N:   They rode silently back to the castle, Wales looking back from time to time to check on Askad, but he didn't say anything to give him some space.

When they arrived at the infirmary, there were fewer people as some were admitted out, and England was there as he listened to his father about what happened. Anglo was already dressed to leave, wearing a shirt with golden designs on his collar and his cuffs, and a dark fur-lined cloak that went over his left shoulder, and was waiting until the group returned so he can go to London. As they entered, England turned around to see the naga, and anyone could see the mixture of emotions on his face until he settled onto one, "Faeder deserved it," he muttered.

"Father," Wales spoke, "I thought you were with Dad."

"I was," he nodded, "but I needed to know about the ruckus that woke me up, and he is refusing to leave the library." He turned to Anglo and said, "You should go, Scotty needs Celtica."

"I know," he agreed, walking towards the door to leave, "you won't see me for a while so don't make a mess while I'm gone." He looked at Askad and said softly, "I'm glad you're safe."

—————

Scotland waited until England had left, the pair of them ended up laying on top of each other as they slept, and he listened to the subtle breaths of the Englishman as he struggle to sleep.

Once he left, he got up and left the library, walking in a single path to the largest fountain in the compound, since he guessed that's where Esha was. When he saw her, he walked up to the fountain and sat next to it, leaning his back against the fountain as he sat there quietly, the onlooking servants wondering why he was there.

M:   A certain eight-legged horse approached when he saw Scotland sit next to the fountain, Sleipnir had been there since Esha was dropped in, protecting her from any human who came too close. He didn't see Scotland as a threat so he padded over to check on him, whining when he saw his shattered eyes and depressed demeanor.

The Sigven nuzzled him gently then lay down next to him, resting his head on the country's lap to comfort him.

-----

Askad didn't acknowledge Anglo, he slithered over to Uskaine and curled around him with his bag, Uskaine set the bag aside and held his mate, comforting him as best he could.

"Thank you for bringing him back," he said to the others.

N:   "Rowen did most of the work," Johann said, "he was the one who really reached out to Askad."  Wales nodded but quietly watched as Uskaine and Askad huddled together.

"I'm off now," Anglo said, "see you in a week and a bit," and with that, the country left, having a horse prepared for him as he had many things to carry, and he rode off to London.

 —————

Scotland patted Sleipnir's head and said, "You're a magnificent horse, aren't you?" He continued to stroke the horse's mane and absentmindedly started to hum a tune that his mother used to sing to him, and eventually, he began to quietly sing the song, for he always cast his mind back to his home whenever this around him was chaotic and his mood was down.

"Tak' a walk roon yer cities, braw buildings outside
Gaze on the splendors and the wonder with pride
Fine ships have been built, on the banks o' the Clyde
By the lads that were reared among heather"

"Awa' wi' yer satins, yer silks and yer shawls
Yer soirees and yer parties and yer elegant balls
For a dance in the barn's worth ten in the hall
Wi' the lads that were reared among heather,"

But he added another verse centuries later,

"Now England can boast for the sweet-scented rose
And Ireland can boast for the shamrock he grows
But gi' me the land, where the clear water flows
And the mountains are covered with heather."

M:   "That is a beautiful song," a familiar voice suddenly whispered, but when Scotland looked around there wasn't anyone to be seen.

"Don't bother looking for me Scotty, I can only communicate to you through thought, but not for very long as I need to conserve my energy to heal. I'm so sorry I did that to you, I didn't have a choice, if I didn't go into stasis I would have surely died, I'm sorry I couldn't warn you in time. Don't fret, I will awaken soon just not today, so please don't mourn over me, I will soon be able to see you and hug you, my little Scotty."

The voice soon disappeared as quickly as it came, though one could notice a stream of bubbles rise to the surface of the fountain like the dormant dragon at the bottom let out a large exhale.

