The Parents
Along the walls, there was one entrance. It was a large archway with two massive wooden doors on either side. It was big enough for one carriage at a time, with some space on the side for people on foot. Several guards were stationed at the entrance, where some were looking for some form of ID or coinage to enter the town and others were performing their namesake.
“Right, you can probably get a closer by staying in the tall grass and crops, but too close to the gate and the guards will attack.”
As they walked down towards the town, Olivia completely agreed with Ameril and stuck to the tall grass, crouching low to remain out of sight. The guards carrying bows on the town walls gave her ample reason to be careful.
As they got closer and closer, the tall grass turned to crops, some sort of wheat as far as she could see, and as luck would have it, this wheat-like crop was brown in colour. The perfect camouflage for a brown half-orc half-goblin. The area for this group of the crops was vast in size, spanning far and wide across the surroundings of the town, where it merged into crops of other various colours. It also happened to lead right up to the town walls, with only a narrow path between it and them. Close enough that if Olivia reached the end, she was able to hear all the conversations at the gate.
“If you stay in the area, assuming all goes well I should be able leave the town at the fourth bell from now,” Ameril said to Olivia. “Be at the tree line we came from before, and I will meet you there.”
“Stay safe.”
“I think I should be saying that to you, being a half-orc so close to the town.”
A quick moment of camaraderie passed between the two, where Ameril gave a quick hug to Olivia and then headed off towards the entrance of the gate.
.....
Olivia watched her go fondly, hoping she would be fine, given that she had run away from the town in the beginning. Olivia turned to leave with all the gear from the camp, heading back to the forest to rest and probably do some exercise to strengthen her body, when she heard raised voices at the gate.
Turning back, she saw Ameril being restrained by two of the guards, while another ran off into the town. Olivia almost ran out of the crops towards the gate to help, but caught herself before she did. Being what she was, charging at the townsfolk and guards would not go down well.
But if they did more than just restrain her, then all bets were off.
After a while, the voices quieted down and Ameril was taken to the side of the gate, where the two guards kept her there. The rest of the traffic continued on their way after seeing that the guards had things in control, and got back to either entering or exiting the town.
Olivia continued to watch from the crops nearby to make sure Ameril was safe, and by the few glances Ameril made to where she had left Olivia, she could see that she was appreciative of her remaining to watch what was happening.
Several minutes when by where nothing happened, and all of a sudden a very ostentatiously decorated carriage rolled up to the gate from inside the town. It was very flamboyant, clearly showing off the vast amount of wealth of whoever owned it. Vibrant blues and purples covered each of the sides of the carriage while jewels and crystals ran along the edges, giving it a nice, over the top frame.
As Olivia pulled a face at the hideousness of the carriage, she saw Ameril’s face suddenly become downcast, as a man and woman exited the monstrosity. They too were covered in wealth, silk of some kind flowed down their bodies, while jewellery adored their necks, arms, hands, ears and several other places on their bodies.
They strode right up to the gate, walked right up to Ameril and the woman then slapped her.
“How dare you run away from your family, you ungrateful b%*&￡$. After everything we have done for you.”
“Your mother is right. Why did you do this to us?”
“I di-” Ameril tried to get a sentence out but was cut off by the woman as she slapped Ameril again.
*Slap* “Who said you could talk back. Your parents are talking, and you should listen to us when we tell you things. Now you are going to come back to the mansion, and you will stay there until the date of your engagement.”
“Wha- You can’t do that. He is a horrible man; I will not marry him.”
Another slap ringed out. “You will do what you are told. The man you will marry is very rich and connected to the royal family. You will do your duty to your family, and that is final.” Her mother said, where she then ordered the guards to take her to the carriage.
Olivia couldn’t watch it anymore. She had to do something to help her friend. She needed to talk to Ameril, to find out for sure what was going on and figure out a way to help her.
All she had to do was figure out a way to reach her.
There was the chance that she would be out of the town by the fourth bell, however slim it was no that she had been confined to their home. But as a plan B, she decided that looking for a way into the town would be the way to go.
The main entrance was a no-go, as the guards would be there day and night. Making her way around the town took a lot of time, as she had to make sure she wasn’t seen. As she did, she found two other entrances to the town. Both were similar in size to each other and slightly smaller than the main gate. But, another thing they had in common was the number of guards that were present. Like with the main gate there were taking entry fees and patrolling along the perimeter. Both were out of the question for gaining entrance to the town.
By the time she had made her way around the town to look for the main ways in, the third bell had chimed, so she headed to the tree line from before to wait for Ameril. She was able to make it back, and not long later, the fourth bell chimed. And so, she waited.
…
And waited.
…
But Ameril didn’t show.
There was no doubt in her mind that the reason Ameril hadn’t shown, was because she was being kept from leaving the town, and probably even her own home. Thoughts of her possibly changing her mind and deciding to forget about her, didn’t come to her mind at all. She could tell Ameril wasn’t that kind of person.
