Elaina had switched her clothes for some trousers, a tunic and a matching cloak to throw around her if a chill was in the air. She hated riding in a dress since there wasn't much leeway for speed when the skirt was constantly billowing up from the wind, though morgana had stuck to hers choosing fashion over practicality.
she was just pinning her hair up when merlin came scuttling over.
"are you happy about this?" he whispered.
"no," Elaina spoke around a clip in her mouth, while gathering her locks up, "but if it makes Arthur happy, I will try to grin and bear it."
They watched as the prince in question went to casually chat with morgana, likely egging her on for a race and when thinking he had managed it he would move onto Elaina.
standing there, ff she just took in the scene for what it was with no underlying backstory, it was like as it always has been. Morgana could almost have even Elaina convinced that there was nothing wrong, which was the danger really. Wishful thinking made Elaina smile; she would take this pretence if it was all she had of the past, but her guard wouldn't ever be let down.
"keep an eye out merlin. Don't let morgana or Arthur out of your sight."
Merlin nodded earnestly in full agreement and dragged his heels in fulfilling the demands of Arthur, who shouted in protest at his slowness in getting everything prepped so they could head out. Merlin didn't let his arrogance slide and quipped back for some help to which the prince snorted at.
It always amused her their relationship. No other servant would get away with such banter towards a prince in another kingdom. Not that the prince and servant started off great.
How many times was merlin put in the stocks again?
Elaina wondered what Arthur would be like without him as a friend, since truth be told before merlin came along to ground the prince, his opinion of himself would make a crown difficult to fit on such a big head. He kept the kindness and playfulness hidden, which only herself and morgana could coax out. But other than that, no positive comment would come from others who knew the version of himself he projected in public. Arthur measured to the expectation Uther had wanted his prince to be, which was a version of himself in his younger days. An arrogant fool. Now however, Elaina was glad to say that yes, he was still an arrogant fool, but his feet were solid in his beliefs and Arthur stuck up for himself so that he could embrace the part Elaina always knew was there.
She was proud of him.
"my lady, your horse."
she had been gazing upward to the clear blue skies, allowing the sun to warm her face with its glow, like a flower taking its fill to replenish its petals when the stable boy came along.
He was as short as he was wide, while his hair obviously ended where the edges of an upturned bowl allowed as a guideline, when it was cut. No neck to differentiate between where his head sat on his shoulders, he had been ruthlessly bullied by other boys his age. He didn't have much ambition, a widow for a mother without a father to teach him in a trade or talent. The woman had asked Elaina for help when she was wandering the market, that maybe there was a position available in the castle.
None at that time had sprung to Elaina's mind, only he was displaying an awe over her mare while his mother was talking to her. when she asked about his obvious liking of horses, he said that he had been locked in the stables once when he was a child as a cruel joke, as the animals had been wild with an ongoing storm. However, he had managed to soothe them purely by telling them his stories. Besides his mother, they were the only ones who listened to him and it gave him a sense of value. touched by the tale, whether he was needed or not Elaina had hired him on the spot, his living coming from her own pocket. She doubted Uther even knew about him being in his employment at the castle.
"thank you, Sam."
He blushed madly and handed Elaina the reigns, so there wasn't much for her to do but coo over the horse until everyone was ready to set out.
She was a new addition, a present from Uther of all people. He had given Elaina and morgana a matching breed, only hers had a snow-white coat and Elaina's black as the night. A stunning horse who she kept sleek, fed and exercised treating her like a pampered princess according to Arthur as her reigns were even a statement, etched with floral details and pure silver studs. Elaina loved braiding her mane with a green ribbon, to match her own eyes, as a mother might do in efforts to have some similarity with their child.
"and how are you today Greer."
Not that Elaina thought the horse would reply, but she took the throwing of her head as a positive answer and cosied into her neck. Then at the signal of Arthur she hopped up and strode beside merlin to leave the city.
'deep breaths,' Elaina encouraged herself, 'deep breaths.'
"come on! Morgana recommends a hilltop to the north."
The horses hadn't stopped hammering the dirt since they exited the gates, with Arthur and morgana at the forefront. Elaina didn't have any idea where they had been going before that announcement and had assumed it would have been just one of their usual trials, but the detour to somewhere new was making her heart quicken with panic.
Merlin shot a worried look that mirrored her reaction and he picked up his pace to catch up with morgana and Arthur, while she lingered back to cover them.
"come on Greer you'll warn me if something is amiss, won't you?"
Elaina patted the horse for reassurance but knew that the animal could only do so much and that it was her who needed to keep her wits about her. Darting a look in every which direction, her neck was beginning to suffer from it until she came to a halt when the others were no longer moving and were instead waiting on her.
