M:   "Sure, it's where we were watching the sunrise," Derogan said as he stood up to lead the way, Mandara following close behind.

The three retraced their steps back to the training ground, it was vacant since Mandoria was having his knights patrol the kingdom to make sure the people who hurt Saxon wouldn't show up.

"Guess, the knights must be taking a day off," Mandara deduced, unaware of what was really going on, "they are usually out by now."

"Yeah, that is a little strange," Derogan agreed, "I'm sure it's nothing," he then pointed to a small building next to the field and said to Saxon, "over there is where the knights keep the training equipment, if you want we can help set up stuff."

N:   Saxon accepted their offer, and together they walked to the building.

When he reached where the weapons were stored, he strolled through the racks, his hand brushing across the muskets, spears, and swords. Although he knew of their advantage, Saxon never could compare guns to a good old-fashioned sword.  He eventually found one which balanced well in his palm, he also took a bow and a quiver full of arrows.

When he left the section, he saw that Mandara and Derogan had taken most of the equipment needed outside. He helped them organize the equipment into a sort of course with dummies scattered around and a target at the end.

When everything was in place, the princes stood afar off to watch. Saxon stood at the start with the sword in hand and the bow in the other. He took a deep breath to relax, focusing on his target, who he imagined being Prussia. He then took off.

He slashed every single dummy, his movements almost graceful, as he knocked down every obstacle. Every time he hit a dummy, he thought about every country he was able to topple. When it came to the target, he dropped his sword and drew an arrow from his quiver. He aimed and focused on the center. Then he let go.

The arrow missed the center and landed in the middle ring of the target. Saxon huffed in frustration at his failure, so he returned to the start to retry.

M:   Both brothers were awestruck at Saxon's speed and accuracy, one second he was standing at the starting line, and the next he was coming back to do it again, it was very impressive.

"Wow, I don't think I have ever seen anyone go through a course so fast," Derogan commented, Mandara only nodded, his voice stolen by his shock. Derogan put his hand under his brother's chin and closed his hanging mouth for him, then the two sat down to keep watching.

"Where did you learn to fight so fast?" Mandara asked when the entity came back to the start, "and how do you do it while your hurt?"

N:   Saxon laughed a little when he saw Mandara's expression when he arrived at the start. He was about to start again when he heard Mandara's question.

"As I said before, training is part of my daily routine, so it is simply practice. I've been doing this since I was a young lad. As for how I am doing it while I'm hurt, I've learned how to not put too much strain on my muscles and to keep the movement to the minimum." He got ready to take off. "I've fought in worst conditions than this so, despite it does hurt a bit, is nothing compared to the actual battlefield."

He realized that he shouldn't talk about the battlefield to young children, but instead of addressing it, he took off again.

M:   The brothers both nodded along as Saxon explained everything, it was all very fascinating to them and they enjoyed every minute of watching the entity training. They were never usually allowed to be this close to the knights when they wanted to watch, so it was interesting to see everything up close for once.

As Saxon kept training, Derogan was getting very antsy and badly wanted to join him, but he also didn't want to get in trouble with his father. Then he remembered that the knights carry wooden practice swords for the trainees, those should be safe to use.

He stood up when Saxon came back again and asked, "do you think you can teach me a little bit, there are some wooden practice swords we could use that should be safe."

Mandara frowned that Derogan was asking that when he agreed they would just watch, but he stayed quiet and waited for Saxon's response.

N:   Saxon wasn't sure whether he should, since he is a guest in a foreign country, but he remembered what Derogan said about being king. That might explain his behavior, he thought. He noticed Mandara's frown, but he ignored it for the moment.

"If you insist, you may get one wooden sword while I'll set up something." He placed his weapons on the ground and propped up a dummy for the prince. He thought it would be better and safer if Derogan had something to practice on instead of fighting a live target like himself.

M:   Derogan beamed with excitement and ran for the training storage building, coming out with a wooden sword, though because he was only 14 years old and not at the proper age to be training, the sword was a little big for him.

"Derogan, we're not old enough to be training to fight," Mandara called over to him, though he didn't stand up or move from his spot, "you're going to get in trouble."

"Father won't know Mandara," Derogan called back, "he's too busy with king stuff anyway, and besides, I want to be prepared if King Prussia comes back to challenge him again."

"If he does then you can't do anything about it," Mandara retorted, "winged law states that if a King Wing is being challenged for his title then he has to do it alone."

Derogan groaned in annoyance, "I don't care, you and I both know that Prussia will kill Father if he wins, I am not going to let that happen, whether you like it or not."

With that said, Derogan turned away from his brother and went to join Saxon, Mandara huffed at him and raised his hands in exasperation, "Prussia would just kill you too, brother!" he shouted after him, but Derogan had stopped listening at this point.

