The Escape Plan

It was in the middle of the night. The sky was cloudy with only a soft blue ray of light from the moon to reveal the land beneath. In the village of Sebraten, only the few guards on their posts were wandering about.

The ground still had snow all over, making it hard for Din to move about without making too much noise. He was wearing a dark cloak over his usual leather armor and used his hood to cover his face.

I was moving ahead to spot the positions of the guards, allowing Din to move through the village with ease. The guards were moving in a predetermined path so it was easy to guide Din. The biggest problem were the guards on each of the four towers. The height of those towers allowed the guards to have a view over most of the town. I was only thankful that the guards above would mostly spend their time looking outside the village into the forests and the roads that led to the village.

We were only a bit away from the outer perimeter of the village now. Once Din reached that, he should be all set. He just had to walk past a few more houses at this point.

I looked around the houses to see if any guards were patrolling the area. Not seeing any guards around, I motioned my hands to Din that it's safe.

Right as Din started moving, a guard turned the corner and entered the same path I was on. I immediately yelled in Din's direction.

"Go back!"

Luckily, Din managed to hide behind a barrel as the guard passed through. The guard appeared tired and let out a yawn before turning a corner away from us.

"Okay, it's safe now."

Din peaked out and then checked his surroundings for himself, after confirming that he was safe, he rushed towards me. It was then that I realized one grave error that we hadn't taken into account. His footprints were clearly visible in the snow.

A guard was following the footprints and then noticed Din as he looked at where it led.

"Stop right there!"

Din turned around to check on the sudden noise before turning back. The guard was running towards him at full speed, almost slipping at one point. Din made a dash towards the outskirts of the village, but right as soon as he passed a house, a guard suddenly jumped towards him, knocking him on the snow floor.

"I got him! Someone help me hold him down!"

Din struggled as the guard pinned him down, but he was unable to get up. As more guards arrived, Din finally gave up and then laid there with his face on the snow.

"Damn it…"

—Even though it was the middle of the day, Din still laid on his bed. He wasn't sleeping, he was just staring at the ceiling of his room. For some reason, his uncle wouldn't allow him to leave the village and wouldn't tell him why either. Tal and Mun were still planning on leaving tonight, with or without Din.

With a knock on the door, Tal's voice asked, "Hey Din, are you in there?"

After collecting his thoughts, Din got up from his bed. He lazily walked towards the door and opened it.

"What is it?"

Mun was standing behind Tal. They were holding circular bread with some type of red jelly on the inside. Tal handed one to Din as he entered the room uninvited.

"Well, as you know, Mun and I are going to be leaving tonight just as soon as we get some food for the road. Oh also, your uncle told us that the weather will be clear tonight so we shouldn't have to worry about a rough journey."

Immediately after entering the room, Mun sat down on Din's bed while still eating the bread. Din closed the door and then sat on the chair that was located near a desk close to the bed. Tal remained standing.

After realizing that he wasn't going to get any response from Din, Tal continued, "You know, the two of us are trained in the arts of stealth."

That caught Din's attention.

"Does that mean… you two are going to help me escape?"

Tal leaned against the wall next to Din.

"You seem to have the ability to activate your Spirit's eye at will. There's also the fact that you can see the ghost of your old friend as well. There's no way we can just leave you stuck here for God knows how long."

With a pat on Din's shoulders, Tal said, "We'll bust you out of here tonight. Mun and I'll cause a distraction on the north side of the village while you escape from the south side."

"How're you planning on doing that?"

A wide smile formed on Tal's face. He opened the pouch he had been carrying to reveal multiple circular objects.

"They're light bombs."

"What?!"

I yelled that out on impulse. Although Tal and Mun couldn't hear me, Din was startled by my sudden yelling. I clasped my hand together towards Din.

"Sorry about that, Din. I didn't mean to yell."

Changing my focus on the bombs in Tal's pouch, I continued, "I don't think using bombs here will be a good idea. We don't know why your uncle wants to keep you here, but destroying his village will only cause more trouble for him."

Din nodded.

"I agree."

He then turned to Tal.

"Lorelei and I are against this plan. I appreciate you wanting to help me escape, but using a bomb is a little too much. We'll find a different way of escaping."

Tal started laughing.

"You don't have to worry at all! These things aren't just your regular bombs. They don't cause an explosion or anything. These are what I like to call light bombs. They release a bright light so strong that it blinds anyone that was looking in its general direction. Of course, their eyes will only be blind for a few seconds and the damage won't be permanent either."

"That sounds way too good to be true… a perfect distraction weapon."

Tal proudly rubbed his chin while standing up straight.

"I think you're forgetting who we really are. Of course our job needs us to kill our targets sometimes, but they mainly require us to gather items or information. We don't just go around bombing people. And just in case our plan goes wrong, we have these light bombs and smoke bombs to help with our escape."

He let out a sigh as he leaned back onto the wall.

"Too bad we ended up using all of our smoke bomb in that stadium. The stadium was way too big to only use a few smoke bombs so we had to use everything just so we could get you out of there."

Tal laughed as a sudden realization came to him.

"Hey, are we like your guardian angel? This'll be our second time helping you out in a pinch, huh?"

After thinking back, Din laughed as well.

"I guess it has been like that."

Tal reached out his hand towards Din.

"Well, just make sure to return the favor one day. If you join our guild, that'll be very helpful. I bet our guild leader would appreciate having another Spirit on board as well. We'll be waiting for you in Newron so just meet us there."

Din nodded.

"Sure thing."

I couldn't help but feel relieved after seeing Din back on his feet again after the failed attempt the previous night.

Meanwhile, Mun was already snoring as she laid there on Din's bed, having contributed nothing to this whole conversation.