Chapter 2

"Wow… Britannia sure is a huge place…" Gatrie said. "I bet I can find some pretty women here."

"Gatrie, shut your trap." Shinon said.

"Quiet, you two." Greil said. "I mean, honestly. Get it together here."

"Ah-ha, Greil! Good to see you here!" Tibarn said. "Thought you would never make it to Britannia. Like it here already?"

"Uh, Tibarn, they just arrived here. And you don't even live here." Meliodas said. "And also, they have to get acquainted with us, too."

"Your name is Meliodas?" Greil asked. "The name's Greil. I'm the commander of this mercenary group."

"Pleasure to meet you, Greil." Meliodas said.

"He's large as a giant…" Hawk said.

"Hah!" Greil laughed. "Thanks. I get that a lot. So… where's the swan? Where's the fiddle?"

"Hold on a second, Greil." Tibarn said. "We need to stop. We need a strategy. And we need an army that can outnumber Ashnard." Everyone was confused. They all thought that they could go straight to the Kingdom of Camelot, the place where the swan and the fiddle were being held, and get the swan back while sneaking out with it. However, things could not work like that.

"The first thing we need to do is gather up the rest of the Seven Deadly Sins, and we have to rescue Arthur Pendragon from exile." Meliodas said.

"Where is this Arthur Pendragon person?" Greil asked.

"Somewhere in this kingdom." Meliodas said. "Locked in a giant bird's cage." Ike then asked if rescuing Arthur is the first thing that must be completed.

"Yes." Meliodas answered. Then, the sounds of screeching hawk laguz were heard in the sky. However, they were carrying members of the Beast Tribe Laguz nation of Gallia. One of the cat laguz they were carrying was Ranulf, one of Ike's fellow beast laguz friends.

"Ranulf?" Ike asked. "Who sent you here?"

"King Caineghis did after he had heard about this fiasco going on here." Ranulf explained.

"Damn! Forgot I even told him." Tibarn said to himself.

"You must have told him before you told me, King Tibarn." Greil said.

"Let's go, then." Ike said. And so, everyone raced off to begin searching for the king of Camelot, Arthur Pendragon. Greil then was shocked about how everyone went off without him. Then, Soren, the tactician for the Greil Mercenaries, showed up from behind Greil.

"Soren!" Greil exclaimed. "What the heck are you even doing here?!" he later asked.

"You forgot I was here for one of the Kingdom of Liones' exchange programs, huh?" Soren asked Greil, reminding him about what he had said.

"Darn it, Soren!" Greil said. "I forgot he had told me of such things." Then, another hawk screeched from the sky. As the hawk transformed back into its human form, it was Lotz, another servant to the Hawk King Tibarn.

"Where's the king?" Lotz asked.

"He's that way. I think…" Greil said.

"Thank you." Lotz said. Greil then told everyone to wait up.

Meanwhile in a dungeon in an abandoned Liones castle, Arthur Pendragon was locked in a cage by Hendrickson, who was sent to the area by Ashnard.

"This is so not fair!" Arthur said to Hendrickson.

"Listen here, Arthur Pendragon." said Hendrickson in a strict manner. "You are just useless to your kingdom. Besides, no one is coming to save you. I have the key to the cage. And they would have to climb forty flights of steps to get to this room. Not even those sub-humans I am hearing about from King Ashnard can stop me now."

"Listen here, and hear me out well, Hendrickson!" Arthur yelled. "You have no right to keep me here for long!"

"Enough, Arthur!" yelled Hendrickson. Hendrickson later called for Gilthunder.

"Yes, Hendrickson?" asked Gilthunder.

"I am returning to Ashnard in Camelot." Hendrickson told Gilthunder. "Keep this key, and make sure Arthur does not reach for it!"

"Yes, Hendrickson." Gilthunder said to Hendrickson. Hendrickson later left. Then, after Hendrickson left, someone knocked on the door. Gilthunder was frustrated.

"It's just me, Gilthunder. Creator of the Feral Ones, Izuka. Ashnard had sent me here to flood this world with Feral Ones." Izuka said to Gilthunder.

"Great. Something I don't know about." Gilthunder said. Arthur was getting worried and wondered what the term of "feral one" meant.

"Shut up in there before I kill you!" Gilthunder said.

