An alarm blares through the town, rousting the sleepy residents.
Shouts of guards can be heard on every street corner.
A massive spotlight sweeps in a circle, lighting up the pitch-black alleyways as it searches for the escaped prisoners.
They were currently hiding in a small lip between two houses, blocking them enough that when the spotlight occasionally flitted their direction, they weren’t seen.
Rubio counted in his head each time it appeared; it seemed a full interval was around five minutes.
Beside him, Astra and Thalia were arguing about something; only now did he actually bother to listen to what they were arguing about.
“I don’t need more reasoning than I don’t want to stay with you!
We’ve escaped; now I’m leaving.” Astra waves dismissively.
“And I’m telling you the situation is too precarious for that.
We need each other’s strength; if we strike off on our own, we’ll be caught before morning.” Thalia argues.
“What is this about?” Rubio questions with a deadpan gaze.
They’d been arguing almost their entire escape, and he was quite sick of it by now.
“He wants to leave, go off and find a boat on his own, split up.” She brings her hands together and pulls them apart for emphasis.
“And why is that a problem?” Rubio asks with a sigh, rubbing at his forehead in annoyance.
He could feel the oncoming headache now that some of the adrenaline was gone.
“It’s a problem because we’d have a better chance getting off this island working together.
For the love of Seas, I’m a thief; I usually work better alone.
But even I’m aware that getting off this island on your own is no easy feat.” She explains.
“You know what this sounds like?” Astra says, pausing with a smirk.
“What?” Thalia bites.
“It sounds like you want my help, but are too afraid to ask for it.
Am I right?” He tilts his head, watching with glee as her face turns a bright green.
“Uuuugh, fine, yes, you’re right!
But seriously, I want to get out of here.
I’m confident in my skills, but if an entire island is looking for us, we need to work together.” She admits.
“…Fine, let’s work together.” Astra agrees reluctantly.
“Right, now that that is settled, we need to find a path off the island.
If I remember correctly, there’s a large dock where all the Navy ships rest.
That’s where they’re expecting us to go.
But I know of a small fishing dock on the other side of the island.
There will still be guards, but I’m willing to bet there will be significantly fewer of them over there.” Rubio points in the direction he believes the fishing dock is in.
“Yes!
Good!
Once we’re there, we can steal a few boats, and then we’re off!” Thalia squeals excitedly.
“You make it sound like you’ve been in prison for years; it’s been one day.” Astra points out.
“One very boring day.” She adds.
“I heard voices down this alley!” The sudden shout of a guard had them all flinching.
“Should we run for it?” Rubio whispers.
“They’ll catch up in no time,” Thalia replies.
“I have an idea,” Astra states.
Before he can ask what it is, a talon digs into his shirt and tosses him in the air.
Astra throws him so high, he ends up above the building’s roof.
There’s that feeling of free-falling again, and he can’t help but wonder if he’s going to splat against the ground for the second time tonight.
Thankfully, someone grabs him and places him safely, if not a little roughly, down onto the roof.
Thalia lands beside him with a groan, and Astra lands quietly, ruffling his wings a bit as he does.
“Did you have to toss me so hard?” She scolds.
Astra pointedly does not answer.
“Up there!
They’re on the roof!” Shouts echo across the town, and the spotlight firmly shifts over to them.
“We jump from roof to roof; I’ll help you cross the gaps,” Astra tells them, pushing Rubio and Thalia forward into a run.
Rubio takes the lead, bringing up his mental map of the town.
It’s not perfect, after all; being in the town and reading the map in a book are two different things.
But his memory has always been decent for this sort of thing, so at least he’s going in the right direction.
“Hey!” Thalia yells out, catching his attention over the rushing wind from this high up.
He tilts his head at her, indicating he heard.
“How come you know all the directions?!
I forgot to ask in the prison!”
“I memorized the maps for pretty much every Navy-protected town a long time ago.
I might have forgotten a few, but Riverium is a pretty important one so it always stuck with me.” He admits.
“Damn!
Planning to break into the islands or something?
Blow up some Naval bases?” Thalia cackles.
“Something like that…” He replies awkwardly.
The guards are closing in fast; some have climbed up to the rooftop to follow them, and the spotlight follows as they leap from building to building.
Most of the guards get stopped when they cross a big gap with Astra’s help, but the Harpies easily follow along.
There are about three of them, so they pick up the pace.
Unfortunately, no matter how fast they are moving, they can’t outrun three Harpies flying through the air.
Rubio feels the talons dig into him from behind, and he goes sprawling to the floor.
The problem becomes apparent, however, when they begin to lift him.
If they get him in the air, then he won’t have a way to escape their grasp without falling to his death.
They’re gripping hard, and right as he feels his body begin to lift off the ground, he goes from struggling to limp while removing the guard jacket he’d put on earlier.
It works like a charm, and he manages to slip out of their hold.
As soon as he’s free, he grips their leg and tosses them off the roof.
It takes them a few seconds to get their bearing, but that’s all he needs to grab out his rapier and smack them in the chest when they get close enough.
The force of the hit sends them careening to the ground.
When he glances to the side, he finds that Thalia and Astra have already dispatched their opponents.
In fact, they seemed to be watching him.
He sends each of them a scowl, because if they had the time to watch, they had the time to help.
Figures they would shrug it off.
Rubio takes the short break to figure out where they are.
He can just spot the dock they need to get to, as well as the main road leading straight to it.
The town has four main roads; each one leads straight to the prison.
They are long, wide, and paved.
And also very, very steep.
“We need to get down to the main road; it’ll lead us straight to where we need to go.” He tells them.
“Why can’t we keep hopping along the houses?” Thalia questions.
“Because they don’t lead straight to the dock; they end just before it, at the tree line.
There’s a forest surrounding the edges of the island, and I’d rather not try navigating a forest at night, no matter how small or big it is.” He explains.
“Alright, then let’s go before they catch up,” Astra states, eyeing the guards that had just climbed onto the roof.
All they had to do was reach the docks.