Music is Memories of Childhood from The King's Speech. Play it!

     Verana no longer knew what the humans were trying to do. They hadn't fed or given her drink in the entire time that she had been captured. Time, how many days had it even been?

     She didn't have a perception of time anymore. Her mind fell in and out of sleep. She never knew if what she was seeing was real or a figment of her imagination. 

     Her body was numb everywhere causing her to lose the sense of feeling. In her unconsciousness, she dreamt of pain and happiness simultaneously. She saw Zan and he always left her alone to die. Her neck was always wet with tears, but she could only tell when she felt heat, if any of it was ever real.

     Verana longed for stability and silence. Or maybe that was in her dreams.

     The district creaking sound of her cell door opening was the only indication that she was awake. . . and alive. Verana didn't stir, hoping that staying curled in her position would make her appear unconscious. It was probably a couple soldiers coming to see if she was weak enough to be left alone for a couple more hours. 

     She was most definitely weak enough, and all she wanted was to sleep the rest of her days away. If she even had days left. Her stomach had ceased its crying long ago, just like the rest of her body.

     "Hey." Someone touched her arms. She could feel their fingers, so soft and. . . kind. "Are you alright?"

     Verana would have been startled and probably move away, but she could hardly formulate the idea of moving a muscle, so she just opened her eyes. Gazing up, she met deep, sparkling brown eyes and the mear color was enough to make her gasp.

     The woman's skin was the color of chestnuts and her pale lips, pulling into a gentle smile made Verana's heart seem to beat again. But it was her words—"I'm going to get you out of here."—that made the world shatter into a millions tiny pieces of glass.

     Despite the thousands of emotion rushing through her head, she found herself able to ask one question, "Who are you?"

     "My name is Colette. Here let me help you up," she said, slipping one of her arms under Verana's armpit. "What is your name?"

     Her gaping mouth closed as she forced her throat to accept the bile she was trying to swallow. "Verana."

     "Pretty," she said, propping herself under Verana. 

     She gazed at the girl's clothing. It was red and made of the same odd material that they all wore. She timidly ran a couple fingers over the material, realizing that it was as course as it had looked.

     Gingerly, the girl raised Verana to her feet and she groaned, wincing against the pain that erupted across her entire body. "Do you think you can walk?" the girl asked, and she gritted her teeth.

     Verana didn't know if she would be able to walk out of the cell, much less out of whatever kind of compound they were in. Her eyes turned to the girl now supporting her weight. She was so young, probably around the same age as she was. Colette, she had said her name was. She would get in trouble for helping her, she just knew it. 

     But being a human herself, Verana decided that this girl would have already evaluated the chances and consequences of helping. So she just had to ask, "Why are you doing this?"

     Colette smile morphed as if the one second of warmth had been wiped right off of her face. "You shouldn't have to go through this. . . no one should."

     Verana looked over at her broken wing that was still draped over her arm. The tips brushed the floor below her. "My wing is broken. I can't support it."

     The girl looked at it, her brown eyes calculating. "I could make a sling, but we have to get out of here first."

     Verana looked at the new open metal door. "We're going to get caught."

     Colette smiled, but this time it wasn't that warm smile that she had been drawn to. No, this was an evil smile, one with mystery hidden behind it. "Not today."

     One foot in front of the other. Keep going. Verana repeated the words over and over in her head as she and Colette made their way out of the cell. One of her arms was wrapped around the girl's shoulders and the other held her broken wing.

     "You don't possibly have the key to my chains?" Verana asked, growing more and more worried for Colette's safety. Her arm was draped over the girl's shoulders so that she could support most of her weight, but the chain bounding her wrists whispered far too close to her neck. What if they came across a moment where Colette needed to let go of Verana in a hurry?

     Verana's attention was brought to the ground, where inches from her bare feet and ankles gnarled nails reached for her skin. Begging for things she couldn't give. She shrieked when someone managed to brush her skin. 

     Colette grimaced. "We need to get out of here quickly."

     They passed at least fifty cells and Verana thought that maybe there was no end to the pain that the people around her felt. There was no end to her own pain. But Colette quickly came upon a wooden door and unlocked it with a set of keys on a ring. She reattached it to her hip before opening the door, carefully peering out.

     "Be utterly silent," she whispered, giving Verana a look full on meaning. They slipped out and carefully made their way down the beautifully decorated hall. That's when she realized that they were inside a castle. From her own experience, the most heavily guarded part of the realm. And they were going to attempt to escape undetected.

