The Princess of Cithrí - Chaol Westfall Fanfiction

Childhood lovers

This doesn't fit in with the princess of Cithrí story, it's just a little side story I wrote ages ago.

I tanged the string on my bow, if all went well we would be eating tonight, a meal fit for royalty. A meal fit for a prince.
I nodded to my friends down behind the bushes, and to the ones perched in the trees opposite. The clatter of horse hooves drawing closer. The brown and white creatures trotted under the trees. I nocked and fired my goose feather arrow at the wheel of the carriage. It hit bulls eye. The wheel juttered a little, the horses straining against the broken wood that splintered into the ground. Before the guards could exclaim their shouts of suprise and confusion, my friends pounced like a pack of lions, four jumping out the bushes, knocking the guards unconcious, dragging them off their steads, two ontop of the carriage, arrows targetting anyone who ran. I climbed down the tree running to the carriage, dispatching a guard on the way. I pulled open the carriage door, my knife jabbing at the prince's throat, I didn't want to kill him, no we didn't do that. I just wanted to hold him hostage. The prince with black hair, a strong jaw and sapphire eyes gulped as he saw who his attacker was, me, a young woman.
I had thought too highly of my friends, who were unable to stop the man atop the white horse. He charged at me, grabbing me by the back of my tunic. He fell off the horse dragging me down with him. I felt the resistance as my dagger slipped through skin. We hit the leaf carpet with a thud, the man still gripping my tunic tightly as he pulled me towards him, trying to unsheath his sword. I scrambled for my bow that lay just millimetres from my reach. I frailed around in his hands, he would kill me if he could draw his sword. I grabbed a log and whacked him around the head, it came away with droplets of blood. The man groaned getting to his feet, blood trickling down his chestnut hair. I gulped, as his hazel eyes looked up to me, no it couldn't be.... my friend knocked the man unconcious with the end of his staff.

We had the prince tied to a tree away from the rest of his bound up guards, and I had the chestnut haired man strapped to the tree opposite.
The Prince's tunic was ruffled from our firm shoving and his boot's ends stubbed on the harsh floor of the woods. "Let me go!" He cried straining against the rope.
I laughed. "Let me go." I mocked him, and his foolish prince ways. "Not until we get our money."
"You've got enough money from the carriage!" He complained, slumping in the rope.
My friend came up to me patting me on the shoulder. "We are champions tonight." I smirked at him, we truly were, the food in that carriage was meant to last the prince a week, but it would feed us for the next month, right through to winter. And the money the king would give us in return for his son would make us richer than lords.
The prince scoffed. "You're bandits."
"Not her." A stern voice said behind us, I knew that voice, and I had known those eyes, so well my chest ached to turn around and see him. He was regaining conciousness, the blood on the right of his head dried and scabbing. "She's a lady." He huffed at me, his eyes looked like he wanted to kill me.
"Yes, I was, but unfortunately for you. I'm no longer your lady." I baited him, he scowled, his hatred obvious. What had I done wrong to him? Surely I should be hating him?!
"Care to explain?" The prince asked, looking towards his friend.
"Yes, Chaol," I said. "Care to explain how I went from a lady to a bandit."
He snapped his mouth shut.
"Come on we have all night, and I'm sure your friend here wants a story." I folded my arms watching him, my bow slung over my shoulder and quiver besides the tree. I shook my head. "You haven't changed one bit." I left to go get my fair share of the food.

