N: Heinrich nodded, "And so do you," he replied, glancing at his wings, "when my Mutter comes back, I'll explain it to her, then go to the main village and send the message." He stood up and went over to the drawers, coming back with a yellow ribbon and a metal rod. He crouched by the fire and allowed the rod to heat up until it was red, then sat back on the sofa and spread the ribbon out flat.

"When we were kids, we made up our own code," the knight said as he worked, burning a series of vertical lines along the ribbon, "it made it easy to communicate when we were apart, so we would send our pets to each others' homes and our parents wouldn't be able to deliver them." He finished by singing the entire end of the ribbon black, and he held it up to admire his handiwork, "This says-"

"Heimat," Johann interjected, "home. You're telling them to come here."

"Ja," the knight smiled, "how do you still remember?"

"You forced us to remember," the other grumbled, "to the point when I forgot how to write normally." He looked at the ribbon and added, "it has been a long time so I forgot most of it, but heimat was the first word we put on a ribbon."

M: Mandoria hummed, fascinated with the secret code, "you could give BE a run for his money with that, he has always been fascinated with cryptic messages and the likes, whenever he was at war and needed my assistance, he would send messages via carrier bird in a writing style he called 'dot 'n dash', here, can I have a paper, Johann."

When Johann brought over a paper and pencil, Mandoria started writing lines and periods in specific patterns, much like a written version of mores code, he handed the paper to Heinrich when he was done.

"It's pretty simple, the different patterns of the dots and dashes mean different letters and words; A is one dot and one dash, B is one dash and three dots, C is dash dot dash dot, and so forth. When we were in the stronghold, we modified it to be used with knocks so we could communicate with each other, a quick knock is a dot and a knock followed by a long pause is a dash, I'm still surprised we remembered it after so long."

"Are you talking about BE's dot-dash communication," Rowen asked when he came into the house, "be careful, he created that because he didn't want others to know about it."

"Sorry," Mandoria said, "what were you doing outside."

"Checking in with Saxon, making sure everything was fine, and other than Edel stealing Wald's tent I think they were pretty uneventful last night, now what did I miss, not breakfast I hope."

N:   "I made enough porridge for everyone," Heinrich replied, "I will get you a bowl now."

When the knight has left, and Johann had recovered from laughing after hearing what happened with Edel, the young man spoke, "I think we were able to convince Heinrich to come with us, along with his Mutter, but that means that he has to bring our friends too since if he goes then they would be killed."

Heinrich came back with the breakfast and placed it before Rowen, "I think the dot and dash system is better than the one we have, in terms of making sentences. With the system we have, we have different patterns for entire words, although similar words have similar patterns, but it lacks the flexibility of practically writing a word."

"We were kids," Johann reassured him, "the only things that concerned us were home, play, sleep, chores, and food. Simple."

M: "Unless you're Mandara and Derogan," Rowen said with a smile, "they would add pranks to that list, even as young adults they couldn't shake their trouble-making tendencies, remember when they slipped alcohol into the knights' coffee?"

Mandoria snorted, "How could I forget, after the fifth accident with a knight falling off his horse I had to call them all back and give them the day off, and that's also the day I discovered your severe addiction to coffee, Rowen, what with how incredibly drunk you were."

The two laughed as they remembered the good times, they never did that in the stronghold as it would just make them upset, but now that they were free it felt ok to reminisce about it.

"I also remember how Johann felt left out with Mandara and Derogan having wings and he didn't," Mandoria said, "you tried to make wings by sticking feathers from the birds Rowen hunted onto sticks, Mandara never actually liked that, but he didn't want to hurt your feelings, I thought it was adorable."

N:   Johann buried his head in his hands, "seeing it now, that was just embarrassing." Heinrich only laughed at his friend's embarrassment. Hearing the laughter, Alcis decided to come into the house from digging outside, so he picked up a large stick and walked into the room, leaving a track of mud in his wake.

"Alcis, no," Heinrich whined, crouching down so he could pet the dog, "you know Mutter doesn't like you messing the house." The Great Dane just dropped his stick and barked happily, then proceeded to lick his face, leaving muddy prints wherever he goes.

Soon after, Maria came back with a large basket in her arms, so her son came over to help her out. "The saddler's face when I told him the size needed," she chuckled, "was priceless. I got the saddle and harness for Edel, so now you will journey comfortably."

