Chapter 18: Chapter 18: The Failed Escape

I was seated on the edge of the bed holding my completely knocked out cat friend when I heard the knock. I thought it’d be from the doorway. After all I figured Bearon was likely lurking outside to see if I’d actually drank the tea. I was with Victor on this one, if Bearon had any of my trust it was all gone now. But instead it seemed to be coming from the window.

I found myself talking to the cat like a crazy person, “is that a rock at the window?” I cautiously tip toed to the window to peer over the ledge. I whispered to the cat once again, “we’re trying to not make a lot of noise so whoever tried to poison us will think we’re asleep.”

When I got there I was surprised to see a strangely dressed man standing down in the garden. He was milling about while suspiciously looking side to side. I couldn’t quite piece together where his wardrobe was from. He seemed to be wearing a brown tshirt over a toga like set of brown robes with a belt and strange dark boots. It seemed like someone trying to fit in here with no idea how people dressed. I watched as he turned to once again search the courtyard before grabbing a tiny rock and hurling it towards my window. I ducked and prayed he couldn’t see me as he crept towards the entrance of the manor. There was a creak from down stairs as Bearon came flying out next. By the time Bearon had made it to the garden, the man was gone. I slunk back to the bed as I wondered what the heck that was all about. I was also praying he hadn’t seen me. I probably should have paid more attention to the man, after all he was about to be the cause of the most chaos in this world I would experience to date. But I was distracted. Because I realized something else as I heard the door shut downstairs: if Bearon was in the garden and about to walk back in, I had a few minutes to sneak out of the room without him knowing. I tucked my cat friend under my arm and proceeded to sprint towards the door. I was going to make sure the last thing I did wasn’t going to involve sitting in this room waiting around. If I had to completely break the plot to survive, I was going to do it.

I started for the main stairs first before I quickly realized I was as good as caught if I ran into Bearon on them. I turned for the back stairs instead and made my way down the hall. For a moment I briefly considered taking the stairs Victor had been so adamant I shouldn’t. After all every character in here had suggested I stay away from them. But for now I figured I’d trust him on this one. After all, I didn’t want to go down it and turn myself into a fireball or giant gummy bear. Well or worse, I supposed I could end up in some dark abyss.

I made it down the back stairs and was so busy celebrating my clean escape that I barely noticed Robin creeping up behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin as I heard her question, “my lady?”

I very slowly spun to face her. I tried to put on a smile as every possible thing I could say bubbled up to my brain. I apparently didn’t handle pressure well. Because I responded the worst possible way I could. “Did you try to poison my tea?” I sputtered.

Robin blinked and remained completely emotionless. “Why would I do that?” she said nonchalantly.

I have no idea why, but for some reason this made my resolve to trust her even stronger. NPC’s can’t hurt you right? Or at least all they can do is what they’re programmed to do. An even stranger thought crossed my mind as I awkwardly stood there with my zonked out cat in my arms in front of her. I was supposed to mill about for a few days before I found the evidence. Annalise does so in the book while being attended by an unnamed servant. If I stayed with Robin, would I be following the plot enough to at least get out of here and away from Bearon? I grinned, “we’re friends now right? How about we go play some games?”

Robin continued to blink with a “what was that my lady?” I grabbed her arm and dragged her with me straight towards the door to the outside.

“In town,” I said, “there must be a place to play games in town.”

Strangely, she sounded almost eager to hear this. “Oh yes of course,” she replied.

“Ok then let’s go,” I said. I dragged her as fast as I could towards the main road. I made sure to occasionally check my hands which fortunately were still devoid of fire.

“Where are we going my lady?” Robin asked after a few minutes of my frantic escape.

“To town of course,” I replied.

“Why would we do that?” Robin repeated.

“Because someone tried to poison me!” I said. I was now getting exasperated. I also was now realizing there was no way we were going to make it to town in a reasonable manner. After all chances were we weren’t going to get there before dark, and the way things were going for me I was set up to be especially screwed if we got there with no place to stay.

Robin however seemed unflappable, “why would someone try to poison you?”

I gave up on reasoning with her about this and trudged along the path through the woods instead. After-all I wasn’t being particularly reasonable myself. I was trudging through the woods like a maniac with a random NPC while holding a cat.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Is there any place we could stay in town?” I asked Robin as we got in deeper and darker.

“Why would we stay in town?” Robin replied.

I had been so distracted trying to hurry us along the path before it got dark that I was also only now realizing I had no idea where we were. “Can we get to town and back in one trip by foot?” I asked her in response.

“Why?” she replied.

I wasn’t going to get anywhere talking to her about this. My new gal pal continued to stare back at me with listless eyes as we traversed further. At least she wasn’t a bird. I realized I needed a bit more help when we passed the same tall tree a second time. I could even see our previous footprints. “Robin are we walking in circles?” I mumbled, I was also slightly embarrassed, and it had gotten very late.

“Yes,” she said.

I collapsed against the tree and slid to sit down as I realized the hopelessness of the situation. I gave myself a moment to wallow in despair before I picked myself back up. “Do you know how to get back?” I asked her.

She shrugged as she pointed to the sky and unhelpfully replied, “it’s getting late.”

“Is there anywhere near here we can hunker down until the morning?” I replied, “I mean a place we can stay.”

