N: "Well, that won't be good," Erna muttered and the group walked further in until they reached the creek. Looking around to check that there were no wolves, Wolfgang then saw that there was a deer grazing in the distance and he pointed over to it.

"Check that out," he began "It's a -"

He was suddenly cut off by a loud bang, and they felt disoriented as it sounded as if it came from above, and when the group had stopped snickering from Castile's jump, they turned back to see that the deer was now lying on the ground.

"How the hell did it just," Wolfgang spoke when he jumped from a large thud from behind him, and wildly swinging his weapon, he almost whacked Royal across the face if she didn't grab the barrel. "What was that for," the Saxon grumbled, getting a smirk from the Brit, "and where were you?"

"I was up in the trees and I just wanted to see what you guys were doing," she explained, looking at their weapons, "but it seems like you're hunting too. I was just trying out a trick Anglo taught me, about keeping my wings perfectly still so I am not detected, although it's pretty hard when they contrast with the snow. Anyways," she glanced over to the deer, "seems like I got some food."

M: Esha was about ready to tear out Royal's wings from how badly she scared her, but she ended up just laughing it off, albeit forcibly, "geeze Royal, next time you really should announce your presence, I'm not going to let my millions of years of life end by a heart attack."

She looked around to see where Sasha was, only to find her missing, which didn't surprise her one bit.  The poor cat was still getting used to the sound of guns, she was ok enough with them to join in hunting, but that sudden bang shook them all.

"And you scared off Sasha too," she sighed, taking note of the direction of the pantherin's tracks, "looks like she ran back to the clearing we were first at, I got to go get her, Castile, why don't you join me, the last thing I want to do is leave you alone with these reckless toddlers, Erna can keep both of them in check but not at the same time."

N: "I will gladly join you," Castile spoke, giving the Brit a once over, "and leave this child with the others."

"I'm the child now," Royal raised a brow, "well that's not fair."

"After what you did," Wolfgang growled, "you absolutely deserve it."

The Brit ignored him and turned to Erna, "Don't worry about me, take care of this boyfriend of yours," and with that, she went over to the deer to take it back, which made the female Saxon sigh.

"I got to take care of both of them, don't I," she muttered to herself before turning to the Eternal, "find Sasha and be quick, I don't think I can handle them for too long."

M: "We'll be as fast as we can," Esha reassured her, "I've had to babysit four grown men for a good portion of my life, I know how it feels."

With that, the two countryhumans went off to find the snow leopard, and hopefully, before it got too dark.  They followed the tracks all the way back to the clearing but Sasha wasn't there, which again didn't surprise Esha, but the lightly falling snow was starting to fill up the tracks so she would have to use a different approach.

Esha shifted into her dragon form, though kept it about the size of a donkey, so she could pick up the big cat's scent.  "It smells like another deer was nearby, Sasha must have chased after it," she stated, searching for tracks, "I hope she doesn't find any wolves before we find her."

N: Castile jumped a bit when Esha transformed into a dragon, "let's hope so, but next time give me a warning before you change into a dragon."

M: "Sorry, I'm still getting used to the idea that modern eternals are incapable of the things that I am and that it can frighten you," Esha apologized, "I will remember to tell the others not to shift when the rest of your species comes for the ball."

They walked off in the direction Esha was sure Sasha ran in, on the way she took the opportunity to as Castile a few questions, "are there others of your kind who have animal genes in them, I've only seen the ordinary ones like you and the winged ones like Anglo and Royal, Wales is different since he is a draconic eternal like me, so are there other subspecies of modern eternals?"

N: "I doubt there are as many compared to your time," Castile spoke, "there are not many but I have heard of countryhumans with reptilian features, a few with feline, but a large amount of non-normal countryhumans are winged, whether feathered or membrane wings. My Abuelo may have even mentioned some countryhumans at his time who had simple features like horns, but I am yet to see one myself. However, there are probably more, ones that the empires might have seen from their conquest of the world."

