Her own way

Chapter 18

*A/N ~ I'm suprised I managed to write this chapter before the end of this month! It's been a difficult time for me in which I ended up writing a completely different work called Letter to a friend (if you have a moment please do have a read of it). This chap had been difficult for me to find the inspiration to write and you know the phrase "two wrongs don't make a right"? Well there was that at the start of the month and I had a minor bump in the car this morning - two wrongs... and managed to produce over 2000 words for this chapter. Yeah, strange how things happen.

Anyway, please do read and comment. It's always nice to hear what you think!

KC

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The journey into Rynemona seemed to take longer than expected to Captain Samuel and his men. The weather had not been kind to them as it kept raining heavily throughout the night and all day long causing the sky to stay dark and the ground to become extremely muddy, dampening the mood amongst the men. This had a duel effect, not only on this group, but also on the soldiers patrolling the border. They were slower on their patrol times, seeming to argue a lot, and not paying proper attention to their surroundings, after all who would want to march in this awful weather?

Paul, ever the eagle eyes was the first to make his way over the border. Making as little noise as possible, he made his way through the bushes marking the way to a relatively unnoticeable area a matter of meters away from the borderline. It was one clearing that he had spotted during his time on watch the previous evening, he had also noticed that the enemy soldiers never once ventured into it and because of the rain, they also tended to keep their eyes on the ground. As he passed, Paul marked the trees on his left with a knife, dragging it through the bark to cut a line a little higher than his head. He needed his fellow soldiers to see it but not the enemy. On completing his task, Paul chose a suitable tree to climb so he could signal Samuel, Jackson and the others that the way was marked and it was safe for them to come across. They moved slowly going one at a time to the safe zone Paul had reached, each man varied their footsteps so that they didn't leave a lasting impression in the muddy ground. The rain was lashing down which helped to conceal the bootprints by washing them away pretty much right away.

 The whole journey took about three hours, and surprisingly not one patrol had passed their way. Jackson was the last to cross, ensuring all of the men had cleared the border before he crossed. As he trekked over, he kept his eyes and ears open for any signs of disturbance to the area around him, making sure that any distinct boot marks were disturbed by branches that would seem natural to the untrained eye. His trek seemed to take longer than all of the others because of this, but it was just as well he had taken the care to mask their trail, just as he reached the men Paul gave the signal for everyone to get down and stay silent - the enemy patrol was finally making its rounds.

 No one spoke as they waited patiently for the patrol to pass, they all knew they needed to get through undetected. Should anyone be spotted or attack the coming patrol then alerts would spread like wildfire that there were intruders into the kingdom, this was what Samuel wanted to avoid. The mission was to get in, find the girl, and get out as quickly as possible. With any luck, they would be back in the safety of their own castle before the next full moon. Looking up to Paul, who was still high in the trees keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings, Samuel started communicating with him using hand signals, keeping the messages short and to the point.

How many? Sam began by asking.

Low number. Less than ten, was the reply. This low number surprised Samuel, a patrol for a border this big between two countries that had been at war on and off over the years should have at least ten men. In reality a large patrol may seem rather large to some kingdoms but with the way relations were between Rynemona and Eardheorte it should be necessary to prevent invasions like this! Thinking once more, Sam asked how far away they were and was surprised to learn that the patrol was less than 100 meters away from their current position. At that he turned to the rest of the men and signaled for them to stay low and silent as they continued to wait for the patrol to pass.