Abducted! (Cass, Dante, Henry)

[Henry Renold]

Henry was used to snow. It fell year after year in Camelot and although the soldiers cleared away as much as they could in the main part of the city, the slums were usually covered for weeks at a time.
It had been particularly hard this year though, and it hadn't helped Dante to get used to it either. He was bigger and bulkier than Henry and couldn't predict where the heavier drifts were and thus, kept getting delayed.

As Dante caught him up though, his words finally hit home. He did need to relax or he was likely to be too jumpy to be of any help when they finally did find Gill.
"What if she isn't the one they think is the lady though?" He asked quietly. Dante's words had finally shown him the horror of what might happen if Gill was just a bystander- he hurriedly pushed the thoughts from his mind but they kept tugging gently as they walked on.

A whinny broke the icy silence and Henry recognised the horse that ran by as being from the castle- it still bore the Pendragon's emblem on its saddle. It was too frightened for Henry to try to calm it, and anyway there was simply no time.
"I'm sorry for being..."Henry started but the words evaded him. Feelings really were not his forte.

As the pair entered the forest, Henry began to get more talkative and the snow began to get thinner in parts where the canopy overhead was thicker and acted as a huge umbrella.
"Do you think she will still be alive?" He asked although still quietly. "Do you have a plan? You're a lot better at this than me." He smiled a sad smile at his friend before clicking the catches at his wrists and unsheathing his hidden blades.

[Dante Grixis]

Dante followed the boy into the woods and was glad that the snow was not as deep. He stood still for a moment, listening to the sounds of the birds in the trees and the wind. It was quiet here, it was almost sad that soon it wound be filled with the sounds of battle. Do you have a plan? Dante smiled. "Why yes in fact I do." He replied and looked at Henry.

"Since it's been long enough that we've heard about it we can assume that its been at least a day since she was taken." He said and looked around the woods. "They would not stray far from Camelot so they could collect the ransom and this forrest seems large enough to shadow a kidnapper's hideout." He turned back to Henry. "So we find some older tracks and follow them to the hideout. We tell them that we are simply hunters that got lost and are looking for some refuge. Once inside we will assess the situation further. Maybe if we are lucky we can just poison them all." He said and pulled one of the vials from his cloak and shook it in front of Henry's face before putting it back.

Henry looked worried. "Don't worry so much. She'll be alive, and as for us, we've been through worse." He smiled gently at his friend.

[Henry Renold]

Dante's words were reassuring and Henry seemed to finally shake out of his emotion-coma. A new determination set in and it was something Henry had nto seen in himself since he and Gill fell out in the castle dungeon.

"Right." He said firmly, rooting through pouches concealed in the lining of his cloak. The warmer ones that Dante had brought were still with Dante- Henry having refused to wear one. In truth it was partly because after so many years of living in the slums, he didn't feel the cold like Dante might have.
"These might help," He pulled out several tiny vials and placed them gently on the hard ground. Kneeling down he continued to root through pockets until he had also pulled out a short knife and a length of fine cotton.
"I'm not sure if you're aware of my apothecary skills?" He grinned up at his friend who certainly seemed shocked. Henry always kept this part of his training secret, mostly because he feared the other members of the brotherhood would take to using him for all sorts of deeds- but Dante he could trust.
"If we just...ah yes!" He added a couple of liquids to an empty vial and the liquid promptly turned a bright green. Stuffing the cotton in the top and replacing the lid, Henry began shaking the bottle until the cotton was completely soaked through.
Then, with skill and precision, he threaded the cotton through a series of tiny pinprick sized holes on the knife. When he was finished the thread was almost undetectable.

"And now anyone who feels this blade will begin coughing up a green powder. Anyone who breathes it in...well, lets just say it might be an idea to cover your mouth!" He grinned again and tucked the knife and other items back into their relevant pouches.

"So shall we deal some serious damage?" He asked. Henry Renold was back.

[Dante Grixis]

Dante looked curiously at Henry while he worked with some strange chemicals. He never knew that he was an alchemist. It seemed like he knew what he was doing and Dante smiled as he explained what the concoction did. He smiled at him, that was the boy he knew. "Ready when you are." He replied and started off down a small deer path. It wasn't long before they came upon a set of tracks.