N:   Scotland smiled as he looked at the dragon, and anyone looking from the outside would be confused as to why he was, as a small spark of hope appeared in his heart, but it was not enough for him. The longer he looked, the more he thought about how Esha lay in the cave, so he looked away and petted Sleipnir,

—————

"What do you mean he left," England snapped, a servant flinched at his shout, so he quickly apologized for his anger and said, "Please, tell me where Scotland is."

The servant didn't know how to answer when another servant heard their conversation in the library, so to save the other told the country that the Scot was with Esha and Sleipnir by the fountain. The Englishman nodded in thanks and left to find his husband.

M:   Edel was tailing behind England as usual, making sure he was ok and wouldn't do anything stupid. The two passed by Mandoria's room just as the kingdom was coming out, he was confused as to why England was leaving somewhere so fast but when he tried to ask him what was going on he had already turned a corner and was gone.

Edel stopped for Mandoria and decided to bring him along, letting him wrap his arm around his neck as they slowly walked after England. By the time they caught up with him, he was already at the fountain talking to Scotland.

"Is everything alright," Mandoria asked, "I saw England rush by in a hurry and was concerned."

N:   Scotland looked up to Mandoria when he heard him talk, raising a brow and wondering how he was able to get out of bed. "Scotty," England said, gaining the Scot's attention, "don't just go like that, ok? I need to know where you are at all times. Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," Scotland muttered, although his eyes said otherwise, and he tried to push the Englishman away, "just leave me alone."

"Yeah sure, I'll definitely do that," England scoffed, but he placed a hand on the other's shoulder, "Please, just come so you could at least come with me so you could eat something, you haven't had anything."

Scotland looked down at Sleipnir's head, then back at Esha, and shook his head, "I know Esha will come back, but I will not leave her."

M:   Mandoria frowned slightly, Rowen had told him what happened last night so he knew what Scotland was going through, he pat Edel's neck and had the dragon bring him over to sit next to Scotland.

"Scotland, you can not remain here," he spoke softly, "Esha is well protected and under constant watch, nothing bad is going to happen to her. You, on the other hand, will only hurt yourself if you focus too much energy on her. When my family and the Saxons were still in Prussia I had come down with a strange and unexplained illness, believed to be a curse cast on me by King Prussia. Rowen and Johann stayed by my side no matter what, and it took its toll on them, Rowen wouldn't sleep for two whole days and he barely ate or drink. It killed me to see him suffering for me, but I was far too sick to protest."

He placed a hand on the Scot's shoulder, "My point is that Esha will get better, but I doubt she would want you to harm yourself worrying about her. When she wakes up do you think she would want to see that you have worried yourself sick because of her, she would probably feel very guilty, I did when Rowen fell down that path."

N:   Scotland pursed his lips; he wanted to stay next to Esha but he knew that Mandoria was right. He sighed and gently moved Sleipnir's head from his lap and stood up, wobbling a bit when blood suddenly rushed to his head. England smiled when he saw him get up so he looped his arm around his, muttering a small thank you to the Mandorian as slowly led him back inside, comforting him along the way.

As they passed the infirmary, they saw BE and Wales walk out, the former wearing two slings to support his shoulders, and when England enquired as to where they were going, the empire answered. "We are going to check on Grandfather," he spoke, "to see if he's properly detained and been treated."

M:   "Detained," Mandoria repeated in shock, he and Edel followed them since they were passing by the infirmary and he wanted to meet the newcomers, "what happened, why is Saxon imprisoned?"

N:   "Long story short," BE explained, "Grandfather refuses to tell us the identity of the leader of the Jacobites." BE furrowed his brows and added, "Well that's just it."

"He said the only way for him to tell us who it is, is if we, in his words, force it out of him," Wales said, "but I'm not sure who would actually make him to."

"Usually he's the one who 'interrogates' prisoners," the empire continued, "but I don't know if we can get anything out of him. Royal may try but she's not exactly in the position of leaving her bed, and there's a certain Eternal would most likely kill him."

They walked towards the dungeons, and when the guards at the doors saw them, they were wondering why Edel was there. "Mandoria, you should rest," BE told him, "there's going to be a fair amount of stairs to the dungeons."