"Umm, Mutter," Heinrich spoke, gaining his mother's attention, "we were thinking that you can come with us and leave Saxony." His mother stared wide-eyed at him, unable to respond, so he continued, "I was going to send a message to Wolfgang and Erna, and we all and their parents can go with the Mandorians and Saxon." Maria still didn't respond so the son began to get worried, so he waved his hand in front of his mother's face, "Hallo. Mutter? Is that ok?"

Maria blinked a couple of times and a small smile graced her face, "I am absolutely fine leaving. Tell me when Wolfe and Erna come, I will call their parents and we will arrange it. If Mr. Schwartz starts to talk back, I will give him a run for his money." Heinrich smiled and headed outside, waving as he went to send the message.

M:    "Um, does Saxon know about this," Rowen asked, "did this all happen when I was gone, how are we going to tell him that at least three families are packing up and coming with us?"

"Three Saxon families," Mandoria corrected him, "these are people that survived the purge all those years ago, he would want to protect them after what he did to them."

"But Saxon says we have to leave before nightfall," Rowen retorted, "that's not enough time for them to prepare to leave and we don't even have any horses or wagons, the only steed we have is Edel."

Mandoria opened his mouth to respond but couldn't think of anything to say, so he sighed and stayed quiet.

N:   Maria was about to speak when a familiar insurgent blurted out from outside, "DO I SMELL PORRIDGE?" After a few seconds, the voice added, "Boss, how do we smell if we don't have noses?"

"Beats me," Saxon replied as the pair walked in, Wald still in his undercover clothes. The insurgent slumped on the sofa, but as soon as Saxon entered, he made eye contact with Johann and quickly looked away.

"So," Wald spoke up, oblivious by the interaction, "may I have some breakfast, bitte?"

"You may," Maria replied, shaking her head as she left for the kitchen. While she was gone, Johann decided to update the entity and insurgent on what they planned, and when she came back, she saw the worried faces on both of them.

"That would require some time," Saxon pointed out, "and spending more time in the same place is a bad idea."

"But we could make it work," Wald suggested, "we could set out a perimeter so that we would be notified of any incoming Prussians. I know Heinrich's friends, they would try to find him the moment he's gone, so they might be here sooner than we expect." When Maria came back, he thanked her and ate a spoonful of porridge, "As for the horses and wagons, leave that to me."

"I worry about where you are going to get them," the entity laughed as he also thanked Maria for his bowl.

M:    "Me too," Rowen chuckled, "hopefully not that horse stable we passed coming here."

Mandoria simply rolled his eyes at the statement, he didn't doubt that Wald would go after the stables but he wasn't going to say anything. The rest of breakfast was filled with stories of the good old days, stories of better times, and encounters with prankster princes.

"-then when Rowen beat him again and disarmed his Tamordo, Derogan picked him up and flew him high into the sky and dropped him," Mandoria recalled, "he fell a good 50 feet and was almost a meter from the ground when he decided to catch him, after that day Rowen let him win every time so he wouldn't get dropped again."

"I honestly thought I was going to die," Rowen protested, "he's twenty years younger than me and flew me up to 50 feet in the air, he had unnatural strength and I didn't want to experience that again."

N: "I mean, it is an improvement from when we were kids," Johann stated, "he wasn't used to carrying people with non-hollow bones and we fell when he tried to carry me." The man finished his bowl before continuing, "I was annoyed that Derogan did that to Hezyka so I challenged him to a duel with Tamordos, unsurprisingly I lost, but at least I was able to knock him down once."

"You think that's crazy," Saxon scoffed, "right after Celtica lifted her restriction on whiskey, Ireland returned to his monthly smuggling of alcohol to Scotland. We were celebrating one day and at night I woke up to sword fighting and shouting. I look outside and I see England and Scotland, who clearly had too much to drink, sword fighting. England was so out of it that he actually was speaking in Old German, which I was pretty impressed, but I knew if Celtica found out, she would ban alcohol forever."

"What's up with you Brits and drinking," Wald asked.

"All I could say is never challenge a Brit to a drinking competition," the entity smirked, "things do not end well."