Dante kneeled down and inspected them for a moment. He began to speak aloud what he was able to see. "Two horses and riders were here." He stood and followed the older tracks. They were at least a day old, but not too old that he couldn't follow them. "They dismounted to look for something and were ambushed." The lack of red snow indicated that no one was hurt. "Four or five attackers. No struggle occurred here. They were taken by their attackers and went off in that direction." Dante rose and pointed to the north, deeper into the woods.

"Well, lets go." He said and turned to Henry as he began to follow the tracks.

[Lady Gillianne Auvray]

Gill spent a wretched night tied to a tree somewhere in the middle of the forest. It was dark as pitch, and the men had set up a small camp complete with a fire several paces away so Gill couldn't feel any of the heat from its rosy glow. Her head hung forward, long brown locks covering her face, it was too cold to even cry- she was sure if she had done little icicles would have hung from her eyelashes.

She squeezed her eyes closed, consciously trying to force her body from shaking so much with the cold. She could no longer feel her extremities, her fingers that hung limply from the ropes were numb. She caught snippets of the distant conversation, and although she didn't understand the men's words, she could hear from their tone that they were getting more irritable and angrier the longer they waited- but waited for what?

Gill couldn't see or hear Casalynn at all now, and wondered if she was still even there or if the men had moved her... or worse. Somehow, freezing cold, and with terrible thoughts whirring through her mind, Gill managed to fall into a fitful uncomfortable sleep.

[Henry Renold]

Henry grinned as Dante somehow told him the entire story of what had happened along this path in the last 2 days. He didn't understand tracks himself, but he trusted his friend enough to know that the words he spoke must have been true. He would never have lied to make Henry feel better, and even if he had Henry was convinced the story would have been far better.

One thing Henry could see himself though was that no blood stained the icy ground or the snow littered trees, and that could only be a good thing. If Gill was alive there was a chance, and that was all he had even dared hope for.

"Do you think they're close?" He whispered, not wanting to ruin any chances they might have if they were too near. He still had the urge to run head first into a raging battle, but that was just Henry's personality. He was headstrong and he liked to act before his brain kicked into gear. It was lucky Dante was so mature and commanding else who knows what sort of trouble Henry would have been in.

[Dante Grixis]

He turned and looked to his friend as he broke the silence of the woods. The sun was beginning to set and soon it would be dark. "No. They're about a day's hike off, but if we trek through the night we will catch up with them by morning." He replied as he looked down at the tracks they were following. It was five men they would be facing. The two captives were on the horses, one horse was mildly injured. Its front right hoof-prints were not as deep as the rest.

Dante pulled a torch out from a sling on his back at lit it. The oil soaked rag burned brightly and kept his face warm against the bitter cold. He looked up at the sky and it was a clear night. The first few stars were beginning to shine and the moon, half full, was beginning to come over the horizon. He sang in a quiet voice a song he had learned a long time ago, a Spanish song about a knight that went to battle to save his love. She returned home but he did not.

As he sang the melancholy, minor key tune he reflected on the beauty of the forest. He had always thought that nature was Gods artwork but the snow added to the wonder of it. He and Henry hadn't spoken for at least half an hour, the only sound was the torch burning, the snow crunching under their feet, and Dante's quiet song.

[Lady Gillianne Auvray]

[OOC: Hey guys, I'm not sure where Cass is, she hasn't been on in ages. So I'm just carrying on Rping pretending that Gill doesn't know whats happened to her...]

Morning. The early hours of the morning, a few beams of wintry light just began to filter down through the tree tops, tinting all the bare trees and plants with a layer of frost. There was a mist that hung just above ground level giving the place an eerie dank feel. Gill woke up with a stab of hunger, and as soon as she moved wished she hadn't. Her neck and back were stiff from both the cold and the uncomfortable position she was in- luckily the cold had also numbed the pain from the ropes that were chafing the white skin around her wrists red raw.

Gill's emotions were as numb as her body. Instead of focusing on the current danger she was in, she couldn't help but think back to her family, and all the events that had happened in Camelot leading to this moment. Raised voices bought her back to here and now. She had neither seen nor heard anything from Casalynn the whole night, and hoped her new friend was ok, or at least still alive.

