Awfully Convenient

Two days went by since the cruelty of the prison cell swallowed Kanito whole. These two weeks were times of pure emotional torture and pain.

The long hatch above the dungeon suddenly opened, shining light into the interiors of the dungeon. Kanito was agitated by the illumination, he turned his head away with parted eyes.

A few guards descended down into the dungeon with a prisoner who seemed to be chatting with the guards and annoying them. He was redundantly loud and made quirky, pointless body movements, his hands were still pressed together in shackles.

Peeved by the raspy voice, he looked away.

"This path beside this cell leads to the prison's control room? Are you sure that it is safe here? Alongside malicious criminals like these?" That newly brought prisoner continued to talk in a grating voice.

"Alright, enough of your nonsense." one of the guards said.

Exasperated by his questions, the guards finally grabbed his arms hard, the prisoner still didn't turn around, he didn't let the guards see his bound hands behind him. He retro-walked to a distance.

Kanito was trying not to pay attention to the scene infront, but his eyes became disturbed when the prisoner walked a little more and finally stood infront of Kanito's cell, with his back pressed against the portcullis.

Kanito saw that the prisoner's bound hands were holding a flask containing a yellow fluid inside it. The prisoner quickly turned and signaled.

Kanito still confused, moved towards the gates instinctively. He extended his feet, in a way to catch something.

Very quickly, the prisoner dropped the flask while Kanito caught it within his toes.

The guards noticed something was off about the prisoner's behaviour, they delayed no more and dragged him away.

Kanito swiftly maneuvered the flask using his thighs and hid it behind him.

Poker who was seated by the cell noticed the scene. He was unaware of the flask.

"Do you know him?" Poker inquired with slight interest.

"No." Kanito replied.

Poker unconcerned about his job, strolled away giving Kanito a quite menacing look. Kanito acted neutrally, talking less, maintaining a cold and undecipherable face.

-----

At night, when the jailors fell deep asleep, Kanito finally mustered up the courage to take a look at the flask he was hiding for so long.

He held the body of the flask between his two feet very carefully, craned his neck down and bit the stopper on the mouth of the flask, he held the stopper between his teeth and lifted it, carefully and quietly, placing it on the dark ground.

As the stopper lay inverted, Kanito saw a small scroll, folded to the size of a stamp, attached to the inward side of the stopper, Along with it was a small, thin key.

Kanito rested his feet on the ground and turned towards the stopper, his hands were bound so he couldn't pick out the thin paper out of the stopper.

Kanito gave the situation a little thought and opened his sandals and then he lowered his head. Bringing his head towards the stopper, he blew air and distorted the paper's fully folded state. The paper fluttered and rose upwards.

Using his left leg's fingers, he stabilized the stopper firmly on the ground. He then reached for the paper with his right leg's fingers and very diligently positioned the upright, fluttered part of the paper between two of his toe fingers.

He then using his toe fingers, successfully extracted the paper out from the stopper's interior, making the secured key fall off.

Kanito saw the sheer number of folds and creases on the paper. He inserted his toe's finger nails inside the gutter margins of the paper and undid the folds on the paper and evened it's surface with his knees.

'How am I even doing all this?'

Kanito saw writings on the paper in a very different script. It was grim dark and his pupils dilated in order to read the writings on the paper. He first was uncomfortable and hesitant with the new script, but slowly the words made sense as he was able to decipher them.

'Prisoner, your name is unknown to me. But if you are lucky enough to find my message, read it till the end. I'm aware that you are held captive unjustly and hence allow me to help you for reasons you may or may not find out soon....' he read the first paragraph in his mind.

Kanito squinted his eyes, he gave the first paragraph a thorough and careful read again as he thought that he was misreading the words because of his unfamiliarity with this new language, but everytime he read, the paragraph stayed the same.

He continued to read the next passage quietly, "The liquid inside the flask is a potent acid which can can melt iron, use it to break free from your chains. But while doing so, exercise caution. You can imagine what a substance that can corrode metals do if they touch your skin..."

'Why is there always a price to pay?'

He read the letter further, 'And the key is specially designed to open both the gates of your cell and the lid over the dungeon, the cell's lock might be attached to the wrist of your jailor and the lock of dungeon is probably hanging from the lid. Use these informations to free yourself. All of this help feels too convenient, isn't it? Don't worry, this help will not be for free. You looked not of this country, I hope you understand Agloic.' The letter ended.

'Obviously I am not from this country, not even this world.'

Kanito looked at the flask anxiously. He tried to move towards the flask a couple of times but stopped when he thought about the risk.

'Well, great payments also lead to great outcomes.'

He used both of his legs as a tong to tilt the flask down on the floor. The viscous yellow acid carrying a faint sharp odour, fell on the floor while some of it seeped down the ground.

'Come on now ! Was I really thinking that freedom would cost nothing? All it will cost me is a few scars?'

After thinking about his safety and looking at the burning texture of the substance warily, he gingerly dragged his wrists and immersed them into the acid's surface.

Kanito felt his hands slowly get freed from the bound of the shackles. The metallic restraints slowly dissolved into the acid's surface.