M:   "I may be old but I'm not fragile," Mandoria said light-heartedly, "though now that you mention it I was going to meet the Eternals anyway, I'll see you around, come on Edel."

Edel obliged and doubled back to the infirmary, the dragon was curious about what was going on so he followed the two while still supporting Mandoria, but when the country wanted to go back he did as told.

When they went back they were greeted by Rowen, who was actually leaving to go check on him. "Mandoria, what are you doing out of bed, you still need to rest," he said.

"I'm fine Rowen, just a little wobbly on my feet, that's all," Mandoria insisted, rolling his eyes a little at being babied, "I just wanted to meet Esha's friends."

"Well, you're going to have to wait your turn," Rowen chuckled, "Johann has been hounding the one named Uskaine with questions."

"-Centaurs lived in family herds watched over by an alpha male," Uskaine was saying, Johann sitting on the floor across from him, "the herd is mostly made of females as the males will leave once they've reached maturity, though on rare occasions some of the males get to stay or a rouge male from another herd will join. Members of a specific herd will bear tattoos that are only found in that one herd, for mine, it was crescents and circles to symbolize the sun and the moon."

N:   "That's really cool," Johann grinned, "so you're like one large family who would branch out and make new ones." He paused for a bit and said, "I have more questions. Does the tattoo also symbolize where you live or anything you follow or is it just to identify which herd you're in? Also, I've heard stories of pegasi so were there any of them, and if so we're they related to you? Also, do rogue males have to get new tattoos if they join a new tribe? Also, do you have to compete for the position of alpha male, and how?" Johann took a deep breath and finished, "And is it weird if someone rides a centaur?"

The Mandorian turned around when he heard some footsteps and waved, "Hallo Father."

M:   Uskaine laughed at all the questions, mostly to hide his overwhelm, he was about to try to answer when Mandoria came into view, his jaw dropping slightly. Mandoria felt a little awkward at the reaction but he understood why he would probably be shocked to see someone like him.

"Hello," he said, "I heard of your arrival and came to meet you, I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Are you really King Mandoria," Uskaine asked, when the winged country nodded he exhaled in amazement, "I can't believe you're real, you were a legend in the settlement, the only Eternal in the world to rule over humans and Eternals alike, I always thought you were a myth, and that's coming from me, a mythical creature."

Mandoria blinked, not sure how to take what was said, "Well then, um, I'm flattered, to say the least." His stooper dissipated when Uskaine tried to bow, "Please don't do that, I may have been a king before but I'm not one now, please see me as an equal and nothing more."

"Um, ok," Uskaine said, slightly confused, after a moment of awkward silence he asked, "Well, is there something you need of me?"

"No, I was just popping in to say hi, and that I give my condolences for what happened to you and your colleagues."

Uskaine deflated at that, "yeah, what happened," he sighed, resting his head on Askad's tail.

N:   Johann's shoulders slumped at the mention of what happened, then a question popped to mind, "Did you not try to find Esha after what happened to her? I think we saw how hard it is to kill an Eternal, so did you assume she was dead?"

M:   "Yes and no," Uskaine answered, "For the first century and a half we figured she was still alive, we weren't going to send any search parties though because that would just put more lives at risk, and could possibly lead to the colony being discovered, so we had to just wait for her to come back. She never did so after a time we had to accept that she was dead, even though it seems that we were wrong."

He sat up straight again, "when it comes to survival you have to focus on the bigger picture, if one person leaves you can't risk the safety of everyone else to go after them. We didn't abandon or forget about her, we just knew that the lives of 50 people are worth more than a single soul when it comes down to it."

Mandoria nodded in agreement but didn't add anything to the conversation, so after a moment Uskaine decided he was done with the topic and switched it back to the first.

