Escaped and Rescued

Prologue

Five Years Ago

Kazimiera had never been up this late before.

It was so dark outside she couldn't see the clocktower outside her window like she usually does. It took her a few minutes but her eyes adjusted to the dark and she was able to sneak out of her bedroom without stepping on any of her toys. The bright stars and moon shone through the tall windows as she slowly made her way through the long hallways.

Even at nine years old, she knew that she was being controlled, that she had barely any say over her own life. She knew she would be trapped here for the rest of her life. But she found that the one thing her parents couldn't control, was if she went to sleep or not. It had been part of her routine to sneak out at night and wander the castle, trying to find more hidden rooms or eavesdrop on anything her parents might be talking about. But, it is so late that her parents are still sleeping, so she felt a sense of power, being awake longer than them.

Her intentions set on going to the kitchen, she went down two lengthy staircases and turned down multiple hallways before making it to the kitchen. 

The smells that wafted into Kazimiera's nose delighted her. Some of the food they ate took hours to make, so the chefs were already at it, cooking away.

It was easy to sneak around the kitchen. It was big, with giant crates that she could hide behind if she needed to, and her small frame made it easy to do that.

Quick as a mouse, she slipped past the chefs, careful not to get in their peripheral vision and snagged a loaf of bread, some cheese and jam, and some savory pancakes.

She was about to leave when the most mouth-watering smell tugged at her nostrils and caused her to turn her head towards where it was coming from. There it was, her favorite. Roasted Mamlayarian duck.

She should've left, because now that the duck was in the picture, she was not in control of her own body. She must get a taste of it.

A chef moved it from the inside of the oven to the table in the middle of the room, with all the chefs surrounding it. Kazimiera knew deep down it was stupid, but her eyes never left the duck.

She took a step towards it but hesitated, an idea popping into her head. She finally broke contact from the duck and looked around where she was crouched behind. She grabbed a sack of potatoes and ripped open the bag, when she grabbed a potato she nibbled at one end of it, spit out the piece she chewed on with a sour look on her face, and then threw it across the room.

A loud clang was heard from all around the room as the potato hit a large metal pot. But the pot had fallen and caused more pots and pans to fall over, erupting in a chorus of metal scraping and bashing against each other.

Her plan had worked out better than she thought. Every chef abandoned their workplace and went to go stop the madness that was ensuing in her favor, while she slipped past them and ripped off a duck leg with a towel in her hand, since it was too hot to be handled with her bare hands. The meat was so tender and juicy that it was easy to accomplish this feat.

"Okay, which one of you dunces did this?" yelled one of the chefs clearly irritated.

The whole room erupted in arguments while Kazimiera slipped away, through a fake painting in the wall that led to a secret room.

"Look at this potato! It's rats I tell you! There's rats in the kitchen!" she could hear a chef with a nasally voice yell through the walls. She giggled to herself as she scooted away from the painting that led her to this room.

The room itself was very small and awkwardly shaped, not a square but more like a polygon with none of the sides having the same length. And most of the walls had a hidden door on each wall that had a painting covering it on the other side, so she could go anywhere from here. One takes her to the dining room, another to a hallway, the third takes her to the library, the fourth to the dungeons, the fifth to kitchen, the sixth is unique because the door doesn't have a painting behind it because it goes straight outside, while the ivy on the side of the castle hides the door and is grown in a way where the door can still open without the ivy being in the way.