The Red Apple
Chapter 10: The rescue mission
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I have been meeting with Miss Casca for 2 weeks now, planning a solid proof rescue mission for Griffith. At first Miss Casca was skeptical about this whole thing until I swore to her that if this goes off without a hitch that not only will they have Griffith back, but they will be able to live their lives without having to worry about the Midland Guard on their tails. While I did my royal duties, getting ready for my coronation, and tending to state affairs in one hand, I would sneak out at night and meet with Miss Casca for planning in the other. One would think I would be anxious knowing that doing something like this was big risk to me, if I were to be caught in this act of treason, then I would be shamed and stripped of my title as heiress, but I wouldn't be a great strategist if I didn't already come up with a way to avoid that. First I made a deal with the Hawks through Miss Casca that if I were to be caught with them, they are to say I am a hostage and that they will kill me if anyone tries anything, that way they get to get away free and I will keep my inheritance. I know it's kind of throwing the Hawks under the cart should they be caught, but I was smart enough to take every precaution to make sure that they get away with Griffith. Second, if the plan goes off without a hitch and everyone does what they are supposed to do then I truly will have nothing to worry about, Griffith will be rescued and I'll be back in bed before anyone even notices I was gone.
Tonight is the night, I was at the assigned meeting spot we agreed upon, and I was in a simple white off the shoulders sleeping gown with white flat shoes and a black cloak over it to blend me into the night. I know that this was a serious mission for me and that this could very well go wrong if even the slightest thing were to slip up, but I was actually more excited than scared. I have never done something like this, I had only read about making daring escapes and such through reading books, and I just hope that our escape will not end up a failure just like in my books. I heard footsteps and talk coming towards me and I hid myself behind a boulder just in case it was the guards again, but I recognized one of the voices to be Miss Casca so I came out of hiding to see that it was indeed Miss Casca, as well as the other former generals of the band of Hawks, including the fellow whom left a year ago, 'He must have been recruited for this mission' I thought. I looked them all over and said "Hello everyone, I scoped out the place as per your instructions Miss Casca and there should be at least 6 guards in the dungeons right now. I can sneak you in somewhere and get you to Griffith's cell faster but we must hurry, the sooner we get this done the better" and with that I turned to make my way towards the dungeons, with the generals slowly following me without a word.
We were walking down the long staircase towards Griffith's cell and I was quite silent but the excitement was still built up in me, I was like a heroine in one of my books rescuing her lover, except he was my ex-lover and the people I'm with have way more to lose than I do. I was snapped out of my thoughts when a gloved hand put itself on my shoulders, I look around to see it was Miss Casca would looked at me worried "Are you alright Princess Apple" she asked, I looked at her then forward ahead of me and said nonchalantly "yes I am, don't worry about me Miss Casca I'm fine". I heard her sigh behind me when I heard the man with the big sword on his back, Guts I believe, ask "So, if you don't love Griffith, than why are you helping us free him?" "Guts!" Miss Casca was about to scold before I held my hand up to stop her, I slowly put my hand back down and said "To tell you the truth, I don't know why I'm doing this, maybe because I feel such sympathy for him I can't bear to see him being tortured any longer even if he did hurt me quite badly with what he did, or maybe because I'm still in love with him, I honestly don't know, all I know is, that he doesn't belong down here and I want to get him as far away from this place as possible, I guess whether it's because of a noble or utter selfish reason I'm here helping you" "I think it's more noble than you let it on to be" Guts responded to me. That statement caused me to look up at him to his back, I said softly as we descended down even more stairs "But if we are caught I made it so that my inheritance would be safe by letting you guys get the blame" "But you also made it so that even if we do get caught, that no matter what happens we get Griffith out, If was for an entirely selfish reason, you would have only made a plan for yourself to get out if the plan goes array, but you made it possible for all of us, including Griffith to get out of here alive by making yourself out to be a hostage. So selfish yes, but everything you're doing right now if for a noble reason that you have yet to see" Guts explained to me. My eyes widened a bit before going back to normal, I was about to say something else when I noticed we were nearing the end of the stairs, I whispered quietly "we're almost there, it's the doorway at the end of the stairs on the left".
Once were all down we opened the door to see Griffith was down there huddled up in a ball. We enter the cell and Guts picked Griffith up, while I was across from Guts on the other side of Griffith. Griffith looked to Guts and started muttering in a gasping voice things I couldn't even make out. I looked down onto Griffith kneeling with Guts taking my hood off my head which made Griffith look towards me as well. He held out his hand stroking it while mumbling again, but there was one thing I was able to make out…."dove". Griffith looked like he was about to cry, his body started shifting more towards me and I nearly wanted to weep again looking at this man's condition, whether or not I was to be cunning queen, could not replace the soft heart I had inside of me. Guts looked to Griffith and said "Griffith what has….become of you?" He started to take off his helmet and when he did he gasped. I looked over to his face and gasped so loudly I put a hand to my mouth. There was patches of skin missing from the face, all you could see were his muscles, his lips were dry and his hair was chopped, I couldn't bear to look any longer, and I turned away letting tears seep down my cheeks. Miss Casca looked worried, she said "Guts, Princess Apple what is it?" she started to come over when Guts shouted "DON'T LOOK!" It made Miss Casca freeze in her path.
