Chapter 27: Healers

LANCELOT

After we finished planning, no one could sleep in anticipation of the coming battle. But despite the lack of sleep, everyone was invigorated. We finally had a definitive course of action to defeat Cairon.

As soon as the sun started to rise above the horizon, we left the Gray Owl in the same manner we came. We all met in the woods at the edge of the town, with Hale and Gwaine bringing up the rear. Gwaine's face was red and weary, but Hale looked as if she was ready to murder the poor man. They walked slightly apart and Hale had her fists clenched. When they reached us, Hale paused in front of Elyan and Percival, and Gwaine aggressively bumped shoulders with her as he passed them and joined me. I looked over at the trio in time to see Hale scowl at Gwaine. For a moment, I feared she would hit him, but she quickly brought her attention to Percival and Elyan who were still working out the logistics of our battle plan.

I finally looked at Gwaine who seemed agitated and annoyed as hell. I couldn't help chuckling. Grabbing him by the shoulder, I teased, "I see you and Hale are already having marital problems."

"Oh shut it Lancelot!"

Clearly, Gwaine was in no mood to talk. And Hale was no better. I sighed to myself. It was going to be a long, tense journey if those two were constantly at each others' throats.


For the next few days, we traveled through the wilderness without encountering a single strange soul. We were always on guard, but I still found time to observe our most unpredictable female friend.

Hale had been acting different for the past few days. Gwen confided her fears to me, but it was more than that. Although Hale was angry with Gwaine at the moment, she carried herself with a confidence she hadn't possessed before. Perhaps it was because we were nearing her homeland.

Hale started falling behind so I slowed my pace to match hers. "Are you alright?" I asked the girl in question.

Hale smiled. "Fine. Never been better."

I gave her a questioning look. Her gaze shifted towards Gwaine, who was in some sort of deep conversation with Leon and Percival, for a split second, and then back to me.

"Ah," I said. "You are still mad at Gwaine, aren't you?"

"It's not that, although he's acting like a complete child," she said slowly. "It's just… he's… and I'm… well… it's complicated," she finished lamely.

"Nothing is ever simple," I replied gently. Hale made a face.

"Thanks Lancelot, that makes me feel so much better," she muttered. Then she groaned.

"Sorry, I've just been really stressed lately, well I guess we all are, but I shouldn't take it out on you," she apologized. I placed a hand on her shoulder.

"There's no need to apologize, I understand," I said. "You especially are under much pressure. Out of everyone here, you stand to lose the most."


About two weeks later, we traveled slightly off course to replenish our water supplies. Hale recognized the area since it was so close to Actica and she showed us a way towards a stream and small pool of water. It was in the middle of a beautiful glen. The grove of giant redwoods loomed over us as if they were guards. Our large group took up most of the space in the glen but we didn't mind, as long as we got some water. As everyone stood or sat around quenching their thirst, I noticed something, or rather the lack of something. Besides the sounds of indignant gulping of water, the forest was silent. I put down my canteen of water and walked towards the edge of the grove. Arthur came to walk beside me.

"What is it, Lancelot?"

Instead of answering, I only kept walking until I was surrounded by trees. Suddenly everything became dark again. Arthur and I looked up at the sky and saw that clouds were rolling in. A shiver came over me, which soon became an uncontrollable shiver. I became dizzy and lost my balance, and fell to the ground.

"Lancelot!" Arthur yelled. I wanted to tell him to stop panicking, and to keep his voice down, because I knew what caused me to lose control of my balance. A pair of glowing eyes in trees. But suddenly I couldn't move - I was paralyzed. I saw Gwen rush over to me, and she became frantic as well.

She put her hand to my forehead, "He doesn't have a fever. What is wrong with him?"

Soon the other knights were gathered around me. Hale pushed her way through the crowd and kneeled down by my side. She put her fingers to my life vein, and let out a deep exhale. Everyone was silent and looked at her.

"Lancelot is paralyzed."

Gwen gasped, and the others looked at each other, confused.

"How could this happen? I was standing right next to him. There was nothing that could have paralyzed him!"

I started to panic. There was something in those woods that had done this to me and it was going to do the same with the rest of them, but I was helpless. I was trapped in my own body. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs but it seemed that even my voice had been taken from me. Is this how Gwaine felt when the goblin possessed him? I was wrenched from my thoughts by the snapping of tree branches and stomping of feet coming from the woods.

Arthur stood, and then I could see no more. I only heard sound, I thought perhaps I was dying. I heard a deep voice croak something in the language of magic.

