The flier's head jerked up. He had heard it well, but why – he winced again as the distinct sound of metal on stone rang once more. Again. And again.

He nervously glanced around but Kismet was not here, she had insisted on doing the patrol rounds herself from now on as she claimed he was still injured from the earthquake. He was perfectly fine. It had been a whole week, even the cave they had cleared of all rubble by now and – his ears twitched. Whatever Henry was doing up there Kismet was not here to check on him.

He blinked and hesitated, yet when he listened for a voice, any voice, to tell him what to do, to his surprise there was none. The girl... Arya had not spoken to him in ages, and Tonguetwist he had banned from his mind. Her, he would never let in again. The boy, he dazedly thought, why is the boy not speaking. His ears twitched again as the sound repeated. The boy... his eyes fixated the tunnel that led to the hot spring, the boy was here. He was not in his head, he was –

It was like his body lifted itself off the floor and darted forward, at the tunnel. Only then he froze in the opening. The boy might be here, but he would not speak to him. He had not spoken to him in... in... All feel for the passage of time blurred in his head and he shivered, not in... I would die a thousand deaths to save you.

He jumped as the next iteration of the sound pierced him, louder than ever. He remembered not ever deciding to move yet all of a sudden he cowered in the entrance to the cave with the hot spring, where –

"What... are you doing?"

His ears vibrated with the sound of metal on stone. Of Mys slipping from Henry's hand after his last poke at a rock. His eye was widened like he had not expected the flier here. Like he had not wanted –

"You are... here?"

The flier tilted his head in confusion, yet dared not to draw closer. "I... I have been here all along, you know that." He swallowed. "If you want me to leave I will –"

"Why... are you still here?"

He instantly retreated a step back. What was he doing here, what did he even think he was – "I will..."

"NO!"

The flier froze at once and stared at the boy who now clutched the bandage around his stomach. "No I mean... you...", his chest rose with a deep breath, "WHY are you still here?"

"What are you..." He had to suppress a horrified shiver as he caught his first good glimpse at the boy, in the light of the spring. "You... goodness, you look worse than before we first arrived at the nibbler colony, how much weight have you lost?"

Henry fell back to lean on the wall. "Please answer me..."

He had to consciously remind himself what he had asked. "W... where else would I be?"

The boy stared at him motionlessly. "I was right, was I not? You wanted to... to kill the parasite."

The flier's mouth opened but out came no sound.

"You did", the boy muttered and lowered his gaze, then attempted to pull on his legs but winced in pain. "You really hate me that much, don't you? You really hate me so much you wanted to..." He sniffed and angrily wiped at his face, "but if you hate me so much why did you save me from that rat? Why did you say...", his gaze darted back up, "You carried me out of the arena, Kismet said! You carried me out and you got help, now you risked your life to save me. And you're... you're STILL HERE!", he cried, "You're HERE and you... and I... I don't know... it doesn't make any sense, you hate me! You hate me! You wanted to... wanted", his hand placed on the bandage "you KILLED ME! But why, I don't..."

"I DON'T... hate you."

The boy froze, and slowly raised his gaze from the floor. All the flier saw in his eye was confusion and pain. "You..."

"Kismet... did she not tell you?"

His brow furrowed and the flier's wings nervously jolted open and shut. "I was... angry", he sighed, pressing tightly into the wall, "Frustrated and furious and... and... you have listened to mine and Hamnet's conversation, have you not? So you must know what –"

"I'm sorry..."

The flier looked up. "You..." A wave of overwhelming affection for the boy hit him as his eyes met his cowering shape. He had not looked so defeated since... since... ever. Not like this. Only with utmost self-control, he prevented himself from moving closer. He needed comfort, but not his comfort. Not the comfort of one who had nearly killed him.

"YOU are sorry?" The flier's voice dripped with sarcasm. "After what I –"

"Yes, I!" He winced at the angry determination in the boy's voice. "I was an insensitive, selfish asshole, I was a... a... parasite." His arms wrapped around his own upper body. "To not just you either. To everything and everyone, is that not why they have all abandoned me?"

A visible shiver ran through him. "They have all... you were right, you know? Back in the Ice System. I wish you hadn't but you did find out why Ares let me fall. Why they all... all... why there is nobody left. Nobody but Kismet, and even with her it's like I'm this useless burden on her back. I have to..." His head darted up, "I have to... I should leave, should...", he interrupted himself and his fist clenched, "it is all I will ever be, it is all I can ever be. A burden. A... parasite." He spat out the word like it was poison.

