Bliss and happiness. That is what you felt, a happiness you had longed for all your life, and now you were complete. Hal had confessed his love for you, and made you his queen. You were his, and he was yours. The moment you'd shared together had led you into this peaceful slumber, the memory of his lips still lingering against your skin, his voice still echoing in your ear. It had felt like you had only had your eyes closed for a moment, lying on the earth under the starry sky, waiting for Hal to come back and scoop you up into his arms to take you home.

Pulling the cloak tighter around you, your head began to come back to its senses after your sleep. Instead of hearing the noises of the night, you heard the crackling of a fire, and you began to feel the heat of it alongside you. Thinking Hal had perhaps lit a fire to keep you warm, you stretched out a little and opened your eyes, the memories brining a smile to your face. As you lay on on the grassy floor beside a log, a small fire crackled nearby, throwing off shadows into the dark night sky in the clearing of the forest. However, it was not Hal who was sat beside the fire watching you, but a stranger you had never seen before, twirling a bone of meat in his hand. His eyes looked darkly at yours, a smirk tugging at his bearded lips as he noticed you were awake. "Roman, are you not?", he asked you, his voice hoarse and thick, his eyes not shifting from yours.

"No", you answered him wearily, sitting up to look around you, trying to see Hal. You appeared to be sat in the middle of a camp, cloth tents dotted around, with men busying themselves, minding horses or sharpening their weapons. You gulped as you looked back at this man who was talking to you, a few of the soldiers around watching closely. His blue shirt he wore under his black armour made his muscles stand out, whereas the red neckerchief seemed to draw out the many scars across his body.

"Then, entertain me as such as how you came about to be here within our land?", he growled, tossing the bone into the fire, making it spit, casting a threatening glow across his face, making his eyes appear hollow. "I was here with Hal, please where is he? I want to go home", you asked nervously, pulling his cloak tighter around to try and get some comfort. Now the soldiers had begun one by one to encircle the both of you, and despite your closeness to the fire, you felt ice cold. "You are a traitor, a spy within our gates from Rome. Your colour betrays you. For that his head we sent packing back homeward, riderless and all". The man snarled with such venom as he lunged forward, ripping the red cloak from your grasp, hurtling it into the flames. You felt terrified and sick to the stomach, as your eyes caught glance of the bone he's tossed ... the human bone.

"Please, I-I don't know who you are, or what's going on ...", you whispered, trying to keep back your tears as you shook in fear. The man simply chuckled, the rest of the soldiers mirroring him with their laughter. "A woman of Roman blood perhaps but not of brains", he jested light-heartily towards his men who erupted into another roar of laughter. Taking a risk, you scrambled to your feet and turned, attempting to run. However, the soldiers behind you merely laughed again at you, some crossing their arms, a few pulling their swords out of their sheathe a little, so the glint caught your eyes. There was no where you could run, so unwillingly, you turned around to face the man.

"Quick eye yet foolish brain. You'll sooner be dead here by their hand than with your own looks", the man said plainly, gesturing to the men around to show you had no escape. "From Antium we've marched, and brought bloody war in our hands. To your Rome we bare it, upon Marcius' head be it". Now two of the men stepped forward from the group and seized you by your arms, preventing you from doing anything as the man leered closer, his eyes glistening in the firelight. "For a beauty as you, aye, he will come. Lest he fight for Rome with his pride, or with his heart. If not, for I Aufidius shall take thee gladly, and I'll not spare my men none of you", he chuckled darkly, his hand grasping your chin as he leant in closer, until you could see the whites of his eyes.

Without a word, you were dragged kicking and screaming away from the fire by the two men. Keeping a tight hold on you, they pulled you into one of the larger tents inside the camp, forcefully pushing you into a chair, binding you to it so you could no longer move. Even when you begged and screamed for release, they simply laughed at you, before slapping your face, enough to make you draw blood. Leaving you whimpering and crying, they left the tent, leaving you in semi darkness, the only light coming from a candle on a table inside the tent, and the other from the distant fire outside.

No one came to see you, and no matter how much you pulled against the ropes that bound you, all you succeeded in doing was cutting yourself and exhausting yourself. You hoped and prayed that Aufidius or one of his soldiers didn't come back, as you dreaded to think what they would do to you. As your mind raced to try and think of something to try and escape, you didn't notice the shadow that slipped in at the back of the tent, unseen by anyone outside, and who now crept closer to you. Their hand quickly clamped over your mouth as you tried to scream, suddenly alarmed at someone creeping up on you. "Be silent", they hissed urgently into your ear, refusing to let go until you calmed down. After managing to catch your breath back and silence yourself, they pulled their hand away and came beside you so you could see them.

