221 Captured

Jareth took hold of the opportunity and freed himself from the net. Quickly, the others surrounded him, ready for a fight.

Feeling satisfied that he was safe, Astrid created a small sharp ice dagger and began to cut at the ropes of the net, tearing the black cloth in the process.

Pow!

Ahh!

Thud!

Fighting ensued with Jareth being on the defence and attack against anyone that moved closer to him.

"Master!" Snow screamed once, making Astrid turn her head in its direction to see what was wrong.

Right before her eyes, she saw a strong muscular man holding Snow down with a knife pressed against its neck.

"STOP!" He yelled out, getting everyone's attention.

Immediately all the fighting stopped as all heads turned in his direction. Jareth eyes narrowed and he flipped his dagger in his hand, with the tip now between his fingers and the dagger standing upside down.

"Lower your weapons," The man commanded him. His own dark eyes looked fiercer and deadlier than the others.

Astrid followed the man's line of sight and her eyes came to land on Jareth holding the dagger, ready to make his aim any at any minute.

"Master," Snow called through their mind link.

Astrid could feel the pain it felt, with the bigger man's weight pressing against it and his head being pulled back revealing its throat to all of them and the dagger.

"Let him go!" Astrid said through gritted teeth, her eyes turning red the more she looked at the painful sight.

Even though she had not yet activated the Master and beast companion contract, her bond with Snow was so strong that she could feel part of his pain through the link.

By now her blood boiled in anger. The man was still stalling. He was supposed to release Snow at her words.

'Why isn't Snow free? Is he deaf? Did I not make myself clear? What is going on? Release him already, stop making him suffer.' Her mind was in a state of confusion and rage.

This was the first time she felt her little cub experience such pain. Not only was he pinned, but his wings were pulled at.

She could feel every fibre of her body shake and feel the pain course through her like it was her own limbs being pulled o like that.

"Did you not hear me? Let him go this INSTANT!" She yelled the last word, driving home her point, with her body shaking with rage.

Jareth noticed this, she was holding back, but her restraint was going to fall apart soon and she would use her powers.

So far, they still haven't realized she was the one who caused the ground to crumble under their feet earlier, causing Jareth's escape.

"Let him put down that dagger and your pet animal would be spared. He doesn't and you try anything funny, your beast dies. Your choice, our call."

"Astrid don't," Jareth called. "I would drop the weapon, leave the beast alone."

"You do not make the call here. I do. Even if you attack me, I can very much just slit its throat with my knife before I die."

"I'll kill you if you injure it," Jareth barked at him, sending chills down the spine of the others.

The man tightened his grip on Snow, pulling his feathers a bit. "Master!" the poor beats cried out to her, making her snap to reality.

She could see the tears welling up in his eyes and that broke her. "You can't use your powers and have a larger target on your head. We do not know who they are, just surrender for now."

"I'm sorry baby. I promise to make them pay," Astrid said to Snow, her eyes dropping close as she shouted her next words. "Stop. No more. Jareth, let it go, he is hurting Snow."

From the urgency in her voice and since he knew they were linked, he could understand she felt its pain.

He watched as the tears streamed down the side of her face, through her closed eyes and quickly dropped the dagger, letting it fall to the ground in front of him and raised his hands in surrender.

At the same time the man loosened its grip on Snow, it collapsed. Jareth turned his head to see her expression now that the best was released but what he saw next shocked him.

Astrid collapsed as well.

"Astrid!!" Jareth hollered her name and rushed to where she was on the ground, still within the confines of the net. "No, come on, wake up."

The pain Snow felt from his ordeal had made it lose consciousness, coupled with the fact that its wings were his weak point and the man had unknowingly used it against him.

Astrid on the other hand, the tiredness from before and the fact that she felt Snow's pain through the mind link when the contract wasn't activated yet, put a lot of strain on her mind, making her lose consciousness as well.

"Astrid, wake up. Talk to me, please," Jareth begged her, whispering softly into her ears as he held her close to his body.

The man gave his signal and the other attackers rushed up to where they were on the ground and pulled Jareth away from Astrid.

He struggled with them and eventually was hit at the back of his neck hard, making him collapse altogether.

"Tie them up."

The man that held Snow down gave his order and carried snow up in his arms. The other proceeded to carry out his order and tied Jareth and Astrid up, then carried them on their shoulders.

"Gather their things and let us leave her before they wake up."

"Umm."

They nodded in agreement and went to work. In no time everything was set and they moved away from there.