Caged No More: Movement

Movement; that was the first thing Robin felt that early morning, the rocking of her cage jarring her from her sleep.  Her immediate reaction was to reach out for the bars for stability, but she was startled to find her arms pinned down to her side by some warm, leathery surface.  Fingers.  A hand.  Who was there?!  Panicking, Robin began to tremble, her heart beating so fast, so loud, it nearly leapt right out of her chest.  It was the humans!  Th-They’d come to take her away like they did her friends so long ago!!  She opened her mouth and let out a panicked shriek.

Almost immediately, the hand around her released and withdrew, plopping the poor girl back down onto the cage floor.  The young tiny continued to scream, scrambling back away from the cage door and reaching out blindly for the bars.
“SHHHHH!” A voice hissed out through the darkness.  “Bloody hell!  How can something so small scream so loud!  Do you WANT the guards to hear us?!” she heard the familiar voice grumble.  “If you don’t pipe down, neither of us are gettin’ outta here!”  It was the naga from earlier!  The one that was stuck in here with her!   The thief!  How did he open her cage?!  How did he even get free!? Hadn’t the humans tied him up last night?

“I-It’s you!” she whispered in surprise, still clinging to the bars of her cage.  At least now she knew she was safe…relatively speaking.  She still had to get over the fact that her potential rescuer was a giant snake person-thing…but at least it wasn’t one of the humans.  Think positive.

“Of course it’s me!  Jeez, did our conversation go right through that lil’ skull of yours?  I told you we were breakin’ out, so let’s go already!”

“I-I thought you were tied up!” she whispered anxiously, trying to still her racing heart and still-panicked breaths.  “How did you-“

“look kid, I don’t have time to strike up conversation and shoot the breeze with you.” He was quick to interrupt.  Even with her injured eyes blindfolded, Robin could tell he was much closer now than he was last night, a slight breeze from his breath tussling her hair.  “I’m leavin’.  Now are you coming with me or are you going to scream again when I pick you up?  Because I sure as hell ain’t takin’ this cage with me.”

They….they really WERE getting out of there!  She could hardly believe this!  It was her chance!  But….but what if he turned on her and tried to sell her like the humans had?  Or worse.  What if he tried to ea-….no.  She couldn’t dwell on such thoughts.  It was now or never.  “I-I’ll do my best to keep quiet.  I-I’m s-still not used to being p-picked up though….” She whispered, bracing herself for what was to come next.

“Hmph…well aren’t you bloody reassuring?  Just do us both a favor and keep quiet, still and we’ll be out of here in two shakes of a tail.”  Unseen to her, the naga raised himself up on the near tip of his tail to allow access to her cage, reaching slowly through the doors and wrapping his fingers around the trembling girl.  Luckily for them, this time, there was no squeak of terror.  Not even a peep.  

“….oi, your face is turnin’ blue.  Breathe, shrimpy.” He demanded in a sharp whisper, leading robin to realize that she had been holding her breath this whole time.  Gripping tightly to the tips of the fingers wrapped around her waist, she let out a deep exhale, taking sharp intakes of air to catch her breath and still her racing heart.  “haaa….haa….I-I’m sorry!  L-like I said, I’m not used to-“

“SHHH!” The muscles around her suddenly gripped her a little tighter, a finger shifting to cover her mouth completely.  From the eyes of the naga, the light flooding in and the sound of footsteps from the room above told him that the humans had decided to head back down into their basement prison to pay them a morning visit.  

How lovely.

The scaly thief gritted his teeth and let out a low hiss.  Stupid grunts couldn’t have chosen to visit 3 minutes ago when he was still all chained up?!  With no time to attempt to fake his containment or put the girl back in the cage, he darted away from the light with the trembling tiny in hand, ducking beneath the rickety staircase.  Given his profession, he was adept to hiding out of sight, relying on the plotted, dark green scale pattern on his tail to help him move about his targeted hit spots undetected.  Such was the life of a thief.  But with a jumpy tiny in hand though, one with a good set of lungs and no common sense when it came to ‘being quiet’, things were about to get a little tricky.

“Wakey wakey, Mr. Snakey!...Oi!  Get up ya scaly pest!  Boss wants ya fed!” He heard the human call out as he stomped down the stairs just above his head.  Ignoring the squirming being in his hand, he paid rapt attention to the human just feet away from their hiding spot.  “Don’t know why he’d waste this good stuff on a thief like you. Probably wants ya fattened up.  I hear collectors paying more for ‘exotic snake skins’ than actual pet nag-…”  The footsteps suddenly stopped, the sound of a plate clattering onto the floor broke the silence.

“…The hell is this?!?  Where’d he….crap, the loot!”  The shocked grunt bolted up the stairs, the door slamming behind him and the sound of his footsteps echoing in his wake.  The hidden naga watched the human run off, not sure whether to chuckle with pride or shiver with worry.  Humans were so amusingly dull in the senses so it was fairly easy to remain undetected, but now he had to worry about them skinning him?  That was a new one.  He didn’t feel like to stick around to see if these black market idiots were capable of following through with such a barbaric act.

