A/N - Hi everyone. Remember that the standard language now is Arabic and words in italic is English until I say other wise.
It must have looked ridicules no matter what time this event had taking place in. The sky had a sad grey color to it and the atmosphere was intense. On the ground was a woman, bleeding heavily from her thigh and gasping for air because of the pain the wound caused. Two men by her side tried their best to stop the bleeding. In the twenty-first century all of this would seem like a normal thing if it had happened, but this was a thousand years back in time and space.
"Altaïr…?" Elizabeth mumbled with her British accent and narrowed her eyes, trying to see more clearly. The man in the white robes looked surprised at her, allowing him to study the woman a bit more.
"Do I know you?" he asked and made eye contact with the British lady. Their eyes connected again, but Elizabeth couldn't keep focus. "Malik… She said my name…!" and the one said in white at his companion.
"Hold it here and press there!" The other man demanded and rapped a piece of fabric around the bleeding thigh. "Altaïr, wake up. I need you to carry her to the medical ward!" Altaïr shocked his head and Elizabeth threw her head backwards. Altaïr lifted her up, feeling her deadweight in his arms and he followed the one in black inside the fortress.
"Let's go!" was the last thing Elizabeth remembered hearing before passing out and everything around her turned into darkness.
How long had her mind been a sleep? Minutes? Hours? Days? When Elizabeth finally woke up she felt a bit sick. Like a hang over after New Year's evening where you have slept in a sofa, trying to remember how you ended up there and what you had done before you passed out. She tried to open her eyes slowly but the rays of the sun were to strong and she turned around in the bed. 'Wait a moment' she thought and sat up and looked around: a bed? A 'omg' went through her mind and in the few seconds she didn't care about her 'hang over' headache anymore. Where in the world was she? She briefly tried to move her legs, but then felt the pain start again. She looked around in the room. Clearly this room wasn't from the twenty-first century and if it was then the interior designer would work for 'Medieval Magazine' or something. By taking a closer look she realized that she knew a lot of the symbols, decorated on the stone walls with banners and other artifacts, but she didn't see any people there. She touched the fabric on the bed and the materials of the bedspread. "These are old…" she mumbled and looked at a giant opening in the wall. It wasn't a window because there wasn't any glass, but there were curtains, grey and with a beautiful shaped lace at the button. The door opened as Elizabeth admired the craftsmanship of the celling but she turned her head. A man stepped in, wearing black robes with black hair and a lovely natural tan, but only one arm. He looked at Elizabeth and he widened his eyes.
"You are finally awake Najla?" he said surprised and walked towards the bed. Najla? It was an Arabic name and meant some with wide eyes. Maybe they had named her while she was a sleep? He sat on the bed and raised his hand and touched her forehead, probably checking for fever. It took Elizabeth some difficulty to actually understand what he was saying. His accent wasn't anything she had heard before, but he was speaking Arabic for sure.
"Where… Where am I?" she asked very nervous and afraid. The man looked at her and narrowed his eyes.
"You speak Arabic?" he asked and Elizabeth nodded careful with the feeling a tear on its way.
"Please tell me where I am?" she asked again.
"You are in the fortress of Masayf." The man answered.
"Masayf? Like Masayf in Syria?" she asked with very open eyes and the man nodded. She leaned back in the bed and sat for a moment in chock. "What year is it?"
The man narrowed his eyes, but answered. "1191" Elizabeth went from hang over nausea to feeling very pale and on the edge to pass out again. The year of 1191 was the year of the Third Crusade!
"This is a joke right?" she asked.
"A… joke?" it was like he didn't really know the meaning of the word.
"A joke yes. I'm still in the twenty-first century and you guys are joking with me. Right?" It was clearly that the man didn't know what she was talking about.
"Where are you from?" he asked and Elizabeth looked sad at him.
"London, England. It is a place in the north-west of Europa."
"So you are a Templar? A sky maybe?" he asked harsh and looked at her. She wasn't a threat to anyone, sitting there in the bed, but she suddenly realized that this was no actor. No matter how good they couldn't have asked with such a fear in their voice.
"No I'm not!" Elizabeth pointed out.
"Proof it." He said and placed his hand on his sword, ready to draw it.
"You have already made me a spy in your mind. To convince you of anything else would take more than a lifetime."
