A Damn Fine Hunt

[Casalynn Laymont]

Casalynn was slightly taken aback by Arthurs offer. She was not expecting to be offered a bed for the night and especially not in the Castle. She had never slept anywhere but in her 'Uncles' house and anything else seemed strange. It was more like a dream that she couldn't escape the endless nightmare that she was in and if only for a night was better than nothing. She smiled happily in response to Arthur and couldn't quite contain her excitement. She couldn't quite believe Arthur had been so kind as to offer and thought it best just to double check she had got what he had said right.

"Are you sure? I mean... I wouldn't wish to impose. Wouldn't the king have to be informed?" She asked curiously, hoping that he would not reconsider.

Casalynn found it hard to understand the reason for his kindness; she had never been treated this way before. Ever since she had found herself in Camelot, kindness was not something she had come across all that often. Casalynn was still trying to figure out his ulterior motives although did not want to think of that with him. This was something she always did with anyone. Trusting people was something she found incredibly difficult to do and even if someone selflessly did something for her she would always think they had another reason for doing it.

"Then in the morning we could visit my horse?"
Cass beamed a smile at him, still not quite believing how nice he was. She had heard stories about him and they were nowhere near close to the person that he really was. She knew that he would grow up to be a great king one day and she just hoped she would still be around to be able to witness that.
"Okay, I'd love that... thank you, for everything" She said taking the time to thank him for everything that he had done for her; she wanted him to know she appreciated everything what he was doing.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

"I wouldn't ask if i thought you would be imposing!" Arthur said, raising his eyebrows as he waited for Casalynns response. Uther would probably be slightly surprised that Arthur had allowed a peasant to stay in the castle, but he would accept it when Arthur explained hwo late they had gotten back and that he could not leave her to find her own way home. And that was only if he even noticed she was there anyway!

"Great!" He beamed, happy in the knowledge that she would be safe tonight and that he would still have the chance to meet her guardian and find out just what type of man he really was.

In the far distance, Arthur thought he could see a lighter area, and he hoped fervently that it was the edge of the forest. He wondered whether his men ha dgiven up and gone home, or if they were worriedly searching for him in the forest. He put the thoughts out of his mind as they reached the edge of the forest, but Arthur hopes were dented slightly as he realised they had emerged on the completely wrong side.
"Oh brilliant!" He exclaimed, realising it would be at least another hour while they skirted the forest until they reached the castle and it was also later than he had thought according to the sky.
"I didn't realise how late it was, we should hurry now else the guards may not let us in!"

[Casalynn Laymont]

Casalynn's heart almost skipped a beat when she found out they had come the wrong way. She knew this was going to happen sooner or later yet had no idea how or when they were going to make it back to Camelot. Somehow this thought didn't seem to bother her in the slightest, although her horse was beginning to tire so for his sake she hoped they would return back soon. She did not recognize where they were although she swore they had been passed this place once or twice over. Casalynn scanned her surroundings for any signs that Arthur's men may be nearby although nothing seemed to present itself. A sort of eerie silence hung over them, occassionally broken by the sounds of wolves howling in the distance. Although when she thought about it she swore she could hear whispers in the breaks of the bushes.

A slight shiver shook threw her spine as the cold touched her bruised, exposed arms, swiftly covering them back up with her cloak in an attempt to keep the prickling cold out. She gently kicked her horse to egg him on to walk as he was slowing down. "I didn't realise how late it was, we should hurry now else the guards may not let us in!" Casalynn smiled at his words, not quite believing what he was saying. "I'm sure they'll make an exception for you" She said softly with a smile, implying that his status would overide any curfew or similar that the king puts in place.

Casalynn heard the whispers grow louder and turned her head to identify the cause of the noise. As she turned her head a sharp, pointed arrow flew past her missing her face by several inches. She felt the wind caused by the arrow brush past her face and scrape her cheek drawing droplets of blood. She barely had time to react before another arrow flew past her horse and embed itself into the nearest tree positioned right next to Arthur. She knew the forest was a dangerous place, although she had no idea how dangerous it actually was.

