Chapter Seven
It was early in the morning as Arthur walked into the stables already dressed for the upcoming mission. He stopped just inside the stable doors to see Galahad prancing around on his white horses in circles. Galahad looked angrily at Arthur and pulled his horse to a halt; Arthur looked back at him blandly and started to walk into the stables. Galahad, still angry, kicked his horse to a gallop around the stables encircling Arthur as he walked further into the stables.
Arthur looked around the stables, and saw that Hope and Miracle were already there, dressed and ready to go. He noticed that there clothing was different from they were wearing last night. Miracle wore a pair of black baggy Capri's and a black zip up hoodie that had ACDC written across the top of it in big red letters. She wore a pair of black and red vans to match her assemble. From the way the clothes fitted her, it was very apparent that the clothes were not hers.
Hope was wearing a black and purple pirate shirt. The sleeves were long, puffy, and black. A purple corset was pulled on over it, the bottom of both shirts torn off. To match her outfit, she had a pair of baggy black pants that had a purple sash lacing through the belt loops. The shirts, as well as the pants, were both too big for her small frame.
Arthur turned away from the girls and stood next to Jols, looking his knights over once more. He glanced to the side to see Bishop Germanius, two roman soldiers, and his servant Horton enter the stables. The bishop looked up at Arthur, then turned away to look at Miracle and Hope. He looked back once more, a shocked look covering his face.
A half dressed Bors pulls his sword up off the bench and Gawain continues on shining his sword. Dagonet walked up behind the bishop and deliberately bumped into his shoulder, causing the Bishop to glare at him. Dagonet turned and glared back at him three times worse. Bors stood as the bishop stepped in front the benches that the knights were gathered around. Tristan admired his blade as an uncomfortable and sinister feeling permeates as the silence lengthens, then finally, Germanius spoke.
"To represent the holy court, my secretary, Horton…"The bishop stopped and looked around for Horton. "Horton?" He asked before the scrawny man walked forward. "Will accompany you with your quest."
"Jols, find him a horse." Arthur said, staring at the bishop. Gawain stabbed a knife into the bench as Jols departed to find a horse for rat face.
"This way" Jols called over his shoulder, and Horton squeezed past the Bishop to follow Jols.
"Godspeed, as you fulfill your duty to Rome." Bishop Germanius said.
Arthur stepped forward and spoke. "My duty is also to my men."
"Then get them home." The bishop replied smugly. Arthur glared at him before turning and walking off.
Miracle finished attaching a sword to her waist, and a few daggers to her belt, and watched as Hope played with her boobs, trying to make them look bigger in the shirt. She glanced over to the knights and noted there sad yet pissed off faces. She decided she could at least try and lighten the mood and asked.
"Does anybody know how to play I-Spy?"
Faith was jerked from her slumber when the woad man she was riding with yanked her from the horse. He was dragging her along the ground by the rope that was tied around her wrist, the rope rubbing up against her skin and leaving burn marks. She groaned in pain as the man dragging her jerked her upwards.
She was now face to face with the man that Arthur had spared when retrieving Bishop Germanius. He spat on her face, and then gave her a toothy grin before pushing her to the ground. Faith looked up, her hair covering her eyes. She could see that a group of woad's had gathered around her, all of them glaring down angrily at her.
Before she knew what was happening, they were all kicking her around, and laughing while doing so. Involuntarily, she whimpered in pain and tried to curl up into a ball. She silently told herself that the pain streaking through her body was nothing compared to the pain she experienced when she was being trained. Her eyes welled up with tears, and she bit her bottom lip to hold back from crying. She refused to let anyone see her cry.
"GOD DAMNIT!" a cry of pain filled the dead silent dungeon. Destiny was withering in pain on top of a table that was covered in a mixture of blood and dirt. The old scrawny monk had a dagger in his hand and was slowly, painfully, covering a bloody cross into her stomach. She figured this must be a new form of torture he came up with late in the night. He had already popped her fingers out of place, and broken her arm and ankle.
"You will not swear against the lord!" The monk shouted at her before slapping her across the face with her own belt. He threw the dagger aside and began laughing as he yanked her down from the table and tossed her into the closest cell.
