Ridire, catching wind of the fact that it was going to be more than just a short ride, trotted along just behind Courage's right shoulder, only slowing slightly when he caught a wiff of what the butcher was cooking for the day.

Once out of the city, the pace was picked up and Ridire was forced to nearly flatten out to keep up with the four horses. The hoofbeats thundered over the small rise of a hill off to the North of Camelot, and soon disappeared over the edge.

Once nearly out of sight of the city, Jaya urged Courage forward at a greater speed, each stride bringing her closer to the Island.

It was nearly dark when they finally stopped for the night. Jaya took on the task of getting a small fire going, while Lancelot and Arthur discussed what the watch should be. She pointed out that they had a dog with them, and that Ridire was more than capable to keep an eye on them without having to have one of them up and not able to sleep. Arthur dismissed the idea, the habit so deeply ingrained in him that he wouldn't be able to sleep without knowing that a watch was changing every few hours.

It didn't take Merlin long to get a small but comfortable dinner ready and the four of them ate in silence, Ridire eagerly licking clean the bowls that were set aside when finished with.

Lancelot offered to help Merlin clean the dishes and while they wandered off, Arthur sat, leaning up against a tree, watching as Jaya moved over to her big Grey, untacking him the rest of the way, handing him an apple, and running her hands over nearly every inch of him. She pulled a brush from somewhere he didn't see, and started brushing free the sweat marks and quietly talking to her horse. Arthur stood up and walked over to her, realizing when he got close enough that she was humming to herself now. He listened for a moment, trying to work out where he had heard the tune before.

"That's a pretty tune."

Jaya looked over at Arthur and smiled slightly. "It's one that my mother used to sing me when I was little."

Arthur nodded, suddenly deciding that it wasn't something that he wanted to press any farther.

"What did you tell your father?" Jaya asked.

"How do you mean?" Arthur wondered.

"We're going to be gone for ten days or so, Arthur. The King is a busy man, but he's sure to miss ya at some point." Jaya pointed out.

"Told him that I needed an extended hunting trip."

"And me?"

"Jaya-" Arthur faltered when he realized that he didn't know how to say what he was going to blurt out a moment before.

"You don't think he'd notice if I was gone for a while. Might even be relieved?" Jaya asked, always perceptive, bless her.

"I honestly don't know why he doesn't like you." Arthur muttered, taking the brush Jaya offered and starting to brush his bay.

Jaya plunked down on the ground a few feet in front of Courage's head and looked up at Arthur. "You don't." it wasn't really a question, it was more of a confused statement.

Arthur shook his head. "You're a wonderful person. And you think about things in such an odd way, and you do things so differently and...ohhhhhh. I see." Arthur mused, his voice dropping off slightly.

Jaya nodded, her face breaking into a grin when Courage moved purposefully so that he was eating along her left leg, his nose bumping against her leg every so often. She watched Arthur's face cloud over slightly and frowned, distractedly combing her fingers through Courage's forelock. "It troubles you. That he doesn't like me."

"I just don't understand why. He hasn't looked at you the same since you explained to him why he needed to execute Valiant. Valentin." Arthur corrected himself and sighed. He stopped brushing suddenly and looked at her sharply. "Why is that?"

Jaya squeaked slightly when Courage startled nuzzling her hair and started to push her over. After a moment or two of struggling to stay upright and keep from being knocked over Courage finally gave up and let her be, grazing next to her with a contented sigh. Jaya looked up at Arthur and frowned slightly. "I don't think you want me to tell you why. I told you once I wasn't going to make you choose between your King and I. And I meant it."

Arthur pursed his lips for a moment. "Tell me."

Jaya rolled to her feet and stretched slightly. "Why?" she wondered. "Why do you want to question more? Anything I tell you will just add tension between you and your father."

"What if that's a good thing, Jaya?" Arthur snapped.

Jaya looked at him for a moment.

Arthur turned to face her completely. "All I know of ruling is what my father has told me, and what I've seen done. What if he's doing things that I should avoid? What if I don't want to make the same mistakes as him?"

Jaya frowned. "He already thinks that I've ruined you. He'll be livid when he finds out that I was on this trip with you."

