To Be A Woman Of The North

Brandt went back to the outbuilding for the rest of the day. In the morning Laenaya made her tearful goodbyes as everyone else loaded up the carts. Eomer released 2 men that they had had in prison which replaced the 2 that died. He decided he would give Laenara a taste of what it could be like if he were like his fathers. He did not feel appreciated at all and that she had taken advantage of his kindness. Once she came out her horse was tethered to Brandt’s horse. Once she headed toward it he spoke up. “Ho...you will ride Corson today,” he told her. She would soon find out that Corson had the worst gate than all of the others and her hind end would suffer greatly by riding him for very long.

Laenaya hadn't slept well and was once again sick in the morning. She said nothing about it to her aunt as they said goodbye once again. She put on her cloak and walked out to the caravan. She immediately noticed that her horse was tethered to Brandt's. She walked over towards him to question him about it, but he put her on a different horse. She knew it was some kind of punishment. She gritted her teeth and mounted the horse he gave her. The horse had the worst gait she had ever experienced. It was a long, hard ride, but she never complained, and when Brandt looked back at her she would give him a smile that told him she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of asking for a different horse. All of the bumping did make her already upset stomach worse however and just before they stopped at mid-day she stopped her horse and got off and became sick.

Upon stopping for the mid-day meal, the wind was kind to them this far and there were only a faw clouds in the sky, he came up to her horse after she dismounted and became sick. He attributed it all to being on that particular horse and made light of it.

“The men are hungry, get a fire going and parcel out some food,” when she only nodded and moved past him he shoved her forward from behind like a young boy might to play a childish trick on a girl he liked. She fell forward, her face getting a nice fresh mask of snow in it. All the men chuckled and she heard Brandt chuckle to from behind her. However as she laid there she heard a voice in her head...Beware of the two legs with long fangs on the four legs...I come!...

Laenaya still felt sick, but wasn't going to let Brandt win. She glared at him slightly when he began to order her around like a servant. She started to move past him when she felt his hands on her back as he gave her a hard shove. She lost her balance and fell forward into the snow. She could hear the men laughing, including Brandt. Her face burned with embarrassment and anger. She wanted to both cry and hit him at the same time. However, she knew that was what he wanted. She hadn't eaten a lot in the past few days and had just emptied her stomach of what she had managed to consume that morning and so she felt weak, but she started to pull herself up. However, as she did she saw images in her mind and realized that the Snow Cat was coming. She tried to communicate back with it to tell it she was alright and to stay back. She knew that if the Northmen saw it they would kill it.

Ice Paw sent her a stronger image of several men on horses riding fast. To her they looked like Rohan soldiers but something wasn’t right about their uniforms. Ice Paw showed her that it was behind them and that the sun was slightly ahead of it and to its left. Brandt stopped laughing quickly, being mean or cruel wasn’t in his nature. Guilt stabbed him again but stubbornly he moved up toward her. “If you are not feeling well I can have you ride in the cart,” he told her.

Laenaya understood now and she knew that they needed to act quickly. She was furious still at Brandt, but right now she needed to put that aside. She looked hard at Brandt. "We are about to be attacked. The Snow Cat just showed me men in uniforms riding quickly towards us from behind. Don't argue with me just act," she said in a very commanding voice.

He was about to chastise her for speaking up to him and he took a step toward her then thought better of it, “Damn!” He said as he turned and cupped his hands. “Up swords! Up swords, make ready to defend the caravan!” He yelled. The men looked at him in surprise for a moment then as they saw horsemen in the distance they lurched into action. It looked like there were about 10 against their 7. They began to spread out as his men turned the mules and carts so that they could use them for cover. He moved and took Laenaya’s bow and quiver from her horse and brought it to her.

As she took them he held onto them, “We are going to kill Soldiers of Rohan today Laenaya, you are either one of us or not. If not then stay out of it. I doubt they will harm you if we die,” he said as he loosened his swords up on his back. He knew little of bows so he’d draw their fire as the men took their shots at those that came in. He shook his head in worry and regret as he looked at her. He wanted to apologize for everything in that moment but he just stepped away and ran up and mounted his horse.

