Chapter 22: Valkyries on an Eight-legged horse

Songs for this chapter are:

Sparky - Santi

Locked away - R.City ft Adam Levine

Pull up - Burna Boy.

Dan

Several years ago...

"Ah!!" The frail but utterly fearful shriek of a girl had pierced through the thick curtains of my room, finding its way into my eardrums like an arrow; like screams hollow enough to pierce through a hot, thick piece of metal.

At first, I'd only risen from my table, sending the pieces of paper I'd been using to do my may homework flying through the and like the dismembered feathers of a chicken simply because I was bored and curious to witness something, more thrilling than solving math equations that I'd only gotten wrong anyway.

Repeatedly.

The chances of me ever knowing math is like giving— rather let me put it this way. Are lions vegetarians?

Certainly not.

But what I had seen once I opened the thick cutting shielding my room from the outer view of the castle was definitely as ferocious as Valkyries with sabre and swords, matching in a fierce outrage to slay the entire populace of their counterparts, riding on eight-legged horses to buttress more on the intensity of what victory meant to them at that moment. It was certainly horrifying!

I saw Cassandra, the little girl I had fetched for my sake, to be my "dearest betrothed maiden" when I'm only just fourteen years old was holding a stick—more like a trunk from an oak tree, making attempts to hit it on the brick fence but then dawdling back into the fields of grasses in mighty fear.

I certainly would have presumed that a nine-year-old was capable of running mad until I'd squinted my eyes just a little more determinedly to know if there was more to it and then I spotted a creamy colored skin of a serpentine creature slithering on the fence where Cassandra only stood five inches or meters away from. Yeah, I was that bad at math.

But...HOLY MOLY!!

Had my dad really asked this little girl to kill an entire king cobra?! If I dared to think that my dad was initially a schizophrenic witnessing all of the gruesome things he did to his servants and even to Cassandra, then I certainly must be outdated on the ongoing of things because my dad is surely now a madman: a stark raving, shamelessly nude, mad man! Only that he was yet to become a vagabond on the cold streets of the outer world.

But it's clear that worms that feasted extensively on every nugget of my father's brain that managed to squeal, normalcy. Has my dad ever been a normal person though?

Another outcry that escaped sharply from the field has served as an apt answer to the question that sprung forth in my head.

Hurriedly, I grabbed the ring of keys laid flatly on my lampstand, as I reached for my door ad unlocked it immediately analyzing that a journey through the cellar would be the fastest route to land me in the fields.

It definitely felt a tad bit too liberating to be able to have possession of the keys to my very own room. Yes, my shrewd captivity in this castle was that thorough and intricate down to something as astonishing as a denial of access to keys of my room! Such murkiness!

But, ever since my dad had fetched Cassandra for me, he'd handed over the keys of my room to me so I could go out at any time of the day to give her my attention and put on the act of a slave just so I could win her over.

If her presences could smoothly hover that minuscule of liberation my way when I normally would never be permitted to lock and unlock the door to my room at my own will, then my dad most certainly has gone bonkers to think I won't do everything within my leverage to keep my source of maximum liberation alive.

I headed for the cellar in a dash with my candle in hand since it was a dark path but in no time truly, had I stepped foot on a marshy bed of grasses. Quickly I dipped the ring of my keys into my pocket and dismissed the candlestick in the grass, barely sure if I'd put out the fire blazing on top at all but I left that for the wind to worry about.

I sprinted till I was standing right behind little Cassandra, threw some that had accurately hit the cobra brutally on the head just before it could do that weird arch of the head that other cobras do whenever they are about to release salivary juice catastrophic enough to disable the human eye.

Then, I snaked my arm forcefully around little Cassandra's waistline and pulled her farther away from the sight of the serpent as I possibly could and that had only resulted in us tumbling against one another like two little mice, wrapped in a furry ball but we were safe most importantly.

Startled, she gazes at me for a second, a look of sheer thankfulness dripping from my eyes like golden coins.

"Are you okay?" I asked, my voice slipping out rather raggedy.

