Location: Maximum security prison in Celpeia

Time: 25 October 1429

In the past few days, I have not slept one night without nightmares of both what the torture master had done to me, and of my father's calm composure before his final moments. I never saw the torture master again, but everyday felt like he was before me, and reacting all the scenes he had performed. It was some hellish images I hallucinated before my eyes. The nice prison guard kept on sending three meals a day, and their quality seemed to have improved after I've lied and revealed about an information, yet by physique or by spirit, my conditions have deteriorated greatly. I have became thin, pale, and my eyes were often blood red. The drastic difference I had experienced was a cause of psychological mal-nourishment than anything else. Before, I would handle my own mind well in any condition the world threw at me - whether it was sleeping on the streets or holding a kid hostage. None of that had caused any psychological effects. However, since around a week ago, I have been nothing but depressed. In short, I lost the will to do anything. I didn't care about my health, I didn't care if they would find out that the location I pointed to them, in which they might still be searching for Alathorn, was fake. I stopped having dreams about yhwh and the red man. It almost felt like the world had stopped in it's tracks.

A ray light of hope shone along as I heard a familiar voice calling me from outside the barred window. I saw Alathorn. I was thrilled, and I wanted to ran over to the window. I could see him up on the ground above me.

"How did you get in!" I asked him, trying to know how I failed my infiltration into the prison."

He didn't reply, but instead just smiled.

"I thought you were in here and I've been through hell trying to find you and I was captured and they did so much bad things to me and they even had my father..." To that point, my words choked, and I couldn't continue saying anything, and tears started flowing from my eyes, mixed with feelings from memory and emotions from seeing Alathorn. He slid a finger through the bar, and pulled on it.

"You're not expecting to pull me out of this prison cell are you? What's your plan?" I even regained some queer sacarsm.

"I didn't come too well prepared and I only have a metal wire. Can you saw down a bar in there somewhere?"

"These doors are metal plated doors, you can't saw them through, and trying to pick a lock with those wires is just infeasible. The warden had left his office for a while now, so if you can get in the office, in the building right before you, then come downstairs. They might still have all my tools and clothes in the office. Those are a lot more helpful."

I heard footsteps on the staircase quite loudly as he came down.

" Can you find anything?" I tried to call through the metal plate door.

"It's too dark in here. I can't see anything. Let me see if I can find a torch or the similar."

[Insert part of rescue]

The last strand my hope was utterly destroyed. Not only had I not been able to find Alathorn and rescue him from the jail, I actually managed to get myself imprisoned, have him come rescuing me and now actually getting jailed.

To make the situation even more dire, I was told that Alathorn was declared to be executed in three days, and after he dies, I will follow.

[Insert descriptions on in-between]

Knowing that the prison warden won't be back in the entirety of half a day gave me motivation, and I soon thought of a gross, but possibly working plan to escape.

With the five inches long metal pin that the torture master stuck in my arm and I had hidden underneath the hay bales, I cut open one of dead corpses that had not been disposed of in my cell murdered by the torture master, and I took out his stomach and I squeezed out it's contents in the bowl. It was extremely disturbing what I was doing, but it was something that could save my life. I pour the highly acidic solution in between two stone bricks on the wall in which the chains for the iron hand cuff was implanted, and weakened the cracks in the bricked. Using the cuffs as hammer and the pin and a drill bit, I started smashing it against the weakened part of the wall. Although softer than any other parts, and already rusted iron which was easy to yank out of the wall after some long term neglection, weakening by acid, and me physically drilling on its roots. This created a big hole in the wall, which I poured the rest of the contents of the bowl into, and then I heard sizzling within the cracks. Digging even deeper, I drilled a small hole into the wall, which allowed me to actually fish out the key that the prison warden had left on the table. Within minutes of this, I freed myself from within with the key, and I went straight into the office and got everything that was taken from me back. All the tools and my clothes. I changed back into what I had came in wearing, and that made me feel so much better. Carrying the keys to many other cells were found with the warden's drawers and my other tools, I snuck out the underground section. With the same skills I used when I evaded the palace guards and my servants in my house I hid myself well from the prison guards aswell as travelling through the prison, searching for Alathorn and the beggar girl.

