'The moon rose slowly above the forest

NOTE: the narrators name is above the sections of speech (serenity or danny) it's not finished and please comment and rate!! I have written more but I want to see what people actually think of it first, many thanks
--tessa--

The moon rose slowly above the forest, as if to pay witness to the scenes unfolding below. A young girl, about sixteen, ran swiftly through the forest. Her run was that of a hunted animal, swift yet careful. She wore a dark green tunic, brown leggings and a dark grey cloak. Around her waist was a belt made from woven strips of leather. Dangling from her belt was a small green pouch and a leather sheath, inside it was a small, bone dagger. She was bare-foot but ignored the nettles and roots that threaded through her path. A harsh cry alerted her to the fact that her pursuers where gaining on her, she pulled a small, silver whistle from her pouch and blew on it once. The second she blew, five darts punctured the air around her. The girl cursed under her breath before darting deeper into the undergrowth. As the girl ran, she swung herself up onto a nearby tree, she then continued to move, quieter yet just as quickly as before. It didn’t take her long to reach the edge of the forest. Once there, she waited on a branch, which hung over the boundary of the forest. She didn’t have to wait for long though, only a few seconds had gone by before a black horse trotted towards her branch. The horse had no saddle or reins, it was pure black and sleek. The girl dropped from the branch before swinging herself onto the horse’s back. A man shouted as he spotted the girl dropping to the ground, a hail of darts rained down on the girl as her horse started to gallop off. The girl skilfully guided her horse through the darts and towards the village, as the horse slowed to a canter; one tiny dart punctured her leg. The girl swore before urging her horse back into a gallop. The sun was just rising as they arrived at the village.

Serenity
I cursed as Shadow collapsed against the stable wall, as I pulled the dart out of her hoof, my mind was racing, my best hope to stay free was to break into someone’s house and steal some money and food. I didn’t want to steal but I didn’t have time to sell my herbs or bow. I would have to write a note and leave some herbs behind to make up for the things I would take. But what would I need? I’d need some food, money, maybe a new cloak, some boots, maybe a saddle and bridle for Shadow. That’s all though, nothing else, I’ll give the people some herbs, my dagger and my bow. That’d be more than enough to cover a loaf of bread, ten copper coins, a tattered old cloak, some boots and possible some horse equipment. Actually, maybe I should just get the money and food, I could easily buy the rest, but then I’d need roughly one or two silver instead of just a few copper. I’d have to take from more than one house, which would mean I’d need to spread my gifts out carefully. Maybe I could get some leather and cloth, buy a needle and thread then make the clothes and Shadow’s tack. I checked that the dart wound wasn’t swollen before I quickly examined the nearest house. It was a medium size for the village: ground floor, first floor and probably a basement as well. The backdoor was probably locked but that wouldn’t be a problem for me. I did feel bad as I slipped a lock pick into the lock, it was a simple lock, I jiggled the pick up for about half a second before slipping through the door. I was in a kitchen-hall-diner, which was good because the food and money would probably be here. That’s the thing about small villages, the people who live there always put the money in easy sight, they can’t buy very good locks so if someone tries to break in, they’ll normally succeed, if they can’t find the money, they might just wake someone up and then kill them once they get the money. It’s better to let them find what they wanted and leave. Personally, I thought that it was stupid, but I didn’t live in a village, technically, I didn’t actually live anywhere, but still. I spotted the small tin of money and flipped it open, instantly I felt guilty for even entering the house, the family only had about fifty copper, half a silver was barely enough to keep one person alive for a week, and by the amount of rooms, and the size of the house, I estimated that three people lived here. Ok, so I wouldn’t take any money, instead I’d take enough food to last today and tomorrow and that would have to be it. I made my way over to the ‘kitchen’ area and quietly flipped open the icebox, inside was a small, skinny dead deer. I considered taking it with me but that would just be cruel, someone must have taken ages to find and capture this one deer. Instead, I headed towards the cupboards, inside one of them was a small loaf of bread and some dried fruit, I left the bread but took the fruit, it wasn’t much and was one of those really cheap ones but it would probably last quite a while. I checked another cupboard and found some hunting canteens, I selected the smallest one and, after yanking off the waist strap, I tied it to my belt, now for the gifts. I checked the last cupboard and examined the small phials of medicines, they didn’t have much so I put bigger versions of all of their phials next to theirs, I would have topped their phials up but they might think I’d poisoned it. I then added the slightly rarer ones for infected wounds and fevers. I noticed that there was a empty bottle of medicine for one of those diseases that thousands of poor people got but they couldn’t cure it (the rich people didn’t get diseases like that often and if they did they just bought the cure). I quickly wrote out the recipe for the cure and placed my tiny phial of the antidote next to it, I could make the cure but it was hard, lots of rare herbs. I placed my bow on the table along with a note apologising, explaining and promising that when I could I’d give it all back. I went back to the medicine cupboard to add a phial to make plants grow faster, it wasn’t actually a medicine but it was definitely useful. As I bent down towards the cupboard, I heard a hard, masculine voice that instantly made my blood and body freeze in terror and confusion
“Put your hands on your head and turn around, slowly. I won’t hesitate to kill you if you disobey me.”
