Two days later they ran into the first sign of trouble. Daehyun spent as much time as he could away from the other two, mostly scouting ahead, but he came back only halfway through the day and motioned for Yongguk to come close.

Amber wasn't about to be left out, though, and so she too stepped up to stand with the two men. Daehyun gave her an irritated glance but he continued on with a sigh anyway, focusing on Yongguk as if he could pretend that she wasn't there. "They're only about half a mile from us, and coming this way at a trot."

"Who?" she asked, frustrated that she'd missed the first part of the conversation, but Yongguk's eyes had widened in alertness.

"We need to get off the trail. They don't know we're here, do they?" he was already moving off of the path as he spoke, stepping carefully through the woods to the side in an effort to leave no tracks. Daehyun watched him go with a mixture of anger and disgust, and he shook his head harshly in answer.

"No, they have no idea! Yongguk, there's only six of them, you and I can kill them easily!"

"They're innocents, Dae. Come on. We will simply take a detour around them." His voice brooked no argument, but Daehyun's face flushed in anger and he stalked after Yongguk, though careful even in his anger to not leave a trail. Amber copied them as best as she could, following and wanting to ask questions but knowing that she would be getting no answer yet.

They were only a hundred yards or so off of the trail when she heard hoofbeats, a steady beat that grew increasingly louder, and her panicked eyes darted back to the path that was still perfectly in view. She looked back forward to see that Yongguk and Daehyun had disappeared into the trees ahead of her, and she felt suddenly certain that she was going to get caught. By whom, she had no idea, but if these two were so desperate to avoid them then it wasn't going to bode well for her.

In a last ditch effort to hide, she flattened herself down onto the ground and covered her bright red hair with her hands, knowing that it would be like a beacon to anyone who looked off of the trail. The hoofbeats were so close that she could almost think that she felt them in the ground below her, and then suddenly Daehyun was there beside her.

"Dammit, Amber," he growled, low for her ears only, and then he was fitting an arrow to his bow. She heard a hiss of irritation as Yongguk came up beside them, and he reached to push the bow down from Daehyun's hands, but the other man gave him a dark look that said that if he touched him, he'd be sorry. "Get her out of here," he said with gritted teeth, and after a short moment of indecision, Yongguk obeyed and took her arm to draw her toward a big tree.

They reached it just as she saw the first horse come into view, but then Yongguk pushed her against the trunk and lifted his cloak up to cover both of their heads. "That's what these are made for, I told you that a long time ago!" There was frustration thick in his low voice, but before Amber could even consider what to say in response, she heard the twang of a bow and a loud shout from the horsemen.

Daehyun cursed then, and with a sharp yank pulled Yongguk's arm down. "They're armored," he said grimly, and without a moment's hesitation Yongguk grabbed Amber's wrist and took off at a run, away from the horsemen who now had swords out and searched for the bowman.

"Damn fool," Yongguk rasped as they ran, and though he could have meant anyone, Amber was sure that he aimed it for Daehyun. Had he not fired, the horsemen may never have noticed them! The two of them ran, though, and the one look back that Amber chanced before they were hidden in the trees showed that Daehyun stood clearly, bow raised