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"I sai--!" Nic started, but the next pull on his wrist gave him a start. At first, he simply expected it had been Aurora tugging him insistantly faster toward the castle, but the force behind it was too strong. Before the knight could settle his feet firmly on the ground, just as he was reaching an arm around the blonde prince in an attempt to steady him, he was falling right along beside him. "Oof!"

The next thing he knew, Nic was opening his eyes atop the prince, probably far too close for either of their comfort with his arm still around Aurora's waist. If he was a more disrespectful person, he probably would have exclaimed for the boy to watch where he was going next time, but of course, he was nothing of that type. "Ah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he said instead, pushing himself up onto his elbows. "Are you ok?!"

For some reason or another, Nicholas didn't push himself to his feet right away. Even when commented on how his weight was a burden atop the other. With his mouth opened slightly as if trying to form the words on the tip of his tongue, the knight caught sight of that flushed skin. It didn't help that Aurora was acting so shamefully, adorably shy. The push of the prince against his chest acted as a break in his unconscious daze. Murmuring another half a dozen apologies, Nic hastily came to his feet and around to Aurora's front.

Ignoring the slight flush of embarassment on his own cheeks, he offered an outstretched hand to the grounded prince. "That was my fault," he said, taking the blame for the fall.. Even if it was Aurora who had stumbled on the misplaced stone. "Let me help you."

A satisfied smirk clearly played on Ryland's lips as he marched through the brush, vaguely listening to the ranting boy behind him. He only halted his steps when it seemed the other was no longer tailing him completely. In fact, as he looked over his shoulder, he frowned to find a very different looking boy beneath the tree they'd just passed beneath. Only two or three steps ahead, he easily called back the question, ".... Who the hell are you?"

As Pandora came bursting through the bushes, Ryland completely turned around and took a step back. "Magic?" he muttered, trying to grasp the idea. This was no form of magic he'd ever witnessed before. "What'd you do? Throw on a wig and a bodysuit?" he asked Hina, before following up to the shorter boy, "And ... some makeup or something?"

"What, you saw my frog body and you expected me to be normal?" he asked rather sarcastically, a small scowl on his lips. "Here, look..." he muttered, raising a hand to his mouth to cough into. Despite its being a forced cough, the small motion still turned him back to his usual, small self. "It's just me.... Told you, right? I'm not supposed to be like this because I'm cursed. Mister midgit over there probably just has a split personality and a lot of spare time and eye liner," Hina said, glancing back towards Pandora-now-Panick.

"Fortunately -- or, I don't know because 'Rora says it is unfortunate -- my personality stays the same no matter who I am, although I did change my name for when I am larger. Hina really just does not suit one who actually looks eighteen," he explained with a small, indifferent shrug.

"What'd you mean eyeliner. This is what I normally look like you...oh, what's the point. You wouldn't believe me if I tried to explain it anyway. No one ever does." Panick said as he looked at Hina, who seemed to have just changed twice in a row before his very eyes.

"Curse huh. I simply love curses. They come in so many different varieties and they make the people who are hit with them so very miserable and panicky all the time. They're always afraid of when their curse is going to do them in. It's so much fun to watch cursed people run around and try to find a cure or a way to break their curse." he said as he examined his fingernails, almost as if he were bored about saying it. The tone of endearment in his voice would prove otherwise though. Truth be told curses were his favorite thing in the world outside of the proverbial curse he'd been landed with of sharing a body with Pandora until he found his own. Even then though, since Pandora had set him free..."I'll still be bound to this happy go lucky pain in the..." his already faint voice at that comment simply trailed off.

The nudge hardly effected the fallen sea prince, his body coming to rest again after Hina's foot moved away.

'Tell me about this... boy,' a sweet voice beckoned him. A much younger Ryland followed a glimmer of silver to Entler's Crevass. He'd been told to avoid that place; that it was a dwelling for those that wickedly paralleled his own species. As bold cerulean orbs looked down into the darkness, he could've sworn he'd seen the mast of a ship or two. But the voice was so reassuring... promising. If he only just told someone-- a friend. Someone who could understand.

It was as if the story was never his to keep secret; the way he poured it out under Her influence.

When the full Erumina revealed herself and he saw the devilish creature for what she was, it was far too late.

.... Legs.

After Aurora had come to his feet, Nicholas assumed a slight bowing position. He could have went on with a string of apologies, saying he must still be getting used to the solid ground after the elephant ride. Or better yet, it could have always been his natural clumsiness that had taken them down.. But Nic suspected Aurora wasn't really the type to want to hear excuses. Eventually rising from his respectful bow, the knight's gaze followed that of the prince's, spotting Celestine watching them, immediatly sending a burning crimson into his cheeks. Even from their distance, he picked up a certain something from her gaze. Surely the Queen didn't think they were.. doing anything, did she?

"I-..I'm not positive, but I think your mother finds us to be of interest at the moment," Nic whispered, offering an embarassed wave Celestine's way.