Chapter 2: Unlikely Escape
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Chapter 2: Unlikely Escape

It might be my eyes deceiving me, but the princess--- err I mean, Stella seems to be enjoying this? Is she not aware of the situation we are in?

I mean, she’s now all over the orc’s corpse and seems to be searching its nooks and crannies. Oh holy Aeros, I can’t! The orc has a strong stench and even if I’m a few feet away, the horrible aroma is assaulting my nose! Yet the princess doesn’t seem to mind!

“Well, what are you doing?” the princess asked in a hushed tone. I give her a shrug. “Come on Miss Latisha, help me find the keys on this oaf! And Aeros willing we can find something on this thing's cadaver that we can use!” she says in an oddly excited manner.

“Hey, prin--- I mean… Lady Stella?” I ask. 

“Hmmm?” she replies without looking at me. I instinctively walk towards her, but I cover my mouth and nose as I do.

“Can’t you use magic? Like, can’t the royal family use magic? I mean they teach you guys, right?” I ask.

Princess Stella pauses, then she turns to me with an apologetic smile.

“Yes, they do… I actually understand magic, and the theories behind it… except…” She sighs. “I’m not talented in magic… I can’t even cast a single spell…”

“I-- I see… I apologize for my rudeness…” I say, bowing my head.

“Hey! What did I say? None of the formal schmuck while we’re out here. Besides, even without magic, I have enough knowledge about other disciplines, like alchemy, to help me out.” she grins at me. I can feel my chest lighten up.

“So? Are you gonna help me or are you going to stare all day?” she asks. This young princess is one cheeky brat.

We do find a keyring the size of a bracelet. Large keys are attached on to it. We couldn’t find anything else… dried berries that looks age old, some dice, a few copper coins that are bent… and its weapon is a large club almost my size.

“Come on.” I say, grabbing the princess by the wrist. We tiptoe carefully towards the only cavern passage. We seemed to be inside a network of caverns. We peek outside our holding cavern and what we see almost illicit a gasp from me.

In front our eyes is a large pot over a large fire. Next to the flames are what seems to be large mammals skewered, roasting next to the fire. What I saw next sent a wave of dread crashing all over my body…

I did not want to believe it…

Something humanoid, skewered… grilling…

Oh my god… I can feel my stomach turning upside down… I gag and hold back my puke… I wish I was wrong, but it was unmistakably human that was charred beyond recognition.

And I felt it.

The princess…. She was shaking… her mouth was agape, and for the first time I saw her quivering in fear. Her breaths were short and fast.

“Princess? Princess?” I call to her in a hushed tone.

She wasn’t responding. 

“Hey, princess? Stella!” I say in a louder voice. She seems to have regained herself as she shook her head and slapped her cheeks three times. “I’m okay… I’m okay…”

Relief somehow washes over me, but that is a morsel compared to the mounting dread within my system. How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?

“I’ve seen worse at the demon castle…” Stella says in a shaky voice.

She really is just a young lady after all… She put up a strong front, but she really is just as afraid as I am.

“We’ll get out... I don’t know how, but we will, alright?” I try to reassure her, but I feel like I’m reassuring myself more.

“Yes… yes… we have to.” She replies.

We survey the area. Luckily for us, no one seems to be inside this kitchen cavern. In the middle of the cavern is the cooking spit… There are also crude shelves where ingredients are kept and there were poorly maintained vegetables and herbs scattered in sacks. 

However, something caught my attention… It was a root crop with a humanoid shape, and I am all too familiar with what that is!

“S-Stella… is that…?” I point at the rootcrop.

“Well, where did those orcs find that?” She replied. It was a mandrake root. Mandrakes are plants grown for their medicinal use. When uprooted, it lets out a shriek that can cause anyone who hears it to faint. Additionally, mandrake st a staple for high quality soups for its unique earthy and aromatic flavor. However, it needs to be simmered for a long time due to its chemicals that can put even beasts to sleep if not properly evaporated.

We may have just found out way out…

“We have to grab that mandrake.” I tell Stella. She nods.

We scurry over to the tall table. I grab the mandrake and a kitchen knife. We might need it for later. I see Princess Stella grabbing other things too. She grabs a sack of flour and matchsticks. She also shoves into my hands a bottle of oil and a bottle of liqour.

