-Cara-

"Cara!"

A voice in the distant was calling for her and she knew it was Keegan. She just couldn't take her eyes of the threat hiding on the other side of the crowd. The man was still looking at her. He then turned around and it looked like he was talking to someone else. He then redirected his gaze back to her.

Who is he? She wondered and felt a seed of fear plant itself inside of her. Accompanying her churning stomach, it made her feel a bit nauseous.

"Cara!" Keegan's stressed voice called out after her again.

Cara looked over to where the calls were coming from. Keegan sounded a bit worried. Like he couldn't see her. She caught a glimpse of him in the crowd, and he was indeed looking for her. His green eyes were searching through the crowed meticulously but he did not seem to be able to find him. Cara was too distraught by the man whom was obviously stalking her to care about Keegan. She turned her eyes back to him.

A hand grabbed her left shoulder and turned her to the left a bit roughly. Keegan was standing in front of her with concern glowing in his eyes. Cara quickly turned her head towards the man again. But now he was gone.

"What are you looking at?" Keegan looked the same way she did, then at her again when he clearly couldn't see what she was looking at. "Do not walk away like that!" He said something, a warning tone rested in his voice. Cara did not say anything. She needed to know who that man was and why he was staring at her like she was prey. A offended sigh left Keegan when she ignored him.

"Cara? Are you even listening to me?" Keegan grabbed her chin like he had done in the woods when he had crawled down to her in the hole beneath the tree. He forced her to look at him and she met the emerald eyes a bit hesitatingly. She did not want to lose herself in them right now.

"Cara. I mean it. Look at me."

-Keegan-

His heart was still beating fast from the distress of losing her among all of these people.

Cara was not paying him any attention and it was starting to irritate him. It was not like he craved her attention, but because the longer she ignored him the more it seemed like something had happened to her. She was not responsive at all, and people were starting to notice that he had brought someone new to the village.

The merchants paid them no notice since they were busy with their business, but the others in the village were just now realizing that they knew him but not her. Keegan watched as a friend of his mother whispered something to her husband as they walked past him and Cara.

"Cara. Come on. We are leaving." He said calmly with his eyes looking for other curious glares from others. He placed his hand on her shoulder once more in an attempt to wake her from whatever trance she had went into.

No reaction.

Suddenly she just walked off towards the direction she had been looking in.

"Hey!" He called after her but the same man who had almost run her over appeared and blocked Keegan's way. "Really?" He sighed and gave the man an annoyed look.

Cara disappeared into the crowd whilst Keegan made his way around the cart and went after her.

"Cara!" He yelled. "For fuck's sake! What the hell is she doing?"

A woman looked at him with shocked eyes him as he cursed so loudly. Normally he would have apologized but he had no time. Cara had completely disappeared out of his line of sight now and he could feel a storm of anger and frustration boil inside of him.

He could not believe that someone he did not even understand, or vice versa, could cause him this much distress and make him so frustrated.

Why the hell is she just walking off when she does not even speak the common tongue? How does she think that she will get by if we lose each other in the crowd? Or now that we have? He growled internally as he pushed his way through agitated villagers, some of which he knew and would have to explain himself to later and some he had never seen in his life. They had probably just come to the village for the market.

"Son!" Keegan stopped in his step by the sound of his father's voice.

"Father." Keegan sighed when he saw his old man stepping out of the tavern.

"What are you doing here?"

"I am looking for Cara, have you seen her?" Keegan admitted his failure in keeping an eye on her, it would most likely be in his favor to just admit it. His father seldomly told his mother about his mistakes, if he was honest with him from the beginning.

"You lost her?" Georg scoffed and looked a little amused. Keegan gave him a warning look.

"I did not lose her." He growled.

"She wandered off?" Georg changed his question when he could see that his son had done his best.

"Yes. I do not know what the hell flew into her! I stood right next to her and then she just walks off into the crowd!" He growled and clenched his fists.

"Well, is that not her right there?" His father chuckled as he had casually turned his gaze to the right. Keegan frowned and turned his gaze in the same direction.

Cara had just stepped around the corner of the tavern and looked very puzzled. Her arms hung by her sides and it made her look like she had lost hope on something. The blue eyes were anxious.

"She truly is a pretty little thing, is she not?" He said and cocked his head to the right a bit. Like he was admiring a puppy.

"For fuck's sake." Keegan growled and prepared to go up to her. Even if she did not understand him, he would make sure that she understood that she could not just walk off like that. His mother would have his head if he lost her.

A hand appeared quickly on his chest and hindered him from marching up to Cara.

"Calm down, son." His father told him sternly. He had quickly noticed how furious his son had become by the mere sight of the girl. "Why are you so angry? You barely ever get so much as frustrated, if Orla has not driven you mad all day that is... What is wrong?"

"I just..." Keegan groaned in frustration. "You know what? Here." He handed his father the package with Cara's new clothes. "I am going hunting with Jared. I do not want anything to do with her for the rest of the day." He growled and pointed at Cara.

Of course, this was the exact moment she decided to look at him and his father. The blue eyes turned scared from the very aggressive way he was pointing at her.

"You can take her home. Make sure Orla takes her to the old teacher down the road. I am sure as hell not taking her."

"Stop cursing boy." Was his father's only response. "Fine, go and pout. I will take care of the girl..." He muttered and furrowed his brows at this son before he rolled his eyes at him and walked over to Cara. "Go and dip you head in cold water, you brute." He muttered when his back was turned to Keegan.

"I can hear you." Keegan growled.

"I know. Now do what you are told, or I will tell your mother that you lost her."

Keegan clenched his fists, closed his eyes and felt his whole body turn stiff from frustration. He wanted to scream out his frustration. Instead he left without another word and went inside the tavern to find Jared. It was the most likely place for him to be at this time of the day.