Arthur looked at her, still fuming for a moment and then slowly relaxed. She wasn't going to tell him. Because she was going to protect him from doing something rash, and from getting himself into more trouble with his Father. She was trying to save him from the mental anguish of having to decide what to do, or who to listen to. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Understand that your father and I will never get along. That we'll always disagree with each other, and that he would have me gone the moment that my father deems it safe enough for me to return to Dublin." Jaya shrugged.

"And what will I do when you're gone?" Arthur wondered.

Jaya shrugged and clapped his shoulder. "Think for yourself. Do what you think is right. And you'll always have Merlin."

Arthur groaned and rolled his eyes. "I'm doomed."

Jaya giggled and started back toward the fire. "Come on. I've got first watch. I'll tell you anything you want to know until you're ready to go to sleep."

Arthur walked with her, bumping against her shoulder with his. "I suppose anything but the reason behind why it is that my father doesn't like you."

Jaya looked over at him shrewdly. "You're a bright Lad."

Arthur grunted.

"No, he really isn't." Merlin disagreed.

Arthur wheeled around slowly and looked at him. "Ah. Merlin. I thought you had fallen asleep somewhere."

Merlin huffed indignantly and shook his head.

"I take it this means that the dishes are done so that you can go about getting wood for the fire and water for the horses." Arthur ticked off his fingers, not looking at Merlin.

Merlin's left eyebrow twitched and he grimaced before turning away to start with the horses.

"You shouldn't treat him so badly. He's more loyal than most servants I've seen." Jaya mused, flopping down in a very unlady like fashion next to the fire, her right leg propped up against a fallen log that created on side of their small camp.

Arthur grunted. He knew that Jaya was right. He knew it more than he cared to admit. Merlin had lasted almost ten months. And the longest a servant had remained in his employ was ten weeks. But at the same time, he knew that Merlin enjoyed their strange relationship that they had. "He doesn't mind."

Jaya snorted and picked up a long, thin stick and stuck the far end into the very edge of the flames. "You're lucky to have him."

Arthur nodded, sitting down with more grace than Jaya had mustered, leaning his back comfortably against a large tree. "Your serving girl seems to favor you."

Jaya hummed and pulled the burning tip of the stick out to watch it burn a moment before the fire petered out and fizzled out to blackened ash and a trail of grey smoke.

"Why is that?" Arthur pressed.

Jaya pushed the tip of her stick back into the fire and smirked at him. "I saved her life a few years ago. I brought her and four other girls back with me to Dublin. The other girls went back to their homeland. Freya, she begged me to let her stay with me. Went so far as to get my father involved."

"She's loyal to you because you saved her life. It makes sense really." Arthur mused.

"It's gone beyond that now. She loves working for you." Lancelot mused, sitting down on the other side of the fire.

Jaya smirked. "I offered her the chance to leave and go to be with her family when I was told that I would be staying in Camelot. She refused." Jaya shrugged, pulled the stick out of the fire and watching the newest tip curl under the heat of the flame.

"You're lucky, indeed." Lancelot mused.

Jaya nodded. "Aye. She's good for me. One of my closest friends. She's been through quite a bit with me. And not all of it was something that most people would consider safe.

The next few days the four of them seemed to fall into a pattern. They rode together easily and didn't disagree much. Usually, Jaya spent her time entertaining the three boys with stories of what it was like in Dublin. Mostly it was for Lancelot's benefit. If he was going to be a knight in the employ of her father then she decided it would be a good thing for him to understand just who he was going to be working for, and what it was like in the castle.

As he listened, Arthur realized that Jaya missed her home much more than she was letting on to anyone in Camelot. Her eyes were lit up excitedly as she described one thing or another, her tone fond and reminisce of the things that she left behind because her parents did not think it was safe for her to continue to live in the castle with them. He thought he had heard his father mention once that there had been an attack on the castle just before Jaya and her father had come to Camelot, and that Jaya had nearly been taken. He couldn't imagine it was easy for her to be so far away from where she called home. Especially knowing that she had spent so much time moving from place to place to keep from being captured and killed. It made him wonder how he would be able to handle moving more than a week's ride from Camelot with only his horse and Merlin to keep him company.

The third night they stopped early. Rain clouds were boiling up off to the North and little to their left. Jaya had looked at the clouds with a calculating eye and told them it would be best for them to find a place to make camp and the sooner they found a place that would keep them somewhat dry the better.

Arthur had resisted a little at first, protesting that they could make it a few hours further before the storm broke around them and that it wouldn't be that bad.

