Monkey climbs and swings, skillfully, down to the dungeon window, just in time for the guards to enter.
The guards enter without speaking and approach the cell where Crane is being kept. As the guard opens the cell, Rat leaps up and squeezes his face between the bars.
"Where are you taking him?!!" He shouts.
The guards do not react, silently removing Crane calmly, per their orders.
"Come back with Crane!!" Rat bangs his shoulder against the bars. "I swear, if you snitch, Crane, I'll kill you!!!"
Crane keeps his eyes forward, as the guards close the door behind them.
"Where are you taking me?" Crane asks, in a whisper.
The guards do not respond.
"Am I to die tonight?" Crane asks.
One of the guards looks at Crane, silently and gently patting him on the back.
Crane smiles. "I see. Your orders prevent you from speaking."
The guard nods.
Back in the dungeon, Rat struggles furiously with the bars and his bindings, as Monkey watches silently. Rat uses the bars to dislocate his left shoulder to bring his bound wrists under his legs and in front of him. As he bites at the bindings, the ropes give off a yellow smoke, burning his mouth like acid.
"Fucking Odamous!!" Rat screams in pain, his lips burnt away, showing his teeth. "Leave it to you to counter my blessing with your own magic!!"
"Dumb Rat, what ever made you think that would work?" Monkey watches on, thinking to himself.
Rat thinks for a moment and then begins rubbing the rope against the bars. "If you cursed these ropes with acid, then they will be the means of my escape!"
Rat rubs furiously, as the yellow smoke once again begins to rise from the ropes. Rat clinches his teeth as the acid begins to burn his wrists. "Which will give first, the bars or my body, Odamous?!!"
Monkey sighs, in his thoughts. "Is this like that old saying of backing a rat into a corner? He might do more harm than good.."
Monkey moves to hide under a wagon nearby, waiting for the other bandit.
Meanwhile, back in Serpent's room, Crane sits patiently with the guards.
"Am I to assume this is not my room?" Crane asks.
The guard, from before, silently nods.
The doors open as Serpent enters and looks at the guards. "You may leave us now, gentlemen, and thank you."
The guards bow and march out of the room, closing the door behind them.
Crane watches Serpent as she moves across the room and begins taking off jewelry.
"I always hated jewelry. It feels unnatural." Serpent comments.
"We were all like that.. at first. Clothes, jewelry, emotions, they were all foreign to us." Crane replies.
Serpent turns, leaning against the dresser. "So why did you turn to the Queen's side?"
Crane hangs his head. "If you must know.. I was threatened."
"You? The dual blessing of unlimited weaponry and magic arrows threatened?!" Serpent asks, unconvinced.
"Between Ox's strength, Rat's awful poisons, and.... I had no choice!" Crane replies, hesitantly.
YOU ARE READING
CAGED
Fantasy[Completed] When the island nation of Egnor is attacked, the youngest Princess, Juliana Levante Fremur, is sent to hide from the threat. She soon finds herself lost, nearing a dungeon where seven people are locked in magical cages. But, is setting t...
