N:   Scotland stared at her as he waited for her to continue, but when she didn't he fell to his knees next to her and tried to shake her awake. "You're going into what," he spoke, his voice quivering, "Òrail, i-into what? INTO WHAT?!" He kept trying to shake her awake, but since she was in stasis she didn't respond, so Wales tried to stop him.

"Dad," he yelled, rushing over to the Scot, "you need to stop; there's nothing you can do." The moment he touched his father's hand, the Scot stopped.

"What do you mean there's nothing I can do," Scotland whispered, turning to face his son with empty eyes, "can we not help her?"

"Her heartbeat," Anglo spoke as he walked up to them, "I-I cannot find it." The sentence broke Scotland, who just stared at the dragon in front of him, his mind not being able to comprehend that she is gone, so he rested his head on hers. A tear began to form in his eyes but he fought it back, not wanting to cry in front of his son, someone he wanted to appear strong to.

England walked over to Scotland and rested his hand on the Scot, knowing what he is doing, "come over here," he spoke as he turned him around and hugged him. The Scot couldn't hold it in anymore, so he buried his head in the Englishman's shoulder and wept, embracing his partner tightly as he cried.

England patted his back, whispering comforting words to the Scot when suddenly Scotland stopped moving. Worried, England pulled him away to see his face and his own face fell when he no longer saw the other's lime green eyes, but stormy grey ones. Scotland looked at England, and he could see the emptiness in his eyes like he has given up all hope, and this time he hugged him tighter, determined to not let Scotland go.

"Celtica has to come home," Anglo told Saxon as they stood afar off, "the moment I can, I'll go to London and finish off her work for her. She needs to be here with her son." Saxon nodded in agreement, and the pair of them turned around to see BE carried out of the cave, so they rushed over to help their grandson.

—————

 Royal nodded, "I'll help you to the best of my ability," and she called back the five soldiers who were searching the cave. "Anything?"

"We didn't find anything, ma'am," one of them reported, "although we did find this," and he showed her a butterfly, its wings beautifully designed frozen in time as it was preserved in a block of resin.

Royal took the block and observed it, wondering why a strange object would be found in such a place, but she shrugged and handed it back, "keep this for now," she said, "but bring some stretchers for these people. Do you have some at the ready?"

"After the last incident, yes."

"Good, now bring them here," she ordered, and when they left she turned to the Eternals, "you will be taken back to the castle to be properly treated, but for your friend there," she pointed at the one with the large gash, "let me see if I can help you with that." She pushed herself off the barrel and stumbled a bit before regaining her balance, and when she did she began to waddle around in search of some medical supplies.

"There's got to be something here," she muttered to herself, and when she opened a chest, she uttered a small 'a-ha' before pulling out a large bag, inside were the things she needed. She dragged the bag over to the cage and looked up at Askad. "I would help with the medical stuff," she said, "but I don't think my arms have the energy to do anything," she dropped the bag next to the cage, "So here are the supplies."

M:   Askad nodded his thanks, then dragged the two stasis eternals out so he could tend to them better. The one who had the gash over their torso had an orange cross over their left eye, a larger blue cross was behind the first and separated their flag into a white top half and a navy blue bottom half.

 The second eternal had a sky blue and orange flag that was cut vertically in half, a diagonal white line, and a blue laurel wreath decorated the foreground. This eternal had their throat sliced, which would have spanned from ear to ear if they had ears, they were missing an arm too but it appeared to be an old injury not from the Jacobites.

Askad did what he could to treat them until the soldiers came back and took over. Now that he wasn't trying to help his friends, he noticed that he no longer heard any roars, which made him slightly concerned.

"Where is Esha," he asked, "I haven't heard her in a while and she would have come looking for us if she killed everyone, knowing her, I hope she's not hurt."

N:   Royal nodded and she tried to vibrate her wings to see if she could sense Anglo nearby. She was able to earlier but now it hurts to move her wings, so she sighed and instead walked away to the corner. She mustered all the energy she had, and she yelled, "ANGLO," before she leaned against the wall to support herself.  The said winged country rushed towards her and immediately checked if she was ok, fussing over her injuries and wings when he looked past her and froze.

"Who are they," he asked, still staring at the Eternals, and a thought came into his mind, "Are they like Esha."

"Yep," Royal confirmed, slowly leading the Englishman to the others, "those two are Askad and Uskaine," pointing at the naga and centaur respectively, "and down there are Odrus and Neflan." She turned to Anglo and continued, "They are friends, and Askad here is amazing on the battlefield; he helped us defeat the Jacobites."

The hybrid paused for a moment as she needed to rest against something to save up energy, and she finally asked, "Where is Esha?"

