Quirin had been watching Hector so carefully these past few weeks, and he thought that his friend was doing better. He was still uneasy around other people, and Quirin was starting to think that would never change, but at least Hector was seeming to be more content and open with them. Edmund still seemed incredibly worried about him, and his mom and the captain were treating Hector with kid's gloves, but despite their concern Hector was doing better than before.

Quirin wished that he knew exactly what had happened to Hector. He knew it had to be really bad and probably traumatizing. Quirin couldn't imagine what could be worse than the state that he had found Hector in. It would be difficult, and maybe Hector would struggle, but Quirin didn't doubt that he could get past it. And Quirin was there to support him as much as he could while he was still in the dark.

When Hector had said that he would rather go to training with Adira than sit in his room alone, or stay at Quirin's side while he studied with Edmund, he felt like this was a good sign. Hector clung to all of them, but he especially liked to be near Quirin when he could. If he felt safe enough to be with Adira, and be around all the other boys, then surely it was because he had made progress.

Despite his joy at Hector's progress, Quirin was neither disappointed nor surprised when his mom let herself into the room without knocking. There was an urgent and apologetic look in her eyes as she looked at Quirin and Edmund.

"You two are needed in the throne room." Quirin's mom said.

"It's Hector, isn't it?" Quirin asked, because lately it always seemed to be about him.

Edmund stiffened. "Did anybody-"

"Nobody hurt Hector or had any intention of doing so." His mom said. "But I'm afraid that Hector himself didn't understand that."

Quirin paled and Edmund grimaced. They both abandoned the prince's studies and ran out of the room. Maybe they weren't the vision of control and decorum, but Quirin knew how fiercely Hector would defend himself if he felt like he was in danger. He'd been getting better at not seeing everybody around him as a threat, but being attacked a few weeks ago had set him back. Quirin had thought that was the reason why the captain had agreed to let Edmund take his time to rejoin training, because if he spared when he wasn't ready for it then he could seriously hurt someone.

They ran to the throne room to find one of the Brotherhood members standing before the king, cradling a bandaged hand close to her chest. There were tears of pain in her eyes, but her gaze was furious and determined. The captain and king both looked conflicted. What really caught Quirin's gaze though was Hector.

The boy was curled up in the corner, visibly shaking. Adira sat next to him, holding him tightly as he clung tightly to her. His eyes were wide and darting everywhere. He looked terrified out of his mind, almost as much as he had back when Quirin had first found him. The sight made Quirin feel sick to his stomach.

He wanted to comfort Hector, but there was something else to worry about. The knight, Kara, was speaking shakily to the king, and Quirin really didn't like what she was saying.

"This kid is a menace." Kara said. She sounded truly hurt and desperate, and Quirin would feel sorry for her if she wasn't speaking against Hector. "All I was trying to do was help him, and the beast bit me."

"Kara," The king gave her a stern, scolding look. "I understand that you're in pain, but to call a child a beast is out of line."

"I'm not just in pain." Kara's voice shook. "I can't move my hand. The doctor thinks that he bit through a nerve, and that it might not heal completely."

Kara pointed towards Hector, though she quickly pulled her hand back when he growled at her. He wasn't anywhere near her, and she was scared. Quirin found that he couldn't really blame her, but then she continued.

"There's no doubt that the boy is strong, and I understand why that would be appealing for the Brotherhood, but he's out of control." Kara said. "He lashes out at anybody who so much as looks at him wrong. I know he's Quirin's newest pet project, but there are just some wild animals who can't be tamed."

Hector's growl turned to a whimpering sob as he clutched so tightly at Adira that his fingernails were breaking through the skin of her arm. She didn't seem to care. Adira was glaring at Kara in unrestrained fury. Quirin thought that Adira was tempted to bite Kara herself, and Quirin almost felt like doing the same thing.

Edmund put a hand on Quirin's arm. "See if you can get Hector out of the castle for a bit. I'll take care of things here." Quirin wanted to stay and defend Hector, but he knew that Edmund would fight for him. He hoped that his mom and the Captain would do the same, but one of the captain's strongest knights had been attacked, and Hector losing control had been exactly what Quirin's mom had been worried about. They would try to be fair, but they might think that even if Hector wasn't to be punished, at the very least he shouldn't be in the Brotherhood.

Hopefully Edmund could use his princely authority to sway them.

Right now Quirin needed to keep an eye on Hector and make sure he was okay.

He slowly approached Hector and Adira. She looked almost as startled as Hector was, and she was doing her best to be strong for him. Quirin knelt down to their level and reached a hand out to Hector. The boy flinched back at first, but then Hector whimpered and leaned towards Quirin. Taking it as permission, he put a hand on Hector's head and ran his fingers through his hair.

