Chương 25: Chapter 5 - Part 8
The orangutan must have remembered back to the abuse it had endured, for she lurched forwards, seizing the opportunity, and it made a frantic bolt for freedom, carrying her baby in one arm. It squealed at Pash aggressively and took a swing at him as she passed, but Pash merely stepped well and truly out of the way, allowing it to pass by without problem. There was a flash of confusion on its ape-like face, before it turned its head back around and focused entirely on escaping. That, and the giant dog that was standing guard over the tent entrance.
The entertainer was sweating. He had been so spirited just moments before, spurred on by the foolish notion that he would be saved, but that courage had quickly left him, and he muttered to himself madly, trembling in fear.
Ermos flung him hard inside the cage and locked it tight behind him. He found a lock and a nearby key and Pash watched him loop a length of chain around the whole thing, before padlocking it and fastening it tightly closed with the key.
He held that key in front of the entertainer tauntingly. "We've got an act of our own, don't we Pash? A famous pair of magicians, we are. We can make this key disappear." He then tossed it through the air and Pash barely managed to catch it before it disappeared amongst the grass. With his master looking at him expectantly, Pash panicked for a clever way of making the key vanish and he put it in his mouth and swallowed it instead, regretting it but a moment later, as he felt sharp steel sliding down his throat.
"…Nice," Ermos said with approval, giving him a thumbs up.
The entertainer was left devastated. He rattled his cage, just like the many animals that he had locked up inside it, and he made all kinds of threats.
"He's going to be muttering on for a while, just ignore him," Ermos said to Pash, talking over the entertainer's squealing. "The city guard will be here soon to rescue him, but we can get these guys free before then. You start at that end, I'll start here. Get it done fast and we can be gone before we walk into any trouble."
"Yes master," Pash said obediently. His master went nearer the entrance to the tent, whilst Pash went deeper. In the first cage, he came across an angry-looking eagle with half its feathers missing. It was already lunging towards the door of its cage and snatching at it with its talons, fighting to get free. Pash quickly flicked open the latch and then ducked down to cover his face.
The eagle cawed noisily, before it unfurled its massive wings and beat at the ground, flying towards the entrance.
Next, Pash unleashed two monkeys that he thought might have been siblings. They had red faces, grey fur, and long tails, and they simply would not let go of each. When he opened the door for them, they did not squeal like the rest, but they tiptoed towards the door, holding tightly onto each other's tails. He watched them go with a smile on his face, feeling that they might be doing the right thing.
After his master released a tiger, all the other animals began to run a little faster. It made Pash's heart beat in worry that it would attack one of them as they fled, but from the lack of screams, he guessed that the tiger had made a run for it himself, heading for the nearby forestry.
For Pash's last cage, there was another ape. A gorilla this time, with a barrel belly and a sombre look on his face.
"Oh, is that a silverback?" His master came over, having finished everything at his end.
"I'm not a gorilla," the creature protested weakly. "I've been trying to tell them for years."
Both Pash and Ermos took a step back in shock. "I've never met an animal that could talk," Ermos said.
"Me neither," Pash agreed.
"I'm not an animal," the gorilla said, sounding depressed.
"Well, whatever you are buddy, we're going to let you out of here, and then you can go back to living in the jungle snacking on all the bananas you like," Ermos said, opening the cage for him.
The gorilla paused to correct them before he headed off like the rest of the caged animals. "I'm not a gorilla," he said again. "I don't live in a jungle. I was a baker in Steelfork, and these brigands tied me up as a joke, thinking that they could sell me off as a gorilla because of my body hair. I'm a man, I tell you."
"Sure you are buddy. Being a gorilla isn't anything to be ashamed of. You've got a strong look to you. Go on now, head off, before the guards come and capture you again," Ermos said.
The gorilla sighed a deep sigh and then wandered out of the tent, just like a man would, disappearing off somewhere towards the forest.
The tent was awfully quiet and empty with all the animals gone. Well, that was if you ignored the shouts of the locked-up entertainer, which they easily did, feeling satisfied by their work.
"Is this really okay, master?" Pash asked. Even if he was happy with the outcome, he wasn't sure that his master was. He'd been so excited to make his coin.
��I don't know," Ermos said honestly, "the coin would have been nice, I suppose… But it seems people are just too frightened of him to put up an offer. Besides, they were cruel sorts here, it would have nagged me if I'd let him go into that."
The hound poked its head inside the tent, curiously listening in on their conversation. Pash was rather proud that the dog hadn't tried to attack any of the other animals as they fled – even though he definitely could have – which he hoped meant that he wasn't as vicious as the priest in the Stone Tree had made him out to be.
They wandered out of the tent together, master and pupil, satisfied smiles on their faces, expecting to enjoy the warm light of the sun as they completed their good deed for the day.
But the shouts from the city guard quickly interrupted that. Hundreds of armed men had surrounded them.
"BY ORDER OF THE EARL, STOP RIGHT THERE!"
Quà tặng
-- Nhận quà Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực