Arthur offered to help with supper. He made the fire while Alfred worked with the pig. This village works hard to raise good animals. There was an incident once, where the whole town got sick from the cows. Since, then, the whole town's been working hard to make sure the animals were okay to eat.

Alfred was afraid to tell Arthur any stories about the town. All of Arthur's stories were fantastic and amazing. They were about this magical world Alfred had no idea about. And as for Alfred's stories, they were just of a stupid town that didn't know what it was doing. But Arthur seemed interested anyway. Whenever Alfred would talk about something, he would put his full attention on Alfred, and listen intently.

Supper went by uneventful, except for the fact that neither of Alfred's parents said a word, They just watched Arthur. Waiting, as if he would just jump up and run away with everything they owned. And when everyone went to bed, his parents waited until they knew Arthur was asleep before they even got into their bed. They even purposefully left the fire going, so they could see if Arthur tried anything.

Alfred made sure they were asleep before he put the fire out and went to sleep on the ground right beside his bed.

***Page Break***

Alfred woke up in the middle of the night unable to breath. He opened his eyes and all he could see was a wall of heat and red with a swirling dark cloud floating above him. The heat was starting to get suffocating and it burned his feet as he stood up. He could barely see as he looked around and air couldn't reach his throat. If he didn't try to get out soon, he wouldn't have made it.

He heard something crash to the ground nearby, it sounded heavy, like a part of the roof. And then a muffled cry that could only mean it fell on someone. Alfred looked behind him, where he heard the cry, and he saw an arm protruding from a mass of burning wood. It was struggling against, but only weakly.

It was Arthur.

And then he heard a weak voice calling. It was calling his name. The voice sounded so familiar, feminine. Alfred looked around for it, to see his mother, weak and lying on the ground. It was obvious she couldn't move, the fire must have weakened her. She called out one more time for Alfred, her arms barely snaking forward to try to reach him.

While more of the roof fell on top of Arthur.

He couldn't save them both, that Alfred knew. So, he chose one and set to work trying to get them out.

It was dark outside, which meant that it was still the middle of the night. Alfred was weak, he stumbled out of the burning house, shoving past people running to and from the house with buckets of water. Alfred was holding the one he saved in his arms, but he could only get so far away from the house before he collapsed. He made sure the one he saved landed safely before he crashed onto the ground.

He started coughing and he couldn't stop, nearly curling in on himself to try to stop it. He eventually blacked out while he was coughing.

By the time he had woken up, the daylight nearly blinded him. He started coughing again, but these weren't nearly as strong. He felt cold without the heat of the fire all around him, but a part of him felt warm, almost like someone was touching him, trying to console him.

Alfred looked up and saw Arthur staring at him with caring eyes. He was rubbing Alfred's back, trying to get him to stop coughing. Alfred realized he was lying on his side on the ground. Arthur was in front of him, almost face-to-face, and he was reaching his arm back behind Alfred.

Alfred sat up and waited to allow himself to stop coughing. "Are you okay?" Alfred looked at Arthur. He seemed okay…

"What? I'm fine," Arthur rubbed the back of his head. "Thank you for shoving all that wood off me. I should be asking if you are okay. You're the one that passed out."

"I'm fine," Alfred spoke, a little distracted. "Where are my parents?"

Arthur's expression darkened. He seemed almost sad. "You do remember what happened last night, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, there was a fire," Alfred sighed, shaking his head. "But they got out, right?"

"Alfred, no. They didn't get out," Arthur placed a hand on Alfred's shoulder.

"No!" Alfred stood up. "Th-they got out! They were right behind us when he left, I swear they were!"

"We found their bodies charred," Arthur stood up as well and followed as Alfred went over to the burnt remains of his house. "They probably burned to death in there."

"No!" Alfred refused to admit this obvious fact. "They're alive!"

"They are being buried as we speak, Alfred," Arthur stayed back. "I'm sorry."

"They. Are. Not. Dead," Alfred turned around and almost yelled in Arthur's face.

"Alfred," Arthur snapped and he scowled at Alfred. "I know this is a huge shock to you, but you need to get a hold of yourself. Do not make me hit you."

"You don't look strong enough to be able to make much of an impact," Alfred struggled with a smile. "I'm sorry, let's go to the church."

Alfred tried to keep a straight face as the two walked over to the church. People were packing dirt onto some new graves. By the time they noticed the two, they all completely ignored Alfred and started screaming at Arthur.

"You did this!"

"Damn you to hell!"

