Inktober Day 4: Dodge

 Chapter Two

    

    Magda just had time to dodge an arrow which had barely missed her ear. Soon, fighting broke out all around her. She hardly knew what was happening as men in long, ratty, dark cloaks came barreling out of the woods around them and did battle with her father’s men. For all her dreams of adventure and excitement, Magda could not muster the courage displayed by those great heroes of old. She, breathing heavily, could only back slowly away and watch the fighting unfold. She did not even have the presence of mind to wonder why no one was attacking her. If she had some wits about her, she may have even stopped to consider why her mother kept looking around her in horror as her father held the men off.

    Just as Magda came to her senses, she saw that her mother was being dragged away. She did not think before calling out for her mother. She quickly silenced herself, only realizing then how fortunate she was that she had not been targeted yet in this fray. But it was too late for that anyway. It seemed the thugs had what they wanted. As they rode off with her mother bound and gagged, a few of her father’s men in pursuit, Magda’s father rushed over to her. 

    “Magda,” he said, his panic just below the surface of a cool kingly exterior. “I need you to stay with Sir Wendell. He will look after you and bring you along to Tìrmàgach while I pursue these fiends.” He looked over for any damage before rising swiftly and guiding her back to the caravan.

        After leaving her in the hands of Wendell, he mounted his horse, looked back once at Magda, said “Fear not my dearest; the Power of the King protects you,” and rode off into the dense wood, flanked by four men at arms.