Thanks again for all the reviews, you are all lovely!

Just got to edit the next couple of chapters, but they'll be up very soon.

Oh, and this will eventually get into the movie, but I've decided to do so in a totally different fashion that will only involve really the main plot points of the movie. I mean, I take that all of you reading have seen the movie so it would be kind of boring to read what you watched. STAY TUNED! I won't give anything away, but I think you'll enjoy my approach. (Or I pray that you do)

Tell me what you think of this chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 25

Woad Territory

As she was lead through the deep forests by the band of Woads, Elaine mentally marked each stone, each tree, each bit of underbrush as she passed by. They weren't going to take her without a fight, and if she did happen to escape their grasp she'd know just where to go to get back towards the valley outside Hadrian's Wall. For now, she would allow the blue demons to lead her deeper and deeper into the woods, like a dog on a leash. Elaine chuckled bitterly to herself as she pictured how silly she must have looked that exact moment. Her hands had been tightly bound together in front of her, mainly because she'd scratched one of the men's faces hard, and that man was more than happy than be the one to lead her along with a rope tied to her neck. From time to time, he glanced back to her, smiling gravely through the drips of blood that had come from her scratch marks. Elaine secretly promised herself to go out of her way to kill that one, even if it meant doubling back in her escape just to do so.

A tug on her neck brought her back to the present, as the leader of the Woads stopped. He had been the one that had held the knife to Vanora, and seemed to be the only one among the woads to speak her language. He came up to her as she glared coldly to him, and reached around to touch her neck. She flinched, but he smiled.

"I am only trying to make you more comfortable, my lady."

"Don't bother."

The woad chuckled, looking her up and down,"As you wish, my lady."

"I am nothing of yours you beast."

He smiled the same sly smile once again, and Elaine was actually surprised to see that he wasn't an unattractive man in the least bit. 'Too bad God wasted his work on a man whose going to die soon,' she thought to herself.

"Well, not yet."

Elaine froze, watching him walk forward again. He reached forward in the brush and cleared a path with a swipe of his hand.

"We are here."

Elaine looked about here as she was lead through what appeared to be a Woad village. She gawked at the fur covered tents and the fire pits, and the men and women, and more importantly the children that had stopped what they were doing to watch her arrival. Elaine had never seen the woads as a people, a civilization, only as savage beasts who preyed on the helpless. But there she was, being dragged through their village.

The group of men stopped abruptly, causing Elaine to nearly bump into the scratched one. She looked up to see that they stood at the base of a great tree, where an old man stood proudly before them. He had a long brown beard that had streaks of gray forming, a strong but aging form, and he was covered in a fur cloak, holding a long staff at his side. Each of the men bent down on one knee, bowing to honor the elder before them. Scratchy, as Elaine had mentally dubbed him, began to force her to her knees out of respect but she kicked him in the instep of his foot, making him howl in pain.

Elaine looked up defiantly to the old man, "I bow to no one, other than God!"

When Scratchy charged towards her, the old man held up his staff. "Stop!"

The charging woad immediately paused, bowing low once again.

"Peace between us this night, Lady of the Lake. We mean you no harm."

"Tell that to the men who held a knife up to my friend and I."

"You should not hold anger in your heart for those whom your own mother called her people. Her love and beauty flows through you, I see it now. She was close to my heart."

Elaine glared up at the man, "You have no right to speak of her. Who are you?"

"I am called Merlin among my people. Among your people."

For a moment, Elaine thought her heart had stopped completely. She had nightmares ever since the day she left the shores of Briton nearly fifteen years ago, of a blue demon named Merlin, who roared out of the forests one night and swallowed her mother in flames. And ever since then, when she awoke sweating, tears falling down her face, she promised to avenge her mother and honor her father by slaying the one called Merlin, someday. Now, he stood before her, practically offering her an olive branch, and telling her that she belonged to his people.

"You took my mother away from me. You killed one of your own."

"And you have killed your own too. I did not wish her dead."

"Killed my own? Ha!"

Merlin raised his head, his eyes narrowing as a sorrowful expression overtook his countenance, "So you turn your back on the blood that follows through both our veins, like your brother. Have you given yourself completely to Rome, to those who murder and rape our land out from under us?"

Elaine's chest heaved up and down in anger, "I am no Woad, nor am I a Roman. Not by choice. No, I swore my allegiance a long time to the people of Shalott. I am a daugther of Gaelan. I am a Celt! ASCA AMIN YESTE' N'NDENGINA!"

The crowds erupted into foreign tongues, as the Woads looked at the woman before them. Many were astonished because they had never seen a Celt before.

"Silence!" Merlin spoke at last, raising his hand and staff high into the air. When the crowds had been quieted, he looked back down at Elaine with soft eyes. "Lady of the Lake, you have belonged to the Britons long before you gave yourself to the Celts."

"Why do you keep calling me that? Lady of the Lake."

Merlin smiled for the first time since they had met, "You were named Lady of the Lake long ago, when you were just a babe. You see, your mother had always been close to my heart, so I always kept my eye on her. One night at dusk, I came upon her, your father and your brother, deep in the woods at one of our sacred streams. They gave you to a holy man of the Romans, who dipped you completely under the cool running waters. Naturally, I feared he meant to harm you, so I made ready my bow to strike him down. But you came up again, and you smiled. You didn't cry, you simply smiled. Later on, when you're mother was dressing you and your father was attending to the horses, I came to her. Since then you have been the Lady of the Lake to our people."

Elaine stared dumfounded up at the man, searching her mind to discover just what he was trying to tell her. Suddenly, it struck her.

"My baptism. You confused my baptism."

Merlin's brow furrowed, "I do not know of what you speak."

