We rode over the hills and across the plains, all of the time maintaining focus on what may be lurking in the bushes or in the trees, Every once in a while Arthur would order Tristan and I to go and scout, and every time we would come back with the same result, only tracks of where Woads had been but no Woads. As the day progressed our company became wearier of what may be lurking behind every rock, and as a result of this the horses became restless and jumpy. This unfortunately did not improve when the damned weather decided to take a turn for the worse and reward our troubles with a storm. Through the wind and the storm I could have sworn that I heard the guys moan and grunt, from the displeasure of being in a storm with scorching winds and being drenched. Matters only worsened when we had to pass through the forest. Before we entered the forest I had been leaning over Flecha's neck to give him extra reach, but now that we had to pass through the murky forest I found myself pressing further and further in the saddle. Flecha felt this and protested violently by stopping up and making small rears along with throwing his head up into the air.
Because of the hard winds, The rest of the guys had not heard that I had stopped, that is all except for Tristan who as usual can detect anything, no matter what the conditions are, he was always the one that has the ears of a fox and the eyes of a hawk and Jols and Horton had been riding behind me. Tristan turned Indian around and came cantering back, he brought Indian right up next to Flecha, reigned Indian in and then gave him sharp kicks to the sides to make him plunge, but without really moving anywhere just to go a head in front of Flecha, as Tristan was doing this I saw out of the corner of my eyes Jols who was trying to get his horse out of the way and at the same time trying to calm Horton's horse who because Horton has a face of utter fear on his face he was making his horse panic.
After a short while what Tristan's trick worked and Flecha plunged and went back into a fast canter, Tristan kept Indian right next to Flecha in case there was more trouble, and Jols stayed next to Horton. All of a sudden I saw a figure on a horse up ahead which was bouncing all over the place, I tried to squint against the rain, and then as we got closer I could see that it was a white horse, at first I thought that it might be Arthur, but then when we came up closer I saw to my surprise that it was Gawain, who apparently had noticed that we were not there and turned around to come back and see what was going on.
It seemed as though Adrian (the Dark One) was most definitely not happy that he had to wait in the same place away from the others for an unknown reason as we galloped past, Gawain plunged Adrian into the a canter and came up to ride on my other side, I looked at him and saw that he had an expression of concern, and he asked with his eyes if everything was alright, I responded with a nod and then focused once again on the road ahead. It did not take long to catch up with the rest. Apparently Gawain had managed to get word to Arthur that there had been problems and Arthur had ordered that they camp in this spot. The three of us brought the horses up to a halt in front of the group and dismounted. I looked up just in time to see Arthur walking up to me "Merenwen what happened?" he asked, as he asked this I could not only feel Gawain's eyes on me but also I feel the color begin to rise in my face, "It is rather embarrassing" I told him, I was forced to look up when I felt to strong hands on my shoulders, As I brought my head up I was met with the steady gaze of Arthur "It is alright Mer just tell us" he gently told me, so I took a deep breath and began to explain what had happened, once I was done I heard Bors voice call out "It's alright Mer we all feel uneasy in these woods, and it is only natural that the horses would feel the same" I looked up at him and gave him a smile and a node. I felt a firm nudge on my back which I recognized as being Flecha who was getting grumpy from the cold storm, I turned around gave him a pat on the neck and lead him to stand with the other horses under a bunch of trees, where he could have at least some protection from the rain. "Anyway, there is always food to make you feel better" I jumped at the sudden sound of Bors booming voice, I turned sharply around and found that he was holding some fruit which they had picked, I walked over to him sat down and thanked him, as I began to eat. We sat there in the rain under the trees, talking about what we were going to do when we got back to Sarmatia. I must say that I was not surprised when the guys talked about which bastards they had sired and who had an affair with Verona. I swear that if that girl could be here now she would be giving Lancelot a lecture on how to behave, yet at the same time by the way that Bors was responding I could not help but giggle a little.
All of a sudden out of nowhere there was a loud rumble of thunder and followed by a loud groan coming from Gawain, "I can't wait to leave this island" I turned too look at him and I really had to struggle not to start laughing at the way that he looked, he really looked like a wet cat. "If its not raining, it's snowing, if its not snowing its fogging" I looked at him with a grin and said "Poor thing" The result was that he looked at me with a glare, at first I thought that he was serious, but then I saw that he had humor in his eyes, after that I could not hold it anymore the laughter just came out freely, but even though behind all of the laughter I could still hear Lancelot "And that's the summer?" Gawain only shook his head in response "The rain is good" Bors stated in a deep voice, which let us all know that there was something other then the weather on his mind, "It washes all the blood away" for some strange reason I had the feeling where all of this was headed, "Doesn't help the smell" Dag said surprising us all, because this was indeed the first time that he had spoken since I got back from the ordeal with Flecha. I was not surprised when I heard Bors laugh at his statement; I mean seriously leave it to boys to enjoy that kind of talk.
I sat there and focused more onto my food, when I heard that Lance had decided to change subject, but unfortunately I do not think that it was for the better, "Hey Bors, You intend to take Verona and all of you're little bastards back home?" "Oh, I try to avoid that decision" he said seriously, but then tried to crack a joke by saying "by getting killed" Gawain and a few other guys actually laughed about that, I on the other hand just rolled my eyes and got up, to go and check up on the horses, but because the horses were close by I could still hear the guys talking and so I could follow the conversation. "Dagonet she wants to get married and give the children names" Bors said as if it was the most outrageous thing in the world, "Women!" Dag said in return "Hey!!!" I cried from over by the horses, but the only response I got was a grin from Bors. "The Children Already have Names don't they?" Tristan asked from were he sat cleaning his sword, "Thank you Tristan, now that is what most parents would do" I told them with a hint of humor in my voice, "Like I said women" Dag said with a grin and also a hint of humor, I looked at him and just shook my head along with a comment of "Men!!" That caused another few laughs from the group, Bors went back to answer Tristan with a comment of "Just Guilly, it's too much trouble so we gave the rest of them numbers" "That's interesting I thought you couldn't count?" Of course leave it up to Lancelot to come up with the smart comments, at this all of the guys began laughing, "You know I never thought I would get back home alive, but now that I got the chance I do not want to leave my children" "You'd miss them too much" Dag said, showing the side of himself that not many people got to see, "I'll take them with me, I like the little bastards, that means something to me" he said in a dreamy state and then just to show the guys that he was not going soft, he just had to throw in "Especially number three, he's a good fighter" I was completely caught up in what he was saying, I also kind of knew what he was going through because I felt the same way about my family, I missed them so much, and I guess I was so caught up in the speech that I did not see the comment coming "That's because he's mine" I did however notice that Gawain had spit out his drink and Bors stormed off with a comment of "I'm going for a piss" The entire group began laughing and although it was very mean I had to laugh as well. As soon as we calmed down I went and bade them all good night and went and got my matt ready to get some rest, we would have to see what we would encounter tomorrow.