My first thought was that the guard had found me; it was only when I turned round did I remember that someone from the house could have come downstairs. A boy, about my age stood near the staircase, in his hand was a bow; the bow was notched and already had an arrow in it, pointing at me. As I placed my hands on top of my hood, knowing that he couldn’t actually see my face yet made me relax slightly.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” The boy gave me a look of disgust as he continued, “You’re not from the village are you? Doesn’t matter anyway, stand up and put that phial back” I looked at my hand and realised that I was still holding the plant growing phial in my hand, I carefully put it back before rising to my feet. I tried to act and look calm but inside I was frozen in shock. All the boy had to do was call the guard and I was as good as dead. Actually, maybe the boy had already called the guard. The boy stared at my hooded face hard for a moment before he spoke again, his voice was slightly calmer that before “Ok, good. Step away from the cupboard and come sit down on that chair” The chair he was talking about was too far from the door and from my bow which lay on the table still. I walked carefully around him to the chair. Only after I’d perched on the edge, did the boy sit down; I could tell that holding the bow in that position was only hurting his arms a bit. He looked at me and I looked at him for a while, I considered speaking but if I did he’d hear my voice and when he told the guards, that could be dangerous, he seemed to expect me to say something, I didn’t quite know what though. Maybe he thought I’d start to beg or ask him what was going on.
“Ok, remove your hood, slowly. Then place your hands on your head” I cursed, I’d hoped we wouldn’t get to the part when I refused to do something this quickly. I didn’t bother shaking my head; he’d probably just shoot me. Instead, I stood up and ran straight towards the door. I sprinted up the stairs as I heard an arrow striking the wood just below my left foot, he was a good shooter, but I’d spent months on the run. I dodged around a corner and almost ran into a six-year-old girl standing nearby, I quickly grabbed her as I ran by and yanked my knife to her throat. I stopped running when I reached a dead-end, a window overhanging the stables. “Stop or I slit her throat!” I didn’t want to have to talk but sometimes you have to do one thing to save your life. I wasn’t planning on even hurting the girl much but I had to act like I would so I yanked the knife tighter around her neck, making her cry out in pain. The boy faltered and came to a stop, his bow was still aimed at me but I knew that he wouldn’t fire, not with his little sister in front of me. “Ok, listen. I’m going to go down the stairs and leave. There’s a note next to my bow for you, I won’t hurt your sister if you do as I say. Ok? Good. Now, go downstairs.” The boy hesitated before doing as I said, the moment he was out of earshot I grabbed a small plaster and put it on the girl’s throat “look, I’m sorry. I won’t hurt you, ok.” I then led her back downstairs and towards the backdoor. The boy was looking at me with hurt and anger in his face “If you hurt my sister I will kill you. I swear I will” I couldn’t risk speaking now the door was open so I just nodded. I headed towards Shadow and I heard the little girl gasp, she was staring at Shadow in amazement “This is Shadow, she’s actually pregnant. I might come back and give you her foal.” I wouldn’t need one horse and a foal would definitely help to make up for this. The little girl looked at me doubtfully as I nudged Shadow; she woke up and looked at me “Hey Shadow, it’s me. Do you think you’ll be able to run?” Shadow shook her huge head once before standing up and neighing. “Ok… you can go back home in a second ok?” I checked the hole where the dart had hit Shadow; it was clean and tiny so I guessed it would be ok. I only noticed that the boy had gone when I heard the little girl give a gasp. I spun round, pushing her in front of me, just in time to hear a gravely voice speak “Let go of the girl and we won’t hurt you, let go of the girl and tell us your name or we will shoot.” I cursed under my breath before I spoke “Sam.” I hoped that a one-word answer in a masculine voice would make them think I was a man. Sadly, it didn’t work. 
