Finally, after waiting forever, the next chapter of Yrevals has arrived!
From nao on, there shall be moar swearin'. Good stuff, yup yup. But thar still won't be all that much. Cuz, as we all know, I'mah pansy ~*~*~*~*~
Yrevals
Chapter 3
Days passed. Aside from the planning Tusk, Scratch, and I did, I also learned all that went on with the Commanders. Naturally, they had it easy. I never expected anything less from Sonic’s favorite people.
The time the Commanders spent on their daily activities was split up into three roughly eight-hour-long periods. I say “roughly” because the time spent between was used so they could eat. Anyway, two of those periods were used for the two jobs they did each day, and the one left over was used for free time, generally spent sleeping. Sonic the oh-so-generous king gave the nocturnal Commanders free time in the day, and the diurnal Commanders got free time at night. Of course, sometimes that little detail has to be changed, but that couldn’t be avoided.
20 Commanders were assigned guard duty, and they changed every now and then. My cell was assigned five, as most of the cells were unoccupied. That was actually a very rare occurrence. The lineup started with Tusk, then went to Scratch. That brown-furred mutt whom I happen to hate so much was next; his name was Butch. The fourth one was Stripes, a tiger who always wore sunglasses, probably so no one could see the fact that everything scared him out of his wits. Strike was the final guard; a normally-green chameleon. I always found it funny when he decided to become invisible; his clothes didn’t exactly change color when he did!
Things started getting interesting on... Well, I wasn’t sure what day, exactly, but perhaps it was during the third week, when Butch had guard duty. He put a toothy grin on his face and looked me in the eyes... It seemed he grew a backbone. I gave him an icy glare, noting the glint in his amber eyes. His grin just grew wider; I had a feeling something was up, something bad.
We stayed like that for a good few minutes before he finally spoke up. “I bet you’re wondering what’s happened to your sister...”
I jumped up. “What happened to Sonia?” I growled, glaring full force. If something happened to Sonia, I’d...!
Butch grinned even wider. “Don’t worry, slave, she’s not dead... Yet...” He laughed pretty hard at that, which just made me angrier. He knew I couldn’t do anything to him. “She’s even in your group of rats, now isn’t that nice? The puffball’s got a few broken bones, but they’ll-“
I couldn’t hold myself back. I launched myself at the bars, trying to attack the mutt... But the coward backed off, just out of my reach. “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” I snarled, still trying to attack him. Butch smirked and tapped my head with his spear. Before he could take it back, I grabbed it and yanked it forward. Naturally, I also ended up dragging the mutt forward. As soon as he was in my reach, I started clawing at him, which was probably a bad idea... But I really wasn’t thinking at that moment.
He hit me with the spear with enough force to make me lose my balance and fall over. Growling softly, he turned his back to me. I started cursing at him in another language, making his fur stand on end. After a while, I fell quiet, going back to my habit of staring ahead. Time seemed to go slower than ever, the air still thick with tension.
Eventually, Butch left, and was replaced by Stripes. I needed some fun, so I started to mess with him. “You know, a little salt makes tiger meat taste wonderful...” I spoke with a creepy voice, and I gave a crazed laugh at the end of my little statement. Stripes shivered, but didn’t say anything. “Hmm, you’re a bit scrawny... Ahh, that’ll make a nice crunching noise...” I laughed harder that time.
“Y... You wouldn’t...!” The guy was trembling a lot by then. I didn’t answer, I just gave a laugh that would send chills down even Sonic’s spine. As time passed, I continued making comments about how stuff tasted, even getting to hedgehogs at one point. He was trembling so much I thought he would have lost his balance if he didn’t have his spear.
Eventually, some walking clothes came. I gave off my craziest laugh as Stripes spoke. “Th... The guy’s gone crazy! I don’t know what Butch or Tusk... Or Scratch... Did to him, but he’s gone crazy!”
Strike changed his color to green and shrugged. “Eh, I wouldn’t worry about it. It happens to lots of ‘em.”
