The Princess and The Bandit

TEN

* * *

He faked passing out but truthfully, he is very close to losing his consciousness. So it wasn't really a hard thing to fake.

When the beatings have finally stopped for the day, his shackles were lowered. It was attached to the wall with a mechanism that if someone pulled it high, he will be pulled up to his feet as well but when it's lowered, the shackles will be loose enough for him to fall over on the ground.

That's what he was hoping for when Shawn faked passing out.

He took a moment to even out his breathing, to gather a few ounces of whatever strength left in him. When the guards finally left and shut the dungeon bars, he listened closely to any sound that indicates he is not alone.

When the silence convinced him that no one else is nearby, he slowly crawled over to where he saw the glint of a wire from earlier. However, his shackles were not long enough to reach forward. He needs to maneuver his body over just to reach the several inches that separates him from that piece of wire.

When he was finally able to position his body to reach the wire, he kicked of one of his boots so he can use his toes to reach it. It took him a while to do all these because he isn't as agile as the princess has always been.

But one of the many skills he successfully learned from the princess Lauren herself is lock picking. It might have taken him a while but he eventually learned the trick.

Now, with that piece of wire wedged between his toes, Shawn couldn't help the smirk stretching over his face . . .

* * *

There was a small camp of elves several miles outside the southern borders of Zaragoza. And that's where Commander Austin found himself wandering to.

It was a campsite, with about a hundred or so elves, pitching tents and making fire for warmth and tea. It seems to him that these elves are the nomadic types who are devout worshippers of mother nature, always travelling with wherever the wind goes and interprets the phases of the moon and the constellations and never had an actual permanent residence like ever.

"You seem lost," a she-elf perched on a tree called out.

"I'm looking for a friend," he curtly replies.

"Does your friend have a name?"

Commander Austin studied the she-elf perched on a large tree branch a few feet above him. She doesn't seem like most of her kind, reserved and a little bit standoffish. She seemed like the cheery type and a little too nosy for her own good.

"Do you know what happened on the road about thirty miles from here?"

The she-elf looked at him quizzically, an eyebrow raised.

"Not much," the elf jumped off the tree, landing easily on her two feet right in front of Austin, "Why do you ask?"

"I worry my friend has gone that way and may have been caught up in the middle of that fight,"

"Well . . . That's tragic,"

The elf walked past him, heading towards where her fellow elves' have settled themselves comfortably. She didn't offer any useful information and Austin was a little wary of asking further.

"It's getting dark. It is unwise to travel the forest in the dark," the elf said as she walked further away, "If you'd like, you are welcome to stay in my father's tent. He may know the answers to your questions,"

"What's your name?"

"Lucy,"

"Well, Lucy . . . Thank you. My name is-"