The Black Swan

Rothbart nodded "Yes I am... but you shall only see me when I am leading you durring the day." with that he transformed.
~~
Seigfried smiled "Whatever you two wish to hunt I guess." he said, in a light hearted mood.

 

Will smiled. He had a slight idea. "There are bears nearby, would that suffice?" He asked, checking his quivers and his sword and shield. He knew that Seigfried's mother hated him, it was a fact. She had already tried to kick him out of the kingdom three times these past two months.

 

Seigfried thought for a moment "Winter is comming. I doubt we would see any bears out in these times." he said distantly.

 

Will shrugged. "Then let us travel and see what we stumble upon, old friend." He said, patting his horse to keep it easy. His horse had been uneasy since he was captured bu Rothbart and forced to stay until daybreak. Will gritted his teeth at the thought of when he had fought Rothbart, failing immensly.

 

Rothbart flew first followed by Odile and Odette and the rest of the swans. It was a long flight ahead of them but he had given them fair warning. They wouldn't stop until they got at least half way to the kingdom of Catholde and Seigfried. There directly halfway there was where Odile was to take her first challenge to take responsibility to keep the maidens sheltered, fed, and safe while they slept and to make sure they had the energy to travel at dawn the next morning. It had been a place he himself selected and he knew it would be a difficult challenge for her.
~~
Seigfried nodded "Yes we will see." he agreed. He suddenly gave the command for his horse to run full speed into the forest. He was bored of talking and was ready for action. Who knows, maybe they would run into a bear ust as Will said. 'You never know..." he thought to himself not really interested as much as he just wanted to get away from home.

 

Will whistled, causing his horse to run faster than Seigfried's. He had trained the horse so well he could shoot with his bow while riding. He lifted the longbow and notched an aroow, keeping pace perfect with Seigfried. He nodded at a sign of movement into the deeper parts of the forest.

 

Syed stedied his aim and then let the arrow fly, He could clearly hear it thud into his target,

"Yes" He said as he started running to where his arrow had flown.

"What!?" Syed asked as he saw a horse rear up its Rider now on the floor with his arrow in his chest,

"Will?" He asked again trying to think of who he was,

Just then Sigfreid Rode up on his horse.

"What have i done" Syed said falling to his knees

 

Will ripped the arrow out of his entagled mail. He stood slowly, since the arrow had knocked the breath out of him. "Syed... the hell was that?" He panted, stripping off the shredded mail armor.

 

"What...., Your one lucky man Will" Syed said standing up and dusting himself off

"Out for a hunt then are we lads?" Syed asked knowing the answer.

 

Will smiled and put the mail into a pack on his horse. "Of course! I thought you were a bear then you shot me, my friend." He said, resaddling his horse and slinging the arrow back into one of his quivers.

 

Odile soon found a nice calm place she looked up at her father still flying. She looked at the time by using the postion of the moon.

"Father, I think this'll be a good place to rest, there's fresh water, fish to catch a berry tree over there, and it's well hidden if not we can hind in those bushes near those cherry blossom trees." Odile called to her father.

 

"Oi, Ill be taking my arrow back thank you" Syed said taking it out of Will's bunch

"Anyway i have to get home ill be seeing you"

syed ran off into the bushes and proceded home.

 

Seigfried rode up beside Will "You alright?" he asked.

 

Will nodded. "Fine, just a little bruised. Syed is being odd lately, isn't he?" Will asked.

 

Seigfried shrugged "Will and I don't exactly get along that well." he said shortly.
~~
The sorcerer landed and transformed. He told Odile "I will be here just as the sun rises tomorrow so we can finish our journey." as she nodded in comprehention, he took to the sky as an eagle again and flew from sight.

 

Will stared at him. "But I am Will, am I not?" He asked, puzzled by Seigfried's odd words.

 

Seigfried smiled "Yes of course... I meant Syed and I don't get along well." he sighed. The three of them hunted all through the night and had caught a lot. But Seigfried didn't want to quit and go home though the dawn was approaching. The one thing he had come out to hunt for was Swans. His mother had wanted them for the main dish at the big party but of course Swans were very rare this time of year. Seigfried wanted to hunt alone suddenly just to think and not have to worry about talking to Will and Benno. He looked at his two friends "If you two don't mind too much I believe I will continue on my own." he said to them with a smile.

 

Will nodded, sheathing his swords to his belt. "As will I friend." He said, whistling to his horse, making it wait there. He had trained it well. He continued forward, finding almost nothing. He then saw a bear. "Lovely..." He breathed, drawing the swords.

 

Odile turned and looked at all the swans.

"Ok listen, all of you, I'm in charge of your safety food and everything else, but Odette will oribaly end up suceeding you will all be back to living on your own without Odette or any of us caring for you, you'll have to care for yourself so it's time to start. I'm going to gather some wood, but see that berry tree, begin picking berries and put them... oh put them up here on this boulder, when I get back we will sort them evenly and you'll be in charge of cleaning your own berries here in this spring, if any of you are thirsty as well, this is a natural clean spring, serving as our drinking water. Ok I'm going to go get our woods now for the fire I want you to stay here, you hear anything hide." Odile said knowing they were her own life line. She ran off into the woods alone and began searching for wood. While searching he saw someone and was able to hear and read his thoughts.

"Dawn... that's when the girls go back to being swans." Odile whispered under her breath, she saw she had enough wood, she wonder though would it be safe to make a fire now. She dropped the wood and ran back as quick as possible glancing up at the sky seeing as it was about 3am, dawn would be approaching before they knew it. She got back to the others.

"Ok nevermind, we will not be having a fire, besides it would draw away the star light. Now we're going to do something now, clean the berries you found eat fast and then we're going to hide. It'll be a game, a hiding game." Odile told them. She sorted out the berries for each of the girls and took her little and cleaned them in her hand showing the girls how to clean the berries so they wouldn't lose any.