The Dragon Prince: Breath of Hope

Chapter 17- To the King

Looking over Callum, Rayla bit her lip, stroking his hair as he mumbled. "I'm here Cal, I'm here." At least now, the dark lightning had stopped, but he was still tossing and turning as if he were in pain. "It's alright. You can do this. You can work it out, I know you can."

He groaned, flinching and rolling to his other side.

Having rested for a while, and after accepting Corvus' help, Pyrrah was standing and stretching her wings. "He can't hear you."

"You don't know that," she muttered, not bothering to look at the sun dragon, "He always hears me. Even in his deepest nightmares, he hears me."

She shrugged and walked to the edge of the cave. "We should get moving soon. I don't know how they haven't found us yet, but they will soon if we don't get out of here."

"Can Callum be moved?"

"Yeah, his problem isn't physical, so he can be moved easily enough."

"Wait, we can't leave!" Corvus snapped at the pair, "The king is missing!"

"He's not missing," Rayla reminded him, "He just went for a walk."

"And he hasn't returned. We don't know where he is!"

"Right."

"That's the definition of missing!"

Pyrrah nodded. "He has a point."

After a moment, Rayla sighed, "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. He's missing."

"You shouldn't have let him go." The hunter looked out over the forest. "We need to find him."

"Well, weren't you telling me what a big, strong tracker you are?" the dragoness teased, "Isn't this your whole job?"

"Yes," Corvus replied, smiling at her, "Yes, I shall bring the king back safely. You have my word."

As he ran off, Pyrrah smirked, rolling her eyes. "Ooh, we have his word." She sat back down against the wall, "Stupid human."

Rayla looked over at her, giving a little smile. "That's a strange coincidence."

"What is?"

"I call Callum 'stupid lizard' when he gets on my nerves."

The dragon glared at her. "You dare call the future king a 'lizard'?!"

"Oh relax, he finds it endearing." She smiled, brushing his hair back again as he tossed.

Pyrrah glared at her for a while longer, then huffed. "You're wasting your time."

"What?"

"You. You're wasting your time if you think he's ever going to like you."

She flushed a little, and turned away in an attempt to hide it. "I-I don't know what you mean."

"Please, you couldn't be more obvious if you tried." Pyrrah ran her hand back over her horns. "You like him, more than a friend, and it's disgusting."

"What did you say?"

"An elf and a dragon?" she scoffed, "The mere idea is sickening. Your kind are just... not worthy of us."

Rayla glared at her once more. "Then where do the Variants come from then?"

Pyrrah growled. "Those creatures are abominations. Variants are a disgrace to the dragon bloodline. Mongrels. Any dragon that would lower themselves to that... and take part in creating one of those, should throw themselves into the oceans and drown."