[center][b][i]APRIL, 1256 A.D.
MONTGOMERY WALES [/i][/b][/center]
[center][img]http://img00.deviantart.net/bbd5/i/2007/270/a/3/the_forbidden_forest_by_alba88.jpg[/img][/center]

Eira never spent very long in the forest, though she often wished she could, instead the girl knew she should only sit for, at most, an hour. Then, her plan was to actually visit the Parish, in case her father ever came asking, and sit alone amongst the pews with her eyes closed and her head bent. The girl was always careful to time herself, leaving the castle sometimes before the sun had even risen, the forests dew-covered and cold. But it was important she did not arrive to the church too late, and if her father ever came questioning the Priest, he’d say what everyone expected; Eira was a devoted Christian who simply preferred to pray in privacy. She was too smart of a girl to leave such an obvious trail of her misdeeds. But today, the spring air was crisp and refreshing, not yet warm, but lacking the severe biting cold as winter. A fur shawl across her shoulders was enough to keep the girl warm as she sat against the hazel, and penned whatever thoughts plagued her into the leather book. More time passed than she anticipated, perhaps because the forest trail had thus far been abandoned, and there were no sounds from reality to draw her back from her writing.

It was the approach of feet that did finally bring the girl’s brown eyes up from her black ink. Squinting up through the trees, she realized that the sun had risen farther then she expected, not too dramatically, perhaps she’d dithered fifteen minutes past her mark, but the girl’s lips moved in a silent curse nonetheless. She corked her ink, and wiped the tip of her quill off on the stray rag she carried just for that reason. Her hands were splotched black, as if covered in terribly bruises, but Eira had just dragged her hand through still wet ink. The girl seemed to hardly care though, wiping her hands down on the rag, which only lightened the stains barely, and pulling her gloves back over the pale skin. It was a trick of the trade, having ruined enough pairs of gloves in her lifetime to fill a chest, and her teacher’s always hated how the girl seemed to disregard such stains, chastising the girl until finally she made habit of removing her gloves before she wrote. Ears alert on the footsteps, a single set, that grew louder in their approach, Eira waited, pressed with her back to the tree, her scarf pulled over her head and face so only her eyes were visible, and both hands pressed to the many branches of the hazelnut tree. And then, just as the steps reached their crescendo, they stopped, and with them, Eira’s heart. 

Her shoulders drew in as the girl stood still, knowing she was not visible through the foliage; but why else would the footsteps stop only feet from her? [i]‘Maybe he has to relieve himself…’[/i] she thought with a mix of hope and disgust. A branch snapped to her right, and the girl turned toward the sound, body tensed and coiled to bolt as soon as she saw the figure emerge. 

“Eira Mared Hywell! Why in God’s green earth are you in the forest alone!” A voice boomed, and for a brief, terrifying moment, Eira mistook the speaker for her father, with a similar depth. She screamed, jumping back as the familiar visage of her brother stepped into view, his eyes narrowed in stern annoyance, though he did have a sliver of a smile upon seeing how much he’d frightened her.

“Gwillym! You ass!” She responded, moving forward to push his big frame, but the boy, her younger, hardly moved, a short bow in one hand, and an arrow in the other, or else it was just as likely he might have pushed her back. A few years ago, he definitely would have, but Gwillym liked to think himself above physically fighting with his sisters; chiefly because there was no sport in it anymore, both girls his lesser, as well as that chivalrous streak in him that knew he ought not hurt them. “And what is that for, huh? Were you going to shoot at me?!” Eira stood a few feet from her brother, no longer the least bit frightened, because though Gwillym tried to act as if he was the rational one and the boss, she knew that she was his elder, and he had no right telling her anything. 

The boy peered down at the bow, having forgotten he’d been carrying it, so caught up in tracking his sister down, “Oh-…No,” He slid the arrow back into the quiver, and strung the bow across his back, “I had intended to hunt small game-…But I thought I ought to find you first.” His voice sharpened at the end, returning to the question at hand; “Enough, you watch your mouth.” He advised, which he earned a daggered look from Eira, because he knew as well as she that he’d spoken far more vulgarly then she, “And you still have not answered me; what are you doing here?”

“I was writing, was all.” Eira answered sullenly, grasping the leather book close to her chest, both arms across it. 

“Writing about what?”