“It’s her! Fire” The boy looked shocked, I guess anyone would be shocked if the guard open fired on a thief who was holding a little girl in front of her. A little girl, in the way of the darts, darts loaded with enough to knock out an adult. As the darts flew towards us I acted without thinking, I shoved the girl out of the way, spinning her straight towards her brother. In the next second, the darts struck. I dived down to the floor so most of the darts flew over my head, some darts had been aimed lower, they hit my arms which I had flung in front of my head to protect me head, after the dart had embedded itself into my right arm I was up again. I sprinted towards Shadow and flung myself across her back. Shadow darted off as more darts flew towards us, I heard the boy shouting “What the hell! You could’ve shot my sister!” I rolled my eyes, typical of a boy to only care about his family. The dart was making everything blur slightly in front of me, I blinked and when I opened my eyes, I had slumped over my horse and we were heading in a different direction. I tried to stay awake, falling asleep could prove fatal but the dart had sent its poison into my bloodstream, as I fell into unconsciousness, I felt Shadow shift again and spin around in a circle as if she was surrounded. My eyes flickered and I saw the guard everywhere, Shadow gave a soft snort before I felt myself falling off her back and sliding on to the ground, before I could rise up to defend myself, the poison did it’s work and I went limp. I was barely aware off being picked up and secured onto a different horse’s back as the guard headed back to the hell hole they’d come from, taking me with them.

Danny
“Stop or I slit her throat!” The man shouted at me as I froze in horror, the situation had definitely gone horribly wrong, I wished I’d just let him take whatever he wanted, I tried to put my bow down but it felt like my entire body had frozen, the man didn’t seem to mind as he continued speaking “Ok, listen. I’m going to go down the stairs and leave. There’s a note next to my bow for you, I won’t hurt your sister if you do as I say. Ok? Good. Now, go downstairs.” I hesitated, before doing what the man said. As I headed down the stairs my mind was spinning, we’d all heard of these situations, the man would kill my sister, and it was my entire fault. When they came back down, I was so angry that I spoke without thinking “If you hurt my sister I will kill you. I swear I will” The man dragged my sister outside as he gave one short, sharp nod. I watched as the man whispered something to my sister, she looked at him before he spoke again. I didn’t wait around for another second, turning, I sprinted off towards the guard tower. Before I was even half way, a nearby guard grabbed me and shoved a picture into my face “Have you seen this woman! She has a black horse!” I hesitated before deciding to lie, if it’d help my sister, it would be worth it. “I think she’s with her horse around the back of my house. She’s got my sister!” I wondered what would happen when they found out it was a man, it could be a girl but I doubted it. In less than a minute, twelve guards were following me back to my house, I wondered if it was because of the ‘girl’ or my sister. Probably my sister, they wouldn’t need twelve guards to capture one girl. We arrived just as the man was bending down to examine his horse’s hoof; I waited for a few seconds for the guards to do something. They just stood there for a few seconds, I heard one say something like “I’m…reinforcements…be back…” He turned and legged it, from the expressions on the other guards’ faces I could tell that they wanted to leave as well. My sister gave a tiny gasp of shock, I whirled back to face her, the man was spinning round faster that I’d thought possible to face us, I couldn’t see his face but from his tense body, he was clearly pretty shocked. “Let go of the girl and we won’t hurt you, let go of the girl and tell us your name or we will shoot.” The man hesitated before speaking, his voice sounded slightly different to before, maybe because I’d been too scared before I hadn’t noticed but he sounded slightly…female? Yes, female. The guard had obviously thought along the same lines because he shouted, “It’s her! Fire.” I watched in first confusion then horror as all the men fired at the two women, at my little sister. I started to open my mouth but then the woman shoved my sister out of the way, towards me. She then flung herself onto the floor as the darts hit the air around her, “What the hell! You could’ve shot my sister!” I shouted in anger before staring in amazement at the girl, her hood had fallen back from her head now and even in the dim light, I could tell that she was beautiful. Her horse galloped away with her as all the guards followed in pursuit. I heard one guard murmur “don’t worry; we got her in the arm. She’ll be unconscious soon and then we take her” I quickly took my sister back to the house before running after the guards. When I arrived, the girl was lying on the floor unconscious. One of the guards pulled her up and tied her over the saddle of a nearby horse, whilst they were distracted, I ran over to the girl’s horse and pulled it towards me, the horse followed me willingly and by the time the guards had turned round we were both hiding in the trees. One of the guards injected the girl with a thick, yellow liquid before they all trooped off towards the guard tower. I didn’t wait any longer; instead, I turned and ran, sprinting with the horse back home. Once I arrived I locked the horse inside the stables before running back to the house, the girl had said something about her bow and a note. In the kitchen, there was a beautiful bow; the wood was one of those pale-yet-exotic types. It had a twisted notch in the middle where the arrow would go, I knew instantly that it would be light, flexible and strong. She’d left a bow that good for me? I spotted the note and flipped the paper over:
Dear house owner,
I am extremely sorry for stealing your things but, as I’m not in the mood for dying, I took them anyway. I promise that I’ll pay you back as soon as possible. I’ve put my bow here for you as it’s a good bow and I hope that it will help make up for me stealing some of your stuff. Also, in your medicine cupboard I’ve put some jars of herbs and medicines. My horse is pregnant and may soon have foals, if she does I will send one here. Normally I would never do this sort of thing but as the guard are searching for me, I don’t actually have much choice. I wish I could explain this in person but the sooner I’m gone then the less chance there is of me being caught.
