Edward
Lord Eric Stafford, Lord of Stormalong
The Astorian border of S. Feyshore
Four days ago

The sun had just started to rise, painting the dark sky a dark purple. The horses grunted, but it was muffled by the salty ocean breeze brushing through the tree line. Eric Stafford was mounted, looking through the tree line to a small clearing with some dark figures laying on the ground. There was no sign of a fire, they had wanted to stay hidden. There was a moving figure, a watchman to be sure. 

Eric shook his head, he was barely a hundred yards from the camp. They couldn't see the force of mounted people within the tree line. Eric had taken charge of the Zahradan guards, while Aldvis had taken charge of the squires. Eric counted the figures in his head. 

_Twelve._ He thought, before looking at the youth who was holding a trumpet next to him. 

"Wake them up." He said, pulling his hammer from the saddle. 

A trumpet blast sounded in the night air, as if to herald the morning light as it shined onto the camp. By the time the watchmen comprehended what was happening, Stafford's force was bursting out of the trees. The sound of the trumpet followed them, another trumpet blared in the distance as Aldvis with the squires emerged on horseback across the clearing and descended upon the camp. 

If the outlaws weren't woken by trumpets, then they were woken by the sounds of hooves. The watchman tried to run, but was caught by some squire he couldn't recognize in the dark. A sliver of black slashed through the watcher's shoulder and he went down. The skirmish was over before it had really begun. The confused and tired outlaws barely had time to resist. 

Eric watched Daemon slice through one outlaw and dismounted to fight a cleaver wielding wild man on foot. Daemon's laughter rang over the battlefield as he dodged and drove the wild man back before eventually ending him with a quick stab through the throat.

Eric only caught on man, he was the quickest to rise, but wasn't very quick with his rusted shortsword. The man was preparing to slash at Eric's horse when Eric slammed his hammer into his chest, caving it in and throwing him straight to the ground. It was second nature to Eric, he didn't even think about it. He continued to ride to the center of camp. By then, the sound of a struggle had ceased and only the sounds of a few wounded were heard. He looked around the site of the small skirmish from the center. It looked more like a slaughter than a fight. 

"They shouldn't have stopped." Eric said as Aldvis rode up to him. 

"They shouldn't be robbing people." Aldvis responded.

"That too. Daemon, _Get back on your horse_!" Eric commanded the boy who'd begun looting the two men he'd killed.

"Round up the wounded ones, if they are mortally wounded, end them. If they aren't, bring them to the center, we'll try them. Then hang them."

"Aye mi'lord." It took a few moments for them to sort out who was mortally wounded and who wasn't. It turned out one was playing dead, the other was ran over by a horse. But was still alive. The two were brought to Eric Stafford who had dismounted. 

"You're accused of robbing a caravan outside of Zahrada and of murdering a woman and a man of the same caravan. Do you deny it?"

"I din't murder a fucking soul. 'tat wus Emmon! You caved his chest in! Me and Tee din't kill anyone!" The coward yelled.

"Yeah! No'one!" The wounded one yelled.

"You are being tried as a group. A member of your group murdered two people, and you allowed him to. You're just as guilty. I sentence you both to hanging." Eric said before mounting. Two guardsmen grabbed the squalling men, arguing their sentence and pleading for mercy. Eric didn't listen. He just wanted them hanged so he could go back to his wife. 

It didn't take much time to find a low hanging tree. Daemon and another squire named Rodrick climbed the tree to ties the nooses, two guards placed the the horses under the branch and the men were forced to sit on the horses with the nooses around their necks. 

"We demand religious rights! It's a law!"

"..." Eric looked around, "Do we have any priests here?" Eric asked to some chuckles, "I know the law." Eric said calmly. "You can be your own priest. Say a prayer You have twenty seconds."

The coward began muttering a prayer while the other stared at Stafford, 

"I pray the gods curse you. I pray that you are rendered worthless and penniless!" 

Eric rolled his eyes, he'd heard it all before. "A prayer wasted on curses." He said calmly, the horses were slapped, and ran off. The men stayed with broken necks.

Lord Eric Stafford
Zahrada Gardens
Present day

Eric entered the gorgeous green gardens still in all of his riding clothes. They'd been changed while on the road, so there wasn't any stained blood on them. The gardens were still a maze to the young lord who spent more time in the courtyard drilling his squires than he spent in the gardens. Eventually he'd found what he was looking for: A pretty young blonde lady with an infant in her arms. He smiled and approached Angelica and Queen Anyanka. The two seemed to be deep in conversation and didn't particularly notice the man. 

"Good morning." He said while in a long stride forward. There was no evidence of what Eric had been doing on him, he was fairly clean except for a small black beard that had started coming in while he was gone. If anything, a few days in the wild hunting outlaws seemed to breathe a different sort of energy into him.
Joseph
Angelica Stafford 
Zahrada Astoria

The woman glanced over her shoulder, hearing her husband's voice, and she smiled so brightly the sun flickered out of existence for a second. Anyanka had already taken Marcus, so she was free to move to her feet to greet the man. Her arms wrapped around him, pulling him into a tight embrace accompanied with a lingering kiss. 

When she finally broke ir, her fingers lingered on his collar just as her lips had his own a moment before. 

"Where have you been, it must have taken you further out to track that party." She mused, and took a step back. He looked clean, like he'd been in his study the whole time. 

"Either it was bad enough you needed to change or you spent the whole time you were gone not actually chasing bandits but getting your wife a gift, Hm?"
Edward
Lord Eric Stafford
Zahrada Gardens

He smiled and wrapped his arms around Angelica. "Oh , we passed a stream and decided to clean up before coming into Zahrada." He said, holding her tightly before releasing her a bit. "We ended up in almost in South Feyshore. Think we caught them a mile from the border." He explained. 

"Not many gifts to get you in the middle of the forest." His eyes turned toward Anya holding Marcus. He released Angelica, gave her a quick peck on the lips, then moved toward Anya and held a hand out to hold his son. "Mind if I steal him for a moment, I haven't seen him in a little while." 

Eric's expression softened when he laid his eyes on the boy, a different sort of smile appeared on his face looking at the baby.