I fiddled with the dagger he had handed me, removing it and resheathing it repeatedly, a rhythmic “kuh-CHUK” noise that relieved the nervous tension building in me.

“So you want to ditch everyone?” I asked bluntly. We stood in the hall now, as I wanted to be closer to Chrys.

“No, I don’t mean that!” Conifer stammered. “Let me start over.”

“He’s got two minutes,” Chrys growled, prowling forward next to me like he was my pet. It made me smirk; the idea that Chrys was already such a valuable ally was comforting.

I repeated what Chrys said, adding, “I can’t stop him from hurting you if you say something stupid.”

Lowering his voice, Conifer asked me, “I thought we were friends?” His eyes were pleading, and I found myself wincing.

“We are,” I sighed. “But you know who I am now. I can’t just go running away from this fight. There’s nowhere I can hide. I’m hundreds of iles away from home already and my enemies are already coming here to rip everything apart until they can find me and toss me on some boat. It’s not so easy.”

Biting his lip, Conifer nodded. “I understand. But you must feel the same way I do—this place is a prison! We won’t last down here. Better to be above ground where we can at least run around.”

Frowning, I stopped fiddling with the dagger for a moment, emphasizing the last “ka-CHUK” with extra strength. “What do you think Chrys?”

“Oh come off it with that, Mint!” Conifer cried, frustration on his face. “That beast doesn’t know what you’re saying!”

“Can I mangle him now, Mint?” Chrys asked, clawing the ground idly.

“Don’t pay him any mind, Chrys,” I laughed. “Just give me your input on the situation. You’re a lot smarter than either of us.” Conifer was about to interrupt and I held up a palm, shaking my head. “Just let it go. If you complain again he might actually kill you, and trust me I’d rather him not do that. You don’t deserve something like that.”

It looked like he was about to speak anyway, but Chrys growled and Conifer shut up, breathing heavily.

“Sage is a strong man,” Chrys declared. “He’s not someone I’d want to fight with. That said,” he stretched, revealing his long claws as he did, “I think we could all use a little fresh air and sunshine. Besides, I came to help out the army not guard you from visitors.”

Unsheathing the dagger, I nodded and looked the blade over in its entirety. “Where did you get this, Conifer? It looks pretty nice.”

“It was on a rack where the soldiers keep all their stuff. I figured no one would miss two daggers.”

“Two?”

He pulled another free from his shirt. It was even more plain looking than mine, and the blade had a few noticeable knicks and chips from poor use. “I figured I’d need something more sturdy than my instrument to fend off any unwanted guests.”

“You know, he’s stupid but this guy’s got some balls on him,” Chrys said, turning away and walking away. “I’ll be waiting over here. Come get me when you’re ready.”

Before I could stop him, he was already gone.

“Well, what did the big cat say?” Conifer teased, his tone annoyed.

“He wants to go outside,” I said. “But he doesn’t want to hide. He wants to fight. That’s the whole reason he came with me to begin with, so I can’t really blame him..”

Sitting up, he had a gleam in his eyes when he asked me, “What about you though? You willing to come with me and get out of here? I won’t force you to go if you don’t want to.”

I could see he was trying to manipulate me into going, but it didn’t feel right; he wasn’t acting like the Conifer I was used to. And I remembered how things were tense when Rose and her mother had come by. “Are Parsley and Rose in on this?”

Conifer’s face turned red in seconds. “Those two would rather wait it out. They dislike conflict, you know.”

“I do,” I said. “Rose looked at me differently after what happened with Bitter before. It felt like she saw me as less of a boy and more of a monster.”

“Women are like that,” Conifer snapped. “Those two want to return to the mainland soon, to go searching for a quiet place to live. I told them good luck with that.” He was obviously angry with them about something, but since he didn’t outright say what it was I didn’t bother pressing.

We started walking, meeting Chrys at the end of the hall. He shook out his mane and I looked around, wanting to be sure no one was around to see us. Once we were clear, I asked, “Okay, so I’m assuming one of you two knows a way out? I don’t know how to even make my way down to the dining hall or the soldiers quarters or anything at all.”

Conifer scoffed, “ I don’t know what I should be more annoyed with, the fact that you weren’t sure I had a plan or the fact that the question was also directed at the big stupid feline?”

Ignoring Chrys’s growling, I asked, “So you have an idea on how to get out then?”

“Of course,” he said. “It’s rather simple. Just follow me up until we get to the dining hall, then we ease our way into a hallway that’s hidden away in the kitchen area, follow that a ways and there will be some stairs leading outside.”

I nodded my consent. “You’re sure no one will see us at all?”

Conifer waved a hand. “Don’t worry about being seen, no one will even care.”

I glared at him. “Come on, don’t be stupid. Everyone’s been told I’m priority number one, everyone knows what I look like and will notice me creeping around with you two pretty easily.”

Chrys shook his head while Conifer thought for a moment about the situation, looking rather confused about why it was important to hide at all. “I tried to tell him this before,” Chrys said, annoyed.

“I’m sure you did,” I sighed, immediately having to dismiss the statement to Conifer. “Do you have anything to cover me in? A cloak or something? Even a blanket would do.”

