The Call of the Piper - Stray Kids

Ch - 6 Star-crossed 🌌🌌🌌

The sun wasn't so bright the next time he awoke. It was cast away by clouds so that it's light was diminished. Han couldn't tell if it was mid morning or mid afternoon, but he prayed it was the former. He needed as many daylight hours as possible if he were to have the best chance of escape. Moving in the night would only be detrimental to him, his chasers having too many advantages. Vampires - he shuddered at the thought of them, of them chasing him - could see perfectly in the dark.

He checked to see whether his blanket and flute were still with him before he continued his wobbly crawl along the hedge grove. He made it back to the entrance rather quickly, having been able to scope out the way from up on high. It was eerily quite and he could not detect any movement. 

He didn't like it, all the silence and stillness that spoke of abandonment, but now seemed like a good time to run. Half climbing down, half falling and banging his leg, he descended, running from the foliage to the castle wall with slight pain. He ducked down, crawling along the wall, making sure his head did not rise to the window level. He circumnavigate the place, trying to find the front - or any other gate he could leave by. He found the main one, but there were two guards at the end of the very long, very devoid-of-all-hiding-places road.

Curses.

He looked around. Surely there would be something. Some kind of way. Then he saw it. People he would have thought long gone - they must have been delayed by the commotion. The company of musicians, packing to leave. Yes! They were human. If he managed to get hidden, they likely wouldn't notice him. He could always try to seek refuge with them, but that was a danger. It was too big a risk. They could sell him out. So he chose to hide.

But where?

Under the carriage seemed a good idea when it first crossed his mind. But then he recalled his tired state and the long journey ahead - much of which was bumpy. He wouldn't be able to hold out. Then he saw crates. If he manage to get into one, and placed in the property wagon, then he could hide his time in there, and then, with a good opportunity, he could jump out and make a run for it. The coast would be clear for the most part. No one rode in the property wagon - only the driver, and he would be up front. It was also usually the last wagon in their company. With only a mounted guard or two to protect the whole group and their stuff, the chances were that there would be no one there to see him emerge and run away from his hiding place.

With no more thought, no more hesitation, he scurried over to the crate furthest away from the packers. He frowned when he saw all the discarded, dirty clothes mixed in among the masks he hated. Yet, at the same time, he was glad that it was soft clothes rather then instruments that he was hiding upon. The smells of the used items would also help cover his own if the supernaturals had sent any scent trackers. This, he convinced himself, was a good thing.

He took a last breath of fresh air, then looked around, stood, and jumped right in, covering himself. His head was pressed against the side of the wooden crate, nose stuffed as far into a corner of it as possible so that he wasn't smothered by the clothes. His body was bent uncomfortably so that he could fit, and he was already starting to feel it reject the position. Please let this end soon. Please let this journey be short and quick.

It wasn't going to be.

A half hour passed and they still hadn't even placed his crate in the wagon. And it was still quite a while longer before they did and they departed. He was at the back of the wagon, far from the driver and close to freedom. He was glad that it had been one of the last things loaded as it put him in the best possible spot for successful, unnoticed escape.

He jolted and hissed as the wagon moved and he hit his head, rubbing at the sore spot. Then he clasped a hand over his mouth. No one heard him, right?

He stayed still, trying to calm his rapid heart, knowing that they were coming upon the guardsmen.