"Witch!"

Everyone seemed to agree with the last one and started chanting it, surrounding Arthur and shoving Alfred over to the side. He almost stepped on his parents graves, that's how hard he was shoved.

It was like they had all gone mad from a single fire.

Alfred shoved his way through the crowd, back to the middle, next to Arthur. His body blocked several stones from hitting Arthur.

"Are you all stupid?" Alfred yelled at them and even Arthur seemed shocked by what he was doing. "Just because of one fire, doesn't mean he's a witch! None of it was his fault! He was the first one to fall asleep at my house last night!"

"Alfred, out of the way," one of the crowd shouted at him and he felt a rock hit him in the head.

"No! He didn't do anything!" Alfred stood his ground.

"Then how did that fire start, eh?" another towns person shouted.

"Alfred," Arthur kept an even voice, like this wasn't even scaring him. "Stand down, I can handle this." Alfred felt a weird sensation go up his back.

"No," Alfred looked back at Arthur, tried to make eye contact, but Arthur looked shocked at what just happened.

"I said I can handle myself, so back off," Arthur nearly growled at him and that feeling went off again.

"No," Alfred repeated. He was starting to get tired of saying that word today.

"Yes," Arthur almost hissed at him when Alfred noticed the priest making his way through the angry crowd.

"Alfred, move away," he ordered.

"No!" Alfred felt another stone hit him on the head. "He's not a witch."

"Well, we can find that out, now can't we?" the priest smiled, it was almost like he wanted this to happen. "Let's just fill him up with stones and drop him in the lake."

"And that would be stupid," Alfred said. "Because either way he dies."

Alfred ignored another one of Arthur's protests to protecting him.

"Wouldn't that be a shame?" the priest laughed and looked around at the other villagers. "How about we put him in the cage until we decide what to do?"

This seemed to excite the crowd, they dove in, shoving Alfred out to the side and making sure he didn't get back into it. They had moved over to the cage and Alfred could hear it open and close.

"Shit," Alfred muttered as he tried desperately to get through the crowd one more time. They didn't let him pass for a while, but eventually they all got bored and left. Arthur was sitting in the middle of the cage, looking relaxed.

"This isn't as exciting as I expected from the inside," Arthur sighed, noticing Alfred.

"You have got to be kidding me," Alfred was pissed. "You are going to get killed!"

"But I won't be," Arthur talked a little differently since the day before, Alfred noticed. There was a different air about him that Alfred just couldn't quite grasp.

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Alfred shook his head.

"Why do you care so much?" Arthur asked him. "No one has ever been as nice to me as you. Why?"

"What?" Alfred was caught off guard by the question. He had asked himself that multiple times the day before. "I-I dunno. I'm just nice like that." He started rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

"I've encountered nice people before," Arthur sighed. "Most of them leave at this point."

"Does that mean you've been through this before?" Alfred demanded. "What haven't you been telling me?"

"Nothing you should be concerned of," Arthur looked in another direction. "You should go away, forget about me. Life will be back to normal for you in just a while."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Alfred almost yelled at him. "In case you haven't noticed, you are in a cage. And you're about to get killed! I can't just go off to my burned down home and sleep this off!"

"You know people are staring at you, right?" Arthur leaned back against the bars of the cage, like he was getting situated.

"I don't care," Alfred sighed, trying to calm himself down. "You aren't a witch. You shouldn't die."

"I won't die," Arthur sounded like he was getting irritated. "So don't worry about it."

"And how do you know you won't die? How many times have you gone through this before you got here? What aren't you telling me, Arthur?"

"Yes, I've been through this before," Arthur gave out an irritated sigh. "And so I know that whatever your town thinks will happen won't. So you don't need to worry, I will be fine."

"And I don't care what you have to say. You're getting cocky or something from all this time. Quit thinking you're so good and that this won't hurt you."

"I will be fine," Arthur pushed, glaring at Alfred intently. Alfred felt that feeling creep up his spine yet again. It felt so weird, kind of just like what happened right in front of the forest.

"And I don't believe you," Alfred glared right back as Arthur threw his head back, holding it with his hands.

"Why doesn't it work on you, dammit!" Arthur yelled.

"Why doesn't what work?" Alfred asked.

"Nothing," Arthur sighed. "You should go eat, you've been asleep for more than half the day. It looks to be around supper time."

"Are you kidding me? I'm not leaving you alone in here!" Alfred protested.

