Dawn arrived and Nysid still hadn’t been able to shake the uncomfortable feeling, so he pushed it down for the time being and went to wake Anders. The man had barely budged an inch while he slept, and when the prince dropped into a crouch next to him, he couldn’t help but think he looked rather sweet, despite the fact that they’d been trying to kill one another just two days before.

Nysid pushed that thought aside too and gave his mate’s shoulder a gentle shake. “Wake up,” he said, low but insistent. When the man only grumbled and tried to turn and bury his face in his arm, the prince tried again. “Anders,” he called, and curiously, it was enough to get his mate to look up at him.

“Nysid,” he mumbled, voice rough with sleep. The sound made the prince’s heart flutter in spite of himself, and he had to fight the urge to smooth Anders’ hair back from his brow. The other rider squinted up at him with bleary eyes, and then up at the slowly brightening sky overhead and groaned a little. “By the first, I feel like I didn’t sleep a wink.”

“I know how you feel,” the prince commiserated, able to relate all to well. “I think it’s this place,” he added as he got back to his feet and went to Anders’ pack where he found the supply of hard tack and broke a piece in half. He offered one half to Anders, who took it with a sigh and sat up so he could eat without making a mess, gratefully accepting the waterskin when Nysid offered that as well.

“You’re probably right,” Anders said a minute later after he’d woken further and seemed more cognizant of his surroundings. “Which doesn’t bode well for any long term stay here,” he added with a frown and took a drink of water.

Nysid accepted the waterskin back from him and refilled it from the supply he’d boiled while Anders was still asleep. “I think we should move faster today,” the prince suggested, carefully weighing his words as he spoke. “If we’re going to have diminishing returns on our strength, it’d be best if we pushed hard now while we still have some to work with; maybe we’ll be able to catch up to Ghain and Ephinea if we do.”

Anders considered the suggestion and the prince was relieved when he nodded in agreement. “Alright, lets get going, then.”

They broke camp, a task as easy as putting out the fire and collecting Anders' few possessions, then set off at a quick pace. Conversation was sparse, both more concerned with saving their breath for the hard walk ahead until they suddenly lost Ghain’s trail mid-way through the morning. The dragon’s trail had been leading them steadily in the direction of the mountain, but now it lead directly up a steep rock-face and into unknown territory that neither human could guess at the state of.

The cliff, for that was the only real name for it, loomed over their heads, an easy enough obstacle to surmount for a fifty foot dragon, but nigh impossible for a pair of humans— particularly a pair of humans that didn’t even have a good length of rope between them. That didn’t stop Nysid from setting his jaw stubbornly and starting to climb it anyways, though.

“Hang on,” Anders called after him, alarmed. “Come down, we’ll find a way around, there’s no point risking your neck,” he chided, voice sounding almost fretful to Nysid’s ears, though he couldn’t spare a glance down to check if the same could be said of his expression.

“Quiet, it’ll be fine, I can make it,” the prince insisted. He’d climbed worse back home, after all; the fact that he’d been in his early twenties at the time went pointedly ignored.

Anders made a sound of frustration somewhere below him and said, “To what end? I know I sure as blazes can’t, so unless you’re planning to go on alone-”

“You can throw your pack to me and I’ll use the strap to haul you up.” The other man snorted skeptically, pacing anxiously by the sound of it. “At the very least I’ll be able to get the lay of the land,” Nysid continued. He was quite high up now and refusing to look down less his nerve waver, driven by a desperate need to make progress in their quest to find their dragons. For all they knew, Ghain and Ephinea might be right at the top of this blasted cliff, and─

One of Nysid’s precarious handholds suddenly gave out, making the prince yelp in alarm and scrabble for another as he began to slide back down while Anders swore below him. Nysid’s boots hit a narrow ledge, but rather than save him, the sudden stop only served to detach both his hands from the rock face and send him toppling backwards into open air with a terrified gasp. The prince twisted, trying to land on his feet, but hit ground on his side, pain lancing from hip to shoulder and making him cry out as he curled in on himself reflexively.

“Are you alright?” Anders asked, suddenly at his side, hands hovering uncertainly over Nysid’s prone figure, panic in his voice as he leaned in close. “Hey,” he pressed desperately.

Sucking in a deep breath to try and master the pain, Nysid was distracted by the sensation of a warm hand on his face, brushing the hair back from his eyes as he opened them and looked up into Anders’, which were wide with worry. The man was fretting, something that might have annoyed him the day before, but suddenly didn’t seem so bad, particularly when he tried to push himself upright and nearly dropped back again, but was caught by his mate. Strong hands gently righted him, lingered over him as they carefully checked for any sign of blood or breakage.

Anders huffed, voice verging on a growl in his exasperation when he said, “Blood and darkness, you’re stubborn. Just sit still for five seconds together, would you?” Realizing the other man wouldn’t release him until he did, Nysid released a huff of his own but stopped trying to pull away or get up. “There now,” Anders said, tone gentle, his hold lighter as he took a proper seat himself rather than crouching awkwardly, though he kept Nysid pulled in against his chest.

