A Fate Forever Sealed
Disclaimer: I do not own anything
Chapter Four: Bow and Arrow
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The next morning was very busy as we prepared to leave, the sun was weak and the air crisp. It had stopped snowing, and the snow left on the ground had become muddy, and was no longer strikingly white against the earth, but a dull brown colour, as the sun rose higher and higher, it began to slowly start dissolving into water, as it did this miniature streams of water would run down the soils surface, then it would be carelessly sucked up by the many roots, that inhabited the soil in a maze, underneath the surface. Although the sun was weak, it was nevertheless still there, the sun shone through the trees leaves, leaving dappled stencilled looking flickering patterns which danced across the wild grass. As if dancing on the tips of the blades of grass.
As soon as my eyes opened, Guinevere was there, she was sitting next to me leaning against the wall staring at me, I jumped when I saw her staring at me.
"Why do you do that." I choked out still shocked.
"Elle, I need to talk to you." Worry was taking over her face.
I was unsympathetic, I was not a morning person, and apart from despising being woken up early, I hated being watched as I slept, or waking up to someone staring at me. I couldn't stand it, it was so uncomfortable, so odd, that someone would stare at me while I was sleeping.
"It had better be really important; you scared the pants off me." I grumbled into the warm furs, wishing she would leave me.
Guinevere then confided in me what she had done last night.
I sat bolt upright, whacking my head on the wood in the process.
"You took Arthur to Merlin" I gasped. She nodded,
"I had to, Merlin asked me to."
"What did Arthur say, I heard he hated Merlin." She nodded again.
"He was really angry at first, said I had betrayed him. Then he just left, I think he's thinking about it, I'm not sure. No matter what happens, my people come before my heart." Her face was set, in determination and calm, but no expression, no matter how forced, could hide the sorrow that clouded her eyes. I took her hand reassuringly.
"Arthur's a reasonable person, he'll think about it, don't worry about it." She gave me a small smile, that didn't reach her eyes.
She moped about all morning. I had to do something, this is what friends are for, right?
I took the plunge, In an attempt to take her mind off Arthur and Merlin, I asked her to teach me what she had been dying to teach me since she'd met me, which I'd been putting off for as long as I could.
"Guinevere, could you show me how to use a bow and arrow? I offered. My fingers crossed, in silent hope she would say no. Her face brightened slightly.
"Yes of course I will, I'd love to! We have about an hour before we leave anyway." She jumped off the carriage. "Follow me, I'll ask Jols for a spare bow."
"Oh, Ok." I said nervously, wondering whether my brilliant plan to keep her mind off Arthur and Merlin was so brilliant.
"So- soon, maybe we should wait a bit, I mean I-"
She handed me a Bow and a tube of arrows "-wouldn't want to rush things" I finished meekly.
I gave her a weak smile. She strapped the bows to my back, and handed me the bow which I took apprehensively.
A weight plummeted to the bottom of my stomach.
"Now put your hand back, and take a bow." I did as she said, my hand shook slightly. "Now put it on the bow, and rest the front of the arrow in the little dent, clasp your fingers around- no not like that, like this- hold front of bow steady –yes that's right- pull back firmly, concentrate on your target, and release."
'Oh God! Help me!' I thought desperately. I closed my eyes and let go,
There was a silence.
'What the hell have I done!' I screamed to myself, allowing panic to take over. 'Did I hit someone?' 'You should have kept your eyes open! you idiot.'
I opened my left eye cautiously, then the other.
"Not bad." said Guinevere. I could see in front of me, the same bow I had shot was on the target, attached to the tree. It hadn't reached the bull's-eye but was one ring out.
I heard someone clap behind me; I turned around to see the grinning face of Lancelot.
"Not bad at all for a first attempt." He said still grinning. "But it might help, if next time you kept your eyes open."
"You never know, it adds a sense of excitement to the whole experience." I said cringing, at my failed attempt to be witty.
'Maybe if I just keep my mouth shut, I won't embarrass myself, any more today.' I thought desperately,
'He is so Gorgeous!' I thought as I looked at those perfect locks, that would every now and that would fall into those perfect eyes, and that grin, If I wasn't careful I would start swooning at the sight of it.
I clapped my hand to my head and turned away, I couldn't look at him, he was too much of a distraction. 'Not a bad distraction' came a sly voice in my head. Deciding to direct my gaze on, a group of old women, squabbling over the last carrot. I began to try and control the thoughts in my head.
'WHAT ARE YOU DOING!' I shrieked to myself. 'WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?'
I smacked my hand against my forehead, trying to pummel some sense into that Lancelot obsessed mind.
'STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!' the voice in my head screamed, becoming hysterical.
Meanwhile the two onlookers, stared at Elle, as she continued to hit her forehead with her right hand.
Guinevere looked shocked and kept making movements to run forward and stop her, but each time she seemed to think the better of it and do nothing.
Lancelot however, looked thoroughly amused, as he watched the scene before him.
