"Bahar!" I heard Daphne scream. I quickly left behind the two men I had been pursuing and ran back in the direction of the campsite. I couldn't lose her, not again. As I ran, I had a flashback of that sweet smile I had come across one day in the woods a decade ago. I was not going to let anyone harm that beautiful smile. I ran swiftly through the woods, running faster and faster as each second ticked by. Soon I was able to see the light flicker of the fire. I jumped into the clearing and saw four men, one of them, of which, was holding Daphne against her will, hand over her mouth. I smiled at the stick that was newly embedded into his arm, knowing it was the work of the girl. My smile quickly faded when I saw a trickle of blood roll down her forehead, no doubt the price she paid for screaming out to me.
The man holding Daphne hostage smiled at me. "Stay there Son of Darab, I'll crush her ribs if-" he didn't get to finish for I flicked my dagger through the air so fast he was dead before he saw the weapon.
"If anyone else touches her, you will suffer the same fate!" I exclaimed. I rushed over to Daphne, grabbing my canteen off the ground on the way. I stood in front of her, blocking her from the three other men who stood around us. The other two men from earlier should be here soon so I had to act fast. "We will be leaving now," I yelled.
"Like heck you will," the man in the middle said, "we're here to retrieve you for your father, when you didnt come back when you said you were, he got concerned, but now we see that you are planning to betray him."
"Hold onto my shoulders," I whispered only loud enough for Daphne to hear, "then jump at my signal."
"What's the signal?"
"You'll know."
I let the men continue to advance for a few moments, making them think they had me cornered. I felt Daphne's hands grip my shoulders and within seconds, I took my canteen, slashed it open with my knife and threw it over the fire. It suddenly went pitch black except for the slight glow of the doused coals, I hoisted Daphne on my back and took off, throwing the ruined canteen in the nearby brush. Even though it was the dead of night and it was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, I ran with such speeds I knew our attackers couldn't keep up with. Daphne had her arms wrapped around my neck and her grip tightened as I ran. Her face planted in my hair and her warm breath tickled the back of my neck. I didn't even care that she had now accidentally wiped the blood that was on her forehead, on me. "Are you doing okay?" I asked.
"Yeah," she whispered next to my ear. I tried to pull her as close to me as I could till I felt her heart pounding against my shoulder blades.
I heard it before I saw it, the familiar whining noise of a dagger being thrown through the air in our direction. I placed my hand on the top of Daphne's head, pushing her face further into my hair, and ducked. We fell to the ground and a sharp branch found its place in my side, a slight grunt left my lips as we lay there silently on the moss and leaves of the forest floor. "Bahar," Daphne whispered, "What's going on?"
"Shush, I'll tell you when we get out of here," I responded.
"Bahar!" A familiar deep voice yelled from somewhere nearby, "I know you're there! You can't run from your duty!" I felt Daphne move till she was laying beside me. As she moved she accidentally bumped my side causing yet another small grunt to escape my mouth. She abruptly stopped and gently placed her hand on my side and began to feel around, lightly moving her hand so as to not put any more pressure on the wounded area. Even with the lack of light she was able to find the branch lodged in my side. I clenched my teeth as she gripped onto the wood and yanked it out, placed a handful of leaves over the gash and put pressure on my side to try and stop the bleeding. She felt for my hand and when she found it, took it in hers, and placed it over the leaves. I don't know what she was doing but it turned deathly silent.
"Bahar! Your father is worried about you!"
Rip
The next thing I know, Daphne was wrapping a piece of cloth she tore off of her tunic, around my waist, keeping the leaves in place. She used the man's voice as a cover to rip her own clothing and drown out the noise, I was giving her less credit than I should have.
"You know you can't run from me boy!"
"Thank you," I whispered to Daphne, "Man's name is Yazdan, right hand man of my father." I tried to explain best I could on how I knew the voice who was calling for us without drawing attention to where we were hiding. I sat up, trying to be as silent as I could while sporting my new bandage wrapped around me. I stood up and grabbed Daphne's hand to help her up as well. We started slowly and quietly walking through the brush but only got a few steps before Daphne stepped on a stick, snapping it under her foot.
A torch suddenly lit a short distance in front of me and Yazdan's face came into view. I gripped Daphne's hand tighter, pulled her behind me and unsheathed one of my many daggers from my kamarband, holding it out in front of me. "You know that won't work boy, you're smart enough to know that I'm leagues ahead of you." He glanced behind me at Daphne, "And who's this? I wasn't told you had someone with you."
