Chapter Three: Peace & Claws

One Day Later…

They were in the forest outskirts of the Kingdom, the three of them.

The day had begun with a sunny disposition and faded out into gloom with the arrival of grey clouds. It felt like only a few minutes ago that they'd left the castle grounds and begun to travel the uncharted path of the forest floor with only Rayla's knowledge to be certain that they were even going in the right direction of Xadia. The Elf found that their travel so far had been quiet and somewhat reserved, more so than she was comfortable with even if her company we're humans. Still, it was easy to understand that the events in the past day weren't exactly the kind that would put people in a talkative mood. The Princes had to rely on the words of an Assassin, one who they'd only formed a tenuous alliance with, for some hope that their father had even survived the night.

It didn't help that one of her bonds had fallen off in the night, a secret indicator of the king's fate.

If those factors weren't enough reason for her to be as silent as her allies, there was the other bond to consider. It wasn't extremely tight yet, just barely allowing room for her wrist. Yet, she knew what would happen within the passage of the coming days. She knew the bond would tighten more and more, like a constricting python. And then one day, it would simply cut through the bone and flesh altogether. Not unless…

No. There was no other option for her. Rayla wouldn't even consider killing anyone like Ezran. Adorable, somewhat innocent Ezran with his strange glowing frog thing. She couldn't bring herself to kill grown men as it was, so a kid was definitely out of the question.

A clap of thunder sounded from somewhere in the distance; it was particularly loud at all, but it was just loud enough to pull her attention away from her own worry. The sky was darkening with the presence of more rain clouds. There would be another half hour perhaps before the first droplets made landfall. She turned to see that the human princes were noticing this too, gazes turned upward to the dark heavens in slight friction. The three of them locked eyes with each other for a brief second.

"Well...I think we should stop and wait out the storm, " Callum suggested, resting a hand on his younger brother's shoulder. It was difficult to tell for sure, but it seemed as though Ezran leaned into the touch slightly.

"Hope it doesn't extend itself into th' night. " She shrugged without a hint of opposition to Callum's words. "We should look for a spot that'll stay dry."

"What about under that huge tree?"

Ezran pointed to the distant left of himself, somewhere in between a grove of trees. Rayla stalked over to the area for a better look at what it was he was referring to. Her visual searching led her to notice a familiar tree species literally standing out amongst the more human bred types in this massive forest. The Gynoth tree, a great line of towering giants that could reach up to ninety feet high and have a radius of about forty feet. They were named Gynoth Trees in Xadia because of their tendency to house Gynoth bats. But since they didn't like the warmer conditions of the human lands, she doubted there would be any huge bats to worry over. And the tree branches, swarming with thick leaves, would be more than enough to keep them dry.

Rayla nodded to the small kid. "Tha'll do."

A lone Xa'i Boar traveled the forest floor idly. The Beast's portly form managed to hold itself up with ease on four spindly looking hooves, which carried it across the grassy earth one step at a time. It was the size of the average American grizzly bear, yet its diet was that of a herbivorous nature-in fact, it's diet had long since been satiated a half-hour ago by a luncheon of Xa'i truffles and beets. Now that its tubby belly was full of much-needed nutrients, the beast was only looking for a good place to nap out the coming storm. It marched along a well-known path between the towering trees that grew all over the land and maneuvered it's cartoonishly massive tusks in various ways to keep them from being tangled in any low branches. All the while, it kept its eye out for any predators that were still looking for their luncheon. This far out into the forest, there were almost no creatures big enough to be a threat to it. Ironically, the boar was now cautiously crossing the 'front yard' of the only predator capable of swiftly killing it.

And thankfully, he was still in enough agony to not even consider going for the boar.

The Indoraptor lay in his small cave, settled on his right side as he just breathed and thought. He still could not think with actual words or even on the level any other dinosaur could have at that moment, but it didn't stop him from recognizing the new type of pain he was in. Ever since his attack on the humans was swiftly ended by the strange ability of the bearded man, dubbed Viren by his subordinates, The Indoraptor felt dreadful . The initial few hours after his retreat were nearly the worst of his life; the heightened fall from the castle and the electric strike made every pain receptor in his nervous system throb in agony. He barely made it back to his cave before his body betrayed him and he flopped out onto the ground, barely breathing and barely existing. His muscles felt fried. His brain was on fire. His bones felt bruised from the constant falls he'd taken from the castle. The pain was only at a threshold by now, just barely any better than the torture he was in previously. His eyes were even redder than before, having spilled a fair amount of tears during his time in immense pain. Still, it was not the pain that forced his tears, nor was it the frustration of not being able to catch Rayla. Even he himself was not certain.

