The beginning of a beautiful relationship -- VII

Skeetr was somewhat disoriented. He didn't understand what had just happened. He remembered the hand on his ankle, then things went blank.  

The shackles hurt his hands the way he was hanging from them on the wall. Twisting his hands around to make them more comfortable, Skeetr could feel that they were not very tight. The bonds of this dungeon were created for holding humans and other creatures, all of which were typically much larger than Skeetr. Twisting and flexing his wrists, with a slight dislocation of his thumb (he could always do this on command - grossing out his sisters whenever he made a demonstration), he freed his hands. They slipped through the iron clasps as if they were greased and he fell to the floor.  

His feet were simply tied with rope. His legs were not long enough to reach the shackles that were in place to hold someone's feet - the mage had to improvise. The knots were not easily undone because they were tied with some force. Skeetr was not sure how long he had slept, but was surprised that he felt very alert and refreshed - it must have been a deep sleep. His fingers ached less than before, this gave him a little more strength in his hands and he was able to free his feet.  

Skeetr ran over to the table that stood in the middle of the room. He stuffed a cooked fowl leg in his mouth and tried to grab a small green dagger off the table. The knife was far too heavy for Skeetr to lift so he left it. The door to the room was open and Skeetr dashed into the hallway, quickly spinning his head, looking left and right, the fowl leg still dangling from his mouth. He had no idea where the mage had brought him. Hearing a door opening to his right made up his mind for him - he ran to the left. In a second or two he came to the elevator shaft where he was so near escape before. This time Skeetr intended to cash in on this little bit of good luck, knowing - from experience - his luck would turn bad in a moment. He would get out that hole as quickly as possible. A loud curse reverberated through the hall, emanating from the room Skeetr had just escaped.  

The mage hadn't noticed Skeetr running around the slight turn in the hall because he was admiring his new torturing tool, the fire prod. Thinking how he could make the tip glow white hot and what effect it would have on flesh. Not being an elder mage, he had not seen nor experienced any form of torturing, but after being embarrassed by a small boy, his anger had built to the point where he could hardly wait to start. He would also find out what this little spy was doing in his master's palace. He stepped into the room and saw the blank wall where Skeetr had been. He yelled out, cursing the boy and himself at the same time. In a burst of frustration, he flashed a fireball at the wall where it exploded leaving nicks and chars on the wall between the hanging shackles.  

The mage ran from the room and, because he had come from the right, figured the boy to have gone left. He bolted down the hall, casting a levitate spell on his way and readied another fireball. As he came to the shaft opening he saw the boy struggling at the hole. Skeetr’s pack had caught again. A grin came to the man’s lips as he saw his quarry struggling.  

Skeetr freed his pack with a simple wiggle and pulled himself through the hole. He fell six feet, somewhat sliding on the vertical surface of the wall, before landing on a cone shaped protrusion. Skeetr gasped and - conscious of his balance - buckled over. The cone sticking out of the wall had caught Skeetr right between the legs.  

Skeetr could hear a loud roar from inside the hole. The man sounded to be going quite mad. The mage threw a fireball just as Skeetr had dropped out of site. It exploded against the ceiling and blasted rock and debris all over. Being pelted with more stone did nothing to improve the mage’s mood. He would have his vengeance on this boy. Seeing that the hole in the wall had grown quite large from the fireball blast, the mage thrust himself up the shaft and through the hole. His obsession with killing Skeetr now at it's peek.