Cha-el saw the fire straight away from his post by the garden door. It was burning up the side of the castle that looked out upon the city. At first, he thought it was just a candle that had been tipped over and that the flames would be fully extinguished in less than a minute. He focused on his post and held his tall scythe proudly with both of his hands. But after a while he could smell smoke very vividly, unlike before where he could only see the tiny flickers of a flame and no smell of smoke wavered.

He looked up and saw the flames now completely devouring the floor where it had first started and those floors above it. They were producing big clouds of smoke that he could see rising towards the moon.

The smell of smoke reminded him of an old memory. In his old village they would have cook-outs where they would grill antelope and vulture meat when they managed to catch some. He remembered stealing strips of meat straight from the fire and how badly it hurt when the hot food made contact with his skin.

Cha-el snapped back into reality when he heard the terrified screams from the castle, and the sound of the household evacuating into the main yard, where the sundial was. Then he remembered that he had let in (who he guessed was) The White Rose in garden he was guarding. The outer garden was only guarded by foot soldiers in the day, so right now The White Rose would be unprotected. He needed to escort her to the yard so that she could be in safety. He could almost feel his comrades looks of jealousy when he would tell them that he escorted The White Rose alone to safety. Cha-el's chest puffed with pride as he started to search for The White Rose in the outer gardens.

He started to look around the garden and spotted a white figure staring frozen up at flames by the rose bushes. But as he came closer, he started to see another figure behind The White Rose. Dark, lean and hidden behind a purple rose bush, the figure started to come closer to The White Rose with something gleaming in his hand. As Cha-el recognised the shine of polished steel, Cha-el started to run. He needed to protect The White Rose from any kind of danger, for the sake of his newly proven honour and for himself. He needed to show that he was better than anyone would have thought all those years ago… He quickly adjusted his scythe into a more spear like form which he had been taught was better for a one-on-one battle.

"Step away from her excellence!" He shouted towards the shadow/figure who was around four feet away from him. His voice sounded more powerful and strong than how he actually felt. He saw the figure sharply turn his head in his direction before a milli second later trying to jab him in the stomach with what seemed to be an extremely polished and pointy dagger. Cha-el managed to push him away with the shaft of the spear, only for a second before the figure came running at him again with all his might and knocked Cha-el to the ground. The figure was trying to plunge the dagger in his neck and belly once Cha-el was on the ground. But Cha-el managed to reflect his hits every time, until by the chance of pure luck The White Rose made a loud sobbing sound, and the figure was caught off guard for a blink of an eye. Cha-el used it to his advantage and knocked the figure's dagger to the ground with the metal knob at the end of his spear. It fell with a loud clang as the figure seemed to shiver from being caught off guard.

Cha-el started to hit the figure (who he realised was clad in dirty dark robes that covered his face and was not actually a shadow figure from the stories he heard about as a child) across the face with his fists until the figure fell backwards and seemed to lose consciousness. He stood up warily, his eyes focused on the figure to make sure he wasn't feinting. He poked the figure harshly a couple times to be sure, before carefully trying to pull down the dirty robe covering the figure's face. Under it he saw a flash of a lightly coloured skin covered with scars right by this person's temple. Cha-el was disgusted greatly by scars so he tried to push down the instinct to gag and covered the tiny piece of skin showing.

He remembered why he was here and with the shame of forgetting for even a tiny bit he started to search under the bushes for The White Rose. He heard a rustle beneath one of the rose bushes and once he saw The White Rose crammed underneath the bush, he bowed and said "Your excellence. I am here to escort you to the yard for evacuation."

Without making eye contact he saw The White Rose creep out of the bush and nod. She wiped her face (had she been crying? Best not to ask any questions for the sake of his job) and murmured "Thank you. Take me there." As she started to dust off dirt from her robes.

As Cha-el still tried to avoid any eye contact with The White Rose, he looked out on the city not spreading out so far away from where they were standing. He knew what the people down there were thinking about the castle burning up. He could almost hear the cheering.

He turned back towards The White Rose with his eyes still glued to the ground. From the corners of his eyes she seemed to looking up at flames, pale-looking and frozen.

As they headed towards the tiny door that lead back into the castle another figure crept out the shadows, right next to the door that they could just see around the corner. He froze and The White Rose immediately did the same. She was quiet now since she was no longer sobbing or making any sound.

Actually, scratch that earlier thought. There were several people creeping out of the garden door and he could clearly see that they weren't guards. He was tempted to speak sign language to signal to The White Rose that they should probably turn around but he ended up doing it by pointing towards the barren landscape where the road that sped around the capital and castle was. Cha-el and The White Rose walked closely and slowly against the wall trying to avoid major movement that would catch the figure’s eyes.

Once they were out the garden they started to run away until they were outside the big outer gate of the castle. The outer gate was of polished metal shaped like vines and snakes both holy forms of life in this nation. It was double doored, enormous and it was closed and unmanned.

They wouldn't be able to get into the castle until the next major arrival of importance came, and that was in two days if Cha-el had been informed right, when the rulers brother came to visit. All the minor arrivals of goods or people came in through the miner’s entrance which was definitely sealed to avoid that any dangerous fumes from the ground caught fire. The miner’s entrance was made of double layers of hatianian steel to seal the air out. That wouldn't open either nor would it be manned.

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The White Rose was panting as if she had just run a marathon around the capital. Cha-el could tell that her life of luxury and visions had not led to a lot of training. He could see that her arms were skin and fat with no muscles. Cha-el was barely even tired.

The sound of someone whistling came with the dusty wind towards them from the other side of the castle. Cha-el drew his spear from his strap on his back, ready for another encounter with a figure dressed in black robes, but instead a lonesome tall foot soldier came around the corner. The foot soldier had clearly heard them since she had her scythe drawn, but when she saw The White Rose she fell to her knees. Cha-el couldn't help but smirk at her awe.

