I stopped dead in my tracks.

Berwald, Emil and Tino sat in the center of the clearing, surrounded by four men who pointed various weapons at them. The fire had died down; only embers remained and painted the scenery into a weird red glow. Another man stood before Mathias an me and pointed a crossbow at us.

"What…?" Mathias was confused; I could feel his grip tighten around my hand. He pulled me behind him, shielding me with his body, a motion that was commented with a raised brow from the man before us.

The whole situation was almost surreal. Tino carried a look of obvious fright; he was clasping his hands at Berwalds arm, eyes darting from us to the people surrounding him. Berwalds brows were furrowed stronger than usual, and he watched the men threatening them with a menacing glare, a bruise decorated his face, it seemed he had tried to resist. Emils face was eerily calm, he stroked his puffin with a monotonous movement of his hand, and his eyes stared at nothing, hardly blinking.

The men were mostly clad in leather armor, some wore chain mail, but leather dominated the picture. Their weapons ranged from rusty knives to shiny swords, one even wielded a mace.

"Who are you?" Mathias demanded to know, he sounded as if he wasn't bothered by the deadly weapon that aimed straight at his throat, but I could feel the hand that still hold on to mine, shake.

The man with the crossbow ignored his question, instead he forced us to sit down with the others, all the while I couldn't shake the feeling that he was following me with his eyes. His armor looked to be more exquisite than that of the others, the leather was dark and smooth, harnessing his body like a second skin. He had strictly combed back blond hair, and piercing blue eyes that seemed to be glued to me. He held the crossbow with accurateness that bordered to stiffness, never once relaxing a muscle.

He stepped into the ring his men had formed around us, lowering the crossbow, yet he still kept a very stern composure. Only then did I notice the sword that was belted around his waist. A ruby was encrusted into the hilt, a ruby that reflected the light that the torch casted onto his motionless form. He was the one I had seen in the mansion, back when we had escaped.

So he had seen me. Why else would he be here? But did that mean they had followed us up until now? And most importantly, what did they want?

"What happened?" Mathias whispered in Berwalds direction. "They surpr'sed us, came out of nowhere and pointed th'r weapons at us." Berwald grunted in reply.

"Shut up." One of the men snapped and tapped the side of his sword threateningly against his boots. Mathias held up his hands in defense and tried again: "What do you want anyway? We have nothing of worth with us."

"That is for us to decide." Said the man with the crossbow, apparently the leader of the group, his eyes flicked towards me at his words, and I couldn't help but shiver at the silent threat he had just cast at me.

He said something in a language I had never heard before, the words sounded harsh and angry. The four men saluted and returned their attention back to us, each one gripping their weapon in new fervor and eying us with suspicion.

As if we could have done anything.

The blond man glanced at us over and then began to speak: "I am Captain Ludwig Beilschmidt of the Orushians 2nd armed division, and you are my prisoners. No harm shall befall you as long as you obey my orders. You're valued prisoners, seeing that at least one of you is the descendant of a noble house, worth enough ransom to pay for all of you." His eyes were on me as he said that, and I wondered if he really thought that I was the noble's son. But there was something else definitely off here. The five men didn't look at all as if they were being part of the military, their clothes were ragged, aside from Ludwig's neat ones, and they wore no coat of arms. They looked more like bandits. Or maybe soldiers posing as bandits.

"So where are you going to take us?" I dared to ask, flinching as the blues eyes pierced into mine. "That is of no matter to you." "Of course it is!" Mathias suddenly shouted. "Hell you can't just abduct us and take us anywhere you want, without at least telling us where!" I grabbed Mathias arm, afraid that his outburst would cause him trouble, but Ludwig only shrugged and turned away. I could hear Mathias' teeth grind as he had to stomach the fact that he had been so neatly ignored.

It was the middle of the night so we would stay here for the night and depart first light in the morning. We were wrapped in our bedrolls, hands and feet bound so that we would not escape. Mathias and Emil had to share a bedroll, and Berwald and Tino, I got the single one.

We were separated from each other, I got a place near the rekindled fire; Mathias and my brother were laid in the shadow of the giant rock and Berwald and Tino at the other side of the clearing. Talking was strictly prohibited and every attempt got interrupted with a harsh yell and the threat of physical punishment should we not behave.

So we stayed silent and since there was nothing else to do I tried to fall asleep. But the position I was lying in was uncomfortable, one arm was twisted under my body and no matter how I wriggled around, I couldn't get comfortable.

