Chapter 2
"A step too far."
The few days that Morgana had spent in Camelot had been enjoyable ones. She had explored the castle, watched the Knights in training and even took one of the horses out for a small stroll. Everyone had been more than welcoming to the new Lady of Camelot, treating her as though she had lived there her entire life, the maids and servants where extremely kind, whilst the Knights and Guards would often greet her as she passed- and Uther had gone out of his way to make her stay here a comfortable one. One person however who hadn't neared her since the night she arrived was the small, blonde haired Prince, who done everything and anything to avoid her. If she were passing up a corridor he would quickly duck out of the way, whilst after every meal he made an excuse and scuttled off.
She had very clearly seen it in his eyes that night, the hatred- the despair. He didn't want her here, and if it could be helped she didn't want to be here, she preferred her old lifestyle, but as she had to adjust so did he. Morgana could not help but feel hurt by the young Prince's actions towards her, how could he know that his rejection towards her was causing her to suffer so? But today she promised herself, when Helena had finished tying the back of her lilac dress, that she would make an effort to talk to him, to show him she wasn't some ravenous beast prying to tear his arm off.
"Ah, Morgana." Uther beamed as she entered the throne room for her breakfast with the silent Prince and the cheerful King. "My Lord." Morgana chirped, as a rusty-haired fellow pulled out her chair for her to sit down. "I was just telling Arthur," Uther began as Morgana started into her porridge which had been sitting waiting on her. "That you two are to spend more time together!" Uther grinned, as he picked over the grapes at the side of his golden plate. Arthur rolled his eyes, as his elbow rested on the table, and his head was slanted to the left side as he weighed his head on his hand. "I know, under the circumstance..." Uther said, a lot quieter and serious now, with the feeling that he was walking on sensitive territory with his words, his eyes taking a quick glance to Morgana's expression. "That this cannot be easy for either of you." Uther said, now looking to his son. "You cannot keep avoiding each other." Uther said, as though he were directing his words to Arthur more so, as Arthur resisted the temptation to roll his eyes once again. "So..." The King's cheerful grin appeared on his lips again. "I command the two of you spend the entire day together!"Uther beamed, as Arthur's face dropped to utter shock. "FATHER!" Arthur half-shouted, as Morgana felt the uncomfortable twang in her stomach at the thought of Arthur being so horrified at being near her. "Silence!" Uther commanded his son, raising a single finger to his lips. "What am I supposed to do with her?" Arthur said, gesturing his hand at Morgana as though she were of no use whatsoever, as though she were nothing but a nuisance. "Arthur!" Uther said, his eyes widening at the rude mannerisms of his son. "But honestly! I'm not going to sit brushing my hair and trying on dresses all day- or picking flowers!" Arthur moaned to his father, his voice raised in anger. "Morgana is part of this family now Arthur, she is not some sort of pointless object, she is my Ward!" Uther aggressively replied to his son. Morgana at present was feeling very uncomfortable, she had lost all appetite for her porridge and was not sitting back against her chair, looking down at her hands. She felt completely awful, it was clear Arthur would rather do anything than be around her, and now this only gave him more reason to hate her.
"Its fine my Lord really, it is obvious Arthur has other plans." Morgana said, speaking up -trying to redeem herself with Arthur. God, why would she do anything to make him like her?
"Nonsense my child." Uther said to her, turning back to Arthur, "You will find something the both of you can do together." Uther commanded, his word was final. "Perhaps some playful sword fighting?" Morgana piped up with a kind smile gestured towards the small Prince, sadly the smile was not returned. She thought that if Uther insisted the two spend the day together that they do something Arthur might actually enjoy. "What an excellent idea!" Uther prompted. "You have your work cut out Arthur!" Uther grinned, trying to cheer his son up. "You will tell me of your activities this evening, at dinner."
Before long, Arthur had stormed out of the throne room, before Morgana followed- only to go up to her room and slip into something more appropriate, she thought this long skirt that floated round her ankles was not the best attire to carry a sword with.
Helena had chose her out her favourite sandy-coloured jumper, with a loose neckline and brown pants to match. Helena helped the young girl undress before she assisted her with her new fighting gear. "You look so beautful, Milady." Helena complimented quite delicately as she did-up the three buckles on Morgana's belt, that accentuated her waist quite graciously. "I'm not supposed to look beautiful, Helena. I'm supposed to look fierce!" Morgana teased as she pulled the silver bejeweled clasp from her hair, allowing Helena to french-plait her long, ravenous locks.
"Do have fun! And be careful!" Helena urged in her maternal ways as she bid the Lady good day, watching from the window as Morgana walked quickly to the Training Ground.
