Ten minutes passed without a bursting open of the door. Afton began nibbling his nails.

What happened to him? Five hours is up. We're wasting time!

Everyone else in the room was sleeping. The silence just added to his uneasiness... he resumed pacing and the inspection of the wall. He even tried a puzzle once. But it ended in a failure, he was too nervous to think.

Maybe he's not coming. But he said he would! Well... he might come so I'd better wait. Seriously! He's taking so long that it's killing me!

Pacing didn't help, his mind began filling with all the most gruesome hanging scenes in the world. It didn't help that he had realistic blood-stained this-and-that pictures.

He curled in the corner, hugging his knees (between which he tucked his head). His heart was thumping madly against his bones that he felt it all the way to the fingertips.

Gah! Think of something else!

Butterflies churned in his stomach and he was more than just tempted to open the door to look for Rain. The excitement, fear, hope, crushing nervousness, it all crashed together in his little frame, that could barely contain them all.

Finally, when he had just begun to calm down and was dropping off into the Land of Dreams, there came a knock on the door. Afton looked at his watch to find Rain one hour late.

“Nissan,” Rain whispered, opening the door.

Afton appeared from behind the door and together they tip-toed out, closing the door behind them. 'Lights out' hours had begun about two hours ago, but Rain seemed to know the place like the back of hid hand. He took out a safety pin and a few needles from his bag and began picking the lock.

Afton, however, had nothing close to a night vision. He smashed his nose into a wall once before he learned to put out his hands to feel his way to Rain.

Rain had unlocked the door by then(so Afton had no idea it was even picked in the first place), Rain pulled him through the door to another world of darkness.

Rain closed the door(and locked it, unbeknownst to Afton, who was still trying to figure out where Rain was) and pulled Afton along. The darkness was so confusing, so frustrating, that Afton had no sense of direction. Which just meant that every time he left, he'd have to drag a guide with him.

They walked for so long that Afton was thoroughly amazed and surprised at the little guide.

How does he memorize the whole way? How many times exactly did he walk this place in the dark?

Finally, they reached to a dead-end. (Afton felt the wall when Rain stopped.)

“Are we lost?” he whispered. A soft echo could be heard, bouncing back from the metal walls

Rain covered his mouth so tightly that it hurt.

Argh... I get it already!

Suddenly, Rain pulled them both to another wall and the supposedly dead-end opened slowly. A carriage and a couple of men on horseback came in. Afton could see them in the night's light. For, there was the opening to the outside itself!

The hatch began closing back and the night began giving in, little by little to the complete darkness.

Why can't we go now?

The carriage had already gone some way in. It seems as if Rain wanted to go after them, but Afton jerked him back into focus.

What's so good about that carriage anyway?

Rain got up and went to the dead-end again. It was already closed by the time he reached it, but it opened again soon after.

“Hurry up, Nissan,” Rain whispered at the entrance.

Running up, Afton noticed a change in Rain's face. He was looking at something behind Afton, it seems. Whatever it was, it must have come as surprising to Rain, because he dropped his jaw unconsciously.

With fear-powered adrenaline, Afton ran to Rain and out of the Catacomb. The dead-end closed right behind him.

“What's wrong, Rain?”

“That... that... that was the queen! She was... she saw us!”

“Don't be silly, why would the queen be there?”

“We're here to guard the queen, Afton, it isn't a far-fetched idea. And.... who would want to ride the queen's carriage with her two bodyguards present?”

“Rain...”

“What! It's true!”

“If it's true...why are we just standing here?! Let's run! Faster! If we get caught, we'd be dead!”

Soon, the two of them were sprinting away as fast as both their legs could carry them. The wind whistled innocently in their ears and blew playfully at the long grass through which they ran. The full moon was out, shining brightly down upon them (though with a hint of red). The night air was clean and the sky was full of winking little jewels. ...a terrible night to choose to run on.

“Rain, lead us to Sundance!” Afton panted, still running.

Rain could only nod, his blonde hairstyle was cut so that it flew up altogether at each step he took, and with each bounce, the moon lighted it up, as if trying to catch his hair. He was breathing so deeply that it was a miracle that he actually still running at that same speed.

In reality, there was no need to run any longer, for if anyone actually did go after them, they would have seen that little blonde head twinkle in the moonlight...

****

They reached Sundance in two hours, exhausted and almost collapsing from that night's long run. The city was still bright with thousands of little decoration lights, but they were too tired to notice, to preoccupied to care.

At last, Afton got up and found his horse. It had gone a whole day grazing, but it still needed grooming and proper food. His few bags at the side of the horse had been passed by untouched and everything was still there.

Afton found an old bucket and threw an oat, corn, and water mixture into it. The horse munched contentedly as Afton groomed him and scrubbed him down.

“Good boy,” he whispered, patting the horse a little, after he was done.

Rain peaked around and touched it. It seemed as if he'd never seen a horse up close. Now that they were safe, Afton decided to play a little.

“Rain, do you want to ride?” he asked.

“Of course! Horses are my favorite animals!”

Afton lifted Rain onto the tame creature and jumped on himself. “Let's go for a run, shall we? How about the outskirts?”

Rain laughed and clapped his hands, “Yes!”

Oh... Alistair... I miss you.

Rain and Afton spent most of the night playing hide-and-seek among the abandoned houses. It was a really heart-dropping experience to have Rain scare him with a “Found you!”.

