Title: Forever More
Author: It could be me or it could be not.
Author's Note: I want to see King Arthur again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sigh Now I'm contemplating the title of my story. I don't exactly like the name much but I saw this other fanfic somewhere and it was called Never More so I was tight on time and chose my crappy title. Arghhhh. If anyone has any suggestions, they would be welcomed dearly. And for all of you out there, I am using every ounce of will in my body to do the non restating thing. I understand that most of you probably have seen the movie so there's no need for the whole repetition thing. Sorry.
Disclaimer: hums Woad to Ruin Oh! Yea… this… damn disclaimers. No I don't own King Arthur but I do own Kera. goes back to humming Woad to Ruin
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Chapter 13:†Argument for Hunger or Life†
Even though partially surrounded by the Sarmatian knights, the most of the villagers were still anxious about whether they made the correct decision of parting from their homes. Replacing the rain that had been pouring down not an hour ago was now a light fall of snow. As carthorses strained against the weight of their load, their hooves crunched in the thin layer of snow which settled gently over the wet grass. A stray dog had followed them from the huts and now ran between the horse's legs, rounding up the lagging children and barking every so often for effect.
Inside the covered wagon, the girl laid stone cold. Her hands rested beside her face, the rest of her was covered in a heavy blanket. Marius's wife sat beside her, bandaging her purpled fingers. Wiping strands of hair from the girl's face, Fulcinia smiled miserably thinking how everything might have been different if she had never married that pig of a man in the first place. She had been flattered in the beginning when he first started courting her, but she did not return his affection, his fondness turned to anger and she had no choice in the end but to marry him.
Dagonet dismounted his black stallion and ducked into the cart. Crouching next to the young boy named Lucan, Dagonet felt a fatherly emotion filling his inside like a rapid fire spreading. Lucan stirred, his face twisting into an expression of pain and Dagonet smiled compassionately. Stroking Lucan's cheek, Dagonet vowed he would take care of the boy with everything he could.
"Brave boy," he said.
Arthur rode alongside the cart, unaware of the fact that the girl had woken from her slumber. Her eyes peered weakly through the wooden bars of the cart at the regal looking knight. When Arthur turned and caught her eyes, she slowly lowered her head back to her flour sack pillow and closed her eyes. When Dagonet left the cart and remounted his faithful steed, he was quieter than usual.
Lancelot cantered up to Arthur breathlessly.
"She is not going to make it," he informed Arthur on the girl's health. "Neither is the small boy. We are wasting our time on all these people. They are going to get us killed. You know that, don't you?"
Arthur replied sternly, "If we have to, we will put them on the backs of our horses. Whether they are with us or not, if this trail ends we will have to fight."
Lancelot shook his head at Arthur's indomitable attitude.
"Save your anger for that," he said to Lancelot.
Looking to see if Arthur was serious, Lancelot sighed when Arthur did not give in and he turned and rode away.
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Back at Marius's estate, everything was chaos. Those who had stayed behind had been burned alive in their houses. Thick columns of smoke rose from the incinerating huts as the wind whipped the black smolder around in the air. Andrew looked around him at the burning carcasses of both women and children and wrinkled his nose. Cynric slapped him on the back heartedly. This is what he lived for.
"Makes you feel strong doesn't it?" Cynric stated loudly.
Andrew nodded but a moment later when Cynric's back was turned he doubled over and vomited onto the ground. Even the rats that had scrambled madly from the smoking houses had been killed. The Saxons dared not disobey their commander's orders. 'Leave nothing alive' had not left much room for interpretation.
The stone building had its door smashed open again at Cerdic's charge and the mad monks were grasped by the elbow and towed towards Cerdic. They yelled and kicked and screamed and protested something about God's will but their inane babble was uncared for.
"Shut your mouth!" Cynric said.
One of the Saxon warriors spoke up and conveyed, "He says they walled him up in a building and took the family. Someone named Arthur…"
Geoffrey nodded and said, "The one I spoke of. Arthur Castus, commander of the Sarmatian knights."
Cynric bent down and placed a finger along a crumbling brick. Swiping his hand back up, he rubbed the still damp mortar between his fingers.
"The mortar is not even dry—they cannot have been gone long," Cynric said eagerly.
Geoffrey said to Cerdic, "They will almost certainly go south to Hadrian's Wall." He pointed to the foothills in the distance. "They should be heading in that direction, unless they have come up with an alternate plan."
"Do they know we are after them?" Cynric added as an afterthought.
"I see tracks coming from the Wall," Geoffrey said, "but none leading back. My guess is that they are being evasive."
"Then where is the family?" Cerdic asked.
"If they have not headed south in the straightest route to the Wall, they have probably gone east," Geoffrey explained.
Cerdic turned away and thought to himself for a moment.
"Since we cannot find the necklace, we must make do with Arthur. Once he is killed, we will return to our original mission. I would hate for that necklace to fall into the wrong hands," he laughed. "In the meantime, tell that sniveling Andrew to stop dirtying the ground with his vomit and keep an eye out for signs."
Cynric turned around conceitedly, about to order him around when he was met with Andrew standing there before him with a horrified look across his face. Lifting his hand, Andrew opened his fist to reveal a small circlet of pearls in his palm.
"She was here…" he whispered, the sounds barely making it past his lips.
"Who was here?!" Cerdic ordered, snatching the bracelet from Andrew's shaking hands.
"The girl," Andrew struggled, "that wretched bitch of a niece."
Cerdic said nothing for a moment. Pocketing the pearls he said to Cynric, "Take your light infantry and run them to the ground. Take Andrew with you; the girl is most definitely with Arthur."
