Twilight Falcon, Zeriae - Glad you like the story so far, trust me it will only get better! Sorry I took so long getting this chapter up...life is hecktic! ANYWAYS! On with the story.
Tristan sat himself upon a low branch of a tree. He enjoyed being alone; it allowed him to think freely. He thought about what he would do when he got back to the wall and was given his papers. He tried to imagine going home to his mother and sister. He had missed them before; however the more he thought about it, the more he realized he probably wouldn't even recognize them. They would be completely different people from when he left. Even if they weren't, what would he do with himself? What would become of him? Would he marry, have children…would he be happy? Tristan chuckled at the thought of getting married. He thought love was for fools, and therefore didn't believe in it. Caring for someone was one thing, but giving your soul and life away was different. It would make you weak. Tristan was not one to show weakness, nor emotion. He would watch Lancelot, Gawain and Galahad attempt to woo women, but he never understood it. At least not while they were still knights. What would be the point?
He got up and picked some berries from a tree. As he sat down he looked out into the woods. It was a quiet night. The air was cool and there was a light mist hanging over the trees. He was relaxed, which didn't happen often.
"You never told me you were a scout." Delanie came around the side of a tree next to him. He jumped and put his hand on his sword. He realized it was Delanie and took his hand off. He looked at her for a moment with a half shocked half annoyed expression on his face. Delanie realized she had startled him, and tried to hold back a chuckle.
"You should be a scout too. You do well at sneaking up on people." He said sarcastically. "Why did you sneak up on me?"
"I honestly didn't mean to, I thought you would have heard me coming." She replied innocently. There was a moment of silence between them, and then Tristan spoke.
"So what are you doing out here?" he asked. She sat herself on a tree stump next to him.
"Everyone went to sleep and I wasn't tired. I saw you come out here and I thought I would give you some company."
"I enjoy my privacy." He said, not intending to be rude. Delanie looked at him for a moment and nodded. She began to stand. Tristan realized that he had clearly said that the wrong way. "But," he continued, "I don't mind the company." He looked at her and she smiled.
"You don't have to do that." She said softly.
" Do what?"
" Pretend you want company when you wish for time on your own." She said. She began walking away. " I'm not insulted, really, I completely understand." She smiled. Tristan leaned over and lightly grabbed her arm, stopping her from going anywhere. Delanie turned and looked at him.
"I'm by myself all day. Like I said, I don't mind the company." She nodded her head and moved back to the tree stump. As she sat down she looked off into the trees.
"Do you enjoy being a knight?" she asked. " I mean, it seems all of you get along quite well." Tristan looked at the ground.
" I don't mind it." He replied. After a moment of silence she realized that Tristan was not the talking type. So she simply sat there and continued staring off into the trees. Tristan pulled out one of him daggers and began sharpening it. Delanie looked at the dagger, which was not much larger than her own.
"May I see that?" she asked. He looked up at her and handed her the dagger. She studied it, inspecting the handle. It was engraved with writing she knew; which reminded her of home. "Sarmation writing." She said softly, running her fingers over the writing. He was about to tell her what it said when she spoke first. "Argaragantes." She said. Tristan was surprised. Normally people couldn't even make out the symbols. "Elite Warrior." She stated, and continued inspecting the dagger. Tristan was shocked, though his face didn't show it. He wondered how she could have known what Argaragantes meant. Even Romans didn't know. She passed the dagger back to him. He took it, but his eyes never left her. "Well Tristan, you never told me you were a Sarmation either." Tristan shrugged, still watching her through the dark hair in front of his eyes. She could feel his eyes on her and it made her nervous. She decided to break the tension and pointed to a tree in front of them. She succeeded and managed to sway his attention.
"Do you see that small leaf in the middle there?" she asked. He nodded as he spotted it. " Let's see you hit that with your dagger." She challenged. He looked back at her smugly.
"Just to see what I'm up against, lets see you hit it first." He said. She raised an eyebrow, and took the dagger from him. Standing, she spotted her target and threw the dagger in one swift motion. It hit the small leaf in the top corner. Tristan raised his eyebrows. Delanie smiled to herself as he went to fetch the dagger. Her brother had taught her how to throw a dagger long ago, and she practiced often. Jaren had taught her and Kaydra how to use many different weapons. He always told them that those without knowledge of weapon use may as well be sitting ducks. Tristan brought the dagger back to her.
"You have some skill, or very blind luck." He started. "Throw it again, and we'll see." As before, her throw was accurate, hitting her target not far off from where she hit it before. Delanie turned to him with a smug grin on her face.
"You can't tell me that twice in a row was blind luck." She said. Tristan cocked his head to the side. She moved to retrieve the dagger from the tree when an arrow went flying in front of her, striking a nearby tree. Both her and Tristan looked in the direction the arrow came from. There were several dark figures moving towards them. Tristan ducked behind a tree, and hauled Delanie with him.
