The skies of Hanover (and surrounding lands)

Seeing where his brother was looking, Gilbert nodded but felt his beak grinding. Had be been in his human form he would have been clenching his jaw and grinding his teeth.

The white griffin muttered something, then spoke to his passenger. "Matthew, we will be diving into a dry well. It is safe and as I promised you before I would not drop you--I promise you this again."

He felt every pore prickle at the thought of diving with a human on his back, but bit back the sensation and took the plunge.

Something about the mention of diving wasn’t sitting right with him. But seeing as he hadn’t dropped him yet, Matthew trusted that Gilbert wouldn’t drop him now. Not that he had much of a choice at the moment, really.

"And I still believe you," he said, though his response had come off as much more shaky than he had meant it to.

Matthew sensed some sort of old magic coming from the well, yet had no time to make anything of it before he felt himself falling at an alarming rate. Despising the weird sensation that always came with falling, Matthew could do nothing but hold on for dear life.

Ludwig tucked his wings close to his chest as he speedily dove into the opening of the old well. He could feel the ancient spells enveloping him and Feliciano and beginning to slow their descent, which would have otherwise proven fatal. He let his wings wrap around the prince at his back as much as he could manage to offer some sense of safety to Feliciano. Ludwig knew his passenger was scared, but he felt he could at least attempt to alleviate that

"We are nearly there," he told the other prince as their fall was slowed to a near-halt. Almost as though they landed on a soft pillow, they finally reached the bottom. He moved them both out of the way of his brother and Matthew.

"Safe now," he said. Unfortunately, he knew that the appropriate phrase was "Safe for now," but he didn't dare say that aloud. It was a sort of unspoken truth. They survived the fall, but they still had to face the invaders at the castle, one Ludwig would need to be in human form for if he had any chance of blending in.

Before letting out a very deep sigh of relief, Feliciano waited until the griffin's wings unwrapped from around him (although he would have appreciated them remaining there, since hey somehow gave him a sense of reassurance, like a big and very soft embrace).

As he heard Ludwig's words, he dared to glance around. It was quite dark, but he could spot the brick walls surrounding them. It seemed quiet there, but he knew they were almost inside the castle and the enemies weren't far from them.

"How long will this now last?" he asked, his voice slightly trembling, half because of the fear for the situation, and half because his whole body was upset from their fall down the well.
Since he highly doubted that his legs were able to sustain him or not - he could feel them shaking at the only thought - he didn't release his grab on Ludwig's neck and body - and besides, had they had to go back from where they had just come because of a sudden enemy attack, there weren't many others ways for him to escape than on Ludwig's back.

Gilbert tucked his white wings neatly into his sides. The air was rushing past them and he could feel the warmth of the well approaching. He felt his heart pounding much harder than he was sure he'd experienced in a very long time. His breaths came in harsh pants, irregular, but he kept his wings tucked and his eyes open despite his instinct to spread them and catch himself. There was also this sudden...weakness.

The glow from the hole in the ground grew to engulf the two, griffin and passenger. Within seconds, Gilbert could feel the magical cushion slowing them to a gentile landing, but his heart didn't seem to recognize it. Gilbert wasn't prone to panic, but the heart pounded faster shooting bright lights into his vision, then dark blotches.

He realized they'd landed safely and allowed himself to slip into his human form to conserve on energy. He hadn't moved away from Matthew yet, but he couldn't. He could do nothing but slump beneath the burden of his runaway heart. He collapsed on the bottom of the magical well, between the legs of his former passenger and at the feet of his younger brother.

Ludwig looked back at Feliciano, noting his arms around his neck. He could see his brother on his way down the well, but something felt off about the way Gilbert was coming down. To look at the other griffin's eyes, he looked almost scared.

"Feliciano... I need you to get down. Get my clothes out of my bag," he said quickly as he watched Gilbert's descent.

He didn't dare call out to his brother and risk them being exposed to others passing by, so all he could do was watch as he finally landed, transformed to human form and collapsed.

Feliciano followed Ludwig's gaze and turned in time to see Gilbert landing on the bottom of the well and almost immediately collapse. Obeying to the urge in the griffin's voice, he crawled down his back, half stumbling, and hurriedly opened the other's backpack, taking out all the clothes which were stuffed in the top of it.

"T-there..." he said, handing Ludwig his shirt and trousers, and eyeing worriedly Gilbert who was laying on the ground.
"W-was wounded by an arrow?" he asked, slightly panicking.
He couldn't get any closer to him to check, though, since the space there was quite narrow, and already filled. And anyway, he wasn't probably feeling well enough to be of any help, right then, so he leant back to one of the walls, trying to calm down his breath and following anxiously the events, hoping

As quickly as he could manage, Ludwig transformed back into his human form, allowing him to better inspect his brother's injuries. Quickly, he pulled his pants on, cursing again his lack of a spell to put them back on his body (he would have that remedied immediately). He ignored the tunic for now and knelt to his brother's side, carefully lifting him into his arms and searching for the telltale signs of blood.

