Title: Knightess

Summary: First in a series. Sir Andrew...a knight like no other. But this knight has an astonishing secret...Sir Andrew is actually a she! And because of this secret, both Morgana and Arthur fall for her! Oops?

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Rating: T

Silent Knight: Sorry for the long delay, but finally - here it is! I edited it a bit, made some revisions, and then it was reading for your reading pleasure. Hopefully you enjoy! And now we can finally find out about the kiss between Lancelot and Andrea. Does it happen? Does it not? Read on to find out!

But do remember that I only own my OCs, and part of this story's plot (only part of the plot that has to do with Andrea and her knight status; nothing else). That's pretty much it. :)

Knightess

Chapter 3: Everybody Loves Sword Fights

"Merlin!" Arthur shouted, running a tired hand over his face in irritation. The idiot was nowhere to be found, and Arthur was getting a bit worried, though he was sure he hated that slacker of a manservant. But still, he found himself getting anxious, wondering where Merlin might possibly be…and if he was, well, alright, Arthur supposed.

"Prince Arthur – I believe that you are looking for Merlin?" The blond turned around to see Sir Andrew. He stared at the knight warily, then nodded his head slowly. Anxiousness began to climb down then. Perhaps Sir Andrew knew where that idiot was. "Well, he's running an errand for your father, King Uther, currently. I was just in the throne room – I believe he was asked to bring him his food. King Uther's servants are cleaning his room currently; it's in complete disarray, it seems." Arthur frowned, already knowing why.

His father liked to...bring women over to his room...at night. Of course, you should know what this means. Arthur sighed, and nodded slowly.

"Alright then – thank you for letting me know, Sir Andrew. I thought the idiot was slacking off again." Well, that was partially it, but he wasn't going to tell him that he was actually worried. How embarrassing would that be, to admit that to a fellow knight?

Sir Andrew chose that moment to smirk deviously, and Arthur felt his heart actually skip a beat. Sweat broke out, and he was surprised as to why this happened. Why was feeling so...weird, all of a sudden?

"You were worried for him, weren't you?" The knight asked, raising his eyebrow, as if daring him to lie to him.

Arthur snorted half-heartedly. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Sir Andrew." Sir Andrew chuckled, and Arthur found himself blushing darkly at this, tingles shooting up and down his spine as he felt his heart strings tug because of the knight's husky and low laugh. Perhaps this was why women fancied him –

Whoa, whoa! What was that? Arthur absolutely did not fancy Sir Andrew! Definitely not...right?

"I'm sure you don't." And with that, he bid him farewell, and Arthur silently watched as the knight walked away, heart beating strangely fast. This had been happening for a long while now, ever since he had first seen the determination in his eyes. When Sir Andrew had come to Camelot on the quest to become a knight, he had seen that steely determination, and it had moved him like nothing else in the world had before. It had scared him at first, because he had no idea what that warm, strange feeling in the pit of his stomach was.

And yet he still didn't know what it was, and though sometimes he thought it might be love or a strange attraction, Arthur at times thought that perhaps it was respect. Does respect feel warm, happy, positive? When someone had respect for you it felt that way, but what if you were the one giving that respect to someone else? Was it the same? Would someone describe it like that? Arthur wasn't sure, for he never asked anyone, because he liked to keep this feeling to himself. It felt...good, to keep it to himself, and he was greedy, you could say. He wanted to keep it to himself, to not tell anyone, to not share it with someone.

"God...I'm one messed up man." Arthur whispered to himself, running a hand through his hair. With that, he turned around and began to walk towards his chambers. Maybe if he slept it off – he woke up early because he couldn't sleep, but he definitely thought he should get some shut eye. It might help the feeling vanish – for, it might feel good, but it made him feel so frustrated and confused, because, first, he had no idea why he felt that strange, warm feeling. And, second, he only felt it around Sir Andrew, which made the situation rather...awkward, really.

