A chapter in which Wyn runs for her life

\ Last Time \

I made myself remain calm and folded my arms in a defensive posture. "Yes, um, very nice to meet you, too. Now, if you don't mind, we were about to bed down for the night." A.k.a. buzz off!

She smiled. "Oh, but surely you can't stay here out in the cold. My house is just over the hill, and my father wouldn't..."

"I think that sounds...!" started Sir William.

"...not quite to our needs," I hastily finished. "We're quite comfortable here. But thanks for the offer. I don't think we'll ever be seeing each other again. Good night!"

I grabbed my blanket, plunked myself down on the ground, and covered my entire body, head first, with it. I hoped she thought I was the rudest, most disgusting boy she'd ever met. Which would be, of course, because she was talking to the rather big-headed Lady Wyn who didn't like little farm girls getting the best of her!

"Well...!" I heard her huff.

As I heard her footsteps fading off, I gave myself the leisure to have an evil grin.

* * *

I woke with a start to the sound of galloping hooves.

"Sir William!" I burst out of my bed and found him sleeping with his mouth open in his bedroll, snoring more loudly then anyone else I'd ever heard.

I glanced around nervously. The horses were getting closer. I went to the edge of the hill and stared down. My worst fears were confirmed.

A group of horsemen were coming our way.

"Hurry! Get up!" I yanked the bedroll off Sir William and rolled both his and mine up, placing his on his back and putting mine on my bag. "We've got to go!"

"Wkhalskdfjdlfd...?" Sir William gargled.

"No time to explain!" I pulled him to his feet, yanking him down the hill. "The situation is very dire! We must go immediately!"

I ran, pulling the stumbling Sir William along behind me. I didn't know who the horsemen were, but the situation didn't look good. I looked up ahead as we raced down the opposite side of the hill--we were about a quarter of a mile away from a forest. If we could get there, we'd be able to hide in the trees. We would be safe.

"Hurry!" I yanked Sir William along even faster.

We had a head start, so to speak, but, come on, they were on horses. I wasn't going to take any chances. We had to get to the forest as quickly as possible. The horsemen would probably just keep on galloping, thinking we were still running instead of hiding in the trees.

"We're almost there!" I rushed, my feet a blur in the last few feet before we charged into the forest.

I immediately started pushing Sir William up one of the trees, and pulled myself up afterwards. I climbed higher and higher. By this time, Sir William had woken up more properly. He still had no idea what was going on, but one look at the thundering horsemen coming our way and he scurried up the tree after me.

"What's going on?" he whispered to me as we finally settled deep in the branches.

I glanced nervously towards the ground and whispered, my fear showing plainly through my voice, "I have no idea."