The escape plan was so fast, Sage barely had a moment to process what was happening until he was faced with the harsh cold weather. Trudging through the snow was hard when he had time to prepare, but he had barely eaten his breakfast. He barely had a moment to wake before a coat was thrown on him and he was hurrying up the side of the hill.
The guards were all around him, not walking too fast nor too slow, but they all glanced at him from time to time and Sage felt the need to pick up the pace. The general mood of the group was unease. Nobody really knew what the outcome would be. Sage could barely believe he was letting Taro and a group of strangers guide him through the snow in an unfamiliar place.
Each step burned the muscles in his legs. He was getting warm under his thick winter jacket, but they pressed on, hoping the snow would continue to fall and cover their tracks, but it only made it harder for them to travel.
Sage rested a gloved hand to his brow to block the thick snow chunks from hitting him in the eyes. He could hardly feel his face as the wind and snow whipped by. At the highest point of the hill, the wind was so strong, Sage struggled to put one foot in front of the other. Everyone huddled around him. He felt like a penguin chick among adults- clueless and clumsy.
"How long?" he yelled above the wind.
"Another two miles," Taro replied, pulling Sage's hood up. "It's all downhill now but be careful not to fall. I doubt you'd stop rolling until you got to the bottom."
Sage looked at the view. All he saw was white. There was barely a change in colour from where the sky met the ground, and he struggled to see how steep the decline was. Snow gave the world around them an illusion of flat land. They had to tread carefully.
This is a mistake, a voice screamed at Sage as they started to descend, but that was just his anxiety. He was a creature of habit, and this was severely out of his comfort zone.
A few guards walked in front, so Sage could step in their footprints. The snow started to reach his knees and he wondered where it would be if the snow continued to fall so heavily. Each step threatened to slide until Sage stepped with a little too much force.
He fell into the guard in front of him, who then fell from Sage's impact. He stumbled into the snow, and the top layer separated like a sheet of ice. Sage tripped over his legs and was carried down the hill with a tide of snow tumbling after him. He rolled like Taro had warned, trying to tuck his limbs in until his head collided with something hard and sharp, and for a moment, he lost control.
The rest of him was battered by the frozen snow underneath the fresh layer as he fell, rolling over and over, seeing nothing but white. He felt the wind as he rolled, until the ground levelled out and a thick carpet of snow covered him.
Sage laid still for a moment, trying to figure out why he could barely move. Everything was dark, yet he could blink. Everything was heavy, yet he could only just move. A searing pain zapped through the right side of his face. His left shoulder pulsed, yet he could still breathe.
I'm trapped, he thought, trying to kick his legs out in front of him. I'm trapped under the snow! He didn't know which way he faced- the sky or the ground? Would kicking up bury him more? Or would pushing his head back bury him more?
He struggled until he could hear muffled voices. "Help!" he yelled and felt his own hot breath against his face. I'm going to suffocate like this! "Help me! I'm here! I'm here!" Sage could move enough to take off a glove and started wiggling his fingers up, hoping he faced the right direction.
He kept wiggling, up and up until suddenly he felt wind. Push further, push further Sage! He reached out into the open, hoping his hand was visible. "Taro!" he yelled, moving his fingers around frantically.
How long could he survive trapped under the snow? Now that he made a hole, he could breathe, but he would surely freeze instead of suffocating. He started working his other arm up, wiggling it through the snow until something touched the hand that was already out in the open.
"Dig NOW!" he heard a muffled voice cry, and the weight of the snow felt lighter. The voices sounded louder, and someone held his hand and yanked, and yanked, and yanked until suddenly Sage was wrenched out of the snow and straight into the chest of the person who had been tugging on him.
Many people were suddenly swarming Sage, wiping the snow from his face, his clothes, his hair. A pair of hands clutched his face and lifted it to meet those beautiful green eyes. "Sage, talk to me, are you okay? Are you alright? Sage!" Taro shook him. "He has blood all over his face."
