Jason,now on despite the struggle,held firmly onto the horse. Two reasons. One,not wanting to fall off. Two,he didn't dare touch Ash in any way,not about to help that last part of his heart for him flourish,not again or after everything. He didn't want his heart broken again. He held in any cries from the bumping motion of the horse against his tail,not about to let out any pained sound.Especially here with Ash.

They rode for a couple of hours while the sky above them turned from pitch black to navy blue to the faintest tinge of pink. Puck kept well ahead of them, flitting from branch to branch until they caught up, then swooping away again. He led them deep into the swamps, through bogs where the tatter-colt sloshed through waist-deep pools of murky water, past huge, moss-covered trees dripping with vines. Ash said nothing as they traveled, but his head hung lower and lower the farther they went. Finally, as the last of the stars faded from the sky, the tatter-colt pushed its way through a cluster of vine-covered trees to find the raven perched atop a rustic-looking shack in the middle of the swamp.

Before the tatter-colt stopped moving, Ash was sliding off its back. As soon as he was off, the tatter-colt began tossing its head and bucking.

"Ah!" Jason was shocked from the bucking and his wings didn't help,unless you count that their weight helped the bucking throw him off,flying into the air a bit and hitting back down before getting thrown off. He hit the ground with a thud,right on his tail and he clenched his jaw not to cry out in pain. He shakily stood,wings in tight and the maroon darker now,almost black,as he stood. His tail curled in and frills folding from fluffing in shock.

Snorting, the colt trotted into the bushes with its head held high and disappeared.

Puck was there suddenly. "Go wake up the healer. Tell her we've got an iron-sickened prince on our hands. But be careful." He grinned, his normal self once more. "She can be a little cranky before shes had her coffee."

He nodded,not saying a think because he knew it would be shaky and scared. Despite the struggle of it,he walked without a sway,except for his shaking tail,toward the hut. He politely knocked,trying not to break down in pain that was shooting through his spine from his tail in waves.

A cluster of toadstools, growing right out of the wall near the door, pulsed with a soft orange light, and the shack itself was covered in various moss, lichens, and mushrooms of different colors. No one answered right away

He took a step back from the door,not wanting to knock like a five year old over and over and over but he wasn't sure if he'd get a response.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" yelled an irritable voice on the other side. "Do you people think healers dont have to sleep, is that it?" Shuffling footsteps made their way to the door while the voice still continued to mutter. "Up all night with a sick catoblepas, but do I get any rest? Of course not, healers dont need rest. They can just drink one of their special potions and stay up all night, for days on end, ready to jump at every emergency that comes banging on their door at five in the morning!" The door whooshed open, and Jason found himself staring at empty air.

"What?" snapped the voice near his feet

"Um....Excuse me?" He said politely,not sure who the voice was from if there was only air. "We...sorta have an iron-sick prince."

An ancient gnome stared up at him, her face wrinkled and shriveled like a walnut under a frayed clump of white hair. Barely two feet tall, dressed in a once-white robe with tiny gold glasses on the end of her nose, she glared at him like a furious midget bear, black eyes snapping with irritation.