Suddenly the door slammed behind us making us all look that way, and from the celled window we saw the deformed face of the executioner, he laughed at us from behind the door and taunted us. He looked over to me and said "do not fret your majesty, I have ready send for the guards to come and save you but as for the rest of them, they might as well make themselves comfortable". He then went into detail about how he tortured Griffith which made me turn away, not wanting to listen to the gruesome details. But then, Guts, in a fury of rage, stabbed his big sword through the door and killed the executioner. As we head up the stair, Miss Casca grabbed a hold of my wrist and said "remember, we have to make it look like we kidnapped you, look frightened", I nodded as Casca started dragging me by the wrists as Guts fought a path for us for us to escape to. When we got to the top the dungeons were surround and out in the front was my father, he looked absolutely livid. Father stepped forward and said "You have nowhere to go and nowhere to run. I insist your release my daughter or we will come in there by force". We were at a standstill when I spoke up to everyone "We have to risk playing the hostage card, father won't do anything that will hurt me, and as long as you have me he can't risk a big fight. You there, Guts, take me outside and hold me like a hostage, when you do demand that they provide horses and a carriage for you to make your escape with Griffith, if they don't, threaten to kill me, even bruise me up a little, anything to make it look authentic enough for father to concede", Miss Casca looked at me worried before saying "are you sure?" I nodded with a determined look on my face "I'm sure Miss Casca, we have come all this way we can't give up now, we need to play every option available to us" She looked at me wide eyed before nodding. I look at Guts, who was surveying our situation, he looked at me and I looked at him and nodded. He set Griffith down with Miss Casca and he had me in a chokehold, I kept thinking about Griffith's condition which made me start crying, which was good because I need to fake true fear for this to actually work.
He walked outside with me and when I saw my father I started screaming "Father! Father please help me, please", I started doing fake sobs with tears going down my face trying to claw my way out of the chokehold without actually getting out of it. Father looked in total shock and look behind him and said "everyone stand down, STAND DOWN I SAID!" The guards lowered their weapons as he looked back at me with helplessness, He then glared at Guts as he looked back at me sadly and glaring back at Guts clenching his fists while saying "Release my daughter you heathen, if you don't, I'll….." "You will what? Remember anything you do could cause in the harm or even death of your daughter, now if you listen to me carefully and do exactly as I say, we can all get out of here all happy. Now I want some horses and a carriage, if you try anything funny then your daughter will pay the price" Guts bellowed as he empathized by inching the blade on my neck enough to draw some blood which actually made me hiss in pain. Father gasped in a panic at my sudden distress then glared a heated gaze at Guts before saying "DAMN YOU, YOU HEATHEN BASTARD!" father growled, but he knew he couldn't do anything, not as long as they had me. He looked at me so desperately I started to feel back for making my father feel this way, but I had to remember there were much bigger things at risk for me to start feeling weak and sentimental. Father looked behind him at a nearby guard and said "Get them their horses and carriage, we cannot do anything as long as they have my daughter, she is too valuable to lose" the guard nodded and then made his way back to get the horse and carriage that was demanded as Guts slowly started taking me back inside the dungeons.
It was nearly 20 minutes that passed by when horses and carriage showed up, Guts had me back in the chokehold and we all walked outside, but now there were more guards outside then there was 20 minutes ago. They set Griffith up in the carriage as Father and Guts got into a glaring contest with each other, you can really feel the hate going on between them, both for a different set of reasons. Once Griffith was set up in the carriage, we still had the threat of them following so Guts took me to the carriage and threw me in the back. Father looked at this is shock, he shouted at Guts "WHAT IS THIS? WE HAD A DEAL, I GAVE YOU THE HORSES AND CARRIAGE NOW RELEASE MY DARLING DAUGTHER!" Guts turned around at Father and said "and who is to say that you will not try and stop us the second we hand her over huh? No, we are going to keep your daughter with us and when we are far enough away, we will send her back to you" and with that he jumped on his horse and we rode away while I gave out some fake cries for help until we were out of earshot.
