Once Callum's cold has improved, he was the first one to awake before anyone else. He put out the fire, cleaned the camp, and gingerly placed his adoptive son in his pack. Then he woke up Rayla, Diana, Ezran, Runaan, Ethari, Skor, Callisto, Andromeda, and Ram.
"Lets go," he said.
He watched as everyone woke up, but he stood near Runaan's side as he woke up and smiled at him with a wave of gratitude washing over him towards the elf.
"Thanks for saving me, Runaan." Callum felt himself warming up to the adult elf.
"You're welcome, Callum." Runaan's voice has became warm and gentle towards the determined boy.
Everyone hurried into the snow without a single piece of hesitation. They left the cave quietly and made their way through the quiet forest where there was no fear of any wolves, much to their relief. Callum walked near Rayla and Runaan, while Diana and Ezran walked alongside the other Moonshadow elves. It took a while, but it wasn't long till Diana saw something up ahead. They soon came up a hill to see a mountain village. The small, quaint houses were covered in at least a foot of snow, and smoke rose from the chimneys. A towering mountain with a flat top created a backdrop for the town.
"Uh oh." Diana suddenly recognizes the village with a touch alarm and glanced at the elves. She had almost forgotten that she village is paranoid about elves and explorers. "I think we've found some trouble."
"Oh boy." Callum cringed at the village as soon as he recognizes it. "This village holds a massive grudge regarding elves. We're gonna have to pass through an elf-hating town."
Everyone exchanged uneasy glances at Callum's warning, but Diana exchanged a look with Ram uncertainly and looked back at them nervously.
"How are we going to get through?" Diana asked Callum, who shrugged helplessly.
"I've got this covered." Rayla butt in a little too happily before reaching into Ezran's backpack and pulling out a long dark green hooded cloak. "Meet Human Rayla!" The elf girl spun herself around and pulled the hood up, grinning proudly.
Everyone just looked at her in confusion, but Diana felt slightly confounded of the sight of Rayla pretending to be a human.
"Okay." Diana gave Callum a flat look. "How hard did I hit my head this morning, Callum?"
"You didn't," replied Callum.
Diana and Callum both looked unconvinced, while Ezran and the elves looked a little curious about the sight of the idea.
"You know you're going to stick out, right?" Diana asked Rayla.
"Relax." Rayla smirked playfully. "I'll just pair my disguise with my perfect human impressions."
"Can't you use a disguising spell or use something to cast an illusion of a fifth finger?" Callum asked her. "You're a Moonshadow elf after all. You're connected to it."
"I can't do that without the Moon." Rayla pointed up to the sun. "Also, I don't know a lot about doing moon magic. I'll just find something to cover my hands." She stared around and to her surprise, she saw a figure of snow built near a hug. "Perfect! A snow-elf." She dashed off to it.
"That's a snowman," corrected Diana. She watched as Rayla run to the snowman made of three large balls of snow with twigs poking out its sides, a carrot, stones resembling a mouth of teeth and eyes.
The elf pulled the gloves off the sticks and covered her hands. "See perfect." She held up her gloved hands, but the pinkie fingers fell.
"I'm started to have second thoughts about this," Diana muttered under her breath.
The other elves started hiding themselves underneath their green cloaks and hid their hands within their pockets. They walked off towards town, but not before Rayla pulled the carrot nose out of the snowman's face and split it in half to place it on top of the head as ears. "Snow elf."
The ten of them (including Zym and Bait) headed towards the center of town despite Callum's worries about attracting unwanted attention. They came across a large crowd that had formed near an old stone fountain. A slender young man was standing on the edge of the fountain talking loudly to the crowd. He appeared to be putting on some sort of show and repeatedly pointed to a sheathed dagger on his belt. He waved his arms in the air theatrically. Callum and the others moved closer to see what was happening.
