Bitter Sweet and Strange (larry stylinson)

Chapter 5

It was four weeks into his imprisonment that it finally happened- genuine proof that King Louis meant to break the agreement and attack Cheshire. The thing is, he wasn't even subtle about it.

The rains had eased over the valley and Harry had gone down for his usual breakfast with Niall only to find the kitchens had been commandeered by soldiers making careful rations for what looked like a force of at least a thousand. Harry rushed outside and found the castle grounds milling with infantrymen. Carpenters and woodsmen hacked sharp ends in to logs, makeshift forges had been set up and blacksmiths worked in teams, pouring hot iron into stone castings. The air was thick with the sound of chopping, clanging and the whinny of cart horses.

Harry didn't stop to think. He sprinted straight for the stables, shoving his way past a stable boy and grabbing the reins of a horse.

If King Louis could break their deal then Harry could break it too. He led the horse out quietly, passing unnoticed through the crowd of perspiring, anxious looking men. Oh, they were preparing for battle alright. They smelled like mud and sweat and fear and four days without sleep.

He reached the gates and joined the throng of people exiting, no one giving him a second glance. The crowd thinned as he moved down the road, so he leapt into the saddle and nudged his horse off into the woods, out of sight of the soldiers and workmen.

Zigzagging across the hilly forest was the slowest way back to Doncaster, but also the hardest to track. He needed to stay off the road. Who knows how many soldiers Louis had already sent. He didn't fancy coming up against a battalion in nothing but his perfectly tailored shirt and trousers.

He wished the forest wasn't so dense. The painfully slow pace left him far too much time to feel completely, utterly betrayed. It wasn't that he trusted Louis, not even close. But he had truly begun to believe that Louis had been serious about wanting peace. He had definitely felt something close to friendship developing with Niall, Liam and even Zayn. It stung, bitterly, to know it had all been in his head. Louis was a beast. Niall, really was the whore, lulling Harry into a sense of ease and comfort with a smile, then abandoning him when the job was done. He stopped himself before he analyzed Liam and Zayn"s role in all this. They all must have laughed, seeing how they fooled him.

He rode on, trees and branches snatching at his face in a way that was irritatingly metaphorical.

Suddenly, his horse disappeared from beneath him and he was thrown from the saddle onto wet, hard packed earth.

He rolled to his feet and cursed. His poor horse whinnied helplessly, her leg at an odd angle in a collapsed rabbit hole. Harry tried to approach but she kicked out at him, foaming at the mouth. The sound of the horse's distress echoed through the woods and Harry felt himself start to panic. He had no way of rescuing the horse- and no weapon to put her out of this misery. Someone would hear, sooner rather than later.

Fuck.

He spotted a rock on the ground and grimaced. It was a filthy, cruel way to do it, but he had his sister to warn and a kingdom to protect. As he stood up, the rock held uneasily in his hand, he heard a low growl. From beyond the trees two wolves watched him and the struggling horse, shackles raised.

He stumbled backwards, waving the rock as though it were a sword but he knew he was probably already surrounded.

He heard more growls on either side and let instinct take over, leaping over a log and pelting through the trees as fast as he could. He heard a howl and didn't stop to look behind but he could almost feel the heat of the wolf's breath as they chased him.

Adrenalin shot through his veins in a way he had only ever felt in the heat of battle and he leapt across a rock crevice, stumbling on the other side. Looking up his heart stopped in his chest because Louis was there - bow raised, arrow pointed right at him.