So I finally gave up and closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep despite the pain in my body. The Orushians who held us captive, sat on the other side of the fireplace and talked among each other. I tried to drone out their voices, but they were too close and too loud. So in addition to my cramped position, the sound of their talking kept me awake.

It seemed to take an eternity until they finally stopped and went to sleep, all but one, who stayed up to watch out for dangers, and probably after us to make sure no one escaped. A heavy body fell down beside me and I realized in sudden dread that one of the soldiers lied directly behind me, so that I was trapped between him and the fireplace. He didn't touch me, but I could hear him breathing and I even imagined the feel of his breath on my neck.

I didn't know how long it took me to eventually fall asleep, but in the end I was simply too tired that the stiffness of my position or the horror over the close proximity to another potentially dangerous human being could keep me awake. So I fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

The first thing I realized when I woke up the next morning was that it was warm. I felt a body pressed against my back and an arm snuggled around my chest. I cuddled back into the embrace, my hazy still sleepy mind assuming that it was Mathias who held me, but a sharp pain in my shoulders slammed me back into reality.

I was tied up.

I was alone in my bedroll.

And the man that held me close lied in his own bedroll behind me, and he was definitely not Mathias. My eyes shot open in panic, but all I could see were the burnt down embers of our fire and the form of a body lying behind it. They must have been still asleep.

I tried to wriggle out of the embrace, but the pain in my stiff arms, increase through the movement only made me wince. "Don't move Gilbert." A soft voice near my ear grumbled. I laid still, every muscle tensed as I not dared to move. The man behind me was the leader, Captain Beilschmidt.

A sharp intake of breath and I was released, the warm body against my back disappeared and a moment later sharp commands were barked. I would have loved to move, but my hands were still tied firmly behind my back and my feet were bound together, I could do nothing more than to helplessly roll around, which I would rather not.

Life came into the camp after that, at least the lives of those fortunate among us who could actually walk around. I was yanked up moments later and peeled out of my bedroll by one of the soldiers, and then pushed down on the ground again so that I knelt in front of the fireplace. The others were dumped unceremoniously beside me.

After we all were assembled, the Captain stood once again before us, a really faint blush marking his face, but I could have only imagined that. Whoever Gilbert was, he seemed to have confused me with him during his sleep.

"I know that one of you is the son of Lord Kohler, and I have a pretty good idea which one of you that is." His eyes once again were on me.

"The question is who the rest of you are?"

Why was that even important?

"I assure you, it will be of great benefit to you, if you answer honestly. If you are the sons of nobles, you can be ransomed and that will increase our willingness to release those of you who aren't."

Oh well, never mind.

"But don't try to fool me; I know enough of your nobility system to know when you're making things up." He looked at Berwald, who was the first in the line of us little kneelers.

"B'rwald Oxenstierna" A small almost invisible smile formed on Ludwig's lips, no wonder, the Oxenstierna were a pretty wealthy family, tied to the royal family through some marriages.

"Tino Väinämöinen." Tino said, eyes locked to the ground. The Väinämöinens were a branch family that had originated from the Oxenstierna and now worked as servants for the main family. They were rather poor and their blood line was mingled with peasant's blood, so they were no longer considered noble. But that didn't seem to deter Ludwig.

"And you are?" He asked as he reached Mathias, who knelt in the middle. I wondered what Ludwig would do when he realized that not I was Kohler's heir, but Mathias. Or if he would even believe us for that matter. By now the cold of the ground had soaked through my knees into my legs and continued to creep through the rest of my body. I just wanted to stand up and get going, everything would be better than to kneel here in this uncomfortable position and being scrutinized by a man who sported an even more stern face than even Berwald.

"I am Lukas Bondevik!" Mathias said with proud, and I would have almost cried out in surprise. Even Emil next to me sucked in air and shot Mathias a glance. But fortunately Ludwig was too preoccupied with the cocky attitude that Mathias presented at the moment, all wide grinning full of self-esteem. "Why is that so funny?" Ludwig asked, brow rose in mild amusement.

"Because the Bondeviks are awesome, and this is my awesome little brother Emil!" Mathias nodded his head towards Emil who rolled his eyes in indifferent exasperation. It almost seemed as if they were truly brothers, and Emil was used to Mathias' antics since early childhood.

I wanted to protest, but I feared that that would only cause trouble for Mathias. What could he possibly hope to achieve with that?

"So you must be Kohler junior." Ludwig now stood directly before me; I could see his boots that shone as if recently polished. Not only that, his whole appearance was overly prim, there was no flake of dust, no stain no wrinkle. Even though he wore rough leather armor, he still gave of the air of a well-bred officer who didn't tolerate anyone under his command slacking of. There was a symbol embroidered on his chest that caught my eye, it was a black eagle on white ground.

