Chapter 5: The Great Escape

Crickets chirped. The moon was shifting to make moon for the dawning sun. Sairek felt like he was being tugged on two sides like a teddy bear in the hands of arguing children. The children; his mind.

Sairek paced around his bedroom in his silky white pajamas. Dawn hadn’t risen quite yet. He had not yet gone to sleep yet despite how exhausted he felt. He planned on going to sleep but many questions had risen in his head and were keeping him wide awake.

 

 

Who sent the letters?

 

How do they know Yggdrasil was wilting?

 

How was the information reliable?

 

Could they be trusted?

 

What was he going to do?

 

Was he even going to do anything?

Was the letters for him or for his Father, or maybe even both?

Yggdrasil effected the entire world. So why was it disguised in a code?

 

 

His eyes scanned around the room, soon spotting that book he had been reading the the library a couple nights ago and yesterday morning. He stormed up to it and hastily flipped to the index. He didn’t find anything about what to do about Yggdrasil wilting, like he wanted to however, even after scanning it twice. He then laughed at himself. Why would a book hold an answer to that? 'A guide on what to do if the world was potentially ending'. Yeah right.

He wanted, or needed, some kind of hint on what he should to do. Annoyed, he slammed the book shut, before putting it back on the table. He walked over to his window, surveying the village down below.

 

 

Where were the letters even sent from? And who sent them?

 

 

Great. That was yet another question that needed answering.

 

He needed answers. Even if those answers provided more questions, he needed something.

Yes! That's what he was going to do. He was going to find some answers.

 

He knew his father would be pissed... He walked over to his wardrobe and began to put his formal clothing on. The formal clothing that at the same time acted as his own personal body armor. It was tricky because he usually had Laure to help him put it on and she had just helped him take the entire thing off not even an hour ago because he had wanted to at least get a couple hours of sleep. He was capable of doing it himself of course; it wasn't the first time he dressed himself to do something rebellious. Although this time it felt far more different. Sairek had even put on his gloves and ankle guards. He may not be back for a very long time. He was going to go on a trip; an adventure. Protection would have been essential. Who knew what was out there behind the village walls? After all, they had walls for a very good reason.

 

It was then that he realized, this was the perfect excuse he was looking for, to allow him get out of here for a while. A long while. He couldn’t help but grin with giddy excitement. Despite himself feeling very apprehensive about the entire idea of escaping the castle like this on his own, perhaps that girl at the beach was right about him after all. "Somewhat." He reasoned inside of his head.

 

He couldn’t leave without saying anything though to his father. If he went missing like that, his father would spread the news about his absence faster than a forest fire could spread, in order to look for Sairek thinking something happened. If Sairek left a message, his father would try to keep it a secret; not wanting to spread that the future king of the country was running away in rebellious behavior. That would make people panic and hard to control and if that leaked out, nobody would want Sairek as King for the future. So his father would at least search discreetly. He wouldn't have the entire kingdom looking for him.

Sairek went to his desk, pulling out a piece of paper from one of its many drawers. He reached for his quill and ink bottle, he quickly wrote this on the paper, after all, now was the perfect hour to leave, he didn't want to waste too much time.

 

I am so sorry. I did not plan to leave like this, but I am leaving the castle for now. Something important has come up. Please know that Laure did her task properly. Do not punish her on behalf of my disobedience. She does not know of me doing this... I am not leaving out of hatred for you, but because I need something answered. Something that is very important. Something that may ripple the world... It may even sole the mystery of mother's mysterious death. It sounds ridiculous, but I do not have time to explain. You will just have to put faith in me, if you've any faith in me at all at this point.

You will probably search for me. This much I know as one of your good qualities as a parent and because of your sincere love for me. I do not know when I will return father. Just please know that I do not do this out of disobedience to insult you.


With all my heart, my love does go out to you.

 

Sairek

 

 

Sairek folded the letter and left it on his table, next to the other two letters from both the kings of Marid and Masir, although he left his open. He soon reached for his staff which he had left laying on the bed after he had gotten it back from a soldier no less than an hour ago.Then, he suddenly jumped startled when he heard the door to his room creak quietly open, before opening and out of all people, his father stepped in.

Sairek never swore seriously out loud. Ever more so he did it inside of his head. This was one of the few times where a line of obscenities flowed mentally inside of his head like a dam that had broken loose. He felt like a mouse, where his hole had just been uncovered by a fox. His father was the fox and he of course the mouse. There was no escape out of this except by going through the fox.

 

 

“Sairek, what is the meaning of this? Why are you not in bed?” His father asked him.

