Happiness at Last
Chapter 1. Reunions.
Tristan – 20 when taken – 35 now Ariana - 17 when Dagonet was taken – 32 now
Galahad – 13 when taken – 28 now Freya – 12 when Galahad was taken – 27 now
Gawain – 15 when taken – 30 now Sarina – 10 when Lancelot was taken – 25 now
Lancelot – 16 when taken – 31 now
Dagonet – 23 when taken – 38 now
Bors – 23 when taken – 38 now
Arthur – 16 when he became commander – 31 now
"As promised the Bishop's carriage" Said Gawain as he and his fellow knights rode to the top of the hill. Sure enough as they looked below them there was the roman carriage surrounded by thirty or so heavily armed guards. What was quite unusual however is that another slightly smaller carriage was following, this one was guarded by nobody, it had three horses tied to the back and looked slightly weighed down. 'Supplies' was the thought that ran through everybody's mind.
"Your passage back to Rome Arthur" said Galahad the youngest of the knights. Arthur merely smiled at the thought of returning and being re-united with Pelagius, his friend and mentor. Their smiles were short lived however as an arrow was shot out of the forest and hit one of the Roman guards directly in the neck.
"Woads!" Stated Tristan as he and the others urged their horses down the hill and toward the forming battle. Arthur drew Excalibur just as a large group of woads charged from the forest. The fight ensued for what seemed seconds as once again, the knights proved their skills with blades and bows, from Lancelot with his ambidexterity to Bors and his wrist blades. What the knights hadn't noticed though were the three women who charged out of the second carriage and started fighting. They were all of a slim build with the eldest looking about 32, she had long black slightly curled hair, piercing blue eyes and tattoos on either cheek, some parts of her hair were slightly braided to keep the hair from entering her eyes, she stood at about 5'7" She was firing arrows left, right and centre but when the woads ventured too close she used a slightly curved sword with inscriptions running along the blade. The next was around 27 summers old with long brown hair that was naturally straight, at the moment it looked hastily tied up in a messy ponytail, she had deep brown eyes and a pale complexion she stood at 5'4" she was using a short sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. The last was around 25 years old with waist length blonde which was flowing wild at the moment, she also had deep brown eyes and stood at around 5'5", she was using two swords at once with as much ease as using one. Finally the battle was over, the knights having lost nobody on the bloodied field. "What a bloody mess" said Bors pointing into the carriage where the bishop sat with an arrow protruding out of his chest. Arthur sighed and then stated that it wasn't the bishop. A roman guard came up to him and Arthur recognised him as Bishop Germanius, the man who was here to release his knights, his comrades, his best friends, into a world of freedom denied to them for the last 15 years of their lives.
"I see your old military skills are still of some use to you." He said to the Bishop.
The Bishop grinned an evil grin and replied "Ancient tricks, for ancient dogs". Arthur turned to one of his knights and told him to scout ahead. By this time the three girls had saddled the horses and were making their way over to the Bishop, the black haired woman leading a dapple grey stallion, the brunette leading a chestnut stallion, and the blonde leading a black stallion. "You! I do not keep you alive to sit idly in the back of a carriage! You were supposed to be making sure I got here alive!" He said drawing attention of the knights to the females for the first time. "You're alive aren't you?" Said the youngest.
"You will pay dearly for not doing the job you were born to do!" He said dismounting. A few more words were exchanged. "I hope you care more about my welfare than those!" He said sauntering back over to Arthur and his knights whilst pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the girls who had mounted their horses. The eldest smirked at him. He looked at her warily as he climbed inside his carriage.
"Hundreds don't scare me nearly as much as thousands." Said the Bishops secretary Horton.
"Thousands?" Enquired Lancelot curiously before they all started to lead the carriage. The girls rode at the back for a while before Arthur motioned for them to come forward. They earned stares from the other knights, where did they know these girls from? They could not work it out. Until Dag shouted out startling all of them "Ariana!" He moved his horse so fast out of the line that Bors' horse, who was situated directly next to Dagonet's, nearly got knocked over. Ariana turned at the sound of her name and saw Dagonet, one of the men she had been waiting 15 years to see. The other she could not see, and came to the painful conclusion that he must be dead. But she was happy enough to find her brother alive and well. "Dagonet!" She cried hugging him as closely as anyone could atop a horse.
"Dagonet you sly old dog! Keeping a beauty like this a secret from us!" Said Lancelot watching this emotional reunion and concluding that they must have been lovers back in Sarmatia. "Well, as you haven't seen your.. erm.. friend in quite a while maybe she'd prefer my companionship for the remainder of her stay." Said Lancelot suggestively from atop his black stallion.
"She is my sister Lancelot" Snapped Dag.
