I shut the book and rub at my eyes. Too many days of moping around doing nothing more than re-reading one of the most ridiculous books ever written, a soppy love story with two young lovers who fall in "love" but can't have each other. They try a stupid plan to escape their families and both die in the end. That, is how under stocked on enjoyable material our castle library is.
Even a poorly trained hunter learns to read archaic texts before they're taught how to read English. Even so, the mind can absorb only so much on sacred marriage rituals and proper etiquette before reaching a breaking point.
I would love to go out and enjoy the luxurious sunshine. But you see that's my problem. The door is locked and the windows are barred so tight that I couldn't squeeze out of them unless I cut my body into ribbons, which I don't think my organs would take kindly to.
That's right, maybe you've figured it out by now, but if not and you have the cranial capacity of a cane toad. I'm being held prisoner... in a library.
What really gets me is that by everything I can figure out all, this library apparently belongs to me. As soon as "my" guards threw me in here, I looked around for something that might have even the slightest chance to get me out. But unless the poor things keeping me here are allergic to dust, disintegrating leather, or pissed off seventeen year olds— I'm going to be stuck here for a long time.
It started four weeks ago when I was rooted out of my bunk in the common house by palace guards; saying that I was immediately to report to the high council. I thought I was either due for promotion or about to get thrown out of the city for breaking something, things could go either way. Turns out I was entirely wrong, but promotion would have been way better, actually getting thrown out into the wilds to be eaten by a Chendraka would have been better than this.
When they dragged me in front of the council three days later, I thought they were going to pass on my sentencing, or at least tell me what was really going on. Before they locked me up I was all ready to leave the city and make it on my own in the wilds. Maybe travel to a different place or go visit my homelands in the aurora plateaus. Instead the guards drug me all the way to the council chambers to be told this lovely bit of news by the regent in his annoying squeaky voice.
"Mr. North-briar we believe you to be the lost heir of the throne, but we have yet to discover evidence upon this information. Until this can be discovered you will be held in the castle. Due to your nature you'll be held under lock until you prove your intentions to stay. If there is anything we have to make your stay more comfortable, please, do tell us."
And there you go, the story of how I ended up in here. To be honest telling him that it would make me more comfortable if he would bathe in a pile of pig shit didn't help things.
The guards were trained well enough to find every weapon I had on me. No explosives, no poison vials, no knives. I'm naked. I rub against my thigh, missing the unforgiving hardness of cold steel.
The key rustles in the lock and I quickly behind a stack of books. My training kicks in. See and not be seen. If I hadn't been staying in a hunter commons where I trusted enough people to let my guard down, the damn Clunkies wouldn't have got me in the first place. I'm not about to make the same stupid mistake again.
I watch from the shadows as a heavily armored man sets a bowl on the floor. He shuts the door but I don't move. A few seconds later he opens the door, looking vaguely disappointed that I'm not. When he closes it again, I leave my spot and examine the bowl. It's full of a thick broth with chunks of vegetables and a very dry hunk of bread.
I consider using the bread as a weapon but my growling stomach says it would better serve as food. I tear off a hunk and dip it into the bland broth. One of the things I miss most about the outside world is salt, hell at this point I would take some from the bottom of a salt-water fish farm. Even so I consume every last drop and crumb, my stomach growling for more.
