Prologue
Counting the days he had been here was almost impossible, and with how tired and lightheaded he was most of the time, it was hard trying to concentrate on a single thing. If he was lucky enough, he was often given a piece of bread and some water, but nothing more. Being caged like a bird infuriated Titus more than anything, and what made it even worse was that these people chained him up like a hound. It was more than infuriating, though; it was humiliating.
He was a Prince, yet he somehow managed to become a prisoner of another kingdom he had never heard of, but as he was locked up, he found out that he was imprisoned in a kingdom called the Ravatage. The people here were quite sickening to him, especially the sorceress that managed to capture him in a snap of her fingers. Every day that went by the sorceress was always there to greet him and then came the experiments on him. Titus despised every moment of it, from the torturings he received to the samples they took from him, what he could do, and much more that made him want to kill them all. Killing them would please the Prince very much, but the sorceress used a spell of hers on his chains, and if he even tried to do anything violent or even tried to escape, the chains would burn intensely, and it was like they were trying to create holes through his skin and then all he would have left was bare bones. However, he had an ability, and the sorceress and the other people of this kingdom were trying to figure out how the ability worked. They were trying to obtain the secret to his ability. The brown-haired prisoner thought they were only wasting their time, though, as no matter what they did, they would never get the power he had. He was born with the ability and nothing more.
Sleep proved to be very difficult for Titus, especially as the chains bound him to the wall of his prison. When he was back at his beautiful homeland, he would’ve been in his warm bed in a pleasant slumber, but no. Instead, he had to sleep in a chilly and disgusting prison. What made it even harder for him to get some sleep was the marks and bruises he obtained, and every time something touched them, he would always wince. The Prince did everything he could, though, to not show weakness, and he wouldn’t give those people that satisfaction, especially not towards the sorceress. Blood and dirt crusted on him the more he was here, and even though the 21-year-old man was injured and a mess, he was still strong looking as ever as his muscles protruded through his ripped tunic.
As the Prince laid against the slimy wall, his wrists throbbed uncontrollably with the cuffs tightly secured around them, but no longer. Tonight, he set it upon himself to set himself free, and he knew the only way to do so was to kill the sorceress. Once she was dead, she no longer would have any power over him. It would be risky, and the idea he had in mind to kill her seemed foolish, but he craved freedom more than anything. Titus awaited her arrival, and once she came, he would take his plan into action, whether for the best or the worst.
Then suddenly, he heard the echoes of clacking shoes bouncing off the walls through the dungeon hallways, and the Prince recognized those shoes from anywhere. They were nearing his cell, and as they were, Titus prepared himself, and it wasn’t long until he saw the feminine sorceress standing in front of his cell. She wore a hooded renaissance dress with purple and black colors and black boots, and the hood of her dress covered her head, but the young man was still able to see her wavy ebony hair, pale skin, and her sharp green eyes. As he stared at her, his gaze hardened, and he couldn’t wait to see her lifeless.
Casually, the sorceress brought her hand out towards the door cell, and as she did, she turned her hand clockwise, and at that very moment, the cell door unlocked. Titus’s capturer opened it and spoke coldly as soon as it did. “You know the drill.”
The sorceress then flicked her wrist, and when she did, the chain hanging from the wall released itself, and Titus was able to relax his arms. Then, slowly, he stood up. When he could finally stand upright, his capturer led the way and started to follow her. Every time she visited him, she always came down to these dungeon hallways alone, but when she took him to a vacant room where he was always experimented on, there would always be guards and scientists waiting for them. Today, though, the Prince would not have any of that.
When she wasn’t looking, Titus took the opportunity to make his move. Swiftly, he then brought the chains around the sorceress’s neck, and when he did, he pulled them with so much force. His capturer had certainly not expected that and she started to have a hard time breathing, and she clawed at the chains around her neck. The sorceress did all she could to break from the strangling, but the Prince refused for her to live. The sooner she was gone, the better. As he continued with what he was doing, the cuffs around his wrists suddenly started to burn madly, and as they were, the young man growled in pain, but the young man endured it any way he could. The cuffs and chains turned into a red color as if they recently came out forged, and as they did, the Sorceress’s neck started to burn as well, and it was clear she was in so much pain.
The burns increased so much, and the Prince was struggling to keep his mind off of them, and the more he strangled his capturer, the more he felt like his hands were going to fall off, but he kept going. Slowly, Titus started to see that the sorceress’s life was slowly drifting away, but it didn’t stop her from fighting back. Fire blossomed in her hand, and when she tried to aim it at the young man, he managed to dodge it, and he took her down with him. As he continued to strangle her, prisoners watched, astonished, but no one said a word. So the fight for survival continued.
Then, Titus began to see the sorceress’s lips turning blue, and it wasn’t long until her face started to do the same thing. The Prince was dripping in so much sweat as the chains burned him with agony. Even smoke started to billow out from them. He felt like he would pass out at any moment, and the young man wasn’t sure if he could keep up with it anymore. He started to see stars in his vision, and he began to feel very weak as his arms were now beginning to feel numb. His heartbeats slowly started to fade, and his breathing was dying down. He felt like this would be the end for him as he suddenly began to yell in so much affliction.
