I don't own anything except the OC and the plot.

3

Aoife didn't go back inside for the rest of the night. Instead she kept the two guards company and finally ended up sleeping in the tent outside of the cave. She awoke to the rays of the sun and Dana kneeling beside her. Silently the blonde offered her an apple while she watched her nervously.

"I'm sorry, I really am. I wanted to go to a more remote place... but well, that just somehow happened.. in.. you know.. in the heat of the moment."

Aoife took the apple in silence and turned it in her hands. She wasn't angry at the young woman; neither was she prudish. Stumbling upon some couple happened here on occasions, the cave wasn't excactly the most private place and her people weren't shy in general but normally everybody tried to give the others as much privacy as they needed. Not only did it annoy her that they had given her no chance to avoid them, but also had Dana completely ignored her concerns regarding the Orc.

"I hadn't thought that someone would come that way...", Dana muttered and looked at her with big eyes.

Aoife sighed deeply. "I'm not... you caught me off guard", she said with a grimace.

"And I'm here to apologise." Dana's eyes were hopeful.

"Just.. let's forget that happened, okay?"

A bright smile flashed across her pretty face. She stood up. "Of course, as you wish."

"And make sure I won't have to see something similar again..", Aoife called after the young woman as she ran back to the cave.

With a scowl she bit into the apple and knew once she had finished her breakfast, she had to go back inside eventually. The Orc would probably have to say something and she could already imagine his smutty grin. With another deep sigh she threw the apple core into the bush beside her and got up to face the world. Trying to hold her head high and her face as unconcerned as she could, she walked through the tunnel, avoiding to look at one particular place. Druadach was oddly silent, apparently many of her fellow Forsworn were still sleeping. On the top level she found her father speaking to Cathal and Borkul while he oversaw some of the others cleaning up the area.

"Aoife!", Madanach called and waved her nearer. She followed his request with a stony face. "We missed you for the rest of the party, you just disappeared."

"Yep. Slept outside." To her right she heard Borkul let out a breath that barely masked his suppressed laughter but she didn't look at him.

"Anything I can help with?" She turned towards Cathal out of habit. For many years the Briarheart had been their leader and – before he had let the hagravens perfom the ritual – he had been the one she had always asked for guidance. Now he mainly acted as their leader in all matters regarding their war and that left the other duties of the settlement to her and the others. Luckily her tribe was operating well together and everyone did the tasks they performed best in. Aoife herself liked to organise the trades with other settlements and kept the contact to other tribes while she tried to improve their relationships.

"We need to stock up on meat, I think", Madanach answered in his stead.

"I take care of that." Before any of the men could answer, she turned around. Before she left the cave, she grabbed a quiver and a bow and ruffled Meannán's head between the horns. The bright morning sun greeted her and promised a beautiful day to come. Hunting sounded like the right thing to do to clear her mind again. Just the Reach and the wind and some deer and her all alone...

Fast steps behind her let her turn around.

"Oh by the old gods - are you fucking kidding me?!"

"Sorry, princess. Order from Madanach."

"To make my life miserable?" Couldn't her father ask someone else to look after her? Like Uraccen for example? He liked to keep talking about his daughter and sometimes watched Aoife with watery eyes, but at least she didn't want to throw a rock at him right now. Ignoring the Orc she tied a small bag with supplies to her hip, shouldered the bow and left the camp. It was harder to ignore the heavy footsteps following her, though, and it took only a few minutes of walking into the wilderness until she could no longer stand it.

"Could you at least follow me without that much sound?"

"Unlike you I don't like to sneak up on people."

He just had to bring it up and she turned to him crossing her arms. "I did not sneak. I walked a public path to - "

"Someone else would've made themself noticable, but you just couldn't take your eyes off, could you?" Borkul mimicked her and crossed his arms as well. "Did you like it?"

Aoife knew he tried to embarrass her, but she wouldn't do him the favor to blush again. With cold eyes and a shake of her head, she turned around and tried again to ignore him. Borkul followed her close behind.

"No one's here, princess. You can admit it."

The trail led them up a hill towards a few juniper trees. Small wind chimes made of bones hung in their branches and at their roots was a small pile of stones. Aoife untied the bag from her hip and went through its content.

"Or are you mad because it was your friend?"

"Dana's a grown woman and can do whatever she likes." Why was he so persistent on the matter?

"Damn right, she is. And I can assure you, she knew excactly what she was do-...is that a rabbit's head?" His dirty grin faded into a baffled look and stepped closer, ignoring the sharp gaze she gave him. She placed the head on the stones and dug through her bag again. A necklace of antlers followed, as well as an Imp Stool. Lastly she picked some Juniper Berries from the branches above her head and put them besides the other offerings.

"What are you doing?", Borkul asked but she only shot him another sharp glance to silent him. Then she placed her hand on the stones and closed her eyes for a few minutes. Aoife felt his impatience beside her but gladly he didn't ask again.

