M:   Mandara was staring in horror at what just transpired, never had he seen something like that, he was very overwhelmed. He stared at the aggressors on the ground, they were groaning in pain and were barely moving, some weren't moving at all.

The kid then turned his attention back to Saxon, it was so different watching him hurt real people than a practice dummy, and all he could think was that he was willing to be alone with this dangerous man.

When Saxon took a step towards Mandara, he took a step back and fearfully said, "please don't hurt me." Then he ran into the street and took off into the sky, flying towards a forest on the other side of town.

N:   When Saxon tried to chase him, he ran into some people at the entrance of the alleyway and, them seeing their prince fly away from a man holding two daggers, did not help his public image. He clenched his teeth when he replayed Mandara's words in his mind. He was going along with the prince so well that it annoyed him that one skirmish with the French damaged the bond.

However, he focused again as people around him seemed to think they were connecting the dots and were trying to alert the authorities, so he sprinted in the general direction that Mandara flew in. He dropped one dagger along the way but kept the other one just in case he had to deal with more people.

Since being an entity, he was able to sustain a sprint for quite some time, but the spice from before did not help his breathing, so he had to slow down to a jog just so that he wouldn't run out of breath. When he approached the forest, he found Mandara perched on one of the taller trees, so he slowed down to a walk until he reached the base of the tree, and sat down.

M:   Mandara didn't notice him there at first, he was too busy trying to calm himself down from the overwhelming fear he was feeling, he was so scared of what happened that he didn't know what to do, so he just sat there and hoped that he wouldn't be found.

The tree had other ideas though, the branch that Mandara was sitting on was a lot more dead than the kid thought and snapped underneath him. He yelped as he fell but was able to grab onto a much sturdier branch before he hit the ground. When he looked down to see how far he fell, his eyes widened when he saw Saxon there.

"Stop following me," he called down as he pulled himself up, then took off again to get away from the entity.

He had a harder time flying since the fall tore off some of his feathers and left a small cut on one of his wings, but he just kept going until he reached his safe spot, the Eye of Ora.

When Mandara reached the sinkhole, he dove into it to hide, but the dive ripped off a few loose feathers and he lost control, landing in the middle of the lake at the bottom of it.

N:   Saxon hoped that Mandara would not fly away, but who was he kidding, the young country saw him hurt people; real people. So when the prince took off, Saxon heaved himself up and followed him in the direction he thinks that the country flew in.

However, he quickened up his pace when he heard a splash, and when he saw Mandara in the water his eyes widened in fear. Mandoria will surely have his head for this. He dropped everything and began to speed climb down the sinkhole and ran towards the lake, waded in until it was waist deep, took a deep breath, and dove.

The water was a little murky but he was able to soon locate Mandara, although the sight of him floating and not moving in the water frightened him. He grabbed Mandara by the waist, making sure he doesn't damage his wings, and swam back to the surface and to shore.

When he reached the shore, he laid the prince on his back, tilting his chin and head backward to help clear their airway. Leaning forward to his face, he could feel and hear the prince's breathing, although scarcely, so Saxon prayed that Mandara would wake up soon.

M:   Mandara started coughing up water, he hit the water so hard it knocked him out and he ended up swallowing a lot of it. He turned onto his side and just continued to cough until his throat was sore.

When he was done he lay still and breathed heavily, he was too tired to run or fly from Saxon, but he did try to whack him with his right wing to make him go away. He winced in pain as he lifted his wing, the water having aggravated the gash from before and made it painful to move, so he curled into a ball in a futile attempt to hide from the entity, shaking from both fear and the cold water.

N:   Saxon slouched in relief when Mandara showed signs of life, but the young country's reaction to seeing him did not sit well with him. When he saw the gash on his wing, he immediately grabbed at his own shirt and tore off a strip to use as some sort of bandage. He silently cursed that he did not bring the dagger to make the process easier.

He moved his hands to try to stop the wound on his wing from getting worse, but he hesitated. Winged entities, Anglo told him, are protective of their wings; ask permission before touching them.