M:    "I can vouch for that," Mandoria chuckled, "it didn't end well when Ireland and I became trading partners and he brought his whisky so I could sample some. Though I don't think that me getting drunk was the only reason Celtica withdrawed him, I think it was partially because he was careless about his drink and Mandara had gotten his hands on it."

"I remember that," Rowen said, "who would have thought that a five-year-old could love whisky so much that he drank the whole bottle in under a minute."

"Don't say that Rowen, you're making me look like a bad parent," Mandoria grumbled good-naturedly.

"In your defense, it was Ireland who left the bottle out, and it did say spiced cider on it so he wouldn't have known any better."

"That doesn't make me feel better, the poor kid was sick for a week after that."

N: "Which is why," Johann said, "we should be more responsible around alcohol."

"Says the kid who stole beer from his Vater and gave it to my son," Maria scolded, crossing her arms as she gave the man a pointed look.

"I lost a bet," he defended, but Maria wasn't going to have any of it, "ok, tut mir Leid, Mrs. Haas, I was an idiot. Happy now." She was still annoyed but only sighed and shook her head disappointingly.

"Maybe let's turn away from alcohol," the mother stated, then she smirked at Johann, "I doubt Jo had told you, but when he, Heinz, Wolfe, and Erna were kids, they prepared a mini wedding between Jo and Erna without them knowing. My boy and Wolfe planned it all, and on the day Johann was a blushing mess, but Erna wasn't in so Heinz had to step in her place so he didn't feel lonely. Johann didn't speak for a while after that, but I found the whole thing adorable."

Johann promptly grabbed a pillow and buried his head in it, "Ich bereue es hier zu sein (I regret being here)."

M: "Well, I guess Johann learned a little from Heinz," Mandoria smirked, "because the little troublemaker was very adamant about planning our wedding, which is another reason we had a private one so it would be easier on him."

"I was very surprised at how well it turned out," Rowen said, "he did a better job than the backup planner we hired in case it didn't go well."

Mandoria chuckled a little but then started violently coughing, he had to put down his porridge to keep it from spilling. Rowen jumped up and rushed to his side, softly patting the country's back as he coughed and shook off even more feathers. After a minute Mandoria finally stopped, breathing heavily as he was catching his breath.

Rowen shook his head in frustration, "Mandoria you can't put it off anymore, we need to treat your wings before the infection gets any worse."

"I-I c-can't," Mandoria stuttered, barely above a whisper, "I-I just can't, you don't understand why I can't."

N:    "Is it the same reason why I don't like people touching me anymore," Johann spoke, lifting his head from the pillow, "because you feel that whoever does would hurt you. That Prussia would hurt you again?"

He placed the pillow aside and looked his father in the eye, "Well let me tell you this, after a while, I allowed Hezyka to hold me. When I reacted badly to my nightmare this morning, he was there to take care of me, and even if I'm still wary of others, I felt safe in his arms, a sort of safety I haven't felt in a long time."

The man seemed to get increasingly annoyed at Mandoria, "I know that you feel that you can't have your wings treated, that's how I felt when I didn't want to have any physical contact, but the very thing that we refuse to have is what we need the most. I know for sure that if Hezyka didn't hug me and cared for me back at the church, I wouldn't be here and would still be crying over my parents' deaths. Father, didn't you get over the whole 'poison in food' thing and ate Heinrich's and Mrs. Haas' food, you could have said you can't because of the fear of being poisoned, but you did anyway."

Johann stood up and stood over the country, "Now it is a matter of 'you won't' more than 'you can't'. I don't care if it is a winged thing, but you are making yourself believe that you cannot treat yourself. You are going to allow us to help you and I am not going to lose another Father." Johann's breathing was shaky as he looked at Mandoria, and after a moment he stormed off upstairs to his room.

After he had left, Saxon spoke up, "I would just like to say that it is best for you to be treated. You cannot fend off an infection forever, so you might as well treat it as soon as possible."

M: "I can't!" Mandoria shouted despairingly, hiding his face in his hands, "My wings were ripped from my back and I almost died a second time, I screamed and begged for mercy but was given none, Prussia made it as slow and agonizing as fucking possible, and threw my severed wings in front of my face when he was done!"

