(Monty) Title? We Don't Even Know. (Katz)

Sandy’s thoughts were stopped as a hand was thrust out in front of her. She looked at him, not sure what to say. It was hard to believe that not long ago, she had thought this man was bad, right down to the core. With nothing but a deceitful plot in his mind, who would lie to get what he wanted. Now she was having second thoughts. If he had wanted the stone so badly, then he would probably attacked her by now, or at least been a part of the ambush beforehand. But no, he wasn’t.
“Thank you,” she said quietly, taking the linen from him. The bleeding was beginning to stop, and so carefully, she wrapped the material around her body, before tying it in a knot at the back and holding her breath as she did so. Once finished, she rolled the bottom of her top back down over the newly-formed bandage and looked over to where Jackdaww was. She [paused for a few seconds as she took in what he just said. Help her? Now she felt almost guilty that she had first accused him of being what she thought. He could have easily fled, gone away back to his town, but instead, he stayed here. Had he lost a weapon as well? Honestly, she hadn’t seen most of the fight between Jackdaww and the men, so there was every chance he had.
“Yes.” She said, shaking her head of her thoughts again. Going back now was a stupid idea, what was she thinking? Those men were probably looking for them right about now, so going back would probably be suicide. At his question, she hesitated before turning around to look at the gray mare who now nibbled on the grass. “The same thing you want. But I fear there’s something more to it.” Desperately wanting to change the subject, she recalled the thought of those me. “We should go, it gets cold at night, we need a place to make shelter, maybe a cave, or something.” She was being more logical now, since the shock of the ambush was dying down. She simply nodded half-heartedly at his comment whether she was okay. No she wasn’t, but she wasn’t going to let it show.
“We should get going.” She mumbled, looking at the horse. She didn’t quite fancy the idea of mounting the horse again, she didn’t want to do anymore damage. “I think I’ll walk.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You spent fourteen years living in a tree?” Whether this was true, or just an exaggeration, it lifted her spirits nonetheless. But the thought of having some sort of shelter calmed her a little, it gave her a little bit of hope that tall of this may not end badly. Plus, quite frankly, she didn’t really want to spend a night out in the forest now she knew of the men that lurked here. Who knew where they could be now? The thought frightened her slightly, but angered her more.
She smiled at Jackdaww’s remark about the horse. She didn’t find them scary at all, she quite enjoyed riding them, it was very different from riding a dragon she had to admit, but every once and a while, it was a nice change. But the previous ride she had just encountered wasn’t fun one bit. A few times she had been in battle upon riding Silverwing, both of them working as a pair doing whatever they needed to do. But a horse was not like that at all. When you rode a horse, it could bolt off in any direction at the slightest sound, unless properly trained. Even then, you couldn’t communicate with it properly, if at one point a horse resorted back to it’s animal instincts, there was nothing you could do to stop it.
Right now, she felt completely hopeless, and it had been a while since she had felt like this. Even on her own, on separate missions from her dragon, she had an idea what was going on, and an idea of what to expect. But now, she felt like a fish out of water. That ambush had come from what seemed no where, and who knew what was going to happen next.
“Lead the way.” The said, looking at him. But then she noticed how easily his attention was caught by a bird. She wasn’t an expert, but she could tell what it was. It just seemed like a coincidence, that a bird who had the same name as him appeared on the scene. But by the look on Jackdaww’s face, there was something more to it, and she didn’t know what. Was he up to something after all?

