Forbidden Shadows

Summary: Scanran war. In a battle, Kel loses her memory, her horse drags her out of harm's way, and she goes missing. Confused, scared and with nobody to trust, how will Kel get home? And how will she remember what home is? K/D

PROLOGUE::

She'd never seen so many people mounted and in armor before. They all carried a shield and a weapon of some sort, whether it be a mace or war hammer or battleaxe. Against them, she felt small and timid, despite their forces being twice as big. Supposedly. She didn't feel like much.

Raoul had gone over the formation of this battle the night before. She was one of the knights on the frontline, with two companies of the own behind them to hold the line if the enemy broke through the knights.

Trumpets sounded on both sides as they dived into battle, blindly slashing and blocking, thinking little but the mindless will to survive. If she had time, she would have laughed as the irony of it all. This was what she thought she wanted—to fight in a real war. She just didn't expect it to be so tremendous. There was hardly time to think about that anyway, as she dodged and struck.

She ducked and just missed being hit by a large war hammer, as Peachblossom reached out and plucked the bearer off his mount. Her glaive came around and up, neatly taking three people off their horses. Someone else tried to swing a mace at her. She brought up her shield and as an instinct, cut up with her glaive. The mace's owner suddenly missed the arm he was holding it with.

It occurred to Kel that Raoul was being ambushed, not very far from her. Cursing and swerving, she managed to move the thirty or so feet between her and her former knight-master. Raising her weapon in a war-cry which fitted the moment, she cut her way into the Scanrans.

Raoul turned around to intercept the attack of a heavy 2-handed sword, only to find the blue-glinting steel of a familiar weapon perturbing from his attacker's belly. He looked up to grin at Kel and mouth the word thanks, before turning back to his other enemies. The Scanrans have definitely learnt to bombard the commander.

A yell brought Kel to attention. She turned her horse a sharp right, out of the down swinging of a scimitar. She was blindly cutting and blocking, getting through this battle without been giving time to think about it. Later—a long time later, she was grateful. She would probably be too sickened to keep going if she was thinking about it at the time.

"Kel!" she heard Neal's warning a beat too late. She looked up and swung her glaive up to intercept a strike aimed at her head. The glaive made contact and knocked the heavier weapon out of the way, only to bring the would-be-fatal blow around to knock her on the ribcage. The impact crushed at least half her rib bones, as well as knocking her off her horse, falling headfirst. Before the lady knight had any time to react, the force of the blow smashed her into the ground, her head banging onto the hard, dry dirt with a clearly audible thud, knocking her unconscious. The last thing she registered was Neal's cry of anguish and a desperate attempt to reach her before her vision and soon her mind faded into blackness.

Sir Nealan of Queenscove tugged vainly on the reins of his horse, failing to reach his friend in her time of need, lost amongst a sea of people. In despair, a new thought surfaced: The Scanrans have to pay. With renewed energy, he began mauling the enemy like his life depended on it.

Lord Raoul of Goldenlake fought off attackers, at the same time watching Keladry take a harsh blow to her side. He was filled with worry as he watched the girl fall from her horse, so much that he didn't notice the sword heading towards his arm until it struck.

Alanna the Lioness was on auto-pilot as she blocked and lunged, doing almost the same amount of damage herself as a whole company. This gave her time to notice other things, such as when Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan fell from her horse, her helm slipping from her head and a pool of blood gathering below her. Knowing that she wouldn't reach her and really shouldn't try, the King's Champion turned, biting her bottom lip so tight that it drew blood, unable to bring herself to watch Kel's fate.

Tobeis Boon, Lady Kel's serving boy, watched the battle from afar. There was no way a horse-boy would be allowed to go near the real battle. Still, he saw when his lady fell off her horse. Saw the way she still dangled from her stirrups. Tobe was smart, in his own way. And he had a plan.

Sergeant Domitan of Masbolle was holding his own against the Scanrans, as well as commanding his men. That is, until he saw his friend and now lover Kel fall from her horse, hitting the ground hard.

He had his orders. His brain, the sensible part, knew that he should ignore Kel, that she was no more than another fallen knight in a gruesome battle. But his heart disagreed strongly. It ached for Kel, hurt twice as much as if Dom himself was falling from his horse. Against his better judgment, Dom turned his horse and urged it towards Kel, fighting through a sea of people.

"Sergeant Domitan!" Lord Raoul's voice broadcasted clearly over the crowd, even as he favoured his furiously bleeding arm, "what are you doing?"

Dom looked towards Raoul but ignored his question, knowing that he'd pay later for this insolence. Because of his position in the battle, it was considerable easier for him to try to reach Kel. In the heat of things, he simply didn't consider that he was needed where he was, commanding his men.

"Masbolle!" Raoul's voice rang across the battlefield. "Stop right now!" His voice was commanding, that some of that command sank through. Dom stopped and turned to look at his knight commander. Raoul met his eyes firmly until Dom finally submitted and looked away. He returned to his place in the line, blood and hope draining from his heart like a sieve.

From high up in the air, Veralidaine Sarrasri saw the unmistakable brunette fall, her glaive escaping her relaxed fingers and rolling away, giving off blinding glints of blue. She saw Sir Neal and Lady Alanna, neither able to reach her through the sea of people. She saw Lord Raoul receive a bad cut on his arm and dropping his sword. She saw Sergeant Dom, ordered back to his place amongst the rest of his company. The Wildmage, in golden eagle form, shrieked a warning soon lost to the clamoring of armour and weapons.

Something else caught her eye. Kel wasn't lying on the ground—she was dangling dangerously from her stirrups, her left foot stuck in them. Thanking all the gods for what would usually have been a tragedy, Daine looked around at the horses about to trample the young knight. She screamed one single thought at them, the best way she knew how, and told them to go carefully around the knight. Only half the horses showed signs of hearing her at all. She had expected that. When in battle, the fear and adrenaline prevented horses from being able to hear and understand her, unless they've dealt with her before.

Peachblossom was panicking. His mistress-he finally thought of her as that now, these days-has fallen off him. Madly, he kicked his hooves in an attempt to fend off any attacks to her prone body. The adrenaline and fear made it hard to think. Kel was okay, for a two-legger. He felt the need to protect her.

Then he heard that voice in his head again. The voice of the girl who was two-legger and People, touched with the hand of the animal god. With it, he heard the voice of the Boy who wasn't only Boy, but also a herd-brother. As one, the voices urged him to bolt towards the forest, to take his mistress into the woods beyond and away from the battle. It made sense.

With a loud neigh, Peachblossom snorted and ran for the forest, kicking other horses out of the way and dragging a very still brunette behind him.