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“Rayla check out my bedhead!” Callum shouted over to Rayla. He was staring into a pool of water and was amazed at the birdsnest that was his hair. “It’s like someone took a fork and made spaghetti with my hair.”
“Or it looks like you were struck by lightning, genius,” said Rayla.
“Oh, yeah, it could be that too,” Callum replied sheepishly. He woke up that morning hoping the memory of electrocuting himself was only a dream but Rayla’s quiet chuckles everytime she looked at him and her insistence on calling him the Thunder lord quickly shoved that hope aside. At least he finally got her to stop calling him that ridiculous nickname.
“Hey I’m going to take a quick bath do you mind turning away, or I dunno, scouting out the area?”
“Oh right, because you’re such a physical specimen I wouldn’t be able to control myself,” Rayla replied from the camp. She may have said that a bit too fast. She’d never admit it, but for a brief flash the thought of Callum in the water excited her.
“Sheesh. You don’t have to be so harsh about it. I’ll have you know, back in Katolis, I was quite the ladies man.”
“The girls you draw don’t count Callum,” Rayla retorted, without even looking up from sharpening her sword.
“Wow, I thought getting struck by lightning hurt.”
“Well they say the wit of a moon-elf is sharper than any blade.”
“Really?” Callum said with a cocked eyebrow.
“No, not really. I’m just an exception.”
“Well could you be an exception somewhere else? I want to take a bath.”
“Oh calm down. I have better things to do than look at you with your clothes off. How about this. I still need to sort some stuff out before we leave and you want to get clean, right?”
“Yeah, that’s how this whole conversation start-”
“So,” Rayla said, cutting Callum off, “I promise not to look in the direction of the pond if you promise not to bother me while I’m working.”
“Yeah I can do that.”
“Good. And you better, or there will be consequences,” Rayla threatened, the sword in her hand glinting in the late morning sun.
“Got it. Consequences. Yeah, don’t want whatever involves that.” Callum said while pointing at the sword.
“Then we have a deal. Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to get back to work.”
And with that, Rayla turned around and resumed sharpening her sword.
“I will never understand girls as long as I live,” Callum muttered while taking off his shirt. He let out a small sigh of relief as he dove into the pond. Its cool water cut right to the bone, refreshing what seemed to be his very soul. He opened his eyes, taking in everything around him. His studies in magic taught him that observing the natural world helped him understand his own Arcanum. The blue of the water did little to obstruct the untamed environment, a menagerie of life swirling around him. He let out a delighted laugh, bubbles escaping his mouth and drifting to the surface.
Wait, bubbles.
An idea popped into his head. Callum went back up to the surface and inhaled deeply. Diving back under, he began to prepare another spell. Primal energy welled inside his fingertips and he began to draw a wind rune beneath the water. When the glowing rune was complete he cast the spell.
“Aspiro.” Callum spoke, before blowing into the rune. Of course all that came out was a stream of bubbles, but that didn’t seem to matter. The spell activated. Normally when Callum performed this spell a magical wind would occur as long as he blew air from his mouth but being underwater seemed to shift its properties. Callum suddenly found himself on the end of an underwater jetstream. A jetstream that was now propelling him backwards incredibly fast.
The next couple of seconds were nothing but a blur of white, blue, and panic. He was trying everything he could to control his direction but to no avail. Of course he could end the spell if he stopped exhaling but it’s pretty hard to do that when you’re screaming. And scream he did.
After what felt like an eternity, Callum’s finally stopped screaming and the jetstream ceased to be. Now the only problem was the lack of air in his lungs. With his head pounding and his senses disoriented, Callum swam as hard as he could, trying to breach the surface before his body gave up. It was getting harder and harder to move his arms. His legs felt like they were filled with iron. He just had to push a few more feet. His vision was fading fast.
Rayla’s concentration was violently broken by the sound of crashing water. Quickly turning around she saw what she could only describe as “A sea dragon throwing a temper tantrum.” A miniature hurricane had sprung up in the middle of the pond. The water swelled and crashed, mimicking the ocean on a stormy day. It was chaos, and Rayla was terrified. Her fear of water kicked into overdrive, spurred by this unnatural event. She ran away, her fear only carrying her faster away from the pond. But then an even greater fear overtook her mind. Callum. Callum was in the pond.
She didn’t even have to make a decision. She was already running back to the pond. Her mind was blank, focused only on finding the boy that had given her so much. She needed to find him. She needed him.
When she got to the pond the water was already calming down. It no longer resembled something from her nightmares, but that didn’t mean she still wasn’t in one. She still couldn't see him. The once crystal clear water was now a murky brown making visibility a now impossible hope.