But when he opened the door to his room, he saw Merlin with his back to him. Upon hearing the door open, Merlin clumsily turned around, and the tray which held Arthur's food in his hands slipped from his hands and clattered noisily onto the floor. Both men flinched at the sharp sound. Arthur glared at his manservant, and didn't stop glaring until Merlin got to his knees and began to clean up the food that was now splattered onto the floor.

"...idiot." Arthur grumbled to himself, but inwardly glad to see his manservant fine and well, sleep forgotten. He instead sat down on a chair and stared into space, thinking about sword fighting tactics to teach his men next.

All thoughts of the strange feeling he had felt around Sir Andrew completely vanished by this point.

Arthur watched as Sir Andrew wiped a thin layer of sweat off of his brow, and then placed his helmet on. He watched him walk over to the defeated knight, pull up the visor of his helmet and give the man a positive smile, then extend a hand for him to grip. The knight only frowned at him, grabbed his helmet, which had fallen off of his head when he had been duelling with Sir Andrew, and got up without using his hand. Sir Andrew raised an eyebrow at him, shrugged and then lowered his hand.

"Well, then – who's next?" Sir Andrew asked rather cheerfully. No one answered.

"Looks like you'll have to settle for me, Sir Andrew." Arthur stated, giving him a smirk.

Sir Andrew laughed gaily, then bowed. "It'll be my pleasure to duel against you, Sire. It's been a while since our last one." Arthur frowned at that, remembering the last duel they had had. Sir Andrew had won that time, and he swore to himself that he would win the next one. And now he was going to be able to fulfill that promise today.

Arthur nodded at him, then bowed as well, which was a rare occurrence. "Yes – it has, hasn't it?" He asked stiffly, his pride still wounded by Sir Andrew winning from before. The blasted knight smirked, no doubt knowing what he was thinking, and why he was being so rude currently.

"Well then...shall we?" Arthur nodded, and they drew their swords and took their respective stances. And then, the duel began, with both parties blocking the other's blows. It was an intricate dance they were partaking in; dodges and blows, twirls and jumps. Sir Andrew and Arthur circled one another, swords level to their faces, faces hidden by their helmets.

Arthur swooped in then, unexpectedly like he had hoped, and struck Sir Andrew in the right shoulder blade. He went down then, but kept a tight grip on his sword so it was still in his hand when he fell, which meant that he easily blocked the blow Arthur had been hoping to hit him with. He pushed him back using his sword, then with some difficulty got up and aimed a blow back on him. Arthur blocked this one, and then aimed one at him as quick as he could.

Sir Andrew went down once more, this time his sword clattering out of his hand, just a bit out of reach. As he tried to wiggle over to grab it, he stopped when Arthur rested his sword right on where his neck would be. The Prince stood there like that for a few seconds, letting that feeling of check mate rush over the knight, and then backed off. He extended a hand for the young knight, and hauled him quite easily up. Arthur was rather surprised at how light he was but made no comment about it.

The knight took off his helmet and gave the Prince a smile. "That was great, your Highness." He said sincerely.

He took off his own helmet and gave him a small smile. "Thank you. You did great too, Sir Andrew. Lasted longer than I thought you would, to be truthful." The two then shook hands, and Arthur felt wondrous to know that he managed to keep his promise. He had defeated Sir Andrew this time, and it felt amazing to hold this victory over the knight.

And then he turned towards the rest of his men. "Knights – assemble." Immediately they assembled, standing in their lines. Sir Andrew stood directly in front of him, Sir Lancelot beside him.

"Alright, knights – now, as you may know, the griffin is fast approaching Camelot, and we all need to be ready to face it. We have to practice daily, and keep going for our rounds in Camelot to see if the griffin will be arriving – when and where. We'll meet early in the mornings, in the afternoon and late at night as usual. Remember this well, and do remember to go for your respected rounds. Slacking off isn't a luxury we are able to have – nor will be able to have in the future, mind you," Soft, uneasy laughs came from the knights, "Well, let's start with our new battle strategy. This one is purely for the griffin, and it has us to all be in a half-circle. I'll be directly in the middle; Sir Andrew will be at my rear and..."

