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Cyrvanyx felt tingles all over his wings as the cold winds carried him onward. Síona's hut was his destination since he knew that Ary would be there, watching over Gareth as she always did. No matter how often she was told by him or Síona she would not leave the knight. It has gotten to the point where Ary actually slept outside the hut until sunrise just to wake up and watch over Gareth for almost the entire day. If it was not for needs like eating and sleeping, she would have probably been there all day.

He just thought it would be for the best to let her do whatever she wants, but her paranoia has gotten worse by the day. She was afraid that he might lose all his memories and forget who she was. And even after Síona said that he will live Ary saw his death as a possibility. With all that in mind he felt even better about having some time with her alone because it won't only let him spent some time with her, it would also distract her from Gareth for a while.

Getting closer and closer with each passing minute the voices around the hut began to get louder and clearer. It appeared that a small crowd of humans has gathered around the small hut for some reason. Cyr frowned at the crowd as he approached to land. Whatever the reason they were here for was, he was going to find out.

Next to the hut, Arylaryl stood on all fours and spoke to the crowd in a rather aggressive way. "How many times do we have to tell you this? Leave!" With fire in her eyes, she bared her teeth. "And I don't care how exciting it might be for you all that he is finally waking up. He is in very bad condition. So leave!"

Before any of them had time to speak up Cyr landed only a few steps away from Ary. Did she say something about "him" waking up? Did she mean Gareth? Who else could she mean? Yes, it had to be him. That would also explain her way of dealing with the crowd of curious highlanders.

"I'd listen to her words if I were you. Trust me, you don't want to see her angry." He sat down on his haunches close to her, glaring over the crowd. "Your curiosity is understandable, but I can assure you that you will get answers soon enough. For now, though, you should all leave!" For the last sentence, he stretched his chest and lowered his voice to a more threatening tone.

Some of the humans blandly stared at him while others shrugged their shoulders and left. For as long as it took for all of them to turn around he kept glaring at them, his expression getting angrier the more time it took them. "Huh..." Ary sighed behind him in relief. "Thanks Cyr. They were starting to get annoying."

"So I saw..." He turned around to look right into her blue eyes, looking back at him as an honest smile spread across her muzzle. "Ehm, s-so Gareth is finally awake?" He stumbled a bit over his words, but she didn't seem to notice nor care. Since he realized his love for her it was hard for him to even look her into her eyes. Those beautiful sapphires that always spoke the truth and were always filled with happiness and hope...

"Oh? How come you know of that?" Ary tilted her head to the side, taking him a bit by surprise with her question as he was a little lost in his thoughts.

"Oh well, that was easy! Who else would be so important to you that you yell at an entire crowd of humans just so he can sleep longer?"

She giggled a little at his comment. "It's not that he wants to sleep longer, Cyr, he has to. He is still not doing too well." She was about to turn towards the hut, but stopped and instead looked at him. "You know I would maybe do that for you too if you got injured badly enough." She said with a chuckle.

"Aha, and how badly would that have to be? Maaaayyybe... almost dead, laying around unconscious the whole time, unable to defend myself?" He cocked his head as he got to all fours, already preparing to follow her towards the hut.

"Mhm..." She glanced back. "I'd think about it." Ary winked at him before she sat down next to the hut, smirking at him.

For some reason, that smirk started to make him blush, even if only just a little. Hopefully, she wouldn't notice it, he thought. He just tried to ignore it and trotted towards Ary to rejoin her company. The closer he got to her, the hotter his face was starting to feel. It was almost like she was doing it on purpose. He just hoped that his blush wasn't too obvious.

The fact that she just turned her attention towards Gawain probably meant that she didn't notice, or didn't care. Her eyes lit up the very moment she set eyes upon the hut. "Síona! It looks like he is about to open his-"

"Silence now!" Síona's commanded, holding up a hand. "And try not to give him a shook when he wakes up. It could very well be that parts of his memory are gone. So if you talk, do so slowly, understood?"

Ary opened her maw and was just about to say something, but no words left her throat. The two stared at each other for a while until Ary closed her jaws and nodded in silent agreement. When Cyr sat down next to Ary she shifted a little to the side so that he could get a better view of the hut's inside.

Gareth was laying on a bed instead of the table he was on the day he arrived there. He was moving, shifting and groaning in his unconscious state. Síona meanwhile was ordering her assistant around to get everything necessary to calm him down. Both Cyr and Ary were watching every movement closely. He could've woken up at any moment.

