Chapter 3: The Escape and the Strange Undine.

ALfheim

"Kirito!" The Queen screamed. Kirito's eyes focused in on his mother, a task easier said than done what with the after effects of being drugged still clouding his mind. He couldn't believe it, he had been a total fool leaving himself so unguarded and vulnerable. He might as well have taped a sign on his back saying: "Come get me", he thought to himself irritably as the cold steel of the knife began to bite into his throat. All remaining traces of disorientation and grogginess left his body at that moment, quickly being replaced with the adrenaline now beginning to roar to life in his veins.

Kirito took one brief moment to take the full situation in before looking his mother in the eyes, "Mom, Don't give them anything." Was all he said fearlessly, pride replacing any signs of the previous fear. He was no fool, it was clear to him that the resistance had no intentions of letting him walk away from this alive from the very start. He wasn't going to give them the power or satisfaction of using him to get what they wanted in the process.

"Shut up you little bastard!" The Salamander holding him hostage hissed, all the while adding more pressure to the knife against his throat, enough so to draw a few beads of blood.

Kirito gritted his teeth in frustration and annoyance, "I'm already dead." He stated to his mother with a note of grim acceptance in his voice.

His mother looked like she had a word or two to say on the matter but she chose to remain silent instead. Though she mouthed the words "Don't give up." and it seemed to strike a chord within the young prince because in the blink of an eye his entire attitude towards the situation changed.

The Salamander's holding him hostage kept up with their ridiculous threats and insults, so busy with their theatrics that they didn't notice the subtle signaling the queen had made to the soldiers in the room nor did they notice said soldiers sneaking out of the room. Probably to come rescue his ass, though the castle was three days flight from here, and no one he knew of but his late father had powerful enough magic to teleport an entire force that far.

He also doubted they'd wait three days to kill him.

If magic was out of the question that really only left him with two options:

The first was to save himself, which was the more appealing one.

The second was to die, because well the young prince was a realist if there ever was one and at the current moment he had no idea how he was going to manage to save his own ass seeing as the Resistance had him right where they wanted him.

Man, he didn't even know much about them other than that they hated Spriggans.

However he had decided not to give up, he refused to sit there and let his mother watch him die.

He's been through something like that, so he would know a person doesn't walk away from such a thing, if his mother watched him die he doubted she will ever be the same, which is if she ever even manages to recover from it at all.

That's when he remembered something essential to make option one possible; he fought back the urge to smile. Such a thing didn't fix the situation it just switched a small number of odds in his favor.

"Trash digging scum like you shouldn't be in power!" The Salamander hissed, his grip tightening on Kirito and rage flaring up in his eyes as he glared at the Queen yet at the same time he seemed to bask in their victory, so sure was he that they had already won.

Kirito fought the urge to roll his eyes at the fairy, what was the phrase this situation reminded him of again? Ah yes now he remembered; 'Don't count your chickens before the eggs hatch" or was it the other way around? Whatever the point was the idiots were so quick to celebrate they threw caution to the wind, exhibit A of their stupidity: They didn't check to see if Kirito was armed. He wasn't complaining though the fairy was providing the perfect stalling all on his own, all of them were really, no effort required on his part and they left him with some hope in the form of a dagger. All he had to worry about now was slipping his hand out of the ropes enough to access said dagger up his sleeve. A task easier said than done considering the way his hands were tied and that it was in a pocket up his sleeve, easily accessible his ass. He'd be having a word with the fairy who designed it later if he lived through this. Though the saddest thing about the situation was it took him this long to remember that he had a weapon up his sleeve and to formulate a plan to save himself in the first place. Kirito was embarrassed for himself, especially since his initial reaction was to just give up.

"A Mutt for a prince too! How disgusting…" One of the other Salamander's siting in the ball room added on with a scowl, Kirito couldn't remember his name, not that he cared enough to try to remember any of them anyway. They're names were unimportant and irrelevant to the current situation as far as he was concerned. He was a bit busy at the moment trying to rein in his all over the place emotions and escape as it was. Seriously one minute he was ready to give up the next he was determined, now he was just frustrated he couldn't reach the damn dagger. Even so the insult hit home, as much as he'd love to not be affected by name calling that one always got to him.

