When Winter, the young soldier awoke, it was morning. The Dirish had drawn their row boats onto the beach, and had the prisoners thrown closely together and guarded.

Winter couldn't quite make out the low tones the Captain was speaking to his men. Winter's head was still foggy from sleep, or having been knocked unconscious by The Dirish.

Looking around, he noticed a forest of big oak, climbing trees lining the edge of the beach. He quickly formed a plan: He would get to the forest and climb a tree.
Then go from branch to branch, from tree to tree quietly. The Dirish would never know which way he had gone.

"One thing about the Dirish that I have heard we use against them many a times over, is their straight mindedness. I could be a mile away and the Dirish would probably still think I was in the same tree I had climbed up."
Notice Winter only used "could" and "probably. " In reality he didn't have much experience with the Dirish.

During the small battle with the Dirish where The Neric Captain had been captured, Winter had been left behind to refill guns with bullets and gun powder, away from the fighting.

Winter waited 'til night came. The careless guard had fallen asleep, which made escaping more possible.

All Winter's fellow prisoners were asleep as well. They had given up any hope of rescue or relief when the Dirish had escaped with them in tow the night before.

Winter slowly made his way towards the forest, hoping the sun wouldn't make an appearance until after he had reached the safe cover of trees.

He reached the forest when the moon was high in the sky, by the looks of it the night was half over. As soon as he got himself tolerably hidden, he immediately started working to untie himself.

It took longer than Winter had expected, one thing that went with the Dirish's straight mindedness was their preciseness. So they tied the bonds "the proper way".

No laziness there.

When Winter was finally free, he wasted no time in finding a good tree and climbing it. It was hard work going quietly, but Winter knew it would be worth it when it didn't wake the Dirish.

Though, as much as Winter had tried. In his haste to get away, he did manage to wake up one person: the careless guard.

At first the Dirish guard's mind was slow from sleep. He thought there might have been more prisoners, but couldn't clearly recall. Considering it would be nearly impossible for one to escape, and that he wouldn't admit to having fallen asleep, he decided his mind was playing tricks on him.

After a few more minutes another guard came to relieve the other one of his shift.
"Where's the other prisoner?" demanded the newly arrived guard.

"Huhhh?" asked the careless guard, confused.

"The other prisoner, where is he?" asked the new guard again. He knew one was missing, the scrawny lad that had been added last minute had given him a black eye while struggling to resist capture.

The Dirish were woken up and some soldiers sent out to search for the escaped prisoner. But they passed right underneath Winter, and never thought to look up.

Too busy watching the Dirish, the young soldier didn't notice someone sneaking up behind him until something dark was thrown over his head and strong arms clamped around his middle preventing him from moving. There wasn't enough air in the bag to stay awake and the boy soon fell into sleep, his struggling stopping.

Winter awoke the next day bound and gagged, his first thoughts were "Dirish! how could I have been so careless!"

Looking around, Winter saw he was at a small campsite where a smokeless fire was burning in the center. Then he came to notice a man sitting at the fire across from him. The boy had not noticed him at first, for his clothes blended with his surroundings.

When the man sensed Winter stirring, he looked up from the fire and saw the young soldier with blue eyes, his brown hair tied back. Minus his callused hands and war uniform, he looked almost feminine. The man shook his head to clear the thought.

Nathaniel looked back to his prisoner and found the young soldier struggling to speak, so Nathaniel ungagged him.

"Shh, quiet" unnecessary noise would attract the others.

"Why have you captured me?" asked the boy, not wasting any time in getting to his point.

"For the sake of me asking your story." was Nathaniel's direct answer, "I like to think of myself as an outlaw living in the woods. So the easiest rout to take, and one that would fit my character, was to bind you and ask you." he continued.

The man gave his explanation easily without much thought between words.
So Winter had nothing to be mad at him for, other than that he had tied him up and gagged him.

The young Soldier looked to the gag questioningly.

Nathaniel laughed "Why I gagged you? Didn't want you making noise. it attracts people. There are some Dirish around here, just showed up, like you. Hey! Are you Dirish?"

Winter shook his head, "I'm Neric."

The man nodded his head once, acknowledging the fact. "Did you come with them?" He was wary of Dirish soldiers, but from what he could tell, the boy certainly wasn't one.

Winter nodded his head slightly, not knowing how the man would react.

"Hmm" he thought for a while, then deemed his captive harmless. "I'm Nathaniel, I live out here with my band of outlaws. I'm actually a direct descendant of the great Robin Hood himself. And, uh, actually, we follow all the laws this small island has."

Winter was getting accustomed to Nathaniel's easy way of talking, and rather, liked it.

The Outlaw Leader Nathaniel had dark brown hair, sparkling green eyes, and looked to be in his early years.

When Nathaniel cut the ropes around Winter's wrists and ankles, he asked what Winter's name might be.

Winter hesitated, he'd barley met this person, would it be wise to tell Nathaniel his real name? "Well, Nathaniel did tell me his name. But did Nathaniel tell me his real name?

At last, Winter decided it really didn't matter if Nathaniel knew his name or not. So he replied with, "Winter."

Nathaniel gave the boy a questioning look "Winter?"

"You heard me, my name is Winter." The boy said, clearer the second time.

This puzzled Nathaniel even more. "Well, plenty of people have weird names. So this is just another weird name." he thought.

"Want some food?" offered the Outlaw Leader.

Winter nodded, he couldn't remember the last time he had eaten a decent meal.

On the Patriot war ship they had been running low on supplies. Then the Dirish hadn't fed him at all. They had a short supply of food, considering there was only so much room in the row boats.

The Outlaw Leader only had a small bowl of left-over stew, but it tasted heavenly to the starving boy.

After eating, Nathaniel led the boy to the outlaw's camp where he was welcomed, as well as a band of men who'd been living in the forest for years could be expected to welcome someone.