A/N: Wow, it is really, really snowing outside. But that's besides the
point. Thanks for the reviews, as always, to cheler and Raal, glad you like
it. Although I've got some bad news for you Witch fans, don't get too
attached. I've decided to give this fic a sort of Odyssey feel to it, so no
characters outside the trio will probably make a lasting appearance, sorry.
Oh, to Raal, you're gonna have to wait for an explanation for the title,
but don't worry it's comin', just be patient. Happy Superbowl Sunday to
yall, here we go.
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"You're alright now, right, Witch?" Linnet asked worriedly, she and Witch hung back behind the Wesley brothers on the way back to the inn.
Witch had pulled the large hood of her tattered cape over her head to hide her distinctive eyes, which had returned to their nondescript gray, as well as her bruised cheekbone, "Oh yeah," she replied, none too convincingly, "I get that, time to time, you understand."
"It wasn't MY fault," Linnet said fearfully, "was it?" She had been riddled with guilt since she'd put one and one together to figure out those men had discovered Witch's secret, "I mean, I said it loud and clear at the inn." Witch didn't respond, "It is my fault, isn't it? Oh gods, how could I've been so stupid?!" She lowered her head in shame.
"Hey, now," Witch finally said, "Those bastards could've been following me for days, waiting to get me alone to do their work." She paused, and said with a slightly hardened voice, "Though that little announcement certainly didn't help my keeping a low profile."
"I'm sorry," Linnet whispered back. Silence reigned between the pair until they reached the inn.
"So you're fine then, Miss?" Taren said before swinging onto his horse. Xandro did the same, though he said nothing to Witch.
But Linnet still felt awful for what she had potentially caused, and she stood before Witch as the picture of desired redemption, "Do you want to ride with us?" Twin yellow bursts of surprise could be faintly made out in the dark under Witch's hood, "Really, it's the least I can do. I mean, it'll be safer for you, won't it? I don't know about you, but those men seemed pretty determined." The delicate yellow rapidly wilted under a cloud of red and black, and some blue.
Witch nodded her head lethargically, as if agreeing to Linnet's offer caused her great pain, "Yes, you're probably right. I'll ride with you, for a time." Linnet beamed widely as her guilt lifted slightly off her shoulders.
"I told you were takin' well to the bow," Taren said between bites of the stringy wild turkey Linnet had downed an hour earlier. He poked at the campfire with a stick. Its sparks danced into the air, lighting each of the travelers' faces that much more in the night's darkness. But the princess barely heard the compliment; she was watching Xandro watch Witch. Now, she didn't have much if any experience in the field, but all she knew was the look in Xandro's eyes made her grin. She wasn't sure what was causing that reaction.
"So you were saying," Witch returning to the conversation Taren had dropped to compliment Linnet, "about horse disposition?" She had kept her hood up for her own reasons, and Linnet didn't feel the pressing urge to share Witch's secret, even to her closest friends.
"Ah, yes," Taren continued, "You know, it's really in the breeding. If you breed nervous horses, you get nervous colts. 'S simple as that. I mean, some of it could be trained out, hypothetically speaking of course, but a nervous horse is a nervous horse." Witch nodded in agreement, "See, you get what I'm talking about, but the TAILOR over there seems to disagree."
Witch turned to Xandro, who quickly became engrossed with his turkey leg, "Huh- um, what?"
"How could you not agree with that?" Witch said accusingly, "It makes perfect sense."
Xandro picked up the topic so smoothly Linnet guessed he'd had to defend his views many times, "Well, I don't believe nervousness is something to do with parentage at all. It's a consequence of how an animal is treated, and can be cured in the same manner. Linnet, back me up on this."
However, Linnet barely got her mouth open to defend her friend when Taren suddenly sprang from his seat on a fallen log, quickly followed by Xandro. Linnet got up as well and turned to see what the brothers had been so alarmed by. Nearly invisible in the darkness, the only way to distinguish the pair of dark horses from the night was by their winded snorts and clattering hooves on the road. Linnet had set up the campsite just off the road, so only a thin line of brush separated the small group from the two menacing figures.
