Leo takes his greatsword with both hands, swinging within the confined space. It’s an easy dodge and the soldier in front of them, though with an arrow lodged to his side, managed to slip pass out of the balcony.

Truscott sees the commotion below, but chooses to stay with the target, believing in the capability of her friends.

That is until she heard a knock coming from the door of the room.

“My lady, are you okay in there?” She recognizes the voice to be Odette.

Lady Sunniva’s attendant, who led the search-and-rescue operation that went on for a month. She was part of that team with Feravis. She has good instincts in leading and often took care of wild animal attacks to keep the groups’ focus on searching.

“There seems to be some trouble happening. Can you open the door?”

When Lady Sunniva didn’t reply. It was then that Truscott decided to make the kidnapping a one-woman mission.

Pulling herself up, she sees Lady Sunniva with her back turned. Slowly, she pulls out a rope from her bag when the lady notices her movement.

She froze like a deer in headlights. When Sunniva turns, she stares at Truscott, as if the world had given her the most complicated puzzle in the world.

With a sigh, Sunniva plasters the same smile Gray always has. “Let me guess, I should come with you, gatinha?”

Truscott finds herself disarmed, not by hostility but rather the lack of it. “I… uh, did not think it’ll be this easy.”

Sunniva looks down at the rope on her hand, and chuckles. “I didn’t say yes to that.”

“Right.” She marches towards Lady Sunniva who seemed more amused than distressed. “This is my first kidnapping. I think being tied up is mandatory.”

Sunniva towers over her. Staring right at her face with an emotion Truscott cannot decipher. But her lips are pursed, her face is red, and her hands are slowly creeping to grab the back of her neck.

“This is my dream. Kidnapping and ropes?” She mutters under her breath. “You fucking sick dick, Monica.”

There is an uncomfortable pressure within Truscott’s guts that she chooses to ignore hearing her talk. Eyeing her up and down, she grabs Sunniva’s hands, hastily tying the rope without any retaliation from the bigger woman.

She steps back to look at her work only the rope to unravel between them.

Sunniva giggles, “wow. That’s–––”

Thud!

Their thoughts cut short by a loud thump below them.

Down below.

Gray slips out his dagger, twirls it before throwing it side-ways. It grazes the soldier’s armor but that’s it. Feravis knocks another arrow and shoots him in the back. It hits again. The man lurched forward and fell down. More footsteps from the fourth floor can be heard descending stairs.

“Climb up. I can hide.” Feravis turns to Gray.

Gray grabs both his shoulders, “I know I insulted people who can aim, but know that with money, it can be fixed–––”

“Stop yappin’.” Leo grabs him and launches him up.

Gray grabs on to the third notch once again, noticing that Truscott is no longer where she was. He looks down at Leopold who notices it as well but ultimately chooses to hide behind the carved pillar that barely hid his chest.

>><<>><< 

Monica gently pushes past the mysterious woman, to walk towards the edge of the terrace’s railings.

She peers over to see a man with pink hair supplanted face first on the floor as his visage flickers until he transformed into this blue demon/deer hybrid with long antler horns and thick blue tail groaning.

Two humans, on both ends of the balcony, poorly concealing themselves behind pillars, gawk at the blue demon.

“Why me?” The blue man groans.

She leans on one foot, “huh.”

Not the strangest dream she’d had. The strangest by far is––– and it isn’t that this was a frequent dream, but she has had it twice, it never failed to wake her up––– worms on her feet or thighs, squirming. She would pull them out, leaving gaping holes, hallowed of muscle nor bone. The sheer disgust of it all shaking her awake.

“Disgust.” She murmurs; an idea formed in her mind. “Or fear.”

Her eyes move past the three men, towards the barreling waves of water. Breath captured by the enthralling rise and fall of the waves.

If she wants to wake up, she might as well do the unthinkable.