They soon left the Banther Lodge and started to grow tired of walking along the path when Callum caught sight of a river that they're walking alongside by. He glanced at his companions, all of them looking tired and had fell down for a quick breather.
Runaan was about to walk off into the forest when he noticed the children about to board the docked boat and Ram had helped Diana bring out another boat. "What are you guys doing?"
"We can hitch a ride on these boats," Callum said.
"No. We're walking," said Rayla stubbornly.
"We can get to Xadia faster if we take the river," Diana pointed out.
"We're not taking the boat. End of discussion," Rayla said, running a hand over her face.
Runaan knew she hated water for a long time, ever since she was a little elfing, and he'd never make her do anything dangerous that involved water, but right now they really neaded to make haste towards the Dragon Queen and deliver her baby as well as the warning.
Callum noticed something was wrong with Rayla and asked, "Are you scared of the water?"
"No!" Rayla denied. "I just think going through the forest is a better idea." She crossed her arms.
"Really?" Diana looked at Rayla weirdly. "Going across the forest where there'll be soldiers and bandits searching for us when we've got a river to loose their trail of us?"
"Fine!" Rayla cursed. "We'll take the stupid boat!" She marched and boarded the boat. The humans (along with the grumpy glowtoad and the cute baby Storm dragon) mounted the first boat and the elves mounted the boat behind them.
For the next hour, they sailed along the river. Rayla kept very quiet at the front, hiding her green face as she knelt on the floor. Ezran sat at the back with Bait whilst Diana and Callum sat in the middle with Zym between them, watching them eagerly.
Ezran noticed Bait was dipping his tail in the water. "Bait don't dip your tail in the water like that." He pulled the glow toad out of the water "No playing in the water," he scolded gently. His words intrigued Rayla.
"Is he called Bait because he's used to catching big fish?" Rayla grumbled.
"Shush," Diana hissed. "He doesn't know how delicious he is."
Callum rolled his eyes, getting exasperated at this constant tension and asked, "Why don't we just calm down and play a game called 'Five Questions' to distract ourselves?"
"Please. No questions," begged the groggy Rayla.
"I think we should," Ez said in agreement. "Maybe we can get to know each other better."
"Fine," Rayla accepted reluctantly. "Just five questions."
"Okay." Callum beamed. "Question One. Is it true that everything and everywhere in Xadia magic?"
"Yes," answered Rayla. She managed to turn around and sit down on the floor of the rowboat so they could have a proper conversation.
"It must be amazing being surrounded by so much magic," said Callum in wonder, ecstatic that all the stories about the magic he read from the library were indeed true. "I've always dreamed of seeing what it's like there."
Rayla smiled a little, seeing such wonder and amazement in his eyes. She leaned over the ledge of the boat, staring out at the water and lily pads they passed by. "It's just like that saying that 'everywhere you look there's nature'. It's just part of the vibrance or spirit of things you know?"
"I can't wait to see it," Callum said eagerly.
"Me too," expressed Diana. "Remember all those cool stories you told to me and Ez when we played in the castle?" Ezran's face brightened up as he remembered those lovely nights when Callum would read to them. Callum nodded remembering those times.
"Okay. Question Two," Callum spoke again. "What are your parents like?"
The moment he asked that question, Rayla hid her face again, concealing anger and pain. "I don't wanna talk about it."
"Oh. I'm sorry," he apologised quickly. "I didn't mean.."
"It's fine," replied Rayla.
"Uh, guys... is it just me or is the river going faster?" At Diana's comment, everyone looked down river. The water was much rougher down there, speeding along with rocks, twists, and whitewater. Rayla bolted upright.
"Pull the boat over!" Rayla commanded as she crawled as far back in the boat as she could go, accidentally bumping into Diana.
"I don't think there's time," admitted Callum as he held onto Zym.
"I admit it! I hate water," Rayla said. "I'm afraid of it, it makes me sick. All of the bad things."
"It's too late, I'm sorry," Callum said. "Hang on!"
