A/N: And chapter three is here! Enjoy! ^_^
Anna slipped silently through the foliage, just one shadow amongst the many cast by the branches above her. She had been following the thieves' trails for the better part of an hour now, bow drawn and arrow at the ready. Two of them had taken completely different routes once inside: one seemed to just vanish into nothingness—the signs of someone who knew how to cover their tracks. Another had taken a route over a tracker's nightmare: pine needles. Only the heaviest set stayed easily visible, going straight through the trees, so Anna decided to follow the easiest one as they had already had a head start on her.
The more of the signs she spotted, however, the more tense she became; adrenalin made the colors of the forest surrounding her seem sharper and even the slightest noise from rustling leaves or the various small monsters she passed seemed overly loud. A trickle of sweat slipped down the back of her neck from her heightened nerves; it was almost as if the thief wanted to be followed. The broken branches, deep footprints, and hastily snapped vines that once crossed the path were all signs so easy to follow that Anna was convinced she was being led into an ambush. "After all, no one could possibly be this obvious and stupid about covering the tracks they made unless they had assurance that any potential followers could—and would—be dealt with, and one or both of the other two may have looped back," she thought, nervously fingering the fletching of the arrow she had loosely held against her bow. There was nothing for it, though, the Greenwood Jewel needed to be retrieved as swiftly as possible so she resolved to be as ready as she could for any potential traps or ambushes that she may be headed towards. "At least this is my home turf, my specialty. They probably won't even notice me before I send a few arrows their way. Besides, it's not like this is the first time I've had to track down a bandit," she thought both to comfort and chastise herself.
Anna froze suddenly, aware of a slight change in the atmosphere around her. Heart thudding in her chest, she slowly and carefully glanced around the clearing, wondering what had changed. After a few seconds of careful inspection, Anna realized she could hear faint shuffling noises and low curses coming from the other side of a copse of trees in front of her. Quickly but silently, she pressed up against the thickest one and peered around the edge of it, her anxious heart beat slowing down as the instinct honed by years of experience hunting alone in the woods came into play. Her green eyes hardened into chips of jade, as they fell on her quarry at the far end of a clearing. Anna shifted clear of the trunk and drew her bow back to full draw.
Not twenty yards away from the hidden ranger, and completely unaware of the danger he was in, Matt had deemed himself safe and shifted the heavy sack of weapons and gems he had looted from the Greenwood shop to his other shoulder and leaned against a nearby tree with a low groan to rest.
"Ugh, where the hell are Natz and Lance? They can't be that far ahead of me," Matt wondered. "Oh, well, if I hang around here they'll probably find me. Besides, I doubt that lazy shop keeper is still after me."
The young swordsman glanced over his shoulder at his prize bag with a grin, "Might as well look over the goods! Man, I'm going to buy a whole pizza with this stuff and too bad when Lance and Natalie want some! It'll serve them right for just ditching me back there."
Just as Matt began to put the bag of stolen loot down, a loud thrumming-thwacking sound split the peaceful air and he jerked to the side in surprise, the heavy bag throwing off his balance and causing him to stumble sideways. That slight shift turned out to be a lucky break for him as an arrow seemed to just appear in the trunk of the tree he was standing against, quivering from the impact and just missing pinning his bag to the trunk. Not even bothering to look at who the arrow came from, he started his hindered sprint with renewed, panic-driven energy.
"Maybe if I can get behind these trees fast enough I can avoid becoming an oversized pin cushion," Matt thought wildly, briefly considering that he would do much better if he dropped the cumbersome bag before deciding against it.
"I doubt this mysterious assailant can fire off enough arrows to stop me, anyway," was the last thing Matt thought before an almost inhumanly fast series of thrums sang through the air and a hail of arrows fell on and around him. Pain caused him to collapse on the ground with arrows riddling his back and limbs. The bag fell next to him, contents spilling across the forest floor.
"So much… for that… idea," Matt groaned into the ground, pained words hissed through gritted teeth. Everything hurt and he could feel the warm sticky feeling of blood seeping from the wounds. He listened to the light footsteps of his attacker move slowly towards him, shifting through the scattered goods before stopping next to him. He closed his eyes tightly as he waited for the final blow to fall down and hoped that Lance and Natalie wouldn't meet the same fate.
Anna kept an arrow nocked and ready as she cautiously approached the fallen blond swordsman, half expecting him to suddenly spring back up ad attack her. However, after getting close to his prone form, she saw his body shivering in pain, the arrows stuck in him quivering slightly as he shook. "Stop moving or I'll stick you with another arrow," Anna ordered when he tried to squirm away, causing him to freeze instantly. Deeming him not a threat for the moment, she slipped her ready arrow back in its quiver and slung Sky Feather over her shoulder. The young ranger then removed the sword from its sheath on his back and tossed it out of reach as an added precaution, ignoring his weak protests. Anna examined his wounds for a few moments and determined that they weren't fatal and could be left alone for a little while before she steeled herself to ignore them—she hated leaving anything in pain, even thieves who had just looted her village—and started interrogating him.
"I'm going to assume you are Matt and even if you aren't, I know you stole from the shop at Greenwood this morning. Where is the Greenwood Jewel? I don't see it here among all the other stuff you stole, so where is it?" She demanded in a low, cold voice. "Does one of your friends have it?"
