Chapter Two
The following morning saw a lone figure moving quietly away from the camp. Not one person was awake to see the lone figure leave. About an hour later, Guinevere was rudely awakened by Lancelot.
"Where did she go? Could she not handle having to explain herself to Arthur?" he yelled at her.
Because he was so focused on yelling at Guinevere, Lancelot did not hear someone come up behind him. All of a sudden, he feels a blade up against his neck and a hand in his hair.
"Next time I won't be so nice. This is your one and only warning. If you ever yell or manhandle her again, I will slit your throat. Is that clear?" Lancelot gritted his teeth and nodded his head as best as he could with a knife to his neck.
"Good. Now release her and slowly walk away." The Lady released his hair and removed the knife.
When she looked around, she realized that all of the knights had stepped up and were ready to do something had things turned bad. Lancelot released Gwen and was about to walk away, when he quickly turned around and had one of his swords out and pointed at her neck. She looked at him with blank eyes.
"Did you want something? Or are you pissed off that I managed to come up behind you?" She asked with a smirk.
Just as he was going to say something, Arthur came up to him. "That's enough. She had a right to do as she did. Leave it be." Lancelot looked as if he had swallowed a lemon, but he did take his sword from her neck and stomped off.
"Lady, you sorely test the patience of one of my faithful knights. Be careful of what you say or you will be forced to show us if you really are as good as you say." Gwen and the Lady shrugged their shoulders.
As the caravan got underway, everyone was startled by a series of short whistles. Everyone looked at the Lady, wondering what she was doing. But she was not paying attention to anything; she was staring intensely at the sky. She sat like that for about five minutes, and just as she turned her head, a series of whistles were heard coming from beyond the trees. Without thinking, she spurred her horse toward the sound.
All of a sudden, a large, black hawk comes soaring out of the trees. Several horses were startled by the sudden movement. All of the knights looked on in awe at the beautiful bird. The hawk was pitch black, not another color found on his body. He was graceful and majestic soaring in the air, as if as he didn't have a care in the world.
The only person not totally fixed on the hawk was Tristan. His gaze was split between the bird and the Lady. She was staring intently at the bird. Without another whistle or sound, the Lady raised her arm without a glove, and the hawk gently landed on the perch.
"Lucifer, my dear. How have you been? Have you enjoyed yourself in my absence?" The Lady cooed to her bird.
Tristan rode up to her and admired the bird, who was sitting gently on her bare forearm. "Lucifer is an interesting name to give a hawk. Tell me, Lady, how did you come up with it?"
The Lady looked over at him and was just a bit shocked; for this had been the most she had heard him say anything in her presence.
She smiled and said. "Well, for one, he is the opposite color of Angel, my horse. And secondly, he is the devil when he wishes to be. He does not go willingly to anyone, but me. However, if you would like to try to hold him, you are most welcomed. That is, if he agrees to it."
Tristan smiled a small smile to her and held out his arm. Gawain and Galahad watched in half amazement and amusement as the Lady raised her heavily burdened arm towards the usually quiet scout.
The hawk looked at Tristan's arm, then up to the face of his mistress. She smiled and nodded her consent to him and he generally moved from her arm to the man's heavily protected arm. Tristan smiled at the bird then up at the Lady.
"He is a beautiful creature. How did you ever tame him?" He asked.
"I didn't. He is as wild as he was born. I came across him when he was injured. And believe me; I have many scars from when I was caring for him. I do not own him. It is more like he owns me. Lucifer comes back to me because I am kind to him and he gets fed without having to hunt for his food." She said while stroking the bird's feathers.
Tristan was about to say something, when he was interrupted by Arthur. "My Lady, I would like to extend an invitation to you to explain yourself. Would you honor me with your presence at my fire?" He said cordially.
She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Okay. But I would like to have all of your knights and Gwen there with us. This way we won't have to repeat ourselves."
Arthur looked at her and was a little amused at what she said. "Alright, I will tell them. I am eager to hear what you have to say." He nodded his head and rode off.
For the rest of the day, Tristan and the Lady rode together. Sometimes talking, but for the most part, they rode in silence. The rest of the knights were amused to see their scout seek out, let alone talk with someone other than the knights.
When it came time to camp, the Lady made a place for herself away from the others, but it was still close to Tristan's bedroll. When it quieted down a bit, Gwen and the Lady made their way to Arthur. By the time they got there, all of the knights were there making themselves comfortable. There were only two seats left' one next to Arthur, which Gwen took, and one on a tree stump between Dagonet and Lancelot. The Lady sat down on the stump and smiled at Dagonet. However, she ignored Lancelot's flirtatious leer; which slightly annoyed him, much to the amusement of Gawain and Galahad.