They lay in the thick, overgrown grass with the beautiful night sky overhead, resting the wee hours of morning away.

****

Two to three hours later, Afton woke Rain up.

“When are we going back?” he asked.

“We're going to stay out as long as possible,” Rain replied drowsily.

“What?! What will make us stop then.”

“The guards will come get us when they find us.”

“You're telling me that the guards are going to catch us to make us go back?”

The little boy nodded as he yawned.

“Rain, how many times have you done it? Escaped from that place, I mean.”

“A few times a month, depending on how long my previous outing lasted.”

“Rain! Why didn't you tell me before!”

“Well, you didn't ask,” Rain shrugged.

“So you've never gone back by yourself?”

“Nope,” Rain shook his head.

“Do you always go out alone?”

“Yeah, no one else really wants to see the sun.”

That was when, Afton came to the realization that sneaking out was a stupid choice. But he had already disappeared and he didn't know when he'd be able to get out again.

****

“The queen assigns you to keep guard of those who cross the border. She just wants you to watch whoever we catch.”

“What's that? Even her own people will be caught?” she scoffed, her arms crossed.

“She already warned everyone of the new rule. One year ago, to be exact.”

“Ah... some stupid rule that will break the kingdom further. The whole process is so pretty with all the wailing mothers and separated families,” she said, sarcastically.

“That's enough, Kaylie,” soldier #2 snapped. “The queen is wise and just. I don't know what she's done to you, that she would take all of your terrible behavior without making a sound, but I will not stand for someone who'd refer to her with a lowly air.”

“Whatever I've done to her, she deserved it. No... she deserves more. I won't stop until her head rolls,” Kaylie snapped back.

“This is treason, Kaylie! You shouldn't even entertain such thoughts!” soldier #2 cried.

“I've played these six-year-old thoughts quite frequently,” Kaylie laughed coldly.

Soldier #2 's face began growing red, the anger made the veins on his head bulge and he would have likely burst had not he excused himself.

They both knew very well who'd end up as victim.

****

“Rain, how about we go on a vacation?” Afton asked.

They were getting ready to mount the horse.

“Where to, Nissan?”

“Why, across the border of course!”

“Yes!” Rain squealed.

“How long do you want?”

“Eh, one week would be good!”

“Ok, one week it is. Did you bring enough clothes?”

Rain nodded enthusiastically.

“Then, let's go to Sundance for food. The one week starts tonight!”

“Why not the evening!” Rain whined.

“Because evening will be spent teaching you how to ride,” Afton said, pinching Rain's nose.

“Oh! I know a really good underground market!”

“Underground, huh? Ok, then. We'll go there instead.... wait, do we have any money?”

“Oh, I got that covered!” Rain exclaimed holding up his wallet. It was rather thick.

“What does your dad do? Give you money and send you away?”

“Yeah, my dad doesn't like me to bother him. He sent me to my brother's brigade to keep me from him. I don't really do anything there. I don't train or anything.”

“Ah, makes sense,” he said, patting Rain's head.

Poor kid... lost his mother and and his father abandoned him for the country. Some father!

“Come then, point me the way.”

For some reason, he reminds me so much of my Alistair. So many little boys.... so many abandoned ones. Why? What did they... What did we ever do wrong?

Rain pointed them to the spot where he dug a little at a spot and uncovered a little built-in box. He pressed a button inside and the floor opened ahead. Rain replaced and recovered the box before he ran back to Afton.

Afton helped him up and soon they were trotting through the underground road.

“Turn left there and that's it,” Rain said after about five minutes of following the road.

They shopped through and picked out a tin of biscuit, a few sandwiches, then went to jerky, cakes, some seaweed, cookie, other foods that looked as if they could last long.

They ended up with two big bags full of food.

“That should be enough for us, Rain. Now let's look for a horse for you.”

“A horse? For me?” Rain asked, incredulously.

“Yup, this one would be too tired to run so far carrying us both. It's good though.”

“That's... that's a dream come true!” Rain squealed.

“Since you like horses....”

“I don't like horses. I love them! Horses are my favorite animals!” Rain cut him off, “Did you know that horses are the...”

“Ok, where can we buy them?” Afton quickly said, stopping him before he opened his encyclopedia brain.

“Eh, it's the other way.”

“Hurry up, then. We'll almost be done.”

“Yay! Thank you so much, Nissan!” Rain squealed.

They got onto the horse and added to bags of provisions to the poor beast's load.

The faithful black animal trotted for twenty minutes before they reached their destination. The blonde-haired little kid was chattering the whole way on horses.

“But I can't believe that I'm finally getting my own!” he squealed as he got off the black mare.

They combed through the stables and found a handful of horses that looked suitable. It went down to three on account of size. And finally, it narrowed down to two. They seemed perfect. However, there was the problem with color and price.

Rain wanted the white one with a black star, but it was quite a bit more expensive than the brown-and-black-spotted horse.

“My dad doesn't care how much I spend!” Rain protested.

“Well, then, let's see what I can do, just keep quiet and let me talk.”

He found the owner and they began bargaining the price. Apparently, Afton was more than just the sleepy, lazy kid his appearance made....

Soon, they were off. Afton held the horse reins for Rain and together they trotted out of the underground.

“Let's teach you out near to the border.”

“Sure thing! That sounds like fun!”