"You..."

"You know what, spare me", the boy hissed, "you've said it all, before the flood. I know I messed up and I know you want me not as your bond anymore – I get it! So screw the custom! You want nothing to do with me ever again, which is why you should LEAVE, all you do is make this harder, you know?"

"You... are not a parasite."

The boy froze.

"You..." The flier consciously prevented himself from retreating, "I should have never... I mean, you behaved like one, then", he sighed, "and you most certainly can be inconsiderate and selfish, but –", he shook his head, "I should have never said that. I did not... I mean, are you even aware of what you did for me?"

All the boy did was stare, from a widened eye.

"I... made a mistake. Long ago, my former bond and I made a terrible mistake that doomed us both." He trembled as he flashed back to the pit... the trap... the rat with the vicious grin.

"We once had the chance to kill him. Longclaw. This was nearly eight years ago. We foolishly left him in a pit instead of finishing him off, I have no clue how he survived, but I have barely ever regretted anything more than having left him alive."

"Long...claw?"

"Yes, Longclaw. The very Longclaw who runs the arena you have battled in. He is... an old friend, if you want. A former general of Gorger's, after Whitespur's death, even his right hand."

"What... happened?"

"I have only learned this from Mareth, back on the waterway. Everyone knew he lusted for the crown, but apparently, some six years ago, he had grown tired of waiting. He attempted to assassinate Gorger and was cast out for it. It... seems to have brought him here."

"And you... know him?"

"Have you ever wondered who I have to thank for the scar on my face? Who he has to thank for the one on his chest?"

"That was...", the boy's eye was wide, "you and... he...?"

"Yes, I...", his talons dug into the ground. "Back then, I had no idea... I mean, when we first faced him, in the heat of the battle, I... we killed his son. We had no idea who he was, we didn't mean to, but –"

"But he swore vengeance?"

"And he carried it out, too."

"Did he...", Henry swallowed, "did he kill your bond?"

"He set a trap and we flew right into it." The flier's jaw clenched and he adamantly stared at the floor. "He tore Arya from my back and dropped her off a cliff. They were three rats holding me but I wriggled free, I –", he took a deep breath in an attempt to suppress his relentless trembling, "I dove after her but it was too late. I had not closed my eyes fast enough either. It is the most atrocious thing I ever had to witness, a body shattering at the bottom of a cliff."

For the first time, he raised his gaze to look back at Henry, "From that day on I swore I would never return to any inhabited part of this world." His eyes shut tightly but it was all back now. More so than when he had seen Longclaw's face for the first time since that day, in the Ice System. More so than –

"You... saved me."

His head jerked up. "What?"

Henry's gaze oozed disbelief and shock, yet also... "That's why... you saved me, is it not?" He swallowed, "A total stranger, falling to his death. Falling for... for his bond had abandoned him. You –"

"You... fell and there was I, and there was... suddenly someone I could save." His voice was barely more than a whisper. "A second chance."

What could have been hours of silence passed before Henry spoke again, and something about his tone had the flier shiver. "I... I'm sorry it had to be me. Me, and not someone –"

"Stop!"

"But I –"

"NO!", the flier cried, "No, I will not hear any of this anymore. You... have you any idea how it was like, before you?" He shook his head, "It... I was not even alive, not really. I was barely keeping myself conscious, barely finding strength and motivation to move. To do anything. For where was the point? There was..."

"...nothing left."

The flier froze, yet the boy stared at the floor as he spoke on – "Nothing left to live for. No purpose, no goal, no aim, not even peace. Only regret. Only pain. At first, it's like it's eating you alive, but you get used to it after a while. And then all that's left is to ask yourself over and over why you're still alive. Why you can't at last die." His fist clenched. "But for some reason... the world will not let you die."

The flier stared at the sunken, defeated figure of the boy. "But... you..." A wave of unbelieving regret hit him, was this what Kismet had meant by – "You should have never..."

"How could you ever stand it?", Henry interrupted, "How could you stand this, survive this, for seven whole years? It is...", his hand clutched the fabric of his shirt, "I can't..."

"The first couple months are the hardest", the flier muttered, "you numb to it eventually. And when you then do, it all blurs into meaningless emptiness. I hardly remember more than a couple days... a couple hours... from that time. Sometimes I genuinely find it hard to believe seven years have passed... There are times when I am firmly convinced it couldn't have been more than seven days, and then there are times when I wonder how it has been any less than seven decades."

