I don't know how long we rode but for the most part we remained silent which only kept me completely focused on my fear. The strain of my muscles tensing was getting to me and I wanted nothing more than to just collapse and let whatever happens happen. However for as much as my body was ready to give up my mind had other ideas and made sure I was all too aware of my present situation.

I needed a break desperately, physically and mentally not to mention I was starving. I couldn't remember the last time I ate anything but however long ago it was was too long. Plus I figured if I could get my escort to stop I'd at least get a chance to relax a little before I was put back up on this beast and tensed all over again.

"Can we stop? I'm quite..." I trailed off when he shushed me.

He leaned down until his mouth was just above my ear and whispered quietly. "We are being followed."

Well if that didn't just add to my tension a hundred fold. "Highwaymen?" I gasped and clenched the blanket to my chest my fingers locking along the joints from the constant pressure in my knuckles.

"Most likely." He sighed heavily against the side of my head. "If so they'll attack when we reach the trees."

"Well don't go near them then!" I hissed thinking that simple logic said to stay away from the danger of being robbed by avoiding where the robbery was going to most likely take place.

"We have no choice the road leads that way." He nodded curtly and I could have sworn I heard his teeth grind in agitation.

"Just because the road goes that way doesn't mean we HAVE to follow it." I pointed out smartly. "Let's make a new road going around the woods."

At that he snorted at me. "We are approaching a forest there is no easy way around it."

"What are you going to do then?" I pressed tighter against his chest.

"Run for it." His arm suddenly tightened around my waist nearly squeezing me to death. "Hold on."

"Wha..." I started but it caught in my throat when he spurred the horse into a fast run.

I was going to die I was sure of it. There was no way he was going to be able to outrun our pursuers while holding onto me. I didn't know if we were actually being chased after since I couldn't hear anything beyond the rapid beating of my heart pounding in my ears.

I closed my eyes to fight off the terror of all that was going on around me only to suddenly snap them wide open when the wind was knocked clean out of my chest. I was dying I fell off that blasted beast just like I feared and now death was going to take me.

I stared blankly up into the darkening sky with little flashes of light dancing before my eyes. Somewhere in the distance I could hear the sound of metal hitting metal and briefly wondered if Sebastian was okay before I began wondering what heaven was like.

Would people in heaven accept me as I am or would I be ridiculed for being so weak and small? I didn't think they let people that mocked other people into heaven but if that was true then heaven wouldn't accept me. I had made fun of other people in my life and took pleasure in doing so even knowing what I was doing was a sin.

Sinners always went to hell or so the priest from my village always said. Which I found to be rather absurd coming from him the local womanizer do as I say not as I do should have been his weekly sermon.

Maybe I should say my prayers like a proper Christian and ask for forgiveness for all my evil deeds whether done intentionally or not. Would I need to announce them all or did God already know what I've done in my life? If he was all seeing and all knowing a prayer asking for forgiveness for ALL my sins should be enough; shouldn't it? What I really needed right now was a priest so he could abolish all my sins for me making this dying thing so much easier.

"Well well what do we have here?"

I furrowed my brows as I looked at the man standing over me. He didn't look anything like a heavenly being. He looked just as I expected a highwayman to look like. He was in rags that looked like they hadn't been cleaned in a fortnight if they were ever clean at all. Dark hair that was either really that dark or just that greasy and dirty.

"Excuse me?" I questioned and suddenly realized that I wasn't dead or dying not yet anyway. From the looks of the man standing over me with sword in hand I was sure my death was going to be coming soon.

"A little laddie or is it lass?" He eyed me over critically with his dark eyes. "You look like a boy but," he ran the tip of his dirty boot along my exposed leg. "no boy I've ever seen had legs like those."

I tried to kick the blanket back down to cover my legs back up but all I managed to do was hike the blanket further up my body.

"Oh so you want me have a peek and see what you are for myself?" He leered at me and caught the edge of my blanket with the toe of his boot. "If ye be a boy you die if not well I think we'll have some fun then I'll hand you over to the..."

My eyes widened in shock when the tip of a blood covered sword suddenly stuck out though his middle. Apparently he was just as shocked as I was if not more so when he looked down at the large piece of metal sticking though his guts.

"Well isn't that queer." He tentatively touched the tip of the sword and when he did it twisted causing his voice to hitch before he fell to the ground next to me when the sword was pulled from him.

I quickly shimmied away in wide eyed fear and watched as Sebastian wiped his sword along the dead man's back leaving several lines of blood on his clothing.

I couldn't take my eyes off the dead man. I had never seen anyone run though before. Sure I've seen my share of dead people but never once did I see how they managed to get dead.

The vision of the dead man was suddenly gone replaced by a black hooded man. "Are you okay?"

"You killed that man." I said wide eyed ignoring his question.

He snorted at that. "Along with two of his companions."

