Disclaimer: -Twilight and all characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. I claim no ownership or copyright to any character or plot herein
A/N-Hope you like the story up to date. Please comment :-* love ya…..
Chapter 4
More Surprises.
It was near noon when we finally moved from our safe place...safe?huh.I think next time we better build a tree house. I was worrying why our promised messengers didn't arrive to escort us. Rosalie told me that they promised they would meet us within one day…. But still there were no signs of anybody. No signs of human or animals, this part of the wood was eerily silent. No squirrels, no birds, no grass hoppers and definitely no wolves. I wondered whether we passed their territory…. But yet, this quietness was strange.
"Rosalie…." I stumbled behind rose to keep up.
"yes missy?" her brows were narrowed, trying to see the path ahead.
"Do you feel it too? The silence?"
"Yes Bella… we are entering the deep forest, there are not much animals living here. Forest is too thick and dark…."
I could see it. Though it was noon sun rays hardly filtered through the green wall above. everything here was green and gray.. covered with moss and ferns….
"so where's our guides now? I thought they promised to accompany us today… can we even trust them like this? "
"Bella, be patient dear… there are worthy men. They never break promises.. they are loyal to you…"
I huffed and tried to move with her. My soles were sore…. I never walked like this in my life…not without a rest. Though I threw away my embroidered and beaded shoes back in the castle, even these leather shoes were cutting in to the soft skin near my ankle, I could see red lines appearing, it will start bleeding in several hours…. I tried to ignore the burning pain of it….it'll over soon. This'll over soon….. it was my mantra…
River was getting a little wider in this land, some small currents were joining it occasionally. As we passed the silent land, we realized the forest floor is getting more uneven… soil wasn't hard and rough. It was soft and damp. The soil itself nourishes the river, it has absorbed the rains and now it releases the water to the forest slowly… I think there must be swamps and bogs near….. but our path stayed clear and sturdy…Rosalie assured we got nothing to be afraid….
After several hours we stopped near a very old looking Oak tree, we rested against it and had our small lunch. Bread with some cheese and dried meat. Rosalie saved the vine for saying it's for a special occasion. So we drank and filled our water bottles from the river again. After spending few minutes to rest our hurting feet, we stood up again. And as usual, Rosalie took the lead…. I followed her. Watching the sun start to disappear behind large Oak trunks, and more and more currents joins our river.
"Oh my holy god!" Rosalie suddenly screamed and ran to something ahead on the road. I couldn't see what it was. It was something black and shiny and….
"Oh no…oh no…" I fell on my knees. There were two young men, dressed in black with white Swan sign painted on their armor chests. Both of them had brown long hair, their eyes were closed and they each had five arrows sticking out of their chests. Damp soil was darkened from their blood. And from their faces we could see they were taken by surprise. There swords and arrows were in its covers. They were killed with out a fight. Killed by cowards…there were my men, our guides, and two sons of our royal advisers…
"Rosalie…" I cleared my throat. "Who had done this?"
She was clearly shocked. Rose blinked her eyes several times.
"I think somebody knows about our arrival…. We are in danger miss Bella!"
She unfastened dead men's swords, which were still in its sheaths. She gave me a one and tied the other on her belt.
"I think we must leave the river bank. This is too exposed, whoever now looking for us can not be far away. They'll keep their watch on this path. I don't want to walk in to our enemy's trap. Let's walk in to the forest and go a bit slowly. Not loosing the river from our sight, and not catching their eyes…"
"they look like they were killed several hours ago… " I looked around. Afraid of more arrows that could be shot out from nearby bushes. " Do you think that was the reason for that odd silence?, animals scared by some unknown enemy?"
"I don't know…. " Rosalie thought for a moment. "It doesn't matter….come,hurry up Bella. We must leave…"
"But we can't leave these bodies lying here…" I objected.
"we'll send some men back when we reach caves. That's the only solution.. we don't have any tool to bury them. And we can't just throw them in to the river…" Rosalie stood up and quickly dragged me to the shadowy forest.. I watched bodies of our young warriors disappearing slowly from our sight.
