So, here is the second chapter. Please read and review! Again, dont own anything.

Tora2010

Eleanor sat by her brother, who was trying to explain that he felt a lot better and could easily make the trip to Camelot. She understood why he felt the need to be strong. He doesn't want his family to worry about him. He wants to feel honorable. He doesn't want the family to have to pay a fine because he is sick. However, Eleanor just didn't want to hear it. She knew that he was not well enough to go to Camelot. He was feeling better and his fever has finally broken, but that doesn't mean that he should get up and join the army.

"Are you even listening to me, Ellie?" Her brother snapped her out of her train of thought.

"Of course I'm not listening to you. I don't listen to idiots talking nonsense, Etie," she responded. He gave her a dirty look, obviously not pleased with her retort.

"I'm not talking nonsense! I have to do this, Ellie, and it would be so much easier if you would just let it go and give me your blessing."

"You always have my blessing and my prayers, but that doesn't mean that I have to be happy about what that tyrant of a king is forcing you to do." She tried to sound as calm as possible, trying not to start up another fight with her brother. They had been fighting on and off for the past month since Etienne learned of his call to service. He thought that Eleanor had no faith in him, which wasn't the case. She had faith that he could do whatever he put his mind to, but she also had to protect him.

"I'll be fine! They will probably just make me polish boots or something. And if I have to fight, then so be it." It scared her how nonchalant he was acting about this whole situation.

"And what if you die?" she snapped at him. She knew he would take it way too personally, him having potentially the biggest male ego in the whole kingdom.

"Then I will die a hero!" He sounded so proud. It made her want to slap some sense into him.

"Alright, well, I'm going to leave you to get some rest, my humble hero, before we both kill each other in our bickering. Plus, you should sleep before you leave tomorrow." Tomorrow. It was almost scary how fast a month went by. Jonathon should be coming in tonight. Tomorrow, he would take her brother away from her, possibly for good.

Veronica was carefully folding the linens, trying to keep busy so that she wouldn't think about tomorrow. They were going to take her baby away from her.

She could just feel that nothing good was going to come out of this. Sure, Etienne was getting better, but he had been sick for a while. If he traveled and strained himself, there was a very real possibility that he could make the illness worse.

These morbid thoughts started to make her panic. She couldn't do this. If she had another son, one who wasn't sick, she would be proud to have him serve in King Arthur's army. But this was an entirely different situation. Couldn't the army just leave them alone?

As if responding to her thought, she heard a painful moan come from her son. Running over to him, she placed a hand on his head, and felt the heat coming from his body. She nearly burst into tears right then. She was going to lose him.

Jonathon rode up to the small house with distain. He had been dreading this day since he was last at this house. He knew that he had to follow orders, but he wished that he could just leave this family alone. Sure, he may have thought the worse of them when he first met Eleanor. He thought she was just trying to beg for her brother's freedom. Now, he just wanted to turn his horse around and head back to Camelot. He wanted to tell Lord Agravaine that the boy had died. The Lord might believe him, but his instincts told him otherwise. That vile man would probably travel out to the village just to see for himself. Then, he would probably hang Jonathon, and he couldn't let that happen.

He dismounted his horse and tied it to a nearby post. He then went to knock on the door, but was stopped when Eleanor opened the door to greet him. Obviously, she had been anticipating his arrival, probably with great distain.

"You can't take him," Eleanor spat at him. Her eyes were wild with fear and anger.

"What happened?" He asked.

"He took a fever during the day. My mother is caring for him now. He is in no condition to ride, and absolutely in no condition to join your bloody army." She trying to hold herself back, shaking from the severity of the situation.

Jonathon knew that he was in for it. If he let didn't bring the boy with him, Agravaine would have his head. If he did take the boy, Eleanor would probably have his head also. So much for not blaming the messenger. "What do you want me to do?" he asked her. "I can't walk away from here without a new recruit."

Eleanor could sense his tone of sympathy. He was trying to make sure she knew that he didn't want to rid the family of their only son, but he had to do his job to save his own neck. She looked down at the dirt, and for a few minutes, there was complete silence. She was thinking of a solution. At least, he hoped she was.

Finally, she looked at him, her eyes no longer full of fear. Instead, they were brimming with determination. "Meet me back here at midnight. You will have your soldier." With that, she went into her house, leaving him to ponder what she could possibly be planning.

Eleanor stood in the small barn that stood just feet away from her house. She looked at herself in the small mirror using the illumination of a candle, both of which she stole from her mother. She hardly ever looked at herself. She always thought herself very plain looking. Her light brown hair and brown eyes were hardly anything that a rich man would swoon over. She had no fairytales of her feminine charms lifting her and her family from poverty. So she just ignored her reflection most of the time.

Now, she realized how much she didn't notice about herself. Her eyes were rather big, her face a bit long. Her hair, having not been cut for some time, had grown fairly long. Her face was dirty from lack of washing, but her skin was not awful. Had she been born to a wealthy family that lavished her with fine clothes and frequent baths, she may have actually been pretty.

She quickly put these thoughts out of her mind, knowing that soon any hope of having a womanly beauty would be completely cut away. She grabbed the scissors and started to sharpen them. After that, she started cutting it all away.

At first she didn't know exactly what she was doing. Her mom had always cut her hair before this. But she knew it had to be short if she was going to pass off as a man. Really, really short.

Slowly, she felt her head getting lighter. She tried to cut her hair the way Etienne always had his hair. When she was done, she was shocked how much she looked like him. She hardly even recognized herself.

Once Etienne was done with the hair, she worked hard to conceal anything else that would give away her gender. Her breasts were pretty small, so that wasn't a big issue. Her bottom and her legs disappeared for the most part when she put on Etienne's clothes. She practiced speaking in a lower voice, hoping that nobody would notice that she was very not very good at mimicking a man's voice. Eleanor figured she would get better overtime.

When she was done, she went back to the house. Her mother and brother were asleep. She quietly put the items that she had taken back in their places, and left a note next to her mother's bed. This was it. There was a very good chance that she could never see her family again. If she was caught, the army would most likely see it as treason, and she would be killed. She could also die in battle, a thought that terrified her more than she would have liked.

She silently apologized to them for leaving them, and walked out the door to meet Jonathon. There was no turning back now. She had to do this.

When Jonathon saw the figure emerge from the house, he was utterly confused. Surely it was not Etienne. Eleanor herself had said the boy was too sick. As the figure approached him, and he started to make out more distinct features, it started to dawn on him.

"Eleanor?" he asked in absolute disbelief.

"You said that you need a soldier," she replied, hardly even looking at him. She continued walking forward, trying to skip the argument that Jonathon was starting.

"You do realize that you will be killed if you are discovered."

"Then we will have to make sure that nobody finds out," she said frankly. With that, she started packing her things onto the horse that Jonathon brought that take Etienne away on.

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that."

"Well, first of all, my name is Etienne from this day forward. And second, if you tell anyone about this, I will kill you." With that she mounted her horse and stared at Jonathon, trying to will him to get on his horse so they could leave. Jonathon knew that there clearly was no arguing with this woman. The only thing he could do was help her.

Alright, so that was the second chapter. I hope you all aren't too bored. The next few chapters will go much faster and get to the good stuff. Also, the plot won't follow Mulan as closely, I promise.

Cheers,

Tora2010