"Leave her out of this," I snarled, I backed up and pulled Daphne against my back.
"Woah there, we're not here to harm you, we were only sent to bring you back to your father. You know how it is, he can't have his only son disappearing with a little Greek girl during the middle of a war, that would be very bad publicity."
"If you weren't here to harm us then what were the weapons for? One of which was pointed straight at her head."
He smiled. "Like I said, we can't have you running off with a Greek girl in the middle of the war."
"So you did know she was with me?" I yelled.
"Hey, no need to get loud. Yes we knew she was with you, you really drop your guard when you're in love you know." My face went warm and I felt Daphne squeeze my hand and mumble something under her breath, which really didn't help but reminded me she was still there. "Anyways, we should get going, if we start now, we'll reach your father by tomorrow at night fall."
"My fathers in the area?" I got scared, if my father was around, no good can come from it
"He thought it would be best since everything that has gone down. Now, say goodbye to your new friend and let's get a move on."
Daphne stepped out behind me. "No," she demanded, "I will go where he goes."
"You are in no place to say, girl, this is not your choice and none of your business."
I pushed her back behind me and continued to guard her from Yazdan. "Fine, then I wont leave with you. I go where she goes."
"Ugh," he rolled his eyes, "Young love is so annoying." I once more felt my face go warm.
"This is not love," Daphne quietly growled.
"Whatever. If she stays she has to hunt her own food and if she can't keep up, we'll leave her behind." I nodded even though I would never leave her behind in the woods. I looked back behind me at Daphne to see that she was staring straight ahead at the guy as if she was about to lunge at him and attack him right then and there. I caught a glimpse of the spunky girl she had been.
"Are you alright?" I asked as I grabbed her hand in mine.
She seemed to come out of her daze and looked up at me, "Are you?" She used her other hand to inspect the makeshift bandage she fitted me with.
"I'm fine, I assure you."
"One more thing," Daphne said as she looked up again and stared at me with those beautiful, fawn-like, brown eyes, "You can be my sword, if I can be your arrow. I'm not the finest archer but I'm a darn good one, but I'm not going to just stand around as you save me time after time."
I smiled, the sparkle that she seemed to have lost, was beginning to shine again. "Deal," I whispered as I grabbed her hand and pulled her along behind me, walking after Yazdan. As we walked, I found Daphne keeping pace beside me moments after our hands found our sides.
"So explain to me a little better on who Yazdan is and why he's here," Daphne asked, more like demanded.
I sighed. "My father, he's been suspecting me to run off for months now, I am, in what he calls, a rebellious stage. I guess he had his most trusted adviser follow me to make sure I didn't. And when I did, well, here we are." As we reached our campsite where we were first attacked, I noticed the smoke still billowing out of where the fire had been doused and torches had been placed around giving the men light to address the situation. The man who held Daphne captive and had an unfortunate fate with my dagger, now lay at the edge of the woods with his arms crossed across his chest.
"Nice work girly," Yazdan said as he quickly examined the now dead man's arm. Before I had time to react, Yazdan got behind Daphne and put a knife to her throat. She stood her ground but fear filled her eyes. "Don't try anything with me ya hear?" He growled. Daphne stood silent but nodded her head. "Good." Yazdan lowered his knife and slowly walked away. I glowered at him as I made my way over to the stiff standing girl. I took one of my sheathed daggers off of my kamarband and handed it to her, sheath and all. Still silent, she took it and strapped it to the side of her tunic. I walked over to one of the men and pulled the bow and quiver off his shoulder, I ignored his protest as I headed back towards Daphne and handed it to her. "Your bow."
"Thank you," She quietly responded as she slung the gear over her head, leaving it resting on her back. "Could you find me some bandages and a wet rag so I can properly access your injury."
"I fell on a stick, I'll be fine."
"It will get infected."
"You don't know that," I continued to protest.
"I do know that. You stabbed yourself on a branch that's been lying in the forest for who knows how long, it's better to be safe than sorry."
"You seem like you've had to have this same talk before," I laughed.
"Many boys at the orphanage refuse to be treated correctly thinking it makes them look tough."
"Are you comparing me to a ten year old boy?"
"No, I'm comparing you to a five year old boy."
I rolled my eyes and went to find the supplies she asked for. I stole bandages from the bag of the dead guy, and found a rag in a bag someone had left lying around and soaked the cloth in the creek. I went back over to Daphne who stood nervously at the edge of the opening, where the light could barely reach. I grabbed a torch as I walked so that she was able to work a little better.