Rain Drops

Chapter 15

It was the girl. She was sitting on a chair beside the bed, wearing clothes that I recognized, although I knew that I'd never seen them before. Her blonde hair was falling over her shoulders as she held her hands in her lap nervously. When she caught sight of me, she smiled and said:

"Thank you for returning."

When she looked down, she noticed the sword in my hand and exclaimed:

"You're armed. Who are you?"

Before I was able to say something in response, a loud voice sounded inside the room:

"What do you think you're doing?! Get out!!"

This shout surprised me greatly, and so did the person that had yelled at the girl. A very beautiful woman with red hair emerged from the doorway, carrying two swords in her hands. There was blood on one of the swords, and when she saw what I held in my hand she dropped the other one, which ended up sticking upright in the floor. She immediately grabbed one of the swords on the ground and charged at me angrily. I tried to dodge it, but the woman pushed me backwards and knocked me onto the ground, causing me to lose hold of my own weapon. When I had gotten up I saw that the woman was still standing next to the bed. The girl must have left sometime during my fight with the woman, although I didn't notice it. The woman had picked up the sword stuck in the floor and was brandishing it at me. I saw a movement behind her. I jumped up and grabbed her by the waist, threw her to the ground, and, pulling my blade back out, sliced her in two in front of my eyes. I kept attacking her until she stopped moving and lay on the floor with half a breast missing. I was stunned by what I had done, but it was impossible for me to withdraw my sword. I could only stare at the body and listen to the moans and cries from the girl inside the bed. I had killed the woman, and I also killed two young, innocent girls who didn't deserve to die. They had been trying to save their sister, but it was too late. I felt sorry that I had murdered them without even leaving them a chance to tell their father that everything had been discovered, and that he should leave his daughter to me. I kneeled down next to the body and placed my right hand on top of hers. I closed my eyes, and I was praying. The princess was still lying in the same position, although she had stopped moaning. The man in the other room stopped shouting too.

"How can I get out now?" I said to myself and thought for a few seconds, and then I decided to try and break the chains around her wrists. I went close to where they attached to the pillar by the wall, and I pulled my sword out of it. Then, I walked over to the princess, lifted up her leg off the bed, and gently wrapped her arms around it so that it was resting against her chest. Once again, my right hand was free. I quickly picked up the sword that the queen had given me yesterday from the ground, and slowly began cutting the chains binding her wrists. It took some time because the chains were extremely tight. It was quite difficult because it didn't hurt at all, although a lot of sweat began streaming down my forehead, my face, and into the wound that I'd inflicted on the princess earlier. Finally the first chain fell down on the ground. I then cut off the rest of the chains with my sword, which I carried in my right hand. With my left hand, I picked up the chains and put them in my left pocket.

Then I helped the girl, who was still lying down on her bed, sit up. She was still looking at the ground, refusing to look anywhere else as if she didn't want to see what was around her. As soon as she had sat up fully, she leaned against the wall. She didn't move at all until she felt strong arms wrap around her and pull her in my direction. I hugged her. This caused her to raise her head at once and look at me. It was the first time that she really looked at me, and the second time that she saw me. She was surprised, confused, scared, hopeful, and happy, all at the same time, and that made her cheeks turn pale, but mostly because she was afraid that I would let her go if she didn't act in a certain way, so she moved closer towards me and kissed me. The kiss didn't last long, though. She broke away from my lips a little while later, took a deep breath, and asked me:

"Why are you here?"

I told her:

"My father sent me. I'm here to rescue you."

She shook her head:

"That won't work. You wouldn't be able to rescue me even if the entire castle was on fire."

Her voice was hoarse, and even though she hadn't spoken for quite some time now, it still sounded rough. Her breathing seemed ragged as well. Her skin was completely white and cold, and she shivered slightly every once in a while.

"What is your name?" I asked her, knowing that she would prefer not to answer me directly. She looked down again. She didn't say anything. She just looked at me, and then she began crying softly while shaking her head slowly. It seemed like she wanted to tell me something, but she couldn't form the words in her mind. I was thinking about how to ask her the question again, but the words were lost from my mind the moment that someone came to us from the end of the corridor and shouted:

"Sir, why don't you take care of those people? I'll watch over her."