The Spaniard kept on walking when he remembered something. "Oh, and there is Republic of Venice with his," then he waved his arms around randomly, "I don't know what it is, or what he has, but whenever I see those 'ribbon hair', it gives me the creeps all the time."

M: Esha tilted her head, wondering what Castile meant by ribbon hair, she found it interesting how many countryhumans she's seen have hair, to begin with,  sure there were eternals who had hair but it was a rare mutation in her kind, but nowadays it seems like a common occurrence.

"Ok, follow-up question, why is it that the animal genes have fallen out in your kind," she wondered, "for eternals, it was quite rare for one to be born like Neflen and Odrus, it was much more common to be born with some animal feature, so why has that changed?"

N: Castile shrugged, "I don't know, I wasn't there to see the decline of animal features, but if I had to guess, once the old countries ran out of magical creatures to hunt down, then they turned to what they saw as strange. The fear of the unknown is a strong force, and it can often lead to pain, but countries with relatively common features like wings can come together as communities and protect each other. The old ones were left behind and disappeared, and there would be some countries who would actively hurt them, even now with the winged community."

He turned to ask, "How were Eternals with no animal genes treated? Hopefully better than how we treat countries with animal genes."

M: Esha stopped walking, she was shocked to hear that countryhumans would treat their own kind so cruelly, just for the simple reason of being different.

"They were treated with as much respect as the rest of us were," Esha muttered, sitting down, "they weren't the only rare subspecies, draconic eternals were also uncommon, but ... you mean to tell me that our kind has degraded themselves to hunting each other for sport, that's worse than anything the humans have done to us.  How could anyone think it ok to kill another of their kind because they are not like them, my friends and I are the last of our kind, and you people think it's ok to throw away the lives of those like us?"

Esha couldn't decide whether she should be angry or sad about this, so she just huffed and said, "Go back to the others, I do not wish to be alone with your kind any longer."

She walked away after that, and decided that after she found Sasha she would gather he friends and get them to safety, clearly, this ball is nothing but a death trap for people like them.

N: Castile just watched as she walked away and he sighed, "Welcome to our times." He quickly spun around when he heard a voice call out to him, and although he initially tensed up, he recognized the voice and waited until PE stumbled along.

"Why on earth are you here," the empire asked, "and don't tell me you did something stupid."

"As you can see," the Spaniard spoke, lifting up his rifle, "I am out hunting, and I don't think telling Esha how us countries have treated each other is a stupid thing." He looked in the general directing the Eternal went, watching as the snow slowly covered her tracks, "although, now she wants nothing with our kind."

"Barely a day and your words have already weakened ties," the empire grumbled before grabbing his brother's arm, "come on, let's go with her. I met the others and told me about the wolf problem, so you probably have a better chance of survival with her."

"Stop pretending that you're the older brother," the other muttered as he freed himself before the pair followed the disappearing trail.

M: Esha didn't think anyone would follow her, she just kept following Sasha's trail until she found her sitting next to a fresh deer kill. 

She smiled and unshifted to comfort her companion, "Well, at least you are someone I can trust, you're such a good girl."

Now that Sasha was safe and had brought in a good meal, she felt it was time to go home.  She was just tying up the carcass with her rope so it would be easier to carry, when she heard a twig snap to her right.  She whipped around and saw the biggest wolf she had ever seen in her life, the beast was twice as big as Sasha, and stared at them with hunger in its dark red eyes.

N: Castile and PE were minding their own business when the latter noticed the wolf and pulled the other to the ground, keeping his eyes on the animal. Castile was initially confused by this, and he was about to speak when his brother covered his mouth, and when he pointed at the wolf in front of them, his eyes widened in shock.

Where they were lying down was a couple of meters behind the wolf, and seeing Esha in front of it, Castile mouthed, "What should we do?"

"I don't know," PE silently mouthed back, "that thing is massive." He looked at the rifle next to his brother and snatched it from him, and before the other could protest, he was already aiming at the wolf.

"Are you crazy," Castile whispered, "how is that going to help?"