"what's wrong?" Elaina asked.
Arthur pointed to the road they had been travelling on where the manacles of a few traps had their mouths spread wide open, in anticipation of a good bite of oncoming prey.
"Traps."
Elaina had worked that out for herself and alarmingly turned her horse around to see if there were any more that they could accidentally set off.
"hunters? What idiots! we could have ridden over them and- "
Arthur stopped and looked at the rustling of a bush, no longer a carefree prince but the trained knight within him instead who now needed to defend his friends.
"GET DOWN!" he shouted, unsheathing his sword and raising it above him.
Arrows whistled through the air, narrowly missing the group save for morgana. At Arthur's warning she had ridden off back down the road they had come from, clearly an indication that this had all been cooked up by her and Elaina groaned at the obviousness in it.
She should have really followed her like Arthur insisted so she could get to safety and then possibly throttle her, but instead Elaina dropped down and took out her own sword. whenever she did go out on a ride these days, she always insisted that Sam be sure to arm her horse with it, in case of instances like this occurring. As she said, she was constantly on alert.
She had done it just in time too as the men seemed to have run out of arrows and were now charging straight for them. Merlin stood in the middle of Elaina and Arthur so they could fight them off before reaching him. Useless in battle Arthur would say, but merlin actually had the greater weapon between them and will likely be using it to their benefit.
"who are these men?" Arthur asked, like Elaina had a clue.
Right now, they were an enemy in need of getting their butts handed to them and she used her skill set to make sure she took down as many as she could. Her father had taught Elaina well and with a good few swings and a couple of punches thrown, Elaina took down five with Arthur the other six, then merlin…
When the prince and lady turned to check he was alright, the servant had some scattered around his feet holding his arms up innocently.
Elaina felt out of breath, wiping away the sweat she had made off her brow. It had been a while since she had fought like that with a sword and she thanked it for its service, respecting the weapon as her father had instilled in her.
Arthur went over to an unconscious body, who was masked by cloth wrapped tightly around their face. His arm was sprawled on the ground and Arthur quickly pulled up his sleeve, revealing an ugly brand like a feather scorched into his skin.
"mercenaries. Not a group I recognise though."
The trio looked out onto the traps again. A set-up for them to fall victim to and a really horrendous one which they had luckily overcome. However, they plagued themselves with the what if scenario. surely if they had ridden into the bear traps they would have been thrown by their suffering horses, maybe landing in some themselves as these criminals finished them off.
"who would hire them?" Arthur asked, scratching his head for an idea while Elaina and merlin knew exactly who.
At the opportune moment morgana returned and her look of disappointment could not go unnoticed by Elaina, no matter how fleeting it was, as she pretended to be 'so scared, and came back after realising how wrong she was to have abandoned them'.
Her anger flared after Arthur's dismissal and his understanding for morgana's pathetic excuse. Had she run from a fight ever before? Really how could they be so blind.
Merlin tried to grab Elaina's arm, but she ignored him flinging his hand off her and taking morgana's reigns so she couldn't trot away.
"really morgana!" Elaina hissed, feeling the burning in her eyes.
This had gone too far and she could tell this was all her doing without Morgause's help as it was pretty armature compared to what she was capable of. No creativity, no magic, no legendary killer knights or bringing back dead mothers…
What was she trying to prove with this?!
She didn't try to defend herself and stayed stoic which was worse than if she had said anything to pass this off as a terrible coincidence. Elaina grabbed morgana, pulling her down but the moment her skin touched morgana's something flashed before Elaina.
'in the event Arthur overpowers you, it's better to act dead. Wait until he is vulnerable and plunge this into him.'
'this pitiful thing?' a brute scoffed.
A tiny dagger was produced from morgana's possession. It was small to blend into the hand and curved, so the wound was more difficult to mend.
'it's not the weapon, but the poison on the blade which will do the job.'
Elaina gasped and her mind was foggy as the present tried to settle back into her vision rather than the past. It wasn't morgana in front of her now as she had urgently looked to the prince, who with merlin was discussing potential culprits and that he wanted merlin to ride and alert the guards of their position, to put them under arrest.
They were distracted, all save her, who noticed when the mercenary at Arthur's feet wasn't entirely out of it.
Running, Elaina watched as the same dagger in her vision was produced from the mercenary's pocket and aimed for Arthur's back. Not the dagger being the danger but the poison, she remembered.
maybe it would have been easier to scream out his name. to knock the mercenary out the way, some kind of warning. But all she was consumed with, was the safety of Arthur and you do stupid things to protect the ones you love.
So it was him she knocked out the way, so that when the dagger cut through the air, it hit Elaina instead…