Laenaya looked hard at him when he looked like he was going to yell at her and he backed down. She looked over to see the riders, who were in the uniforms of Rohan, come charging towards them. Suddenly Brandt ran over to her horse and pulled out her bow and quiver and brought it to her. She slowly took them. She looked at him for a moment before he stepped away and ran over to his horse. She looked at the soldiers as they rode hard and fast towards them and Brandt's words echoed in her head and then she made her decision. She slung the quiver over her back and tightened it. She wasn't going to make it to her horse in time and so she shielded herself behind the cart. As the soldiers drew close and the battle ensued she would take aim and fire at them. Her aim was true and deadly. She spotted one soldier coming up behind Brandt while he fought another. She took aim and fired and hit him through the neck.

Three men and 1 woman fought on foot while 3 charged forward on horseback, 1 of those with a bow, Brandt was one of the two without. The Soldiers knew what they were about but shooting from horseback was never an easy thing to do. Nor shooting at an erratically moving target. Brandt did not fight like most Northmen. He used guile and trickery. He faked as if he were shooting a bow and the man he was ‘aiming’ at nearly fell from his saddle to dodge the arrow that never came. Brandt turned and galloped behind that one but another was behind him and took aim at his back. There was not much Brandt could do but continue on as he was but before he looked back he no longer heard the horse hooves behind him. He kipped up onto his saddle then leaped over to the horse in front of him, stabbing the soldier in the back then tossed him over the side. Two more came at him just as he saw Urien take an arrow to the chest and fall from his saddle. Laenaya would have many targets riding erratically in front of her and to the sides. Two arrows punched deeply into the cart she stood behind and Brandt could not spare a glance to see if she were alright. He came up beside another and let go of his reins to block the man’s sword then he stabbed with a twin of his other sword in his offhand. However his horse took an arrow in the side and to Laenaya it appeared that both the man he faced and Brandt himself fell into the snow. He did not move to get up.

Ice Paw to was in the fight for the one she had found that could speak to her. She had been alone for so many years she did not wish that voice in her head to be silent. It jumped on a soldier’s back its rear paws digging into his horse's flanks, his massive jaw and front claws pulled him from the saddle, blood squirting in long jets onto the snow. Lindle was on foot and moved to get a better shot just to Laenaya’s right. He took the spear that was meant for her and she saw him die out of her peripheral vision.

OOC-Are you saying Brandt did not move to get up or the other man he was fighting?

ooc: neither had moved. Brandt is playing one of his tricks, when another soldier gets close enough he'll leap up and either cut down his horse or attack him from the side as they ride by him.

ooc: Suicide Squad was pretty good. Harley was delicious with some of her expressions. *cough* and her outfit *cough* She just about stole every scene.

Laenaya had only ever read about battles and had never fought in one herself, nor had she ever dreamed that she would. What made it particularly difficult was knowing that she was killing soldiers of Rohan. She couldn't understand why they were attacking them. She continued to fire her arrows back from behind the cover of the cart. It was difficult to take aim, but she managed to get several of the soldiers. As she was getting ready to take aim at another soldiers two arrows struck the cart beside her. She was startled, but took a deep breath and continued on. Out of the corner of her eye she suddenly saw Brandt's horse take an arrow. She watched as both the man he was fighting and Brandt suddenly went down into the snow. Neither of them moved. At first she felt a wave of terror go through her that Brandt might be dead, but then she remembered him telling her once about a trick he sometimes used in battles that involved him pretending to be badly injured or dead. He would then be able to perform a surprise attack against anyone who got close.

Ice Paw had joined the battle and Laenaya watched as she took down one of the soldiers and it's horse. She aimed and fired at another soldier who was coming up to attack Ice Paw and watched as he fell to the ground. She didn't realize that Lindle had come up beside her until she saw him take a spear that clearly had been meant for her. She turned and aimed and fired at the soldier who had killed him and hit that soldier in the right eye.

OOC-lol I bet

Laenaya acquitted herself well taking down as many as everyone else combined. At the last Brandt hopped up quickly then cut his horse's front left foreleg out from under him and he fell forward as the horse drew down. As he did he got a slash into Brandt’s side as he flew past him as the ground rushed in to vault his horse over top him. It went sliding past him, squealing in pain as he was crushed beneath it. The men, the 3 that were left with Laenaya and Brandt did not attack the Snow Cat. They saw what it had done and were nervously content as it sat and licked its bloody paws from the meal it just had.