“We might be able to use these…” She says. I nod at her.

We look around the kitchen. When we look up, we see cages hanging overhead. The sense of dread grew. Inside, we saw few people locked up, weak and lethargic.

“Miss Latisha… we have to save them…” Princess Stella whispers.

“But how…? If we stay here we might be caught!” I reply.

“But we can’t just leave them!” she argues.

“We should get out of here and get help from the outside!”

“What if we don’t make it? Please Miss Latisha!”

She makes good points. Shite. But I’m not ready to risk myself yet to save a random stranger. But Princess Stella is making a desperate face.

“They probably have families too… they don’t deserve this, none of us do!” She says. I click my tongue.

“At the first sight of an orc, we’re out of here, got that?” I tell her. She nods.

As she starts untying the knots on the cage, I look around for possible hiding spots or places where we can escape. Tsk. We can’t hide anywhere… The room is bare, save for the shelf and the sacks lying around.

“I--- I can’t untie the knot…!” Stella whispers. 

“Here, use this.” I hand over the knife.

This cavern has three passageways… One of them is where we came from. Then there’s the middle passage where it seems to lead down a lit hallway. Next to one of the shelves near us, there’s another smaller cavern, and it was dark inside. If all else fails, we’ll have to take the risk and hide there given that it was nearest to us.

“There!” Princess Stella triumphantly says as she unlocks one of the cages. The people inside are already dying. Their breaths were short and labored.

“Hey… hang in there!” Princess Stella says.

“L-leave… please… you… have to leave…” one of the captives tell her.

“No-- we’ll get you out of here…!” Stella replies. She turns to me, “Quick, Miss Latisha, please help me get them down.”

“Noooo!!!!” one of the captives groan. The next thing I knew, Stella was pushed away from the cage and lands on her back… and a human head looks at us with sullen, soulless eyes…

“PLEASE LEAVE!!!!! SAVE YOURSELVES!!!” the captive shrieks. Stella lets out a whimper and I could see her quivering.

“Waaaaat?” A voice echoes from the hallway. Not good. We heard heavy footfalls headed our way.

“Lady Stella, we have to hide!” I help her get back on her feet. I had to practically drag her towards the small cavern. We take a last look at the cage and the dying man’s dangling head stares at us with dead eyes… it sends a chill down my spine.

We huddle at the very end of the small dark cavern. Alright Tish, deep breaths…

I look at Stella and I make a ‘keep quiet’ sign. Even in the darkness, I could see her figure nodding. I slowly crawl near the cavern’s entrance. I peek at what’s happening at the kitchen.

A large orc woman(?) is standing next to the hanging cages.

“Kuwayet yuman!” she shouts as she smacks the cage with her wooden spoon. The orc looks at the cage and looked puzzled at the sight of the open cage door.

When she smacked the cage, the dying prisoner’s body falls limply and drops into the boiling pot. I barely hold back a gasp as a mortifying anguished scream filled the cavern.

I instinctively pull my body back. I wheezed short breaths as my heart pounded rapidly against my chest.

Shite we gotta do something! I observe the orc. She takes her spoon and tastes the soup.

Okay, that’s it!

She frowns and turns to the table. 

In this split second, I make a life and death decision. From the corner of my eye, I can see the orc rummaging through the table. This is my chance! With one swift motion, I move next to the pot and I dunk a piece of the mandrake root into the… whatever concoction the beast is making.

A searing pain jolts through my hand. Shite. I burned myself on the pot. I instinctively wrap my other hand around my singed fingers. It took everything I had to stop the scream from escaping my mouth.

Just as she turns, I was lucky enough to make my way back into the small cavern.

“Latisha…!!!!” Stella says in a hushed tone. She saw everything. “Your hand…”

“I’m fine…” I reply.

As I expected, the orc (none the wiser) tosses in a bunch of herbs, vegetables, and what seems to be rotting meat into the pot.

And here it comes.

The orc lady spoons a dollop and scarfs it down. She had this satisfied smile on her face.

Me and the princess hold our breaths.

The orc pulls a chair and begins preparing the other ingredients… only to fall face first onto the table with a loud thud.

