The Talamute Prince

As I lay with my back to the door I can hear footsteps outside then the sliding but I don't look. "It's almost time for your shower, Laoonica." Melena's voice came before her face entered my peripheral vision. I didn't act any differently than I usually did. I didn't want to draw suspicion that anything was about to happen. I sit up and dangle my feet off the side.

"Do I actually get to take my time or am I to be rushed like always?" It was a question I already knew the answer to.

"You actually will have a bit more time today as they are about to install the shower and toilet in this room while you are well guarded in the other. Patrick seems to think moving you to often leaves to many chances for you to escape. He has hover crafts waiting outside your balcony just in case you decide to try to jump again." She has a weird sort of smile on her face.

"Do you blame me?"

"Not in the least, honestly I don't blame you. Hitting the ground from this height would kill anyone else but if I were in your shoes I'd rather jump too." She hands me a royal robe that Patrick has insisted I wear out of the room. I'm not sure why everyone in the Palace knows I'm being held in a tiny cell in the center of the top floor of the castle.

"Anything would be better than the life I am forced to endure." I stand up and allow her to place the robe over my arms and shoulders. I look out the door as the normal six male guards stand waiting for me to exit. They then form a square around me. Melena stands about a foot behind me and to the right as we walk down the hall to the elevator. The platform isn't quite big enough for all of us so at that point I am left alone with Melena until we reach the floor that my original room is on. There there are six more guards. This time I notice on of them is female but her face is hidden from view. She is the first female guard other than Melena that had been on my guard detail since the beginning.

"New guard?" I look back at Melena who shrugs. She didn't seem to be familiar with her either. I didn't give it much thought. Maybe Patrick was trying to test me again. Although, he will lose today. I was already informed that the Talamutes were planning to help me escape. I studied her but she was careful not to show me her face.

We reached the door as it was flung open and the six guards rummaged through every nook and cranny to search for intruder. I watched in the hall as Melena stood beside me. Two men took the balcony, the girl took under the bed and around the lifted area, two others checked the shower and that area and the final stood but a few feet from the door incase I decided to be difficult I'm guessing as he didn't remove his eyes from me or his hand from his tranquilizer gun. Not that it would do him any good if I did suddenly decide to burst into flames.

"Clear." The two on the balcony called.

"Clear." The two in the shower area called.

"Clear." The girls voice was familiar but she kept her face towards the window when she spoke.

Melena and I entered the room, the two on the balcony stayed put the two that had searched the bathing area took post outside the door with the third that had been staring me down. The female was allowed to stay. Melena stood by the curtains to insure the male guards didn't peek but at this point I realize they were probably to terrified Patrick would kill their entire family if they did.

"Do you believe that destiny is predetermined or do you believe it changes whenever we choose one path instead of another?" I ask. I'm sitting at my vanity trying to get a glimpse of the guards face only to be distracted by something moving beneath my bed.

"I don't put much thought into it. I figure it doesn't really matter as long as you find a way to do things that make you happy along the way." Melena responds.

"Did you?"

"Huh"

"Did you do what made you happy?"

"Leaving home, adventuring as far away from home as I could get, yes. Yes I was happy for a time."

"Why did you not stay gone? What made you return here?"

"You." I look over at her.

"Me?"

"When my orders first came in to return I thought about ignoring them, abandoning my post. I was looking at the file sent to me with all the videos and pictures and I thought if anyone can change my people's ways its gotta be her. So what I do next is for you cause I still have no doubt you will end this tyranny." I look at her than at the female guard who is helping Bowerd out from under the bed.

"We don't have much time to pull this off." Bowerd said as he smashed the control panel to the door, and the guard I now saw was Tosha helps to lift the vanity and placed it in a way that made the outer door to the room harder to get through.

"Come Laoonica let's move." Melena stepped through the curtains and fired her tranquilizer into the neck of one guard while Bowerd held the others throat until he passed out. Nether were able to signal for help.

"You can't stay here Melena Patrick will see that you helped." The three guide me to the edge of the balcony where Bowerd and Tosha now climb over to the opposite side.

"I have no intention of staying behind." I see a sideways glance from her to Bowerd and a small curl of his lip as he returns her gaze. I smile a bit at the obviousness of the attraction and the realization that she was probably the one behind their escape as well.

