Roman, Patton, Logan, and the Stabbington brothers were still running through the woods -jumping over logs and around stumps and across ditches and streams- with Roman clutching his satchel with the crown tightly against his chest as their feet thumped against the ground loudly, making clear as day prints in the mud.

They eventually passed a large group of trees with wanted posters nailed to them. they even saw a few illustrations of the five of them, much to their displeasure.

They ran past them though, with Roman mumbling something inaudible about the posters as he tore one of them done as they ran past, shoving it into the satchel.
Eventually heard a loud thumping behind them and the sound of horses. They each glanced back and saw s group of guards on horse back, which prompted them to run even faster.

They eventually came up to the face of a small cliff, roughly twice the size of one of the Stabbington brothers, who were the tallest of their group.

Roman shot Patton and Logan a quick look.

"Here, help the three of us up, it'll take all three of us to pull you guys up." Roman said as he turned to the Stabbington brothers.

One of them glared at him.
"Satchel first." He said as he held his hand out.

"Oh come on, don't you trust us."

The two brothers glared at him until he raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Okay okay, that kinda hurt, but fair point." He said as he reluctantly handed them the satchel.

The two brother glared at him a second longer before moving to help him up, allowing Roman to hoist himself over the edge of the cliff.

The two quickly helped up Logan and Patton as well, moving a little faster as the sound of the guards grew closer.

"There," one said."now pull us up." He said as he raised his hand for Roman and Logan to grab.

"Sorry fellas," Roman said as he held his hand out, showing the two criminals the satchel he'd swiped off of them when they had helped him up."my hands are full, and these two can't pull the two if you up all on their own." He said with a smirk before gesturing for the three of them continued running.
They cringed as the Stabbington brothers began to yell curses at them, their voices fading away after a minute or so.

"Well, that was one way to ditch them." Roman said.

"I feel kinda bad." Patton said as the three ran through the woods, ducking under some low hanging branches.

"Don't, they've done many more horrible things and deserve to be in prison." Logan said as he looked around for anywhere they could hide.

They had started to slow down, thinking they had lost the guards when an arrow whizzed by Patton's face, making the small male yelp in surprise.

The three looked behind them and saw the guards catching up.

"They must have gone around after they caught the Stabbingtons." Logan said as the three of them quickly picked up the pace again, running towards an even more dense area of the woods in hopes that the guards couldn't follow due to being on their horses.

Their plan worked for the most part, except one guard got through, his large white horse leaping over the trunks of the twisting trees that the other horses got stuck on.

The three did their best to run faster, but were slowly losing steam and the guard on horse back was getting even closer.
Logan's leg was cramping up and Patton was panting heavily, struggling a little bit to breath.

"Roman, I don't know how much longer we can run." Logan mumbled to him so that Patton wouldn't hear and feel guilty.
"I know," Roman said as he looked around for a solution.

He saw a vine hanging from a tree and smirked.

"I'll get us a ride then." He said before running towards the tree with the vine."keep going that way." He said."But follow me when you see me." He added, earning nod in response.

He quickly scrambled up the tree, grabbing the vine on his way up before waiting a few moments, making sure he had his timing for this just right before jumping out of the tree and swinging down on the vine, knocking the rider off of his horse and taking his seat on the saddle instead in a matter of seconds.

He let out a whoop of joy and called out to Logan and Patton when the horse sudden ground to a halt.

"Hey, What are you doing?" Roman said before the horse turned back to look at him, it's eyes quickly locking on to the satchel.

Logan and Patton were making their way towards him when the horse suddenly tried to bite at the satchel, getting up and moving around to try and get it away from Roman as the male quickly snatched the bag away and out of the horses reach, but not before the horse managed to bite the corner and pull.

Roman pulled back as the horse continued moving, trying to buck the human off now, which resulted in both of them letting go of the satchel, sending the poor bag flying over the edge of a near by cliff, where it was just barely caught by a thin branch of a fallen tree that hung over the edge of the cliff, the bag now hanging precariously at the end of it.

Roman and the horse stared at it before glancing at one another then back at the bag in an almost comedic fashion.

Then, almost simultaneously, the two began to scramble forward, each trying to get the to the bag first while also trying to slow the other down by tripping, shoving, dragging and climbing over each other.

"Be careful Roman." Patton called as he and Logan ran to catch up to the two of them.

Roman didn't say anything in response as he quickly scrambled on to the tree and began to monkey crawl towards where the satchel was hanging, to busy trying to not fall off of the trunk.

But then the horse also got onto the log and began to stomp as hit made its way forward, trying to get to the bag while also trying to step on Roman's fingers so that he would fall, which prompted Roman to move even faster.