Conifer looked around for one of these things to, presumably, be lying around for anyone to pick up, when he was hit with an epiphany. He removed his own cape, which was lined with fleece on the inside and was extremely warm, and gave it to me. “This should be big enough where you can wrap it around you like a cloak.”

I put it on, then tried figuring out what to do about a hood when it struck me that I could use my own shirt for that. So I took off my shirt and tried to wrap it around my head in a way that would resemble a hood. Conifer wasted no time in telling me—without even trying to stifle a laugh—that I looked like a baby in a bonnet.

“Am I unrecognizable at least?”

Making a show of it, he looked me up and down and nodded. “Why I’d wager not even your own mother would know it was you, my boy. Now come on, let’s get going before people start waking up.”

In near absolute silence, save for the swish of the cape I wore dusting the floor, or the minute click of Chrys’ claws periodically nicking the ground, we made our way down those desperate halls, sneaking around corners and waiting with our hands on our mouths when people were wandering about in some sleepy stupor. It was a long walk to the dining hall, but in time we made it, though I thought for sure it wasn’t night time anymore.

This was all but confirmed when, upon turning our heads in, we saw that the dining hall was full. Soldiers were packed in there, all standing up and looking in the direction we were coming from. In a flash me and Conifer leapt back into the hall, both of us looking like we had seen our own ghosts.

“Dammit!” he hissed. “How are we going to get passed that?”

“What if they come this way?” I asked, my stomach spinning my throat.

Chrys shrugged, suggesting, “Why not just walk through anyway? We could just say we were getting breakfast.”

I shook my head, “That would never work. Maybe if it was just me and Conifer, but definitely not you involved. You stand out too much, Chrys.”

That was the line of thought that brought about our idea for getting through. It was simple enough; send Chrys rampaging through the dining hall and distract everyone while Conifer and I passed through unnoticed. It wasn’t exactly brilliant, and I felt a lot safer having Chrys with me than Conifer, but it would prevent us from getting caught at least.

Besides, Chrys was very adamant about joining us as soon as he could.

“The second I give them the slip, I’ll find you guys,” he assured me. “I’ll roar the moment I’m out there, then we can find each other from there.”

Like I said, it wasn’t a brilliant plan. More than a couple things could go wrong with all this, but I nodded. Because even though it would be difficult, I trusted Chrys.

Without giving it a second to plan or give us some time to let the whole idea sink in, Chrys launched himself into the dining hall and began wreaking havoc like an actual wild animal. The once subdued conversations of the soldiers turned into genuine fear and confusion as he started roaring, overturning tables and tossing food all over the ground. After we admired his work for a little, Conifer gave me a look like he wanted to get it over with right away and with a nod of mutual understanding, we snuck our way passed everyone quiet as a spider weaving webs in the corners of your ceiling, our breath held the whole way for good measure.

Honestly, I didn’t believe there would be some secret hallway in the dining hall. The location was too widely used, and there weren’t really nooks or crannies to speak of. But Conifer had solid information, and behind a table in the far back was a slim, but existing crack in the wall that could be construed as a passageway if you squinted hard enough and added some imagination. It was a good thing Chrys hadn’t tried to come with us; he wouldn’t have fit in there. We made our way through it with our chests rubbing the stone wall, and the tightness of the space was making it harder and harder for me to breathe properly.

We were lucky that the crack in the wall lead anywhere, but we weren’t lucky in that it was not the location we had planned. A minor setback for old Conifer, but for me it was time to worry.

“I thought this was supposed to be the kitchen?” I asked, looking around the entirely empty alcove for an oven of some kind.

“No, no it must have been behind the kitchen,” Conifer muttered to himself, tapping a finger to his chin. “It would make more sense, I suppose. Running through the kitchen and popping up above ground would be a little strange, don’t you think?”

I did. But the fact that we were now in uncharted territory outweighed how much that territory made sense.

“You have no clue where we are, do you?” I hissed, trying not to be too loud. When he didn’t respond, I stomped over to him—which was hard to do while being quiet—and picked him up by the collar, shaking him. “You have NO clue where we are, DO you?”

Gulping, Conifer asked more politely than he had to, “Put me down, Mint? I know where we are, I’m just going by our instructions.”

Cocking an eyebrow, I repeated, “Instructions?”

“Yeah, I found out about this route by talking to a soldier the other day during his down time,” he said. Then, pointing to the ground, he asked again, “So can you put me down?”

“Oh,” I shook my head, let him down. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry, Mint. Tensions are high, after all!”

“Yeah,” I whispered. “Okay, so where to now?”

“For the most part, it should be pretty much a straight shot to the door out of here,” he said. “We just need to go down the hallway straight ahead and to the… right, I believe.”

Irritated, I said, “You believe.”

“I know,” he assured me, and we went down the hallway ahead of us and to the right, him looking sure of himself, me feeling not so sure about the whole situation.

The longer we walked, the longer it was silent, the more I became too anxious to remain comfortable simply walking in utter quiet. So, as slowly and surely as I possibly could, I removed the dagger I was holding from its sheath and looked it over with scrutiny. I’d been spoiled by the blade Sage had given me before. This weapon was surely a weapon, there was no doubt about that; there were scratches and dings all along the blade, battle scars that held more stories than I probably hold right now in my old age. Bronze was the metal, cheap and flexible. A weak, if not reasonably reliable warriors weapon through and through.