The Beast just felt... alone . He felt as though he were only some strange, awkward alien in a world that had an even worse reaction to him than the ones of his old world did. He was designed to be a killer and it was only within his genetic code to kill, and his insatiable bloodlust led him on a long and difficult path of confusion and pain. For once in his life, he wished he could go back to the cold, biting darkness of his steel cage where he could be cramped up against the bars, -at least there he could be familiar with his surroundings. This place was a nightmare he could not wake up from. The scariest part was that he had no idea where his efforts would lead him. His ever-growing confusion with the world around him only made him cling to the things that didn't confuse him-to kill, to eat and survive until the next day.

Time passed easily and quickly. The Indoraptor flinched involuntarily at a crack of thunder over his head, then again when the first of quadrillions of tiny raindrops began their attack on the earth below. The air from the forest, once too hot and muggy for the Indoraptor's liking, slowly transitioned into a cooler state thanks to the surging winds and the icy rain. The drop in temperature felt like heaven to his cooked scales and flesh; cooling them down as wind swam in and out of the cave. His quills shuddered and twitched the more he relaxed, managing to roll over onto his belly. His jaw lay against the cold stone floor to support his head, giving his neck well deserved rest. His red eyes gazed into the surrounding forest without purpose or thought. The Dinosaurian monster just lay there, staring idly.

There was no way he'd fallen asleep or dozed, at least not literally. But an hour later, his thoughtless meditation broke and he sighed through his nostrils stressfully. By then, it was raining so hard that a normal human eye would have immense trouble peering through the curtains of falling water. And after discovering that his eyesight wasn't much more favorable in these conditions, he opted to use a much stronger sense that enhanced genetic engineering had allowed him. The Indoraptor took in a deep heavy breath and exhaled, before repeating the process when he was done. Maybe hunting for a snack would remove the beast from his malaise . If he could just catch the scent of something among the smell of fresh rainwater…

He caught wind of something all-too-familiar.

He snarled .

The fire was small but helpful to the trio.

Like a miniature pyramid of flames, it stood in a triangular manner atop a throne of small twigs and leaves. The Bright flames cast odd shadows behind them as the wind made the fire wiggle and squirm in place. The heat of the fire seemed to encircle the entire tree trunk, giving them all protection from the raging elements from beyond the borders of the branches. Border was a strong word; some of the branches were so spaced out above their heads that waterfalls of rain cascaded from those gaps to the grassy earth they were sitting on. Besides the moisture of droplets from spattering, the trio remained mostly dry and warm.

Which was more than what could be said for their conversation so far?

Rayla wasn't the most social Elf of her village, but even she wasn't against a little talking here and there. She gazed across the crest of the fire at the human princes, once more assessing and studying them. Ezran was cross-legged, his weird grumpy pet resting idly on the side of his knee, comfortably positioned to fix Rayla with a constant glare. Though the changes of the past day had been a lot to take in, he seemed to be the most optimistic-looking of them. It was a greater imitation of his brother, who only seemed to be optimistic because any other mood would be emotionally crippling. Still, the worry in his face was much less visible, and with any luck, it would disappear altogether in a few days. He briefly glanced into his sack and then unveiled a sort of booklet-and a pen as well, inspecting them.

Rayla tilted her head. "You a poet ?"

Callum looked up, his confused look dying out quickly in favor of understanding. "Uh, no. I was just making sure my sketch pad wasn't wet or anything. I draw stuff, "

Ezran perked up. "Yeah. He draws Claudia a lot , "

Callum turned just the slightest shade of pink. "A statement which is not true, I might add. I draw a lot of different people and things."

"Well, Artists are cool either way. " Rayla's ear twitched. Was that thunder making the cracking sound? "Y'ever do... ceramic stuff?"

Callum shook his head slowly. "I kinda suck at it, strangely enough. It's tricky getting the balance right, like pressing in too hard just makes the whole thing cave in."

"And pressing in too light , " Rayla added. "Just doesn't make a difference in th' shape."

"Yeah."

The rain eagerly filled the brief silence afterward, before the Elven Assassin made a slight snorting sound. "So uh...who taught ya that...sweep th' leg thing?"

Callum went rigid. "Well, uh-actually, I just kinda came up with it."

