"I guess we have no choice but to believe that Jon will create a miracle once again," The Merchant muttered with a helpless smile as he followed after Sam and placed the pieces of cork in his ears. "What are you thinking about, little lady? Quickly put them in your ears."
"Uh, yes," Daenerys was more than a little confused about the situation she had found herself in. On one hand, she was getting surrounded by enemies on all sides; on the other hand, she was being told that if she put some corks in her ears, everything would be alright.
As if by not listening to the things happening around her, their problems would simply disappear, but in the end, the girl still chose to place her trust in Jon, because after all, she was already at the end of her rope, 'What more could go wrong?'
"I thought I told you people to fucking stand down!" The guards, who were now no more than a few meters away from the trio, yelled at them impatiently, as they saw these foreigners completely ignoring them and whispering to each other as if they were conspiring about something.
"And you!!" Another guard shouted while pointing towards Sam in anger, "What the hell do you think you are doing, boy? Lower your weapon immediately!"
"Why do you even bother talking to this filth?!" The guard who had unintentionally let them go seemed to have developed a grudge against them and was more than eager to 'deal' with them, "Just shoot the fucking lot of them," he snarled with a nasty expression on his face, 'That'll teach them to deceive people,'
"Don't you dare to touch a hair on the girl," Illyrio's guard roared as he finally arrived at the location of the guard's encirclement, "Didn't I tell that I want the girl alive?!" he barked as he roughly pushed away the eager guards who were being too handy with their weapons, and turned to girl whose cowl had been blown away by now showing her face to be the one of his master's royal guest, just with the addition of newly dyed black hair.
"Princess Daenerys," The guard began as politely as he could, "I think it is time for you to go back. Master Illyrio and your brother are very worried about you back at the mansion," he tried to say with a straight face, but could not stop his mouth from twitching. The guard could still remember the anger rolling off the pig-like face of her brother's as he had left the mansion, and couldn't help but shudder at the thought of what he would do to her.
"Don't worry, we will take care of these kidnappers for you," The guard said as he hurriedly tried to move on to the actual mastermind behind all this. "They would not dare to lay a hand on you now that I am here," he said while glaring at the two unknown men with strange plugs in their ears. If it wasn't for his Master's order to bring them alive, so that he could interrogate them on how they managed to put them all to sleep, he would have already killed these wretches. "You still have time, surrender peacefully, otherwise..."
Daenerys did not care about what the guard was saying, and nor did she even look at him; instead, her whole attention was on Gan, their last hope of escaping from this impossible situation.
At the moment, the rat was peeking at the three of them, and after confirming that all of them had properly placed the corks in their ears, Gan pulled two rat-sized corks for his own ears and put them on.
And when Gan saw Daenerys staring at him with wide eyes from the corner of his eyes, he gave her a thumbs with its tiny claws and then after one last look around to confirm that there were no innocent bystanders like children too close to them, he nodded his head and immediately disappeared into the thick folds of Sam's satchel as if trying to hide from something.
Before Daenerys could even process the sight of the rat's disappearance, she and everyone else around suddenly began to hear an unusually irritating high-pitched noise that felt as if it was coming from afar but also as if it was blasting right into their ears.
"What the hell is that noise!!" The guards were alarmed as they looked around with vigilant expressions, trying to find the source of this persistent noise.
"I-Is someone screaming?" One guard asked in confusion, wondering what kind of torture one would have to endure to make such a noise.
"Ugh! Whatever it is, make it fucking stop! It's making my head hurt!" Another one snapped while massaging his head as the noise went from irritating to painful in a matter of seconds.
But that was only the beginning of their worries, as with every passing moment, the strength and penetrating ability of this strange sound began increasing, and eventually it reached a point where the guards could do nothing but kneel on the ground in fetal positions with their hands covering their ears.
Some of them began crying, "Argh! Someone, make it stop!! Please make it stop! It hurts!"
Others felt their head spin and their stomach turn, "Ugh! I can't! I can't hold it in! I... I am going to puke—Uwah!"
Some got irrationally furious as the noise made them feel as if someone was rattling their brain like a drum, "I'll kill you! I'll kill fucking kill whoever is making that noise! I will kill your entire family!! Argh! Don't let me find you!!"
Some even began praying, feeling as if this was divine punishment from the gods, "Oh, God! Please have mercy! I swear, I will not sin anymore!"
But ultimately, it got to the point where the noise exceeded their tolerance, and they began bleeding from their ears and noses, and ever so slowly, with the trio as the centre, the guards began collapsing one after the other, as if they were puppets falling after their strings were cut.
