The Escape

A NARRATION BY DAVINA

The castle was large and big no matter how far I walked around the garden I ended up in the same spot. They did not need a guard to hold me tight for there was nowhere for me to run. The filament rose so high it was almost impossible to see the skies beyond, the sea breeze was only a reminder of the seawater which lay around us. Scial, a guard chosen to attend to Tiffney and our needs, sat on the lava bench, only watching Tiffney paint the sky. I got reminded of my childhood and how I used to walk in the sea, using the earth to build my personal world but here was I trapped inside a beautiful land filled with darkness.

“Look Scial I have finally been able to produce a bird to fly through the painting” Scial smiled as the hummingbird danced through the sky inside the painting.

“Nice work, my lady, you have improved a lot,” Scial said with admiration for how talented the young lady was. She became the guide who helped Tiffney to control her magic.

“We have been here for almost a year now?” asked Tiffney out of the blue.

I could not give her a definite reply, I only stood beside the lily flowers planted in rows in the garden as I felt the wind blow before me.

The second elder entered the garden, “Scial, can I see you?”,

I watched them speak as their lips moved so fast it had to mimic the words being spoken, their voices almost like whispers could not be heard as the sound of a moving dragonfly even louder their voices combined. After nearly one hour, Scial returned with a fatigued face like a man who has worked heavily. Gradually a smile turned on his lips, as he rightly called out “It is time for us to return inside the castle, we have been out for too long”

I watched the skies and the sun was already descending down the hills. The guards on duty were already stationed at their various posts.

“I heard your father has made it into the maze with his friends, let’s hope they can get out, in the meantime we will be leaving the castle to fortify a boat.”

“You must be joking, how are we going to pass all these guards”, I said with an anxious face for the entire place was filled with the King’s own personal guards.

He looked at Tiffney who he has been secretly training since the time they met, “We will make it out with her help”.

As I lay in the bed wondering what Gregory and the others may be going through, I saw Tiffney dressed in her dark trousers with a black shirt made of long sleeves with a golden bracelet on her wrist, she wore a dark robe on her dress which was enough to cover her face. Soon she approached me tapping me to see if I was asleep.

“She is calling me, follow me”

“Who was?” I kept asking her, and as she pulled me out of the bed to get dressed, I nearly thought it was Scial as he was talking about us escaping in the afternoon. In my sleeveless top and ribbon holding my trouser together, we entered the vent inside the corridor of the King’s kitchen. The Kitchen was the center of the palace as most of the water system was connected through there. The Vent was very big and complex, we chanced on the vent when a lemon fruit fell and rolled over the window, it was not a normal vent as it blew steam. It was a secret passage that led to the waterfall beside the small forest inside the palace, almost like a hill where the water descended into the river which flowed into the sea.

We descended from the layered rocks, which had become slippery due to the water constantly washing down on them. The rocks were smaller and bigger in size, their slippery nature made it difficult to always descend from them, almost like a twenty-pace staircase. After nearly falling from the cliff, we managed to enter a cave directly at the foot of the waterfall. “Luminous” and a bright light appeared in the hands of Tiffney, I unsheathed my sword as we walked into the dark cave, filled with the strong breath of a large animal. We went further inside the cave, we climbed the bars placed on the two standing pools, which were dug down into the earth, once we manage to climb the long pole, we saw a bridge and a river with a golden light penetrating through the water, the place was filled with a lot of guards and we were wondering how to cross the bridge undetected.

“Let go through the bridge we would have to descend from there to the crystal cave beneath us”

“There is another cave beneath us,” I said amusing myself,

“It is a good thing I brought a cloak” removed the long robe covering her and fetched two silky cloaks from her brown bag.

“Take your time, I am scared in this weird cloak” I was so scared as we were walking on the bridge, I could see the raging eyes of the guards looking in our direction, an arrow flew past us and hit a cockroach beside us, the bridge was long it felt like an endless journey.

“Good we are at the foot of the bridge, we have to walk into the dark stairs, she is down below us”

“Whom are we rescuing,” I asked

“A dragon”

“A dragon!” I nearly fainted.

As we descended the staircase, the water began to glow, fireflies moved through the water lighting our part for us.

The dark road was long the glow increased the closer we got to the river.

“Good this is where we jump,” Tiffney said.

