forum “Your princess orders you to release me!” (wlw OxO)

Started August 04, 2019 by @MusicElle-is-here

tune

Jackie blew a faint raspberry and shrugged. "Doubt it. I feigned your death by leaving a suicide note and leaving our footprints in the snow. They think you're dead."

If they even care, she added mentally. But she wasn’t about to reveal that. “They won’t buy it,” she said, feigning confidence. “And they’ve already promised me off to some prince, so he’ll search for me.” The truth was she did not want to marry any prince and had heatedly opposed to the match, but her parents seemed to think the only thing that the younger princesses were good for was forming alliances by marrying them off. Not that this girl knew any of that.

"Mmmhmm. I'm sure he'll come slamming through the door at any moment, princess," Jackie wasn't even paying attention anymore. She flipped a page, tapping her heavily booted foot. She was waiting for some people to come, but they said they had a few day's travel. But that was a few days ago. She wasn't sure what was going on, but soon she'd be forced to share food with this lady.

“Why did you kidnap me?” Marigold asked, trying a different tactic. She raised an eyebrow. “What good would the youngest daughter do you?”

"It doesn't matter," She answered dully. They told her not to give the princess any information. So she was more than happy to just focus on her book.

“Really? Why? Let me guess, they didn’t give you any information because you’re not important enough to know!” she chirped, smirking. Marigold had six siblings, so she was good at being annoying.

"No. They told me not to give you information because you're a snitch," She countered, glaring up at her. "If you didn't notice, I'm kind of the one doing all of the dirty work. I think I'm important. Especially considering I'm dealing with you." She hissed the last part under her breath.

“A snitch? Oh really?” Marigold asked mock-innocently, wrinkling her nose. “Of course you’re an important little kidnapper. What ever would the industry do without their mangiest employee?”

Jackie decided to ignore her, sincerely hoping the team coming to pick her up came soon. Or else she'd be accidentally forced to make the princess starve. She flipped the page of her book, comfortably crossing her legs.

“I guess ugly weirdos who enjoy kidnapping princesses are just in high demand these days, aren’t they?” Marigold added. “If I ever need one, I’ll be sure to call you up, whatever-your-name-is. And since I’m sure you won’t tell me, I’ll call you Gertrude.”

The flip of a page answered her. Jackie was used to ignoring people. She had a younger brother of her own off somewhere enjoying her father's riches, so she was pretty used to it. She actually found it pretty funny that the princess was calling her ugly and 1) can't see her and 2) hasn't looked in a mirror recently.

Marigold was irritated that her kidnapper was no longer responding to her. She was running out of ideas. Baby talk usually annoyed her siblings, so she went with that. “Oh, is the wittle kidnapper sad? Did I make her feel bad? Is she too upset to speak with me?”

Jackie rolled her eyes and continued reading by the candle, chuckling to herself at a joke. This was a good book, she'd have to recommend it to one of her girls sometimes. Maybe give it to one of the princess' escorts so they could use the same tactic with a good book.

Finally Marigold gave up trying to ignore her kidnapper and focused on thinking of how to escape. She didn’t really know where she was still, and couldn’t see her kidnapper, so she didn't have a lot to go on. She tried to reach into her boot to pull out the knife that she always kept there.

Jackie unfortunately wasn't stupid. She had frisked the princess and took her clean of any weapons, including boot knives. She looked up into the dark to see her feeling her ankles.
"I took your knife. You don't have it. A knife like that wouldn't be able to do anything against the lock I have you on anyway."

“Lock?!” she screeched. Marigold forced herself to calm down. She had to think of something else. If there was a lock there had to be a key somewhere, most likely on the kidnapper. “How much money are you being paid? I can pay more!” she offered. Well, my parents can pay more, she corrected herself mentally.

"Yes, lock. Good god. I'm being paid none of your business, and you couldn't top it if you tried. Besides, I don't believe you. And you're dead, so you can't," Jackie calmly reasoned, smiling in the most sarcastic way up at her prisoner.

“What if the people paying you conveniently forget? Or just decide to kill you too? Ever thought of that?!” she cried, getting more and more desperate.

"They're not going to forget. Lady, these people want you dead or alive. So shut the hell up," She snapped, getting somewhat irritated.

Why specifically me? she wondered. “I’m not going to shut up until you tell me what the hell is going on!” she replied stubbornly.

"No." was the simple answer she got back. "You either shut up, or you die. And it won't be an easy death. So just shut up, I don't want to kill you."

Marigold opened her mouth to make a witty reply, but stopped. “Hmph,” was all she said before falling silent.

Jackie sighed happily into the silence, humming softly. It was a long while until she moved again, shutting the book and standing up.
"I'll be right back."

The second that her kidnapper left, Marigold made her move. Or, more accurately, she tried to. She tried to slip out of her bindings, but without a key, it was difficult. Several minutes later her efforts landed her with nothing to show for it but sweat on her forehead and one leg partially loose. She wanted to scream with frustration.

Jackie returned with some food, only to see her wriggling in the confinements. She unlocked the cage and shut it again before walking over to secure the confinements on her leg.
"Nice try. Here, I brought you some bread so you won't bitch about being hungry." She popped it into her mouth and turned heel, trotting out of the cage again and locking it.