[Insert rescue scene again]

Even though we are out of the prison, where will we go? The prison is surrounded by three sides of cliffs, and one side a road back down to Celpeia, which should be heavily patrolled by now that they realise we had escaped. Having the grappling hook and the rope, I made a daring plan to get down by the side of the cliff which the Dannie and Alathorn couldn't reject since they weren't willing to be captured and thrown back into the prison once again. I tied the rope around a rock, and I followed the ropes descent to scout out a viable path whilst having Dannie and Alathorn on top keeping the rope secure.

I descended, and cannot find an easy path down the cliff. The best way is following some roots on a slope with the elevation of at least eighty degrees. I called out to Alathorn and Dannie, and they didn't like the idea, so I climbed up, tied the rope fifty meters to the right of where it was before, and went down again. This time, I found a less steep slope down, but there is one part in the middle where there was no one for us to grip or to step on. I moved a further fifty meter, and I found a cave under which has vines leading downwards. I called for All and Dannie to climb down as I thought this was a decent path. As they were climbing down, I heard sound in the cave. What could possibly live in a cave half way in the side of a cliff? I was very curious, and I thought to go in. Alathorn didn't like the idea, but Dannie seemed to love an adventure into a cave like this. To be honest, she likes any sort of adventures.

Following the sounds I have heard, we went into the cave. Surprisingly, it wasn't at all dark inside, for natural lights bounces within and there are many openings in the cave complex. It was warm as well. It's paths within seemed to have many branches, but none of them met a dead end, and we're all traversable. Maybe following these trails we can make it down the mountain.

The sound grew closer, and it started to differentiate. Sounds of small streams flowing in the cave, animals making sounds and out own footsteps all blended into one delightful tune. As we walked further deeper into the cave, I realised that the sounds I heard were no animals. They were people conversing with each other, in the very language we speak in. I haven trodden carefully along the rocky path, trying to not make a sound, but Alathorn and Dannie were clumsy. They would always trip over at least a few times in a travel. I listened to them, and it seemed that they talked celpeian as we did. They didn't seem to have anything to do with the prison guards, we decided to approach them. They looked at us curiously and slightly cautiously. With Dannie and Alathorn immediately behind myself. All of their eyes fixed on us, and focused their attention on us exclusively.

"Are you the inhabitants local to this area? Do you know how we can get back to the capital of celpeia without going down the broader path way which might be so covered with people." I asked them as a whole, and one young boy answered me.

"Yes, we all live here and in the forest below. We go down by climbing the vines if we we need gather food or water or anything else, and in other times we stay up here."

"Can you lead us down?"

"Sure."

He then swiftly took us back to the entrance of the cave from where we came. I had thought the vines he talked about were too thin to climb on. He was able to nimbly latch on to one of them, but the vines do not reach the bottom of the valley. Although I had my rope and hook, they would not reach. The boy had simply climbed a few rocks.

[Above is really bad and should be changed]

The three of us entered the jungle beneath the great white cliff encoated with chalk. It was deep, and the labyrinthe geography easily made our world confused. In a triple canopy jungle as dense as this one, our navigation speed would be no faster than crawling in cobwebs even if we headed in a straight line. Even though it seemed so very simple from up above to walk due north, and it seemed so simple down below even to judge the directions with sunlight and growth of algaes, we still felt as if we were circling back to where we came from before. In any expeditions where trees dominate your sight, you will lose track of your position, and when you realise that you're lost, you would have already walked back to where you began.

As we walked and uncovered another branch before us to make way, and behind that branch, a black cobra body diameter at least as thick as most people's head immediately caught all of our attention as we instantaneously stopped. It's head raised up, it's hood spreaded wide apart, and gazes us down in a frightful manner. It exposed it's three inches long fangs, and hissed at us. It does not move, and neither do we. I, Dannie, and Alathorn all held a defensive stance. It's not that we didn't have anything to fend ourselves with. I had my dagger, and Dannie and Alathorn each had a shortsword from the guards in the prison. I said in a gentle, yet alarming tone to my two companions.

"We have to just not move. These snakes can sense vibration from the earth. If we make it feel threatened, which I don't why it should feel that way, then it's fangs will dig into you, and then it's venom will surely kill you."

