Ring of Power

Chapter 2: Return of the Guard Patrol

​     It has been eight years since the death of her parents.  Emerald Swan is 16 and still alone in the forest.  She has continued to practice with her bow and improved her sword fighting.  She has taught herself useful skills and improved the ones she had been taught so long ago.  She is an expert fighter and hunter, she never misses a shot, but she has never needed to use them other than hunting for game.  Since her father's death, the guards stopped looking for her.  She thinks it's because they don't believe she exists.  She vaguely remembers looking back and catching the eye of one of the guards, while running away that dreadful day, but she couldn't be sure.  The signs show that they don't believe she is out here and she would like to keep it that way.   
​     Some nights, when she really misses her parents she goes down to the river to find peace.  She thinks of them every day, but continues with her life, knowing that's what they would want her to do.  She wished she didn't have to morn alone, but knew no one else, nor could she afford to talk to another person.
​     She continued her daily life: wake up, watch people walk by as she sat on a tree branch above the road to Tyreenion, hunt at night if need be, visit the river and her parents if need be, and collect berries and nuts.  After awhile she became bored with this life, stuck doing the same things every day, but she couldn't afford to change it.  She needed to stay hidden just in case someone would know she wasn't a familiar face and get her arrested and killed.  She just needed an adventure or a turning point in her life, and although her parents would disapprove, she desperately wanted her life to be more than sitting alone in the forest.  She never thought that it was a possibility, though, and that it could happen in the blink of an eye.   

     Pyramus, the guard that thought he saw Emerald six years ago in the forest, has never forgotten that day.  He is determined to find the girl he saw.  Before, he could do nothing because he was just a simple guard.  Now, the King has promoted him to be the captain of the Guard Patrol.  He easily moved up in ranks and now runs the Guard Patrol and can command what he wants, when he wants and no one can raise a finger against him.  He has now demanded that a patrol goes out into the forest 3 times a week to look for the girl.
     "But Captain, how do you know there is really a girl out there?" asked one of his men, Gunther.
     "I know I saw her.  She was running from us, so she must be one of the outlaws.  She will be hidden very well, like her parents, but we should be able to find her in no time!" Pyramus said with confidence, slamming his fist down on a nearby table.
     "But Captain—," He started to reply.
Pyramus waved his question away with his hand.  The patrol gathered their gear and set out into the forest that evening, with angry looks on their faces.
     Pyramus knew what he saw and didn't care if the others believed him or not.  He was in charge now and wouldn't stop till the girl was caught.

     Down by the river, Emerald sat by the graves of her parents thinking of all they had done for her, but how she only spent a little time with them.  She had a dead rabbit by her side, she caught it in one of her various traps set up around the forest.  She also collected some berries.  There were always berries on the bushes that were close to the river.
She was just about to return to one of her forts to cook her rabbit when she heard a small rustling noise in the leaves behind her.  She grabbed the rabbit and the berries and put them in her bag, which she made of rabbit skin.  She quickly got up and ran into the cover of the trees just in time to see the Guard Patrol enter into the clearing by the river.  She watched as the man who killed her father walked up to the stones for her parents. 
     Pyramus saw the stones by the river bank and read their engravings aloud:
"Here lies Juanita Swan," and "Here lies Ivordir Swan"
     He looked back at his patrol and grinned.
     "What did I tell you?  If there is no girl, then how were both outlaws buried, and who did the engravings?  It has to be their daughter, the girl I saw six years ago," Pyramus said knowingly.
     The patrol just looked at him, they still didn't fully believe him, but they couldn't argue with him.  They had to get there somehow, didn't they?
      Emerald heard them talking about her.  I guess they are looking for me again, she thought.  Six years of peace and now she is going to have to be cautious again. 
     She watched as the Guard Patrol just stood in the clearing thinking for awhile longer.  Then they snapped back to the present and left the small clearing.  She watched them go and made sure they were out of hearing range before she left the coverage of the trees. 
     She looked at her parents tombstones.  She knew they gave her away, but she didn't mind.  Emerald knew how to hide from the guards.  Who knows, she might never get caught.
     She blew a kiss to the graves and set out for her main fort, what she considered to be her home.  Her main fort was in the centre of the forest.  It was the biggest of them all and it was where she slept, ate and hid if necessary.  She only used the others if she was hunting or if she was in danger, she hid in the one she was nearest to.
     Once she got there, she started a small and barely noticeable fire.  While it warmed up and created hot coals, she quickly but carefully skinned her rabbit with her dagger.
      She had a brown leather belt that held her main dagger on the right and her sword on her left.  She also had a spare dagger in her right boot at all times.  She only carried her sword just to have it on her, she rarely ever used it.  She mostly wore and used her bow and arrows.  If she had no game in her traps, she had to hunt for food.  She carried her quiver of arrows over her right shoulder and also put her bow with the quiver, or she just carried it in her hand.  The strap of her bag crossed her chest and the bag lay gently on her right hip.
     Once she had her rabbit skinned and the fire turned into hot coals, she laid her rabbit meat on the coals.
While the rabbit slowly cooked, she leaned back against the tree and relaxed the best she could.  She let her thoughts flow freely through her mind.  She wondered if the patrol would search for her every day or some days, during the day or the night.  She didn't know.  She needed to find out so she could avoid them as best she could.
She left her swirling thoughts and checked the rabbit.  It was perfectly done, like always.  She pulled the berries out of her bag and ate them with her rabbit.  Once her stomach was full, she moved the leaf covering just enough to peek out and see the moonlit path about 20 feet away from her fort.  She was checking for patrol men, and luckily she saw none.
     She knew they were out there, so they must patrol nights.  She would keep an eye out and see how often they would patrol the forest for her.  Now that they were back, she would have to be aware of her surrounding while hunting.  She would have to focus on the sounds around her as much as she would have to focus on her game. 
She sat back and watched as the fort got increasingly darker and night settled in.  She wondered of city life and other things like she did most nights before going to sleep.  Tonight she mostly concentrated on her life and how it was always the same.  She wondered if she could ever change her actions or if she would stay hidden her whole life.  That was what she was wondering when she finally drifted off to sleep, wrapped in her cloak so she would be protected by the chill of the night.
     Little did she know her life would change, and soon.