Sleep was something he didn't have to wait for. After finishing his late-night meal, Prompto could barely keep his eyes open. Wrapping himself in the sheets he was out within seconds.

When he woke up again, the sun was already high up. Feeling bad that he had slept so long, he climbed out of the bed and stretched carefully. He was still sore, no surprise there, but sleeping in a bed after weeks of hard ground or no sleep at all had helped a lot to let his muscles relax a bit more.

His gaze then wandered to his wrist, seeing that there was a clean bandage around it as well. So Libertus saw it and didn't do anything? Would he ask about it? Carefully he lifted the bandage a bit to look under it. It smelled like there had been some ointment put on it and from what he could see, it still looked as ugly as the last time. Flexing the wrist a bit, he felt the slight soreness because of the injury, but nothing more. No tingling in his arm, no strange twitches. All these things had receded over the time, but Prompto wasn't sure if that was a good thing. For all he knew it could start again any moment.

But for now he decided to be okay with it being as it was. Why not enjoy the calm for as long as it lasts. The thing he worried about most right now was Cass. Libertus did say she was alright, but he'd rather make sure of that himself. After all, the Spiracorn was currently his closest and only friend.

Stepping out of the room, he found himself at the end of a small hallway. He heard voices coming from outside and slowly walked along the hall in their direction until he found Libertus. The man was standing with his back to him, leaning against a door frame and was talking to someone outside.

He awkwardly cleared his throat to make himself known to them. Libertus turned his head and a smile appeared on his face.

"Well look who's awake." He said, turning towards him completely, letting Prompto see who he was talking with. Outside stood a young man with dark hair and about Prompto's age and height. He raised a hand to greet Prompto with a huge smile. Prompto nodded back shyly.

"This is Talion," Libertus introduced him, "He's one of the youngest here and about the only one whose clothes would fit you."

Looking down, Prompto realized again, that this still weren't his clothes. "Oh, so these are-"

"It's alright, keep'em," Talion said, waving his hand, "I have enough and I'm happy to help."

Libertus laughed as the blond seemed to not know what to say to that. Prompto looked to the ground feeling a bit embarrassed about his shyness seemingly coming out full force now. A simple 'Thank you' would have done the trick, possibly, but his brain blocked everything for a moment there. He lifted his head again, when Libertus walked over to him.

"Guessing you want to see your friend?" Libertus said and then nodded towards Talion. "He took care of her while you were out, he can take you to her."

Prompto's heart skipped a beat as he heard that and nodded eagerly, walking over to Talion with more confidence now. Stepping outside, he looked around for a moment to finally see where Cass had brought him. Most of the buildings looked makeshift, many of them were still ruins and Prompto couldn't help but feel bad. It looked like the place had been completely destroyed once and people were still trying to deal with the damage. Curiosity gnawed inside him. How was it that people still lived here? He didn't dare to ask. Not now at least, he didn't want to be this the first thing he would talk about with Talion.

Mentioned man was walking in front of him, only throwing occasional glances over his shoulder at Prompto to see if he was still there. Seeing that the blond was a little bit overwhelmed by everything, he chose to wait before bombarding him with questions. It definitely wasn't a common thing to have a Spiracorn as a pet.

They kept walking in silence until Prompto smelled something familiar and his head perked up.

"Do you have Chocobos here?" He asked, speeding up a bit to walk next to Talion so he could properly talk to him.

Talion nodded and seemed somewhat proud. "We do. And I'm the one in charge, I even raised some of them myself." That seemed to break the ice. Prompto's eyes grew big in excitement.

"Dude, that's awesome. I always wanted to raise a baby Chocobo."

"Those little buggers can be a real handful and you can't stay mad at them for long because they are way too cute. It's stressful, but worth it, when they get bigger and start behaving." He slowed down a bit when they reached a building that looked, and smelled, like a barn. "Here we are."

Prompto took a deep breath. The distinct smell of Chocobos and their noises seemed to be everywhere and he felt at home. Connected to the stables was a pasture as well as some smaller Paddocks, one of them was occupied by Cass, who looked like she was about to jump the fence any minute, whinnying and looking in their direction. Without thinking further, Prompto started sprinting over to her, nearly climbing over the fence separating them. He would have, if his still sore muscles hadn't decided to act up again and so he threw his arms around her neck instead and hugged her tightly.

When he heard Talion laugh behind him, he felt his cheeks heating up a bit, but he only let go of her when he was sure that his legs wouldn't buckle under him after the short sudden strain.

"It took me a while to put her in there, but we thought this would be better than having her run around without anyone who could control her." Talion said after a moment, no longer suppressing his urge to ask some questions, "She's really attached to you, how did you manage to tame her?"

Prompto leaned with his back against the fence, letting Cass ruffle her nose through his hair and rubbing her head against his, visibly enjoying the affection coming from the animal. It felt good to be back together with her.

"I didn't." He said after thinking for a moment. "It just kinda...happened. I saved her from some Havocfangs and cared for her wounds and when she was healthy again she wouldn't leave me, even when we found her herd. Then she saved me when some crazy hunters out there tried to kill me. So...I think it's a friendship thing we have, helping each other and stuff."

Talking about it like that and speaking all these facts out loud felt kinda weird to him. There was no other way to describe how he and Cass had found each other, but it sounded like he had made all this up and if it wasn't about Cass still nibbling his hair affectionately, he probably wouldn't have believed himself.

