35. Love is a Battlefield

Lucy awoke startled. She heard something, like the sound of a stick breaking when someone or something steps on it. She sat up in her little camp and whipped her head around to the source of the noise, intensely waiting, hoping it wasn't some attacker or wild animal here to hurt her. Bandits and thieves were known to hide is the forests away from the law. She held her breathe and stared in the direction of noise waiting for the cause of it to come into her line of view. Slowly but surely he stepped out and then began running towards her, his blond hair bouncing in the wind, the moment he laid eyes on her.

"Lucy! Oh thanks the gods your still alive!" He collapsed her in an amorous hug. His hard arms pulled her tight to his even harder chest. She was a bit awestruck, not expecting to see him so soon, or feel him.

"Arthur," she sighed a bit relieved, his arms dropping around her waist, pulling her in tight against his body. He smelled like home butthey were far from it. She was a little surprised that he came after her, but yet a larger part of her was expecting it. For some reason he was determined when it came to her and she still had yet to decide if that was a good thing or not.

"How did you find me?" She asked, lightly hugging him back.

"I followed you of course! All night!" He sighed, looking quite exhausted," Do you even know where you are right now?"

"In the forest, obviously."

"Yes! Savernake Forest!" He shouted then pinched his nose in frustratstration. He wondered how could a girl this beautiful be this dense.

"So what?" She shrugged. What was the big deal? Why did he look so upset with her? "I'm not afraid of bandits or forest animals." She reasoned. While she was glad she wasn't alone anymore, she also didn't need Arthur here to take care of her. She was capable of handling herself. She was here to save her sister, not to be saved herself.

"Well I'm glad to inform you neither one of those are going to be a problem in this forest! Have you never heard the stories?" He gladly informed her before wondering if she even knew why she should be afraid in the first place.

"What stories?" She asked.

His eyes grew wide, "This forest is cursed! Every bard south of Wiltshire has a ballad about the horrors of this place. Please, we need to get out of here now. Come, lets go. We can talk about it on the way." He hurried her, helping her get her bag together. She stood there stunned. How bad could the place be if she had never heard of it before?

"No." She said, taking her stuff from him and standing stern.

"What?" He gaped at her. Was she really protesting right now? There were in the forest of a thousand horrors and she was tell him no. He firmly believed Lucy had come down with a case of hysteria.

"Tell me what you're so afraid of. You wield Excalibur, the greatest sword on Earth and you look truly disturbed." She reasoned with him.

"Lucy we don't have time for this." He huffed at her.

"Make time." She replied with sass.

He sighed in defeat. "This place is haunted. And those who make it out alive to tell about it always die of hysteria or mania. Would you like to be one of them? They tell stories of the demons and ghosts that follow them around."

"I haven't seen any ghosts or demons, have you?"

"No."

"Well maybe those stories you heard were just that, stories."

"Lucy, I'm serious."

"I am too. My sister could be in this forest. I need to find her and I'm not going to stop just because you showed up." She crossed her arms over her chest.

"Let's just find and exit first and go from there." He tried coaxing her to go with him.

"You can do whatever you want, I'm continuing on my way."

"Why are you so irrational?" He threw his hands up in defeat. She was more stubborn that he was.

"I'm irrational? You are a stubborn bastard. You only came to retrieve me and bring me back to the castle. You don't care about my sister at all!" She shook her head, trying not to cry. She thought Arthur could be somebody she could trust, but all he cared about were his own intentions.

"You are driving me crazy woman!" He looked genuinely agitated. He ran his hands through his hair, pushing the loose blond locks out of his eyes. He looked like he wanted to start pulling his hair out.

"Good! Then maybe you will understand how I feel!" She yelled back at him, growing just as frustrated.

They stared at each other in a stand off, both waiting for the other to give in.

"Come on, lets go to Wiltshire and look for your sister there. We can ask around find out what the people know." Arthur finally suggested.

"You can go to Wiltshire, I'm going to continue to go north." She said, stepping away with Arthur. She wasn't about to back down. She started this adventure by herself and she would end it by herself too if need be. She couldn't deny that she wanted him with her, but she wouldn't stoop low enough to ask that of him. He was the King and she couldn't let herself forget that no matter how she felt about him.

"I can't just let you go out gallivanting on your own." He retorted.

"Pardon me sir, but you don't own me and you surely are not responsible for me." She glared at him then turned around and began walking the other way. She began looking around now that it was light out she could finally see where she was at. This forest looked familiar, like she had been here before. She took a couple of steps before Arthur followed her leading both their horses.

"So where is it we are going?" He asked.

"I guess you will see when we get there." She told him.

They walked for quite a while, the dense forest surrounding them entirely. Lucy wasn't sure how long the silence hung between them, but it made the minutes feel like hours, not even the natural hum of the forest could drown out the lingering tension.

