The feast drew on well into the early hours. Most of my men were asleep on the benches, the noblewoman kept trying to approach me but every time she did I moved or walked away.  The men and I decided to shoot arrows at the pig head that one of my men had taken off the table, even though we were all drunk our aim was still pretty good. The pig had been hit in the eyes sockets and snout, it was soon my turn and I loaded the bow. "Try not to hit anyone important," one of my men chuckled.

"I would have loaded two arrows if I wanted to do that," I replied. I loosed the arrow and it hit the pig right in between the eyes, I looked over to Vlad however, he was still talking to the noblewoman. I sighed and loaded another arrow onto my bow and fired it in between them it missed their faces by inches, it hit the wall behind them. 

"Captain!" he exclaimed, I threw the bow down and left the hall. The bell tolled announcing the presence of the sun.  I walked the shaded walk away to my chambers, I shut the door behind me with a slam and unstrapped my armour. I threw it to the floor with a crash my servants could clear it up later. I threw myself down onto the bed even though it felt like floating to my liquor-soaked brain, I slept well into the afternoon pillow clutched in between my arms it was only a heavy thud on my door that roused me from sleep.  

"What?" I yawned and ran a hand down my face. 

"Are you going to be joining us on an escort?" he asked. 

"Yes, give me a few minutes," I said dragging myself out of bed and got ready for the day. I pulled on my riding leathers, buckled my sword around my waist and made my way to the stables but my steed was already waiting for me and Ciprian held his reins. 

"Nice to see you, Captain, thought we'd be riding alone today," he said. We heard hooves coming towards us, all our heads turned to the noblewoman and Vlad riding towards us. 

"We have to escort them?" I asked, my men just all started chuckling.  I huffed as I hauled myself onto my horse's back, Vlad and the noblewoman rode ahead of us as we headed out from the castle.  She kept turning back to look at me and then whispered to Vlad leaning over in the saddle, Ciprian leant over and tapped my hand gently. Our horses knew the general path and we could see the river they always galloped through, however, Vlad and the noblewoman would be unaware of it. When our horses were trying to have their heads we all let our reins slip through our hands and our horses raced past the pair, I stole a glance back and their horses were trying to keep up. 

We all crossed safely but as the noblewoman horse galloped through the water she fell from its back, we all chuckled to each other but, Vlad halted his horse and helped her out of the water, he glared at all of us. "Stop laughing!" he demanded. We all fell silent within a few moments, once the weeping woman was back on her horse we carried on our escort onto the wooded path.