Talion had stared at Prompto in awe as he was talking, but rolled his eyes when he mentioned the hunters. "These guys are a pain," he growled, "They're killing everything they find, even Chocobos for their feathers and beaks, just to earn some extra money. We had to chase them away a few times when we felt they were too close to the village."

"Won't happen again."

"What do you mean?" Talion frowned. Prompto had looked away, chewing on his lower lip for a moment.

"I killed them." He finally said, earning a surprised look from Talion.

"You did what? All of them? H-how?"

"I remember five, if that's all of them, then yes." He touched the patch on his cheek. "Gave me a few souvenirs, though. They had killed a whole herd of Spiracorns out there. I...just wanted to stop them and send them away but if I haven't done it I'm sure they would have killed me."

His hands started trembling as the memory of that day came flooding back to him. He had managed to shut it out so far but now that he was awake again and talking about it, he once again felt like a monster.

Sensing that something wasn't right with Prompto, Talion leaned against the fence as well, exchanging a wary look with Cass, who put her head between the two of them by resting it on Prompto's shoulder.

"You did good," he said after a moment, "I guess I speak for the whole village when I say thank you for that. Nobody will miss them, trust me."

"But hey were humans." Prompto said, his voice barely audible. "I killed them without even thinking about it. Just-just did. "

"So?" Talion crossed his arms. "You defended yourself. Killing a human is never a good thing, yes. But Libertus says that there are times when you have no choice. And he knows what he's talking about."

"He does?"

"Yes, of course. You know, he was in Insomnia when it all happened. He was a Kingsglaive for many years."

"He was a Glaive?" Prompto leaned forward a bit to look around Cass' head and at Talion. "Really?"

"I'm not lying.", Talion laughed, "He even met princess Lunafreya. He was the one who took her out of the city so she could flee. And now imagine that: She even promised to visit him here, together with Prince Noctis."

Hearing Noct's name gave him a short sting in his chest, but he tried to ignore it. Talion didn't need to know about this, so he just nodded.

"Wow, that's really cool." He said, leaning his head against Cass'.

For a few long minutes there was silence between the two as both were lost in their own thoughts, then Talion spoke up again, startling Prompto a bit, who had focused on Cass' deep breathing.

"Dang it, I completely forgot, aren't you hungry by now?"

Blinking a few times Prompto had to actually think about it, before he nodded, "I think I've become used to being hungry but now that you mention it, I'm starving."

"Then let's head back." Talion pushed himself off from the fence and started walking in the direction of Libertus' house again. "He doesn't look like it but he is not a bad cook."

Prompto hugged Cass once again, whispering a silent 'Be back soon.' in her fur, before following Talion.

Walking back, Prompto tried to memorize the way and looked around more intently now. There weren't a lot of people around but every now and then they would meet someone. Prompto was greeted politely and with a sincere smile, which made him feel accepted even without knowing any one of them. It felt strange after being alone for so long.

Talion was walking in front of him again, his stride a bit too much for Prompto's still sore legs just yet. He was talking about life in the village, but Prompto wasn't listening anymore as he felt someone's eyes on him, the feeling making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He stopped and turned around to find the source of the uncomfortable feeling and saw a man. Standing inside of what once must have been a house, but was now nothing more than some walls and a lot of debris, was a man wearing the typical Kingsglaive garb. Prompto knew how those looked because many of the Glaives lived in the city like normal people and you could see them in their outfits every now and then.

They stared at each other for what felt like hours until Prompto finally was able to avert his gaze. Talion was a bit ahead of him now but hadn't realized yet that Prompto wasn't following anymore. He looked back at the ruin once again but the man was gone, as if he'd never been there. Even when Prompto looked around he couldn't find anyone walking away who looked like that man. Not sure what to make of it he tried to shrug it off and caught back up to Talion. Still, he couldn't forget the look on his face. He looked so sad.

Libertus was already waiting when they arrived and the house smelled like stew, finally waking his stomach which started rumbling near painfully. Talion couldn't stay, he had to tend to the animals - and Cass, as far as she would let him – and left again for the Chocobo stables.

"Let me guess, she was happy to see you?"

"Well, we both were."

"Looks like it." Libertus chuckled, pointing at Prompto's head. "You look a bit disheveled. Come, food's ready and you definitely need to eat."

Following Libertus, he combed through his hair with his fingers so it wouldn't look that bad anymore. Then he noticed some photographs hanging on the walls, most of them showing Libertus with various people, all in their Kingsglaive garb. On some of them he saw a familiar face.

"Libertus?" He called out to the man. "Who is that?"

Libertus turned and walked over to Prompto, who pointed at one of his Photos. His heart became heavy for a moment as he saw who he was pointing at.

"A good friend. Nyx. We grew up together, and we even both joined the Kingsglaive. He was a great guy."

"'Was'?" Prompto asked. "But – I just saw him."

In a matter of seconds Libertus' face seemed to be made of stone. "Don't joke about that, boy."

"But I didn't" Prompto protested as he made a few steps back, not liking the look Libertus gave him. "I saw him standing in one of the destroyed buildings. He even wore that exact outfit."

"That isn't possible, Prompto." Libertus said a tad too loud, instantly biting his lip as he saw Prompto wincing slightly. He took a deep breath before he talked again in a normal tone.

"It simply can't be, alright? He is dead. He died a hero, defending hundreds of people. Without him I wouldn't be here."