"Three guess who that is," Taren said bitterly, "And the first two don't count." He was quickly in action, stomping out the fire and packing by touch. Linnet glanced at Witch to see her eyes wide and radiating white light so bright she had little doubt the two men could see them from the road. She was afraid. And then the twin beacons were gone, followed by the girl herself, blended into the inky night as seamlessly as a dream.
"C'mon, we can't stay here!" cried Xandro as he guided Linnet to a horse. She attempted to inquire about Witch, but no words got out as she was pulled by the wrist deeper into the forest.
"We know you're in there, witch!" one of the men shouted angrily into the darkness, "Get out here, and bring your filthy friends with you! We'll teach you all a lesson about showin' your face where you're not wanted!" Linnet ducked her head and wished silently she could push her hands to her ears to block out the horrible words. She also wished that wherever Witch had disappeared to, it was out of earshot of them.
Branches grabbed at her hair and logs seemed bent on lying directly in her path. She quickly worked out a sort of goose-like fast walk of ducking her head and picking her feet up high on each step. She felt like a moron, but the distance it seemed to be putting between them and the men more than made up for it.
Until she felt the heavy and rough hand clamp over her mouth, and another hand wrenching her out of Xandro's hold- that is. The hand that had severed her from her friend wrapped around her waist then, trapping her arm to her side. The arm connected to the hand muffling her screams for help made short work of pinning her other arm as well. She was hefted bodily into the air and carried back the way she'd come, and the air didn't seem very injured by her spirited kicks. She could just barely make out Taren's protests behind her, and quickly extinguished her humiliating relief that she hadn't been the only one kidnapped. But she didn't give up kicking until deposited violently on the road's deeply rutted ground. She landed on her feet, but she had no time to think up a new strategy before her arms were twisted painfully behind her. Her captor had only to apply pressure to the limbs to force her to walk any way he wanted her to go out of the irrepressible instinct not to break one's own arms. On the plus side, however, her mouth was free as a bird.
"Witch!!" she shouted into the darkness of the brush, "Wherever you are- STAY THERE!! Don't worry about us, we'll be fine, just stay where you are!"
"I hate to disagree with you, Linnet," she heard Taren's pain-spiked voice say behind her, "But I actually would like just a hint of help, if at all possi- OW! Hey, I'm walkin' aren't I? No need for the shovin' 'n all that!" Their captors, presumably the two tenacious men, walked them a little ways down the road and then back into the forest, and then into a grove of cedar trees where they had apparently set up camp. Their fire was very small, probably to keep their prey as unsuspecting as possible. Linnet and Taren were forcibly pushed to the ground and briskly tied hand and foot by their respective assailants.
"Try to escape and die a little sooner than planned," were the only words spared on the prisoners before the two men left them alone in the grove.
"Where's Xandro?" Linnet asked Taren as soon as the men were out of sight.
"I dunno, he must've slipped past them in the dark. Where's Witch?" Linnet couldn't ignore his unspoken question of their new companion's address.
"Dunno either, she just kinda- disappeared into the dark. I just couldn't see her anymore all of a sudden."
There was a moment of loaded silence before Taren spoke again, "Please tell me we're not sittin' here, tied up and all but murdered because of what I think we are because of." (A/N: That's a weird sentence, isn't it? Is everyone still with me? Good.)
Linnet sighed, "Witch is a witch."
"Color me surprised," Taren replied acerbically.
"Those men are out to get her, and they think we're one of them."
"Fantastic."
Xandro crouched behind a large tree quite close to where Linnet and his brother had been taken, trying not to tremble. He had to do something very soon, he knew that, if only he could get his damned feet to move-
"Xandro!" a whispered shout made his head whip from side to side in search of the source. He found none, only the claustrophobic darkness of the nighttime forest.
"Xandro!" the voice came again, a little closer this time. He squinted into the empty black, trying to make out anything resembling a talking being. Again his search was in vain.
"Xandro!" The tailor jumped at suddenly loud voice right by his ear. Witch's body seemed to materialize out of night air to the left of the tree. Her face was only inches from his, and her hood was pulled back, revealing her phosphorescent eyes and bounteous red gold hair, as well as her scattered bruises.
