"But of course," She said again, "travel still holds an alluring prospect for me," hoping Andarin would get the message.

He did, for he perked up a bit. "Yes, yes it does."

why does andarin want miryanna to run away? i could get that andarin wants to run away with his family issues and such, but why miryanna? nothing more romantic than running away from your problems with you significant other, amiright?

She spent the rest of the morning talking and catching up and hanging out with Nynesi and Andarin. She got the most she could out of it, for deep down, she knew that it would most likely be the last time they would.

Later in the evening, before she went to bed, she and her father were taking a walk, and talking. Miryanna enjoyed every second. Her father walked her to her room and she hugged him tightly before bidding him good night. She entered her room to see a cloaked figure sitting at the table, waiting for her.

"Is your mind made up?" Roric alsed.

"Did you wait all day for me?" she asked, not expecting him so soon.

"I talked to Andarin. He said it seemed that you'd made up your mind,"

She walked slowly to the table and sat down wearily, yes, my mind is made up. I'm going to run away. My father questioned me some more about my kidnappers, but I just told him that I didn't want to talk about it. That excuse won't work forever."

alright, it was the plan from day one to get miryanna to run away to get her away from home and expand horizons and all that, but this is too quick. i really just wanted to get miryanna to a more interesting place and meet new characters and increase the conflict and make things more dramatic, but, this is too quick. this is leaving everything she's known and she's not the impulsive type.

Roric nodded, "Alright," he stood up, "I'll be waiting." He went to the window and started to climb out.

"Wait," She called after him, "Where will you be waiting for me?"

He turned back for just a moment, "At the bottom," Then disappeared.

At the bottom. That must mean under her window. She also went to the window and saw him nimbly climb down using a rope. He jerked, and the roped came down. She saw him coil it up and disappear into the shadows.

doesn't she need to rope too?

She ducked back inside her room and started getting ready. She changed into more comfortable and easy to move around in clothing. A pair of trousers and a blouse that she had on hand. She took off all her adornments, and dug through her jewelry box to find pieces that would fetch a good price. She packed some clothes that would do for her until she could buy some more 'peasant esque' apparel. She didn't have any food to pack, though. She hoped Roric was patient, and took a risk. She crept out of her room and to the kitchen. Thankfully, the rest of her packing was pretty much done, and that had taken enough time for pretty much everyone else in the castle to have gone to bed. She took food that was simple and would last and crept back to her room, managing to avoid two servants. Once back to her room, she finished packing, stuffed it all in two sacks that Roric had left, and went to the window.

"Roric?" She called softly.

No answer.

A bit nervous, she wondered if he'd grown tired of waiting and left without her. But no, Roric wouldn't do that. "Roric?" She called a bit louder.

"Miryanna?" A figure came out of the shadows, but Miryanna was confused, because his voice was too high to be Roric.

i have no idea where this little segment came from. it does nothing for the plot, characters, and generally makes no sense. word counts make you do weird stuff. bear with me.

"Miryanna, are you ready to go? We must make haste if we are to reach our destination in time,"

No, that definitely was not Roric. Roric made no mention of any other people joining him, so she had to suspect that this person was an intruder.

She instantly regretted not keeping any weapons close at hand. She had a knife, but in her absentmindedness, she'd put it at the bottom of one of the sacks.

"Hold on just a minute, Roric, I forgot something," She turned back to her room and started the process of getting the knife.

"You must hurry, my lady, we do not have much time," The voice that most definitely not Roric called back to her.

Miryanna was fairly certain that roric would never call her, 'my lady'. With knife in hand, and with great trepidation, she went back to the window to confront him.

"Alright, what have you done with Roric?" She demanded.

"Uh--ah-- what... what do you mean, my lady?" The voice stammered back.

"From I know of Roric, which isn't much, but enough, he's not in the habit of calling me, 'my lady'." She replied.

"But--but, my lad--uh--lady Miryanna, it's the respectful thing... to do...?"

"You can stop playing, boy, I know you're not Roric. Now tell me what you've done to him and I might not call the guards." She threatened. She wasn't really going to call the guards, as that would foil her escape attempt, but it was nice to have him think that she was going to call the guards.