"To distract it. I am not very keen on you being killed by a wolf," and with that he sighed deeply, aiming right at its leg before shooting. Without a moment of hesitation, the Portuguese jumped up and waved his hands, "Over here," and when he was sure that he got the wolf's attention, he ran in the opposite direction.

M: Before the brothers stumbled upon them, Esha and the wolf were having the staredown of her life, never before had she been so afraid of a wild animal.  But that was just the thing, this wolf was bigger than any normal wolf, almost to the point of a dire wolf, but its eyes were intelligent looking, almost human-like.

After a while, Esha's fear turned into curiosity, she was beginning to think that this was no ordinary wolf, for one thing, she hadn't seen any pure black wolves before in the British Isles, much less one with red eyes, but the vibe she got from it felt almost familiar somehow.

Before she could attempt to communicate with it the gunshot rang out, an ear-piercing howl of pain erupted from the creature, causing it to stand up on its hind legs and watch PE run away.  It roared with anger, dropping back down on all fours to give chase, Esha remained frozen in utter shock.

N: Castile felt his soul leave when he watched as the wolf leaped over him, not even allowing himself to breathe until he heard sure that the creature was far enough, before slowly getting up on his feet. He turned to Esha, his face pale, as he tried to process what happened, when all of a sudden it hit him.

"What was he THINKING," he snapped, holding his head to help steady himself, "does he have a death wish?" He took a step in the general direction his brother went, but froze as he fully thought about the risks he was taking, and his mind was torn between the safety of his brother and his own survival. He didn't have his rifle anymore since PE took it, so he kicked the snow in frustration from his uselessness.

"Esha, we need to get my brother," the Spaniard plead, "Por favor, the last thing I want is for him to stupidly die from whatever that hellhound was."

M: When Castile spoke it snapped Esha out of her trance, as did Sasha pulling on her wing, it still took her a moment to fully comprehend what happened.  She told Sasha to run back home and get help, then shifted to her much larger dragon form, letting Castile hop on before she bolted after the retreating entities.

When she caught up to them, PE was up a tree and clutching his left arm, while the beast below him was trying to climb up to him.  Esha shook Castlile off and pounced on top of the creature, clamping her jaws on the back of its neck and throwing it away.

Although it was caught off guard, the creature recovered quickly and faced off against the dragon, standing on its hind legs again to appear larger.  The two beasts stood there for a good thirty seconds before clashing again, fur and blood flying everywhere as Esha tried to give the brothers the chance to run to safety.

N: Castile ran, dodging the fight, and stood right underneath PE, who was holding on to a branch for dear life. " PE, estás loco (are you crazy)," he shouted but was cut off when the other dropped the rifle, almost hitting the Spaniard's face if he hadn't moved just in time. "You almost hit my face!"

"I don't care about your face," the empire shouted back, "now move out of the way." The other did just as he was told, and when he was sure there was no other way, the empire let go and dropped down to the ground, the snow cushioning his landing. He quickly got up on his feet, glancing back at the fight before saying, "We need to go and tell someone."

"For once I agree," the Spaniard answered, running away back to the compound, "I don't plan on dying today." Soon after, PE ran off too.

M: Back at the compound, Neflen was pacing around in the dining hall with England, Rowen, and Johann, he knew that Esha went out hunting because Royal, Erna, and Wolfgang had come back, but he had this nagging feeling in his gut that told him something was wrong.

"Why isn't she back yet," he asked, "she should have come back with the others, it's not like her to just abandon anyone.  Something isn't right, I just know it."

"Neflen, Esha is fine, she can take care of herself," Rowen reassured him, "if anything, I would be afraid for the safety of anything or anyone dumb enough to try to attack her."

N: Johann nodded, "she is a strong person, and she could shift into a dragon anyways."

"Also she isn't alone," England spoke, "Castile also went with them, and since he didn't come back with the others, we can assume that he's with her."

Just as he spoke, a guard came in and asked about the whereabouts of BE, and when England asked why, the guard answered, "One of the guards on the northern wall reported that they saw a snow leopard coming our way. What should we do?"

