My Dream

🐍 Suddenly Tyrant

Grim and Gwen dug into breakfast, grateful to be out of the heat.

"I don't wanna be stuck in the prison life for another second." Grim said as he chomped down. "It pains me to admit that the food here is really good!!"

"Prison life?" Kalim asked, tilting his head in confusion. "I don't follow but I'm happy that you enjoy the food. Have as much as you want! Today we have blue cheese made from cow's milk, make sure to get some of that on crackers."

"Eehh... I'm over crackers..." Grim shrunk back.

"Don't be shy." Kalim laughed, shoving a cracker in Grim's mouth.

Grim choked on the crackers.

"Kalim, don't force feed Grim too much." Jamil said, sitting behind Gwen and rebraiding her hair. "You're going to make him choke."

"Oops, take your time." Kalim scooted back. "There's plenty of food."

"That's not the problem here..." Grim muttered as he chewed on the crackers.

"We have some ice cream left over from yesterday to have for dessert." Kalim said. "Lining up a bunch of different flavors and getting as many as you can onto your spoon is Kalim-style."

Gwen burst into giggles.

"As many as you can... on your spoon?" Grim repeated.

"Yep yep." Kalim nodded. "You always have room for dessert right? I'll be right back with it so give me a sec."

"Kalim, wait." Jamil said. "I'll go get it so you just wait here."

"I'm fine." Kalim assured. "All I have to do is take it out of the fridge, right?"

"Idiot." Jamil rolled his eyes, standing up. "What kind of servant would let their master work? Have more respect for your place in the Asim family. Your father would be furious if he found out."

"Jamil, you're always so serious." Kalim teased. "It's fine. We are students together at school now."

Jamil sighed. "Then how about I get it in dishes and you help me carry it out?"

"That works for me!" Kalim agreed.

Grim was muttering something under his breath, an intense look on his face.

"Hm? Something wrong?" Kalim asked.

"Ah, no?" Grim shook his head. "Nothing at all!"

"Okay!" Kalim shrugged. "We'll be right back with it." He leaned over and kissed Gwen's cheek before standing up and following Jamil out of the lounge.

"Now I'm really confused, y'know." Grim frowned. "This Kalim doesn't really listen to others but I don't think he's a bad guy, y'know."

"It's strange." Gwen agreed. "One moment, he's the sweetest person in the world, and the next, he's a harsh taskmaster."

Kalim walked back into the lounge and stood in the entrance, taking a look around. "Hey, you all..." He began, drawing everyone's attention. "How long do you plan to sit around stuffing your faces!? Do you presume to become kings!?"

"Whaaaat!?" Grim, Gwen, Omar, and the other students replied in unison.

"Clean this mess up!" Kalim commanded. "It's time for afternoon training!"

"Ye-yessir!" The frightened students replied.

"Eek... now we're back with scary Kalim!" Grim gasped.

"I won't let you escape." Kalim continued. "We'll be practicing defensive spells until evening. Get out to the courtyard!"

"Oh, golly." Gwen sighed.

***

Omar locked the door after wishing Gwen and Grim goodnight. Honestly, he felt guilty locking Gwen up. He wasn't sure if she was claustrophobic or something, but it was obvious she didn't like to be locked up.

"Okay, we made sure that Gwen and Grim are locked up tight in here." Omar said to Zayn. "Hopefully we don't have a repeat of whatever the hell happened last night."

"Let's continue our guard rotation." Zayn said.

"There's a lot of residents trying to run away." Omar noted as the two walked the halls. "Kalim is furious. Apparently, he's not listening to Jamil's advice either."

"How long will things go on like this?" Zayn wondered. "I wanna go home."

"Stop your whining." Omar snapped. "I'd much rather be home with my family too..."

***

"Did the night watch move on?" Grim asked.

Gwen pressed her ear against the door. "Yeah, they're gone."

"We got worked so hard I thought I'd lose my lunch this afternoon." Grim complained. "Headmaster doesn't know we're in trouble so he's not coming to our rescue. We have no choice but to handle this ourselves. Which is why I went out of my way to come up with a foolproof escape plan."

"What's this plan?" Gwen asked, curious.

"Listen and be astounded." Grim said dramatically. "I grabbed the most important item for our escape during lunch today. Look at this!"

"That is a spoon." Gwen noted.

"We'll use this spoon to dig our way through the floor, bit by bit!" Grim announced.

"What about this is foolproof?" Gwen asked. "That's gonna need time and perseverance."

"I got this, I was called the burrowing escape artist back home." Grim assured her. "You keep a look out so we don't get caught!"

"You have fun." Gwen said, flipping through a book that Omar had slipped her. It was  Scheherazade's Thousand Tales.

A while later Gwen poked her head up to check on Grim.

"It's easier to dig than it appears!" Grim cheered. "This is gonna work, y'know."

"Sure..." Gwen continued to read.

"Digging is too mindless, I'm bored..." Grim complained a few tales later. "Switch with me, I'll take the next watch."

"No." Gwen replied, flipping the pages. She yawned, feeling sleepy.

"Aw~" Grim pouted but continued to work.

A few hours later Grim's ears perked up. "Crap! Night watch is back! Hurry pretend to be asleep!" He turned to Gwen. "Oh. Maybe you don't have too..."

Gwen was fast asleep, leaning against the wall. The book was open on her lap.

The door clicked open, and Jamil poked his head in. His eyes widened as he saw the empty bed, but relaxed when he looked around and spotted Gwen.

Jamil picked the book up and marked Gwen's page, setting it on the desk. Then he bent down and picked up Gwen, carrying her to the bed and tucking her in.

"Sweet dreams, Diamond." Jamil kissed Gwen on the forehead.

Jamil left after that, locking the door behind him.

***

"We dug all night and the hole is finally big enough I can fit my arms through." Grim sighed.

"You made good progress for day one!" Gwen pointed out.

There was a knock at the door. "Are you dressed?" Omar asked.

"You can come in." Gwen called.

Omar opened the door. "It's time for our morning routine. We're marching to the East Oasis again!"