Chapter Nine: Rescue

I paced round the cell, muttering and cursing under my breath.

My brain was too active to go to sleep and I was also afraid of seeing spirits of the Princes, growling at me or pouncing on me. I wasn't ready for that.

It was midnight when I heard a sound and a thud like a body falling.

I shot up from the ground I was crouching earlier and pressed my body against the walls of the cell.

I heard slow footsteps and a creek as the door to the cell opened and a masked stranger with a cloak entered.

"Come with me if you still value your life" was all he said and turned back to go, not even waiting for me.

I considered my options quickly.

It was either to stay here and be executed anyways, or follow a total stranger and probably be killed too.

Oh whatever!

I grunted and ran after him. On my way out, I saw bodies of the guards lying carelessly on the ground "What did you do them?" I asked silently but he didn't answer as we ran out of the tower.

We kept running into the forest to where I had no idea of. When I was sure we had gotten far enough, I stopped and didn't move further.

He stopped too after a moment and turned to face me "Do you want to die?" He asked again but I asked him back "Who are you? Why did you save me? And where are you taking me?".

He snickered "We can stand here and answer that question, if you want. Or we can run and get to a safe place, before they catch us" he had hardly finished speaking when I heard voices behind me.

The guards were coming.

I turned to him and he raised his arms as if in surrender "Your call".

I stared hard at him, contemplating on the next step to take.

But I couldn't contemplate for long as an arrow whooshed past me and I bent low, my heart beat rising.

"Well, I believe you know the right answer" he remarked and took off running while I closely followed him behind.

We ran deeper and deeper into the forest as arrows whooshed past us, hitting the ground and trees.

I was still running when my foot got caught in a tree branch that had grown into the ground and I hit his back and we fell. We kept rolling and tumbling on the forest floor and the next thing I knew, my back collided with a tree and I wailed in pain.

He stood up immediately and turned to me "Stop whining! You'll alert them to our position! Just stand up and run!" I squeezed my face in anger.

Couldn't he see that I was hurt and had maybe broken a thing or two in my body?!

Nevertheless, I grunted in pain as I slowly stood up and breathed heavily, in an attempt to calm the pain and it worked.

He turned the other way and we continued running until we came to a river "Now what! What do we do? We can't cross the river as they'll kill us before we even reach the middle of it. And we can't go round the river, they'll catch us before we even make it out. This is the end!" I yelled at him but he didn't even flinch.

He stayed quiet for a while and I thought he had given up.

Great!

I got rescued from execution only to eventually die at a river that nobody knows of!

I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. It had gotten loose when I fell.

I was still muttering when I felt a hand grab my waist and plunge me into the river. I flailed my arms around, desperately seeking for oxygen but he held me tight and shook his head sideways.

Then, he brought out two straw like sticks and gave one to me.

We both swam a little bit to the surface and let the straws out so the other end was out of the river and we put the other end in our mouths.