"You're going to live with some family, you should go find them. I arranged it for you while you were asleep," Arthur sighed.

"Alfred!" the two heard someone behind Alfred and he turned around to find Meredith calling for him.

"You have got to be kidding me, is that who you have me staying with?" Alfred snapped his head back around to Arthur, who shrugged.

"Alfred, get away from him! We need you to help us with dinner!" she kept on calling over to Alfred, but he was intent on ignoring her.

"Is something wrong with her?" Arthur asked.

"She's the mother of that girl found in the lake," Alfred groaned, letting his face fall into his hand. "She hates me."

"She seemed very happy about taking you in," Arthur said.

"Yeah, probably so she can poison me or something," Alfred sighed. "Of all people, you had to choose her! I would rather I sleep in the burned remains of my home…"

"By all means, go ahead," Arthur laughed. "I'll be sleeping in here, so you won't have it worse than me."

"Do I have to go with her?" Alfred asked after hearing Meredith call for him once again. "Her husband is sick, you know."

"I don't believe she will take 'no' for an answer," Arthur laughed as Meredith came up behind Alfred.

"Come, Alfred," Meredith put her hand on Alfred's shoulder. "We don't need you talking with him."

"I believe I can talk with whoever I want, thank you," Alfred snapped at her. "I might go home with you, depends on what you're gonna have me make for supper."

"Whatever you like," Meredith sighed. "George is asleep, so he won't be eating with us and I'm not picky when it comes to food."

"Good for you," Alfred sighed as he started to walk away from the cage. He turned back to look at Arthur again before he went into Meredith's home. Arthur was fast asleep, his waist up leaning against the bars of the cage.

Alfred's night with Meredith was not one he considered fun. Throughout dinner, she stared at him, as if expecting him to do something. Which he didn't.

She watched Alfred as he got ready to sleep. And Alfred could feel her eyes on him as he tried to sleep. He was on the floor again this night, and he instinctively woke up in the middle of the night to check for flames. Something bothered him, though, as Alfred tried to return to sleep.

It was odd how comfortable Arthur was with the whole situation. It was almost as if he was running through it like he had gone through it before. A lot. Was that the reason he wanted to get lost and came here in the first place? Everyone thought he was a witch?

Knowing this town, they would probably try to kill Arthur tomorrow, the exact way that merchant had taught them.

Alfred had to stop them…but how?

The next day, Alfred woke up early, he couldn't help himself. It would be a while before the rest of the town woke up, they all ran on the same sleeping schedule somehow, so Alfred decided to go outside and check on Arthur.

Just one glimpse over to the cage told Alfred that Arthur was not taking this seriously at all. He had barely moved since Alfred saw him last and it was obvious he was sleeping. How could he sleep being in there? Alfred remembered his time in the cage and he was far too stressed to even try to talk, let alone sleep. The people in this town could get vicious, so sleeping around them would always be terrifying in that thing.

Alfred sighed, he didn't feel like waking up Arthur yet. So, Alfred decided to saunter on over to his boulder next to the forest. Every since Arthur did…whatever that was…Alfred couldn't look at the forest the same way. Rather than just imagining what it was like in there, Alfred looked for paths. He saw ways to make it through the part of the forest he could see. He noticed a couple of trees that looked like they were about to fall. Better stay away from those…

And then Alfred saw a rabbit. It came hopping from the forest and it paused just before it was about to enter the town. It stood on its hind legs and looked up at Alfred, wiggling it's little pink nose at him.

The thing looked so cute, Alfred wanted to just pick it up and snuggle with the thing.

But before Alfred could take a step towards it, there was a loud sound behind them and the rabbit ran away, disappearing into the green mass that was the forest.

Alfred turned around to see what the noise was. Someone was shouting at Arthur, chucking a stone at his head.

"Hey!" Alfred shouted, storming over to the guy, standing between him and the cage. Arthur was awake, his eyes wide with disbelief that his slumber had been woken up because of this. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"The thing's a witch!" the man scowled at Arthur, all but ignoring Alfred.

"Arthur is a human!" Alfred corrected him.

"Alfred, stop," Arthur spoke and Alfred felt that familiar sensation crawl up his spine.

"No, Arthur, be quiet," Alfred snapped.

"Kind sir," Alfred was surprised to see Arthur's attention on the man, still with rock in his hand. "Would you please leave me alone for the time being?" Alfred felt the feeling again, but this time it was weaker.

The man grumbled something unintelligible as he walked away slowly.

