Chapter 11

Assuming my practice session was now over. I took my leave and started making my way to the tavern. It was definitely not how I had planned to spend this beautiful summer day, but what is done is done.

"Taryn wait up." I heard a voice behind me call, which I chose to ignore. I kept walking back straight, head held high toward my punishment for the day.

"Taryn, did you not hear me?" Gawain asked, as he caught up with me.

I kept my pace and did not even acknowledge his presence; I was not in the mood to look at him much less talk to him.

"Okay, okay, I know you're mad at me. Honestly though Taryn I did not mean to get you in trouble. I was really only half serious when I told Arthur it was your fault. I had no idea he would actually go along with the idea." He explained.

"Well you were pretty convincing." I snapped forgetting all about the silent treatment.

"Taryn I am trying to say I am sorry, I talked to Arthur and explained the situation more thoroughly to him. He said if that is how it was I could clean the tavern myself. So you are off the hook." Gawain said, and by the look on his face, he actually thought I would be fine with this.

"Gawain how about this, I will clean the tavern by myself and your off the hook. All you did was prove to Arthur I am incapable of doing anything on my own, and am always going to need one of you sticking up for me. So go do whatever it is you do all day, and leave me alone!" I said storming into the tavern.

It was definitely a wreck. There was broken glass, and pottery everywhere. Tables and chairs were overturned some of them smashed. There were puddles of ale mixed with blood all over the floor. I saw a large wooden tray in the corner of the room where it looked like someone had already begun to clean, and then got frustrated with the enormity of the job. I went and picked it up with a sigh, and started my duty.

A partially bald man, with a large belly was working back in the kitchen area. He must have heard me, for he started walking my way.

"Well well well it looks like Arthur found the cause of this mess, although you are certainly not who I was expecting." He said while shaking his head.

"Sir I am sorry about the trouble, I will work until it is all cleaned up." I said.

"Yes that is fine, but I want to know is who is going to pay for all the damages." He said with eyebrows raised.

"Well I would mister mister what is your name?" I asked.

"Haman" He replied.

"What I was saying, was I feel awful, but I have no money." I said while shrugging my shoulders.

"I believe I could fix that." He said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You work for me for one month and the debt is repaid." He said.

I was about to respond when we were interrupted by the entrance of Gawain.

"Taryn will not be working here." He stated quite firmly. "If there is money owed we will all take responsibility." He said.

"Gawain I believe this is none of your concern, and I told you not to come here besides that." I said pointedly.

"It is my business because I don't want to have to be cleaning this place up every time I have to keep one of the filthy Romans hands of off you!" He said.

"Gawain I can take care of myself, just like I would have last night if you wouldn't have jumped in without giving me a chance. I am telling you now I don't need your help!" I nearly shouted at him.

"I hate to interrupt this little lover's quarrel, but if this place is going to be clean by tonight you better get started." Haman said with a hint of amusement on his face.

"WE ARE NOT LOVERS." Gawain and I shouted at almost exactly the precise moment. I just looked at him, if I was not so mad I would have laughed, instead I turned in the opposite direction and started cleaning. It did not take quite as long as I thought it would to pick the place up with the two of us working. I picked up the now completely loaded wooden tray and began to carry it out to the trash bin. I nearly stumbled under the weight of it, the pieces of glass and clay weighed far more than they looked.

"Taryn I will get that for you." Gawain offered.

"Okay", I said handing it to him. He had a surprised look on his face.

"I may be stubborn, but I'm not stupid!" I said turning back to my chores, I heard him laughing under his breath.

"Haman" I yelled into the kitchen "where do I get water for the floors."

"There is a well outside the door, use the buckets and rags in the corner." He hollered back.

I went and filled two of the buckets, and began my scrubbing. When Gawain came back in, I pointed him in the direction of the other bucket. "We are almost finished could you hurry up please." I said.

"Slave driver." He muttered.

I had most of the floor cleaned, but my water was getting pretty disgusting. I went back out front to change it. When I entered the tavern I surveyed our work. The chairs and tables were all back in place, the trash was gone, as was most of the stains on the wood floor. I looked over to where Gawain was working. He was on his hands and knees scrubbing. It was a sight I am sure not many people had seen. A legendary Sarmatian Knight on his hands and knees scrubbing a floor. I looked down at my bucket full of clean, icy cold water, and a wicked, wicked idea came to me.

I crept as quietly as I could behind him, using all my Tristan taught stalking techniques. I held the bucket up and was going to sprinkle just a little of the water down the back of his neck, When I suddenly felt a hand on my ankle. It startled me so bad that the little drops turned into half the bucket. Gawain jumped up and spun around.

