Death and Rebirth: Roleplay with TheNovaSwag #2

Chapter 4

M:   A few hours later, a certain winged country suddenly bolted up in bed in a cold sweat, woken up from a nightmare. At first, he was panicking because he didn't recognize the room he was in, but after a moment the memory of yesterday returned and he settled down. Not wanting to go back to sleep and relive the horrors again, Mandoria lit one of the candles and went downstairs.

It was rather dark, the fire in the fireplace having been reduced to smoldering embers, so Mandoria took the liberty of throwing some more wood on it and relighting it. Once the fire was going he sat down and warmed himself up. At one point, he plucked one of his clipped feathers and stared at it, it had been so long ago that they were clipped, he had never been allowed to puck or groom his wings, so he had to live with the mark of captivity for years.

"But I'm not captive anymore," he said to himself, "I could finally get rid of these ... and yet ... I can't."

N:   Heinrich woke up from Mandoria's footsteps since his room was right next to the stairs. He was trained to be a light sleeper, and he instinctively thought that someone broke into his home. "We have guests," he mumbled as he remembered, so he stood up and left his room, Alcis right at his heels.

He crept down the stairs, and when he saw Mandoria, he stayed around the corner as he watched him look at his feather. After a while, he felt bad for lurking in the shadows, so he stepped into the light, clearing his throat to announce his presence, "Why can't you?"

M:   Mandoria jumped and jolted in Heinrich's direction, relaxing when he recognized him, he turned away and kept staring at his feather but answered, "I don't know, I just feel like I can't, I don't know if it's underlying fear or if I still subconsciously accept the role Prussia made me play. In China, slaves were branded, in Rome, they were made to wear collars, for winged countries, it is clipped wings that symbolize our captivity, our owners being the ones who clipped us, that's why it is so detrimental."

Mandoria tossed the clipped feather into the fire and just hugged himself, "I have been on this planet for over 300,000 years, I've seen magical creatures roam the earth and watched as man drove them to extinction. I was a king who put my subjects before me and a father that gave everything to his sons, even his life. Now look at me, a pathetic washed-up country on the run from the man who took it all away, and who he is so obedient to that he can't toss away the mark of captivity even though he is free."

N:    The Great Dane saw Mandoria's sadness, so he plodded up to the country and placed his head on the seat next to him, whining as he empathized with him.

Heinrich came too and sat in a separate armchair and faced the fire, "I doubt anyone who has lived for 300,000 years could ever be pathetic. The thing with King Prussia is that he aims to trap you both mentally and physically, you have broken out of the physical prison, but you are still in the mental one, that's why you still cannot shake him off. You need someone on the outside to help you out of the mental prison, and only then are you free."

After a moment, the knight spoke up, "Sir Mandoria, would you do something that would allow the safety of the person you love, even if it means that you hurt the people around you?"

M:   "Absolutely," Mandoria said without hesitation, "I may have put my people before me, but sometimes I've had to put my family before them. I had a wife once, a long time ago, her name was Zalia, and more often than not I put her before others, almost starting a war with Kingdom of Italy because he wanted to take her from me. If I remember correctly, that's why Saxon turned on his people, because Prussia threatened to kill his husband, Anglo, if he didn't."