A Rescue

[Ambrosia_64]

Lord Rionheart was an honorable, brave man. Born a serf on some other minor lord's property, he fought on the side of the rightful king and heir to the throne Prince Authur when the man's uncle usurped the throne. For his courage in rallying his fellow peasants to fight in his name, he was knighted and given several small parcels of land for his efforts.

He continued on as the King's champion into his middle age before he was widowed, retiring with the King's blessing to his favorite country estate where he now lived with his servants and only daughter. His trips to court were few, but he was known to house the King himself on the royal's occasional hunting trips.

But how he was brought low-his daughter, his precious Annette had been taken from him in his very -gardens--a marauding group of bandits had swept through his lands and taken the only thing precious to him. He was too old to go after them, nearing his sixtieth birthday-and had put out the call for heroes to rescue her.

He would spare no expense, he would send every man already available to him, send every horse and able bodied warrior. He would not die alone.

.....

It had been days of travel, the hours blurred in fear and terror, the hem of her dark blue dress torn and dirtied, tears here and there in the silk revealing swipes of pale, pretty skin. She was a refreshing-if waifish- sight, long, wavy honey blonde hair half out of the braid it'd been in, wide, matching honey hazel eyes full of tears, water droplets clinging to the fringed lashes. Stolen right off her father's estate, whisked miles and miles away to a warzone-she was understandably terrified.

And the things they had said! The threats they had made! Even if her father paid, they intended to try and extort more money-or use her. She prayed they would be happy with whatever sum given to them-that they would keep their end of a ransom and return her safe and unharmed.

But now-now she hears screams and the sound of battle, tears forming once more as the violence, her own helplessness-a struggle with the ropes that bound her arms behind her back around the tree, that coiled around a small waist. A second length was knotted around her dainty ankles, slippered shoes stained with mud and dirt. It sounded as if her captors-the men who had kidnapped her and kept her on the move for days on end to this warzone, who had bound her to yet another tree as they foraged-were being attacked. She begins to tremble, unable to see what exactly was going on, beginning to fear she would be left here for wolves, or worse-their killer would become -her- killer.

Struggling with the ropes, her shoulders burning from being kept in such a position for so long-she tried to shut out the sounds of violence. She had a heart shaped face with soft, cupid's bow lips currently cruelly parted by a cloth gag, her smaller frame clothed in a maiden's chaste dress, the ropes forcing the cloth tight to her body to reveal feminine, if slight curves-the girl young, perhaps in her early twenties.

She was a protected beauty, and perhaps it showed-her hands were soft and bore no signs of work, her skin pale from lack of sun.

 

[LucianDevine]

Sounds of battle were all around Zeke! Even as he fought for his life, he could hear the sounds of weapons clashing together, boots pounding against the earth, heading in every which direction, and of course the cries of the wounded. He brought up his scimitars and blocked a longsword, turning it aside so that he could lift one scimitar free and stab his opponent in the chest.

Even as he fought, Zeke couldn't help but think of how everything had gone wrong. He was a wanderer with no home, and had just been passing through the village. By right, he had no reason to even be on this mission.

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Zeke, along with all of the other men who'd volunteered to try and help rescue duke's daughter, had set out immediately. The tracks had been easy enough to follow. For the bandits hadn't made any efforts it seemed, to hide their tracks. Despite the easy tracking though, the bandits still had a decent head start on the rescue party. That certainly didn't help things, especially since their destination seemed to be a long way away from where they'd kidnapped the girl.

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The sharp twang of a bow pulled Zeke out of his thoughts. He turned to see the shooter just in time to take an arrow to his left shoulder. He cried out with pain as the force of the shot spun him around. He saw another man coming at him and managed to once again parry the blow and counter attack with a lethal strike. No sooner did he turn back towards the shooter, than the man fired again. Zeke managed to dodge this one though, but one look around told him all he needed to know, that there was no hope. They'd been ambushed, and they were hopelessly outnumbered, and men were dying all around him, on both sides. He knew he had to run, because he was no use to the captured girl dead.

Even as Zeke ran, fleeing for his life, he felt terrible about it. He'd never left a man behind in his life, and he knew that he would regret it every day of his life, if he lived to remember the story. It took only a couple of paces for Zeke to realize that he'd gotten turned around. They'd been attacked as they were traveling through a forest, and between the battle, and the force of the arrow turning him around, he didn't know where he was, or in which direction he was heading. There was no help for it though. All he could do was pick a direction and run.

Fortune seemed to smile on Zeke that day though, because he caught sight of dark shade of blue through the trees and headed for it. He remembered being told that the girl was wearing a blue dress. He rushed towards the sight, hoping that it was both the girl, and that he had enough time to get her and escape before they were swarmed.

Zeke knew that he sounded like a heard of elephants moving through the trees, a far cry from his normal skill, but he didn't have time for subtle. He caught sight of the blue dress and honey-colored hair and rushed towards it, conscious of the honey hazel eyes watching him. He was breathless as he approached the girl, and couldn't even begin to try and truly explain why he was there. He could only get one word out though before he was moving to cut the ropes that bound her ankles, and that word was "rescue". No sooner were the girls ankles free, than he was moving behind her to cut the rope that bound her wrists behind the tree.

Though there was no time to waste, but Zeke did move back around in front of the girl, sheath his weapons and reach a hand down to her. It wouldn't do him any good to try and drag a struggling girl through the woods. He could only hope that she trusted him.