cold morning {Caleb}

[Nalean Silverstar]

Nalean groaned softly to herself when she opened her eyes, attempting to force herself to get up. The past few days were catching up with her and Reynald was making sure that she payed for turning up late for her first day of training. She sat up, yawning glancing around the cave noting that both the ancient dragon riders were still sleeping from what she could see. She threw the covers off and made sure that she slipped out the cave without making a sound. The last thing she wanted was for Reynald or Auraya to wake and decide to start her training early. Safron blinked sleepily, noticing that her rider was awake. She stretched, obviously meaning to go with her rider. Nalean held out her hand signalling to Safron to stay, <"I need some one to tell them that I'm just out for a short ride"> she nodded in the direction of the two riders.

Safron shook her head irritably, she didn't think much of Nalean's horse and didn't understand why the girl was so adamant about riding him almost every second day. <"I still don't understand what you see in that animal, I make much better conversation"> she huffed softly. <"Exactly, Shadow isn't able to talk now is he"> she raised her eyebrows at the sharp tongued dragon. <"Avria's right about your tongue being to sharp"> she smiled as the dragon shook her head and placed her head on her one forepaw. <"Have fun"> Safron closed her eyes and sighed softly. Nalean rolled her eyes and walked towards her horse. The horse had been tied to a stake that had been droven into the ground. She untied him and mounted him not bothering to put a saddle or brible on him. She knew her horse well enough to be able to control him with just a halter.

She kicked him forward into a trot and maneuvered him onto a trail that she had ridden on a few times. She used these early morning rides to learn the mountains so that she would never get lost in them again and would be able to navigate her way out of trouble if need be. She rode down the trail for a short distance before she saw a smaller trail that branched off the main one. She had seen this trail a few days before but it had been to late for her to explore it as Reynald had been extremely short-tempered on that particular day. She slowed Shadow to a walk, briefly enjoying the scenery, or rather the lack thereof. After about half an hour of walking the huge grey wall that had been on her left vanished and was replaced with a steep drop. She stopped Shadow and watched the sunset, she had gotten few chances to just stop for a moment for the past few days.

She bit her lip as a nagging feeling came over her, she had been unable to get back home to tell her parents that she was alive and that no serious harm had come to her. Except for the fact that you have bonded with a dragon and caused Samarid to loose its queen, a small voice at the back of her mind reminded her. She shook her head, knowing that there was no way for her to change what had happened. Her father had always told her that things happened for a reason and wishing for things to be different would help no one. She slid off Shadow's back and walked to the Stallion's head. He thrust his head into her arms, obviously desperate for affection. She scratched him behind his ear and he stretched out his neck enjoying the rare moment of attention all to himself.

[Caleb Strayton]

( EVERYDAY I SPEND AWAY MY SOUL'S INSIDE OUT ! )

Caleb had spent far too long on this road. But his hope wouldn't die. He'd find her. One day, he had to find her.

Everyday, the same thought crossed his mind over again: what if he never did find her? What if something had hap- no. He wouldn't let that thought complete itself in his mind. Nothing would happen to her. Nothing could happen to her. She was... she was strong. She was a fighter. She always had been. And she'd visisted Stryklak plenty of times before... but she'd been away far too long this time. Caleb had been gripped with worry. He'd never been able to tell her how he felt while she was around him- but now that she was gone... he couldn't stand the thought of her now knowing. He had to find her, to tell her how he felt. Hopefully, she felt the same, but if not... at least she would know. A small grim smile, which was a rarity these days, appeared on Caleb's face unknowingly.

Caleb had almost lost sight of where he was now. He'd lost his map while travelling through a forest while the evening was still young, and managed to drop his map unknowingly. Hence the reason why he'd been off track for a while now. He'd ended up in a village a few days ago, and found out that he was in fact travelling in a completely opposite direction to his destination. He was wasting time. But, the folks had been helpful and guided him along the right path to Stryklak, however they mentioned that this path would be long and may be slightly trecherous. Caleb, however, was determined. He didn't care what befell him- he had to get to her. He had to.

He'd get there someday.

Click, clock, click, clock. The sound of hooves echoed through Caleb's head... that wasn't quite right. He was thinking of Nalean, going over the need to find her- then why had the sound of hooves suddenly made itself known to Caleb? But that's when something clicked. Slowly, the surrounding came into his awareness: which was when his eyes flew open and he looked around, bewildered. He'd continued to ride into the night and... and fallen asleep on Kayla's back. Kayla'd rested throughout the previous day: no wonder she'd kept going. This wasn't the first time, that in his determination, Caleb's eyes had shut whilst riding: but most of the time he was awoken by Kayla having enough and needing rest, hence settling down somewhere safe besides a tree- forcing Caleb off her back. But... this time 'round things were different. Kayla'd galloped through the night with no idea of where she was meant to be going.

