Watched by the Woads – Chapter 2
Dagonet watched the girl start to regain consciousness as he was placing the stitches in a deep cut that was on her thigh. He noticed at first that the woman turned her head in pain as the needle pierced her skin, but now he noted her eyes flickered like she was trying to fight off the pain.
She opened her eyes quickly as she felt the pain in her leg, she looked up to the ceiling and then moved her eyes to the Knight she new as Dagonet.
"Where am I?" She whispered looking into his eyes as he sat looking at her leg, the needle in his hand.
"We are at a tavern a few miles away from your home. My fellow Knights and I found you in the field where you lost consciousness and Arthur insisted that you were brought along." Dagonet noticed that the woman looked down to the cut on her leg which was half stitched and saw for a moment a hint of anger in her eyes.
"I had hoped that I could have all of the stitches in before you woke, it would make it less painful for you." Dagonet said to her as she looked away from him. He was surprised when she said nothing in return to his remark. "How do you feel?" She looked back to him quickly at this question and Dagonet saw a smile on her face, a beautiful smile.
"As well as to be expected." She replied before turning away again. Dagonet was astonished by the woman, he was a Knight and yet she was treating him like he was below her. But he let his thoughts go telling himself that it was from her upset thoughts that she was being so ungrateful and rude.
Dagonet placed the rest of the stitches in the woman's leg, watching as she winced in pain every time the needle pierced her skin. He still thought her brave, she had underwent an attack from the woads and the dismissal from her father and yet she still appeared in front of him as strong as ever.
"How did you get this cut?" Dagonet asked as he bound her leg in bandages. She ignored him for a moment but Dagonet was patient.
"It was a warning from the woads." She said eventually.
"A warning, what for?" Dagonet noticed that she grinned slightly at this question.
"You will know soon enough when Merlin realises that I am alive." Dagonet was surprised by her response. He did not have time to ask anymore questions as the woman fell back into unconsciousness. He sat and watched her sleeping form and asked himself what she was hiding and why? Was she a woad, betrayed by her own kind, or was there a reason for such a vicious attack?
She woke silently but did not open her eyes, she listened to her surroundings. There was chatter from men and the sounds of horse's hoofs on the muddy ground. Her head was resting against someone's chest and she could feel their hand about her waist ensuring that she could not fall. She listened to the conversation with her eyes closed tightly.
"She gave me flees!" One man said in disgust. There was an eruption of laughter, something she had rarely heard in her father's home.
"You'd better hope that they are flees!" There was another eruption of laughter and she quickly opened her eyes.
She immediately saw the young man who was riding along next to her, it was Lancelot. When his eyes suddenly came and met hers she jumped quickly but a reassuring hand rested on her shoulder. She looked to the man who was sitting behind her and saw that it was Dagonet.
"It is alright, they will not harm you." Dagonet said quietly. The rest of the Knights had stopped their conversation and looked at the woman sitting on Dagonet's horse.
"You are finally awake then." Lancelot said to her. "We thought that you would sleep till we arrived at the Wall." He laughed at himself and then grinned at her. A horse cantered up beside them and she immediately looked to the man astride it.
"Hello there Lady, I am Bors. I hope you are feeling better." She looked at the large man before nodding her head to him.
She looked up through the Knights and saw Arthur riding on his white stallion. He had not turned to look at the young woman but he did know that she was awake due to the Knights' sudden change in conversation.
"Let me introduce you to everyone." Dagonet said from behind her.
"This is Gawain." He said as he pointed to a man with light brown hair and a pale complexion. Gawain nodded his head at her. "Galahad." Galahad looked young, much younger than the other Knights and she found herself staring into his eyes for a moment longer than what would have been necessary. "You know Lancelot, and Bors. This is Tristan." She looked to a frightening man who had tattoos on his face and seemed a very vicious killer. She swallowed quickly as she looked away from this man.
There was silence for a while before Bors' loud voice echoed through the trees.
"What is your name Lady?" He asked with enthusiasm. She noticed that Arthur had turned in his saddle at this point to look at her. She looked at him for a moment before she spoke.
"My name is of little matter to me now, since the woads took it with everything else I possessed." The Knights looked at her in astonishment.
"The woads took your name?" Bors asked in confusion.
"Why should I keep a name that reminds me of them and what they did to me and my family?"
"I would think that that is a reason to keep your name." Lancelot said to her. "To remind you of them, the good parts of them."
"Now, Sir Knight that is what you do not understand. I do not have any happy memories of my life with him."
"Your father?" Dagonet interrupted.
"He brought misery to our whole family in ways that you can never understand!" She looked Lancelot in the eyes and she sensed his anger and well as he did hers.
"If you tell us then we may be able to comfort you, solitude will make them worse." Lancelot said to her.
"If I told you anything it would bring you nightmares Sir Knight, I would not wish to burden you with the many misfortunes of my family life."