"Even better, nothing to compare us both to then is there?" He said smiling at Ariana, she made a disgusted face. Dag was getting angry, but he'd sworn long ago that he would never strike out at any of his fellow knights. 'I'll scare him though' he thought.
"Well, Lancelot, I think our scout might have something to say about that." He said finally letting his sister go.
"Why? What do you mean?" Asked the knight getting more and more nervous at the thought of his silent friend.
"She's his wife." Stated Dagonet simply smiling at the faces of his fellow knights.
"What?!"
"I never even knew he could love!"
"You cannot be speaking of Tristan!" Came the torrent of replies to the statement.
"I was beginning to wonder why he never took the tavern whores, or any women for that matter to his room. I was beginning to think he was, well, you know…" said Lancelot.
"Go on, finish that sentence Lancelot." Said an accented voice from behind Lancelot. Lancelot jumped at the voice that had crept up on him and at the cool feel of metal against his neck.
"Tristan!" Gasped Ariana as she saw the man that she'd missed all these years. He rode up to her and before she could do anything, he'd dragged her onto his horse so that she was facing him. He then proceeded to kiss her passionately, not caring that he'd just his uncaring reputation. "I missed you." He breathed heavily as he drew breath.
"I missed you too Tristan. I love you." She said hugging him so tightly as if fretting that he might suddenly disappear again. None of the knights ever expected to hear Tristan say what he did next. "I love you too, my special Ana." They'd all thought him immune to love. Soon they managed to stop gaping at the sight before them and their focus turned onto the other girls.
"Well, if Ariana will not bed me, maybe one of you will do me the pleasure?" Said Lancelot in his most seductive voice.
"He called you Lancelot, did he not?" Said the younger of the two remaining. Lancelot nodded. "Then we have heard tales of you in Rome and Sarmatia, the man whore, the womanizing pig who will bed a woman once and discard her like a piece of rancid meat the next."
"How dare you talk to me in such a way!" He said angrily whilst the other knights were laughing.
"Why because I am a woman?"
"No because you do not know me! The fact that you are a woman doesn't come into the matter, I believe women should do and say what they want."
"Well at least that's one thing you have going for you." She said rolling her eyes.
"Again, how dare you speak to me in such a way!"
"I can speak to you any way I like."
"You don't know me!" He said again.
"I don't have to know you to speak to you like this it's in the job description!"
"What job description?!"
"The little sister job description!" She half yelled half laughed. He went to shout back but then realised what she had said. He started to say something then stopped, he repeated this process a couple more times before finally saying "Sarina?" She nodded and then embraced her brother. Whilst trying to pull away she found her thumb entwined in something. She pulled it away and saw the carving she had given him all those years ago on the same band of shoddy leather.
"I'm glad to see it kept you safe all these years." She said giving it back.
"So you're the one who gave him that trinket, we always wondered. He kisses it and says something to it before every battle. He never tells us what he says though." Said the youngest of the men.
"I say, Goddess listen to my prayers and let Galahad get a good beating today for his nosiness!" He said as the others laughed.
"Oh thank Goddess, I thought it was you but I could not be sure." Everyone started as they'd forgotten the other person behind them. She rode up next to Galahad and smiled a beautiful smile.
"Freya!" He said leaping at her almost knocking her off her horse.
"Nay, I refuse to believe that that is my little cousin Freya!" Said Gawain coming up beside them.
"Gawain?" She questioned and as he nodded she threw herself at him. "I missed you two so much!" She said pulling away with a watery eyed smile.
"Well, how did you three get to work for someone like him?" Asked Bors smiling at the looks on his friend's faces.
"Well, can we please rest before we tell our tale please? We didn't really have much sleep on the way here. I mean look at Ariana, because she was the best we had to a scout he would not let her sleep." Said Freya. Everyone looked at Ariana and sure enough she was drifting into a deep slumber, with her head rested on Tristan's chest. "Do you know for the two months we spent on the road to get here, she had a total of about 34 hours sleep. She was becoming ill with fatigue. Thank the Goddess we arrived when we did. That's how we were in the carriage trying to get her to sleep." Tristan was tense all the way through hearing how his love had been treated.
"Of course you may rest Lady Freya, we have many spare rooms."
"No Lady, just Freya, thanks." She said to Arthur. "I'm no lady." She said smiling kindly.
A while later and they came into view of the wall.
"Oh my Goddess, it's even more magnificent than we heard." Said Sarina.
"Aye Hadrian's Wall is a site indeed." Said Arthur. As he and the entourage rode in through the large gates.
Please RnR this is my first fanfic and I need to know whether or not to carry on. Contructive criticism is also greatly appreciated.
Thanks Ithilya xx