Ticket to the Abyss and back

The Gift

*Disclaimer: Picture is made by Pennumbra on tumblr, Ibjust borrowed it*

Varians mood shifted alot during the days after the Kings visit. After that day he had not had anymore visitors, then again, whonwould? He was a criminal, his only family was...was... trapped, incased in that stupid stupid amber.
The guards passed the food in through the tiny space under the door. He ate it even though he didn't care much for it, he had decided that he needed to stay alive and somewhat healthy, for the day when his father would be free and ....IF he would somehow survive that horrible yellow amber. So he ate and slept.
Occasionally he took out the mysterious note he had been given but he could not figure it out.

The pebble of which he had been scribbling with on the wall and floor was gone, it had already been small to begin with, it was never to last long in his hands.

-What if they decide that they don't need me? What if they just let me be here forever? They might throw away the key , Ruddiger!
Tears was welling up in his eyes, his throath got thick, hard to talk, hard to swallow.
-I wasn't wrong... it.. it wasn't... my fault....
The tears escaped his eyes even though he had done his best to keep them in.

- If I at least could see you...Dad... I miss you, daddy...I miss you...
Varian cried himself to sleep, Ruddiger did his best to comfort him.

The dream that night was even more unpleasent than any other dream he had ever had.

" Varian opened his eyes, he had fallen asleep in his lab just as so many times before, a paper was stuck on his chin. Something was wrong. He looked around in distress. The amber that had incased his father was gone! Where was it? And where was Qurin? He started running towards the door, just as he was about to open it he heard a voice behind him, it was both familiar and strange at the same time.
- Varian. What have you done?
Varian turned around, a shadow came forward from the darkness. His father.
He was alive.
Varians logical side should've questioned this hole situation but it was as if that part of him was hit down at the moment.
-Dad! He exclaimed, while running towards his father, tears welling up in his eyes making his vision blurry.
Quirin took his son in his arms, but his face remained stern.
-Dad, ho -how did you.... wha ..wha ...what happened to the amber?
- Varian. What have you done? Quirin asked back without answering his sons questions.
- What I did?....I did.... what I had to.
- You betrayed the royal family.
His voice was cold and steady, his face stern, just the same it always was when he was scolding him.
- No, Dad...listen...
- You endangered everyone.
- It wasn't....
- You failed me. You are no longer my son!
Varians eyes widened, he felt sick, his stomach twisted to a knot.
- DAD!
Darkness. Everything faded into a darkness around the boy. He fell down to the ground , crying desperately.
- It wasn't my fault. I'm sorry... Dad... come back...I need you, dad...."

Ruddiger buffed his human friend on the head, trying to make him wake up from bad dream he was having. He had been tossing and turning alot in his sleep which had made the racoon very much distressed.
And suddenly his blue eyes were wide open, tears running down his cheeks.
The racoon tried to comfort him.
- Hey buddy. He sniffled.
- I had a bad dream again, don't worry.

Just as always, it was dark, complete and utterly darkness, without so much as a window to look through there was hardly any way to tell what the time was, day or night , not that it mattered.

They little boy curled up on the hard bench that serves as his bed. Ruddiger found his place into his lap eventually, they both calmed down a bit.
Varian ran his fingers through his friends pelt, it wasn't as shiny and smooth at it used to be. He chuckled a bit, a faint memory showed up in his head.
One time when Ruddiger and Varian was newly acquaintances, he had tried to bathe the little wild animal. With his own special solution, it should've made Ruddiger the shinies (and cleanest) racoon in all og the land. However the racoon didn't really appreciate the thought of being drenched in water, and it ended with them both in the bath, they got clean... they got shiny, unfortunately they also got purple by the solution Varian had made. And they stayed purple for weeks.

Varian, still running his fingers through the pelt, staring out into the nothingness didn't hear the faint sound of clacking shoes aganst the stonefloor. He didn't hear them coming closer and closer, and he didn't notice when they stopped outside of his locked door.

No, it wasn't until he heard the sound of the foodhatch open that his head registred it.
He stopped in his petting motion but didn't lift his hand from the racoon, the little creature lifted his head, thinking it might be time for food. Varian didn't move, oh no, he didn't want to give them the satisfaction.

But even if he had moved, he wouldn't had seen anyone anyway.
The person on the other side the door slid something through the foodhatch.
It caught his attention of course, as the curios young boy he was.
And this curiosity got the better part of him, so he got up and found his way to the door.
The cell was as always still pitchblack, during daytime the guards would come and let him have a tiny little light, but only during daytime.

But dince he had woken up, his eues had had tine to adjisy to the dark, but even so, it was hard to see anything.

His hands searching the floor near the door, suddenly feeling something, a hard edge, a sharp corner... it was a book.
A BOOK.
What would he need a book for, it was to dark to read in here. How would a book help him?!
He was just about to throw it away in anger but while holding it up in the air he stopped. Something stopped him from throwing it into the unknown darkness. His inner being, that was what was stopping him. He just couldn't throw away a book, no matter how useless it would be for him.
Instead he slowly lowered it down to his chest and held it tightly and it wasn't until then he notced that it wasn't just any book.
It had a strap folded around it, and in the end of the strap there were something attached to it. It was a pencil.
"So it must be a notebook" Varian concluded.

But who would give HIM a notebook, and why?

"Sureley, it must be the same person that sent the note..."

Varian stood still a few minutes, thinking, he must somehow hide it, if the guards were to find it, they would take it no doubt, but there wasn't much of any hidingplaces around.
On the other hand, the guards only ever goes into him to give him the lights for the day, (or when the King is visiting) and that tiny light isn't lighting up the whole room anyway. He could probably just keep the book in the dark corner, they would never know, or place it under his blanket.

Varian measured the book with his hands, weighing it. It wasn't too big, there were lots of pages but not too thick, a liiittle bendy.
"I must hide it on me" Varian decided.
"If they're gonna find it, they will have to find it on me."

And so he tucked it onto his body, at the back, securing it by the hem of his pants, hiding it under his much to long shirt.

And then he sat down on the bench again, awaiting the sounds of the morning patrol- and breakfast.