Destiny rolled and hit the wall pretty hard against her broken arm. She whimpered in pain as she tried to sit up, but stop when she felt cold fingers against her backside.
"You shouldn't move…It will only make things worse." A soft voice whispered into her ear. Destiny turned to see it was Guinevere who she was now sharing a cell with. The older woman smiled sweetly at her, and pulled her into her lap. Destiny stiffened up at first, not really comfortable with this position. She would have lodged complaints, but her throat was too dry to say anything.
The dungeon was a very cold place, and Destiny often found herself shivering at night. But in Guinevere's arms, the heat was just radiating off of her, and Destiny was pretty sure this was the warmest she had been since she arrived here.
"Woad's. They're tracking us."
"Where?"
"Everywhere"
Woad's were crawling through the underbrush, carrying there weapons with them. The horses were getting slightly spooked and started to fidget. The knights, and the girls, were alert and looking from side to side. Suddenly arrows that seemed to have prickly vines attached to them, shot out blocking the knights' path.
"Get Back!" Lancelot shouted as he tried to steer his horse around.
"Get back!" Bors shouted over his shoulder to Miracle and Hope.
Both girls already knew that was going to happen, but they still jumped in surprise. They turned there horses around and took off down a different path that was to there right. Both of them failed to notice that the knights went in a whole complete different direction, trying to find an alternate path.
The knights were cornered and completely surrounded by woad's. Arthur drew Excalibur while the other knights each drew there own individual weapon. Arthur stared into the face of the woad he had spared. The woad's eyes were filled with hatred and anger.
"What are you waiting for!" Gawain shouted. The woad drew his bow back, ready to shoot Arthur, but then a horn blew in the distance. The woad's lowered there weapons and backed away into the shadows.
"Inish! Devil ghost!" Dagonet shouted.
"Why would they not attack?" Galahad asked curiously.
"Merlin doesn't want us dead." Arthur replied solemnly. The knights looked around them suspiciously, not lowering there weapons quite yet. Bors, who was near the back, noticed that there was something missing.
"Where is Miracle and Hope?"
"Argh! Miracle this is your entire fault!" Hope shouted in frustration.
"What! It is not! You're the one who was like 'Run Miracle, Run!" Miracle cried out over her shoulder.
"Why would I being telling you to run! Idiot, you're on a horse!" Hope shouted.
"Shhhh…The scary blue people might hear us Hopey!"
"Oh my god…you're scared of them?"
"Well yeah…They have axes!"
"You're scared of a guy with an axe, but when a man pulls a gun on you, you just throw muffins at him!"
"I only did that once!" Miracle whined. Hope snorted and turned her head away, she noticed that there was another path leading from the one they were on. Shrugging, she turned her horse down the path when she reached it.
"Hey where are you going?" Miracle asked.
"Where ever…now be a smart person for once and follow me!" Not waiting for a reply, Hope trotted down the path on her horse. Random branches jutted out into the path, causing Hope and Miracle both to duck down to avoid being hit. The path slowly became darker and darker, until it was pitch black and they could barely see anything. Miracle began to shiver from the chills going up her spine, and Hope glanced around nervously.
The path became smaller and smaller and to the girls it felt like they were traveling down a never ending small dark tunnel. Towards the end, Hope could see light, anxious to get out of the tunnel, she urged her horse forward and trotted faster towards the light. Behind her she could hear Miracle whining about someone or something might be waiting for them at the end of the tunnel. Instead, what they found blew there minds. The form of Faith laid on the ground, her body looked as though it was sent through a meat grinder.
Blood.
Blood was pretty much all that they could see. Her hair was matted to her head from all the blood and mud that was in it. Hope stared on in horror. She had thought that Faith was waiting for them at Marius's estate, not lying on the ground half dead. 'Who would do this to her?' She already knew the answer to the question. Hope was sure the woad's probably captured her and did this; there was no way Faith could take on a whole Woad army.
