Escaped and Rescued

Chapter Four

Kazimiera knew that leaving wouldn't exactly be the easiest thing she ever had to do.

She pondered her escape route as she scaled down the enormous wall of ivy that covered a third of the northwest corner of the castle. She had, of course, climbed down this part many times in her life; it had taken little strength at all to accomplish this, thanks to muscle memory.

The lit torches were her only sources of light, casting an orange hue on most things she passed by. They also snuffed out the bright stars, causing the once captivating night sky to be no more than darkness stretching on for a distance greater than Kazimiera could imagine. The crisp night air nipped at the bare parts of her skin, knowing it'll be a problem in the near future, Kazimiera wished she had brought a piece of cloth to cover her face, her hot breath acting as a heater. As for her hands, gloves would be favorable as well.

She dropped to the floor when she was about three feet off the ground and wasted no time to check to see if Elvira was watching her from the sixth story window. From there she crouched and rushed toward the edge of the maze. Beyond that would be the garden where all the carriages took the nobles wherever they needed to be. From there she would travel to the heart of the capitol city where the train station is.

She hugged the outside walls of the maze as she tip-toed closer and closer towards the flower garden. She could almost smell the newly bloomed flowers when she heard footsteps approaching her direction.

Acting quick, she climbed over the maze in two strides, but as she was about to leap over she noticed a guard asleep on duty, leaning against the shrub wall. Scrambling to not land on top of the sleeping guard, she leaned back, leading with her head. Only, she put too much weight on the top half of her body so she started to fall backwards. Her limbs started flailing trying to grab onto anything to stop her from falling, but it was no use. As she continued to tip backward, she bit her tongue to stop herself from gasping. And stopped flailing her body and accepted her fate and fell on her upper back and neck, biting her tongue and tasting blood, her body bounced almost and rolled onto her stomach.

Kazimiera lay there, her face buried in gravel and groaning in pain.

"Hello?" called out the now awake guard, his voice laced with fatigue. "Who's there?"

Kazimiera thought his irritating voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it anywhere at the moment.

As she started to painfully stand up, she noticed that the guard on the other side had stopped moving. Kazimiera froze, not daring to breathe so he didn't hear her. As she crouched there, she realized what an awkward position she was in and how uncomfortable she was getting. Before she could stop herself she started to fall forward again. Not having any time to stop herself she landed on her nose, and made noise.

She jumped up, her eyes tearing up instantly, even though it didn't hurt that bad. She turned around, losing all sense of subtlety, she started to book it toward the garden.

"Gotcha!" called out the guard. A few seconds later he jumped over, clearly clumsily because the sound of his feet hitting the gravel was scattered and didn't start running for a few seconds. He had an advantage because Kazimiera was a very short person, and most people are taller than her, therefore faster, so he caught up to her and tackled her from behind.

They landed hard on the ground, the guard taking most of the impact because they twisted around mid-fall, so now Kazimiera's back was on top of him while he wrapped his arms and legs around her. She started elbowing him in the ribs as hard as she could, grunting atrociously while he screamed out in pain. His grip on her weakened so Kazimiera was able to slip out from him while his hands tried to grab at her.