Escapee
“Hey, I think my shackles are a little loose! How about coming in here and tightening them before I slip out?” Thalys said teasingly, standing in the shadows right next to the door, so that when it opened he’d be concealed by it.
“What a id-hold your horses,” one of the two guards grumbled as he stood up and walked over to the door.
The guard found the proper key, unlocked the door, and swung it open. He stepped inside to find no one. Suddenly, the door slammed close, right on the guard’s forehead, knocking the poor man out easily. As the door slowly opened again, the second guard charged in to find out what the problem was. Thalys slammed the door again, but this guard was the quicker, and he jumped back from the door. Angered, the second guard kicked the door open and jumped into the room, his long sword drawn to strike. Glancing in the exact spot the prisoner would have to be to close the door, the guard found no one. Scratching his head with his free hand, the guard quick glanced all across the room. He turned back to the door and found that it was closed again. Fearing that the prisoner had already slipped by, he reached for the handle. A hand sprung out from the wood, clutching the man by the throat and lifting him off the ground easily. Dropping his sword, the second guard clutched at his neck in an attempt to stop the choking wooden arm. Thalys stepped out of the shadows then, a bit of dark magic flowing off his rag-of-clothing.
“Hmm, looks like you met my friend…the door,” the nobleman chuckled, walking over and seizing the second guard’s sword from the ground. “Looks like you dropped this,” he taunted, waving the sword in the man’s face. With that, he readied the blade and bashed the guard in the back of the helmet, knocking him out as well. Once the guard fell limp to the floor, the makeshift hand protruding from the door molded back to its original place.
After dragging both of the unconscious bodies into the prison cell, Thalys proceeded to take the armor of the smaller man. Next he took both men’s swords and strapped them to his belt. Looking as much as a tough man that Thalys could muster, he casually stomped out of the prison chamber and into the network of hallways that covered the bottom of the fortress.
Not long after he left the prison chamber, Thalys came across another guard. He threw the guard a quick nod. Remembering that he was still without his things, though, Thalys stopped just as the two crossed paths.
“Hey! Uh…you know that fellow we found sneaking up in the hills earlier?” Thalys said in as gruff a voice as his southern accent could manage.
“Yeah…what about em’?” the other guard asked.
“Where they keeping his stuff at?” Thalys replied.
“In the storage room just down this hallway and to the right…why?” the guard asked, staring at the so-called guardsman standing in front of him suspiciously.
Ever the quicker one, Thalys grabbed the man’s head in both of his hands and bashed it against the nearby wall. A small groan left the guard’s mouth just before he slumped to the floor.
“Oh, no reason,” Thalys said with a smirk, returning to his southern nobility accent.
More wary now, Thalys quietly slipped around the nearest corner and into the storage room supposedly carrying his things. Sure enough, right in a pile with other supplies and broken weapons was his gear. Quickly slipping out of his guard armor, it took Thalys no time to get in his normal Maeltryst armor. With his pack readied and his sabers strapped to his sides, the nobleman prepared to leave the storage room. A thought came to him, however, and he picked up the two long swords he had been carrying around. Strapping them to his back, he also took the helmet he had been wearing and slipped it back on his head.
“Might as well…not like they need it right now,” he said to himself with a chuckle.
A noise outside of the storage room caught his attention, and he froze in place to get a better listen. It sounded like guardsmen grumbling. One of them, he recognized with horror, was the one he had just knocked out in the prison chamber.
“Found me, eh?” he mused, turning to face the door.
Before the guards could open the door, Thalys blasted it open with a wave of water, pinning two hapless guards between the de-hinged door and the opposite wall. They slumped to the floor groaning. The other guards pulled out their swords and leaped to the ready. Thalys matched their initiative and leaped out as well. A flash of brilliant light suddenly blinded all of the men, and Thalys rammed through them, heading down the western hallway.
Running with no destination, Thalys turned down random halls, hoping one of them would lead to the surface. Finally he heard some guardsmen footsteps. He ran in that direction and found a whole group of readied guards blocking off a stairwell. Thalys sighed, shaking his head.
“We found you! Give up! There is no chance for retaliation,” one guard barked.
“Oh, really now?” Thalys replied with a wry grin.
The nobleman held up one hand, and a tiny orb of fire appeared in it. With a shout of victory, Thalys charged right at the guards. Just as they took a step forward, he hurled the tiny ball of fire, and it expanded into a giant fireball that nearly took up the entire hallway. The once readied guards turned tail and tackled around each other in an attempt to get up the steps. More than a few of them fell to the flames, and many more had their rears licked by the fire.
Laughing, Thalys ran up the steps, knocking down the guards who remained, patting their burnt rear-ends. Cursing, they all fell down the steps. Thalys’ smile suddenly faded as he reached the top of the steps to find an opened area before him. He turned around to see the front wall of the fortress, and when he turned back around he let out a tiny whine.
Standing before the nobleman was almost every single Bladenheart soldier posted at the fortress, including a rather large man with a black gauntlet that ran up his right arm and ended with a blunt shoulder piece. Strapped across his back was a great sword, and a wicked grin crossed his face.
“My my…how word travels these days,” Thalys mumbled to himself, rolling his eyes in disgust.
“I’d never imagine that you’d try to escape…most people try to be secretive about it,” the commander said with a stern glare, his grin gone.
“Hey…I was quiet!…minus the whole explosions and what not,” Thalys protested, pointing a finger at the commander.