Althea woke the next morning from a loud hawk call overhead, making her startle awake in alarm. She sat up and looked around, seeing Xicro cooking meat nearby, the remains of a rabbit on the forest floor not too far away.

"Don't worry, it's just Soren's fellow scout avian." He smiled, patting the ground next to him in invitation. Althea sat up and walked over to sit beside him, staring into the fire with sleepy eyes. She jumped when Soren fell down from the trees above, closely followed by another avian- this one was dark brown with white wings lined with brown bands. It looked like he was a peregrine falcon or something similar. That would explain the hawk cry.

"This is Tobias- he is the scout who was sent to find the prison." Soren introduced the other avian.

"The prison is guarded by some humans, but it's not too far away." The falcon said in a gruff voice. "It shouldn't take more than an hour or two to walk there. I counted four guards from the outside, but it's likely there's more inside."

"Shouldn't be too hard for us to handle with all the animus here, then." Soren nodded. "Especially with a magic user here, too."

Althea chewed a piece of rabbit uneasily. "I'm actually not that good at combat magic." She said quietly.

Tobias looked over to her in confusion, a dark frown coming over his face. "A human? Why is she here?"

"She's helping us. Treat her with respect." Xicro looked over to the falcon, his yellow eyes giving him a warning. "She is one of us."

Althea couldn't help but blush with embarrassment at Xicro's defense, but looked up when she heard a squawk from Tobias. Soren had elbowed him in the cut, making the other avian bend over in pain, his wings twitching behind him from the impact.

"Don't be an idiot, Tobias!" Soren snapped. "Do you seriously think he would be so relaxed if she wasn't an ally? Think before you talk next time."

"Sorry." Tobias wheezed, glancing over to Althea. "I didn't know." He looked back to Soren with a frown. "You didn't need to hit that hard."

Soren rolled his eyes, crossing his arms in front of his chest in frustration. Althea chuckled at the close relationship between the avians, looking up as Toran walked back into the camp from the forest. He looked down at her as if he wanted to say something, but she quickly looked away. She didn't really want to talk to him- his harsh words had made last night hurt even more.

Toran let out a low growl before looking over to the avians. "Are you ready to go?"

"You're not leaving without us, are you?" Xicro stood up angrily. "At least eat something before you leave." He offered the largest piece of the mostly eaten rabbit.

Toran glanced down at Althea with trepidation before letting out a grumble and taking the rabbit. "Fine. We'll eat and then go." He gruffed.

Xicro let out a groan of frustration, waving a hand dismissively at Toran as the tiger walked off with his food. "Sometimes I think he turned into a hermit. He just doesn't talk when he doesn't know how to deal with something." The panther sat back down beside Althea.

"He does seem rather grumpy." Tobias said, taking a piece of the rabbit as well, handing another to Soren as the owl sat beside him.

"He isn't used to dealing with people. He means well." Xicro shrugged. "He'll be fine after a while."

They finished eating in silence, putting out the fire and gathering supplies to walk to the prison. Althea was a bit nervous to be walking toward a prison that may hold some hostile animus, but it was for the sake of saving that girl- so she would risk it.

Tobias had been right- the prison hadn't been too far to the north, the group arriving there after a little under an hour. There were three guards in front of an entrance to an underground building, chatting with each other and laughing in relaxation. The animus were hiding behind the trees of the forest, watching them warily.

"We'll have to do this fast so they can't use magic." Toran whispered. "If they can't talk, they can't fight."

"Why not have Althea use her freezing magic like earlier? We wouldn't have to worry about it, then." Xicro offered.

"No." Toran said fiercely. "She's not to get involved any more than necessary."

Althea glared at him angrily. "How am I supposed to help you if I can't do anything? I can at least do this!" She hissed.

"Fine." Toran growled back. "But don't you dare come any closer than here. Use your magic from behind this tree. I don't want you to get near them until we clear them away and get inside."

Althea nodded, raising a hand and letting the white mist flow from her palm, the magic seeping around the guard's heads and causing the headaches that incapacitated them, making them clutch at their temples and groan in pain. The birds flew above them, landing onto the ground behind the guards and twisting their necks quickly, the crunching sound of their necks breaking silencing the groans. Althea gasped, closing her hands at the sight of such easy and quick deaths that she had helped make happen.

