Note: Sorry it has taken me so long to update. I've been busy planning my wedding. I'm getting married on May 8th at the Renaissance Festival. It's been a nightmare finding the right dress, etc. But I'm almost done with the shopping so I should be able to update more often.
Same Disclaimers apply.
On with the story…
As Laney got closer to the area the sounds were coming from she ran into Jols. He seemed to be rushing toward the main area. She tried to call out a question, but he didn't slow down. He had a worried look on his face and she suddenly realized the sounds she had been following had stopped. She picked up her pace and ran into the open area of the practice yard. The knights were standing around in a circle looking down at something she couldn't see through the throng of people. She rushed up and tried to push her way between two people, not noticing one of them was Tristan.
Lancelot was laying on the ground and there was a bloody gash on his forehead and his eyes were closed. His face was a sickly shade of white. Before she knew what she was doing she pushed her way through and dropped to her knees beside the fallen man. "What happened?" she demanded from the others. Galahad was the first to find his tongue, "we were practicing close quarters combat, and suddenly Lancelot was lying on the ground. Tristan said he made a move that caught Lancelot by surprise." He sounded skeptical about the last part and Laney looked back at Tristan. "What did you hit him with?" She needed to know what caused the wound so she could figure out how serious it was.
"My sword," was all he said. She looked down at the sword he was holding and saw that it was the real thing and not a wooden practice sword. She looked around at the others and saw they too were holding real weapons. "My God, do you always practice with real weapons?" Then shaking her head, she turned back to Lancelot, "it's a wonder you all haven't killed yourselves by now." Her voice held the derisive tone of someone tired of watching kids fight on the playground. The men looked at each other and back to the woman kneeling on the ground. She was touching his face and mumbling to herself.
She felt his skin and found it to be warm. That was good. If it had been cold and clammy it could have been a sign that he was in shock. She reached down to the hem of her tunic. The material was so thick she could not rip it so she looked around for something to hold over the bleeding wound. Suddenly a cloth was being pushed into her hand. She took it and proceeded to wipe the blood from Lancelot's wound. She wanted to get a closer look at how bad it really was.
After the blood had all been wiped away, she saw that the cut wasn't as deep as first thought. She knew that head wounds usually bleed much heavier than other cuts so she wasn't surprised that it looked so much worse than it actually was. She looked around the group of men and asked, "How long has he been unconscious?" When no one answered she looked up and saw confusion on their faces. She repeated her question so they could understand, "How long has he been knocked out?" Immediately Bors spoke up, "It just happened before you came up."
She nodded and looked back at Lancelot. There seemed to be more color in his face but his eyes had not moved. "Show me what hit him." Immediately Tristan held his sword out in front of her. When she saw the sharpness of the blade, she was surprised the cut wasn't worse. "Did the blade hit him or the hilt?" Tristan thought for a moment and then pointed to the blade just below the hilt. She saw that the blade was not sharpened that far up and was glad. "Thank you. We need to get him in out of the sun. Where's the closest room where we can lie him down?"
Gawain spoke up quickly, "The knights quarters are the closest unless you count the stable." She instructed them to pick him up and try to hold him as level as they could. Two people were needed to accomplish this and as they headed toward the rooms she instructed the others that she needed hot water, clean cloths, and whatever healing balm they might have. Galahad told her, "Dagonet has things like that, should I find him?" She told him to go and saw that the others were heading in the same direction. "And hurry!" she shouted to their backs.
As soon as she saw them head off she turned and headed toward the room Lancelot called home. When she arrived Tristan and Gawain had already put Lancelot on the bed. He looked really pale again and she placed her hand on his forehead. His skin was still warm and the profuse bleeding had slowed to a thin trickle. She picked up the cloth and turned it until she found a fairly dry spot. Gently she wiped his cut again. As she did, Lancelot moaned. That was a good sign. If he could feel the pain, then he was coming around. Until she heard the moan she hadn't realized how scared she was that he was hurt too bad for her limited knowledge of medicine to help. She mostly knew something about herbology and whatever bits of information she had picked up listening to what people had to say about their own illnesses and what the doctors had told them.
She turned to Gawain and Tristan. "Have either of you heard of a plant called 'feverfew' or is there a willow tree close?" Neither of them had heard of 'feverfew' and the closest willow tree was close to the mineral springs. She sent them to get a few pieces of the bark and bring it back as quickly as possible. She also told them she needed some honey if they would be so kind as to tell someone to get it for her. When they had left the room she sat on the edge of the bed and watched Lancelot breathe. She took his hand in hers and just held it. She found herself feeling melancholy about the loss of such a happy day. Things had started out so nicely that she was sure this would be the turning point of her life here.
When Arthur walked into the room he found Laney sitting keeping a vigil over his friend. She didn't look up when he entered and he was reluctant to interfere with her solitude, but more important to him at that moment was finding out how badly Lancelot had been hurt. He walked slowly up to the bed and placed his hand on Laney's shoulder. She jumped slightly and looked up to see who was there. When she saw it was Arthur, she let go of Lancelot's hand and stood up. "It is not as bad as it looked when I first saw him, but he hasn't woken up yet. Until he does, I don't know what else to do except sit here and wait." Her voice trailed off and the last word came out as whisper. He thought she was having a hard time just waiting and doing nothing. "Sometimes Laney that is all we can do." She nodded, realizing that even in her time that was sometimes so.
