Beginning of treatment

Very rough first section of my treatment. I've been a bit distracted with the holiday weekend.

1. Dawn is breaking, TANITH, a scraggly young woman of about 18, rides a large stallion deftly around a sprawling field littered with small obstacles. FERGUS, her lanky father, 48, about rides on another mount. They carry wooden swords and clash every so often. MICHAEL, 15, looks on sleepily, holding the reigns of a small mare.

2. Torches can be seen through the trees. Fergus calls to Tanith who swiftly dismounts and switches places with Michael. LORD VIRGIL THORBURN, 42, arrives with his men, specifically two red-haired brutes and BRAN, 28, a lion of a man with a stature that dwarfs Lord Virgil. Tanith uses a long lead and proceeds to trot the mare in a wide circle.

3. Lord Virgil is under the impression that Michael is Fergus’s apprentice as he doesn’t approve of a girl assuming the role of marshal for his horses. He talks to Fergus about the horses that are going to market the following day.

4. Later in the day Tanith is training some horses and some farmhands give her a hard time. She loses her temper and charges at them with her horse. Fergus sees this and reprimands her, sympathizing with her but emphasizing that she must control her anger.

5. The next morning Tanith prepares the horses for travel, including the stallion she rode the other day. Her father sets off with a half-dozen horses, Michael and a few others.

6. Bran and his two toadies leave Lord Virgil’s manor shortly after Fergus, but they take a different road.

7. Fergus sells the horses in town to some local landowners. Rumors about the Black Death are discussed. The buyer of most of the horses ends up being a relative of Michael and invites Fergus and his men to spend the night at their homestead in thanks. Fergus agrees.

8. Bran watches the horses being led into the buyer’s stables from the perimeter of some woods.

9. Most of Fergus’s men sleep in the stables but Michael and he are invited in to sup with the buyer. They drink mead and stay up late laughing and talking.

10. Bran descends upon the homestead, breaking into the stables.

11. Fergus goes to relieve himself outside and spots the stable doors open. He rushes down to see the horses being snuck out the other end. He yells and one of the men turn. It’s Bran, and he locks eyes with Fergus. The two red-haired men advanced over the littered corpses of Fergus’s men towards him.

12. Fergus mounts the stallion and races off, with a shout to Michael to protect the landowner and his family.

13. A breakneck chase ensues as Fergus tries to reach Lord Virgil to seek his protection. Bran and his thugs pursue him but they are no match for his horsemanship. In the darkness Fergus gets confused.

14. Tanith is scratching a profanity with a stone on the house of one of the boys that made fun of her when she hears shouts.

15. From where Tanith stands she sees a long stretch of the road. Suddenly her father’s horse canters out of the trees with a limp figure on its back. She runs to him and finds his body cold. The three thugs, too far away to recognize, emerge down the road. Tanith slides her father’s corpse onto the road and mounts the stallion, galloping after them.

16. Tanith loses track of them and turns back. Fergus’s body is gone.