"What happening!?" She expressed frantically before leaping off her horse and taking refuge behind a nearby tree. She could feel arrows hitting the back of the tree she was stood against and looked around to see where Arthur was. Hoping that he hadn't been hit by any stray arrows. Still she could feel and see arrows flying in all directions, one landed directly by her feet and she feared at somepoint she may get hit, or ever worse, that Arthur may get hit. She breathed deeply as she looked around for reassurance from Arthur.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Arthur continued on, leading Casalynn upon her horse back towards Camelot and castle Pendragon.
He smiled at her suggestion of Uther letting Arthurs lateness slide, he was not the most leniant king even to his own son and Arthur feared if they didn't hurry they would be resting in an inn rather than the castle.

He let go of the reigns for the first time since they started their walk, and jogged ahead to check they were taking the correct route. He was only just out of Casalynns line of sight, but while he was gone something happened.
It was her yell of "Whats happening!?" which really alerted him to the danger, and he ran back as quickly as he could.

Cas was cowering behind a tree, blood trickling down her cheek and a plethera of arrows laying at her feet. She looked terrified and Arthur instantly drew his sword, wishing that his men were here, for it was with them that he had left his crossbow.
"Stay back and keep behind trees!" He ordered, crouching down into the undergrowth and crawling on his belly towards the source of the firing. He had to protect this girl, but doing so could cost him his life. Those thought didn't do so much as enter his mind though, all we wanted to do was save her.

[Casalynn Laymont]

Casalynn followed Arthur's orders and stayed put behind the tree. She couldn't help but feel a bit useless, letting Arthur do all the work whilst she took cover. She didn't want Arthur to put his life in danger for hers, as on so many levels he was much more important than she was. She glanced around the tree and saw Arthur crouched on the floor, hoards of arrows flying straight over him. She saw a man hidden behind the tree's with a sharp sword entrusted in his hands, looking as though he was about to pounce at any moment.

The man tip-toed out of the site of Arthur and silently walked behind him. As the man raised his sword, Casalynn feared that he had not seen the man who was about to slice his head off. She was about to scream and warn Arthur but instead something else erupted out of her mouth. "Hathien". The spell danced off her tongue and guided towards the man's sword which was held high above his head. The handle glowed a bright orange and smoke rose from his hands immediatly making him drop his sword.

The man squeled in surprise and doubled back into the forest to avoid a confrontation with Arthur. Casalynn had only whispered the incantation so she doubted that Arthur had heard her or at least she hoped he hadn't. She had never used the spell before and had no idea where she had heard it from although that was the last thought on her mind. Arrows were still flying from every direction and to make matters worse it was more aggressive than before. Now the men were coming out from their hiding places but still no break in the arrow firing.

Jeez, how many arrows do these people have!? Casalynn thought to herself, not daring to move in case she was discovered. She had no idea what these men wanted and had no intention of finding out. She heard a loud neigh of her horse and it was a reflex reaction to turn around and see what the course of his unexpected eruption was. She saw a single arrow sticking out of her horses shoulder and immediatly felt pained at the sight. Her horse bucked and then cantered off out of site.
"Arthur!?" She shouted, trying to find out if he was okay.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

A break in the torrent of arrows left Arthur guessing the archers were fitting more to their bows, and he took the oppurtunity to stand up directly in front of one of the men. With a deft swing of his sword, he completely severed the mans head from his shoulders, before ducking straight back down to the ground again.
From this position Arthur had a good view of where the archers stood, but they had a very bad one of him. All around him through gaps in the plants and grass, he could see heavy boots, and he noticed that several of them were heading this way. He wriggled backwards, trying to get as far away from the corpse as he could.

He was biding his time, far from the body and waiting for things to settle back down. The arrows were still flying and he could only hope that Casalynn had had the sense to stay out of sight and not try to use the sword he had seen her with. Whether this attack was for her benefit or his own he had no clue, but it mattered little to him, for justice was all he could think of.

A pained yell sounded from just behind him, and he rolled onto his back just in time to see a man drop his sword as it burnt his hands. The pommel of the blade was glowing a bright orange and Arthur sensed it must be magic- Although who was using it?

He continued winding his way across the forest floor, jumping up and attacking all the lone men. The remainder were banding together in hope of protecting each other, and Arthur didn't believe it was a sensible idea to try and take on near twelve men alone. Instead he wormed his way back to Casalynn, who luckily was still behind that tree.

"Are you hurt?" He said, standing up and brushing the dirt from his knees. He was grass stained and tired, but barely noticed due to the adrenaline pumping through his veins.
"We need to get out of here, I don't know what they want, but if they come this way, we won't be able to escape their swords." He made as if to drag Casalynn away.