"I defended the Border against all manner of horrors and monstrosities — things you can't even imagine! There's nothing I, Tristan, fear now." The man strutted around the fountain, fluffing up his fur collar and smoothing down his mustache. Then he held up gloved finger as if struck by an idea. He swiped a pouch from his belt and threw it down with the coins jingling inside, reminding Diana of Rayla's cursed parents. "In fact, I wager I could defeat any challenger here with nothing, but my dagger." He patted the small sheath on his hip.
Diana snorted softly as the crowd started chatting softly about the idea of it. The man was clearly a conceited mercenary, but no one really wanted to take him on.
Ram scoffed as he said, "I can take him down in a matter of seconds."
"Don't underestimate your enemy," Diana warned him softly. "Sometimes, the most unexpecting person will have the last fight."
"Anyone dare to challenge me?" Tristan taunted.
Just then, a massive shadow fell over the performer as an enormous man in full armor stepped forward. He sheathed an immense weapon and crackled.
"This isn't even my biggest sword," he said, making the crowd whispered in excitement.
The giant and the mercenary squared off and Callum recognized an opportunity, he said, "Everyone's distracted. Let's go."
"Wait." Rayla's eyes were on the knife. "Look."
As the giant swung his sword as Tristan pulled the dagger out of its sheath. As Rayla suspected, the blade was only a few inches long, but it glowed fire orange as though it had been pulled out from the heat of a forge.
The magic dagger sliced through the giant's sword like butter and the broken half clanged to the ground. The hulk stared at the hilt of his sword, utterly dumbfounded, then dropped it and backed away in fear.
"Anyone else?" Tristan asked.
The crowd gasped in awe as Tristan scuttled around to pocket his winnings.
"What was that?" Callum asked.
"A Sunforge blade," replied Rayla.
"What's a Sunforge blade?" asked Ezran curiously.
"In Xadia, Sunfire elves can make magic weapons that stay as hot as the moment they're forged for hundreds of years," Rayla explained.
Ethari observed the man getting given money for his victory. He eyed the scabbard intently. "The sheath is inscribed with special runes to protect him from the heat."
"Otherwise, his pants would be on fire?" joked Diana, making them all laughed at her comment.
"Lets get going." Runaan soon led everyone through the town, but everyone looked around nervously to keep make sure they weren't being followed nor chased.
"I've heard that a miracle healer lives up in Cursed Caldera," whispered Callum to the others.
Rayla hung her head towards him and said, "Please tell the mountain is named that because it was discovered by the great explorer, Sir Phinneas Kirst."
"Well, no." Callum gave her a sympathetic look. "It's apparently infested with horrible monsters—"
"Yeah, I know," said Rayla.
Suddenly, they heard shouting and clanging heading in their direction. A familiar voice shouted, "There they are!" Their eyes widened in fear. Tristan came running from around the corner leading a pack of angry villagers.
"They're elves!" Tristan yelled.
"Oh snap!" Runaan cursed under his breath. "Lets go!"
The elves sprinted away from the violent, elf-fearing humans with Callum, Diana, and Ezran behind them. The crowd chased the gang over bridges, through narrow passages, and all the way to the edge of the village, swords and pitchforks ready to slaughter the enemies.
"Suddenly, the Cursed Caldera doesn't seem like such a bad option!" Rayla yelled over her shoulder.
As they fled into the caldera, where black winds swirled wildly around a volcanic-shaped peak. They ran through snow and mist, barely noticing the darkening sky.
Finally, gasping in the air, the group collapsed at the base of a tree and looked down the mountain for their pursers. No one was coming; they were entirely alone on the caldera.
"I think we're safe," Callum said.
The forest stretched around them in all directions, and the path upward loomed darker than where they had come from. Creepy, mysterious sounds echoed all around them.
"Guys, this place is pretty creepy," Ezran said, while Bait grunted his agreement.
"Safe. Sure," Rayla said. "How are we supposed to find anyone? And what's that?"
She pointed to a rock just above them.
A large, shadowy creature stood looking down on them with glimmering green eyes. The beast pawed at the ground, snarling under its breath. Rayla put one hand on a blade, but the last of the fading daylight illuminated the creature.