Anglo didn't know how to respond, and since he guessed that the Eternals are close to Esha, he didn't have the courage to break the news, but he did. "E-Esha," he stuttered, "is dead."

"Is her head chopped off?"

"That's an absurd question, of course, she still has her head."

"Then she's not dead," Royal concluded, confusing Anglo, so she further explained, "I haven't seen her yet, but I'm assuming there is nothing to confirm she is dead like losing a head, her heart, et cetera, but instead she appears to be dead but is in what they call Stasis. We will confirm really in a week's time if we could hear a heartbeat, but for now, let's assume she's alive."

"Good lord," Anglo muttered, his eyes widened when he thought of a particular country, "poor Scotland, he thinks that she's dead," he looked at Royal in the eye, "and it broke him. His eyes ..."

Royal went quiet for a moment, taking in the new information, and said, "Let's try to tell Scotty that she's alive, but knowing him he needs solid proof," and she placed her head in her hands, annoyed that everything that could have happened did, "let's deal with things one at a time. Everyone who needs a doctor would get a doctor, and we need a thorough search of this place for clues, meanwhile, we call Celtica to come here for Scotty."

"I'm going to bring her back as soon as possible," Anglo replied, getting a small 'thank you' from the hybrid. As soon as they finished, a few more soldiers came with the stretchers, and together they worked to safely carry the Eternals.

The normal ones were easy to carry since it was just one stretcher each, but Uskaine was a bit more difficult, and they weren't sure what to do.

M:   "There should be some carts in the agriculture cavern," Askad said, "it's down the tunnel to the right of the hot springs, we can get one and Uskaine can be carried out on that."

 The soldiers did as told and Askad slowly slithered up to Anglo, looking over him with confusion.

"You look familiar," he said, "I feel like I've seen you somewhere back in the days of the empire, but you don't have a magical aura, weird."

He studied him for a minute more before clearing his throat and holding his hand for a handshake, "My name is Askad, second in command of the northern eternal colony, you must be the leader, am I correct?"

N:   Anglo shook his hand but he was confused by Askad's statement, wondering how he would have met him, but he shook it off and answered his question. "I'm Anglo and no, I'm not," the Englishman answered, "I used to but now my grandson is, British Empire."

"The one you saw in the cage earlier," Royal pointed out, "although we all have our responsibilities, he's the one in charge."

Anglo nodded but then he registered what Askad said, "Wait, you said you were second in command, who is the first? And what do you mean about the northern eternal colony, are there more?"

M:   Askad's face turned down at the questions, "Well, perhaps I should rephrase, I am Askad, first in command of the former northern eternal colony. The chief was killed when the humans invaded several months ago, the four of us you see here are the only survivors. We made the mistake of taking in an injured outsider, who came back with the humans and decimated this place, as for are there any other colonies ..."

He looked over to Uskaine and the other shrugged, "We honestly don't know anymore, the eastern colony in China was decimated by humans in what was called the Qin dynasty. The African colony was captured by the Egyptians and forced into slavery until they were all killed by a Greek warlord. We think the western colony in North America has survived but we haven't heard from them in centuries. And the southern colony in Australia was eradicated by the humans that came from here."

"Yup, that's the long and short of it," Askad summarised, "as far as I know we are the last of our kind."

N:   "Woah," Royal muttered, then her face hardened to a frown, "we need to find out who that person is, they're messing with everyone and it's getting on my nerves."

The soldiers finally came back with the cart, dragging it behind them and pulling it to the cages. The hybrid hummed in approval, walking over to the cart and seeing it could hold the centaur and she said, "So, how are we going you on, Uskaine?"

M:   "I think I can try to drag myself on it," Uskaine suggested, "though I'll need a little help."

"Here, I have an idea," Askad said, he grabbed some ropes that were lying around and tied them around the other's waist, "that way we can partially lift your back end so you can crawl easier."

He hung the ropes on the top of the cage and handed the ends to some of the soldiers, on three they pulled and created enough leverage to lift Uskaine just enough that he could climb onto the cart.

Once that was done and the soldiers were making sure the centaur was settled, Askad asked, "You said Esha was dead, if you don't mind I would like to see her, check if she's just in stasis or not."

N:   "You may," Anglo replied, and once everyone was ready, the soldiers began to carry the eternals out of the cave with the stretchers and carts, the Englishman helping the hybrid walk steadily out as well. When they reached the main cavern, Esha was still there but soldiers were beginning to round up any Jacobites who were still alive, although there weren't many. Next to the dragon sat Scotland, staring into space as England tried to comfort him, but to no avail, and Wales and BE were nowhere in sight.

