"Are you finally done? Geez, if getting into this thing will always take this long, maybe making it wasn't worth it after all." Thanatos' voice sounded slightly annoyed and Henry tried to kick him, but couldn't.

"Yep, I have now successfully achieved not being able to move my legs anymore. You proud of me?" Thanatos just laughed.

The exiled prince inspected every single one of the straps, that tied him firmly to the saddle contraption around the flier's neck.

After they had decided to leave for the uncharted lands, a few weeks ago, they had agreed to first go back to the nibbler colony and finally finish the saddle design, as well as tell everyone they would be gone for a while. With a lot of help from Teslas and many, many failed attempts later, Henry was now finally satisfied with it.

He eyed the new leather gear he had made for his legs, specifically to keep him in place while flying. They looked like the front halves of boots he could wear over his normal footwear. They were tied to straps around his upper legs in the front and in the back so that he could not move his legs at all, that were firmly fixated in a fairly comfortable position, where the knee was slightly bent.

Henry pulled at the straps one last time to make sure they were as tight as possible.

The belts around his upper legs were firmly connected to the saddle itself and would hold him on Thanatos' back, together with the straps that tied the belt around his waist to the saddle.

Henry knew his bond was right, it took forever to get into the gear, but then again, it worked like a charm – at last. The fact that his legs were fixated in place distributed his own weight better, which made the whole thing more comfortable for both flier and rider, and like this, it was utterly impossible to fall, or be otherwise torn off Thanatos' back.

Henry grinned when he thought of how he had claimed he didn't need anything to hold himself on the flier's back, even when upside down, when they had conducted the very first test.

"Right, you packed everything too? It's not like we'll be coming back tomorrow", Thanatos tilted his head at Henry on his back and threw him an "I know you'll nag later because you ended up forgetting SOMETHING"-glance, but the exiled prince dismissively waved his hand. "What is there to forget? It's not like I own much more than the contents of my backpack."

His hand almost automatically reached to count his weapons – there was Charos with the long, dual-handed handle, right next to it was his original sword. Henry had brought Teslas what had remained of it and asked the nibbler to reforge it, which he had gladly done.

Turned out he had wanted to do that anyway at some point, as he had apparently found a way to apply the ignifer during the forging-process, making it a firm part of the sword's components. Henry had stared at him with big, unbelieving eyes when Teslas had taken the freshly reforged sword, grated a firestone against it, and it had lit up instantly.

No more wasting time applying any sort of substance, the nibbler had grinned, and Henry had grinned back.

In accordance with that, carrying ignifer had become nearly pointless – he still had a small dosage of it, just in case, safely stored in his waterproof container – and Henry had started referring to the sword itself as "the Igniter" since it literally ignited on fire. It wasn't an official name, not yet at least, but a nice way to set it apart from all his other weapons when talking about them.

And now that the blade was smooth and new again and glistened in many colors when you held it close to a light source – from whatever Teslas had put into it – it was finally able to compete with all his other blades again.

Then, his hand moved down to the back of his hip and gripped the handle of Mys, which was at its usual spot. And finally, down to his right leg where he had fastened his old dagger, that he had taken from Tonguetwist.

All there.

His backpack with all his other belongings he was wearing, and what hadn't fit into it was safely stored in Thanatos' – well, he guessed he could call them that now – saddlebags.

"Let's go", he called, a grin spreading on his face. He glanced over the edge of the cliff the flier was cowering over, beneath it the foaming waves of the waterway. They were almost at the exact same spot where they had started their first journey over the waterway from.

Thanatos leaped in the air, reeling around a little before he finally catching a good current that propelled him forward and carried him almost on its own accord so that he was able to conserve some energy. He would need all of it, after all, during the next what Henry had estimated would be around fifty hours.

"So we are actually doing this", the flier chuckled, maybe ten minutes in. Henry grinned. "Did you think I would forget? You promised me we'll one day cross the waterway – and we ARE crossing the waterway. You are not getting yourself out of that one."

"Won't you die of boredom though?", the flier mocked, but Henry simply shrugged, "Not this time. This time, I have the saddle to occupy myself with. I hope you are up for some experimenting!"

Thanatos sighed, presumably contemplating how much of his precious energy would have to be wasted on Henry's experiments, but the exiled prince knew he wanted to see the thing in action as well.

