Takumi sat astride his pegasus, tense behind the rest of the troops. Cami wavered on the battlefield, staring between her Hoshidan and Nohrian siblings. "I-I..." Her voice shook, blue eyes wide as she quickly looked between the two groups. "I don't know what to do!" she wailed.

  Takumi heard a very annoyed exhale and the youngest of the Nohrians, Elise, marched up to Cami and pointed between the two offending armies. "Instead of forcing her to choose, why don't y'all get off your fuckin' high horses and just combine your efforts?! Your enemy is one and the same: King Garon! Camilla, Leo, Xander, you know how that madman is! Prince Ryoma, you really ought to know!" Takumi blinked, surprised to see the little healer so animated. He'd rarely seen her on the front lines since she was never a direct combatant. She was always behind the lines, helping people get to safety and be healed. Well. She was a healer. Not all clerics were noncombatants (there were plenty of warrior-clerics) but even so... This surprised him. He hadn't expected such a little girl to be so opinionated.

  Ryoma nodded and turned to address the Hoshidans. "Hoshidan warriors, we listen to Princess Elise this day! What she speaks is truth! King Garon is our enemy, not the nation of Nohr on its own. This madman has been behind the years of bloodshed. The princes and princesses of the nation are simply following his orders for fear of their own lives. We band together with the Nohrians this day and we will march on Castle Krackenburg!" Xander gave a similar speech to the Nohrian army. Of course, all of the forces looked ill at ease. With all of the animosity that existed between the nations, it felt strange that one impassioned speech by a young child would sway them so easily. It did feel beyond weird... Somehow Ryoma knew Xander? He didn't quite understand that…

  The Snow Wings looked to Takumi for guidance, looking around uneasily. He nodded. "Listen to my brother." Those were his simple orders. He didn't always get along with Ryoma, but in this case, if even the Nohrians were agreeing, then he would heed his brother's orders. Well, at least Cami didn't have to be the one stuck in the middle of the fight. She didn't have to choose a side which was good. She was obviously incredibly torn up about all of this. Which he couldn't blame her about. She remembered her Hoshidan siblings now but still had memories of her Nohrian siblings which she couldn't let go of…

  The two armies split and began to set up camp for the day. Prince Leo flew his black pegasus over and landed near Takumi. "Now, where should we set up our pegasi? You're largely in charge of Hoshido's fliers, correct?" He spoke, though Takumi got the sense that something was deeply wrong. Something about his body language just spoke that something wasn't quite right. The tension in legs, the slight tensing of his jaw... What was wrong with him? Something clearly was. But he wasn't a trained healer so it wasn't like he could pinpoint it just by watching.

  He gave an exasperated sigh. "Yeah, yeah, I'll show you where we keep our pegasi. Bring your fliers over when you want," he retorted. He couldn't let anybody get close to him. He had to be horrible. People getting close resulted in pain. He couldn't hurt Cami, but the Nohrians? There was no way he could let them get close to him. At all. Just period. They would be incredibly important to the war effort, but it wasn't like he had to get buddy buddy with them especially Leo.

  He saw and heard Leo swallow a bit but the blond prince nodded. Takumi left Saki's reins dangling on her neck after he dismounted and led Leo over to an area outside of camp. "We don't bother to tether our pegasi. No point. Plus, if they freak out, they could break their wings or something." He'd seen it happen before. A stupid newbie had tethered a pegasus and something had spooked the animal and, being so close to the hitching post and normal horses, it'd broken one wing and fractured another. He'd really drilled into that idiot despite him having been new. A pegasus with broken and fractured wings may very well never fly again. While there were plenty from the domestic stock, training up a pegasus for war was vastly different than training one to be civilian transport. Plus, it could hurt the normal horses too... Thankfully, it'd been on the end of the post, but it'd still managed to severely injure itself and it'd taken out a horse as well.

  Leo shook his head. "Neither do we. Pegasi are less prone to spooking than horses especially Nohrian blacks. We have to tame ours from wild stock since we can't support domestic." Huh, what must it be like to have an entire corps on wild stock? No wonder Nohr's Dark Flier corps was so small. Maybe fifty strong. Lack of domestic stock would definitely do that. Pegasi went through far more energy than a normal horse due to flying... And, well, with Nohr's lack of resources, it did make sense.

  "I see. Well, this is where we keep them. Are you sure it's wise to keep Nohrian pegasi with Hoshidan ones though? Ours are pretty placid due to the interbreeding we've done with horses over time." He'd heard that Nohrian blacks were incredibly fierce and unrelenting and he'd seen it in battle. They actively went out to bite people if they could manage it. They refused to back down unless on threat of death to their rider. Their own lives didn't matter to them too much…

  "Nohrian blacks are definitely unruly, true. But they won't really attack unless provoked to do so. As long as your pegasi aren't belligerent toward ours, it should be fine." Part of him still worried despite Leo's reassurances. He didn't want the pegasi hurt. A wing break or a leg break were basically a death sentence. They still needed their legs as much as normal horses did but their wings were what were critical. If their wings broke, there was almost no way they'd get back in the air. He'd seen a few wing breaks heal properly, but with as restless as pegasi were to stay in the air, they were rare.