And then finally after what seemed like half an eternity, he began to awake. Instead of slowly getting up though the moment he opened his eyes he practically jumped up or would have if Síona would not have been there to hold him down. "Where-where am I?" Was the first question Gareth yelled out as he looked around with unfocused eyes. "Who are you? Wha-what is this?"

"Calm yourself!" Síona said in a surprisingly calm tone and gently put her hand on his. "Calm, sir. Breath... slowly." He stared at her with wide eyes, his chest heaving up and down in a quick pace. "Good... breath in... and out." When his breathing began to even she took her hands away, allowing him to move again.

With one hand he touched the side of his head to feel a bandage around his head. A sigh immediately followed. It seemed he already put the pieces together in his head. "How long was I out?"

"Do you remember your name, sir knight?" She asked, completely ignoring his question.

He chuckled. "I'm Gareth. Now tell me how long I was out." He answered blandly while still demanding an answer.

But instead of Síona giving him that answer, Ary spoke up for her. "For about more than a week."

"Gods about more than a-" As he turned his gaze to see Ary standing outside the small cabin he just smiled at her. "Morning Ary... if it even is morning right now." There was no relieve in his voice which was not to be expected since the last time he's seen her was in the battle. "Oh, I see Cyrvanyx is there as well. Where's Henry? And where's my father? And where even am I?"

Oh no. Cyr had hoped that this would not happen as much as Ary did. How were they going to explain everything to him? They didn't even know how much of his memory was lost. Well, only one way to find out. "Gareth, first tell us what the last thing is you can remember."

"I eh..." Judging by the look on his face he was lost in his thoughts. Whether he lost too much of his memory or did just remember the battle was unclear to see in the focused human's expression. "I can... remember sitting at a table with... everyone... we were talking about..." He hissed in pain and rubbed the side of his head. "I... don't know... I can't remember."

With her ears pinned down, Ary turned her head around to face Cyrvanyx. Only by looking into her eyes he could see her emotions before she lowered her head just like her ears. The frills behind her cheeks sadly sagged down as she walked past him, her tail gently swaying from one side to the other. In total silence, he watched as she slowly disappeared into the small but dense forest.

What he was seeing was a new side of her he has never seen before. On their way to the clan he saw her getting emotional about Gareth more than once, but not to that degree. She seemed so put down by the fact that he lost his memory that she just left. It was must have been too much for her to tell him about all the horrible things that happened. So she just left, leaving them behind in an uncomfortable silence.

"Where is she going?" Gareth sat up even as Síona tried to hold him down. "Did I... say something wrong? What is going on?" Groaning in pain he leaned forward, glaring at Cyrvanyx. "Cyr, tell me what in hell's name happened?"

Unsure of what to begin with as his eyes darted around the inside of the hut. Meanwhile, Síona sat down in a chair next to Gareth, asking her assistant to get some calming medicine for him. He was probably going to need those. "What you remember is the council meeting we had, or so I assume..." He began and then paused, thinking of how to best explain this in a not shocking way. "We found out that Ulric and his forces pushed further inland and that we were betrayed by one of our lords, Edwyn."

"Lord Edwyn?" Gareth's eyes went wide. "That... he was the most loyal servant to the realm imaginable. I never saw any man so true to his honor and woes to our king than him! How... how..." He trailed off and his face went blank, his whole body freezing for a moment. "I... I remember." He said, or rather whispered, with a shaking voice. "Oh, gods I... remember... the letter... Alcester is... f-fallen... and king Aerdur... dead..."

No longer were his eyes set on Cyrvanyx as more and more dread filled his facial expression. "He attacked us..." He whimpered, his voice cracking. "In the battle I... we... we lost..." There was a hint of anger creeping into his voice, slowly replacing his shock. "I saw so many of us falling... dragons... men... all of us... dead!" His hand balled into fists, his voice getting louder. "We were stupid! Those-those bloody ballistas! If we didn't let the refuges in all this wouldn't have happened!" He yelled at this point, angrily rambling about their loss.

His whole body was shaking and both his hands balled into fists, so tight that his knuckles were turning white. Without saying another word he stood up from his bed, grunting in pain as the sudden movement seemed to hurt his damaged brain. Síona stood up immediately and tried to stop him, but he wouldn't let her. "No!" He screamed, pulling himself away from her and stumbled towards the exit, holding the wound on his head with one hand. "Leave me alone!"

