The Rider
It was an hour or so past midnight. She waited inside her tent, listening to the silence around her. When she was sure that she would be able to sneak out of her tent unseen, she lifted her tent flap and silently stepped out of her tent, her staff in hand.
"Where do you think you are going."
Thorn froze as she heard Lathan's hushed voice. She searched the darkness until she saw his form.
"I was just getting a breath of fresh air." She whispered back.
He stepped toward her until he stood right beside her. "You are not allowed out of your tent alone."
"I was only planning to be out here for a moment." She said.
There was a short silence.
"You were about to go visit the uninjured Rider, weren't you." His question wasn't exactly a question.
She straightened. "Not really. I was only going to check on him. Torhte told me to check on the hostages --"
"He was talking about the injured ones, and you know it."
"Please, Lathan."
He stared down at her expressionlessly.
She sighed.
"The only reason you want to do this," Lathan said steadily to her, "is because you know Torhte will be annoyed once he finds out."
Once he found out. Not if. It amazed her sometimes, how well Lathan knew her. Lathan knew that she wanted Torhte to know that she was disobeying his orders.
She sighed. "Lathan, it's not because I want you to get into trouble --" for if Torhte found out that she was wandering around in the dark alone, both Druce and Lathan would be punished.
He shook a dismissive hand at her. "I know that. And that's not why I think you shouldn't do this." His voice was still hushed, but from its tone she could tell he was becoming angry.
She shook her head. "Asianna will not be hurt for something like this."
"Dammit, Thorn. Your sister isn't the person I'm concerned about!"
Her eyes widened as his voice got louder. "Hush, Lathan, else you'll wake the rest of the camp." She glanced around cautiously. "Lathan, don't waste your worry on me. I can handle Torhte. I have been for the past seven years." she said with a pointed look. "Please, Lathan, let me do this."
Lathan shook his head at her. "Why do you have to do this? You aren't doing this for the sake of the Rider, you're doing it for the purpose of annoying Torhte. But where will that get you? Why do you seek to provoke him at every turn and risk yourself when you could just settle down and accept things as they are? It would save you a lot of pain. Have you forgotten what he did the last time you stepped too far and angered him?"
Forget? How could she? During a raid a couple months back, Torhte had wanted her to kill several of the surviving villagers with her gift. She had refused, and her refusal had pushed him into a black rage during which he had broken her arm in two places. Her open refusal had undermined him in his power not only in front of the rest of the bandits, but in front of the surviving villagers, the enemy.
The grip she had around her staff tightened. "I refuse to cower in front of Torhte and be his slave."
Lathan lowered his head so that there was no way in which she could escape his gaze. "Thorn, it isn't about being a coward and a slave. It's about survival."
She pushed him away. "So what if it is?" she cried out a little too loudly. "I still refuse to survive by being his slave. Lathan, please. Provoking Torhte, angering him, it's a way in which I can have control. It's a way in which I could remember that I'm more than a simple slave. Sure, it's the harder way," she admitted, "but I'd rather suffer and go through this than lose myself to Torhte."
Thorn blinked, realizing that sometime during her words, she had grabbed Lathan by the arm. At that moment, she realized how much it meant for her that Lathan understood her and her actions. Of all the bandits, it was Lathan whom she was the closest to. He had been more a father to her than her real father had ever been. "Lathan, please." she said again, her voice calmer and quieter this time.
Lathan stared down at her, an inner struggle working itself out behind his eyes. She held her breath as she waited for his response.
Lathan shook his head and for a moment Thorn felt a bitter disappointment. But then he spoke, "If at any time, your actions push Torhte far enough that he kills you, I will never forgive you."
Her eyes widened as she realized that he had given her his consent. She wasn't sure which she was more happier about: the fact that he was allowing her her foolishness or that he understood her.
~~~~~~~~~~
She stood a good distance away from his open tent, but still had a view of him. Her purpose was to annoy Torhte, not strike up a conversation with the Rider.
The rider sat in front of the stake he was tied to. The other Riders were in their own tents and at different ends of the camp. After the bandits had made camp and settled down, Torhte had told her to bind his ankles, and so, both his wrists and his ankles were bound up with vine. The front of his tent was flung wide open, but the darkness of the inside of the tent obscured most people's view of the captive. Even her view was dimmed by shadows.
Quietly, as to not alert any of the camp's sentries, she stalked toward the Rider's tent, one hand reaching into one of the six pockets of her cloak. She knelt into the Rider's tent and scattered a handful of seeds that produced edible food. They usually led to mushrooms. Bushes for berries and the like took more energy to grow, but occasionally she had some seeds for strawberries with her. Now was not one of those times. If the Rider was a picky eater, than he'd just have to starve, since the bandits hadn't fed him since they captured him and probably wouldn't until later the next day. Sure, Torhte had said that he did not want the captives abused, but it didn't mean that he planned to look meticulously over them either.
Mentally, she asked the vine that bound the Rider's wrists together to untie itself and then settle itself around one of his wrists. It would go right back around both his wrists right after he was finished eating.
Then she turned to the seeds that she had just dropped. ::Grow.:: She said silently. ::Will you please grow for me?::
Although mushrooms, being Fungi, are usually irritatingly stubborn, the seeds quickly settled themselves into the ground and grew. She smiled her thanks.
It was then she realized that the Rider still hadn't moved. He hadn't moved a bit since the moment she had studied him and his tent outside. She knew that he was awake. The pieces of vines that bound him told her so.
Curiosity made her hesitate for a moment, but then she spoke. "I know that you are not sleeping. So take my gift and make good use of it." She used her staff to motion to the pile of mushrooms that had just been grown, just in case he had not noticed it because of the darkness. "My vine will tie your wrists back up after you are finished." she whispered.
The Rider slowly raised his head as if to look at her, but the shadows obscured most of her body and all of her face, as they did to his.
She watched silently, not planning to say anything more or to even move from her spot until he was tied up again.
"Thank you." He said to her quietly. He lifted his arms from around the stake and stretched before reaching for a mushroom.
He must have been starving, he ate all the mushrooms she grew for him. She had to reach into her pocket and grow some more.
He tried to speak to her a couple times while he ate. She just ignored him and pretended to not hear him speak to her. She split her attention between the captive and the outside of the tent, to make sure none of the bandits would come near.
After awhile, he settled back. "I'm finished." He glanced up at her but did not move to put his wrists together.
He let out a hiss of air as he felt the vine around his ankles tighten almost painfully.
"Wait, before you tie my wrists together I would like to ask a question." He quickly whispered.
She just waited silently.
"How are my companions faring?" He asked.
She felt a renewed kinship with him at his question. He cared for the well-being of his friends. As she did with her sister.
She hesitated a moment before she spoke. "I have personally looked after them."
He paused, digesting the fact that what she said did not definitely mean that they were all right. There were several ways one could understand what she said.
But instead of asking her another question as she had suspected, he just leaned back against his stake and rearranged his wrists behind his back, letting her vine bind him again.
As she leaned over him to check her vine, she heard him speak.
"Well, I'm just going to have to trust you on that, aren't I."