M: "Oh, that's just Sasha, she's Esha's, see Neflen, they're back, no need to worry anymore," Rowen said.

"Wait, was anyone with Sasha, or was she alone," Neflen asked the guard, when he said she was alone it worried him even more. 

He followed the guard outside to see what was going on and was immediately pounced on by a frightened leopard.  Given his nature, he could understand a large number of animals and what they were saying, including all of Esha's pets, so when Sasha "told" him what happened he knew his worries were true.  He relayed the information to the guard and told him to get BE, who he saw in his office a while ago, while the Eternal ran to find Scotland or Celtica.

N: The two Celts were in Scotland's office, discussing the agenda of the Yule ball, trying to make sure that everything was included when Neflen entered the room. They both looked up from the papers in front of them, asking the Eternal what happened, and when they got everything, they were in shock.

"What is this 'large wolf'," Celtica asked, "because if it is large enough to be a threat to Esha, then we need a strong force."

"And we have no idea what it is," Scotland added, "and since it is clearly not normal, we don't know the implications of harming or even killing it."

M: "Does that really matter right now, if Esha is in danger then we need to hurry," Neflen reasoned, "let's just treat it like a bear for now and we'll worry about anything magical later, now let's go!"

After a short bit of arguing on how to combat this unnatural threat, Neflen managed to get them to join him and Uskaine, who they passed by and asked what they were doing, and rushed off ahead of the knights.  On the way there they found Castile and PE, they explained what happened after Sasha left, and upon seeing that PE's arm was bleeding profusely, Uskaine stayed back to escort them home.

The group heard the creatures fighting before they saw them, and when they did it was carnage, the white snow was painted red, as well as the fur of both opponents, yet somehow they were still able to spill more from each other.

"What are you doing here," Esha shouted, trying to keep the wolf's fangs away from her throat, "run you idiots, I can only hold him off for so long!"

N: "And that is exactly why we came," Celtica shouted, "you can't do this on your own." She nodded at Scotland, who got her message, and with the rope in his hand, he tied it around his waist before handing the other end to his mother. Carefully climbing up the nearest tree, he swung the roof over a branch, and with his axe in hand and the wolf clearly in sight.

After taking a deep breath, he jumped, landing right on the wolf's back, and immediately griped its fur as he felt it trying to throw him off. With his axe, he struck right at the base of the wolf's neck, allowing him just enough time to wrap the rope around its neck once, and when he did it again, he looped the rope into his mouth.

"Ma, Neflen, now!" Scotty shouted, so they pulled on the rope as hard as they could, and although the wolf was strong, the pull caught it by surprise, pulling him off Esha, and the Scot was able to cut himself loose before he was buried underneath the wolf.

M: The blow to the back of its neck stunned the creature, which made it a little easier to pull it off balance and down to the ground, where it remained for a while like it was paralyzed.  This gave everyone enough time to pull Scotland free from its body and to make sure Esha was ok, or as ok as someone can be from being mauled by a tiger-sized wolf.

When the wolf began to move again it was different than before, it slipped the rope off of its throat with paws that started to look like hands now, and its pure black fur began to gain large spots of dark blue.

Realization began to dawn in Esha's eyes now, she now understood what this creature was and why it didn't attack until it was provoked.  Neflen realized this too and was horrified at what they did, so when Esha inched closer he didn't stop her.  She sniffed the creature earning a warning growl and a swipe of its now clawed hands, so she gently rumbled in her throat to calm it.

The creature settled down and the rest of its hidden features were revealed, such as a torso and upper arms bare of fur, deer-skin shorts, and a belt with various survival tools, and although its face remained wolf-like, half of the fur became blue, while a crescent moon outlined its right eye.

N: Scotland tilted his head in confusion at the figure in front of him, wondering how the large wolf turned into it. He guessed that it was a creature that could change their form, and similarly to the Eternals, keep their clothes after transforming. But even then, he didn't know what it was.

"Esha," he spoke as non-threatening as possible, "what is it?"

