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Some rain drops still fell off of the large oak trees around Alan from the rain that had passed through the night before. The forest was absolutely alive around him and as he knelt down into the dirt to look at the hoof prints pressed into the soft soil as he smirked. He was on the right track but it had taken him all morning to follow after this deer. Carefully pulling his short bow out of his quiver and knocking a broad head arrow he keeps smiling and carries on.

Quietly his canine form slinks around vines, wary not to step on loose twigs or to brush against low hanging limbs. It doesn't take very long in actual time but the slow creep feels like forever for the hunter. Eventually he spots his prey, a large buck standing in the sun beams between a break in the canopy. Hyper focused on the task at hand the wolfish hunter takes aim. He doesn't plan on going back to his friends empty handed today.

The loud crack of a stick being broken somewhere behind him causes the animals ears to stand on end, it looks straight towards the source of the sound as the faint sound of a woman singing begins to fill his ears and immediately spots the lone hunter. Hesitating as his concentration breaks the deer darts away at breakneck speeds. Alan just turns towards the sound of singing, well aware that he shouldn't be in this forest, and furious about his lost game.

These woods belonged to the local noble and his court, a Duke? Alan wasn't sure, what he did know was that the whole area was massive, and that today the poacher had wandered too far into them. Perhaps some small group of worthless nobility had decided to go on a horse ride. Maybe, he smiled, it was just one nobleman and he'd be able to kidnap him. His group of friends had done that before. Ransomed some counts son back for a huge sum of gold some distance away from the county they were hiding in now. The kid had been insufferable, but the pay had been handsome.

That had been the reason they moved to this new location in the first place and why he had to start poaching for animals from these woods. Nonetheless the trespasser made the snap choice to see if he could spot the riders and take in the situation. This could be worth much more than a single deers worth of food for the camp. Keeping his bow at the ready he moved towards the path and found some shaded cover to stay concealed within, full prepared to handle a single guard with the broad headed arrow at hand.

It doesn't take long before he spots a smallish white mare come around a corner on the riding path, a courtly lady sitting in a dainty side saddle atop it. She's an absolute image of beauty to the bandit. A well groomed, well dressed, in her prime vixen. Her reddish fur almost shining as the light hits it, and for a moment he considers doing something worse than kidnapping.

No, he thinks. That's not a path he'd ever thought was worth going down. The women in his own home camp would disown him, if not have him killed outright. There were limits to banditry, and he had some honor left.

Some things you just didn't do after all. Discreetly keeping an eye on her as she rode down the path, waiting to see if any footmen or guards were in tow. To his utter surprise, they weren't. Viciously grinning as the realization of her solitude hits him the highwayman knowing full well the price they could get from such a beautiful courtesans family for her safe return, he raised his bow and took aim at her horse.

Alan's plan was simple, put the arrow through the horses heart, follow after them for a time if it somehow got away then bind and gag the girl and carry her back to camp. She was little enough for him to carry, even if clearly fully grown and in her prime. Really it was quite simple. Fate decided otherwise a moment later as bursting from the underbrush in front of the woman's horse a large wild animal bounded forth, growling and barking viciously as it started to close the distance.

It all happened so fast, something that not for the first time Alan had noticed in situations like this. The wild wolf started to come for the white mare, which swiftly deposited its rider into a shrub and with utmost equine haste it was gone from the situation before the pretty vixen had time to even react, the starving charging wolf took the whole situation as providence. Turning its attention to the dismounted rider instead paws smacking against the wet path as it charged.

The slap of the bowstring against his leather bracer told Alan he had fired, his body moving without thought to try and down his animalistic cousin. He felt cold pride for the act as the lack of screams from the vixen told him he'd fired in time. The steel tipped shaft flew true to pass through the chest of the vicious animal and out at an angle. The slick wooden stem of the arrow quivering audibly in the sudden silence as drops of blood splattered off its fletching.

The wolfs assault stopped dead the moment the arrow passed through its body, sloppily falling to the ground as all its strength drained onto the path in a red puddle. Rapidly Alan moves forward, this was stupid. He should be quick and gag her. He should have walked away, ran away even, from the sounds of her. This was so risky. If she screamed loud enough the jig might be up and if it was his head would pop off quite easily. Despite his own feelings he surged forward to capture his little noblewoman paycheck.

On top of her after a short sprint with his bow stuffed back into his quiver, he quickly helps her free herself from the shrub. She begins thanking him almost immediately, "Good sir, that was amazing! My word, you are a guardian angel, certainly!" She seems to have good countenance of herself and is back on her feet and steady before a few moments pass. Alan reaches back into a pouch and grasps the cordage he keeps back there. Preparing to step up and cuff her.

The moment passes with his hand behind him and the two standing near one another. The wolfish poacher blinks, having hesitated as he took in the sight of her. She laughs at his boyish blush, "Are you going to kidnap me? Or stand there oogling me? I'll go with you quite happily after what you just did for me. By my word, I won't resist." Slowly he pulls the hand back out of the pouch, leaving cordage behind as he lifts his eyes to meet hers.

"You're not going to scream? Or run? You know I shouldn't be here. I can't let you just walk away, but you're not scared?" His words jumble together, and she just tinkles laughter back at him, "Run? I'm not going to run from a hunter that could make that shot. You'd likely pin me to a tree by my dress. Thank you for saving my life." Her last few words dispose of the amusement as she trails off.

Looking down at the dead animal just a few feet away from them she cringes, "It would have torn me to shreds. I should have died here. You're a hero as far as I'm concerned. I will let you kidnap me, but only if you help me find my horse first." Alan nods, accepting the fact that this courtly woman has just decided to 'allow' him to kidnap her.

"Well then," he grins, "Lets find your bloody horse, Princess."