"Mandara," said Saxon, calmly yet firmly, "I need to treat the wound on your wing so it does not get an infection. I know you may be afraid of me, but please, set it aside so I can help you." He held out his hands with the make-shift bandage, ready for any response Mandara may give.

M:   Mandara looked up at him from his huddle, he was still scared of Saxon, there were still bloodstains on his shirt from the fight and it was very unnerving. However, as he saw the worried look in Saxon's eyes, he felt like he was looking at his father's eyes whenever the kid got hurt, and that made him feel a little better.

"O-ok," he muttered, he tried to sit up, and even though he was sore from the fall, he shakily held himself up with his hands. He held out his wing so Saxon could take care of it.

N:   Saxon nodded and began to work. He had some experience in taking care of wings because of Anglo, but that still was not enough since Mandara would sometimes wince whenever he was too rough. He would let go, allow Mandara to recover, then continue.

While he was working, he asked, "so this place, is this the Eye of Ora?"

Eventually, he was able to do as much as he could with the resources that he had, so when he was done, he leaned back so that he can treat his own cuts.

M:   "Mhm," Mandara hummed in confirmation, "it is supposed to be a safe haven that you can go and the bad spirits won't follow. I come here a lot when I don't feel safe or if I get lost."

When Saxon was done, Mandara's wing shrunk away from the entity and he scooted a little bit away as well. The young prince then wrapped his good wing around himself to try to keep warm as he shivered from the cold water.

-----

"Where could they have gone," Mandoria asked himself.

He was standing in front of the bakery and watched his knights herding the injured French soldiers away to a horse-drawn cage. When Silver-Streak had come and interrupted his lessons with Derogan, the king dropped everything and had his son wait at the castle to investigate.

When he arrived, Mandara and Saxon had left and the humans were just starting to recover from the fight. Mandoria grabbed one human and demanded him to explain what happened, which they did without resistance.

As the last soldier was put in to the cart and it drove off, Mandoria had half of his remaining knights start searching the town for his son and Saxon while he took the other half to search the forest, all the while hoping to the gods that they were both ok.

N:   Saxon saw him shivering and knew that Mandara should find a warm place immediately, so after a sigh, he explained, "If you want an explanation as to what happened near the bakery, I cannot as I was told not to. However," he turned to the young country, "it is not my intention to harm you. Sometimes, I see a younger Wales in you."

He grinned at the memory of his grandson, then he stood up when he was done treating himself. "Mandara, you need to understand that you need to be taken to dry off or you would get hypothermia, so," he paused as he crouched next to him, "you would need to trust me to carry you out of here. Do you?" He held out his hand.

M:  Mandara stared at his hand for a bit, then nodded, "You saved me from the lake and fixed my wing so I guess so."

The prince sheepishly took Saxon's hand and was hoisted into the entity's arms, Mandara snuggled into his chest to try and steal some of his body heat while he had his left wing "holding" onto the adult's shoulder, his right wing hanging limply from his back.

"How are we gonna get out of here though," the kid asked before they set off, "you can't climb and carry me at the same time."

N:   "Pardon me," said Saxon, almost offended, "I can climb up easily only if you hold on to my back to free up my arms. The question should be, can you hold on to me for long enough?"

He reshuffled so that Mandara comfortably piggybacked him, and Saxon moved towards the edge of the sinkhole and started to climb. Wherever he stepped, he made sure that he did not accidentally step on Mandara's wing, navigating himself slowly upwards, trying to adapt to the extra weight by leaning closer to the side of the sinkhole.

After some accidental wing-stepping, Mandara's small whimper from the cold, and readjusting the weight, they eventually reached the top. At the top, Saxon slowly lowered the young country down to check if he was alright from the climb, retrieved the dagger and the three gold pieces, redoing the bandages on Mandara's wing just to make sure. When he heard some rustling in the forest, Saxon dropped the bandage and instinctively picked up the dagger, prepared for any attack.

M:   Mandara turned to the sound of the rustling too, he wasn't afraid of a person coming to get them, he was more scared of a predator smelling their injuries and coming for an easy meal. To Mandara's horror, a lone wolf stepped into view towards the two, and it was a very big animal.