What followed was strangely serene silence. Neither the boy nor the flier spoke yet the daunting weight of the story he had shared lingered in the room like an invisible cloud of mist.

"How... what was she like?" The flier raised his gaze when the boy at last broke it, "Arya, I mean."

He swallowed. "An unbelievably reckless hothead, is what she was like."

From the corner of his eye, he caught Henry's grin.

"But before you think you two were the same, you were not." He sighed, "You... do remind me of her sometimes. Yet she was never as driven, as goal-oriented, or achievement-focused as you. She once said if she could dedicate her life to something it would be to be there for others. To save every miserable soul in this world, to...", he shook his head, "to proliferate happiness at the expense of sorrow."

"So she was like a better version of me", Henry pressed out between clenched teeth.

"That is not what I meant", the flier's eyes narrowed, "for as much as I enjoyed her caring nature, she could never tell when she was going overboard with it. And when I say she had not your drive and determination, that is not a good thing either. As exhausting as your relentless pushing forward, into what is better, stronger, faster... can get, you fire on everyone around you in a way I have never witnessed. You fired me on. You were right", he sighed, "I have not felt the need to better myself or to strive for any sort of progress in forever. Not before you."

Henry stared at him still somewhat skeptically.

"Listen, I will not conduct an evaluation which of you was better here, that would be impossible. She had things you lacked and lacked things you have. And that is that."

The boy stared at the floor. "So it had nothing to do with the Garden of the Hesperides, why you went into exile?"

The flier hesitated, "I... I mean it did, but not in the way it did for Hamnet. Arya, she was a soldier. She did not enjoy it much but it had been the wish of her parents, like Mareth's. His and her fathers were brothers, you know? Both high-ranking military officials who wanted their eldest children to follow in their footsteps."

"So that's how you know Mareth and Hamnet..."

"We were all ancient friends. My sisters and my mother both died in the Garden, as did...", he hesitated and swallowed, "She was Hamnet's bond, Persephone. His bond he could not save. We had... had...", he adamantly stared at the floor, "there was a time when I thought I would spend my life at her side. Have a family of my own. But she... why are you looking at me like that?!"

Henry shut his agape-standing mouth and visibly tried to prevent a grin. "I don't know, you don't... I mean I didn't think you... YOU had a partner at some point, REALLY?"

His eyes narrowed at the boy's amused face. "Yes, I HAD a partner at some point. Is that truly so hard to – oh who am I kidding, your reaction is most appropriate. I could hardly believe it myself, half the time. Even during our time together."

Henry broke into suppressed laughter and the flier managed a grin. "It is highly amusing, I know."

Suddenly, the boy's laughter abated. "I'm sorry she died."

"It was never the same, after her death and Hamnet's disappearance. Arya and I took to spending most of our time out fighting, sometimes we didn't return to Regalia for weeks. It seemed worth the obligatory rebuke at the time."

"She was... all you had left."

"And then she died."

The following silence was everything but serene. The flier thought it would suffocate him until the boy at last broke it – "You went into exile because there was nothing left in Regalia for you anymore. Or anywhere." He swallowed, "And then... then there was I and... that's what you meant by... reason. When you told Hamnet I was your reason, that's what you meant... right? Why you kept quiet, why you were so reluctant to endanger me..."

"Then you were all I had left."

Henry shook his head, "I never understood that part of your conversation. Never... until now, because... because I think you were my reason too."

His gaze darted up at the boy. He twisted the rock he had been stabbing between his hands. "After I became an outcast, I... you speak of my relentless drive for improvement and progress, but had you not taken me in back then, had you not dragged me off my ass and given me something... to be dedicated to, I don't think I would have... gotten even remotely as far as I did. And that is disregarding the fact that I would have died two days into exile from my own lacking survival skills."

The flier had to consciously close his agape-standing mouth. "You..."

"Yes I mean that!", Henry cried and tossed the rock at the opposing wall, "I thought I was in the right, but I screwed up everything, hurt every single individual I ever cared about, and... and every time I want to blame it all on Tonguetwist there's this voice in my head that screams I can't, because she didn't force me. She..."

"Did you say... Tonguetwist?"

"Yes... it was her who... wait, why?"

The flier swallowed. His head spun and he had to lean on the wall. Longclaw and Tonguetwist... Tonguetwist and Longclaw... "I... I must tell you something."

