The First Time [DAVID]

[PRINCESS AMALIA POTENTI]

Amalia had never really been this far from the castle, at least not since she was a little girl. Even more so, she wasn't surrounded completely by guards. Perhaps that was because the arrangement was secretly made so no one would really know of her where abouts except for her father and the four or five men that were guarding her. It was refreshing, to say the least. She felt less suffocated out here like this. Plus, there was a small glimmer of happiness in her for the reason that she was out here in the forest lands near the Blue Volcano. Really the only reason other than music that Amalia would travel far from home would be for a horse.

Of course she could get any horse she wanted, but the ones she got were all prized breeds, and well trained when they were given to her. No, she wanted a horse for her own. A sturdy farm horse that did not yet know the feel of a firm general's whip or a show woman's applause. She wanted to train one on her own, which she could easily do, because it would make a deeper connection with the animal. That's why she was here, currently talking to the owner of some very handsome horses. Her guards weren't far, but they seemed more relaxed and some were sitting on the ground chatting. Amalia told them to just relax, it had been a long trip after all.

"Now all of them are youthful and strong, I raised their parents and their parents' parents myself. They are very good breeding!"
The village man explained to Amalia as he showed her the several horses in the corral. Amalia was in some simple riding clothes, certainly not of humble make but not very expensive either. Her oceanic eyes fell on a male Fresian, all black in color with a nice long mane.
"I would like to see him, please."
Amy requested, pointing to the Fresian. After a few moments he was lead from the corral to Amalia, who had an almost pleasant smile on her face.

She took the reigns and nimbly hopped up onto his bare back. She liked riding bare back on a horse, not that she didn't like saddles, but this just felt more comfortable to her. Amalia patted the horse's neck, who didn't seem to mind at all that she was mounted on him. What a good obedient steed. She was about to see if the horse would walk forward on command when there was a sudden rebel cry in the air. Her head snapped around to see bandits charging them, and before she could do anything the started Fresian reared and took off into the forest. She let out a loud shriek of surprise and fear, clinging to his mane for dear life as he ran through the thicket of trees until finally he stopped so sharply in his tracks that she was flung off completely.

Amalia hit the ground in a flurry of snapping twigs and a few cries of pain and surprise. By the time she gained her senses and came to a sitting position the Fresian was long gone and all around her was silent. The princess could already feel her eyes watering with fear, but there was also a terrible pain in her leg as well. She removed her boot, sniffling with almost every lace she pulled. Amalia had to bite her lip several times to keep from crying in pain. At last the boot was off, but she almost wished that she had left it on. Her leg was broken, that much was evident by all the swelling that had already occurred. Amalia bruised like a banana, no doubt it was going to be all black and blue in no time.

Tears staining her cheeks now she backed up to lean against a tree, angrily throwing her boot at the forest floor. Like all times when something went wrong her mind automatically went downhill to the worst possible scenarios. 'I'm going to die here. I'm going to starve or be found and killed by those bandits. No one will ever know what happened to me....my guards are dead...I'm dead....'
She kept repeating these things in her head, over and over sobbing softly into the sleeve of her overcoat, shivering from the cold winter air that she only now really took note of. Great, she was also going to freeze to death.

[PRINCE DAVID ALWORTH]

Winter, twenty second season, approximate time is about five minutes past noon. I can't believe the sheer luck my guards and I have had in he neutral lands in not meeting anyone that is from Ethaia. It is almost too good to be true, or at least to me it is. My men though are enjoying this small spite of peace while I am fretting that something horrible may be happening soon. Marked, David; crown prince of Thivea.

Looking up from the boat he smiled seeing that they were finally docking on the island hat housed the Blue Volcano. Moving off the dock and waiting for his horse to be saddled and made ready he looked around. The town seemed deserted oddly, which spoke of some sort of horrible event.