"So what is your first name?"

As if that would matter.

"Mathias." I said. The name sounded strange in my ears, it was not meant to be claimed by me as my own.

"That is better than I expected." Ludwig nodded, as if approving a thought he just had and then talked in that strange language of his, which sent his subordinates in a frenzy of activities. Two came over towards us, long ropes in their hands. They began to undo the bindings at our hands and feet and instead tied our hands together in front of us, winding a rope around them. Then each soldier took one rope end and connected it to their belt.

I got Ludwig. Or he got me, depending on how you want to look at it.

It appeared he saw me as kind of the main prize in all this, so I needed special supervising or something. I would feel honored, if our situation wouldn't have been so dire. I had continuously wracked my brain, but none of the plans I came up with held any promise. As long as we couldn't get rid of the bonds there was not much hope of escaping anyway.

One of the soldiers, an annoyed looking short fellow with shoulder length hair distributed rations, on which we nibbled, holding the food in our still bound hands. At least we wouldn't starve. After that everyone got a gulp out of a water skin, but before we could depart, Berwald spoke up. "I think Tino needs to pee."

Everyone stared at Tino, who by the look of it wanted nothing more than to vanish into the ground.

Well done Berwald.

But after some inquiring, it became clear that he had indeed held his water back for quite some time and was led into the forest by his watchdog, the same guy that distributed the water.

"Does anyone else feel the need to break his water?" Ludwig asked, looking around. I didn't feel the urgency, so I declined; the thought of having to pee in front of someone else was unpleasant at best. But I would have to, sooner or later.

Life really liked to bitch around, damn bitch.

But apparently everyone else felt the same as me, since no one spoke up.

Tino and his dog walker returned and the former looked even more embarrassed. I wondered how he even was able to let the water flow while someone was watching. Maybe he was more of a man than me. Well after I tripped and forced everyone set up camp in some random place in the forest, it should be way obvious who was manlier.

Not that it mattered, who was manlier.

After that we started walking, and as far as I could tell we headed in roughly the same direction we had came from. Splendid, all those blisters earned for nothing. Thinking of blisters made my feet hurt even worse, because up until now I had kind of forgotten they were there. Could this even get any worse?

To distract myself from all the sore spots on my body, I shouldn't forget to mention that my backside still slightly hurt from yesterday's sex, I asked Ludwig a question: "So what are you going to do with us now?" I didn't dare to ask him, why they looked more like bush bandits as like true soldiers. Ludwig was silent for a moment, and I thought that he wouldn't answer the question at all, when he spoke up. "We're heading to a rendezvous point, where we hand you over to the head of our division. He will decide what to do with you, but I reassure you they will trade you for ransom."

As if something like that would reassure me.

I wondered what Mathias' father would say if he paid a horrendous sum of money to get his only son back, and instead he would get me. I just hoped that they would indeed ransom us of in packages, but I doubted that Lord Kohler would pay any extras for me and my brother. And I wasn't sure if whoever was in charge of the Oxenstierna would pay for Tino. And what would the Orushians do with us, when they got no money for us?

We really should get out of this as fast as possible.

One of the soldiers said something to Ludwig, but all he got in response was a grunt. Then we walked in silence.

When the sun stood high in the sky, we finally took a break. Our lines were knotted to a low hanging branch of a tree, under which we sat down. It was the first time since our capture that we were all together without supervision. The five soldiers sat leaned to another tree few meters away, talking in their rough language and sharing their water skin.

Mathias leaned against me, his head rested on my shoulders as he breathed into my ear: "Are you alright?"I just nodded and relished in his presence. "Why did you say you were me?" I asked, carefully eying the soldiers who seemed to mind their own business for the moment.

"They won't hurt you and you will get ransomed for sure."

"But-"

"Lukas." He said urgently, "You are the most important thing in my life; I couldn't forgive myself if I ever let you get hurt. I'm sure my father would understand this." So he too was aware of the consequences his actions might have.

There was only one thing I could answer to that.

"I love you."

I felt his smile form against my neck. "I love you too Lukas, more than my life."

A gasp interrupted our time of romance and I quickly looked up to see of one of the soldiers had approached us. But they were still absorbed in whatever it was they were doing. No, the gasp had come from Tino who had just seen what Emil had hidden in his boot. And when I saw it, I could completely understand why he gasped.

"Emil, how did you…?"

"So that was what you fumbled with around last night, you almost got me worried."

"We don't have time for this!"

This could be bad. Or good, indeed this could be very good."

...