“Jump, the tip of the road to the river is very far below. Jumping at a such distance is crazy”

We removed the cloaks from our heads, and she held my hands, as she jumped down into the glowing water. The golden light penetrating the water increased once we got into the river, and swam deep below as the fireflies in a long line surrounded us. They multiplied in numbers blocking the guards’ sight from seeing into the river. We swum through the water into a big hole in the underground, the river led us to a fire cave, where a large golden-strip dragon lay. He was bigger than the cave she lay inside, the chains binding her legs held her tight to the ground, and a round ring was bound to her neck forcing her to keep her breath from releasing fire.

I heard digging, a very large pickaxe was at the back of the dragon’s tail, scoping the walls the chains were locked. I saw Scial, holding a shovel, while a young man was busily using the pickaxe to rig the walls. The second elder met us on the edge of the river and pulled us out of the river before we fell into the fire burning beneath the ground. The lava flowed around a central land burning high making the place very hot enough to evaporate an entire sea.

Once we touched the ground, Tiffney controlled the wind flow sending the heat around the metal shackles, the dragon laid down silently as she shook vigorously, and the heat expanded the steel metal loosening the tightness inside the shackle, once the shackle became loose enough I unsheathe my short dagger, I held it high to cut the shackle realized the dagger was too short.

“Use my sword, it is very sharp,” he threw his sword into my hands.

As I held his sword, I felt an enormous energy flowing out of the sword. I used the sword to cut the chain at the edge of the shackles. The dragon freed its legs from the shackles. The pickaxe ripped the walls apart, setting the chains holding the wings loose. The golden ring on the dragon’s neck began to strangle it. The dragon growled in pain, the Scial, and Tiffney combined their hands together, “freeze and break the chains of evil”, they kept repeating the spell. The ring broke into pieces after being frozen severely.

“Now what are we going to do? the cave is breaking apart”

“Unless we can increase the hole there is no way out for us,” Tifney said with a terrified voice.

The second elder removed a round disk from his side pocket, the sliver within the disk held a clock encased in bronze metal. The elder took his sword, wiped the blood which was stained on the sword, he dropped the blood on the clock and the clock hands rotated, the dragon shrieked in size to become a very small creature.

“Everyone should get into the circle,” Scail said with authority.

A round globe formed around us, which moved so swiftly I barely saw the huge rock which almost collapsed the hole.

“weew that was close, we made it out but the guards seem to be waiting for us”. The second elder said.

“Look on the rocky paths where the golden statue is located a bit far from the river’s mouth,” I said pointing to the flowing river up ahead of us.

The guards were fighting with some creatures inside the water, the water propelled back and forth tossing us to fall from the globe.

“It is Gregory and the others” Tiffney was overjoyed to see her uncle once more.

“The guards are too many for them, we need to help them”

“The guards are not their only problem, what are those half-human half-bulls chasing after them” Scial shot an arrow to prevent, the monster from strangling the neck of one of the prisoners.

The guards shot ice and fire arrows from the tip of their bows, I watched how Deagmund was being supported by Terrin and a certain dark guy with dreadlocks. He was holding two heavy swords, long with a dark pattern showing the sign of the lotus. He growled hard as he could, the creature with horns moved so swift dodging his swords, the arrows pierced through his legs, Terrin broke a fire gem releasing energy into his hands, he chanted into the fire glowing from his hands spreading the fire to the surrounding making the entire place very hot, the minotaur slipped into the dark. To avoid scorching fire from burning his soul.

The fire gained more power, it split apart as it began evaporating the water, the energy inside the gem slowly penetrated through the skin of Terrin, he coughed so hard suffocating under his own breath. His lips filled with smoke he screamed in pain and there was an outburst of ravaging fire so beautiful, it was difficult to tell the red colour from the blue.

“Your journey is going to be difficult none of you are fully aware of your attribute.” The second elder shaked his head.

I was already running towards the bridges, to disable as many bridges as possible, once the bridge fell the guards will not be able to track the movement of the prisoners. I climbed a high wall and was about to jump onto one of the bridge, when a sphere scratched my abdomen, it was so fast, I only felt a sharp pain. I held onto the wood side of the bridge to prevent me from falling. Three guards were approaching and the pain was making it terrible for me to climb onto the bridge. An arrow screeches my cheeks, my hands began to shake as the ice inside the arrow made me numb, my whole body trembled, I only saw myself descending from the high elevation.

I heard screams, my whole body became numb, I only heard a tud and I was inside the water.