I'm not extremely happy with this chapter but It needed to be in there...it's kind of like a fill in chapter.
Thanks for reading
-Catherine Grace xx
Chapter 2
"Saaskia? Saaskia? Are you there? Are you alive?" A man's voice hovered above me. It sounded slightly familiar.
"Wha-What happened?" My vision was bleary and my head was pounding.
"Well, one of my men shot an arrow at you and you tried to avoid it by duckin' outta the way, but slipped off your horse and came crashin' to the ground. Jus' don't move okay? In case you hurt your neck. We need to get you to a doctor soon." It must be an angel, such a lovely, caring voice.
Wait, I fell off my horse? I remember now, and, one of his men? That would mean it's the Lee man. I pushed away the pain in my head, trying to get back on track. My vision started to return too, the world came into focus and I could see the man leaning over me looking cautious but worried at the same time. I took two deep breaths then sat up. My back hurt, but not as much as I thought it would.
"I told you to stay down!" the Lee man said. He tried to push me back down but resisting his strength, which was very hard to do, I managed to stay up. When he didn't let go, I bit into his wrist. He yelped and let go.
"I thought you got the message to stay away when I hurt you the last time," I answered, this time pushing up off the ground. I was slightly dizzy but it was nothing I couldn't deal with. As I was steadying myself he grabbed from behind.
"And I thought you got the message that we aren't goin' to let you run away."
I reached for my dagger but he swiftly removed it and threw it behind him before tightening his arms back around my waist. But somewhere in the back of my mind, from a life I hadn't lived in years, memories of combat and self defence came to the surface. I didn't struggle. I became a dead weight and when he least expected it I lifted my leg and dragged the heel of my foot down his shin. He cried out in pain and sunk to his knees, loosening his grip on me. I pushed my way out of his arms grabbed my dagger off the ground and started running. I had to find my bag and Patch. By now the other guards would know I had gotten loose, I had no doubt that these men were very experienced. I realised that they had made a small kind of camp around, what I assumed, was the spot I had fallen. How odd it was that they had supposedly cared as much to not move me in case I was seriously injured. And, how exactly did they make a camp so quickly? I can't have been out for that long.
Shouts rang out from behind me, so I pushed myself to run faster. I didn't care where I was going now as long as it was in the opposite direction to the camp. My eyes stung, as tears welled in them from the chilled air and my lungs ached from lack of breath. I ran blindly through the forest, trying to ignore the soft sounds of advancing bodies. The trees were unforgiving, making me stumble, the branches grazed my face and arms and unfortunately, I wasn't being very quiet. My footsteps echoed through the trees, my heavy breathing only adding to the effect. I could hear the men right behind me, but only just. They had a very light tread and compared to mine, you would think they were mice. That's when I knew, that even if I did, somehow miraculously stop being so loud and slipped from their sight, I still wouldn't escape. They would be able to track me very easily, not only in the physical sense but I'm sure someone in the group could probably tack me on a mental link.
I nearly ran past the rocky outcrop that would be perfect to hide in. For now anyway, so I could catch my breath. I tried to make myself quieter as I made my way to the rocks. I could still hear the men right behind me though. I jogged deep into the rocks until they were towering above me and only centimetres away from my sides. I made myself small, and curled myself into one of the cracks between two rocks. The men were yelling to each other in the distance, another good thing was that most of them would probably be too big to fit in the cracks.
