My DEO

Tingles and Burns

Elvira

Seventy-seven... seventy-eight.... seventy-nine. I counted on. I was so bored out of my mind that I resulted to counting the black and white tiles on the floor to keep my mind busy.

That was it? that was the last tile? ugh. Well, what should I expect from such an average-sized room?

The rest of us who weren't chosen just laid around doing absolutely nothing. I didn't know having free time could be a new form of torture. Well at least for me it was. Everyone else was busy talking to each other, but I on the other hand had no one. Not to mention, I was extremely hungry. At least if I was busy doing something, my mind won't be constantly drifting off to food.

Done with my total count of tiles, I set out to count how many sole black tiles there were. With every count that I made, a thought popped into my head.

One black tile - I wonder what Mira is doing right now.

Two black tiles - The guest must be arriving at this moment.

Three black tiles - Im curious to see what people from other kingdoms look like, it must be fascinating to see.

Four black tiles - Maybe I'll be able to sneak some food now.

Five black tiles - nope fuck that, I'm done counting.

My eccentric thoughts were growing by the moment, begging me to satisfy them. And so I made up my mind to do just that.

I looked around to see if anyone was paying any attention to me, unsurprisingly they weren't. They were too busy squealing and cackling at whatever hot gossip they had going on to mind me, the freak of the room.

I got up slowly, careful not to draw any notice to my actions. If I was caught sneaking out, it wouldn't be unpredictable for some to tattle on me.

Wow, that gossip must have been really good because no one noticed me slipping out of the room even after the door made a loud creaking noise when I opened it.

As soon as the door shut, I pressed my ears up against it to hear if anyone was alarmed by my little escape. To my glee, the loud laughter and voices continued, uninterrupted.

I stood in my spot for a couple of minutes, debating with my brain and my mind if I wanted food, or wanted to be nosy.

My brain argued 'Food. Your body needs food right this instance.'

My mind argued 'Adventure. It's our only chance to see the other kingdoms

When I was done being the judge of the little debate going on inside me, I turned around and headed toward the main entrance. In case it wasn't obvious, my mind won. I was a really curious person after all. I've gone a whole week without food. This much was nothing.

At the first corner I rounded, I spotted two guards. I immediately darted behind a pillar to hide myself. It was like that for the next several minutes. I would round a corner and there would be lots of guards either standing post or roaming about. Suspecting it would only get worse the more I got closer to the front door, I decided to opt out and use the back door.

After dodging a few more guards, I finally made it through the backdoor that was close to the servants' quarters and out into the bushes near the fields. Just I suspected, there were fewer to no guards back here.

My body started relaxing, thinking I was in the clear. But before I could fully relax I heard the sound of metal clanging. My head whirled to look at the cause of the sound. It was the knights, about a thousand of them all roaming the fields. They were mobilizing in full-blown armor like they were preparing for war.