Keira's body shook from the intense amount of fear she felt from her current predicament. After she had told them she was the princess of the kingdom they resided in the three cloaked men she had encountered decided to capture her and were now deciding what they were going to do with her. In order to make sure that she wouldn't run away they had tied up her arms and legs and left her sitting against a tree a few feet away from the camp they had set up for the night.
"Stupid… I'm so stupid…" Keira thought to herself. "How could I let something like this happen to me?"
"So what are we going to do with her?" One of the men asked the others causing her to look over at them.
"I say we kill her." One of them suggested causing her to become even more frightened.
"Kill her? Are you stupid?" The leader of the three asked. "She's a princess and bound to be worth a fortune."
"So what are you saying we do?" The second one asked.
"Simple. We let her parents know that we have her and demand a nice reward for her 'safe' return." He replied.
"You can't be serious. We'll have every guard in the kingdom out looking for us." The second one said.
"That's why I say we just kill her. She's more trouble to us alive." The third one said.
"Don't worry, I have a plan." The leader told them.
He took out a small piece of paper and began to write something down on it.
"There." He said once he was finished. "But we're going to need some proof that we really do have her with us."
He stood up and walked over to Keira knelt beside her. He proceeded to tear off a small portion of the bottom part of her dress but what really frightened her at the moment was how he pulled out a small knife afterwards.
"And just to show them we really mean business." He said to the other two men before continuing.
He grabbed onto Keira's face and turned it to the side. She shut her eyes tightly, let out a whimper and began to cry as she felt him cut her cheek and proceed to wipe off some of the exposed blood from the wound onto the dress cloth he held in his hands.
"Here." He said as he handed the cloth and note to one of the other men. "Find a way to have these delivered the castle in town."
"What's the note say." The man asked.
"That we have the princess and that they are to deliver the amount of gold requested to the pond here in the forest if they ever want to see her again." The lead one replied.
"So they pay us and then we're just going to give her back?" The man asked.
The lead one looked over at Keira as she stared back at him with tears in her eyes. "Perhaps…"
Keira could feel her heart pound against her chest from fear as she watched the man nod his head and walk away into the forest with the note and blood stained cloth in his hands. Looked down at her dress and saw how her tears were washing the blood from her cut down her face and onto her dress, ruining it even more. She tried to break her hands free of the ropes that held them together but it was no use.
"Don't struggle to hard now." The lead one said as he walked up to her again.
"Please… just let me go." She pleaded.
"Don't worry, if that letter of mine can reach your parents I'm sure you'll be free in no time." He told her. "That is if they know how to listen."
"You're not going to hurt me are you?" She asked.
He began to laugh a little. "We'll see."
As he walked away the fear Keira felt reached its peak. Despite how much she hated being there she wished she was still back at dinner with her parents and the suitor, there at least she'd be safe. Her stomach let out a low growl at the fact that she hadn't even eaten anything since the morning. Praying that she would be safer when she awoke, she began to try and fall asleep.
The morning sun began to rise over the hills of the forest and Keira was finally sound asleep as the two remaining began to get aggravated at the fact that the other one had yet to return.
"Damn it, where is he?" The lesser one asked.
"I don't know but he better get here soon." The leader replied.
"He must have screwed up; we have to get out of here." The other man said, panicking.
"Calm yourself down. Beside's we still have the girl to worry about." The leader told him as he looked over at Keira as she slowly opened her eyes.
"Forget about her. She's going to end up dead either way." The other man said frightening Keira.
"W-w-what?" She asked nervously.
"You didn't think we were going to let you live did you?" He asked.
"Y-you said you w-weren't going to hurt me." She told them.
"I said we'd think about it." The leader told her.
Suddenly they began to hear rustling in the bushes and soon the other one emerged from the trees with his hood up only this time he appeared to be shorter.
"So did you deliver the message?" The leader asked him.
"You could say that it got delivered." He replied with a smirk.
"What's so funny?" The leader asked.
"It got delivered, just not to the right person." He told him.
He removed his hood to reveal a much younger looking man with brown eyes that matched the color of his hair much to the surprise of everyone else.
"Let's just say your messenger wasn't that smart." He continued.
"Who the hell are you?" The leader asked rather loudly.
"Name's Jack." He replied. "I'm the farmer your friend tried to steal from."
"What are you talking about?" The leader asked.
"I found your friend trying to steal my horse so he could try to get to the town near here so I had to scare him off. He dropped his cloak and your letter about how you've kidnapped the princess from around here while he ran so I took them both and decided to come looking for you." Jack explained.
The leader took out his knife. "Now that was pretty foolish of you."
Jack removed his sickle from underneath the cloak. "We'll see."
The leader looked at Jack angrily for moment before charging at him and swiping his dagger at him but he managed to step back in time to avoid getting hit. Jack swung his sickle at him and ended up grazing his wrist, cutting it and causing the man to drop the dagger and fall to his knees as he held onto his arm.
"Look out!" Keira shouted to Jack as the other man began to run up to him.
Jack looked at the other man and raised his sickle over his head and when he was close enough, pounded the wooden end of it into his head, knocking him out. He focused his attention back at the leader who was gripping onto his bleeding arm and attempting to escape the scene, his hood now removed revealing his dark black hair and beard.
"You win for now you damn peasant." He said to Jack before staggering off.
Jack put his sickle away and ran over to Keira.
"Are you alright?" He asked as he went behind her and began to untie her.
She didn't answer.
As soon as the last set of ropes fell from her body Keira turned around and immediately embraced him.
"T-thank you so much." She cried as she held him.
"They didn't hurt or do anything to you did they?" He asked.
She looked up at him. "No, they didn't do anything."
He noticed the cut on her cheek and placed his hand on her face and gently rubbed his thumb over it. "What about this cut?"
"It's nothing." She told him. "Just a cut that's all."
They looked into each other's eyes for a moment in silence until Keira grabbed onto his hand and held onto it with hers.
"Thank you. I don't even want to think about what they would have done to me if you hadn't shown up. They were talking about how they were going to kill me and I was so scared. I owe you my life." She told him.
"You don't owe me anything. I just heard you were in trouble and wanted to help." He told her while he helped her up to her feet. "You must be exhausted after all of this. Come on; let's get you to somewhere where you can relax."
A/N: I don't know when the next update for this will be since I have to write for two other stories at the moment. R&R.