Challenge The Proud

Stupid Rogue

"I was never here." - Challenge No.22

PRINCESS FAWN TRIED to see outside the small, barred window, but the chains on her wrists didn't allow much of a view. The scrapping sounds got louder and louder until a dark hood made its appearance at the window.

"Princess? Are you in there?" a young boy asked.

She recognized Rogue's voice. He removed his hood and freed his curly blond hair.The twelve year old boy waved enthusiastically at her.

"You'll never get past the bars," Princess Fawn whispered.

"Yes, I will."

Rogue squeezed himself between the bars of the Ziggurat cell, showing great dexterity and flexibility. The Princess was deeply impressed and couldn't help but smile. He looked like a proper rogue, so silent and daring - until he slipped from the window sill and landed on the stone floor with a loud grunt.

The Princess held her breath waiting. Maybe the guards hadn't heard Rogue fall.

The boy stood up and snickered a bit embarrassed.

"I'm fine,Princess. Don't worry -" his speech was cut short as he tripped on one of the heavy chains.

Rogue let out a cry of pain and surprise as his face hit the cell floor.

Didn't he have any reflexes? Princess Fawn wondered frustrated.

She heard loud footsteps. The guards outside were surely approaching.

"They're coming. Leave before they see you," she whispered to the boy.

Rogue stood up rubbing his nose and nodded in agreement.

"I was never here," he said lowly and with a flash, the boy disappeared inside a cloud of white smoke.

The Princess was impressed for about two seconds, before the white cloud expanded and started to leak outside the cell door, through the small barred opening. The smoke was harsh on the senses. She could barely breathe or keep her eyes opened - it stung so badly. The boy coughed desperate for air.

Stupid Rogue,she thought.

The cell door opened and both Rogue and Princes Fawn breathed easier once the smoke cleared out. The Ziggurat guards grabbed Rogue and said something in their strange tongue. The Princess couldn't understand it, but she was certain that Rogue was being taken away to one of the other cells.

As far as she knew,Warrior Jones was also locked up nearby. Both her protectors were now unable to help her. But from the start, Princess Fawn hadn't been counting on them.

By start she meant the very beginning of their journey which had led her through the Amilian territories, the Savage Lands, the Dry Lands, and the Ziggurat Tribes. The very beginning when her father had disappeared in the middle of the night. The moment when she had been handed the missive with the ransom demand. She was the prize. The Red Kingdom requested her presence at the Red King's palace before the next full moon. So the princess had left the place she had called home her entire sixteen years of life - the hidden Tower of Protection and set on this perilous journey. After all she'd already been through, she would be damned if she'd let a bunch of human sacrificing Ziggurat dwellers stop her from rescuing her father.

Princess Fawn had been picking the lock of her chains with a hairpin since before Rogue had shown up. Now that she was alone again, the princess resumed. As light click, a little clink and some rustling later, Princess Fawn was free and by the cell door listening intently for the guards'movements. She counted three men. One left after a brief exchange with the others.