"What happened to you?" Xandro said, taking deep breaths in an attempt to flush out the adrenaline, "You just disappeared! They got Lin and Taren, what're we gonna do?"
Just then they heard Linnet's voice ringing out into the trees, "Witch!! Wherever you are- STAY THERE!!" They could hear her voice say something else, but the words were distorted by the trees. Xandro winced when he heard his brother cry out in pain a moment later.
"We have to do something!" Xandro said, finally levering himself to his feet and beginning to walk toward the road. He stopped after a few steps, realizing Witch wasn't following him, "What's wrong?" he said, "C'mon, we have to help them."
But Witch didn't move beyond standing up and leaning lightly against the tree, almost clinging to its gnarled bark, "I can't go out there, Xandro," she said with a trembling voice. Her eyes were burning a fiercely bright white and were wide as coins. It was thanks to that magic light that Xandro could make out the tears falling down her cheeks, "They're here for me, don't you see? I can't go out there. They- they'll KILL me if I do!"
"But what about Lin and Taren?" Xandro said weakly. He felt a cold, burning anger rise in his chest and boil into his throat, "They'll kill them too, do you know that? Or do you just not care?"
Witch clung to the tree all the tighter at his spiteful words, "I DO care, but you don't understand-"
"No," Xandro interrupted, "I don't understand, and, frankly, I don't WANT to understand. All I do understand is my brother and my friend have been kidnapped, possibly killed, because they were nice to you, and you won't lift a finger to save them. That's what I understand. Now c'mon, we're going to save them whether you like it or not." He took hold of her wrist, pulling her away from her death-grip on the tree and towards the road. He stopped just short of the two men as they took hold of their horses' reigns and led them down the road and into the trees on the other side.
"That'll be where their camp is then," Xandro said more to himself than to Witch, who had pulled her hood back over her head. Waiting another moment, Xandro dashed across the road, still keeping hold of Witch's wrist. They dove into the woods a few yards from the cedar grove of the men's camp. Xandro crept as close as he dared to the camp before turning to his unwilling co-rescuer.
"Okay, here's the plan," he said after briefly surveying the camp and his companions positions as well as the men, "Now, it's quite obvious that you can make yourself go invisible, or at least some close approximation of it. I don't want to know how you do it because I don't really care. All I want you to do is to go invisible and try to untie Lin and Taren while I distract the men."
"How're you going to do that?" Witch whispered from inside her hood.
"Not sure," Xandro replied with a grin, "but I'll think of something. Are you sure you're good to go invisible?" Witch nodded, though it seemed equally possible her head had simply started shaking in fear. The white light had diminished, but was by no means gone from inside the hood, "Alright then, count of three. One, two, three."
Xandro got up from his crouched position just as Witch vanished into the dark. He could only hope she wouldn't simply flee for her life as he casually sauntered into the camp.
"Who the hell are you?!" shouted the first man to catch sight of the tailor. The other man turned a dead-eyed stare at him as well.
"Hey," Xandro said calmly and authoritatively, as if he had every right to be there, "Calm down, okay? I'm just here to help you chaps get the witch, is that alright?"
"What're you talkin' about?" replied the first man, obviously the brains, or maybe just the mouth, of the outfit, "We just saw you ridin' with the gutter trash. Hell, you clocked me in the damn jaw in that alley not five hours ago. The hell you talkin' about, 'get the witch'?"
"That IS what you boys are doin' out here in the middle of the night with two restrained prisoners, right?"
"Well, yeah, but why was you-"
"Riding with her?" Xandro finished. His eyes glanced at his companions and suppressed a grin at both their incredulous expressions, as well as a breath of relief as he noticed their bonds begin to unravel by unseen hands, "It was an act, you morons! You and I go about this in very different ways, I see that now. Lemme guess your strategy, may I?" He plopped himself down on a small boulder jutting from the ground, and took a sip from the ale in front of the quiet man who sat near the boulder, "Find the witch, beat her to a pulp, then have a beer. Sound about right?"