Sandy followed the path Jackdaww began to take, weaving in and out of the trees and every now and again, she noticed the footprint of a sort of dragon. It turned out, they were going in the same direction, so she wondered whether this man had a dragon as well? But if he did, then where was it now? Keeping her thoughts to herself and her head down, she followed the man until they came to the camp. All the while, she had been watching how that little bird seemed to follow them, and sent Jackdaww into some sort of hysteria. Every now and again, she had to adjust her speed in order to keep the same distance away from him, there were times when she thought he would just bolt off like a scared animal at any point. But thankfully, it didn’t come to that.
The scene wasn’t what she expected, but at the same time, she didn’t feel disappointed. It looked a cozy, snug little place, which would no doubt survive the cool nights. She did however, notice a rather large-looking hole in the roof, so if it rained, it would be bad news. But then again, it meant they could light a fire and it had a place for the smoke to escape. Sandy sent a smile in the direction of the man as he welcomed her to his…no, she couldn’t call it a home, could she? “Very impressive,” she found herself admitting. If he had made this, which it looked like he had, then yes, it was actually quite amazing, in an odd way. She was about to make conversation as she entered through the wooden door, but was silence as his sword noisily crashed into the ground. The jackdaw in the tree flew away and at the same time, seemed to send the man into a terrified frenzy. What was so creepy about the bird anyway? The man in front of her madly ran to the roof and began fixing it like the world was going to end at any second. From what she saw, he wasn’t doing a very good job at it.
“Jackdaww?” She whispered, a bit cautious as to why he was doing this, and whether he would suddenly turn on her from fear. As he continued to work, she spoke again, but louder. “Jackdaww!” Hopefully that would get his attention. She walked over to him slowly, “are you okay? What’s wrong?”

She looked at him, an expression on her face as if knowing he was lying. “Scared you?” She echoed. It did a bit more than that, if he got scared by bird about the size of a hand, then who knows what he would be like at the size of a phoenix. Surely this man didn’t have a dragon as well. She cleared her head of her thoughts and watched as he sat down. He looked like he had just woken up from the world’s worst nightmare.
Then he started talking, well, re-reading the inscription on his sword’s handle outside. It wasn’t the first time she had seen him doing this. Quite a few times she had caught him tracing over some markings on the metal, an amazed, but wondrous expression on his face. She wondered if he even knew what they meant. And it became apparent that he didn’t when he started speaking.
The other Blackbird? Sandy stayed silent as he spoke aloud, it was as if his thoughts had taken over his mouth for a moment or two. Did he even know what he was doing? Oh no, apparently not. She was beginning to wonder if it was even his sword, or whether he had stolen it and that was the reason he didn’t have a clue what it meant. But if he had stolen it, then he wouldn’t be so attached to it. She looked at him and smiled. “Um, everything, I think.” She gave him a moment to think, before continuing. “What do you mean, ‘Blackbird?’ You mean you don’t know what it is?” He seemed to be a pretty good swordsman, and she found it very straight indeed that he didn’t have an idea of what his own sword was.
“How did you come across that sword?” She found herself asking, wondering what the story behind it was. Even though he looked completely shocked and terrified that he had just told what seemed like personal information to her, she tried to let him know that she wasn’t going to judge him for it. Her tone was calm, but curious.

Sandy looked at him as he explained what seemed very important to him. As he hugged it, she did in fact see some text, and she managed to read the word ‘son’ from where she was now seated. She went to open her mouth to response to his mix-up of words at being a knight, it was obvious that he didn’t want her to know that he wasn’t one. At least, not anymore. But then again, these were just assumptions from what he didn’t intend to say. Instead, she let her thoughts wander over to the second part of what he had to say. She nodded sympathetically at the mention of his father, and the impression she got was that he was alone in the world. But then he mentioned ‘Measle.’ At first thought, she guessed this was his dragon, who owned the footsteps that led up here.
“Measle?” She asked, but then decided against asking anymore questions, for he didn’t seem in the right state to answer any. She understood that it must be hard for him to explain this, especially if he didn’t have anyone else to talk to. She watched as he looked through a gap in the twigs. For a second, she thought about asking the real reason why he was so scared. But again, she decided against it.
Slowly, she stood up and headed towards the bark door. “I’ll go fetch us something to burn, I think it’s going to get quite cold tonight…” With that, she pushed what was once attached to a tree out of the way until she felt the fresh air rush past her face. It was amazing how much time had gone by, it seemed only a few minutes ago that she was watching the sunrise, on a small journey to check up on the stone. How matters had changed. Purposely, she walked in the direction of the jackdaw and crows and scared them away as she got too close.
Careful not to move her side too much, she picked up a few twigs and leaves from the ground, until the pain came racing back to her and reminded her of what she couldn’t do. So she soon resorted to pulling greenery from her height.
By the time she returned, the