If possible my eyes widened even further. "Really?"

"Yes." He nodded and pulled me up to my feet then whistled a short series of whistles.

"How? How did you kill them? The same way you killed that man? How many men have you killed in your life? I've never seen anyone die like that before... well I've never seen anyone die period. Did you get injured or did you fight them all without a scratch? How many were there just the three or were there more?"

He clamped a hand over my mouth. "Stop talking." He growled, picked me up, and put me on his horse that appeared during my questioning once again sidesaddle.

"But I want to know." I whined then grabbed him tightly by his robe when he mounted nearly making me fall off backwards.

He slipped his arm around my waist and held me tightly then spurred the horse into a run. "I'll tell you all about it once we are out of here. Just because the rest ran away doesn't mean we're safe."

When the horse took off running I went from gripping his robes to wrapping my arms tightly around his waist holding on for dear life. This constant state of fear was exhausting me but it also made me all too aware of what I was afraid of keeping me focused on holding on. I was to the point where I didn't care that I was a slave, who owned me, or what they were going to do to me once they had me in their grasp. All I cared about now was being off this horse, safe on the ground, and free all this adventure or whatever it was.

xx

"We should be safe now."

"Does that mean we can finally stop?" I questioned completely exhausted from holding on for dear life.

"We'll stop just ahead in that small outcropping of rocks." He pointed towards the rocks at the base of the mountainside.

I looked over my shoulder towards the place he was pointing then looked back up at him. "Will we be safe there?" I did not want to have another encounter with bandits I couldn't take being in this constant state of fear for much longer.

"As safe as any travelers can be in the wilds." He answered with a shrug.

I sighed deeply. "Then we won't be very safe at all."

"Why do you say that?" He questioned as he maneuvered the horse carefully over the rocky terrain.

I looked up at him and for the hundredth time wondered what he looked like. Sometimes I thought that he kept his face covered because he was scarred and unsightly. Others I imagined that he had a rugged face the face of man who has lived a thousand hardships. Maybe he carried the mark of a murderer or maybe he like me wasn't very manly looking at all and hid his face so no one would think him to be weak.

"I've heard many stories of travelers and they very seldom ever end well." I nodded and looked down at his robe covered chest. Even not knowing what he looked like I knew that he was nicely muscled. Hugging him, as I was to keep from falling off this beast meant I could feel the muscles that covered his chest and back.

He snorted at that. "Most travelers only tell such stories to gain the sympathy of whom ever they're telling their story to. People will give them food and shelter and whatever else they may need for nothing because they believe the story they've just been told." He pulled the horse to a stop when we reached our destination. "I've traveled these roads for most of my life and I can assure you people aren't set on by highwaymen as often as you may believe."

"Oh." I drew my brows. "So you don't think we'll be attacked again?"

"Doubtful, two people and one horse aren't worth as much as a caravan of people loaded down with goods. Although the two of us would be considered less dangerous and easier to rob." He dismounted taking me with him causing me to grip him tightly for fear of falling. "You can let go." I could hear the chuckle in his voice and not for the first time wanted to punch him for laughing at me.

I released my hold upon him and stepped away nearly tripping over the blanket I was wrapped in.

He caught me by the arm before I could fall and settled me back on my feet. "Careful wouldn't want to fall and hit your head on one of these rocks," he leaned down next to my ear. "the fall might kill you." He mocked.

"I'm not amused." I hissed and carefully moved away from him to sit down on the ground and leaned against a large boulder. I was exhausted and hungry and wanted nothing more than for this to be just a bad bad dream and over.

I watched Sebastian remove the saddle bags from his horse and set them down at his feet. "What is your horse's name?" I questioned as he began to remove the saddle.

"I never gave him a name." He shrugged and set the saddle on a nearby boulder before returning to the horse.

"Why not?" I drew my brows deeply. "I've never heard of a man taking possession of something and not naming it."

"That's because I don't possess him." He folded the saddle blanket and laid it atop the saddle.

Now that didn't make any sense. "How can you not possess him? You ride him don't you?"

"I do." He nodded curtly at me. "However that doesn't mean I possess him."

"Then what do you call it?"

He reached up, pushed his hood back off his head, and the darkest black eyes I had ever seen bored deep into my soul. "A trade."

"That's why." I whispered as I stared at him. "You don't want people to see your eyes."

He arched a brow at me that was the same black as his eyes which in turn matched the color of his hair. He was midnight, perfect dark black endless midnight.

"Do you believe I will steal your soul?" He smirked darkly at me.

"No, I slowly shook my head. "I'd give it to you freely." I whispered still staring into those oh so dark eyes.

"You'd be the first." He snorted and turned away from me.

Whatever spell had been cast upon me was broken when those beautiful black pools vanished from my sight. I wanted to keep staring into them forever to get lost in the eternal blackness he possessed.