The rope binding her to the tree was unbound, and one of the men pulled her along, using the rope that was still attached to her wrists like a leash. The drawing that she had sketched of Camelot the previous evening fell from her pocket, and lay, unnoticed in the mist swathed foliage.

"We're goin' for a little walk maid." The man who was holding her spoke, tugging sharply on the rope. Gill winced, but remained silent, following helplessly as they moved away from the campsite of the previous night. "Seems like Uther doesn't care much about you or the Lady, we've given him enough time... looks like it's the slave traders instead. I reckon we can get a pretty penny for a young'un like yous..."
His words barely registered, as Gill stumbled through the undergrowth behind him. Screaming for help wouldn't achieve anything, not in the middle of nowhere... she could leave a trail, but for who to follow? No-one knew she was here. And if she struggled, who knew what they would do to Casalynn to subdue her?

"You son of a b*tch."

Her breath misted before her as she shouted the words. Not really effective, but she felt better. A stinging slap followed, but it was worth it, and the pain was instantly numbed by the icy air.

[Henry Renold]

Henry had followed Dante all night long, listening to his sad melodies and preferring to keep quiet himself. His own voice would only have ruined it, and he didn't think Dante felt any more like talking then he did. He turned instead to thinking, not of the arguments he and Gill had had recently, but of the fun times before Arthur had caught him. The stars were shining brightly overhead tonight and he smiled sadly as he remembered how caught up in the moment he had got when he had seen them with Gill, and how he had shied away from opening up to her.
He spent the night following, thinking and employing all his trust in Dante.

Now the sun had risen and since the last few days had seen skies full of snow, its effect was that most of the snow that lay in the canopy was melting and every now and again the boys would have to avoid torrents of water that came gushing down from the heavens. It was refreshing though, to hear noise that wasn't their own footsteps or the calls of wild animals and it brought Henry back to where he was- in the forest looking for Gill.

Eventually the pair stumbled across a camp site that had been abandoned earlier that day. The remnants of a fire lay still warm in the centre of a clearing and there were clear rope marks in a tree not too far away. Even Henry could tell this had been where Gill was tied all night long.

"Can you tell us anything else?" Henry asked, picking through the still luke-warm ash in the fire. There was nothing there to suggest who these men were or what they were doing with Gill and Henry soon gave up, turning instead to look for where the men had slept. As he rooted through the undergrowth, something caught his eye. It looked like a piece of parchment and although it was wet through, it had clear charcoal marks dancing across it.
"Dante!" He called, "Look at this!"

[Dante Grixis]

As they came upon the campsite the sun was beginning to get high in the sky. It was about eleven o'clock Dante guessed. That meant that he and Henry had been hiking for well over twelve hours. He would have to force the boy to sit for half an hour or so and eat something. They also had not talked for almost the same length of time which was strange for the two of them. Dante looked at the still warm fire. They were less than three hours ahead. The tracks pointed in the same general direction they had been walking all night.

At Henry's call he jogged over to him and looked at the peice of parchment that Henry held. He took it and looked over it. It was at one time a well drawn image of the castle, now it was a wet piece of paper. He nodded. "Looks like Gill was an artist. And this also means she's still alive." He said and sat down on a log.

"They are about three hours ahead of us, they don't know they are being followed so they are moving slowly. You need to rest for a moment and eat otherwise we will be useless in a fight. They already have a full nights rest on us, we don't need to go in on empty stomachs." He said and pulled out a loaf of bread and some smoked meat from his pack and handed half to Henry.

"I would imagine that they have a rear guard about a half mile behind them to keep their flank protected. Once we find him we can capture him and interrogate him." He said between mouthfuls of food.

[Henry Renold]

Henry nodded enthusiastically as he stuffed torn chunks of break into his mouth. His mouth was full to bursting but he had been starving and was too proud to admit it. He finished the bread and began chewing on the strips of dried meat he had been given. It wasn't the tastiest meal but it was filling and it was true enough that without a good meal and rest they would have no chance with the kidnappers.
Henry already feared that the kidnappers had the upper hand. He was a thief not an assassin, but he could fight. It was just the subtlety that he struggled with and rushing in would only get Gill killed.