     Colette suddenly jerked Verana's limping body to the side and pushed against the wall, causing the chains bounding her hands together to tighten around Colette's neck as a panel fell inside a secret hallway. She didn't even have time to contemplate why this girl wasn't more cautious before they stepped inside and Colette quickly replaced the panel. Not seconds later footsteps pounded right outside.

     "Do you even have a plan?" Verana asked, leaning against a wall to support as she looked over at the girl, who was practically blending into the darkness. She thought that it would be a great time to use her light, but her mind sent shockwaves back and forth at the thought of even trying.

     "I did at first, now it's all on a whim." She looked back at the panel, where, just outside of it, silence had fallen. "I'm going to get something to support your wing."

     Verana eyes widened in horror, her former aggravation with the girl for being so careless diminishing. Was she just going to leave her alone? 

     "How long will it take you?" she asked, watching as the girl pushed away the panel and stepped into the light.

     "A few seconds," Colette replied, her eyes sweeping back and forth.

     True to her words, she was gone for less than a minute, yet Verana's heart leaped at the sight of her again. She now carried a piece of cloth, which she said had been borrowed from a neighboring curtain.

     Colette's gentle hands quickly slung her wing. She bent the wing so that it would fit and Verana hissed at the pain. She tied the ends of the gold curtain across her shoulder and chest, stepping away. It effectively held her wing and Verana whispered her thanks.

      "Come, we need to go," Colette said, already wrapping her arm around Verana once more.

     The tunnels were crudely made, simple wood surrounding that creaked with their every step and small wood braces to keep the ceiling from falling atop their heads. Verana felt that it would indeed fall on them and then their corpses would go completely undetected by the world forever. 

     She shivered at the thought and instead studied Colette's expression. The girl didn't seem worried, then she also had nothing to worry about. But her feet might still have things to worry about. Splinters and puncture wounds from the chunks of wood that might be litter the dark floor. 

     With a shaky breath, she decided that it would do no good for her to focus on what might hurt her. Only the good.

     They walked for a couple minutes, surrounded by the darkness before they came upon another panel. Colette threw her body against it and cursed when it didn't budge. She tried again. And again. The third time the haughty panel finally gave way and Colette fell with it, shrieking as she was plunged into the open.

     Verana gasped, leaning into the light to find Colette sprawled on the floor. . . right at the feet of a man. Her wide ivory eyes met even wider blue ones and she stepped back into the darkness, wanting nothing but to shrink into nothingness. Anything to be away from the eyes that would soon be her doom.

     "Colette, what are you doing?" the man asked. Verana noted how he said her name, how he knew it in the first place, and then realized how unthreatening his voice sounded to her. She brushed off the thought, remembering that this man knew Colette.

     Perhaps she could still escape without the girl's help.

     "I-I was just rescuing—"

     "The volucris." He sighed and cursed under his breath. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted you with that information."

     Verana squeezed her eyes shut, praying that he would just forget he had seen her. She just wanted the world to disappear. Vanish into thin air.

     "Hey," Colette said and she opened her eyes to look at her. "It's okay. Come on, we still have to get out of here." She held out her hand and Verana hesitated. She didn't want to seem like some kind of scared bird cowering in a hole, but it was hard to tell her brain to trust someone. After everything, she wanted something to cling to. She still wanted stability, but maybe in order to get it, she needed to take a chance.

     Verana took the girls hand and stepped out of the hidden doorway. She watched the man's every movement with wary eyes just as much as he did hers. He was tall, with black hair and blue eyes that she still thought looked untrustworthy. He clenched his fists at his sides and she noticed a sword at one of his hips, looking far too threatening for comfort.

     Colette must have noticed their staring competition. "Are two going to stop being weird?"

     He looked to Colette and gave her a glare. "I didn't know I was being weird, Colette."

     "Well, you are."

     He was about to say something to Colette, but the words seemed to stick in his throat as oncoming footsteps alerted them all.

     Faster than lighting, Colette pushed Verana to the floor. A cry of shock escaped into the air as her knees and hands crashed into the floor and the man pressed a booted foot into her chains, keeping her in place.

     What in the world were these people doing?

     Verana's first impression of Colette had been a kind person. . . this was most definitely different. She wasn't sure which one she should take to be true.

     "What is going on here?" someone asked and Verana dared to look as the two soldiers now standing in front of Colette as they gave her a confused glace. "What are you doing with this prisoner?"

     "We were. . .," Colette's friend started and the gazes of the soldiers shifted to him. "We were just taking this prisoner for a walk. Fresh air was ordered for her."