Mandoria was openly crying and there was anger and frustration in his voice, "You don't understand the trauma I faced, none of you do, you may have been burned in buildings and watched your friends be slaughtered, but you will NEVER understand the torture of having your limbs torn from your body and being forced to watch as the devil himself played with them, YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND!!!!"

"Mandoria please calm down, we're just trying to help," Rowen said, but his words fell on deaf ears.

"NO, LEAVE ME ALONE," the distraught country yelled. He stood up, pushed Rowen away, then ran out the door and into the woods, he needed to get away from them, he needed to be alone.

N: The Saxons watched as the country ran out of the room, unable to speak from what happened, and soon after Heinrich stumbled into the room with confusion written all over his face, "What the hell happened to Mandoria?" he asked. Examining the room he then asked, "And where the hell is Johann?"

After Wald gave a quick summary of what happened, he was speechless for a minute. He knew that Prussia was downright horrid, but this was on a different level.

"Well," he finally said, "someone better go after him then. Don't forget that we are still in the Kingdom, and we don't know where the nearest knights are, or, Gott bewahre (God forbid), my friends find him and think he's the enemy."

The knight pinched the bridge of his nose as he took in a deep sigh, "Who is going to go and check on Johann, and who is going to keep an eye on Sir Mandoria?"

M: "How are we supposed to keep an eye on him if he's already gone," Rowen said, looking out the window at the empty forest, "we need to find him before he gets lost or runs into trouble. But Johann also needs comforting so maybe I should stay with him, but then there would be fewer people looking for Mandoria and if he's lost then we might not be able to find him. Oh my gods I don't know what to do!"

-----

Mandoria ran and ran, deeper into the woods until he didn't recognize anything anymore, but he still kept running. With tears hindering his vision he couldn't see where he was going and tripped over a root, falling face-first into the dirt. He didn't get up, at that point he just didn't care anymore, he curled up into a ball and kept crying, reliving the horrors in his brain and still feeling the pain in his back, it was all just too much for him and he eventually passed out from all the emotions hitting him at once.

N: Heinrich looked at Rowen, "Let's do this, you take care of Johann, he is the closest and the most accessible to receive your help, the rest of us will go out and search for Mandoria, ok?"

"I know these woods like the back of my hand," Wald said, standing up to join the knight, Saxon walking up to them to join.

"Good," the Prussian said, whistling for his dog, "let's go."

—————

A few hours away, a pair of Prussia knights were riding, riding in the direction where they heard the insurgent group go. Both riding on dark horses, black fur-lined cloaks flying in the wind behind them, they slowed to a jog when they heard a screech in the sky.

The female knight asked the male knight for a spyglass, and when he provided it, she peered through to observe the bird and gasped when she saw the ribbon. "Heimat," she muttered to the other, who nodded and they both raced towards Saxony.

M: Rowen did as he was told and went up to check on Johann, he found him the same way he did last night except instead of sad he was frustrated, so Rowen quietly shut the door behind him and sat next to his son.

"Johann, you can't be mad at your father for not letting us help him," he said, not really knowing how to start, "we don't understand how much worse he had it and we don't understand the trauma he has. He had his wings ripped off and Prussia made him watch as he messed around with them, that's the equivalent of us having our arms or legs ripped off and watching the same thing. I know that his wings are affecting his health, but we are also being unfair at trying to force him to let us take care of him when the damage to his mind is so severe. Tell me, if you had your limbs ripped off and then somehow reattached, would you have let me take care of you so easily?"

N: Johann looked at his father as he explained and his face softened, his hand touching his shoulder as if imagining it happening to him. "No," he answered, his shoulders slumped when he said it, "I-I shouldn't have said those things back then. I should have known that he was affected a thousand times more. I should have-argh."

He placed his head in his hands as he increasingly felt terrible about what he did, "I should have just shut up."

M:   "It's ok buddy," Rowen reassured him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "what you said may have been a little excessive but you said it because you're worried about him, and that's what really matters. I'm not faultless either, I kept pushing him too and it caused him to run away, Heinrich and the others are looking for him right now but I think we should join them. We'll both apologize to him later but right now we need to find him, ok."

-----

Mandoria woke up a while later and started wandering around the forest, just trying to clear his head and forget about what just happened. Being in nature away from everyone was helping a lot, he finally felt at peace and could think clearly, it was refreshing.