And so he told everything. All that had happened after the waterfall. His waking up to Tonguetwist claiming she had pulled him out, over his more or less aimless meddling in the vicinity. Over her frequent visits, her talks, her claims, and his ever-growing rage. Even over how caring and understanding he had thought her, and over how much he had longed for someone to be understanding for once.

Henry interrupted not once, only stared from a widened eye. When the flier's words then ran out, he swallowed. "She doesn't force you", he mumbled.

"She only makes you want to do it." The flier shuddered, "What has brought those two together, even?"

Henry had no response, so an eternal moment of silence passed. "She made me want to betray my home and family."

The flier raised his head but before he could ask, the boy buried his head in the crook of his arm. "It was all my fault, I should have... have... how have I ever lived with myself siding with a rat over my own people. My home", he sobbed.

The flier wanted to say something, anything to comfort him but he left him no chance. Not with the convoluted mess of words that spilled from his mouth, a tale the flier had meant to ask for yet never gotten the chance. With every sentence, the boy sobbed, and with every sentence, he drew closer. And soon the talk of secret meetings, and flattery, and promises of freedom, of glory, of peace, over a vow to side with Gorger, and a showdown at the cliff – it all at last formed a coherent yet terrible picture. A picture of a boy who, the flier suddenly realized, had longed for something much closer to what he himself had wanted, than he would have ever thought.

"It is as you said", Henry concluded, "she makes you... want to do things you never knew you wanted." His jaw clenched, "Why is she doing this? Why is she here now, I mean, Gorger is dead and...", he sobbed, "why can she not leave me in peace? Why has she targeted you now?"

"I... don't know. I...", his own questions replayed in his head, "I have no clue as to what the two of them were hoping to achieve with this either. It was like... like... Longclaw approached you, and Tonguetwist me. Like they knew we were together. Like they knew –"

"But how would they?"

"I don't know!", he twitched, "Henry, I really don't know. All you must understand is that I had never meant for it to end like this. I... I didn't know what..."

"I didn't know either, okay?", the boy hissed, "I'm trash at knowing what I want or need, I told you this before! I don't think about... I don't –", he broke off and stared ahead, "but I never meant to... hurt you."

Why had the flier not said anything, it repeated in Henry's head, all this would have been so easy to avoid, had he only – "Why did you never tell me?", he at last pressed out, "What an ass I was, I mean. You always tell me!" His eye narrowed and he suddenly wanted nothing more than to leap to his feet and kick the wall until it crumbled. "You always told me! That's why we worked so well! Because you always told me what I was doing wrong!"

His mind flashed to a scene, some month into his exile. The crawlers he had refused to save, and their first proper argument, over... "I was... scared", the flier mumbled, "I was uncertain and undecided and it was like I had not the right to complain, because –" Because I didn't deserve you in the first place. He could not bring himself to say it.

"But what were you scared of?"

He could not hold the boy's gaze.

"What were you", he cut himself off, "we... were bonds." His lips pressed together, "I thought I never had to fear it again – losing you. I thought I would never be alone again. Not for as long as we were..."

"... were?"

The boy stared at him with a widened eye for a heartbeat that stretched into eternity. Then he extended his hand at him.

It is an offer, the flier understood and suppressed a shiver. He is here, after all that's happened, after all I have done, offering... A brief moment of hesitation later Thanatos enclosed the boy's hand with his claw.

"Don't you dare cry, you hear?"

The boy sniffed and wiped at his face. "I can't –"

"Yes you can, and I will – Henry!" He winced as the boy's arms wrapped around his neck tightly. The boy, he was... seventeen, Thanatos thought, but the figure that clung to him like a lifeline now was so gaunt and frail he couldn't shake the feeling he was holding a child. A child that had... battled him in the arena, defeated him... spared him. He gazed at a wiry arm covered in fresh scars.

"Please don't leave me", the boy spoke into his fur. "I can't be selfish, I know", he sobbed, "and if that's being selfish I'm sorry, but... but... you can't ever leave me! Please don't leave me!"

Flashes of their argument, down in the Ice System, replayed in Thanatos' head and his embrace tightened. "I will not... if you will not either."

"Never!", the boy cried, "I would never, I... I just want it to be like before. Like before all this shit happened, like after the episode with the spinners. I... I mean..." He was interrupted by a sob, "Can't we forget all this and go back to how it was before?"

But the flier remained silent. For so long Henry looked up at him and for a brief moment, a jolt of panic ran through his eye.