Walking into the town he looked around. It wasn't deserted after all, it had been run down by bandits or so it seemed. He then noticed five bodies that held a familiar insignia which belonged to the throne of Ethaia. As he examined each corpse he had noticed that they were of royal guards, elite soldiers; the best of the best. They only protected the royal family. So someone was out here alone. It was then that one of the guards groaned. David rushed over to him and held him down speaking lightly, "What happened here sir?" He asked in the Ethaian dialect. The soldier looked up to him and spoke softly and with a dying breath, "Protect...the...princess..."

His men had heard that and some of them whispered. "The Ethaian princes...in danger." Then one of them spoke up,"Though she may be an Ethaian your highness she is still of Royal Blood. Lets go." David nodded agreeing with him and got onto his horse. His three men following as the four others stayed behind to see if any civilians were still alive.

After an hour of riding they had made it into a forest and had to walk the rest of the way. Luckily for them the bandits weren't very good at covering their tracks at all neither was the princess obviously. "I'm worried for her...She's only twenty and probably not trained that well in any weapon we need to hurry..." David spoke speeding his walk up a bit more. Little did he know that less than a mile a head was the princess and the bandits.

Around them was this huge forest which just so happened to be covered in a fresh two inch blanket of snow.

[PRINCESS AMALIA POTENTI]

It wasn't long before the pain started to become slightly more bearable, but only slightly. The endorphins her body released were enough to slightly calm her and make her feel less like her pain was going to kill her alone, but not enough to make it go away. She hadn't really noticed how much she had been shivering until her tired body jerked slightly at the sound of footsteps. Amalia tried her best to hide under some brush that was near the tree, but the snow was freezing and the pain in her leg made it almost impossible to move. She managed to duck slightly lower as several pairs of boots began to come into her vision from her not so good hiding spot.

As she recognized the bandits boots from before she felt a drop in her stomach and tears taunt her eyes once more. If they found her there was no telling what they would do. In her mind she almost added rape to the list of horrible ways she was going to die, but didn't quite get there as a strong hand suddenly yanking her from the ground interrupted her thoughts. As she was raised off the ground with a small squeal the group of bandits nearly erupted into a fit of deep chuckles.
"Love, you need to find better hiding places. Or at least a better horse."
Once of them mused. Great, so they knew she was there the whole time?

They took about two steps towards the trembling young woman before she suddenly spoke up, her voice either shaky from the cold or fear - or both. "Don't touch me!" Again, another round of chuckles. She thought of any way that she could get out of this, but the only thing that came to mind was fear. Wait, maybe fear would work. "My father is the Overlord of Ethaia, he will have your heads on pikes!"
Once more, that deep chuckle, only this time the ring leader laughed louder and stepped forward, laying a cold hand on her cheek which she would have swatted away if she weren't being restrained by his great lummox.

"Actually, I was thinking more of a reward..."
She didn't have to read minds, all she had to do was glance around their face, tones of the laughter this time and look back to the bandit leader. The one holding her suddenly hurled her to the ground, earning a short cry of pain from her injured leg before the leader advanced at the sounds of all the wolf whistles and vulgar calls. Amalia let out a series of loud, frantic screams, trying to kick him away with her good leg, slap him, scratch his eyes, anything she could do to get him away but he had already torn open her riding jacket.

[PRINCE DAVID ALWORTH]

Within mere seconds of hearing the first yell of pain David had rushed toward he small clearing unsheathing his sword as did the three men behind him. No one was going to harm a princess on his watch even if she was Ethaia's princess. As he rushed here his mind went through so many different techniques and styles he couldn't pick one at all to use against these foul bandits.

Finally as he and his men made it to the clearing right when they had torn her other shirt off David jumped into the fray and then slashed a the nearest man. The battle had now commenced. His three men made a small protective semi circle around him so that no one would get to his back.

Clang, Clang, Clang, CRUNCH. The sounds of axes and swords meeting echoed off of the trees and forest as David and one of the bandits duel to the death. This ordeal was like a nostalgic meeting. He had done this duel somewhere before, and then he realized it. This was the same bandit that had been with one of the dragon slayers in his kingdom. "YOU!!" David yelled as he struck down the man's axe with a mighty blow. He then pointed his sword at the man's neck and stabbed fiercely. None of these bandits would live now that he knew what they were.