Do I? "I'm okay!" he gasped. The wind and cold had stolen his breath.
Taro hugged him, pushing Sage's face into his shoulder. "What the hell were we thinking!" he yelled to the sky. "Going over the hill like that . . . this stupid fucking plan!" He gripped Sage's face again. "Are you hurting anywhere else?"
"I'm too cold to feel anything." Sage had tears in his eyes. His shoulder burned a terrible pain, but what good would complaining do in the middle of nowhere?
He was lifted to his feet and stole a glance at where the snow had covered him. He hadn't been buried that deep, yet the snow had felt so heavy. He knew the events of the day would sink in as soon as he was alone to overthink them. But for now, he had to keep moving.
He had travelled a fair distance by toppling down the hill, but they still had just under two miles to go. Sage was thankful that Taro and another guard linked arms with him as he walked. He had started to feel a little dizzy. He knew they could feel him swaying, but they didn't say anything and only held him tighter.
"I'm so sorry," Sage breathed. "I'm so clumsy."
"That could've been any of us," the guard to his right commented, peering down at Sage over his coat that zipped to just under his eyes. "The world loves to give you battles."
"Yes," Sage said, a little out of breath. "I've started to notice." He tried to turn his head to face Taro and his eyes almost rolled back in his head. They stopped walking, so he could stand upright. "I'm okay, we have to keep going."
Taro stared hard, eyeing the gash on the side of his head. "Not long to go," he said calmly. "You can push a little further."
Sage did push and push until his legs wobbled beneath him. The snow fell hard, the morning felt colder, the snow felt deeper. He was stepping through the snow with barely any energy to fuel his next movement, but he still pressed on until a light loomed in the distance.
"The farm!" Someone yelled over the wind. "We're almost there!"
Fuel was added to Sage's fire. Despite feeling sore and faint and cold to his core, he fought through the snow with everyone else until they all tumbled onto a road. The snow had been flattened by a car, and walking was immediately ten times easier.
I can give up when I'm out of the cold. I can give up when I know I won't put other lives in danger. Taro and the other guard didn't let go of him, not even when they hung back from the farm to make sure they had reached the right one.
"Sage, are you still with me?" Taro asked.
"Only just," Sage admitted. "I need to lie down."
"Soon," Taro promised.
Canto and Bell loomed into view. Sage gathered that he must've look rather awful. They stared at him in horror and took a bag from Taro and the other guard. "This is Katie's parent's farm," Canto confirmed.
"Run ahead and ask if they have a first aid kit. Prince Sage is badly injured," Taro ordered.
They pressed on until the farm came into view. It looked a lot like the village with stone walls and a thick wooden door and small square windows. Sage felt the warmth of the house as he stepped through the door. It was like stepping into paradise, until he was lowered onto the stairs and all the energy drained from him.
Katie's parents gawked at him, either because he was Prince Sage or because one side of his face was covered in frozen and flaking blood. They bowed lowly when he looked up at them. "Your Royal Highness," the woman said, bowing so lowly, she had to use her husband's arm to help her up again.
Sage tried to take in their appearance. The man had deep lines on his forehead and around his mouth, black hair that was greying on his temples and in the middle of his beard. He was built strongly in the shoulders and chest with hands that were old and used. The woman was greying at her ginger roots with deep smile lines and hooded lids from aging. She also had broad shoulders and hands that had spent many years grafting.
Sage's view of the strangers was blocked by Taro's face. He was scared. His brows crafted with fear, his eyes shaped with worry, yet his mouth remained in a firm thin line as he tried to put on a brave face. "You're freezing." He turned to the couple standing awkwardly in their own home. "Do you have a bath?"
The woman nodded and Sage realised he didn't even know their names, yet he had intruded so abruptly. He didn't have the energy to ask as they followed her up the old creaking staircase, barely wide enough for Taro to fit next to him.
But Sage needed his support. He felt safe and secure with him holding on tightly, even in the eyes of others.