For @arcadian-dragon-riding (@tdpsecretsanta2025)
It was fun to write this little piece, hope you enjoy it too!
The sun shone brightly over Neolandia, its heating halo regulated by a gentle breeze. It made the perfect day for a picnic.
“I honestly thought the weather here would be…” Soren looked for a word, tapping his finger to his lips, “colder?”
Corvus raised an eyebrow, chuckling. “It makes sense, actually, with it being so far north.”
“Yeah, that, and, you know, the attitude of the late prince.” Corvus waited for him to elaborate. Soren hummed. “He was cold, so I guess I related that to the weather somehow.”
In his eighteen-year-old head, it had made sense, but now, saying it out loud more than two years later, it only sounded foolish. Yet Corvus nodded solemnly.
“Guys!” Ezran waved at them.
He, Callum, and Rayla had already settled on a blanket, five plates, and decorated everything with the flowers growing nearby. They handed them the baskets with food.
The visit to Neolandia started as a business one. Ezran wanted to get them on with the building of Evrkynd, saying all the kingdoms should at least know of what the city was aiming to be.
For that, he needed part of the council of Katolis and someone to represent Xadia, since Zym was busy with all the new kingly stuff, Rayla took on the role. Not that she would be anywhere else, considering Callum also ought to go now that things were alright between the brothers.
Soren eased every time he witnessed Callum trying to be more involved with Katolis, even if it was because of Ezran and not the kingdom per se.
Still, when Callum had agreed to go without batting an eye, Soren felt a little betrayed.
After all, they’d both suffered at Kasef’s hand. It was nonsense. But he didn’t want to go to the kingdom of the prince. He felt uncomfortable, to say the least.
The robes of the nobles, the armory of the guards, and how proudly they talked about their nation, all kinda made his insides churn, everything a reminder of Kasef, of a time Soren hated.
Back to the time he was striving to be the son Viren wanted him to be, while on the trip to the Storm Spire, Kasef had seemed like everything Soren couldn’t achieve, and he had made it all look so easy. He was the type of son Viren would’ve raised kindly and lovingly. The kind of son that wouldn’t have minded turning into a monster for his father’s sake.
Lost in his head, he didn’t notice when everyone sat down until Corvus tugged his hand gently.
Soren flashed him a smile and fixed his attention on the ongoing conversation.
“…more like Aanya,” Rayla said, taking a bite of bread.
“Katolis and Neolandia don’t have the best history, unlike we do with Duren,” Ez explained, scratching Hat's head and giving Stella a piece of lemon tart.
“Some people here blame Katolis for the fall of their prince and many of their soldiers,” Corvus continued.
“Which is stupid.” Ezran gave his brother a warning look, which Callum blatantly ignored. “Kasef himself agreed to that crazy plan, and he paid the consequences. No one forced him to, and if I remember right, Katolis offered to send some guards here while they worked on restoring their own security, right Soren?”
Caught by the slight anger in Callum’s voice and his previous thoughts, all Soren could manage was a nod. It was true, though, he was in charge of foreseeing those arrangements.
Rayla’s gaze traveled from one boy to the other, trying to take in all the information.
“However, we are still in their territory,” Ezran stuttered, “and we shouldn’t be calling them out, not here, not now.”
“Alright, alright.” Rayla lifted her hands up. “I was only complaining that since the queen didn’t make a choice, we need to stay here till who-knows-when.”
The queen was Kasef's younger sister. She was nineteen, but seemed like she was in her mid-twenties. Was the pressure of the crown that much?
Her dad died shortly after Kasef did, both from the heartbreak and the injuries inflicted by the shadow assassin.
Soren looked at Ez, even with everything he carried on his shoulders, he still saw a child who was slowly entering puberty. But a child nonetheless.
He tried to remember himself at thirteen. By that age, he was still doing mischief along with Claudia, sneaking at night, helping her find her rare ingredients in the forest, and then annoying her while she worked on her spells. He should’ve annoyed her more, perhaps that way, she wouldn’t have ended up the way she did.
He also remembered spending hours in the courtyard, either training with the older guards or just watching them. He was also getting ready for camp, even though they only admitted sixteen-year-olds.
Unfortunately, not everything was sun and roses. He was happy, but he was also miserable. His dad rarely talked to him for something that wasn’t asking him to do something or make sure no one entered his study while he was working. He also bullied Callum when he, Ezran, and Harrow returned from their holidays at the lodge. He felt his ears burn at the shame of the memory.
And lastly, when he looked at Ezran, he recalled a feeling. He had looked up to King Harrow, he was proud of his king. He realized a lot had changed, but that hadn’t.
After everything was settled here, Corvus and Soren would meet Terry again and go on with the search for the bird.
“I won’t care about staying if, in the end, she agrees to help King Ezran,” Soren spoke.
Ezran grinned and offered him a glass of moonberry juice.
“The good thing about extra time here is that we get to improvise this picnic.” Corvus accepted the sandwich Callum gave him.
The comment was met by a round of excited ‘yes.’
“If all business trips were like this, I would never complain.” His friends laughed at the comment but agreed. Soren bit a yellow strawberry, or what he hoped was one. He groaned at how good it tasted. “Who would’ve thought Noodleoolandia has some of the tastiest fruit I’ve ever eaten.”
Rayla rolled her eyes, and Corvus palmed his forehead. Yet he knew it was out of actual annoyance, it was just them being friends. He could confirm it by the way they smiled and continued joking with him.
Even as his mind drifted to the casual conversation going on around him, he couldn’t help but wonder, had Prince Kasef had this?
Slow, casual, funny afternoons with his friends, where nothing really mattered, and he could laugh and joke without feeling utterly useless. Where for a couple of hours the concerns slipped off, and all that existed was him and the people who loved him for nothing else than who he was.
There was a time he might have wished to be more like Kasef, thoughtless, prideful, and stoic. Nowadays, he was glad he wasn’t.
Soren loved who he was, funny, attentive, and loyal. Those, he considered, were the qualities Corvus, Ezran, Callum, and Rayla appreciated more in him, the ones that allowed him to live his life along with them. He grinned when he realized that these four people unknowingly showed him that he didn’t need to change an inch of himself to be loved.
He often thought that Rayla and Claudia could’ve been great friends in another life, if only his sister had chosen love over revenge. Somehow, he felt the same way about Kasef. In another life, they might have been friends too.
In that other time, they might all be sitting there, enjoying food and joking about the time they’d tried to kill each other.