"TARYN" He started to yell, and then on second thought grabbed the bucket out of my hands and emptied the rest of it over my head. We just stood there dripping, and glaring at each other for a brief moment. Then he began to smile, the smile was a contagious one, for soon I was grinning from ear to ear.

"I just couldn't help myself." I said between giggles.

"Yeah me neither." He laughed.

"Friends again?" he asked.

"I'll have to think about that one." I said with teasing in my voice.

"What are you two doing now?" Haman yelled when he saw us standing there dripping.

"I think I have had enough help for the day, off with both of you." He said.

"Gladly." Gawain said tossing his scrub brush back into the bucket. "Taryn, shall we?" He said offering me a soggy arm.

"We shall" I said taking the offered arm. "Goodbye Haman." I called over my shoulder.

"Don't forget, you start tomorrow." He yelled after me.

As we walked out the door the blistering afternoon sun poured down on us. My beautiful day had turned into a scorcher.

"The wet clothes actually feel pretty good." I joked. "Are the summers here always this hot?" I asked.

"It is not to bad, today is hotter than normal. You will get used to it." He said matter of factly.

"Maybe if I can survive that long." I said dramatically.

"What time do you think it is?" He suddenly asked.

"I don't know" I said looking at the sky "probably two past the noon hour."

"Well we have time then." He said.

"Time for what?" I asked.

"You will see, let me go get Galahad, he would pout for a week if I did not get him, meet me in the stables in ten minutes." He said as he was turning to walk away.

Okay this could be interesting. What surprise could Gawain have in store; I am not sure I wanted to know. I debated going to the stables, or just returning to my room to take a nap, but curiosity got the better of me. I started making my way to the stables. It was not long before Galahad and Gawain joined me.

"Bridle your horse but no saddle, we wont be riding long, and it would be to hot for them." Gawain said.

"Well can you at least tell me where we are going?" I asked again.

"But that would ruin the surprise." Galahad said.

I rolled my eyes in response. We led the horses out the back, and down a side ally. At each corner Gawain would stop and look both ways before crossing. Soon we were at the back end of the fort.

"Why do I get the feeling we are sneaking out." I asked.

"Because we are" said Galahad. "Don't you think we have things we are to be doing in the middle of the day?"

"I don't know what you are supposed to be doing, but after this morning I would not want to make Arthur mad again." I told them both.

"Yes I suppose he was a little cranky this morning, but don't worry, he won't find us." Galahad said confidently.

"Okay see the woods over there." Gawain pointed to some trees several kilometers from the back of the fort. "Ride quickly over there one at a time there is a trail when you pass those first big oaks."

"What are we doing now playing spy?" I asked at there silly boyish antics.

"Just follow us." Galahad said over his shoulder as he started riding toward the woods.

"Fine" I said as I followed them into the woods. There was a trail right were Gawain had said. It was narrow, and did not look like it had been ridden lately, there were weeds, and trees overgrown into it, but the horses made there way. It was a great little trail other than that. There were enough trees to block the burning sun, but not to many to block all the light. There was a variety of different trees, I had never seen before, and colorful plants. I could not get over the colors, such a vast change from the land I had came from. After about 20 minutes of riding, I started to hear a sound different than the ones of the birds chirping. It sounded almost like running water. I looked ahead and saw Gawain and Galahad had stopped and were waiting for me to catch up.

"Well here we are." Galahad said.

I looked beyond there shoulder, and to say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. There was a small lake, the sun shone of it, the water was so clear, you could see the rocky bottom, but the most impressive thing of all was the waterfall that fell over the cliffs about 30 feet above the water.

"Surprise." Gawain said.

"Oh it is so beautiful!" I exclaimed. "When did you find it?"

"I think we had been here what about a month when we found it, right Galahad?" Gawain said.

"So you two have been sneaking off here for the last fifteen years?" I asked.

"Well we don't always sneak, we only sneak when we are supposed to be doing something else, but we have not been here for several years, there just hasn't been time." Gawain said.

Gawain and Galahad dismounted, and began stripping off there clothes.

"Um, what are you two doing?" I asked.

"Swimming." Galahad replied. "You didn't think we ride up here for the view did you?"

"Well actually I did." I said trying not to stare at there well muscled bodies. "Are you going to be taking off all your clothes?" I asked with my hand now covering my eyes. I heard laughing in response.

"No Taryn, we are not going to bare all in front of your innocent little eyes." Gawain laughed.

I slowly peaked through my fingers and noticed they had their under drawers on. I breathed a sigh of relief. They continued to laugh at me, as they turned and jumped into the inviting water.

"So what am I supposed to do?" I yelled down at them. "Be your look out?"

"No, come join us." Galahad called out to me.