“It took effect…” I whisper. “Let’s get out of here…” I whisper to Stella. When I turn to her, she was looking at the back of the cavern. “Wait.” she whispers back. Now what?!

Just then we hear this soft groan coming from the end of the cavern.

“Hear that? Someone’s there.” She whispers to me. Oh no… Oh nononono… not this again. I swear! This girl will get us killed!

She starts moving towards the origin of the sound. I gripped her wrist.

“Are you outta your mind?” I hiss.

“We can’t just leave whoever’s in there!”

There it is again… a groan followed by pained coughs.

“Whoever’s in there needs help!”

“That might not even be a human in there! W-what if it’s another orc that they imprisoned for betraying them or something?! Please Stella! We have to leave while we have the chance!”

Stella looks at me with furrowed brows and puffed cheeks. “Orcs don’t do that! They kill traitors! Besides, whatever’s in there is a prisoner just like us!”

“That’s not the poooooint!” I squeak as Stella breaks free from my grasp and hurriedly makes her way to the end of the room. Oh Aeros preserve me and my sanity!!!!!

I had no choice. I had to follow her.

At the end of the small cavern, we see this humanoid visage. Its hands were shackled on the wall above its head.

“Who… who’s there…?” we hear this smooth, almost silken --- yet pained and labored male voice.

Princess Stella lights up a match.

On the wall was shackled a male half elf. He has beautiful layered platinum blonde hair that runs to just below his nape. He has a slender yet toned frame. His ears are slightly pointed and his skin is fair but bruised. His clothes were tattered, from his tunic down to his pants. I marveled at his dreamy ethereal looks… but was snapped back to reality when my eyes lay upon his sorry state. He had a large gash over his thigh, as if his flesh was carved.

“Latisha, please help me get him down!” Stella asks.

“R-right!” I reply. Thankfully it didn’t take us long to figure out the shackle keys from the keyring.

When we were through, he slumps down on the ground. Stella lifts his arm and puts it over her shoulder, supporting his weight.

“Wait.” I say. I make my way to the kitchen and I find scraps of cloth. I also grab a few herbs that I was familiar with, as well as a few bottles of liquor.

I pop open one bottle of liquor and I shove it to the elf’s mouth.

“Drink.” I tell him. He drinks a mouthful but he almost gags. He swallows the liquor and coughs. “You’ll need it.” I say.

I soak the scraps of cloth with the remaining liquor and line it with the herbs. I then quickly tie the makeshift bandage tightly on the half-elf’s thigh wound.

“This might sting.” I tell him

 He lets out a sharp pained moan as I press the bandage against his thigh.

“With a wound like that, you’re lucky it did not get infected.” I say.

“Latisha… help me with him.” Stella says with a determined look. At this point, we might as well save this half-elf dreamboat as well. I mean, we can escape with just us two, but who knows? Maybe we can use his help. Besides, It’d leave a bad taste in my mouth if we just left him here to rot.

We limped out of the cavern and into the kitchen.

The orc woman was still fast asleep. Good. That mandrake is pretty potent.

“W-- wait…” the half-elf whispers as we pass by the table. He grabs what seems to be a wooden flute from the table. “I--- I can’t… leave without my partner now…” he says with a weak chuckle.

I look at Stella. “We won’t be able to go further with this man in this state.” I say. Stella seemed to understand what I’m saying.

“Take him back to the room where we were held… I’ll look around here to see what we can eat… I’m kinda feeling peckish too, y’know?.” I say. Now that the adrenaline has subsided, I realized that I haven’t eaten anything yet since this whole ordeal has began. Heck, I haven’t even had breakfast since I started looking for Bartha!

“Same here…” Stella sighs. “Come, sir, you should regain your strength if we are to escape.” she says, guiding Mr. Handsome elf into the cavern where we came from.

I look around the kitchen area. Surely there must be something in there that we can eat? I rummage through the shelves and sacks. Lucky for us there’s a bottle of what seems to be clean water. 

 

Eh.

 

At this point, I might as well drink anything. I can already feel my lips drying out. I managed to find a few fruits and dried berries inside the sacks. I take my findings to the two where we distribute the food among us.

The half-elf is named Ruveon Elmaris. He seems to be some sort of travelling storyteller and it was pure misfortune that the orcs found him.

