. "I missed you too!" She smiled. Suddenly, a wolf-like figure caught her eye. "Is that..." Just then, Ellis ran from the hallway.  "Hi, guys!" Callum strained his memory for an answer. "Look who I found!" Callum still struggled. "Hi, but... uh... who..." Ellis laughed. "Ellis." She stuck out her hand for him to shake. "Right. Hi. Great to see you again!"

Rayla sat and waited for Ellis to notice she was there. Finally, Ellis turned her head. "Oh, hi! You're... Kayla, right?" "Rayla," she corrected. "Right! Rayla. How have you been?" Rayla smiled. "Good. Thanks. You?" Ellis nodded. "I've been good." Callum had a look of concern cross his face as his fiancé had a legitimate conversation with an eleven year old. I mean, he may have expected this from Ezran, but not Ellis. "Okayyyy....." He mumbled as he returned to his home.

Walking through the halls of the castle, Callum noticed how much had... stayed exactly the same. Like, literally nothing had changed. "High Mage!" Opeli walked toward Callum. "Hey, Opeli. How were things in Katolis?" Opeli's face darkened. "Thanks to your little 'break', Katolis has had EIGHT outbreaks that YOU could have fixed with magic." Callum sighed. "Sorry, Opeli. I just- Rayla needed time with her foster father." "Do I look like I-" Rayla waved to Opeli. "Yeah. Hi. Right here." The sarcastic smile on Rayla's face beckoned a booming laugh from Soren.

"Step-Mage! Rayla! Welcome back!" Callum chuckled at the crownguard. "Hey, Soren. How have you been?" Soren smiled. "Great! Better than ever!" Callum smiled. "That's good." Corvus appeared behind Soren. "High Mage," he acknowledged, bowing. "Corvus," Callum replied, nodding to the king's most trusted protector. (Uh, no offense, Soren.)

"Well, rest up. You've a lot to catch up on," Opeli suggested, frowning with irritation. "Yeah. Goodnight, everyone." Callum strode off to his bedroom. I had no idea this would cause so much trouble. Rayla shut the door behind him. "You alright?" she asked. "Yeah. Sometimes, I cannot stand Opeli. I mean, yeah. She is a great high cleric, but like..." He paused, a far-off look in his eyes. "What if she had a point? We took a three week break! And we didn't stop to think about how dangerous that could've been!" Rayla sighed. "Yeah. We're home now, though. We should get some rest so we can make up for our mistakes."

Callum took a deep breath. "Yeah. Yeah, okay."