It wasn't one creature — it was two.
There's a young girl on the huge creature. She was wearing a hat, boots, and a heavy winter coat. Her long black hair hung in a single braid down her back.
The girl was riding a full-grown wolf — a very big wolf. The wolf seemed taller than the girl. The wolf is light brown and wearing a green collar with a shiny stone dangling from it.
"Hi," said the girl. "I'm Ellis, and this is my sweetie-wolf, Ava." Ellis ruffled the fur on Ava's head. "Come with me. I'll help you find the healer."
They exchanged uncertain looks before they started following Ellis and Ava through the forming swampland. Despite their wariness, the ten of them continued going through Cursed Caldera with Ellis and Ava as their guide. They jumped over ledges, climbed rickety fallen trees, and walked single file along narrow ridges. The hours passed quickly as they navigated the many obstacles, and by the time they reached a clearing halfway up the mountain, the day was ending. The sun was low, and the sky was on fire with a blazing sunset and into a calming twilight.
"Wow." Ezran marveled the incoming twilight sky as they continued making their way towards the mountain. It was around night hours till they had started to arrive to a cliff and that has a hollow tree. The truck was as large as a small cottage and rose what had to be at least one hundred feet into the night sky.
They were soon bathed from a gentle, silvery glow from the full moon. Diana looked up to see a figure emerging as if from the moon, getting larger as it approached the ledge. Diana could make out wings so broad they appeared as wide as the moon itself.
"It's a moon phoenix," Rayla said. "It's so beautiful."
"I thought the moon phoenixes were just a myth," Callum said.
"Not the first time you've been wrong today, buddy," said Rayla.
Diana kept an wary eye for any dangers before gazing at the bird again. Diana took note of the bird's dazzling plumage. Streaks of blue and purple highlighted its thick dark blue feathers, which appeared iridescent and magical in the moonlight.
They all watched as the phoenix knelt and a passenger dismounted. The woman sprang lightly from the bird's back. She wore a long blue cloak covered with crystals. Her snow-white hair was wound up in a knot on top of her head, and two braided plaits hung in front of her ears. Her very presence seemed to calm Shira's racing heart.
But Rayla wasn't calm.
"That's no healer," Rayla suddenly burst out. "She's a fake."
"What?" Callum looked at the elf, confused. "How do you know?"
"She's a Moon mage, an illusionist," Rayla explained. "She can't heal anything."
"It is true," addressed the Moonshadow elf. "I am no healer. I am Lujanne, Guardian of the Moon Nexus."
"I'm such an idiot," cursed Rayla, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I should have figured it out. None of the dead monsters were real. They were all illusions."
"Yes. They were just to scare you. That's how I protect the Nexus," Lujanne said.
"Wait a minute. If you're not a healer...how did you save Ava's leg?" Ellis asked Lujanne, desperately.
Lujanne approached them, stroking the wolf's furry cheek and kneeling. "I remember you and that little cub, both so frightened. I saw she had lost her leg, and I understood that humans would have trouble accepting her. But I knew her spirit was strong and that was all that mattered. To help you, I created an illusion. A leg that others would see and feel, even though it wasn't real." She touched the blue collar with the moonstone pendant around Ava's neck. "I enchanted the moonstone collar to hold the spell." She stroked her face. "She never needed that fourth leg to be happy. Others did." She took it off and the fourth leg disappeared. Ava and Ellis realized that although she only had three legs, her spirit was strong and that was all that mattered.
"We need your help," said Runaan. "We all need to stay in a place temporarily."
"We need to hide for a bit." Callum took out Zym from his bag and revealed the baby dragon to Lujanne. The Moon mage gasped softly at the sight of the supposedly decreased Dragon Prince. She offered a hand to Zym and he sniffed her hand before giving it a friendly lick.
"You can hide out in the Moon Nexus for the time being," said Lujanne with a smile and walked towards the opposite path of them. "The Moon Nexus is this way."