"What happened?" Quirin asked. The question was directed at both of them, and he would love it if Hector answered him, but he was looking at Adira.

"I don't know." Adira said quietly. "He's been kind of closed off all day, but he was fine by himself. All of a sudden Kara was screaming and Hector was freaking out." She looked uncomfortable and slightly anxious, and Quirin wouldn't be surprised if she had been the one to pull Hector away from Kara, and hadn't let him go since. She was trying to offer physical comfort and security, as well as keep him from hurting anybody else, including himself.

"I'll take him from here." Quirin said.

"And I'll make sure that he still has a home when you bring him back." Adira said. Quirin wanted to tell her that this was not something to joke about, but she sounded completely serious, and Quirin was horrified that she was right. Hector had attacked a knight of the Brotherhood, who were a close group. They considered each other family. An attack against one was an attack against all of them. Even if Hector was allowed to stay, they might not make it easy for him, and Quirin didn't think that his friend would be able to take any threats and hostility.

For Hector's own safety, he might not be able to stay here at all, and that thought was horrifying for Quirin. He wished that Adira hadn't mentioned it, because now that was all he was thinking of. And what if Hector understood her? He might panic more than he already was.

Quirin gave Adira an unimpressed look for a brief moment before turning his attention to Hector. "Hey, why don't we get out of here for a bit? We can do whatever you want, like see your animals, or train, just the two of us, or…uh…" He didn't really know what else Hector liked to do. Quirin felt like a failure of a friend. He either hadn't been paying enough attention to know Hector's interests or, even worse, he hadn't thought to help Hector to explore hobbies and activities that he never would have been allowed to do growing up.

Hector clung to Quirin for a long time before he took a shuddered breath. "Run?"

Quirin didn't like that answer. He didn't want Hector to feel like he needed to run away. But then he remembered Hector mentioning in passing how great he had felt when he had run through the woods, not because of why he was running, but just because he was running in the first place. Quirin thought he could do that.

"Yeah, sure, we can run." Quirin said. "But we need to be back before dark, okay?" That would give them a few hours.

Hector nodded. Quirin stood up and pulled Hector to his feet. He thought that he might have needed to remind Hector to stay close to him, at least within his eyesight, but he hadn't needed to worry about it. Hector stuck by his side, and didn't seem eager to leave him.

Hector was anxious to get going, so as soon as they left the room Quirin got them started on a simple jog. When they started to see other people in the halls giving them alarmed looks, Quirin let Hector speed up. The sooner they got away from other people, the better off they would be.

When they left the castle Hector set off in a sprint. Quirin was fit, but Hector ran like nobody else that Quirin had ever seen. He ran as though he was being chased by the worst danger imaginable. As Hector ran he let out a shout that sounded like raw emotion. Joy, anger, fear, sadness. Hector's shout held all of it.

Though the younger boy ran faster than Quirin, he didn't go far. He would run ahead, and then double back until he was side by side with Quirin again, before dashing off again.

Quirin didn't think he had ever seen Hector let loose like this before. He didn't exactly look happy, but he looked like he belonged out here. He wasn't second guessing his every move, or worrying about what people thought or knew about him. Hector looked free, and it was bittersweet to see.

Quirin wasn't upset that Hector didn't really feel free at the castle. It would take him a long time to adjust, and all of these setbacks were not helping him. He was just glad that Hector had a place or activity that provided that sense of freedom. What bothered him was how his friend expressed it.

The way that Hector ran, his fierce screams into the wild, they felt incredibly animalistic, and it hurt. Hector had spent his whole life being told that he was a beast. A dog. Subhuman. It had been so ingrained in him that his natural desire to relax was by leaning into that. But he was doing it in a way that he wanted, not in a way that was pushed on him.

Quirin didn't wish that Hector would do something different, he just wished that his friend hadn't been forced through everything he'd lived through that pushed him in this direction.

Hector looked like he could run forever, but Quirin eventually started to feel tired. He called out to his friend, who reluctantly but obediently pulled back. Hector stopped running, only to immediately begin to climb onto a large black rock. Quirin sat back and watched him go.

Hector looked like he could climb, run, and play all day, but he suddenly froze, alert. Quirin frowned.

"What's wrong?" Quirin asked.

Hector didn't answer. He climbed down and slowly prowled towards some bushes. Concerned, Quirin followed behind him without crowding him. He was about to ask what was wrong again when he heard a whine. If he wasn't intimately familiar with every whimper, whine, and groan that Hector could make, he would think the sound had come from him. Somebody, or something, else was out here.

"Hector, I don't think we should-" Quirin began, but Hector wouldn't hear him out.

"It's an animal." Hector said. "They're hurt." And that was that. Hector wouldn't stand to see an animal in pain. It was why he had insisted on saving the rhino and bearcats from the circus.