“It seems like elf meat is some sort of delicacy.” Ruveon says as he scarfs down a whole fruit. “Curious. Maybe someday I’ll be able to taste it too.” he says, licking his fingers sensually while looking at his body.

 

What…?

 

“Oh, you jest mister Ruveon!” Stella laughs, “But that would be cannibalism!” she adds.

Yeah, we know that.

“Really? And-- and is that bad? I mean if elves taste good…” Ruveon says, his handsome face plastered with a clueless expression. 

“Hey… maybe he’s been locked in here for far too long…” I whisper to Stella to which she simply giggles and nods.

“He’s quite delightful isn’t he?” She asks.

“I mean, I really did not understand why those… orcs wanted to eat me piece by piece…” Ruveon says with a sigh. His thigh was carved little by little for eating.

 

Apparently, his decadent meat is reward for orcs who did well. 

Oh shite that sounded wrong.

 

They would tear off his flesh piece by piece because elf meat is precious commodity. Gosh, just thinking about it sends chills down my spine. I look at Ruveon with sympathy. He looks to be comfortable and calm, eating away at the food… but I know that this might be his mind’s way of shutting away the traumatic experience he’s had.

We manage to find extra cloth for Ruveon. He might as well be naked with his tattered clothes.

“Oh, it’s okay, I don’t mind.” he says innocently.

“W-Well, we mind! Men must not let women see their bodies, you know?” I say flustered. He may not be bulky but hot damn his body is chiseled. He looks like artwork came to life.

“Really? I don’t mind though.” Stella says. This girl!

“A-Anyway! We have to get out of here, and fast.” I tell them. “I’m not gonna sit around here, waiting to be eaten and neither should the two of you.”

“And neither should this guy be.” Ruveon says with a warm voice as he picks up a lone toxitoad. Really?

We press onwards, exiting from the kitchen. At the end of the long hallway is a large cavern, and what we saw left us with gaping mouths.

Inside the large cavern is a bunch of orcs brawling, feasting, and… well, socializing? At the far end of the cavern is what seems to be a throne and on it sits a larger orc. He had red skin and he has a necklace made out of skulls: human, animal, goblin, you name it.

I could already feel my knees wanting to give way and the mounting dread is back. This is probably the third time I felt this fear and it felt as intense as it did the first time. Oh Aeros preseve us.

“Well, would you look at that. A congregation of ugly beasts.” Ruveon casually comments.

Stella looks at me intently. “We’re going to get out from here, right?” she asks. Ruveon also looks at me.

Whoa. WHOAH. Stop staring at me! Their eyes were sparkling while looking at me, as if I had something planned out!

But to be honest, my mind is blank right now, and I have no idea how we’ll be able to get out of here. But we have to somehow.

“Miss Latisha? We have to hide.” Stella says, pulling my arm. I return to the present, only to see a female orc walking our way. I suppress a gasp and both Stella and Ruveon press their hands against my mouth.

“She’s one big heap of ugliness, huh?” Ruveon whispers.

“Tell me about it.” Stella replies in a hushed tone.

The female orc seems to be headed towards the kitchen. I could barely make out the words of the other orcs saying: “Bring the meat!” or “We hungry!”

Right… they were eating.

That’s it! I quietly pull the two back into the kitchen. I was sure I saw it somewhere…

“What’s the big idea?” Stella asks.

“Are we finally going to eat my meat?” Ruveon asks. “Hey that rhymes!” Stella chimes in.

Know what? I’m not even gonna answer that.

We hide behind a musty barrel.

“Oi. Yu! Weyk up!” the newly arrived female orc whacks the mandraked orc. Even with that much stimulation, she doesn’t seem to be waking up anytime soon.

“Graaah! King Gorlug iz nut gunna layk dis!” she threatens the sleeping orc. She continues rumbling while heading towards the shelves. She seems to be collecting platters and bowls.

“Hey, Ruveon.” I whisper. He looks at me with excited eyes. But why? “Inside this barrel, there should be mushrooms inside. Can you grab a handful?” I tell him. He seemed disappointed, but nevertheless he nods. Without hesitation, he plunges his hand inside the barrel.

“Wow, these are pretty mushrooms.” he says, holding out his hand. True enough, the mushrooms on his hand are brightly colored and had vivid patterns --- tell-tale signs that these are toxic.