"Remeber princess, keep your arms and legs tight to your body till you're safely past the bottom of the buildings then open them and be prepared." I place my hand on the rail as I slowly bring myself to look at the journey I have already once tried to take.

"What about them?" Bowerd smiles. At which point he and Melena both dive down to knock out two guards on hover crafts holding a flame proof net between them. The net drops and so do the bikes with a parachute activated by their attackers. Melena and Bowerd both dive off the bikes into the opening between the building and vanish.

"We must go now my queen." I hear the pounding at the door. Shouting, radios signaling and a struggle as the vanity slowly begins to give way at their efforts. Tosha dives and she two vanishes between the metal structures. I climb up onto the balcony and stare down hesitant at first. The unknown was somewhat terrifying but there was worse than that waiting to burst through the door at any moment.

"Laoonica, open the door now." I heard for probably the first time ever a hint of genuine fear enter Patrick's voice. I'm not sure why I hesitate but I stood waiting for the vanity to give way.

"Where is she?" Patrick's voice booms loudly as I hear the crashing sound of the doorfinally giving way and the mirror on the vanity smashing on the floor as it was forcefully shoved out of the way. The guards make their way out to the balcony as I turn my back to the beckoning unknown.

"Your majesty please get down from there." a guard says as suddenly my purpose on the balcony is realized.

"Laoonica?" Patrick's eyes widen. "Get down from there now." I'm facing him with not a speck of fear in my eyes.

"Why Patrick? Not a step further or I will go." I say as I see a guard trying to inch closer to me. He stops in the fear that I will go through with the jump. Or in fear I'll burn him to a crisp as I let flames reach the tip of the finger I have pointed at him.

"Come back over the rail my love you will accomplish nothing by doing this. All you will do is crash onto the forest floor, break a few things, heal, and end up right back up here as I will come after you. I will never give you up." I thought about his words, but doubted this escape plan ended with me smashing into anything.

"And what if I don't heal? What if after I crash before I heal some dangerous creature gobbles me up?" He himself had said there were deadly creatures below.

"Nonsense, back down men I will handle her. She is bluffing, as soon as she thinks she has made her point she will climb back over." I watch as they all go back into my room and vanish. Poor move on his part I must say. One of them may have been able to catch me as I let go, but never the less he had let them leave us two alone.

"You have no idea what I am capable of and the fact that you underestimate me does so make this so much more pleasant to do." A smile street's across my lips.

"Come down from there. Enough of this defiance Laoonica. Even if you manage to make it to the planet I will burn every acre of land to seek you out and I will kill anyone who stands in my way of having you." He motions with his hand to come back over.

"So you can lock me up and throw away the key because in your insane mind, keeping me contained in a cell with only you as my company is going to somehow make me love you. You had infants brought to my room to put in danger, you faked my planets distruction, you lied to me at every term. You have spent almost every moment we have been together trying to gain control over something that was never meant to be yours. You Patrick are a monster, a demon, and you shall never have me." Had my powers been activated and The hit didn't leave a mark of course because it healed rather quickly, but the fact that he had raised his hand to me was enough for me to want to let go then and there. Something moving behind the curtain caught my eye, but I quickly look back at him as he had stepped forward in my distraction.

"You pushed me to it you know. I just wanted you to love me as much as I do you and you cut me to the bone with your hatred of me." I watch as he inched his way forward only after I see what is in my room did I know he wouldn't reach me.

"You don't know what that word means." He turns just in time to recieve a hard punch to the face from a huge purple fist and he falls to the ground with a hard thud.

"You were taking to long." Darevan stands before me with a grin on his face. I could see that he had wanted to do that for a while as he climbed over the balcony and wrapped his arms around me.

"I don't know why I hesitated." I look down but he uses his finger to pull my eyes back up to his.

"We will do it together wrap your arms around me and don't let go." He had climbed behind me holding on to the rail with one hand and my waste with the other. I turn slowly wrapping my arms tightly around his chest tucking my head in. He wrapped his other arm around me letting go of the rail as he held me snuggled into him. I watched as the bikes scrambled from the platform trying to beat us to the opening with their nets but the weren't fast enough as our intwined bodies fell past the metal bowels of the floating city and the ground quickly became clearer. If this was my way to freedom then it was well worth whatever the surface held.