"Yes, I am. Thank you so much. You came just in time because I was really scared that I would die." She humped, rather unconsciously in an attempt to catch her breath.

Obviously, little Cassie. Obviously.

"Did the loan shark really assign you to kill a cobra?" I asked, finding it pretty much easy to call my dad the loan shark since I was pretending to her to be a slave that was pretty much used as collateral like every other slave.

I never for once considered the loan shark as my dad.

"Y-yes he did..."

My. My. This insane son of a frog!

I swallowed contemplating what to say next to the girl who was still basked in startled startledness.

I'd decided to help her to her feet as we both stood up from the bed of grasses. I placed my hands limply on her shoulder in a brotherly demure.

"I'd have to go now but please be safe and well for my sake. I would come back by dusk to get you a meal. Please hurry on now so the loan shark doesn't meet us here." I geared her.

"I sure would," she said in a tone that indicated that she knew better than to loaf around me for too long. With a succinct look on her face and something I could somewhat picture as confusion as well, she walked farther away from me and onto her work field.

***

Heading back to my chamber, I met my father standing leisurely just by the door to my room, but I could vow that even the most relaxed standing position of my father was very much equivalent to a warrior's mannerisms in the face of an epic battle. I walked quietly till I stop face to face with him, figuring that it would be unwise to avoid him anyway.

There was menial light radiating from the window of my room unto his sinister face. He raised his left brow a millimeter in a scorn that nearly made me clench my fists. That look was definitely the most annoying and it always heightened my anxiety by at least another tone.

"You went to save her from that cobra again didn't you?" He asked, his eyes colder than the attic.

"Father...why did you do that? I thought we agreed on something entirely different—

"DON'T YOU DARE ANSWER MY QUESTION WITH A QUESTION!" He grabbed the collar of my shirt, the weight of his hold on my throat robust enough to send me flying away and most likely making my skull collide with the hard granite walls.

"If I answer your question, would you hear me out?" I dared to challenge my father, the loan shark who had killed hundreds of thousands of slaves in his lifetime, and even more.

"YOU SCOUND—"

"DAD!" I dared to interrupt him anyway. Holy God. Are these the things a desperation for freedom can make you do because where was all of the epic bravery coming from?

"You have been gravely punishing this little girl ever since you brought her here which was already against what we agreed on but I deemed it bearable since you already said you would have to make her a slave provided that you could still give me the opportunity to act as her savior but coercing her to battle with a king cobra? That is really questionable sir." I continued.

"Very soon, I would make her tackle with a lion from the outermost, harshest jungles of the earth and would most definitely use the remnants of her skin that has been devoured by the lion as an adornment to my chambers."

A disturbing smirk tilted up his lips as his grip on my neck tightened a bit more. Is my father actually going to kill me?

"Why, dad? Why?" I asked in almost a whisper, as I swallowed. It felt like he was directly holding my Adam's apple.

Then my eyes? They stung as though they were...wet? Was I about to cry?

Of course, I was!

This bastardized, insane man was really frustrating all of my plans and the fickle visualization of me having to stay in the castle forever till I probably transform into the exact duplication of my dad, really, really made me sad. Why the hell was he doing that? Would I ever get to be free again? What would become of me if this golden opportunity slips off my hands?

"Because you are most certainly not cautious about your proceedings. Everyone sees you with that girl now because you are always coming to her rescue at the smallest of moments and you are faltering greatly in your math homework simply because you are in such a haste to be betrothed to a fair maiden!"

Oh heavens! If only you were human enough to know what my true intentions are! You would understand how hazardous it is for me to spend even an extra minute in this misery of a place.

"Is that so father? I thought I am supposed to protect my maiden with all of my power so I can win her over."

Deciphering that it would only be best to say things within the context of what my father wanted to hear, lying smoothly was definitely something I had to pull off without a flaw.

"But no maiden wants a man that has a brain, minuscule enough to fill a teaspoon. You have to be focused on getting the best scores in your homework so your home teachers would be happy with you and so would I. More importantly, your object of admiration. You can not keep chasing her like you've got nothing else to do. If you don't do what I say and focus more on your homework, I'm afraid I might start to suspect that you are rather, up to something else."