“Oh yes, reptiles taste wonderful when roasted over an open fire!” I fell backwards, laughing crazily.
Strike glanced at me with red eyes as Stripes stumbled away. “Dayum, you
are crazy...”
I decided to give myself a mood swing at that moment. “Seeing your blood on the floor would be a wonderful sight... Ah, but how would I kill you, when I’m stuck behind these terrible bars? Hmm, perhaps I should take that spear...” I began describing all the ways I could kill Strike in a creepy, low voice, in as much detail as I could muster. That got him pretty worked up.
“You’re... You’re all talk... N... No action...” Strike muttered.
I grinned. “Just wait...”
Tusk eventually came and saved Strike’s butt. Pity, I was having fun.
“The guy’s crazy...” Strike was actually trembling. Dang, I did a good job.
“Sure he is,” Tusk said, rolling his eyes. “Crazy like you...” He laughed scornfully, turning Strike completely red.
“Wait till he starts giving you death threats...” Strike muttered as he left.
Tusk waited until Strike was out of earshot before he spoke. “Nice joke you pulled there, Manic.” He grinned. “I was wondering when you were gonna pull that one.”
I shrugged, dropping the weird smile and looking away. “The idiot mutt got me worked up. I needed some fun.”
“So he told you...” Tusk had a look of sympathy on his face.
“Yeah...” I sighed.
Tusk paused for a moment before speaking again. “...I was assigned to your group not long after she was placed there.”
I looked up. “How is Sonia?”
“She’s got a few pretty bad injuries, and a broken ankle. A couple of slaves help her out, one of them’s a green hedgehog girl...”
“Faren,” I told him. “She’s our sister.”
Tusk blinked. “Dang, green. How many siblings do you have?”
I shrugged. “Three. That’s nothin’; Alex has five brothers and three sisters.” I smirked. “Sometimes I wonder how he lived with ‘em.”
Tusk snorted. “It probably wasn’t all that bad... At least you guys
have siblings. You’ve got four days of prison time left...” So it was a bit later than I thought. “...So that’ll be twelve more rotations, including this one. You’ll be seeing me and Scratch three times. I don’t think you need to be reminded of anything.”
I shook my head. “Nah, I’ve got a decent memory. Don’t worry about it.” My ears went up as footsteps could be heard. “Then the cows took the saucers and chewed on pie carrots!” I gave off a crazy laugh as Sonic himself came into view. “Hi big brother! Don’t you think you’d look mar-velous in red? Blood red?” I put emphasis on the word “blood,” and I laughed once again after finishing that statement.
Sonic growled. “Quit the act. It might fool some dumbass Commanders...”
“Aww, Sonsey, what would your mother think?” I interrupted. “You’ve-“
This time, he interrupted me. “Can it. You’ve always been worse. And you’d better be quitting that act for good... If you don’t, I can’t guarantee the safety of two certain siblings of yours...”
I growled. “If you hurt them... I’ll make your life more of a living hell than mine...”
Sonic snorted. “Yeah, good luck with that.” He turned to Tusk. “For the last four days of his sentence, there are going to be two Commanders present at all times... Just in case he tries something.” Tusk nodded. “Your first partner will be the new kid. He needs some looking after.”
Tusk nodded again. “Yes, sir.”
My ears twitched then went back at the sound of someone falling down the stairs of the dungeon. That had to hurt... A muffled “I’m okay!” came from the direction of the stairs, and Sonic rolled his eyes.
“Klutz...” he muttered.
“More so than your dorkiness?” I asked, grinning.
Sonic growled. “Can it. You know I’m in a higher position than you.”
I just rolled my eyes and watched as a grey mouse stumbled into the room. He was wearing a crisp new uniform, and his fur was unkempt... Perhaps worse than mine... No, that’s impossible. His brown eyes were glittering, as though he was ecstatic about this job. He saluted clumsily.
Sonic growled at the newcomer. “Be on time next time.”
