A/N: Set weeks later. Chapter written by IziP

oOoOo

Time seemed to slow down. The wind was slower, noises muffled, distance becoming longer. Arianna's light brown hair was flowing behind her in a failed attempt to keep up. Her golden eyes darting around, taking in all of the information they could. To her right was Natalie. They had met only a couple of weeks ago, but they already acted as though they had known each other their entire life. Natalie's brown hair mirrored Ari's; although longer and darker, it had the same softness and fluidity. Her eyes were trained on the target ahead, the green irises checking the surrounding area simultaneously. To Ari's left was Izi. From a distance it would have looked like her head was on fire, but up close you could see the details of her vibrant orange hair. It was down to her chest, curly, and had slight blonde highlights. Her bright blue eyes had a sense of playfulness in them, and a grin had spread itself across her face. The three ran together, steps matching and weapons raised.

Time resumed its normal pace. The ground was moving quickly beneath Ari's feet. Across the training grounds were the famous knights of Camelot. Gwaine, Percival, Leon, Elyan, Lancelot, and Arthur were running at full speed directly at the trio. The nine people met in the middle of the field; two of the knights against one of the girls. Nat was fighting both Lancelot and Elyan, Izi had taken on Gwaine and Arthur, and Ari was fighting Percival and Leon. To any bystander who didn't know anything about the people fighting, it was obvious that the knights were going to win.

Nat was shooting blunt arrows at Lancelot and Elyan. They could easily block the attacks with their swords or just move out of the way, which gave Nat the perfect opportunity for a punch or kick. Lancelot was on the ground from a kick to stomach, and Elyan was left alone trying to block the non stop attacks. Izi was a little further up the field, fighting Arthur and Gwaine. The two knights came at the redhead from opposite sides. Both of them swinging the blunt swords at the same moment in an attempt to get the girl at her side. Izi ducked underneath Arthur's swing, and blocked Gwaine's with her axe. She swung her leg underneath Gwaine's, tripping him and leaving him defenseless. Grabbing the blunt weapon in his hand, she planted it into the ground, tearing a hole in his shirt and making him immobile. Arthur had snuck up behind his sister, and raised his sword. Izi sidestepped the vertical slash; without even having to look, and struck the prince in his abdomen. Arthur crumbled to the ground, wheezing for breath. Izi knocked him out on the spot. Ari's fight was very one sided. Leon and Percival had decided that it was a good idea to underestimate the small girl. Percival tried to use his size as an advantage. He blocked one of Ari's attacks with his sword and tried to tackle her. Ari saw his intention and quickly stepped to the side, causing Percival to tackle Leon instead. The two began arguing, and Ari patiently and politely waited for the two to resolve the problem. Once the boys had finished their quarrel, they turned to see Ari picking the fuzz off of her jacket. She looked up, shrugged, and got into a fighting stance. Leon grinned, and Percival simply rolled his eyes, slightly offended that the girl was so confident that she would win. He raised his blunt weapon, Leon mirroring the movement, and took a slash at the girl. She flipped backwards, kicking the swords out of the knights hands. They looked at her with dumbfounded expressions. Ari smirked. She ran at Percival, elbowing him in the nose, causing it to break. He dropped to the ground, holding his face and moaning. Ari turned to Leon about to attack, but he already had his hands raised in surrender. She dropped her arms to her sides, and smiled. Izi and Nat were waiting by the bench on the opposite side of the field. They were laughing, probably about how badly they kicked the knight's asses. Arthur, Gwaine, Lancelot, and Elyan were there too. Their eyes didn't leave the ground out of shame. Ari jogged over.

"Nice job with the gymnastic move thing you did there." Izi laughed.

"It's called a handspring." Nat informed. She stood and hugged Ari.

"Lets get some food," Izi yelled as she walked away.

The banquet hall was quieter than normal. The knights were still sulking about their defeat earlier that day, and they hadn't said a word since.

"Oh come on guys! Lighten up a bit. It was only practice." Izi teased.

"Are you implying that you went easy on us?" Arthur snarled.

"Not at all," Ari replied sarcastically. "No, but seriously guys, you issued the challenge so you shouldn't be so cross about it. You brought this upon yourselves."

"You didn't have to accept the challenge though," Gwaine whined.

"HA! We never back down from a challenge Gwaine. And if my memory is correct, Arthur said, and I quote 'Me and my best knights against you three' so I don't even know why you showed up." Izi taunted.

Gwaine looked away, his face burning red with embarrassment as the rest of the knights silently laughed. It helped lighten the mood though.

"At least you had fun," Leon suggested, glancing at Ari and smiling. She smiled back.