"Henry, we can never go back to before." The boy's eye widened in shock. "For, as far as I know, there is no way to go back in time."

"That... that was not what I –"

"I know, but I want you to let me finish." The boy's mouth shut.

"We can never go back to before", he sighed, "but what will be in the future lies in our hands. It is up to us to decide how we will continue forward, but we must never strive to go back. That is...", he averted his gaze, "that is what I learned from you. From the you that bravely faced his demons, his mistakes, to strive and do the right thing."

The boy stared at him for a moment, then squinted. "We're... even."

"Huh?"

"I mean...", he sat up without releasing Thanatos' claw, "I used you, took you for granted. You wrongly accused me, battled me... injured me. We have both done things that can never be undone but we're also... even." He swallowed and decided to disregard that there seemed to be a notable discrepancy in severity, "We can wipe the slate clean safely."

"And... what do you want to do with this clean slate?"

The boy hesitated, then looked down. "I don't... I mean, I told you I wanted...", his body began to tremble. "That is the point, I don't know! I just don't know!", he cried, "I... it is like I know it but I don't at the same time – I... I want to feel like I'm home again. But if you would ask me where "home" is, I wouldn't be able to tell you. That's why I said I wanted for things to be like before", he sniffed again, "I felt better then. I felt like I was... was... whole."

The flier instinctively pulled the boy closer. "Nevermind, I just –"

"Was it a mistake, would you say?" The boy pulled one leg to the uninjured side of his chest. "To... bond?"

"What...?"

"I mean, that's when the problems started, right? Was it a mistake to –", he was interrupted by a sob, then broke into proper tears.

Thanatos cowered over him helplessly and once more cursed his own inability to handle tears. "It was not the bond", he mumbled, "it was the way we treated it, I believe."

"T... treated it?"

"Treated it, treated us, like something had changed." He shook his head. "The bonding ritual itself does not change what we are, it is us who changed ourselves because we thought we had to."

The boy stared at him for a moment, then nodded. "I... thought so too. It is meaningless whether you have spoken the words or not. The words do not make the kind of relationship that people picture when they think "bond", so... how did we ever manage to make it work the other way around for us?"

"I... don't know", the flier shook his head and closed his eyes. "But for now, nobody is restraining or forcing anything on you. You make your relationships with whom and however you feel is right. Now that we have Tonguetwist and Longclaw off our back it is all up to us again."

The boy in his embrace twitched. "You really think it is good we have them off our backs? Longclaw, he... he atrociously killed your former bond, have you never thought of pursuing him?"

"I... I also killed his son", the flier shook his head. "I can not... I believe it is for the best to leave this in the past. We should not focus on all things dire anymore. We should look ahead." He closed his eyes, "Would you like to fly together tomorrow?"

The boy tightened his grip and the flier could have sworn he was smiling. "I'd love to."

The first thing Thanatos registered when he opened his eyes was that his embrace was empty. He jolted up and his gaze locked on the shape of Kismet who stood in the tunnel entrance.

Before he could speak, she stepped forward. "Whatever happened yesterday, you must fly after him at once."

"After...", he scrambled up somewhat dazed, half-expecting to spot Henry in a corner, filling up his water bags.

He winced as Kismet dropped a torn page from Henry's notebook before him. "You must fly now. Before it is too late. Whoever it is he is after, he can not do this with his injury, and not without his sword. You left it in the arena, did you not?"

Thanatos nodded confusedly, then lowered his gaze at the page. As soon as he had processed the words, his body froze to ice –

I know, I promised to stay. I'm sorry.
But he must be dealt with.

A thousand alarms shrilled in his head, yet above all rang his own voice, his words – Would you like to fly together tomorrow? "We wanted to fly", he mumbled as he scrambled up, "we..." He nearly ran into the wall before catching himself.

"Halt", sounded Kismet from behind, "where is he going? He has taken all his possessions with him and his scent trail leads to the lake, but I have no clue as to where he went from there."

He must be dealt with. The angrily scribbled words flashed before the flier's inner eye over and over. He must be dealt with. "Longclaw", he mumbled and an icy shiver ran down his spine when he understood what the boy was doing. Trying to do. Have you never thought of pursuing him?

"What?" Kismet froze in her tracks. "Did you say Longclaw?"

"He and I have history", the flier mumbled and spread his wings, "I told him this yesterday and now –"

"And now he thinks he must go and avenge you?", Kismet hissed and dragged her talons across the floor. "How is he such an intelligent, capable individual yet such a MORON at the same time?"

