Chapter-18: Almost free

'𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, '𝘋𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥?' 𝘏𝘢𝘩!' If only she had popcorn right about now...

When the people in the scene in front of her stopped in the actions, pausing as one to look at the girl in the cell, at her, Kira realised that what she had said might not be as inside of her head as she had thought. Or as unreal as she had hoped.

'Get it together!'

She cringed, as the main man, the tough guy, took slow measured steps towards her, crowding in her space. His eyes blazed down on her, and she was sure if he could, he would laser her on the spot.

Alas, wrong fantasy world.

'𝘚𝘩𝘶𝘵 𝘶𝘱! 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘚𝘏𝘜𝘛 𝘜𝘗!' Kira scolded herself in her head, this time making sure it actually was in her head, as she struggles to meet his gaze, her own drifting behind him to look at the bewildered guards and the scrutinising woman, all probably wondering what was going on with this stupid lady. Funny, she was wondering the same thing.

Her lips twitched involuntarily.

"YOU THINK IT FUNNY?!" He roared, getting in her face, rattling the bars with his heavy fists as she escaped backwards, scared.

One of the two guards who was not holding onto Gemma made an aborted step towards the man, not wanting to get involved.

"YOU THINK OUR KING's COMMAND IS SOMETHING TO LAUGH AT!!" She watched, paralysed.

The old guard took a few feral breaths, anger evident in his voice, but an unmatched crazy glee in his eyes, as he started a relentless attack on her cell, and subsequently her. When he showed no signs of stopping his assault on the cell, and Kira was getting increasilngly more and more scared that the few iron bars that were protecting her would eventually give away, one of the newer guards finally took stepped forward and called to him.

"Commander" No response.

"Commander!" The rattling didn't stop. It increased, if anything, as if the madman knew that his time intimidating the prisoner was coming to an end.

"COMMANDER FOLIAS!" The old man turned at lightening speed, taking the younger man by the throat and slamming him on the wall by the cell.

"What?!" He growled in the face of the scared soldier, who shakingly replied

"The-they would be expecting us, Commander."

The Commadner fell silent, annoyoed, them let of the neck in his grasp with a jerk and walked away ahead, to the entrance of the dungeon.

The two guards exchanged frightened looks, secured the prisoner-Gemma- between them, and then they too walked away.

Kira was breathing heavily, trying to bring down her breaths as her eyes wandered the space in front of her, trembling with the experience. She forced herself to move, forced herself to go back and try to get some sleep- it was the middle of the night- when her gaze wandered to meet the frightened old woman's across from hers.

The elder lady didn't say anything, but her face nonetheless seemed to ask, 'Are you okay?'

Kira gathered the last bout of her courage, and gave a tentative smile that soon faltered, and went back to go to the back corner...

...When a sparkle just outside her cell caught her eyes.

---------------

Kira stood just inside the doors that would lead out of the dungeons, scanning the passage outside through the small window in the wooden door for anyone standing outside, holding the keys in hand. It was luck, if anything else, that she found them when she did. 

Something good had come out of being scared shitless afterall.

A light of torch on her left had her scrambling back, before it too seemed to pass away, uninterested in the prisoners. She waited, and then carefully peeked out of the small window again.

The two guards who had come to take Gemma away for her...execution (she shuddered just thinking about it)...were probably the who guarded the cells too.

Tha path, right now, was clear.

She chose a key from the bunch, and inserted it into the keyhole.

It jiggled, stuck.

Sighing, Kira took out another key, and inserted it- same results.

She went through many of the keys, before she finally landed on an innocuos looking key that fit right in, and she heard the sound she had been yearning to.

𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬.

Her heart rate picked up again as she looked back, at the cell which had housed her for the past days, at the old woman's encouraging look as she looked at her from the edge of her own cell, and pulled the door open.

The creak in the deadness of the night had her cringing, before Kira finally stepped outside, closing the door behind her. The air was the first thing she noticed.

It was somehow fresher, with a clearly better connection to the outside world somewhere nearby, and simlutaneously more daunting than inside. Maybe that was just her.

Her heart was in her throat when she oushed away from the door, venturing forth to the left, right where she had seen that random light. Maybe there was a way out there, somewhere.

Reaching the end, she pressed herself against the wall as she peered her head around, only to see a few more guards there in the small room at the end. They had a small table in the centre, and spears along the walls.

Panicking, she retraced her steps, hoping that no one would notice her presence and high-tailed it to the other end, passing by the door to the dungeons. She kept an eye behind her for any movement, though she had not a clue what she would do in the situation that someone did show up behind her.

It made her feel more useful, that's all.

Shaking away the thoughts, she peered around the fork at the other end of the passage, and though she couldn't see the exit from here, and for the life of her couldn't remember which way she had come from all those days ago, half-delirious, the air smelled better, down here.

Even in this dire situation, a smile formed on her face as she remembered the advice from a dear book character from her childhood, as she followed her nose.

And it did not lead her astray. At the end of the passage, was a huge courtyard. The gentle breeze flickered the torches around, dancing over her cheeks when she ventured out far enough. The trees littered around the grass danced in the wind.

She wanted to close her eyes and enjoy this little taste of freedom, of feeling life in her body again, but she couldn't. Not with what she was witnessing in front of her.

The clang of steel, though dulled by the breeze and distance, was present and wouldn't allow for her to enjoy the coldness of the night.

She brought her eyes back to where the sound was coming from.

A woman was facing a soldier in a sword fight. Dark hair flowing in the wind, two men on the ground behind her, and a high raised platform with an executioner's block and an enormous sword resting on the block as the background - Gemma looked every bit an avenging goddess at the moment.

"AAh!" The soldier fell with a cry in front of the woman. Gemma heaved deep breaths, the sword clutched tightly in her hands as her hair fell around her face as she looked at the corpse in front of her.

Entranced, Kira took a step forward on the ground outdoors, intent on getting a closer look when-

-𝘚𝘯𝘢𝘱!