Alan,
son of Alanna, the Lioness, and George, Baron of pirates swoop, was
completely bored, he had recently became a knight, and the kingdom
was completely at peace, so there was little call for his abilities.
To break the tedium of court life he had returned to his home,
pirates swoop. It hadn't worked things were still tedious, and so
he had decided to take a walk along the beach.
He
was walking along staring at his feet and occasionally kicking at the
sand when something white caught his attention. It was a horse,
standing over something he couldn't quite make out and nudging it
with its nose. The horses blue saddle was askew, and had a pair of
loaded saddle bags and a sword clipped to them.
Finally
something different, he walked towards the horse, and stopped when he
was close enough to see what it was nudging, or rather, who. The
woman had light brown hair streaked with silver,
she was clearly unconscious, and clearly in need of a healer. One arm
twisted at an angle that wasn't natural and she had numerous cuts,
both recent and older.
The
horse's head came up suddenly and it turned to stare at him, and
then, if he hadn't know better he would have sworn the horse moved
to protect the woman from him. He froze, watching the horse watch
him. It seemed to decide after a minute or so of this that he wasn't
particularly threatening and went back to poking the figure on the
sand.
Alan
continued his approach and when he reached the horse, bent to inspect
the woman at it's hooves. The first thing he noticed is that she
wasn't nearly as old as she had looked from a distance, the silver
streaks in her hair had been misleading, by her face she couldn't
have been any older then he was. As he moved to check her injuries,
her hazel eyes snapped open and she stared at him for a second, then
she made a move that looked to him like she had been about to go for
a weapon and then forcibly stopped herself. He held his hands out in
the universal peace gesture and she seemed to relax, at which point
she passed back out.
With
the help of the horse, who seemed uncannily intelligent, Alan managed
to get the woman to the keep, he was fairly certain they were being
followed but he wasn't sure by what, he had out of the corner of
his eye, noticed what appeared to be a large wolf like dog but when
he turned to look at it it had been gone. He had taken time down at
the beach to go through the saddle bags and to inspect the tack which
the horse had tolerated with poor grace. what he had found was
vaguely unsettling, the sword was well taken care of, of excellent
make, and had clearly seen use. the tack was also of excellent
quality, though the worse for it's dip in the ocean. The actual
contents of the saddle beg had been the most worrisome, a book in a
language unlike any he'd ever seen, and badges of rank, that if her
people indicated such things as his did marked her as very high
ranking indeed. There had also been several uniforms, all white, a
quiver of white arrows, the bow was no where to be seen, and a lot of
knives, there were more knives hidden about her person, and scars on
her hands that indicated to him that she knew how to use them.
The
sooner he got her to a healer and they got her woken up the better.
Haran was not a happy companion, Fynius was following them at a distance, but if this strange man turned into a threat, he would have to save Lyra on his own, and that was growing less and less possible, as he was now in a stable being cared for by some rather competent grooms, and she had been taken into the main building. No Haran was not a happy at all.
Far away on the other side of the ocean a young man bolted up right in his bed, something was wrong, very wrong. He reached instinctively for his twin but only received the silence of distance. Still he knew what ever was wrong it had to do with her. Kris threw off his blankets and went to speak with his mother, this was the third time this week he'd had a nightmare. The first had been a storm, the second a dream of being lost a sea far from land, and this one had been vague, but unsettling, he was going to ask his mother to send another emissary, and to start the hunt for Lyra.
