“Fuck!” involuntarily blurts out of me. Turning back to look in front of me, I have to grit my teeth to stop my chin from quivering as my eyes start to grow moist. There’s a time and place for everything and now’s not the time to mourn for Uriah. A second later, I have to control the horse to shift left slightly to avoid a patch of snow that still hasn’t fully melted away and the tiny adjustment was enough to budge Uriah’s body into sliding off the back of the horse. I don’t want to look back but I owe it to him to burn his final moments into my head.

Seeing Uriah’s unmoving body on the ground behind me is… painful beyond all else. He was one of the very first people in Candle to give me a warm welcome into the outfit. I still remember the night he fed me stew and that’s still one of my favorite dishes because of that night. I didn’t get that many chances to speak with him and learn more about him but I thought it was alright because we had all the time in the world to learn about each other. But he’s gone now and I’ll never get the chance to listen to his story.

The only solace I can scrounge from his death is he bought me enough time to get to the treeline and I’ll remember that favor forever. The moment we get into the treeline, it changes into a completely different world. It’s darker in front of us now that the trees aiding us in our escape have also blocked off the moonlight from illuminating our way forward but that’s a trade I’m willing to make any day. I pull my horse’s reins tight to slow him down because if he trips over an overgrown tree root right now, that’s it for the both of us.

Everyone else ahead of me starts to slow down as well as we regroup now that we’re not getting pelted with arrows anymore. We’re not completely out of danger yet but if we push it too hard in this forest when it’s this dark, we’ll suffer more damage from ourselves than those guards can inflict. Derriv leads the whole pack as he grabs a lightstone in a box out of his pack and slides it open to light up our surroundings. He casts a solemn gaze over the whole group and pauses when he reaches me but I only shake my head at him. Without a word, he turns back around and continues navigating the way forward for the rest of us but his shoulders are noticeably more slumped than before.

I spotted Bafal riding his horse on the right side of the pack with his father still sitting aimlessly right behind him. Anger flares up in me when I see him still acting like that even though at least three of our friends have already died because of him but I suppress it, noticing the wide berth everyone else is giving the pair. Seeing how nobody else even seems to acknowledge their existence, I think it’s fair to assume they’re already being ostracized by the rest of us. Although I do feel bad for Bafal since none of this is his fault.

Right now I think we’re somewhere inside the Plainheart Woods. Ocean’s Rest has two major forests surrounding its outskirts with the Cauna Forest to the north and the Plainheart Woods to the south. Further south past these woods lies the kingdom’s capital, Everview. Since we want to completely avoid the kingdom’s guards, we’ll need to stay inside these woods for quite a while and keep heading west until we pop out the other side. That should land us somewhere towards the middle of the kingdom and by then we’ll already be well on our way back to Midriver. Considering we have little to no supplies aside from whatever’s in our packs, things look pretty dire but I guess we can always scavenge.

Suddenly, I hear Derriv up ahead shouting, “Shit! Cut your lights! The fuckers actually got their horses and came after us. Roderic must’ve been a noble or someone important. Keep a suitable distance from each other and if you hear arrows whistling through the air, split up further.” Panic runs through me at his words and when I look back, I can see torchlight approaching us from far away.

I slide my brightstone box shut and stuff it back into my pack and hurry my horse along as we increase our pace. At this point, we just have to take the risk and push our pace otherwise they’ll catch up to us in no time. Everyone’s silent as we ride through the dark forest, the anxiety and tension we’re all feeling plain on our faces. Just like this, we rode for nearly an hour straight.

It’s an intense ride through and through. I think the only time I’ve ever felt like this was during the war with Midriver’s Finest when Bertrand and I ran through the city for an entire day being hounded by Reed’s men. All my nerves are taut and I’m ready to duck my head the second I hear anything out of the ordinary. After riding for an hour nonstop, we finally came to a halt.

Although our riding pace wasn’t too fast because we had to be careful of the terrain and the darkness, our horses still had to be getting tired. Up ahead, Derriv turns his horse around and surveys our surroundings, saying, “We might have lost them or they gave up trying to find us. Regardless, keep your eyes open because we’re still well within Ocean’s Rest’s patrolling reach. We’re not out of the woods yet both figuratively and literally.”