“Hmph…choose the wrong house to slip into last night…” he grumbled to himself, slowly growing aware of the fervently squirming tiny in his hand.  Glancing down, his eyes widened at the sight of the girl’s discolored face.  “Hey, kid!  What did I tell you about breathing?!”  He whispered urgently, only the slightest hint of worry lacing his otherwise grumpy tone.  He shifted his grip to allow her more room to move and breathe now that they were alone again, removing his finger from her face and letting her sprawl out on his open palm.  

Robin gasped for breath, grasping the edges of his hand to assure herself some sort of stability in her blinded state.  “Y-You didn’t give me much of a choice!”  She called up to him, looking upwards in the general direction his voice came from.  “Not that it matters much anyways!  I told you there was no way out of here!  They know we’re out!  They’ll tear this place apart and find us before we even make it outside the house!  It’s only a matter of time…they’ll find us….”

“….heh….bingo.  That’s what we’ll do…let them all come find us.”
Robin furrowed her brows in confusion, clenching her fists so tight in fright that her knuckles began to turn white.  “…w-what?  You WANT them to come find us?!”  What was this crazy stranger talking about?!  Had he lost his mine?! It was over!  Done!  When he had promised her freedom last night, she took that chance to believe him.  She dared to hope to again.  And now, not a few hours later, all of that hope was dashed away.   “…you’re going to get us both killed.” She whispered, sounding absolutely defeated.  

“Oi, what good are you?  I promised you that I’d get us out of here, and all you do is whine about how we won’t!  Yer no fun at all.” she heard him grumble.  The small, blindfolded girl let out a small gasp when she felt something else wrap around her waist and lift him off of his hand.  It definitely wasn’t a finger; the texture was rough and smooth all at the same time.  His tail.  He had her in his tail now.  She let out an involuntary shiver as his deep voice chuckled all around her.  “Jumpy lil’ thing.  Just as dim as these humans.  A loud mouth too.  Don’t make me regret letting you tag along.”

“T-They know we’re out, the w-whole lot of them with g-guns and kn-knives and gods knows w-what else!  I-It’s only a m-matter of t-time before they f-find us.  Y-You sound s-so c-confident.  H-How are we going to get p-past them?!  You’re j-just a th-thief!”  

The tail coiled around her tensed.  It constricted around her in such a way that she nearly got the wind knocked out of her.  “Don’t.  Insult.  Me.” The naga glowered down at her, a light hiss in his voice.  “You think I can’t handle this?!  A few bumbling humans?!  I’ve been in worse scraps than you could possibly imagine in that thick little skull of yours!” he continued, his voice a harsh hiss and a whisper, causing Robin to shrink back in fear with every word.  This…this was who she was trusting to get her out of this god-forsaken place safely?! “I’m losing my patience with you.  You want out?  Then shut up and trust me.  If not, then you’re more than welcome to stick around in that cage again and try getting out yourself!  You’ll just end up hurting yourself worse than whatever they hell you did to your eyes!”

“….” Her eyes?  Burned by oil nearly a week ago?  The ones she may never be able to see out of again?  Those eyes?  It…It wasn’t…it wasn’t her fault…her fault…it wasn’t…no….

The thief holding the little girl in his coils suddenly pulled away, sitting back up and staring down at the tiny.  Her now crestfallen expression did not go unnoticed to him.  His face quickly softened, the anger and frustration with this chatty little tiny quickly disappearing when he saw the look on her face.  Those eyes of hers, still wrapped up in the raggedy, makeshift blindfold…he was quickly learning that they were a sensitive subject for the girl.  Rightfully so if she truly had lost her vision like she thought she did.

“…I-I’m sorry I snapped.  I-I didn’t mean to-…..” he quickly stammered, unable to think up the right thing to say.  He’d have to apologize later and find out what really happened once they were out and free…but for now, he’d feel just a little better having her on his side while they tried escaping.

The little girl in his coils remained silent, turning her head away from the booming voice that promised her freedom just the other night.  Maybe…maybe she was wrong to trust him.  He no talked with the same sort of spite the humans did.

“…Hey…you got a name or something, shrimp?” his voice broke the silence again, the tone catching her attention.  It wasn't as demanding or snide a tone as the naga had spoken earlier.  It was…soft…quieter than her own voice…almost apologetic.  

The girl remained silent, much to the thief’s dismay.  Shaking his head with a light sigh, he gave his tail a little shake, bouncing the girl slightly in his grasp. “C’mon! Ya can’t expect me to call you shrimp all day?” he urged, a smile in his tone.  “They call me Tyke.”

“…Robin.”  She responded after just a moment of hesitation.  Tyke let out a light chuckle, his tail shifting slightly around her to form a looser, more comfortable grip.

