[Owl]

They didn't stop running until the Jungle was far behind them. He knew better than to run East, towards Tortuga and familiar faces. Raikov would sell them back to Saboro in a heartbeat, and there would be nothing Zuriel could do to stop it. Another painful jolt burned the young male's heart. He had abandoned so much today. His family, his friends, the sovereignty he had loyally followed for so long. He had always been an empathetic soul, to the point of it hurting, as Bane knew so well. But there was no time to mourn his losses: he had a mission to accomplish. When he and Artemisia had finally come to a stop, far North of the lands he was familiar with, he turned to her, chest heaving. She was not the company he would have expected to keep in an escape attempt. The Hawkeye: the King's most loyal.

Settling onto the ground, practically groaning with relief at the reduction of pressure on his injured foreleg, he rested his head on his paws, eyes half-closing. He didn't fully relax. He knew better than to do that. Artemisia was practically a stranger, and he had no real reason to trust her. She was just as much a traitor as he was: both crooked to the core. She had helped him though, had she not? If she'd meant to harm him, surely she would have done so by now? Watching her closely with sun-orange eyes, he kept his silence for a few moments longer, before finally breaking it.

"Why did you run?" He questioned, his expression cold and still. "You and Crenate... I always thought..." What did he think? That she had been loyal to him, above all others? Saboro certainly had a funny sort of loyalty. He was a prime example of that, and truly he was in no place to interrogate her. He did his best to make his voice sound curious, rather than accusatory. He swallowed the bile that burned at the back of his throat, and tilted his head.

"Where will you go now?" Had she a mission of her own? Or had she simply wanted to flee, to pursue other ends to her life?

[Artemisia]

She had long forgotten the feeling of helplessness, to have a weight bearing down on her shoulders to the point she wished to lash out at someone. The furnace within her chest burned out of control, it yearned to escape, to set ablaze the forest and all living things. As she ran beside this young boy — a nephew she never met — jaws ached to slide into muscle and tear asunder into oblivion. The tattoos that marked her brow and the scars on her cheeks howled for redemption, for she had sinned this day and betrayed all that she knew. Flashes of Katti's teeth entered her mind, but Artemisia knew that this was the right choice. Saboro had abandoned her, and she had to abandon Saboro.

Crenate would never understand.

The two of them eventually slowed, panting and gasping for air as the adrenaline wore off. Artemisia winced, pain radiating from her back as she felt her nerves scream in agony from Blackwall's bite. It was deep, but nothing she couldn't handle on her own. The Hawkeye wouldn't worry about it, gnashing her teeth to ignore the pain. She would sit however, a comfortable distance away from the boy as he stayed quiet for some time, possibly processing what he had just done. As she tenderly pulled shards of tree from her thighs, Artemisia reflected on Knife's escape and how lucky they were to pull off a successful escape. If they hadn't, well — they would be nothing but skulls on the border.

Tired red eyes glanced at the boy as he finally spoke, questioning why she ran and already making assumptions about her and Crenate. Once upon a time, the King and the red bastard princess were friends, loyalty formed but trust was still much an issue. On a stormy day, she had vowed her upmost loyalty and trust to the Queen, a promise that she had to keep and one she clutched desperately between her teeth. "The same reason you did." she said, touching on the fact that everyone in Saboro was loyal at one point, but some defected and saw no future within it's walls. They ran, tried to escape a cage that would eventually kill them. For Artemisia, a destiny had to be fulfilled, and nothing would get in her way. Not even the fake Sabora.

"It's ironic, you know?" she says, pausing to rip a splinter from her leg. Artemisia didn't flinch, only took breaths against each tug of flesh. "My sister tried to escape, and I let her. That's how I got these scars." The scars of regret, of a traitor. And yet, something sparked within her an anger that could not be contained and one Crenate saw potential in. "I am... was... the only Saboran to gain back tattoos. I proved my loyalty time and time again, I started to... believe. That Saboro was an empire I was meant to be in. But I realized, that it isn't the place that I was loyal to." The Hawkeye smoothed a patch of fur before laying down, crossing her front paws to relax into the Earth, feeling the cool soil against her burning heart.

"I was most loyal to our Sabora, my sister. And I'm going to find her." Because she had no where else to go, and she knew that they were potentially surrounded by enemies. Allies to Saboro to the north and south. Enemies that would kill a Saboran to the west. Saboro itself was east. Oriana couldn't be far, could she?

"What about you?" she asks, flicking her nose to motion to him. Artemisia was curious as to why he left, even if she had a haunch that it was something similar. To find something or someone, yet it was only natural to shoot back the same questions. "Where will you go?"

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