Kanito moved his wrists in random motion and a feel of ephemeral relief crept into his heart only to be hit by an almost instantaneous realization that he poured the acid over the key.

Kanito looked down at the seeping acid and the key between, it was safe. But now, inorder to extract the key, he has to dip his hands directly into the acid.

'It's just a liquid.'

Kanito very fearfully inserted two of his fingers into the acid and swiftly picked out the key.

He gripped the key steadily in his hands and very cautiously crawled towards the portcullis.

Poker was sleeping with his back against the wall of the cell.

'Now look at him, so not a poker face !'

Kanito mocked his sleeping face. He saw a lock attached to his wrist as it was written in the letter.

Kanito extended his arm outside the lattice and gently held the lock attached to Poker's wrist. He pushed the key inside and rotated it.

After that, when he slightly touched the wooden barrier, it slided upwards.

'All of this feels awfully convenient. As the letter read 'this help will not be for free' a huge price is awaiting me perhaps.'

He held the gate and very slowly raised it upwards, the gate didn't make any noise fortunately and it folded into it's recess.

Kanito peered out of the cell, it was slient and wrapped in dark, faint vision being allowed by the virtue of a few firesticks.

'How primitive is this world's technology? The fact that even an amateur like me can break free from their prisons speaks a lot about the merit of this world and the people.'

Kanito's heart beat accelerated when he tiptoed outside the cell and peered into the murkiness. Jailors and prisoners were asleep and he thought no one saw him.

In that darkness, he recognized spatial patterns and created his own path and followed it and climbed the staircase.

'Should I take off my sandals? Should I turn and take a look at Poker's face? Should I take the letter with me? The flask? What about the prisoner who gave me this flask? Who is that? Is this letter from him? What if the jailors are secretly monitoring me and are waiting for the correct moment to strike? What if my foot slips and I fall crashing down? If I fail, what awaits me?'

He carefully walked to the top of the staircase to the hatch and saw another lock hanging from the base of the hatch. He unlocked it with the same key.

He turned back and looked at the sleeping jailors, suspended in darkness, perhaps for the last time and with his both hands lifted the hatch.

It made a very faint creaking sound and slowly turned over. Kanito's pupils constricted as he finally made it outside the dungeon. His knees became heavy when he stood tall facing the night sky.

'Huh, someone might watch me right now, but I should savour the air of freedom. I must take a moment to pat my own back, hehe.'

He opened his arms and took a deep breath.

As he did, he smelled a faint odour of oil and ashes which slowly grew stronger.

Then, he didn't waste a second and with maximum speed ran from the base of the dungeon, in an attempt to escape it's premises.

He sprinted as fast as he can, zigzagging through different pillars, while suddenly, his foot caught loose on a cobblestone. He fell, scraping his forearms.

A jailor was patrolling the premise, he saw Kanito's slender figure lying on the ground. He dashed towards the big alarming bell and rang it vigorously.

The ringing of the bell broke the silence of the night. Guards from all around the premises in a disorganized way picked themselves up to catch the running prisoner.

Kanito's face became pale. He increased his speed unbelievably and started running again in a desperate manner while gasping for air.

After running to a distance, he entered the swampy and dark forest that covered the prison. It was evident that the city experienced a heavy rainfall over the last two days. The marshy petrichor stung his nose and the thorny vines on the forest floor pricked his sandals. The sound of his ragged breathing and pounding heart was punctuated by the snapping of twigs and squelching of mud and logged water.

He dodged low hanging branches and leapt over roots as he rushed through the congested forest. He darted behind a massive trunk and did not dare to take a peek.

The shouts and curses of the guards crashed thrrough the underbush behind. A few of them possessed lanterns and spread themselves desperately in the forest to look for him.

'I wish I never stopped running, they will eventually find me now.'

Kanito froze in fear, sure he escaped the prison but in doing so, he attracted unnecessary problems. He saw a guard holding a bright lantern come in his way, it clouded his thoughts.

An eroded rock came flying from an unknown direction and hit the guard's lantern with deadly accuracy. The only light source in his direction extinguished.

"What prank are you pulling? You mobster!" The guard shouted.

Kanito was addled by it. As he tried to steal a glance of the scene, a cold and firm grip on his left cuff stopped him. Before he could react, that grip pulled him sideways, dragging him to a short distance from the spot and pressed his mouth to silence him.

The hand had a strange gentleness.

A quite shrill voice whispered strongly, "We have to run!"

The guards gathered around the spot like moths to a flame and scanned the area from where they believed the rock came from.

"We have to run!" the voice told him again.

"Where?" Kanito asked, the hand from his mouth lowered.

"Ah, probably back to the prison." the voice's ironic tone didnot make Kanito's lips twitch.

"Now !"

The invisible grip on Kanito's cuffs dragged him in a direction away from the forest.

In the darkness of the forest, nothing was clearly visible but the pale moonlight upheld a faint outline of an agile figure that was running in front of him.

The figure was holding his hand promisingly and was running, running forward, leading the way out of the forest.