Chapter Text
It had all started out as a normal, midsummer morning. Gwaine had gone about his usual morning routine, sat through some mind-numbingly boring meeting, and spent some time training with the other knights. Now, it was dark out, he was in a strange hut in the middle of the forest with his hands tied to the ceiling above him, and he had absolutely no memory of how he'd ended up here. But the longer he focused, the more the details started to come back to him...
Gwaine was less than pleased when Lord Agravaine approached him while he'd been in the midst of a conversation with Aderyn near the training grounds. He wasn't this bloke's biggest fan, and he had a feeling Aggravaine knew, but he didn't care.
"Sir Gwaine," Agravaine greet him civilly. "We've received word that there was a disturbance in the Darkling Woods, I think you'd better go investigate. It'd be best to go alone but if you need to take someone with you please do, just make sure to be stealthy."
"Do you have any details on what kind of disturbance?" Gwaine asked, not too happy about the lack of details. "What am I looking for?"
"We're not quite sure, possibly some kind of magical creature."
"Ah, wonderful," Gwaine said. "I'll get right on that."
"Please do," Agravaine said, nodding once at Aderyn and then stalking away.
"Sounds fun," Aderyn scoffed. "Mind if I tag along?"
Gwaine knew better than to pull the 'I don't want you to get hurt' card on Aderyn, she'd proven herself time and again that she could handle herself quite well, so he stayed quiet.
"Yeah, sure. I could use some backup, I think."
"It's hard to tell how much backup you'd need when you aren't given any bloody details," Aderyn griped. "Honestly, what is it with that man? He's always so..."
"Aggravating? Aggravating Agravaine?" Gwaine smirked.
"Sure," Aderyn laughed as they made their way down to the armory. "That works. I was thinking something much more disrespectful, but God forbid I disrespect the high and mighty Lord Migraine."
They continued to joke around on their way to the armory. After gathering their weapons they headed to the stables to get their horses and then after that they set off towards the forest.
"I hope the creature's gone and drowned itself or something," Aderyn sighed as they rode through the fields to get to the forest. "This better not take all day, I had some maps I needed to go over."
"I'd take a battle over going over maps any day of the week," Gwaine replied, wrinkling his nose in distaste. "Sounds like a boring way to spend a night. I could think of a few much more interesting ways to spend a night."
"I'm sure you could," Aderyn said. "Like going and getting drunk, I suppose."
"Nah, that's something you do with your mates, I was thinking something more like—" but Gwaine was cut off as Aderyn spurred her horse on, having noticed something in the distance.
"What's wrong?" Gwaine asked, catching up to her and trying to follow her line of sight.
"I dunno, I thought I saw smoke coming from the forest," Aderyn squinted. "Maybe it was just a trick of the light or something."
"That's odd," Gwaine frowned. "The Darkling Woods aren't really all that inhabited."
"I was probably just seeing things, it's fine. Just be careful in there, I have a bad feeling about this."
"Oh Ryn, lighten up, it's probably nothing. We'll just ride about in the woods for a bit to appease Agravaine and then go back."
"This is why you can't go anywhere alone," Aderyn sighed, tossing her braid over her shoulder. "You never take anything seriously."
"Maybe you take things too seriously," Gwaine challenged playfully.
"One of us has to," Aderyn rolled her eyes.
They continued on into the woods. It was quite a beautiful day out, the sun was shining through the canopy of leaves above, dappling the ground with spots of golden sunshine. It was warm out but there was a nice breeze out, rustling the trees and ferns all around. The birds were singing, putting up quite a cacophony in fact.
That was until they fell silent. Completely silent. A silent forest is never a good thing, and although Gwaine was still trying to act nonchalant, he was on guard. He rested one hand on the hilt of his sword, peering around to try and see if he could spot what might have scared the birds off.
Gwaine and Aderyn remained silent as well, not wanting to alert anything to their presence. The only sound was the slight rustling caused by the breeze and the hoofsteps of their horses.
"Ryn," Gwaine whispered as he slowly dismounted his horse. "I'm going to go check this out, I think I saw something through the trees over here."
"Right, I'll go with you," Aderyn dismounted as well, drawing an arrow from her quiver and nocking it to her bow. "It'd be a bad idea to split up."
Gwaine nodded in agreement and they set off into the forest.
After a few minutes, something pricked Gwaine in the neck. Thinking it to be a bug or something, he reached up to swat it away. But instead of finding a bug, he came away with a small, black dart of sorts. It looked like an oversized thorn or something.
Whatever it had been laced with was already setting in, his vision was growing blurry and his limbs weaker.
"Shit," he groaned.
"What's wrong?" Aderyn asked, appearing at his shoulder.
"Ryn," Gwaine, despite the drug's effects, tried to shield Aderyn from the direction in which the dart had come. "You've got to go back, I..." but he trailed off, unable to piece together a full sentence. He needed to tell her to turn back, to get to safety, but he couldn't find the words.
Unable to fight off the drug, Gwaine collapsed. He could faintly hear Aderyn's voice, but everything was growing more and more distant until finally, he lost consciousness.