“Whatever I feel like writing-…Hey, you go on, leave me alone, I don’t pester you about every minute detail of your squirehood.”

“Ha!” He scoffed at his sister, who scowled up at him, “You may as well! Always asking me about the war, what it was like to see battles, to be in a skirmish, to see men killed, you’d think you’d tire of it.” His hand came out to try and catch the side of the book, rip it away from her, but Eira was too quick, dancing back, and though it would have been simple to pursue and pry the book away, Gwillym didn’t feel like it. 

“You don’t even like reading anyways, Wil.” Eira responded, watching him with distrustful eyes, but the boy no longer seemed interested in going after her book, “How did you know I was here?” She asked finally, her voice now taking a softer element, “You’re not going to tell father… Are you?”

The boy rolled his eyes at her, like she was his little sibling, asking an obvious question, “How did I know you were here? Well, first off, I’m the one who brought you to this place originally, which I never would have if I thought you’d come out here alon-“

“You came out here alone.” She interrupted the boy, annoyed with his tone.

“Yeah but I’m a man.” He answered smartly, causing Eira to now roll her eyes at him.

“Hardly…” Eira answered, and Gwillym continued.

“-…Anyways, I never would have brought you here if I knew you’d come here by yourself, I have half a mind to tell father simply because you’re going to get yourself abducted. Girl like you? Out here like this? It’s a wonder you’re not already gone, dragged off by some rapers.”

“Oh shush, you always exaggerate, I’m hardly a five-minute walk from the Parish, it’s not that dangerous out here.”

“Yes, it is.” The boy’s voice took on a grave tone, one Eira could not argue with, only stare on, her lips pressed together as Gwillym began to speak again, “But, you did not attend Church with Father and Mother this morning, and Catrin said you had gone to pray alone at the Parish-…so after Mass, when I saw you weren’t yet back, I wandered down to the Parish and-“

“Did you speak with the Priest?” Eira interjected again, her eyes wide as she did not want the Priest to have any suspicious of her.

“…No, I just looked amongst the pews and saw you were not there, and so this was the first place I checked. Doesn’t help that you’re easier to track than an injured deer. I saw your footsteps pressed into the deer trail, and I followed them to here. Really, Eira, [i]anyone[/i] with even slightest skill, would have found you here if they walked past and were intrigued. Not many child-like prints wandering off into the brush…”

“Oh save it-…Fine, I’ll be more careful.”

“No, not ‘I’ll be more careful’. Don’t come out here at all. If you really [i]need[/i] to come see these trees, heaven knows why, I will bring you.”

 He thought it was a fair exchange, though the annoyed look on his sister’s face said otherwise, “You’re leaving in a week.”

The boy shrugged his gangly shoulders, “Fair enough, I s’pose you’ll just have to relish me when I’m around, and manage when I’m gone.”

Eira snorted, “Fine, I won’t go into the woods alone,” [i]Unless of course, you’re gone and can’t do anything to stop me,[/i] she added in her mind, and it was almost as if Gwillym could read her mind, because the boy seemed less than thrilled by her agreement. 

“I’m serious, Eira, you wouldn’t be the first girl to wander off alone into the woods and never come out, and you wouldn’t be the last.”

“You’re so [i]dramatic[/i], Gwillym, really, you’ve travelled the world and been in far more dangerous places then the Forests surrounded a castle. I think I can manage.”

He did not respond, annoyed by her easy dismissal of fears he knew were legitimate, but he knew that to continue to debate with the girl would only draw his anger, and he hated getting angry at his sisters. There was something about the way they looked at him afterwards that made the boy immensely guilty. Instead he gestured for her to follow, Eira complying well enough, as they stepped once more through the deer trail, and down the path toward the Parish.

“I am legitimately going to the Parish now, Wil, if you want to go hunting. It’s a short walk.” She spoke again after they emerged from the wall of trees, but Gwillym shook his head.

“I’ll just walk with you, Eira. You’re the biggest pain in my arse, and I’d probably be better if you got picked off by some highwaymen, but I’d rather see you there safely.”

“You worry too much…”Eira murmured, though did not protest her elder brother’s presence, making it to the Parish at around nine, and the duo split from there, to go about their separate days of training to be a knight, and whatever training to be a Lady Eira felt mandatory to complete to keep her parents satisfied.