Chapter Text
"For once... I don't want to teach you about preening."
"Huh? Why not?!" Dream got up from the nest, annoyed. He had spent the entire afternoon asking Philza to teach him how to groom his wings.
At first, Philza had laughed at his eagerness to learn, calling it a personality change and "being domesticated into Elytran life." But as Dream kept insisting, he only seemed more and more tired of the subject.
"You just learned about nests..."
"So what? I won't forget how to build one just because I learn something else."
"I don't want to, Dream. Stop insisting." Philza stood up as well, leaving the nest and walking to the other side of the cage. Normally, that tactic worked with two of the three members of his flock, but his newest chick turned out to be just as persistent as Tommy.
"Please, I don't understand what the problem is." He sounded irritated, and a little offended. "I'll clean your wings if I learn."
"Chicks don't groom adult's wings," he said, as if it were obvious.
Dream froze, visibly shocked. This time, he was genuinely offended.
"I'm not a chick, Philza. I'm an adult."
"By human standards, maybe. But in Elytran culture, you're still a chick."
"Why? I don't understand..." He crossed his arms and sat down on one of the sofas inside the cage.
"You stop being a chick once you've learned everything, once you can fly and officially leave the nest."
"But how am I supposed to stop being one if you won't teach me?"
Philza knew it. He was being irrational. But he'd never had an Elytran chick before, and even though Dream was already an adult, he still depended on Phil for many things, like grooming his wings.
If he taught him everything too quickly, Dream would stop being his chick.
And even if he'd be proud of him... he wanted things to stay the way they were now. If Dream didn't need him anymore...
"I said no, and 'no' means 'NO.'" Ending the discussion, he crossed his arms as well and turned his body away.
"You're being unfair, Phil, please..." Dream stood up, walked over, and leaned against the older Elytran's wings. "I'll do it right..."
He didn't answer.
And that was enough to completely irritate Dream. He stepped back angrily and pointed a finger at him.
"You won't groom my wings until you teach me... and you're not allowed to sleep in the nest." With pride, he turned around.
Philza reached for his hand, about to stop the ridiculous threat, when a loud explosion, followed by violent tremors, stopped them both.
"W-What's that...?" Dream ran to the window. In the distance, he could see smoke rising from the city walls.
Phil looked at the flames beginning to consume the houses far away and tensed. Human wars were destructive. The losing kingdom would fall at the victor's feet, on land stained with the blood of their own kind.
For hybrids, considered nothing more than slaves, pets, or trash, their fate would be no different than before. Still, Philza knew they would be separated. No one would care that Dream was his chick.
His wings stiffened, his whole body seeming to grow larger as his hands began striking the golden bars of the cage.
"H-Hey, Philza..." Dream noticed the older Elytran's panic. He approached, trying to pull him away from the bars, only to be shoved into the nest.
"Stay here. That's an order. I'll get us out of here."
Dream wanted to say something, but after seeing Philza's wings, he forced himself to stay silent.
《♧》
George heard his mother's shouting at the guards, but he couldn't process her words. His heart pounded in his chest, and his legs shook like those of a newborn fawn.
They were under attack. Someone was invading the kingdom.
His mother seemed to yell something at him, grabbing his arm and shaking him so he would listen. But he simply couldn't understand the order. His hands pushed the queen away, and she glared at him in fury.
He left the hall in a hurry. The guards didn't stop him as they watched him run past. He sprinted down the castle stairs, heading toward the dungeons—to Sapnap's prison.
The cold of the underground halls never reached him. An unusual warmth, accompanied by heavy, hot air, stopped him instead. Sapnap turned toward him, his hands resting on a partially melted iron ingot.
"George! Did you feel that earthquake? I thought the castle was going to—"
Sapnap cut himself off as George threw open the cell door as though his life depended on it. The cell was never opened, not even when food or supplies were brought.
"Are you rebelling?"
"Go get Dream. We have to get out of here."
"Get out? Wait, what's happening?"
George looked at him. There was real fear in his eyes, enough to unsettle Sapnap.