Nat and Izi continued eating, completely unaware of the flirting that had just happened. Nat looked up and pointed at Percival, catching his attention. "Has Gaius looked at your nose yet?"

"Not yet."

"You should probably have him do that if you want revenge on Ari."

Percival grinned. He shot out of the room heading towards Gaius' chambers. Ari looked at Nat with an expression that read "you bitch." Izi just laughed along with the knights still present.

"Well, I should call it a night," Nat yawned.

Elyan shot up when he saw the bag Nat was carrying. "Let me help you with that," he offered, though it was more of a demand.

Nat looked a little confused. She could easily carry the bag seeing as how it was only about 10 pounds and held nothing but arrows. Elyan grabbed it from her hands and went to open the door for her. Nat turned to look at Izi, who looked just as confused. The two shared a room, and occasionally Ari stayed with them if she didn't feel like dealing with Gaius.

"Try not to make too much noise when you guys come to bed," Nat requested.

"You know us," Izi said proudly. "Quiet as the night sky."

Nat and Ari looked at the redhead with joking expressions. Nat turned to leave and Elyan shut the door. It was silent for a couple of minutes. Eventually the tension rose too much, and Ari had to break it.

"I guess I should go check on Percival."

"Have fun with that. Don't let Gaius kill you. I need you alive," Izi requested.

"I don't think that'll happen anytime soon. He loves me too much."

"I should come with you. I need Gaius' help with this ache in my arm," Leon explained.

"Okay lets go."

Eventually Arthur and Lancelot left as well, leaving only Gwaine and Izi.

"I didn't know you were such a good fighter," Gwaine praised.

"You're not too bad either," Izi replied.

"I try my best," he smirked.

"I'm sure we'd make a hell of a team."

"Especially you. You're the best out of all of us."

"I'm sure Nat and Ari would argue to that."

"And I would stand up and tell them no. Because you are perfect in everyway. You're beautiful and smart and all around amazing."

"Um, thanks," Izi said with boredom.

"Arthur is lucky to have a sister as skilled as you. And Uther is lucky to have such an amazing daughter."

It was clear that Gwaine's method of flirting wasn't working.

"I'm going to get to bed then," Izi chimed in after a moment of utter silence.

"Good night," Gwaine replied.

The two walked off in different directions thinking about how much of a fail that was.

Izi woke up to Nat and Ari jumping on her bed.

"HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY" Nat was chanting.

"Oh. My. God. Nat. WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU HAVE TO BE SO ANNOYING?!" Izi shouted.

"Arthur and the knights are going on a hunt. He asked if we wanted to go," Ari explained.

"Is Merlin coming?" Izi asked

"Yep. He follows Arthur everywhere. Now get up."

After getting dressed and eating, Izi grabbed her axe and met the knights, Ari, and Nat outside. Her horse was already waiting for her, courtesy of Ari and Nat. Pandora; Izi's horse, was about 17 hands tall. She had a black coat that was darker than charcoal, and her mane and tail were snow white. Ari was standing next to her, her horse Celene was nudging her back, as if she were eager to leave. Celene was about 15 hands tall, with a dark brown coat and a black mane and tail. There was a white stripe on her forehead, it traveled from the tip of her nose to the space between her eyes. Nat's horse, Katia, was a beautiful chestnut. She was 16 1/2 hands tall with white stockings. Her main was a dark black color. She had a diamond-shaped white spot on her forehead. Once they saw Izi walk out into the clearing, the warriors mounted, and took off out of the city. Izi had no problem catching up. Pandora wasn't the fastest horse in the kingdom but she definitely wasn't the slowest. Once the ten had reached a far enough distance away from the kingdom, they slowed to a walk.

"Nat, Izi, Ari, and Leon, head to that part of the woods. Take Gwaine with you," Arthur commanded.

"Great. Gwaine's coming. Now we definitely won't get any game," Izi teased. Gwaine just smiled. He knew she was just joking.

The five split away from the rest of the group and headed west. It was quiet where they were traveling. Only a couple of birds could be heard.

"Something's wrong," Ari observed. "The forest should be more lively than this."

Just as Nat was about to respond, an army of bandits came running at the five from the ledge above.

"Shit. Shit. Shit." Ari muttered. She jumped off of Celene and pulled her twin swords out of their holsters. Izi, Nat, Leon, and Gwaine followed, grabbing their weapons. They stood back to back in a circle, bandits surrounding them from all sides.

"Lets make this quick," Gwaine shouted.