     One of the soldier's had a shaggy beard and he grunted, while the other who was clean shaven and young raised an eyebrow. "Really? You do realize that this is no ordinary prisoner?"

     "Of course we do," Colette said, looking surprisingly confident.

     "And what, possibly can a little maid have to say on such matters?" the young soldier asked, stepping close to Colette's face.

     "A lot of things," she said, getting closer into his face.

     "Colette," her friend said. "Let's just go."

     "Agreed," Verana said, but she wasn't prepared for the consequences of her input.

     Colette's friend slapped her across the face hard. Her face snapped to the side with the impact. 

     "Quiet!" he yelled, his voice ringing in her ears.

     A welt of shame colored red bloomed on her face and she gently touched the tender warmth of her skin. Verana had never been so humiliated before, not even as much as when she had begged someone to give her something to eat in her cell. She had reached out of the bars, salty tears coating her skin, begging that someone have pity. 

     That hadn't even been as humiliating as this moment; on her knees, in front of this man, as he slapped her across the face.

     Verana noticed as the ringing in her ears ceased, that the air around them was utterly silent. Even the two soldiers had stopped their bickering. . . and that didn't help her shame in the least.

     She stared down at the man's boots, which made her feet seem oddly bare. Her toes curled at the thought, wishing shoes could magically appear on her feet.

     "We'll be taking our leave," Colette's friend said as he grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. He dragged her along and Verana tried incessantly not to fall to the floor. 

     She was about to ask him to slow down or to get his iron grip off of her arm—she was sure her delicate skin would bruise—but they turned a corner and he turned to her. "I'm so sorry." 

     Verana was shocked at the semblance, so much so that she could only stare at him.

     "I didn't want to hurt you," his sapphire eyes caught the side of her face, where she could still feel a throbbing. He reached up to brush the skin and for a second, she wasn't even sure that he had touched her. His fingertips had barely grazed her skin that she thought that maybe only the tiny hairs had felt anything. "Are you alright?"

     "Yes," she whispered, as if saying anything louder might shatter her being all over again. 

     Verana's ivory eyes grazed his figure and she felt that this time it wasn't just about sizing him up. There were bulging muscles on his arms and it was no wonder her skin would bruise from his grip. She noted his sunken cheeks and how his eyes had an odd ring of grey around them, like his eyes had gradually decided to change color.

     "We need to move faster, you two. It's only going to get busier around here," Colette said, and Verana jumped, her wings twitching. She turned to them from her surveying of the hallway in front of them, giving a smile to her friend. "I'll take it from here. She's my rescue, after all."

     The man rolled his eyes, moving away from Verana still. "And how did this all come about again?"

     Colette smiled, taking Verana's arm to wrap it around her shoulder once more. "That will have to wait until later."

     Verana pursed her lips. "Neither of you have a key to these chains possibly?"

     The man looked at her first, then Colette, who shrugged. He sighed. "You didn't even bother to find all of the keys?"

     "I was on a time crunch, okay?" she said, frowning at him. "That's more than you did."

     He rolled his eyes, taking a glance down the hall. "You two get out of here. I'll go and find the keys. . . don't wait for me."

     Colette's expression took on one of horror, but before she could say anything, he sprinted off. She glared at his back, grumbling insults under her breath. "Let's go."

     Thankfully, Verana was starting to feel strength in her muscles, so she leaned more on herself than Colette, who was far too distracted calling her friend foul things.

     They didn't even reach the end of the long hall before Colette moved to the side, feeling the wall for yet another panel. 

     Verana turned, her eyes drinking in the peculiar design of the castle. Colorful cloths—mostly red and gold patterns with a hint of green—covered the floor. Random paintings covered the walls. She could see one of a tree, and another of a hideously dressed person. They wore a huge faux hairdo and bulky clothing. She couldn't even tell what gender the person was. 

     "What?" Colette murmured and Verana looked back at the girl.

     "Is something wrong?" she asked, growing nervous. Her eyes darted down the hallways to see if anyone was about to discover them.

     "I thought there was an entrance here."

     "Well, there isn't, so what are we going to do?"

     Colette pursed her lips. "We keep going. There might be an entrance into the next hall, but we're getting close anyway."

     A thought suddenly crossed her mind. "Do you and your friend work here or something?" Verana asked. They seemed to be able to walk so easily through this castle undetected. Like they were meant to be here. 

     "I'm a servant, he's a woodcutter, among other things."

     Verana raised an eyebrow. "Then how—?"