"They told us the wall has been destroyed. A group attacked the hybrid traffickers' headquarters and freed everyone. They... they've started attacking the townspeople." The prince collapsed to the floor, his small crown rolling away as he hugged himself. "I think this is the end of our kingdom, Sapnap. I... my mother is trying to prepare an escape route. She plans to leave the entire kingdom behind."
"But..."
"Only the royal family. To her, you're just pets. She won't let me take you with me. Please, go get Dream and leave the kingdom. Find somewhere safe. I know there's a hybrid kingdom out there somewhere."
"We can't leave you, George. You're our friend..."
"I'm human. Please... I can't go with you. They won't accept me."
"That's stupid." Sapnap stepped out of his cell and hugged his friend. Warmth surrounded them. His body was always unbearably hot, hot enough to burn almost anything... except them. "You're one of us. The three of us together, or none of us. We'll get Dream and escape together. And if those ugly hybrid kingdoms don't accept us, then we'll just go off on our own, okay?"
"But..."
"Don't be an idiot. Come on, get up before they reach the castle."
After breaking the hug, they headed toward the tower where Dream was kept. The spiral staircase was new to Sapnap, but familiar to George. Together, they opened the door.
The room was silent.
"Dream!"
Both of them shouted, and their friend lifted his head from beneath a pile of pillows.
"What's going on...?"
Sapnap looked suspiciously at the stranger who had interrupted his reunion with his best friend. George tried to explain, but was interrupted.
"Nothing important. We've decided to escape."
"So that's why the whole town is burning?" Dream looked at them. Without his mask, he probably would have had one eyebrow raised.
Philza frowned at the unfamiliar hybrid. He was clearly a hybrid, but he didn't seem particularly friendly.
"I couldn't bring cookies this time. Sorry."
Dream interrupted George again. With the cage door open, he threw himself into his flock's arms.
Now they were complete.
The original three, plus the older Elytran who had joined without permission and still refused to teach him anything.
"You're not gonna cry, are you?" Dream teased.
Sapnap, offended but with watery eyes, gently smacked him on the head.
"I've got two stupid friends. That's all."
"If we're escaping, it has to be now. The fire has already reached the castle gates." Philza's voice was serious as he pulled Dream to his side. George nodded.
"Yeah. We need to go downstairs. My mother is taking Tunnel Three—it leads to a farm outside the walls. We'll take Tunnel Six. It comes out beyond one of the outer walls."
"It'd be better to fly. If we go down there, we could run straight into the attackers." Philza didn't like the plan. It was too risky.
"Yeah, well... Sapnap and George can't fly," Dream pointed out.
"But we can carry them."
The three of them fell silent, making Philza increasingly impatient.
"Dream can't fly either..." Sapnap muttered, annoyed that he had to admit it. It felt humiliating to say that his winged friend couldn't fly.
"Right..." Philza sighed. It was too dangerous. He couldn't expose his chick to that kind of risk. "Then we'll head downstairs now, before they arrive."
The four of them headed for the door.
Then a group crashed into them.
"They're kidnapping Prince George!" one of the guards shouted. He looked badly injured. Raising his sword, he charged.
Sapnap burst into flames the moment he saw the threat and lunged forward.
"Wait! I— Guards, they're not kidnapping me! They're..."
"Don't worry, Your Highness. The Queen explained the situation. We'll escort you safely to her."
The sword struck Sapnap, making him stumble before charging again.
George said nothing.
The guards truly didn't understand. They would believe his mother, who had always painted a false image of him—as though he were nothing more than a foolish hybrid sympathizer. People never took him seriously, and now, with the hybrids freed and attacking humans, they were seen only as enemies.
He regretted it, but between guards who dismissed his opinions and his best friends, the choice was obvious.
While Sapnap and the guards fought, Dream struggled against Philza's grip.
"Let me go! We have to help them!"
"We don't have weapons. They outnumber us, and you're still a chick. I won't let you fight."
"Stop with that nonsense! Let me go!" Dream's wings began striking the older Elytran as he realized he was being dragged away from his friends.
But the chick's blows barely affected Philza.
With the sole goal of protecting him, he made a quick—and highly questionable—decision.
With one powerful strike, he shattered the window and jumped through it, his chick held tightly in his arms.
He didn't even bother looking back at the battle.
His instincts screamed only one thing.
Run somewhere safe.