Unfortunately, the peace was shattered when he stumbled into an abandoned hunting trap, he stepped into a tripwire that activated mechanisms in the nearby trees to fling out ropes that lassoed around the country's wing, arms, and neck. Panicking, Mandoria thrashed around like a captured deer, which made bells attached to the ropes ring, alerting anyone nearby of his presence.

N: As the knights rode, they heard the bells, so they steered towards the noise, not expecting to see Mandoria in the trap. The male knight clicked his tongue and began to ride away from the country, making the other call out, "Wolfgang, where are you going?"

"Why are you staying?" Wolfgang snapped back, "he escaped from prison anyways and he's getting what he deserves." He began to trot away but he stopped when he heard ropes being cut, "Erna, what are you doing?"

"The last time I checked," the knight replied, "Heinz only wants animals to be trapped in his traps, not countries." She hacked at the ropes one by one until Mandoria was freed, but as soon as he was, she knocked him down to the ground and held the tip of her sword at his throat.

"Although I disagree with my fellow knight here about leaving you in the trap," she spoke, "give me one good reason why we should not take you to King Prussia right now, but I'm sure that death would be a better fate."

—————

"Ok," Johann muttered quietly, standing up and following his father outside and to where Wald was waiting for them. "They had already left a while ago, but I had a gut feeling that you would come," he said, handing over a lantern each and a sword, "we don't know how long it would take but have the lantern just in case we work into the night."

M: "I hope we don't have to," Rowen said, taking the lantern and sword, "I also hope he hasn't run into trouble."

With that said, he and Johann followed Wald into the woods, but he had no idea the trouble Mandoria was in.

The country was crying from the overwhelming fear he was in, "please have mercy," he said through tears, "Please, I can't take any more of this, my life ended three years ago and I've been traveling through hell to find a way out that doesn't even exist, I'm tired of living but too scared to die, the only thing keeping me going is the irrational thought that my sons are still alive, but even that is wishful thinking."

Mandoria just subsided to sobs and incoherent rambling, not caring about what the knights thought of the emotional mess at their feet.

N: Erna faltered at the sight of Mandoria crying, and when he saw this, Wolfgang drew his own sword and marched up to him, "Let's just take him. He is the least of our problems anyway." When he approached him, he suddenly stopped when a sword appeared right in front of his face.

"Let him be," she ordered, getting a grumble from the other, so she turned around, "there are no witnesses to see that we have been with Mandoria, so we can let him live and say that we never saw him and only searched for Heinz."

"But that would be lying," Wolfgang snapped back, "right in King Prussia's face. He has wings, you know, he could detect our heartbeats. And if he catches on, our parents-" He quickly shut up when Erna held up her hand.

"Remember the trials, and especially the last one," she glowered, "as teens, we had to be fit to pleasure Prussia, and this man has been doing that for the last three years." She looked at Mandoria with pity, "We are not sending him back, Ist das klar (Do I make myself clear)?"

After a moment, Wolfgang huffed in defeat, "Fine, but what do we do, we can't exactly leave hi-"

"MANDORIA! WHERE ARE YOU," shouted Heinrich, and the pair looked at each other with confusion, knowing the voice and surprised by its proximity.

"You know," spoke Saxon, "you don't know if there are any knights nearby. You are just exposing your location."

"I don't care," the knight retorted, "anyway, MANDOR- OH MEIN GOTT!"

Saxon was the first to react, rushing to Mandoria's side, trying his best to comfort him while the knight glanced between his friends' swords and the country.

Further away, Wald jolted up when he heard the shout, turning to Rowen and Johann, "I think they might have found him. Come on, let's go."

M: Rowen looked to Johann and ran after Wald, he heard the shout too so was praying it wasn't because something bad happened, though when the three found the source of the noise and saw two Prussian knights seemingly holding everyone at sword point his heart sank.

"Mandoria," he shouted, running to the country. Mandoria turned to Rowen and bolted for him, colliding into his arms and dropping to the ground, still crying. "I'm so sorry, I'm sorry I ran, I should have listened to you," he bawled into Rowen's shoulder.

"Shush, easy Mandoria, I got you now, I got you, you're ok," Rowen hushed him, tears also leaking out of his eyes from relief that his husband was relatively ok, "I'm sorry too about earlier, I shouldn't have pushed you like that, but it's ok now, you're safe, I got you."