"I asked for a successful hunt", she simply answered his questioning look.

He snorted. "For rabbits?"

"A deer head would've been better since I'll be hunting deer, but this was all I had", Aoife explained with a frown.

Borkul looked at her offerings again. "So if I have to eat rabbit for a week, it's your fault?"

"Go and hunt your own meals then, sponger!", she snarled and rose.

"You know, I think I do just that, princess. It's at least better than follow some brat around." Finally she had managed to make him angry and so she just crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked at him expectantly until he turned around. She heard him mutter something and assuming it was an insult, she picked up a stone to throw it. It missed him by far but it was enough to let him turn back and growl at her.

"Be glad you missed that, bitch!" Aoife made a rude gestures before she grabbed her bag and left in the opposite direction.

Now that she got rid of the Orc, the day got way more promising. With the wind in her hair and the sun on her back, she walked on. The Reach was rich of game if one knew where to look – and Aoife knew excactly where she could find her prey. The trees here were sparse and the deer liked to graze nearer towards the mountains where they could hide more easy.

She took a direct path, considering that she had to get the body back to the camp, she didn't want to wander too far. Nevertheless it took her nearly an hour until the terrain around her got rockier and thorny bushes grew instead of juniper and grass. From here on she walked closer to the rocks, set her steps more carefully and held her bow ready all the time. It didn't take long until she saw a small herd on the other side of a valley.

Sneaking from hiding place to hiding place, she constently checked the direction of the wind. If the animals would get scent of her, they'd be gone. Aoife settled between two rocks that allowed her a perfect view of the deer and keeping her eyes glued to them, she slowly extracted an arrow from the quiver. She hadn't decided on a target yet, but the magnificent stag was definitely her first choice. Beside providing the most meat, his antlers were a trophy she would love to hang over her tent.

Slowly she nocked the arrow in. Like all Forsworn children, Aoife had hunted with a bow since she could walk and she didn't have to check if the arrow was placed right. The bowstring creaked slightly beside her ear as she drew it and her eyes followed the movement of her prey, trying to predict its next steps, trying to pay attention to every gust that may alter the way of her arrow.

Aoife loved these moments. The moments before she sent chaos over the innocently grazing herd that was completely oblivious of her presence.

Maybe it was her concentration that made her forget her surroundings, maybe it was the excitements of the moment, but the sudden blade against her neck caught her completely off guard.

Her fingers clenched around the string holding the arrow and she nearly let it fly.

"Here we went, looking for bears... looks like we found a totally different game.." A deep voice laughed mockingly behind her back. It was a man and he spoke loud enough for the deer to raise their heads and quickly dart off behind the hills.

Aoife didn't know how many enemies were behind her, but he had said we, so there had to be at least two of them. Two would be okay, she could most likely handle two. More than that and she would have a problem. Her sword hung uselessly at her belt, she had to use the bow. Not a good idea if an enemy already was this close, but what choice did she have?

"Hey, over here, look what I found!" The blade against her neck moved when the man shouted over his shoulder to whoever was out there. It was her only chance.

With a scream Aoife turned, shoving the sword aside with the bow and fired the arrow as her fingers were unable to hold the tension any longer. It hit a stone, but she had no time to mourn her blind shot. Quickly she got to her feet and actually managed to draw her sword before the man recovered from her sudden attack. Throwing the bow to the side, she charged.

Had she seen the other two men who came after the first one had shouted, maybe she had considered running instead. With a surprised laugh he easily countered her attack. The three men surrounded her. They were Nords, dressed in worn leather armor with bows attached to their backs. One of them had two rabbits hanging from his belt. Hunters. Aoife growled as she took a defensive stance.

None of them attacked her, but they slowly walked in a circle around her and laughed at her attempts to watch all of them at once. Her mind raced. How could she best all of them? She had to get out of this situation!

Seeing no other way, she charged at the one in front of her. Suddenly they came towards her from all sides and the next thing she felt, were two arms wrapping around her back, disable her movements completely and lifting her up.

She howled in frustration and tried to kick the men coming towards her.

"Looks like you found yourself a sabre cat, Andnar", a big blonde chuckled. It was the one with the rabbits on the belt. Aoife hissed at him. He had no right to carry those rabbits, they were her rightful prey.

The one he had called Andnar sheathed the sword that had been at her neck not long ago. With a smirk he got closer and ripped her own blade from her hands. For a moment he examined the teeth on her sword and then threw it away with a disgusted look in his eyes.

"Nothing more than a savage bitch, I'm afraid."

"What do you want to do with her?", a voice behind her head said. The man was still holding her up with ease, like she weighted nothing. Aoife tried to kick back and the arms around her tightened immediately to the point were she could barely breathe.

"Tie her up for now. We take her to our camp. Maybe we can use her as bait for the bears – if not, we might as well kill her."