However, the heat he felt in the cuffs suddenly started to cool down, and it wasn’t long until he felt a coldness to them. The Prince was beginning to breathe heavily, and as he did, he felt his heartbeats beating normally again. When he opened his amber eyes, he saw the sorceress on the ground… and she was not moving. Titus rubbed the sweat off his face with the sleeve of his tunic, and after the young man did, he laid his head down on the chilly ground to cool himself off more. Finally, the 21-year-old did it. He did it! He killed the sorceress, and now he was one step closer to his freedom.
At that moment, Titus felt highly exhausted, and all he wanted to do was drift off into a very long sleep. His eyelids slowly started to pull down over his amber eyes like they were being tucked in bed, and he didn’t feel like keeping them open. Then, however, he suddenly heard a masculine voice, which snapped him out of falling asleep. “Where is that sorceress with that animal shifter?”
“Maybe something went wrong,” another voice spoke.
Suddenly, Titus shakily got up, and when he did, he heard footsteps coming his way. The young man then pictured himself as a rat in his head, and right as he did, he suddenly shrunk as his back started to arch forward, and his bone structure began to change. As that was happening, the clothes he was wearing delicately dropped to the ground, and right as they did, the prisoners were heard, gasping from their cells. Then, inside the tunic, a movement was seen, and before long, a tiny head emerged from its hem. Everything around the Prince was practically towering over him, and with him now being a rat, of course, it was going to be that way. His brown hair, white skin, and human features were replaced by a brown coat, shell-shaped ears, a snout, sharp teeth, and a long tail.
The footsteps got closer, and as they did, the animal shifter ran on all fours and quickly went into a different hallway to hide, and right as the rat did, two guards walked by shining in their armor. When he saw that they weren’t looking, he bolted towards the way those two soldiers came in, and as the Prince did, he was still feeling exhausted, and the burns could still be felt on his wrists, but Titus still made it his goal to get the hell out of this damned place once and for all. The young man now had a chance and he wasn’t going to lose that. As he was running, he heard one of the guards cursing.
“She’s dead,” one of the guards shouted. “The animal shifter must’ve escaped!”
Titus managed to get to the flight of stairs that led outside of the dungeon, and right as he did, he quickly pounced on each cold and wet step. It wasn’t easy doing that, considering how small he was, but the animal shifter had gotten so used to any movements in each animal form that it was practically a routine for him. As the rat got to the last step, the door was opened by an older man, and the young man immediately recognized him as one of the scientists. He had a long white beard, spectacles, and brown and beige garments. The Prince almost snarled at him, but he stayed silent because he did not want the older man to see him and alert the guards.
Without a second thought, the young man slipped right past him without him seeing him, and as soon as he did, he went back to running. He found himself in a dark corridor, and he suddenly stopped when he came across some windows. It was dark out there, with mist swirling out and about as rain poured heavily, but as the animal shifter stared outside, he decided to use this as a quick shortcut. It may get him exposed, but Titus always loved a good challenge. He then stood up on his back rat legs, and as he did, he imagined himself as a falcon, and soon his small form started to grow bigger with his tiny feet altering into talons and large-looking wings. Soft-looking brown feathers then replaced the coat on him, and before long, his face that once had a long snout was replaced by a hard-looking beak, sharp enough to pierce through anything.
Suddenly, footsteps came running towards the young man’s direction, and as they were, he looked to see the old scientist and the two guards he saw a few minutes ago. “That must be him!” One of the guards shouted. “Stop!”
Without a moment to lose, Titus jumped towards the window, and right as he did, he folded his wings across his body and spun wildly. Suddenly, as his beak hit the glass, it shattered with the glass pieces shooting out towards the air. A few managed to incise the falcon, but he paid no heed to them as he suddenly flared his wings out and caught the wind in the rainstorm. Right as he did, he pumped his mighty wings away from the Ravatage castle. It was built on cobblestones and had flags hanging all over them that had the chimera on them; however, as he was flying, he saw an arrow coming at him, and he immediately dove down to avoid it. The Prince cursed and immediately went to try and land somewhere to switch to a different animal. Unfortunately, it was so hard to see out in the weather, and it was practically impossible to find land, but he made any effort he could just to find any piece of land.
As he continued to flap his wings, he heard shouter from the castle, and almost immediately, he saw arrows flying in different directions. He knew the guards couldn’t see him, but it seemed that they were trying to shoot in any possible direction just to try and strike him anywhere on his body. The Prince could only shake his head as he was drenched from the freezing rain. “Foolish bastards,” he said to himself.
Then, to his pure luck, he suddenly found patches of grass and bunches of trees packed together, and without a moment to lose, the falcon shot towards the ground at lightning speed. As he did what he was doing, Titus started to imagine being a wolf, and right as he did, the Prince began to shift from his bird form to that of a canine. His wings, talons, beak, and feathers modified into a brown pelt, ears standing straight up, a snout, four legs, sharp teeth, and a bushy tail, and as soon as that happened, he gracefully touched the ground like a leaf and dashed into the dark, dreary woods and disappeared into the mist.
He was finally free.