I grab the mushrooms from his hand and I make my way towards the cooking pot.

But I may have miscalculated it a bit.

The female orc is now headed towards the pot. Shite!

She’s going to find me. And I can’t run now! I’ll surely be spotted. What do I do?! I can feel my breath growing shorter and quicker. Damn!

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Stella, behind the barrel, she gently and silently rolls out an empty liquor bottle towards the female orc. As luck may have it, her hands were full of bowls and platters that she paid no mind on the floor --- and just as Stella has probably planned, the female orc steps on the bottle and she trips on it, landing flat on her buttocks! The wooden bowls and plates all fall down, clattering, making quite the ruckus!

“Yu okey der?!” a voice shouts from the main cavern.

“Right-o! Just fookin treepd uvah meself!” the female orc shouts back, rubbing her behind.

I take advantage of the commotion. With a swift motion, I dunk the mushrooms into the pot and move back towards the barrel. 

“You saved my hide there, Stella.” I tell the princess with a sigh of relief.

“Hey, I got your back!” Stella grins. She really is enjoying this, isn’t she?

As we make our way back to the hallway leading to the main cavern, I notice Ruveon glancing around the cavern walls and ceiling. And he keeps making this adorable irritated frown.

“Is something bothering you, mister Ruveon?” Stella asks, planting her face in between her palms.

“It’s just… these plants are so unsightly… and they have…” Ruveon sniffs the air. “An unsightly smell as well.” he says. He was able to smell that through the stench?

“We’re probably deep in the rainforest so caves like these are where moss and lichens grow best.” I say.

“I’ve even read somewhere that there are undergrowth like these that contain toxins, so we better be careful too.” Stella responds.

It wasn’t long until the female orc hurries back to the main cavern where she serves everyone some kind of stew, and she looked infuriated while doing so. Apparently the sleeping orc still isn’t budging.

We wait silently for the toxins to take effect… And it didn’t take too long!

“Mee no fil wel.”

“Tummy hurt.”

“Need poo!”

“Mee pyuk!!!!”

An unsightly fiasco unveils before us!

The large mighty and proud orcs are reduced to curled up messes! Some threw up, and others were on the floor, desperately stopping their rear end floodgates from opening. It was a horror to behold. In no time at all the cavern is now lathered with orc puke and orc excrement! They were all groaning and moaning in pain, crunched up, while the others are shambling towards the corners, desperately defecating whilst simultaneously excreting from their mouths and noses.

I almost feel like I would puke too.

“Let’s go! It’s our chance!” I hiss.

But when I turn to my companions… well…

Stella covered her mouth in shock. She WAS a pampered princess after all, and seeing this might be a shock! She couldn’t even move as if she was frozen in place.

Ruveon on the other hand had a blank expression on his face and he was babbling incoherently about “unsightly” or “ugly” or “unbecoming” or “I want to die”.

Shite.

“Come on, you two!” I scream as I pull the two of them by the collar and I drag them towards the main cavern in the middle of the chaos! I dragged them over the puke lathered floor and layers of dung! This is no time to be fussy!  I could see Ruveon’s eyes twitching abnormally and Stella looked like she had fainted. 

Good grief. It’s a relief that they were light. Or maybe I’m just used to heavy labor. No matter! We’re getting out of here!

“Yu-yumaaans!!! *blurgh* dey eskeypin’!!!!!” I could hear them shouting. They tried to chase us but I can tell that their agonizingly painful stomachs are preventing them from moving properly. From the corner of my eye, I can see them trying to give chase, but the pain left them unable to balance properly and they end up falling face first in their own excrement!

Huge success! In a way…

The farting and puking sounds are becoming more distant, and I can faintly feel a cool breeze caressing my face! We’re almost out! I could feel my heart racing! I can’t help but smile! 

… Finally!

And just as I needed them, Stella and Ruveon came back to their senses!

“I’m--- I’m--- I--- I---!!!!” Stella babbles and she could only scream.

Ruveon’s mouth was agape and his eyes seemed soulless. But hey, at least he’s moving on his own.

And I could see it, the exit! We’re almost free!

… but just as I think that, something big stood in our way.