"You lookin' for this?" Another voice came out of the shadows.

insert "bad guys speak with rough peasant dialect" cliche

The two figures of large, muscular men came out of the shadows, gripping a struggling figure in their clutches.

insert "bad guys are really jacked" cliche

Roric! "Let him go," She ordered, not feeling as confident as she sounded. This noise would no doubt alert someone to their presence, if it hadn't already.

She heard the heavy sound of guards boots coming down the alley beneath her window. She looked up in alarm.

"Guards!" One of the men called out, "We found this," He shook Roric roughly, "skulking beneath the lady Miryanna's window,"

Miryanna gasped. "No! No, don't listen to a word he's saying, that man he's holding is a friend of mine!" She called, hoping the guards would heed her and not the ruffian.

"What's the meaning of this ruckus?" The head guard inquired.

"Just as we said. This," indicating Roric, "was sneaking around under the lady Miryanna's window. We just did our duty as citizens and caught 'im."

"Yes, I see," The head guard came closer.

"No, I said that man that he's holding is a friend of mine," She stated louder.

"Yes, yes," The ruffian said, "We're good friends to keep rats like this out of the lady's chambers,"

yeah he's annoying

Ugh! Miryanna was sure she'd never been so angrily frustrated in all her life except maybe with Karayan.

credit where credit is due

She started scaling the walls down to the alley. It wasn't as hard as it looked, and she jumped the last few feet to the ground. casual parkour "No. I said that that man that the ruffian is accusing is my friend." She went over and placed a firm hand on Roric's shoulder, shuddering to be so near the two bigger men. She had wondered why Roric hadn't spoken up to this point,and saw now that there was a gag tied over his mouth. "Let him go," She demanded of the two men.

The guards came over to support her. "Do as the lady says." the head one said.

The two men and their young accomplice released Roric, not wanting to face the sword of the guards. Roric brought a leg up and kicked one of them in the shins before twisting out of their grip and landing solid punches on both of them. The two ruffians and their young accomplice fled into the night, clutching their bruised faces.

alright now that i'm thinkin about it, this totally could be some vanag work, but that involves them knowing that miryanna was going to run away and they really had no possible way of knowing that much less preparing for it

Roric yanked the gag off his mouth before brushing himself off.

"Now, who exactly are you?" The guard asked his sword now pointed under Roric's chin.

Roric glared at them, but Miryanna soke before he could.

"He's a friend of mine. Now I thank you for your help, but we can handle it from here," Miryanna said, dismissing the guards, but they stayed.

"Now wait just a minute. It doesn't sit well with my conscience to leave this character with you, my lady," The head guard said.

Really? Seriously? "I assure you, my good guard that I indeed trust this man with my life and feel quite safe with him. That being so, you can leave now." She dismissed them again.

The guard huffed, but did as she said.

As soon as they were gone, Roric sighed with relief. "I thought they'd never leave,"

Thus ends little blip that was utterly pointless because those weren't intended to be vanags they were literally just random dudes what were they even doing what was their purpose like??? w/e

"Yes, well, they're gone now. Do you still have the rope? My things are still up there," She pointed up to her window. Roric nodded and withdrew the rope. He made a lasso of sorts with it and tossed it up, where it caught on one of the decorative projections.

Miryanna looked precariously at it, "Are you sure it will hold?"

Roric nodded, "It holds my weight, it should hold yours. If there's nothing too delicate in the sacks, you can toss them down to me."

i told you you should have just left the rope up there

"Alright," Miryanna said and grasped the rope. She started climbing, and it seemed to take forever for her to get back up to her room. Once back in her room, she remembered something. "Roric," she called back down, "I have to write a note quick so they know that I wasn't kidnapped again,"

"Well, alright, but make it quick. We don't have much time." Came his reply.

She dashed to her table and grabbed some paper and a pen. She quickly wrote a note that said that they didn't have to worry about her, because she was in good hands. There are things going on in the kingdom that she had to help stop. She loved them all and hoped that one day she would see them again. She left it on her vanity, dashed back and grabbed her two sacks, and dashed to the window. She tossed one down and Roric caught it. She tossed the second one down to Roric, which he also caught, and was about to start climbing down herself, when the door opened.