[Casalynn Laymont]

Casalynn shifted her eyes from left to right as a few arrows shot through the air past her. She had no idea how long this was going to carry on for as eventually the men would run out of their seemingly ever-lasting arrows. Out of the hundreds of arrows they were shooting she found is near impossible that non of them had been seriously hurt; that was of course except for her horse. There were only two of them and she was rendered almost useless, against at least 5 times as many people. She was soon beginning to determine this was a fight they were going to lose.

Casalynn was relieved to see the familiar face of Arthur, and that he didn't seem to be hurt. She immediatly expressed a sigh of relief and shook her head when Arthur asked if she was hurt. Although her face was throbbing and her arms bared various wounds caused by stray arrows, none of them were serious and mainly only surface wounds. "No, just a few scratches and bruises." She said, her voice slightly hushed for some unknown reason.

Casalynn understood their need for escape as so far they had only managed to evade injury with luck, yet it was soon bound to run out if they were followed and then confronted. The only snag in their plan was they had no idea where they were and which way it was to get back. It was likely their attackers knew the forest better than they did, so they had the upperhand on that. She was prepared to follow Arthur wherever he went and they would just have to hope they wouldn't be followed although life never seemed to be that easy.

"Which way do we go? It's getting dark so it won't exactly be easy to see where were going. Plus there could be more of them and..." Casalynn was interupted mid speech. She could feel the vibrations on the ground, crunching leaves were disappearing underfoot which indicated their attackers were now gaining on them, and running out of their previous positions. Casalynn had just enough time to shout out before the men leaped out at her and Arthur. "Run!"

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Arthur was relieved that Casalynn was not seriously hurt, he had no idea how he would have possibly explained any injuries to her guardian. As far as he knew, Arthur was just a strange man his ward had met in the forest, not the best way to introduce himself either- with a girl with broken bones.

Still, she was safe and so was Arthur. He turned his head to the left, and then sharply to the right as he debated which way to go. It was so dark now that even Arthur's sharp eyes could barely see a thing, and he had no flints with which to light a torch.
He was just debating how they might possibly start a fire, when Casalynn screamed "Run!".

He didn't hesitate, in fact he yanked Casalynn's hand so hard he was scared he might pull it off. Soon they were fleeing. Feet pounding against the wet ground, the odd branch scraping against their face. Arthur knew that there were more men than he could handle behind him and he just hoped that the reached Camelot ground before the men caught up.

So far all Arthur could hear was a muted set of shouts behind him, he was surprised taht Casalynn had heard them so far in advance. Did she have magic of her own?

[Casalynn Laymont]

Casalynn felt Arthur grab her hand and drag her along. She followed close in the footsteps of Arthur, as she feared if she broke apart from him she would soon fall behind. She wasn't the fastest runner in the world and definatly couldn't outrun the likes of their attackers. She couldn't tell if they were still being followed as their footsteps were enough to cover any other sound in the forest. She fought back the urge to turn her head and look to see if there was any signs that they had company, although knew it was a bad idea as her eyes needed to be kept infront to avoid any potential obstacles that she could fall over.

The last thing that Arthur needed was for her to trip and fall, so she was trying her best to prevent that. She was clumsy at the best of times, yet add a hint of life and death and things got a whole lot worse. Casalynn picked her long cloak up off the floor in an attempt to steer clear of falling over it and kept her eyes on the ground to avoid any twigs or uprooted tree trunks. She clung on to Arthur's hand feeling a slight epiphany come to mind. He was the Prince, future king of Camelot and if any harm ever came to him then she would surely pay the price king Uther would be determined to settle.

She felt a slight hint of guilt knowing that he could die or become injured because of her stupidity and she didn't want that sort of burden on her shoulders. She thought about offering a distraction so that Arthur could escape safely, yet in the short time she had known him she knew him well enough that he wouldn't allow her to do that. She weighed up the situation in her head and tried to figure out the best course of action.

Without thinking she turned her head, her curiosity becoming too much to contain. She saw light in the distance, gaining on them with speed. It didn't take her eyes long to adjust to the sudden light and she could see 4 distinct figures running rapidly. Each one of them held a torch, the flames flickering wildly in unison with the strong wind. She wipped her head back around to focus on where she was going and just in time managed to duck her head to miss a low-hanging branch on a tall-standing tree. She panted in slight shock of the narrow miss and expressed her concerns to Arthur.