She came after him as he stepped out the door, pushing past Cyr. "You are not in condition to-"

"I said leave me alone!" He yelled without even looking back at her. He angrily walked away into the exact opposite direction of Ary.

"I should go after him." Síona said and sighed as she followed poor Gareth. "Maybe you should go and see how Arylaryl fares." He nodded as she walked past him. That was what he planned to do anyway. He was quite worried when she left without saying a word. It was not like her at all.

For a few moments, he just stood there thinking, watching Síona and Gareth. He watched how Gareth fell on his knees and began to cry out his anger and grief into the vale. A sight like this only reminded him of his own loss, his own grief, so he looked away as soon as it happened. He decided to let Síona alone with him and go to Ary to see how she was faring.

That decided, he turned towards the forest and began to make his way into its depth. For such a small forest it was very dense, making it hard for a big creature such as him to properly maneuver through it. There were tons of bushes, a lot of which had thorns, which made walking there even worse. To his luck, he found a small narrow path, just big enough for him that let into the midst of the woods. That must've been the way Ary took, so he followed it.

He followed the way for a while until he could see blue and green scales, easily visible amidst all the colorless, leafless trees and bushes. When he walked closer he could see that she was curled up tightly, her tail almost touching her nose. Just as he expected, her blue eyes were filled with sadness. By the looks of it she was either daydreaming or just thinking.

Only when he entered the small clearing she was laying in did she realize that he was there. She didn't even raise her head from the ground, and instead just looked at him with a weak smile. She raised one of her wings slightly to invite him to lay next to her. After putting on a smile, he accepted and laid down next to her on the cold forest ground. Even though the ground was cold he felt warm because of how close Ary was to him. He might have been nervous still, but he didn't show it. His worries for her overcame his fear and worries.

The two of them laid next to each other in the forest for half a minute without a single word being spoken. There was a strange atmosphere lying in the air and the silence was starting to get uncomfortable. "So..." Cyr finally spoke up. "What are you thinking abou-"

"I'm sorry for just leaving." She interrupted him like she didn't even hear that he said anything. "I just... I couldn't bear it to see him like that... I-I didn't want to tell him what happened. I was too afraid of his reaction." She looked at him, her eyes asking for forgiveness.

"I understand, Ary, I do. You do not need to be sorry, but neither do you need to be sad right now." When her eyes met the ground and stayed there he shifted a little closer to her and unfolded a wing, putting it over her form, shielding her from the cold. It surprised him almost as much as Ary that he did that. every time he was worried about her in the past it was like everything else in his mind, fear, anger, or distress didn't matter anymore. It was the same at this exact moment.

Her eyes found his after she tensed up a little at his touch. "Ary I don't know what you are thinking at the moment, but just know that he is alright. Of course, he was shook, but he is still alive and that is what matters. There is no need to be sad about this, Ary, now. What we need to do is think optimistic. That is what you need to do."

"You're right." Her tone was lightened up a bit, but still not lightened up enough. "But I just... can't. I can't think properly. I mean for the entire time we were here I barely spent time with anyone. I just stayed around Gareth all the time..."

"Well then maybe that is why you can only think about him? Maybe you could use a bit of a distraction?"

She sighed, lowing her head again. "Yes, maybe."

"You know..." He looked into her eyes, pausing for a second. He wanted to ask Ary if he wanted to spend some time together at the hot springs. And there was no better moment to ask her than this one. "You know if you want we could... spent some time together to get your mind on other things. Maybe we could go to the hot springs? How does that sound?"

"Oh?" Her ears sprang back to live, her eyes shining up all of a sudden. "The hot springs?" She smiled. "Oh, I love the hot springs! How could I forget about them?"

Cyr chuckled, smiling widely at her much more energetic self. "Because of Gareth?"

"Yes... that might be the reason." She sighed, her eyes shining with happiness. "Anyway, yes, I would love to go there with you. We spent not nearly enough time together in the past days. Tomorrow then?"

"Yup, tomorrow sounds great!" He said with his big smile still on his muzzle. He couldn't believe that all it needed to overcome his fear to ask her out was the fear for her well being and of course some advice from his brother.

They both stayed there for a short while, simply enjoying the atmosphere.

Cyr knew that the following day would be a great day.