"Sheesh, Gilthunder!" Arthur said. "No need to get THAT rude towards me." Izuka then asked Gilthunder if Feral Ones should be summoned in front of the dungeon.

"You'll have to tell me what the term 'feral one' means first, Izuka." Gilthunder requested. "After all, this is a world where no laguz exist." Izuka then explained that feral ones were laguz that stay in their animal forms permanently.

"I see." Gilthunder said.

"Shall I show you how I turn a one of those freaking dirty sub-humans into a feral one?" asked Izuka.

"Sure." said Gilthunder. Izuka then went outside, and dragged in an innocent male tiger laguz.

"No… the potion…" said the male tiger laguz.

"Shut the hell up." Izuka said. As he used the elixir on the male tiger laguz, things started to get horrific from Arthur's point of view. He started to get horrified by the way Izuka was treating outsiders.

"How mean!" thought Arthur Pendragon. "That old man is turning those creatures into animals! I'd better tell Meliodas about this once he comes and rescues me!"

Back with the Greil Mercenaries, they came across a dungeon. Little did they know that it was the dungeon that Arthur Pendragon was locked in. Then, Greil heard screaming coming from inside the dungeon. Concerned about what was going on, he had Tibarn send one of his men to investigate.

"Alright! One investigation, coming right up, Your Majesty of Phoenicis!" the assigned hawk laguz said. Once he went into the castle, he shouted out something about a flight of steps.

"I'll go instead." Lotz said. When Lotz flew up into the sky to get to the top of the tower, he noticed two members of the Serenes heron laguz and the king of the Raven Laguz, Naesala, flying towards him. He had mistakened the raven for a bandit.

"You really thought I was a bandit, Lotz?" Naesala asked.

"Uh… most people do associate the raven laguz with pirates and other bandits of the skies, Naesala. Sorry, though…" said Lotz. "Better get back to my duties."

"And we'd better find Tibarn." the prince of the heron laguz Reyson said. "Come on, Leanne."

"Uh… Reyson…" Leanne said.

"Do not fear anything, my love Leanne." said Naesala. "I shall protect you."

"She's my sister, you know." said Reyson.

When Lotz flew into the tower, Arthur knew he was finally going to seek help so that he could get his kingdom back. However, Izuka was pleased to see Lotz. But he didn't want to kill him. He wanted him to be a feral one and kill Arthur.

"Why would I kill the person I came to rescue?!" Lotz asked.

"Listen, sub-human!" Gilthunder hollered. "I am going to catch you and Izuka here is going to turn you into a Feral One! Whether you like it or not, this is what you are getting!"

"You'll have to catch me first." Lotz said. He later transformed into his hawk form. Izuka then decided to call for backup by summoning feral ones of hawks and ravens.

"Looks like Lotz is in trouble…" Ike said as he was watching from the ground.

"Yeah." Greil said. "If only we had a pegasus knight or wyvern rider on our side, everything would be fine…"

"Stand back, everyone!" Janaff said as he transformed into his hawk form. He then flew up to the sky to assist Lotz, who was having trouble defending himself from the feral ones. Then, a bunch of Holy Knights with bows and arrows were attempting to shoot the two hawks out of the sky. While Janaff did miss one of the shots, Lotz was not so lucky. He was shot in the left wing.

"LOTZ!" Tibarn shouted.

"Great!" shouted Izuka from outside while standing on the top of the tower. "I shall turn that one into a feral one!"

"Quick!" said Ike. "We must save Lotz before it's too late!"

"I will get him to a hidden location somewhere over here!" Greil said. Then, stomping was heard from somewhere. It was the Serpent's Sin of Envy, Diane, who was accompanied by Hawk's mother, Hawk Mama, and King, the Grizzly's Sin of Sloth.

"Diane! King!" shouted Meliodas. "Over here! We need your help!"

"Yes!" Diane said. "I'll wipe out those birdbrains! Stand back, everyone!" Diane then started to fight her way through the feral raven and hawk laguz. Then, she held out her hand to both Meliodas and Ike.

"May I?" Ike asked.

"The guest goes first." Meliodas said. Ike then climbed on Diane's hand, and then grabbed the hand of Meliodas. Both were carried over to the tower.

