Ranger's Apprentice One Shots

Bound. Part Two.

Jenny's breath froze, her mind racing. Her pulse accelerated as she tried prying the man's arm away from her.

"Don't make me accidently cut you," he whispered in a sing-song voice.

She stopped. She tried to steady her breath in fear that her heavy breathing might cause the dagger to nick her.

"Now. What. Were. You. Doing?" the man repeated.

"I was just trying to find shelter. From the cold."

He dug the knife in deeper. "Liar," he breathed.

"I was just looking for a paper. I promise."

Jenny felt the knife draw away. Slightly. "Good," the man said, "good girl. Now, who is your associate outside?"

Gilan.

How'd they know? Did they have him? Was he hurt? "We're friends," she managed to stammer, "he's a Ranger."

The man looked up to his gang. "A Ranger, you say? Oh boy, a good ransom."

"Let us go and he won't report you," Jenny pleaded.

He leaned close to her ear, his hot breath on her face. "Oh? You think that's true? You think that's true when I know the darn fool of the King has been sending his men after me and my friends? When I know we've been running from barn to barn, trying to escape the King and his Rangers? No, I don't think what you say is true."

The man nodded his head at one of his followers, and instantly someone dragged Gilan in, his head dried red with blood.

Oh God, please don't let him be dead. Please. Not Gilan. No. Please, Jenny repeated in her head over and over.

Gilan moaned and rolled his head. Jenny breathed a sigh of intense relief.

The followers plopped Gilan on the floor. His hands were tied and besides for the cut on his head, he seemed to be unharmed. Something, or someone moved just out of Jenny's vision, and the next thinking she knew she was being tied up. Within moments, she was thrown down next to Gilan, staring up at the gang leader.

"What to do with you now?" the leader thought out loud.

Jenny wasn't sure if she was to act confident or terrified or weak. She ended up looking sick.

"Well, you saw our faces, that's for one," the man said, casually flipping his knife, catching it by the hilt. "And nobody sees our faces and gets away with it."

They're going to kill us. They're going to kill us. Oh God, help us. Gilan help us!

A woman suddenly gripped her hair, forcing her head back. "I say we kill the boy and let the girl run. Let her tell all about us."

"Are you stupid, Knifepoint!" the man yelled, angrily, "if the girl's friends with the Ranger, she obviously knows the Corps. She'll run straight to them!"

"Kill them both," a younger man said quietly, "get it over with."

The leader narrowed his eyes at the younger man. "Tha's what I was thinking."

Jenny looked from one person to another. Her hair was still being held, but this way she got a better look at everyone. Two women, three men, counting the leader. They all looked muscled and wore strange bandana-like coverings one wither their arms or necks. All of them were armed with at least a weapon, some more. A fact that made Jenny want to cry.

"Chain them up for now," the leader ordered, "we'll decide what to do with them later."

The woman who held Jenny's hair dragged her to a corner and placed chains, from God knows where, around her arms and legs, attaching them to the leg of the desk. The same was done to Gilan.