Rayla gripped the boat as it took a sudden dip over a short waterfall, heading into the roaring rapids. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. But Callum, Ezran, Diana, and the two critters shrieked with delight as the water splashed over them, especially Diana enjoyed getting soaked by the refreshing water.
"Hold on!" Skor called out to them.
"Keep holding!" yelled Callum.
Rayla gritted her teeth as the boat careened through the whitewater. They hopped over stones and thumped over logs, rushing with the turns of the river. Finally, the boat tumbled down one last waterfall and then suddenly the rapids has miraculously ended.
Callum's heart was beating hard, but he was energized. He hadn't braved rapids like that since his father-son bonding trip with his stepfather and brother. But he felt sympathetic towards Rayla when he saw her lying on the back of the boat, drenched and completely exhausted.
"You've face your fear," Callum said to Rayla. "How do you feel towards it now?"
"I never felt worse about water," said Rayla bluntly.
"Are you going to be okay?" Diana asked Rayla.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," said Rayla.
"Hey, where's Bait?" Ezran asked.
The ten of them looked in every corner of their boats for Bait, but he was nowhere to be found. Callum scanned the water and finally spotted the yellow blob.
"Over there!" he shouted.
"Oh for goodness sake," grumbled Diana.
Bait had evidently been bumped from the boat during the wild ride and was just now catching up, bouncing down the last of the rapids. They watched as he fell headlong down the waterfall, landing some distance from the boats. He bobbed up and down like a buoy.
"Bait! Get back here!" Ezran yelled. "You need to be in the boat, not out of it!"
Callum and Diana slowed the boat down to a crawl with an oar, and Bait flapped his toad legs as fast as he could, slowly closing the distance between him and the boat. Ezran took hold of Bait after the grumpy glowtoad has reached the boat.
Diana soon something glowing from Callum's bag and realized it was the strange cube thing from the lodge.
"Umm... Callum?" Diana pointed to the cube. "Is it supposed to be glowing?"
"That's the Ocean rune." Callum picked it up and the light dimmed. He moved the cube closer to the bottom of the boat and it started glowing again.
"Please tell me it's because Diana is connected to the Ocean arcanum and not something else," pleaded Callisto.
"I'm not connected to the Ocean arcanum," Diana admitted.
"BAM!" Something hit the boats from below and sent it shooting up into the air. Before she knew it, Diana was looking straight into the jaws of a giant green river monster. It snapped its teeth, but missed the boats and the occupants.
Callum (who was holding onto a startled Zym), Diana, Ezran, Bait, Runaan, Ethari, Callisto, Skor, Andromeda, and Ram has landed downstream with tremendous splash.
Diana coughed out some water and looked around curiously before she asked, "Where's Rayla?"
Over on the shore, Rayla has bent sent flying and have been flipped back onto dry land. She started kissing the solid ground gleefully and said, "Sweet solid land, we meet again. How I've missed your solidness."
A huge splash caught her attention to the humans, the elves, and the baby dragon as they all swam back to solid ground. But the huge river monster had no interest in them — it had set its hungry eyes on Bait.
Rayla cupped her hands over her mouth and yelled, "Guys! Behind you! Bait is in trouble!"
But they have trouble hearing what Rayla was saying to them.
"What did she say?" Andromeda asked, confused.
"Something about Bait, I think," replied Diana with a shrug.
"I think she's reminding us to get Bait out of the water," Callum said with Zym on top of his head.
"Where is he?" Ezran looked around for his pet glowtoad.
The river monster lunged at Bait. This time Bait leaped and landed on the side of the monster's face.
Rayla facepalmed and muttered, "Goodbye, sweet solid land. I barely knew you..."
With that, Rayla leaped into the river and landed on a slippery, floating log. She took a moment to get her bearings and ten stood up with her blades drawn.