"You have no idea how much I have asked myself this very question", Thanatos muttered, then looked back at her. "Are you coming with me?"

Kismet hesitated. "I... can not. Not if it is Longclaw." She dug her talons into the ground. "I can not see him again, not ever. Not for as long as...", she shook her head, "fly on without me. You will be faster alone, too. Perhaps you can catch up to him before he catches up with Longclaw."

The flier looked back at her curiously and she sighed. "Listen, we have no time for grand stories, all you must know is that he believes I am dead. And I would do much for it to remain that way."

"He thinks you are... hold on, did he not ever smell you on Henry?"

"I doubt he would recognize my scent as it is now", she scoffed. "Scents are not as constant as one would think. If enough time passes, and if enough change occurs, your scent can merge until it is barely recognizable." She sighed. "I am certain, for all that has happened to me, there will hardly remain a single individual who would recognize it anymore."

Their gazes locked for a heartbeat in silent understanding, then Thanatos spread his wings. He darted at the cliff, but suddenly halted again. "Wait... he has taken all his things, you say?"

Kismet cowered at the wall. He perceived her only with his echolocation but he could have sworn she smiled sadly.

"Whether he will return or not is his choice", she mumbled. "His place is not here, you know that as well as I."

"But you –" His mind reeled with all he suddenly wanted to tell the wise rat. All she had done for Henry, for him, without her they both would be –

"His place is out there." She most certainly smiled. "It is why he came here in the first place, is it not? To learn to find his place out there again. And he could not have learned better. I could not have asked for... a better student. Tell that to the conceited brat, will you?"

"But I –"

"You must do for him what I could not", she cut him off, "you must give him a home. Can you do that for me?"

"He loves you", the flier closed his eyes for a moment, "I know that for a fact. And he will... we will return. Be it in a week or a year, we will." A shiver ran through his body, "You are not alone anymore. Not for as long as we have light." She stood perfectly still for what seemed like an eternity. "And when we return, I expect a proper explanation as to why the HELL you allowed him to become a gnawer champion in the first place!"

Kismet laughed. "Just get the hell out of here!" Her cry rang in Thanatos' ears as he at last lifted off. "And fly you and the pup high!"

"Run like the river, Kismet!", he called and circled above her once, then darted into the tunnel that led towards the lake.

Thanatos instinctively made his way to Longclaw's arena, but when he darted out into the enormous cave and soared above the sandy pit he found it entirely abandoned. A jolt of panic pierced him when he found himself with no goal, then he remembered the Ice System.

He desperately attempted to recall anything he could from his encounter with Longclaw down there, before he had taken Henry to fetch the strange black rock, but his memory of the time away from the boy was faint. All he recalled were static images – Longclaw speaking to an assembly of gnawers, their bared teeth at him, the vicious grin. The scar.

He shivered as the faded echo of Arya's cry rang in his ears. His talons tearing through Longclaw's chest. The sharp sting across his face, where the claws of the gnawer had landed. He could not... the flier put on his wings and darted down the same path he and Henry had taken then. He could not lose his second bond to the same individual he had lost his first bond to.

He could not allow it.

The flight seemed shorter than it had last time and soon he sensed the relentless cold of the ice that covered the walls around him. He easily traversed the previously narrow entrance, the flood must have torn away parts of the wall, he thought, and easily navigated further down.

When he came to the fork leading to where Henry and he had fetched the black metal he hesitated. It was a dead-end. Longclaw would not be down there. Yet a strange sensation overcame him at the sight of this place. Like something squeezing his guts into the furthest corner of his stomach cavity.

Determinately, he turned away and spread his wings. It was not the time to linger or wallow in self-pity. Not now, not when the boy was out there, injured, barely armed. Because of him.

The feeling in his gut increased until it became nigh-unbearable. The boy was out here, the boy he had accused of not caring for him. The boy he had longed to be rid of. The boy he had called a parasite.

He was so lost in thought he only heard the sounds when they rang painfully loud and he took a sharp turn at once, nearly colliding with the wall. Thanatos did not see them but from what he now heard there must be at least a hundred rats somewhere ahead, somewhere...

He landed and pressed himself into the icy wall in an attempt to slow his enraged heartbeat. There was no other way ahead. Longclaw was here certainly, only he had such a large amount of followers. A couple hundred more and he can at last crown himself king as he so desperately wants, the flier thought and shivered.