Andrea was currently looking up at the setting sun, thinking rather deeply. Soon, it was going to be time for practice once more. She wondered idly if they would be able to kill the griffin. At first, she had thought it was some big joke – from what she remembers, a griffin was a mythical creature, so it made no sense of there being a living, breathing griffin being the "thing" that was attacking Camelot. But when she had seen it far off in the distance, attacking a small village on the outskirts of Camelot, she knew that it had to be the work of magic. There was no other way for it to be alive when it was supposed to be a mythical creature.

"Why is magic suddenly sprouting off like mad fire in Camelot?" Andrea said aloud to herself. No answer came – just the brief chirping of birds, a few crickets, and that was all.

She sighed, sitting down on a lone log that had fallen, and watched the sunset, feeling the same calm she always felt watching the sunset settle in. Andrea smiled, taking in the wide array of warm colours that filled the horizon. To just imagine that...that sky was seen by everyone and that everyone in the world might even be watching this filled her up with this feeling...that she wasn't alone, that there were people out there along with her in this world. A lot more than there were in Camelot, for sure.

"Looking at the sunset, Sir Andrew?" Andrea turned around to see Lady Morgana and Prince Arthur standing beside her.

She got up from the log and bowed to them both. "Lady Morgana, Prince Arthur – welcome. And, yes, Lady Morgana, I like watching the sunset every day. I never realized that it was so...serene – even calming, you could say." Andrea answered truthfully.

Lady Morgana gave her a smile, then turned her gaze towards the setting sun. "Ah, yes – I sometimes come out here to watch it as well myself."

"Really? No one that I've asked has done so. It's refreshing to know that there's someone else who watches it as well, no matter how boring it is, as some say." Lady Morgana laughed, while Prince Arthur looked stoic.

"Morgana, stop lying to Sir Andrew. You know that you don't watch the sunset." Prince Arthur rolled his eyes. Andrea raised her eyebrows at the Prince, then turned her confused gaze over to Lady Morgana, who was blushing and glaring angrily over at Prince Arthur. She turned her gaze over to her and stammered feebly, trying to come up with some sort of excuse. Lying...a new level Lady Morgana seems to have stooped at, Andrea thought dryly to herself as Lady Morgana continued to stutter and stammer.

On the outside, as Sir Andrew, the nicest knight in Camelot, or so they think, she laughed gaily. "Oh that's alright, Lady Morgana. You don't need to lie to make conversation with me. And it's alright if you lied – its fine. Really." She assured her. And it was. Andrea didn't care much, but did think of it to be a bit shallow and stupid of a move to take to get on Sir Andrew's good side.

She saw Lady Morgana subtly take a breath of relief, and from the corner of her eye saw Prince Arthur glaring at her. What a stupid, demented fairy tale this was – the Prince wanting the Lady, the Lady wanting the knight and the knight actually a girl and having a small attraction towards the Prince. It seemed like God hated her.

Andrea looked back at the sky, and then smiled over at Prince Arthur. "Well, Sire, I think it's time for practice, right?" He stared at her for a few moments as if it was the first time he had seen her standing there, and then nodded stiffly.

"Yes, Sir Andrew. Practice begins soon. You can go to our usual meeting place – I need to exchange a few parting words with Lady Morgana and then I will meet you there." Andrea nodded, bowed at the two royals and stalked off, head held high.

After a couple of polite words with a few maidservants – who all giggled and blushed, not able to get over the fact that they were exchanging personal words with a knight of all people – Andrea made it to the training ground and walked into the changing tent that held all the armour for the knights, where she met up with Sir Lancelot.

"Ah, Sir Lancelot, you again. So, tell me, how does it feel to be a full-fledged knight? I'm afraid I've forgotten the honourable feeling I had felt when I first became one." Andrea said truthfully to him, grabbing her armour and slipping it on with practiced ease. Sir Lancelot was awkwardly placing his own on, and then grabbed his helmet and stared happily down at it, awe so easily displayed on his face. She could see his back straightening, his head slowly moving up higher, and saw him puffing out his chest, and she remembered herself doing the same the first few times she had come for practice, and warmth and pride flew through her, the feeling rushing back all of a sudden.

