I know it's a bit late but I've had to play catch up with work since I was away at the weekend, London was kinda awesome tho I did have an unfortunate incident with chasing a pigeon, and falling on my ass. Anyway! Here is chapter eight! a little bit more of our young Mr. Cousland! Hope you all enjoy!
Chapter Eight
He woke sometime later; the sun had moved higher in to the sky showing that the morning had passed. Fang lay beside him and whined slightly as Aeden grimaced as he sat up right, his shoulder ached and his back stung where he had hit the water's surface. He looked around at his surrounding, the forest was thick but the autumn had left the trees bare and allowed the sunlight to break through the branches.
"You okay boy?" he asked Fang, he barked and wagged his tail in answer.
Aeden smiled as he pulled his pack, which he had thankfully not lost in the stream, towards him. Taking out a small injury kit he gritted his teeth as he broke the shaft of the bolt embedded in to his left shoulder. He set about treating the wound as best he could, the poultice and balms helped heal the worst of it, though the pain remained.
Aeden stood when the pain and dizziness reseeded slightly , there was little he could do for the pain in his back, shrugging it off he turn to his hound, "Come on Fang, we better move from here before those bastards catch up with us, I doubt they think we're dead."
He looked around; he needed to head south west out of the forest to the main road to Redcliffe, after gaining his bearings he set off.
The forest was beautiful, he thought as he walked along the trodden paths, the sunlight shone through the golden and red leaves of autumn casting a warm glow that heated him through the slight chill that had begun to creep in to the air as the sun got lower in the sky, the peaceful surroundings and the soft sound of birds relaxed him as he breathed forest air deeply.
His peaceful musings where cut short when he heard a scream pierce though the stillness. He jerked his head towards where the sound came from, Fang growled as he readied his sword and shield. He made his way through the trees to where he heard voices laughing and angry shouts.
He stopped just at the edge of a small clearing, light grass covered the small area, and a large boulder sat at the far side with a strange long fallen grey tree lay near.
Aeden sucked in a breath when he saw the three soldiers that had chased him in to the forest standing in the clearing, one dragging a young elven woman by her long raven hair as he walked towards the fallen tree.
"Well we might not have found that Cousland brat, but wasn't a total lose." The man dragging the elven woman threw her forward towards the tree. She spat out angrily in a foreign tongue at the three men as they laughed.
"Who's going first?" one of them asked Aeden felt bile rise in his throat as they men begun to argue.
"Fang" Aeden whispered the Mabari looked up at the sound of his name, "protect the elf after I take them by surprise."
Fergus had once told him that he fancied himself a rouge with a shield, though his sister was much better at stealth than he was, he had gotten good at it sneaking back in to the castle when he had spent too much time at the tavern with Ruari.
The skill was serving him well now as he creeped up behind the soldier that had dragged the woman in to the clearing; he drove his sword through his side, the top of it protruding out of the middle of his gut. What happened next was madness, taken completely by surprise the second guard quickly pulled out his sword and struck out at Aeden, who deflected the blow with his sword before hitting the edge of his shield. Fang now stood in front of the elven woman facing out to the solider and growling.
Aeden raised his shield to block the daggers of the third soldier; the shock waves of the blow sent a fresh stab of pain to his barely healed wound. Hearing the warning bark from Fang as the second guard, who had recovered from his shield bash, he twisted just in time to avoid a deadly blow, instead, he lunged forward before the guard could recover from the wide swing and drove his sword through his chest. Quickly he kicked the man's body off of his blade, as the rouge solider slashed at his less protected side, he avoided it in time to earn only a small cut from the blade. He threw his left arm up with a cry of rage and pain as the rouge tried to cut across his throat; he knocked him off balance enough to thrust his sword into his abdomen.
Panting heavily, he fell to his knees, using his sword to keep himself upright. He heard Fang whine and look across to where he sat with the elven woman who looked at him; eyes filled with hate, panic and fear, she had a red tattoo that covered most of her face and short dark hair that framed her forehead, Dalish, he guessed. She sat clutching the top of her clothes that seemed to have been ripped, a red welt covered her left cheek and eye; they would be bruises soon he thought.
He grunted as he stood, replacing his sword and shield, he walked over to where he had entered the clearing and lifted his pack from where he had left it. Walking over to the opposite side of the fallen tree he dropped down on to his knees and pulled one of the three spare shirts he had in his pack, a health poultice, a water flask and a few pieces of dried meat and left them sitting on top of the fallen tree. He smiled at the woman, who had been watching him the entire time, before moving away.
He looked down at the dead soldiers, thinking he should probably move them, "I'm going to get rid of these bodies, Fang," the dog barked happily and wagged his stubby tail at the sound of his name, "stay here and protect the lady."
He slung one of the bodies over his shoulder as he made his way away from the small clear, after a few minutes walking he dropped the body in to a small grove in the ground, he done the same with the other two, taking their coin purses when he had finished, finding one and a half sovereigns and collecting one of the daggers the guard had used. Placing the coin in to his own purse he returned to find the Dalish woman laughing quietly at the Mabari hound as he rolled on his back, his tongue lolling at the side of his mouth as he encouraged her to scratch his stomach.
The laughter died when she noticed his return, smiling at her reassuringly, he noticed she had pulled his spare over sized shirt on, and the red welts on her skin had nearly disappeared. He took the bed roll from his pack, setting it again at the side of the fallen tree. He pulled the sheathed dagger from his belt, noticing the woman flinch, he quickly placed in on top of the bed roll before retreating to the far side of the clearing again, sitting cross legged at the bottom of a tree, staring at his folded hands. She looked at the bed roll and dagger and watched him as she stretched out a shaking hand grabbing and clutching the dagger to her chest. He smiled and nodded when she took the dagger.
Fang continued to roll back and forth on his back wiggling his belly asking for it to be scratched again. "Do you understand common?"He spoke without looking up and though he had tried to speak softly the Dalish woman's head snapped up at the sound of his voice. "Sorry didn't mean to frighten you."
The woman simply stared at him warningly before slowly nodding. "Feel free to use the bed roll," he stood and walked to sit at the opposite side of the tree, facing away from the elven woman and Fang.
He didn't know how much time had passed before he heard the woman fall asleep, though he couldn't blame her for feeling uneasy. He pulled his pack round from the far side of the tree, as he begun to unbuckle his black armour. Every one of his muscles seemed to ache, the wound from the bolt was stiff with a thumping dull pain pulsing through it. The small nick from the soldier's blade, that he had been ignoring, stung slightly as he pulled the linen fabric away from the inflamed flesh. He rubbed the cleansing balm over the cut he placed a small bit of padding to protect against infection before pulling the spare blanket from his pack. He sat and listened to the quite sound of the sleeping forest, preparing himself for the first and only watch of the night.
Aww isn't he nice :D there shall be more Cousland coming in the next chapter so fear not! Mike3207 mentioned the tags changing and in case anyone else has noticed it's cause there's a few different pairings and I'm gonna change it every one and a while. And I've written a few fight scenes (there's loads in the later chapters as well) and mostly cause I'm a little paranoid, I'm considering moving the rating up, let me know what you think.