Chapter 5: The Great Escape

Crickets chirped. The moon was shifting to make moon for the dawning sun. Sairek felt like he was being tugged on two sides like a teddy bear in the hands of arguing children.

Sairek paced around his bedroom in his pajamas. Dawn hadn’t risen yet. He had not yet gone to sleep. Many questions had risen in his head.

 

 

Who sent the letter?

 

How do they know Yggdrasil was wilting?

 

How was the information reliable?

 

Could they be trusted?

 

What was he going to do?

 

Was he even going to do anything?

 

 

His eyes scanned around the room, soon spotting that book from a night ago. He stormed up to it and hastily flipped to the index. He didn’t find anything however, even after scanning it twice. He wanted some kind of hint, as if the book would know what to do in a situation like this. Annoyed, he slammed the book shut, before putting it back on the table. He walked over to his window, surveying the village down below.

 

 

Where were the letters even sent from?

 

 

Great. That was yet another question that needed answering.

 

He needed answers.

 

 

He knew his father would be pissed... He walked over to his wardrobe and began to put his normal clothing on. It was tricky because he usually had Laure to help him put it on, and she had just helped him take them off not even an hour ago. He was capable of doing it himself though; it wasn't the first time he dressed himself to do something rebellious. Although this time felt far more different. Sairek had even put on his gloves and ankle guards. He may not be back for a very long time. Protection may be essential...

 

It was then that he realized, this was the perfect excuse he was looking for, to allow him get out of here for a while. He couldn’t help but grin, despite him feeling very apprehensive about the entire idea of escaping the castle like this on his own.

 

 

He couldn’t leave without saying anything though. He went to his desk, pulling out a piece of paper. He reached for his quill and ink bottle, he quickly wrote this on the letter:

 

 

 

 

I am so sorry. I did not plan to leave like this, but I am leaving the castle for now. Something important has come up. Please know that Laure did her task properly. Do not punish her on behalf of my disobedience. She does not know of me doing this... I am not leaving out of hatred for you, but because I need something answered. Something that is very important. Something that may ripple the world... It sounds ridiculous, but you will just have to put faith in me.

 

You will probably search for me. This much I know as one of your good qualities as a parent and because of your sincere love for me. I do not know when I will return father. Just please know that I do not do this out of disobedience to insult you.

 

With all my heart, my love goes out to you.

 

 

 

Sairek

 

 

 

Sairek folded the letter and left it on his table. He soon reached for his staff, he was then startled when he heard the door to his room peek open, before opening, and out of all people, his father stepped in.

 

 

 

Sairek never swore out loud. And it was rare when he ever even swore inside of his own head. This was one of the rare times he did. He felt like a mouse, where his hole had just been uncovered by a fox. His father was the fox.

 

 

“Sairek, what is the meaning of this? Why are you not in bed?”

 

 

“I... simply can’t get to sleep father. …I... I'm really tired... but I just can't seem to sleep... I was thinking of maybe getting some fresh air for only a couple minutes and then returning to bed... Nothing more then that...”

 

 

“You know you are not allowed to leave your bedchamber after the moon is above the flag, Sairek.” His father tried to remind him.

 

 

“I know father. But it is only just for a couple of minutes…" He protested innocently.

"No... He is not going to let me out. I know it. I will have to do this a much harder way... I'm going to have to escape while letting my old man see.... This is going to break his heart. But it's going to break mine a lot more..."

Sairek quickly spoke out before his father had the chance to. "Oh! I forgot to mention… There was a rather strange letter that I found inside the box that I thought you should see.”

 

 

“Interesting letter?” His father inquired.

 

 

“The Ink is still damp on it, it was written very recently. It’s on my table.” He motioned to the table with his gloved hand that didn't grip the staff.

 

 

His father moved into the room, walking past Sairek, who began to creep silently towards the door. When his father began reading the letter, Sairek made his move. He bolted for the door, and slammed it behind him. He soon held the staff near the door knob and whispered quietly "Balinzer...!" Heating up the metal knob on the door. The king didn't wear gloves like he did; he would not be able to open the door until the heat cooled. With that, he sprinted as fast as he could down the hallway.

