Sunday Arden was set on fire again. We need to catch who ever's doing it - not only are the fires a hassle to the family (and foresters), it's also quite rude. Imagine, someone goin' around and setting a perfectly good forest on fire... the nerve. I mean, what did the Unicorn ever do to anybody? Pulled out Eric's trump, 'cause he told me he was going to try to something about the last shrine fires. The trump went dark - more than a bit suprising. I says to him "Eric, are you alright?" an he says back to me in a hushed tone, "Felix, do your uncle a favor, and have Julian or Caine come and rescue me." He wouldn't go into much detail about his situation, but he thinks that he's partly responsible for the latest fire. I hope he doesn't get hurt. Ariana was inquisative as usual. Demanded to know who I was trumping - said to her, "It's not any of your concern." Dinna satisfy her. I broke down under her constant barrage of questions. She is ruthless in her interigation. I told them that Eric was being held - which caused some amount of dismay. We are postponing our trip to Bloody Jake's and leaving for the forest. Ariadne was quite happy about the thought of a battle. She's a strange one, she is. 'Twas about an hour's ride to the fire. As we road, I got me little warning, I did, and Ariadne fell off her horse. Just as she disappears, we get pelted with crossbow bolts. Needless to say, we dismounted with a great deal of haste. Not having a bow meself, I heroically ran forward, drawing the fire away from the others. Really stupid, that was. Almost got m'self killed - got a neat little notch in my ear. Spent most of the time throwin' rocks at the people shooting us. Think Ariana's horse got hit - screamed something awful. Ahab tried to run forward too. He had a little more luck than I did. The bolts stopped for a while - thought that everyone was dead. Lifted me head up - another stupid idea... that's when I got the notch. After awhile, Ahab says to me, "Felix," ('cause I'm not going to answer to anything else - even Ahab knows that) "distract those bastards." So I try talking to them. It work last time; they start to shoot as soon as I opened my mouth. They ignored me this time. Don't think Ahab got much further. Heard a couple of silent "whumps" every now and then. Can only assume that that was Ariadne taking out our opponents (which she seemed to do with great ease.) Everyone seemed to be dead, after awhile. Stood m'self up, grabbed a cross bow, and walked over to where Ahab and Ariadne were. One of the mercinaries was still alive, and the others were interested in talking to him. He tried to kill himself, he did - knife to the throat, don't ya know? Ahab grabed the bloke's neck, in an effort to keep him alive (it's a bit ironic, if you think about it.) Ariana just sits there an' stares into his eyes. Think she may have been keeping him calm. Was one of the red-head's tricks, it was. Ahab calls me over, an asks if I can do field dressings. I've done them before, but I hadn't stiched anyone's neck closed before. First time for everything, I suppose. I called da, to ask him if he had a needle and thread, but he was riding through Arden - trying to get to the fire himself. He was a bit concerned to hear what had happened, and interested that we had a prisoner. He suggested that I call the castle. I did. Got in touch with Driscle, who gave me a needle, some thread, and a lantern. I stitched the guy up, and Driscle trumped Ariana and the prisoner back to the castle. Ahab, Ariadne and I rode back to the castle. Ran into Maeve and Alex, and told them what was going on. Seemed a little concerned - don't know if Alex was genuine or not. Never do. For all I know he could really look like a kidney pie. That's a discomforting thought! I took some time to trump Caine, told him we think that Dalt's men have Eric. He said that he'd look in to it. Took a much needed bath. Spent some quite time. Lookin' forward to Jake's, though. We all walked to Bloody Jake's. Got pissed out of our heads. It was a lot of fun. I think that a fight broke out... I don't really remember. I do remember that I had a lot of fun, though. Although I can't help thinking that we misplaced something. We trumped home, and Bleys (I think it was Bleys, the Unicorn help me if I let Brand that close to me in such a state) helped me back to me room. Seemed to think that da would be upset with me if he came home and found me like that. He's probably right. I should get going, I smell breakfast wafting through the halls.