There was a movement, and the sound of rustling in nearby shrubs and weeds met the three pairs of ears, they all turned.
There in the clearing, stood Arthur, he looked like he'd been up all night thinking, There where dark circles under his eyes, and he looked pale. Elle thought she knew why.
He looked uncomfortable, he made his way forwards to Guinevere. The many Branches and sticks that had snagged onto his clothes snapped and cracked loudly as vines and branches where flung back into place. The sun shone down on his face, causing him to squint as he walked towards Guinevere.
"Guinevere, could I speak to you in Private, please" was all Arthur said.
"Yes of course. Lancelot, could you help Elle while I'm gone?" was Guineveres hasty reply, they left.
Lancelot sat down on a tree stump, his back to the sun, he drew his twin swords out, the blade glinted powerfully in the suns light making me avert my gaze, he started to sharpen his twin swords.
"Show me what you do, and I'll see if I can correct it." Lancelot said, not drawing his eyes away from his precious swords, as with each stroke of the sharpening stone, the blade became more and more lethal.
"Ok." I replied. I got my bow and arrow into place; I turned to him, checking if I could continue. He looked up, he studied me or a moment.
"No, wait a momement." He said as he walked towards me. "That's not how you do it." He positioned himself behind me and placed his arms over mine, I could feel his body next to mine, it was so warm, I could smell his scent from where I stood.
'Focus Elle' I thought quickly, drawing myself out of this fantasy world.
"Your left hand should be a little more like this." He was saying as he guided my hand from where it was on the bow. As his hand travelled along mine, a trail of fire was left as the only reminder, his hand had ever been there.
"Stand with your legs apart like mine" he placed his hand over mine, and said "Pull the arrow back, and let go." It flew straight into the bulls-eye.
"See, perfect." He whispered in my ear I felt a shiver go down my spine as I felt his warm breath on my cheek.
"Next you can show me how to use, your swords." I replied, fighting the feeling in my knees of weakness, after what he had just said.
I had just gotten the hang of it when Guinevere came back; she looked a lot happier than before.
"Guinevere, look at this." I stood just as Lancelot had told me, pulled back and let go, the arrow hit the bulls-eye at the speed of light.
"Well done Elle." said the smiling Guinevere.
"Lancelot showed me how do it." I said truthfully.
"I did nothing, its natural talent." He said. "I should go, we're leaving soon anyway." He left the small clearing.
"So, what did he say?" I asked excitedly, as soon as Lancelot was out of earshot.
"Let's just say he isn't mad at me anymore." I continued to badger her about it, but she wasn't saying, she just had this infuriating smile on her face.
"I'm going to ask Jols if I can keep this bow." I decided, wanting to get away from the scarily happy Guinevere.
Dagonet and lucan lay sleeping on lay sleeping outside of the carriage in a little den Dagonet had set up.
Last night when Dagonet had come back, Lucan had been waiting for him, wide awake. He had insisted that they should sleep outside under the stars because according to Lucan the stars told stories and if you looked hard enough you could read them.
So they had slept outside under the story telling stars.
It was morning Daonet thought, he could feel the sun on his eyelids. Snow was falling again. There was muttering sounds all around him, that wasn't right. He felt someone grab his tunic, in an instant his eye lids flew open and he was up, about 6 roman soldiers where around him swords drawn, Lucan had woken to, he was shouting,
"No! No."
Dagonet desperately fought at the soldiers, punching and kicking expertly, there was only 2 soldiers left.
" I have the boy." Marius's cold sneer reached his ears.
He looked up to see arius holding Lucan roughly a dagger at his throat, 'No, not Lucan don't kill Lucan' he thought. Fulcinia and Alecto steeped put of the carriage to see what was happening, Fulcinia ran up to Marius and tried to fight him off yelling,
"NO! NO! NO!" he back handed her sharply and she fell onto the ground.
Back to Elle's point of view.
There was a commotion through the trees.
I strolled over, thinking it was probably just some villagers, fighting over who got to load their bags into an empty carriage. The scene that greeted me was very different.
Marius stood holding Lucan, a knife at his throat, I started to run, why wasn't anyone doing anything. Lancelot pulled out an arm to stop me, I glared at him, what was he doing?
He was holding his two twin swords crossed over his shoulders. An arrow flew just past my head, and implanted itself into Marius's chest, right into his heart, the crimson liquid spread rapidly over his white toga, the bright colour contrasting oddly against the pristine white.
The arrow was inches away from Lucans head, he fell to the floor, Lucan ran into Dagonets arms.
"Your hand seems to be better." Grinned Lancelot slyly, to Guinevere, who chose to ignore this comment.
I looked out at the scene before me, Jols was currently collecting the swords which the remaining Roman soldiers had dropped at Arthur's words.
Bors charged his horse onto the scene, yelling at the top of his lungs.
"ARTORIUS!" he rode his great big stallion up to the Roman guards, and shoved the horse into them, making the Romans move away.