Thankfully, the sound did not have too much of a range and only a few people in the crowd who were standing close to the guards' encirclement were affected by this to the point of fainting; otherwise, the rest only felt a mild headache and some discomfort in their stomach, which would pass in a few minutes.
But just as the noise began to affect even the trio through the protection of the corks in their ears, it came to an abrupt stop, granting them much-needed relief.
The moment the three people born in different parts of Westeros opened their eyes, they were greeted with the sight of all their pursuers lying on the ground like helpless children, with their weapons tossed half-hazardly around them. They were now in no condition to obstruct their path anymore.
"I-Is this real? Or am I seeing things?" Daenerys whispered to herself with a stunned look on her face, unable to believe how easily and absurdly their deadly predicament had been solved.
"I think it's real," Sam replied a bit unsurely, "After all, we can't both be delusional at the same time, right?" he chuckled dryly, but the deadly grip on the axe in his hand showed how shocked the boy was by the event that happened in front of him, his mind constantly thinking about the kind of otherwordly power that could cause something like this.
"Chi! Chi!" The rat's urgent squeaks brought the three of them out of their daze, and they simultaneously turned to look at the rat, who was once again standing on Daenerys' shoulder, with awe and fear, their expressive eyes silently asking a hundred questions.
"Chi!" But the rat seemed not to be in the mood for answering anything, and was instead repeatedly pointing towards the docks in the distance as if telling them to hurry up.
"R-Right! We need to move." Merchant Sam nodded as he buried all his doubts inside his heart, turned around and immediately began running, "Let's leave before they wake up."
Daenerys and Sam nodded hurriedly, and after picking up the bag with eggs and the crown, they immediately followed the merchant towards the ship docked in the distance.
Their path this time was completely unharrassed, as they ran over the unresponsive guards, and through the silent crowd of spectators who were looking at them as if they were monsters while giving them a wide berth.
The stunned, terror-filled eyes of the crowd made Daenerys very uncomfortable, but thankfully, it only took them a few minutes before they finally reached their destination.
A connecting plank had already been lowered for them by the ship's crew, who had noticed the commotion in the distance some time ago.
In fact, most of them had weapons in their hands as they had been just about to go fight with the Pentoshi guards to the death to rescue the three of them, but fortunately, it had not come to that in the end.
Though they hadn't been able to see exactly how it had happened, they just knew that all the guards had abruptly fallen to the ground, making way for Merchant Sam and the others to arrive at the ship.
But having been part of the Northern Wolf Company for so long, the crew had gotten used to unexplainable things happening around them, so they were not too unnerved by this mystical sight.
"Go! Go! Go!" Merchant Sam shouted the moment he set foot onto the deck of the ship, "Lower the anchor! Raise the sails! We are moving full speed out of the dock!!"
"AYE!!" The crew answered simultaneously as they ditched their weapons and immediately began running towards their respective posts, producing a flurry of activities that seemed chaotic at first glance but had a unique, steady rhythm to it.
In a matter of seconds, their ship sailed out of the port and was quickly picking up speed.
Meanwhile back at the docks, the guards were finally regaining their wits, sadly for them though by the time they managed to even think of getting their own vessel to pursue them, it was too late as their target had already disappeared on the horizon, leaving them frustrated, humiliated and more than a little scared, wondering in their hearts if anyone would ever believe them when they tell the story what had happened that day.
"Is this a dream?" Daenerys asked in a dazed voice as she looked at the sun setting on the horizon with a wide grin that she wasn't able to control, no matter how hard she tried, 'Am I finally free?'
"I can assure you that it's not a dream, Dany," Sam's teasing voice answered her question as he came to stand beside her on the deck, "But perhaps a warm meal in your stomach would make it seem more real."
"A meal?"
"Yes, that is why I am here," Sam said with a smile, "Dinner is ready, and served, and Uncle Sam is just waiting for you to come up."
"Let's go then," Daenerys said as she turned around with an eager expression on her face, "So what are we having?"
"Fish and bread," Sam replied as they walked towards the cabin, "It's simple but very filling, and Uncle Sam is quite skilled in the art of roasting fish, so I am sure you will like it."
'I am sure too,' Daenerys thought with a smile on her face, because after all, everything tasted better if you have freshly brought freedom as the side dish.
...
Thousands of leagues away across the ocean, inside a dense forest somewhere in Westerlands, a pair of grey eyes opened with a satisfied look in them, 'Side Quest: Save the Princess—Completed, and now... It's time for Quest No. 2.'
"...But look at him, he is just standing there like an—"
'Ah, would you look at that, I even have funny companions to diss at me on this adventure. So this one should be much easier...'
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