His heart started to beat like it was about to jump out of his chest. He ran swiftly through the platform and crossed the entry pathway before anyone could barely react; the public was confused, and the king was as well. To them, one second ago he had been tied to a pole. Now he was free, escaping their show like he had used some sort of magic.
Perhaps in other sacrifices the Daedra Prince decided another fate for the victim, maybe she even killed them, but then again, she had mentioned her hatred for death, and that made Aslyan more confused.
In any case, he had no time to be thinking around; the monkey race was angry, and very. In the lapse of seconds, they started to run behind him, throwing their spears and shooting arrows. Because of the surprise he had given them, Aslyan had a little bit of an advantage, but he knew it would not be for long. These monkeys were on their natural habitat, and it would be easy to catch a clumsy human like him in such a place.
Instead of running straight out of the village, through the forest and disappearing forever, he stopped abruptly, then changed his path; his mind was telling him that he had to do something first.
Out of the view of the monkeys, he started climbing, slowly but steadily, going up through ladders and crossing a couple of bridges, one platform to another. After a moment the moneys behind him seemed to spread out.
He had to make a couple of risky jumps through the platforms to get to his destination and when he was finally there, he was greeted by a pair of guards.
Aslyan had the element of surprise, which helped him knock out the first one pretty easily; using some of the tactics he had learned in the Guilds many years ago. He did not have that advantage with the second guard, though; the heavy armored creature charged at him strongly, knocking him a couple meters back. The monkey took his wooden weapon and started dropping continuous hits against him, one after the other, until Aslyan found himself in the ground screaming with pain. That made the monkey stop and stare at him for an instant, so Aslyan stood up and kicked the guard in his leg, overthrowing him. Before the helpless animal could do anything, Aslyan slipped a fast hit on a sensible point near the neck and the monkey finally fainted, just after letting go a last gasp calling for help.
Aslyan stared at his defeated opponent for a second, smiling in victory, then he remembered what he needed to do; he knelt down and grabbed the keys that hanged on the guard's belt. He ran to one of the cells, where Neridas watched firmly.
"I am surprised, pal."
"I needed to get you out of here." Aslyan said, finding the iron lock that was holding the cell door in place; he unlocked it with a clanking sound and the object fell on the platform making a loud thump noise. He did it quickly; the sound of people approaching was getting louder.
As soon as Neridas stood out of the chamber, he stretched his arms and legs, a massive smile illuminated his face; after many years, he was finally free.
The orders of a yelling monkey interrupted the scene, followed by two spears flying past them that almost touched Aslyan. They both looked at each other and thought the same thing.
"Run!" both of them seemed to say, and they started to sprint away from the prison cells, in the opposite direction that the army of mad creatures was. Soon, they discovered that the other side of the platform did not have a ladder; it lead into nothing, and both of them realized how deep in trouble they were.
"Dead end" said Neridas.
"Damn it! Now what do we do?"
They looked down; between them and the ground was a twenty-meter fall with tree branches, leaves and lianas in between. It was an almost impossible escape. Almost.
"We cannot do that drop. It is too high."
The soldiers approached quickly, armed with spears and stakes, as enraged as they could be; it would be an impossible fight.
"Do you see any other choice?" Neridas said, and before Aslyan could even open his mouth to reply, the man opened his arms and jumped off the platform, face first.
"Are you out of your mind?"
But after seeing him fall over the leaves, comparing it to the imminent fight with the guards, Aslyan took the decision as well. He opened his arms as wide as he could, took a deep breath and stepped out, and when he dropped, time seemed to slow down.
While the guards on the platform just stared at them with their jaws open, Aslyan felt the pain when his body hit one branch after another. He grabbed with his open hand whatever he could hold on to. Luckily, he managed to grasp a pair of thick lianas, which sent him swinging barely over the ground at an immense velocity. His face served as a shield to all the branches and leaves he hit on the other side, which helped him to slow down. He saw Neridas already on the ground, trying to stand up after all the heavy beating he had received, but in one piece nonetheless. Aslyan slowed down after a few swings to the point where he could just jump off the liana gracefully.
"Your face is bleeding." Neridas said.
"Yours is too."
Both laughed, and started to run in a random direction opposite to the village. It would be difficult to get out of it though, seeing that they were surrounded by waterfalls and rivers in every direction, but they fled anyways, seeing in what direction the paths led them.
A large group continued to chase them relentlessly at a large distance, which made them stay mostly hidden, sneaking swiftly from point to point. They had the advantage that the monkey race was not used to walking on the ground; there was no one that could follow them on foot. Ten minutes later, both of them decided they were not being pursued anymore; they could not hear anything else than the waterfalls and various melodies of birds singing.
"I think we are safe now." decided Neridas, taking his breath and breathing heavily. "In fact, I need to stop. I have not taken a single step since I got locked up; my condition must be as bad as a ninety-year-old's."
They walked the rest of the way. Aslyan looked back continuously, just to check if they were being followed, but nothing seemed to appear. Certainly, they had been lucky to get out of that situation alive.
"Where do we go now?" Aslyan asked.
"When I was captured, I remember being taken to a tiny dock in a river, somewhere near here. If I manage to find it, perhaps we can steal one of the rafts." replied Neridas, looking around. "If I recall correctly, it must be in this general direction."
They continued walking until they came across the river. Luck was shown on their side once more; a couple hundred meters down they found a tiny dock filled with wooden rafts.
They took one of them, both grabbing a plank to use as an oar.
"It smells putrid." said Neridas.
"The Tang Mo probably do not use such things as boats. This dock must have been unused for a long time now."
Eventually the smell of rotten wood faded away. The current of the river quickly carried them away from the dock, until it merged with another, and another. The waterfall walls had an exit to the ocean, and the view became impressive.
They were completely exhausted. None of them spoke a single word.
Neridas was happy, and he made it noticeable; the smile on his face just showed how grateful he was for finally being free. Aslyan was happy as well; he was not in trouble anymore. Of course, he still had no clue where his friends and crew were, but that did not seem important right now. Instead, he came to the conclusion he was on a brand new adventure, and that made him even more excited.