Cynric nodded fearfully, for he dared not defy his father's orders. But on the other hand, he knew that Cerdic was enjoying how much he was struggling. With just Cynric's small soldiers, it would be a test to show whether he had the skill to win or prove that he was the weak son that he was by dying at Arthur's hand.
"And of you?" he asked Cerdic and added hastily, "father?"
Cerdic turned around and began marching off towards his own warriors.
"I will take the army south, directly to the wall," he called out over his shoulders.
Raewald crept over to Cerdic, his head hunched low to retain from looking into his face.
"What shall we do with them?" Raewald asked, motioning towards the lunatic monks.
Cerdic said nothing but turned and smiled challengingly towards Cynric. Cynric swallowed before mustering as strong a voice as he could rally.
"Put them back where you found them."
The Saxon guards immediately began dragging the howling monks towards the stone building.
"We are the servants of Goooooddddddddddd!!!!" they screamed, as if that would save them.
The bricks were piled back up against the severely splintering wood door and the mortar was smeared across them until the bricks and door blended in perfectly with the wall that surrounded them. The faint yells could still be heard, but weakly, from inside as the Saxons left the Marius estate.
"We are the servants of God!"
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The speed of the snow did not increase but the depth at their feet soon did. Near the middle of the line, a wheel from a wagon had become stuck in the snow. Gawain rode to their side and nearly collided his gray stallion with Kera's red mare as they stopped next to the wagon.
"Sorry," Kera said, pulling Nonpareil to the side.
Gawain smiled at the girl's seemly sweet nature. He hadn't had much contact with her in the beginning but everyone saw Lancelot rush from the dining room at Marius's estate for the girl.
Together they dismounted and went over to see what the problem was. The oxen that were harnessed to the cart were mooing loudly, straining against their binds. The cart wheels merely spun around in the rut in the snow, stuck fast. A goat bleated from its shelter inside the wagon. The goat was hushed as an old grandmother petted its neck patiently. She sat just underneath the blanket that hung over the wagon. A small child bent her body in towards the wagon, trying with all his little might to heave the wagon from the snow by himself. Gawain and Kera passed another hidden smile towards each other, admiring the little boy's determination. The grandmother grinned lovingly at the boy, her grandson, as he cried out and pushed against the wagon. Together, they stood on either side of the boy, bending their backs and planting their hands on the back of the wagon. Pushing with all their might, the cart moved several inches forward before collapsing into softer snow.
Arthur rode up on his pale charger. Slipping to a stop, the stallion sprayed up a wave of snow which hit Gawain at full blast. Lancelot followed.
"Leave them," he said. "We have no time. The Saxons advance."
Gawain grouchily shook the snow from his hair as Kera stepped forward and protested.
"How can we leave it? The villagers will starve without their food!" she said.
Arthur pulled his head back, not used to having his commands questioned against.
"They will live. Better an empty stomach than a death from the Saxons. We have no i time /i ," he repeated again.
The little boy that still had not given up, suddenly rammed his shoulder into the wagon's wall. Without Gawain and Kera's help, the wagon suddenly slipped off to the left, its wheels spinning on a patch of ice. The boy screamed as the cart, goat, oxen, grandmother, and food all plunged into a deep ravine off the side of the path. The bays of the oxen screamed in Arthur's ears, as he watched horrified as the cart smashed into the oxens' bodies. A weak i bahhh /i came from the goat as it slipped from the cart and fell upon a stack of rocks, snapping its neck immediately. The old woman was tossed clear of the cart and bounced across the ground, plunging deeper into the gorge before coming to an abrupt stop at the bottom where an icy river still surged. The water swirled around her gray hair before pulling her body into the flow.
Kera's head spun around as the whole thing happened to quickly. Turning around, her eyes were full of hatred and her hands clenched into her palm.
"Then I will take your advice and go on an empty stomach for obviously you don't care about there's," she hissed, waving her arm at the villagers that were solemnly trekking up the trail.
The little boy sat down in the snow, his eyes streaming with tears as he mourned for his only living relative who now was dead. He would have jumped into the ravine himself to join his grandmother if it hadn't been for Kera who scooped him up in her arms. Placing him in the saddle, she swung herself on behind him.
"It's alright," she whispered in his ear as she cantered off forward.
Arthur sat motionless in his saddle, Lancelot and Gawain beside him.
"She didn't mean it, Arthur," Lancelot tried.
Arthur shook his head and snapped back, "She meant every word. She was right, Lancelot."
Pursing his lips he turned his horse around and rode off. Lancelot looked to Gawain pitifully, his eyes asking what he should do.
"Well go on," Gawain said, waving towards Kera.
Sighing, Lancelot left Gawain's side and caught up with Kera. She refused to look at him even when he circled ahead of her and blocked her from going any farther. Even then, she just led Nonpareil around Lancelot.
"Kera," he pleaded.
She said nothing and rode on.
" b Kera /b ," he said a bit louder.
She whipped her head around, her eyes fierce.
"What do you want Lancelot? How can you obey that man even though he refuses to help them? They will die now for their food is gone. The only thing that keeps them going is him! And now he turns his back to them!"
"Arthur meant well. He would not let them die if it would cost him his life. He is weary, Kera."
Kera turned her cheek towards him. Wrapping one arm tighter around the shivering boy, she whispered, "Explain it to him then, Lancelot. Explain to him why his grandmother is dead."
Before Lancelot could protest, she raced off towards the front of the line. Galahad came up next to him, his horse swinging his head from side to side.
"She is as different as you say she is," he mused.
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Author's Note: Je suis finis. On to chapter 14. How old I am. Yay…. Pardon the terrible title but I couldn't think what was the real base of this chapter and I thought that the argument about the wagon and food and goats and stuff was the main thing so I decided to base the title after it. So sorry again.