Strangers in the Night [Faerydae]

[shonz]

Running hard. Running fast. Running like there’s no tomorrow. Running like his life depended on it.

Well, his life does depend on it.

Gwaine was having one of those typical evenings. Evenings that usually start rather slow and easy with a light dinner, coupled with not-too-subtle flirtations with the voluptuous and pretty barmaid. The latter almost always a ploy to get extra ale, if not a warm bed to spend the night in, for free! Such was his life - the life of a penniless wanderer, a vagabond. Then after dinner, as more patrons would come piling into the tavern to get drunk, conversations would go louder and more raucous. Later into the noisy evening, someone would suddenly shout over the din of voices calling for bettors and players for some silly nonsense card game. Of course, this cash-strapped nomad could never say no to such a tempting treat.

The game had actually started fairly well. Gwaine had a few coins to spare, and he managed to gain a few more at the onset of the game. Halfway through though, he was losing copious amounts of his rather limited coins just when he had expected to sweep the games and win the bets. Only then did Gwaine realized that he was being cheated. Two of the men he was playing with had been uncharacteristically quiet. No one concentrates that hard on a silly tavern game. Gwaine knew something was afoot. Not exactly the straightest arrow on the block himself, Gwaine decided to play their “game.” And in no time, he was repossessing his meager wealth back to the chagrin of the other men on the table.

In the end, Gwaine had won the game with a bagful of coins and his trusted sword still intact. He had decided to leave the tavern as soon as possible with his winnings, but he had barely stepped out of the door when he heard a man yell at him with such anger and menace in his voice. “OI! YOUTHERE! GET BACK HERE!” Gwaine knew what that meant, and it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together to know that his own ruse had been discovered.

So here he was now, rushing and tripping through bushes and stones and roots in the middle of the night heading in no particular direction whatsoever, as long as it takes him as far as he could get from his pursuers. He could still hear the angry voices behind him, and Gwaine cursed under his breath hoping they would all just give up and leave him be. It wasn’t like they weren’t equally guilty anyway. He was just the better cheater, Gwaine said to himself as he ducked in time to avoid a low lying branch from hitting him squarely in the face.

Getting really tired and terribly thirsty after running for almost an hour now, Gwaine was so close to giving up and just get himself beaten. He knew that, after giving his adversaries one heck of a chase through the dark and dangerous forest, they wouldn’t let him go that easily even if he give them back their money. No, Gwaine told himself. He will surely get beaten – all black and blue. Maybe even killed. Even with his most trusted sword, and he's quite a swordsman, Gwaine knew he was too tired to fight. He would surely lose. Yes, running till his legs break was the better option here.

But perhaps the Fates were still mighty kind towards Gwaine. He was just waddling hurriedly across a shallow stream when he realized he couldn’t hear those angry voices behind him anymore. Could they still be lurking about? Have they caught up with him and are now setting a trap around him? Gwaine stopped in his tracks to try and catch his breath while surveying the area around from the little moonlight that streamed through the trees. He limped towards a nearby crowd of bushes which was wide and tall enough to hide a man. He waited for a good few minutes. Five. Ten. Fifteen. Half an hour later, he knew they had finally given up on him.

“Thank heavens for that!” Gwaine breathed out as he sank onto the ground and leaned back against a large boulder, heaving a sigh of ultimate relief while trying not to fight the grin that was crawling up the edges of his lips.

[Faerydae Moriarty]

The moon held high in the night, illuminating the woods with its mysterious light and setting everything alight. He had left his companion a little farther back by a large tree a little under half an hour ago so that he could scout ahead and make sure that nothing was afoot. While normally, the white stallion would not leave his human, he had felt certain that since the woods had been still for quite some time now, and with her growing weary from travel, that it would just be best if he let her be. For the first time since his walk though, the white stallion came to a halt now, his amber eyes glancing over at something that had caught his eye. It was a bunch of bushes, but they were not like most that he had seen before in the woods, for they were tall and wide enough to hide a human. Perhaps, they could hide his human as well. He took a couple of steps towards it now but stopped dead in his tracks now for something did not seem right with the situation.