Foot soldiers were pretty much the lowest rank in the castle and Cha-el knew that this would probably be the only time this soldier would actually experience a person of actual class. "What are you doing here?" Cha-el asked the foot soldier abruptly.

"Just threw a snide remark at my officer and got sent here. Wanted me to see that everything was in check and no-one was running from their duties." She said with a shrug of her shoulders.

Cha-el got frustrated at her carelessness. "What kind of foot soldier insults her officer?" He said accusingly. The foot soldier stared sharply at him but kept her mouth closed.

Then the foot soldier's eyes widened at something behind Cha-el and The White Rose. The foot soldier lifted her scythe just as Cha-el turned around.

Several figures were creeping up on them, just beyond the turn of the terracotta walls that made up the outer castle walls.

Once Cha-el and the foot soldier were aware of their presence, the figure's cover of secrecy was blown, and they ran at them. There were three figures and as Cha-el took one, the lanky foot soldier took two. Hot with the sudden rush of adrenaline he managed to deal some serious damage and tatter his opponent's robes into rags before overwhelming them with his strength and pushing them to the ground. After that he kept on banging the figure against the head with the end of his scythe until it was unconscious. As Cha-el carefully loosened the fabric covering the figure's face, he could see the foot soldier dangerously dancing with her remaining opponent from the corner of his eye. She could handle her opponent herself he concluded. With this figure he dared to have a proper look at their features. It was a girl with the typical pebblers look with skin the colour of a ripe coconut and short afro hair. He wouldn't get any information from this typical and common look.

Once Cha-el looked up towards the foot soldier, he saw that she was helping the princess of her feet (had she fallen?) and both of her opponents were bleeding seriously from fatal wounds either from their necks or their stomachs. She must have made her worth by her actions and not her attitude in the castle. The heavy gravity of reality came back to him as the light feeling of adrenaline vanished into the depths of his inner organs. He felt slightly woozy from looking at the blood, so he turned away back towards The White Rose.

"We can't stay here." Cha-el said, starting to feel the fatigue of the fight weighing him down. "There were more in the garden and the castle is probably crawling with them."

"Who are they?" The foot soldier asked boldly looking him in the eye even though she should clearly be respecting his higher rank. Cha-el was just a bit too tired to care and it also felt very irrelevant against the dangers at hand.

"Don't know they just started to attack me, and this guard was lucky enough to be there at the right time to protect me." The White Rose recounted but her voice was wavering, and it sounded like she was going to start to cry again any moment.

The foot soldier patted her back kindly without any regard to her high rang in the castle. The White Rose seemed to calm down and her breathing started to return to normal.

"We can't go back into the castle since the doors are locked and lots of "assassins" are jumping on any glimpse of white they see." The foot soldier said while making quotation marks in the air sarcastically. "The city is filled with rioters after the fire, who also would go all crazy if they saw The White Rose. What should, or can we, do?"

For a second both of the members of the castle guard's gazes landed on The White Rose but when she shifted uncomfortably Cha-el started to think for himself. None of his thoughts had too appealing outcomes nor were they particularly safe for The White Rose.

"Maybe we need to plan an escape for you out of the city..." Cha-el heard himself say. He felt a strike of shame for not using the typical formalities but when he saw that no one had any objections against his plan, he felt proud for actually coming up with something.

"But where would we go? And how would we throw them off our trail?" The foot soldier said while tilting her head towards the bleeding bodies, emphasizing 'them'.

"Maybe we could head towards my uncle's. After this fire he definitely won't be heading towards the castle and he will probably be conducting a search of his own for me, through the river." The White Rose said thoughtfully while glancing up towards were the flames had ravished most of the towers in the castle. "But that would mean we would have to travel across whole nations to get to him..." She said with a tad of reflection.

An inner picture of a map of the nations appeared in Cha-el's head. He knew that The Pebbles was in the northern hemisphere of the continent and had no sea nor rivers. The people here lived solely off what the dry ground gave them which was cold stones and ores. If Cha-el had heard right from some of the housemaids, the ruler’s brother was an esteemed vendor in the nation River Banks who shipped exported and imported goods for The Pebbles. In between The Pebbles and River Banks there were two or three nations if he was right. The cliffs, the trees and the... desert?

"You want to walk through three nations?" Cha-el said aghast. To walk through a deserts and mountains sounded easier said than done. "All in favour?" The White Rose suggested. Reluctantly Cha-el raised his hand along with the rest of them.

"No time to spare then let’s get a move on, for I sure don’t want to meet more of those people. I know a tiny tavern in that direction where we can maybe pick up some faster transport like a cart or something." The foot soldier stated while folding her scythe into a less intimidating shape that she put on her back.

"Wait a minute" The White Rose said while gesturing for them to take of their guard vests. "To throw off our scent." Reluctantly he took off his guard vest that showed off his rank with its pale orange colour. The foot soldiers vest was an even paler orange for the more vibrant the colour the higher in rank. Both of their vests were dirty from fighting with the figures. Once The White Rose had all of theirs including her own thick cotton robe she threw the dirty clothing on the ground and stepped on them, rolling them in the dirt with her sandals clad feet.

"They'll think we got captured by a bigger force and got kidnapped. These would have been the casualties you guys caused, before they managed to capture us. They would have stripped us of the clothing that made us recognisable" She said while gesturing towards the pained bodies on the ground. Cha-el nodded understanding and acknowledging the sense in it all.

"Come on, no time to waste" He said with casualty, but underneath it he felt a lot of hidden worry.

Did he really know what he was getting into?

End of chapter two.