Just a Little Bit of Trouble [Gwaine]

[Lorelle de Luc]

If there was ever a time of the day to get stuck on the forest paths, it was always late into the day, and often times not long before the sun itself went down as well. It was that sort of point in the day, and by this point Lorelle could hardly even see the sun as it was, even as the rays peeked through the branches, illuminating the path before her. But she knew the sun was going down though. The dark, purple like color high above the deep orange was a clear indicator to that. Either way, though, she had been stuck in between towns for a while now due to the fact that Elpis had needed a moment to rest, for the travel to the next town was much longer than she had first anticipated.

"Alright boy. Keep it up. A few more miles and we can take another rest, alright?" Elle murmured quietly to the beast, patting his neck gently as they continued along at the slow agonizing pace of the walk. But the horse nickered quietly anyways, and a smile curled upon her lips at the answer she had received. It was at that moment that a soft snap resounded through the air, and instantly she pulled on her reins, coming to a quick stop.

Caution now lacing the gaze of her dark eyes, Lorelle peered about into the thick foliage, hoping it was merely an animal she had heard. But in these parts of Albion, it appeared that things simply could not be that easy. It was at that moment that at least a dozen men slipped out of the foliage at once, practically surrounding her as they came from almost all points of the foliage, all coming at her with wicked grins upon their lips.

Bandits.

Lorelle's grip on her reins tightened then, and it was also at that moment that one of the men came to the side of her large steed. He reached up, grabbing at her arm and yanking roughly, pulling her from her seat in a rough manner. She gave a soft cry of pain as her reins rubbed against her bare skin, already beginning to struggle as she was spun around and held roughly at her shoulders, eyes narrowed as the man gave her a toothy grin. "Looks like we got 'rselves a live one boys!" He cackled, and soon the others were laughing too.

"Let go of me!" She yelled at him, trying to shove him away from her, although she was finding a great amount of difficulty due to the fact that he was holding her arms in such a rough grip. By this point Elpis was prancing about nervously, even as a few men cautiously approached the horse. He began to whinny and neigh loudly, trying to back away, but with the men surrounding them there wasn't much of a choice for the animal.

"Come on boys. Le's get back to 'he camp." The man called to the others, and one of the men who had grabbed Elpis' reins started to yank the stallion along, causing him to prance about once more, rearing up a time or two out of nervousness. "Hey! Quit that! Leave him be!" Lorelle yelled angrily as she began to be pulled along, angrily trying to pull her arm away as another man came up to her, a piece of rope in his hands. Pulling her hands together the rope was tied together around her wrists and she was thrown over the shoulder of the first man, an overwhelming scent of alcohol flooding her senses as she began to slam her fists against his back.

"Put me down! Put me down this instant!"

[thegwaine]

Gwaine took a bite out of the apple he had recently liberated from a particularly fruitful tree, and grinned at his find. The autumn was nearly upon them, so Gwaine had been able to live mostly off the land. Of course things such as mushrooms and berries sprung up time after time over the course of the year, but this season was defiantly Gwaine’s favourite. He could find enough fruit and sometimes vegetables to see him over the long days and weeks. He took another bite of his apple, and rubbed the back of his hand against his tunic, wondering how far he had actually walked today. He had hoped to at least to come across the next town, but that hadn’t exactly worked. Perhaps he’d passed it by accident, he’d done that before; he’d actually been going round in circles around said town. He grinned a little at the memory, now that had been some time ago. Taking the last bite of his apple, he threw the core to the side, wiping both his hands on his tunic again, and wondering whether he should be thinking about bedding down for the night. Luckily, he wasn’t that hungry, as light was fading quickly, which would make hunting for rabbits or suchlike an impossible task in an hour or so.

Well, this had thrown out his original plans of spending tonight with an ale in his hand and a woman to share it with. Gwaine had even gone as far to hope that he might get a mattress. He had been sleeping rough on the forest floor for years now, but he liked to break the time up with the odd night in a tavern, which was practically five star accommodation, given he was usually sleeping amongst the rats and got knows what else scuttled along that forest floor after dark. The more he thought about it, the more he itched to continued onto the next town to try and bargain and banter for a room. Biting his lip, he decided to continue a little more along the forest path. If night fell he would have no choice but to just sleep in the forest; there was no way he could navigate himself about these woods in the dark.

Knowing he still had an hour or so to go until the sun set, and blackened the path ahead completely from view, Gwaine quickened his pace; the thoughts of ale and women spurring him on somewhat. This wasn’t familiar territory for Gwaine, but then again was it ever? A scream pierced the night air, and Gwaine paused quickly, his reflexes turning to the direction that the scream had come from. It sounded again, and the side of his mouth twitched. There wasn’t a moment where he tried to hold back, and he had quickly set off into a run in the direction that the commotion was happening in. His sword wasn’t yet in his hand, but his fingers were itching towards it.

He slowed as he reached the scene, he wasn’t an expert in these matters by any stretch of the imagination, but he enjoyed playing the underdog- it was more exciting than knowing the outcome was weighted in your favour. The scene didn’t surprise him; a group of men were carrying off what appeared to be a young maiden. Gwaine smirked, knowing now that he wasn’t going to be backing away from this one. “Excuse me gentlemen.” He walked through the trees, his sword extended to the man holding the young woman, “But I must thank you, I’ve been looking for my cousin everywhere, but I must ask you to put her down. You see; she doesn’t suit the rope look.” He tried to catch the woman’s eye to let her know to play along. The bandits were all eyeing him with an air of amusement; Gwaine still had his sword extended, ready for any sudden movements.