N: "Wolfgang, Erna, what are you doing?" Heinrich demanded, marching up to them and pushing away their swords.

"What did you expect us to do," Wolfgang yelled back, "he is supposed to be in prison and he's the enemy."

"He's not the goddamn enemy," the knight yelled back, "he's a friend and we are going to go with him and leave this hell hole." The two new knights looked at his friend with more confusion, and even more the moment they saw Johann run into the area.

"Johann?" Erna whispered, but the Mandorian grumbled at the sight of them and ran straight for Mandoria.

"Father, I'm sorry," he apologized, joining his fathers in the hug, "I shouldn't have said those things. I'm sorry."

"Father," Wolfgang said in surprise, "that country is not your father."

"Well, I'm sure that someone who takes you in after escaping Saxony is as good as a father," Johann snapped, striding up to Wolfgang, "so you better shut up or I'll shove that sword down your throat."

"Johann, there is no need to be violent," Erna said calmly, sheathing her sword, "Sir Mandoria got caught in one of Heinrich's old traps, and I freed him by cutting the ropes." She stared her old friend in the eye, "Where have you been this entire time? We thought you were dead."

"We will explain about that later," Heinrich said, getting everyone's attention, and he looked up to the sky to see the sun setting, "let us use your horses to transport Mandoria back to my place and talk there."

M:   "My husband is not going anywhere near a Prussian's horse," Rowen spat, "for all I know they are going to ride off with him and take him back to that cursed pit of Jastrem!"

He didn't need to worry about that though because a loud angered roar echoed through the woods, scaring the horses off. The sound of trees being knocked down in the distance came closer until Edel barreled out of the thicket and positioned himself in between the knights and everyone else, flaring his wings threateningly and roaring, flames leaking from the corners of his mouth as he prepared to turn the attackers to ash.

N: Both the knights drew their swords and pointed them at Edel, agitating the dragon even more, so Heinrich stepped in between them. "Wolfgang, Erna, do not hurt Edel," he ordered them, then he faces the dragon, "and you, don't kill them, you hear me? We just saw them and we don't know their intentions."

"And how are we supposed to trust you," Johann yelled, "we saw them standing over Father."

"Because they are my friends and we all knew the consequence of not following King Prussia's orders," he defended, "we only did stuff because King Prussia wanted it to happen, not us."

The female knight huffed and sheathed her sword again, "You are treading on a fine line, Haas."

"I never thought it would go down like this," Heinrich grumbled, rubbing his temples to ease his mild headache, "I called you since we needed to discuss about leaving the Kingdom, not to start a fucking war."

The both of them looked at him, eyes widened as they heard the idea, and Wolfgang was the first to react, "Heinz, the trees have ears, we better discuss this at your house."

"Alright," he replied, and he looked at the steaming dragon, "well it was a good thing that you showed up then. Why don't you give Mandoria a ride back, and the two of them could walk in front of you." Wolfgang and Erna both yelped in surprise, but the knight quickly explained, "Trust is hard to earn in these parts. I do, but they don't."

Wolfgang was about to retort when Erna elbowed him in the rib, "Fine," she snapped, and she looked at the dragon, "but you better not burn us for the fun of it."

M: Edel hissed like an alligator and took a step towards them threateningly, Rowen jumped up and ran in front of the dragon, "Edel, it's ok, they're not going to hurt us, right now we just need to get Mandoria back to Maria's house, ok."

Edel grumbled in his throat and kept glaring at Wolfgang and Erna, but relented and lay down so Rowen could put Mandoria on his back, who passed out again from the emotional crisis he had. When the country was steady on his back, Edel stood up and then roughly shoved Wolfgang forward to make sure they went first.

N:   "Don't shove me, Drachen," Wolfgang snapped, but he soon stopped when Erna rested her hand on his shoulder.

"Now is not the time, Schwartz," she spoke, looking back at Edel, "besides, it's not every day that you could see a drachen."

"Or be burnt by one," he mumbled, getting another elbow jab. Since they knew the way, they ambled as they weaved through the trees, until eventually they reached the house.

