Well meant deception

Rating: PG 13

I own nothing except places and people I make up. I don't even own Kay. He belongs to the King Arthur myths.

Sarmatia

454D

Sabina mounted her mare Bonnie and cantered away from her home. Unshed tears prickled in her eyes. She could still hear them taunting her.

"She'll never get a husband- look at her she's practically a boy."

It was true Sabina thought bitterly. She practically was. She wasn't pretty, she didn't even look like a female, much less act like one. Sabina was thirteen years old, she wore her dirty blonde hair to her shoulder blades in an attempt to make her look more feminine, it worked- but only slightly. She was tall for a girl, she was the height of the boys, and muscular- well for a girl. A lot of the boys were more muscular than her. She had no breasts yet and her face was boyish- except for the eyes. They were the only attractive thing about her. She fought too, something most girls didn't do. She was skilled at archery, hand to hand, sword and various other weapons, she was also a very good horse rider, and incredibly fit. This was probably only because she practiced these things a lot. That was because she didn't socialize with the girls of her tribe. There were few boys. These she practiced with before they were sent away. Her twin brother Salem was to join the ranks of the other Sarmartian boys to be Knights in Briton. Salem was a good fighter and he and Sabina would practice a lot, before he got sick. Sabina worried about him. She hoped that the Romans would be late enough to give him time to recover. She halted her grey mare Bonnie when she saw one of her few friends Arnold galloping towards her. The aged ex Knight halted beside her, puffing.

"What's wrong?" Sabina asked, alarmed by Arnolds haste.

"The Romans are coming, a day off." Sabina gasped.

"Oh no, they can't- Salems still ill." Arnold nodded.

"You are a very good fighter, Sabina. You're probably sick of hearing this but you look boyish." Sabina looked at Arnold, bemused for a moment then it struck her what he was implying.

"You think I should pretend to be Salem?" She asked.

"No, but you could pass. I'm not saying you should." Arnold replied slowly "you know how dangerous it would be."

"Arnold help me, what should I do, how can I do it." Arnold thought for a moment.

"Leave it to me, I'll go to them tell them my Grandson wishes to meet them at the… the falls. You go, get Salems gear, cut your hair. Make sure you get essentials like breastbands things for your monthly bleeding. I'll tell your parents what happened. Okay go, meet me at the falls." she turned Bonnie and headed for home.

She collected all I needed and found Salem. I told him everything. Salem didn't argue. Even though he was a good fighter, he hated it. Sabina was more of a warrior at heart. He understood the logic behind it to. He knew he wouldn't last. He sighed.

"What shall I do?" Sabina thought for a second.

"Get ma and pa to pretend the Romans don't need you, you could study healing like you always wanted to. And as for me. Tell everyone that I died. Make up how I died so that they don't need my body. Okay cut my hair."

Sabina joined Arnold and the Romans at the falls, said good bye to Arnold and left with the Romans.They traveled for months picking up other Sarmatian boys, she was always careful to make sure no one recognized her as a girl. The three boys selected along with Sabina too be knights didn't go to our command straight away, we underwent training until our trainers thought they were ready. The age you had to be to join the Knights was fifteen so she stayed there training for two long years. When Sabina was fifteen two others Galahad and Kay and Sabina journeyed to the wall. Sabina became fast friends with Galahad, even though she was usually quiet. Kay was loud, obnoxious and already a womanizer, he also bullied Sabina horribly. He was big for his seventeen years and strong. Although Sabina was just tall and muscled enough to pass as a boy, she was still kind of puny compared to some men. Galahad and even Kay were handsome, Sabina thought and immediately blushed. Galahad was much nicer though. If she as a girl had to chose between the two it was definitely Galahad she'd choose. She then pinched herself hard enough to pierce the skin and draw blood. 'Stop thinking like that' she told herself harshly, you want to give yourself away?

"Salem" Galahad called, it took Sabina a minute to realize it was her he was talking to, she was so preoccupied.

"What?" She called to him.

"Where staying at the next village." She nodded back to him.

After putting Bonnie away in a stall, grooming and feeding her and something to eat Sabina went for a quiet walk. She stopped suddenly and put a hand to her sword when she heard a twig snapping. She relaxed a bit, but not much when she saw the intruder was Kay.

"What do you want?" She asked tiredly. She wasn't in the mood for him. Sabina was so used to making her voice sound deeper so that came naturally to her now.

"Nothing." He replied and walked up to her and punched her on the face. Sabina used her greater speed and agility to dodge the second punch he threw at her and punched him first in the gut and then the face. Giving him an instant black eye. Sabina could feel her nose bleeding but she was sure it wasn't broken. Kay punched her again in the face this time hard enough to make her black out for a second, but he ran off when he heard footsteps coming. Sabina stood groaning, and saw Galahad coming towards her looking worried.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"Yep, I'm fine." She replied, coolly.

"Why does he do that to you?" Galahad asked not getting her hint.

