"Get up." says a voice, interrupting my dreams. I ignore it, turning away from it and keeping my eyes shut. Light fills the room, hurting my eyes even though they are shut. I groan and hide my head under the quilt, only to have it ripped away from me. Cold winter air hits me like a knife. "Sarah, get up."

I open my eyes, finding Arthur standing at the foot of my bed holding my covers. "Go away.", I snap, throwing a pillow at him. He catches it and throws it aside. When he doesn't move I drag myself out of my bed, and push him towards the door. "Get out!"

He doesn't move an inch. "Well, I was going to start your lessons this morning, but if you'd rather sleep..." I stop pushing him. Gosh, he was annoying. The sun was barely up, so it was probably around six in the morning. I wasn't a morning person, and they way I had been woken up instantly put me in a bad mood. regardless, I wanted that lesson. What better way to get out a bad mood than to swing a sword at the person who caused it?

"Fine. Give me ten minutes." He smiles, but stays put. "I said to get out." He leaves, a smug smile on his face.

I got dressed and tied my hair back. A pitcher of water was on the table, so I washed my face. I hated not being able to take a shower every day, or even have a shower at all. I had to take baths in a giant tub that was lugged in servants and lugged out when I was done. Lastly I strapped my sword to my back, my daggers to my calves, and left the room.

Arthur leaned against the wall on the other side of the hall. He was dressed in full armor, and looked way too happy for what time it was. I hated morning people. I ignore him holding out his arm for me. That wasn't happening today.

The castle was only just waking up, and there wasn't many people out. I expected to head to the training field, but we head in the other direction. He probably wanted to go somewhere where he could teach me without Henry finding out. Not many other people would actually care, but he might hear through word of mouth.

We nearly made it outside too, but I guess our luck couldn't hold out forever. "My Lady?" asks a voice behind us, just as we about escaped through the servants entrance through the kitchen. Sir. Luca.

Arthur grumbles something unhappily that I can't hear. "Sir. Luca. How are you this morning?", I ask, trying to pretend to be in a good mood.

"I am fine, M'lady. May I inquire where you are headed?" Crap. We were caught, and I didn't have an excuse. I notice his eyes flick suspiciously between Arthur and I. As if this morning wasn't bad enough. My conversation with Merlin flashes through my head. I really didn't need guy drama right now.

"That would be none of your business, Sir.", Arthur answers for me.

Luca looks offended. "I apologize. But if the Lady Sarah is leaving the castle, it is my duty to accompany her."

Arthur starts to argue, but I stomp on his foot to stop him. He scowls angrily at me, but gets the que to shut his mouth and let me talk. "It's fine. As long as he doesn't tell Henry."

"Fine.", he spits, and walks out the door in a storm of anger. "He's teaching me how to use a sword.", I explain as we run after him. Luca looks intrigued, but doesn't say anything.

We end up a little ways off the main road in the woods, still close enough to the city for there to not be many robbers and what-not, but hidden from anyone we wouldn't want to know what we were up to. I take off my cloak, revealing my sword. Luca looks surprised, but still keeps silent and keeps his distance from the two of us, simply watching. Arthur shows me the basics, making sure I know enough to not get injured before sparing and practicing with sticks.

I raise the sword, waiting for him to attack me instead of vise versa. I wanted to observe his style, and adjust mine to fit it. He had practically been sword fighting since birth. If I dove into a fight with him head first, I'd lose quickly. He raises his sword to strike. "Surely you don't intend to attack the lady.", Luca speaks up. I hated the gender rules here.

Arthur lowers his blade, turning to glare at Sr. Luca. "Would you shut up?"

"Stop it!", I snap, to both Arthur and Sir Lucs. "He's teaching me so if I do get attacked, I'll be able to defend myself. Either Arthur attacks me to teach me, or somebody else does who intends to see me dead. Which do you prefer?" Besides, the worse that could happen is a would geta nasty bruise. We were using blunt swords.

He shy's back, still glaring daggers and I return my attention back to Arthur. If looks could kill, they would both be dead by the way they were looking at each other.

I barely have time to raise my sword to block his blow. He had height and strength on me, but I was faster. I duck under his arm as he swings at me, taking advantage of being behind him by striking his knees. He goes toppling to the ground before he knows what's happening. Since I couldn't use strength or experience, I had to be clever.

"Where did you learn to do that?", Arthur asks as he picks himself up from the ground.

I shrug, not really knowing myself. "Instinct."

Arthur rolls his eyes and circles me, not willing to be so bold to attack me again. At last he swings his blade at my feet, I jump over it but it catches my skirt and trips me. I was really beginning to hate the long and heavy dresses I was forced to wear. What did women here have against pants? I would kill for just one good pair of jeans.

Luckily, I catch my balance before I went entirely to the ground. My moment of nearly falling over gave Arther an advantage, though. He grabs my arms and pins them down to my side, holding me from behind. My sword dangled uselessly in my hand at my side. I struggled against him, but it's completely usless.

I go to stomp on his foot again, but he lifts me up out of reach of them. I really hated being short. Lessons from my self defence course my dad made me take before a school trip to Chicago rushed through my head. I was suddenly very thankful he insisted I took them. Kicking at him wasn't doing much good, and I didn't have use of my hands so I had only one option other than admitting defeat. I slammed my head back into his face. Not hard, but enough for him to let go of me. I could use more than a sword to defend myself.

Luca laughed in the background as Arthur released me, holding his nose. "What was that for?!"

"It was the only way to get you to let go of me!"

He grimaces, going back into attack mode. After sparring for a few more minutes he decided we were done for the day and saunters off back to the castle, his good mood completely gone. I couldn't tell if that was because of Luca, or me. Either way he was in a hurry to get away. I headed after him, Luca on my heels acting like a body guard. He caught up with me. "I don't understand you.", he says.

I raise an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"You wanting to learn to fight like a man. It's strange."

I roll my eyes. People needed to get over their issues with women doing men's jobs. They'd all have heart attacks if they went back to my world. What it even a world? Or maybe I went back in time. I doubted that though. There wasn't any magic. "Well, I didn't ask you, did I?", I snap.

"No. But you must see, it goes against the laws of nature to see a woman fighting a man. I won't say anything, since you asked me not to, but you should know that my men and I will protect you. There is no need for you to arm yourself."

We don't speak to each other the rest of the way back. I ditch him as soon as we were inside the walls, going to find Merlin. I didn't know how much more of his sexist views I could take. But I was going to prove him wrong.

Meh, this one was kinda forced. I hope you liked it anyways. I have the week off for thanksgiving so I have a lot more writing time :) Thank you again to my awesome reviewers! Let me know if I should keep her in Camelot a while longer, or if you'd rather see her head for Tahara. Romance, or no? I can't decide! lol And if so, with whom?