The soldier that had been crushed still moved, he was still alive though he spit up a bit of blood and something was very wrong with his back it seemed. Laenaya and two other Northmen were able to get to him first though he had no visible weapon nearby for him to grab. Brandt was a bit slower moving up to them. Puffs of air coming out of his lungs as if he had ran for miles. He held his side awkwardly, his right arm pressed up against it. He winced as he moved to join the others.

“Why did you attack us!?” Brandt asked. It made no sense, they had conducted trade fairly. The man did not answer immediately his eyes did look up at Laenaya though, her bow poised to end him if he did something foolish. Then his eyes moved down to Brandt who stood at his feet. “Your people killed my brother and his family...and many other families of Rohan!” He spat. “No peace you can make will change that...Northman!” He said and then jerked as if the pain had only now decided to strike him. They watched him die, his eyes slowly glazing over to gaze one last time into the sky. It was then that Brandt lost his footing and fell onto his hip. He felt that his ribs had been scored by that stupid Soldier’s strike. As hands grabbed or him he seemed angry and he was laid back, Laenaya’s face coming into his view. “Apparently,” he said wincing as he felt Laenaya ripping up his shirt to look at the wound. “All of my luck ended when I found you,” he said weakly as he panted trying to avoid calling out in weakness to the pain he felt.

Laenaya rushed over to Brandt's side, although she didn't know why exactly. She was still very angry at him...furious even. However, he was injured and needed help. No matter what he had done, she couldn't just stand back and watch him bleed. She began to rip his shirt so she could see the wound. She looked at him slightly when he told her that all of his luck ended when he found her. She didn't respond. She just continued to work. She had someone get her bag and she dug out the poultice that her mother had given her for wounds and she began to put that onto his side. She then used bits of fabric torn from the shirts of the dead soldiers to use as a bandage. He would survive. The wound was not at all life threatening. She then got up and without another word to him she walked away to go help any other injured Northmen.

She worked tirelessly for hours, helping the injured and doing whatever else needed to be done. She avoided Brandt and wouldn't look at him. His words, on top of everything else, had hurt her very deeply and she didn't want to be around him. She told everyone to leave Ice Paw alone and none of the Northmen tried to harm the Snow Cat that stuck close to her as she worked. Laenaya was exhausted and still feeling sick. She was walking over towards the cart to get something when suddenly she felt a wave of nausea and dizziness come over her. She could barely stand and she had to grip the cart to keep on her feet. One of the other women saw her and rushed over to help her.

Winona was not a fighter she knew much of animals, horses and mules and was in charge of making sure they did not freeze to death or get frostbite in this cold. Her near mother was one of the healers of the Snow Runners and much of what she knew came from her. She had seen Laenaya become sick more than once and away from the men she decided to take a closer look. If what she had was catching more could be sick and they couldn’t remain in one place very long, especially after what they just had done. Ice Paw sent a image of a cub that seemed sickly to Laenaya, obviously she was worried to about her. The men and the two other women began to bury the evidence of what had occurred. None of this would be taken well even with Laenaya’s testimony of what happened. Digging in the cold ground was not easy and they began to hack at the dead horses. To break them up and make easier to bury.

Winona checked her eyes, her face, she was pale, her throat and then asked her to loosen her coat and check her breasts and her stomach. She also, unceremoniously felt her abdomen, between her legs and her backside. She nodded at her and smiled slightly. “Oh, my dear, you are not ill at all,” she said in a whisper. “You are experiencing morning sickness...you are very much pregnant,” she said softly. By Laenaya’s troubled expression she could tell that she wasn’t at all happy about that. “It...It is yours to speak of Laenaya, not mine,” she said as she pressed two fingers to her own mouth then to Laenaya’s. The sign that she meant what she said. The other woman began to stitch Brandt as he was laid out on one of the canvas wagon covers. He groaned and winced and even cried out softly a few times during the process. The gash was about 5 inches long and only half of that deep to need stitches but it could get infected without Laenaya’s poultices. He groaned one last time as she bit off the end then slapped him hard for being a wimp about it all.