It was quite a while before the things she had ordered started arriving. It didn't take so long for Dagonet to show up. When he arrived he found Arthur and Laney standing beside the bed looking at Lancelot and talking quietly. He couldn't hear what they were talking about, and as soon as they saw him, both shut their mouths and didn't say anything else. He had the distinct feeling that he had interrupted a very important conversation. He leaned over Lancelot, mimicking Laney's motions; feeling of his forehead, wiping the wound, and looking at how deep it was. Satisfied that what he'd been told was true, he turned to the other two and nodded his head. "It is as Laney says, there is nothing we can do except keep him comfortable until he awakens. The only thing more that can be done is to undress him and get him into his bed."
Laney made to step out of the room so they could do as Dag said when Tristan came back with the willow bark. He walked up to her and handed her the small cloth wrapped bundle, she thanked him and stepped out of the doorway. She felt his presence as he followed her. They stood in the hallway just outside the room for a couple of minutes before either one spoke. Finally, Laney looked at him and saw that he truly felt bad about the accident. Not that she had any doubt, all brothers felt bad when they accidentally hurt each other in 'play fighting'.
She reached over and placed her hand on his arm, "Tristan, I'm sorry I lost my temper earlier, I know the injury wasn't intentional and it isn't as bad as it first looked." She tried to make him feel better with her words and she was truly sorry she had looked at him so accusingly earlier. He stood there and didn't respond to her words. His face just kept the same blank expression. If only she could see his eyes through all that hair! She knew his eyes would tell her his feelings. The saying went, 'the eyes are the mirror to the soul' and he was proof that it was true.
Finally, he looked up at her and she saw the guilt in his eyes. "What you say is only partially true, Lady. We were arguing as we fought and our tempers got in the way of what we were doing." He lowered his eyes again, and she saw him hesitate for a moment. She took this chance to question him further. "What were you arguing about that could be so important that you forgot who you were fighting?" She thought he was going to walk away without answering when he turned to leave, then he stopped and looked at her with a dark intensity that made her feel a little afraid. "You." Was all he said as he finally left her side.
Laney stood there watching his retreating back. If it hadn't been that she might be called back into the room at any moment, she would have followed him and demanded an explanation. 'What on earth could they have been arguing about me for?' she thought. 'I don't know what my purpose for being here can be, but I'm sure it isn't to cause a riff between these men.' Just at that moment, Dag came to the door and beckoned her back inside. She thought it was probably the fact that she was 'different' than the women they had been around. That had to explain the way they all reacted to her whenever she was alone with one of them. She decided she would have to be careful when around these people. Maybe her search for love was getting in the way of her destiny. Then she silently berated herself for searching at all. Hadn't she always bragged to her friends that she didn't have to search? That love would find her no matter where she was? Having made that decision, she went back in to help care for the injured man.
When she got inside, she took the hot water that Galahad had brought back and poured some into the bowl on the table. Then she dropped some of the willow bark into it and began to stir it with her fingers. The water had cooled a good bit since it was brought in, but she thought it might still make a decent tea and the honey would make it easier to swallow as well as pushing it into his bloodstream sooner. It was either honey or alcohol, and since it was a head injury she didn't want to make him 'fuzzier' than he would already be.
As she was mixing her potion, Dag was cleaning the wound and putting some evil looking salve onto it. When he had finished he folded a cloth and gently placed it over the wound. Taking another cloth he ripped it into strips and began winding them around Lancelot's head to hold the bandage in place. After he had been treated, Laney stood back and looked at Arthur, "The brew I just made will help with the pain so he can rest, but we can't give it to him until he wakes. Otherwise he might choke on the liquid or it might hinder his coming around." When Arthur nodded his understanding, she turned to Dag. "Since you and I know the most about healing I thought we should take turns sitting with him until he wakes up. Do you agree?"
Dag looked from Lancelot to Laney and nodded. "Which shift would you like to take?" She knew he had been awake much earlier than she had this morning and might want to retire early and she knew there was no way she could sleep since she had only been awake a few hours. "Since I got the most rest, I'll be glad to sit with him the rest of today and until early in the morning. You can finish whatever you were working on when this happened and then get some rest." She offered. He gladly accepted and checking Lancelot one more time, he turned to leave the room. As he walked by Arthur he hesitated, Arthur looked at Lancelot and then at Laney, "I think I'll stay for a few moments, then I'll go take care of some things before I check back," He seemed to be waiting for approval from one or both of them and when first Laney nodded, then Dag, he settled down into the chair that was beside the bed.
After Dag had left the room, Laney pulled the other chair next to Arthur. She looked at the man for a moment and then decided he had a right to know what was going on. "Arthur, Tristan told me that he and Lancelot had been arguing when this happened." She paused, then continued, "about me." The last was said with a great measure of sadness. "I don't know what the argument was about specifically, Tristan left without giving me a chance to find out. But if it was about me, then I must have done something that would cause these two men to forget their friendship." She stopped talking and looked to Arthur for some kind of response. His eyes had been watching Lancelot's face and he slowly turned his gaze to hers.
"Laney, I've seen my men argue over a woman once or twice, but usually it never goes any further than that. Forgive what I'm about to say, but you must hear this. The argument is usually who will bed her first." He became quiet, giving Laney time to adjust to what his meaning was. Then he continued, "I've noticed how they all watch each other in your presence. But I never figured it would come to physical contact. Especially between these two." A heavy silence followed his words. Laney tried to think of anything she had done to cause these two men to fight. Tristan's words came to her mind and she felt that had to be what they were arguing about. But she didn't understand why they would argue. She was determined to figure it out, but now wasn't the time. She had promised to watch Lancelot and she always kept her promises, no matter what.