The five warriors surged forwards all at once. The ratio of bandits to knights was bigger than usual. Each knight had to take on six bandits, and not all of the warriors could take that many men down at once. Within the first couple of seconds, both Gwaine and Leon were on the ground, trying their best to stay alive as multiple swords slashed at them. Nat was having problems on her end as well. Bows are meant for long distance after all. Ari and Izi seemed to be the only ones that were doing well. Izi was swinging her axe back and forth with so much force she could've chopped a giant tree in half with just one swipe. She had managed to kill three of the bandits attacking her, and turned to see Gwaine, Leon, and Nat about to be mortally wounded. Forgetting the other bandits attacking her, she surged forward at the bandits over Gwaine. She rolled on the gap between two bandits and stood up in the middle of the six. They paused their attacks when she appeared before them, but resumed when they noticed it was only one against nine, now that bandits Izi was previously fighting had ran over. She stood above Gwaine, ready to decapitate anyone who tried to hurt him. Just as Izi was about to attack, a shout from the ledge made her turn her head. Arthur, Lancelot, Percival, Elyan, and Merlin were running down, swords raised (except for Merlin). Elyan ran to assist Natalie, Lancelot ran to help Arianna, who had by then run to save Leon, and Arthur and Percival rushed over to Isabella's side. The battle from then was quick. Within less than five minutes, all the bandits were dead and the knights were trying to catch their breath. Izi went to help Gwaine up, who was still lying on the ground. After saying his name multiple times, she knelt down at his side and rolled him onto his back. Isabella gasped as she saw the amount of blood staining the ground.

"ARI!" She yelled as a wave of panic swept through her body.

The entire group turned at the sudden outburst. Arianna ran over to Gwaine. The others followed.

"Hold his head," Ari commanded. Izi complied.

"Come on Gwaine, stay with us," Isabella pleaded to the unconscious body. Gwaine's breathing had slowed, along with his pulse. Ari ripped part of her tunic off and pressed it to Gwaine's side where the sword had struck him.

"We have to get him to Gaius," Izi exclaimed.

"He won't make the ride back to the castle. Too much movement could open the wound more, and he'll bleed out," Elyan frowned.

"If we leave him here he definitely will!" Izi argued. "Pandora could get us there in less than 15 minutes. If none of you will take him then I will."

The group hesitated to respond.

Nat was the first to speak. "You'd better be quick."

My granny went and bought me pizza. Then the day ended. (See A/N)

Gwaine awoke to Izi asleep in a chair next to his bed. "What are you doing here?"

Izi woke up a little startled. She noticed that Gwaine was talking to her almost immediately. "You're okay!" She exclaimed as she leaped onto the bed tackle hugging Gwaine. "I thought we'd lost you."

"Still here." Gwaine replied, a slight blush on his face. "You were worried about me?"

Izi was silent for a couple of seconds, taken aback by the question. "No, I was just... you know...I wasn't..."

Gwaine just laughed. Izi ducked her head and ran over to the table to grab Gwaine's breakfast. She hardly even noticed that Merlin had walked in and seen the whole thing.

"Glad to see you're alright Gwaine." Merlin sneered.

"Merlin, you alright?" Izi questioned.

His gaze softened as he saw the confused and hurt expression on Izi's face. "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry."

After giving Gwaine his breakfast, Izi headed for the door to leave. "I have to go do some paperwork. I'll check on you later."

"See you later," Gwaine replied.

Merlin followed Izi out into the hallway. "Hey! Izi wait up!"

"What do you want Merlin?" Izi demanded, taking Merlin aback. "The first time you see Gwaine since he almost dies and you treat him like that? What the hell went through you?"

"I-I'm not sure, I just...I'm not sure."

"You should apologize to him."

"I'm not going to say sorry for something like that."

"What on earth did he do that made you act like that?"

"He-

"What could he have possibly done?"

"I just don't understand why he gets so much special treatment. He's injured and you wait at his bedside like you...like you love him! It doesn't make any sense to me because last time something like that happened to me you carried on with your life as though nothing had happened." Merlin fumed. "It just doesn't make any sense to me, you've been one of my greatest friends since I came here, you say everybody is equal, but you still treat like a lowly servant."

Izi's expression read only one thing: guilt. She hadn't realized that whenever Merlin was hurt she didn't wait for him to get better, maybe it was because she knew he would.

"Merlin...I didn't realize-"

"Whatever Izi, it doesn't matter," Merlin stormed off toward Arthur's chambers. Izi was left alone in the hallway contemplating what Merlin had just said.

oOoOo

A/N: Sorry for any OOC-ness in this chapter.

As for that odd little thingy masquerading trying to be its own part of the story, Izi was suffering from writer's block. :D

Hope you enjoyed.

- AriB