“I can hear the footsteps, clip clop.”
The prisoner sank and rose in and out of consciousness, almost like the morning after a heavy night.
“Come on, wake up, the Prison Guard’s coming back.”
His hands were bound just like they always had been, was it time? Was it really that time again? He struggled at his restraints, his wrists sore, his head hanging from his shoulders like a miserable failure.
The footsteps halted in front of him, the ragged breathing of the Prison Guard in the air. A hand on the back of his head, yanked by his hair he was forced to look up at the Prison Guard, the harsh light making him squint into his gaze.
“Now it’s just you and me, and I’m gonna’ make you pay, I’ll make you regret every second of your existence.” The Prison Guard said almost through his teeth.
“Now I’m gonna’ kill you, again and again. You will know nothing but an eternity of painful deaths.”
The Prison Guard went ahead and punched The Prisoner once, twice, three times in the face. His head fuzzy, eyes blurry and the taste of blood and metal in his mouth.
He’d woken up again a time later, still bound, still beaten, just like The Prison Guard had said, an eternity of painful deaths. The Observer had stood in front of him again, she still hadn’t given up on him, she saw something in him, she was an Observer after all.
“Come on, wake up, you have to get out of here.” She said to him.
She stood there as The Prison Guard walked in and past her. Her prosthetic legs tick-tacking on the hard floor but the Guard seeming oblivious to her existence. The Prisoner looking over to his sword laying on the ground several feet away in a weapons rack, so close, but these restraints.
“Your sword eh?” The Guard said.
“Go on, get out, break free and pick that sword up. I’ll make you regret every second of it.” He said before walking back outside.
The Observer stood in front of him again, as his head rose to meet her eyes she gave him an encouraging look of willfulness and certainty of his abilities.
“Now come on, break out of those restraints and get your sword back, you can beat the Guard, I know it.”
The strength surging up within him, The Prisoner struggled, fruitlessly at first, but then with reward as the strange contraption tethering his hands gave out. He’d fallen forward like a defeated man at first, but this wasn’t the end.
“This prison’s built in layers, islands floating above one another.” The Observer told him once he returned to his feet.
“You’re at the bottom, we need to go up and across all six islands to escape.”
The Prisoner pulled his sword from the weapon rack, unsheathing the blade and analysing it in the harsh light of the room.
“The climb, only one person’s done it before, Ukko.”
The Prisoner looked outside through the doorway, The Prison Guard stood out there in the distance, almost as if waiting for him.
“So come on, defeat The Prison Guard. Climb Ukko’s Ladder and let’s get out of here.”
The Prisoner glanced at her once then looked forward to The Prison Guard, his grip now firm on his sword.

CONTINUED IN EPISODE 2