TWELVE

The guards weren’t afraid of the threat, the wardens’ life was not a major concern. One of the guards plunged towards Lozen with both hands outstretched. Lozen pushes the warden to the ground then drives her fist on the attacking guard’s face, before jabbing her right knee to the guards ribs with such intensity that spit and blood burst out of the aggrieved guards mouth.

The remaining guard was utterly gripped with fear, shivering and trembling as a stream of piss slipped out of her armor, dripping to the floor. This amused Lozen, “You fucking pissed on yourself . . . That's so fucking gross!” chuckled Lozen, in between gasps for breath. The guard tried running to the cell door in a bid to escape. Lozen runs after her, grabbing her hair in a swoon . She uses her hands in banging the guards head against the iron bars, till blood gushed out of her skull, before twisting the guards’ neck, watching her lifeless body fall to the ground with a thud.

Strategies went over Lozens’ thoughts, her plans has to the followed with pain-staking details, no moment has to be wasted. Hastily, she searched for keys to the cells; freeing herself was the first priority. She remembered forgetting something important.

Lozen looks back into the cell, a figure stares back at her. “You’ll never escape, jailbird. Even if you get out of this cell there are still guards patrolling everywhere,” said the warden, still clenching her broken nose, “You must be mad if you think you can elude them. It’s impossible to break out from the impenetrable prison of the Mouk.”

“Are you talking about the guards I poisoned earlier? I doubt you’ve forgotten that I served them wine during the Pan-Athenia festival,” Lozen chuckles sardonically. “The poison in their cups of wine won’t be active till . . . Now I guess. So they will all be very dead, making it easy for me to escape than usual,”

“They are going to hunt you down like a dog. You’ll never be safe in the city; you will be chased and captured. This time they’ll give you the death penalty.”

“I won’t be coming back, I will make sure of that . . . but I sure will miss you so and all the times we had crying, saying abusive words to each other . . . and most of all I’ll remember the sweet pains you enjoyed inflicting on me. Of course it is only natural I repay those fun memories back.” said Lozen drily, before grabbing a whip from the floor, plunging the hilt of the whip deep into the warden’s mouth, pushing it deeper and deeper till it could go down no more.

The warden was choking in seconds, gasping and scratching as her lungs begged for air. Lozen wasn’t at all moved, her heart has iced over ages in the steely box she was locked in. She only went closer to the wardens’ ear, to whisper. “Now warden, why don't you suck on that . . . I would’ve loved to spend more time torturing you, but as you can see I have many places to be and prison gates to flee, so this should be goodbye.”

Lozen snaps her neck before she took her final gasp of air.

Lozen unlocks the cell door. The other prisoners were for Lozen release them, but she turned a deaf ear as she catwalks past them. She hurries to the prisons exit, stepping nimbly on the ground to avoid the prison guards that lay dead on the floors.

The prison of Mouk, as it was called, was in a remote location on the borders of the city of Minerva. Surrounded by trees on a mild silviculture. Lozen knew the ins and outs of the prison. For dawns has she been planning her break out. Her body was aching and weary after all the fighting, but she was warrior, it was part of her existence to face pain.

Her athletic body always went through intense training, but she always ignored her appearance. Her blonde hair was cut short, being done shabbily by shards of broken glass. Prison wasn’t a place for beauty styles and fashion trends.

Her eyes were grey when it catches the sunlight, it becomes like the color of the turbulent cloud after a rainy storm, holding the entrance to her insane soul. For now, its vividness was dimmed by the moonlight, making her eyes look dull and uninteresting.

Lozen snuck out of the prison gates with the thrill of an escape. She glanced back, noticing there was no guards on her trail as most of the prison-guards had met their demise, so she made her way into the silviculture, where she stood for a moment resting and gasping in exasperation. Then it came to her, as the cold wind caressed her skin and the moon soared in the sky; silver and round. A scurrying noise rattled the shrubs nearby as shy animals hid away from predators of the dark. It came to her like a sting. A thought crossed her mind, a thought of a man, a handsome man holding a child so little and pink.

A blanket of darkness rested upon the sky but it didn’t stop her from running, her muscles soon begged for relief, for oxygen to cure its rigidity. Sweat of her body mixed its saltiness with the cuts and bruises from the wardens’ whip, but she didn’t relent, she continued running with determination.

Of course, there was so much a mortal can do and soon enough Lozen was gasping for air, her body could barely move. She had no other choice than to rest her weary bones upon the bark of a maple tree. She seats down, closing her eyes. She was shivering soon before she slept.

Owls were hooting and crickets chirping in the silviculture, where a warrior named Lozen was sleeping, that is, until suddenly a voice boomed loudly. Disturbing the peace of the atmosphere, jolting Lozen from her restful slumber.

“Please help me!” screamed a voice.

Disorientation fell upon Lozen, as she heard the screaming voice echo around. The voice held a certain desperate nature, like the cry of trouble and danger. Lozen started panicking. It has to be the guards picking up on my trail, she thought, they were going to catch and drag her body back to the prison, that if she was lucky. The guards had a right to kill her there on the spot, after all she’s an escaped convict, a menace to society that needs to be ended. The sounds of a horse galloping brought her out from her benign thoughts.