“Yes,” Robin answered. She proceeded to blink at me without further elaboration. I watched as she turned to the left and continued to blink. She really was rather birdlike. And now I was also momentarily terrified that I was about to be joined by a large humanoid bird too. But I was relieved when the figure in front of me continued to look human.

She looked less amused by our current circumstances. It took the sound of footsteps to finally get us moving again. I heard a series of boots scraping the ground from behind us as Robin looked in the general direction of the noise and frowned, “You need to go, my lady.”

I felt my heart race as I jumped up and started moving again. At this point I didn’t care what direction we went as long as it was away. If Robin didn’t like what was coming I was sure I wouldn’t either. “Could you take us to the place you said we could stay?” I asked her as I looked back to see if I could find the owner of the boots.

“Yes,” she replied. I wasn’t surprised to see that after she said this, she still hadn’t started leading us anywhere. I would have laughed in any other circumstance. Could she take us? Yes. Was she going to? Of course not.

“Where is this place?” I continued.

“It is where I play games,” she replied.

I would have been incredibly creeped out by the response had her tone not been completely devoid of emotion. It was at least an answer. “And who’s behind us?” I continued.

“You don’t want to get caught by the Winklehaus’” she said.

Her non answer was enough of an answer. “The people chasing Annalise? I mean me?” I said. I’m sure she could sense my alarm. And suddenly the lack of humanoid bird and fire hands made sense. I was likely about to have a run in with my original pursuers. It was just days earlier than expected and I didn’t have my requisite knowledge about Victor.

“Yes,” Robin said. She blinked before she suddenly started walking through the woods on her own. I did my best to keep up as I debated continuing the line of questioning, but I knew I wasn’t likely to get anywhere. Although in retrospect maybe I should have. Because I’d seen a lot of crazy things in this world, but nothing had prepared me for what I was about to walk into next.

I knew things were starting to go especially off the rails when I saw the smoke trail. In front of us was a strange stone cabin like structure that looked just modern enough to be out of place, and just ancient enough to maybe fit in the story. Robin continued on her way as I trotted to keep up with her. She turned her head ever so slightly, “they’re gaining on you, my lady.”

I had been trying to ignore the footsteps behind us. Although now that I was once again paying attention, it made the creepy weird stone out of place cabin seem almost inviting. “What is this place?” I asked instead of responding to her other statement.

“The place of the games,” she said flatly.

I didn’t question it. After all I was a bit preoccupied and I do had to practically run to catch up with her. I followed her around a back door and cautiously crept in as she stood outside a small door. She looked straight ahead as it became very apparent it was up to me to open it. I shifted my cat friend to my hip as I went to pull on the small wooden door. Robin barely reacted as it slowly creaked open. But she also showed no qualms about stepping in front of me when I held the door open for her.

I was surprised to hear loud voices and the slapping of cards as I followed her inside. I was more surprised to see the setup of wooden foldable tables and random assortment of people crowded around slapping down card-stock. I don’t know why it had taken me this long to connect the dots. “Robin, by games you mean you gamble?” I asked. I was trying not to sound as incredulous as I felt.

It was hard to hear her over the cacophony of people. “I play card games,” she corrected me.

I hugged my cat friend tighter as I noticed something even stranger. Although about half of the group looked like normal random people, some of them appeared to be growing horns from their heads. I nearly gasped as someone dealing cards from the top of one of the tables began to look like a cow from the neck up. I heard the door shut as a squirrel headed red cloaked individual angrily snuck up behind us. I nearly screamed as I turned to meet the two large beady eyes. “No cats allowed,” a gravely female voice argued.

“Oh I’ll just be leaving then,” I replied as I went to push the door back open. The squirrel slammed the door shut and indicated towards the table.

“No leaving until you win,” she replied. The voice really didn’t match the body. But then nothing about this place really made any sense.

I turned to stare at Robin who seemed completely unfazed. “This is why I don’t play anymore,” she shrugged.

“Because they kidnap you?” I whispered loudly as I watched the squirrel head back to a table.

“Because I’d miss too much work?” Robin said. She sounded dumbfounded. As if I was an idiot for not understanding this.

I didn’t know what to say next as someone pushed a chair towards me. “Cat can join us at this table,” I heard someone chortle. No one else even bothered to look up as I cautiously went to sit down with them. Robin casually went and sat down across from me to pick up a hand of cards as if nothing was amiss.

I looked up at her helplessly as I realized our pursuer was still out there as well. She shrugged as she began to pick over the cards. It was the first time I’d seen so much emotion from her. “Only one of us needs to win,” she replied to my unasked question.

I gulped as a hand of cards was shoved in my face next. It looked somewhat like modern cards but they were made of a heavy set ancient looking paper with pictures of animals instead of the card suits. I set my cat friend on my lap as I realized the pickle I had just forced myself into. The remainder of the table was slowly becoming more animal like as well. Even more concerning was Robin’s grin and burst of emotion as she started fiddling with the deck. She stared at me over her hand as she began to pick over her cards. “Don’t lose, my lady,” she mumbled ominously.

I had no idea how to play, and I was now a sitting duck until the Winklehaus’ arrived. I was also in a room surrounded by weird looking humanoid animals. I had no desire to lose. And I knew I was going to have to bust something crazy out if I was going to get out of this. I adjusted my cat friend while trying to pretend I wasn’t terrified, “I’ll do my best.”