"Mother..." said Shang as she looked at the massive crowd of guards in her royal court all entering one by one from the royal gate and more coming, covering up all its areas and making them trapped.
She saw her mother hanging onto Arathus and whispering something in his ears. Soon the marched steps of the guards stopped and now it felt as if there was no way out of them. Rahn had played a game with all of them.
Suddenly King Marine started fighting himself in the chains and by the noise everyone's attention shifted to him.
"AAAHH!!" he screamed with rage trying to free himself from the chains and from the guards grips.
"What is your problem?! You have me, let go of my daughter and her mother!" he said.
Rahn started laughing as if some comedy show was going on in the court and then going to him he holded him by his hair, pulling on them and he screamed loudly.
"Spare him!" cried Shang and Rahn looked at her then whispered to him, "Look, how your daughter is so worried about you...I thought she had almost forgotten you by now.."
Marine panted, "Let..them..go.."
"And you think I will?"
He once again looked at the three of them, Arathus, Shang and grandma and then again pulling on his hair announced, "Guards! Capture them!"
The marched steps of the guards once again began towards them and grandma said to Shang crying, cupping her face dearly, "Shang, please go away from here, go run somewhere safe!"
"No, I will not go leaving you alone here! I'll stay with you!" she said trying to push Arathus away.
As she hugged her mother, grandma glanced a look at Arathus and mouthed him 'I love you' then gestured him to take her away immediately.
Arathus had no option but to piggy back the princess on his back and as he did, she wailed loudly. He started running and she saw the guards putting chains to her mother and making her kneel infront of Rahn. That was the last time she ever saw her mother. Heavy, hot tears started flowing down her cheeks and she stuttered, "R-Run fast..m-more guards are coming to us!"
"Dont worry princess, you have nothing to worry when I'm there with you." he said, and Shang once again started feeling her heart beating.
Arathus ran from the royal court and coming out from there headed for the palace corridors and as he did he could hear more footsteps approaching them, and he suddenly stopped putting her down from his back.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Princess now you'll have to run with me. I cant run carrying you like this."
Without saying anything she holded his hand and started running said, "I know a secret place. We can escape from there."
Arathus became surprised at her but still kept running. He had never imagined that a girl like her could be so brave in such a situation, and he felt himself blushing.
Shang entered a secret place with him which he had never seen before and it looked like it was situated somewhere at the back of the palace, because it was a small entrance with dark lights and it was not so well built.
The only problem was that the entrance was so small and compact that only one person at a time could go from there, and so Arathus made way for her to first enter.
While Shang was entering the place and going through it, he noticed how slim and skinny she actually was. As she passed, her timid body perfectly fit the left places in the entrance. He was so engrossed in admiring her figure that he didnt even realised she had crossed the entrance.
"Arathus!" she whispered and he once again put on his serious expression and crossed the entrance, though it took him long he still made it. As he was just finished, suddenly they both heard someone shouting, "Hey! Stop!"
"Run!" Arathus said, and grabbing her hand ran.
Now they were out in the outskirts of the palace through the secret entrance and there was a huge forest. Seeing it as an opportunity to be safe, they both ran towards it and the guards followed them.
About till half an hour they could hear the guards footsteps, but after a while when they had entered much deeper in the thick, dense forest, they could hear no more footsteps and finally stopping they both breathed.
After some moments of calming down their breaths Shang looked at her palace, as it was visible and thinking of her mother, started sobbing.
"You are very brave, princess.." said Arathus after a while when he noticed that she was crying.
She didnt said anything and sat opposite to him resting her back on the trees.
"Now what will we do?" she asked looking around.
"Well, now we'll just have to hunt a safe and sound place for ourselves...until we know what more we can do.."