"Give them no quarter!!!"David yelled out as he and his men now charged fully to battle these bandits. Death after death, each bandit went down longer than the last. Then it was finally David and the leader as David's guards made sure the other's were dead. "Release her...." David spoke lightly as he heaved a breath. He was tired, very tired and he was also bleeding on his right thigh but he ignored that.

A flash move here and then a side scuttle there and the man had his sword and dagger out. He was a two blade user something David disliked at this very moment. Just mere seconds later David had two new wounds, his men had wanted to jump in but David held up his hand signaling them to stop. His cloak was hampering him, it weighted about five pounds.

After he removed his cloak it was now easy to tell; he was royalty, and not just any royalty. He was the prince of Thivea as it was marked on his ring and crest on his tunic.

"Come on. I haven't got all day."
David challenged the bigger man. Though the man was obviously more skilled and bigger David had one thing that the man did. Intelligence. He used the man's power and skills against him; marking it stroke for stroke until the bandit leader slowly tired.

Then he finally had his chance. But he nodded to the princess softly and one of his men covered her view. A wet and grinding sound then was emitted right after the princess' view was limited. After a few minutes of cleaning up the bodies were gone and David walked to the princess slowly his voice sounding soft and kind,"Are you okay princess?"

[PRINCESS AMALIA POTENTI]

Amalia let out another shriek as there were suddenly swords and shields being drawn. Reflexively, she closed her eyes and tried to hold her arms up to guard herself as she was tossed aside like extra trash so that the bandits could fight. She herself wasn't sure how many times she came a short scream of fear or cry of pain as she tried to crawl away from the battle, the only thing registering to her was to try and get away. All the shouts and clashing of metal made her head throb, but it was at least enough to distract her from the horrible pain in her leg. At some point a cloak was tossed aside, which she reached for so she could use it to cover herself up.

As soon as she even had the cloak around her shoulders she was jerked to her feet once more by the very man who had hurt her before. Fear made her freeze as her wide eyes darted around the group of her would be saviors, the bandit leader standing alone against them. But how could she trust them? What if they were just killing these bandits to get the prize of her ransom for themselves? She had no time to let her pessimistic mind process possible outcomes as the one challenging the bandit suddenly came forward. Once more she closed her eyes and was on the ground again, only this time she made to crawl away quicker than last. She heard the clashing blades and when she turned to chance a look back saw fresh blood being spilled, but it wasn't the blood that made her breath get caught in her throat.

It was the one Prince of Thivea, these men around him were likely his guards. No doubt they were going to take her and use her in some way so that Thivea could win the war. Amalia didn't care who won, she just wanted to return home and be unhurt and unspoiled! As she backed herself into the stump of a tree she found she couldn't take her eyes from the duel to the death. She had seen matches fought in arenas, but this was real battle. It was something both fascinating and horrifying to behold. Amalia didn't realize that a guard had hung a cloak in her vision until she blinked herself to reality, not one to protest in this situation, she sat quietly, shaking, as the sound of the leader's death echoed off the trees.

Amalia closed her eyes as the bodies were moved away from the site of the battle, and didn't realize how hard she had been crying until her chest hurt for breath and a breeze made the tears on her cheeks sting with cold. What if there were more bandits? They were probably hiding somewhere, waiting for the perfect time for an ambush to kill the Prince and his men, and then they'd have her for sure. A soft voice brought her out of the dark and she opened her watering blue eyes to stare up at the Prince. Even though not moments before she was thinking of him as the enemy she still leaned forward as much as she could muster and flung her arms around him, openly weeping as she did.
"Please-please don't let them take me! Don't let them touch me!"

Amalia sobbed loudly, burying her face in the Prince's neck again before a stinging pain shot through her leg and she leaned back with a loud gasp, trying to grab it as if it would make the pain subside.