Hidden under a cowl, the determined yet worried eyes of Marcius looked back at you, his hands quick at work untying you. You immediately flung your arms around his neck, and he quickly enveloped you into his embrace. "Shh Y/N, we need to move quick. Otherwise we'll both be dead", he hissed, quickly kissing your cheek as he pulled himself from your arms as he dashed over to the door of the tent, quickly checking to see if the coast was clear. Taking your hand and drawing his sword, you both ran out of the back entrance of the tent, cautious weaving between the other tents, running for the forest.

"Aghh!", he yelled, stumbling as you heard the quick sound of metal contacting with flesh. A soldier had jumped out beside you, and had swung his sword, managing to hit Marcius on the arm. Swinging his sword, he managed to strike down the soldier, but now the came erupted into noise, as soldiers seemed to jump out, charging at you both from all possible sides. Marcius, skilfully and with the rage of a lion, lashed out at them all as you cowered under the cover of a nearby table, knowing that you would be useless in the fight.

A hand grabbed around you leg, and pulled you out from the cover of the table. One of the soldiers who had managed to escape a killing blow from Marcius' sword had discovered where you were hiding, and now he held you firmly in his bloody fingers, the blade of his dagger pressed firmly against the nape of your neck. As Marcius swung his sword to take down his last attacker, his eyes found your terrified ones. "For the blood spilt in Coriles, your death will avenge all our dead", the soldier shouted at him, urging him to surrender. Marcius' jaw clenched as his eyes darkened, his shoulders rising and falling heavily as his wounds dripped with blood. Not taking his eyes off the knife at your throat, he tossed his sword aside, holding open his arms in a surrender.

The soldier tossed you aside onto the ground, punching you heavily in the chest beforehand to make sure you didn't get up as he now ran towards Marcius. The knife was raised up in the soldiers hand as he leaped through the air, wanting to plunged it straight into him. However, Marcius remained rock still, until the perfect moment. Using the soldiers momentum, he threw a punch at the soldiers chest, his other hand grasping the blade of the knife, pulling it off him. In one swift movement and cry of anger, he swiped the blade effortlessly across the man's throat, a fountain of blood erupting from him as his body slumped to the ground.

"Y/N!", Marcius shouted urgently, limping over to you, picking up his sword. You couldn't reply, and tried to just focus on breathing, and not the pain that seemed to cover every part of your body. You looked up at the man who towered over you, his body stained in his and his enemy's blood, fresh wounds bleeding heavily, but his eyes full of concern and love. After catching your breath back, you got back up onto your feet as you heard a familiar laugh come from around one of the tents behind. "Upon this field lie slain my men, all in your name, Coriolanus", Aufidius spat in disgust, baring his teeth like a wild animal as he drew out his sword. Instinctively, Marcius put himself between you and him, still keeping a protective hand on you, his sword aimed at the enemy. "Caius Marcius Coriolanus, you are the lion I am proud to hunt", Aufidius joked at him, mockingly pretending to slice his own throat with his sword, before aiming it back at the two of you again. "As are you, Aufidius, for I do hate thee, worse than a promise breaker", Marcius spat back, trying to wipe the blood out of his eyes.

You knew what was going to happen, that these men were going to fight, until only one of them was left. "Y/N, flee. Never stop", Marcius whispered as he began to walk backwards with you as Aufidius began to walk forwards. You wanted to say something, but he forcefully pushed you away as Aufidius lunged forward with his sword, Marcius only be able to block the blow just in time. "Y/N, go!", he shouted, turning to look at you one last time. You took off running as fast as your legs could take you, running towards the forest. You took a final glimpse back, only to see Marcius lying on the ground weapon-less, Aufidius standing over him, about the bring his sword down. Not wanting to see what happened next, for fear it would break your already broken heart, you ran, and kept on running, deeper and deeper into the forest, further into the darkness of the night, your blood pounding in your ears, and dripping from your wounds before you collapsed in exhaustion and desperation, praying someone would find you, whether they be good or not ....

[I just want to add that on a personal note, the production of Coriolanus that was done by the Donmar is the best piece of Shakespeare I have ever seen, and that is saying a lot. It takes a lot for a play to move me to tears and be speechless, and after that show I was more than that. So naturally, this play is always a winner for me. But thing's don't seem to be going to well, oh dear. It looks like it's getting pretty bad. Things can only go up from here, right? ;)

There are a few more characters to come, so don't worry. Comment and vote lovelies. xxx]