Don't Drop the Soap

I am in a large cage and my legs and hands are free, and after one glace around, I realize that I'm suspended hundreds of feet above a desert canyon.

All around me are cages just like my own, filled with people. They are connected to the ceiling by huge chains. Metal walkways form a spiderweb between the cages, and I see large rooms that I assume are dining halls and showers on the walls of the canyon.

I rub my hands and legs, which are covered in blisters from where the bindings dug into my flesh. A string is attached around my neck, and on the end of it is a dogtag with the number: 157.

To my left is a blue-colored sleeping Rito. She is sitting on her bed, staring forward into space, and only moves with the movement of the wind howling through the canyon. What is most unnatural about her is her wings, which are clipped and bleeding.

I know from all the Rito that I've interacted with that flight is essential to life, for the Yiga to have clipped her wings and put her in a cage is the worst form of torture.

All types of people inhabit the hundreds of cages suspended above this desert canyon. I see Goron bench pressing the beds in their cells and Gerudo in yoga positions, but most are just sitting or sleeping, completely devoid of emotion.

Luckily, I've spotted Riju a few cells away from me. She waves to me, then sits down.

Inside the cages are a bed and toilet, which is just a hole in the floor.

With nothing else to do, I spend the rest of my time fighting the Muddlebud in my system, and in a few hours, I hear a ding of a bell, echoing out three times across the canyon. The inmates in the cells around me all stand up in response to the noise.

The prisoners and I are put into a line by Yija assassins wielding long, purple tipped spears, and are led to a long building attached to the side of the canyon. I quickly join the line behind Riju, who whispers to me,

"Arjon, are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why the hell did you bite that guard's finger off?"

"Tried to grab my hair. Don't like it when people grab my hair. Anyway, it is pretty secure here, but I think we will be able to escape with my lighting powers. Let's just lay low, figure out the routine, then make a plan."

"Sounds good."

We are led to one of the rooms on the side of the canyon, all while under the watch of the blade masters. The room turns out to be a dining hall. Riju and I get our food start walking over to a far table, where I begin discussing escape.

"First thing is we need to gather materials, I could craft someth-"

I'm interrupted by a tall, tattooed Hylian man who was walking past me. He slams me with his shoulder, and I am knocked to the ground, falling on my tray of soupy food.

My head slams into a bench, and my ears ring. My head feels like a swaying boat, and multicolored dots dance beneath my eyelids.

I look up an see my assailant, a man who is tall and musclebound, covered in scars and tattoos. One tattoo on his body stands out, a set of Bokoblin teeth and lips extending from the corners of his mouth. He laughs at me with two people next to him and keeps walking, stepping over my bruised body.

A few seconds later, a hand grasps the front of my shirt, pulling me upright, and I see Riju, who has squatted down and has leaned in close enough to make my face heat up.

Brushing of my back, she whispers into my ear, "Get up Pretty boy, you can't seem weak. Go ahhh, what do you like to say? Fuck em up?"

I grin at her, and spring to my feet, rushing at the tattooed man. Before he can turn around I grab my fork and slam it into the large man's shoulder.

He whirls around, turning his momentum into a roundhouse kick that makes me retreat.

With both me and my opponent manaless, I will have to be very calculated.

I dash at the man, steeping up on the tables around me to gain high ground. When I reach him I attempt to use a gravity-assisted downward kick to end the fight, but he grabs my leg, holding me up in the air.

He pulls me up to his face, smiling at me with his ugly mouth tattoos, and I can see the muscles on his other arm tensing in preparation for a punch.

With another person this would work, but Rhoam made sure I was incredibly flexible in my training. Pulling myself up, I arch around the massive mans head, and grab his hair with both my hands.

Squeezing my abs harder than I ever have, I am able to flip the massive man forward, cracking the table in front of me.

He attempts to get up, but an axe kick to the head puts him out cold.

I look nervously around, but the Yiga guards make no move to punish me.

Ever since that fight, Riju and I haven't been disturbed by any other prisoners.

Without the treat of fights, we figure out the layout of the prison, and a basic escape plan. We also learn that this facility houses top notch people. Crime lords, nobles, high ranking merchants, powerful wielders, knights, they are all kept here by the Yiga.

After two weeklong in the prison, I have freed myself from the effects of the Muddlebud enough that, at the time farthest from the last injection, I will be able to create a bit of water that I can manipulate to crack the lock on my cage.

I will free myself in the night, then let Riju out, but the walkways are constantly patrolled, so we will have to climb under the them.

The only way to do that is with powerful magnets, which, even with limited acess to my powers, I can create from metal.

Problem is, finding metal here is hard, everything is made of wood or cloth, but there is one thing prisoners have access to that is metal, the dogtags with numbers around our necks.

My plan to get them is simple.

When's the best way to get these dogtags? When people are most vulnerable. When are people most vulnerable?

The shower.