A mutt…It was a derogatory name to refer to those fairies that were born of two different fairy races, while you wouldn't think so, it was considered highly offensive.

Upon first glace Kirito may seem like any other Spriggan, however his abilities and personality often times would prove otherwise, if one were to watch carefully enough they would see he carried many of the traits of a Sylph Fairy, the very same race as his father; the late King.

'Well add that to the list of emotions I'm currently dealing with at the moment' Kirito thought to himself in frustration as he continued to struggle to free his hands. He decided this was officially the worse birthday he had had yet.

"So your highness" the Salamander mocked, "Let's play a game. You guess what we want and give it to us and we set your son free, fair enough right?"

The Queen narrowed her eyes at the Fairy man, "What's the catch?" she asked fearful of his answer but not letting the fear show through.

"You have only four guesses you majesty."

"And if I get one wrong?"

"Your son pays for it."

Kirito froze for a moment; he didn't like the sound of that. The Queen's eyes were wide in fear for only a brief second before she reined her emotions back appearing stoic instead, though it was still clear she was panicking on the inside.

"Hurry up now or I'll just guess for you." The Salamander continued with a sadistic smirk.

"Bastard!" Klein yelled as he made to lung forward at the mirror.

"Klein stop you'll only make it worse." Agil said as he quickly grabbed Klein and held him back; He knew getting violent wouldn't solve anything at the moment despite his own rage. Besides it wasn't a portal, just a Mirror image.

The queen was having trouble thinking straight with all the things happening and her chaotic emotions.

"Tick Tock, your Majesty." The Salamander continued to mock

"Money?!" she guess practically panicking.

"WRONG~" the Salamanders all sang, before Kirito's piercing scream of pain filled the air.

No one could believe it, as Kirito grinded his teeth in pain and fought back the tears of pain begging to come out. One of his wings was now twisted and limp on his back, the monster of a fairy had went and broke his wing.

"Next guess, your Majesty."

"P-Power?!" The Queen guessed desperately as her façade broke and tears streamed down her eyes.

"Too vague." He called with a laugh as he broke Kirito's other wing.

Kirito bite his lip and muffled his scream as best he could into his own shoulder this time.

"Next time I'll rip out his wings." He stated much to everyone's horror, well everyone but the rest of the resistance.

Kirito fought the urge to panic as he desperately tried to work his hands free, broken wings can heal with time but if they are ripped out he will never fly again. Fairies wings don't grow back when they're lost.

Finally Kirito's hand were free, he silently cheered to himself as one of his hands gripped the dagger, adrenaline quickly tuning out the pain of his throbbing wings for him. There were five Salamander fairies in the area with him, this included the one holding him at knife point, two more were in the ball room most likely with teleportation magic in their hands, all Kirito had was a little dagger. He sighed at the realization that if he is to walk away from this alive it will be because of some unnatural but appreciated luck. Well, that's better than nothing Kirito thought to himself as he quickly elbowed the Salamander in the stomach causing him to release the pressure of the knife in surprise. As soon as the pressure was gone Kirito quickly spun around and drove the knife directly into the fairy man's heart. The Salamander just stared in shock at Kirito as he pulled the knife back out before falling right off the edge, his body deteriorating into flames as he fell towards the Gateway.

Chaos erupted in just a matter of seconds after the initial shock.

One of the other Salamander's cursed as he ordered the others to catch and restrain Kirito, the two in the ball room leapt to their feet ready to make their escape but in their shock they were too slow to react and were quickly surrounded by the Queen's remaining men, Klein and Agil taking the liberty of punching them unconscious. Kirito was about to lunge out again at the next member of the resistance within his range when the flames of the first dead Salamander hit the Gateway, the reaction was instantaneous and confusing as the Gate roared to life with a blinding beam of light shooting into the air as it opened.