"Go back to camp and wake the others." He said firmly.
"What about you? We're at least ten minutes away from camp. For all we know, they're under attack as well." She spat. Tristan sighed, realizing she may be right. Plus he didn't want to send her into the woods when he didn't know how many attackers there were. He looked around the tree to study them. They were Saxons; he recognized their cloaks and fur. He turned back to her.
"Then stay down." He replied. He stared standing when Delanie grabbed his sleeve and pulled him down.
"You're using your sword, right?" She asked hurriedly. He nodded and looked in the direction of their oncoming attackers. "Then let me use your bow." She said. He looked back at her.
"No. I'm the only one who uses this bow." He replied coldly. Delanie put her hand on his shoulder keeping him down.
"Tristan, it's no good to you if you're dead." She said. He looked at her face for a moment. Despite what was happening around them he looked into her eyes. The moonlight revealed deep green eyes pleading with him. Finally he took his bow and arrows and handed them to her.
"Be careful." He said. He squeezed her hand quickly and went off into the trees. She figured he was planning on attacking from behind. Delanie was getting an arrow ready when she heard screams. They were faint but she could tell they were coming from camp.
"Kaydra." She thought. A moment of panic swept over her until she realized that her sister was in a camp swarming with knights. She relaxed a bit and took a deep breath. The adrenaline rushing through her veins made her start to shake a little. She stayed down with Tristans bow ready to fire. All she needed was Tristan to distract them. The sound of her heart pounding drowned out all else. She closed her eyes and waited.
Kaydra was awoken by screams and shouts from outside. She got up quickly and opened the front of the tent to peer out. She saw many dark cloaked figures coming into the camp from the trees. Someone yelled "Saxons!". Letting out a shaky gasp she went back into the tent and reached under her bed mat, pulling out her sword and a dagger. She tucked the dagger in her waistband and quickly darted out of the tent. Her first attacker sprang at her from the side. With one quick blow, she knocked him down and moved to the middle of camp where Bors and Gawain were fighting more cloaked Saxons. Bors looked at her and shouted.
"Are you crazy? Get back in your tent, you're going to get yourself killed out here. Don't be stupid!"
"I can fight!" she shouted back. As Bors watched, Kaydra took down two more approaching Saxons with her sword. Another jumped at her and she took her dagger from her waistband. Bors and Gawain watched in awe as she threw the dagger, striking the man in mid air. She looked back at Bors while reaching to pull her dagger from the man she hit. "Are you satisfied?" she asked sarcastically. Bors nodded and raised his eyebrows before fending off more cloaked men. Galahad was using his bow to kill any men that came out of the trees. She admired his accuracy in the dim light. Arthur and Guinevere came running out of the trees. Arthur immediately began fighting, while Guinevere dodged several attackers while running to get her weapon. She looked to her right and saw Dagonet standing in front of Lucan with his sword. He was killing anyone who came near. Kaydra noticed a man climbing down from a tree. He had a small hatchet and threw it at Gawain. The hatchet hit Gawain in the side and he went down with a painful cry. Kaydra began to make her way over to him through the crowd of people. She took her dagger again and threw it at the man who had hit Gawain. He fell out of the tree and landed on the ground with a thud. Kaydra kneeled beside Gawain.
"Are you alright?" she asked frantically.
"Fine." He replied, pulling out the hatchet. "It didn't go too deep." Once she knew he was all right, she went back into the midst of the battle.
Delanie heard the attackers getting closer, yet the only sounds she could hear were the ones coming from camp.
"Where is he?" she thought to herself, starting to worry a little. She was a good fighter, but would not be able to fend off that many men on her own. Suddenly she heard one of the men howl in pain. She knew that was her queue. She rounded the tree and saw Tristan hacking down men one at a time. She started firing arrows, hitting all of her targets. She was careful not to fire any around where Tristan was. One of the men spotted her and began moving in her direction. She reached back to pull out another arrow and realized that she had run out. Looking over at Tristan she realized that he was too preoccupied with fending off the Saxons to notice the one that was coming toward her. Thinking quickly she dashed for Tristans dagger, which was still wedged in the tree. By the time she got it out, the man was too close to throw it. He swung at her with his sword and she ducked out of the way. She tried to get some distance between herself and her attacker but he grabbed hold of her arm and threw her against a tree. She swung around, and plunged the dagger into his arm. Tristan killed the last man who attacked him and looked over to where Delanie and the other Saxon were fighting. The Saxon moaned in pain as Delanie withdrew the dagger. Before she got another chance, his hand was around her neck. She managed to get the dagger in between herself and the Saxon and when he pushed her into a tree, he leaned right into it. He had a look of shock on his face, grunted and stumbled back. Delanie felt a huge surge of pain coming from her side but tried to ignore it. She watched as the Saxon stumbled to the ground. She slid down the tree and sat at its base, pulling her knees to her chest. Tristan walked over to her.