It was a couple of minutes and I found myself constantly checking on Griffith and his condition. By now I have finally gotten use to the man in front of me and his form did not shock me or scare me as much as it did. I was constantly checking his vitals, his pulse, his wounds, I even changed him from the loincloth he wore into some pants and the whole time he would do nothing but stare at me and at times stroke my hair when I was close enough. I don't what is compelling me to do these types of things, but I know that I just have to go with what I feel. I was checking his pulse again before Miss Casca asked "how is he doing?" I looked at her and smiled "His vitals and pulses are fine, but his wounds are very much severe, before I leave I want to show you some ways you can take care of him while he is like this, herbs to help with the healing process of growing back his skin, things he can eat to help him, I'll do what I can before I go back home" She gave me a soft smile before looking back at Griffith and having a look of pity.
On our way to the meeting point we ran into some trouble in the form of my father's guards, my father must have gotten impatient waiting for me to return, but my god it was horrible. I have never seen a battle before and it was terrible, there was so much blood and death, all I wanted to do was stay in the carriage. There was one incident where a soldier did find me and urged me to come with him but before I could do anything he had his head sliced clean off, which made me scream. I could hear the cries of war going on, I just scooted closer to Griffith and held myself shivering thinking of the bloodbath going on outside the carriage. I suddenly felt a hand on my thigh and I look over to see its Griffith's hand. He was looking at me again trying to talk, I think he was trying to comfort me, which in turn gave me some comfort. By the end of it we had finally gotten to the meeting point, it was a hard journey, but we finally made it. While everyone was telling the Hawks what happened to their leader, I was tending to Griffith. I lifted his head close to my bosom so that I could get him a sip of water to drink, I looked at him gently for he was like a baby in my eyes. He could not speak, walk or do anything by himself, for that I truly pitied him for it. He used to be a man would could outshine even the greatest of the Ethiopia, but now he was here, broke, hurt, like an old war dog. I knew I was partially to blame for this happening to him, which is why I think I did what I helping him escaped such terrible horror he had to endure in the dungeons right under my nose. But even with that in mind, I knew I couldn't stay with him forever, even if there was the chance I was still in love with him, I just couldn't do it.
I was cleaning his wounds with water lifting him up so that he was sitting, his eyes never once left me as his hands once again started playing with my hair. I wiped off his arms and started to rewrap his bandages, "tell me if I'm hurting you" I said gently as I concentrated on the bandages. I then tried to converse with him with small talk "I'm happy we were able to get you out of that horrible place, as angry I was at you this is never what I intended for you, this was just beyond excessive. I'm sorry this had to happen to you Griffith" He looked at me with those eyes again, those eyes that said he wanted to say something important, I looked away while cleaning his stomach "did you know soon I'm going to become Queen? Father decided to retire early and so when I turn 17, I'll be inheriting the throne. Pretty great huh?" His hand went over mine as his eyes lit up a bit. I kept the small talk small until I asked the one question that has been burning in me for quite some time "Why did you cheat on me? Why? I know you can't answer me right now but…..I wish you could. Though in the years I had thought I knew what kind of person I was it was until I met you I knew I wasn't so sure anymore. I wanted so much for us, to get married, rule over this country as one and even have a family together. But I guess that dream was for not, so I made plans to stick to my original dream of rule over a super power country." I started tearing up a bit but I held back for my own sake, I was the next queen and if I wanted to move pass Griffith, I need to let it all out before then so I can have closure and move on with my life. I continued while still tending to Griffith's wounds, "I know this is probably the worst time to bring this up, but I just want to let it go now and hope that afterword everything in my life can go back to normal. Griffith I loved you with all my heart, with everything I had, even when you did those horrible things last year. That's right I knew that you were behind the death of my Uncle, Cousin, Step-mother and all those other nobles, I knew and I said nothing in fear of losing a great man, my first love. For the past year I have moved pass the betrayal and even forgave you for it for I could never hate you or hate my sister, so when I leave tomorrow I hope that for the rest of your life you truly will have nothing but happiness. I gave instructions to Miss Casca about a place you can go to where you can live the rest of your lives in peace. I even gave her a huge satchel of gold for her to take care of you with. I have no idea if I'm doing this out of sympathy, guilt or even love, but I know that once I leave tomorrow, I will feel better about you". That was it for me, for that was all I had to get off my chest and for some reason, I feel so light, like I could float. I finished cleaning Griffith and gave him a soft smile and kissed him on the hand and said "I will miss you dearly Griffith, promise you'll take care of yourself", and with that I started making my way out of the carriage. Before I could leave, Griffith leaned forward and fell on top of me, I blushed gently and said in surprise "Gr-Griffith! What are you…..." I pushed upwards to see him trying to move and talk at the same time. This pulled on my heartstrings, to see such a great and proud man like this, tears came to my eyes again and this time I just let them slid down my flushed cheeks. I laid him on top of me and held him gently while I cried for him, I just did nothing but cry.