"...Came up with et?"

"Yeah. But everyone says it's not really a thing in sword fighting, anyway."

Ezran grinned up at him. "Because it's not ."

"You are just quite the critic today, aren't you?" Callum mused. "And yeah, I know it's not, but it's an unexpected move, you know?"

Rayla shrugged. "Eh, you've got a good idea going at least. Maybe jus' sweep th' leg higher."

"That'll cut off someone's leg!"

"I...guess they never had one to stand on?"

To Rayla's genuine surprise, the human brothers laughed a little at the admittedly morbid joke. The Elf wasn't used to any of her jokes not being taken seriously misunderstood by others, but it was a strangely comfortable sense of unfamiliarity. Eventually, their collective snickers dissolved back into the rainy silence of the ongoing night, but now it was a quiet that she was fine with-no longer awkward and need if talking.

However, a little talking was in order when she noticed Ezran gazing in her direction. At her quizzical expression, the youngest prince tilted his head. "The rain is so so weird. It's like, not falling the way it was earlier ."

Rayla glanced behind herself. "Well, tha's just th' leaves and branches blocking things." She would have said more, but she considered the words of the boy a little more. She hadn't felt the splatter of the rain droplets directly behind her, but they had changed direction to her head. The young elf didn't think too hard over this odd phenomenon, but her angled seating position allowed her to notice another oddity in their surroundings. The fire made her shadow stretch into the distance before like a very long plank...but now it was blocked. Or rather mixed with another, much larger shadow.

Rayla ducked by letting herself fall completely flat on her back.

The Black Dragon's claws missed her upper torso by inches, and instead found deep purchase in the dark wood of the tree trunk. The collective startled screams of the three of them were drowned out by the shrieking roar of the draconic nightmare. Rayla was barely able to roll away from it's snapping jaws with all the reverberating ringing going on in her sensitive ears. She was hauled to her feet by Callum and Ezran, the former of which yelling something about running to her.

She chanced a look back as they bolted as fast as their legs would allow them. The Dragon was struggling with the tree's stronghold on its claws, and the natural curvature they had wasn't being helpful in the slightest. Still, it wouldn't be long before it ripped its talons free of a temporary hold and ran them down. It would never stop coming for them. For Rayla.

She grimaced at the thought, but it was her best option. As they began to cross their way through a small field of tangled bushes, she veered off in a leftward direction. It only took milliseconds for her company to notice. "Rayla, where are you going?!"

She turned to Callum and Ezran, briefly pausing to let one of the beast's roars fade out. "This dragon is after me ! And right now, you two are carrying th' most important cargo! I'll lose him somewhere out there and find you guys later!"

The Princes shared grim looks. "And if that thing eats you?!"

Rayla resisted the urge to panic at the notion; leave it to a human to think pessimistically. "Then keep on till you reach Xadia!"

If there was anything else to be said, the dragon's entrance denied everyone a chance to speak. He crashed ungracefully through the tree line and hissed in the direction of the princes. Rayla waved her arms and shouted over the booming bellow of thunder. "Here, ya witless worm! Y' want me, don't you?!"

The Obsidian Oppressor locked eyes with her, completely forgetting the humans when it's true goal became more boisterous and loud. She cleared the field of thorns as it pounced in her direction, sprinting across the uneven ground to stay ahead of the beast's gait. In the rain blurred distance, she could see something. Something that could be very helpful if she planned things right.

Rayla raced ahead.

The Indoraptor was trying once again. His body throbbed with pain, but it throbbed more with the thought of vengeance. The stubborn dinosaur shoved away from his reluctance in his chase, especially after she broke into a sprint and darted through a tangled grove of vines and thorns. While they held no danger to his tough scales, they were strong enough to slow him down considerably as his rampage tangled them around his limbs and neck. Rayla was gaining a good chunk of distance thanks to his brief struggles, and his need for vengeance cultivated in another stream of fire. The flames ate away the vines at their roots in the branches and gave way to his far superior strength, allowing the dinosaur to stumble out in open space once again and resume the chase.

It was luck that he escaped when he did, for his prey had just finished retreating into the cavernous space of a old log and disappeared from view. Leaping upon it with all his weight proved it was tougher than it looked, keeping the girl inside from being crushed by his feet. He snarled quietly and circled the log as thunder boomed over head, illuminating the world briefly. A cut in the wood had him instantly slashing out, sinking his claws into the tough bark and his teeth for good measure. He shook the log wildly as he stood on his hind legs, hearing it creak while Rayla grunted from within. Accidentally, the Indoraptor gave one particularly rough flick with his torso and sent the log flying several feet away over the crest of a few bushes. He wasted no time by leaping over the hedge and landing before the demolished log.