“Alright then, Robin.  Just relax, ok?  I know what I’m doing.  I had to pull this maneuver with a bunch of cat-nip crazed nekos once, ya know.  Works like a charm every time.  We’ll be out in the fresh air before you know it”

Looking up towards the sound of his gentle voice, she gave a small, nervous smile and a tiny nod.  
Maybe she really could trust this naga.  Or maybe it was a huge mistake.  Either way, she knew that she HAD to trust him for now.  At this point, he was her last hope.  
One way or another, they were getting out of this hell-hole.  Together

They didn’t have to wait long for his plan set in motion. The one grunt that had initially noticed the pair were missing had already gone off and alerted all of the other human goons on the ground floor.  Some could hardly believe their ears.  Others wanted to see just how it was even possible for the two to have slipped away like that completely undetected.  

Regardless of the reasons, all at once they congregated and rushed down towards the basement.  A horde of stomping boots made their way down the rickety steps of the basement, both prisoners tensing up in anticipation as their captors passed right over their heads.  

“How the hell did they get loose!?”
“The lock on these chains!  The naga must have picked them with his tail!”
“Same with the cage!”
“They couldn’t have done this on their own!”
“Yea, someone must be working with them!”
“What the hell are you blabbering about?!  We gotta focus on finding them!”
“You mean just finding the naga!”
“Yea, the little troublemaker probably became breakfast-to-go”

The men continued to squabble and argue amongst themselves, looking over the evidence as if the answer as to where the two had gone would sneak up and smack them in the face.  As much as Tyke would have loved nothing more than to lay a beat-down on a few of those men, he had no intention of sticking around in a room full of humans with guns.

Hoping that this was all of the men in the building that would get in their way, he decided it was time to give them the slip.  Rising up on his tail and sticking to the shadows, he slipped beneath the banister and pulled himself up onto the staircase.  Using the tip of his tail to keep a tight hold of the girl, he slithered up the staircase with surprising speed, making his way to the first floor before any of the bumbling goons could even notice the shadow he was casting upon them all.  Quick as a flash, he slammed the door behind him and jammed the door with a nearby chair, effectively locking away all of their obstacles into one part of the house.  There was no need to sneak around now.  With everyone that could possibly stop them locked away in the basement, they were home free.

“There we are!  All the eggs in one nest, so to speak.” The naga chuckled proudly, dusting off his hands with a confident smirk on his face.  “Now we can find the exit door without any trou-“

“GAAAH!”  

The pair whirled around towards the source of the noise, the naga thief the only one being able to see the lanky human standing on the other side of the room.  The lad looked to be in his teens, probably a new hire those black-market traders had picked up off the streets to do their dirty work.  At least…he didn’t look as dim as the other humans, the wide-eyed boy sticking to the far corner of the room, shaking like a leaf as he looked over the naga.  He must have been too scared to follow the others into the basement as well.

“Hmph…smart kid.”  Tyke smirked, relaxing slightly when he saw that the boy wasn’t armed.  “You’ll do best to keep your distance.  Follow us and I swear I’ll-“ before he had the chance to finish, a second human burst into the room from the other side, a rifle in hand.  

Change of plans.  

Eyes widening in a panic, Tyke did the only thing he could think of to save their skin.  They had gotten this far now, no way they were backing down.  Before the lumbering, armed human could react, he bolted over to the unarmed boy in the corner, coiling his tail tightly around him and gripping his head and mouth tightly with his hands.  Neither human had any time to react to the naga’s impressive speed.  Tyke held the boy out in front of him like a human shield, leaning in close towards the boy’s neck, fangs bared and eyes ablaze.

Robin remained stock still in the coiled tip of his tail.  Blind to what was going on around her, she was unable to do anything but keep quiet, try not to fall out of the naga’s grasp as he moved, listen…and hope like hell this would turn out in their favor.

“Oi! Freeze right there, ya vermin!”

“Put the gun down, jumbo, or your buddy here gets an unhealthy dose of snake venom.” Tyke hissed threateningly over to the human, keeping poised to strike the whimpering lad at any moment.  

Robin tensed up, still wrapped up in the tip of Tyke’s tail, held at a distance behind the pair.  He…he didn’t actually mean that, did he?  Sure the human’s had done some awful things to the both of them but…her rescuer really wasn’t considering killing one of them, was he?!

“Ha, the newbie?” the human chuckled in a snide tone, daring to take one step closer to the bunch.  “Nice try, but you’re scaly-skin is worth twenty of what we pay him.  Besides, he’s a nobody.  No one will miss him…or you for that matter.”  Another step closer.

“I’m tellin’ ya, I’ll take him down and go right for you, fatty.  Didn’t your mother ever teach ya not to mess with wild animals?  Especially when you’ve got ’em back up into a corner.”  He warned again, moving in closer towards the boy, fangs just centimeters away from the boy’s pale skin.  

“For the price that’s on your head?  I’ll take my chances.  Now…hands in the air and lay down on the ground nice and quiet like…or I’ll shoot you both.”  Robin’s grip on the tail around her increased at the sound of a footstep and a metallic click.  
The gun.  

“…damn humans…” both tiny and naga whispered simultaneously, both tensing up at the sound of the captive boy whimpering and squirming about in a panic.

Another metallic click.  

The muscles wrapped around her tensed.  Their heartbeat’s synchronized, pounding in unison.  

Movement

BANG