He laughed triumphantly a few moments later as he snatched the bag up just as it was about to fall off of its branch, but his victory was short lived as a sudden crack rang through the air.

The human and the horse both looked back, and gulped as they watched the tree that were on began to crack, before breaking completely, sending them plummeting down the side cliff, Patton and Logan crying out Roman's name in shock as the other male fell out of sight.

The two of them began to scream as they latched on to the log for dear life, their screaming growing louder as they hit a jagged rock that split the tree in two, sending Roman in one direction and the horse the other, both still screaming.

Patton and Logan has stopped short at the cliffs edge and watch in shock as the two fell, before quickly running to the side of the cliff that was closer to Roman, where they began to carefully slide down the steep slope of the cliff.

They found Roman laying on his back, panting heavily as he clutched the satchel to his chest, his half of the tree laying a few feet away.

"Roman!" Patton said as he rushed over to him, kneeling next to him.

"H-holy shit." Roman stuttered shakily. His hands were shaking and he was pale and clammy. "My life flashed before my eyes." He muttered as Patton helped him sit up.

"Are you hurt? How many fingers am I holding up?" Logan asked as he kneeled in front of Roman, holding up three fingers.

"Three," Roman responded as he leaned against Patton."and I'm fine, just a little shaken up." He admitted.

The other two sighed in relief before helping Roman stand up a few seconds later. He was a little wobbly, but managed to not fall back down to the ground.

"Come on, that horse can't be to far away, and we need to find some place to hide until they're off our trail." Roman said, prompting the three of them begin looking around for anywhere to hide that wasn't a tree.

They looked for a while, being extra cautious about the horse, but couldn't find anywhere they could hide and recuperate.

"Come on, there needs to be something." Roman said with a huff as he crossed his arms.

Parton sighed and nodded in agreement. He hadn't caught his breath all the way yet, but Logan had managed to sooth his cramping leg and was walking normally now, so at least there was that.

He moved to lean against a large rock/hill that was covered in vines of ivy, but ended up meeting only air, causing him to cry out in shock as he fell backwards and slammed into the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

"Patton!" Roman said worriedly as he and  Logan both rushed over and pulled the vines away, revealing a gasping Patton laying on his back.

Logan helped him sit up and rubbed his back as Patton coughed and gasped softly, trying to regain his breathing.

"Are you alright?" Roman asked as he kneeled in front of him.

"I'm...fine," he managed to say."just..second." He added as he leaned against Logan, still struggling to breath a little bit since he'd already been out of breath when he'd had the wind knocked out of him.

The two nodded and Logan let Patton relax against him as he comfortingly rubbed his shoulder while the smaller male regained his ability to breath.
Roman stood up and began to look around them.

They were now in a short tunnel, the entrance was covered by the vines again, and the other side opened up into a small grass field that was encircled by tall mountainous rocks.

He took a few steps forward and his eyes widened as he saw a large, lone stone tower standing at the far edge of the field, a waterfall roaring behind it.

"Wow." He said softly.

Logan and Patton walked out a few moments later, as soon as Patton was able to breath again, and stood next to him.

"This is perfect." Roman said."this is the best place to hide." He said with a wide grin as he turned to the two.

"You're right," Logan said."we need to be careful though, we don't know if anyone lives here." He added.

"I'll go up first and check it out then." He said as the three of them walked closer to the tower."it doesn't look to hard to climb." He added.

"You sure Roman?" Patton asked.
"Yeah Pat, it'll be fine." He said."I'll call you guys up when I know it's safe." He added as he smiled at him reassuringly.
Patton hesitated before nodding, moving forward to give Roman a quick hug, while reaching over and pulling Logan into it as well.

The three hugged for a few seconds before letting go.

"I'll only be a few minutes." Roman said as he turned to begin climbing."Don't worry." He added.

Logan and Patton watched him climb and climb until he hoisted himself over the edge of what looked like a windowsill and disappeared.

Roman hoisted himself over he edge and breathed out a sigh of relief as he feet touched the solid wood floor inside.
He looked around for a second, staring in wonder at all of the stuff and the beautiful paintings on the walls.

The room smelled like honey and firewood, a surprisingly pleasant combination that Roman wished he could capture in a bottle and keep forever.
He was so distracted that he didn't hear someone coming up behind him until it was to late.

He felt a sudden sharp pain as something hard and painful slammed against the back of his head, knocking him to the ground.

He darkness soon took over his vision, but not before he saw a pair of pale feet in front of him.

