It's not so bad, thought Gerald.
Sure his hands were manacled, but at least they weren't dicks about it and chained them behind his back. Though uncomfortable, they were linked to an iron ring above him. There could be worse ways to be chained.
As for his feet, they were shackled at the ankles but at least there was enough slack on them to stretch and perhaps walk. He didn't think he could run in them, but they didn't bite into his skin which was always a plus.
The accommodations were admittedly cramp. The wagon in which he was chained to had a low roof, and he had to sit in a reclining position. He could not lie down, due partially to his arms chained above his head, and because of the amount of boxes and crates packed into the wagon. Gerald guessed that when Sir Ridley arrived he had planned to resupply Daggerhall, and did not quite expect the lunacy of Tessa. Given the spaciousness of his accommodations, Gerald did not mind. At the very least, sitting across from him with the exact same gag and manacle gear was Prince Aaron, and who gets to ride in a wagon with royalty these days?
Prince Aaron thrashed about, straining and grunting against her bounds. Gerald guessed her wrists and ankles were all probably bruised or blistered by now. She glared like a wild animal attempting to escape a snare before the hunter returned. Still, under the small beams of light that escaped the overhead cracks, Gerald thought she had a kind of tomboy charm. At first he didn't think she had any breasts, but under her exertions against the iron that bound her, he could see that some sort of heavy cloth binding was unravelling around her chest. It looked very uncomfortable, but he guessed they were used to press her breasts to her body. Also, while Gerald never had an eye for the over muscled women, Prince Aaron had a more sprinter or a gymnast body, than let's say…Ceto's body. Everyone one of her muscles seemed well defined and not overly large like that of the half orc's. She resembled a great mountain cat wound up and ready to pounce out of her imprisonment.
While the prospects of spending life under lock and key did not seem pleasant to Gerald, it could be much worse. Tessa said he would be treated well, and he hoped that she was a woman of her word. He didn't expect a banquet every day and a small apartment at Beauregard's manor, but a clean room, and three square meals a day was better than he had now. It would also give him time to ink his next ballad or tale, so at least it would keep him from boredom. The tale of the Lilac knight he think he will call it, whether it be a horror story about a crazy power mad woman knight or an uplifting tale of a girl rising above her circumstances, depends on how well he would be treated in prison. At the very least though, being in prison for life meant that he at least would be alive. Given Prince Aaron's assessment of Daggerhall's position and that of its enemies, the outlook was grim for his town.
Sure Gerald wanted to save them, and he even tried, coming back to town to lend whatever aid he could, but he gave his best, and fate simply laughed at him and threw him in a wagon riding off into the sunset.
As Gerald contemplated his fate, his fellow prisoner had finally stopped thrashing in her bonds. Her eyes still screamed violence, but she leaned on the wagon opposite him in a restless manner.
"Enjmy thm trmp," said Gerald. After having been gagged for so long he was getting used to it.
Aaron relaxed a bit, and her eyes seemed more focus. Gerald wasn't sure if it was the sound of his muffled voice, or if she finally accepted her fate. She simply slid down the wall a little, and raised her long lean legs upwards, stretching her feet next to Gerald's face. She then began to rub her feet across his face, squashing his nose and poking his cheeks in the process.
Gerald wasn't sure whether to be turned on, or repulsed by her actions, but he was powerless to stop her. Even when he grew tired of her strange foot massage, he couldn't knock her legs out of the way with his own legs, she was that much stronger than him. Also, it seemed every time the wagon hit a bump, Aaron's foot seemed to be kicking him in the face.
Gerald wasn't sure what the whole point to this was, until finally the Prince's foot seem to snag on a piece of his gag. After several painful tugs, the finally gag was pulled off of his mouth, releasing a torrent of drool down his chin.
"Uggh, now that was a bit sloppy," said Gerald as the Prince's foot finally left his face.
"Mm Nmxt. Mm Nmxt," said Aaron under her gag, bending her knees as she pointed at her face.
"Oh, you want me to do the same?" guessed Gerald. "Well, okay then."
Gerald attempted to do the same for the Prince, but his leg strength was nowhere as strong as hers. He eventually rested his foot on her shoulder in between his attempts, and even kicked her in the face a few times to pay her back from the punishment she had meted out on him. Finally after a few minutes, he managed to hook her gag with his seemingly metal boot and worked it over her lower lip.
"Finally," she gasped as she spat away her saliva. "Now we can plan to get out of here."
Gerald wasn't sure what type of planning would help, but humored her anyways. "Well, I'm all ears."
Aaron shifted her body angling her feet towards the crates. She then started to kick and flip the boxes until they opened or break. "Hurry, we might find something useful inside."
Gerald wasn't that keen on breaking these boxes. He was still pretty mad at the way he had been treated, by both the Prince and Lady Tessa. He simply retracted his legs in front of him forming a crude shield.