Rosalie didn't stop until we were covered and hidden from outsiders. It was unnerving. We started walking slowly. Sounds made from our own feet made both of us jumpy. We were careful not to step on dry fallen twigs or leaves, but as the forest floor was wet and soggy we were able to walk stealthily….
"Rose.." I whispered "I don't think whoever killed that men are from the castle"
"I'm thinking the same thing miss Bella" Rose brushed away a golden hair strand crept on her face. she looked troubled, and tired.
"I wonder who else need to capture us…."
Just as she gave her hand to assist me to cross a small water channel, an arrow came whistling from nowhere and pierced the tree next to Rose. I shrieked and ducked, Rosalie screamed and started running, still my hand held tightly in hers, and I ran after her.
We had no idea of the direction we ran, all we wanted to do was getting away from those deadly arrows, which followed us, missing us by inches….. We didn't hear anything else, just the whooshing sound of feathers passing us. I could see trees blurring as we ran, I could feel my shoes and trouser getting soaked in mud, it was difficult to run on this soft ground…I was out of my breath, Rosalie was panting but she never stopped, even to check who's following us. I lost the track of time, we could've been running for hours, or just minutes. Finally we came to small clearing, and there was a small mound of earth in front of us, Rosalie climbed, dragging me behind. Then with relief I realized arrows aren't emerging from our behind now. They must have missed us.
Earth was slippery and tricky, we crawled to the other side of the boulder and crouched down.
"Are they gone?" I asked after several minutes, trying to steady my breath.
"shhh! I think they missed us, but we can't stay. Let's move from here" Rose stood up and helped me to get up, I stood up, realizing now that skin in my ankle is literally peeled off. Wincing I took a step down, still clutching Rosalie's hand.
"Arrrgh…. NOOOOO…!" But it was too late. I had already forgotten how clumsy I am. After stepping on an unlucky slippery flat stone which happened to be lying on my path down, I slide down with it, Rosalie not far behind. She was put in to this because she refused to release my hand, though we were slipping so fast in one clear moment I her face, shocked and open mouthed. This situation wasn't humorous at all. But I felt a sudden need to laugh. But when I turn and saw what was there on the end of the slope, my mouth also opened in a shock, before I could comprehend anything, I was thrown several feet in to the air, and fell on the thick pool of mud with a sickening thud. And then everything went black…..coal black….
...
...Some one was prodding my arm, hey… go away…. I mumbled. It was cold, and I smelled something really funny…something is rotting here…. I felt a cool breeze on my face, and my skin hurt, like it's dried, wrinkled… and I realized that my face is covered in mud, and that mud is getting dry, making my skin ache… and then I realized that funny smell is coming from my own skin…aaarrrgh… stupid mud. I spat and realized my mouth was also filled with mud, better shut my mouth next time!
"Hey are you okay lad?" I heard a smooth, a rich voice soft as velvet asking me
Am I Dreaming?
I opened my eyes, finding it's nearly dark, and I turned my eyes, trying to find the owner of that strange voice.
Then I almost gulped the mud in my mouth.
In front of me, stood the most handsome man I've seen in my life. His reddish brown hair were shining beautifully by the dying sun's last rays… and he had a thick eyebrows, and his eyes were green now filled with concern…his nose was straight and he had a sinful mouth…oh god….And he was wearing gray robe, and a denim trouser.. his robe was fastened on his neck, but it didn't cover the golden brown trail of hair that led to his chest…
And then he cleared his throat.
I turned red and for the first time was thankful for the mud covering me, he must be really uncomfortable by my ogling…
I tried to remember what was I doing here.
Then I remembered me sliding down with Rosalie after we escaped from the bowmen..
Bowmen!Rosalie!
I searched for my sword and realized I don't have it with me now..getting panicked I searched for Rosalie, she was nowhere near
I looked up at the strange, beautiful man… crawling away from him
"Who are you! What have you done with Rose! And why do you try to kill us?" I screamed and spat some mud. Looking around, trying to find a way to escape.