It was a large orc, larger than any of the other orcs. It was looking at us with a snarl on its face. I recognize it instantly. 

Red skin? Yes. 

Skull rings? Yes. 

Hand axe? Yes. 

Big teeth? Yes.

Shite. It was the orc king. And it looked pissed.

“You! What did you all do?!” It snarls. Unlike the other orcs, this one speaks quite clearly.

We freeze in our tracks. Behind us are a group of orcs who were poisoned. In front of us was a large orc. We’re literally stuck between a rock and a hard place. The orc grins, revealing rows of blackened teeth. It started moving towards us.

“I’m going to enjoy eating you, puny humans!” It says in a low, rumbling voice.

We slowly start stepping back on instinct.

“What do we do?” I ask.

“Maybe we can reason with it? You know, befriend it?” Ruveon suggests with a half-hearted chuckle.

“WHAT DO WE DO?” I ask again.

“Do we run or do we run?” Stella asks with an unsure voice.

“I’m still not giving up on befriending it though!” Ruveon chimes.

The orc king now starts running at us, and it’s ready to tear us apart!

“WE FRIGGIN RUUUUN!” I shout and we began running back towards the main cavern! We didn’t care for the puke lathered floor or the feces on the tables. We had to run! Not even the stench fazes me. Gosh! My adrenaline is pumping. I can feel my head pulsing!

We head back into the cavern where me and Stella were imprisoned. Thankfully, the orc chef is (STILL!) asleep, and the other orc woman seems to have been poisoned as well.

“YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM ME FOREVER, LITTLE ROACHES!” the orc king bellows.

“Okay, okay, we need to think!” I mutter, pacing back and forth. Shite. Now way am I going to die now --- not now when freedom is in sight!

“Look, all life is precious. Maybe we can reason with it!” Ruveon insist. This guy is nuts.

“Yeah, tell that to the beast wanting to… oh, I don’t know? EAT US?!!!” I yell exasperated. Ruveon flinches and he puffs his cheeks.

Stella has been awfully quiet. She seems to be deep in thought.

“If worse comes to worst…” I brandish the kitchen knife. My hands are shaking but hell--- I’d rather take chances! “We’re going to fight our way through!”

“You! Give me the toxitoad from earlier!” I tell Ruveon.

“What? No way! Get your hands off the poor creature!” he says. We glare at each other for a while, me with a stance ready to pounce, and Ruveon was holding on to the toxitoad like his precious stuffed toy. I lunge at him, trying to grab the frog while he struggles to keep the toad away from me. A good few seconds of struggling passed, and the frog managed to wiggle free. We both sigh.

"Look what you did." Ruveon pouts. I sigh.

Stella suddenly claps her hands. It startled me a bit.

“I got it!” She says. Ruveon and I stare at her with blank eyes.

...

 

Now, I don’t know how it got to this, but I have to trust Stella on this. We are at the mouth of our prison cavern. I’m staying on one side, while Stella is on the other side. On the floor is a long rope we found in the kitchen. Ruveon is making his way to the main cavern, a bag of flour in hand. He turns to look at us and with a determined nod, he salutes. We salute back.

“Okay, here’s the plan. Mister Ruveon, lure the orc king towards this cavern. Miss Latisha and I will be waiting here.”

I look at the inside of the cavern. At the far end is stacks and stacks of barrels, liquor, wine, and other stuff. The floor is also lathered with cooking oil.

“We have one shot at this.” 

I could feel my heart pounding. Then I heard Ruveon.

“Hey, mister orc king sir? Maybe we can talk it out?” he says.

“Hehehe, so it’s the elf! I’ll enjoy picking your meat from my teeth with your bones!” the orc king snarls.

“Hey, hey, no need to be violent? Okay?” Ruveon says, his voice shaking.

“I’ll make sure you will feel my every bite while I eat you alive!!”

“Well, there goes the negotiation!” Ruveon almost screams. 

We wait for the signal.

Then we hear frantic flute sounds! That’s it. We peek out. Ruveon is being chased by the orc king. The big orc looks rabid. Ruveon has an unsightly exhausted expression as he limply runs, flailing! Shite, his thigh must hurt a lot! His handsome face was twisted in pain and exhaustion. Hang in there, chief!