M: Esha turned to him and simply said "One of us" before turning back to the being, who was now laying down from its exhaustion. Neflen was now extremely shocked, he looked like he saw a ghost, which he honestly thought he was seeing.

"How, this is impossible," he murmured, "he killed everyone, I thought no one survived."  He then explained to the Scots, "That's Sabeth, he's an eternal who lived in the settlement with us, but I don't understand how he's alive, Chrysalis was very thorough in making sure that no one survived his massacre."

"That doesn't matter right now, PE frightened him into attacking," Esha deduced, "we must bring him back home, we can't let the last remaining members of our species die."

She gently grabbed the apparent eternal in her mouth and placed him on her back, she stumbled a bit from her own injuries but regained her footing and began limping back to the compound.

N: Scotland glanced over to Celtica, who only shrugged as she collected the rope, watching as Esha went back. The pair walked behind them, keeping their distance until they reached the compound, where BE was waiting at the main entrance.

"Who is that," the empire asked, weary of the stranger.

"Another Eternal," Scotty answered as he patted his son's shoulder, "and yes, there is another one."

The empire raised a brow, "I see, well let's take them to the infirmary to patch them up, including you Esha."

With the flick of his finger, he called the nearby servants to help them in, and while they did, he muttered, "I better start paying the medics extra from the amount of work they have done."

M: "Yea, no kidding," Esha grumbled, "by now I know each of them by name and a lot of personal information about them, which reminds me, you need to change the color of your stairs to not match the floor, BE, apparently a lot of people keep missing the last step at the eastern staircase because it's practically invisible when going down."

"Other people trip too, I thought that was just me," Neflen exclaimed, "but anyway, let's get you patched up Eshie."

Esha nodded in agreement, though she growled at the servants to stay away, she wasn't about to let them touch an eternal who was still distrustful of them.  It was only after they made it into the infirmary did she let the humans help, and after the wolf eternal was off her back she unshifted and fell into Scotland and Neflen's arms, her energy drained faster in her wild form.

N: "Alright," Scotland spoke as he and Neflen raised Esha, "let's get you to a bed."

Once they entered, PE was already in a sling, sitting as he was telling stories of his travels, when he turned to see the group pour into the room. "So even more people got injured," he pointed out, "BE, what is wrong with this place?"

The empire sighed, "I have no idea, it seems like there can never be a week without someone being injured." He ordered the doctors to take care of the patients, but to be extra careful around Sabeth, "he's new, so he's not used around humans."

Anglo turned around to see them, shaking his head, "There can never be peace in this country."

"Peace was never an option," Saxon muttered as he stirred from his sleep, woken up by the commotion.

M: Neflen couldn't help but snicker at that, though it was quite loud and earned him a disappointed grunt from Esha.

"You all call this cursed, but for us this is normal," Uskaine commented, still being there after he brought the Spanish brothers, "eternals get in fights all the time, depending on the subspecies it's just how we work things out, or what we do to pass the time, honestly, it would be considered abnormal for there not to be at least one person in the healing chamber at a time, though the average is around two to three."

As he was talking, the eternal named Sabeth started to come to after blacking out for a moment, and when he saw humans surrounding him he instantly freaked out.  With a startled growl he reflexively swiped at one of the doctors' faces, ripping their right ear clean off and nearly taking out an eye.  He then tried to bolt for the door but tripped over his own limbs and faceplanted into the wall, hard enough to not only knock himself out but to punch a hole through it and get his head stuck.

N: It took the countries a moment for whatever happened to process, but when they had begun to stir, BE grumbled, "Seriously, was that necessary?"

The rest of the medics came to the doctors, making sure to collect the ear before bandaging them up. Some of them also went over to Sabeth, and after pulling him out of the wall, then brought him back to bed, although a bit more worried.

"Restrains," PE asked.

"For him to wake up and panic, no," the Brit answered as he walked over to the Eternal, "let's wait for a bit before doing anything."