A human scent hit his muzzle slightly and a snort escaped the horse and he shook his head, tossing his mane about as if to clear his head. There really had not been any movement about, and yet, here was this scent that came from the bushes. His ears twitched for a moment before the faintest of words could be heard, “Thank heavens for that!” The white stallion cocked his head now as his amber eyes stared long and hard at the bushes, his ears twitching in such a way before they pinned slightly against his head and he stalked forward quickly. If people were to see him, they might had thought the white horse was simply gliding over the ground and not touching it at all, for he was quick and quite even for such a large animal, but living in the wild all of its life and avoiding capture taught the horse a few good lessons to keep. Without much warning, he threw himself into the bushes now, his hooves slamming down upon the ground quickly.

The branches of the bushes tugged at his sides and at his mane, but he did not care at all. But what he was curious about was this man lying on the ground. His ears twitched in an indecisive manner as he stared down at him with his amber eyes, uncertain of what to think of him just as this man probably had no idea as to what he had done to deserve such a greeting from the white stallion. After a moment, the horse dropped its head and nudged the man’s leg with his muzzle, pondering if he would move at all or whether he was determine to just lie in the bushes like that. Because if this was the case, then the horse certainly could not bring his own human here to him. An annoyed snort escape the horse at the though but he continued to nudge the man now, this time with a little more force to see if the message would become clear that he should get up and leave, “Silver!” The young woman’s voice broke the silence of the forest and the white horse brought his head up quickly now in response to his name as he glanced back in the direction that he had come from. His name had been stated in fear, and there had been a quiver within her yell that he had easily recognized; his human was in trouble. Quickly, the white stallion backed up now, breaking some of the bush in the process before he leaped forward and back in the direction in which he came.

She sat alone by the large tree, her ice blue eyes constantly glancing around the woods even though it was hard to see, even with the moonlight. After a moment, she rested her back against the tree and closed her eyes, sitting in wait for the great white horse to return to her. This was a system that worked for them, although, most of the times, she felt as if she did not want to leave the horse’s side at all, regardless of how tired she was from the day’s journey or not. By now, they would have set up camp if it weren’t for those men that they had suspected of following them out of the tavern after she had been done with trading her rabbit furs. While the men hardly made any contact with her or the horse, Silver lead the way back into the woods and quickly lost the men, as he always did, ‘Those men were strange,’ she thought to herself now, for they had hardly talked at all, and yet, the look in their eyes had explained everything: lust.

Just thinking about it sent a shiver up her spine, although, this should be something that she should have gotten used to by now. For one, men of any sort would pray on a woman wandering by herself, even if there was a horse there and second, men always seemed to think that women who were not accompanied by men were lonely and needed ‘pleasure’, as they liked to call it. Balor was a particular terrible place for her for it was her old kingdom, a place that she used to rule with her husband, King Janus. She felt herself bite her lower lip in such thoughts, uncertain of why she was allowing her mind to wander back towards her old life, for it only brought pain and despair for her at the thoughts of Talberon and Keran, “Stop thinking about this, Faerydae,” she murmured to herself in the darkness of the woods for she did not need their memories to haunt her mind at the moment, their lives were taken because of her mistakes and traitors to her trust, and now, all of Balor thought her a woman looking for pleasure because her king had not been good enough, not that she had been in love.

Although now, Faerydae Moriarty had to remind herself, that this was not Balor and she was not there, but somewhere else, in Cenred’s kingdom, which hardly put her on ease for there had been whispers on the wind that he planned to go to war with Camelot. Although, it could all be rumors, but still, she was uncertain of what to trust any more. There was the snapping of a branch now and her eyes opened quickly before she shot up from the tree. If she had not been on edge before she certainly was now. Feeling like a flighty animal, Faerydae quickly got to her feet and stared in the direction of the tree when another snap came and she moved away from her own tree and out more into the open now, already trying to figure out an escape as she backed up a little. There were more snaps now, but not just one, but more of them and she saw shadows dance in the moonlight, at least three. Something was hunting her in the size of a back.

