Pain.
Indescribable, unimaginable, excruciating pain.
It was all he had ever known. At least, that's what it felt like. He could barely remember a time that wasn't filled with anything but the torturous agony he experienced daily.
What had he ever even done to deserve this? He wasn't quite sure anymore. He was sure that he had known, at some point in time, what he was being punished so severely for, but now everything except for all-consuming misery had been long forgotten, including his own name.
Creaking hinges indicated the door opening, and the sound was quickly accompanied by the dim light of a torch. The dull orange glow hurt his eyes, and he closed them against the intrusion. He found himself waiting for the torture to start up again, and was confused when he heard a soft voice instead.
"I'm here to help." Whispered the voice. It sounded feminine, but he couldn't tell for sure. "My companions and I are going to get you out of this hell-hole." The light was moved, and the straps tying him down to the table were cut. The person whom the soft voice belonged helped him to sit up, though there was a bit of difficulty involved with the simple task. Soft hands, he thought fleetingly, before two more sets of hands were suddenly on him as well, pulling him off the table. He groaned softly, the soft voice quickly and quietly shushing him.
"You have to stay quiet..." The soft voice murmured in his ear, supporting him on one side. The owner of the soft voice and the other people holding him up were trying to help him to walk, but he was so weak that he could barely move, and he might as well have been carried out, for all the effort he was able to put forth.
Their progress was slow, excruciatingly so, and there were several times when they had to stop to hide from guards, but eventually the odd group — at this point they looked like a strange mass of a creature than four individual people — reached the outside of the compound.
"We've got to hurry. That took longer than I had anticipated." The owner of the soft voice commanded, releasing him after making sure that he wouldn't topple over, then quickly mounted a horse that had been invisible only moments before, its coat blending in so well with the background. But the voice wasn't so soft anymore.
He thought, Definitely a girl. He hesitated a moment. Right?
"Yes, Princess." Responded the two others supporting him in unison. They received a withering glare from the person on the horse, whose face was still hidden by a hood.
Princess? He thought, It is a girl, then. He was jolted out of his own thoughts when he was assisted to another horse, which he clumsily and awkwardly mounted, with the help of the two men supporting him, one of whom mounted swiftly behind him.
To keep me from falling?
The next thing he knew, he heard the hooded figure — the Princess — call out a hushed, hurried order, and the small party was off. He jolted when the horse began to gallop through what he assumed was a forest. Surely he'd been there before, when he arrived in this place? He could no longer remember. He looked up, catching fleeting glimpses of the stars through the leaves and branches of the trees above, and for the first time in a long time, he was not afraid.