The quiet man simply watched Xandro with an expressionless face, while the first man shifted uncomfortably, "'S a little more complicated than that. . ." he murmured.
"I'm sure it is," Xandro said disdainfully, "However, I do believe I do a better job of tracking down the slime, not to mention disposing of them."
"Oh yeah?" the quiet man finally said, his voice like gravel, "Well, share a little of your genius, young pup."
Xandro glanced again at his friends. Linnet wiggled her wrists, signifying they were free, but needed to be off the men's radar. The tailor got up from his seat and moved to the edge of the grove farthest from Linnet, Taren, and hopefully Witch, "See, it's all about getting close to the target before you attack. Set a trap, and then watch her fall in, easy as pie. You see, boys, I get in with the witch. Maybe buy her a drink if I spot her at a tavern, or offer her some help carrying a bag- it doesn't matter. You make her feel safe, comfortable, then- THEN you spring the trap and make your kill. Clean and quick." He started to lean back against the tree, but was too far over and nearly fell, arms flailing, into the dark undergrowth. He lurched back onto his feet and recovered with another know- it-all grin.
"Very impressive, young pup," the first man said, though he sounded more annoyed than impressed, "But, if you'll excuse us, we've got some business to attend to-" he turned back to where he'd left his captives, only to find it abandoned except for the rope they'd used to bound their hands and feet. "Where'd they go?!" was the thing Xandro stuck around to hear before diving into the darkness of the forest and bounding toward the road.
He burst out of the trees just as Linnet and Taren trotted up on their horses, his in tow, "Where's Witch?" he asked.
"She took off as soon as she got to her horse," Linnet reported. She tried not to sound apologetic, but she couldn't help the dip in her voice as she watched Xandro's face fall.
"Oh," he said quietly, putting a hand on his hip and another to the side of his head, "Hunh, was kinda hopin' she'd stick around for my victory party."
"C'mon, hero," Taren said, "I don't know about you, but I'm not anxious to find out just how mad those gorillas are gonna get when they find out just how badly you played them." Xandro let out a self-satisfied smile as he swung onto his horse and the reunited trio cantered into the night.
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A/N: I've decided I like adverbs a little too much. Anyways, see, I told you Witch wouldn't be sticking around too long. But don't despair, maybe you'll see her again, it's a long way to where our hero's are going, believe me. Reviews please!
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"You're alright now, right, Witch?" Linnet asked worriedly, she and Witch hung back behind the Wesley brothers on the way back to the inn.
Witch had pulled the large hood of her tattered cape over her head to hide her distinctive eyes, which had returned to their nondescript gray, as well as her bruised cheekbone, "Oh yeah," she replied, none too convincingly, "I get that, time to time, you understand."
"It wasn't MY fault," Linnet said fearfully, "was it?" She had been riddled with guilt since she'd put one and one together to figure out those men had discovered Witch's secret, "I mean, I said it loud and clear at the inn." Witch didn't respond, "It is my fault, isn't it? Oh gods, how could I've been so stupid?!" She lowered her head in shame.
"Hey, now," Witch finally said, "Those bastards could've been following me for days, waiting to get me alone to do their work." She paused, and said with a slightly hardened voice, "Though that little announcement certainly didn't help my keeping a low profile."
"I'm sorry," Linnet whispered back. Silence reigned between the pair until they reached the inn.
"So you're fine then, Miss?" Taren said before swinging onto his horse. Xandro did the same, though he said nothing to Witch.
But Linnet still felt awful for what she had potentially caused, and she stood before Witch as the picture of desired redemption, "Do you want to ride with us?" Twin yellow bursts of surprise could be faintly made out in the dark under Witch's hood, "Really, it's the least I can do. I mean, it'll be safer for you, won't it? I don't know about you, but those men seemed pretty determined." The delicate yellow rapidly wilted under a cloud of red and black, and some blue.
Witch nodded her head lethargically, as if agreeing to Linnet's offer caused her great pain, "Yes, you're probably right. I'll ride with you, for a time." Linnet beamed widely as her guilt lifted slightly off her shoulders.