Xicro put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly as he crept forward with Toran, the birds flying into the roof of the building and motioned toward the other wall on the opposite side. Toran unsheathed his sword quietly, dispatching of the two remaining guards quickly. Walking back around, they motioned for Althea and Radica to come over, the birds landing back on the ground as they opened the door to go inside.

The inside of the prison was dark, the only light coming from torches that lined long halls that led in either direction. A guard shouted when he saw them, running toward them with a hand outstretched with red magic flowing from his palm. Althea made a squeak of alarm, her own magic coming to her defense, the man halting in place to lean against the wall before Toran ran his sword through him to kill him.

"This is so much easier with her." Soren chuckled in amusement as they took care of the last guard, able to finally get a good look around.

"Oh Gods what's that smell?" Althea covered her nose at the putrid smell she had never experienced, but somehow seemed familiar. It was acrid, almost sweet and acidic.

"Death." Toran growled, looking into a cell in front of him. Through the iron bars on the door was a dead animus, his body leaning against the stone wall behind him. "I don't know how many prisoners we'll find alive here."

"We have to look." Xicro said, looking in another cell to find another body. He hissed with anger before starting to move down the hallway, Toran trying them on the other side. Althea looked down the hallway that ran in the other direction, starting at the row and looking through the window, gasping when she saw a corpse inside. Bile rose into her mouth at the sight, but she forced it back down to keep looking.

It only took a few more tries before she found another door with someone inside, the small huddled mass in the far corner rising up and down with breathing. She tried opening the door, only to find it locked. She put her hand to the lock, shoving as much magic as possible into the metal until it clicked open. She smiled at the trick her cousin had taught her, glad it was finally coming of use. Opening the wooden door, the slow creaking seemed to fill the room as the small animus scrambled further against the wall in fear.

"I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to rescue you." She said reassuringly, looking down at the little girl, bit wide eyes looking back up at her. She kneeled down, seeing a long scrape along the little girl's arm, which she clutched to her chest. Althea gently took the arm, putting her other hand over the scrape and let her magic heal so that it closed, leaving the arm healed. She smiled down to the little girl, who gasped at the sight, examining where the scrape had been in wonder.

"You're a good human?" She looked back up to Althea, still wary.

"I'm a good human." Althea smiled, holding out her arms welcomingly.

The little girl let out a small sob of relief as she jumped into Althea's arms, Althea standing up while she supported the girl on her hip. She was an adorable little animus, with tiny wings that hadn't grown into their full size yet. She looked to be a raven from the black feathers that covered her body. She clutched at Althea's dress as Althea brought her back out into the hallway, back toward the others.

"You found her!" Tobias smiled with relief. He ran over and ruffled the long feather-hair on the little girl's head, before turning back to look for more prisoners.

"You'll be okay, we won't let anyone hurt you again." Althea whispered to her, rubbing her back comfortingly. "What's your name?"

"P-Peperinsa." She stammered through her tears. "But momma called me Peeps."

"Well Peeps, we'll bring you to somewhere it's safe, okay? I promise." She wiped a tear from the little girl's cheek, her heart breaking that someone so young had to go through something so terrible.

"Okay, thanks nice lady." She hiccuped, looking back at the line of prison doors and clutching at Althea again. "Make sure Nawu is safe too."

"Nawu?" Althea looked down at the girl in confusion. "Who's Nawu?"

"He's pretty." The girl smiled wistfully. "He helped me a lot. Made sure I didn't get too hurt- but I haven't seen him for a while, I think he's sick."

Althea let out a small noise of concern before walking back over to Soren. "She says there's another avian animus here. Someone named Nawu." She said, hoping it might help them.

"Nawu, huh?" Soren looked at the line of doors. "It might take a while to find him, but we'll keep looking."

"He's in a special room. He was bad." Peeps said quietly. "They made him yell a lot."

Soren and Tobias looked at each other uneasily and nodded. "We'll try and find him. You just keep Althea company, okay?" Soren said softly to the little animus.

Peeps nodded, burying her face in Althea's shoulder. "I miss momma."

"I know, sweetie." Althea patted the girl's head. "Just wait a little bit until we find anyone else that might be here and we'll leave, okay?"

"Okay." Peeps whispered.

