Escort Assassin

Chapter 7

"Wake up," A voice shrieked making me grumble, but open my eyes. Luna was standing in front of me, with a scowl on her face and her arms crossed over her chest, "Finally, get up and go get breakfast." She ordered.

I was about to move when I realized that I was trapped. Eli was leaning against me while using my shoulder like a pillow. Evelyn was sprawled out across our laps. There's no way I can get out of here without waking them up. No point in trying. I had just closed my eyes again when the door slammed open. Evelyn had rolled onto the floor when she jumped up. Eli was sitting up and looking around for danger.

"Rise and shine kids." Robert yelled with a cheering smile, "We've got a lot of work today."

I stood and stretched. Who would have thought that Robert was a morning person?

"Robert, don't be so loud in the morning." Zoe lectured slapping him on the back of the head. He let out a nervous chuckle then turned to us with a smile.

"We've brought you breakfast, so you'll have to eat on the way to today's training arena."

Zoe handed me and apple as we began to shuffle out the door. We hadn't taken our weapons off last night so at least we didn't have to stop to get those.

"So, what are we fighting?" I asked as Robert lead us across the training fields. The sun was barely up but I could see some of the soldiers heading to the mess hall for breakfast.

"You're not always going to fight something." Robert explained, "You're going to be doing some rope climbing exercises."

"Lord Robert, don't take this the wrong way, but you're bad a dodging questions." I explained earning a dramatic gasp from him

"Fine then, you'll have to wait and see." He replied as we headed to a small dome cage. Caleb was standing next to it with some rope in his hands. On closer inspection, I saw that there was a knife on one end of the rope and on the other end there was a grappling hook.

"First off, does anyone know what this is?" He asked holding up the rope.

"It's a rope with a knife at the end." Luna answered in a sassy tone.

"Close enough." he sighed sounding like he was already getting tired of her, "This is a Kyoketsu-Shoge. A weapon used hundreds of years before the Great War. This training will not only see how well you can climb, but also how you handle foreign weapons. Remove all of your weapons."

We obeyed wordlessly, as he opened a latch on the dome cage. After he tied a rope to a bar, he handed us each a new weapon.

"Get in and let's see what you can do." Robert cheered like he was encouraging us.

We all hesitated until Luna spoke up, "Blond girl, you go first."

At first, I wanted to argue that since she was the leader, she should go first. However, I don't feel like listening to her gripe. Letting out a slow breath, I held onto the rope and slid down into the pit. Looking around for danger before I reached the bottom.

I stepped back from the rope and began to examine the arena. It was probably 50 feet from one end to the other. There was one large wooden door on my left. All around there were large boulders and cracks that I assume would be used for hiding. Looking up, I saw that the cage was roughly 30 feet up.

"All this room for climbing?" Evelyn chuckled landing. I didn't even notice the others made it down.

"The ropes should be strong enough to hold your weight." Caleb called down to us while pulling up the rope, "Better hurry."

I felt the blood rush from my face as I looked over at the others. They seemed as horrified as I felt, except for Luna.

"Let's just open the door and get out of here?" She decided heading over to the door.

"Don't open that door." We all screamed, running to stand between her and the door. We don't want to see what's beyond the door and we don't want to find out.

"How about we try to figure out what goes in here?" I offered hoping to get her mind off the door. Evelyn seemed to understand what I was doing. She grabbed Luna's arm and dragged her to the other side of the arena. Satisfied, that she wouldn't cause anymore trouble, I turned to Eli, who was already swinging the rope. He swung it up and got the grappling hook to hang onto one of the bars.

"Nice job. Think you can do that with the others?" I asked holding my weapon out to him, "If we separate them a little we should be able to climb up them without hurting each other."

He nodded before grabbing the weapon and tossing it up. When it hooked, I gave it a test pull to confirm that it could hold a person.

"Okay, all we have to do is hang, Evelyn's and Luna's then we can get out of here." I turned to head over to Evelyn. Evelyn was looking down at the ground with a troubled expression though.

"What kind of prints are these?" she asked. I examined them, but frowned. I'm not sure what they are. They look like cow prints, but they were to big. There were also claw marks. Tracks of a different creature perhaps.

"I don't know," I admitted standing, "Eli can throw the grappling hook and get a bar. Give him yours and Luna's then we can go."

She nodded and was about to rush off, when we heard a oud creaking noise, making us all freeze. The large wooden doors opened. It opened, revealing a large hallway and a creature galloping towards us on two legs.

"Hide in the cracks of the walls." I screamed running to the closest hole in the wall. Letting Evelyn slip in before I could. I'm not sure where, Eli and Luna went, but I'm sure they're safe.

The creature reached the arena. A creature that had the head of a bull and from the waist down had two bull legs. The torso was a humans. I believe I've read about it before. Something called a minotaur? The creature began galloping around the arena. Snorting and tossing it's head every once in a while.

"Do you see Eli or Luna?" Evelyn whispered. I, cautiously peeked around, to see Luna standing outside her safety hole a little. I doubt she would listen to me if I told her to get back.

"I see Luna." I answered before turning back to the minotaur. It was charging the ropes even though the ropes only swung out of it's way. Seems like it'll charge anything that moves. Realizing this, a plan quickly formed in my head.

"Okay, I have an idea, but it might seem a little crazy." I told her. She looked at me for a second as if I was joking.

"There's a minotaur out there that's blocking our way of escape. I don't know how much crazier it can get." She replied, "Just tell me what to do."