I frowned, sheathing it a little louder than I should have.

Conifer nearly jumped from his skin. He held his chest when he turned to hiss, “Don’t do that! You scared me.”

“Sorry,” I sighed.

Recovering slightly, he continued forward, me trudging behind him sluggishly. Seeing the full extent of the blades degradation reminded me that Sage had taken his own dagger back. And I knew in my head that it was his weapon, something truly special that he had probably worked very hard to get himself. But after using it to get out of so many scrapes on Clementine, it was hard to be told that I wasn’t ready for it. Holding that beat up bronze blade in my hands brought my head back to that space again, and my thoughts started swirling as they so often did in this time, when I was never sure what I was doing and was constantly strung along by people who thought they knew more than I did.

“This is wrong,” I said to myself, louder than I wanted.

“Hmm?” Conifer asked, stopping mid stride.

I gasped when he responded, but said again, “This is wrong, Conifer. We should go back.”

“What!?” he blurted out, grabbing my shoulders. “Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet now, Mint my boy. We’re almost there! If you’re worried about Chrys, don’t. He’ll find his way out, he’s a smart animal.”

“That’s not the issue,” I said. “I just feel like I’m going to disappoint Sage doing this.”

“Sage doesn’t know what’s good for you,” Conifer stammered. “He just hides away in his room, not really sure of what he’s doing, leading us all along without thinking too hard about it.”

“Kind of like you’re doing right now?” I asked, getting tired of how he was speaking to me.

A bunch of noises then vomited out of Conifer’s mouth, none of them resembling words, though a few did come close to being poor imitations.

“Why are you acting this way?” I snapped, feeling the blood start to boil in my head. “You need to calm down, man. You never act like this!”

He was still doing his awkward song when he stopped and took a long, deep breath. His expression was still infuriated, and I suddenly became aware of how deep the bags under his eyes were, how much blood had infiltrated his sclera, and just how uncomfortable he looked in general.

“Look, Mint,” he said, enunciating the words with a heavy staccato, like the words themselves were stabbing into me. “I understand how you feel, but we’re already almost out. Could you at least come out with me for a little while? We can come back right after.”

His face was beading with sweat. I backed away from him, a shiver going up my spine. “Are you okay, Conifer?”

“I will be if you just come with me!” he yelled, catching himself halfway through and lowering his voice. “Please,” he added.

“Alright, alright,” I sighed, now completely unsure of what was happening. The grip on my dagger tightened. It was beginning to look more and more like I’d be needing to use the thing.

I just hoped—sincerely—that I wouldn’t need to use it on Conifer.

We continued on, back to silence. Well, not quite back. This silence was thicker, the kind of silence that makes it hard to breathe. I wanted to ask Conifer all sorts of things, but I knew I wouldn’t get a proper answer right then. The only thing attuning me at all to the situation beneath the situation were his odd mannerisms.

I gasped, nearly stopping again. The thought hadn’t crossed my mind up until then, but why had Chrys thought Conifer to be an intruder? He’d seen him before plenty, so what was different this time? The weapons he carried? No, that could probably have been explained pretty simply. Chrys was a really good judge of people, though. He couldn’t have been wrong.

Soon enough, my hands were so sweaty that I was wiping my palms frantically on the fleecy inside of my cape, giving my hands a very furry quality that made an uncomfortable situation all the more uncomfortable.

“Ah, we’re here!” Conifer exclaimed. He stood at the very end of the hall, where the only way to go was a right turn toward a stairway leading outside. My chest was pounding loudly, and I thought I heard music—it was just a ringing in my ears.

“Come on, come on!” he urged. “Let’s get this over with quickly, before someone sees us.”

I’m not sure what I expected to see when I got outside. If you asked me back then, I’m sure I could have supplied an endless list of unbelievable answers that could have filled a children’s horror story. And many of those things would have been less scary than what greeted me on the other side of that door.

Have you ever experienced true, unfiltered fear? I’m talking about fear that is unplanned, something that just seems to pull everything out from under you and sends your senses plummeting toward the earth, only for someone to catch them and just before you have a second to feel relieved, they begin sawing all your feelings and performing experiments on them of ghoulish design? Well, if you have you’ll know what I mean. If you haven’t, then may the gods continue their strange favoritism towards you, as I’ll continue my jealousy towards you.

There were about eleven of them in total, all massive and decked in full plate armor that shone heroically in the moonlight. Had they been on my side, I may have called them gallant. They all carried weapons that made humongous look more miniscule, and their leader made them look even smaller than that. He was someone I was all too familiar with, which if anything was half the reason I was so scared.

“There he is,” Bitter said, his voice tremendous like thunder. “You’ve done well for us, skinny one.”

Conifer was now visibly shaking, and the pieces of the puzzle I’d been trying to solve were tossed on the floor.

“Wait,” I said, looking from Bitter to Conifer, Conifer to Bitter, and back again. “This was a set up?”