It was her father. "Miry, I heard some noise, is everything alri..." He trailed off when he saw her about to descend.

Oh SHOOT

She just stared back at her father. Silence reigned. "Miryanna, no." He said softly and took a step towards her.

DANG

"Goodbye, father," She leapt down to the ground where Roric awaited her and he had two horses with him. He handed her one sack ad he mounted with the other. She jumped atop her horse with the other sack and rode away as fast as the narrow streets of the alleyway would allow, hearing her father call after her.

HOT DANG GURL THAT WAS ICE COLD OOOHHHH

"Miryanna, no! Guards!" He shouted.

They reached the main street and were able to go faster. They raced through the city and Miryanna just did her best to follow Roric, not at all sure where they were going. They reached the poor income part of town, and satisfied that they had lost the guards for now, slowed their pace.

"Where are we going?" Miryanna asked Roric.

"Secret exit," He replied before kicking his horse to go faster again when he heard the guards behind them again.

SECRET TUNNEL

Miryanna just kicked her horse into a canter again, not exactly sure what he meant by 'secret exit'.

SECRET TUNNELLLL

She soon saw what he meant when they rode up to an old house. The doorway was partly broken and rotted away, so they were able to get their horses in too. Miryanna couldn't see anything in the dark, so she just followed him, since he seemed to know where he was going. She couldn't see him, but could hear his and his horse's footsteps. She also knew that her horse could probably see better in the dark than she could, so she also had that to depend on. With a bit of maneuvering, she was able to get right alongside Roric and walk next to him. It felt better to be next to a person in the pitch black.

"Where are we going?" She asked again. By the way her voice sounded, she guessed that they were in a very small passageway.

"Secret exit," Was his only reply.

SECRETT TUUNNEELLLL SECRET TUNNEELLL THROUGH THE MOUNTAINSSSS SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET TUNNEEEELLLLLL yeah

"But what does..." He cut off.

"Quiet!" He hissed.

She shut her mouth accordingly and just continued walking.

They walked for a long time. Miryanna got tired of not being able to see anything, but it seemed there was nothing she could do. Every time she tried to speak, Roric hushed her. She wondered about this, since it seemed that they were in a completely deserted part of town. Or more like 'under' town, since the ground had kept on going downwards to a certain point, but was now flat again. They walked some more. And some more. Miryanna's legs were getting tired and she was getting sleepy.

She leaned very close to Roric and whispered, "Can't we at least ride?"

"The passageway is too small," He whispered back.

Glad that she got him to speak, she tried some more. "Where are we going?"

"Alarick," Was his only response.

Alarick? Didn't that mean the underground base? There was another way to get to it? How many tunnels were there?

because it's not a proper fantasy city unless there's a network of tunnels under it

"Why can't we speak?" She asked him.

"Silence sounds nicer," He whispered back.

She was surprised, but only for a bit. How like Roric to keep her quiet. She'd thought that maybe there were weird voice activated booby traps along the way. Andarin had mentioned booby traps, but she hadn't any so far. Maybe they'd bypassed them already. Or maybe they were yet to come.

"Didn't Andarin say that there were booby traps?" She whispered.

"Andarin told you that?" Roric asked back.

Miryanna nodded, but realized that he couldn't see it so she whispered, "Yes,"

Roric chuckled softly. "There were booby traps, but now that's just a myth."

disappointing

"Oh," Was all Miryanna said.

They kept walking and walking and walking. Until finally, Miryanna thought she saw a light ahead.

"Is that a light?" She asked Roric.

"Yes. We're almost there." He replied

"Oh, good. My feet are killing me," She said dramatically.

Roric smirked and Miryanna could see it in the growing light.

As they got even closer to the light, Miryanna could see that it was a torch held by a man.

"Roric, did you get here without being followed?" The man asked.

"Yes," Roric replied.

The man nodded, "Good, good. And this must be Miryanna," He said as soon as he saw her in the torchlight.

She nodded, "Yes, I'm Miryanna. But everyone just calls me Miry,"

She man nodded and smiled warmly, "My name's Stalles. My wife, Wis, speaks highly of you,"

"You're Wis' husband?" Miryanna asked a little surprised.