We let our horses rest for a few minutes but no one says a thing to each other. On one hand, we don’t want to make too much noise and draw attention to our location but on the other, everyone’s a nervous wreck right now. After about 20 minutes, we mount up again and get ready to keep moving. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Mary riding with Riane. I haven’t been able to keep an eye on her myself with everything happening but I’m glad she has Riane watching out for her. I have my horse move in their direction to sidle up next to them.

Mary looks scared but she’s still holding it together to not make any noise. Riane gives me a tired look but doesn’t say a word. It’s been hard on all of us but especially so for Riane and the other noncombatants since they’re not used to such rough conditions. That reminds me.

Looking at Riane, I ask her while keeping my voice low so that we’re not too loud, “Why’d you decide to join Candle, Riane?”

She gives me a questioning look but I only gently smile at her in response. Riane takes a breath and sighs before saying, “It’s not anything dramatic. I’ve lived in Midriver ever since I was a child and when I grew up, I apprenticed under an apothecary who had a shop in the city. During the insurrection more than a decade ago, I had my own shop that I had already been running for a few years. The Wolves’ Old Master approached me and asked me to make drugs for him but I didn’t really want to do it since that didn’t interest me and so he took my shop and kicked me out. From then on I still kept my practice open but I just didn’t have a physical store anymore and worked out of my house.

“When I met Derriv a few years ago, he gave me a pretty earnest plea and said he’d let me set up a shop inside his compound as long as I gave him and other Candle members priority in purchasing my concoctions. I didn’t have a reason to say no and since then I’ve stuck with Candle, through both the good times and the hard times.” Riane caresses Mary’s hair gently when she finishes her words. Mary looks less tense now listening to Riane’s story which is what I wanted.

I’m about to say something in response when I hear something whistling through the air behind us and my body instinctively directs my horse behind Riane’s while raising the shield strapped to my left in front of my chest. I lower my head at the same time and I immediately feel a massive impact against my shield. The blow is so strong that it nearly knocks my shieldarm away but I manage to hold myself in place before screaming, “Enemy attack! From behind! They’re firing arrows, shields up!”

Once I see Riane and Mary rushing to the center of the formation for protection, I turn my horse back around and get ready to rush forward at full speed. But as I’m ducking my head down, another arrow flies at me from behind and pierces my right shoulder. I have to suffocate the scream in my mouth or else I’ll make myself a bigger target. The pain is absolutely excruciating and every time I even slightly move my arm, pain explodes from my shoulder. There’s a bloody arrowhead inches away from my face and the realization that if it landed a few inches to the left, I wouldn’t be breathing anymore sends shivers down my spine. I can still control my horse with my left hand but he’s starting to veer off course from the others.

Arrows start flying over my head as I wrap myself around my horse to make for a smaller target. It doesn’t seem to work however when another arrow finds its way into my left thigh and I nearly black out from the pain. Oh, this might be it. The gap between me and the main group is growing and if I’m left out in the open, they’ll turn me into a pincushion like the one I use for sewing. This can’t continue.

Throwing caution to the wind, I have my horse take a hard left and then I kick both of its sides as hard as I can with an injured left leg. He neighs so hard and loudly that it sounds more akin to a roar than anything else before he takes off at top speed. I nearly slip off of him but I barely manage to cling on as I bury my face into his mane. There’s nothing else I can do right now except trust him and his run.

As we bury ourselves deeper into the woods, I can hear furious shouting from behind me and a glance back tells me at least two people carrying torches split off to come after me. It’s all up to you, partner. Angelene has a rather unique view on horses that’s drastically different from everyone else I’ve ever met. The entire time she was giving me lessons, she kept telling me to trust my horse like I would trust her or Bertrand in a fight. If there’s no trust between a horse and their rider, then one could never become a genuine horseman. I have no idea what she meant by that nor do I know what a genuine horseman is but considering she’s the best rider in the entire outfit, she has to be doing something right.

That’s what I’ll do right now. I’m going to trust my partner and let him ride as he pleases. Leaving my fate up to another, a horse of all things, doesn’t sit too well with me but what other choice do I have. “Go ahead you big, beautiful bastard. Get us out of here.”

…

I have no idea how long I’ve been riding for and I have even less of an idea of where we’re headed. I’ve been going in and out of consciousness ever since I decided to veer hard left. I know I need to stop the blood loss but I’m just so tired that I can barely keep my eyes open. Maybe if I close my eyes for a few seconds I’ll feel rested enough to stay awake. Yeah, I think I’ll do that. Just for a few seconds.