The Great Escape (2/3)

With that said, the boy keeps reading.

The next part of the story talks about how the entire kingdom gave up on the princess… but the knight didn't. Since he was the strongest warrior in the land, everyone panicked when he abandoned his post and fled the country. He was labeled a traitor for abandoning the army, but he didn't care.

He spent many months tracking down the dragon to his lair, and when he finally finds the wyrm, he saw an abandoned castle with scorch marks everywhere; the monster had destroyed a castle long ago and made this its home.

The knight spends several hours sneaking through the demolished castle, and the place is completely bare and empty.

While the kid is reading about the land's desolation, he chortles, "What a stupid dragon. He must be so poor to not have any servants or decorations. Isn't he ashamed of having his house so run down?"

Next in the story, the knight finally finds an old wizard's tower, which has been converted into the princess's prison. He sneaks inside and sees the woman he loves behind a barred window. Her room is completely bare except for some straw to keep her warm, and a tattered blanket for the winter.

While the kid reads this part, Faylin is actually surprised to see the kid on her lap let a fat teardrop fall down his cheeks.

"Umm… are you crying?" she asks.

The kid wipes his eyes and sniffs back a tear. "That's so evil. How could the dragon do this to the princess?"

Hearing this, Faylin finally believes that, perhaps, real-life dragons aren't as insane as Haalfrin made them out to be. This kid is so pure and innocent, after all.

'Aww,' she thinks, 'I'd love to have a dragon baby for myself. He's so cute. Maybe I really should just kidnap him?' She shakes her head. 'No, no. Kidnapping is wrong.'

Faylin's thought is interrupted when the kid abruptly adds, "When I kidnap a people in the future, I'll make sure she's kept on a feather bed, that she's given many warm blankets, and that her food is warm and delicious! The chains I lock her up in will be padded and comfy, and they'll be carved with jewels."

"…" Faylin is utterly speechless. Part of her wants to throw this disturbing child away.

Before the kid can keep reading his story, the assassin girl sees that all the other Drakin and Felkin are packed up and ready to go. "Ok, kid. It's bedtime."

"What?"

*stab* Faylin injects her sleeping poison into the kid's arm, and he slumps over unconscious.

Faylin looks over to the young man sitting next to her apologetically, and she gestures to the unconscious child in her arms. "Sorry. He's all right. He's just asleep."

"Good," the 2 horned dragon says as he gets up. "It's about time to leave anyway, and this kid wouldn't be able to make the long journey."

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We see Faylin up ahead of the crowd, precisely stabbing the Rehkin guards in the necks and silently taking them down. The guards all were knocked out without ever even having a heart flutter, else the alarm crystals on their necks would've shattered and alerted Lord Fheldin of their escape.

All the Felkin and Drakin look at Faylin gratefully. Most of them have tried escaping before, but getting past the guards without being detected has always been a hurdle none of them have been able to cross.

Those palace guards and servants have been the source of so much frustration for the children over the years, so there's a bit of cathartic pleasure in seeing the palace guards taken care of so casually…

One of the little dragons - a one-horned boy shorter than Haalfrin's waist - looks up at Faylin and says, "Hmph! You're pretty good! When I grow up, you're going to be my wife!"

Without a word, Faylin pokes his eyes and stuffs a rag in his mouth.

Resburn pats Faylin on the shoulder and says, "Calm down, girl. He's just a child."

"No!" Faylin growls, "they're all demons!"

Resburn tries to be patient as he says, "Children say strange things all the time. Besides, respect and love are the same thing for a dragon. Just take it as a compliment to your skills."

Sure enough, most of the young dragons are blushing even harder and looking at Faylin after they saw her act so roughly to one of their own.

Haalfrin adds even more salt to the wound and says, "Well, your hair color might have something to do with it too. It's said that the extinct dragonesses used to all have red scales, so boy dragons naturally feel attracted to the color."

This causes Faylin to feel enough more awkward, so she steps on Resburn's foot and puts a sock in his mouth as well. "I-i-idiot!"