Sandy gladly handed over the greenery to Jackdaww, the pain in her side easing up as the weight vanished. To her surprise, he looked in a much better and more…stable mood than before. As he arranged the twigs on the floor, she walked over to the log and sat down. She rested her elbows on her knees and presses her head against he hands. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before the fire had started, and she began to feel a little less cold. It was odd, because normally the temperature didn’t drop this much so quickly. And then an image of the stone came into her mind. Perhaps the men were already trying to move the stone. If so, then their impatience would cost them dearly. The stone in the sword would not light and connect with the other unless she held it, so if they tried it all now, then it could only mean disaster.
But then she cleared her minds of those thoughts as Jackdaww spoke. No, they obviously knew they couldn’t move it without her, otherwise they would have killed her before when they had the chance. “Yes,” she replied, listening to what he had to say. “I don’t think they will, because…” She had half a mind to tell him there and then that she thought they were beginning to move in on the location of it. But then she remembered that he didn’t actually know about the stone and her connection through the sword, or of whom she was and what she needed to do in the long run.
Again, her thoughts were running like wild fire through her mind, and she found herself staring at Jackdaww having not finished her sentence. “I mean, yes. No, you want to get your sword. Tomorrow, we’ll set out at sunrise.” She quickly turned her eyes to the fire, watching the flames dance with each other, play in the cool air like little children without a care in the world. How she wished she could have just at least one day like that again. Back when she was a child and didn’t have to fear for her life. But there was no going back, not now. Everyone had to grow up one day, and leave the carefree life behind. She looked down at the floor, what was she on about? She loved her life, she couldn’t be anymore lucky. She just didn’t like not knowing what was going to happen.

Ooc;; Haha, he is an exception I must say. ;D

Bic;;
She watched silently as Jackdaww unraveled his linen to reveal his hand. She held her breath as she looked at the wound, it wasn’t good, but he didn’t seem that bothered about it, so she wasn’t. If he was in mad pain, he wouldn’t even be able to touch it, but then again, he could just be putting on an act to cover everything up. She had to admit, he was an odd human, for se had never seen a man so contempt arranging fires so it was neat, up to the extent that he would willingly get burnt for it. Moreover, he had mood swings like she didn’t know what. One minute he’s like a cowering child, next swinging his sword round like a fully-trained knight.
The sudden sound of his voice startled her a bit as she was, once again, lost in her own thoughts. “Er…” She didn’t know what to say, not because of the fact she didn’t like the place, because in fact, she did actually love it, but because he had caught her off-guard. “No wait sorry, yes, I think it’s great! It’s a tad large for just the likes of you though, you have a dragon, right?” She had guessed this when he started explaining his past to her before. “Wonderful creatures, aren’t they? I must say though, I don’t have my own place like this, we kind of, move around a lot. There’s nothing like sleeping under the stars, right?” She tried to be as cheery as possible, under the circumstances, Sandy wasn’t one for being depressed.

“Missing?” She echoed, raising an eyebrow. For a moment, she wondered whether they were actually very close, considering they didn’t know where each other were. But then again, could anyone really track these great beasts? “You stayed here for shelter?” She was trying to get an idea of how big this dragon actually was. It was for no particular reason however, merely curiosity.
She flickered her gaze to his hand, and was about to ask whether he actually was okay, but then he spoke again. He didn’t seem that bothered by it, or maybe he just wanted to forget it. When he asked her the question, she had to hold back a short smile to herself. Up until about a year ago, she would have answered solemnly. Even when she was a little kid, she dreamed of one day becoming a dragon rider, and now she had the chance to tell people she was. But that wasn’t the only thing, she never knew of the amazing adventures that had opened up to her, or even that a dragon could be a great friend. She felt herself fill with pride when someone would ask her. But the only down side was, she couldn’t tell the whole truth - not to just anyone. For she knew of the dangers that would open up if she told the wrong person that she was a rider of a guardian dragon. It spoke for itself really, such beautiful, powerful creatures who had hardly been seen at all by the general population, but many who have dreamed of taking over this isle, envied them. Hated them. They knew of their power, and would no doubt do anything to get to them. There are only five, and Sandy felt herself privileged beyond belief to have seen one, let alone ride one and know one.
“Yes.” She said quietly, not sure whether it would be wise to say anything else.

