~Chapter 4-Wake Up Call~
The birds are lively, the sun is starting to peek over the horizon, the early morning is misty and dewy, and nearly everyone is awake.
Apart from Ash, Lily, Lancelot and Galahad. The first is snoring lightly while the second finally looks peaceful and both the men are flat on their backs, snoring loudly. Lily had been tossing and turning wildly in her sleep and the knights on watch were lost as of what to do.
Galahad had tried to wake her when he was on watch but she would not be woken. And Gawain had made the large mistake of waking Ash, the blonde knight now supported a black eye where she had thumped him.
"What happened to you?" Tam asks worriedly when she had woken, by nature a reasonably early riser. She reaches up and gently traces her slim fingers around the outside of the dark bruising.
"Ash punched me," he replies shortly, unable to make a larger explanation due to her touch. He watches as her eyebrows shoot to her hairline and his fellow knights snicker.
"Why?" she asks slowly, withdrawing her hand.
"Lily was having a nightmare," he replies and the others nod in agreement, they had all witnessed some part during their watches. "Ash was next to her and since Galahad said that he couldn't rouse Lily, I thought I'd wake Ash since she was closest to her. I thought she might have known what to do," he pauses. "She doesn't like being woken up, does she?"
Tam chuckles. "No. She's not a morning person. I'd rather play with savage dogs then wake her up."
"What of Lily?" Dag asks, as he stops sharpening his axe.
This time Tammy sighs deeply. "We don't know what her nightmares are of, she never remembers them. But, they're common…sometimes. She hadn't had one for nearly three months then being in this new place must have set them off again, since she had one last night, too, apparently. I never wake up to her; I'm too deep of a sleeper…unless she screams."
The big man nods and returns to his axe, casting another glance at Lily.
"How old are ye?" Bors asks suddenly, chewing thoughtfully on his meat.
"I'm twenty, Ash and Lil are nineteen," she replies, accepting the meat Gawain was offering her and smiling her thanks to him.
"She looks younger then that…innocent like." Bors muses, looking at her reminded him of his eldest daughter, though there was a fair age gap.
"Lily's past…." She trails off uncertainly. "Look, it's not my place to say; you are all practically strangers to us, although I'm grateful for your help."
Arthur smiles. "No thanks is needed, and we understand. But you should wake them; I want to reach the wall by midday. Bors, wake Lancelot and Galahad."
Tam nodded and went back to the girls, gently waking Lily first. It took little effort from Bors to rouse the pair of dark curly headed knights as one swift kick for each from the burly man quickly brought both to full alert. Accompanied by a string of curses.
"Hmm?" Lily forces an eye open and looks up at Tam's soft face, the intense shouting had woken her more then the gentle shakes of her friend.
"Time to get up Lil," she whispers as Lily's pale eyes blink away the sleep.
She nods numbly and pushes herself up, the cloak that had been over her falls to her waist as she sits up. Bells nickers softly at her in greeting and receives a smile and a rub on the belly.
"Would you mind getting Ash?" Tam asks pleadingly. "Please?"
She chuckles, the silky sound masked with sleep vibrating through her stiff body. "Yeah, I'll get her." Reaching over she ruffles the short red hair until it sticks up at odd angles and pokes Ash's tanned forehead. "Oi, wake up."
Crimson eyes snap open and the fiery glare is set upon her. "Piss off."
Ash's threat is thick with her only semi-consciousness.
Lily shakes her head. "We have to get up."
Ash heaves herself up onto her elbows and surveys her surroundings before glaring at whatever her eyes fall upon and lays back down. "Bugger off, I can't see the sun."
Lily got to her feet and gestures for Bells to rise, which she did, and at the unexpected loss of her pillow, Ash's whole body hit the ground with a light thump and a yelp of surprise.
Laughter erupts behind them and it only increased when she stands and they got a good look at her wild red hair. She tosses them all dirty looks and then turns on Lily. "You bitch! That was uncalled for!"
Lily laughs. "Oh please, it's the best way to get you up."
Ash huffs and quickly turns on Lancelot who was laughing loudest and bolts for him. She leaps at him and tackles him to the ground. Putting him in a head lock she scruffs up his hair until it was similar to hers and let him go. "Shut. The. Hell. Up. Sir Prance-a-lot. You look worse them me, so HA! Suck eggs boy," she snaps and marches back to Lily, who was trying to contain her laughter lest she upset her friend more.
"You alright?" she asks the blonde softly, all traces of her anger vanishing.
