The Escape

Some days, it’s all you can do to try to write a paragraph while other days multiple chapters to one story, multiple short stories can come forth in a flurry. This past week has been one of those weeks where if a sentence comes out for a story it’s a good day. Between the appointments, spouse breakdowns, spouse and roommate anxieties, and a betrayal of unity I could not clear my mind of anything long enough to focus on the world I have been creating. Today however while discussing events, a comment was made about finding a secret way to escape, and while for the current situation there isn’t one, I felt like I could conjure one up in my head. The following is what transpired from that. Maybe it can turn into more later, but for now it’s what it is. 

The betrayed elf silently slipped from his bed and nimbly made his way to the door. He had been there so long that he knew all the quirks of the building; knew every squeak of every floorboard and door. This one could be opened just enough for him to slip through before any noise would be made. He knew it had to be done with stealth. To stay meant humiliating death… to be caught meant a long drug out torturous stay. He slipped out without a noise and met his maiden at the gate. Her clothes were disheveled and torn, they had tried to turn her against him but she had held her ground.

Deftly he picked the lock on the gate, and opened it enough for her to slip through, but he was broader and wouldn’t fit but to move the gate any further would mean certain capture. His maiden promised she would wait by the marketplace for him while he found another route out. He shut the gate putting the lock back in place as he watched her go.

Falling back into the shadows he moved along the wall. He knew they had scattered glass along the top to prevent anyone entering or leaving. He also knew a spot near the garden where trees grew on both sides of the wall with any luck he could scale the tree on his side and leap to one of the trees on the other. He had been studying them while spending long hours laboring away in the garden. As he reached the edge of the beautifully kept rose hedge,  he saw to his dismay that all the limbs had been trimmed back far enough that his plan to leap across would surely fail.

But it was the only way… the only chance he had. So with a deep breath he scaled the tree closest to the wall. As he crawled out on the limb as far as he dared… he judged the distance to the tree on the other side, and the distance to the ground. With luck he’d be able to grab a branch of the other tree. But if he didn’t a possible broken leg would be all he would suffer. And once far enough away from the estate his magic would come back He could heal himself. 

He went back towards the trunk of the tree then ran and lept off the branch. Enough luck was with him that he managed to grasp the branch of the tree on the other side of the wall, long enough that when he dropped to the ground; he dropped safe and sound. No broken bones and no noise had been made. He swiftly ran to the marketplace where he found his maiden waiting in the shadows. He took just a second to kiss her as having been apart for weeks, he had missed her sweet lips. They then turned and ran hand in hand out of town. Their escape had yet to be noticed and they wanted to put as much distance between themselves and the evil creatures who had held them captive for so long.

So they ran… they ran until the wee early hours of the morning when they couldn’t run anymore. They managed to get into the nearby forest before the sun rose above the horizon and found a small hideout. There they rested and waited until nightfall when they could again safely travel. A couple days and what felt like thousands of miles later they came to the ocean. If they were indeed going to be free they had to travel to a new land. With his magic now back to full working power, he magicked up a small sailboat and gathered some provisions. Then with only the moon to guide them they set out to find a new land they could call home.