Once I had stuffed myself giddy, I went back to the two men, a bottle of wine in my hand, bandages, string and a needle. I squatted besides Chaol, his eyes never ending to hate me. The wound i had laid to his upper arm was still gushing blood, surely in time it was close up, but waiting could leave room for infection or all his blood to leave his body. "What are you doing?" He snapped as I began to undo his tunic.
"Fixing you." I replied pulling his tunic off, and then rolled his shirt over his head. He shivered in the cold night, his muscles tensing up, his abs clearer than ever. I gulped watching them, his skin so golden and smooth, mine used to be like that. Now it was scarred, brittle and muddy. He growled, and I snapped back to focus, scolding myself for being so dumbstruck by him. I'm meant to be hating him.
I popped open the wine bottle with my teeth, threading the needle.
"I want someone else to do it." Chaol said, shivering.
I gave him a look and then pulled the string through the little hoop. "I'm not going to kill you Chaol."
He raised an eyebrow. "You're awful at embroidery."
I smiled, I was amazed he remembered. I had been awful, so bad that the teacher whacked me with her cane and then pushed me out of the castle. She hadn't remained the teacher for long, not after Chaol found out it was her who had fractured my wrist. He had been so sweet then, staying with me throughout the whole recovery period, desperate to fulfil my every need. "Yeah? Well I'm good at stitching now."
He cocked his head, really not believing me. I rolled up my sleeve, pointing to a barely visible scar below my elbow. "I did that one myself."
I poured the wine over the needle then onto his arm. Chaol hissed, throwing his head against the tree as he bit his lip. "Ouch!" He complained at me.
I shrugged, taking a swig of the delighttful berry juice. "I said I was good, not painless."
I finished stitching his wound with a simple knot and then smoothed it down, wiping away any beads of blood left. His skin was hot, it felt like a newborn childs skin. I wanted to bury myself into it, wrap his arms around me and warm me. It has been very long since I have felt that warmness at night. Chaol leant his head closer to mine, inspecting my handiwork. "I've seen better." He huffed.
I rolled my eyes and redressed him, forcing myself to say goodbye to the gorgeous view for good. I looked over to the prince who was just watching the two of us, squinting as he tried to work out the puzzle. I fetched a three legged chair, and sat on it backwards, my chin resting on the backrest. "Do you even know how I got here?" I asked Chaol, I was sat substantially closer to him than the prince, if anyone asked I could say it was to piss him off. Really, I just wanted to be close to him again. I had never forgotten how we used to take picnic rides and lie in fields of cattle together, stuffing ourselves with all the sweets we had managed to pinch. We would lie so close, without a question. God he had changed since then, he was certainly more mature now, the way he resevered his feelings to himself. His chiselled jaw, cropped hair, permanent scowl and his huge, muscle ripped body. He was no longer the little shrimp I used to beat at pillow fights.
Chaol shrugged, the simple movement of his shoulders displaying his lack of interest in the topic. "Don't care."
The bottle of wine swirled in my hands, the dark liquid sloshing up the sides. There was mud under my nails, turned marron from his blood, I picked up a twig and scooped it out. "Its a good story, makes you look like a real arsehole though."
"I left you behind for a reason!" He snapped at me.
I laughed. "You left me behind because your pride had been destroyed! Did you seriously think your father would let me stay a lady with you gone?"
He lashed at me, spit flying out his mouth. "Shut up!"
The Prince opposite watched with open eyes. "Relax, Chaol." He turned to me, shifting in the rope that ran round his chest. "Would you care to explain so I may understand something?"
I shrugged and leant my head back... where to begin. "Your friend here and I used to inseparable, childhood lovers even." I smiled as I remembered the times we spent under the willow tree in the castle gardens. "And then one day he comes home from having been away for weeks and all he can talk about is this mysterious person he met, and how he was so desperate to return."
"To become captain of the royal guard." Chaol snapped at me. "It was him! I made friends with him!"
I furrowed my brow looking between the men, that did make sense, they seemed close - close enough to be on first name terms. "Yeah right, you just realised how crap I was compared to everyone else." I spat at his feet, my temper boiling up.
Chaol struggled against the rope, his face bright red, coming up with every possible insult he knew. However Dorian interjected. "So you're mad at him because he left you behind?"
"I'm mad at him for stealing me from my family, taking me into his life of wealth and then casting me back out for the position as Captian!" I took a long drink of the wine and pushed the chair over.
"You're family were going into quarantine yourname, you would have died if I hadn't taken you in." Chaol sighed, slumping back into his ropes, now fully aware he couldn't escape.
"It doesn't matter now anyeay." I hissed, dropping the empty bottle onto the floor of leaves. "We will get our randsom money and then you will be gone for good." With that I turned and left, heading for my hammock, knowing all too well that I would spend the whole night awake craving his warmth.