When they entered, Saxon turned around and his face turned pale when he saw Askad, or more specifically his animal half.

"Saxon," Anglo spoke, shaking his head when he saw the entity staring, "please realize that the person you're looking at is a person, not a full snake."

Saxon gulped and pointed back at Esha, "I'm sorry for your friend; I'm assuming she's your friend."

M:   "She was," Askad confirmed, shocked at the sight of Esha, "we thought she was dead, she ran away after her face was scarred, though I don't think she's dead right now either."

He slithered over to Esha, ignoring the shocked gasp that came from England, he leaned down and looked over his dragon friend, checking her eyes, mouth, injuries, anything that could tell him she was in stasis. He was slightly worried that she wasn't breathing, even in stasis the eternal should breathe, it would be too faint for someone to detect but he could have, then an idea came to mind and he dug around in her mane. He located her gills and leaned down further to feel or hear anything.

"She's alive," he declared, "she's in stasis so she's breathing through her gills to conserve energy, we should get her into a body of water so she can breath easier, she won't come out of stasis until her lethal injures have healed though so we should still get her treated as soon as possible."

N:   "Look Scotty," England said, nudging Scotland slightly, "Esha is alive." However, the Scot just continued to stare at the ground, not showing any sign of hope for the Eternal.

"There is a large lake not far from here," the Scot said monotonously, standing up to his feet, "I can show you to it." With that he grabbed for his sword and axe, swinging the axe over his shoulder, and walked away, only to turn around at the mouth of the cave to wait for them.

England sighed and also stood up, "we tried to do the best we could, cleaned the wounds we can reach, and so forth, but if we were to move her, how?"

M:   "I honestly have no idea," Askad shrugged, "but I also don't think dropping her in a random lake is a good idea either, if her wounds get infected it could prolong her stasis or kill her. If you have access to a fountain or something that can hold clean water it would be the best option. Unfortunately, the only real way I see that we could move her is getting a creature of equal size or bigger to carry her out, so another dragon basically, but they of course are extinct so we'll need to think of something else."

N:   "Edel," England said suddenly, "he could help. Let me get him," and the country rushed out of the cave and ran to the castle in search of the dragon.

"Edel is a dragon," Anglo explained as he rested Royal down, "he came with Mandoria earlier this week."

"If you figured it out," Scotland said as he turned away, "I'm just going to head back," and he walked off, concerning the rest of the Brits.

"I'll go after him," Saxon volunteered, walking after the Scot, "see you guys in a bit."

M:   Askad looked after them in confusion, "A dragon, how is that possible, and who is Mandoria?"

N:   Anglo briefly explained how Edel came to be, and then he added, "And Mandoria is like you. He's like you, an Eternal."

"Well, that doesn't matter," Royal said, "we just need to wait for England to come with Edel."

M:   Askad nodded in understanding, so they all hunkered down to wait for England and Edel to come. It had become dark when the two came, most everyone left and the other Eternals were taken back to the castle.

When Edel came and he and Askad locked eyes they both froze. The eternal bowed his head to the dragon, Edel doing the same, then Askad approached with his hand outstretched and Edel pressed his nose into his palm.

"Wow," Askad breathed, "I never would have imagined I would be this close to a dragon again, incredible."

N:   "He's great, isn't he," England smiled as he patted Edel's fur, "Come on buddy, let's take Esha home."

"Let me give you a word of advice," Anglo said to Askad, lighting up a lantern and holding it up, "don't take my son away from Edel, it wouldn't end well." The rest of the Brits were in the castle so the father and son weakly chuckled over what happened with Saxon.

M:   "Ok," Askad said with confusion, "I'm ... not even going to ask."He slid back and let Edel do his thing.

The dragon walked up and sniffed Esha first, whining a little, and looked at England uncertainly, he had to be reassured that she was alive before he tried to pick her up. He first tried to slide his head under her but his antler got in the way, next he tried to slide his wing under her instead to lift her on his back, but that too failed.

Grunting in frustration, he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and threw her on his back, it was a little rough but it worked, her tail, back legs, and wings hanging off him as she was a bit longer than him.

"That works," Askad shrugged, "We should get going then, this place is no longer safe." he then transformed into his animal form so he could travel longer distances, he looked just like a rattlesnake except alligator sized.

N:   "Saxon is going to freak out when he sees you," Anglo commented absentmindedly, and England nodded, and together they left the cave behind and walked towards the castle. A small group of soldiers chaperoned them as they traveled in the dark, and after a long while they finally reached their destination.