Lily gives her an odd look. "Yes…why wouldn't I be?"
Ash sighs and the realisation strikes Lily and she replies with a quiet 'oh.' "Do they…" she trails off, gesturing to the men but Ash get the idea.
"Yea."
"Oh."
"Speaking of which," Tam says loudly. "Ash, apologise to Gawain."
The girl in question frowns at her in confusion until Tam points to the blonde man and his rather impressive black eye.
Lily gasps. "Why'd you hit him?"
She shrugged. "He woke me up."
Lily blinks at her. "Ah, but why'd he wake you up."
Ash sighs again. "You, he wanted me to help you. But I hit him by reflex before he could say. So yeah, sorry."
Gawain nods. "It's alright."
"I'm sorry," Lily says to all of them. "I didn't know..."
Arthur holds up a hand to silence her. "It's alright, no harm done. I'm sure Gawain will live."
She smiles.
"Come, we need to be ready to move out when Tristan returns," Arthur explains and Lily notices for the first time that he had been absent. She immediately hopes that he hadn't witnessed whatever it was that she had done last night but she doubted it.
In truth, she wished none of them had witnessed it, when she didn't even know what 'it' was; it was worse then being drunk and not know what you're doing. At least she had some memory of those occasional nights, but with this, there was nothing. Memory was very precious to her, as she had no memory of her younger years the clear ones only started when she was six. Ash tried to reassure her that that was probably normal as people don't remember being toddlers more often then they do. But both she and Tammy could recount memories from when they were three and above and Lily's parents never spoke of when she was that young while Tam's did of her all the time.
"Is there water anywhere? Somewhere I can wash off?" she asks unsurely, noticing the dried blood that is still on herself and her horse and her friends.
Gawain nods. "Straight down there."
He points down the slope to where it opens up and she sees a stream running through the green pasture.
She nods her thanks and smiles at him. Picking up her tack and the cloak that isn't hers, she whistles Bells who follows her through the trees and to the water.
"Coming Ash? Tam?" she calls over her shoulder.
Tam nods straight away while Ash hesitates. She doesn't particularly like the idea of a cold bath but she doesn't like the blood more so nods slowly and follows.
Reaching the easy flowing water's edge Lily began to strip down. Taking off her boots and socks first she sets them in a neat pile with her other gear where they wouldn't get wet and takes off her jeans to reveal mid-thigh length black shorts.
Her singlet follows next until she is standing in just her shorts and black and white sports bra.
"My God girl," Tam raises an eyebrow at her. "You're only washing your arms and face. No need to go skinny dipping."
"Nah, she's just showin' these boys what she's got, ay babe?" Ash grins at her, then changed her expression to a stony stare. "If any of them so much as peek I'll fry their eyeballs on rocks."
Lily rolls her eyes. "No, I'm going to wash the blood off Bells, too, and I want something dry to put on after."
Tam nods and Ash snorts. "Well, two birds, one stone my way. I might get to kill them before lunch."
Lily chuckles. "Whatever Ash."
The red head just grins before gingerly touching the waters surface and began removing the red from her skin, Tam doing the same.
"How can we understand them?" Ash asks suddenly as she shakes her arms to get rid of the icy water. "I mean, don't they speak another language in this time?"
Tam nods thoughtfully, standing up and examining her arms for the now none existent bloody smears. "I'm pretty sure they speak Latin now you mention it, and of course the Sarmatians would have their own languages as well."
"Yes, but how do we understand them and vice verses?" Ash continues a little impatiently.
"Talk again," Tam replies suddenly, concentration masking her face.
Ash frowns and Lily cocks her head to the side. She is knee deep in the little stream and quite enjoying herself.
"What? Why, don't you usually want me to shut up?" Ash replies jokingly.
Tammy's green eyes widen in surprise. "Don't you hear yourself? I understand every word but that does not sound like English." She excitedly blows on her hands to dry them and grins at their confused faces. "We're speaking Latin, perfect, fluent Latin. I don't know how we didn't notice sooner, maybe it was because the men were all speaking it? I don't know, but we just learnt a new language over night."
"If only it could have been like this in school," Ash muttered. "I wouldn't have failed French then."
She is ignored.
"But," Lily began, pursing her lips together. "Can we still speak English?"
Tam shrugs, "I don't see why not." She pauses for a second and gets the look she has when she is in the middle of a test. "See? English."
"Oh sweet!" Ash cries. "Now we'll have our own language they won't understand. This is just like spies only better!"