The mouse nodded. “Yeah, I’ll remember that!” He dropped his spear and bent to pick it up, which ended up being a bad idea when he lost his balance and fell to the floor.
Sonic snorted and left. “You’d better do a better job with this than you do keeping your balance, klutz!”
Tusk turned to the mouse, who had retrieved his spear and gotten up. “You’re new on the job, eh?”
The mouse nodded vigorously. “Yup! My name’s Keil!” He dropped his spear again and dove to get it.
“Keil? Ah, clumsy person!” I laughed. “I like it!”
Keil shoved his spear in my direction. “Shut up!”
Tusk rolled his eyes. “You’re way too immature... You won’t last long like that.”
I stood, smirking, and walked up to the bars of the cage, grabbing one with my left hand. “Listen to him! You don’t want to know what the king of shit does to people like you!”
Keil rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you’re just sayin’ that ‘cuz you hate King Sonic!”
I laughed. “Got that right, kid! You’re smarter than most of the idiot Commanders around here!’
Keil growled and jabbed at my hand with his spear. I grabbed it and winked. “Hey, have a heart!” He tugged it back sharply, using strength I never would have thought he had.
Things got pretty quiet after that. I went back and sat with my back against the back wall of the cage, staring ahead, bored.
So, the last four days passed without much of anything happening. Finally, the day came when I was to go back to the shackles of old. I was put back in the same place as before, between Alex and Faren. Butch and Strike ended up being the ones to grab my arms and drag me back to the group, and I didn’t resist at all. I just looked down, keeping my eyes fixed on the ground. I sat on the ground next to the shackles, still looking down, and allowed the Commanders to put them back on my ankles.
Naturally, they had chosen the time when everyone had just gotten back from their jobs. As soon as Butch and Strike left, Faren threw her arms around me.
“Manic, I was so worried-!” she sobbed into my shoulder.
I glanced at Alex, who was obviously glad I was alright, then at Faren. “Hey, it’s alright, sis. All they did was lock me up for a while!”
Faren let go and looked me in the eyes. “Okay, what’s up?”
I laughed. “You always know when I’m planning something! Alright. We’re gonna need to spread the word about this quickly and without the Commanders noticing...”
“What are you planning?” Alex asked, scratching his ear. “An escape attempt?” He laughed a little.
“Actually... Yeah.” I grinned.
Alex’s eyes widened. “You’re out of your mind!”
A nearby slave walked up to our little group. She was a ragged-furred black fox. Her muzzle, as well as the tip of her tail, was a grayish color, probably a sleek, shining silver before Sonic took over. Her eyes were the same silver I envisioned. What probably used to be a rather attractive emerald green shirt and black pants was reduced to mere rags, and her black shoes were practically torn apart. Still, she had the look of a troublemaker... “Hey, is this the Manic I’ve heard way too much about?” The girl grinned, waving her tail around. I just barely noticed the Jupiter symbols on both sides of it.
“Yeah,” Faren said. “Manic, this is Moonchaser.”
I grinned. “The names just keep getting more interesting! So, you’re new here, huh?”
Moonchaser nodded. “Yup, I’m new alright! Just got here a couple days ago. I hear you’re the brother of The King of Dorks?”
I nodded somewhat reluctantly. “Well... Yeah.”
“If ya don’t mind me askin’, how’d he come to be ru- OW!” That earned her nothing but a slap from Sonia. Sonia had been placed not far from where I was. In fact, she was between Alex and me.
Things got pretty quiet when she said that. As in, no one said a word. Moonchaser had just asked the question no one knew the answer to... Except me. No, not even Sonia or Faren knew how Sonic became ruler, and I never told them. Everyone just watched me. How unnerving.
I closed my eyes. I knew the question would come sooner or later. I just wished it would happen
after the escape attempt.
“...Alright. Here’s the deal. I’ll tell you all what happened, but more important things come first. We need to escape.”
~*~*~*~*~
Moonchaser is my sister's character. >w< Not miiiiine.