Alathorn and Dannie were both panicking, and the slightest movement of the snake would probably cause them to try things. Conversely, if we started to do anything, the snake will bite us. We couldn't even gradually move away, since it will attack us in that case.

As time passes, both the snake and us became anxious. We held our weapons pointed to the snake, and it didn't retreat. Dannie threw her sword five yards away from us, in a futile attempt to divert the cobra's attention. It didn't work. It seemed that this one was quite aggressive that it feigned a few close mouth bites at us, and Alathorn, being too scared, started to wave his sword randomly at the cobra. The cobra instantly projected itself forward with it's tails, and bit on Alathorn's legs. I grabbed it's tails, and yanked it off of Alathorn. It then came charging at me.

I penetrated my dagger with dexterity I myself hadn't knew in me accurately and directly into the snake's skull. At this point, Alathorn was already lying flat on the ground. I then thought of a plant in the jungle which might heal this bite, so I made Dannie stay and guard Alathorn whilst I left to search for that plant.

Whilst I was searching, I heard footsteps in the leaves. Startled, and fearing whatever animal it could be, I turned around, and I saw a boy in primitive clothing. He was about to leave, but I intercepted. Alathorn has been bitten by a deadly snake, and his life is in danger. I asked the boy if we could bring him to where he lived, but he didn't answer. Then it occurred to me that perhaps this boy didn't speak English. I dragged on his hands to Alathorn, and revealed Alathorn's wounds to him. In the end, he waved me towards him, a gesture probably meant something along the lines of "follow me if you want your friend to live". I and Dannie carried Alathorn in a four handed seat, but he soon became more and more sleepy. At one point when he fell unconcious and nearly fell of, we started carrying him using the fore and aft method. Carrying a person in a coma in a jungle was better than carrying him dead.

After a journey which felt like an hour, we finally arrived at a small hamlet like area in the jungle where I saw simple structures made from tying logs with naturally crafted ropes made from herbal leaves. With attention drawn from all of those barbarians, I and Dannie carried Alathorn into one of these buildings as led by the little boy. I saw his conversing a bit with an older woman who dressed similarly primitively. I and Dannie's eyes constantly switched between the old woman and Alathorn, till the old woman went and came back with a jar in her hand. She laid Alathorn down onto a wooden bed, and he spoke something to the boy, who then escorted us outside.

We waited with paranoia outside, and all the people here were staring at us, and some whispering to each others. Even the boy who took us here had to announce something before they all went into each of their leaves covered huts.

After a long hard wait, we were called back inside. I saw that Alathorn was still unconcious, and now present with a few cuts on his leg. I instantly drew my dagger and growled at the boy and the old lady aggressively. They became shocked and put their hands up. That might be an universal sign for not wanting to fight. After seeing that they are probably not harmful, I sheathed my dagger yet again. If they would try anything or if Alathorn doesn't wake up soon, I will cut open every single one of these tribespeople.

They were probably nice, I'll be honest. But even if they were, I was too stressed out about the fact that Alathorn was nearly dying. They were so nice the boy and the old woman gave us a whole room in their hut. The room which had the two beds aswell. They had to sleep on the floor in the room next to our one.

I had fallen asleep again.

[Talking to yhwh scene]

The boy from yesterday awoke me, and conveyed to me the message to go with him. I told Dannie to stay and watch Alathorn.

I saw a few men and boys gathered around outside, and I was the only girl present. They all had sharpened spears. Led by one of the men, we journeyed into the forest again.

It took me a while to figure out where we were going until the leading man uncovered a few leaves on the forest and saw a footprint. Judging by the shape of the footprint, a small bear or a cub likely passed here not long ago. The rest of the group all seemed familiar with this footprint aswell. We followed the footprint.

We followed the footprints, and traced it for fifteen minutes. These tracks became fresher and fresher, the trail became clearer and clearer, till we spotted a small bear cub in the distance.

The boy called us to a stop and pointed us to a few scratchings on a tree. I thought this was what they were trying to find to hunt, but somehow, they all seemed rather distressed for some reason. I then remembered that bears do this to mark their territory, and cubs don't. So this must have been created by a much larger bear.