Althea carried Peeps as they continued checking doors, staying near the others as the other animus seemed to comfort the girl more. Finally they came to the last few rooms at the end of the hall, one of the rooms covered with more locks than usual.

"I don't think I can get these off with just my sword." Toran growled.

"Here- hold her for a minute, Xicro." She handed Peeps to Xicro, the girl latching onto the panther just as she did to Althea. She walked over to the door, using her magic to unlock each lock, the process long and and tiring. By the time she had finished, her brow was sweating from using so much magic in one day. She wiped the sweat away as Toran opened the door, looking into the room. A large green feather blew out of the room with the motion, more feathers littering the ground.

"No, no, not again." A male voice groaned from inside. A figure was huddled against the wall, shaking with pain.

"Hey- whoever you are, we're here to help." Toran walked forward, Althea entering the room behind him.

"Help?" The voice said sarcastically. "Yeah right. Stay back, or... or else." He held up a hand, Althea pausing with surprise when the blue hand was raised as if he was going to cast magic. Except... animus didn't have magic, right?

Toran obviously didn't notice, as he kept walking forward. "I'm serious. Here." He walked into the small beam of light that shone through a small window in the top of the wall- far too small for even a child to climb through.

A gasp of shock came from the animus against the wall, the figure sitting up and coming into view. "Y-you're really here? I'm not dreaming after all this time?" He asked, his voice shaking.

"How long have you been in here?" Toran asked uneasily, offering a hand to help the animus off the ground. It was still so dark it was hard to see who or what he was.

"I'm honestly not sure." The animus grunted as he tried to stand, taking a few attempts to get to his feet before standing in the dark for a moment. "I lost track of time after a while in here."

Althea could understand how easy it would be in such a dark solitary room. She looked down on the ground where he had been sitting, seeing a pool of blood beneath him. "Are you wounded? I can heal you." She offered.

The animus looked up at her and backed up against the wall in fear. "N-no, don't touch me." He stammered.

"Okay." Althea said softly, backing up a bit so she didn't scare him further. He was so frightened... she wondered what he had been through to get him to be this way.

"Come on. Let's get out of here." Toran said, offering a hand to help the animus out of the room. The blue hand grabbed his, shaking with weakness. Toran brought the animus into the light and nearly dropped the hand with shock at the sight.

The animus was a bright blue avian, a long peacock tail lying on the dirt ground behind him, scraggly from misuse. The peacock animus looked up at him uneasily, his green eyes glassy with sickness.

"Gods." Toran whispered in shock. "You're a peacock."

The peacock let out a small laugh. "Well, half of one, anyway." He stepped further into the light, and it was then that Althea realized he had no wings. The large wings that Soren and Tobias sported were absent on this animus. It was a striking difference between them.

"What happened?" Toran hissed in pity.

"They took my wings." The animus said, his voice cracking with emotions. "It hurts so much. I suppose it was my fault for trying to get out again."

"No, it's never your fault." Althea said quickly. "Gods, how could they do such a thing?"

The peacock looked over to her in surprise, staring at her for a long moment before lurching forward, his bird legs catching on the stone as they shuffled forward in exhaustion. "I want to leave. Please."

"Of course." Toran moved forward and put one of the avian's arms around his shoulders for support, letting him lean against him. "What's your name?"

"Naru." He looked up at him, glancing to Althea as they walked past her, as if waiting for her to do something.

Toran brought her out into the hall where the others were waiting, all of them pausing and staring at Naru as he came out of the room. Soren and Tobias stared with wide eyes as he went past them, Toran nearly half dragging the animus out of the prison. Soren moved forward quickly, taking the other arm of Naru, helping Toran move him up the stairs to the light that shone above.

Naru blinked in pain for a moment, putting a hand over his eyes as he groaned in pain from how bright it was. His eyes finally adjusted, the sight of the grass and trees filling his vision. He stared at the view for a long moment, looking up and seeing the cloud filled sky. "I'm really free." He whispered, his voice wavering with emotion. He pushed away from Toran and Soren, moving forward with staggering steps on the grass, falling to his knees and digging great hand fulls of the plants, letting the dirt fill his palms. He looked up to see Peeps standing in front of him, a bright smile on her face.

"See Nawu, I told you it was pretty. You just had to be patient. Momma told me patience is a virtue." The little girl grinned.

