The Rebellion - Chapter 2 - Hope

“Kai? You alright?” Hope asked. Kai was looking at the opposite wall of the cell with a pained expression on his face. He was fiddling with a metal bracelet on his right arm. He shook himself, and the pained look faded. He flicked the bracelet and sighed.

“Wow. Uh...sorry, yeah. It's the same room. Bad memories.” He gave Hope a sad smile, and she understood it. He was terrified of his brother. Now she knew why.

“Yeah...wow." She held her right arm up, and flicked her own band. "Here. Try using your knife as a lever or something to break a link of chain. Probably the first link is best.” Hope pointed to the first link of chain.

The band around her wrist was not a real shackle. It was more like an unbreakable, unmeltable, unremovable bracelet. It was perfectly smooth, and the first link of copper chain was simply looped around it, so there was no need for any hooks or fasteners. Once it was on, there was no way to get it off. The metal was extremely rare. Not even diamond could scratch it, and only the hottest fire could melt it. Only the royal family had access to it, and Flint controlled the royal family. Except Kai, of course.

Kai broke the copper link easily enough, and Hope was free. Kai stood up and held out his hand. Hope took it, and Kai helped her up. She kept her hand pressed to her side.

They walked out of the cell, Hope limping a little, and Kai subconsciously hurrying them along. Hope guessed --and guessed rightly-- that he wanted to get out of the all-too-familiar dungeon cell as quickly as possible.

As they walked down the hall, there was no sound except for Kai’s footsteps, and Hope’s shuffling. Kai noticed that she wasn’t walking correctly. “Hey, is your foot ok? You’re limping.”

“Eh. Sprained my ankle when we were running around in the woods trying to get away from Flint's men. It's mostly healed up, I think, but that's why I got caught. ” Hope asked. She took her hand away from her side and inspected the cut. It was not as deep as she had first thought, but still hurt a lot.

Kai saw her looking at her wound, stopped walking, reached into his satchel and pulled out a small roll of clean white linen. He handed it to Hope, and she wrapped it around her wound.

She felt sick. She hadn't eaten since before she had been captured, and she didn't know how long ago that was. "How long have I been gone? And who all is here? Is it just you and Connor?" she asked.

“Um...I think you were taken on Monday, so...four days. Today is Thursday. Yeah, it's just us."

They walked around another corner. Kai walked ahead a few feet in front of Hope, checking for any enemies.

“Oh. Wow. Took you that long to find me, huh?"

"Hah, yeah, tell me again how long it took Connor to find me," Kai said.

"Week and a half. Something like that. But that was because nobody knew you very well. Nobody really wanted to find you. Everyone thought you would end up just like Flint."

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Did I end up just like Flint? You know what he's like better than most people now, sad as that is," Kai said.

"Nothing like him. Not in any way. Except for how you look. But, hey, I can tell you apart, now! I never could when we were all little. Before he decided he wanted to be king."

"Mm. Yeah. Happy days. You know, it hasn't been that long. Just two years. He was twenty-one. Heh, come to think of it, so was I. Haha, Connor was still nineteen!"

"He's so big, though! And a great leader. Better than you ever were!" They both laughed.

Hope had just turned twenty the day Flint began his conquest for the throne of the kingdom of Dawne. Hope would always remember the moment Kai burst into the room where she and her family were quietly celebrating the first day of her second decade. He had apologized for disrupting their celebration, but he had come to them for help because his brother, Flint, was trying to kill him. They had all fled to the Caves --the outlaw's hideout. The royalty didn't know about the Cave's. Hope had taken Kai and her family to Connor, who was something of an outlaw himself, and knew all about the Caves and their whereabouts.

Hope and Kai had passed another corner and were walking down a long corridor.

"I'm hungry. Got anything to eat? I haven't had anything to eat since Monday morning. Flint is a really mean person,” Hope said.

"Oh, great! I forgot to pack food for you! I knew I was forgetting something important! But wait, hold on, I might have something in here." He dug around in his bag for a moment, and unearthed a very crumbled muffin. "Huh. I thought Connor ate that this morning. Well, it's food. Here."

Hope took it. Chewing made her head hurt, but she tried to eat slowly so she wouldn't get sick. She finished the muffin in a few minutes, and she was careful not to leave any crumbs.

Kai wanted to keep her mind off food, so he said, “The bruise on your head is pretty bad. What did Flint hit you with?”

She answered him with a shrug. “Something hard. The hilt of his sword, or maybe the handle of his knife. I don't know. It's kinda hard to pay attention to what you are being hit over the head with when you've just been stabbed.”

Kai nodded. “Right. Well, Connor is somewhere around here. We should find him soon. I think he has some more food.”

Hope nodded. "That's good. I think I'm literally starving. Maybe to death."

"Mm-hmm," Kai muttered absently.

They kept walking. The only sound now was their footsteps --Hope wasn't limping as much-- and Kai muttering to himself. Hope never understood why he did that. She thought, Maybe he's lost. Blech. I think I might throw up. Or pass out. If I knew more about the scientific side of medical care, like Levi and Marian, I would probably know exactly what to do right now. Although probably what I need is just some of Marian's chicken soup. Or Sara's. Hers is good, too. I should read more books.

Hope was faint from hunger and blood loss. Mostly from hunger. As they came around another corner, her vision blurred. "Kai, I'm going to faint or...or something." She sank to her knees so she wouldn't hurt herself if she fell over. "Kai..."

Kai was still a few feet in front of Hope. He turned, saw her, said…something, but his voice was drowned out by the low buzzing in Hope's ears. She couldn’t hear him. Her vision darkened to black, and then...nothing.