From
Serenity

That was it. I headed straight towards the medicine cupboard and flipped the door open, each medicine bottle had a bigger version next to it, I pulled a bottle out randomly it read ‘For Fevers’ I stared at the writing for a few more seconds before I hurried to my sister. She was sitting on her bed and for a moment my anger for the woman returned, she’d kept my sister hostage “Danny…that girl, where did she go?” Before I could open my mouth to explain that the guard had her and she wouldn’t come back to hurt us again, my sister continued, “I mean I know she threatened me but she did say she wouldn’t have actually hurt me, I’d like to say hi.” A memory flashed through my mind, of the woman shoving my sister out of the way of the darts and being hit instead. If she hadn’t, my sister would be dead and the woman would be free. “The guard got her” My mouth seemed to speak mechanically; my sister stared at me in shock before saying she was going to bed. I almost smiled despite myself, Mia always seemed to change subject randomly yet quickly. I nodded to my sister before heading back to the kitchen and thinking everything over. The girl hadn’t stolen that much but she’d threatened my sister, but she saved my sister’s life at risk of her own and she’d given me her bow. Overall, I decided that the she had done more good things than bad in this occasion. Which brought forth the question, why was the guard chasing her? As there wasn’t anything I could do just yet, I went to sleep.

         The first thing I did in the morning was collect all our money, once I had a half silver in my pocket I headed towards the guard tower. I’d already written a note to my sister explaining where I had gone. I arrived at the guard tower five minutes before it actually opened. While I waited, I considered as to what I would do when I spoke to the guard. I couldn’t just walk in and go ‘oh, hey! I was wondering if you’d be willing to trade your prisoner for a half silver.” They’d say no and what’s more, they’d probably lock me up as an accomplice as well. My plan was different; I would ask the jailer if she was in jail, I’d pretend to be a relative or a friend, or something like that. Then I’d get her out tonight. Once the tower opened, I went in and headed up to the receptionist “um…hi. My sister is in here, she came in yesterday, can I see her please?” The receptionist gave me a look before scanning some documents, “we had twenty-seven girls who came in yesterday, can I have her name, age and details of arrest?” I cursed, I guessed she was about 20-25, but I didn’t actually know what she looked like, the guess was based on the fact that -20s weren’t normally chased by the guard. “Early 20s, she didn’t really keep track, she got arrested for breaking into someone’s house and then trying to escape. She got hit by a dart and her horse, Shadow ran off.” The receptionist smiled at me in a knowing way “she’s not your sister is she? You fancy her and now you’ve seen her get carted away you want to confess your love, am I right?” I nodded, any story was better than none, and it did explain why I knew nothing about her. “Ok, a girl aged twenty-five or less, that’s ten of them, fifteen or above is seven. Out of them, only one was shot by darts. That one has refused to give any details of anything she’s been accused of murder and is being sent to the city prisons in an hour. Ah, I’m sorry but she’s on a no-visitor regime.” I considered for a second, most of the description fit well, the horse, the fact that she refused to give details went with her hiding her face and voice. As I thought about this, the woman spoke again “do you want to see her record? You know all that stuff?” I nodded and the woman passed me a pile of papers, “you can go read them over there if you want.” I headed towards the chair and flicked to the first page, it read:
         Name: N/A
         Age: N/A (estimate- 16)
         Gender: Female
Appearance: Brown hair. Brown eyes. White. Slim. Average height.
         Crime: Murder of a guard official
         Other: Is being moved to the city prisons at dawn. No visitors.
“Ok, could you send her a message from me though?” The woman hesitated before she spoke “maybe, I’ll have to get it checked with the guard first though.” I nodded and smiled before quickly scribbling a message
Serenity, I heard about what happened, I can’t believe that you killed an official! I would visit but I’m not allowed. My little sister is fine as is Shadow. Thanks for the bow.
Hope to see you soon
--Danny
I wondered if she’d understand the hidden meanings in the message, she’d know that her horse was safe and that she had saved my sister. Also, she’d know that I knew about what she’d done. The bow bit was me trying to tell her that I had her note and would try to help her as soon as I could. The problem was, I doubted she’d understand it all. The receptionist smiled as I watched her slide it down a hatch marked ‘Letters to prisoners’ As there wasn’t much else I could do, I headed back home, on the way, I spent 20 bronze on buying some more arrows, I would have to try out her bow tomorrow.