The wolf was about half as tall as Saxon and slightly bigger than Mandara, it was a light grey with a white undercoat and had piercing sky blue eyes that seemed to almost glow as they stared at the two. When Saxon started shouting at it to scare it away it didn't react and just kept staring.

"Saxon, it's Ora, she has a white star on her forehead," Mandara said, pointing to the star-like spot on the wolf's head. Mandara shakily stood up and took a step towards the wolf, which then turned around and walked back into the woodline but stopped and looked back at the two.

"She wants us to follow her, come on," Mandara said again, he tried to walk towards the wolf, but his legs gave out from how tired and sore his body was.

N:   Saxon stared at the wolf, trying to predict its movement, and when he heard what Mandara said, he eyed the wolf again with the new information. Ora, he thought, how could it be. But who was he to question when he has lived over a hundred human lifetimes. He was ready to catch Mandara and picked him up so that he did not have to rely on his own strength.

He turned back to the wolf and said to Mandara, "If you want to follow it, then we will." He began to walk towards the wolf, with the young country in his arms, as the creature turned to lead them.

M:   Mandara was glad that they would follow the wolf, he knew that Ora was the spirit/goddess of travelers. She protected people who traveled from dangers on the road and would guide those who were lost to where they were meant to go, so Mandara knew that if they followed the wolf then they would be led to safety.

Saxon followed the wolf for a while, trailing a little bit behind but close enough that it was still in his sights, every so often it would stop and turn to the entity to make sure he was still following. Mandara was having a hard time staying awake, his body having used up so much energy trying to stay warm, so the poor kid fell asleep in Saxon's arms.

After a few more minutes of walking, voices could be heard in the distance, voices that were calling for Saxon and Mandara. The wolf stopped walking when it heard the voices and perked its ears towards them. It stood still for a moment then turned to Saxon and stared at him, its blue eyes sparkled with an unearthly glow that seemed to say, "this is where I leave you, be safe now." Then just as suddenly as it appeared, the wolf walked away and disappeared into the forest, almost like the shadows had swallowed it up without a trace.

N:   Saxon stood wordlessly as he watched the wolf disappear, still not getting over that he just met Ora, and did not notice the voices until they were in his view. The first soldiers ran over to them when they saw them but then stopped when he saw that Saxon still had the dagger with him and his damaged clothes.

Saxon walked to him, with Mandara asleep in his arms, and asked him to lead him to Mandoria, since it seemed that the soldier was warier about what Saxon might do. He quickly did and led them closer to the tree line, where he saw a group of soldiers grouping together when they heard that the prince was coming. In the group, Saxon was able to pinpoint the large wings of Mandoria.

"We're almost there," Saxon whispered to Mandara, even if he was aware that the child was asleep.

M:   "Your Majesty, we found them," the knight shouted as he led Saxon closer to the group.  Mandoria turned to the voice and saw Saxon carrying his son, the king's eyes widened with fear and the other knights made way as he ran towards the two.

"Kren otwin, esre malvik," (oh god, what happened) Mandoria exclaimed when he saw his son's injured wing and drenched form, he was so scared that he didn't bother speaking English.

The king took off his cape and wrapped it around Mandara before taking him in his arms.  Mandara shivered and whimpered a little in his sleep, the fact that he wouldn't wake up during all that scared his father even more.

"We need to get you both back home fast," Mandoria stated when he saw that Saxon was wet and injured too, "there you can get warm and explain what happened."

He spoke Mandorian to two of his knights on horseback, they slid off and led the animals to the countryhumans.  Mandoria wasted no time in getting on the horse - it was smaller than his Shire horse so his wings brushed the ground - and riding off at full gallop back to the castle.

N:   Saxon did not notice that he was cold until Mandoria pointed it out, maybe because he was sharing his body heat with Mandara, however little it was. When he got on to the horse, he had to quickly catch up to Mandoria so he galloped right after him.

While they galloped, the breeze blew against Saxon, making him colder than he already was, so when they arrived at the castle, he was shivering as he dismounted and led the horse to the stable. He was close behind Mandoria as he carried his son inside the castle, hoping that Mandara will be fine.