Eytra was damn near lost.

She'd been wandering the secret tunnels for what felt like hours. Though, she had to be thankful. Her parents' little assassination plot didn't stay very secret, because her personal maid ended up telling her about it and helping her escape. Eytra felt guilty over it, which probably clouded her sense of direction.

Without a body to show that she'd done her job, the poor maid would no doubt be tortured or executed, but perhaps she thought it was for the best. Eytra treated all of her attendants very well, which served her well in the end. However, she remained trapped in the catacombs below the castle.

"... the walls are... dripping." She mumbled to herself, her hands touching the stone. Wet, and disgusting from years of mildew. Looking upward, a droplet of water fell onto her face, and Eytra smiled. She must have been under the moat, for the passage to be soaked like this.

Just a little further.

She continued ahead, pushing up the grate that kept the passage closed. As far as she could tell, she was outside the city - the towering city walls behind her proved the theory.

She'd never been outside the castle walls, let alone the ones that protected the city.

She let out a giggle, her dark green eyes filled with a happiness she hadn't felt in a long time. Pulling herself up from the hole in the ground, she dusted off her soaked, dull grey travel clothes. In this new light, one could see strands of black hair under her hood, with pale skin that showed off that she'd never really been outside.

Paying no mind to the fact she lacked any real survival skills, she took off into the woods. Surely any life she could find would be better than dying.

Eytra pushed aside a bush, moving onward in her randomly picked direction. Her breathing hard from travel, she scanned her surroundings, noting with some dismay she was even more lost than she was before. The city had long since disappeared from view.

The forest as she moved through it was oddly quiet. The silence was eerie, and for all she knew she was being stalked by something. She removed her head, freeing her peripheral from the restrictions of the cloth.

M'lady? That sounded familiar.

Eytra spun around, almost afraid to speak. Her voice was shaky when she finally got up the courage.

"I'm... exploring." She lied. ".. are you from town?"

She doubted it. He looked... a little bit more devious than your usual villager.

Eytra didn't like the sound of that. She stepped away from him. For all she knew, he was also an outlaw. But outlaws were supposed to be aggressive and violent, and here he was using courtesy she'd only seen given to royals.

"Well, it's perfect for me." Se stated simply. "I could ask the same of you; if there are so many outlaws to be afraid of, why would you be in this forest?"

She had a reason, and his explanation of the dangers only made her more confident that the woods were perfect to hide in.

"Well, it was a pleasure talking to you." She bowed low. This was dragging on and she had to keep moving to find a town, and this man was both distracting and suspicious. "I really must be on my way. Good luck with your hunting though!"

And which that, she waved, and turned quickly to run back into the trees.

The pulling of bowstrings caught her ears as she paused, her head slowly turning to look back at the man she'd been talking to. Three men had taken aim at her, with their leader a hand movement away from allowing them to use her as a target.

His tone of voice had changed into one she'd heard only when her father was torturing a victim in the dungeons. A shiver ran up her spine.

"Would my name guarantee me my life?" She stood up straight, turning the rest of her body to face him. Such a cowardly demeanor was highly unfitting of one of royal status, even if it was her goal to abandon that status. "My name is Eytra Alin of the Brekhan Royal City."

Bandits. She knew it.

And if they were smart, they'd at least recognize her last name. Perhaps knowing she was royalty would at least buy her time to live and more time to escape.

"If you intend to barter with my family for my life, would you at least be courteous enough to kidnap me again when you get your money?" Eytra asked, unamused by his mocking reaction to her royal status. "I have no intention of going home to stay."

Even if they managed to actually get her parents to take her back, she was looking at a one way trip back to her room, starving herself in case of painful poison. She wasn't ready to die - not at the hands of her parents, anyway.

Worst case scenario, her parents would refuse to pay and the bandits, having no further use of her, would kill her. Or sell her. Most likely the latter.