Links In A Chain

"May I ask you something.....Astra?" inquired Fred awkwardly.

Astra laughed oddly. "Why not, my dear?" she declared, a little too shrilly than she had intended (and in truth she had intended no shrillness whatsoever). "After all, hanging around in this place has done us wonders so far!"

"Alright, never mind...." grumbled Fred, on the verge of a sulk. When imprisoned for too long, sulking could become an incredibly addictive pastime.

"No, I'm serious." sighed Astra as she sank to her knees and propped herself into a sitting position on the cold, tough ground. "Whoever did this to us could have easily killed us by now. Either they'll let us go, or they won't. We shall cross that ravine when it is beneath our stride. What do you want to know, Frederigo?"

Fred sat down next to her, the chain connecting their legs clinking quietly. "Sixty thousand men in the kingdom, and they send a princess to rescue me. Or to deal with the dragon, or whatever your task might be in these godforsaken tunnels. Call me old fashioned, but sending royalty.....female royalty to do a scruffy adventurer's dirty work doesn't rate too highly on my chivalrometer. It doesn't make any sense. Why you?"

Astra turned to face Fred. She smiled - for the first time since meeting Fred - and that smile caused his stomach to lurch weirdly. "You really have been down here for years, haven't you, Frederigo D'Honaire?" she asked quietly.

Fred, who was not so out of touch as to not recognise a rhetorical question, merely raised his eyebrows expectantly. Astra sighed once more, crossing her arms over her knees.

1. "That tale is too long in the telling, Fred. We should get moving."
2. "Well, it's a long story....."

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