Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in the movie. I only wish I did...especially TRISTAN!
Chapter 2: Thoughts
He was staring at it again. It was as if he drew strength from it. After every battle, every fight, he would sit far away from the others and stare at it. If he had spare time, he would stare at it as he would stare into a lover's eyes. His fellow knights were more confused than ever. They did not know why it meant so much to him. His eyes would soften every time he looked at it. Every time he looked at that tattoo on the back of his right hand. A Raven.
"Be ready. We ride in a while." Arthur's voice snapped him out of his reverie. "Tristan! You will ride ahead."
He stood up, whistling for his hawk. It soared down, landing on his outstretched arm. He whispered to it, softly, caressing it with a gentleness that he was rarely seen with, or if not at all. Suddenly, it spread its wings and took flight. Tristan quickly mounted his horse and rode, following the magnificent animal. The hawk was his companion, his guide. It never failed him.
"Arthur! The caravan is just up ahead." Tristan, returning from his duty as scout, rode alongside Arthur. They stopped as they reached the end of the forest.
"Our freedom, Bors." A young knight stated.
"Mmm. . . I can almost taste it." A large, burly knight replied, chuckling.
They looked on, observing the caravan as it made its way across the green plains. At a time they least expected, arrows shot out from the woodland across the field.
"Woads!"
"Ride!" Arthur, their commander ordered.
Without hesitation, they urged their horses into a hard run. Arthur rode ahead, his knights following in line on both sides. They all rode as swift as the wind to complete their last task in anticipation of freedom waiting for them after the battle. Or so they thought.
Each knight was exhausted, but nothing could wipe away the grins that graced their rugged faces. Even their usually unemotional scout was grinning ear to ear.
"Well, now that we're free men, I'm going to drink till I can't piss straight." Stated Bors, laughing.
"You do that every night." Gawain pointed out.
"I never could piss straight. Too much of myself to handle, down there I mean. It's a problem! No, really, it is! It's like - "
"A baby's arm holding an apple!" the rest of them chorused.
Arthur smiled to himself. He liked hearing his knights laugh, for they rarely did. They all deserved to be free. They all deserved to live and see their home once again.
"I don't like Rome. If he's here to discharge us, why doesn't he just give us our papers?" Galahad stated, eyes narrowing a bit.
"Galahad, is this your happy face?" Gawain replied. "Do you still not know the Romans? They don't scratch their asses without holding a ceremony."
"Why don't you just kill him, and discharge yourself after?" Bors suggested, a mischievous gleam in his eyes.
"I don't kill for pleasure, unlike some." He stated, jerking his chin towards the silent scout, Tristan.
"Well, you should try it someday. You might get a taste for it." He retorted, grinning. Gawain let out a heartily laugh.
"It's part of you. It's in yer blood." Bors was half-serious.
"N-no-no. As of tomorrow, this was all just a bad memory."
"Oh. . ." Bors was suddenly somber.
As for the rest of them, they doubted if everything that happened these past fifteen years could only be a memory. Tristan retreated to his usual untalkative self. Is it possible that all the battles they had won and all the people they had killed, could only be just a memory? No. To him, it was a wound – a wound that would eventually leave a scar, if it would still be able to heal.
"I've often thought what going home would mean after all this. What will I do? Stiffer for Galahad, I have been in this life longer than the other. So much for home – it's not so clear in my memory." Gawain's eyes had a distant look within them.
"Well, you speak for yerself – it's so cold back there. And everybody I know is getting married. Besides, I have, I think, a dozen children." All the mirth had disappeared from the eyes of the large knight.
"Eleven!" they all corrected.
"You listen, when the Romans leave here, we'll have the run of all this place. I'll be... governor of my own village, and Dagonet will be my personal guard and royal ass-kisser, won't you, Dag?"
The gentle giant, Dagonet, looked away.
"First thing I will do when I get home is to find myself a beautiful Sarmatian woman to wed." Gawain stated.
"A beautiful Sarmatian woman? Why do you think we left in the first place?"
Gawain scoffed as Bors made a mooing noise. The rest of the knights laughed.
"What about you, Lancelot, what are your plans for home?" Bors asked, a grin still on his face.
"Well if this woman of Gawain's is as beautiful as he claims, I expect to be spending a lot of time at Gawain's house. His wife can work with the company." Lancelot answered, casting a sidewards glance at Gawain.
"I see. Then what will I be doing?" he met his comrade's gaze.
"Wondering at your good fortune that all your children look like me." Lancelot answered cockily. Bors laughed.
"Is that before, or after I hit you with my axe?" Gawain muttered.
Tristan whistled for his hawk as it swooped down from the sky and landed on his outstretched arm. "Where you been, eh? Where you been?" he whispered lovingly to it.
"What about you Tristan? What will you do when you get home?" Gawain suddenly asked.
This surprised Tristan that somebody was actually asking him, though he showed no sign of it. He looked straight at Gawain.
"That depends if I still have a home." He said no more, which left his comrade confused. He looked straight ahead, his face betraying no kind of emotion as different thoughts ran through his troubled mind.
Will she still be waiting? Would she have married? She bore my mark, as I bare hers, even unknowingly. More importantly, who protected her during my time of absence? It has been a long time, would she even remember me? Alyna, I could only hope that you still await my return.
If only he knew.
AN: There! Hope you liked it! Please review. What do you think's gonna be in the next chapter? Better watch out for it then, right? Thanks for all the reviews, by the way!