Just before he enters our cavern, Ruveon turns around. He was panting and gasping for breath. The orc king grins and almost towers over him.

“Here’s a little bit of make-up to help with that hideous thing you call a face!” Ruveon shouts as he pulls out a sack of flour and forcefully emptied its contents towards the orc king!

The big orc roars, coughing, choking, and blinded by the cloud of flour. I pull Ruveon to my side.

“On three!” I shout. Stella nods, both of her hands were on the rope.

“One!” The orc is now stumbling towards us, flailing its axe.

“Two!” It throws its axe at us, but Ruveon quickly pushes me down. We narrowly dodged the axe. I mutter my thanks.

“Three!” 

On cue, Stella and I simultaneously pull the rope as the orc king enters the room! It trips over the rope and its weight pushes it off balance. It lands face first into the ground. The force of its fall served as a momentum as it slides on the slick oiled surface towards the edge of the cavern! Countless liquor bottles are smashed and the alcohol drenched orc king roars in anger!

“Impudent humans! I will tear you apart!!!” it booms.

“Ruveon! Ruveon now!!!” I scream, shaking his shoulders. Ruveon quickly pulls out the matches, lights one, and throws everything at the oil!

Like a snake, the fire slithers on the floor, engulfing the cavern in flames until it reaches the big orc wherein we heard one last roar before all the alcohol bloomed in a burst of flames!

Debris and flaming wood exploded from cavern as the three of us dove out! All the adrenaline made everything feel slow and epic, I might say. We land on the kitchen grounds and with we groan, we pick ourselves up and make a run for it! The last thing we saw from the cavern as we ran was one of the orc’s skull ornaments, rolling on the floor, charred.

We ran as fast as the wind past the snoozing female orc, past the diarrhea’d legion of orcs, past the big hallway until finally --- finally the night air caressed our cheeks and star covered skies greeted us! The cold night air was fresh and I took a moment to take a deep breath.

I took it all in, the sweet scent of dew, the smell of leaves, the fresh fruity smell…. Everything…

We were alive!

We survived!

We escaped!

I look at my companions. Ruveon was slumped over his knees, panting, gasping for breath in the most unattractive manner, making choking sounds. Stella was on her back, heaving every bit of fresh air, one finger raised up.

I quickly grabbed the two of them and we collapse on the ground. The three of us screamed together in happiness!

“WE’RE OUT!!!!!!”

We managed to escape and dispatch the orc king!!!! I could feel myself floating! I’m so happy that I didn’t care that my whole body is bloody numb! I could feel the blood pumping through my head!

The three of us huddled together and we jumped around and rolled around. 

“We’re alive!”
“We made it out!”
“We’re friggin legends!!!”

As our excitement died down… we took a moment to survey our surroundings. Indeed, we were deep inside a rainforest. I couldn’t make heads or tails of where we were. Ruveon examined the plants and trees, then he nodded. Stella, on the other hand, looked at the sky and made signs with her fingers directed at the sky.

“Based on the location of the 6th constellation… I say we’re somewhere far in the west of Gehetto.” She tells us.

“And this place seems to be secluded too… based on the surrounding areas.” Ruveon chimes in.

Woah. All that information just by making those observations? They’re crazy.

“If I’m not mistaken there would be a town near here a few miles away. We must make haste towards that town.” Stella says.

“But before that.” I hold each of their wrists. “Allow me to introduce myself again. I am Latisha. I am a farmer from the outskirts of Gehetto.” I say with a smile.

Stella sighs and smiles as well. “My name is Stella du Gehettia. I am the princess of Gehetto and the fourth child of the royal family.” Stella says with a curtsy. For a moment I forgot that she was THE missing princess. She’s savvy and resourceful, if not a bit naive. But right now, she’s Stella, a survivor just like us. 

We turn to Ruveon.

“Well then ladies, the name’s Ruveon Elmaris. I am a travelling minstrel. I love the arts and I am travelling in search of an epic that I may write down and pass on to future generations.” Ruveon says, bowing down. He really is a hot and attractive half-elf, to be honest… but after going through all of that with him? I see him more than that. “And I think I may have found the beginning of that epic.” he says with a grin.

We laugh together as we set out to find a place where we can hopefully rest.

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