"Do we have a problem?" he growled at them.
Next, Tristan rode in he rode his horse up to Arthur and dropped a cross bow at Arthur's feet.
"Armour Piercing, there close, we have no time." Arthur nodded.
We came to a humungous patch of ice, spreading like a rug over the space before us, it must have been a lake before it froze. The surface glistened and sparkled like little diamonds or precious stones, as the sun hit it. On either side of the ice, was mountains, they where covered in snow like a cake which had been sprinkled in icing sugar.
Tristan rode up to Arthur, from what I could hear, there was apparently no other way, but to go over the ice. Arthur listened carefully to what Tristain said he looked down at the ice before him. He then dismounted his horse and stepped carefully onto the ice, he crouched down low, and studied it, his eyes wandered upwards to the other end of the ice, his brow was knitted in deep thought, he gently wiped away some of the snow obstructing his vision from the ice, he seemed to be trying to guess how thick it was, he stood again and led his horse cautiously over the ice. It cracked loudly. He stopped suddenly, placing himself infront of the horse, hi eyes traced the ice, looking for how far the cracks had reached.
He ordered everyone out of the carriages and to spread out over the ice, so as to spread their weight evenly. We could see the ice crack under our feet as we stepped on the ice.
The sound of drums made everyone stop and stare, fear etched across the lined faces of the old, and the unlined of the young.
Arthur gave his knights a look, they did not need words to know what this meant. He and his knights gathered around each other to decide what they would do, Arthur looked at each one of them in turn to hear their thoughts on the matter. Bors spoke first.
"Well I'm tired of running. And these Saxons are so close behind, my ass is hurting."
"Never liked looking over my shoulder anyway." said Tristan simply. Dagonet smirked.
"It'll be a pleasure to put an end to this racket." voiced Gawain.
"We'll finally get a look at the Bastards." said Galahad. Dagonet, who was already moving, said.
"Here. Now."
Lancelot just shook his head disapprovingly.
"Jols." Arthur called. Jols nodded.
"You two, take the horses." Jols ordered to two people behind him. The knights moved away to start unloading equipment and to get ready. I rushed over to where Lancelot was as he unloaded weapons from his horse, he strapped his bows to his back. I carried a long rather heavy sword, over to him, which Jols had instructed me to give to Lancelot.
I handed it to him, he gave a nod of thanks. I stroked his horse until I couldn't hold it in any more.
"Promise me Lancelot you won't die" he looked up, surprised, and then grinned.
"I assure you, the possibilities of me dying are slight. Especially when freedom, is just within my reach."
"Promise me though, you'll come back to wall." He looked into my eyes with sincerity.
"I promise." I smiled, relief washed over me. Why was I relieved that he would be safe?
' maybe because you like Lancelot' a sneaky voice said inside my head.
"I'll hold you to that. And don't forget you still have to teach me to use a sword."
"First thing when we get back, we start to practise."
I smiled. Before I knew what I was doing I threw my arms around his neck.
I felt him stiffen, then relax.
I couldn't help but realize how warm and soft he was, or how I seemed to fit perfectly in his arms, I pulled back.
'What the hell was I doing? Oh great now he's going to think I'm this crazed English girl he saved who suddenly starts randomly hugging him.'
I blushed for what felt like the millionth time. He looked momentarily shocked. Uh oh! Elle you idiot! I had never seen Lancelot shocked before, this definitely wasn't a good thing. He quickly regained his cool, and smirked.
"Uh-uh……….ummmm….er…." was all I could stammer out. He didn't say anything. "I…..er…..s-should….probably go…….now."
One Word: AWKWARD
On my way to get as far away as possible from Lancelot, Guinevere brushed passed me, "Don't think I didn't see that little incident." She whispered. I gasped horrified,
'please no! please no!' where among the many words and phrases, some a bit stronger, floating around my brain, I looked back over my shoulder, she turned and gave me a cheeky grin.
I heard Ganis's voice, I made my way over to the source, still keeping a distance between me and Lancelot, I had embarrassed myself enough for one day.
"You're seven against 200!"
"Eight." Interrupted Guinevere "You could use another bow."
"Arthur, I can fight, I can use a bow." I said.
"No." Guinevere said.
"Why not?" I said outraged.
"Because you don't know how to use a sword." said Lancelot.
"What would happen if we had to go into combat?" Gawain asked me. I ignored their comments and directed my gaze towards Arthur.
"Please Arthur." Arthur looked at me.
"I'm sorry Elle. I can't let you go in good conscious, the others are right, you are not trained enough."
"Well let me go in bad conscious then." I argued.
"No." he replied. I knew I had lost, I walked away before I could say something I'd later regret.
"She has a fighter's spirit." Galahad remarked.
"After training she wouldn't be that bad at all." added Tristan thoughtfully.
Lancelot frowned, for some reason he didn't like the idea, of Elle risking her life, in battle.
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