A growling sound came from behind, and it startled all of us. I turned around, it seemed like some unnaturally deformed creature till I realised it was only a twelve feet tall brown bear.

It didn't give us any chance to breath, and straightaway swiped it's gigantic claws at my head. I ducked by tiny margins and avoided instant death. The tribespeople immediately formed a circle around the bear, all pointing their spears inwards.

Something bizzare happend, these people starred skirting around the bear as they were jabbing. The bear was able to fend of most of the attacks delivered by the circular spears formation by simply brushing it off, but the spinning tribespeople soon made the bear disoriented. The bear received a few hits, and went into a tantrum. The way the tribespeople were arranged instantly changed. Whomever the bear tried to attack will jump back, and the bear will be greeted by two spears adjacent to the person he attacked. They stopped jabbing at the bear, and I saw it bleed. It soon grew tired, and these people managed to wear it down till it collapsed.

They constructed a temporary stretcher with their spears, and carried the large brown bear, ignoring the cubs she once had, leaving them to the cruel hands of nature. I was quite disgusted by this display of unethical behavior, but they all looked thrilled.

When we returned, we were greeted by smoked and burnt meet, roasted on a bonfire. That's probably their lifestyle, hunt and immediately eat. They had no butcheries in the forests. The boy handed me one large chunk, perhaps to reward me ducking and saving my own life, and I saved it two thirds of it for Alathorn and Dannie.

From the hunting style of these tribespeople, I realised that in combat, if I can dodge the enemy attack and defend wherever my enemy attacks, I could parry and jump back instead of risking my life. If my enemy gets worn down, I have much better chances.

On the second day, all the men went out two. By noon, we have found a large group of wolves feasting on a dead deer. We were trapped by their large numbers. I felt what the bear must have felt when it was surrounded by dangerous enemies.

As soon as one wolf attacked us, all of them would simultaneously try to bite the same person. The tribespeople seemed to be good at dealing with this also. They didn't use their tactics yesterday, spreading out into a circular formation, but rather gathered themselves inwards.

Like a coordinated attack, one of the leading man yelled, and everyone started to attack one single wolf. That was the largest wolf, and other wolves were not seen helping it. They were minding their own opponents still. Taking advantage of this, I pounced onto the largest wolf and straightaway put a dagger in it's head. All the wolves started to run away after this, but the tribespeople managed to kill a few before they left.

We brought back the pack of wolves, and again, we feasted on the wolves in the immediate day. Whilst considering what the tribespeople did, focusing on the biggest wolf, I had realised that in combat, it takes only one decisive strike to the head to settle everything like how a group of wolves will start to run as soon as their leader is killed.

In the third morning, when I walked out of the hut, I expected another hunting session. I saw that everyone in this hamlet, thirty forty men and women, old and young, had gathered with sharpened spears and weapons. If the wielders don't act like they want to kill you, then their weapons shouldn't bother you as much. So I wasn't worried. Besides, I have seen more of those throughout my life.

Initially, all the men and women holding the weapons started chanting in unison. This was soon followed by one or two of them yelling and swinging their spears in the air. Even so, they all seemed to be filled with a mixture between excitement and anger. If I was to follow the boy as he gestured, then I should follow him with a cautious mind. I kept my dagger attached besides my belt to be drawn at any time I wished.

Then they started marching into the forest, destination unknown. All I could do is to follow. Though not as organized and ordered as the Celpeian palace forces, they became fiercer as they marched. Even the boy was hyper enthusiastic.

We were around half a kilometer away when I spotted smoke, and after, a camp. It flew the flag of the Celpeian militia as I recognized. It had five or six militias armed with pikes and mail surcoats. Even worse, I saw them armed with repeating crossbows and two thunder bombs each. Seeing their gears, they cannot be common militias. Their equipment were up to par with the government agents of Mortimer sent to find us. I deduced that they were special forces employed by Mortimer, and shouldn't be in this uninhabited jungle for any other purposes if not sent to search these woods for me and Alathorn.

They were professional soldiers. Trying to fight them would be suicidal for these tribespeople with their spears. They wouldn't even penetrate their mail surcoats. Seeing the imminent danger, I stopped these tribespeople.

I blocked their paths, waving my hands back and forth, trying to tell them that they will engage in a battle which they will lose.