"Who is this one, right here?" Gilthunder asked after Ike and Meliodas made an entrance.

"My name is Ike." Ike said as he introduced himself. "I am the son of the commander of the Greil Mercenaries! And you see Arthur Pendragon right behind you? That's right. We are here to rescue him!"

"Finally." Arthur thought to himself out loud.

"Silence, Arthur!" Gilthunder said. He later decided to confront Ike about both the swan and the fiddle.

"We are definitely going to get back that golden swan and the fiddle." Ike said.

"Doesn't matter now." Gilthunder said. "I've had Hendrickson obtain something from a faraway land that will help us keep that swan and fiddle forever. And I will have him tell you when you show up to the Kingdom of Camelot."

"Gilthunder, why exactly did you even exile Arthur in the first place?" the Sin Diane asked. "Merlin was looking all over for him."

"Alright, you got me. And you got Hendrickson, too, even though he is not here." Gilthunder said. "I did this because Arthur was just useless to his kingdom. He wasn't really doing anything for his people, and he cared less about Merlin in the first place."

"Those are all false!" Meliodas said. "Now scram!"

"No way, Meliodas." Gilthunder said. "I'll do what I want!" Then, the sound of a hawk was heard as well as the sound of a raven. Of course, they were laguz changelings.

"Great… laguz." Gilthunder said. "What next?" Ike then noticed that it was Tibarn and Naesala in their transformed states. As for Gilthunder, he was the one busted as well as Izuka. As they went back to the Kingdom of Camelot, the place where the swan and fiddle were being kept, Gilthunder threw the key at Ike, which hit his face. Meliodas then took the key to unlock the cage that kept Arthur. Soon afterwards, Arthur Pendragon was set free by Meliodas.

"Thanks, Meliodas." Arthur said.

"No problem, Arthur." Meliodas said.

"But… who is this?" Arthur later asked after he noticed Ike. Ike then introduced himself to Arthur Pendragon.

"Come on, Arthur." Meliodas said. "Let's get you back to Camelot. We've got an adventure ahead of us. A swan and a fiddle that are pure gold are being kept as prisoners in your kingdom, and we need to return them to the family they belong to."

"Yeah." Ike said. "We'd better go."

After running down the forty flights of steps from the dungeon tower, everyone that was currently in the group was relieved that Arthur Pendragon was saved by both Meliodas and Ike. "Great work, Ike." Greil said to his son.

"What about Lotz?" Tibarn asked.

"Unfortunately, he could not be saved." Reyson said. "He sadly died."

"Was it that serious?" Greil wondered.

"Unfortunately, the arrow that went through him was a poison-inflicted arrow. It was inflicted with a poison that could kill laguz." Leanne said. "Who would ever do such a thing…"

"I don't know…" Titania later said.

"Probably the Holy Knights." Meliodas thought.

"No… At least… I don't think so." Soren said. "These are the Holy Knights of Britannia you are talking about, right?"

"Yes." Meliodas answered.

"OK, then no. Possibly no." Soren said.

"I will take Lotz back to Phoenicis." Tibarn said. "Just go on without me. I'll catch up with you in the Kingdom of Camelot."

"Alright, Tibarn." Greil said. "Still sad how we lost a member of our army."

"And we don't know who is to blame for it!" Hawk said. "Let's just go to the Kingdom of Camelot and get back this swan and fiddle!"

"Right." Greil said. Once everyone went off to find the path to the Kingdom of Camelot, something was wrong with Mist. Greil then asked his daughter what was the matter.

"I'm just homesick…" Mist said. "This is nothing like Crimea, Father."

"I know how you feel, Mist." Greil said. "But hey, Look on the bright side. We are in a great new world, full of magical possibilities and knights in shining armor. Oh, wait. Silly me. What the heck am I even saying? I was a knight of Daein. But let me tell you something, sweetheart. If we can take down the Mad King Ashnard and his friends and get back the swan and fiddle, then we can sure enough return home to Crimea."

"Yes, Father." Mist sniffled. "Now I feel like I want to go to Camelot. I want to see the wonders of Britannia."

"I knew you would say that." Greil said. "Let's go." Greil and Mist then went off to see the rest of the company members and the Sins themselves as well as Arthur Pendragon to see if they were all okay.