DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from the King Arthur movie. The characters of Aurelia, Furia, Lucius, Valeria, Quintus, Gaius Servilius and Flavia Parvus are, however, my own. Basically, anything you recognise from the movie is not mine. Everything else is.

Across The Mountains

Prologue

It was a cloudy night. Perfect for a secret getaway. Slipping quietly out of bed so as not to wake Furia who was sleeping on a pelt just beside me, I donned my riding habit, boots and a heavy black cloak. Carefully stepping over my still slumbering handmaid, I crept out of my room, working my way down to the kitchen stores where I had earlier hid away a bundle of food and a skin of water. I had thought this through very carefully, weighing all my possibilities, and gathering all the necessities I may have needed. I was not coming back.

Part of me wished I could've said goodbye to Lucius. He was the only one, besides maybe Furia, that I would miss the most. He'd always looked out for me and he was the only one who had even considered my needs in this whole mess. He'd always been the perfect big brother. But as protective as he was of me, he would have definitely never agreed to this.

The stables were eerily quite. It was pitch black and I could just barely make out the soft snorts of the horses. They too had retired for the night. Taking cautious steps and walking with one hand out in front of me, I slowly and surely made my way towards where Dice was stalled. She neighed softly, signalling her awareness of my presence. Maybe she had sensed the tension radiating off me. Maybe part of her knew that something was going to happen tonight. Soon her saddle was strapped on and her bit slipped into her mouth. She pawed at the straw beneath her feet, eager to be on the way. I did a last minute check; the supplies where tied securely to Dice's saddle, my life savings – a small pouch of silver – hung from my waist and a small knife, a gift from Lucius, was hidden in my right boot. I was ready.

---

"No."

I winced as Furia pulled my hair a little harder than was necessary. She had been in the process of weaving a ribbon into my hair when mother came in with the news.

"Aurelia! You will do as your father and I bid you to. You will go back to Rome and – "

I spun around in my chair then; facing her with anger clearly evident on my face.

"And what, mother? Become that man's whore! I will do no such thing."

"Aurelia!" my mother exclaimed in lady-like horror.

"Do not act so aghast, mother. That is what you and father are sending me to become, is it not? Gaius Servilius already has a wife. There can be only one other reason for sending me to that man and I highly doubt marriage is it."

My mother sighed as she crossed the room to stand before me. She reached for my hands but I jerked them away. She sighed again as if she were a tortured saint.

"My dear, Senator Servilius is a very powerful, and well respected, man in Rome – "

"The Senate holds little power now, mother."

She frowned at my interruption. She was too much of a lady to have shushed me.

"The Senate may not be as powerful as it once was," she continued, "but Gaius Servilius still has his connections. There is much to gain from this arrangement."

I opened my mouth to interrupt again but she silenced me with a stern look.

"The Senator's wife, Flavia Parvus – poor woman – has not been able to provide him with an heir in all their thirteen years of marriage – "

"Has he ever considered the fact that he may be impotent," I whispered but mother heard it anyway. She chose to be the better person and not say anything though she did glare at me for a while.

"Consider yourself fortunate, Aurelia. Senator Servilius could have chosen from any number of willing Roman girls – younger Roman girls – to be his mistress. Instead he chose you. Your father and I will bode no more argument from you. The Senator and his men will be arriving in Britain tomorrow morning and when he leaves; it will not be without you."

Mother left then, refusing to hear any more of my 'excuses'. I turned back around in my chair so Furia could continue with my hair.

"What should I do, Furia?"

"Listen to your mother," she replied crisply and without hesitation.

I glared at her reflection in the mirror.

"It would make no difference to argue or defy them, my lady. In the end, they will have their way. And besides, this Senator cannot be that bad of a man; he has stayed with his wife for thirteen years despite the fact that she has borne him no child. That definitely must be a sign of his good character."

I sighed.