She would've put a sock in Haalfrin's mouth too, but the lumbering man is far too strong for her to attempt something like that.

"Enough you two. We're reaching the end of the east wing. It's time to split up." Haalfrin turns to Faylin. "You'll keep half the herd here and make sure no guards get close enough to spot them. Resburn will find Jay, tell him the plan, and Jay will help you with their escape plans. Best of luck."

Haalfrin then gestures to the 4 nearest young princes and princesses and says with authority in his voice, "Follow me."

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As they sneak along, Haalfrin hands the 4 teenagers behind him little uniforms and small enchanted mana stones that he made really quickly. Once they all have their new equipment, Haalfrin tells them, "These mana stones will help mask your scent, so DON'T take them off!"

Of course, he lied about that. Fisco only gave them 5 scent-masking crystals – one for each of the humans. The technology is complicated and only known by a few experts in the Threshold, so there's no way Haalfrin could make any more spares by himself to give away.

Instead, he gave them fake crystals because he wanted the young ones to cooperate and not ask silly questions like, "Aren't the Rehkin going to smell us? What about father? He'll smell us!"

Other than the fake scent masking crystals, Haalfrin adds, "The uniforms are to help explain who you are, in case any nocturnal Rehkin see us together. Put them on."

Some of the Felkin girls get embarrassed, and they complain, "But… there's nowhere to change!"

"Just put them on over your clothes, ninny!" one of the boy dragons growls at her. "They're all too big for you, anyway, so it won't squeeze your body uncomfortably."

Once everybody gets changed, the 4 teenagers look at Haalfrin inquisitively. "Sir," one of the dragons asks, "What's the plan?"

"We were going to smuggle you all out through with some of the guests when they leave," Haalfrin explains. "We got a lot of people willing to cooperate with us from different clans."

The same dragon narrows his eyes at Haalfrin. Their father had warned them constantly that outside races would always try to capture the Drakin and Felkin - especially while they're young and easy to keep caged.

What if these humans are trying to smuggle them out so they can harvest their blood or something? That sounds terrible.

So, the young, 2-horned dragon stands up straight and says, "I'll have my own escape route out of father's house. I don't want to be carried away by your allies."

The dragon expected Haalfrin to protest, but instead, the man shrugs and says, "Have it your way." He turns to the 2 Felkin and 2 Drakin. "Tell me, how do you all plan on getting out of here?"

The 2 boys and girls spend a minute discussing with themselves until they all decide.

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After walking a little further down the main hall, the 4 teenagers and their escort find a secluded corner. After a brief illumination in the darkest section of the hall, a pile of ashes slowly settles on the floor, and one of the Felkin girls is missing from the group.

One of her brothers quickly bends down and scoops up her ashes and puts them in a box. Then on top of the ashes, they leave a quick note that reads, "Hi Talia. It's Kami."

"Quick. I'll seal the box!" the other Drakin interjects excitedly.

After the box of ashes is sealed up, the 3 remaining youngsters walk up to a stall with the tired-looking pigeon man at the counter.

One of the dragons stands up proudly and pulls out a box. "I want you to mail something to this location." He slides the box forward on the counter.

The pigeon man looks up with tired eyes and asks, "Ok... recipient's name, please?"

"Talia.".

"Oh!" the counter clerk exclaims, "The famous alchemist?"

The Drakin boy gets a little nervous and scratches his head, "Yeah... There's some rare ingredients here that her mother asked me to send her."

The pigeon man straightens up, "Oh? An order from the mistress? I'll be on it right away!"

As Haalfrin and his charges walk away, the 3 youngsters are grinning stupidly.

"Heh Heh...," the remaining Felkin says with a restrained laughter, "We remaining sisters don't know how to rebuild our bodies from ashes, but Talia certainly does."

One of the boys does a quick headbutt on the older boy. "That was a slick lie, bro! I got the next one."

"No doofus!" He headbutts his brother back – this time sending the younger brother crashing to the floor. "You suck at lying."