Morgana was feeling very hopeful about today, she had to retain herself from breaking into a run to the training field. She hadn't the slightest idea why she wanted Arthur to like her so much, she figured the feeling of having someone loathe you as much as he obviously loathed her, that she wanted to put it right, she had to live the rest of her days with this boy, she didn't want them to grow up as enemies.
As she finally approached the training ground, she saw the small, blonde Prince in his heavy silver chain-mail, throwing knives at a full grown man carrying a round shield. "Faster!" The Prince commanded. "What use are you if you're not going to go faster!" The arrogant boy yelled at the fully grown man, no respect whatsoever. "I'm trying Sire." The man replied in an anxious tone. "Well, you're obviously not trying hard enough!" Arthur shouted aggressively as he threw another knife, and it hit the shield and stuck to it, clinging to the wood. Before long the man was running in no right direction and he ended up tripping over his own feet and falling into the sand, still clinging to the shield. Arthur rolled his eyes and threw the remainder of the knives in his hand on the ground with force, before he turned around to see the beautful Morgana perched on the wall, watching him, a wide smile on her pale features. Arthur half laughed as he watched her jump off the wall and walk towards him. "Are you serious?" Arthur cackled, which took Morgana aback. "Well, of course." Morgana replied, stopping- leaving quite a gap between them. "Oh come on, I know you suck up to my father on most levels, but this is too far." Arthur scoffed. Morgana did not suck up to Uther- this caused her brows to furrow, and a rage awakened within her, it surged through her bones. "Well, I expect Uther is just being welcoming- more than can be said for you!" Morgana said smugly to the Prince across from her. "Whatever you want to call it- I'm not fighting you." Arthur said, dismissing her words as he strolled past her. "Why? Are you scared?" Morgana said, placing her hands on her hips confidently as she turned around, this caused Arthur to turn around and look at her, his face bewildered with a lingering smirk. "Of what exactly?" Arthur asked, not half believing what she was saying. "Well, you're obviously afraid of my skills if you won't duel with them." said Morgana with a smirk, a patronizing one. "Skills?" Arthur laughed. "Well, I'll give it to you Morgana- you have the better suck-up skills of the two of us." Arthur said turning again, to go over to the sword rack. "And the better fighting skills, I think you forgot that one." Morgana told him smugly, walking past him, not giving him a chance to reply. She lifted a silver sword from the rack and turned to him. "Come on then." She told him, as she proceeded out to the middle of the field. Arthur admitted defeat, rolling his eyes half laughing as he too pulled a sword from the rack and followed her- this got a good crowd gathered, to see the King's son and his Ward in a battle. "Don't expect me to go easy on you because your a girl." Arthur half spat at her, almost in disgust. "Well, it that case- I'll not go easy on you either, since you might as well be a little girl too." Morgana replied slyly, getting into a combat position. "Honestly." Arthur scoffed, getting ready to attack. "I can't wait to tell Uther that I beat his little Princess later!" Morgana added with a sardonic touch of glee, before Arthur whacked her sword with his, causing a loud clang as the metal reacted against itself. Morgana made the next move, holding her sword with both hands she lifted it in the air before she hit Arthur's sword with full force against her own. It continued like that for a few minutes, before Arthur managed to knock the small girl over, onto her side. He laughed loudly, as though he had thought he had won the small battle between the two of them. Morgana however was too quick as she made for his ankles with her sword still in hand. Arthur let a small squeal escape his lips as he tried to jump from the sword, causing him to fall over onto his back, this bought Morgana some time to crawl onto her feet, before she held her sword at Arthur's throat. "Do you surrender, princess?" Morgana asked him with a playful tone on her words. Arthur managed to shake his head, making Morgana shove her sword tighter to his throat, the skin bent around the point of her sword just waiting to slice open and for the blood to spill out. Thankfully it never got that far, as Arthur let a loud noise of anger escape his lips, his hand grabbing the blade and snatching it out of Morgana's hand, as he threw it to the left side of him, he got onto his feet and gave Morgana the greatest look of anger and hatred he could muster, before he stormed off.
The crowd that had gathered where all laughing at the ferocity of the girl to her Prince. But Morgana's face lost all of its humor, she stood alone in the middle of the field as she watched Arthur storm away. She felt like an utter fool, the idea of this was to get Arthur to like her, and now- now he hated her more than ever, if that was even possible. Another cold stab in the pit of her stomach made her feel physically sick, before she began after him.