As he finished the last of the meat he had been given, Henry took a deep swig from his water-skin before noticing that he still gripped Gill's picture in his right hand. He uncreased the page and smiled sadly as he saw how her magnificent lines had become blackened smudges across the page. He had never known she was an artist, but then they hadn't known much about each other at all before things had gotten...messy. He promised himself there and then, that if they both got out of this alive, he would ask her every question under the sun until he knew her better than he knew himself.

"Come on then!" Henry said bounding up onto his feet, and hopping from one to the other. He didn't know where he got his energy from, but without it he would have been a snivelling wreck.

[Dante Grixis]

Dante rose from his seat and began to follow the tracks. After almost four hours of walking Dante finally found what he was looking for, the rear scout. Dante pulled the throwing knife from his pocket and motioned for Henry to wait. He crept up behind the man and quickly pounced, putting one hand over his mouth and putting the blade against the man's throat. He let out a muffled yelp and Dante dragged him back to where Henry was. "If you scream we will kill you." The man's eyes widened and Dante slowly removed his hand from his mouth. "Hold his arms." He said to Henry.

"What do you want?" The man asked, terrified. "Information." Dante replied. He put the blade in front of the mans eyes. "Tell a lie, you loose a finger. How many are with you." The man shook his head frantically, "I don't know!" Dante rolled his eyes and put his hand back over the mans mouth. "Wrong answer." With one swift motion he removed the small finger on the man's left hand. He howled in pain but the sound was absorbed by Dante's palm. "Going to lie again?" The man shook his head.

"Now again, how many are with you." Dante asked calmly. "Six!" The man responded frantically looking at his bleeding stump of a finger with horror. "Is the girl still alive?" "What girl?" Dante sighed and removed his ring finger. "The girl is alive." The man moaned. "How far ahead are they?" Dante pursued. "Three miles at most!" Dante nodded and looked at Henry. "What should we do with him now that we got the information?" He asked his friend.

[Lady Gillianne Auvray]

Gill was unsure how long she had been walking, or rather pulled along, for. She had put up resistance at first; pulling back on the rope and digging her heels into the ground, but her wrists were sore, her bare feet cut and she was no match for the strong, rested man who gripped the other end of the rope. They talked in quiet voices between themselves, a few occasionally laughed loudly. The man who Gill supposed was in charge looked thunderous and kept quiet, she assumed he was upset that whatever this was hadn't gone exactly to plan.

The trees began to thin overhead, Gill noticed there was definitely more visible sky than there had been before. Perhaps they were nearing the edge of the forest? This thought filled her with dread. It was a different land the other side of the forest, she had no idea which, and she had no idea what awaited her after these men were done with her.
"Water please?" she asked the man with the rope, trying to make her voice as scratchy as possible. He looked to the leader for an answer, but before he could form a word either way, Gill dramatically swayed forwards, then backwards, crumpling like a piece of parchment to the ground. She had never been one for amateur dramatics, but her failing body aided her in creating a faint that was a little too realistic. Although she appeared to land with a soft thump, the cold hard impact of the ground shook her to the bone. Her eyes fluttered open then closed as she heard voices swirling above her.

"Give her some water," came the command, "You've got a minute to get her back on her feet.' Gill felt rough hands pulling her upright, and another hand tilt her chin backwards. She automatically opened her mouth, grateful for the water. Her body throbbed all over from the fall, and she found herself irritated that she'd bruise like a peach the next day. If there was a next day, she mused darkly.

[Henry Renold]

Henry did as he was told and pinned the mans arms behind him. He had never seen this side of Dante before, but knew only too well that he was an assassin and clearly a torturer too. Oddly enough Henry didn't bat an eyelid as he realised what his best friend was capable of.

He did wince though as he watched the knife slice through the mans flesh and bone as easily as it would have cut through fish. The spray of blood was far more than Henry had expected to come from such a small hole and he was slightly worried the man might die from lack of blood, but he had never actually seen something like this up close before and he supposed he had no real experience in the matter. Besides did Henry really care if he lived or died?

When Dante had gained all the information he needed, it seemed to be up to Henry to decide what to do with him. His first thought was of the knife in his pocket, the one soaked in poison. But Henry was nto as ruthless as Dante was and without proof that this man had hurt Gill he had no intention of killing him.

