The next day when I woke, I could not say that the weather had become much better, although the rain had stopped, there was still an enormous amount of wind going on.
From where the horses stood I could hear that they were not happy about the weather conditions, I could hear the mighty hooves of Feonaro crash on to the ground as he swayed from side to side, half angry about the whether and half spooked from the leaves and branches that would suddenly fly in front of him.
In the midst of all the stomping I could hear Flecha, along with the rest of the horses protesting to the fact that he had to stand outside, rather then have a warm stall to wait out the storm.
Then there was something that caught my attention and made me grin, I might of forgot to mention that by now I was awake but, still pretending to be asleep, not wanting to face the reality of the situation, of being on a God forsaken island, with miserable weather, saving a family that belonged to a blood line that we have hated from the moment that we drew our first breath.
I heard the groans of the men that had apparently woken to greet the morning. There was nothing I would want more to stay asleep and just sleep the day away, although I knew that it was not possible.
All of a sudden out of nowhere a felt gently yet rough hand on my cheek and warm lips on my forehead, out of natural reaction I groaned and slowly opened my eyes to find that Gawain was looming above me, with a tender look in his eyes. "Come on Mer it is time to get going" I looked at him and softly groaned, he gave a gently chuckle which came from deep within his chest and gave me a hand in getting up.
I packed up my things and made my way over to where Flecha was standing, tacked him up, and took the food that was offered to me by Gawain. We headed over to where the other knights were and sat down for a quick breakfast. It was not long after I had sat down, that I had realized just how crap the weather was. The cold cut me straight to the bone. And as hard as I tried to hide my shivering I guess that it showed because, I felt a warm body come up and sit on the log behind me, with a leg on each side of me. Startled I turned my head only to discover that it was Gawain. I immediately relaxed and leaned back into him.
Gawain wrapped a secure arm around me, which he also used to pull his cloak around him self as well as me, and with the other he was eating with. I looked around and saw that the other knights had gentle smiles on their faces, as if approving of the situation.
As soon as we were finished with our breakfast, we got up, and walked over to the horses, I tacked Flecha up, gave him a soft pat on the shoulder and swung myself into the saddle, and fell in line next to Gawain, as we continued on our journey through the woods and to the roman estate.
Although the rest of the ride through the forest was anything but easy, branches were everywhere and it was lucky that none of us had been hit so far, also the fact that the wind was howling was not helping matters. The horses were getting more and more restless by the moment.
We remains as quiet as possible during the ride, in order to draw the least attention as possible, yet when Tristan called out that we were being tracked by woads, it was clear that the effort was in vain, "Where?" I heard Arthur ask as I tried to keep my eyes pealed as if there would be a woad that would jump out at me and call I'm here and then kill us. "Everywhere" Tristan answered Arthur. "Oh great, thanks Tristan, now I can relax" I groaned out, in a hushed voice in order not to give away where we were, but hey if Tristan was right then they already knew. However Gawain and Galahad had both heard me and groaned in unison.
We continued to make our way through the dense forest, only this time more cautiously then before, now that it was known that there were woads. Unconsciously I moved my hand to the hilt of my sword, and I could have sworn that I could seen the woads run around in the forest. Unfortunately Flecha thought the same thing as he became more wild, and difficult to handle.
And then it came, arrows which had ropes attached, began to fly in front of Arthur and Feonaro, blocking our path, and leaving us no other choice then to turn around and take another path, Flecha reared up and jumped side ways as Arthur turned Feonaro around, quickly followed by the others, Flecha was still doing the ballet and it was difficult to get him to face the right way, but once he did I gave him his head and spurred him on, Flecha was all to eager to agree. By the time I had caught up with the rest, the woads had already once again blocked our path, and Feonaro, was doing a similar stunt to what Flecha had just done, and desperately trying to avoid the arrows.
"Get back!" Lancelot yelled but I was too stunned to do all too much, or at least that was until "GET BACK!!!" I heard Bors yell to us, and then sure enough it sunk in, I reined Flecha in and made him pivot on his hind legs to get around, narrowly missing the arrow that came in front of him, I felt him take his head in and sideways, forcing me to follow him and nearly throwing me to the ground, making me miss the arrow that was intended for my head.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Galahad take another rout followed closely by Gawain, Dagonet and then I, although once again we could only get so far when a weird contraption with spears rose from the ground. Trapping us, I looked around for an alternative, when I heard another arrow being fired, I looked up to the source only to see a woad with an arrow notched into his bow, I followed the arrows intended path and to my horror saw that it was aimed at Gawain and he had not noticed. "GAWAIN!!!!!" I screamed at him, he reined Adrian in thinking that something had happened to me, but luckily my plan worked and the arrow missed.
"This way!" Arthur yelled as he drew Feonaro into a passage between two trees. The rest of us wasted no time in following him, but just as I had been expecting to once again be blocked off by arrows, Woads appeared with spears and began thrusting them into Feonaro face, making him rear high up into the air. I decided to do the only thing that I could do and that was turn Flecha around and ride the other way. But by now all of our escape routes had been cut off, and we were trapped, I brought Flecha to a halt behind Thunder Bors' horse, and Gawain brought Adrian to a sudden halt next to Flecha, we looked at each other, and with his eyes he told me that it would be ok, but I had a hard time believing it. We heard a horn sound deep in the forest and the woads seemed to hesitate, but the truth was that there was no were we could go, so it did not matter how long they hesitated we were stuck, and it would only be a matter of time before we were dead. Next to me, Gawain decided to voice my thoughts by calling out "What are you waiting for?" Then a second horn blew and the Woads pulled back into the forest. "Inish" Dag said in a rough voice, I had no idea what he meant by it, but it must have shown clearly on my face, "Devil Ghosts" he said, we that certainly helped. "Why did they not attack?" Galahad asked Arthur "Merlin does not want us dead" was his simple reply.
After we were sure that the woads had gone we continued and made our way out of the forest were we camped in the plains under a bunch of trees, the meal was eaten in silence, and when everyone had gone to bed, I found that I could not sleep after the ordeal that happened today. So I got up and went out into the plain, I just stood there are stared out at the forest, taking everything that had happened in, and not realizing that I had been Followed. Until it was too late.