The Escape - Part 2

How she ended up here she didn't know. How do you find yourself in a narrow dark tunnel, with a sword rammed into part of your body? This is not where she saw herself when she ended up in this world.

"Ohhh, very clever trick. I thought you were just some dumb little girl who managed to luck her way into this castle, but you're not are you? Using your tail as bait to trap my sword so your friend can escape. If only more people in my group thought as you do."

As surprised as she was to be praised by this horrible man she needed to focus on getting away rather than listen to him likely stall for time.

But there were not many ways to get out of this. Thinking about all the ways things could go, most of them ended with him getting his sword back and stabbing at her again. There was also the possibility that he might have another, which he could surely just take out and stab at her again. But the more she thought about it, she couldn't remember seeing another when he was on stage. And the fact that he had constantly been trying to pull it out, likely meant it was his only one.

So, rather than take the route which led to her being stabbed at again, she went for the first plan she thought of and hoped it would work. This meant she had to use all the strength she had left in her tail to try and make it impossible for him to reclaim his sword. With that in mind, she lifted it up further, increasing the angle it was stabbed through the wall.

But, changing the angle would only go so far. If she pulled her tail off of it now, all he had to do was pull it out and slam it back through the wall again with ease.

So, she did the only thing she could think of to stop that from happening. It was horrible and would be painful, but it was the only way she could think to keep him from regaining his sword.

*Sigh* "I hope this works" she mumbled to herself.

With her tail on the ceiling of the tunnel, she began to rotate and bend her tail. With the sword still inside it.

"What-what are you doing? Where is this…pressure coming from. Stop it!"

The leader quickly said as he continued to try and yank his sword free, having no idea what she was doing. During this, he had tried using his other hand to pry open the hidden door that he was sure was nearby but to no avail, actually being out of reaching distance from it. But, while he was fumbling around for the door, it became harder to keep a grip on his sword, meaning he needed both hands to pull it out. But even then, he had no such luck.

Octavia continued to rotate and shift her tail, keeping her mouth shut as best as she could, not wanting to cry out in pain, as the metal inside her tail chipped away at the flesh inside as he twisted and pulled at it.

The pain was horrible, but she had to bear through it as her plan was coming to fruition. The sword inside it was slowly bending, twisting the blade into a spiral as well as making the length of it a curve, giving it a very awkward shape that he wouldn't be able to pull back out through the wall.

The only downside though, was that she couldn't easily pull her tail off it either.

She had eventually bent it enough. She could have gone further, but then it would break. That would leave him with half a sword that he might still be able to plunge through the weak mortar again. So, this was the best she could do. And now she had to free herself.

The shape of it and the enclosed space meant there wasn't a place she could manoeuvre her tail or the blade to pull it off the end of the blade.

Which is where the horrible part now had to come into play.

The insides of her tail had been sliced this way and that as the sword was wiggled but both the man and herself, but by keeping her tail moving she had managed to get out of the worse of it. The only way out now though, was to do the opposite.

So, taking a deep breath she pulled out her dagger and bit down hard on the hilt of it. Then, she began to shift her tail along the blade.

"Arrggg" she muffle cried out as she started to slide the inside of her tail along the metal. The outside was tough, as evident from the times the wolves attacked her. But deep inside it was pretty similar to normal flesh. And a blade slicing against it was excruciating.

The man continued to shout at her, telling her to stop and give up, but she continued on this path. No other ideas came to mind as she couldn't just pull her tail off of it now that its shape had changed. So, she kept it moving, taking it to a place where the blade was…mostly straight.

Then she began to slice.

"Ahhh"

Back and forth, she moved her tail, pushing it down into the blade in order to cut away at the flesh from within. While she had thought the pain from the bending of the sword was painful, this was excruciating.

A few minutes in and her vision was starting to go funny. Her thermal vision was starting to blur and things felt weird. The pain had not stopped, but she was almost there. A few more big slices against the blade and that was it.

*Slice*

*Slice

…

*Thud*

Tears had been streaming down her face this entire time, but they finally stopped once the horrible pain of cutting your own tail off had stopped. This though was replaced by an intense stinging as the fresh flesh of her tail was exposed to the outside world. But this was nothing compared to what she had just gone through.

*Clang*

Her vision started to return back to what it was, thankfully no longer close to passing out, and she saw her plan had worked. The leader probably thought he had managed to win in some way having cut through her tail. But now that it was free, the odd curved shape made it impossible to pull it back out. He twisted and bent it every which way, but to no avail, all the while shouting expletives through the wall.

"No, Noooo! What did you do? What did you do to my Sword!"

Ignoring the man, she revelled in the fact that she had managed to get the job done, as gruesome as it was. Now all she needed to do was continue down this tunnel and reach Sylvia. She could only hope that no one knew the exit to this secret tunnel.

…

As she dashed down the hidden tunnel, a little slower than she normally could missing part of her tail, she heard the leader's frantic cries as he kept trying to pull his sword out. But, as she then turned the corner, these stopped, and footsteps could be heard.

He stomped through the room and slammed the door shut as he left. Where he was going, she had no idea, but it was clear he was not one to give up, so she had to hurry. He didn't know where the escape tunnel ended, but he probably had the men and resources to find out.

She continued down the tunnel, which given the cobwebs and dust, had not been used in many years. It twisted and turned in many directions, sloping down at some points, likely passing between a good assortment of walls in the castle.

There was however no light, so Octavia was stuck with using her thermal vision to help her see. Not that it did much though, as the constant blue hue around her was just as useless as if it were completely dark.

But, she trudged on. This thing couldn't go on forever. Surely, she would hit the exit soon.

…

And that she did.

Eventually, she saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Cliché, sure. But also true as she saw a small amount of light peering through right at the end of the section she was in.

Trudging on she finally made it and pushed the door open, exposing herself to a burst of light and fresh air.

"Ahh,"

She heard a short cry to her side and turned to see Sylvia standing next to the exit to the tunnel, holding a large branch which she appeared to be holding in mid-swing. Seeing that it was Octavia though, she quickly dropped it with a thud and latched onto her.

"I'm so happy you got away. I was afraid he might have caught you and gone after me as well. How did you get away from him?"

"Well, it was not without a little sacrifice," Octavia said as she raised her stumpy tail.

*Gasp* "What. He cut your tail off. That's-That's."

"Ah, no I-I cut it off myself. But don't worry. It will grow back."

"Grow back? I don't think that's how body parts work. Did you hit your head in that tunnel?" Sylvia replied with a very quizzical look as she moved her hand up to rub Octavia's head.

"No, I'll explain later. We still need to get out of here. I don't think this group is going to just give up like that. Where are we anyway?"

As she looked around she realised that they were surrounded by gravestones. Looking back they way she had just acme, she saw that the place they had exited from was the base of a very large statue of a man.

"Well, it is a great escape route, but this is quite a horrible place to end up after escaping."

Sylvia agreed with her, and as they started moving, Octavia realised that she could hear music being played.

"What…what is that. Where is that coming from?"

"I'm sure I told you before. It's the festival."