"Even so, Furia, I refuse to become someone's mistress. Do I have no say in what is to become of my life?"

"No."

I glared at her again. She received it with a smile though, indicating that her reply had only been in jest.

"I want love, Furia. I want romance. I want a knight to sweep me off my feet."

She sighed then and I was reminded once again of how much older she acted than her actual age, which was really not much more than my eighteen years. Eighteen – back in Rome I would have been considered an old maid. Maybe mother was right. Maybe I was fortunate to have someone actually choose me. I sighed.

"I want it to be my choice, Furia. But most of all…I want freedom."

Furia finished my hair then and knelt down beside me. She reached out and took my hands in hers.

"Isn't it ironic," she said as she stroked my hands comfortingly. " Here we are, two girls born into different circumstances, yet we are much more alike than anyone could ever imagine." She looked up into my eyes then. "You'll find your knight, my lady. That I am sure of."

---

I had not meant to eavesdrop. Honestly I hadn't. But the raised voices coming from my father's personal chambers made me curious. What's more was the fact that I recognised Lucius' voice as well. He was never one to argue with either of our parents.

"You cannot do this, father!"

"Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do, boy!"

"Father! Listen to yourself! Did you not take into consideration Aurelia's feelings when you agreed to this? Surely you must have known how she would have reacted to this arrangement."

"What Aurelia thinks about this matter is of no concern. Whether she wants to or not, she will return to Rome with Senator Servilius. She will become his mistress!"

"Why!"

"My reasons are none of your concern, boy! It would be wise to leave now and never speak to me of this again."

"No, I will not leave until you have explained to me what possessed you to condemn my sister to a life of absolute misery!"

"I am doing no such thing! Are you accusing me of being an uncaring father, boy?"

"Right now, I am!"

I heard the sound of flesh meeting flesh and realised that my father had just struck Lucius. I tried to muffle the gasp that escaped me. Never in all my life had I known either of my parents to strike us. There was something more going on than meets the eye.

"Never…never ever say that again," said my father, his voice dangerously low.

There was a long silence before my father finally told Lucius to leave. I heard feet shuffling and realised that my brother was finally listening to my father and making his way towards the door. I didn't even want to imagine what sort of trouble, not to mention the awkwardness, I would get into if discovered just outside the door, so I hurried to a little alcove down the hall, pressing myself flat against the wall and hoping Lucius would not notice me. Fortunately, he had his head down the entire time, staring at his feet, and walked right by me obliviously. I peeked out of my hiding place then to see if it was safe to come out and, as I did, caught sight of my mother entering the room Lucius had just left. Once again, my curiosity got the better of me. As I pressed my ear against the door I realised that I was once again the topic of conversation in the room.

"Maybe we should have told Lucius the reason, Quintus."

"And have him murder a Roman Senator right under our roof? I think not, my love."

"So you are just trying to protect him?"

"I am already losing one child, Valeria. I will not lose another."

I heard my mother sigh. No doubt she was now massaging my father's shoulders. It was something she did whenever he was stressed.

"I know you hate this, Quintus. But we can't think of it as losing Aurelia. Servilius gave us his word that she will be well taken care of. Besides, we could always go back to Rome for visits."

"With Rome retiring from Britain and with the way things are with the Woads right now, I highly doubt I will be returning to Rome for a visit anytime soon."

There was a long period of silence, from which I could tell both my parents were very distressed, If they disliked it so much why were they still insisting on sending my away?

"I should have never agreed to this," my father finally said.

"You didn't know," was my mother's reply.

"No, but I knew it would've been something bad."

I heard my mother sigh again.

"You only had our best interests at heart, my love. This is not your fault."

Silence, It was long time before my father spoke again and I had almost given up on learning anything I didn't already know.

"I wish I could just turn back time. If I hadn't been so drunk. If I hadn't…Maybe I should've just – "

"Then you would have been dead. Servilius offered a way out. You would have been insane not to have taken it."