But he cared not about Longclaw. His ears pointed forward and he cowered down. He cared about Henry. And he had not yet been able to determine where Henry was. His mind reeled in an attempt to come up with a plan for how to scout the area for the boy without getting caught when he suddenly jumped. Voices, but not ahead... behind.

"... see if it works this time. That flood cost at least ten lives, do you really think it –"

The flier's wings jolted open and shut before he darted up and ahead. They had been just around the corner. Returning from a patrol, most likely. His mind clogged with panic as he flew an uncertain circle. The tunnel was linear, rats ahead, rats behind. There was nowhere to go without –

"HEY!" The shriek unmistakably sounded behind him and he instantly ran face-forward into the wall, barely keeping himself in the air.

He could take them. He could take two rats, he dazedly thought, if only he could avoid being heard by their friends ahead. Yet as soon as he turned and lunged at the larger scout the second one voiced a piercing alarm shriek that numbed all his perception for a heartbeat. He faltered and a jolt of pain pierced his back. His wings snapped shut and as soon as he most ungraciously crashed into the floor, the two scouts were above him.

"Look who we have here", one grinned down at him spitefully. "Longclaw was right. He did come. Now nighty-night!"

Before he had the mental capacity to process the words something heavy hit the back of his head and his world went black.

It was all static. Pain, and noise, and static, in his head, in his ears, in all his senses. He thought something was trying to pierce it, to reach him, from beyond, but he could not hear. He focused all his willpower desperately, to pierce the awful static. To hear the voice.

"DEATH!"

The flier's eyes jolted open. Bright. It was... the flickering light of a brazier reflected in a shiny surface before him, it glistened with... red.

"Oh, so he is awake at last."

His ears twitched at the rasping voice that spoke now. He wanted not that voice. He wanted the –

"DEATH!"

"Yes, yes, you must not cry for him so desperately, I am certain he can hear you just fine."

The flier let out a hoarse shriek as something painfully tugged at his wing. Only now he registered he could not move, not – it was blood, he understood as he stared at the puddle he lied in. Blood... his blood.

He winced as a large paw with crooked talons disrupted the smooth surface. Red speckled white ice. "You should have finished each other off in the arena", Longclaw spoke, yet when Thanatos raised his head to look at him a sting of sharp pain rushed through his wing and into his spine. It is broken, he numbly thought as he stared at the wing. A large section was bent upward in an unnatural angle, the tissue torn at the tip.

"Oh, you must excuse the wing, but I could not risk you flying out of here again. We wouldn't want a repeat of what happened to your last bond, would we now?" The rats that held him in place giggled and the flier hissed through clenched teeth.

"Let him GO!"

The voice... despite the pain the flier's gaze wandered in search of... a sword, it stuck out of the ice. A familiar sword. And beside it a familiar face... "Henry..."

"You will LET HIM GO!"

"Ah-ah, now is not the time for demands, my champion." A shiver ran through Thanatos' body as Longclaw strolled over to where they restrained Henry and roughly pulled him up by the collar. The boy's body twined in pain and his hands clutched his shirt above the bandage. "Don't hurt him... DEATH!"

His right hand released his own stomach and extended in the flier's direction. Like he could reach him, unite hand and claw for a bond. All Thanatos could do in return was to marginally raise his claw... at the boy. For a bond.

"How touching." Longclaw violently yanked Henry up so that his feet dangled in the air. "But sadly, your bond over there is one of two who once killed my son in cold blood, and I will not rest until my list has his name on it, like it already has that of the other one."

"We did not..." His chest could barely move but he squeezed the words out regardless, "not know he was your... your..."

"OF COURSE you did not." Longclaw lunged at him and Henry in his grasp cried. "He was barely more than a pup", he hissed, and for the first time, Thanatos thought he spotted something like a jolt of pain flash in his eyes. "Barely more than a pup... not unlike our Achilles here." He held Henry so close to his face the boy disgustedly averted his face from the reek out of the gnawer's mouth.

"Nothing personal, by the way. You were a fantastic champion, for what you are", he swayed Henry back and forth, "but you do what you have to do. And between the two of you, I believe it is appropriate if he dies first."

At Longclaw's words, Thanatos sensed a jolt of panic pierce him and his head darted up. "You... what?" He stared at Henry in the rat's grasp and his mind went blank with fear. You can't bring your son back if you kill me! The high-pitched voice rang in his ears and he put them on.