Later...

An hour later Keegan was taking aim at a wild boar that had gotten separated from its herd. Keegan crouched down behind a bush and watched as the beast was calling out to its family. No response came. It kept calling for them as Keegan placed his arrow against the bow, still facing downwards. Then slowly he raised the bow and with it he aimed at the boar. It had not seen or heard him. He was looking forward to how smug he could be later at dinner if he brought this beast home.

Keegan sighed quietly and aimed at the boar's head. Hopefully, the creature would stand still for just a second so Keegan could release the arrow so it would pierce a soft spot and kill it instantly.

Just as Keegan was about to release the arrow a voice broke the deafening silence in the woods.

"Hey! Why the rush out here if you are just going to sit here and squat?" Jared asked loudly behind Keegan, out of the blue.

Keegan's element of surprise was gone and so was the boar. He could hear it disappear into the shrubbery. His shoulders tensed and he could feel how the muscles in his back did the same as he got on his feet again. He leaned his head back as far as he could and inhaled deeply to keep himself from going into an infernal rage which he had never felt before.

"I was just supposed to kill..."

"The boar? Yes, I saw that." Jared laughed mockingly and took a bite out of the apple he had in his hand. The idiot had such a smug look on his face that Keegan could have strangled him just for that.

Keegan felt his eyes almost bulge out of his skull in shock at his so-called friend's disrespect.

"What?" he hissed. "You knew I was going to shoot it and you still ruined it for me?"

"You could never have made that shot anyway." Jared scoffed and stuck his tongue out teasingly. "You have to use one of these if you want to take one of those down." He flashed his four throwing knives. "Those arrows of yours won't pierce that brute's hide."

Keegan's attempt in keeping calm was completely obliterated when his friend admitted that he had deliberately ruined Keegan's chances of having boar for dinner.

In the next moment Keegan had dropped his bow and arrow to the ground and was throwing himself over Jared. They landed with a hard thud and it knocked the air out of his friend.

"I could kill you!" Keegan yelled in frustration and took the only chance he would get to retaliate. Jared was still stunned from his attack. Without a single doubt in his mind, Keegan clenched his right fist and punched Jared in his face. Not hard enough to break something, but hard enough to prove a point... and hopefully give him a nosebleed.

"You arse! You complete utter arse!" Jared groaned and grabbed his nose. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"What is wrong with you?" Keegan asked in return and got on his feet again and breathed heavily.

"I was just teasing you and you decide to knock me out?" Jared sat up and licked his teeth from side to side, from his molars to his canines, feeling if any of them had been knocked loose from Keegan's blow.

Keegan was just about to answer when he felt his feet being knocked off the ground. He landed hard on his back and he knew it was Jared. He was taking his revenge. Keegan quickly got his arms up in front of his face but instead he took a blow to a place more south of where he had struck his friend.

The blow was merciless and cruel, foul in lack of other words. The sensation of wanting to throw up overwhelmed Keegan as his balls had taken a blow. Waves of pain surged through him, he felt nauseous and wanted to throw up.

Like a coward he curled up into a ball to protect himself from getting struck again. His face turned red and he stopped breathing... It felt like someone had literally sucked the air out of him as he squirmed from the pain of being punched in his holiness.

Jared got up and if Keegan had not been incapacitated, he had kicked the arsehole in his knees just to make him fall over again.

"You are such a coward." Keegan breathed out but immediately stopped talking when it felt like he was going to throw up.

"You are deranged! Who hits someone out of the blue like that?" Jared hissed as he tended to his bleeding nose. Blood stripes was staining his grey shirt and Keegan felt satisfied that he did some damage now that Jared had taken to such immature actions.

"Shut up!" Keegan breathed out and tried to get on his feet. He failed. He could not even sit up so he stayed on the ground.

Jared sighed and reached out his bloody hand to Keegan.

He took it and got the help he needed to get up.

They always did this, if they fought or had some sort of physical altercation, they immediately made up afterwards. No good came from being bitter and holding a grudge, which they had agreed on as children when one of their fights had escalated to the point that Keegan had thrown a rock so hard at Jared that he had broken his hand. Their mothers had screamed at them for a good hour before they both got two slaps in the back of their heads each after promising to not let stupid fights go that far ever again.

"My mother will kill you if you ruined her chances of having grandchildren..." Keegan groaned and held his hand against his sore aching crotch.

"She has Orla and Flynn if your balls cannot take one hit." He hissed back. They were quiet for a moment before they laughed quietly and let their fight go with a word.

Later...

A couple of hours later Keegan and Jared were back in the village. Keegan came home empty-handed from the hunt, because of Jared, but he had gotten his frustration out of him and that was at least something.

They had just passed the well in the middle of the square when Orla came running from the direction of their house. Keegan frowned. His little sister looked worried and her eyes flickered around her. She was looking for something.

"Keegan!" She called out as soon as she saw him. He nodded at her and stopped as she ran up to him.

"What is it?" He asked and squirmed a bit from his still sore balls.

"The girl." Breathed Orla. She placed her hands on her knees while she was catching her breath.

"What about her?" He asked and crossed his arms. He still did not want anything to do with Cara for the rest of the day. It had felt so good to get her out of his mind, be it by fighting with Jared.

"She is gone." Orla breathed and now Keegan could see that Orla wasn't just worried, her eyes exuded guilt and a hint of panic. "I cannot find her anywhere."

Keegan suddenly forgot the pain and instead felt empty. 

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I really hoped you liked this chapter, it was hilarious to write. I went a bit of script from my Swedish original this time ( as well lol ).

Please vote or comment if you liked it! 

Love Jenny