"Do you have nothing more to say?" Lancelot asked her.
"No, I don't. So now perhaps we may remain silent to one another." Lancelot tried to retaliate but one look from Arthur made him push his horse forward away from her, anger burning his face.
They had ridden for a long time when they came to a road that passed alongside of a wood. She looked up immediately and saw that the trees which were to her left hand side looked strange. She watched them as they rode through the woods, not moving her eyes from them. She felt Dagonet grip his sword behind her and she thought of looking at him. Instead she looked directly at the trees and she was pleased that she did. As she watched with interest she saw a blue figure dash from one tree to the next.
"We are being watched." She said out loud. Lancelot looked at her quickly.
"What?" Was all he said.
"We are being watched by the woads." Lancelot could do nothing but stare at her. Arthur heard her and immediately looked to Tristan.
"Tristan can you see them?" Arthur asked. Tristan strained his eyes through the woodland in a hope of not seeing one and he was relieved when he didn't.
"No Arthur, they are not there." Tristan replied.
"They are well hidden." The woman said to Tristan. "Give me a bow and arrow and I will give you evidence that they are there." Arthur nodded his head to Dagonet who produced a bow and arrow and handed it to the girl.
"I wager that she misses." Lancelot said as she loaded the bow.
"Then you can buy everyone a drink when you loose." The woman said. She fired the arrow quickly and for a moment there was silence. Until a screaming noise could be heard from the woods and a woad fell from a tree.
"How did you know that?" Tristan asked her. She grinned sarcastically.
"That is of no consequence, you need to ready yourself for action, they are coming." Tristan looked at Arthur and then looked to the woods. It was a moment before he actually saw them, but they were there, she was right.
"How many?" Arthur asked.
"Not many," Tristan replied. "Thirty at the most."
"Knights," Arthur said, "Ready for combat. "Dagonet protect the lady." Dagonet nodded and drew his weapons along with the other Knights.
"Give me a weapon." The woman said to Dagonet.
"You are a woman, you cannot defend yourself." Dagonet said in protest.
"I can at least try!" Dagonet looked to Arthur and she saw him nod.
She was given a weapon, a sword. It was heavy and she realised when she took it that she would have to put all of her strength into raising the sword never mind killing with it.
As the Knights went into battle the woman sat in front of Dagonet watching the enemy fight the Knights, she suddenly felt overcome by anger and other emotions. The hatred of what the woads had done to her sister and inflicted on her was fresh in her memory and it brought anger to the surface. She looked around at the other Knights who were engrossed in combat before she jumped off the horse and walked toward the nearest Woad.
"Get back here!" She heard Dagonet shout, but he was engaged with a Woad so he could not stop her.
She looked at the woad and realised that it was a woman. The Woad grinned at her quickly, showing yellow teeth.
"Merlin will know of your survival." The Woad hissed. "The Vicious Lover will be no more when he takes his revenge." The woman swung the sword through her hand and watched as the Woad started directly at her. The woad jumped forward but the woman sung her sword around to come into contact with the Woad's chest. She stared as the Woad fell to the floor, blood gushing onto the land.
Arthur looked over as he killed one of the last surviving Woad's and saw the all of his Knights were still alive. He saw Dagonet on his horse battling with a Woad and realised that the girl was not present. He searched around and finally found her, stood over a Woad's body. He watched for a moment, wondering what she was doing until he was distracted by a surviving Woad who now crept up behind her.
"Tristan!" Arthur shouted, Tristan immediately looked to his commander who pointed to the Woad. He drew his bow quickly and placed an arrow in ready to fire. He aimed quickly but stopped as the woman turned around, sword in hand and cut the Woad across the throat. He lowered his bow quickly and stared at the woman as the other Knights were.
She looked into each of the Knights eyes before she walked over to Dagonet and gave him his sword back.
"Thank you Dagonet, for giving me the weapon." Dagonet could do nothing but nod in disbelief. She smiled at him before walking to the horse and pushing her self into the saddle.
They travelled in silence for a while, the woman thinking about what had happened and the Knights also sharing the same thoughts.
"I saw that Woad talking to you." Lancelot said to the woman. "Before you killed her, what did she say?" The woman looked up to him, the anger and excitement still in her eyes and was about to speak but found that she could not.
"Lancelot." Arthur said quickly, "There are lots of questions which need answering but that time will come later when we are at the Wall, for now no questions are to be asked." Lancelot stared at the woman for a moment before looking away.
The woman knew inside that when they did reach the wall she would have to reveal her secret to them, it was unavoidable. But what would they say, most of all Tristan. Would he be disgusted or relieved? She knew that she did not want to tell them her secret. That however, was looking unavoidable. With the circumstances that she had placed herself in she knew that an explanation would give the Knights more of an understanding. It was the least she could do.