Escape

4

I stagger backwards until I regain my balance by gripping a tree. "Hey! That hurt. You alright?" I hear a male voice saying to me. Is that Asher? The voice sounds different from his.

"Yeah, I'm fine how are you?"I reply. My vision clears and I get a good look at him. He has light brown eyes and dirty blond hair. It's not Asher.

"Fine, what are you doing out here anyways? You're a long way off from the nearest village," He said.

What do I say now that won't make him suspicious? Has he heard about me.

"I, um, was out, uh, hunting," I lie, lifting up my bow for emphasis. Good thing I took my bow out. " There wasn't much game on the forest outskirts so I decided to, um, go in deeper."

He grins at me and says "I was going to go hunting too," He reaches back and unstraps his own bow. "Would you like to hunt with me? I would enjoy the company."

"Um, sure, why not?" I say. Why did I just accept? Why? I could have just refused and-

"Great. Thanks. Oh, and my name is Cassian, what's yours?"He says, breaking through my thoughts.

His name is Cassian? Oh right, he asked me my name. Uh, can't give my real one, he might have seen a poster for me.

"Oh, my name is uh, Briar," I reply, saying the first name the comes to mind.

"Well, nice to meet you, Briar, let's go hunting!"

We walk around, looking for any animals around. "So, you're from Winford?" he asks, naming the closest town. "Or are you from somewhere else? I haven't seen you around."

"I'm staying with my friend here for a while, I just got here yesterday. I'm from Rosecliff." I probably shouldn't have said my birth town, but it's too late.

"Cool," Cassian says.

We walk around the forest, but find no signs of animal life.

"Let's see who can shoot the closest to that tree,"Cassian says after a while. He points to a medium sized tree about 20 yards away.

"Okay, you first," I say, mainly so I can see how good he is. I'm a decent shot. Well, I can beat all my brothers and sisters in archery. Cassian draws an arrow from his quiver, lines up his shot and fires the arrow. His arrow misses by less a foot.

"Ok, now you try," He says, stepping back. I raise my bow, aim for the center of the tree and let my own arrow fly. Less than a second later, I hear a thud, and lower my bow to see my arrow embedded in the center of the tree. Bullseye.

I grin as Cassian says, "Well, I guess you won. Your aim is actually pretty good."

"Thanks, your aim isn't too bad either," I reply.

"The sun is going to start setting soon, maybe we should head back," He says, looking at the sky. I follow his gaze. It's late afternoon, evening soon, I hadn't realized that so much time had passed. Wait. Cassian thinks I'm staying at Winford, and will be suspicious if I don't go there, but I can't risk being seen. Maybe I'll just go to the market. I need supplies anyways. I'll just go, get supplies and leave.

"Yeah, I have to get some supplies from the market too."

"Okay."

We make the trek to Winford in silence. By the time we get there, the sun is starting to set.

"Well, goodbye, maybe I'll see you around town," Cassian says.

No, you won't. "Bye," I say in return. We separate and I hurry to the closing market. I haggle over supplies and in the end I pay 20 copper coins for bread, meat and fruit to last several days. I also trade 10 copper coins for a cloak to better hide my face and to serve as a blanket.

While walking toward the woods I put the cloak on and carefully put the provisions into my pack. I catch sight of a missing poster and venture towards it. As I thought, it's a "missing" poster for me. It shows a sketch of my face along with descriptions and a reward of 1000 silver coins. 1000? That's a lot, enough to support a family for months.

Hearing footsteps, I half turn, careful to make sure the hood covers most of my face, and see dark brown hair and a flash of midnight blue eyes. Is that Asher? What if he recognizes me. I'm right next to a missing poster of me! But in the next second the figure disappears, whether it was Asher. I stare at that space for a minute, but see nothing.

I continue walking away from the marketplace, throwing backward glances once in awhile. When I get to the edge of the forest, I check to make sure no one is watching and slip into the forest.