Lily chuckles and whistles Bells. The mare steps carefully from the edge and into the cool water, each step to her mistress is carefully calculated but her unbreakable loyalty would not be wavered by the water it seemed.
Lily smiles and pats the mare affectionately before slowly starting to work the blood from her white coat.
Tam and Ash are dry and clean when the knights ride down to them. Ash is just rolling down her jean legs and Lily is almost finished Bells.
Tristan had returned and they were leaving so they had come down. Upon laying eyes on Lily and Ash's revealing states most of them blush and look away. Galahad, though, can't seem to be able to tear his eyes off of Lily's sleek form as she bends down to scoop up more water in her hands to wash off the last traces of red from the white. His cheeks and ears growing hot.
She notices them all and smiles. "Almost done."
Gawain is leading Bolt and hands him to Tam when she is ready, while Lancelot holds Arrow as Ash pulls on her boots and rolls her other pants leg down, hiding her toned calves.
He raises an eyebrow at her to which she returns with a sharp glare.
"What?"
He shakes his head smirking; from his position, he is getting a better view of her cleavage with that strange shirt she is wearing. "Nothing milady, nothing at all."
She glares at him some more and punches his leg when she takes the reins. "Sure. Two things. Number one: don't call me 'milady', and number two: keep your eyes to yourself, or I'll relieve you of them."
"You're full of threats aren't you?" he grins as she mounts.
"Don't doubt me, dickhead," she snaps moodily.
Dag cuffs Galahad up the back of the head when he notices the pup is staring at Lily, awe and admiration in his eyes.
"Ow," he whines and glares at the healer. "What was that for?"
The giant just glares at him.
Lily giggles as she comes out of the water, looking at the bunch of blushing knights before her, who are looking anywhere but at her. Except Lancelot and Gawain, who are talking, in Lancelot's case arguing, with the girls.
"Awful bashful aren't they?" she giggles, gaining Ash's attention. The men blush harder, apart from Tristan who, as usual, is void of any emotion.
The red head surveys the other males in her presence, feeling a bit guilty that she hadn't been paying attention to see if any were watching Lily. "Good thing for them," she replies. "Removing eyeballs isn't a nice experience, for me."
Lily rolls her eyes and moves to get dressed, much to the others' relief.
"The times are different. Women here don't even show ankles, much less legs and stomachs." Tam explains quickly.
Ash snorts. "That's right. Here you're s'posed to be married before you have sex, aren't ya?"
"No," Bors shakes his head. "Ye don't have to be married."
"Thank God for that," Ash chuckles. "I am not getting married to get laid."
The knights looked at her curiously; they have no idea what 'laid' means, apart from laying down.
Lily shakes her head and does up her jeans then picks up the cloak and walks up to Tristan. She coos at and pats his grey mount before holding the cloak up to him.
"Thank you," she smiled at him, somewhat nervously. "I hope you didn't get cold."
He shakes his head, taking the cloak from her. "No."
The other knights gawk at him in amazement.
She smiles again and nods once then goes back to Bells who is now standing saddled next to a grinning Galahad.
Tristan glares at his brothers-in-arms who are still looking at him oddly but centred his piercing gaze on Galahad, who is too busy looking at Lily and grinning like an idiot to even feel the gaze upon him.
Lily smiles at him. "Thanks."
Taking the reins from his hand, her fingers brush ever so lightly against his and tingles go down both their spines but neither shows they had felt anything.
He gives her a boyish grin before getting back on his own horse.
"No problem milady."
She turns away to hide her light blush she mounts as well.
"Sorry to hold you up," she says as she fastens her sword and dagger to her belt, the bow and quiver strapped securely to the saddle and easy to access.
Arthur nods. "It's quite alright, shall we go?"
The girls nod eagerly.
"I want a bed," Ash groans. "And no wake up calls before lunch."
They laugh and set off.
They fall in line with the knights, Arthur takes the lead, Lancelot and Tristan rode alongside him discussing the route home. Galahad and Gawain are behind them and back a little while the girls ride together, Bors and Dag riding behind them.
The sun had come up further and the space between Ash and Lancelot makes for a rather nice morning and quite enjoyable ride.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Ash asks in a bored tone and draws the closest knights' attentions with her chosen language.
Lily shrugs and Tam sighs. "Follow this lot back and then…I don't know."
"What do we do about getting home?" She forcefully blew away the bit of red fringe that had fallen over her eye and cocks her head questionably.
"I said I don't know," Tam snaps back and sighs. "Sorry."