N:   Saxon just watched as the brothers argued, not feeling qualified enough to intervene. Usually, he would love this sort of conflict to brew within a country, and would have most likely caused it; however, it didn't sit right with him to see it play out between them.

The moment Prussia was mentioned he tensed up again. Why was that Prussian mentioned everywhere?

While Mandara sat near them, clearly frustrated, he faced Derogan who was ready to train. He noticed that the sword was a little big for him, so he quickly gave Derogan a tutorial on how to adjust the weight of the sword in his hand, using his sword as an example. When they dealt with that, Saxon changed his attitude into a more serious one.

"So, Prince Derogan, judging from the conversation with your brother, you want to prepare to challenge King Prussia," Saxon's hands were behind his back as he spoke to Derogan, "however, this should not be your aim, winged law or not. You should be prepared to face any challenges that come to your country, no matter what."

Saxon proceeded to push the dummy towards Derogan, wanting to test his instincts.

M:   Derogan nodded along with what Saxon was saying, he frowned a little when the country seemed to be taking his brother's side, but it quickly disappeared as he explained more.

When Saxon pushed the dummy towards him, he instinctively took a step back from confusion, but he caught on quickly and raised his sword to attack. He was shorter than the dummy so what he did was fly up to its level and swung the sword at its head, which was designed to come off if hit there. Derogan then landed and asked, "how was that?"

N:   "Nicely done," replied Saxon as he went to fetch the dummy's head. "However, this time don't try to fly. I know this would be hard but you need to find the bare level at which you can still fight."

He placed the head back on the dummy in front of Derogan; however, he knew that he would probably expect what will happen so he decided to distract him.

"So, how terrible is Prussia?" Then he pushed the dummy, harder this time.

M:   Derogan was about to answer when he was surprised by the dummy lurching forward, he reflexively swung and missed, and when he got his bearings straight, he slashed at the dummy's chest where its heart was.

"Really terrible," he said when he was done, "he hates Father because he is King Wing, he tried to trick Father by saying he wanted to ally with him a year ago, then tried to kill him when it didn't work. I was able to stop him by covering his eyes to distract him until the knights could come. I got slashed on my leg, but I stopped him from killing Father, so it was worth it."

"You got lucky brother," Mandara called over to them, "if Prussia hadn't dropped his saber to throw you off his back, he would have killed Father and you."

Derogan groaned again but didn't say anything in response.

N:   Saxon saw Derogan's reaction to the attack and was impressed at seeing how fast a learner he was.

When he heard what Derogan did, he firmly commented on his actions. "Prussia had the upper hand; he is both bigger and stronger than you. He was armed and you were not. Even if your bravery is evident, you have to remember not to confuse it with stupidity."

"Your father was right to not ally with Prussia." He then added, "Even if my grandson is not a winged countryhuman, his alliance with Prussia did not benefit him when Prussia kept on with his pre-emptive attacks on Austrian Empire. It was good that he dissolved the treaty."

He jogged to the small building to get a wooden sword for himself, and to let off some steam, and when he came back he stood in his fighting stance. "Your goal now, Derogan, is to simply hit me."

M:   Derogan growled at Saxon's jab at him, "I'm not stupid," he called after him, and when the entity came back with a wooden sword, he was happy that he could teach him a lesson.

Derogan immediately charged Saxon and tried to hit him in the chest, but he simply dodged it, so Derogan aimed for his legs instead and was met with the same results. The two kept the pattern for a while, Derogan would attack and Saxon would dodge.

Eventually, Derogan got frustrated and decided he wasn't going to play fair anymore, so he spread his wings and flew high above Saxon, then proceeded to try to dive-bomb the entity.

N:   When he flew, it took Saxon by surprise; however, he quickly got ready for the impending attack. Sword in hand, his neck craned as he watched Derogan circle above him. When he started to dive-bomb, he smirked. He simply stood there, waiting for the right time to dodge.

When Derogan was just a sword's length away, Saxon tucked and rolled in the opposite direction of the prince's trajectory.

M:   "Stop moving!" Derogan growled, he was getting more frustrated as Saxon kept dodging, at one point, he dived too steep and crashed face-first on the ground.

Mandara started laughing as Derogan lay there, Saxon came over to check if he was ok but Derogan took that opportunity to hit his leg with the sword.

N:   The last roll that Saxon did placed too much strain on one of his wounds, so when he untucked he just lay on the ground in slight pain. However, the thud near him quickly grabbed his attention to see Derogan on the ground too and Mandara soon laughing. He tried to laugh but it hurt to so he just hobbled to Derogan. When he got hit, he stared at the prince and wondered how he didn't see the attack coming.