Arthur looked across the fire at her and asked. "Well Lady, it is time for you to inform us as to who you are. We know that you are not Woad, but you associate with them. We, also, know that you are not a Roman, nor are you anything we can recognize. So please, tell us your story."
She looked at Gwen and then to Arthur. "Well, Arthur, my tale is a strange one. One you will probably not believe. But that is fine with me, as long as you believe that I am not here to hurt you, but to help you and your men survive the next coming months. I think I will begin with telling you who I am and then tell you where and when I come from." She stopped to take a drink.
"When? What do you mean when?" Galahad asked, looking a little perplexed.
"Yes, young one, when. Now, if that is the last question? I will begin." She paused to look around. Apparently, Galahad had not liked her nickname for him, but that was fine because the other's found it amusing. Arthur, intrigued, gestured for her to continue. She smiled a little and began her story.
"My name is Megan, but please call me Meg. I was the third and final child of my parents. I grew up like most children. I often played with my friends, shirking my responsibilities to do so. And I went to school, or as you would say I was a scholar of sorts. My favorite subject was History. And as any child, I hated to go to school or do my studies. But as I got older, I found that I had a knack and a love for animals and history. History of a certain time frame and one place in specific.
As I was doing research on these things, I found a book. This book turned out to be a journal from the time period I was researching about. As I began to read this journal, I realized that I had found the key to my project. However, I did not come to realize that the journal was indeed a key, as in a key for a gate, until I was about halfway through it, and I had a strange sensation in my stomach and I passed out.
When I next woke up, I was lying at the feet of Merlin. He looked at me and said with a smile. 'Welcome to Briton. I have been waiting for you for a very long time. Please come and I will explain everything to you.'
Well, not knowing what to do, I got to my feet and walked with him to his home. As we walked, he asked me questions about who I was and how I had come to be there. I told him everything I knew and when I was through, we had reached a small camp. Maybe twenty people or so, but this is where I met Gwen. She saw Merlin and I and she came running up to us. She hugged him and turned to me and said. 'I knew they would be a female.' And she laughed. Now mind you, I had no clue as to why she was laughing at me nor did I know who she was. I just looked at her without a look on my face.
So anyway, Merlin took me to his tent and sat me down and told me that I had a destiny to full-fill and that he was going to help me do this. I looked at him as if he was nuts, but I thought that since I had no idea as to how to get home, I might as well go along with him.
So, I stayed with Merlin and the Woads for two years. I was taught how to fight with any weapon and I taught them the value of a horse. The Woads had raided a small village and had found several horses. Since one of the Woads was one of my mentors, he brought all seven horses back to me. He knew that I could ride and had longed to again, but the sneaky little devil had another plan.
He wanted me to teach six capable Woads how to ride, in exchange; I got to keep the seventh horse for myself. So, the first thing I did was, I rode each horse for a day to learn the temperaments. Then I chose six Woads, who I thought would be able to handle them, and I took them, all of them, away from the camp.
The only people, who knew where we went, were Merlin and Gwen. Gwen came with me as a supporting hand and a friend. We were gone from the camp for, I believe, six months.
During that time, the Woads I was teaching learned enough to be able to teach others themselves. It was when we were gone that I found Lucifer and took care of him.
When we got back to camp, Merlin told me that my job was done for now and that I was to go home for a little while. But he had given me a gift; he had taken the ring on my finger and cast an enchantment on it. He told me that if ever I was needed or if I wanted to come back, the stone in the ring would glow.
So I left, after putting Merlin and Gwen in charge of Angel and Lucifer. When I got home, I found out that the two and a half years I had spent here had, in fact, only been two and a half days. My family was a little concerned, but it had not been unusual for me not to talk to them for a couple of days.
All this took place about eight months ago. It was two days ago when my ring started to glow. When I touched it, I turned up on the ice with a cloak around me in front of Dagonet here. And the rest you know." Meg finished talking and took a drink.
She looked around at the faces of the knights. Their expressions ranged from thoughtful on Arthur, to disbelief on Bors. From quiet acceptance on Tristan and possibly Dagonet, to bewilderment and puzzled on Gawain and Galahad.
Lancelot was the first to speak up.
"That tells us who and what you are, but not the when part. And the part that puzzles me the most is; how is it that you spent almost three years here, but you were gone from your home only three days? That is not possible."
She looked at him then looked around. All of the other knights were looking at her, waiting for an answer. "Well, I can not tell you, in specifics, of how all this went about, I can tell you that the when part is going to be the hardest part to accept. I come from the year two-thousand and four (2004). I fell back in time about one-thousand, five hundred thirty-nine years (1,539), give or take. You probably won't believe me, but that's fine. It took me a while to accept it myself. And now that I have told you who I am, I am going to bed; it has been a long day. Good night." With this, Meg got up from the quiet circle and went to bed.
It wasn't long before the knights got up and went to their beds as well; all of them pondering on what she had said.