"Tie him up. Like they did to her." He narrowed his eyes at the man who was wailing like a child. Henry was disgusted. If you were going to punish others, you had to be able to take punishment yourself- this was pathetic to watch.
"And gag him. He sounds like a woman."

When all that was said was done, Henry wiped his bloody hands on his slacks and ran his fingers through his sweaty hair. He expected that the group was about another mile or two ahead depending on how long this had all taken.
"How much further?" He asked Dante, a determined expression set into his face.

[Casalynn Laymont]

(I'm so so sooo sorry for not posting earlier!! First few weeks back at College have been hectic and I've been struggling to find time to post. Hope you don't mind I rejoined again. )

Casalynn arose from total darkness, her eyes slowly opening to reveal thick beams of sunlight which caressed her skin and gently summoned her from her sleep. It was a pleasant sensation after the ripples of stinging cold she had endured all night, the frost still etched into her bones still sent shudders down her spine. It took her several long seconds to figure out where she was and who she was with, the few seconds of blissful peace shattered with floods of fear and shock as they rapidly returned to her. She drew in a deep breath of air, her eyes immediatly darting to the man towering over her, with a cool blade pressed against her back. "Get up" the man bellowed, spurring her to stand with a sharp nudge of his sword to her skin. She stood with shaking legs being too weak and unable to support her weight from hunger and thirst. Yet this was the very last thing on her mind right now.

She sent her head from left to right, looking for Gill, an unexplained rush of strength pulsing through her body. She always felt comfort in the fact that Gill was there with her but this time she wasn't. She couldn't see Gill anywhere and for the first time she felt completely alone. She stopped the urge to shout her name and looked back at her captur who stared at her with unremorseful eyes. Another man soon joined them, swiftly pulling up his trousers after a quick trip to relief himself behind a bush. Once he saw that she was awake, he proceeded to get his sword from near the fire and held it in her direction. "Good, she's awake. Let's get moving. I've heard word from our master that a handsome bid has been placed in her name so we are to take her to Mora tommorow." The man said with little emotion in his words.

Casalynn had never considered the prospect that she would get sold. In fact, she thought that proposterus. She loved her life back in Camelot and had no intention of going to Mora to be 'owned' by a man who she had never met. Casalynn began to weigh up her options. Could she take on two fully grown armed men by herself? Considering she was tied up and had no means of defense at all? When she said it like that, the outcome didn't look so good. Yet it was either that or going to Mora. She had already made the decision that she would rather die than have that forced upon her.

As she began moving she felt the blade dig into her back like they knew she was about to make a run for it. She could feel a trickle of warm liquid run down her back followed by a sharp sense of pain that forced her to stop. This was her chance. She faked a fall to free herself from the mans blade and tried to loosen the rope that bound her arms; too tight. She sweeped her leg under the mans feet and watched as he fell to the ground like a ton of bricks. She stumbled out of the way of his falling sword and swiped the rope against the sharp end of the blade so she was free. It seemed she had caught the attention of the other man now leaving her a strong sense of impending doom.

She picked up the fallen mans sword and struck it into his chest relucatantly; she had never killed a man before. She felt regret and disgust in herself that she had done this but there was no time for looking back now. The second man raised his sword above his head and swung for her, spurring a reflex action to block it. It didn't take long for a full on sword fight to emerge and soon she was finding it hard to match his strength and aggression. She hoped bein tactful and speed would be enough to pull it off yet by far she was not the best at sword fighting.

She knew the only way to have an edge over him was to use magic. "Abannan onaelet scyttan" She didn't like the fact that she was cheating and knew that it was wrong. Before she had a chance to see the effects of her magic, she ran as fast as her little legs would carry her. Seconds later she heard screams and a bright flash of light before it disappeared leaving the ear splitting cry to drown into the distance. She sent a hand to her shoulder where blood had been drawn in mid battle.

But her injuries were just a small price to pay; at least she was alive. She studied her surroundings to see if she could find her way out, but her sense of direction had never been that great. Plus it didn't help that no matter where she went it all looked the same, the tree's, the rocks and the plants held no distinguising features to pinpoint her position.