Dreaming of the Past
And her is another chapter of Miranda's two world story.
Chapter 7: First Love
Miranda dawdled down the hallway to her room. It wasn't very late so she still had a few hours spare and wasn't particularly in the mood to get 'back to reality'. A cool breeze started to play with the ends of her hair, it wasn't there a moment ago so its origin was unknown.
Twirling in an attempt to find the source she came eye to eye with Galahad emerging from a door that must lead outside, hence the draught. He looked just as shocked as she was to see him.
"Err…. Hello." Miranda said rather sheepishly. His exit from the courtyard half an hour ago was still a mystery to her.
"I thought you would still be in the courtyard, with Gawain." He replied coolly, he looked angry and sounded bitter when he said Gawain's name. Miranda had no idea why.
"Oh… yeah. That kiss, it was nothing. I just didn't like the girl he was with. She seemed really slutty." She didn't know why she was making up excuses to him.
Galahad gave a disbelieving snort, "Of course, nothing. I never thought you would be the type to sleep around."
"I'm not!"
"Well forgive me for thinking otherwise." He mock-bowed and turned to walk away.
Miranda jogged a few steps after him, "Wait! I'm not like that, really. I don't know what got into me tonight. I'm, well, embarrassed about it quite frankly. I don't want you to think that I'm some kind of whore."
"And why would you not want me to think that?" he had turned to face her again and raised a sceptical eyebrow. He still looked angry, or maybe it was hurt she was seeing. Why on earth would he be hurt about me kissing Gawain? Unless…
The obvious suddenly hit her. She blushed a deep shade of crimson and dropped her eyes from his. He has such nice eyes. Oh god, stop it! I'm getting sappy! There was silence for a moment before Galahad repeated his question, softer this time.
"I-I don't know. Just… well…" She was lost for words, could he actually like her? Could somebody actually like too-smart-for-her-age, rabbit like Miranda? But then, the knight in front of her didn't know her as that. He knew her as the pretty brunette standing before him. The body that wasn't really hers.
"I'm sorry I thought of you in such a way then." He looked sincere now. Men can be so fickle, changing their mind so suddenly. "Why are you blushing?"
The red crept down her neck and over her ears, what could she say to him? That she thought he liked her and that's why she was blushing. Mirada wouldn't say something so possibly humiliating, she still had some pride. And anyway, that might cause him to kiss her and she didn't like him, her mind flicked back to his bare chest during practice that afternoon, she definitely didn't like him. Not one bit. But he is so well toned… "I was blushing because I just remembered an embarrassing moment from a while ago. Nothing to do with you."
Could I sound like anymore of a fool?
There was an awkward pause, Galahad could tell she was lying and didn't know how to continue their conversation. He decided on the easy option, an end to it. "I had better go. I want to get up early and go for a ride."
"Goodnight then." Miranda said quickly, equally as awkward, and started to hurry back to her room.
"Miranda!" She heard a yell behind her and spun around, suppressing the grin she could feel tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"Would you like to come? I could, err, teach you how to ride." He suddenly looked like an awkward thirteen year old asking out his first real girlfriend.
"Sure." She let the grin show. "I'd better get to bed too then."
"I'll be at your door at dawn."
"Sure." As soon as she had turned the corner she skipped a bit and mouthed a scream, punching her fists into the air. My god I'm going riding with a hot knight! Guinevere was right, I have found a knight in shining armour and he's hot
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Sunday passed in a flash, with no call, much to Miranda's surprise, from Alfie, or knock on the door by Mrs Cooper or Mrs Brown. She spent most of the time fantasizing about her ride tomorrow morning, or tonight, it's so confusing!
It was dusk before she knew it and Miranda ran upstairs and into bed.
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The sun was just rising as she returned to Dark Age Britain. Slipping out of bed she hurried to her wardrobe and pulled out a dress that looked like it might survive a ride on a horse. Miranda was busy pulling on her boots when Galahad knocked on the door.
"Are you ready to go Miranda?" Came his muffled voice through the door.
"Just a second!" she yelled back and straightened, stumbling due to the sudden movement. She unlocked the heavy wooden door to find a grinning Galahad leaning against the opposite wall. She grinned back at him and he gestured for her to follow him. He was looking very nice.
They entered the stables, a large wooden building with a floor carpeted in straw, it reeked of horse and Miranda appeared to be doing some kind of dance as she dodged the horse excrement that littered the ground. Galahad didn't seem to worry and trudged straight through the middle of a rather large pile. Wrinkling her nose in disgust Miranda followed him to a stall, wondering what kind of horse he would be letting her ride.
She let out a sigh of relief when she spotted it, an old and slow looking chestnut mare. She whinnied softly at Galahads appearance. "Hey girl," He patted her on the nose, "Ready for a ride?"
He led the horse out of its stall and over to Miranda. "Her name is Meadow." Miranda laughed, "What? Is there something funny about her name?" Galahad now looked slightly offended.
"Well it's just so stereotypical, you could have come up with a more original name then that surely?" Galahad looked even more offended, "It seems as if every old mare is called Meadow, or Buttercup. In every book I have ever read I swear they use that name."