 

 

"Could say the same to you..." Sairek muttered distastefully inside of his head, but instead replied out loud with: “I... simply can’t get to sleep father. …I... I'm really tired... but I just can't seem to sleep... I was thinking of maybe getting some fresh air for only a couple minutes and then returning to bed... Nothing more than that...”

 

“You know you are not allowed to leave your bedchamber after the moon is above the flag, Sairek, unless it is a dire emergency.” His father tried to remind him.

 

“I know father. I meant by opening the window…" He said innocently. Sairek looked away so his father couldn't see him squeeze his eyes shut as he thought to himself because he saw that look on his face that he knew that he didn't believe him "No... This won't work. He is not going to let me out and will post a guard to watch my door to make sure I don't if I don't do something right now to stop him. I will have to do this a much harder way... I'm going to have to escape while letting my old man see... This is going to break his heart. But it's going to break mine even more..."

Sairek quickly spoke out before his father had the chance to get any ideas as his head snapped up like he had just realized something and then turned to look back to his father. "Oh! I forgot to mention, now that you are at least here, There was a few strange letters that I found inside the box that I thought you should see. It belonged to the king of the Masir kingdom. There was also one from Marid, both concerning about Kaor, and uh... er... one other particular letter that I... um... can't... remember."

 

“Oh? I was expecting a letter from Marid, but not Masir.” His father stated.

 

“It’s on my table. I don't know what it's really about, because I didn't want to read about affairs I probably don't know about... I just skimmed through them." He lied. Of course he read it. "It... is private stuff, right?” He asked as he motioned to the table with his left gloved hand which didn't grip the staff.

 

His father moved into the room, walking past Sairek, who began to creep silently yet as quickly as he could towards the door the moment he did. When his father picked up and began reading the letter for a couple of seconds, Sairek made his move. He bolted through the open doorway and quietly closed the door shut behind him. He quickly held the staff near the door knob and whispered quietly "Balinzer...!" Heating up the metal knob on the door, it in turn, would heat up the other side of the doorknob. His father didn't wear gloves like Sairek did; he would not be able to open the door until the heat cooled down. With that, he sprinted as fast as he could down the hallway. Very soon, he heard his father's furious footsteps rush towards the door even as he had begun to sprint away from it.

 

“SAIREK!!” He heard his father shout from inside his room. It was a thunderous yell that would awake the entire wing of the castle. Sairek’s footsteps with his leather boots thudded heavily down the marble floor as he made his way to the front of the castle. Normally the ankle guards made it difficult to run; a magician rarely ran full sprint like this at all. Sairek's clothing would allow him to sprint quickly short distances, but not long treks. Sairek however didn't even feel the weight of anything. He only felt the tense adrenaline as everything around him moved in a blur. He ran, tucking his staff under his right arm and his left arm swung with every stride of his sprint. He heard voices behind him moments later from where he just came from.

 

"AGHH! Why is this knob so hot?!"

 

“Your highness, what is the matter?!”

 

“Catch him, catch Sairek! He is trying to escape the castle again!”

Sairek sprinted down the stairs, gripping his staff under his arm tightly as he took two steps at a time to descend and jumped down the last six. He felt pain shoot up his ankles from the pressure of the landing but he didn't care. He reached the carpet floor at the bottom of the steps and ran to the other side of the carpet. He spun around to see three of his father’s soldiers chasing after him. He knelt down, grabbing his staff still under his arm in his right hand and gripping the carpet with his left. Sairek chanted out “Wuaie…!” He pulled the carpet when the soldiers stepped onto it from underneath them. And with the wind that his staff made blew the soldiers back. The carpet pushing them forward and the wind pushing them back, the soldiers lost their footing and fell down flat on their backs. Sairek heard the clanging and banging of some things being blown and tossed over, and chandeliers above clanging against each other as they swung dangerously from the rush of wind. Sairek tossed the carpet on the trio of soldiers just so they were hindered for a couple seconds longer to buy him more time being blinded by the carpet and confused as to what just happened. Sairek continued to sprint off towards the gate of the castle, gasping for air as his heavy clothes were exerting energy from him because of the weight.

He made it to the front gate and soon ran up against it, body slamming the metal door, but bounced off of the steel frame of the several locks that kept it shut at night and was thrown to the ground with a breathless grunt. He originally was planning to sneak past the door, but he had no time for that. But body slamming it certainly was not going to work either... He had no time to sneak around it. He'd have to use as much force as he could muster.