His cold, eyes bore into mine this time and it bore into really hard like a miner seeking for diamond in the deepest pits of the deserts only that my dad's stares were drilling into my soul for all the kinds of emotions existent in me and hunting for even just a crust of affirmation to the fact that I was perhaps truly up to something else but I wasn't going to let him see through me just yet.

It would completely ruin everything.

"Very well then sir. I would focus more on my homework and give the little slave room to equally reciprocate her interest in me. I'd work harder to be a more suitable groom."

The lies rolled off my tongue as he then let me down, my throat no longer squeezed in his mighty hands. I keep my head bowed, and my fists clenched slightly in trepidation.

"THIS REALLY IS YOUR LAST WARNING AND YOU KNOW I HAVE BEEN WARNING YOU FOR A WHILE NOW. THE NEXT THING I WOULD DO TO YOU IF YOU DISOBEY MY ORDERS WOULD UTTERLY BE DESPICABLE!"

With an extremely resounding air of finality, he stormed out of my presence, thumping his foot on the stony stairway that led to his chambers as I retreat into my own room, figuring just what next to do; a step to take that would lead me closer to my exoneration.

***

Weeks had flown by and I managed to curb my escapades and meetings with little Cassandra just because I could not afford to defy my father's orders this time around since he was watching over my movements more than ever.

But I wasn't busy solving mathematics either. Mrs. Jones was kind-hearted enough to help me with that because I really wasn't achieving anything but all thanks to dearest Mrs. Jones, I was able to show my homework to my teachers every day without getting scolded.

I took it upon me to says that woman if I was successfully able to escape the castle according to plan because she really deserved to live a life. She had suffered greatly under the lordship of my father yet was still benevolent enough to help his son.

Since my dad observed that I was "doing better at math.", he let me loose and allowed me to meet with little Cassandra and thankfully I'd come up with an amazing plan— a plan I should have come up with long, long ago and it was indeed satisfying that I was close to taking one step further.

I thought of my decapacitated uncle who resided permanently in the icy castle adjacent to my father's and I recalled all of the things he used to do when he could still walk with his legs.

I could remember the day my dad shot my uncle in the legs with his pistol, till his knees went wobbly and he fell helplessly onto the ground and then he untied the slave that my uncle wanted to help get an escape from the palace. He smashed the head of the slave gravely on the granite fence next to the storeroom.

The poor slave let out a wail of agony as a lock of his hair had been detached from his head due to how my father pulled it with his hand, the scalp beneath tore like a piece of meat as blood and even parts of his brain perhaps had come into full view then the slave gave up the ghost. Definitely dying in the most painful of ways.

Then my dad ordered his guards to throw my uncle to the icy castle of isolation to be perpetually bound in it. Crippled and helpless.

And truly, I didn't see my uncle for years despite the fact that he lived just in the same vicinity as ours. Since my dad would most definitely not be monitoring my movements so much tonight, I could accentuate my plan.

The plan was to take little Cassandra with me to my uncle's abode and make a genuine request to him to use any power he has left to grant Cassandra freedom. If I went there alone, he would not listen to me because he would not dare to help his nephew at the extreme detriment of his own dear life.

But I could use Cassandra as a bait. I definitely could.

I took a lighter with me just in case there would truly be an opportunity for me to escape and I made sure to meet with Mrs. Jones that evening just like I'd promised myself.

"Mrs. Jones...I am going to make an attempt to escape this castle tonight or in two days. Once you smoke coming from the icy castle adjacent to the master's castle, run to the bakery. There is an escape route there and I bet you would find it just in time."

"Really? Do you know what you are saying right now?"

"I'd escape by night time so the workers at the bakery would have retired by that time. Run to the bakery when you smell the smoke!" I said, completely ignoring her question.

Although she was skeptical, she knew better than to think I was joking with her so she swallowed and instead walked away briskly from me.

At least I did my part in ensuring that I would save her. Her life has been far too pathetic. It was high time and now it entirely depends on her.

