Author's Note: I feel like writing stories really helps me wind down at the end of the day and the reviews coming in lately have been encouraging me to get the story down faster. Thank you guys for your support and enthusiasm! Hehe I get so excited when I see that someone really liked how I wrote something or look forward to the upcoming plot.
Chapter 3: The Forest
Petra found herself forced to wear a long trench like garb over her clothing.
"Perfect! It even hides your hmm what hair color even is that? You have milky ginger kinda hair." The woman named Hange had chimed, still absurdly ecstatic for an accomplice of a royal kidnapper which was more or less considered a felony, no big deal.
"Why are you describing her hair like it's a concept. Does that make yours' shit colored?" Levi had added in passing.
"And yours of death?" The boy named Shane had yelled out from where he was, a bold feat. He hadn't been avoiding her, like she expected for someone who had been attacked in a confused frenzy and gotten his arm hurt in the process. He had passed by her a few times, curiously peering over and even risking a nervous smile or two. The times she noticed, she had simply stared back confused. What is a young boy doing here anyway, she thought, hoping it was nothing along the lines of training to be a law breaking rebel. Her wishful thinking certainly was at play.
When Petra stepped outside the mouth of the cave with the others already waiting outside and Levi at her heels, she found herself on the verge of tears. Despite the enveloping darkness of the night, she could still make out her carriage horse in the moonlight as it lay waiting outside, standing alongside two other grey alabaster horses.
"Pino…?" Holding her hand up to its muzzle, she felt its warm breath exhale out in clouds of cold air, tickling her palm. If that man had brought the horse back with him, that must have left my guardsmen out in the snow with no means of getting anywhere fast enough had they needed to quickly inform officials of my abduction. He had clearly planned every step accordingly.
"We don't have time to stand around thinking about how the world has gone to hell." A voice came from behind her.
"That's not what I was doing." Petra tried to keep her voice as neutral as possible, not wanting to give away any hint of defiance or annoyance, struggling with the latter. Petra glanced sideways in time to see Levi mount her horse and in a desperate realization, began counting the horses again. "There are four of us and three horses."
"You're riding with me." The raven haired male stared her down, most likely contemplating how stupid a rich daughter of a well known german merchant must be to have never come to that conclusion on her own. If he did, he stayed quiet about it.
Before she could protest, a voice from behind "Excuse me, up ya go" startled her and she let out a sound of surprise as someone carefully lifted her up by the waist and placed her on the saddle in front of Levi. When she looked down, Shane looked back up at her almost apologetically. The boy was far taller than she imagined.
She couldn't decide whether to say thank you for the lift or protest this arrangement. Neither did she have time because just as she adjusted herself and took ahold of the edge of the saddle for balance, the horse took off.
She felt dirty. Being so close to this person with unknown motives and having no way to know whether she would be alive at the end of it all. She had mentally prepared herself for the worst at the beginning of the threats faced by her family but it was the uncertainty that made her fold into her body now as the breeze whipped at her face.
Although, she could have been in a much worse situation. The fact that made her current one a torturous settlement was that she didn't know what to think. Were these people safe? They had fed her, clothed her, even been friendly to her? Minus the leader's rude reprieves. Petra found her environment absurdly void of hostility. She was a hostage yet felt oddly unlike one.
Everyone kept more so to themselves whenever they stopped for breaks which was not very often.
Shane lay next to his horse, rummaging through his belongings and she had come to realize he was the group's designated hunter for food. Hange seemed very much a strategist and in sync with their next move as was obvious with the way Levi often let her take the lead in briefings amongst the three of them.
Whenever Levi so much as walked past, Petra found herself straightening up, not wanting to elicit a comment from him. She didn't like him very much. And she found herself almost smiling for the first time with that thought because what were the odds that anyone in her situation should like the person that had destroyed her one ploy to escape the war and have a chance of seeing her family again?
It was when they had entered a small forest, dismounting their horses, that they came across company for the first time that night.
It was a group of three men. All dressed in traditional german clothing: long pant versions of Lederhosens and overcoats. But they didn't look German at all. Nor did they speak German. Much like the group of three she was traveling with.
"Hello! Are you all on your way somewhere?" Their head man asked, eyeing the group discreetly.
"Yes, just a town over is all ha ha!" Hange took the liberty to answer, speaking loud and certain. Despite Hange's show of leadership, the man's eyes came to settle on Levi and then her.
"You all look... new around here. Traveling is dangerous at night, especially nowadays. Would you like us to scout you to the town?" He licked his lips, adjusting his hand around the small potato sack he held at his shoulder.
"We're fine. I'd rather we made the way ourselves." Levi spoke, not even sparing another glance before continuing to walk forward, holding the reins of the horse in one hand.
Hange began to walk after Levi, Shane nervously glancing around before tugging on Petra's sleeve. The man continued to stare at her fully covered form, obviously not done conversing.
"Uh, hey, let's get goin'." Shane pulled a little harder and Petra began to walk but then stopped abruptly.
This was her chance, no matter how futile. When would this kind of opportunity present itself again with other people around like this?
She brought down her hood, ginger hair tumbling down around the perimeters of her face.
"Please! I'm Petra Ral! Please help me! They're trying to take me away!" Her words tumbled over themselves and she found herself gasping for air into the silence that followed.
The three that had begun walking froze. Levi's eyes flew to the men in front of them.
"Impossible. You're..." The man stood shocked, her declaration overcoming him. He looked over at his two mates beside him who were now beginning to open their mouths in surprise. Then a kind of mischievous light flickered in their irises and the head man began grinning at her. "The Ral gal? The one with the...bounty on her?"
She froze, eyes like saucers.
"Tsk tsk trying to keep her all to yourselves?" Without a second exchange or glance at the others, he lunged for her.
She tripped backwards in a feeble rush, falling hard on some tree roots as the man came to close over her.
In a flash of movement, he was suddenly knocked over as Levi dove his knife into the man's neck with one hand and used his other to twist the man's arm into a gross angle. The man started to scream but all that came out was a muffled gurgle. He fell onto the floor of the forest, blood pooling around him.
The scene before her turned into a living hell.
The man's mate came after him, yelling, and Levi turned just in time and sprang forward, kneeing the mate hard in the ribs. He toppled over himself, screaming bloody murder which ended swiftly just as Levi brought down the end of his blade's hilt to the man's head with an audible crack, silencing him.
Petra brought her hands over her mouth, feeling bile rise up.
"W-wait, you're. You're that...You're him." The last man standing pointed at Levi who had stood back up, twirling the bloodied blade in his hand so it faced forward, the next target. The man turned and ran, ducking behind trees as he did so.
He did not reach very far as an arrow lodged square into his back and his body fell forward.
The dead weight way his body hit the floor felt like the loudest sound ever to Petra's ears. Her eyes shot up towards the source of the arrow and saw Shane lowering his bow. Her stomach gave way and she threw up.
All she could register in the moment was the feeling of someone holding her hair up and out of the way as she let out all her hidden fears.