They walked past the bushes and immediately saw the source of the noise. It was a tan lynx, sprawled on the ground, clearly injured. The poor animal seemed to be in intense pain. Quirin could tell that it was dying and wouldn't last long.

Hector either couldn't tell as much, or he refused to accept it.

"We need to help it." Hector crouched next to the lynx. It didn't snarl or nip at him. It was too far gone. Hector soon found a large cut on the lynx' hind leg. Hector reached for the cut, but Quirin grabbed his hand, stopping him.

"Don't." Quirin said simply. Hector looked at him with wide eyes.

"He needs help." Hector said desperately.

"I don't think there's anything we can do." Quirin said quietly. "If we try, we'll just put him in even more pain. I think that the best thing we can do is help it to be as comfortable as possible."

"B-but-" Hector sounded heartbroken, and it hurt. Quirin didn't want to do this either, but it still felt like the right thing to do.

"Do you remember when I found you?" Quirin asked. Hector shut his mouth. "I was able to save you, but what if I was too late? What if you only had minutes left. What would you have wanted me to do?" Quirin had started to ask the question because he had wanted to encourage Hector to see what he meant, but now he found that he genuinely wanted to know. Hector felt for the lynx. He related to it. If Hector felt like doing anything to try to save the lynx was the only right thing to do, then Quirin would help him.

Hector was quiet for a moment before he let out a broken sob. He leaned close to the lynx and rested his head on it. The boy gently pet the lynx, whispering apologies to it before he covered its eyes and looked at Quirin.

"Your knife." Hector said distantly. Quirin felt his skin go cold. He hoped that he was just misunderstanding this. "It's hurt. If it can't get better, then we need to make the hurt end." Hector gave the lynx a look that Quirin really didn't like. "It won't hurt anymore if it's not alive."

Quirin was horrified to hear these words from Hector, but what scared him even more was his friend's tone. Hector sounded like he was having an epiphany, or solving the mystery of life. This should not be such a realization.

"Hector, you…please tell me you've never-" Quirin was scared to even ask, for fear that he was right and wasn't just paranoid.

The lynx let out a pained yowl and Hector looked hurt, as though he was the one being hurt.

"Okay, okay." Quirin got out his dagger. He'd never killed anything, but coming from the Dark Kingdom he had come to see this as a normal part of life. It was sad, and not something to be pursued, but he wasn't afraid of taking life if that was what was necessary.

Hector looked far more relieved than he should. He pet the lynx and growled slightly to it in a way that he probably thought was encouraging. He still covered the lynx' eyes. Quirin wished that Hector would look away as well, but the boy was watching his every move with morbid curiosity.

Quirin thought that this was something that was better off getting over with. He took a deep breath, adjusted his grip on the black rock dagger, and brought it down through the lynx' heart. The poor animal let out a pathetic whine, and then it fell silent and still. The two of them were still for a long moment before Hector started crying. He hugged the lynx. Quirin pulled back the dagger and just watched as he silently cried himself, and not just for the lynx.

He was scared for Hector. He had asked the boy what he would have wanted if he couldn't be saved, and he had immediately said that he would have wanted a mercy killing just so the pain would end. A fourteen year old boy should not have to think about mercy killing. Especially not like this.

Quirin was desperate to know if Hector actually thought that death would be his only release from pain. He needed to know if he was thinking of hurting himself, but he couldn't bring himself to ask. Hector was hurting right now. He didn't like being interrogated in the first place, but especially not when he was already upset. Quirin couldn't distress him further.

So he kept his mouth shut.

Quirin watched Hector mourn for several minutes before the boy eased away from the dead lynx, though he still stroked his fur. He looked at Quirin, that still desperate look in his eyes.

"I don't want to leave it here." Hector said. "Fur comes from dead animals. Can you help me make fur from it?"

Quirin eyed the lynx. He thought that the tailors in the kingdom could work with the fur, but it wasn't whether he could do this that he was worried about, but if he should.

"You've been wanting fur of your own for awhile." Quirin said. It was just not something that they'd gotten around to. "Are you sure you want it to be from an animal that you watched suffer and die? I can help you bury the lynx, if you want."

Hector shook his head. "I want it with me. I want to remember it."

And if that was what Hector wanted, how could Quirin say no? He sighed and bent down to pick up the animal, lifting it over his shoulders.

"I'll help you." Quirin said. "Are you ready to go home? You've had a rough day, and I think some sleep might be good for you."

Hector didn't take his gaze away from the lynx. "I like sleep. It makes the pain go away." Quirin felt a shiver go down his spine. Hector had said the same thing about death. Maybe he didn't mean anything, but Quirin didn't like this. He was determined to keep a close eye on Hector tonight, just in case.

Nothing was going to happen to Hector. Not if Quirin had anything to do about it.