Lancelot watched at the two Royals discussed whether or not it would be a good idea to stop for the night and make up for the lost time in the morning when it was less likely to be in the middle of a raging storm. He glanced over at Merlin and smiled tightly.

Somehow, Jaya won out. And of the two of them, she was more calm. She was the one that picked out where they would stay, and she was the one who had suddenly become in charge of making sure that they would be ready for whatever storm she thought was coming.

They were down in a small hollow that was nestled between a large ring of shoulder high hills and large pine trees. By the time that they had the horses down in the hollow the wind had picked up and the tops of the trees rocked back and forth wildly, nearby softwoods creaked and groaned under the pressure the wind was putting on them.

Just as the rain was starting to spatter down, the small shelters that they had built with pine boughs that Lancelot had cut were ready. They even managed to get a larger on constructed as a windbreak for the horses before it started to rain in earnest.

All total there was five shelters. For the most part the rain was stopped, sometimes a larger gust would catch one shelter or another just right and it would let some of the water in.

Jaya lounged in the shelter that she had dived into when the rain started coming down hard, scrambling back out, to make sure that her saddle and other assorted objects wouldn't get wet. She made sure that everything was arranged so that she and Ridire would fit and still be out of the rain. Once she was satisfied that she was going to be comfortable for the night, she snuggled up against Ridire, glad for his body heat and settled down to watch the rain thrash through the forest.

The next morning dawned early, clear and bright. It took a little longer to get ready to leave because the horses had to be rubbed down to make sure that they weren't too damp before they were saddled. But once the four of them were out of the road again, time was made up quickly. By the time that they stopped to give the horses a break and eat some from the stores, all but the biggest puddles in the road were dried up in the bright sunlight.

The next night passed without much incident and about halfway through the day Jaya pulled Courage up and tossed her right leg haphazardly across his neck.

"What is it?" Arthur wondered.

"Ya hear that, Lads?" Jaya wondered.

"Gulls?" Lancelot wondered.

Jaya looked over at him and smiled. "We should be there soon. Another few miles and we'll be at the coast."

Arthur looked over at her and his eyes narrowed slightly. "How are you doing, Jaya?"

"What's that?" Jaya asked, shifting a moment after Courage changed the way he was standing to keep her balance.

"This is the closest you've been to home in months." Arthur pointed out like it should have been painfully obvious.

Jaya picked at a windknot that she had discovered in Courage's mane. She looked back up at Arthur and shrugged. "I can't go back. Not until I'm told that it's safe. That was the deal that my father struck with yours. And I promised that I would behave."

Arthur snorted. "You've broke that promise a few times over, don't you think?"

"Behave means something different to different people." Jaya shrugged, winking at Lancelot, who looked uncomfortable and like he wished that she hadn't included him in the conversation.

"Clearly Merlin thinks the same as you. He's always making trouble."

"Am not." Merlin looked at Arthur, indignantly. "If anything, I'm busy cleaning up the trouble that you get into."

"Don't be ridiculous, Merlin." Arthur looked at him, his tone imperial. "I don't get into trouble."

Merlin huffed something about a royal prat, and Arthur pretended that he hadn't heard, even though all of them had.

The sound of horses thundering over the last hill before the beach gave the sailors who were loading the last bit of cargo that was to go back to Ireland on the small ship. They looked over toward where the sand met rough beach grass and wondered at why there was four horses and a dog hurrying toward them at such a rate. It was the first time in a long time that anyone, other than the men that they traded with and an occasional ruffian, had appeared.

"Oi! Get to work, you lot!" the Captain bellowed, his feet firmly planted in the sand a few paces away from where the waves broke on the shore. "Haven't ya seen a horse before?" he demanded. After a moment's pause to make sure that they had followed his ordered, he turned and looked at the horses that were much closer. He himself was wondering the same as his crew. Who were these four riders, and why were they coming so fast to his ship. He settled his hand down on his sword that hung down on his left hip and waited. No one was going to run him off while there was still cargo to load.

Jaya gave Courage his head once they crested the last hill. She looked back over her shoulder at the bits of tough grass and dirty sand and grinned wildly at the boys who were a moment slower on picking up the speed. The smell of saltwater stung her nose and made her eyes water. It was glorious to watch Courage strain under the speed at which he was crossing the sand, and to smell the salt in the air, and to see the sunlight sparkling off the water.