It was dark and cold chains were wrapped around her wrists. She pulled on them hearing the chains clank against each other before one broken off.
Nice, she thought dangling only with one arm in the air now. The darkness in this place didn't help her. What was underneath? Would she be able to survive a fall? Should she swing to break the other chain too?
Her arm started hurting the longer she thought. Perhaps the best idea was to just swing and break the chain around her wrist.
Slowly she started swinging. Her arm only hurt more but to get free there was no other option anymore.
Swing, swing,swing, was her only thought while continuing and hearing the chains clank against each other. Sweat rolled over her forehead. Although it was cold the pain and exercise made her sweat. After a while she heard a chain breaking.
Sadly it wasn't the chain she wanted to break so with no option left she continued swinging.
She continued on until a sharp pain struck her in her shoulder.
She tried to grasp for another chain with her already free right arm to pull herself a bit up and let her left arm rest a bit.
Just in that moment people came in dressed formally. Their clothes seemed to resemble that of judges.
She could only see their silhouettes but from the tiny bit of light shining on them from the path they came from she could see they belonged to the kingdom.
Their robes were long and almost touching the ground with embroidery on them resembling the sun, the stars, the moon and The Lord.
This pattern was recognised to belong to the judges of the kingdom since a while now.
"Still no hint of any activity? That trial won't ever be held.", one of them said looking up at the figure hanging from chains.
"Indeed. I've been here for over 50 years now and we were always told that perhaps we are going to be the great heroes holding this specific trial. Yet none of us has had the luck and some of my classmates are already dead.", an older man said.
Judging from his tone and voice he had a lot of knowledge but also pitied his former classmates as they all waited for a trial to happen.
Some younger people who had also come seemed to whisper and some asked what this was about.
She couldn't hear the exact contents of the whispers but she knew that it was again about a trial that was supposed to be held.
How often had she heard that already?
Countless times over hundreds of years.
It was no wonder that each new generation was hoping to be the one who held this trial.
The old man continued to mention some things related to the case but she was unable to take in all the information as her arms were slowly giving up. Her mind was unable to process any information until she would touch ground under her feet again.
Not long after she was alone again and let go of the chain with her right hand. Now dangling in the air on her left arm again she started swinging slowly in a rhythm.
The chain clanked and creaked but it showed no sign of breaking off and releasing her from this painful position.
She continued on with pain shooting not only through her wrist but whole arm and body now, her eyes starting to water and sweat continued to form over her body.
At least I know what to do first after I get out..., she thought as she swung even more and heard another chain breaking.
Was that the one?
Sadly it was just another chain that had held the chain she wanted to break.
After a short break, repeating holding onto the other chain with her right hand, she started anew and this time with the first swing the chain broke and she fell to the ground.
A loud noise erupted as she hit the ground. Pain shot through her whole body as she was trying to crawl further and get up.
"Ouch"
Her legs felt like they had been broken but she couldn't confirm anything.
After crawling for a while the pain was too horrible that she passed out.
Upon waking up she started to shiver realising that the few clothes she had on and the sweat weren't a great combination for an already cold place.
Her legs had stopped hurting as badly and only her wrists still hurt.
She moved them and felt metal moving on them, rubbing even further to open the wounds that were already existing in her wrists.
Standing and moving around she looked for a stone and some light to look at the cuffs that were on her wrists and the remainder of the chain dangling from it.
After a while she had found a stone and also figured the way out which had some light and squatted down looking at her wrists.
On her right wrist the cuff had already corroded from the rust and the wound was badly infected.
With no other choice she took the stone and slammed it on the corroded part of the cuff so it broke and fell off.
The left side was also starting to rust but still more intact so it took a bit longer to get off.
Finally being free of these cuffs and chains she looked around if there was anything she could use to cover the wounds with but found nothing that could work.
Seeing that some fabric still remained on her skirt she ripped off two pieces just big enough that the tattered clothes still covered her and the pieces would be big enough for covering the wounds.
Now all she had to do was follow the path and get out of this hole. Having a roundabout idea where she was she deducted that this was likely the dreadful underground of the kingdom where only sinners and criminals were held.
One question was still left in her mind: Was it really necessary she had this space for herself being hung up by chains for that long?