"Oh come on Arthur!" Morgana said as she was caught up with the boy's pace. "It was just some fun!" Morgana chirped, trying to lighten Arthur's spirits. "We can tell your father that you won if it'll make you feel any better." Morgana told him, having to walk very fast to catch up with the boy, her small legs strained. "Yes- what a great idea! We'll tell him that I won when all his Knights witnessed the truth!" Arthur spat at Morgana in a sardonic tone, still walking- not taking a single glance to her. Morgana suddenly didn't understand him, what did he want? "Well, its not my fault I beat you!" Morgana snapped angrily. "Its not my fault you're such a sore loser!" Morgana indefinitely carried on, making Arthur turn around and face her- this took her off guard. "But that's just it, isn't it? You're going to be here every single day to rub everything in my face!" Arthur growled into her face as her emerald orb-like eyes stared at him, clearly hurt by his words. "Well..." Morgana began, trying to hold it together. "Well, I can't help it if my father's dead!" She said, trying to maintain some pride in her words, she was failing miserably, but Arthur wasn't worried about how upset he was making her. "Oh, so you're the only one in the world that's lost someone, are you?" Arthur said, casting his eyes in the air- no sympathy in his tone whatsoever. "I lost my mother to you know!" He shouted at her. "Well at least you've still got your father!" Morgana retaliated very quickly, if he only knew how lucky he was- but he was too arrogant and proud to even bother taking heed of anyone else's feelings.
Arthur cast his eyes in the air once again, feeling as though Morgana continued to bring this up to guilt him, when really she didn't want sympathy at all- but she certainly didn't take too keen to Arthur's insensitivity. Morgana wanted to ask him why he hated her so much, but she felt she could not, because the anger and heartache now brought to mind was simply too overwhelming, and plus Arthur had sort of already confirmed why he loathed her.
Arthur saw her eyes glisten to what her thought were tears, but he chose not to comment on it since she was much too proud to ever admit he had hurt her. A pang of guilt stuck him in the stomach, he loathed her yes, but now it was as though he had seen a different side to her, that she wasn't intent on making him unhappy, that she hated this as much as him- he certainly didn't mean to make her cry.
Being a young boy, the thought of hugging or even talking to a girl made him sick to the stomach, and he hadn't the slightest idea how he could comfort her, like she'd even let him touch her right now, after all the cruel things he had said.
"You will not be cruel to her Arthur!" Came the booming voice in his head of his father- what he had said the first night she had arrived. Arthur had betrayed his own father, but he had never intentionally set out to be nasty, and now look- he'd done it without thinking.
Morgana glared at him, her eyes with a sense of pleading in them- for him to stop all of this, all of this feuding and just accept her, but she feared he wasn't going to try and make amends for his cruel words. The two stared at each other for a long moment, each of the two playing with their thoughts, before Arthur had a full apology ready in his head, he opening his mouth to begin, but was cut off by Morgana, who scoffed- sort of wickedly, before she pushed him away quite violently and stormed off.
He could see he had clearly upset her, and he managed to half utter out her name, but it was too inaudible for her to hear, and soon- she was gone, and he cursed himself for his idiocy.
Morgana was now the one storming away, she felt utterly terrible- the tears welling in her eyes would not cease, and if she to be completely honest with herself, she knew that the tears were not caused by Arthur alone- if she was to be truthful she still had not fully gotten over her father's death, and she had to keep all her emotion and sorrow inside, for it to eat away at her. She was a lot more sensitive now because of this. The constant thought that she had no one left, she was alone in the world still came back to haunt her. She had to deal with all her problems herself and as much as Uther tried to be there for her, she knew that he would never quite be close enough- he would never be like real family to her, as much as she wanted it to be true, it was not.
Arthur had truly set her off, how he was so insensitive about the subject of her father? She wouldn't dare bring up his mother willingly, so the thought of why he would bring up her father was obviously just to intentionally hurt her. The small, warm tears leaked from the corner of her eyes, and the throbbing lump in the back of her throat from holding in the inevitable sobs in was growing more and more painful. She had managed to reach the top staircase, to where her room was located, when the tears were streaming more fluently now. Her fingers fumbled with the handle of her door, as he pursued it violently, before it finally opened. Thankfully Helena wasn't here, so she took the liberty to lock her door- and now, she was alone.
A triumphant sob escaped her lips, her eyes now very red and puffy before she ran around her bed and sat on the floor, so if anyone where to come in, she wouldn't be seen. Here she allowed the painful monster inside her that was grief to eat her up. She wanted nothing more to run to her father, to tell him- for him to make it all better, but now she had to grow up and deal with her feelings herself, which was an awful lot for a ten-year old girl to burden.
The young girl sat for many hours in her room, absorbing herself in the sorrow she had the misfortune of enduring today. The pain that Arthur would willingly hurt her caused her great pain, he had re-opened wounds of how much she truly did miss her father- how could everything go from so perfect to so horrible in a number of days, it didn't make sense.