Maria stepped outside to see the group and her brows furrowed with worry, "What happened?" Heinrich quickly explained, to which she nodded, "Well, at least Mandoria is safe now, that's what matters. Bring him inside and I will prepare a space for him."

She was about to head in when she called out, "Mr. Schwartz, Miss. Weismann, come inside and don't start anything." The both of them rolled their eyes as they marched in, followed by Heinrich.

"Let me help Mandoria down," Saxon volunteered, "and Johann, why don't you go ahead, and talk ... with them?" The man grumbled but eventually did go inside, Wald tagging along to make sure that the four don't cause any trouble.

M: While everyone went inside, Rowen and Saxon helped Mandoria down, he was awake now but just barely, his energy robbed from everything that happened. "I'm sorry," he quietly muttered.

"Don't apologize Mandoria," Rowen said, "it was my fault for pushing you like that, I promise it won't happen again."

"You can treat my wings," the tired country whispered, "I won't stop you anymore."

Rowen, although glad to hear that, shook his head, "It can wait, right now all you need is rest."

Mandoria just nodded, he was already starting to fall asleep and making it harder for Saxon and Rowen to hold him.

"Saxon, maybe we should consider getting a leash or a bell for Mr. Run Away here," Rowen attempted to make a joke and failing.

N:   Saxon chuckled uneasily but said nothing, helping Rowen carry the country inside. In the living room, one of the sofas was cleared out so they rested Mandoria there, Maria bringing a pillow for his head. "I thought about preparing his room," the human said, "but I wasn't sure you could have carried him up there." The entity thanked her anyway and went to sit on a chair.

After she spoke, an uncomfortable silence filled the room, and there was a noticeable tension between the knights and the rest of the group, especially Johann.

"Umm, Johann," Erna spoke up, uncomfortable in the silence, and she walked up to him, who was sitting on another sofa next to Heinrich, "I'm sorry about what happened earlier. And, err, it's nice to see you again after all these years." She crouched down so she could see his face better, and when she was about to rest her hand on his knee, he moved his leg away.

"Why are you apologizing," Wolfgang scolded, "we didn't know how close Johann was to Sir Mandoria, or that he was even alive in the first place."

"Wolfe," both Heinrich and Erna snapped back, and Erna continued, "Since Johann is close to Sir Mandoria, then we should apologize for threatening him." She resided a brow at the knight, who sighed and apologized under his breath.

"So, why exactly did you bring us here," the woman asked, "and what is this grand plan you came up with about us leaving the Kingdom?"

M: "There, isn't really a set plan," Rowen admitted, sitting on the floor next to Mandoria and running a very tentative hand through the country's feathers, "the basic idea is that our soldiers will set up a perimeter around the area to watch for any hostiles while you all pack up into horse-drawn carts that Wald is somehow going to get, then we're taking you all with us to the British Isles."

Mandoria's wings twitched in his sleep and he whimpered slightly, Rowen stopped and let him be for a moment, "the fine details I don't know, but if we're lucky BE is sending reinforcements to meet us at the Prussian border to help protect us the rest of the way. Saxon, Heinrich, am I missing anything?"

N: Both of them shook their head, and Wald spoke up, "Now we got that over with, onto the topic of the horses and wagons," he looked over to Wolfgang and smiled, "Would your lovely Vater allow us to use his equipment since he is coming with us."

Wolfgang laughed coldly, "That is if you can convince the old man to go in the first place. Our family has been in this land for eons, and it will take a while to convince him to go."

"Also the Schwartz family are known to be Prussian sympathizers anyway," Johann added quietly, facing the knight, "so I'm guessing Prussia gave back his land then, along with his wealth."

"Just because my Vater is a landowner doesn't mean I am like him," he growled, "but I guess you Kress' don't get that, you pipsqueaks." Johann was about to lunge at him when Heinrich held him back.

"Only after a short time together do you two bring up the old rivalry," Heinz said with a sigh, "I still wonder how you two got along."

"Because in the crazy moment, they share a single brain cell," Erna replied as if it is obvious, and helped her friend calm Johann down, "don't listen to him, Kress. We will tell our parents to come and we will join you to the British Isles."

Wolfgang was still pouting, but then he was suddenly knocked down by an incoming Great Dane. He yelped when the dog started to plant wet kisses all over his face, "HAAS, GET YOUR DOG OFF ME!"