"Kick open the boxes, now!" ordered Prince Aaron.
"Hey, you're not the boss of me. You're just another prisoner. Besides, your attack dog Tessa and yourself have treated me like crap and for what, wanting to save the villagers instead of sacrificing them because you have daddy issues and need to prove yourself. At least Tessa is doing this under a warp desire to save you. I think I might prefer being a prisoner than helping you in this escape attempt."
Prince Aaron regarded him coolly. "I might be a prisoner, but I'm still a Prince. When we reach Beauregard Manor, I'll order the Seneschal to have you beaten."
"For what? Not helping you escape. Judging by how you are locked up here with me, and Lady Tessa gets to go out in a blaze of glory, I think we know who wears the pants in this relationship," smirked Gerald.
The Prince looked ready to explode, but instead she simply closed her eyes and appeared to count backwards to herself. "I am sorry for my past behaviour. If I was overzealous, it was because of my love for my kingdom. I truly believe that we cannot move the villagers to a safe spot due to the enemy's superior number of cavalry. At the very least, help me free myself for I can better serve my kingdom with a blade in hand rather than in a cell waiting out this war."
Gerald did not think the Prince would apologize, or at least give it in a snide or sarcastic way. He sighed and against his better judgement he began to kick the boxes over as well. It was a bad idea though. He guessed that when the guards outside found out that they wouldn't be that keen either, and he could almost feel their slaps and punches. However when Aaron knocked over a box of what looked like jerky Gerald began to follow her lead in earnest. After flipping some of that jerky into his mouth at first.
" ..munch…what are..munch..munch…we looking for?" asked Gerald. The jerky was dry and bland, but tasted so good right now. The last meal he had was with Mina, and that was last night. Since then he had hiked through a forest, got chased by wolves, and had now spent over an hour chained in a wagon.
"Find anything that might let us escape these chains. An iron bar, a jar of grease, any sort of tool."
Gerald raised a dubious eyebrow. He doubted any of that would be found in this wagon. He only continued to flip over boxes with his feet to humour the Prince.
"So, why weren't you armed or armored when Sir Ridley's men came."
"My armour was heavily damaged when I was captured, and Sir Beauregard discarded my breast plate to deceive Zerd. As it was getting repaired, I decided to have my blade sharpened as well. Tessa was against me fighting here from the beginning, and I guessed she saw an opportunity and took it. Though I suspected she would have had me imprisoned even if I had my armour on. She would just have to make up a bigger lie to convince the men I wasn't the Prince."
"Hmm, if they saw you in Silver Armour, do you think you can convince them that you are who you claim to be?"
"Eh, what do you mean?"
"Well, this armour I'm wearing is Tessa's and as you can see, there's no boob plate. She said its glimmered or something, and it can change its appearance. If I can slip this off, and you put it on, do you think you can order the guard to free us?"
"Well, they've already seen that I'm a woman so I doubt they would think of me as their Prince, even with my Royal armour on. Also, I believe Tessa's armour is GLAMMERED, not glimmered. To use its power you would need to know its command phrase. Do you have that?"
"Hells, I don't. What good is it then?"
"Well, if you can find a powerful wizard, he could divine it for you. Same with a powerful bard."
"Eh? I am a bard…oh….a powerful one..hah haha."
Aaron's grim face broke out in a smile, and he could see her charm shine through. She really could look beautiful if she just cleaned up a bit and decided to smile more.
As Gerald admired his fellow's prisoners face, one of the more fancy boxes started to glow. The two prisoners looked at each other nervously before Aaron's foot shot out and smashed it. Instead of more provisions tumbling out, a glowing sword in a fancy gold black scabbard rolled out. "That's a bit fancy for a box isn't it?" said Gerald.
"That's the dragonsword of Koryis," said Aaron. "Or at least I think it is. We requested it from the main church when we initially heard of the dragon attacks. I didn't think they would actually ship it to us. "
"Is it a dragon slaying sword or something?"
"Something like that, it is obviously enchanted, but it has the knack for detecting them when they are close by. A sort of divining stick for dragons."
Gerald eyed the blade again. While still covered by its fine scabbard, he saw the open palm symbol of Koryis as well as two intertwined dragons on its handle. More importantly he noticed the source of the blade's glow, a glowing rock in the middle of it's pommel. "Hey, that's a dragonstone. That's how the blade knows when there's a dragon nearby. It has a dragonstone in it."
"Eh? What's that."
"Just as I said, it's a stone that glows when a dragon is nearby. A skilled user can also determine the dragon's species and even mood if he examines it close enough."
"So...why is it glowing now."
As the two puzzled over the glowing sword, a long howl could be heard even through the walls of the armoured wagon. That in itself was enough to give Gerald's nightmares of being chased through the forest by wargs last night, but at least he was safe now and it was only one wolf.
Then a second howl joined the first, and then a third, and a fourth, and …..