Lucy stewed in her mind, trying to figure out what rational reason Arthur had for chasing after her and leaving the city vulnerable in his absence. He couldn't really love her could he? She knew it wasn't out of the realm of possibility as he had always been quite forward with her, but for what honest reason did he like her so much? She had been one of thousands in the courtyard the day of his crowning, there was no logical way that he could have decided that he wanted her.

"Why?" She whispered, still staring forward, not sparing him a glance knowing she wasn't brave enough to look away once his eyes found hers.

"Why what?" He asked.

"Why me? Why did you leave Camelot for me? I'm a penniless peasant with no family and a questionable bloodline that is far from royalty." She asked hesitantly, trying to keep her rattled thoughts in line.

"You're point?" He said with a shrug.

She finally turned and looked at him awestruck and befuddled. That was her point. Did she really need to elaborate more?

"Pardon me if I am wrong, but neither one of those are qualities that a traditional man looks for in marriage, most suredly a King."

"Well I am not a traditional man, or King. Some tell me that I'm a bit of a rebel."

"The King is a rebel."

"Its a great way to build a lasting reputation." He smirked keeping step beside her.

"Is that so?" She chuckled.

"But you would know that wouldn't you, also being a rebel." He commented, his eyes glancing over at her before pulling them away again.

"I am no rebel." She rebuked.

"You think women own their own seamstress shop everywhere? You are a rebel Lucy." He replied

"That shop was left to me." She said quietly.

"Your parents?" He asked curiously.

"My mum. She started the shop. She was the real rebel. I couldn't have started the place on my own, especially under Vortigern's rule. There were some nights I thought we were going to starve."

"And what happened?" He pressed. The tidbits of information she gave up were like gold. Precious and rare.

A sad smile stretched across her face. "My sister got a job." She nodded her head. "As a prostitute."

"You know, I grew up in a brothel right?" He reminded her. Nothing she could say would scare him.

"Please, don't remind me. I couldn't imagine the things you've seen or heard." She shook her head, trying to rid her head of her own thoughts.

"More than my fair share." He whispered under his breath.

"But it was my little sister, you know. I should have never left that burden on her but I couldn't give up my mother's shop. It was the only thing connecting me with her still. The little bit of money I made wasn't enough for the both of us, it wasn't enough for Mary. I even tried to ban her from working, but she'd just go behind my back when I was at the shop. I felt like I couldn't save her even if I tried, until now." She confessed.

"What's changed?" He asked.

"I'm not afraid anymore. I will sacrifice everything and more for her." Lucy said sternly. She had made up her mind, she needed to do this.

"Lucy, you don't really mean that, do you?" Arthur asked, grabbing her arm and stopping mid-step.

"I do. Arthur, I never asked you to be here so if you can't handle it you don't have to stay. You are free to go but, I just want to be honest with you." Lucy replied, letting herself stare into his beautiful blue eyes.

"This isn't honesty though, this is insanity. You are going on a suicide mission with the intention of not coming out the other side. How can you tell me this and expect me to be okay with it?" His eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.

"I don't need you to be okay with it, I need you to accept it. I have nothing left to lose." She replied bluntly.

"You have me to lose!" He yelled ardently then suddenly his lips crashed onto hers. They interlocked perfectly in a chaste kiss before hepulled away breathless, "you have me."

She blinked at him in slight shock. What was happening again? Oh yeah, Arthur just kissed you and said he is yours. That makes sense.

Author's note:

Well I hope that is everything you were expecting and more. Who else thinks Lucy is a little crazy and kinda dumb sometimes? Truth is, I think we all are, denial is really a problem we all experience. Its easy to look in from the outside and think you know everything and makes judgements without understanding individual perspective. Those judgements however don't always give you the full story. In regards to this story I hope you guys know that I try to keep a third person view with little inner first person tidbits so that you kind of get an understanding of what those characters are thinking about without them having to verbally express every thought. I guess I just find it interesting to write a story from the outsiders perspective with a little behind the scenes (so to speak) thrown in there.

Do you like this style? y/n

Preferred reading style?

POV/xreader/third person/other?

I'd also like to apologize for my slight leave of absence. I kind of hate the holidays and work has been exhausting. I worked 54(?) hours last week and it felt like twice has many. I've been doing a lot of reading too, mostly on Radish now that I actually make enough money to spend it on reading. Did you know I haven't read a professionally published book in like 4 years? 99.9% of my reading has been done on wattpad. Anywho, I'm waiting for the new year. I plan on taking a 4 day weekend and catching up; hopefully on everything, namely my sleep and some writing and get back on schedule.

What is your least favorite holiday?

If I don't see you sooner, happy holidays. I still love you guys and have no intentions of abandoning you yet!

Love, Surviving

TLDR; Great chapter, long authors note, I'm taking a vacay from work in January, call me the Grinch because I hate Christmas, my fans (you guys) mean the world to me.