"So anyway, back to the centaur talk since this is getting a little uncomfortable for me, I'll try to answer all the questions but you'll have to remind me if I missed any. Tattoos for the most part just mark the clans we lived in, though the ones on our flanks are given at birth by the elder to mark our destiny or our strongest trait. There were pegasi but they were not related to us, it was very rare for a centaur to be born with wings but was considered to be a mark of a deity. Males and females don't get tattoos until they reach maturity except for the one on our flank, rogue centaurs don't have tattoos until they join a herd. Yes, we compete for the alpha, but only during breeding season because the alpha has breeding rights to all the females in the herd, though if the alpha is sick, has died, or is a really bad leader, males will challenge him and/or each other to become the leader. And it depends on the centaur if you can ride us, we are wilder than other Eternals so only ones brought up by non-centaurs are comfortable with others riding them."

N:   Johann intently listened to the answers, nodding along as Uskaine spoke, and when he finished he nodded, "You covered all of my questions, thanks."

Literally, a second later he spoke again, "Actually wait, another question. Can you talk to horses, if so, could you teach me how to understand? It would be interesting what Comet thinks about me."

M:   "A little bit," Uskaine said, "I'm more fluent in Segvin and unicorn, horses are like if a Spanish-speaking person tried to talk with a French person."

"I got a question too," Rowen announced, he and Mandoria decided to sit nearby and listen too, "you said that the mark on your flank symbolized what your destiny was, what does yours mean?"

"I don't know," Uskaine shrugged, "literally, it is the symbol for unknown, the elder of my herd couldn't see my future or my personality so that's what he gave me, I was picked on at first because of it by the foals and adults alike but we got used to the idea that I might not have a destiny, Askad here was the only one who got me to see that it meant that I could be whatever I wanted, that my destiny wasn't set in stone like everyone else's, that I could decide what my fate was."

Askad shifted a little at his name, he was sleeping but subconsciously flicked his tail, "now you know why I liked him so much," Uskaine then whispered.

N:   "If it's unicorns you can talk to," Royal perked up since she was listening, "you should definitely tell Scotland about them. He hasn't seen a unicorn before, yet he made them his national animal, some say it's because of its majestic nature but some say it's just to annoy England."

"You too look happy together," Johann muttered sadly after a moment, and he stood up and said to his fathers, "I'm going to see what Heinrich's up to, maybe rematch Wolfe and staying clear of Erna's chicken."

He awkwardly stood there before heading for the door.

M:   Mandoria and Rowen watched him leave then stared at each other in confusion, "what was that all about?" the country asked.

"I don't know," Rowen responded, "I'll go check on him, you guys have fun."

He stood and left after Johann, thankfully he didn't even turn the corner before Rowen caught up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder so he wouldn't walk away, "Finzenda, is everything ok, you left rather abruptly."

N:   "Yeah, I'm fine," Johann sighed, "it's just that you have someone, Scotland has someone, and Uskaine has someone to care for him, but I lost mine."

His hands in his pockets, he uncomfortably shuffled his feet, and said quietly, "I just miss Elisa."

M:   Rowen nodded slightly, understanding completely what his son was going through, he pulled him into a hug and slowly swayed with him.

"I know you do buddy," he whispered, "it's just like how I miss Sara, I'm sure it is hard to be one of the few people here who doesn't have a partner but that doesn't mean you will be alone forever, I'm sure one day you will find another special someone, it may seem wrong at first but I'm sure Elisa wouldn't want you to be alone."

He held Johann's cheeks and wiped a tear that started forming, then smiled mischievously and said, "Besides, you do have someone, it's hard not to notice the little bromance between you, Heinrich, and Wolfe, I think Erna might have to watch out that you could try stealing her man."

N:   Johann weakly smiled and joked along, "Oh god no, is it too obvious? Don't tell Erna or she will have my head."

"Ernie is going to have who's head," Wolfgang asked as he walked towards them.

 "Can I steal you away from Erna," the Mandorian joked, playfully nudging the Prussian.

"Good luck," the knight laughed, "she has had me for a while now and I'm not leaving anytime soon," getting a small 'oi' from Johann.