Naru let out a small laugh and took the small girl into his arms, hugging her tightly. "Yeah." He said, his voice cracking as tears flowed from his eyes. He held the girl for a long time, simply crying against her as he sat on the ground, the small girl patting him on the shoulder to comfort him.

"Um..." Soren started uneasily behind him. "Sire, you... um..."

Naru looked over his shoulder at the owl animus, a frown on his face. "There's no need to call me sire."

"Right." Soren looked at the ground as if trying to think of what to say next. "If I may be so bold, you really should let someone look at your back."

Naru sighed, nodding. "It still hurts. It should be healed by now, but it hasn't." He strained himself to look at the mess the prison guards had left of his wings, but couldn't turn that far without crying out in pain and turning back forward.

"It's pretty bad." Xicro moved forward to examine it. The skin around the bone stumps were swollen and red, blood seeping from some areas. "We could have Althea heal it."

"Okay." Naru said nervously, letting Peeps out of his arms. He jumped with shock as Althea started walking toward him, scooting backwards across the grass. "No- not her."

"I'm not going to hurt you- I just want to heal you so you don't hurt anymore." She said softly, stopping where she was a few feet away from him. "I promise you, I won't hurt you at all."

"Yeah, she healed me, Nawu!" Peeps held up her healed arm to show him. "She's a good human."

Naru looked at Peeps arm, looking back at Althea warily. "Alright." He said, sounding strained.

"I'll be as quick as possible." Althea said, kneeling behind him, biting her lip at the intensely infected areas. "This might take a few days to heal, actually."

"That bad, huh?" Naru shook his head. "I didn't have anything to clean it with."

"Well, I'll do my best." Althea put her hands against the skin gently, the downy feathers that covered his body felt strange beneath her palms. She let her magic flow into the area, closing her eyes as she concentrated. She was already depleted from earlier, but she wanted to prove herself to this injured animus.

Naru let out a deep sigh of relief at the warmth that flowed through him from the healing magic, the pain fading some as she worked. He glanced back over his shoulder to see her eyes closed with concentration, her brow sweating with effort. "Hey- stop. Stop. You don't have to do that much." He said, concern in his voice. "If you use up all your magic you'll get sick."

Althea stopped, her head spinning a bit. "I know." She said softly. "I want to prove to you I want to help."

Naru watched her for a moment before nodding. "I believe you." He said, blinking a few times in surprise. "What did you say your name was again?"

"Althea." She smiled down to him. "That should stop the bleeding, at least. I'll heal you more tomorrow and wash out the wound." She patted his shoulder, making him jump involuntarily from the touch. "Sorry." She whispered.

"You're fine." Naru said, standing with a long groan and stretching his back, his tail unfurling from behind him to stand nearly a foot taller than him. He shook the feathers, the tail making a rustling sound.

"Wow." Althea looked up at the tail with wide eyes. "That's rather impressive."

Naru couldn't help but smile at the compliment. "Thank you." He looked back toward the other animus. "I have... a lot of questions. I don't know how long I was in there. When did the Kisa kingdom fall?"

"Nearly 6 years ago." Toran said gently.

Naru let out a long breath of shock. "6 years." He stared at the ground for a moment. "That means I'm..." He thought for a moment. "22."

Althea shook her head in disbelief. To be captured at 16 and held captive for all that time... it was terrible. She couldn't even imagine what he had seen.

"Well let's find a river so we can wash that wound out." Toran motioned them to continue forward.

"Oh- wait a second." Althea leaned down and dug through her bag she had gotten from the market, grabbing a large fruit. "Here." She handed it to Naru with a smile. "I assume you don't eat meat?"

"Can't." Naru nodded and took the fruit, peeling it eagerly before taking a bite and groaning with glee at the taste. "Thank you." He said gratefully, before taking another bite. He tore off a smaller piece and handed it to Peeps, who ate it just as eagerly.

"No problem. I can go into another village and get more." She smiled, walking after Toran as they waited for Naru to catch up. He couldn't walk quickly with his tail dragging behind him, and he seemed rather protective of it because when they came across any mud, he lifted it carefully off the ground. Althea was glad that the peacock had a bit of pride left in his appearance, though it was rather amusing how obsessive he was with the giant feathers.

"I'm going to be preening for months." She heard Naru grumble as he looked at the ragged feathers behind him and sighed deeply.