All it takes is a single instant.
A split second for the world turn on its head.
One moment and a warm hand encases her own as they run through a hidden passageway. His gate was fast compared to his round form, faster than she ever has seen him move. They rush downstairs and whirl around sharp corners. Footsteps could be heard pounding after them, as did taunts and yells.
The stone around them vibrate with the thrum of battle, and the smell of smoke was heavy in her lungs.
His grip threatens to slip from hers, but she only interlocked their fingers so that it didn't. Once, she would have been mildly disgusted at his sweaty fingers, and how easily her own sink into his soft moldable flesh, but now she can't tell who is sweating more, and the thought of his hand ripping away from her own sends a thick trendle of fear straight to her heart.
It surprises her.
She had not thought she cared for him in the least. She had thought he had simply been a means to an end. Something to use and eventually toss away once she was done.
But then the world started to burn around them.
Instead of making his own escape and saving himself, he came for her, searched desperately for her even as his most loyal servants turned against him.
She had felt a sense of relief when she found him in the library, frantically calling her name.
'You are still alive!' They both had thought when their eyes had met.
His hand had reached for hers, and she had not hesitated like she once would have, and refuses to let go of it now.
They manage to lose their pursuers in the tunnels below the palace. A thundering explosion above had caved in a section of the stone passage. The crunch of bone, the smell of freshly spilled blood, and the screams that abruptly cut off nearly stopped him in his step, but not her.
Unlike him, she had witnessed such things first hand. For him, it was the first time he had been so close to death. A very rare luxury. He nearly stops, stumbles even, but she shoves him forward roughly, her eyes conveying that they 'don't stop'.
"You will be killed! MOVE!" She yelled above the noise.
They make it to his personal garden, at the edge of the palace towering walls. The invading force had pushed through the entrance of the palace, confident and arrogant. They hadn't yet made it this far. The garden remains just as beautiful as it was a day before, untouched by those who would have seen it burn in glee.
Their pace slows and they both see the hidden exit from their position on the top of the stairs. It leads to the dense woods that are cheerfully named The Lost Forest on the other end of the private garden. Her thin gown that clings to her figure sways in the night breeze as they take a moment to catch their breath.