Out Into The Open

Chapter Five:

Awakening to bacon was a good smell to awaken too. Now imagine awakening to the smell of burnt rat. Along with a side of burnt frog legs. No wonder their all so cranky, they don't eat any actual good food. I bet not a single one of these people have ever eaten a Chifler Double Chocolate Macroon Butterscotch Cake. I have, it was magical and the layers of flavors really stand out separately and roll off eachother.

Eating this... this tasted like eating bark. Not just any bark though, the worst smelling one animals pee all over trying to claim it one and then another, over and over that all the scents are visible and it becomes animal pee territory that's neutral and all the animals come there to pee and be united. Animal pee actually being a thought process right now. Tells you how disgusting this was. Yet, it was better than not eating in that cell. So I ate, and hid my disgust to myself.

Only a royal, I bet would ever turn this food down. I ate through it before Kitha tried to talk to me. "I didn't make the meal, lunch is on me though. I know that the food isn't any good but it's full of nutrients and vitamins. Lunch however can be whatever we like. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and my "father" makes it special to make us warriors." She sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

Her expression looked bored and terrified and impressed at the same time. What was going on in her head... she must be actually mentally crazy. "Our.. uh mission today is that we have to go to another camp not far from here and collect our dead comrade who was trying to steal food for himself and his family when he was sent on a mission to talk to the Suiters at Rifter, the suiter place near us, about more clothes with more chainmail and more dresses and special suits for us girls so that we could dress probably for fighting and for sneaking around to find out more information on my "fathers" ultimate goal. We have to bring his body back, before the people at that camp find out and this goes viral. Apparently telling everyone a fellow comrade with a family, is dead and that family fatherless, is a tremendously bad thing to do to our very much declining population." She explained in a very serious note. Her eyes looked like she was trying to mask all her emotions.

If I had to guess she knew the guy, and they were close. "I'm...sorry to hear about that..." I trailed off. Not wanting to talk anymore, and definitely not wanting to go with her on it. I didn't care for an abandoned, if they were all as mean as her "father" was, you could count me out. But she seemed close to him, maybe he wasn't too bad. It just seems odd to be killed for "stealing food" when he should've been getting food by her "father" as compensation for the missions he did.

Then there was the fact that they were trying to hide the death from his people. AND what was the ultimate plan of her "fathers"? It could be dangerous, maybe this wasn't a good idea to get involved in at all. I was supposed to be going to the tarnished. I wished I could it make it there and get Kane back without having her and supplies. I don't know how to get there... and I'll starve if I leave.... but there was a lot she was hiding, like Jarods ultimate plan, and a lot of things just didn't add up. Did I even have another choice?

The answer was no, I do not. I thought as I arrived at the other camp and was met with angry guards, tolerable people and instead of a treehouse these place was an actual camp with tents everywhere and garbage piling up and actual campfires. A huge tent was centered in the middle. We walked in and out and around all these different tents and people it was like a maze random organizations some little some so big it took five minutes to walk around. Until we arrived at it and met with some of the friendlier faces I've seen all day.

The guards at this tent were armed but saluted at us and gave us entry. When we walked in warmth hit my face. It was like being in a heater as your room. There was so many lights that maybe some of those lights were in fact heaters. Candles lay all over the floor. In the middle was a man sitting criss cross apple sauce and staring away from us at the wall in front of him. He had spiky blue short hair and black clothes all on with bright green gloves on.

I shivered something was off about this man, and the way he dressed. A smell also started to rot in my nose, an awful smell. The tension in the air felt like I'd somehow met him before or seen him before. "We are here for the dead body, Panther. We will get it out the back and travel the longer way back to our base..." she said her voice lost to the wind and her face distorted in a way I believe was her trying to talk.

"You mean, side camp? Don't you? Cause after all this is the base camp. And I am the leader, not the mental patient who calls himself your father, kit?" He mused as she struggled to talk more. He's voice sent more shivers down my spine and made me tremble to the floor. He was insane, and had some sort of spell over us, that was unexplainable. I've never felt that before or even ever seen anything like this.

Was magic real? Where was I, maybe I just grew sick and delusional somehow in the palace and I'm secretly home with my mom and dad and I'd wake up eventually and they'd tell me how worried they were? But then the smell of rotten garbage came back and awoke my senses. I had to be awake and this had to be real. But it was my body, not his. I broke out of whatever trance he had put me in and stood up.

"Why are you doing this?" I challenged the sorcerer. He slammed his fist into the ground. A shattering impact creates cracks in the ground around him. "Was that supposed to scare me? It looks more like you'll be the one to fall into the earth..." my voice was cut off. Not by choice. I looked to Kit who now had her voice back.

"I'm sorry, your majesty, I didn't mean you harm... I come for the body to bring back to my father..." she said bowing to him. As if he could sense her bowing he let loose my voice too. I felt a release of pressure and I was all of a sudden back to normal. The ground started to shake and it felt like an earthquake but the tent itself didn't shake. The ground that was cut in a circle around him started to rise up from the ground, putting him on a pedestal of sorts and then it spun around.

He had a blindfold on, and he was wearing a purple dress shirt under a black jacket. The green gloves and the purple shirt made me think he was the mental patient. Especially with that blindfold SOLD, first chance I get I'm sending him to a pyschoward. If he didn't strangle me first. Who knows what he's capable of. He's smile was ere in a charming way that made me squirm. He smirked, "Well, well, well if it isn't little tree hugger. You sure have a way of being where ever I show up. In a palace, in the forest and now here. You sure are sneaky at stealing food from everyone aren't you?" He smirked as if he could sense I was playing with his words.

Stole food? That's odd I don't recall ever stealing food, especially not from the palace or in the woods since I was a princess. But if he's seen me in the palace then he has had to have met me as princess. So... maybe he knew and wanted me to know he knew but had a side story to keep me being a princess secret from Kitha. Why would he keep that secret?

"You two, know eachother?" Kitha asked confused, yet curious of what he had to say. I still don't recognize him myself though, I mean he's obviously not Kane. The blue hair sets that off. I shake my head confused.

"Yet I don't recall meeting you, ......, your highness?" I question, not knowing whether to call him majesty, highness or panther. He tapped the pedestal twice and it went back to the ground. He motioned me to come near him. I turned to Kitha and she motioned me to do what he says rather curiously. I came up to him and he stood up and took off the blind fold.

"It's nice to finally be introduced, Prince Lucifer at your service. Although, only people like you, Kitha and Jarod know. So keep it on the down low," he winked and it made me make eye contact with him. But when I looked into his eyes. Yellow eyes looked back into mine. Yellow eyes. The very same as the leader of the group that took Kane away, that looked into my eyes and pretended to not see me. The very same, yellow eyes. My vision blurred and then went black.

A panther looked at a cat eye to eye, assessing the the cat. "Wake up little kitty." The cat groaned and awoke.