M:   Rowen chuckled, glad the mood was lightened, then head locked Johann and said, "Oh I don't know, my boy can be a real charmer, this little knucklehead would sneak out of the house at night and do just about anything for a girl he fancied, which there were actually a lot of, Derogan even nicknamed him the king of flirting."

He gave Johann a small noogie before letting him free, "Anyway, I'm sure you don't want your old man hovering over you, you go have fun," then looked to Wolfe, "You think you can babysit him for a bit, I don't want a repeat of the other day. Actually, scratch that, can you have Erna babysit him, I feel like you two and Heinrich shouldn't be left unsupervised."

N:   "Hey," the both of them said in unison and Johann crossed his arms, "I don't need to be babysat," the Mandorian said in defiance.

"Actually, on second thought," Wolfgang nodded, "I agree. Come on Jo, let's take care of you for someone your age, a baby." The Prussian proceeded to grab Johann by the arm and drag him down the corridor away from Rowen.

"Don't use my age to excuse that I'm taller than you," Johann smirked but yelped when Wolfe pulled on him harder, so they disappeared around the corner in search of the other two.

M:   Rowen laughed again as the two boys ran off to do their shenanigans, he then decided to go find Scotland and England to see how they were doing, he whistled for Edel and set him to work sniffing out his child while he followed.

They arrived at the dining room and he saw the countries having breakfast while discussing something involving themes and masks.

"Hey there you two," he said as he approached, "How are things going, I saw you walk by earlier and wanted to make sure you were ok since you both looked a little down."

N:   Scotland looked up and nodded before going back to his breakfast, so England sighed and answered. "Scotty went to Esha and we had to bring him back so he could eat," he turned to his partner and placed a hand, "you wouldn't want her to feel guilt, would you?"

When the other shook his head so England changed the topic to the one they were having before, "Anyway, I was thinking to keep the gold theme Scotty suggested yesterday. The black and white just looks depressing, and gold can work with a lot of colors, so that could work with the ball."

The Englishman gave the human a once over and said, "You obviously couldn't bring clothes for a ball when you came here, so we might as well have some tailored for you, for all the people who came and have masks designed for you too. Hmm, do you have any suggestions, I know it's early but it's best to get it over and done with."

M:   Rowen hummed, sitting down next to the countryhumans, "I don't know, I've never been to a masquerade before, I don't even know what the etiquette would be."

He looked down at the pieces of paper spread across the table, they all had different colors and England was holding a gold paper in his hand to try to pair it with other colors.

"When it comes to the theme though, I think gold, silver, and sky blue," he said, picking up the two other colors and holding them next to the gold, "it pairs well, is sophisticated but still puts on a fun mood, and it kind of reminds me of a winter day with blue sky and the sun shining down on the freshly fallen snow, making it shimmer and sparkle like it was dancing."

N:   "Nice," England nodded, imagining how the three colors could work, "this could work and the imagery fits too. A masquerade is basically just a party or ball where the guests wear masks in order to conceal their identities. It's kind of hard when you're a country, your flag gives away your identity, but for humans, it's easier, and the masks tend to be half masks so you can drink and talk."

He placed the gold paper back on the table and said, "Now, what shall we do next, your outfits or the order of events?"

"The events stay the same each year," Scotland pointed out, and he turned to Rowen, "main ball then after parties. Simple."

England shrugged and continued, "Alright, so Rowen, you, Mandoria, and Johann are going to have outfits tailored for you, as well as the Saxons, but we need measurements." He called over a servant and said, "Go to the Royal tailor, and take your son with you, and you will need measurements taken."

The country got out a blank piece of paper, his inkwell, and quill, and began to design a mask on the paper, and when Scotland asked what he was doing, he answered. "I may design buildings, but I'll see if I can do the same with masks. Not exactly the same thing, but I need this to be perfect."

M:   "We might have to wait for Johann, he ran off with his friends doing Mandoria knows what," Rowen said, "but I have nothing better to do so I can spare a few minutes."

He stood up, snagged one of the pastries on the table, gave Edel a departing head pat, and followed the servant to the tailor.