M: "Can you blame him, he somehow survived the Jacobite massacre," Neflen reasoned, "he witnessed the same thing we did, minus Esha, in fact, he had a pack of seven other rougarou that probably didn't make it, he's going to fear anyone without a flag."

"I'd say take advantage of his unconsciousness to treat him," Odrus suggested, sitting up in bed, "then when he's all patched up we only let the bare minimum amount of humans be in here, at least until we can explain to him that it's all ok."

N: BE nodded at the doctors, who took it as a sign to go ahead, so they carefully patched Sabeth, not wanting another incident.

While they worked, Saxon finally opened his eyes and looked around, and when he was sitting himself up, he saw Castile and froze. What soon followed was an exaggerated sigh, and when the Spaniard was about to speak, the entity quickly slid under the covers and covered his head with his blanket.

"Saxon, since you're awake," Castile spoke, "could you tell me why-"

"Fuck off, Castile," the entity interrupted, getting an awkward smile from Anglo.

"Just don't bother him," the Englishman explained, "he's not feeling particularly well and he usually gets this grouchy when recovering."

M: "When he's recovering, I thought he was grouchy all the time," Esha chuckled tiredly, "or I might be thinking of BE."

"Geeze, you guys pick on BE a lot," Prudoria noted, "I don't get why he lets you get away with it, Prussia kept saying that he severely punishes anyone who talks against him."

"Well, technically you're not wrong, Wren proved that the other day," Odrus said, "but you've got to let go of the things that Prussia has taught you, he's a manipulative bastard who just wants to drag everyone down.  For crying out loud, Anglo told me about what Prussia told you about clipped wings, right Anglo?"

N: Anglo nodded, "Yes, and I still can't wrap my head around the fact that Prussia told you that clipped wings were a good thing. It seems that there are a lot of things that you need to unlearn from him."

"That would be interesting on how you go about it," BE pointed out, "a child picks up a lot when they are young, and things they learn stick with them for a while, especially if they are repeatedly taught the same thing. Assuming that Prussia had taught his 'doctrine' Prudoria since he was a child, then that may take some time."

The empire paused for a moment before frowning, turning to Prussian, "Prudoria, how old are you? I could guess, but it's hard when us counties stop physically aging after a point."

M: Prudoria thought about it for a minute, counting on his fingers to figure out his age, "I mean, technically speaking, about four years old."

"Wait what," the eternals exclaimed in unison.

Prudoria shrugged, "Yeah, I don't really know how I came to be, Prussia said I was born human and he turned me into who I am, and that caused me to age into an adult.  Given what everyone says about him though, I now don't know if it's true."

"Actually, it might be," Uskaine announced, "we used to have doctors who specialized in magically changing the subspecies of an eternal, however, it could only be done when they were very young as that's when the genes would be most malleable and not reject the genetic medaling."

"Wait, so you're saying you were 'born' when Prussia captured Mandoria," Neflen asked Prudoria.

"I guess so," the young country shrugged, "but I don't want to be treated like a toddler, please."

N: "Even if we didn't know your age," Castile spoke, "the majority, if not all, of the countries that will come would be decades, centuries, or even millennia older than you, so maybe expect being treated as one of the younger ones."

"But that doesn't matter," PE interrupted, giving his brother a pointed look before facing Odrus, "I would like to ask about how exactly can someone change a human to a countryhuman? Sim (yes), there were doctors that could change an Eternal's subspecies, but a human and a countryhuman are two completely different species. How is it possible to change one to the other?"

M: Odrus shrugged, "I don't know, we're just throwing out a theory, it could be completely wrong for all we know."  He looked over to Prudoria again and noticed his wings were still clipped, "wait, have you not taken care of your wings since you've been here?"

"I don't know how to," Prudoria admitted, "Prussia would do it for me but didn't teach me yet, he said he would eventually but he liked to groom them himself.  He would clip my wings after he was finished, which is another reason I was able to escape, a human did it last time because he was away, and didn't clip them properly."

"The more I hear about that bastard, the more I want to go hunt him down," Neflen growled, "that guy is like a plague on this earth, perhaps the 11th one of Egypt that Rowen once talked about."