He glanced ahead, letting his imagination run wild with what may lie beyond the vast ocean, behind what humans had explored of the Underland so far – beyond, above, below. Those were the things he wanted to occupy his mind with now, not having to bother with keeping up a silly cover or pretending to not be who he was – Henry of... Regalia?

Henry of the Dead Land, he thought, the thought made him chuckle. Should he add that to his growing list of titles?

It was almost crazy to think about how much had changed in what now were one and a half years of exile – more or less. He knew he wasn't who he had been before all this happened anymore, yet he knew he liked who he was now. He was proud of and enjoyed the things he had learned, the knowledge he was capable of taking care of himself – it gave him a feeling of almost limitless power.

He knew he should probably not assume he was invincible, like Kismet had warned, but to hell with it – he was an incredibly powerful warrior now, and he liked dwelling on it, it was good for his confidence.

Henry thought back to how powerless and weak he had felt after losing his eye and grinned when he realized he had been right – he had climbed out of that rock bottom like he had out of the first one.

Come at me – he wanted to scream into the world, come at... us. Thanatos and he... they could take it all. Together. And only... together. As many new and amazing things as he had learned so far, some of those lessons had been painful... and had almost broken him. Almost.

Together, he thought. Henry had noticed usually, whenever he said he had done or still wanted to do something, he meant himself and Thanatos. He found it hard to even think of them as separate entities anymore.

It was almost ironic, he thought, considering I was so close to losing him not even that long ago. They had experienced, in the worst imaginable way, how life without each other would be, and it had strengthened their bond, in a way like nothing else could have.

Henry smiled – it was nice knowing he was not alone. And that he would never be again. Especially considering he was literally tied to Thanatos' back at the moment.

He tugged at the belts of the saddle one last time, then, without warning, pulled the rotation lever. This time he had enough control to let go of it immediately, and the saddle snapped into position in a ninety-degree-sideways-angle. Thanatos, startled by the shift in weight, almost lost control of his flight, hissing "hey, you could maybe warn me next time!", but Henry only laughed. He was sitting firmly in the saddle, even though he was now on Thanatos' left side – the footgear worked fantastically.

"Eh, this is weird... having you on the side is throwing off my balance", the flier complained and Henry noticed he was struggling to keep himself straight in the air.

He pulled the lever again and the saddle rotated another ninety degrees, he was now sitting upside down. Again, not even the slightest budging from the gear – he was not falling, no matter if he held on or not.

"Sideways only for short amounts of time then", Henry called, grinning from ear to ear. I am the first human to sit on a flier upside-down, he thought and in his mind, he started imagining what kinds of stunts they could pull with this equipment now. Until Thanatos suddenly lost height.

The exiled prince shrieked in shock when the flier sunk so low Henry's head dipped into the water. Snorting and coughing he managed to pull himself up into the normal position and hissed "the hell did you do that for!", at Thanatos, but the flier just laughed. "I could have warned you, I guess. But... you didn't warn me either when you first activated it."

Henry wanted to be mad, he really did – his hair was soaking now and plastered across his face, he wiped it away angrily. But then again – it's not like he wouldn't have done the same, were he the flier.

"This is going to take some practice", Henry pondered, beginning to rotate again. He made a full circle this time, and Thanatos nodded. "It is weird for me too, having your weight in all sorts of places. But there is no denying this will make us considerably stronger and especially unpredictable in battle, once we master it."

"Well, we have fifty hours now. Let's get a head start", Henry laughed. He stopped rotating while sitting upside down again, stretched his hand out and touched the water.

At this very moment, Henry felt the full sensation of freedom, one of his favorite things about exile. Still upside down, he stared out into the open and knew there were no limits, no boundaries, no rules, and no restraints that could ever hold him – them.

"Let the vacation begin!", he screamed, and ignored Thanatos' "since when is a trip to the uncharted lands a VACATION?"

Because that was exactly what it was.


Thank you so much for finishing part 2 as well! Now please treat yourself to the outro-video I made, it contains information on the SEQUEL and shares CONCEPT ART I made for this story.

I apologize for the poor quality on some of the pictures, my slideshow maker screwed that up.

yo u tu. be /xukACxWglbo [please remove the spaces for the link to work]