“Callum you had better be alive or I’m going to feed you to Zym,” Rayla said, trying to keep herself centered. It did little to help. Her two biggest fears had decided to rear their ugly heads, leaving her helpless in their jaws. She was powerless. Paralyzed with fear and nobody could help her.
“No. I will not let my fear control me. I can’t let it. I am a Moonshadow elf assassin and I will not let something as meaningless as fear kill my friend!” These thoughts echoed through her mind, getting louder and louder, eventually breaking her free from her stupor. Rayla shook her head, the mental fog that had enveloped her head evaporated.
She began to prepare herself for the water. Her swords were shoved to the side, her boots kicked off. She had just cast her vest down when the pond erupted yet again. Only this time, at the center of it all was a boy.
“Callum!”
He was struggling, that much was obvious. His head kept going under and Rayla wasn’t sure how much longer until he’d go down and never come back up. She dove in. Even swimming as hard as she could, Rayla didn’t get to Callum before his head went under again. She reached down and just barely managed to grab him. But she couldn’t afford to be relieved yet. The swim back to shore took longer than eternity. As she dragged him onto land she looked at his chest and panic set in once again. His chest wasn’t moving.
Be calm. Act. Help. She began to do chest compressions. She prayed to the Moon that she was doing this right. She wasn’t sure how well human and elf anatomy lined up and she knew even less about resuscitation. But after about 30 compressions and little change she knew what she had to do. And she was not looking forward to it. She was never comfortable with the concept of mouth-to-mouth, even less so now that Callum was involved. She always felt creepy doing it. But it was either do it or let him die.
She steeled herself for the inevitable and leaned down.
“Don’t think about it. Just do it.”
The first thing that Callum thought when he woke up was, “Oh I’m so dead. Everything's black and my head hurts.”
His second thought was, “Wait is your head supposed to hurt when you’re dead?” followed by, “Callum, you idiot. You’re not dead, your eyes are just closed. Open them.”
Following his own advice, Callum opened his eyes to Rayla’s face inches from his and descending fast. Another thought flashed through his mind.
“Huh, maybe I am dead. This definitely wouldn’t be happening in any other circumstance.”
And then.
“Oh god she’s getting closer.”
Callum let out a pathetic sputter, coughing out the small amount of his water in his system.
“You’re alive!” Rayla shouted before pulling him into a bonecrushing hug.
“Yes I’m alive. Won’t be for much longer if you don’t let me go. I sort of need to breathe”
“Right sorry,” Rayla said, letting go of him. “I was just so scared. I couldn’t see you and then your head popped up and it kept going under and I had to get you oh Primals you’re alive!”
Tears were rolling down her face as joy filled her. She hadn’t lost him; he was still here.
“Hey, uh why were you leaning over me like that?”
Callum’s question caused all the relief she was feeling to transform into embarrassment.
“Well you see I was trying to revive you and chest compressions weren’t working, so I thought I had to...”
“To, what? Kiss me?! Rayla we aren’t living in a fairytale” Callum said with a befuddled look on his face.
“No, you waterlogged moron! I was going to give you mouth-to-mouth.” Rayla was blushing now, hopefully less than the burn in her cheeks suggested.
“So… Kissing me then?” retorted Callum, this time with a bit of a more joking tone even though he was blushing too. “You know if you wanted to do that you could have just asked,” he added, only half joking this time.
“Shut up and get dressed. Or can you not do that without nearly dying either?”
“Haha. You’re just lucky I decided to keep my underwear on. Otherwise my rescue would be pretty awkward.”
“Get. Dressed.” Rayla ordered. The blush on her cheeks made her order lose much of its punch but nonetheless Callum complied.
“Fine. Just one more thing.” Callum pulled Rayla into a hug. “Thank you for saving me. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” His head rested on her shoulder and he hoped that she couldn't see how red his cheeks were.
“I know. You’d be dead in a week without me. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
The tears on her face hadn’t completely dried yet when Callum finally let go of her. She hurriedly wiped them away and began putting everything she had taken off back on. As she finished pulling her boot up she caught Callum’s eye as he was wrapping his scarf back around. They both looked away, each still a touch embarrassed at the intimacy they just shared.
“You know, you technically broke your word. You looked in the direction of the pond.” Callum’s voice piped up beside her as they walked back to camp.
“Yeah, and you broke yours by disturbing me and my work. But if you want I can throw you back in and we could pretend none of this happened.”
“I’ll pass, I think I’ve had enough of the water for today. Drowning, as it turns out, is not a fun experience.”
“I’ve actually been meaning to ask you that. What happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“One second I’m sharpening my sword and the next a damned storm appears in the pond.”
“Oh. That.” Callum said, the embarrassment in voice obvious to even a deaf rock. “Well funny story. I was practicing magic and…”