"Greenwood Jewel…? Lance and Natalie… don't care about… that kind of stuff. If the gem you're looking for… isn't here, then I don't… know where it is…" Matt ground out between painful breaths, confirming his identity and offering what information he could in hopes that this crazy archer chick would leave him alone for his friends to hopefully find him, "…More likely she'll put me out of my misery, though," he thought in dismal resignation as another shiver of pain wracked his form. He let out a low moan as spots began to swim behind his eyelids and his thoughts started to grow hazy as blood continued to flow from his many arrow wounds.
"I wish Natz was here to heal me and so…" Was the last thing Matt thought before he slipped into unconsciousness, his body lost all tension and slumped still on the ground.
Anna leaned back and brushed a few loose green hairs out of her face as she considered what Matt had told her. "I don't think he's lying," she mused thoughtfully, before turning to pull an ocarina out of one of the pouches at her waist. "And even if he is lying, I need to treat those wounds before he dies of blood loss."
Anna placed her mouth on the instrument and played a few notes. A circle of glowing runes appeared underneath Matt's unconscious form and the arrows stuck in his body dissolved into light and the tears in his clothing disappeared. A few more notes and the wounds themselves closed over. A final long low note rang out and Matt's eyes fluttered open again. Anna backed up a few paces—keeping herself between Matt and his sword—stuffed her ocarina back into its pouch, and readied her bow, just in case.
Matt, however, just rolled over stiffly with a groan and pushed himself to sit up. He blinked a few times in disorientation before tossing a relieved, if slightly confused, grin her way. "I don't know why you healed me but, thanks," Matt said with a quiet sincerity, "I thought that was it for me."
"It was nothing," Anna uncomfortably mumbled, bow still in front of her but no longer drawn back. "I really do need to get the Greenwood Jewel back, though, so you are going to take me to your friends so I can ask if they stole it."
Matt gave the mysterious, green-haired archer girl a long, unreadable look and tugged on one of his braids in thought.
He was positive that neither Lance nor Natalie would have taken any jewels; that was his thing—along with any swords not in his collection, of course! He didn't know anything about her; plus she had shot him. But then again, she did heal him afterwards, even if she didn't have too. Granted, she was the reason he needed the healing in the first place, but didn't he kind of deserve the injuries for getting caught? Matt noted the slightly desperate look in her emerald eyes; this Greenwood Jewel thing must be important to her. He also had to admire the fact that she came out here alone, seemingly knowing beforehand who he and his friends were, took him down before he even saw her, but didn't leave him to die. She seemed like a trustworthy person and if she just needed information on some gem then he didn't really see the problem.
While Matt was considering all of this, Anna tried not to shift under the intense gaze of the blue eyes that stared at her. She could tell he was thinking about what she had demanded and that he was trying to decide whether or not she could be trusted. Anna began to chew on the corner of her lip in worry. If Matt refused to take her to his friends she could tail him back, but then what would she do? She knew she wouldn't be able to take all three of the heroes on at once, especially with their wits about them.
Matt finally spoke up, "Do you promise to only talk to them; you won't fire any arrows or try to hurt them in any other way?"
Anna's face lit up. "I swear I will not try to hurt any of you any more as long as you guys don't try to hurt me or keep the Greenwood Jewel to yourselves, if they have it," she promised.
"OK, then, mystery chick! Let's go track down Lance and Natz," Matt said with a goofy grin on his face. He walked passed her and scooped up Heaven's Gate from where it lay on the ground and sheathed it before turning back to face her.
Anna blinked in confusion at the strange way of being addressed before blushing slightly in embarrassment as she introduced herself, "Oh, right, you don't know my name! I'm Anna, a ranger from Greenwood Village." She held out her hand for Matt to shake.
Matt shook her hand with a smile, "Well, you already seem to know I'm Matt the swordsman. So now that we've got that out of the way, let's get going!" He turned to start walking only spin back when Anna let out a shrill whistle. He stared at her and opened his mouth to ask what the whistle was for when he heard a rustle coming from the nearby bushes Anna was facing.
He whipped out Heaven's Gate and dove at the small wooden creature that waddled out heading for Anna. Without waiting to see what would happen he screamed, "DIE, KINDLING!" and leapt forward, slicing the Wood Idol in two halves that clattered to the ground. He turned to Anna who was staring at him in shock and irritation.
"What'd you do that for?!" She yelled at him.
"It was a monster, slicing up monsters is what I do!" Matt replied in confusion.
Anna puffed a cheek out in exasperation, "For the love of-! I called it to take all the stuff you stole back to town along with a message of what I'm doing. Now," She ignored the put-out look on Matt's face at the idea of returning his hard-stolen loot and continued, "I'm going to call another one, if you can't handle not slicing it as soon as it appears, then please sit on your hands so you can't use your sword."
Matt rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, watching as Anna called another Wood Idol which proceeded to gather up all the scattered items. Once armed with the bag of stuff and a note from Anna, the creature waddled off towards the village.
Anna turned back to face the blond swordsman who was staring forlornly at where the Idol had been, rolled her eyes, and walked passed him. "Now, let's go find your friends," she said over her shoulder, heading into the trees with Matt trailing sullenly after her.
A/N: Much longer than the last two; I'm hoping the rest will be at least reach this length. I've made healing magic heal clothes too to save us all a ton of conversations and scenes involving sewing. :P Also note that Matt believes he deserves getting shot because Anna caught him, not because he stole stuff. xD
As always, please leave me some reviews! See ya!