"I told you were takin' well to the bow," Taren said between bites of the stringy wild turkey Linnet had downed an hour earlier. He poked at the campfire with a stick. Its sparks danced into the air, lighting each of the travelers' faces that much more in the night's darkness. But the princess barely heard the compliment; she was watching Xandro watch Witch. Now, she didn't have much if any experience in the field, but all she knew was the look in Xandro's eyes made her grin. She wasn't sure what was causing that reaction.
"So you were saying," Witch returning to the conversation Taren had dropped to compliment Linnet, "about horse disposition?" She had kept her hood up for her own reasons, and Linnet didn't feel the pressing urge to share Witch's secret, even to her closest friends.
"Ah, yes," Taren continued, "You know, it's really in the breeding. If you breed nervous horses, you get nervous colts. 'S simple as that. I mean, some of it could be trained out, hypothetically speaking of course, but a nervous horse is a nervous horse." Witch nodded in agreement, "See, you get what I'm talking about, but the TAILOR over there seems to disagree."
Witch turned to Xandro, who quickly became engrossed with his turkey leg, "Huh- um, what?"
"How could you not agree with that?" Witch said accusingly, "It makes perfect sense."
Xandro picked up the topic so smoothly Linnet guessed he'd had to defend his views many times, "Well, I don't believe nervousness is something to do with parentage at all. It's a consequence of how an animal is treated, and can be cured in the same manner. Linnet, back me up on this."
However, Linnet barely got her mouth open to defend her friend when Taren suddenly sprang from his seat on a fallen log, quickly followed by Xandro. Linnet got up as well and turned to see what the brothers had been so alarmed by. Nearly invisible in the darkness, the only way to distinguish the pair of dark horses from the night was by their winded snorts and clattering hooves on the road. Linnet had set up the campsite just off the road, so only a thin line of brush separated the small group from the two menacing figures.
"Three guess who that is," Taren said bitterly, "And the first two don't count." He was quickly in action, stomping out the fire and packing by touch. Linnet glanced at Witch to see her eyes wide and radiating white light so bright she had little doubt the two men could see them from the road. She was afraid. And then the twin beacons were gone, followed by the girl herself, blended into the inky night as seamlessly as a dream.
"C'mon, we can't stay here!" cried Xandro as he guided Linnet to a horse. She attempted to inquire about Witch, but no words got out as she was pulled by the wrist deeper into the forest.
"We know you're in there, witch!" one of the men shouted angrily into the darkness, "Get out here, and bring your filthy friends with you! We'll teach you all a lesson about showin' your face where you're not wanted!" Linnet ducked her head and wished silently she could push her hands to her ears to block out the horrible words. She also wished that wherever Witch had disappeared to, it was out of earshot of them.
Branches grabbed at her hair and logs seemed bent on lying directly in her path. She quickly worked out a sort of goose-like fast walk of ducking her head and picking her feet up high on each step. She felt like a moron, but the distance it seemed to be putting between them and the men more than made up for it.
Until she felt the heavy and rough hand clamp over her mouth, and another hand wrenching her out of Xandro's hold- that is. The hand that had severed her from her friend wrapped around her waist then, trapping her arm to her side. The arm connected to the hand muffling her screams for help made short work of pinning her other arm as well. She was hefted bodily into the air and carried back the way she'd come, and the air didn't seem very injured by her spirited kicks. She could just barely make out Taren's protests behind her, and quickly extinguished her humiliating relief that she hadn't been the only one kidnapped. But she didn't give up kicking until deposited violently on the road's deeply rutted ground. She landed on her feet, but she had no time to think up a new strategy before her arms were twisted painfully behind her. Her captor had only to apply pressure to the limbs to force her to walk any way he wanted her to go out of the irrepressible instinct not to break one's own arms. On the plus side, however, her mouth was free as a bird.
"Witch!!" she shouted into the darkness of the brush, "Wherever you are- STAY THERE!! Don't worry about us, we'll be fine, just stay where you are!"
