Sometimes life isn't that easy for some...
The smoke had cleared and now all that that remained of Will's home were burnt huts and the bodies of her people.
She had never seen such a ruthless act before. What had they ever done to anger the Saxons?
The Saxons' had past through this way on their way home and decided to destroy Will's village while she herself had been out chasing rabbits and the sort.
She had returned to find the only home she had ever known destroyed and her father killed.
His body lay beside where Will knelt, his legs half scorched and a deep wound which had been the death of him.
Her father had been the only family she had ever known and now he was gone.
Will suddenly felt the sadness inside of her turn another way. She felt the flames of anger lick at her insides.
She had no home now. The only place she could think to go was her mother's tribe in Briton. She had never met her mother and although she had never wanted nor needed to before there was a reason to seek her out now.
So with one last tear and look at her home and father she gathered all of her thoughts and bravery and stood up, ready to journey to Briton.
But before she left she reached down and took the sword in her father's hand. He had loved that sword almost as much as he had loved her and now Will was not going to leave it to be taken by passer-by's.
With the strength from her ten year old body she dragged the sword and the few possessions she had left away from the burnt village.
Some would say she was just a child wanting to find comfort in her mother's skirts and arms. But that wasn't Will's intentions. Will had loved her father, admittedly a great deal more than her mother. She wasn't even sure she could find any love for the woman who had left her and her father so long ago in Sarmatia inside her at all. No her intentions were to avenge her father and tame the anger inside of her.
The days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months. Will tended to the few wounds she gained from her journey so far and hunted for her food with great skill. Growing up in a Sarmatia had given her the skills of a warrior and being the daughter of woad had given her the ability to tend most wounds.
Will did not wish the day to come sooner when she would leave Sarmatia. She was Sarmatian and it had been the only home she had ever known. Nothing inside of her ached for any other land, only the need to avenge her father.
When Will was close to the Sarmatia border she realised there was something following her. One morning she awoke to find a tall, bold, grey and elegant horse sniffing at the feet. It sensed her movement and took a few steps back but with much praise and conning, Will managed to befriend the horse. Soon she managed to even sit upon its back.
So with the only friend she had left she and the stallion left Sarmatia, not knowing what lay ahead.
Almora was a strong woman, a trait from her grandfather. Although she had aged a little she was still as able and quick as the younger women in their tribe.
But back in her slimmer days she had been the desire of many a man. Even when she had gone to Sarmatia with her husband, Orlon, after he was released from the Roman agreement, she had caught the eye of many foreigners.
But she had remained faithful to Orlon and stayed clear of any drooling men. She had given Orlon a child and never stopped loving him.
But being young and adventurous still, the role of wife bored Almora quickly and she had left Orlon and her daughter.
It had been hard leaving Orlon and the little girl she had named Willow. Almora laughed now at how furious he had been when she had named her a Briton name. Orlon had tried to change her name but the little girl had already taken her name to Willow. So Orlon had retreated to calling her Will which was fine to Almora.
Almora had sometimes thought that Willow had been the reason she had left. She could se the woad bursting inside of her and that had made her miss her own home and people. But the reason she hadn't taken her daughter was because she could also see that she loved Sarmatia and Almora knew how cruel it was to take one from their home.
So Almora had returned to Briton. She had married a man named Merlin, a great magician some would say and also a great leader for he led the woads.
Merlin had already had a daughter named Guinevere and Almora supplied a few sons aswell although some of them weren't really his. In her last years of wildness and youthfulness she had been a little unfaithful and been to bed with other men than her husband. She hadn't loved him like she had Orlon but she loved her home more.
So now Almora was a thirty-three year old woman with a body that had bred babied and become plump. She was no longer a desire to men, except for Merlin sometimes.
She sat helping the other woad women sew blankets for the coming winter. The young ones talked of men and their hopes and dreams. Almora knew that their hopes and dreams would be squatted away by the men factor.
The older women talked of the troubles and families. Both of which Almora had a lot of.
But both young and old had not experienced the life that Almora had. They had hardly ever even left the forest let alone the land itself. Almora had and that had caused her problems, which had turned into family.
She had a daughter, whom she had not seen in seven years and five sons whom only one she knew was Merlin's for sure.
But then a strong wind blew through and told Almora that things were about to change rapidly.
Within almost a year, Will found her mother's tribe. She was greeted with hugs and kisses from a woman she could barely remember and welcomed into the tribe. Neither Will nor her mother, Almora told anyone that she was half Sarmatian. Merlin would not have liked it. But under the influence she was half Irish; Merlin took Will in and treated her like on of his own.
Almora loved her and cared for Will and Will returned the love but the whole while the love for her father and the anger for the Saxons danced inside of her. She still said to herself that she loved her father more than her mother.
Will was allowed to keep the horse she had travelled with and she amazed the other children with the tricks and stunts they could do together.
Not a year passed and trouble arose in the tribe. Will's step sister Guinevere was taken by attackers and Merlin grieved dearly and tried almost everything to retrieve his beloved daughter but no such luck.
So Will grew up being taught the skills of the woads, but not forgetting the knowledge of the Sarmatians. At the age of sixteen, Will found herself wandering off in search for revenge for her father. She left her mother with a kiss. Words were exchanged but no tears and Will promised Merlin that she would search no farther than the boundaries of Briton. With Guinevere gone, he had begun to treat Will as he had done his real daughter although everyone knew he would never replace Guinevere.
So for a year Will searched with the grey horse for Saxons on the island and found none. She found the Roman men that occupied Briton more forceful than the other men she had met but she still managed to keep them out of her pants.
During her travels around the island Will and the grey horse endured many difficulties with men both the bedding type and the soldier type.
Then when one man finally managed to outwit Will and beat her badly, she began keeping away from civilisation and only venturing into villages and owns when she needed.
Throughout her life so far, Will had lived without trust since her father had died and it would take a mighty great touch to regain that trust from her. She didn't like the rest of the world. It had never really given her any reason to like it. But little did she know that things would change…
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from King Arthur. I only own the added characters. DONT SUE!