Prisoner Thirty-One

Joe: As long as we stay above fifty percent

When I first met him, I didn't take Alec for a worrier, he was just too confident and carefree. I guess that once he started to really care about something the worry caught up and this guy really managed to embrace it. Practically all his muscles seemed to be tensed and you couldn't say a word to him without him over reacting. I didn't even debate informing him of my plan, for I know he would have spontaneously combusted then and there, and that's not even possible.

I just had to hope that Fe had got the message, considering she was clearly the more rational of the pair even, in that state. I took one last look at the two of them holding each other up, Alec physically and Fe a bit more subtly. I had clearly lost to Kimba on our bet, but I could understand it a bit more now. Alec had totally fallen apart without this girl and even if I didn't understand how it had happened so quickly, he had started to rely on her being there too much. So, it was now my job to make sure she didn't go anywhere.

I took my water bottle out of my bag, knowing that it would be a big enough sign that I was no longer with them. I expected it to be quick but I had practically only just walked into the woods when three men surrounded me and grabbed my arms so they could be tied behind my back. "Be quiet and you won't be harmed." Luckily for them I wanted to be caught so staying quiet wasn't too tricky.

I was led through a stream of trees until I was facing a much larger one, where an unconscious Kimba was tied up. After being placed next to her the ropes were attached so that our torsos were pinned to the bark.

The guards clustered in front of the tree and started to murmur too each other. I let them get on with it as I tried to asses Kimba's situation. From my angle I could see no blunt force trauma, just a yellowy mash of some sort of plant placed just behind her ear. "She's fine, that thing on her neck is just going to keep her asleep until we remove it." I focused closer onto the liquid, trying to debate how it was meant to be doing this. "We don't want to hurt you guys. The only reason she is like this is because we saw her in the woods that day by the river and don't want to risk, you know, being fried."

"Sensible," I replied, "She doesn't take kindly to being taken hostage." I needed these guys for my plan but after the stunt they had pulled, I wasn't going to be too nice about it.

"I'm sure you must be angry, but you need to understand, we do not possess the same skills as you and your friends do so we couldn't risk just walking up to you." I finally looked up to make direct eye contact with the only man addressing me.

"Yes, because shooting us with arrows is the best way to get us to play nice." I ended my sentence with the nicest smile I could master as the man started to look uncomfortable. It was a long shot guessing that these people were for sure responsible for the arrow thing, but my guess had clearly paid off.

"I am very sorry about that, but I can assure you that none of my men were responsible and the people that were have been dealt with." He shifted from foot to foot, removing any pretense that these people might have been a threat.

"And, again, taking me and my friend, were you best methods of apology? What, did you run out of arrows?" The man sighed, moving so that he was crouched directly in front of me. "What can I do to prove to you that I am sorry?"

I smirked at him, amazed at how simple this all was ending up. "That simple, first wake up my friend and then start being honest and tell me what is going on." He turned back to look at his friends who seemed to nod their approval. He then approached Kimba with a cloth on his hand and moved to remove the liquid. I stared at her curiously for a moment before her head started to move and in a matter of seconds shot up. Her eyes took on a more orange tint, something they did before she started a major fire.