"I hate to disagree with you, Linnet," she heard Taren's pain-spiked voice say behind her, "But I actually would like just a hint of help, if at all possi- OW! Hey, I'm walkin' aren't I? No need for the shovin' 'n all that!" Their captors, presumably the two tenacious men, walked them a little ways down the road and then back into the forest, and then into a grove of cedar trees where they had apparently set up camp. Their fire was very small, probably to keep their prey as unsuspecting as possible. Linnet and Taren were forcibly pushed to the ground and briskly tied hand and foot by their respective assailants.
"Try to escape and die a little sooner than planned," were the only words spared on the prisoners before the two men left them alone in the grove.
"Where's Xandro?" Linnet asked Taren as soon as the men were out of sight.
"I dunno, he must've slipped past them in the dark. Where's Witch?" Linnet couldn't ignore his unspoken question of their new companion's address.
"Dunno either, she just kinda- disappeared into the dark. I just couldn't see her anymore all of a sudden."
There was a moment of loaded silence before Taren spoke again, "Please tell me we're not sittin' here, tied up and all but murdered because of what I think we are because of." (A/N: That's a weird sentence, isn't it? Is everyone still with me? Good.)
Linnet sighed, "Witch is a witch."
"Color me surprised," Taren replied acerbically.
"Those men are out to get her, and they think we're one of them."
"Fantastic."
Xandro crouched behind a large tree quite close to where Linnet and his brother had been taken, trying not to tremble. He had to do something very soon, he knew that, if only he could get his damned feet to move-
"Xandro!" a whispered shout made his head whip from side to side in search of the source. He found none, only the claustrophobic darkness of the nighttime forest.
"Xandro!" the voice came again, a little closer this time. He squinted into the empty black, trying to make out anything resembling a talking being. Again his search was in vain.
"Xandro!" The tailor jumped at suddenly loud voice right by his ear. Witch's body seemed to materialize out of night air to the left of the tree. Her face was only inches from his, and her hood was pulled back, revealing her phosphorescent eyes and bounteous red gold hair, as well as her scattered bruises.
"What happened to you?" Xandro said, taking deep breaths in an attempt to flush out the adrenaline, "You just disappeared! They got Lin and Taren, what're we gonna do?"
Just then they heard Linnet's voice ringing out into the trees, "Witch!! Wherever you are- STAY THERE!!" They could hear her voice say something else, but the words were distorted by the trees. Xandro winced when he heard his brother cry out in pain a moment later.
"We have to do something!" Xandro said, finally levering himself to his feet and beginning to walk toward the road. He stopped after a few steps, realizing Witch wasn't following him, "What's wrong?" he said, "C'mon, we have to help them."
But Witch didn't move beyond standing up and leaning lightly against the tree, almost clinging to its gnarled bark, "I can't go out there, Xandro," she said with a trembling voice. Her eyes were burning a fiercely bright white and were wide as coins. It was thanks to that magic light that Xandro could make out the tears falling down her cheeks, "They're here for me, don't you see? I can't go out there. They- they'll KILL me if I do!"
"But what about Lin and Taren?" Xandro said weakly. He felt a cold, burning anger rise in his chest and boil into his throat, "They'll kill them too, do you know that? Or do you just not care?"
Witch clung to the tree all the tighter at his spiteful words, "I DO care, but you don't understand-"
"No," Xandro interrupted, "I don't understand, and, frankly, I don't WANT to understand. All I do understand is my brother and my friend have been kidnapped, possibly killed, because they were nice to you, and you won't lift a finger to save them. That's what I understand. Now c'mon, we're going to save them whether you like it or not." He took hold of her wrist, pulling her away from her death-grip on the tree and towards the road. He stopped just short of the two men as they took hold of their horses' reigns and led them down the road and into the trees on the other side.
"That'll be where their camp is then," Xandro said more to himself than to Witch, who had pulled her hood back over her head. Waiting another moment, Xandro dashed across the road, still keeping hold of Witch's wrist. They dove into the woods a few yards from the cedar grove of the men's camp. Xandro crept as close as he dared to the camp before turning to his unwilling co-rescuer.
"Okay, here's the plan," he said after briefly surveying the camp and his companions positions as well as the men, "Now, it's quite obvious that you can make yourself go invisible, or at least some close approximation of it. I don't want to know how you do it because I don't really care. All I want you to do is to go invisible and try to untie Lin and Taren while I distract the men."