The next day, she did the same thing again, this time looking for any other ways into the town. As she moved around the wall she looked for any defects in it, cracks, openings and holes were the things she was looking for. Given these massive walls have probably been standing for an age, and may even have been involved in many a war and battle, it was likely there were some flaws that could be exploited.
Like before she spent a good several hours or so travelling around the wall, staying hidden as before, searching. She managed to find broken stonework and cracks in several locations, but once she had managed to evade the guard’s line of sight and make it up to the wall, it wasn’t enough to make any way into the town.
Eventually, she made a lucky discovery. She managed to find a few stone bricks that looked out of place. Getting up to the wall and inspecting them, she found that they were loose, as in completely loose. While heavy it was very easy to remove them from the wall, and what she found was a hollowed-out section of the massive wall, as if someone had dug a tunnel.
This was the perfect way for her to enter the town and find Ameril. Assuming that whoever made the tunnel wasn’t there when she did. It was equally likely that it was made ages ago and has been forgotten about though.
All she had to do now, was come back at nightfall, and pick up a disguise when in the town, in order to move about freely.
She made her way back to the treeline to get some rest and be ready for the evening when she found something she wasn’t expecting.
“Wha-, Ameril. How are you here?”
There at the treeline was the girl she had been waiting for, holding a bag with a large assortment of items.
“Olivia, you’re still here. I was afraid you would have left when I didn’t meet you yesterday.”
“I was worried about you, so I was looking for ways into the town to find you. Are you ok, are you safe here? What was all of that with your parents?”
Ameril just stood there and couldn’t believe that the kindest person she had met in her life was a half-orc half-goblin. The fact that she was looking for ways to break into a town that would kill her on sight just to check she was fine, really pulled at her heartstrings.
“I-I’m fine. I’ve had worse from them.”
Olivia grimaced at that and so she reached out and rubbed the side of her face where she had been slapped. Parents hitting their child was another thing that obviously did not sit right with her.
“I’ll be ok.” Ameril cupped the hand that was on her face. “I’m not supposed to leave my room, and the guards around the house have been told to watch out for me. I’m supposed to stay there until I have to get married, all so that my parents can get better connections to the royal family. The man I am to marry has had three wives before me, all of which died by accident,”, of which the last word she air quoted, “But, I managed to bribe one of the maids to help me escape, so I could get to you with the things you needed.”
“So, you can come with me then, now that you managed to get away. You don’t have to stay here.”
“Very tempting, really, but I can’t right now. If I leave, the maid and the rest of the house are sure to be punished. Also, this time they will be warier and will send someone to search for me should I flee again. That would just put you in danger. I need to figure some things out here and find a way to get out of this marriage. But when I do, I will leave this place and never return. The ceremony is supposed to be in several weeks from now, so I should have things sorted by then.”
“I understand.”
Ameri smiled back at Olivia, “I thought you would push back more on me staying here.”
“You’ve been forced enough into doing things. There is no way I will add to that.”
Tears started peaking in the corners of Ameril’s eyes, but she quickly wiped them away.
“Ah, before I forget. I couldn’t go into town, but I managed to get things from around the house. And maybe a few things from the armoury.”
“Armoury! Won’t someone notice?”
“Should be fine. It’s not like there is a record for it. It’s just there for the house guards, and if they need more stuff, my parents just buy it. They don’t care, they have plenty of money to do it.”
Handing the bag over to Olivia, she set it down and opened it up. Inside there was a set of clothes, all looking to be the right size for her. It included a white shirt, brown trousers, a belt and some shoes. There was also a waterskin, a dagger, a small amount of food and a crystal orb of some kind all of which should fit into the bag she currently has. Off to the side was a large roll of cloth as well as a spear.
“The clothes are my grandfather’s. He was quite a large man so it should fit you.”
“Wait. Are you saying I’m fat?”
“What. No, no. It’s just-. You. Your part orc. Your-”
Olivia just burst out laughing watching Ameril fumble over her words.
“That’s not funny.”
…
Once they had calmed down, Ameril continued to talk about the items.
“The spear is just a normal one that the guards use, nothing fancy about it. The roll of cloth is a tent you can use. It’s just a small basic tent that is given to guards that have to head out of town. Lastly, is a communication orb. It will let us communicate over long distances. We should only use it for emergencies though, as it can only be used to send a message five times. The way to use it is you hold the orb, think about the person you are trying to contact, and then say your message. If the person you thought about is linked to an orb, the orb glows when it receives a message, then you can hear it by doing the same thing as when you send one, you just don’t say a message. Now let’s link this to you.”
Handing the ball to Olivia, she held it in one hand, and Ameril took the dagger to one of her fingers on the other. A few drops of blood on the orb, caused it to flash, and then return to its original colour.
“There, all done. Now I need to get back before they find I’m missing.”
With a heartfelt thank you and a tearful goodbye, Ameril turned to leave. But before she did, she turned back, leaned upwards and kissed Olivia on the cheek. Turning on her heel she headed back to town, flushed red on her face, which matched what was on Olivia’s.
As Olivia saw her go, she hoped that today would not be the last time she would see her again.