It was a few hours later when Alasie was woken up by a loud noise. All the children in the dungeon were suddenly alert, grabbing the bars and trying to look further out.
There was a lot of shouting going on. The two guards currently on dungeon duty came running down the stairs. They looked angry, scared and confused. One of them spoke to the children, saying, "Not a sound from you brats, got it! We are under attack! If they find us, they'll kill us all, including the lot of you." His partner turned to him and asked, "Did you cover the entrance?" The first guard replied, "Of course. They'll never find us, provided these brats don't make a sound and get us caught!" At that, the two guards looked around at the children, looking for a sign of betrayal.
Alasie couldn't believe what was happening! There were people above, fighting her captors. People who could be here to save them from this place, or simply just to kill their enemies. Either way, she didn't care for the guards' warning. She, and the other children, have been prisoners for months, suffering all kinds of torture and abuse. This is a chance of freedom, to escape all of their torment, and she will NOT let it slip through her fingers. She waited until the guards' attention left her, then tried to shout. But alas, all that time not speaking has affected her voice, so she could only manage to make a sound that was slightly louder than a whisper. There was no way anyone above could hear her. But the people in the dungeon could, including the guards. One of them started walking towards her, his face etched with anger and cruelty. He reached her cell, and pulled her up by grabbing her hair with his right hand. He looked at her and said, "Trying to make some noise so that they'll find us, eh? So, you want us to get caught? To be killed by our attackers?! Well then, after this is over, if we make out alive, I'll make sure you'll get a beating worse than any of our previous punishments!"
Alasie defiantly looked at the guard, feeling no fear at all. Not from the look on his face, nor from the seriousness of his words. She had been through all sorts of unbearable torment these past few months, the worst of which was caused by the old man; a severe beating would simply be part of their daily routine. If the attackers above would really kill them all, including the children, they would still be better off than staying here as prisoners!
Suddenly, the boy from the cell on the left, next to hers, started shouting as well, although the sound that came out of his mouth was about as loud as hers. The guard at Alasie's cell looked towards the boy's cell just as the girl on the other end of the dungeon, opposite the boy, started doing the same, although her voice was a little louder. One by one, the children began to speak, trying to shout out to the attackers above. The two guards went to each cell, threatening each child with a severe beating or worse, trying to keep them quiet, but to no avail. These children have had enough of being prisoners, and now that freedom was close by, they weren't going to let it slip through their fingers! Slowly, their voices started to get louder, stronger. Soon their cries for help could be heard clearly in the dungeon, all the way up the stairs to the entrance. Although anyone passing by the dungeon would only hear some sort of muffled noise, they could still hear it.
The guards were at their wits' end. Nothing they did to quieten the children worked, even when they actually hit them right there! The children just wouldn't stay quiet.
After five minutes, suddenly, there was a loud noise above, at the dungeon entrance. Silence finally descended upon the dungeon as everyone, shocked, stopped what they were doing and proceeded to listen for the noise to come again. As they did, the noise came again, followed by a strange grinding sound.
The two guards looked at each other in fear, then took a stance to fight the attackers. They didn't have long to wait. Almost immediately, two men descended from the stairs, looking as though they had floated down, and had a trail of fire behind them. The guards charged them the moment the intruders landed on the floor, brandishing spears of ice that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Although they didn't want to die, they knew they had to protect the children, or they would face severe consequences worse than death.
As the guards charged the intruders, the flames behind them suddenly began to envelop the entire dungeon, as well the combatants, steering clear of the cells and children inside them.
Alasie could not believe what she was seeing. Nor could she understand it. What is going on? How is this possible? Where did the spears come from? How were the flames moving like this? These thoughts passed through her head, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't think of an answer.
Minutes passed by. The children were silent, listening to the shouts and screams that came from the fire. Finally, when ten minutes passed, the flames began to die down until they were gone completely. The two guards lay dead on the icy floor, covered in burns and stab wounds. However, the intruders were still standing and, aside from a few scratches, were completely unscathed.
Alasie looked at them, suddenly a bit nervous and afraid. Were these people saviours, or were they more enemies? She began to wonder. Suddenly, she realised that there were actually three intruders, not two. A boy, who looked about her age, was standing behind the two men. He had messy, pushed-back black hair, brown eyes, and a kind yet worried face.
He wasn't here when the battle started, which meant that he had stayed behind at the stairs until it was safe to come down.
Just seeing him made Alasie calm, although she wasn't sure why.
One of the two men, who looked to be in his fifties and was wearing white parka and trousers with sealskin boots, looked around at the dungeon before turning to the boy. "You were right Karim", he said, "there was something behind that wall. A good thing you noticed, or we would have completely missed this place." The other man, who appeared to be in his twenties and sported a loose ponytail, nodded in agreement. He also wore a white parka but had black trousers with a small fur pouch tied around his waist.
The older man turned to face the children, a kind smile on his face.
"It's alright, kids. We mean no harm. We're here to rescue you!"