N: "Hold up," BE questioned, "11th plague of Egypt, I thought there was 10-"

"And that is when we do not discuss about history that the Eternals most likely have more knowledge on," Anglo interrupted, seeing how Saxon is annoyed by the discussion, "if you all are to continue talking, please, do it somewhere where the patients are not disturbed."

M: "I was being sarcastic, BE," Neflen sighed, "There are only ten plagues in the story, I was trying to say he could have been number 11 if the story was true."

"Alright, that's enough out of you two," Uskaine remarked, "come on Neflen, how about we find you something productive to do so we can keep you out of trouble."

The centaur led Neflen away without another word, figuring they would go find Mandoria to help Prudoria.

The young country sat there uncomfortably, BE was a bit too close to him for his liking and was scooting away from him a little, trying to avoid eye contact.

N: BE noticed the behavior and stared down at Prudoria, causing PE to frown. "Give him a break, Albion," the Portuguese spoke, "there is no need to give him the death stare."

The Brit grumbled for a bit when the other continued, "You know what, why don't you go and do something you Brits enjoy? I don't know, fight with each other?"

"Don't test me, PE," the Brit growled before letting out a sigh and walking out of the room, along with Scotland and Celtica who went back to work.

The Portuguese then turned to his brother, "You too, Castile. Shoo; I don't need you to babysit me."

"And that is why you're the younger brother," the Spaniard rolled his eyes but he also left too.

PE took in a deep breath as he sunk into his bed, making sure that his arm wasn't hurting before turning to Prudoria. "I feel sorry for you," the empire spoke with a weak smile, "you landed in one of the most problematic families in this continent, and my family is going to bring its baggage too. At least the Nordics are not coming, that family is a whole mess of its own.

M: "Uh ... thanks," Prudoria responded, "this was the only place I could go since Mandoria was here, I knew he would be the only person who would protect me."

"You made the right choice, kid," Odrus agreed, "despite the family drama, I can't think of any place better for you to come, because from everything I've heard, you probably would have been killed if you went anywhere else due to your affiliation with Prussia."

Prudoria whimpered quietly at that but didn't address it, instead, he started to mess with his wings, trying to figure out how to groom them.

"Mr. Anglo," he said after a bit, "you said before that Saxon is not your master, so are you his, you boss him around a lot and he only really listens to you, so does that mean he's your pet?"

"More like his child," Esha joked, "Anglo can barely keep him on a leash, what makes you think he would make a good pet."

Odrus laughed at that, though Prudoria was confused, due to his experience he thought the eternal was serious.

"Oh, he's not a good pet, I can help him with that," he said innocently, "Prussia said I was a good pet sometimes, maybe I can teach him to be a good pet too so you don't have to whip him."

N: "Whip him," Anglo said in surprise, "I don't whip him, nor will I do that to anyone. He is my husband and I will never wish for anything or anyone to hurt him, even myself."

Wanting to address the issue, he gave the Eternals a pointed stare to quiet them before facing Prudoria. "Saxon is not my master, nor am I his. We are equals in our own rights, and we respect and love each other. He listens to me and I listen to him."

"You do?" Saxon asked with a smirk.

"Most of the time," the Englishman rolled his eyes, "anyway, you might see me bossing him around, but it is always for his own good. I have seen the path that insurgency had taken his father, and I never wanted Saxon to be like him, so whenever he goes too far, I am always there to pull him back." The country's face soured at the mention of Suebi before muttering, "he always said that I made Saxon soft, but he never knew what it means to care for someone."

The entity looked at Anglo, and seeing how he was distressed, he reached over and rested his hand on top of the other's, and when their eyes met, he silently told him that everything was ok.

Once Anglo had calmed down, he looked over to the Prussian with a smile, "And as for why he listens to me, he values what I say. It's not to say that he doesn't care about what others tell him, but I guess when I say something, it sticks. So, to comment on what you said, no, don't teach Saxon to be a good 'pet', and Prussia should have never called you or treated you as one."