M:   Derogan woke up to the sound of tapping, he was confused at the odd noise and looked around for its source. His eyes landed on the curtains covering the window and he opened them, there he saw Silver Streak tapping on the glass, so he opened the window to let her in.

Silver immediately flew over to Mandara's bed and landed next to his face, which woke up the tired prince.  Mandara smiled weakly and softly scratched her chest, he didn't say anything though because his throat was sore, along with the rest of his body.

"How are you feeling little brother," Derogan asked, sitting next to Mandara, who just groaned as his response.

Derogan felt his forehead, it was hot to the touch, the fact that Mandara coughed right after didn't help his case.

"You just get some more sleep Mandara," he said as he pulled up his brother's blanket, "I'll go get a servant to help, ok."

Mandara slowly nodded and closed his eyes again, Silver Streak nestling up against him to keep him company while Derogan got dressed and left to get help.

N:   Saxon, although he wanted to stay outside, shivered from sitting in wet grass and his already cold condition, so he headed back indoors to go and eat some breakfast. While he was walking, he was focusing on the book the entire way so he was not aware of where he was going, and when he turned the corner he collided with Derogan.

He apologized and he saw that he was in a hurry so he asked, "are you alright? Is Mandara getting better?"

M:   "Oh, sorry for running into you Sir Saxon," Derogan apologized as he backed up from bumping into the entity, when the question was asked he responded, "no, not really, he has a fever and won't talk much, I'm helping take care of him for Father so I was going to find a servant to help too."

Not wanting to leave his brother for very long he scooted past Saxon as politely as possible while saying, "well, it was nice talking to you but I should get going, have a good day Sir Saxon," then ran off without waiting for a response.

N:   Saxon watched as Derogan hurried along, he then realized that he had the whole day to himself,  he went to the dining hall to eat breakfast, after that, he headed to the dungeons to see the french soldiers, maybe to even mock their predicament.

When he arrived at the dungeon, the guard at the entrance denied him entry, so Saxon sweet-talked his way in, using the guard's boredom from standing watch all morning to become friends with him, eventually allowing him to enter. With the book tucked under his arm, he strolled in to see the french soldiers behind bars.

One of them saw him enter so he scurried to the bars and spat in his direction, which Saxon promptly ignored and sat down on a small stool in front of the doors and resumed his reading.

"Have you come to jeer at us, monsieur Saxon," snarled the leader. Without looking up, Saxon replied, "and why would you think that?"

"Because you are the mad man you are."

"Me?" Saxon closed his book and pretended to be insulted, "a mad man?"

"You undermine the rule of the French, causing unrest within the peasant population."

"Well, it was about time, if you ask me."

"And," the leader smirked, "I have heard rumors that you were in your home, in Saxony, and that you-" He stopped when Saxon suddenly stood up and slammed the book on the stool, he walked up to the bars and grabbed his collar. He brought him up close so that he whispered in his ear, "If you say another word about Saxony, I swear that even the benevolent king would not stop me from killing you."

He let go of the human, pushing him to the ground, then marched back to the stool and continued to read; however, his head jolted up when he heard something just outside the door to the dungeon.

M:   Mandoria was speaking with his captain about tightening up security to his capital city, he was getting sick of these "unannounced visitors" that kept coming for Saxon so he wanted to make sure they stayed out while the entity was there.

When the captain left to inform the knights of their new orders, Mandoria walked towards the dungeon.  Normally, a king wouldn't be concerned about the people he holds behind bars, as that was his knights' job, but Mandoria definitely wasn't "normal".  It was common for him to visit the dungeon to make sure the prisoners were being treated well and weren't being abused or neglected.

When he came down the stairs and walked up to the guard he was informed that Saxon was there. Mandoria furrowed his brows with confusion and concern, which escalated when he heard muffled shouting coming from beyond the door.  The king ordered the guard to open up, which he did obediently.

"Dear Saxon," Mandoria said sternly when he walked in and saw the entity, "I thought I told you to stay out of trouble, what in the name of Aklous are you doing down here?"

N:   Saxon rolled his eyes when he heard the question, he was not in the mood after what the leader brought up, so he closed the book again and looked up to Mandoria from where he sat. "The leader and I had a friendly, civil conversation," he faced the human, who immediately looked away, "didn't we?" When the leader did not respond, he continued.

"And I got quite bored from not being able to do anything, so trouble starts chasing me," he stood up and spread out his arms, "however, no one has died so no trouble was caused." He thought about leaving but he guessed that Mandoria would block him with his wings, so he stayed put.

M:   "I see," Mandoria said, crossing his arms, "well, the next time you are feeling bored please keep it away from the dungeon, I would rather not have the prisoners try to escape and finish off what they started because you said or did something uncalled for.  Now if you will excuse me, I have matters with the captives that do not concern you."

