Seclusion | 孤独 | Obi

| four |

As precautions and to ease the fear residing in Prince Raji, he had ordered that you be locked up in one of the many bedrooms of the castle. The door was locked with a guard on the other side to make sure you didn't try anything and stayed put.

Prince Raji should've known that you wouldn't sit still but hey he was fine as long as your hands were still tied together. Your skin was burning where the rope rubbed in and turned red. You could feel your skin parting and opening as you kept rubbing it against the door handle of the closet. The stringy rope was thin and could be used as some sort of belt, perhaps you'd mock him by wearing it as a headband after you escaped.

Your escape was inevitable, it was already written in your fate because the rope wasn't enough to hold you, the guard wasn't skilled enough to take you. Surely you looked like a small girl with no physical skill set but they would regret underestimating you. The ropes' strings were loosening one by one as the bunch held you restrained. 

Holding in a groan, they had hidden a smaller almost leather-like miniature string within the rope as if another act of precaution but as long as you pulled with the rope looped around the door handle; even though blood had begun dripping down your wrist and to the tip of your pinkie to the floor, you could still loosen the string, thrusting a hand out in a flash as the rope fell to the ground, it worked.

Your breathing was escalated though you calmed yourself as you breathed out through your nose. This was ridiculous. You stepped into the bathroom, making sure your footsteps were heard by the guard so he didn't have to check if you were still inside or not. Grabbing a small hand towel as you cleaned the blood, the door handle then clicked, "Oi, what are you doing!"

Diving to the floor, you grabbed the rope and once again, it was tightened around your wounds. Wincing as you had to bite your tongue to see the guard looking down at you from the door with no expression. He seemed bored and upset, he didn't want to be here. Speaking no words, the guard seemed a little pleased to see small blood stains on your hand and on the floor. He figured your attempts were for nil.

He slammed the door behind him, huffing as he did so and you sighed in reply. Looking down at your hands but it was okay. You were okay because you had trained yourself to deal with these situations. That was why the window was as bright and accepting as you knew it would be when staring at the structure.

This room was merely a bedroom and not one to hold a prisoner so you liked to see the stained glass that distorted the sunlight, it was probably midday now and listening to the Prince's voice, so loud as it echoed through the castle brought you great pleasure when you knew he was too faraway to listen to you; or even bother with you.

Crawling slowly, the hand towel was carefully placed around your palm, you moved your arm back to hit the glass before you stopped. You heard the sound of a door slamming, perhaps and most likely the Prince. You looked into the dark red/brown window and saw the a figure going towards the town on horseback, he ticked all the boxes of the Prince's appearance from what you could tell, was he going after Shirayuki? Perhaps to watch her eat those rotten fruits he had spoken about on accident.

The guard was heard yelling outside the door, his voice was getting further away, "What was that noise? The Prince?"
Perhaps another guard was nearby but this was your chance and you refused to be locked up for another minute longer. Tightening the towel around your bleeding wrist, it stung so bad but you wouldn't shed a tear- that was gross.

A crack was heard, the sound of glass shattering was heard clearly in the room but you weren't sure about the outside so without a second to waste, you were clearing the window sill as you placed the bigger shards of glass on the ground by your feet gently. Grazing your arm against some smaller glass pieces, your blood fell to the window sill and you gulped when looking down at the ground. You were something like three stories high but you had trees surrounding you. The pain of hanging from the branches would definitely hurt but after everything that you had gone through in your pitiful life- you would not stop now.

You jumped to the nearest tree, maybe seven or so metres below you. The branches were long and sturdy-looking but the sharp pain from your wrist made you cringe deeply. Hopping from branch to branch to go further into the forest behind the castle as the large, royal building was quickly leaving your vision when you'd look back to make sure you weren't seen. You stopped and breathed in the fresh air from above the ground. Readjusting the eye patch across your face, you pulled your clothing higher to hide your face and jumped to the ground, careful to avoid getting blood on your sleeves.

Walking through the forest, the sound of people bustling through the streets caught your attention as you headed that way, listening to conversations once you were close enough to find a quick way to gain access to a means of transportation. Unsure if people would recognise you again, you gaze was kept towards the stone ground as you finally came out of the shadows. People were yelling and laughing together, buying food and selling tools and bargaining for prices, it was comforting you guessed; even though you felt heavily excluded- you didn't belong here in this sort of atmosphere.

Following the movement of the crowd, you caught sight of horses. They were huge and looked beautiful. There was three, they had been eating some hay as they minded their own business but you were desperate. You were scared but you didn't wait until someone could catch you before walking, jogging then running straight to the horses side. The horse jumped, startled by the unknown presence that appeared from nowhere and neighed loudly. You jumped, or more dived, onto it's back and it had jumped as well, making you slam into it's back before readjusting yourself quickly, grabbing it's mane to cut the rope that kept the horse in place with a tiny pocket knife concealed in your shoe.

You only pulled the knife out in situation's when you absolutely needed it and the alarmed looks on peoples faces made you squirm with nervousness and your fight or flight senses were triggered to immediately kick the horses side to egg it on, making it run wildly as it paid no attention to people in the way as you escaped while people ran after you, only to stop when it was proved for nothing.

Escaping the city of Tanburan, the horse didn't stop and you almost laughed when finally reaching the nameless woods that would lead you to the next city, hopefully the place that a lonely red-haired girl had escaped to.