But where was Rayla?

A flicker of movement in the distant left made him turn towards a rocky gorge with a great depth, where his sharp eyesight honed in on a particular fleeing Non-human. Barking, the beast charged into the deep slash in the earth without hesitation, kicking up waves of collected rainwater as he did so. It was rocky on both sides of him, like a canyon of boulders and stones and pebbles, stacked on top of each other to gain elevation several feet above his head. He slowed when he found no sign of his prey down in the water with him; no way she could run fast enough to be at the other end of the ravine and no way she'd snuck past him either. He hissed at the thought of having lost her again, but a surge of relief worked through his veins at seeing her silhouette nearly to the top of one of the ravine's sides. Her scrambling was slow as she had to move over every stone, big or small-while the rain made her grip slippery. The Indoraptor smiled; he could follow her up with better ease and be upon her when she tired.

Admittedly, his pounce upward gave him little foothold on the rocks, and he was clawing off the very thing he needed to close the distance with Rayla. The strongest wind gusts sent pebbles into his face and eyes, wishing to throw his body off balance. Still, his insane insistence led him to only try harder, leaping his way when his foothold seemed strongest. He was only ten feet away from her now-as soon as he was sure the rocks could hold, he would make one final leap. His right foot slipped a little on loose gravel, but he was swift to get a better grip.

He frowned when he looked back up to see Rayla staring right-back at him, one of her feet positioned on a stone as large as his palm. Before he could do anything to stop her once his mind quickly realised her intention, she kicked with all her might and the rock came loose. It wasn't the rock colliding with his snout that horrified him, but it was how loosening that one rock ended up shifting everything out of place underneath him. He shreiked as he lost his footing almost immediately, slamming jaw first into the failing embankment and then again as gravity yanked him backwards.

The Indoraptor crashed into the shallow river with a giant splash, and a shower of rocks fell upon him too.

Rayla felt prideful.

She also felt sick.

Her plan worked out as she intended-luring the dragon to the rocky area and then trapping him here too. The dumb thing hadn't seen it until it was too late and his wingless body was cast down to the pit of the ravine. The wind bit at her ears and whipped her soaking hair about as she stood several feet above the trapped beast, his body weighed down by a large boulder over his back and one one his arm. Scream and thrash about as wildly as he might, he was effectively trapped there. He turned his head as much as his strained back would allow and roared at the Elf in spiteful anger.

Rayla forced a glare to her features. "Serves ya right, "

A sound silenced them both-louder than anything the dragon could hope to make. From the far end of the ravine, where the beast was facing, a boisterous wash of water flowed without end into the deep gorge. The Flash Flood began to fill up the low space beneath her, increasing the depth of the water by inches. Little by little, the water rose up the beast's body without lifting the rocks off his body. In fact, it made his struggles and efforts even harder than before.

Rayla shifted uncomfortably from place on solid ground; the roars of anger down below were now cries of terror. Something felt terribly wrong about this, about leaving it to drown in a place like this-some muddy ravine in the middle of nowhere. She could save him now; it wasn't too late.

No. Look at all that wa'er down there! You know how you feel about wa'er. And besides, This is his fault he's stuck here . She thought to herself, balling her fists tightly. He's been trying to kill me ever since he's first laid eyes on me! He'd kill me now if Ah were stuck in this position. Ah have a very important egg to get to Xadia.

Rayla hesiated upon hearing another roar, but she slowly forced herself to walk away.

Fear chilled the Indoraptor's blood far more than the rising water was.

No matter how different he was the likes of other animals, other extinct creatures from a bygone era, he had the one instinct present in all creatures- he knew that death was coming for him. He was already feeling claustrophobic with the rock pinning him down in the ground, but now he was dealing with the constant rise of water as well. He knew well and good how bad water was if he were to be deprived of Oxygen. When he was a much smaller version of himself, he had been submitted to tests of endurance and one of those tests included survival in a water environment. He was forced to learn to swim in a tank, but his first tests had always ended up with him feebly kicking as he sank to the bottom. He even drowned once, nearly died if weren't for the hands of his oppressors forcing himself to vomit water. It wasn't a stretch ro say he'd wanted to die then if it meant getting away from those humans.

