Preset Azad
As he lay on the cold bed, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling, Azad sighed, his voice heavy with sadness. "Apparently, I have no magical powers, so I'm stuck here, forced to mine emeralds." The words weighed on him, each a reminder of his powerlessness in this strange world. His chest tightened as he thought about the endless hours spent chipping away at stones, his future as dull and cold as the caverns he toiled in.
In the midst of his spiraling thoughts, he turned his gaze to the girl sitting across from him—his only ally in this forsaken dungeon. "This is Ellie, my dungeon roommate," he introduced, though the words were more for himself, a strange comfort in a bleak situation.
Ellie sat quietly, her snow-white hair cascading over her shoulders, a striking contrast to the dim, grimy surroundings of the dungeon. The faint torchlight flickered against her hair, giving it a soft glow that seemed to push back the oppressive darkness. Her sky-blue eyes, vibrant yet distant, held a quiet strength, like the calm before a storm—a stark difference to the suffocating walls around them.
Though weary from their ordeal, her slender frame radiated a quiet resilience. The soft contours of her face, framed by pale, flawless skin, seemed almost out of place in the harshness of the dungeon. Even the shadows, thick and unyielding, seemed to pull back, as if unwilling to touch her presence.
Azad found himself staring a moment too long, her otherworldly appearance both a reminder of their dire circumstances and a strange anchor amidst his unraveling thoughts.
Her sharp voice cut through his haze of confusion. "Are you listening?" she demanded, her tone full of impatience. Azad blinked, jolted back to the present, realizing he had been staring too long.
"Yes!" he snapped to attention, heart racing, though he wasn't entirely sure what he was agreeing to.
"We're escaping this damned place today. Pay attention!" Ellie's eyes glinted with determination, her lean frame tense with readiness. Despite her small stature, she moved with the confidence of someone who had seen her fair share of fights. Locked up for something as simple as stealing bread, she was a skilled fighter, and together, they had spent a long, agonizing year plotting their escape.
"Understood the plan?" she asked, her voice serious, as if they were about to set their escape into motion.
"Yes," he said without thinking, although uncertainty was nagging at the back of his mind. He couldn't get the question out of his mind as she explained: What did she just say?
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3 AM
The dungeon was suffocating, its narrow, winding corridors cloaked in darkness. The cold, damp air clung to Azad and Ellie as they crept forward, every step cautious and deliberate. The stone walls, rough and jagged, seemed to close in on them, and the faint drip of water from unseen cracks echoed in the silence. The floor beneath their feet was uneven, and slick with grime and moisture, making it treacherous with each step. Torches were few and far between, casting only sparse flickers of light that barely illuminated the shadows.
Azad and Ellie had spent a year in this cursed place, each day blending into the next in an endless loop of despair, but tonight, they moved with purpose. The tunnel they had painstakingly dug was close, hidden behind a loose section of stone in one of the dungeon's least-guarded corners. But the path to get there was anything but simple.
As they approached the tunnel, the low murmur of guards could be heard faintly through the stone walls. Azad's heart hammered in his chest, each muffled voice a reminder of how fragile their escape plan was. The guards were unpredictable, sometimes roaming the halls on random patrols, and the slightest noise could bring them running.
The pathway they needed to follow was narrow and winding, snaking through the deepest parts of the dungeon where the air was stale and thick. Rats scurried in the shadows, their eyes glinting in the dim light, and the ground was littered with small stones and debris that made it difficult to move silently.
Azad glanced at Ellie, her form barely visible in the gloom. [Ellie is my only source of motivation], he reflected, feeling gratitude. She had reignited his will to live after months of imprisonment, teaching him everything from survival skills to the stories of the world outside these cursed walls. And now, after a year of digging their tunnel, they were finally so close to freedom.
"Stop daydreaming! We're almost there!" Ellie whispered urgently, her eyes gleaming with determination as she gestured to the faint outline of the tunnel's entrance.
"Sure, nanny," Azad muttered, a grin breaking through his anxiety.
"Where was this sarcasm a year ago? I remember you crying like a monkey," she teased, her voice softer now, a flicker of warmth piercing through their grim reality.
"Stop that!" he shot back, his half-smile fading as he focused on the task. But their brief moment of levity quickly dissolved into tension as Ellie froze, her eyes wide. The faintest sound of footsteps echoed down the corridor behind them.
"Shhhh! You wanna get us caught?" she hissed with a blend of fear and irritation.
The footsteps grew louder, and the walls seemed to press in on them. They had to move quickly, but any mistake—a loose stone falling, a scrape of their shoes—could draw the guards. The tunnel itself wasn't a guarantee either. It was narrow, barely wide enough for one person at a time, and supported by crude wooden beams they had scavenged over the months. One wrong move and the tunnel could collapse on them.
Even if they made it through, there was another challenge waiting—an old, rusted iron gate blocked the final exit. They had chipped away at the bolts holding it in place, but it still wasn't loose enough to break through easily. Time was their enemy, and with the guards closing in, every second counted.