Some of the servants backed up when they saw Askad and Esha in their animal forms, but Anglo was able to calm them down enough so they could reach the gardens, where there was a large fountain spewing water in the center of it. "This is the largest one we've got," Anglo told Askad, "hopefully it's enough."

"While you do this," England announced, "I'm going to go and check on Scotland," and the country waved farewell and left.

M:   Askad reared up to look in the fountain, it was designed to look like a pond and was just deep enough that Esha would be submerged, but what really pleased him was that it was filled with koi.

"This is perfect," he declared, "it is the perfect depth and the koi will help keep her wounds clean by eating off dead tissue and water insects that might be harmful."

He shifted back to normal and took a moment to undo the few bandages on Esha, then had Edel gently lower her into the fountain. She floated on the surface for a moment thanks to her water-repellent fur but eventually sank to the bottom.

"She'll be ok," the naga said, "it will just take time for her to heal."

N:   "That's good," Anglo nodded, and he stifled a yawn and continued, "Two attacks back to back, this is not looking good." He looked up to Askad and said, "You can stay in one of our guest rooms as Esha would be protected the whole night," he glanced at a soldier who stood at attention, "Unless, like her, you don't sleep in a bed then we can get something prepared for you."

—————

England was searching the corridors, looking for Scotland when he saw the library door slightly open, so he carefully opened the door to see who was inside. Scotland was sitting on the sofa opposite the fire, staring at the embers as Saxon tried to make him respond to anything, telling him that everything is going to be alright. When the Englishman entered, the entity turned around to see him and stood up, patting his shoulder as he left, "You're the better person for this."

England quietly sat down next to his husband, and they were similar in height although he was slightly taller, and before he could say anything, Scotland blurted out, "It should be black, white, and gold."

"I beg your pardon?"

"The ball," he explained himself, turning to England, "the theme should be black, white, and gold." He looked dully into the other's red eyes, and he added, "She's dead."

"Esha's not dead Scotty," England reassured him, "Askad even checked himself, and he's also an Eternal."

"She's not moving," Scotland persisted, so England sighed as he looped his arm around the other's, knowing it would take a while before convincing him. Scotland looked at their arms as if what they are doing is foreign to him, but he let himself relax and rested his head on the other's shoulder, closing his eyes. The day drained him, and soon he fell right asleep on the sofa.

England softly chuckled, and not wanting to disturb Scotland, rested his head on the other's and interlocked their fingers. "You'll come back," he whispered, "Esha will wake up and so will you." He too closed his eyes and slept.

M:   "I can sleep in a bed just fine," Askad said, "though if you don't mind I think I will stay wherever you took Uskaine and the others, as the new chief of the colony it is my duty to ensure the remaining eternals are safe and taken care of, you understand, right."

N:   "That's fine," Anglo nodded, "they are right this way," and they headed back inside towards the infirmary. There, everyone who was injured was being treated too, even Johann and his friends came to help out, and when Johann took one good look at Askad, he muttered a small 'woah'.

"Looks like I'm back here again," Royal quietly said as she saw them enter, she was lying on her front so the doctors could treat her wings, although every once in a while she would unconsciously bat them away with her wing.

"At least you're awake this time," Anglo pointed out as he walked over to BE, who has both of his shoulders bandaged up and was fast asleep, "some of you were not so lucky."

M:   Askad felt a little uncomfortable being surrounded by humans, even if most of them were injured, but when he saw Uskaine he went over to him immediately, looking over him and fussing around like a concerned parent or partner.

"I'm ok, honestly," the tired centaur reassured him, "it's just a few broken bones, no biggie."

"I know," Askad sighed, "I can't help but worry about you though, you're my mate after all."

Uskaine chuckled and gently butted his forehead with him, causing the other to rattle his tail slightly and coil around Uskaine, hugging him tightly for the first time in a while.

N:   "Wait," Johann suddenly spoke, "so you two are together?"

"Let them have their moment, Jo," Heinrich sighed as he helped bandage up an injured soldier. "I never knew centaurs and nagas existed any- oh wait never mind," when he remembered it was his race that killed them off.

"To everyone who is injured," Anglo announced, "rest so that you may conserve energy throughout the night, and a doctor would be able to tend to you at all times. To those who wish to say here and are not injured, use the adjacent beds to rest and there are chairs too. Breakfast will be served in the morning." The country looked over to BE's injuries and at the draconic country next to him and said, "Wales, you should get some rest too."

"I know," he muttered, drawing his wings closer to himself, "I just don't want to leave my brother alone."

M:   "He'll be ok," Rowen said, he was also helping treat everyone and was bringing out a tray of medical supplies, "the swords didn't hit anything major and he should make a full recovery, he just needs rest, everyone does."