"No, I don't like to swim." I said back to them.

"Well" said Gawain pulling his body out of the water. "We will just have to help you."

"Noooo, I screeched running in the opposite direction. I was almost to my horse when I stumbled on a branch, long enough for him to catch me. I felt his cool wet arms wrap around my waist, he carried me kicking and screaming to the waters edge.

He set me down, on the bank of the lake. "Okay, take off whatever you don't want wet." He said with a smile on his lips.

"I am not taking any of my clothes of in front of you!" I said firmly.

"Okay", have it your way he said, preparing to heave me into the lake.

"Alright, alright" The thought of riding back to the fort in wet britches, and shoes was not appealing. My tunic would be long enough to cover anything I did not want seen, so I pulled off my shoes.

"Turn your back." I said to Gawain.

"If you promise not to run." He said.

"I promise." I said as he started to turn.

I quickly stripped off my pants and before he could turn back around, I dove into the water. Oh it was heavenly, not to cold not to warm just perfect. We spent hours just swimming, talking, floating, and occasionally some good natured dunking. It was the most fun I have had in years.

"I think we need to start heading back." Gawain said all too soon.

"Oh do we have to." I said poking my lip out, as I had seen Bors children do time and time again to get there way with there daddy.

"What first we have to drag you in here and now we have to drag you out?" Gawain laughed.

"Okay, but promise me you will bring me back." I pleaded.

"I promise, now come on before they realize we are missing." Gawain said.

I begrudgingly pulled myself out of the water, and began to put my pants back on. My cream colored shirt was sticking to me, and very see through. I looked up to Gawain and Galahad busy dressing and not paying the least bit of attention to me. Oh well, I thought, its nothing new to them. I walked over to where I had tethered Black.

"Come on boy want a drink." I said leading him to the lake, and letting him take a few drinks of the cool water. Galahad and Gawain did the same with their mounts.

We were soon back on the trail and headed home. Home, it was strange that I already thought of the fort as home, I had only lived there a little over two weeks. I never thought I would call a Roman fort home, but then again home is not a place it is people, and already, I had many there that I cared about, I thought looking at the two dripping knights ahead of me.

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I went up to my room to get a fresh change of clothes; Arthur wanted us all to meet at the round table this evening for dinner together. I guess he was feeling bad about his mood earlier in the day. I changed my clothes and began to attempt to do something with my hair. I tried to pull it out of the bun I had put it into earlier in the day, but the curls, had turned into knots, and it was wound so tight in places around the tie, I did not think I would ever get it out. I worked for what seemed like hours, it was more like 20 minutes, trying to get the tie out. I am very tender headed and the pain was getting excruciating. I was interrupted from my task by a knock at the door.

"Come in." I called.

It was Gawain. "Ready to go yet?" He asked.

"Gawain", I said with tears starting to form in my eyes. "I think I am going to need you to cut my hair off."

"Wow, you do have a mess", he said looking at my snarled hair. "But I think we can manage, here give me your comb, I do have some experience with hair." He said tossing his golden locks behind his shoulder.

He then began to gently disentangle my hair, combing here, unwinding there, and occasionally cutting. He explained he would only cut the places so tangled that he could not work the comb through. Soon we were joined by another person searching for me, my father.

"Taryn, what on earth did you do to your hair?" he asked.

"Don't ask," Gawain answered for me. "Come Tristan, he said holding out an extra comb, come help make your daughter presentable. Surprisingly enough he took the comb, and began trying to rid me of my many tangles.

Galahad who was walking down the hall saw my open door, and stuck his head in. "Oh Taryn your hair looks awful." He exclaimed. I could feel the evil glares he received from the two men sitting behind me.

"If you don't want to help leave." Gawain snarled at him.

"Well what can I do?" Galahad asked.

"Moral support." I said pitifully, this is torture for me.

He came and sat in front of me taking my hands in his. "Poor Taryn, you're such a brave girl." He cooed jokingly.

"I do believe I have seen everything." I heard a voice near the door say. I started to turn to look.

"Don't move your head darling; I have a knife at your scalp." Gawain commanded. "Lancelot please shut the door and tell Arthur we will be along shortly, we had an emergency." I could hear the laughter all the way down the hall.

Finally the whole painful ordeal was over. Tristan had pulled what hair they had left back into a braid. I looked at the pile of hair on my bed and the floor.

"It is not as much as it seems Taryn." Galahad comforted. "You had so much no one will even notice any is missing."

"And from now on take better care of your hair." Gawain scolded. "Or next time we will cut it all off."

I just nodded my head sadly, for once, Gawain was very right. The four of us, then made our way to the round table, anxious to see what Arthur had in store for us.

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