Amusement flickered through his gaze as she questioned him back in the exact manner he had done her. He supposed she had every right to do so, though, she was the only one there not expecting to see someone. Especially not him, or so he presumed.<span style="color: #BF0000">"That would be my name, yes, or rather...part of it."</span>He replied before Aria spoke again, making her way to where he sat mounted on his glorious black horse. His pale blond hair drifted into his eyes as he looked down upon the woman the little girl had become, though in all honesty the woman resembled ten year old Aria more than he resembled his own younger self. She still had her innocence.<br/><br/><span style="color: #BF0000">"Ah, I see, I agree upon the fact that to be a queen you ought to be allowed outside your cage to see whats outside the bars. As for what I am doing here...well..."</span>Xander paused as he himself caught a lungful of smokey air, coughing lightly into his arm before he turned his gaze to Aria once more. He knew what was happening, of course, and her utterly confused look would have had a snicker escaping him if he were not here on a mission. Instead he glanced around as the air darkened with smoke, finding the path he was meant to use to rescue her.<span style="color: #BF0000">"My reasoning for being here can wait, perhaps once we are away from the forest I'll share. For now I believe it is time we depart..."</span><br/><br/>His arm stretched down, hand splaying open to offer a place atop his horse.<span style="color: #BF0000">"Get up, quickly before the horses leave us to die in the fire."</span>Almost as if to punctuate his words, Nerezza whickered once more while one of Reaper's massive hooves scuffed the earth impatiently. Alexander seemed as genuinely concerned for her fate as he could, as surprised at the sudden fire as she was, though the only thing about this meeting that caught him unawares were the items she had just stuffed into a bag. If he wasn't mistaking those were the wooden swords they had sparred with as children and she had just burned herself in order to place them safely in her bag. He almost wanted to yell<span style="font-style: italic">forget the toys and get up on this horse before we both die, idiot!</span>but he didn't. Instead he simply overlooked this and glanced back at Nerezza, just to  be sure she hadn't yet been touched by flames.