It hit me then. The reason for everything. My father had done something bad, something stupid. Servilius had offered to fix the problem – for a price. My father had desperately agreed without knowing the conditions and now I was paying for it all.

Anger burned in me then. Raw, fiery, righteous anger. Why should I have to pay for someone else's mistake? Why was my life to be forfeited for something I did not do? Why was everything so unfair?

I think it was at that very instant that I made up my mind. I would not leave with the Senator. I would not even be in the domus when he came.

I was going to run away.

---

My hair whipped me in the face once again and part of me regretted not bothering to tie it up earlier. It hadn't seemed that important then.

I had only the vaguest idea of where I was going. Right then, my plan consisted of heading south to the Wall, then making my way to nearest coastal port town. Beyond that, I had nothing. I more or less knew which way was South, if I was reading the stars correctly, so I was confident that I would make it to the Wall without much difficulty.

Upon hindsight, it just went to show how naïve I was, even at eighteen. I had been brought up pampered and very much sheltered from the goings on of the rest of Roman Britain, not to mention Woad Britain.

The only warning I had was Dice's sudden bout of anxious neighing and then she came to an abrupt stop, almost throwing me off. Before me stood a man. As I took in his dark hair and painted face, I realised that he was one of the Blue Ghosts I had heard mentioned numerous times; by my father, brother and many other servants in the domus. It was then that I realised that it was not just one man. I was surrounded. And there were two women in the group.

For an instant, I felt fearful. Was I now to die, after just gaining my freedom? But then I realised that if they had wanted me dead, I would already be looking down at my bloodied corpse from heaven; or at least I hoped that was where I would eventually end up.

I leaned down to whisper into Dice's ear, running a reassuring hand down her neck, hoping to calm her down. It would not do to be thrown off. Not to mention it would probably hurt a lot. The man in front of me made to move forwards, probably to grab hold of the reigns, but Dice reared back and I just barely managed to hang on. Deciding that it would be much safer on the ground, I dismounted, holding on to the thread of hope in my reasoning that these Woads did not want me dead. At least, not yet. The man stepped forward again; hand outstretched, palm face up. He wanted the reigns. Against my better judgement, I firmly shook my head. He did not look amused.

Suddenly, there was a knife at my throat and one of the women was snarling viciously in my ear. I knew she had no qualms about slitting my neck and bleeding me dry. An order from their leader was all that was holding her back from doing so. Again the man held out his hand. This time I was more compliant. He smiled, but I could tell he was disgusted with me; probably with my fear of death. For these Woads did not fear death. Woads feared nothing.

As he finally held Dice's reigns, cutting off any possible means of my escape, he gave the woman behind me a small nod. I closed my eyes, expecting to feel the sting of the blade digging into my skin. Instead there came a sharp blow to my temple and as I fell, I caught a glimpse of the woman standing above me, grinning in satisfaction. And then I slipped into unconsciousness.

---

A/N: Hey everyone, this is my first story on fanfiction . net, though this isn't the first piece of fan fiction I've ever written.

I know the movie's kind of old now and I'm not even sure how many people are still reading King Arthur fan fiction but I was just itching to write this. I could never, EVER get tired of Tristan :P

To whomever is reading this, I hope you like it.

Kind of a random title I know, but I really like the song Vanora sung and just the wistful looks on everyone's faces as they listened. 'We will go home. We will go home. We will go home across the mountains.'

Please R&R. I love reading readers' comments on things I write; it helps me see what I'm doing wrong, what needs to be explained more clearly, etc. It just basically encourages me to write more :-)

I don't know how often I will be updating this because I have about 7 other stories online that are either only half done or are NOWHERE near completion. However, like I've said, I've been itching to write this story, so updates might be frequent.

Hope you enjoyed the prologue. Tristan appears in chapter one. Prologue and epilogue will be in first person pov but all the chapters in between will be told in third person. Just a head's up.

- Scribbles