Chapter One

His horse was reaching it's limit. He could feel it's heart thrumming against his calves like a trapped drum-it's mouth agape and frothing. The beast wheezed, and he worried it would collapse from under him. But he couldn't stop to let it rest. There wasn't any time.

He forced it through tough thickets of thorns, over fallen trees and around obstacles so quickly that he feared he'd break his own neck. His legs were sore and his hands were running themselves raw with all of the yanking and jerking of the reigns. And his pursuers were closing in fast.

When Nolan had devised this route, he had figured that no one would pursue him through the Forbidden Forest because it was labeled "forbidden" for a reason. He was certain the only forces he'd have to tackle through it would have been the occasional wild dog or angry bird.

What he hadn't expected was the caravan of bandits waiting just within the brush, and for them to be so well concealed that he wouldn't notice them until they were on his tail. During his studies he'd heard about bandits, but he'd never actually seen them. Now he knew why they were such a problem.

Just a little farther, he thought frantically. 

Just a little farther and we'll be out of the forest and out in the open. Surely they will stop pursuing me there.

Bandits don't like fighting in open spaces. Or so he'd read. But books didn't know everything. With his luck, they'd probably keep pursuing him even if he was drowning in the lake.

They had no doubt caught sight of his gold enameled sword-his silver inlaid saddle and his silk dress wear. They had been stealing from people long enough to know which fights to pick. And here he was in the "forbidden forest" all to his lonesome, and covered in treasure. He wasn't going to escape them until he was dead or they were.

This is it. I'm going to die. 

It was a morbid thought, but he couldn't help it.

Had I known at breakfast this morning that this was how my day was going to end, I would have just stayed in bed.

His horse suddenly shrieked and stumbled to a dangerous halt. He looked around his steed to realize that just beyond its stamping hooves was a thicket of thorny brush so massive he could have gotten lost in it. There was no way his horse was going to go through that, and there were no routes around it.

This was it. They were done.

Nolan turned in the saddle with a sigh, and slowly drew his sword. At least now he could measure all of that training he'd gone through at the castle. See if what he'd been told was really the case. The bandits surrounded him removing their own weapons from their dark black cloaks.

He could see the whites of their eyes from above their masks and had to remind himself that these were just people trying to survive (though survive was probably too positive a word in this case). 

Where they people from his Kingdom? 

Did it matter?

Enough money could turn anyone into a killer. The first bandit screamed as he roared forward, blade raised and Nolan prepared himself for the onslaught. But the bandit wasn't the only person screaming, and they all realized this quickly.

The bandit coming at him turned just in time to have what appeared to be an onion in a net crash right into his skull. He reeled, nearly falling off of his horse as a third party-one man on a horse-came riding in. Nolan prepared for a fight, but this man wasn't facing him. 

He was facing the bandits-like he was acting as Nolan's guard.

Nolan didn't see his face immediately, but by the leather vest and chipped sword he was hanging over his head, he knew the man was a regular commoner-nothing special.

Well, that was until the man-singlehandedly-raced straight at the bandits while shrieking like a banshee. What Nolan had perceived as some sort of nosy passerby or hero wannabe-was more than likely insane. 

Nolan watched with some concern as the man swung his sword over his head with violence, and crashed it right into the first bandit on horseback that was desperately trying to scramble out of his way. 

The bandit desperately tried to defend himself, but the stranger clashed swords with him, and from his left flank he thrashed the poor man with his onion-net weapon. Attacked on two sides-the bandit didn't know what to do with him.

The other bandits started to surround him, hoping perhaps to trick him and knock him from his horse. Nolan prepared his sword-willing to jump into the fray and help this stranger in the fight. That was, until the stranger literally hopped up to his haunches (on his horse!) and hopped to the one the bandit was on.

Nolan wasn't sure why this was so spooky to the bandits, but moments later they were shrieking and belting their horses-racing to get out of there. The stranger watched them leave, staring at the one bandit that had been left behind. Looking up at the stranger, the poor man took off at a run, without his horse. 

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