"Not bad." He said. "You did a pretty good job." He looked down at the Saxon who now lay still on the ground. He looked back at her, and she had a look of shock on her face. His heart stopped when he saw a small trickle of blood coming from the side of her mouth. The Saxon had stabbed her when he pushed her into the tree.
"Tristan," she said weakly. "I must get back to camp." She stretched her legs out to reveal a gash in her side. It was bleeding heavily. Carefully, he picked her up, along with his bow and dagger, and began making his way back to camp.
Kaydra watched as more Saxons came out of the trees. It seemed like they would never stop. The ground was already littered with bodies of Saxons and some Romans from Marius' estate. She alone had already killed at least twenty. Everyone was fighting now, Guinevere, Arthur, Lancelot, Gawain, Galahad, Bors and Dagonet. Slowly, the number of Saxons started to dwindle, and shouts of "RUS" could be heard. Her heart was still beating fast as the last Saxon lunged at her. She swung her sword and brought him down.
"Well, so much for a good nights rest." Laughed Galahad after he realized that all the Saxons had been killed. Bors chuckled and make his way back to the fire pit.
"They obviously didn't know what they walked into!" he said boastingly. "Well, I'm not sleeping for a while now, so may as well be warm." With that he began tossing logs onto the cinders that had not yet burned out. Within a minute the fire was going again. After making sure all the knights were safe, Arthur and Lancelot returned to their tents. Gawain sat down and grumbled to himself. He started dressing the wound that lay on his left side. Guinevere spoke up.
"You fight well, Kaydra." She said. "Where did you learn?"
"My brother taught me." Kaydra replied. It was nice to see another woman who could fight. It was fairly rare. "What about yourself?" Before Guinevere could answer, there was a rustling in the bushes. Some of the knights popped up and drew their swords.
"I see you had the same kind of problem we did." Tristans said as he stepped out of the bushes, and over all the bodies. Kaydra gasped when she realized Tristan was carrying her sister. "She was stabbed in the side, she needs help immediately." Dagonet walked over to Tristan and took Delanie out of his arms.
"How long had she been unconscious?" Dagonet asked.
"Only about a minute." Tristan replied. With that Dagonet took her over to a wagon, followed closely by Kaydra. Tristan watched helplessly. He felt a pang of guilt for giving her the bow. If she had not fired upon them, they may not have seen her. Then again, if she had not been there to kill the ones he could not see, he may have been killed. He went and sat himself on the outskirts of camp. He watched the wagon that Dagonet had taken Delanie. After a while he looked down and shook his head. He was unsure of why he felt guilty. She was the one who demanded the bow. He looked back up at the wagon. He could see a dim light inside. For some reason, she intrigued him. The way she told off Arthur upon their first meeting, the way she could read the inscription on his dagger, the way she could fight, the way her eyes looked when she asked him for his bow. He wouldn't doubt that she was a beautiful woman, but that was not the reason he took an interest in her. There was something about her attitude and personality that made him grow curious and want to learn more about her.
About an hour past, and many of the knights had gone back to their tents to try and sleep for the rest of the night. Tristan watched as Dagonet left the wagon. The light was still on, but he couldn't see inside. He sat there silently for a while, before getting up and making his way towards the wagon. Kaydra was sitting by her sisters side when Tristan came to the entrance. He climbed in and looked at Kaydra.
"How is she doing?" he asked. Kaydra took her hand off Delanies forehead and looked up at him. "Why don't you ask her yourself? She's awake." she replied. With that, Kaydra got up and left the wagon. Tristan looked down at Delanie, who was looking back up at him.
"I didn't get a chance to thank you." He said. Delanie gave him a look of confusion.
"For what?" she asked.
"For helping me in the woods back there." Tristan replied. "How are you feeling?"
"I'll be fine, it didn't go too deep. I think it was more shock that got me than the actual wound." She smiled. "However, I am quite tired." Tristan nodded and began to leave the wagon. Before he left he turned and looked at her again.
"How did you know what Argaragantes meant?" he asked. She smiled, rolled onto her side and closed her eyes.
"You didn't tell me you were Sarmation, Tristan." She replied. He shook his head.
"No, I didn't. But that doesn't answer my question."
"I am Sarmation." She stated. And with that she drifted off into sleep.
I thought I would do an ambush rather than the ice scene (no fire please!). This is my first attempt at a battle sequence...so be kind! Sorry for any spelling mistakes, I was rushed. The next chapter should be up within a few days. Thanks- Amirra