Rowen made his rounds to make sure everyone was ok and settled, when he saw Uskaine and Askad he stopped for a second but shook off his shock before it became noticeable. He saw that Askad had a small gash on his tail so he walked up to him and tapped his shoulder, "Excuse me, sir, do you need help with your tail?"

Askad turned to him, then looked down at the gash on his tail. He stared at Rowen with uncertainty and coiled a little tighter around Uskaine, not enough to suffocate him but it was a little uncomfortable.

"It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you," Rowen reassured him, "I understand that you're cautious about me because I'm a human, but I promise that I don't want to hurt you, I'm married to a countryhuman, I wouldn't want to hurt his kind."

The two looked at him in shock, "you're mates with an Eternal," Uskaine repeated, "but why, we were driven to extinction because of your kind."

N:   "I guess because he was alone for a long time," Johann spoke, "and so was Hezyka, I mean Rowen, and they loved each other despite their differences."

"And if Rowen was the only one taking care of Johann, I doubt he was going to last long," Heinrich muttered, getting a jab from the Mandorian.

"I think Hezyka is doing well," Johann defended, "but Father makes it harder to cause any trouble, especially now I know he understands what I'm saying."

M:   Rowen chuckled, "he always knew what you were saying, he just tended to let things slide a lot," he turned back to the eternals, "So, is that enough proof to let me help you?"

Askad was silent for a moment but eventually relaxed and allowed Rowen to help. It took a bit since the naga would flinch and subconsciously swing his tail around but Rowen managed. It turned out to be a rather serious through-and-through injury like someone stabbed him with something.

"It was about a week ago," he explained, "once a month the humans would milk my venom to send somewhere and this time I wasn't particularly willing, so they stabbed me with a spear to make me hold still, it worked and they got twice as much venom as they normally did, but I still don't know what they wanted it for."

N:   "Well it's a good thing that you told us," Anglo said as he walked up to them, "we need to know what the Jacobites were doing so we can prepare ourselves for their next attack."

"Askad said that one of us attacked them and put them into cages," Royal reported, "but we didn't know that they even existed, so who could it be?"

"That would be a discussion for tomorrow," the winged country reassured her, "now you need to rest. How is Wren?"

Royal didn't answer immediately, her face changed as if she was listening to something, and she said, "She said she's bored, like always, and she's waiting for my turn on our game of chess. So goodnight."

The hybrid closed her eyes, her wing flicked a bit until she went still and fell asleep. Anglo looked at the hybrid with confusion but shook it off, turning to Askad and asked, "Is there an antidote for your venom?"

M:   Askad shrugged, "Not that I know of, I've never been in a situation where someone forcibly milked it from me ... that does not sound ok when you think about it."

Uskaine elbowed him for turning the conversation down that path and decided to continue for him, "We don't know, Naga venom is very hard to cure because it is different for each individual, sometimes the venom is similar to the snake that they share their genes with but that doesn't always mean it can be cured the same way."

"Right, but if it's going to be an issue in the future then I'll be willing to help you find an antidote," Askad volunteered.

N:   "That would be very much appreciated," Anglo thanked him, "and the snake idea may be useful, though we don't have a large variety here, and we only have a small grass snake in the castle." He paused for a moment and added, "That reminds me, try not to be your animal self when you are around Saxon, he would have a heart attack."

"He's scared of snakes," Johann whispered to the Eternal, getting a jab from Heinrich.

M:   "Is he," Askad said with interest, "so what does he not like about snakes, the legless body, the hissing, perhaps a rattling tail-"

"Don't get any ideas you punk," Uskaine scolded.

"I would never," the naga declared with mock offense, "I promise that I will not shift to my snake form and go out of my way to torment anyone."

He turned his head to Johann and winked, earning a facepalm from his mate.

N:   Johann smirked, "Yeah, we don't want that, not to plan out how to execute a way to scare someone. No, that's not polite."

"Well, good luck Rowen," Heinrich chuckled, "I'll leave this mess with you. My Mutter would kill me if I say up this late so Gute Nacht," and he finished up bandaging a soldier and left.

Slowly, people started to leave when they were well enough, and the ones who were not either were accompanied by a doctor or a friend. Wales stayed right beside BE and eventually rested next to him, covering his brother with his wing as he slept.

M:   Rowen finished patching up Askad and made a few more rounds before heading to bed with Johann.  Askad and Uskaine huddled with each other on the pillows and blankets the doctors laid on the floor for the centaur and went to sleep too.

Askad would wake up at random intervals to check on Odrus and Neflen and make sure his mate was comfortable, he was just restless and wanted to make sure his clan was going to survive, only when the first rays of dawn appeared did he settle down for good.