Ash shrugs and with a lazy grin replies. "S'ok, I yell at you lot all the time."
"What is this language?" Gawain asks, slowing to allow them to catch up.
"English," Tam replies. "It's what we speak where we come from."
He nods slowly. "And may I ask what you were talking of?"
"What we're going to do about our situation," Ash supplied in her bored tone. "And the conclusion is, we don't know."
He chuckles. "You'll think of something; we'll help you."
They all smile sweetly at him, or as sweetly as Ash is capable of. "Thanks."
"I think he's got eyes for you Tam," Ash grins cheekily past Lily to the brunette.
Tam glares at her, "Don't be ridicules, we've known each other for what? A few hours, in which time we've spoken little."
The man-eater snorts, "It takes the male population ten seconds to decide if they're interested. Your true love dreams are only in fairy tales Tam, men aren't like that in real life."
She huffs, "It does exist Ashley, of course not exactly like fairytales, one day you'll fall in love and you won't know which ways up."
Lily grins. "More like the bloke won't know which ways up."
The sly look on Ash's face unnerves Tam to no end, being a more….clean minded person. "That happens all the time, dearest, I don't leave them like I find them."
Lily snorts and shakes her head while Tam looks scandalised.
"What?" Galahad asks frowning.
"You do not want to know, trust me," Tam mutters. "And don't you even think about telling them any of your goings on; you'll scar the lot of them for life." she snaps at Ash who has her cheeky grin plastered in place."Wouldn't dream of corrupting their delicate minds Tammy, not to worry."
"I'll tell you right now, missy," Bors says loudly from behind. "We don't have delicate minds, the pup maybe but not the rest of us." He laughs, slapping Dag hard on the back while Galahad glares viscously at them.
Ash laughs with them, though Lily sees the confusion in her eyes and sighs.
"Which one is he?" she leans over and hisses in the blonde's ear.
"You were introduced to them yesterday," Tam raises an eyebrow at her. "Surely your memory isn't that bad."
"Course not; I ignored them yesterday."
Lily shakes her head. Ash is impossible. "Bors." She supplies, speaking for a rare moment in a language that the men know. The man mentioned looks at her quizzically but she continues. "Galahad, Gawain, I'm sure you know which one Lancelot is, Arthur, Dagonet and Tristan." She points to each of them as she says their name. "All clear now?"
Ash nods in satisfaction. "Yep."
"It's freaking me out," Lily whispers reverting back to English. "How much Dagonet and Tristan look like Dean, if you added them together…"
She trails off and her friends nodded in understanding. "It's ok."
"I feel like…like Tristan…he feels familiar," she finishes, shrugging her shoulders in defeat.
"Girly," Bors begins, giving them an odd look, showing his slight mistrust of them still. "If ye got something to say, say it how we can understand it."
"It's just female talk Bors, nothing to get upset over we're not plotting to kill you." Ash returned. "Drop. It."
He glared at her then.
"Okay, okay enough!" Tam cries, not liking the building tension at all. "Calm down, it's nothing, honest."
"Perhaps," Arthur says, silencing them all as they turn to look at him. Only then do they notice that they had stopped and are close together, "you ladies would mind not conversing in your native tongue while you are still new to us."
They nod. "We meant no confusion or mistrust," Tam amends quickly.
"Yeah, you're like a bunch of uptight cops. We're not the bad guys so hands off your weapons or I'll cut out your lungs and fry them like eggs," Ash adds as she rides around the lot of them and continues ahead.
Lily sighs inwardly. It is a wonder the knights hadn't been killed already with the way she has been threatening them.
With that thought she glances nervously around at the men and jumps when she sees Dag at her side. She immediately moves after her slightly insane best friend.
Tam sighs again and smiles sheepishly at the knights. "At the rate she's going, she's gonna get us all killed. I apologise for her words."
Arthur nods and they continue after their youngest companions. "I find her rather amusing truthfully."
"You say that now, wait until you've been around her for a couple of days then you'll be wishing you let us wander off to get lost," she informs them dryly.
A/N: Finished! =] How was it? I was a little unsure about this chapter, but I think it turned out okay in the end. Pretty please review and let me know what you thought of it =].
Thank you, as always, to Kanae Valentine for her terrific work as BETA, without you I'm not sure if it would even be in English :P. Lol.
And SUPER thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, alerted and favourite-d. It really does mean a lot to me that you guys enjoy what I write =]. Cookies and ice cream to you all, I hope you keep it up :).
Can't wait to hear what you think, til next time,
~Angel xo