And we're stuck together. (mild language)

[MRPolo13]

"You know I hate you," said the man. "You're a burden. You're slow, you can't fight. Hell, I should have abandoned you long ago."
The wind howled out the rest of the rant, perhaps for the better of both of them.
The woman adjusted her cloak slightly, and replied coolly;
"Well look what we have here, a true man, running from the poorest of bandits but insulting a woman he himself wanted to free."
The man grumbled an unpleasant response, but once again the wind censored what he had to say.
They walked on in silence for some time, snow sticking to the cavalry jackboots of both of them. They only had two horses, both died eventually in the cold... At least they made a nice dinner later, and the pair wasn't about to go hungry any time soon.
"Dorian... we should stop," the girl shouted in the strong wind. "Dorian?!"
Dorian just about seemed to have noticed her talking, and he turned around to walk backwards with a smirk.
"Why, Elera, not used to some fre-" that's as far as he got, before tripping on a root of a tree and falling over with curses.
The girl gave an elegant laugh, before helping him up.
"A true man indeed," she said, and laughed again at yet another poem built up of curses.
They eventually decided a small camp would be in place. Together they found some ever so slightly dry twigs and lit them, having built a short wall made of snow to protect the camp from the wind.
Elera sat back and took off the large, furry cap off with a slight smile of relief, letting her blond hair fall to her shoulders. The man watched the ritual of adjusting the hair with slight lack of understanding, fully aware that she'll have to put the cap back on soon. He prepared the dried horse meat and they had a meal.
"You eat like a pig, you know that?" Elera said, looking at Dorian. "You give a new meaning to eating a horse..."
The man looked up at her with negative passion.
"At least I was brave enough to cut into the horses, unlike you, screaming and crying like a little girl, though fully aware those beasts have no place in Heaven, amongst our Lord and his angels."
The girl turned slightly red, but decided not to comment. They soon went to sleep.

 

[MRPolo13]

The next day met them with clearer, but far colder weather.
"We're not that far off I guess... Maybe three days on horseback... About five on foot... A week with you," chuckled Dorian, and laughed harder when he received a weak punch to the shoulder, which he did not feel thanks to the fur and the mail.

At around afternoon, two bandits jumped out of a bush. Both wore thick linen shirts and fur cloaks over them, with leather trousers and leather vests. It was clear this wasn't their first ride. One of them aimed a poorly made firearm at the man, while the other drew a long dagger.
"What have we here then huh? A morning stroll, days away from the nearest village? And look here at the girl huh?" the dagger bandit gave a toothless grin, before continuing. "Give us your belongings... and the girl for few moments, we'll show her how a man should please a woman."
Elera went red, but said nothing, instead looking at Dorian, who grinned.
He drew his sabre within an instant, jumping about two metres and missing the musket shot by about half of metre. Within three windmills he killed the first bandit, and the second drew his hammer, charging. Dorian simply spun about and made a large gash across the bandit's chest. It was over within two or three heartbeats.
Dorian quickly looted the corpses of all belongings while Elera looked away, having gone far more pale. He looked up at her and smirked.
"Get used to it, 'princess'. You're likely to see a lot of bodies in future."
"I'm not afraid... It's just that it goes against God's will... to murder someone like that, that is..."
"I've done those peasants a favour. Perhaps now they shall be judged slightly better."
Their journey continued until they stopped before sunset.

 

[MRPolo13]

"I'm telling you, the bear was at least two metres tall on back legs. Mister Desem shot it with a musket from about one hundred metres, an astonishing range," after the brief chuckle, he continued. "When we got to the corpse it turned out it was only about fifty metres, and it was Desem's favourite hound."
They both laughed around the fire for a moment, before Elera realised she was supposed to hate that man. Dorian realised soon after that he was merely doing a job, and shouldn't assign any bond with the target.
"We'll be at the castle in three days or so..." he said coldly. "We'll return you to your father, I'll get my pay and we'll hopefully never face each others' burdens again."
"You know I don't want to go to my father... you slain the man who swore to love me..." it was just a statement, cleaned almost completely of emotions. She didn't really love the man, but she wanted to run away from her father, of which Dorian knew very well. "You know my father will beat me, then sell me to some noble three times my age, or five times as a form of punishment..."
Dorian shrugged slightly, as if it didn't matter, then nodded to her.
"You should get some sleep. Long way ahead of us tomorrow..."
She nodded, her eyes hostile, and listened to the command.

Hetman Dorian "Leftie" was basically nothing more than a mercenary with a noble title. Elera's father hired him to bring his daughter back home, grieving over her "kidnap", and how he could have sworn she did not run away with free will. Not that that'd matter to Dorian, but he would have at least prepared himself better. He killed the lesser noble that "kidnapped" Elera and was bringing her home. She tried to run once, she was on a horse, he was not. He caught her within half an hour, such was Hetman Dorian's nature. And so that was it for her attempts to run.