The winged king moved aside so Saxon could leave and told his guard to not let him back in anymore.

"Verace ankar gentlemen," he said calmly, "I apologize if Sir Saxon disturbed you, I assure you it will not happen again.  Now with that out of the way, I have come to ask you a few questions; firstly, who sent you, and how did you know Saxon was here?"

N:   "Well, Seigneur Mandoria," replied the leader, "we took the responsibility of hunting down the entity when we overheard our dear country complaining about the problems monsieur Saxon caused.  As for how we knew he was here, the group that was with monsieur England were not only English. There were French, Spanish, Prussians, Italians, and many more; therefore, it was only a matter of time before the news came to us."

-----

While Mandoria was in the dungeon, Saxon needed something to take his mind off the french soldiers, since he left the book in the dungeon he needed something else to occupy his mind, so after asking for directions, he headed to the wing where Mandara and Derogan were. When he arrived at the bedroom door, he raised his hand to knock but hesitated, thinking whether it was a good time to come, but he knocked anyway.

"Hello, it is Saxon. May I come in?"

M:   Mandoria hummed, at least that acquits French Empire of sending soldiers, but the fact that multiple factions were with the group England was leading was what troubled the king most.  What of their respective countryhumans, what would they think of him harboring Saxon, Mandoria couldn't care less about what Prussia thinks since he hates him already, but FE and BE were his allies.

"Well, it seems that I underestimated the price on Saxon's head," he muttered under his breath, then cleared his throat and said, "since you were so bold as to come to my kingdom unannounced and threaten a refugee under my protection, I'm afraid I can't let you go until he leaves.  For now, you will remain here until Sir Anglo comes to collect Sir Saxon, after which you will be released and will return to France with a message for her; to keep her troops out of my borders and to let other countries know to do the same, as I will not put up with rouge nations putting my people at risk, do I make myself clear?"

-----

Mandara flinched and groaned when Saxon knocked, he had a massive headache from his illness. The maid helping take care of him and Derogan both looked to the door, then to each other, then to Mandara.  The younger prince nodded that Saxon could come in so Derogan went to let him in.

"Dahver again Sir Saxon," he greeted, "you can come in, just keep your voice down, Mandara has a bit of a headache."

N:   Saxon nodded in acknowledgment and crept in, standing near the window. He looked at Mandara, watched as the maid took care of him, and occasionally hear him moan in pain. He felt that he was responsible for the way Mandara is, and in truth he kind of was, so he whispered to Derogan, "is there anything I can help with, anything at all?"

-----

"Oui, I understand," chucked the leader, as he leaned against the wall, "keeping someone like monsieur Saxon within your walls, it is understandable that you take the necessary measures. Just remember that we are not the only ones that know Saxon is here." He proceeded to slide against the wall until he sat down, tilting his hat forward to take a nap. One of the younger soldiers stood up and bowed slightly in respect, "we will relay the message to our country as soon as we reach there."

-----

While Anglo was gliding across the skies, he noticed an encampment on the ground which had different flags, but what sparked his concern was that he saw the English flag flying in the wind, so he dove towards the large tent that was near the flagpole. When he landed, he was greeted with soldiers holding up their weapons at him, until one of the soldiers, most likely British, recognized him and ordered the men to lower their weapons. The British soldier then apologized for the incident and led Anglo into the tent, where England was sitting at a table that had a map of the area. When he noticed his father coming, he turned his attention to him and greeted him, but when he saw his concerned expression, he asked, "what is wrong, father?"

"Why did I see many different flags flown in the area? Are you all after Saxon?"

"We all were, but now when I ordered that we will not continue the hunt, some of the humans started to leave and abandon their posts."

"That is good as I would like if no one shot me down as I continue my journey to the Kingdom of Mandoria."

England nodded, and ordered a nearby soldier what Anglo requested, then he asked, "will Saxon get the punishment that he deserves?"

"I'll be the judge of that," replied Anglo as he turned to leave the tent, looked up to the sky, and with one push, took off in the direction of Mandoria.

M:   Mandoria smiled at the younger soldier, "thank you, I just hope that she has enough sense to listen this time because the one thing I hate is empires sticking their noses where they don't belong, even if they are allies, " he let out a sigh before continuing, "that will be all gentlemen, if there is anything you require or if you are being treated poorly don't be afraid to notify my guards, goodbye for now."

With that Mandoria turned to leave but stopped when he saw the book Saxon left behind, he picked it up to take it with him.  Leaving the dungeon, he reentered the main castle and walked to the throne room, slumping down on his royal seat and burying his head in his hands.

"What had I gotten myself into," he groaned in exasperation.

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(continue on chapter ten)