Ooc;; Apologies for the late reply, I’ve been really ill and couldn’t really bring myself to the computer as much. =/

Ooc;; No worries. ^^;

Bic;;
She nodded, seeing that he obviously didn’t want to talk about whatever had upset him so much he was reduced to a tear. She half-smiled as he commented on his name, mostly to herself. She really didn’t know how lucky was, and just seeing Jackdaww break down a notch in front of her made her realise that. But at the same time, ever day she would wake up, not knowing what had happened, because most of the time, her and Silverwing would be on separate missions, so if anything went wrong, they wouldn’t know…supposedly anyway. A normal person could go out with their dragon each day, and sleep at night not having to worry about what may or may not have happened. But it came with the job description.
“Oh,” she mumbled, not quite sure what to say. A lot of stuff had happened in the past few hours, and it was obvious that he hadn’t had chance to take it all in. “My arm’s fine…” she said, “it’s my side. My arm was just covered in blood because of where the blow was.” In all honesty, it still pretty much killed her, and she had been lucky enough to pretty much stay still, so she didn’t give away that she was in pain, which she liked. She didn’t like to appear weak, since for so long she had been threatened and when that was going on, a weakness was the worst thing you could show.
“It’s okay,” she lied, “I should really take a look at it, but…” she wasn’t quite sure what to say. She wasn’t prepared to admit that she didn’t want to go through the pain of twisting her body just in order to get the bandage off. Putting it one was bad enough. “How’s your hand?” She said instead.

She looked at his hand and watched as it hung limply, it didn’t look all right, but if he said so. “I’m rubbish with my left,” she admitted, tying to lighten the mood. “I couldn’t cut a melon with it, let alone fight.” It was quite worrying that if what had happened to Jackdaww had happened to her, then she would have been rendered completely useless. But it hadn’t come to that, so she didn’t have to worry about it.
She looked at the ground, “thanks, but I think I’ll do something with it in the morning before we leave.” However much she hated the idea, she couldn’t go back to the forest in this state.
The light was diminishing fast as the sun began to disappear. Already, a cold chill was setting in, so she didn’t what it would be like when night actually came. Instinctively, she went to reach for her sword, and her heart sunk a little as her fingers touched the sheath, rather than the metal she was so familiar to. It was just a gentle reminded of what lay ahead, and who knew what tomorrow would bring. Quite frankly, she didn’t want to think about.
A cold breeze brushed through the house of twigs and despite the fire, and cold shiver ran up Sandy’s spine and she jerked a little. She would have liked to make the fire a little bigger, to give them some more heat. But any larger, and no doubt the whole place would catch on fire. Slowly, she lifted her legs up and placed them on the log she was sat on until her head rested on her knees. The pain stabbing at her as she did so, but she didn’t care. She hugged her hands around her legs in order to keep her body warm and before long, she felt her teeth begin to chatter. Quickly, she clamped them shut began to stare at the fire. They were in for a cold night, and the reason why only scared her to death.

She nodded, only acknowledging what he had just said. She also knew of those facts, and logical ones they were to. It only made her sigh at the thought that even if she wanted to train now, she couldn’t. It was definitely a good job her sword-arm hadn’t been injured. Or no doubt she would be in a much worse state. In actual fact, she had hardly ever practiced with her left, and thinking about it now, made her want to even more. She tried to tuck her hands away into her stomach, hoping to keep them warmer from her body heat, but it wasn’t doing a great deal for her. She watched as Jackdaww tried to move his fingers and could tell from the look on his face that he was beyond relief when he realised he could move them, well, one.
“Hmm,” she mumbled, thinking about what she could tell him without giving anything away. “It’s probably the cold hearts of those men chilling the forest.” She half-smiled, hoping that was a good enough response for him. It was best if he didn’t know, not now anyway. Maybe they could just go to the clearing tomorrow, find their weapons and leave peacefully. How she hoped.
She turned her head to look at him, “do you want me to take a look?” She knew it was hard to check from injuring on your hand, when in fact you needed your hand to check them. And from what she could see, he wasn’t all that great with his left. Maybe she could check for definite that it wasn’t broken. She had quite a bit of experience when it came to bones, for it wasn’t the first time she had fought alongside people who had come out a lot worse.