This is my first fanfic. Please be nice in your reviews as I am not only new to this but also a new writer. I do not own Merlin or any of its characters. Please enjoy.

Summery: This is a closer look into the past of our favorite knight, Gwaine. We all know that Gwaine's father was a knight, that he had a mother, but did you know that he had a twin sister? This is their story.

The first few chapters will be set before Gwaine meets Arthur and Merlin. After then it will be set after season 3.

Nobility Defined

There was a village that was beyond Camelot's borders. The village was mostly a farming community, but there were other trades such as blacksmiths, tailors, and there was a physician. In the fields outside the village there was a young woman, she was different than the other girls in the village. She was not thinking of marriage, or of what dress she would be making for the harvest festival. She was focused, she was a fighter.

It was just her and her twin brother against the world. They had been born into a world of knights and lady's of court, but they had never known this life. Their father had been a great and respected knight; he was a good man and cared for his family. The king made him a trusted knight of the kingdom and their mother was a beautiful lady in the court. When she became pregnant their father was joyful. He wanted to make a family and have a life with them, to teach his son the ways of a knight, or to protect his daughter and let her mother teach here the ways of a lady. Sadly, this was never meant to be. Shortly after he held his son and daughter for the first time, war came to the land. While the battle was won, his life was lost. With their father's death their mother had no source of money. She went to the king thinking surely the king would aid the wife of a trusted knight. But the king turned her away. So she took her young children and went to a village to create a new life for them. She was happy there, with her son and daughter. They were happy there too, they knew of what their life could have been and it made no difference to them. They were noble in character instead.

The girl was named Amora; she took after her mother in beauty but had the skill and strength of her father. Her and her brother looked a great deal alike, but being a woman she had a slender frame and was a few inches shorter than her older brother. Her dark brown hair was long and wavy, but she almost never let it down, she usually had her hair pulled to the side of her neck and it was tied with a leather strap. This is how she liked it, it was easy and it stayed out of her way when she was training with her brother or hunting with him. She rarely wore dresses, she owned some and would wear them on occasion but she preferred to wear pants and a blouse. Though she preferred men's clothing she tailored them to look feminine and what she wore today was beautiful. She wore brown pants with tan boots that went just below her knees. She wore a fitted dark green blouse with long sleeves and a modest neckline. She had made leather wrist guards to wear and had a leather belt tied loosely around her waist that held her sword. She wore a necklace around her neck that was their family crest pressed onto a piece of silver that was shaped like a dragons scale. Her brother had the same but it held their mothers wedding ring as well.

After their mother had died he had placed it around his necklace to give to a woman when he decided to marry, but for now he wore it as a reminder of the woman who had loved him and his sister; raised them knowing noble character and taught them to love and look after each other before everything else. His name was Gwaine, and he was a good man who knew how to fight better than any man in the village. He had dark brown hair that went just past his jaw line; he had a chiseled face with some scruff on his face that made him look rugged but handsome as well. He was strong and tall, he wore usual men's attire but he wore a sword and wrist guard at all times because he liked to fight and trouble seemed to find him where ever he was. The only difference that him and his sister held in their looks were their eyes, his were a deep brown and hers were dark green with specks of gold. They were their mothers' eyes and he loved that she inherited that feature. She was a beautiful woman and men would try to ask for her hand but to no avail. She didn't want to marry and Gwaine glad for this. She was all he had in the world and he would die to protect her, and Amora would to the same for him.

Amora stood in the field overlooking the village and held the reins on her horse. They were leaving the village. Gwaine and she had decided after their mother had died a few years ago that when they had learned to defend themselves and live alone they would leave the village and travel to distant lands. Gwaine had already known how to fight, learning from the blacksmith and some of the retired soldiers in the village. His concern was teaching Amora to fight, however she learned quickly and proved to be a good match for him, even beating him on several occasions. She reminded him of this at any chance and enjoyed seeing a look of annoyance and pride in his face.

Gwaine was coming up the hill to where his sister stood; he was riding his horse and was ready to leave. They had packed clothes and a few family belongings on the back of their horses and had said goodbye to their friends in the village.

"What took you so long, Gwaine? I have been waiting up here for almost an hour; did you kiss every girl in the village goodbye?" Amora was smiling at her brother, knowing his reputation with the ladies in the village. Gwaine just rolled his eyes "Not every girl, just close too. What took me so long was going through the house and making sure that we packed everything we needed. Which brought be to finding your cloak still hanging on the wall." He held out her long brown cloak to her and she placed it on her shoulders. "I knew I had forgotten something." she said. She climbed up onto her horse with ease and settled into her saddle.

They turned behind them and looked at their home one last time; Gwaine turned to the road ahead of them and kicked his horse into a trot. He called back "Rora, come on." Amora turned at the name her brother had called her since they were children, kicked her horse into a pace beside her brother and they left the life they had known. They were eager to discover a new life for themselves and were ready for any adventure that came their way. Little did they know that destiny would take them down a road neither of them expected and that they were about to have the hardest journey of their lives.