Chapter 12: Overpowered!

Raven's POV:

Our swords met, and I glared into the red eyes of one of the Soldiers. Suddenly, an arrow slammed into him, and he staggered backward several paces. I followed the arrows course, and saw Will, Seth, Horace and Gilan. I breathed a sigh of relief. I saw Halt dropping soldier after soldier with his bow, and Horace and Seth were a whirlwind of destruction. I deflected another attack, and lunged.

"Raven!" Came the warning call from Halt. At the last second, I spun, bringing my sword up. The overhead blow jarred my arms with its crushing power. I flicked my blade down the length of soldiers blade, slicing deep into his arm. Suddenly, he crumpled in front of me, revealing Gilan.

"Thanks," I gasped. He nodded. I fought my way to Halt.

"What's the plan?" I asked.

"You, Will, Seth, and Horace need to get out of here!" He shouted over the roar of battle.

"I'm not leaving you!" I yelled. He turned to me, his dark eyes glittering with anger.

"Go. Now." He said, his voice ominously low.

"You're sure?" I asked, still worried.

"Of course I'm sure! Just get out of here!" He roared at me. I gave him a sad smile, and turned to find Seth. I saw him off to the side, engaged in a very one-sided duel. I joined him and we moved in perfect unison. He cut the Soldier down, and turned to another, but I stopped him with a firm grip on his upper arm. The look I gave said it all: we're leaving, no questions asked. Though this is the last thing I want to do . . . He nodded, understanding. We fought our way to Will and Horace, who were fighting back to back.

"Will! Horace!" I yelled, hoarse from shouting over the roar of battle. "To me!" Will frowned, and I almost said 'Halt said', but realized that probably wouldn't have the desired effect. Reluctantly, Will and Horace made their way to Seth and me. I pointed to the trees in an unmistakable order. Horace and Seth ran to mount their battle horses, and Will and I followed more slowly, firing arrow after arrow in to the throng of soldiers that were overpowering Halt and Gilan. Finally we made it to the horses, and Seth motioned for me to mount the bay. I knew that the forests, twisted by some magic the Red Soldiers had, would quickly confuse, as it had done Halt earlier. I pointed in a direction and we followed it. I only looked back once, and saw Halt and Gilan fighting back to back. A feeling of helplessness and anguish rose in my chest as I saw an arrow find Halt's shoulder. Then an impatient jerk on the reins brought me back to my present situation. I nudged my horse in to a gallop, and we pelted after the others. We rode at a flat out gallop for several hours before reaching the edge of the forest. Will never said a word the whole trip. Disoriented, and having no clue where we were, we decided to have a vote. I wanted to find an inn (so that we could have lunch). Naturally, Horace wanted to go back to Castle Araluen, and Seth wanted to camp. Will still remained silent. Seth finally asserted the fact that he was a prince, and that we had to listen to him. This brought several indignant protests and we decided to stay here for lunch, then decide what to do. I glanced at the ever-silent Will. I thought I knew what was wrong, and I would have to talk to him later. We lit a small fire and Seth passed out a few pieces of bread, and some chunks of dried, cooked, meat. Afterwards, we made coffee and prepared to discuss our plan of action. I looked from Horace to Will to Seth.

"Will, come with me. You two discuss our options. All of them," I added. Will followed me as we walk out of our camping area, and out of earshot of the two Knights.

"What's wrong, Will?" I asked. He looked up at me, his eyes filled with anguish.

"I should be with Halt! I should have stayed! Instead, I left." He replied. I nodded.

"Then tell me, Will, how you plan to help us rescue him, if you've been captured along with him?" He stared up at me.

"They-they're not going to. . . to . . ." He couldn't finish the sentence.

"No, they didn't, Will. If anything, the Soldiers took them captive and will ship them back over seas and use Halt and Gilan as slaves." Will paled.

"If they do that, I'll probably never see them again."

"No, you wouldn't have. But, we won't let that happen." I saw the confidence returning to his eyes.

"No, I won't. We won't." He replied. "So, what's the plan?" I chuckled.

"Anything that I can come up with." I replied. He nodded with satisfaction.

"Now, are you ready to voice you opinion?" I asked. As I stared at his eager face, I realized I felt sort of responsible for him,my being Halt's sister. He nodded, and followed me back to camp. Seth and Horace were staring at each other with undisguised malice. I groaned inwardly.

"What's going on?" I snapped. "Can you two EVER agree on something?!"

"No," Seth said through clenched teeth. I sighed.

"We'll start over," I announced, leaning against a tree. "Let's discuss Seth's plan first. Seth?"

"Well, I want to go find Halt. Track them before dark." He replied. We worked through this plan, and decided it was not a good one because we'd have to go on all day, and probably without food. The battle horses were extremely tired, as were the riders. Horace wanted to go back to Castle Araluen, and that was dismissed quickly. Will and I won. We wanted to go find a town, an inn, get supplies and rest.

"After all, they won't leave for the seas for a few days," I had said. We mounted our horses and headed toward a gray mass in the distance that I had deemed a town.

Authors note: Wow, this is late! Sorry it's so short, next chapter will be longer.

Mac Gustah: I hope I explained the slight problem of a Ranger getting lost. If I didn't explain it adequately, please let me know. I'm glad you're enjoying the story!

Willow Treaty: I mixed a few of your ideas, and the storyline got a LOT longer because of it. Thank you! Mail's not so bad . . . especially with the odd magazine once a month.

Next chapter should be up tomorrow. Please review!