"He just hates me. " Sabina stated simply. Galahad nodded.

"He looked sore." Sabina laughed faintly and grimaced as she placed her weight on a sore leg.

"Come on." Galahad said, understanding even though she needed it, that Sabina wouldn't appreciate help.

Together they walked back to the way house. They saw Kay, who glared at them. Galahad and Sabina both sniggered. Even though Sabina came off worse for wear, Kay looked pretty bad. They walked to their respective rooms and said goodnight. Sabina bathed her wounds in a wash basin that was left in her room. She put on her night shirt and breeches. She had a breastband to put under her night shirt, in case she was woken in case of an emergency. It was looser than her day ones but still hid her barely noticeable breasts. Sabina's breasts still hadn't gotten bigger and she still didn't have her monthly bleeding, which she was grateful for, but she still wondered if she'd ever get them. Thinking these thoughts Sabina fell into a restless sleep plagued with dreams of Kay taunting her saying he knew her secret and would tell everyone.

As they rode to their post with a caravan they were escorting Sabina had a strange sense that something bad was going to happen. She looked carefully into the woods surrounding her for signs of Woads, knowing if they didn't want to be seen they wouldn't be. She had fought them enough to realize this. They were ambushers, quick more than strong. Though she had fought enough to know that some were strong. They were much like Sabina, though she was reasonably strong others like Kay and Galahad were stronger. In a battle or a practice match she often fought men stronger than her, but she used her speed and agility to, usually beat them. She worked tirelessly to build up her strength, which was working but she still new she'd have a bloody hard time in battle with a strong enemy. Sabina's feelings of unease just kept getting worse and worse. She looked at Galahad.

"Can you sense it?" she asked, one of the few things she'd said to him today apart from 'hello' and a few comments. Despite this they were firm friends.

"What?" Galahad asked.

"The presence, I think the Woads are getting ready to ambush." She explained. Galahad nodded.

"Now that you say it, I can. Be alert." Sabina nodded and returned to searching the woods with her eyes. She was the scout of the group. Sure enough an arrow came out of the bushes and hit the man behind her who hit the ground with a grunt. Luckily Sabina was looking at where the arrow came from when it was shot. She grabbed her bow and shot the offender from the tree he was hiding in. She shot two more while they charged the caravan and then swapped her bow for her sword. She and Galahad fought well together so they paired of and cantered to a group of woads. Sabina sliced a mans heat neatly of and was pulled from her horse by the woads surrounding her, in the back of her mind she briefly noted they had done the same to Galahad. She fought her way over to her friend and they fought back to back. Sabina had just finished slicing a mans throat neatly after gutting him when she noticed about fifteen mounted warriors charging toward the caravan. She didn't pay too much attention though because a woad who looked strong charged her. He swung his axe at her, which she dodged nimbly. He had swung his axe with so much strength he overbalanced and she was able to kill him. She was grateful he made that mistake. If he didn't he would have been a tough one to beat. Sabina made her way to her mare, Bonnie and vaulted onto her. She took the risk to glance at what was going on and was glad she did. One of the men that just joined he fight, a Sarmatian Knight? She wondered. Definitely not a Roman, had just been hit by an arrow and was in a spot of bother. She shot a woad about to sneak up on the stricken man and put her bow away. She pulled out her sword and while Bonnie trampled a woad- Sabina was sure she did it on purpose- she stabbed another woad and swung round to behead another. An arrow struck her in the thigh and for the second time in a few minutes she was pulled from her horse. She stood quickly, sword still in hand and gutted another woad. She pulled the arrow from her leg, but the shaft broke anfd half was still embedded in her leg. Ignoring the sharp pain it gave her she fought her way to the man who despite being injured was putting up a brave defense. She stood with him helping him fight off others. Soon enough the battle was over. She helped the man pull the arrow out of it's tricky resting spot.

"Thanks" he grunted and held out his hand. "Dagonet." He said, introducing himself. Sabina took the hand.

"Sab-Salem." She said, quickly fixing her error. She hoped he wouldn't notice. She studied him. While not a handsome lady killer she thought he was good looking. He also had kindness in his eyes, and she noticed was tall and muscular.

"Are you a Knight of the Round table." She asked him finally. He nodded.

"And are you to join us?" he asked and Sabina nodded too. He noticed the half broken arrow in Sabina's leg. It was bleeding reasonably fast, but was already slowing down.

"Here" he said "let me fix that." He pulled the rest carefully out and Sabina made sure she didn't wince too noticeably as it was pulled out, but it hurt like hell. Sabina pulled out some cloth she kept on her incase of accidents like this, while he did the same. They smiled at each other and dressed each others wounds. After that they walked to where everyone was assembling. Sabina couldn't help but feel a little hope- she might make a new friend.

A/N: Should I continue? If you're thinking it's going to be a Sabina/Galahad pairing it probably won't be. I already have someone in mind. Review please, even if it's flame. It'll help my writing.