  "I'm having trouble believing that." In this case, it was no real fault of Leo's. He didn't have much experience with Nohrian blacks since, well, they mostly stayed endemic to Nohr. There were black pegasi in Hoshido, but they were bred from domestic stock. Black domestics and Nohrian blacks were two completely different types of pegasi. Hoshidan blacks were literally just different coat colors. Nohrian blacks were adapted to the harsh climate of Nohr which gave them their nasty temperaments. He never got close enough to the Nohrian border to really see the black pegasi aside from a few that had been blown way off course. "My experience with them is limited but..."

  "How about I introduce you to the Dark Fliers? You can bring your mount with us. You can see our pegasi. Does that sound okay?" Bringing Saki as an ambassador... He hoped that she wouldn't get offended by anything the Nohrian pegasi said. She was a pure white which were now quite rare in Hoshido. Pure white tended to be strictly wild stock or bred only a few generations away from wild stock. She was proud and easily frustrated by people disrespecting her... He had no idea what the Nohrian blacks would think of a Hoshidan white... He hoped it wouldn't go downhill too fast, or else the entire stock of the Snow Wings would hate the Nohrian blacks... If people thought kingdom politics were bad, pegasi politics were worse!

  "I can try. I just hope they don't insult her or anything. Else the Snow Wings and probably the entire corps of the Hoshidan army will hate them." Saki was respected among the Hoshidan pegasi and basically head of the herd for their military mounts. If she hated a group, then the entire corps of the military mounts would turn on them as well. So if things devolved like that, there would be infighting among the Nohrian and Hoshidan pegasi. Which they really could not afford right now.

  Leo tilted his head. "I know they can communicate intelligently but would you know if they insulted her...?" Leo really was stupid, wasn't he? To think he was the main tactician in the Nohrian army... He didn't know pegasi could interfight like that...

  "Oh I will know. I can understand most pegasi, though the Nohrian accent will probably prove difficult for me." Some of the more northerly and more southerly pegasi proved difficult for him to understand. Their accents were basically different languages. There were accent differences between different groups, but he could understand most pegasi pretty well... He only really saw the Nohrian blacks that had been blown off course. He tried to approach, but they refused his help without even speaking to him. They were definitely wily, obstinate beasts.

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  "Interesting... I didn't know it was possible for humans to understand them. Though... Do you speak Nohrian at all? I doubt they'll understand Hoshidan or Common. We only speak to them in Nohrian even on the battlefield."

  "Thankfully, yeah." Ryoma had been insistent on them learning Nohrian and a strange Nohrian coded tapping language. He still had no idea of the context of that particular language. It had been such a pain in the ass to learn. The grammar and word structures were completely different than normal Nohrian. But it did prove useful if they were in a war meeting and Ryoma had something to say to Takumi but he didn't want anybody to understand. Even Yukimura hadn't caught onto the strange language. He just found the tapping annoying especially during war counsel.

  "Let's go then." Takumi looked at Saki on Leo's command and the pegasus followed him to the battlefield where a number of men and women wielding tomes with spears stood, petting their mounts. Heads raised and ears went back. He could sense Saki was immediately on guard with the way her ears went back. She side eyed the Nohrian blacks, tension crackling in the air. Oh boy, this was looking to be an absolute disaster if one thing went wrong. Hopefully she would be on her best behavior and not attack or get offended. The last thing they really needed was infighting between the two different pegasus groups.

  A girl that looked to be around seventeen or eighteen approached and spoke in Nohrian and she glanced at Leo. "Prince Leo, who is this? And why is his pegasus white? His clothes are very different too..."

  "This is Prince Takumi from Hoshido. I'm sure you've gotten the news of us combining with the Hoshidans?" It wouldn't take long for news to fly around the different military encampments and corps that existed throughout the army. Even if a group only spoke Nohrian and not common, it wouldn't take long for news to spread like wildfire and for everyone to come around to understanding what was going on.

  The girl looked a bit uneasy but nodded. "I thought that was just a rumor... I didn't realise it was actually true," she said. She gave him a tentative look. He didn't offer her a smile or anything. He really needed to keep people at a distance and being polite and kind to them would only endear them to him. He really couldn't stand that. It just hurt way too much to get close to people, only for them to abandon or betray him. Cami had been his twin more or less, but she'd been taken... Sumeragi had been killed right in front of him. He was the reason that Cami had been taken. It was all his fault.

  "No. I'm Prince Takumi. We're looking to see if we can integrate the pegasi herds." He looked at Saki whose ears remained back. She surveyed the area and her tail flicked every so often. Most of the pegasi were untacked at this point, though a few riders stood around, taking care of the tack. He hadn't had a chance to untack Saki yet... He would do that after they got done here. At least all he used was a bridle and reins for her. It looked like the Nohrians opted for bits with their pegasi which made no sense... For horses, sure, but pegasi were so much smarter than normal horses.