“Balinzer!” He soon chanted out loudly, the head of his gnarled staff catching on fire and glowing red. The wood wouldn't burn, for Sairek controlled the flame on what was to burn and what was not to burn. It would produce enough heat to weaken the steel... he hoped. He soon began bashing the locks wildly with his staff. Trying to either melt them, or bust them apart. The process was getting nowhere other than leaving scratches, as his staff was harder than the steel but it certainly wasn't going to plow through a thickened, reinforced steel door by itself with a little bit of fire.

“D****t! Come on!!” He shouted frustrated, before delivering a blow with all the strength he could muster in one swing, only for the staff to bounce off the lock and the Prince recoiling back. Sairek panted, drenched in sweat as the fire on the head of his staff died down. Already he was too exhausted to keep the ethereal around the staff to concentrate the fire. He wasn't going to get through this door.

“...Son of a b***h, just give away! I got this far, didn't I?!” He shouted out loud angrily. Sairek hopelessly punched the door with his left fist as he fell down on one knee, his staff digging into the ground as he leaned on it for support.

Now what was he going to do?

“For the love of... you're punching a steel gate! Of course it's not going to give away!”





He looked above him in the direction of the voice. His emerald eyes widened in disbelief “You!?” Sairek let out in surprise. Who he saw was the girl he had seen and walked out on from the beach. She sat on top of the wall above the gate, looking down at Sairek. With a small grin, she leaned downward and extended her hand down further for him to grab on to. Of course, she was still really high up...

“Jump as high as you can and grab onto my hand. And hurry! We have no time!” She urged him.

Sairek soon heard a door burst open. He spun around as the soldiers from before had recovered from Saireks' attempt to delay them. Sairek turned to the girl and switched his staff from his right hand to his left. He pushed his feet off the ground with every ounce of force he could muster into them. He leaped as high as he could holding out his right hand towards hers. His gloved hand grabbed onto her own fleshed hand. He slammed against the metal door with a grunt. He winced at the heat that was still there from bashing the door with the staff with his fire spell.

The girl yelped and nearly fell down from Saireks' grip as if she had not been expecting his weight.

"What the-- eighty-one pounds you said!? My a*s that you weigh eighty-one pounds! I can't believe I thought you weighed eighty-four! You weigh as much as a cow carcass!" The girl shouted out in complaint.

"Is now really the time to be judging my weight?!" Sairek shouted back urgently as he glanced down below him seeing the soldiers only just seconds of distance away. "Just pull me up before they pull me back down! Hurry!!"

The girl reached down to grab him with both of her hands as she let out a bit of a heave to hoist him on top of the door with her, just in time as the guards reached Sairek, nearly grabbing his ankles in time to pull him back down. They missed by only mere inches. He even felt the hand of one bump the bottom of the sole of his boot. Both he and the girl panted as Sairek was balancing on his hands and knees on top of the door. He soon glanced down, hearing that guards were soon unlocking the gates so they could follow after them when they jumped down, or even surround them.

“No time to talk or rest, we gotta go before they open the gate! Quick, follow me!” She ordered, jumping down from the wall on the other side and sprinting off. Sairek followed her, jumping down as well, landing with a bit of a grunt from the impact. He sprinted after her close behind, switching his staff back to his right hand and tucking it under his arm again. He heard the locks on the door being opened quickly. He heard some soldiers cursing at the heat the door had and the male child couldn't help but smirk that his frustration on the door had been at least a little fruitful. The girl dived over the fence of the tall hill the the castle rested on and slid down it. Sairek quickly followed after her beginning to jump over the fence himself until he let out a surprised yelp as he felt his staff beginning to be pulled from him right as his feet left the ground. He gripped it as tightly with both hands to avoid it being yanked and spun around mid air which soon caused him to crash into the ground. He looked up to see who dared try to yank the staff from him and gasped.

It was his father.

Sairek gritted his teeth in effort as his father pulled once again, Sairek lost a little bit of grip on the weapon, before fighting back with a pull of his own. "Ugh! For a king who has everyone else do his bidding, he's fast...! If I lose this staff, it's all over... I can't depart without it and he knows it!"

“SAIREK!!” The King shouted loudly in his son's face, beginning to pull him up with the staff, gripping the head of it. Sairek clenched his teeth and grunted, fighting back with as much strength as he could muster to keep hold of the staff and pry it away from his father. His feet dangled in the air as the staff was lifting up along with him. Sairek dared not to let go and there was only one thing Sairek could think of to get out of this. Tears soon formed in Sairek's eyes. This would hurt him. It would hurt him for a long time... To cause pain like this to his father...


He mouthed the magical word “Balinzer!”


