Pocketville Lost Diamonds: VOLUME 2

42: Survive

Disclaimer: this chapters contains several mentions to blood, violence, cruel particulars, gore, weapons, animals in distress, ugly mans and psycho dogs. Nothing new at all, but you should know that it may not be suitable for young or high sensitive readers.
Read at your own risk.
Oh, and forgive me for what I did to Mela. :)

“I don’t want to die”

Danny ran into the hallway, slipping on the polished  floor of marmour.
Kayl was still behind him, his mouth dangerously close to his tail: he could hear his growls a few centimeters away from him, and this was enough to convince him to keep running.

They crossed the elegant vaulted corridor, as fast as the wind itself.
Danny purposely hit some of the unbalanced furniture and columns that hold precious items to make them fall, hoping for them to slow the Great Danese down.
The warrior dog just overpassed or broke them down, with the same fury of a beast, and kept chasing the Guard like a fox chases a hare.

They occasionally met a manservant or a staff member, who fastly got out of their way to not be crushed. Danny hoped with all his heart that Kayl wasn’t going to change his target and attacked one of them: luckily, he was the only real interest of the terrible dog.

- I’m catching you, dumb fat cow! - roared the evil one.
The Mastiff didn’t even answer: he was too busy to think about a strategy. There was no way he could get safe like that: slowing down a bit, tripping over or finding his way blocked meant death.

They were two soldiers trained by the same master, there was no way they knew any trick that the adversary couldn't understand.
Plus, Kayl had enough time to study the Castle well enough to not get lost through the corridors, so he couldn’t just hope to make him lose his trace.

Or, at least, he knew a huge part of it.

Danny violently turned to his left and entered a secondary way, where a smaller corridor with less frescoes opened.
A small corner almost cost him a strong bite, but he luckily wasn’t caught.
He noticed how Kayl was quite surprised by that, which suggested he didn’t know that way. It was a good sign.

- Where are you going?! - yelled the  white dog - I’m catching you anyway. Sto, you’ll avoid useless efforts to us both.
- Your only way to hurt someone… is over my dead body! - barked Danny.
- Whatever you wish. - laughed the other one, making a horrifying smile of dozens of sharpened teeths.

After a long moment, the Royal Guard made another move: he speeded as much as possible to gain vantage, then crouched and slipped into a small door into the wall.
It was a very little passage, studied for letting pass only smaller animals and for being easily hidden. It continued into a tall - but narrow - bare corridor with a consumed parquet, which connected with a wooden stair.

It was a hidden passage, used mostly by the manservants to fastly reach the upper levels of the palace, avoiding the precious but slow common ways.

His huge size was a big problem: the corridor was way too small and he risked finding himself trapped.

They went through a long curved stair, which cracked crazily at every step of the two heavy animals. It slowly raised between two walls of stucco, wet by humidity, which crossed one of the Four Towers.
At every meter, the corridor was thiner and thiner: Danny wondered if he would be able to reach the end in time. For a moment, he thought he was taking his last breaths.

Then, just like a blessing from the sky, a square of light cut the darkness of that passage. An opened door.

Danny lashed out and slipped into it with the same agility of a rabbit, then slammed the smallish wooden door behind him.