They couldn’t find the prince in the forest.

“Well, isn’t that great news for us?” said Merlin to Odilia the bird. “That means I can treat your wounds much sooner.”

Odilia squawked in response. She did not think it was good news at all.

Merlin smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m sure the prince returned to the palace. He usually does so within an hour of hunting.”

Odilia squawked again. She hoped what Merlin said was true.

Merlin had talked to her the entire time they were together in the woods. She was sure that she’d heard him talk more now with the bird, than he had ever talked when she was human. She wondered if the pretty head of his was alright.

Merlin took the bird to a bubbling creek and carefully unwrapped the bloody bandage. He removed a dagger, which was tucked under the belt of his uniform and removed the bullet lodged in Odilia’s flesh. Odilia watched warily with her golden eyes as Merlin cleaned her wound with cold water from the creek and staunch the bleeding with moss. Merlin produced another piece of fabric and tightly wrapped it around Odilia’s tender wing and torso so that it would remain stable. It would be a while before she could fly again. Odilia cursed for not being more careful.

After Merlin was satisfied with his work, he took her up and continued back the path they’d come from. Odilia was surprised because she’d expected him to just let her go immediately. A few minutes longer and Odilia realized that Merlin wasn’t about to let her go at all.

Odilia squirmed and squawked in protest, wincing against the pain at every movement.

“It’s okay, I’ll take you somewhere safe,” Merlin promised, which was not what Odilia was hoping for at all. If she was with him, how could she return to being human?

Odilia’s fears heightened when the two broke the clearing of the forest and ran into a figure who stood alone in the dark.

“Your highness.” Merlin stopped in his tracks and bowed his head. Odilia finally also noticed that this still figure was the prince. His face looked up to the sky, bathed by the light of the moon.

“Prince,” Merlin said nonchalantly with a matching bow. “So I see you’ve given up without catching anything.”

The prince removed his gaze from the heavens and looked at Merlin. A smile tugged at his lips. “Oh, I caught something,” he wrung his wrists and grinned. Then his eyes slid across those of the yellow eyes of the bird watching him. “I see that you were the one who snatched my prey.” His tone was one of observation.

“This one is not for you to play,” said Merlin.

Merlin looked down at the bird in his arm. Odilia met his eyes and tried to silently beg for him to let her go.

Instead, Merlin looked back up at Prince Saihi. “Let us go.” He didn’t wait for the prince to follow as he proceeded down the path towards the palace with Odilia cradled in his arms.

“What are you going to do with that?” asked the prince as he slid to find pace with the samurai.

Merlin’s breath was coming out steadily as he hurried through the palace gates and jogged by the guards posted at the doors. It was dark, the festivities long gone, so the path was easy.

“I’ll be treating its wounds.” Merlin spoke like it was obvious.

“How is this fair?” demanded the prince as he followed them down the corridors. “She is the creature I’ve caught!”

“So?”

“Therefore, she should be mine,” the prince huffed. “Where has your etiquette gone?”

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“It left when you abandoned your own birthday celebrities.” Merlin kept walking. “You have more work piled on your desk. Therefore,” Merlin then shot his highness a glance. “Millennial tasks such as playing caregiver to a bird will now be mine.”

Odilia bristled. If caring for her was such a chore, why not just let her go?

Merlin didn’t speak until they reached the end of the corridor within the palace. The guards threw black the doors wide for the three of them to enter. The prince followed Merlin glumly, making Odilia wonder just how important Merlin’s role was within the palace.

When the doors finally closed, the prince fell into a couch decorated with cushions. Merlin gathered a soft, beige blanket and dropped Odilia into its nest. He then left her there, walking around the room and filing through cabinets and drawers as he collected what Odilia assumed were bandages and ointments.

The prince sat across Odilia and stared at her without blinking. She looked away and focussed her attention elsewhere.

“You sure that’s a bird?” asked the prince, making Odilia’s heart jump into a faster beat.

“What do you mean?” Merlin demanded, taking the very words from Odilia’s mind. He was now behind Odilia and he walked around to reach in front of her to gently pick her up to nurse her.

The prince sighed and leaned back against the hood of the couch, his face up at the cream-colored ceiling.

Merlin glanced at the prince, waiting for a response, but after another moment of silence, he went back to focusing on the task at hand. Merlin took a basin of water he had filled and began cleaning Odilia’s soiled feathers. The water quickly turned rust-colored before it grayed from all the extra grime. Merlin had a jar of ointment and he gently applied it onto Odilia’s open wound, the space between her wing and shoulder where the bullet had hit her. Odilia winced from the pain as Merlin took a clean strip of linen to wrap up his work.

Odilia tried flexing her wing only to result in a nauseating pain throughout her whole body. If she were any ordinary bird, she might not have survived from the wound of a bullet.

Merlin lifted Odilia up and put her back in his makeshift nest of blankets. He sat down on the couch opposite the prince. “Okay,” Merlin nodded his head at the prince. “What’s really up?”

Odilia watched the two intently; Merlin with his hands folded professionally, the prince slumped against cushions and legs disgracefully splayed out. Odilia assumed that for the two to be talking so comfortably with each other, they must be in some private room like a lounge or study belonging to the prince.

The prince didn’t answer, so Merlin proceeded to stare at him until he said, “Where’s your rifle?”

The prince immediately sat up and looked at his hands. A look of bewilderment spread across his face at finding them empty . He then glanced around the vicinity of his area.

“You weren’t carrying it when we emerged from the woods,” Merlin spoke.

“Oh,” the prince collapsed back into his seat. “I must have forgotten it.”

“Where?” Merlin frowned. “In the woods?”

The prince shrugged.

“This is unlike you,” Merlin continued. “You generally treat your weapons like you would a child. And this one was a gift received today by the queen.”

“I don’t know what to say,” said the prince.

“I can wait,” Merlin folded his arms.

“No, I mean,” he closed his eyes. “What I mean to say is that…” The prince opened his eyes, meeting Odilia’s yellow ones before looking away. “Let me show you,” said the prince.

“What?”

Odilia shifted, trying to make sense of the conversation. Merlin glanced down at her, hearing the bird’s discomfort. He looked back up at the prince.

The prince was pacing in front of the couch now with his hands rubbing his chin where small hairs were beginning to poke through. “Yes, I can just show you.” He then rounded to the back of the room, disappearing from Odilia’s line of sight.

“What?” Merlin repeated, turning to find where the prince disappeared. When the prince didn’t immediately reply, Merlin looked down at Odilia and scratched his head, shrugging before setting her down. He stood and ran after the prince. “Saihi, seriously, what?”

“Don’t question it,” the prince snapped, reappearing in a more casual attire.

Merlin pointed at the prince accusingly. “Why are you wearing my clothes?”

“You didn’t have an issue with it before,” the prince shoved past Merlin towards the door. When Merlin didn’t immediately move, the prince raised an eyebrow and nodded at the door. “Come on, Kenta”

After glancing down at Odilia once more, Merlin left.

Odilia had been listening and plotting ways that she could escape Merlin’s grasp so that she could reappear in her human form. She’d also caught the prince address Merlin by a different name: Kenta. She wondered why it was so. However, Odilia was stuck in the form of an eagle with an injured wing and so could only continue watching as the door closed and locked before her.