~Earth~

Asuna stared at the strange structure before her; it was hauntingly beautiful and did not look like something made from the hands of humans. What's more was its timeless appearance, one could tell it was ancient and yet it was in tiptop shape.

"So this is the Old Gateway" Asuna spoke to herself as she stared at the arch like structure in awe wondering how no one knew of it. Granted it was well off of any of the paths and this was a big park with big trees to hide it. One could easily get lost in this forest just hiking so the likelihood that anyone would hike this way was next to none; there was nothing to hike over here for, except maybe an ancient giant secret gateway with "active magic" or whatever it was that her grandmother called it.

Asuna walked up the stairs to the platform leading to the giant arch that was what Asuna assumed was the actual gateway and the things uncreative name sake. Asuna stared at it for a long moment, it was really more like a big open door to nothing. She was just about to dismiss it as one of her grandmothers 'delusions' as her mother had always called them when she thought she could see a strange orange glow flickering in and out of view in the arch way, leaning forward to get a better view she tripped on her own feet and stumbled forward directly through said arch way just as the flame like glow hit the portal. Asuna was suddenly blinded by a white light before realizing that she was somehow falling, she looked down and screamed.

~ALfheim~

Of all the things going on, what really did it for Kirito was the girly scream above his head before he was suddenly somebody's landing cushion.

Then the awkward moment that came after as he stared at the strange fairy girl on top of him.

"Hey I'm in the middle of a life threatening situation, so… If you don't mind could you get off of me?" Kirito asked irritably. It didn't help that she just stared at him in confusion.

Finally she seemed to piece it together as her face turned bright red before she leaped off of him mumbling apology after apology. It was kinda cute actually; Kirito couldn't help thinking to himself as he picked up the dagger he dropped.

"For crying out loud will someone get that brat already?!" A Salamander screamed in rage.

Kirito quickly grabbed the girl by the hand yelling for her to run over his shoulder as he took off at full speed towards the nearby forest, she yelped at first before starting to run with him. 'Good, she's fast' Kirito thought to himself in relief, he did not feel in the mood to carry someone. That would only serve to slow them down and slowing down at the moment was an incredibly bad idea.

Kirito looked back over his shoulder quickly glancing at the girl, she was unique in appearance, not in a bad way though as he definitely found her attractive, it's just that he couldn't tell what fairy race she was. That in itself was bizarre seeing as it usually was obvious, then he looked at her strange clothes and was suddenly even more confused.

"Hey what fairy race are you?" he called over his shoulder. The girl stumbled at the question; she had been busy staring in disbelief at the twisted wings on his back.

"What?!" she practically screamed.

Kirito just took it as she didn't hear him properly and repeated his question.

"Um…Undine?" she answered after a long pause recalling something about races in the book her grandmother used to read to her, and saying the first name that came to her. She held her breath praying that she actually said a proper race. Something told her telling him she was human wouldn't go over well.

"Undine? Funny you don't look like one at all, but if you say so then I have no reason to believe you aren't…"

Asuna let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding, "What about you?" she asked nervously going along with the conversation and distracting him before he continued to think on her "race" any longer.

"Hmm?" Kirito glanced back over his shoulder before answering, "Mostly Spriggan or at least I like to think I am…I'm a mutt…" he mumbled.

The girl looked confused; did she really not know what a mutt was?

"My mom is a different race from my dad, that makes me a mutt." Kirito explained as they reached the entrance to the forest and raced inside.

"Oh…" was her only response.

Kirito glanced back over his shoulder at her again, "My name is Kirito." He stated

She looked up at him, "Kirito?"

"Yeah." He confirmed with a smile over his shoulder, receiving a blush in response.

"Nice to meet you Kirito, I'm Asuna." She called back.

"Asuna…" He said testing the name on his tongue; it was a pretty name in his opinion, "Nice to meet you Asuna." He responded.

"Hey Kirito…"

"Hmm?"

"I just thought I'd let you know I'm a little lost here…"

Kirito just laughed.

A/N: Weeee~ third chapter done.

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