"There following us. They have torches too." She said in between taking gasps of air.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Arthur felt Casalynn clinging tightly to his hand as the two of them fled through the forest. The ground was rough, full of shrubs and coarse grass, and running across it wasn't the easiest task. It didn't help that they had head high obstacles to avoid too, what with low branches and twigs.

He felt her pull against his hand and noticed she had turned back, he followed her gaze but saw nothing but blackness.
"There following us. They have torches too." She said brethlessly.
Arthur narrowed his eyes, were his eyes not as sharp as he had thought? He had best see Gaius if he ever made it out of here.

"We need to keep going, faster!" He yelled, giving an extra sharp tug on Cas's hand. He could feel her struggling with the speed though, and with one swft movement he put his arm around her shoulders and the other behind her knees, and swept her up into his arms.
"Sorry!" He grinned, and continued running perhaps not as fast as he normally could, but her figure was not heavy and they were travelling faster than they had been.

It wasn't long until the towers of castle Pendrgaon could be seen through the patchy leaves at the edge of the forest and Arthur breathed a sigh of relief.
"We're nearly there!" He smiled, setting Casalynn back on her feet. "Are they still behind us?"

[Casalynn Laymont]

Casalynn's little legs were struggling to keep up the pace Arthur had set and as if to make things worse a quicker pace was needed. She knew if they carried on at the pace they were going, their attackers would soon catch up with them. She knew it was partly her fault that they were going at this pace but that was soon corrected. Casalynn felt herself being lifted off the ground by Arthur and heard him grin a quick sorry before picking up his speed. She placed her arm around his neck to aid him in lifting her, and she hoped to god that he wouldn't trip or fall over any twigs or branches as she was bound to bear the front of that impact.

"No complaints from me" She muttered beginning to regain her breath. Her eyes flickered to the site of the towers of Camelot Castle and immediatly began to feel safety. She knew it wouldn't take long for them to exit the forest and enter the safety and warmth of Camelot but she knew if they were still being followed it would spell a certain amount of trouble. She didn't want to bring any danger into the grounds of Camelot and she was sure Arthur wouldn't want to do that either.

Casalynn listened to Arthurs question and turned her head as soon as her feet returned to the ground. She narrowed her eyes to concentrate on any signs of movement and could see none. She could still see traces of light given off by the torches, yet the men seemed to be stationary and not moving. A sigh of relief escaped from her mouth and she returned her gaze to Arthur and shook her head. "No, I think they've stopped" She said still slightly panting.

As she gazed into the forest, her mind buzzed over the experience that she had just encountered. Her mind stumbled over the thought of her horse, and she wondered where he had ran off too. He was injured, probably dazed and disorientated, she hoped that he was alright. And she desperatly hoped that their attackers had not got their hands on her horse. Her eyes dropped to the floor and then raised them to look at the Castle. It felt wierd to be returning home without her horse in tow.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Arthur breathed for what felt like the first time in hourse as Casalynn told him that she didnt think the ambushers were following them. He could only hope that her seemingly incredible eyesight was as remarkable as it seemed.
The pair rested for a few minutes, catching their breath and planning their next move. If Casalynn was correct, and it seemed that she was, the attackers had gone and it was safe to enter into Camelot without fear of being followed, but he still worried that he may have just led them right to the city's gates.

"Well it doesn't seem like we will be under any more attacks tonight." He said, finally getting enough energy back to speak, "We should get going, we will be much safer once we pass the gates." He began walking slowly, not having the energy or the will to go any faster, and soon they two of them reach the steps up to the castle.
"I should take you to see the court physician," He mused, taking her face in his hands and turning it so he could see the scratches she had gained from the passing arrows. "These wounds could become infected, and frankly i don't want to be responisble for any more afflictions you might get!" He grinned and dragged her up the steps to Gaius's quarters.

It didn't take long for the experienced healer to fix Cas up, he applied a few potions of something-or-other to her face and sent them on their way. Arthur was pretty much in perfect health, despite his mud stained front, and grass stained knees. He had to laugh as he caught sight of them in one of the grand stained glass windows.
"Honestly what do we look like?" he grinned pulling her to look into the window too.

Soon he had Casalynn settled in a room just down the hall from his own, and he retired to his own chambers. He was so relieved to pull off his boots and get into a comfortable bed. He had half thought the two of them would never make it out of the forest alive, and yet here he was home and safe.