Her nerves shot up now, thinking about yelling for her horse, but perhaps they were only deer? Not a chance now for they were too tall and soon, they broke out of the darkness and she saw them clearly through the trees. Perhaps it was how the moonlight was hitting them, but they looked rather ghoulish at the moment. As they came forward now, there were smirks upon their lips, “My my, what have we have here? A young maiden all by herself? Surely you must be lonely without your horse.” They were the men from the tavern, but had there not been more? Although, now was not the time for questions as she quickly turned and headed into the woods now and she heard them coming from behind, letting loose childish war cries that sounded demented and murderous, “Silver!” she called out, right as she felt herself trip over an over grown tree root. Faerydae hit the ground hard, and as the fair haired maiden tried to pick herself up quickly now, she felt somebody pounce on top of her now.

Already, feeling like a rabbit caught by a cat, she tried to break herself free of the man’s hold, “Let go of me,” she shrieked as she twisted and turned. Although, being at such a small stature of 5’2, it hardly did anything against a man who was clearly a foot taller than her. Laughter escaped the men now, “My, my, you’re a fighter,” he whispered into her ear now as he pushed her silvery hair over her shoulder now. Faerydae could feel herself nearly quiver as his hot breath hit the bare skin of her neck, his breath smelling of old ale, “My horse will hurt you,” she growled and as the other two men stood over her and their friend now as his one hand started to wander down her body, “No he won’t,” the man purred in her ears, “For we have two others that will stop him.” Her eyes went wide at such a thought as there came the sound of hooves and through the trees, she spotted Silver coming for her now, his ears pinned back as he looked ready to take blood. Right as the white stallion shot into the clearing, they ambushed him. Everything happened so quickly that Silver had not even noticed because of his concern for Faerydae.

The rope came out of nowhere, and he felt blindsided as the slip knotted loop came over his head now and yanked hard. An ugly scream escaped the white stallion now as he tried to fight it, but whoever was behind the rope was big and strong with enough strength to wrestle with him. As Silver let out a buck, another rope came and latched onto one of his back legs, pulling it from beneath him as he hit the earth with a loud thud. The whites of his amber eyes could be seen as he trashed about wildly, looking around as the men with the ropes came closer towards him now and he dared to try and get up only to have the same thing happen again, and his body was starting to lather up in sweat, “Please don’t hurt him!” came Faerydae’s voice, the only one he recognized at the moment. Her voice trying to be strong and fearless, but it came out as a sob. Amber eyes looked around wildly before he spotted her in this madness, pinned beneath a man. Silver’s ears pinned back against his skull, anger surging in his mind as the white horse picked himself up quickly and took a lunge for the other men now, paying no heed to his own capturers.

Ice blue eyes just stared at the white stallion as he tried to fight the men who were trying to hold on to him. It pained her to see him on the ground, but it was not long before he was back on his feet again and took a lunge for one of the men and his teeth met flesh. A scream of pain escaped the man as he tried to break his arm free from the horse. Panic ensued as Silver’s capturer’s pulled him back, tripping him up again, but as he went down this second time, he brought the man down with him. Quickly, he managed to turn his body despite the ropes and roll over, crushing the man’s leg in the process. The moment it happened, she felt her own holder’s grip on her lighten ever so slightly, and she tried to escape, scrambling forward towards her horse only to feel somebody’s hand wrap around her ankle and yank her back with such force that she felt the ground tare at her skin and she was pulled back underneath the man now, straddling and pinning her down to the ground and Faerydae could not even fight herself free this time for the other man was clamping down on both of her wrists and shoving them above her head, making movement impossible.

“You two are the most troubling we’ve ever encountered,” he said with a sneer now, “And you’re going to pay because of it.” Fear crept a long her, she did not like this at all. The young woman struggled slightly but she knew it was in vain. Their laughter escaped them again and she tried to close her eyes only to get yelled at, “Do not do that, you cannot ignore us!” She forced herself to open her eyes again to stare at their faces, their eyes wild with rage and drunkenness, “Please don’t hurt him, please don’t hurt my horse,” she managed to say, trying her hardest to hold back her sobs, as she turned her neck now to stare at the white stallion, still struggling to get back to her now. She concentrated on his amber eyes as his own locked with hers, telling her to not give up, but Faerydae was uncertain if she could do that for there did not seem to be any hope for them. Silver thought there was hope, for a split second, his mind had wandered back to the man in the bushes, and the great horse pondered if he had heard all of this racket.

Notes: holy fudge, that is epically long...sorry about that ^^;