Just then, the river monster threw its scaly green head back, tossing Bait high into the air. As Bait plummeted back toward the water, the monster opened its jaws to catch him in its mouth. Rayla flipped from the log and into its mouth, jamming its jaws open with her blades. Bait on Rayla's head instead of inside of the monster.
The monster nosedived deep below the surface, trying to shake Rayla from its jaws. Rayla squeezed Bait in her arms and tried her best not to get seasick. She'd never been underwater for so long. Her lungs felt like they were going to burst.
With a burst of courage, she managed to scramble out of the creature's jaws and hook one blade into the folds of its leathery skin just as they broke the surface again. The creature thrashed about and Rayla hung on tight, with Bait hanging on to her. She glanced at the shore. Where's the others? She could use a little help.
Callum suddenly heard loud thrashing coming from the lake behind them. He spun around and was stunned to see Rayla saving Bait from a river monster.
"Rayla!" Ethari exclaimed when he saw her fighting against the river monster.
"Rayla, jump!" yelled Callum as he quickly drew a rune over the water and said, "Fulminis!" He plunged his electrified hand into the water.
"Zap!" The electricity traveled through the water and hit the monster with a mighty shock. It fell back into the water and made a quick getaway.
A moment later, Rayla and Bait plummeted back into the river. They swam to shore where the team is at.
"Rayla, you saved Bait." Ezran reached out for the toad with a expression full of gratitude. Then he covered Bait's ears. "Without you, he would have been fish food."
"That was really brave, Rayla," Callum said as he helped her out of the water.
They watched as Ethari started hugging her, while Runaan placed a hand on both of their shoulders. He threw Callum a grateful look for saving Rayla again. They started walking away from the river after the craziness. The kids started lagging behind a bit from the group, speaking to Rayla in private.
"Everyone is scared of something. There's nothing wrong with being afraid," Callum consulted. "We wouldn't have judged you."
Rayla sighed and closed her eyes. "I guess I was afraid of being afraid. The truth is I'm afraid of being judged so harshly."
"Why would you think that?" asked Diana.
Rayla slumped on the ground looking at her reflection in the puddle of water. "Because that's what happened to my parents."
The children became curious. "What do you mean?" asked Callum.
Diana perked up, remembering the cursed coins that Viggo had given her before they made their escape from the fortress. With any luck, the cursed coined elves must be Rayla's parents.
"My parents were part of an elite force, the Dragon Guard, eight elven warriors swore to protect the egg of the Dragon Prince. Storm dragons can only lay an egg every thousand years. That egg is so rare and precious." She looked at Zym as he was held by Callum, then turned away again. "When your kingdom's High Mage came, killed the Dragon King and took the Dragon Prince, everyone in my home said it was because of the Dragon Guard, my parents failing in their duty. They said they all ran and fled. I know my parents would never do that, but everyone just judged them so harshly without a second thought."
Callum felt deep sorrow for her. "What do you think happened to them?"
"I don't know. But all I do know is that they would never do that. But it's made me so angry that instead of finding out what happened to them, my people conceitedly deemed them as cowards. I'm so ashamed of what happened." Rayla shed a tear. "Since that day, I made it my goal to restore my family's honor, to prove to my people that we're not cowards. When I first came here, I wanted revenge for how humans dishonored my family, but the moment you showed me Zym..." As she spoke, she soon turned to face them. "...everything changed. This is now a journey of redemption." She wiped away another tear and a smile was brought on them.
"Being a warrior is about having fears," said Diana wisely. "And having fears is about being brave. Otherwise, why would we need to be brave?"
Rayla eyed her admirably. "You sound very wise."
"Thanks." Diana shrugged with a small smile. But she suddenly gained an uneasy look in her expression. "And, well. I have something to show you. It was given to me by Viggo before we've left the fortress. But I'll show it to you later." Rayla looked confused by Diana's uneasy statement, but nodded.
Diana sighed as they caught up with the others and gotten out the leather bag filled with the two cursed coins from her satchel. If only Rayla knew the truth about her parents, she might have to heal her emotional scars over her parents.