 

 

“SAIREK!!” He heard his father shout. It was a thunderous yell that would awake the entire wing of the castle. Sairek’s footsteps with his leather shoes thudded heavily down the stone floor as he made his way to the front of the castle. Normally the ankle guards made it difficult to run; a magician rarely ran full sprint like this in combat. Sairek however didn't even feel the weight of the ankle guards. In fact, he barely realized the weight of the staff as he swung his arms as if he was running unarmed. His senses were completely heightened as his body was pumping adrenaline in. He heard voices behind him from where he came from.

 

"GAHH! Why is this knob so hot?!"

 

“Your highness, what is the matter?!”

 

“Catch him, Catch Sairek! He is trying to escape the castle!”

 

Sairek sprinted down the stairs, gripping his staff tightly as he took two steps at a time to descend. He reached the carpet floor and ran to the other side of it. He spun around to see three of his father’s soldiers chasing after him. He knelt down, one hand grabbed the carpet. He held his staff up to the other, and then chanted “Wuaie…!” He pulled on the carpet when the soldiers were on it. On the other hand, the wind that his staff made blew the soldiers back. The soldiers lost their footing and fell down flat on their faces. Sairek tossed the carpet on both of them just so they were hindered for a couple seconds longer, being blinded by the carpet and confused as to what just happened. Sairek continued to sprint off towards the gate of the castle.

 

 

He made it to the front gate, and soon ran up against it, body slamming the metal door, but nearly bouncing off of the steel frame of the several locks that kept it shut at night. He originally was planning to sneak past the door, but he had no time for that. But body slamming it certainly was not working either...

 

 

“Balinzer!” He soon chanted out loudly, the head of his gnarled staff catching on fire and glowing red. The wood wouldn’t burn, for Sairek controlled the flame on what was to burn, and what was not to burn. It would produce enough heat to weaken the steel... he hoped. He soon began bashing the locks wildly with his staff. Trying to either melt them, or bust them apart. The process was getting nowhere.

 

 

“D****t, come on!!” He shouted frustrated, before delivering a blow with all the strength he could muster in one swing, only for the staff to bounce off the lock. Sairek panted, drenched in sweat as the fire died down. Already he was too exhausted to keep the ethereal around the staff to concentrate the fire. He wasn’t going to get through this door. “F**k!” He shouted, out loud angrily. It was extremely rare on occasion for him to even mutter a curse word. He was just glad Laure wasn't here. She would be shocked to hear such language coming out of his mouth -- in fact, he was stunned himself he just said the word... He soon shook his head rapidly. Of all the things to think about when trying to escape a castle you had probably less then 40 seconds to get out of...

 

 

 

“Quick! Grab my hand!”

 

 

He looked above him in the direction of the voice. His emerald eyes widened. “You!?” Sairek let out in surprise. It was the girl he had saw and walked out on from the beach. She sat on top of the door, and her hand reached down for him to grab on to. Of course, she was still really high up...

 

 

“Jump as high as you can and grab onto my hand. And hurry! We have no time!” She urged him.

 

 

Sairek soon heard a door burst open. He spun around as the soldiers from before had recovered from Sairek’s attempt to delay them. Sairek turned to the girl and switched his staff from his right hand to his left. He pushed his feet off the ground with every ounce of force he could muster into them. He had leaped as high as he could holding out his right hand. His gloved hand grabbed onto her own fleshed hand. He slammed against the metal door with a grunt. He winced at the heat that was still there from bashing the door with the staff with his fire spell. The girl reached over, grabbing him with both of her hands as she let out a bit of a heave to hoist him on top of the door with her.

 

 

“No time to talk or rest! Quick, follow me!” She ordered, jumping down from the wall on the other side and sprinting off. Sairek following close behind, as he heard the locks on the door being opened quickly. He heard some soldiers cursing at the heat the door had, and the male child couldn't help but smirk that his frustration on the door had been at least a little fruitful. The girl dived over the fence of the mountain and slid down it. Sairek quickly followed after her, until he let out a surprised yelp as he felt his staff beginning to be pulled from him. He gripped it as tightly with both hands to avoid it being yanked, he spun around to see who dared try to yank the staff from him, it was his father.

"Ugh! For a king who has everyone else do his bidding, he's fast...! If I lose this staff, it's all over... I can't depart without it, and he knows it!"

