Disclaimer: I only own Bedwyr, Sebille and their daughter Celene.
Chapter 1
When the young knights first arrive in Britain.
The boys were all tired, hungry and saddle-sore from their trip from Sarmatia. How they had been picked to end up in this country, where so far the weather had been less than impressive, escaped them. Looking down a hill they saw a group of women washing clothes. There was a boy of about their age talking to one of them, and a girl was up to her elbows in water, helping with the washing. Eventually she helped her mother to gather her things and walk off.
The boys all ended up at the fort, where they were left to stand around waiting. After a while, all the existing knights came and inspected the boys, most of them joking around with each other. It was all a little overwhelming; a fact one girl was rather too willing to notice. She walked into the area and stood regarding the boys for a while.
"Father they're not cattle to be looked at and picked over by you." She declared.
"Bedwyr, when did your daughter grow up?" One of the knights asked.
"Perceval, you should know by now that Celene has old head on young shoulders." Bedwyr ruffled his daughter's hair fondly.
"These must be the new recruits." Celene's mother came in.
"Ah, Sebille, fair morning star." Perceval declared dramatically.
"Watch your tongue, or I cut it out." Sebille declared fiercely.
"I hope your daughter isn't as fiery as you." Perceval declared, ruffling Celene's hair.
"Who said I wasn't?" Celene asked in answer, snapping her teeth a few inches from Perceval's hand.
In answer the knights, Sebille being one of them, started discussing Celene when she was younger. They also went on to discuss how well Celene was doing in training, swordplay, bowman ship, and throwing balanced daggers. After a while Celene grew bored of all of this and walked off to examine the boys. She introduced herself to all of them, as well as pointing out all the knights for them. She gave them all a brief run down on each, before she was called away by her mother.
Celene turned and waved before running off to go home with her mother, seemingly unencumbered by the dress she was wearing. Her thick brown hair flew out behind her as she ran. At thirteen she was showing well the promise of the beauty that she would be. She had her father's hair teamed with her mother's slate green eyes, a combination which was striking on anyone. She already had well formed curves, and a clear creamy complexion. She was seemingly unaware of her beauty, and remarks were only a passing thing to her.
The next day saw the new recruits grumbling about having to learn things like sewing and healing along with their weaponry and amour making. They had healing in the morning and then training in the afternoon. Celene quietly tiptoed up and slipped inside the group of boys. Clutched to her chest was a ream of papers. She ended up walking with Tristan, a quiet boy who had said very little. Sebille came out to greet the boys and they all slipped inside the room, sitting down at the front in the long table and bench. At the front there were drawings of all the different plants.
Celene slipped into the bench on the back row. There were three rows of long tables with benches to go alongside them. Most of the time there were enough boys to fill the benches, but now there were only enough to fill two rows. Not even half of these would probably serve their full fifteen years. She knew all about that, her father a knight, her mother his sweetheart who refused to be left behind when he left for his service. Her father had been lucky; he had been slightly older when the Romans had come around. It looked like there were two others who were like her father.
She paid little attention to her mother talking to the knights about the herbs; she had heard it all before. Instead she spread her sheets out around her, and examined them. After a while she seemed happy and placed them all back in order. Next she walked through to a different room, the infirmary. Once there she walked over to a cabinet, where she checked the supplies of herbs. When she was happy that all was to her satisfaction she walked back through to the classroom, where her mother was telling the knights that they were now to go out and find the herbs, and come back with what they find.
All the knights soon left, apart from one of the older ones, Dagonet Celene remembered. She smiled at him as she perched on the end of the bench. She had collected her papers off the side of the desk and placed them before her mother carefully. Her mother rifled through them before smiling, pleased.
"I think they're ready to be bound." Sebille smiled at her daughter.
"No it isn't, I haven't even said how to sew or cauterize a wound, or what to do if someone has a cold, and then I have to add the symptoms of illnesses, what they mean, and how to treat it…" Celene counted off.
"That would cost a lot of money to bind." Sebille laughed, "The herbs are all I need for now. I need you to write up about illnesses, their symptoms, how to treat them, and if you have to, how to alleviate the persons suffering until they die."
"Shall I get on with that now?" Celene asked.
"No, you have to show Dagonet where to get the herbs from in the infirmary, and then you can show him the compendiums we have." Sebille ordered.
"Yes ma, if you want to come this way." Celene smiled politely to Dagonet.
The next few hours were spent in the infirmary. Celene learnt about Dagonet, and she about him. They were soon good friends, well as good friends as an eighteen year old and a thirteen year old could be. Celene was actually able to teach Dagonet how to prepare salves and many other useful things with herbs, while he was able to teach her a few of the less technical names for the herbs. It was a nice morning. Afterwards the young knights all came in, clamouring for their lunch. It seemed most had either not tried, or had honestly made mistakes, and Celene and Sebille had more than a few people to treat with dock leaves.
Celene spent the rest of the day with the new knights, them getting to know her as her mother and father's daughter. She trained with them in the afternoon and arrived back at her family's quarters, hot sweaty and in need of a good bath. After that she was given some warm broth and sent off to bed, as she had to be up early to collect some foxgloves to protect small children from picking them.
Author's note: Please do tell what you think. It was just a random idea that popped into my head. So here we are, enjoy.