"Kayla!" Caleb yelled, startled and completely and utterly bewildered as he found himself out of the dense woods him and Kayla had been travelling through from what he last re-collected, and into the greens and brightness of what looked like lands that had to have some magic dwelling within them. "Oh, Kayla! What have you done?!" his voice was strained, his face completely startled. It took him a while to get over his shock: and when he did, his hand instinctively reached over to pull out his rusty compass: his only way of having even the slightest idea to where he was. Last when he'd checked, nort was... there... but now. Now... it turned out he'd been travelling South West when he ought to be travelling east. Oh my.

What was he to do now? He was, without a doubt, completely and utterly lost. He had no clue as to where he was going anymore- and travelling back to the same village (which, he had no clue as to where it was anymore), was completely and utterly pointles. He was so drowned in his panic, that the sight of a distant figure completely surpassed his senses. "Kayla, what're we going to do n-" Cal came to an abrupt halt as Kayla's slow and gentle gallop all of a sudden transformed into a top-speed run. "No! Kayla! What're you doi- Kayla! STOP!" his voice was a growl, but his horse refused to obey him. Instead, she continued to run through the open fields with more speed than Caleb would've expected off her, considering she'd travelled all night- without paying much care to the fact that Caleb was sat on her back.

Unable to do much else, Caleb pulled the rein's with as much force as he could muster, forcing Kayla to come to a halt a few feet away from a light coated horse- whose head was burried within the arms of a female with beautiful golden hair. The combination of Golden hair and the handsome Stallion was one that Caleb could swear he'd recognize from anywhere. That wasn't- that couldn't be... her? Nalean? "Nalean!" The name escaped through Caleb's lips as the thought barely touched his mind. Was it possible, that he'd found his Nalean through sheer and utter dumb luck?

[Nalean Silverstar]

She frowned as her mind drifted towards the events of the past few days. It seemed as though a century had passed since she had left her sleepy little village. So much had happened to and she knew life could never go back to the way it was, although that wouldn’t stop her from wishing it had. Even life in the village had been boring at times; it had never thrown surprises like those of the past few days. She would never go back to simply being yet another village healer, she had unintentionally joined the ranks of the Dragon Riders although they did not know about her existence just yet.

Nalean was still scratching Shadow behind his ears when she heard hoof beats and yelling behind her. She glanced behind her, not sure about who would be in the mountains at this time in the morning. She initially thought that it might have been Auraya, Reynald, Gwyndar or Silisia as they were the only other people that were currently in this area of the mountains. Well the only people that she knew of. She recognised the voice but she was certain it was her mind playing tricks on her. Caleb wouldn’t be here of all places, he was supposed to be back home. Her frown deepened and her eyes narrowed as she looked at the horse’s rider. It was Caleb. She let go of Shadow’s head as a look of surprise slowly appeared on her face.

Caleb was not supposed to be here, he was supposed to be back home, working as a blacksmith. A small smile appeared on her face, Caleb had always beep what she considered a friend and she was so glad to see a familiar face. “Caleb?” she said her surprise still evident in her voice. “What on earth are you doing here?” she asked, realising that he could ask her the exact same thing. In fact she would be disappointed if he didn’t ask her, because it meant that he didn’t actually care about her. She was certain that he had come looking for her, out of everyone in their village, Caleb had always been to one person who always seemed to worry about her.

She knew her parents also cared about her, but they had always seemed a bit naive about the world outside their village. Her father was more aware, but he at times would forget that there was more in the land than just their little village and Stryklak. She walked towards his sandy brown mare, noticing she seemed a bit full of herself. “Please don’t tell me Kayla followed her own head getting here, she’s got that look that she’s just had an exciting run” she commented rubbing the mare on the front of her face. She glanced at Caleb with her eyebrows raised, waiting for an answer.

[Caleb Strayton]

( EVERYDAY I SPEND AWAY MY SOUL'S INSIDE OUT ! )

Caleb didn't quite know if it was due to the fact that he was seeing Nalean after weeks, but she seemed to look, rather incredibly, even more beautiful than she did before. Her hair seemed to appear to have a brighter glow to it, and her face, perhaps owing to her expression of shock and joy merged together, seemed to come across as more radiant than it had done ever before. His lips stretched into a grin so wide it almost made his jaw hurt. Not a living soul could even begin to contemplate the extent of his happiness at the sight of Nalean, alive by the side of her faithful Stallion. He opened his mouth to respond to her questions, but he seemed to be at a loss for words. He was in a state of complete and utter bliss at this moment in time. All this curiosity as to where they were had vanished. The future ceased to worry him at all, and the past held no weight over him. He was here - wherever that was - in the present, with Nalean.

Acting purely on impulse, Caleb's arms leapt forwards, pulling Nalean's petite frame into a tight embrace. For a moment, he stood there, with Nalean in his arms, taking in her scent, the feel of her soft hair against his handsome, currently slightly rugged, (due to the fact that he had a slight stubble considering he'd been on the move for weeks now, with no time to really tidy himself up) face. A soft quivering neigh, that sounded almost like a laugh to Caleb's ears, broke through his moment, bringing him back to earth. Caleb reluctantly let go of Nalean, a single arm still remaining on her shoulder as he looked at her, head to toe. "Nalean! I'm so glad I finally found you!" he said, his voice reflecting only half the euphoria that was burning through his insides at this moment in time. "I've... I've been looking for you for weeks now. You didn't come back home, and I started to get worried, so one night, Kayla and I simply set out to find you." he explained briefly, not wanting to waste his time speaking when all he really wanted to do was listen to Nalean's voice.