He managed to stand back up, sheath his weapons and tie back up his coat and right himself but the right side of his body was stained red with his blood. “After you toss the snow and bury the evidence, we must go,” he barked as he stifled an agonizing jolt of pain when he took a step toward the wagons. He decidedly did not look at the large Snow Cat that looked at him oddly.

Laenaya was shocked to learn she was pregnant. She just stared at Winona for a long moment as she processed what she had just told her. It made sense now why she had been so sick for so long. How was this possible though? She hadn't bedded Brandt since running out of the herbs, but then she sudden remembered one night where she had forgotten to take them. She had thought at the time that she would be alright.

She walked out of the tent still in shock. How was she going to tell Brandt and did she want to? She glanced over at him as he got everyone ready to move again. She walked over to the horse she had been riding before and mounted him. She figured since Brandt's horse has been killed that he would take hers to ride.

Brandt hobbled over to Laenaya. It was obvious he was in a lot of pain. “No Laenaya,” he said between breaths. “Take your own horse...I can’t ride,” he said as he handed her her white. “We need to get moving...I know what I’m about to ask you is not fair but you’ve proven yourself to everyone today...To me most of all,” he said with difficulty. When she took her horse he put his hand on hers. “Get them moving and lead us home. I’m so sorry for acting like I have and for how I treated you. You deserve so much more than I can offer you...I know that now,” he said feeling a little faint. The cold made the color of his face go pale. “I know killing those men wasn’t easy for you. Without your bow...” He tried to say and only shook his head. They would all be dead most likely he would have said. He wanted to tell her that he loved her but he just looked at her, his ribs ached profusely each time he shifted. He nodded them turned to address everyone.

“As my wife, Laenaya will take charge and you will do as she says as if she speaks with my voice!” He said loudly. Winona came over to them. “That's enough now, if you break those stitches I’ll dose you with Alcon root, you will not like the taste!” She threatened and Brandt winced and went with her to the carts.

Laenaya was surprised when Brandt stopped her and gave her the reins to her own horse. She looked at him when he asked her to lead them home. She looked unsure but took the reins. When he touched her she nearly pulled her hand back but stopped. She looked at him slightly when he apologized, but said nothing. She was as still upset and was going to need time. It was going to take a lot of things me to get back to where they had been.

She mounted her horse and as she did she began to notice that it took more effort to do something that only a few weeks ago had been effortless. With her leading and Ice Paw by her side they set out northward.

Once more it was slow going, they had just enough people to drive the carts and Brandt was on his back being towed on a cart. The first day was agony. The bumps and the cold had taken its toll upon Brandt. That night he nearly collapsed in their tent as he accepted Laenaya’s help to get him undressed and then into bed. As she began to ready herself for bed he watched her tiredly.

Laenaya, may we...talk?” He asked softly. He knew she was tired, they all were and she might now want to speak to him anyway.

Laenaya felt odd being up front, but thankfully there weren't any problems for the rest of that first day. When they finally stopped everyone seemed relieved. Laenaya was cold and exhausted. She was too tired to eat so she just went to their tent after it was set up. Brandt was there as well and she wordlessly helped him to undress and lie down. She began to undress herself with her back to him. When he asked her if they could talk she looked at him slightly.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather push your pregnant wife face first into the snow again and laugh at her?"

“Laenaya I apologized for...what?” He said and groaned as he tried to sit up. You’re...pregnant?” He asked in obvious surprise. He winced as he threw his legs over the side of the bed to sit up. “are you certain...I mean, I thought you were….” He was hesitant to say anything to upset her. He wanted get back into her good graces.

Laenaya looked over at him slightly as he tried to sit up.

"Yes, Winona told me today. I'm about 10 weeks. I...I forgot to take...it one day..."

He nodded though all of that was out of his recollection. A stab of irritation at what she had been taking hit him again but he shrugged it away. She was pregnant and he could hear that she wasn’t all that happy about it. “Is there a way… A way that I can...mend the way between us?” He asked her.