Miracle couldn't breathe from the initial shock of the scene before her eyes. She always felt as though Faith was invincible, and no one could harm her in battle. But it seemed that here, in this different time, that no matter how strong or fast Faith was, she was no match for the mysterious blue people. Miracle's eyes began to well up with tears, and she did the only thing she could thing of doing.
She screamed.
The knights had quickly found the girls when Miracle had screamed. They rushed to them, afraid that the woad's had attacked them. They were all grateful to find that the two girls were unharmed, but were surprised to see that Faith was with them.
Now the knight's were taking shelter within a grove of trees. The knights were wrapped in there cloaks in a desperate attempt to keep from getting wet. Galahad had pulled Miracle into his lap and had wrapped his cloak around her to help keep her from getting too wet. She complained for a full ten minutes before giving into the innocent pleading look on his face.
Hope was completely ignoring Lancelot, because that was the type of girl she was. She slept with him, she wouldn't lie about that. But she was the 'No-Strings-Attached' type of girl. Lancelot didn't really mind though, he was more worried about his freedom and the safety of the men to be chasing Hope.
Dagonet had taken Faith into his care and washed her up. He was mortified to find that not only did they try to scar her on the outside; they tried to scar her on the inside as well. Bruises already covered her thighs and backside. Dagonet cradled the younger girl in his arm as if she was a newborn infant.
"Ugh, I can't wait to leave this island." Gawain groaned "If it's not raining, it's snowing. If it's not snowing, it's foggy."
"And that's the summer" Lancelot replied. He was leaning up against a tree, occasionally glancing at Hope, but mainly watching Dagonet bandage Faith's arm.
"The rain is good" Bors said "Washes all the blood away."
"Doesn't help the smell" Dagonet slowly said as he examined a cut on Faith's shoulder blade.
"Hey Bors" Lancelot shouted across the fire "You intend on taking Vanora and all your little bastards with you back home?"
"Oh I'm trying to avoid that decision" Bors replied "By getting killed." Gawain laughed as he wrapped his cloak around him tighter, and Lancelot smiled.
"Dagonet" Bors said leaning over towards the tall quiet knight "She wants to get married, give the children names."
"Women" Tristan began as he sheathed his sword "The children already have names, don't they?"
"Just Gilly" Bors replied "It was too much trouble, so we gave the rest of them numbers."
"That's interesting. I thought you couldn't count." Lancelot stated. The knights laughed and the girls bit them bottom lips to keep from snickering.
"You know, I never thought I'd get back home alive. Now that I've got the chance, I don't think I'd leave my children." Bors said.
"You'd miss them too much" Dagonet stated.
"I'll take them with me. I like the little bastards. They mean something to me... especially number three. He's a good fighter." Bors said proudly.
"That's because he's mine" Lancelot snickered. Gawain almost spits in laughter.
"I'm going for a piss." Bors said before standing up and walking off. The knights continued to laugh, accept for Dagonet. He looked down at Faith and saw that she was staring at him, her gray blue eyes piercing his soul.
"You're awake" He whispered. She slowly nodded her head as she tried to sit up in his lap. She groaned from the jolt of pain that went through her back, and collapsed in his lap.
"You shouldn't move little one. You badly injured." Dagonet whispered as he took his cloak off and wrapped it around her. Her head rolled back and her eyes slipped closed. Dagonet stared down at the girl in interest. For some odd reason he felt the need to protect this girl and avenge the harm that was done to her body.
Across the fire, Tristan watched the exchange between Faith and Dagonet. To him, Faith was a mystery that he wanted to solve. It wasn't too often that a woman held a dagger to his neck and lived to tell the tale. Though Tristan wouldn't admit it, and refused to accept the feeling, he felt a pang jealously as he watched Dagonet hold her in his arms. The look on his face, the way he talked to her, Tristan mistook it as love instead of friendship. If Dagonet liked or loved this girl, he would not interfere.
A/N: Ok, that's done, sorry it took so long!. Anyways, im wondering if anybody noticed that if you spell the girls last names backwards, you get a word! Accpet for Miracle, if you spell star backwards its just rats! Anyways hope you liked it!
Lotsa reviews please! And thanks for the reviews on the last chapter!
Jessipurr