Finally, catching his breath, a slow and slightly embarrassed grin snuck onto his face as he went slightly red in the face. "As a matter of fact, Kayla did use her own head." he mused, his eyes falling briefly on his Sandy Brown Horse who was now re-acquainting herself with Shadow. He could've sword he saw a large eye of hers roll, but perhaps that was just a mere hallucination due to the fact that his heart was racing faster than it ever had and his mental state was far more ecstatic than he thought possible. "She's been traveling all night. I, rather foolishly, fell asleep while riding on her, and she got me here completely on her own accord." he admitted, scratching the back of his neck with a slight chuckle. "I woke up to find us riding close to the border between the woods and this deserted land. I was sure we'd gotten lost, and that I was further away from you than I had been when I'd first left our village to come find you..." his voice held a note of pain now as he spoke, remembering how he felt when he'd set off from their village in order to find Nalean.

"But then, I saw Shadow, and you besides him. I couldn't believe my eyes." he sighed, his eyes looking at Nalean with a starved look. He wanted to tell her now, right this moment, how he felt about her... but it didn't seem like the time, nor the circumstance in which he'd like to tell her. No, now wasn't the time to tell her. But... that wasn't all he had to say her. He had a lot to ask her, and in all honesty, for now, he just wanted to spend some time with her and let the fact that he'd finally found her, sink in. It still didn't seem real: being with Nalean, here in these lands that held such simplicity to them, but were yet elegant and beautiful... exactly like his Nalean. She was so simple, but yet she had this beauty and elegance to her that no one in their right minds could ever call her plain. "Where are we Nalean? Why are you here? Where have you been?"

[Nalean Silverstar]

Nalean was taken aback when Caleb suddenly pulled her into a tight hug. He was obviously happy to see her and she didn’t pull away like she would have for most people. Cal had always had a special place in her heart, she had no idea how she felt about him but she knew that he was always someone she could depend on. He finally pulled away when a neigh came from a horse. She raised her eyebrows, “So I take it you missed me?” she asked with a small smile on her face. She glanced away quickly as he spoke, feeling guilty about making him worry about her like that. She should never have gone after Silisia’s horse, she should have ignored him and headed back home. But how was she to know that simply catching a horse would change her life so drastically? No one could have predicted that unless they possessed the gift of foresight, which she didn’t. She wasn’t sure how to respond to his words, how was she going to explain Safron to Caleb without sounding crazy? She knew that if she told him the truth about Safron, she would then have to give him the whole truth not just a condensed version.

She smiled at his words about Kayla and simply replied, “That sounds like Kayla, always following her own head and ignoring her rider.” She was actually surprised to hear that Kayla had travelled here on her own accord. “You’re telling me it took you a matter of weeks to make a journey that most would make in a few hour?” she asked, forcing herself to not laugh at Caleb’s lack of direction. She was not about to tell Caleb where he was, surely he must recognised these mountains as the ones that ran between Stryklak and Maldragua? She simply decided that remaining quiet was the safest option for the moment.

She simply smiled and glanced back at the stallion who had found a patch of grass and was munching merrily, watching them. The stallion did stand out quite a bit with his presence and colouring. “Well Shadow does look like a horse that can only imagined from a distance”, she said teasing Caleb lightly. She was still not sure what to make of Caleb’s arrival. She was glad he was here, but was worried at the same time that someone would try and hurt him in order to gain her allegiance. She was sure that her worries were unfound, but at the same time she couldn’t help but worry about Caleb’s well-being. She couldn’t help but sigh at Caleb’s next few questions, pausing trying to think of what would be the best way to answer them. The first question was the easiest one to answer, the others...... Well they would be a lot harder and she wasn’t sure how she was going to answer them. She bit her lip, still thinking of the best approach to answering his questions; she knew she had to tell him the truth. It would be unfair of her to not tell him, but the problem was how was she going to tell him? Caleb had always been extremely overprotective of her, even though he knew that she was more than capable of taking care of herself.

“First of all we’re in the mountains close to Maldragua, surely you recognise it?” she asked him and raised her eyebrows, in a questioning manner. She bit her lip again, still uncertain how to answer his questions. “Well, why I’m here is an extremely long story. In fact I don’t think you’ll believe me at first” she said gazing in front of her with a thoughtful expression on her face. “And I’ve been all over the place to be honest” she said, not sure how to tell Cal that she had managed to travel to Stratenvale and Chipucha within two days. She was certain that without explaining to him what had happened to her first, he would not understand or believe her. She wouldn’t if their places were switched, so she wouldn’t blame him if when he found out the truth that he would never want to see her ever again.