Elaine shook her head, "Never mind. Just tell me why you have brought me here?"

The old man straightened up, "That night, when I went to your mother, a pact was made between us. You see, your mother was never meant to dwell with your father forever. She would have eventually had to come back to her people. But I allowed her to stay, if she promised to deliver you to us upon the night of your sixteenth year."

Elaine stood in utter disbelief. Her mother had promised to trade her life away so that she did not have to leave her father? How could she?

"You are promised to Blaise," with that, Merlin motioned and the leader of the band of Woads that brought her there stood, "Tomorrow you two will become one."

"What? No, no you can't make me."

"Tomorrow you will become a Briton once again."

Elaine shook her head, "No, no." Tears welled in her eyes. Her head swam with so many thoughts and emotions. Just as her world went black, Elaine called out as she thought she saw a hawk perched high in a tree above her.

"TRISTAN!"

Elaine's eyes shot open as she sprang up from the warm furs that she had been so comfortably wrapped in. She winced as a pain shot up through her wrists, which she discovered her bonds had been double-tied.

"Shh, calm yourself. You are safe."

Elaine whipped around to see a young woman reach out to gently push her back down on the furs again. She moved quickly out of her grasp, glaring at the woman, who must have been a few years younger than her. She had pale white skin and brown eyes, and long crimped black hair that reached down to her waist.

"I will not hurt you, I've only come to wash you."

The lady gave the woman a look that meant to say that if she even dared to touch her, she'd kill her in a heartbeat. Elaine glanced back down at her bound hands. Perhaps she could kick her.

The woman smiled warmly, trying desperately to gain Elaine's trust.

"I'm Guinevere."

"I don't give a shit who you are! Let me go."

Guinevere chuckled, pushing a loose strand of Elaine's hair away from her face, "Do you speak to your precious knights with that mouth?"

Elaine glared at her, "Oh, and I suppose that I'm meant to take a lesson on manners from a woman who runs around half-naked in the woods, covered head to foot in blue dirt!"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Celts live in the woods and run around half-naked."

Elaine shook her head,"Yes, but in lodges, the size of Roman palaces. And we only run around half-naked when we battle."

Guinevere erupted in laughter, but Elaine just remained stone cold. "They will come for me you know."

Guinevere froze. After a few minutes, Guinevere reached again to wash Elaine, and this time she allowed it.

After she was through, Guinevere began to run a wooden comb gently through Elaine's soft curls.

"Blaise is a good match. You will live a long happy life at his side."

Before Guinevere could react, Elaine whipped around grabbing her hand painfully in between hers. "I'd rather die."

Guinevere looked down at Elaine's previously bound hands in confusion,"How did you?"

Elaine smirked, "Perhaps you really aren't so well informed about Celts."

The British woman narrowed her eyes, pulling her hands out of Elaine's grasp, and tying them back together tightly. "You should be happy. Your match with Blaise will bring peace to these lands again."

Elaine chuckled sardonically, "And how exactly will it do that, pray tell?"

"A noble marriage between a Britain and a Roman will stop Arthur and Rome from invading our lands."

"Is Merlin that naive? Arthur would become so enraged when he heard that I had been forced into an unholy union, that he'd stop at nothing to hunt down each and every one of you. And Rome? You can't honestly think that Rome is going to quit this land forever because of me?"

Guinevere simply ignored all of Elaine's valid arguments, "You are doing it for the good of the people."

"NOT MY PEOPLE!"

The two sat in silence, neither one daring to say a single word to the other. Then Guinevere stood, walking slowly towards the tent entrance. Elaine watched as the young woman floated away, and stopped to look back at her with remorseful eyes. Elaine paused, unnerved by Guinevere's contradicting expression. She said one thing, but her eyes said another.

"I will return tomorrow, for the wedding is to be held at dawn," she said, turning outside, "Sleep well, Elaine."

Elaine sat in silence, staring down at her painfully bound hands. Only the soft sounds of the forest outside and the occasional footsteps of a passerby meet her ears. Looking around, despair filled her quickly; she feared that she would remain here in the woods among her sworn enemy for the rest of her life. She would be bound to a man she hardly knew forever. She would have to lay with him, bare him sons. Elaine soon noticed that tremors were shaking her whole body, and realized that tears were flowing freely down her face. A great sob emerged from the bottom of her throat, and Elaine threw herself down onto the furs, burrowing deep into it's warmth. She prayed to her life, prayed for Arthur, prayed for Vanora and the children, prayed for the men, for Lancelot, and for Tristan.

"SQUAWK!"

Elaine shot up, a great wave of relief washing over her as a familiar sight meet her eyes. Tristan's great hawk hopped into the tents entrance and made its way quickly over to the lady it had been trained to trust. It thrust it's head under her overturned palm, squeaking as she gently stroked it's feathers.

"You must be quiet little one."

The bird squawked, releasing it's grasp on something it held tightly in its claws. Elaine gasped as she saw five deep red rose petals drift slowly down into her lap. Tristan! He was coming for her. The men were coming for her. Elaine quickly reached above her neck, unclasping her mother's pendent, and wrapping it in the claws of the awaiting hawk.

"Tell them where I am."

The hawk let out one final squawk before hopping towards the entrance and taking flight. Tears of hope replaced the ones of despair only moments before, as Elaine caressed the silken petals against her palms. He was telling her he would stop at nothing to get to her, that he wouldn't let her be forsaken to a life among the Woads. Elaine lay back down upon the furs, bringing the petals up to her lips, imagining that they were his own lips, pressing down gently on hers. How she desired that he were with him at that very moment, so that she could tell him all the things she had been feeling for him for so long.