[color=goldenrod][i][h2][center]Gerard Segremors[/center][/h2][/i][/color]

[@JessieTargaryen][@VitaVitaAR][@Crimson Paladin]

Sharp eyes did well to account for a self-described dull mind. It had proven itself true time and again to him, in situations much akin to these (albeit with much, much lower stakes) on the battlefield as a soldier of fortune. Even if he wasn't catching the big picture, when the scene directly before him shifted, his instincts had been beaten into noticing by mission after mission, battle after battle. Few things truly served his talents, he knew— but even as a boy who'd never held a blade, living near the woods had honed his sense for disturbance.

Off at the fringes of the brush, something shifted. A light rustle, a shake in the foliage that could have meant any number of things— yet, there was no breeze to toss the leaves, sway the branches, shake the grass. Not heavily enough. That being the case...

[color=goldenrod]"Movement. Trees."[/color]

His eyes had finally left Haelstadt after he'd heard the rustling beneath their Captain and the noble's extended dialogue, and with it, his position in the formation. He tugged at the reins sternly with a hand, the other falling onto the hilt of his longsword, and beckoned his horse nearer to the flanks— the other side of Runa and Fleuri. Off to their left now, he took a routine position for him— first line of defense, gripping the concealed fang of steel as his gaze pored over the treeline. A hound with haunches raised was a sign to beware for all who beheld it, and for an armored man Gerard seemed to echo that visage well. The other knights would probably notice.

In moving, any prospective thinking enemy likely had noticed too, but that die had already been cast. He grimly noted that much, but was now committed.

It spoke to the tension of the situation more than words could— he'd much rather look a fool if it was some sneaking fox than end up skewered if he took the chance of letting this lie. It was too perfect. Everyone focused being on this confrontation meant that it wasn't hard to skirt past them if one both wished to and wasn't terrible at it— and the more he looked, the more he wanted to deny a crossing animal altogether.

Hell, he'd [i]just[/i] heard the words "using them as a distraction" float in from the front, out of his Captain's voice. It was as if daring fate to illustrate!

There was just too much of it around them at once. All across the edge of the clearing, the low brush was astir in that almost-hidden manner. Something or someone was just out of sight, and [i]moving[/i]. It could be a wolf padding along in between pockets of moonlight... or a company of soldiers, settling in for an imminent ambush. He was all but convinced of the latter as the wheels in his head spun. 

If you could smell a trap, this [i]reeked[/i].

[color=goldenrod]"Get ready."[/color] he muttered lowly to his fellows, one senior and the other junior, now behind him. [color=goldenrod]"We've company. One way or another it'll show it's face in a moment."[/color]

Either being found out would do it, or their chosen time to strike would come and things would kick off on their own.

He crouched low in his saddle, coiled like a spring.