Jacob looked at her surprised. He didn’t know that she was also planning on escaping or how long she had this plan in mind.

"You do? What’s your idea? I think I want to hear it first."

She looked over at an empty tray of food that sat outside of Jacob’s cell.

"There’s a reason why I was starving myself."

Then, she moved her hair behind her ears and lightly touched one of her earrings. Jacob immediately remembered the powerful enchantment that was contained in them.

"Those are..."

"That’s right. These earrings make me stronger the hungrier I am. To be honest with you, I feel like I could punch a hole in a mountain right now, but we have no idea how strong the guard is. And we can’t really be loud, or the king will come down, and our plan will be ruined. Otherwise, we may have already escaped already."

Jacob looked at her proudly.

"You’re a genius! Man, am I thankful for you."

"What was your plan? Do you think it can help with mine?"

Jacob grinned.

"Well, let’s just say it involves getting a little dirty."

Maria looked at herself, then at Jacob.

"How can we get dirtier than this?!"

"Hm... Good point. Well, try to keep this secret, but I seemed to have awakened a power of some sort."

Maria’s face lit up.

"You finally did it?! You have a power?!"

"That’s right. However, I’m still unsure what it is."

"Is that what happened to your cell? Did you try and use it?"

"I did. I have almost zero control over it but I’m sure it has something to do with roots. Maybe it can even affect other plant life, but for now it’s just roots that are available to us."

"So, what’s your plan?"

"I need to gain enough control over them to sneakily grow them and constrain the guard. That’s when we can take advantage of your strength and bend through the bars and escape. What do you think?"

Maria thought to herself for a moment.

"What about mom?"

Jacob forgot about Lidia. He needed to somehow inform her of this plan before they executed it so she could prepare properly.

"We need to somehow message her. Do you have any ideas?"

"Hm... I hand her my food all the time, maybe we can send a message that way somehow?"

"But what’s a message that we can send that makes it obvious were planning something?"

Maria almost jumped when she thought of an idea.

"Do you think you can play along for what I have planned? It may... go against some of your kindness values."

"Anything to get out of here. What were you thinking?"

"Just wait for him to bring us more soup, I’ll tell you what to do then."

After waiting hours and hours for their meal to arrive, some guards seemed to have arrive carrying large bowls of grotesque soup. Jacob was already dreading the plan they made. He was never a good actor, but he did used to be someone completely different. He would just have to take himself back to how he used to be.

The large guard watching them brought two bowls in front of Maria and Jacob while a third was placed in front of Lidia. The moment he set the bowls down, Jacob reached through the bars, picked up the bowl, and chucked it right at the guard’s face. The murky soup stained his armor and got all around his face.

"Ew! What the-! You Bastard! I’ll make you pay for that!"

Jacob cleared his throat and yelled back.

"Oh, I’m sorry. You just looked so hungry I couldn’t stand seeing you starve!"

"What the hell are you talking about?! How do I look hungry?!"

"With a belly like that, how can you not be hungry?! Also, you absolutely reek! Are you married to a goat, or do you just like to smell like that?"

Lidia slowly stood up confused and tried to look at the cell next to hers. A small smirk appeared on her face. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

’Huh. I haven’t heard Jacob talk like this in a while. I wonder what he’s up to?’

"What the hell did you just say to me?! Say it again! I dare you!"

"Your ears don’t work either?! Man, is there a single redeeming quality you possess? How about you let me out of this cage, and we can settle it like real men, coward!"

’Let me out of this cage... is he trying to tell me something? This seems too sudden to be a coincidence.’

"Like hell I’m letting you out! I’d be letting two people out if I do that!"

"Oh? You’re scared of this thin girl hurting you? You really are pathetic. If you won’t open it now, why not open it later? That would give you plenty of time to get ready or man up and face two people half your age, half your weight, AND malnourished! Like I said, you’re a coward!"

Lidia’s eyes widened.

’...open it later... plenty of time to get ready...’

She smiled to herself. She understood Jacob’s message perfectly. All that was left to do was prepare and bide her time until the fateful moment.

’I really do have the best family in the world.’

Lida hid herself in the corner of her cell as best she could, slowly started hitting her knee against the wall, but made sure it was quiet enough so the chaos going on outside the cell was louder than her hard thumps. Maria could hear the small thumps through the wall and knew what Lidia was doing.

She walked up to Jacob and wrapped her arms around him.

"Stop it, Jacob! He’s going to never feed us again at this rate!"

The guard smiled widely.

"You should listen to your girlfriend, boy. She seems to be the only one with any sense in this dungeon."

"Please. Just sit back down and calm yourself!"

Maria lightly tapped him with her arms around him to signal their mission had been successful.

"Fine. But I’m not apologizing."

"I don’t need your apology you worm! Now stay still and shut up in that cell or I’ll make sure you never speak again!"

Jacob turned his back to the guard and slowly walked back with Maria. A dark grin painted his face. Now, all that was left was for him was to master his power enough and escape with everyone. He sat down on the ground and held Maria tightly, still staring at the guard with malice. Even with his hand around her head, he couldn’t help but feel extra protective over her for some strange reason.

The recent events of the past few weeks showed him how fragile life really was, and if there was one person he was going to make sure would never see death, it was Maria. He was going to protect her, no matter what it took, no matter the sacrifice. Even though he never told her out loud, they both knew they loved each other deeply.

Words didn’t need to be spoken. The actions they shared between each other were more than enough. Even a man with one eye could see they were head-over-heels for each other. Jacob was no longer bothered with people like Lidia teasing them anymore and neither was Maria. Even though he didn’t need to, he desperately wanted to tell Maria how he felt. However, that would have to wait for a time much further in the future, when their worries weren’t as complicated as they were now.

As they held each other, they both drifted into a deep sleep.