But not now, not like this-weeks of freedom brought to a halt. His last emotion would be regret-regret that he'd ever made the choices he had that got him here. He regretted his insane bloodthirst for that scrawny non-human and even the other humans. The Indoraptor regretted not being stronger, especially as the water forced him to hold his head high for the last breaths he would ever take. He almost wished his death had been different- being impaled on the skull would at least be quicker than this suffocation...this dread. He knew he had one more minute before the water would rise over his snout and end him. He would have to take a deep breath when the time was-

Rayla crashed into the water, then resurfaced seconds later.

The Indoraptor whimpered again-surely, she was coming to finish her work. After all this time of not killing, and now she was wading towards him with blades unsheathed. Wait. Blades? How did she plan to kill him? Her blades were useless against his scales; she knew this! Now she was diving underwater, for what reason? Was she trying to cut off his hand? The Indoraptor became quiet as he tried to study her through the dark waters, to see what she was attempting to do. He barked when she burst up from underwater, and he noticed the rocky weight on his hand was gone now.

"Okay!" She panted to catch her breath, climbing out onto the rock on his back. "Ah'm gonna try to get the rock off yur back! But ya have t' help me!"

He cawed and craned his owl-gened neck to see her positioned herself underneath a part of the rock on his back. She jumped up once and slammed her shoulder into the rock, for some odd reason. It budged slightly but didn't move. Why and What was Rayla even doing? Was this some odd mating ritual, like birds did? The Indoraptor couldn't say she was his type. Or vice versa.

"Help me! Come on! Push!"

In times of confusion, the Indoraptor often resorted to one action that worked most of the time in a given situation-Imitation. He blinked as Rayla gave one more hard jumping push and then he jumped up too once the rock budged enough. Now it moved higher and...oh.

Oh.

The Indoraptor barked in agreement with her as she jumped again, him following suit. On their third unified leap, the rock stayed off of him just long enough to allow the black dinosaur to get out from under it. Rayla apparently had to dodge too, jumping into the water as it slammed into the spot she was previously in.

It worked! Rayla still couldn't believe that she'd jumped in to save this murderous beast, or that didn't try to kill her as it's last act, but she had done it either way. She saved the dragon and herself all in one go.

But any celebration was cut short when she surfaced and noticed the Indoraptor towering over her.

She couldn't resist gulping, her eyes wide as she started up at the beast belly-deep in the water. It was difficult to tell what it was thinking as it blinked down at her slowly, but given their relationship, she had to conclude that maybe he was shaping up to kill her for her services. As morbid as that sounded, she wasn't angry...she knew what she was getting into when she jumped back in to help.

The least she could was fix everything before she died.

"Hey...um…" She swallowed again, trembling and tearing up a little. While it was raining to cover it up, she closed her eyes anyway."...A-A'm...Ah'm sorry. I'm sorry for disturbing your kill...a-and for kicking ye off the side of the castle…"

"...and fer everything else, Ah may have...d-done to you."

The Indoraptor tilted his head as Rayla closed her eyes and held up a trembling hand, going silent. He scrunched up his noise in confusion with her words, her noises. But for once in his life, he could understand something. He could understand, after a life without words, one's emotions by being in proximity with them. And his animalistic senses allowed him to sense sorrow. He wasn't sure how to respond to that.

He could just eat her now, but it felt...wrong to think that, for some reason. Not just because every time he tried it brought him pain and just now almost killed him, but for something else he couldn't name. The beast trailed his gaze down to her hand, and his eyes widened as he looked over the four fingers she had…

Four fingers.

He held up his own hand like an awestruck child and placed the palm against her own. Even though his hand dwarfed hers by a lot, he could only see how perfectly similar they were by their hands alone. Her tiny fingers pointed up into his big fingers, just four digits like his own.

Just like him.

Rayla opened her eyes.

What was he doing?

The Dragon had placed his hand against hers silently, comparing their limbs and digits in a sense of deep fascination. Though confused, Rayla found herself admiring the talons against her for a moment as well. It was almost poetic, how well their fingers seemed to line up.

She looked at him, and he at her. There were questions she wanted to ask the beast, to know what was he thinking by this action. Was this an acceptance of her apology and aid? Perhaps it was!

Thunder rumbled, and the dragon slowly pulled away. With a brief glance at her, he nimbly scaled the rocky wall and disappeared over it's view.

Rayla sat in the water and blinked.