Patton and Logan were still waiting for any sign of Roman down bellow. They hadn't heard anything except for a loud clang a few minutes ago, which worried them, but not as much as the silence did.
The two had glanced at each other when they heard it, Logan's expression suspicious and Patton's worried.

They waited a few more minutes and still didn't hear anything from Roman.

"Should we go up there?" Patton asked.

"It...it wouldn't be a bad idea." Logan admitted quietly, his brow furrowed slightly as he thought about it."he's either run into trouble and needs our help, or he's gotten distracted." He said with a small exasperated sigh.

"Should we go up together?" Patton asked as he looked back up at the tower warily.

"No." Logan said."I'll head up there to check on him, and if you don't hear anything from me in a few minutes then you head up there as well." He said.

"But, wouldn't it be better to go together?" Patton asked nervously. "You're supposed to always stick together, right?"

"Well, Yes, technically sticking together would be good." He admitted."But I don't want to risk the chance of someone being up there and knocking one of us or both of us away from the window and making either of us or both of us fall back down to ground." Logan said with a grim expression.

Patton gulped slightly but reluctantly nodded.

"Okay..." he said hesitantly."you'll be careful though, right?"

"Of course Patton," Logan said as he turned to give him a small reassuring smile as he gently cupped his cheek."when am I not careful?" He asked as he gently rubbed his cheek with his thumb in a soothing manner, which Patton appreciated.

He leaned into the touch, putting his hand over Logan's until the other male reluctantly pulled his hand away, his finger tips lingering on Patton's jaw before pulling away the rest of the way.

"Wait three minutes, and then another two if I haven't already done anything to contact you or alert you to any danger before attempting to come up, alright?" He said as he looked at him.

Patton nodded."Okay Lo." He said as he watched Logan give him another small smile before turning to the tower and beginning his climb up.

Patton watched him, chewing on his lip nervously as he did.

He saw Logan look down when he reached the sill, making eye contact with Patton  for a few short seconds before going inside the tower and disappearing from his line of vision.

Patton leaned against the wall of the tower and began to count the minutes.

Logan stepped onto the worn wooden floor and his eyes immediately landed on the heap on the floor that was Roman, ignoring everything else in the room as he focused on the unconscious teen.

"Roman." He said softly as his eyes widened and he quickly rushed to kneel next to the other male, gently rolling him onto his back before carefully cradling him in his arms, reaching up to brush his hair out of his face so that he could open up one of his eyes.

He sighed in relief as he watched the pupil dilate normally, which meant that the other male probably didn't have a concussion, which was good.

He gently patted Roman's cheek, trying to wake him up as he also shook his shoulder a little bit, quietly calling out his name a few times.

He heard something after a few moments. It sounded like footsteps, a second later a shadow was cast over him and Roman, and he quickly turned around, just barely managing to catch a glimpse of purple cloth before something metal hit his head with a clang, and he collapsed to the floor, his body draped on top of Roman's as he fell unconscious.

Patton had been counting ever since Logan left, and was currently a little over six minutes, or thee hundred and ninety two seconds,
ninety three,
ninety four...

He'd given Logan an extra minute just to be sure, but there was still no sign from either him or Roman, which increased Patton's ever growing worry. The only thing he'd heard was the loud clanging sound again.

His took a deep breath and rubbed his face a little before turning to the tower.
He gulped slightly before beginning to climb up.

The stones were old, and work away from the elements, but they still had good foot and hand holds in them, and the ivy crawling up the base helped him keep his grip as well, so it wasn't to difficult of a climb for the most part.
He did move slower than Roman and Logan though, wanting to be extra careful since he wasn't as good of a climber as the two of them.

He finally got up to the windowsill after a minute or so, and looked over the edge.
He gaze was immediately filled with the sight of an angry raven who's feathers were all puffed out, making the bird look bigger than it was.

The bird squawked loudly in his face and flapped his wings before pecking at Patton's nose and cheeks, making the small male gasp and jerk away with a small cry.

Which in turn made him lose his balance and fall backward, letting go of his grip on the windowsill as he flailed, panic rushing through his veins as he began to fall.

But suddenly a pale hand jerked out through the window and wrapped around one of his wrists before yanking him forward and into the tower in one sharp movement that kinda hurt Patton's arm, but he was alive and not falling so he couldn't complain.

He stumbled forward a few before regaining his balance and letting out the breath he didn't realize he had been holding.

"Thank yo-" he saw cut off by a sudden pain at the back of his head, causing the young males eyes to roll back into his head as he fell to the floor unconscious, the darkness consuming his vision and mind, but not before he saw a flash of black hair and bird feathers.