Ali took it in his hands gingerly, his palm running up the smooth, laminated yew of the longbow. It was a Two Rivers Longbow. Not built for any military useage. It was about half a foot shorter than most longbows, but it was still large enough to pierce mail, yet short enough to be easily concealed and used in the wooded areas to hunt Elk and Boar. The arrows were a foot long, with broadheads. He hadn't held one in some years, but she had been right. He had learned how to shoot from a young age. 

"I do," he said simply, his dark eyes, like red wine in the shade, went from the bow to Mave. "Thank you." If Ali didn't know any better, he could have sworn she was blushing. No, that isn't possible. Could Aes Sedai even blush? Light, he didn't know. With his strong but dextrious fingers, he coiled the bowstring around his wrist so as to not lose it. "Maybe with this I can hunt us some dinner tonight." 

"Good," Mave said, smiling. "I expect it, what with me giving you a gift and all." 

He smiled back, but their moment was short lived. There was something suddenly off. An inherent wrongness to the forest around them. They hadn't even gone too far into the Forest of Shadows. He had heard that loggers could make it this far in and have no trouble. Mave saw him hesitate, and suddenly he felt goosebumps on his skin again. She looked around, suddenly more animated and alive than she had been a second before. "What is it?" she asked. 

"We need to hide." Ali whispered, still for a moment to gauge his surroundings before he grabbed his staff, setting the bow to his horse to keep it safe. After a moment, he realized that would do very little. "On second thought, we need to ride." It was a bit louder this time, because he had the distinct feeling that covert was no longer the strategy they should take. Ali mounted his horse while Mave scrambled onto hers, and it was at that moment that the largest creatures Ali had seen, save for the largest bears, burst out of the woods. 

Misshapen monsters with humanoid bodies and the heads of Goats and other livestock, wielding wicked axes and swords. They drooled over the trodden path, and within moments they charged. 

"Hya!" Ali cried, cracking the reins of his mount. The horses were frightened out of their minds, and Mave must have done something because the creatures that charged them hit what seemed to be an invisible wall, grunting and splaying their weight and bodies against the weave of the one power. They soon began to hack at it, but by the time it was let go, Mave and Ali were far down the path. 
[@Penny]