"How're you going to do that?" Witch whispered from inside her hood.
"Not sure," Xandro replied with a grin, "but I'll think of something. Are you sure you're good to go invisible?" Witch nodded, though it seemed equally possible her head had simply started shaking in fear. The white light had diminished, but was by no means gone from inside the hood, "Alright then, count of three. One, two, three."
Xandro got up from his crouched position just as Witch vanished into the dark. He could only hope she wouldn't simply flee for her life as he casually sauntered into the camp.
"Who the hell are you?!" shouted the first man to catch sight of the tailor. The other man turned a dead-eyed stare at him as well.
"Hey," Xandro said calmly and authoritatively, as if he had every right to be there, "Calm down, okay? I'm just here to help you chaps get the witch, is that alright?"
"What're you talkin' about?" replied the first man, obviously the brains, or maybe just the mouth, of the outfit, "We just saw you ridin' with the gutter trash. Hell, you clocked me in the damn jaw in that alley not five hours ago. The hell you talkin' about, 'get the witch'?"
"That IS what you boys are doin' out here in the middle of the night with two restrained prisoners, right?"
"Well, yeah, but why was you-"
"Riding with her?" Xandro finished. His eyes glanced at his companions and suppressed a grin at both their incredulous expressions, as well as a breath of relief as he noticed their bonds begin to unravel by unseen hands, "It was an act, you morons! You and I go about this in very different ways, I see that now. Lemme guess your strategy, may I?" He plopped himself down on a small boulder jutting from the ground, and took a sip from the ale in front of the quiet man who sat near the boulder, "Find the witch, beat her to a pulp, then have a beer. Sound about right?"
The quiet man simply watched Xandro with an expressionless face, while the first man shifted uncomfortably, "'S a little more complicated than that. . ." he murmured.
"I'm sure it is," Xandro said disdainfully, "However, I do believe I do a better job of tracking down the slime, not to mention disposing of them."
"Oh yeah?" the quiet man finally said, his voice like gravel, "Well, share a little of your genius, young pup."
Xandro glanced again at his friends. Linnet wiggled her wrists, signifying they were free, but needed to be off the men's radar. The tailor got up from his seat and moved to the edge of the grove farthest from Linnet, Taren, and hopefully Witch, "See, it's all about getting close to the target before you attack. Set a trap, and then watch her fall in, easy as pie. You see, boys, I get in with the witch. Maybe buy her a drink if I spot her at a tavern, or offer her some help carrying a bag- it doesn't matter. You make her feel safe, comfortable, then- THEN you spring the trap and make your kill. Clean and quick." He started to lean back against the tree, but was too far over and nearly fell, arms flailing, into the dark undergrowth. He lurched back onto his feet and recovered with another know- it-all grin.
"Very impressive, young pup," the first man said, though he sounded more annoyed than impressed, "But, if you'll excuse us, we've got some business to attend to-" he turned back to where he'd left his captives, only to find it abandoned except for the rope they'd used to bound their hands and feet. "Where'd they go?!" was the thing Xandro stuck around to hear before diving into the darkness of the forest and bounding toward the road.
He burst out of the trees just as Linnet and Taren trotted up on their horses, his in tow, "Where's Witch?" he asked.
"She took off as soon as she got to her horse," Linnet reported. She tried not to sound apologetic, but she couldn't help the dip in her voice as she watched Xandro's face fall.
"Oh," he said quietly, putting a hand on his hip and another to the side of his head, "Hunh, was kinda hopin' she'd stick around for my victory party."
"C'mon, hero," Taren said, "I don't know about you, but I'm not anxious to find out just how mad those gorillas are gonna get when they find out just how badly you played them." Xandro let out a self-satisfied smile as he swung onto his horse and the reunited trio cantered into the night.
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A/N: I've decided I like adverbs a little too much. Anyways, see, I told you Witch wouldn't be sticking around too long. But don't despair, maybe you'll see her again, it's a long way to where our hero's are going, believe me. Reviews please!