 

 

“SAIREK!!” His father shouted loudly in his son's face, beginning to pull him up with the staff, gripping the head of it. Sairek clenched his teeth and grunted, fighting back with as much strength as he could muster to keep hold of the staff and pry it away from his father. Tears soon formed in Sairek's eyes. This would hurt him. It would hurt him for a long time... To cause pain like this to his father...

He mouthed the magical word “Balinzer!!!”

 

His father yelled out in pain, struggling to hold on to the staff the burned like hot steel where he held it. His grip became too weakened after seconds that Sairek managed to pull free and the moment he felt his feet touch the ground, Sairek soon shouted out “Waert!” Jumping up in the air, as water shot out of his staff, propelling him away from his father and down the hill in the air. He felt himself being caught by the girl, although both of them crashed to the ground with startled yelps. She quickly got up on her feet, snatched Sairek’s hand and pulled him up, before tugging him, ordering him to run. Sairek complied, but not without glancing back, looking at his disappearing father who yelled out his name in sorrow.

 

 

 

 

“I’M SORRY DAD, BUT I MUST GO! I’M SORRY! I'M SORRYYY!!!” Sairek yelled out loudly to the night.

It was the first time he had ever used “Dad” to address his father...

 

Author's Note

This chapter which I originally wrote in 25 minutes, without spell checking, ironically took 4 hours without spell checking. Hah.


It wasn't because of spelling errors, really. There was (surprisingly) few.

...That I see.

It was mostly because I rewritten the entire thing, made the entire chapter in my opinion better.

Reviews

[Chris]

I pretty much have nothing to add to my original review, but I will expand on it a little, mainly since I didn't bother to even say what was good (and since I wasn't being so serious in it). You begin the chapter nicely. It continues directly from the last chapter and continues the plot. I liked how you had Sairek's father walk into the bedroom right before he was about to leave. I don't know if this was what you intended, but I laughed at Sairek telling his father to read the letter. Yes, it's got...sadness (wanted to use a better word here, but I couldn't think of one) to it, but I still laughed because of how it was set up. The dad's reaction when he read the letter was funny to me, too. Even if you didn't intend for that to be funny, it can still work in your favor, because it's nice to provide a comic relief to scenes that are supposed to be depressing, especially since the ending's kind of sad.

Which leads me to talk about the ending. For the most part, I like it. We can feel Sairek's guilt for doing what he did and sympathize with both him and his dad. And I suppose it does add a nice touch to their relationship. Before this point, they didn't seem close to one another, but despite this, Sairek still has that connection with him, which is very believable.

The last line of the chapter strengthens that emotion for the most part. I think it could be worded better, thus making it stronger, if you took the time to fiddle with it, but it serves its purpose. As for it being the ending, I'm iffy. I see why you did it, but it doesn't seem strong enough to me. Again, this might be because of the wording, so I won't say too much about it.

Two things I want to point out right quick:

He knew his father would be pissed...

You should probably use a word other than "pissed." Yes, it makes sense, but given how clean the narration has been up until this point and given Sairek's character (you said he rarely curses), "pissed" doesn't seem like the best word to use.

"Ugh! For a king who has everyone else do his bidding, he's fast...! If I lose this staff, it's all over... I can't depart without it, and he knows it!"

This thought doesn't seem so believable to me. He's just been caught by his dad just when he's about to escape. I would like to think that most people, including Sairek, would probably be REALLY fretting over this, if not freaking out. I mean, maybe I'm wrong about how Sairek would really react, but if he should be freaking out, then you might want to condense this, because, right now, it reads too calmly.

[Sairek Ceareste]

@Chris

Fixed them, especially the "his feet" error XD. Thanks.

[Chris]

Aw, how sweet. He used dad. It's a good thing he didn't say daddy. That would've been too sentimental. Anyways, once again, I don't have any complaints about the chapter, but I do want to point out three technical things.

he walked over his window, surveying the village down below.
You forgot the "to" after "over," unless you meant to have Sairek walk on a window.

He may not be back *for a while*.
It was then that he realized, this was the perfect excuse he was looking for to get out of here *for a while*.
The repetition of "for a while" sticks out. Change this so you only use the prepositional phrase once.

She quickly got up on his feet, snatched Sairek’s hand and pulled him up
Do you mean "her feet"?