"Don't...", he coughed out and meekly struggled, but barely managed to move at all. "Please..."

"Oh so NOW you plead for mercy", Longclaw bared his teeth and Thanatos winced as he slammed his front paw into the blood before him. He faintly tasted iron as he stared down at the crooked, disfigured talons.

"Do you know what it took to get out of that pit you left me in?" The flier shuddered from his hot breath at his ear. "Look at it. Look closely. This is what it took. The weak are broken by the rock, the strong break the rock instead. For whatever it takes." The rat turned from him and strolled forward, only now Thanatos registered the large icy plateau they stood on gave way to a steep cliff, some twenty feet ahead. "So let us get this over with and back to the reason we are really here."

"He is trying to FLOOD REGALIA!" Thanatos twitched as the desperate voice of the boy cried out. "He is trying to collapse this whole system to flood the city! They want to –!"

He gave a pained shriek as Longclaw violently shook him. "My plans are none of your concern", he hissed between clenched teeth, but Henry ignored him. His hand grabbed onto the paw that held his collar. "We have to warn them! Death, we have to warn Regalia before –!"

"SILENCE!" Longclaw's shriek vibrated his every fiber and Thanatos uncomfortably clenched his jaw. To flood... His eyes jolted open at once and searched for Henry. The city's canalization system connected to the waterway. If Longclaw had found a way to cause a flood like the previous one, only in the correct direction... He shuddered and squinted... it would render the city defenseless.

"Fine", the rat pressed out between clenched teeth, "it matters little anyway. You will hardly live to tell the tale." He took a last step at the cliff and extended the paw that held the boy so that his feet dangled over the edge. "We have... let's say, widened the largest canal to your city a little. They will not know what hit them. And once the human city that has dared bring a plague upon us has fallen to me, all those weakened and disheartened gnawers who still follow the lead of others will at last see it is I who is fit to be king!"

A round of spontaneous applause broke out in the cave yet Thanatos' gaze was only on the writhing shape of Henry.

"And if that does not work out, we still have Tonguetwist's insider." The flier's head shot up but before he could say anything Longclaw raised Henry even higher. "And now look closely, Skullface, this is the last you will see of the boy. He will be number four-hundred-and-thirteen. For he will fall and you will not catch him, not catch him as you so solemnly swore."

A jolt of numbing panic pierced the flier's heart at the sight. For she will fall and you will not catch her, not catch her as you so solemnly swore. It was... it was... the writhing, struggling shape of his bond in Longclaw's grasp, and he... he darted forward yet barely managed to move an inch. It was not real, his mind screamed at him over and over. His mouth opened yet out came no sound. It was not real. His... bond.

His lids fluttered shut at once. This time he would not look. He could not look. If Longclaw tied his wings together and sent him down after the boy he would be doing him a favor. Our life and death are one.

His eyes instinctively flung open as he perceived a deafening scream. But not from the boy. Dazedly the flier took in the scene... the large brown rat reeled forward and released Henry, clutching the pit of his front paw. The boy was free... the flier processed, he was free...

At once he felt the grip on his own wings ease as two of the rats that held him lunged forward to recapture the boy but he took a flying leap at Longclaw instead and landed on the large rat's back. His hands clutched his ears tightly and Longclaw gave a howling shriek as he stumbled forward... at Henry's sword.

As soon as it came into reach the boy released him and moments later enclosed the hilt with both hands, to rip it out of the ice. His ears twitched from the sudden low rumble the ice gave yet he had not a moment to spare to focus on that.

Henry yanked up and shouldered his backpack, which had lied next to the sword, then blocked and sliced at the first attackers. But it was too many. His eyes searched for and found Longclaw who took a flying leap in Henry's direction and spotted his chance.

You can't ever leave me! Please don't leave me! The desperate voice of the boy rang in his ears and for a moment he hesitated, then glanced back at Longclaw. It was the only way.

He mobilized the last of his strength and ripped his wing out of the grip of the last gnawer that held him, then he charged forward. At Longclaw. He caught the rat in mid-air and tore his mouth open for a howling cry as he rammed into the gnawer's stomach, to throw him off-course. At the cliff.

He barely registered Henry's deafening scream as they slid towards the edge together and for a heartbeat, the flier believed he had the time to spread his wings and lift off, but then something shrieked furiously as it dug into his foot and crashed him back into the ground.

His last glimpse was at the mortified face of the boy as he and Longclaw darted over the edge together.