The man looked confused, he straightened, and then I realized he was offering a hand to me before I barked madly at him. Why does he help me if he wants to kill me? And then I realized he had a big, old looking sword hanging from his belt, if he wants to kill me he could've done it when I was unconscious…
"I don't know what is you talking about…I don't want to kill you… and who's Rose?" he looked around, and then we both saw a small movement several foots away. Rosalie stirred back to conscious. I doubt anyone could recognize her now!
She was covered from her feet to head in mud. She was like a part of mud pool itself. Then I realized I was in no better condition…nice way to meet a handsome man,ah!then I remembered I'm supposed to be a boy, in this case, Robbin, Rosalie's younger brother.. for the first time I really started feeling jealous of Rose…..really…
"I promise, I'm not going to harm you. I just heard screaming and I ran this way, the saw your body lying unconscious here." He was looking at me, his face holding some unmet expectation… like he's annoyed. oh yes…all he did was trying to help, and I accused him, yelling he's a murderer…no wonder he's annoyed.
He moved close to me and held his hand. I took it and he easily lift me off the ground.. his hand felt so warm, and I was freezing in the mud, I felt my eyes fluttering close, enjoying the warmth in that brief moment. he released my hand too quickly, and he moved to Rose, leaving me standing there… and he knelt beside her, and wiped mud off her face. She opened her eyes slowly. I reached to her and took her hand..
"hey sissy.. I'm here…" I murmured, before she speaks something which would give us away…
"My name is Boston. You don't need to fear me.. I just want to help you"
He assured her. With Boston's help Rosalie slowly sat, she blinked several times and moved her neck.
"Are you alright?" I asked, worried about her.
"yes Robin, I am fine…" she suddenly looked at Boston and jerked her hand away from his, "what are you doing here?"
"hmm…" he sighed. "I could explain, first, I think that smell makes everybody mad. So you too better go to the river and take a long wash. I will stay and then you can question me to your hearts desire…trust me" I looked at Rose, she was asking my permission. I just closed my eyes and opened it two times, giving it…
"Okay…" Rose said.
I looked at him again…his perfect lips were pulled up in to a smirk, and he was looking at us with a clearly amused expression. He was holding laugh! Ass!
I stood up and helped Rosalie. Boston just lead the way without a word
"Hey wait… there could be bowmen up that way…. We just escaped from them" I took a step back.
"Bowmen you say? " he looked at us and the surrounding wood carefully.
"I think they have somehow missed you…come on… I won't let anyone harm you two."
As he walked guiding us, I saw he had a long bow on his left shoulder, and a arrow case on his right, all feathers were snow white..then I remembered those arrows aimed at us earlier today had black feathers…..
After several minutes we were back again in river bed. And Boston turned away, and he walked around, collecting dry wood, and making a small fire near the bank…
I sat down on the cold river bed, water rising up to my neck. And I scrubbed away the dried mud and dirt. Rosalie was removing her clothes, and she threw them to the river with disgust. we had spare garments in our bags, which had luckily escaped from our destiny… and I removed my clothes too, and threw them after Rosalie's floating robe, Then only, realizing what I had done. I turned to Rosalie with an open mouth, she just shrugged and continued washing. after making sure we are fully cleaned and smell normal, Rosalie whispered " Get out of the water once I reach the bank"
Then she walked to the bank, her magnificent body slowly raising out of the water, like a naked water goddess. Boston heard the sound of water dropping and he looked up, just as he saw the outline of naked Rosalie he looked down, and focused on whatever he was doing in that fire.
I hurried behind Rosalie, amused at her cunning mind and quickly dressed up. And then went to the fire, Rosalie was already sitting down, warming herself. Boston was roasting something which looked like two fat birds in a long stick, it smelled divine… made my mouth water….I hoped he has some spare to share…..
"So Boston…let's start with you story…" Rosalie said and my eyes whipped at him, and he held my gaze….