     "Shh," Colette suddenly said and her senses flared with attention. She quickly took Verana's arm from around her shoulder, taking her arm in her grip as her expression stoned. "Look down," she whispered as they began walking again. 

     She did as she was told, but her thoughts still surged. How was this going to work? She was just a servant. 

     Verana allowed her eyes to glance up but then ducked her head back down just as a whole group of soldiers passed by them. Please ignore us. Her chains clinking against each other reminded her that she was still a prisoner, in a foreign castle filled with humans, and she that would probably stand out completely stark in the middle of the night. 

     She had huge wings on her back. 

     But as if some magical force was protecting her appearance, the soldiers passed right by them, engrossed far too much in what they were discussing. Someone needed to hire more attentive soldiers.

     Colette let out a very long sigh and Verana smiled. "I hope you know what happens next in this rescue mission."

     "Indeed I do."

     They didn't run into another soldier and Colette quickly found another panel for them to slip into. "What are these tunnels for?" Verana asked as she replaced covered up their entrance. 

     "The maids and servants would use these for traveling to their designated jobs because the royalty thought they weren't fit to walk the same floor. But soldiers found out that the servants were using them to smuggle food out of the castle to feed their families so they had them closed." Colette smiled wryly. "They did a good job of keeping us out didn't they?"

     For a while, they walked through the dark tunnels, and Verana began to think that there was no end to the labyrinth. For a second, she considered that perhaps Colette really didn't know where she was going, that she was still making up the process as she went along, but she was proven wrong very quickly.

     "There's a door across the hallways right outside of here," the girl said, already bracing her hands against the wall. Her deep brown eyes fixated on her. "I'm going out first to survey the hall, I want you to dart across and start going down the stairs behind that door. Don't wait for me, the carriage leaves in two minutes. Even if I'm not in it, you'll get out and to safety."

     "But—"

     Colette pushed against the wall and the light seeped into the tunnel. "Just go."

     Verana wanted to protest, she wanted this girl to explain what she was going to run into. Who was manning this carriage? Did they know that Colette was rescuing a prisoner? A valuable one at that?

     "Go!" Colette said once more and Verana stepped out of her hiding place, running across the hall. She opened the door and started running down the stone steps. 

     Her bare feet padded against the stone floor and her breaths seemed to echo as she ran down and down. Please hurry, Colette. She thought about slowing down, just so Colette could reach her. She didn't even know this world. How was she supposed to get into a carriage alone and expect it to go to a safe location? Her thoughts whirled about what she would meet at the end of this staircase, if it ever ended.

     "Verana!" her name bellowed down to her and she gasped, turning around.

     "Down here!" she called, searching for the red of Colette's dress.

     "You missed the exit!" Colette said, causing her brows to furrow. She ran back up the stairs until she found the girl, standing next to a blank wall.

     "Don't tell me there's another secret door?"

     Colette smiled, pushing her hand into a piece of the wall that collapsed in on itself at her touch. A doorway pulled away and Colette laughed at Verana's expression. "Start thinking outside the box."

     She smiled as they walked through the doorway and into some kind housing area for a dozen or so carriages, each with their own little colorful flag on top. 

     "Is this another servant secret exit?" Verana asked, her eyes traveling over the ceiling, which was made of yet again, wood.

     "Nope. That's a secret exit for royalty if they ever need to get out without anyone knowing. There's our ride! Come quickly!"

      Colette started running towards a carriage right in the middle of the other ones and she followed close behind. The medium-sized carriage was perched right at the exit, where a large metal gate had been raised so that they could get out. 

     Verana marveled at the blue sky outside and the huge waterfall under the bridge that they were about to travel on right before Colette forced her to step into the carriage. She barely sat down before Colette hit the ceiling and the carriage immediately started off.

     Her eyes drank up the sight of the waterfall and it reminded her of how thirsty she still was. The blue color was brilight with the sun touching it, so much that it almost blinded her. And suddenly as she looked away, her eyes found Colette. "What about your friend?"

     The girl nonchalantly waved her hand in the air, looking outside of the window. "He'll find his way home." 

     Verana looked down at her still chained hands and didn't relish the idea of having to wait for this guy she didn't know. Would he even bother to really come to help her? "So, do you two live together?"

     "Damian? Yeah, he's my brother."

Thanks so much for reading!

How are you liking Colette and Damian? Why do you think Colette decided to rescue Verana? Why do you think Damian didn't? Do you think Damian is the same child Verana met as a child? Are you surprised that the two are siblings?

Shoutout to kenzie_le_nerd for the cover in the media section! ^-^

Please remember to vote, comment, follow me, and share this story!