The problem was... he found none. He listened for any sign of breathing or blood coursing through his brother's system, looking up at Matthew for any explanation of what might have happened to the other griffin.

"Did anything hit him? A spell, an arrow?" he asked, checking the man, too, for any sign of injury.

Matthew, who was both extremely worried and confused, shook his head. “No, nothing hit him, as far as I can tell.” And as far as spells were concerned, the only thing he had sensed had been the magic within the well.

Yet he thought back, trying to think of anything that could have caused Gilbert to collapse like this. And again, his answer, or rather, lack of an answer was the same.

“How is he now?” he asked Ludwig uneasily. That was the most important thing, after all.

Gilbert's skin was pale as usual, but it was also colorless. The normal rosey undertones in his flesh weren't evident. He gasped harshly then opened his eyes to his brother. They rolled down as they opened as if they had rolled up into his head when he passed out briefly. He looked about jerkily for a moment, seemingly with little control over his movements. He noticed the others around him and looked down at himself, then back up to his brother.

"West..." Gilbert struggled. "Did they see my ass?"

Ludwig let out a small chuckle of release. "No, nothing more than usual." He shifted Gilbert to a seated position. "What happened? We thought you'd been shot."

He was still scanning his brother's body for any sign of injury, he continued to brace him with his arms and upper body. He managed a quick glance to Matthew and then at Feliciano. He could see the fear still in the other man's face. As though he wasn't already scared enough as it was thanks to the attack on the castle and threat on his life.

He looked again at Gilbert, waiting for an answer.

Feliciano sighed in relief as he saw that Gilbert hadn't been shot by any arrow nor spell. At least they had made it into the castle, all safe and sound. More or less.

"Do you need, uh... something?" Feliciano wondered what he could offer to the other man to be of any help. Not like he could do anything useful, probably. He only had some of the food left from the journey - but Gilbert looked very pale, maybe some sugar would help?

He stepped a bit closer to the others, not daring to get too near, since Gilbert would probably need air and space to recover. He put an hand on Ludwig's shoulder, not sure if he was trying to comfort him or if he was trying to reassure himself instead.

"My heart...my head..." He shook his head and closed his eyes for just a moment. With a gulp, Gilbert opened them and nodded slowly to Ludwig.

"I'm alright. I think I just fainted. Maybe I need food." He began to sit up, but felt a little weak and allowed himself another moment to relax.

With a start, Gilbert did sit up so suddenly his head rocked back and forth on his shoulders. "Matthew! Is he alright?" He couldn't quite remember the last few seconds of their descent.

Feliciano immediately smiled. Maybe he could be of some help?
"Ve, I should have some!!!"

All cheered up, he went through the chaos in his backpack, until his hands finally found the small piece of nougat left from the previous days. It was a bit out of shape, maybe, but he quickly made up for it with a small gesture of the end.
"Ve ve veee~" he hummed, then offered the now perfect and fresh looking nougat to the griffin prince with a bright smile.

"I even have the bottle of wine left from lunch, ahah~" he commented, looking at the item coming out of the pack.


((I'm totally going to use that as molotov.))

Once seeing that Gilbert was okay, or at least not seriously wounded, Matthew let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. Matthew hoped that the hardest part was over, but knew that he shouldn’t count on it.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Matthew told him, “Thanks to you, we were able to land safely. Or…er, you know what I mean.” He wondered if the effect on Gilbert would have been the same had he not had the extra burden of a passenger and immediately felt guilty.

((fff- You should, Feli.))

Gilbert looked up to the little prince as he handed him a sweet. He smiled back--without his usual bravado--and took the food. He swallowed it quickly, barely taking in how good it actually was. "Thank you Feli. Wine...not such a good idea I think.”

He pulled away from his brother with a grunt and nod of thanks, then motioned for his pants. As he put them on slowly he looked at Matthew. "Yes... I think I remember now. I'm glad I was able to get you down the well safely before it overcame me." He looked back toward his pants as he buttoned up his fly. Thank goodness he wasn't modest.

Gilbert remembered little from the flight--which was a shame since he had a sense he enjoyed once again flying with a human. Now he wasn't sure he should fly Matthew again--not because carrying a human was trouble--but because he didn't know why he collapsed and he would not take someone else's life into his hands when his body was unreliable.

He needed to speak with Ludwig in private.

(Thanks for the help btw Matthew. Part of the issue was that my email was registering some threads as spam...no clue why)

Ludwig let his brother move from his arms. He watched the older griffin cautiously, standing and getting his tunic on, followed by his armor. He continued to observe his brother as he snapped and fastened it all into place. He grabbed his mace last and waited for the others to get ready to follow.

With the practice of having used this entrance a few times with his uncle, Ludwig placed a hand on the wall, allowing only the faintest hiss to escape as a small blade nicked his hand and his blood signaled for the magical wards around the door could drop and allow Ludwig and the rest of his party in. He pushed against the wall, forcing the hidden door to open.

He pulled his hand away, glancing down at the small cut. It had already stopped bleeding. "Well... into the castle, I suppose."

((i guess we should have a new location here. like under the castle.))

((done: new thread is here))