And then suddenly all my senses came back to me at once, and my body was on fire. I shot up, and froze again as I saw the sight in front of me.

All of us were surrounded by men, and I knew that they must have been some of Cairon's forces. We were caught completely off guard. These men, if one could call them that, were nothing like we'd ever seen before. They were abnormally large, their muscles straining against their skin, and their eyes appeared to have a slight glow. The most peculiar thing of all was the tattoos on their bodies. Strange symbols were etched into their skin with blue ink all over. They were all hairless and nearly naked except for ragged burlap pants. The scythes they wielded pulsed with a strange light. Vaguely I wondered if Merlin would know what these creatures were.

"What the hell…" I heard Gwaine mutter and before anyone else could say a word Cairon's man-beasts charged at us.

I along with the rest of the knights unsheathed our swords in unison, and Arthur cried out, "Keep Hale safe!"

I looked over and saw that Hale was about to protest, but Gwaine swiftly picked her up, threw her over his shoulders and ran towards the glen.

"Lancelot! Take Gwen as well!" I nodded and grabbed Gwen's arm. Together we raced after Gwaine and the irate Hale.

"PUT ME DOWN AND LET ME FIGHT, YOU BASTARD!" Hale roared as she pounded on Gwaine's back. Her marten popped up out of nowhere and chittered angrily at his namesake.

"Order are orders, princess!" Gwaine shouted back. But he was forced to skid to a halt when one of the beasts jumped out in front of them. Gwaine swore and set Hale down, then stepped in front of her protectively with his sword drawn.

"I can take care of myself, thank you very much!" Hale fumed as she moved to stand beside Gwaine. The beast before them growled and swung the scythe down. I couldn't see whether they dodged, although I was sure they had, since another beast charged at me and Gwen. I shoved Gwen out of the way and shouted, "RUN!" Thankfully she heeded my words and took off. Just in time too, for the beast was upon me at that point. My sword met his scythe, but I underestimated his strength. It took everything I had just to keep my sword up.

The beast grew impatient and raised his scythe to strike again, but I took the opportunity to dive for his legs. I swung my sword with all my strength, but to my horror the sword simply bounced off of the beast's skin. I staggered back from the aftershock of such a powerful blow.

What the… How is that possible? I wondered frantically. His legs should have been sliced clean through, but there isn't so much as a scratch! What are these creatures?

There was a clang and then I heard Hale shriek, "What the hell?!" She must have discovered the armor-like skin of our enemies as well. Similar cries of shock echoed from the area where our comrades fought.

"How in the bloody hell am I supposed to fight these things if I can't even cut them?!" Gwaine bellowed in frustration.

I don't know, I thought but my distraction almost cost me dearly. My opponent roared and swung down with his scythe again and I barely managed to roll out of the way. But my rolling was stopped as I bumped into another body. I looked over and saw that it was an unconscious Gwen. I was so shocked I almost didn't notice the beast running towards me, but thankfully Hale was paying attention and cried out my name just in time for me to parry its blow. The wind was knocked out of me. The beast pinned me down with its forearm, and leaned in close to me until our noses were almost touching. Its skin was hard and cold as marble, and its eyes, oh its eyes were a horrific shade of blue. Suddenly the eyes rolled back until all was left were the whites, and it started grunting.

Its breath was so foul that I vomited, which didn't quite help the situation. My face was covered in vomit, blood and sweat, and I was powerless to get this creature off of me. He kept pressing down harder until I felt bones begin to crack. I tried to cry out in pain but my voice was muffled by the vomit. I started to choke on it and I knew that I was going to die.

I couldn't look away as my attacker's white eyes started to roll back. And then suddenly it went limp, and fell to the side. I tried to get up but I was too exhausted. Painfully I drew my arm to my face to wipe off myself.

I looked up and saw Hale standing over me. The veins in her face looked as if they were about to pop out. Her hand was raised in front of her, just as Merlin's would after he does a spell.

So she can control her magic now, I thought before I blacked out from the pain.


I woke to Gwen's worried face hovering over me. The worry in her eyes was replaced with relief when our gazes met. She gently rested her forehead against mine.

"Thank goodness," she murmured. Before I could say anything, Hale ran up and nearly knocked Gwen over.

"Oh my God Lancelot are you alright?" she cried. I was about to answer when -

"HALE!" a voice shrieked. Hale whirled in time to be knocked over by a blur of golden hair. What on Earth?

"Oomph!" Hale huffed. She looked down to see a small girl hugging her torso. A little boy - probably her brother - followed soon after.