Andrea laughed. "It's alright, Sir Lancelot – no need to explain it to me anymore. I can see it in your face, in your posture. I'm sure it's quite an honour, isn't it?"

Sir Lancelot nodded his head. "Yes. I-I've always wanted to be a knight when I was young, and now...to actually become one after so much wishing and dreaming...it's wonderful. I'm filled with joy and can't think of anywhere else to be, Sir Andrew. And Prince Arthur told me about your kind words and that it was because of you he gave me another chance, and I just wanted to –" Andrea cut him off skilfully, chuckling.

"Thank me? No need to, Sir Lancelot. I'm already happy with seeing you as a knight – that's all the thanks I need. I was glad to help a dear friend of mine – you are truly one person that should be a knight. You deserve to be one, Sir Lancelot, so no worries. You don't need to pay me back or thank me." She told him, patting him on the back. Sir Lancelot seemed to be tearing up a bit, and he blinked crazily, trying to clear the tears away, laughing sadly.

He came closer to her, head dipping down. Andrea felt her eyes widen, her heart race. Was he trying to...?

"I don't actually deserve this," He murmured softly to her, "I-I'm not a noble like you, you see. I...I'm just a peasant with a dream to become a knight. Merlin helped me with the nobility status. And I...I understand if you want to tell Prince Arthur the truth. To be truthful, I just didn't want to lie to you about my nobility when we are meant to be friends and not to harbour any secrets as degrading as mine." Sir Lancelot looked away from her, ashamed, and Andrea felt a pang in her chest at the last sentence. She had a degrading secret as well – one that was even more degrading than his. Perhaps it was finally time to tell someone.

"Sir Lancelot, I won't tell Prince Arthur anything. Like I told you, you deserve to be a knight, and I'm standing by this statement. I don't care if you are a noble or a peasant – you'll still be my friend no matter who you are or where you come from," Andrea told him truthfully, paused and then started again in a low whisper, "Now, I need to tell you something about myself. I'm –"

"Sir Andrew. Sir Lancelot." Came a low, anger-filled voice from behind them. They turned to see Prince Arthur standing there, dressed in armour, a helmet clutched in his hand. His free hand was clenched into a fist. They stepped away from one another, realizing how close they were standing. From behind, where Prince Arthur was standing, it almost seemed like they were...Andrea stopped herself from thinking this. That probably wasn't what Prince Arthur was thinking – well, hopefully not, anyway.

"Sire." Andrea and Sir Lancelot said in perfect unison, bowing deeply before straightening up once more.

Prince Arthur gave both knights a hard look, eyes lingering longer on Sir Lancelot, even squinting harder at him. Sir Lancelot shifted uneasily on his feet, eyes lowering, back slouching. All of the pride seemed to be seeping out of him, leaving his defeated form. Andrea watched with sad eyes, but averted her gaze from Sir Lancelot when she saw Prince Arthur settle his gaze on her. His eyes seemed to be trying to sear themselves into her skin, making sweat break out from under her arms. But, finally, he stopped with the glaring.

"So? Why are you two just standing here? Get out of here and assemble yourselves!" Sir Lancelot and Andrea flinched in unison, then began to stumble out of the tent they had been in. They got into position like the other knights, standing in their respective places in the line, and waited for Prince Arthur to come out of the tent as well.

"Why do I have a feeling that we'll be doing harder work than we were originally meant to?" Andrea whispered to Sir Lancelot, who was positioned right next to her.

He looked down at her, and smiled kindly. "Probably because you're right." He answered, but sharply looked up when the clanking of armour was heard, and Prince Arthur emerged from the tent; face even more stoic than before. His eyes settled on Sir Lancelot and Andrea, and hardened.