Feeling vaguely sulky but also strangely soothed by Anders’ warmth against him, the prince grumbled, “Why are you doing this?”

“Because you’re making stupid decisions,” Anders replied and earned himself a sharp look from Nysid. “Just take a minute, would you? We’ll think this through since we’re obviously not going up the cliff.”

Nysid wanted to object, but the throbbing ache in his hip and shoulder attested loudly to the veracity of the other man’s words, so he remained quiet instead and pretended not to notice that he could hear the racing of Anders’ heart with his ear pressed to his chest the way it was. He’d scared the man, he realized, his own heart giving a little pang at the thought. “I’m sorry,” he said, surprising himself with how readily the words escaped him.

He’d clearly surprised Anders as well when the man looked down at him with both eyebrows raised in a way that made Nysid scowl and turn pointedly away, which only made his mate chuckle. “Stubborn and full of surprises,” Anders mused. Nysid opened his mouth to take it back, but felt the ire leave him when his mate’s hand again found its way to his hair and tenderly brushed a stray lock back from his face. “Are you actually alright?” he asked then, brown eyes full of concern, brow furrowed as he examined the prince’s face when he finally looked at him again.

Nysid could only stare up at Anders for a beat before finally saying, “I don’t think I broke anything,” easing the worst of Anders’ initial panic.

The captain was convinced he’d have nightmares of the prince falling off the cliff face when he slept next, reliving his inability to get to him before he hit the ground with a sickening thud over and over again on a loop. Anders wasn’t normally the type to panic in the face of injury, whether it be one of his riders’ or his own; but apparently his usual level-headedness went right out the window when it came to his mate. Holding the prince close helped ease his worry at least— even if it did make Nysid grumble. He couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t protesting too much, however, which was probably what had inspired him to take liberties with Nysid’s hair.

Anders gave himself a mental shake and let go of his mate then got to his feet and offered the other man a hand up. “Well, lets see if you can stand— then we’ll see about finding some way around this cliff,” he said and cleared his throat a little awkwardly.

Nysid fixed him with an impossible to parse look and for a moment the captain thought he might refuse his hand, but then he accepted and allowed Anders to help him carefully to his feet. The prince flinched visibly when he shifted his weight, but he refused Anders’ hand when he offered it again and took a few experimental steps. He limped for the first few, but seemed to find his stride, or at least mastered his pain so the captain could no longer spot it. Anders didn’t like the idea of the man pushing himself, but he was forced to recognize that they had little other option in their current position; at the very least he was convinced Nysid had been correct in his assertion that he hadn’t broken anything.

“Alright, lets try along that way first-” Anders began, but cut himself short when he looked at Nysid again and found his mate staring wide-eyed at something above and behind him.

Before the captain could ask him what was wrong, the prince closed the distance between them and grabbed Anders’ arm, leaning in against him as he pulled his mate around to look back at the cliff. “Look! There, at the top of the cliff,” Nysid hissed, grip on Anders’ arm tightening reflexively when the captain followed his direction.

The man immediately went rigid when he saw what had startled Nysid so; there was a person standing at the top of the cliff the prince had just tried and failed to climb. Anders reflexively slipped one arm protectively around Nysid as he squinted up at the stranger; he couldn’t guess their gender, clad all in plate armor as they were, nor could he make out any insignia from that distance. They remained like that for a long minute, the stranger remaining so still Anders wondered if it wasn’t just a statue they hadn’t noticed before now.

“Who are you?” he called finally when the staring match wore on his patience, nerves jangling as restless energy boiled just below his skin.

Rather than answer, however, the stranger only raised a gauntleted hand and pointed, not at them, but along the cliff-top opposite the direction Anders had been about to suggest himself. They remained like that for a moment, then turned and walked away from the cliff’s edge, disappearing from sight.

Anders and Nysid remained frozen in place until the prince twisted in his mate’s grip, not to pull away, but to look at him and demand, “Who in blazes was that?!”

Realizing he hadn’t been breathing, Anders forced himself to inhale and loosened his hold on Nysid as he shook his head. “No idea,” he admitted. “But life at last,” Anders added a second later, grinning a little. Eerie or not, he had to admit it was nice to see some other sign of life besides himself and Nysid. If they could catch up, maybe they’d be able to answer questions, tell them where they were, where their dragons might be…

Nysid frowned thoughtfully. “Are we going to follow their directions?” he asked, fingers curling reflexively into the fabric of Anders’ shirt. “It could be a trap.”

“With Ghain’s trail gone, it’s the best lead we’ve got,” Anders pointed out. “We’ll be careful,” he reassured his mate gently, unable to keep the smile from his face when Nysid flushed under his regard before pulling away.

“Fine, but if we get ambushed, I’m blaming you,” the prince said with a disapproving look as he drew his sword from its sheath, clearly intending to keep it at the ready.