"Isolde? Alec?" An ear splitting grin slowly spread over Hale's face. Her marten leapt onto the little boy's head.

"Gwaine!" the little girl, whose name was apparently Isolde, cried happily. She plucked the marten from her brother's head and cuddled him.

"It's you! It's really you!" The little boy started jumping up and down in excitement.

"ISOLDE! ALEC!" a woman's voice roared. Both children froze, then yelped and hid behind Hale. I would have been concerned if Hale didn't look so amused.

A small group of women, led by a young blond man, came running towards us. They stopped when they saw our group.

"Oh my," one older woman gasped, a hand over her mouth.

The young man stepped forward. "Hale?!"

Hale grinned and waved cheekily. The two children peeked out from behind her legs.

"Long time no see, Kay!" she shouted. The name sounded familiar. Then I took a closer look at the group. It wasn't just women; I'd missed the other three small children before. From the looks of it, they were gypsies. My eyes widened. These must be the gypsies Hale traveled with for so long.

The older woman and Kay rushed forward.

"Are you alright? What happened?" the woman asked Hale. She scanned our forces and frowned. "So much blood. Are these your friends, Hale dear?" Then her eyes landed on Arthur.

"P-prince Arthur!" she stuttered. The other gypsies' eyes widened and they immediately bowed.

"You never told us you had such important friends, Hale," Kay remarked. She smirked.

"Well, I am a princess. Or was. Whatever," she retorted. Kay smiled.

"In any case, it's good to see you again," he said genuinely. "I'm glad to see you've found friends. Although," he eyed us critically, "you may not have friends anymore if they all bleed to death. Maggie, do we have any extra bandages?"


The gypsies could not have arrived at a better time. The women were quick to bandage us up and knew several helpful medicines. The children's naive happiness was like a breath of fresh air. Within minutes of their arrival, I could feel the overall mood of the group lift.

"Thank you," I said quietly. The woman bandaging my arm shrugged.

"You're friends of the girl. We owe her quite a debt, this is the least I can do," she replied.

"We can do more than that." Kay crouched down next to me. "You seem to be in need of medical aid. My people can provide that."

"At what cost?" I asked skeptically. Pure, free kindness was hard to come by these days.

"Nothing," he said. "We all care about Hale, and Cairon has stolen much from us. See these women and children?" He gestured to his people. "They have all lost husbands, brothers, sons. The children have lost fathers. A bandit raid took them from us, and we who were left behind would have been slaves if not for Hale. She saved us. Actually, I've never seen anyone fight with a sword quite like she does. Or fire insults as loudly." I chuckled.

"That sounds like Hale," I said with a smile. Kay laughed.

"She's quite the little spitfire, isn't she?" He agreed. I shook my head, bemused. Then I let my smile drop.

"Are you certain you and your people wish to get involved?" I asked gently. "We have no guarantee that we'll win." Kay nodded somberly.

"I know. But it's not like we have anywhere else to go. And Hale is one of us now."

"Yeah!" Little Isolde came bouncing over with Gwaine the marten in tow. Alec followed his sister like a lost puppy.

"We missed Ain-Hale," Alec announced loudly. I ruffled his hair.

"I'm sure she missed you too, little one. She missed you very much." Alec beamed.

"You're nice, mister," he said.

"And handsome," Isolde added. "Say, are you Hale's husband?" she asked innocently. I started laughing.

"No, child. Hale is not married. However, see that man over there?" I pointed to Gwaine. "I believe he wishes to marry her some day." Isolde's eyes grew wide.

"Really? That's so romantic!"

Alec made a face, and looked up at Kay. "Awww. I thought she was gonna marry Kay. Or me when I grow up." Isolde smacked him lightly.

"No silly, she can't marry you! You're too little." Both Kay and I were trying to hide smirks. Alec stomped his feet.

"Nuh uh! One day I'm gonna grow big and strong and-and I'm gonna marry Hale! You just wait and see!" Perhaps I should tell Gwaine about his diminutive competition.

"Reeeeally?" Isolde drawled. "Well you better be really big and strong if you wanna protect Hale. She saved you, remember? And she kicked those bandits' butts too! I'm gonna be as strong as her when I grow up." Kay and I watched in amusement as the children started bickering about who would be stronger.

"Are they always like this?" I asked. Kay shook his head.

"Nah, they're normally more quiet. They're just excited to see Hale again." And so we sat back and watched the verbal spar become physical as Isolde chased Alec in circles. Watching the chase, I found myself looking forward to traveling with Hale's gypsies.