"I thought it was a nice name." he replied defensively.
"Oh it's not like it's a bad name or anything. Really it's quite nice. I see why it's used so frequently." Miranda rushed in an attempt to cover her tracks. Galahad still looked slightly disgruntled but no longer as offended as before.
"She's quite old but I thought she suited your level of skill," he laughed to himself, "If you could call it that."
Miranda chose to ignore the last comment, "That's good, I was a bit worried you would give me one of those big warhorses you and the other knights ride."
"They would kill you before you even got into the saddle." The knight laughed.
"I managed to survive last time!"
"Yes but then I was there to protect you."
"Yes, well…" Miranda waited for a comeback to slip into her mind but nothing came. Galahad was raising an eyebrow, "Help me onto the horse."
"Her name is Meadow."
"I think we've already had this discussion." Miranda snapped back and clambered into the saddle awkwardly.
Once Galahad had seen her securely settled (if she could ever be securely settled) he saddled his own mount and swung into the saddle in one, fluid movement. Growling under her breath at his gracefulness Miranda attempted to kick her horse into following his out the door. Much to her surprise it worked and Miranda had a distinctly silly grin plastered on her face as she exited the stable.
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That morning was the start of a relationship, though slow, that was so sickeningly sweet Bors often made gagging motions whenever the two were together. The days slipped by incredible fast in both worlds, one with the anticipation of what the night time trips held and the other as such times of great happiness do.
It was the happiest time of Miranda's life and none of the knights, nor even Miranda remember that promise to find her 'home'. It was two weeks after Galahad's twenty fifth birthday that this promise, among others, began to be remembered.
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The morning began badly; Miranda was awoken early by Jols, the squire, and told of some attack on a town that would somehow be of interest to her. Miranda had no idea why she would care about some town, it's not that she's insensitive or anything but what was so special about this town?
Moaning she clambered out of bed after shooing Jols from the room. She hurriedly dressed in a dress made specifically for riding (a gift from Galahad now that she was a competent rider) and scrambled out of the room and down the hall. On her way to the round table, she had nearly died of laughter when she saw it the first time, where the knights gathered.
"Miranda, please take a seat?" Arthur said politely as she entered, the other knights appeared to have been there for some time despite the early hour. After she had settled into her seat Arthur continued to address her. "We received word a few hours ago that another large settlement along the wall has come under woad attack. We are required there as soon as possible for further protection as many of the town's warriors have already been killed."
"But what has this got to do with me?" Miranda looked confused and Arthur looked slightly taken aback that she had asked the question.
"Well could it not possibly be your home?"
Shit, Miranda had pretty much forgotten about the promise Arthur had made to find her home, as had the other knights it seemed, until now. "But what if it isn't my home?"
"Wouldn't you like to see your family again? I mean, some of them may have been killed or injured in the latest woad attacks. They are becoming increasingly more frequent at Rome's anticipated withdrawal."
"Well yes, I suppose I would now that you put it that way." Well I couldn't just say no, what would they think of me as? Some kind of insensitive cow that doesn't care about her family?
"I thought you would like to come. We leave in half an hour." With that all the knights stood and began to leave the room to prepare. Galahad walked over.
"You seem reluctant. Do you not want to see your family again?" He had an adorable concerned look on his face. He was so much better looking now that Miranda had finally convinced him to shave.
"Oh it's just I'm worried that they mightn't want me back." Miranda quickly lied and looked up to check if Galahad believed her. He had a look of such strong compassion he obviously did.
"Why could they not want you back? Who wouldn't want Miranda in their family?" He smiled.
"Err… Yea. I'd better start packing." She turned and left the room so swiftly Galahad didn't have time to reply.
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The knights were already in the saddle when Miranda arrived in the stable. She led out Lightning, the larger and faster horse she had now graduated too and saddled him quickly. They seemed to sense her bad mood and kept quiet, not offering one of their usual remarks and it was unusually tense amongst them as they rode out of the stables and into the field before the wall.
They were travelling east and it was a full day's ride to the town they were going to. Though she was now quite used to long periods in the saddle Miranda still got saddle sore quickly which somehow amused the knights (especially Bors) greatly. Arthur was worried that they would already be too late to save the town from another attack, which according to the bloodied messenger who had arrived that morning, was imminent.
Galahad even refrained from talking to Miranda throughout the day, he and the others seemed to have misinterpreted her bad mood to be about dread for her family, not the actually worry that she might actually find her body's family. She would rather discover they had all been killed, as horrible as it sounds, than have to pretend to be the daughter of someone she didn't know.
Night was beginning to fall as they entered the outer edges of the nearly completely burnt out village.
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Well there you go. I hope the start wasn't too sappy for you! I'm going to try and update again this week but I'm going to Fiji on Sunday so I don't know if I'll get the chance. I'll definitely try though but if I don't then there will be a two to three week break after this chapter. I think Fiji is worth the break though don't you think!
Review, review, review.
Pagan