"No. You are wrong." Another voice said as its owner entered the room. "But we are in a situation of traitors in our mist and since we have no idea who you are, and you know my name… Please allow us to be on our guards." The man called Altaïr entered the room. He was wearing the same white robes as before, but his hood was pulled down so Elizabeth finally could see his face. He wasn't as tanned as the other one, which could be explained easily by the fact that his face most have been hidden away from the sun. He had very masculine features like his eyebrows, some stubble over his upper lip and his eyes were brown. His hair was short and had a medium brown color to it. By looking at his features alone Elizabeth asked out of the blue.
"You are not by Arabic blood alone are you?" Both men looked at her and narrowed their eyes, then looked at each other and again at Elizabeth.
"No. I'm not." He answered back. "Who are you and how do you know my name?" Elizabeth shocked her head and sighed.
"You wouldn't believe me even if I tell you." She grinned and hoped a little that they would drop the subject, but the men just looked at her like when you are at the cashier and trying to find your money, so she sighed again started. "Well my name is Elizabeth Julia Hamilton." She answered and continued. "I'm from the twenty-first century. I'm, as I told your friend from London in England. In my time I came to Syria to dig pieces of an old Temple out and find its secrets, but went through the ground and ended up beside a statue that…." She looked at Altaïr again. "That looked very much like you… So anyway, in the statues hand there was a silver ball. I touched it ones, then you and an old men came in front of my sight. I touched it again after you killed your master and it began it show a map of the world and the third time I went into some kind of realm, where there was a shadow that seemed very lonely, and had a very bad sense of humor and not to forget it only had one eye. Suddenly after that I woke that with you two pressing on my very painful wound and now I'm sitting here in a bed, in a country that isn't my, a time that isn't my, and you two think that I'm a spy and no idea of how I'm going back to my time…!" She took a deep breath and looked at the two men who stood in silence. "Did you get that or do you want me to bring you the extended edition or the directors cut? Don't just stand there, say something…!" But the men had lost their tongues and a tear fell down Elizabeth's face. "Please… I just want to go home…"
"Fiction telling is great," the one in black started. "You can make up almost anything and..."
"But I'm telling you the truth!" she snapped and throw the bedspread on to the floor and tried to stand up. Her mind couldn't take anymore. She needed to get out of that room and outside. She needed the feeling of the wind in her hair, and see that all of this wasn't real. Altaïr tried to grab her arm but she pulled it back. "Do not touch me…! As far as I know you are an illusion. Do not come near me!"
"An illusion?"
"Yes! Just like your master told you. The piece of Eden!"
"How do you know about the artifact?"
"Please... Stop being so stupid… it's my turn." And with that she limped to the door and out on the hall way. Altaïr and Malik stood in the room, hearing everything she yelled. "How big is this castle?" Elizabeth finally reached the garden, sat on a bench and looked around. It wasn't a dream. She could feel the fresh wind tickle on her skin hearing the grass dancing and the laughter of many people, dressing in medieval clothes whose faces she had never seen before. A few moments later Malik stepped out and sat beside her on the bench. Silent tears fell down her cheeks and she looked at the man in the black robes. "I owe you an apology. You have talking care of me and I accused you of lying without realizing that I all the time could hear the truth in your voice. I'm... truly sorry." She bowed from her neck and up as the tears began to stop. When she finally looked up she was greeted with a smile.
"I'm Malik A-Sayf." He told her and she made a little smile. She looked around, leaned back and for a moment forgot her pain. She closed her eyes and asked in a very slow tone.
"What do you attend to do with me?" she asked as she opened her eyes and looked at Malik.
"We can't let you leave. We don't know yet if you are en enemy or a friend and this place is still weak." He answered.
"I already knew that, but what would you do to me in the mean time?" He looked at her while making small nodes.
"We find something you can help us with and we take it from there?" That sounded okay. Elizabeth took a look at the view and was amazed of the mountains surrounded Masayf. "You never answered how you knew Altaïr's name."
"I overheard it when his old master said it. It was when he told him that he would miss him because his was his best student." Malik nodded while Elizabeth looked at his shoulder. "What happened to your arm?" She asked with a sad voice. Malik didn't answer but smiled to her.
"Want to go back to your room?" he asked and she nodded. He helped her up and together they walked back. When Malik left her she took the pillow and threw into the wall. She really was a thousand years back in time. She looked at her engagement ring, thinking of Robert and everyone at home. Was she missing or had she disappeared from her original time? Even the air wasn't the same as she remembered it but she didn't get a lot of time to think. Suddenly there was a knock on the door and it opened.
"Elizabeth?" Altaïr's voice sounded and he entered and an awkward feeling filled the room.
To be continued
A/N again thank you so much for all the reviews, favourites and alerts.