"What?" Alfred asked, dumbfounded. "How did you…?"

"Persuasion," Arthur yawned. "Jesus, he woke me up so early."

"That's all you're worried about?" Alfred sighed. "He was chucking rocks at you, yelling on and on about you being a witch! And you're complaining about not getting enough sleep?"

"Yes," Arthur nodded. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to get some more."

"Good luck with that," Alfred snorted.

"Why is that?" Arthur asked, sounding like he really didn't care all that much.

"Because everyone's gonna be waking up right about now," Alfred stretched his hands behind him and he heard the doors from the houses start to open and close. "And knowing them, they're gonna be impatient."

"Which means?" Arthur asked.

Alfred held up three fingers, which turned to two, then one. And then he was shoved out of the way by angry people, shouting. They sure wake up fast.

Alfred could hear Arthur, for once, struggle against the townsfolk. And Alfred's sense of danger finally came up again and he devised a plan.

Knowing exactly what they were going to do, Alfred ran for the lake. He went around the huge crowd, making his way over to the side of the lake.

Alfred could hear Arthur shouting, "The hell? Get off of me!" There was more arguing as he struggled. Alfred just knew they were shoving rocks at him.

And then he saw Arthur shoved in front of the crowd and, sure enough, Alfred could see a giant rock in his hands. And then he was shoved into the lake. That was when Alfred made his move and ran towards the lake. With his running start, he dove into the lake, hoping it wasn't as shallow as he always thought it was. He forced himself to open his eyes so he could see and search around for Arthur.

The water was surprisingly clear, so Alfred found him quickly. Arthur was desperately trying to swim his way upward, but it was obvious that he had a rock stuck on top of his foot.

Alfred swam over as fast as he could. This was rather difficult, considering he had never swam before, and he was starting to loose his breath. Arthur couldn't see him, his eyes were closed, so to stop him from thrashing around, Alfred placed a hand lightly on his shoulder. His eyes snapped open and looked shocked to see Alfred.

Alfred shoved the rock off Arthur's foot as his vision started tunneling. He was starting to suffocate and he could feel it. But he fought not to gasp for air under water. He knew very well what that would mean.

Alfred had no knowledge of how to get upward now that he was at the bottom of the apparently very deep lake. He felt someone grab his arm as he closed his eyes and soon he was tugged upwards.

As soon as Alfred felt fresh air on his face, he took in a sharp breath. Quickly, he opened his eyes and hoisted himself up onto the grass next to the lake. He saw Arthur doing the same and grabbed onto his wrist as soon as he was on the ground.

"Run," Alfred ordered. He tried to say more, but he was still catching his breath.

Alfred ignored the violent shouts of he townsfolk as he dragged Arthur into the forest. It was sunny outside, but the shade of the trees made it seem almost like night. He almost tripped over roots and almost banged his head into branches, but he kept moving. He was desperately gasping for air still, and he could have sworn he heard Arthur doing the same as the two raced into the forest.

"Go right!" Arthur ordered and Alfred obeyed. He had been through the forest before, right? He must have left some kind of landmarks.

They ran for a while longer before Alfred let go of Arthur, fell back onto a tree and slid down to the ground. He didn't care that the bark cut his skin, all he wanted was to rest and to breath.

"So, care telling me why you did that?" Arthur panted.

"I was screwed anyway," Alfred gasped. "They would have hated me for trying to protect you so much. Besides, it didn't look like you had things handled like you said you would from where I was."

"I was getting to it," Arthur sighed and sat down next to the tree next to Alfred. "I was trying to do…something. But for some reason it didn't work."

Alfred noticed Arthur staring at him intently. "What are you looking at?" Alfred asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing," Arthur sighed, laying his head against his tree and looking upwards. The sky was completely blocked out by the leaves in the trees. It was funny, Alfred noticed that, even in the winter, these trees never lost their leaves.

"We should rest," Alfred decided.

"Yeah."

"Do you know how to get out from here?" Alfred asked.

"Not a clue."

"Great."

And here is chapter 2! Everyone knows at least a little about the witch hysteria. So that's why the townspeople overreated because of a single fire. And I know Arthur is not a girl, but I don't think it makes as much impact if people are yelling "Sorcerer!" at him than it does with "Witch!" you know?

So, I didn't get any reviews and I got barely any views last chapter, and I finally figured out why... I said that the second main character was Egypt, not England. Let's see what happens now that I've fixed that...

Please review, so I can continue and this can get interesting!

And I own nothing...as usual...