"Well played," congratulated Saxon as he lent out a hand to help the young country up. When Derogan got up, Saxon turned to Mandara, who was still laughing from the incident, "since you found it so funny, would you like to try, Mandara."

M:   Mandara instantly stopped laughing and shook his head, "no thanks, I'm smart enough to not get in trouble."

Derogan on the other hand smiled at Saxon's congrats, "thank you," he simply said, he then noticed the country seemed a little unsteady on his feet and frowned, "did you get hurt again, I'm sorry if I strained you, we can stop if you need."

-----

Mandoria was patrolling alongside his knights, he had already given his letter to one of his fastest messengers to send to Anglo, so now he was focused on making sure the people who hurt Saxon didn't come around.

"Have you seen anyone yet," the king asked when his group met up with another patrol group.

"No my liege," the lead knight said, "the borders are secure and there is no one to be found."

The king nodded, he definitely felt much better that no hostiles were around, but little did he know that his horse was getting a little nervous, there was something afoot that shouldn't be there.

N:   "No, it is quite alright," Saxon reassured him. He proceeded to pick up his wooden sword but a surge of pain shot up from his abdomen.

He turned around to the princes, "on that thought, I would actually like to head back inside. I think I need to check something out. And don't be sorry, I placed the strain on myself and this has been a while since I can just enjoy my time."

He started to slowly walk towards the castle, heading straight to his room.

M:   "Ok, we'll clean everything up," Derogan told him, the two watched Saxon leave and then proceeded to put away the equipment. The brothers didn't speak during that time since Mandara was still a little mad that Derogan disobeyed their father, but they silently agreed to not tell him, but Derogan would be on his own if the king did find out.

When they were done, they came back into the castle and asked a servant where their dad was, she said he was patrolling the borders for the people who were after Saxon. The brothers nodded their thanks and decided to go see if Saxon would say who was after him.

-----

Mandoria was just about to dismiss his knights when he noticed his horse was getting anxious, which he knew meant there was something or someone nearby that was a threat.

He told the knights to spread out and search the area for any sign of life, they did as told and scoured the forest for enemies.

N:   Saxon, after entering the wrong rooms a couple of times, finally found his own. He approached the mirror and slowly lifted up his shirt, only to see a red patch appearing in the bandages wrapped around him. He sighed as he started to unwrap them and using the new bandages provided to redress his wounds.

It took him a while but eventually he was done, and he was grateful that his white shirt didn't get stained. He started to pick up the dirty bandages when he heard a knock on the door. Absentmindedly, he allowed the person knocking to enter; however, he did not expect it to be the two princes.

-----

"I have found something," called out a human in the forest. The leader of the group followed the voice until he arrived at its source. The human pointed out a patch in the grass that looked like it was stained. In red.

"Well done," the leader patted the human on his shoulder. Finally, they are on Saxon's trail. He ordered the people to spread out and to keep on high alert, just in case Saxon was still around. He began walking to the tree line when he heard the first scuffles between one of his men and a knight.

M:   Mandara and Derogan entered and immediately saw Saxon holding the bloody bandages, which made Mandara grimace and look sick to his stomach.

Derogan looked upset by the sight and said, "we wanted to check on you since you seemed to be in pain earlier. I apologize again for putting you through so much strain."

"We also wanted to ask about who was after you," Mandara said when his gag reflex finally calmed down, "Father is out searching for them and we thought it would be helpful to know who they are."

-----

"Hey, who are you, what are you doing here," a knight said, he spotted someone crouching behind a fallen tree. When he rode over to investigate, the person jumped on top of the tree and tackled the knight off his horse.

The other knights heard their colleague in distress and went over to help him, with the assailant's doing the same, and soon the forest became a battlefield.

Mandoria was further away from the action but he turned his horse around and beelined for it, unaware that he was heading right for the leader of the hostiles.

N:   Saxon, looked at them, then looked at the mess in his hands, then looked back at the young countries. He quickly dumped the bandages on the ground and stood in front of it; however, he could already tell from their faces that they have already seen it.

"No, please don't apologize. I'm used to this."

When Mandara asked the question, Saxon stood there, trying to order his thoughts. When he gave up, he slumped on the bed, annoyed that the day had to be filled with this.

"When I said that my family would not hurt me, I lied. There is one who would not bat an eye if I was hurt."

-----

The leader of the group immediately ran towards the commotion, occasionally using his sword to deflect attacks from incoming knights. With his bow in hand, he ran into the open and cocked an arrow, ready to attack anyone who comes in his way. However, he turned around when he heard the distant sound of galloping. When he saw Mandoria nearing, he raised his arrow towards him, daring him to come closer.

"Where is my terrible excuse of a father?" he demanded