"Sir Lancelot, please switch places with Sir Owain." Sir Owain looked a bit startled, but bowed to Prince Arthur and walked towards Sir Lancelot. Said knight smiled in greeting at him and walked towards where Sir Owain had been standing previously. Andrea sighed to herself, and then smiled at Sir Owain so he didn't feel too awkward around her. Sir Owain smiled back, and the two of them turned their attention back to Prince Arthur, who began spewing commands left and right.

Oh boy.

"What is happening to me?" Arthur roared as he burst into his chambers, slamming his hand against the cold stone wall, his palm immediately starting to sting in pain. He grimaced, but didn't cry out in pain. When he saw Sir Andrew and Sir Lancelot so...close, it spurred something in him, and anger tumbled out of him in huge waves for no reason he could think of. "Why? Why is it like this...? This is so unfair!"

"Sire – are you alright?" Arthur whirled around to see a confused and alarmed Merlin standing there, holding his clothes, which looked fresh and wrinkle-free. He sighed, and then ran a hand through his blond hair, and turned away from his manservant.

He couldn't lose control in front of someone like this – especially if it was someone as clumsy and as reckless as his manservant Merlin.

"You can put my clothes on the bed and leave, Merlin." He murmured, still showing his back to Merlin.

For a second Merlin said nothing, perhaps confused. "But, Sire, I still have a lot to do. You told me to –"

"Would you forget what I told you to, you idiot?" Arthur roared suddenly, whirling around crazily to look at him. Merlin jumped at his loud voice, stepping backwards, eyes wide in clear surprise. The Prince closed his eyes, took deep breaths and then opened his eyes, which were now filled with regret. Merlin didn't deserve any of his anger; after all, he hadn't done anything wrong.

"...I-...I'm sorry, Merlin. Please – put the clothes on the bed and leave. You can hold off the rest of your duties for tomorrow, alright?" The manservant stared at him for a while, but then nodded slowly, and placed his clothes on the bed and shakily walked out of the room.

When he did so, Arthur pressed the heels of his hands against his eyelids and breathed out deeply. He sat down on a chair then, placing his elbow on the table in front of him and placing his head on his open palm.

It had been like this for a while, all of the times it was around Sir Andrew. Anger, pain, jealousy (But this was because Sir Andrew would converse with Morgana, so that was justified...sort of), and some other feeling that he had yet to name properly. Although, today, seeing Sir Lancelot so close to the other knight...it sparked jealousy in him. But why? Because he didn't have the sort of companionship that Sir Andrew and Sir Lancelot had? Or that he wanted Sir Andrew to be his own friend, and not Sir Lancelot's?

Arthur had no idea, and this angering him greatly. "Nothing is making sense these days." Arthur whispered to himself, voice muffled because his fingers were pressed against his mouth.

He had to do something about his haywire feelings...and fast, before he went completely insane.

Silent Knight: There we have it! :) Poor Arthur with his haywire feelings, poor Andrea who got no Lancelot loving, poor Lancelot for, uh...not getting a kiss, and poor Merlin for getting yelled at by Arthur. :(

Anyway, let's see what will happen next chapter, which is called Haywire Feelings...

One of the reasons she liked him so much was because he gave her so much respect, while the other knights only sneered and jeered and looked at her like she was a piece of meat. He saw her very differently and spoke with her politely, and whenever they danced at balls, his hands never wandered, though sometimes she wished they would...

Hmm...perhaps Lady Morgana doesn't like Sir Andrew as much as I thought she did, Andrea thought to herself. Good. If Prince Arthur and Lady Morgana get together, finally Lady Morgana will get off of both Sir Andrew's and my case. That'll be like heaven for sure...

"Oh, it's on now, Sir Owain. You just called out the beast."

"Really, Sir Andrew? 'The beast,' eh?"

"Yes, the beast."...

And practice went on without a hitch.

However, what didn't go on without a hitch was in the afternoon, when Andrea was going her rounds, and the girffin unexpectedly attacked...

And that is what will happen next on Knightess. Ready yourselves, people. :) Review, favourite, alert - all that good stuff. lol

Until next time.

Silent Knight over and out!