But my plan to escape did not turn out well...at least that was what I thought at first though.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE? HMM...PLANNING TO ESCAPE NOT SO? BUHAHAHAHA...GUARDS?! TAKE THESE SCOUNDRELS TO THE OUTERMOST PARTS OF THE DUNGEONS, WHERE THE FIRE BY THE EMBERS BURN THE HOTTEST SO THEY DIE OF HEAT!!" my dad's voice thundered like a monsoon.

I felt really bad for my uncle. I knew that there still might be a way of escape in the dungeon where my dad was to send Cassandra and I into. In fact, I was glad that my dad finally realized what my true intentions were.

The only thing I could then hope for was that the dungeon was the exact same place I had seen in the map two years ago that had a tunnel underneath.

But what was going to happen to my uncle? I really did not want the poor man do suffer worse than he had already suffered all because of me.

How could my dad be so vicious as to shoot his own biological brother in the legs, dangerously enough to cripple him eternally?

But I guess I could not worry about nor save everybody. Every other slave remaining in the castle were probably going to die that night but I could only manage to save Mrs. Jones and Cassandra, my dearest tool for liberation. I guess I couldn't do much to save anyone else anyway but I felt really bad for my uncle.

After we were thrown into the void, empty dungeon, I began to look around, hoping and praying that the tunnel was somewhere around

but after we united ourselves from the ropes which involved a lot of effort and struggle, we spent hours looking for any clue as to how we could get out of this airless place but found absolutely nothing. Cassie got so tired and dozed off while I insisted that I would keep searching of course.

Then I woke her up from her sleep after I had, at last, found the tunnel.

"What is it??" She asked as she sat up, wiping the sweat off her forehead, as she opened her sleepy eyes slowly. I was sweating profusely like I had just finished digging a grave under the hot sun.

"There is a freaking tunnel beneath this room!!"

"Huh? What is a tunnel?" she asked, confused.

I huffed, shocked that she could be asking such a question at this critical moment but I explained anyway because she had to know and I had to take her along with me since I was lying to her.

"A tunnel is a pathway built under the ground most times where people or even cars can lass through depending on the size of the tunnel.

"Oh my God! So you mean there is really a tunnel in this room where you can not even see anything but the fire??" She asked, her eyes widened on surprise and elation at the same time.

"YES. and we have to go now. It's either the guards locked us up in the wrong dungeon or this was the place the loan shark built the tunnel on to help slaves escape and I know it's the latter which makes me have the feeling that the loan shark is going to come running after us very soon because I know he would threaten his brother to open up about his schemes. You know he ordered the guards to lock us up while he discussed it with his brother. That means we have to get down this tunnel very very fast."

Soon we were running down the tunnel. I had to be really fast because I could hear the gunshots of my father ricocheting very imminently. When I'd gotten far enough, I set up the lighter, tossing it to the ground till the tunnel was ablaze.

I sincerely hoped Mrs. Jones would be able to smell the smoke and elope as fast as she could but now there was no time to worry about it and me carrying little Cassie on my shoulders wasn't making me run any faster.

But I didn't give up. I was about to grab my own freedom by the arm...

I was close. Very very very close.

I couldn't falter or lose strength irrespective of my father's footsteps or rather the burning of the tunnel now because I was sure my dad was dead already due to how harsh the fire was. I kept running until I was out of the tunnel.

I really was out of the tunnel.

I actually escaped.

Wow. Smart one Dan. You really pulled this off! You quenched one emblem with another emblem and now you can finally get to take into your body the emblem of all emblems.

Fresh, liberating air...

"Dan, why do you do all of these things for me? Why do you help me out so much?" sweet little Cassandra dared to ask.

"That's because I love you and I have to do all of the things I'm doing now because I love you," I replied with a smirk on my face.

Of course, I do love the tool I was able to use to gain my own freedom. I do love you very very much for giving me the chance to live an actual life even though you know nothing about it.

I love you. Very very much.

***

Psalms 55:12-14 - "For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in the throng."

P.S This is what the castle looks like. I'm sorry it took twenty-two chapters to give everyone a visual representation of the castle.