His father yelled out in pain, struggling to hold on to the staff that burned like molten steel where he held it. His grip became too weakened after seconds that Sairek managed to pull free and the moment he felt his feet touch the ground, Sairek soon shouted out "Waert!” Jumping up in the air as a strong blast of water shot out of the head of his staff, propelling him away from his father as well hitting him with the blast. When He soon felt himself descend through the air, he cried out and he thought he'd crash into the ground when he felt himself being caught by the girl... sort of. She let out a yelp, surprised by his weight yet again, both of them crashed to the ground with startled shouts as her grip on him gave away. At least she did break his fall and save him from injury.

The girl quickly got up on her feet, snatched Sairek’s left hand and pulled him up, before tugging him, urging him to run. Sairek complied, but not without glancing back, looking at his disappearing father who yelled out his name in disbelief.

 

“I’M SORRY DAD, BUT I MUST GO! I’M SORRY! I'M SORRYYY!!!” Sairek yelled out loudly to the night.

It was the first time he had ever used 'Dad' to address his father ever since his mother died.

Author's Note

Last edited on: December 20th, 2012

Changelog:

- Added a bit more of text and changed bits of dialogue

- A couple of typo fixes

Changelog [December 30th, 2011]:

- Fixed a couple typos.

- Managed to (FINALLY) fixed the problem of the text, which SHOULD be black, becoming gray halfway through (and in mid-paragraph at that)!

- Took out the explicit F-bomb because it really didn't fit (been meaning to do that for a while but I honestly kept forgetting to do that...). Sairek still swears though.

- Changed the font on Sairek's letter from Arial to 'Trebuchet' font. I also made the letter italic, but kept the bold. This gave it a more handwritten feel.

- Changed some generic paragraphs to make a little more sense, smoother, easier to understand, etc.

- Spell chants now are italic (Should have been before, but they weren't. So now they are).

- Changed Sairek's 'bait' for his father (to match the changes of the previous chapter).

- Sairek's and 'The girl' meeting with Sairek is completely changed (I think it's a lot more humorous).

Reviews

[Chris]

I pretty much have nothing to add to my original review, but I will expand on it a little, mainly since I didn't bother to even say what was good (and since I wasn't being so serious in it). You begin the chapter nicely. It continues directly from the last chapter and continues the plot. I liked how you had Sairek's father walk into the bedroom right before he was about to leave. I don't know if this was what you intended, but I laughed at Sairek telling his father to read the letter. Yes, it's got...sadness (wanted to use a better word here, but I couldn't think of one) to it, but I still laughed because of how it was set up. The dad's reaction when he read the letter was funny to me, too. Even if you didn't intend for that to be funny, it can still work in your favor, because it's nice to provide a comic relief to scenes that are supposed to be depressing, especially since the ending's kind of sad.

Which leads me to talk about the ending. For the most part, I like it. We can feel Sairek's guilt for doing what he did and sympathize with both him and his dad. And I suppose it does add a nice touch to their relationship. Before this point, they didn't seem close to one another, but despite this, Sairek still has that connection with him, which is very believable.

The last line of the chapter strengthens that emotion for the most part. I think it could be worded better, thus making it stronger, if you took the time to fiddle with it, but it serves its purpose. As for it being the ending, I'm iffy. I see why you did it, but it doesn't seem strong enough to me. Again, this might be because of the wording, so I won't say too much about it.

Two things I want to point out right quick:

He knew his father would be pissed...

You should probably use a word other than "pissed." Yes, it makes sense, but given how clean the narration has been up until this point and given Sairek's character (you said he rarely curses), "pissed" doesn't seem like the best word to use.

"Ugh! For a king who has everyone else do his bidding, he's fast...! If I lose this staff, it's all over... I can't depart without it, and he knows it!"

This thought doesn't seem so believable to me. He's just been caught by his dad just when he's about to escape. I would like to think that most people, including Sairek, would probably be REALLY fretting over this, if not freaking out. I mean, maybe I'm wrong about how Sairek would really react, but if he should be freaking out, then you might want to condense this, because, right now, it reads too calmly.

[Sairek Ceareste]

@Chris

Fixed them, especially the "his feet" error XD. Thanks.

[Chris]

Aw, how sweet. He used dad. It's a good thing he didn't say daddy. That would've been too sentimental. Anyways, once again, I don't have any complaints about the chapter, but I do want to point out three technical things.

he walked over his window, surveying the village down below.
You forgot the "to" after "over," unless you meant to have Sairek walk on a window.

He may not be back *for a while*.
It was then that he realized, this was the perfect excuse he was looking for to get out of here *for a while*.
The repetition of "for a while" sticks out. Change this so you only use the prepositional phrase once.

She quickly got up on his feet, snatched Sairek’s hand and pulled him up
Do you mean "her feet"?