  "Prince Leo, are you sure that's such a good idea? The Hoshidan pegasi are so fierce compared to our Nohrian blacks--"

  "Mina, if anything, it's the opposite. I've studied Hoshidan pegasi. They're usually a lot more docile since most of them are domestic stock, not wild like ours. Plus... Nohr is harsh and unrelenting. The pegasi needed temperaments to match in order to fend off predators." Leo shrugged.

  "This one looks about ready to bite someone's head off."

  "Ah, yeah, she's pure wild stock," Takumi put in. "Much more temperamental than our normal domestic stock. You can tell by the pure white coloration." She wasn't palomino, piebald, or anything like that. She wasn't even pure black like some domestic Hoshidan stock could be. But Hoshidan black pegasi and Nohrian black pegasi were incredibly different beasts...

  "So what do you want?" he heard the Nohrian black huff. Oh boy, so it began.

  Saki flicked her tail, keeping her ears back. Aggressive posturing. The Nohrian black was definitely on alert, but she seemed to be the much more aggressive one. Then again, she was aggressively proud of being wild stock instead of domestic stock. She ruled the roost of the Hoshidan herd since she had so much power and pride. She really was something else. At least he understood what the Nohrian black was saying...though its accent was incredibly thick. "You have ears; listen to what's going on," she retorted. The Nohrian black huffed and adjusted her posture a bit.

  "You don't need to be so rude about it. I don't know why the humans chose to integrate our herds like this. It'd be best if we stayed apart. We don't like you anymore than the Nohrians like the Hoshidans. Your human seems soft underneath that hard exterior." Oh boy, this was going south pretty fast but he'd keep an ear out. Leo and the rider kept talking, but his attention was now on the conversation between the pegasi. He really hoped this didn't end up going bad. The last thing they needed were powerful animals like pegasi having a civil war between themselves especially since they didn't know how long the two armies would be traveling together.

  "Takumi is soft and sweet most of the time, but that's not the point here. The point is that we don't need the likes of you around--"

  "All right, break it up, break it up," Takumi said, clapping his hands. The two pegasi, Leo, and the rider looked at him. The rider looked incredibly confused as did Leo. "I told you I can understand pegasi as well as a human. They were getting into it. With how Saki is instigating things, it's probably best if we don't integrate the two herds while camp is set up. They'll have to learn to work together while in battle, but for camp?" He shook his head. "They're gonna cause a lot of trouble if we leave them alone to their own devices. If it'll be anyone's fault, it'll be Saki's." He shook his head. How she could embarrass him so much, he didn't know. She ought to know better, but she had problems with pride. She was the only pure white pegasus in the entire Hoshidan military to his knowledge, the only one of pure wild stock with pure pegasus bloodline. She felt like she was entitled to damn well anything she said because of it.

  "Wow. I honestly didn't believe you..." Leo said. Takumi wanted to retort, but he kept it to himself for the time being. "We should report to Ryoma and Xander about this..."

  Takumi nodded and switched to Hoshidan to talk to Saki. "Go back to camp with the Snow Wings herd." With that, he switched back to Nohrian to speak to Leo. "We should." Saki huffed but she picked herself up off the ground and started off to the Hoshidan area of camp. Guh, why did she have to embarrass him like that in front of everybody? He hated it... But she just didn't seem to know any better. He had tried to teach her, he really had. But she was the boss of the Snow Wings, the commander's mount. The power really seemed to go to her head unfortunately. Couple that with her pride... Yeesh. She was a mess to deal with. The Hoshidan pegasi put up with it. It was clear the Nohrian blacks would not.

  "We'll see you later, Mina," Leo said, then turned around and nodded to Takumi, speaking in Common rather than Nohrian. "Let's go." They started off toward the center of the Hoshidan camp since that was where they'd seen Camilla, Xander, and Elise heading beforehand.

  They arrived at the heart of the Hoshidan camp where they could hear rhythmic tapping on the table. They walked in and saw Xander, Camilla, Elise, and Ryoma sitting. The tapping was quick and concise, though they stopped once they saw Leo and Takumi enter. "Oh, Takumi, PrinceLeo... What's going on?" Takumi looked around the tent, wondering exactly how they had all learned Nohrian Coded Sign Language and how exactly Ryoma had taught them... It honestly made no sense and he'd always wondered about it. But seeing Xander and Ryoma using it... Guh. So much didn't make any sense.

  "We probably won't be able to merge the Nohrian and Hoshidan pegasus herds. We should probably get that worked out," Leo said. Ryoma nodded and, for the next while, they worked on getting all of that settled on how the cam would be set up. Takumi felt incredibly bored, but he knew how important this was. But with Leo commanding the only corps of Dark Fliers in the army, it was important.

  Eventually, though, the conversation ended and Ryoma dismissed them. Takumi stretched and headed back to his tent, intent on not really doing much. It had been a long day and, though he wished he could sleep, he knew the nightmares would bother him. So he lit a candle and started pouring over documents for the Snow Wings. Well, this was very much his night...