"Good thing about Woads they leave a bunch of tracks…" Aria said. "I don't even have to get off my horse to see them…"
"Could be decoy tracks…" Tristan offered.
"Are they that smart?" he shrugged. Aria pulled an arrow tied a piece of red cloth to it and fired it into the tree. She had done this every few minutes of riding to leave a clear trail for the others to follow. She looked over her shoulder still not being able to hear them. "What is taking them so long?" she wondered out loud.
"They could have run into more trouble…"
"Then one of us should turn back, I vote it be you." He looked at for a long moment before sighing.
"I think Arthur may have sent us together for a reason…"
"Yes because two sets of eyes are better than one."
"Or maybe it was to-." She put up her hand looked around. "Do you hear something?"
"Not now." She said with a cheeky look before heading off.
"We had a misunderstanding." He said riding up alongside her.
"I have no misunderstanding…"
"When I said-."
"I don't care Tristan."
"We're friends of course you care."
"We're not friends; you were just repaying a strange debt you thought you owed to me." His eyes narrowed, she really could be stubborn at times, usually it was a trait he found amusing.
"When I told you the vow I made as a child I didn't mean it to sound-."
"I don't want to talk about it Tristan…" she turned Teleri and looked into the darkening forest. "Where are they?"
"You are getting worried?" He asked.
"I am… Something doesn't feel right…" he looked at her for a long moment before she turned to him. "We should go back." A horn sounded and a row of arrows connected to barbed wire fired down into the ground in front of them.
"Go!" Tristan yelled as they turned their horses and began to run. They halted as they saw a horde of woads rush at them with swords and axes. Tristan took a sharp right through a group of bushes and Aria quickly followed his movements. Everywhere they went they were met with either angry woads, or barbed wire arrows. Then very suddenly the sounds of battle cries and battle horns stopped and they looked around to see they were alone.
"Where are they?" she asked a sword in hand. Tristan looked around his eyes peeled for any movement.
"I don't know…" he answered. Aria slowly looked around at the clearing they were in.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"No idea." After a long moment he looked to her and saw the expression of realization on her face. "What is it Aria?"
"This is what they wanted." She said sheathing her weapon. "The bastards tricked us. I know where we are."
"Where?" he inquired and she looked to him with an angry expression.
"A trap…" She answered. "Fucking hell, we're sitting boar waiting for the slaughter.
"We'll find our way back out…" he went to move out of the clearing but froze when an arrow was fired. Aria pulled out her bow and fired an arrow. She smiled when she saw a woad drop from a tree line and fall dead to the ground. She had half expected another arrow to be fired at them but nothing came. "We're being kept here…"
"I just said that… literally two sentences back… I mean, what part of fucking hell we're boars waiting for the slaughter didn't you get?" She asked seeing all the waods hiding far up in the trees. She sighed heavily feeling completely vulnerable something she hated. Her eyes slowly set on an interesting sight and she smiled as she quirked an eyebrow.
"Tristan…" he turned and looked to her to see she was looking at a moss covered boulder. He tilted his head for a long moment before smiling.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Oh yeah… Teleri go!" she kicked the horse and it rushed for the boulder trusting her that they wouldn't slam right into it. Tristan smiled as he watched Aria rushed through a curtain of ivy that had camouflaged the cave and made it look like a simple boulder. As he rode towards it himself he heard yells and arrows being fired behind him. He smiled when he broke though the line and rushed into the dark cave. Aria fired countless arrows out and hit at least fifteen woads before they slowly began to back away. "Didn't expect that did you!?" she called from behind the Ivy curtain and she watched them scowl. Tristan got off his horse and walked to Aria.
"Are they coming?" he asked.
"No… No they aren't…" she said. "I don't think they knew this was here."
"Good eyes."
"I'm not so sure this was a good idea…" she said looking to him. "How will the others find us if they can't see us?"
"What makes you think they'll come for us?" he asked and she looked at him for a long moment.
"Arthur wouldn't leave us behind."
"If it meant saving his skin and the skin of the others he very much would."
"I don't believe that." She said looking away.
"We're going to have to fight our way out of here…"
"We don't even know where here is Tristan…" She said. "I can't believe we fell for that ploy."
"We couldn't have known they were leading us here…"
"No I meant the ploy of the carriage… There was no family Tristan there were no hostages… Don't you see, we are the hostages." He looked at her for a long moment before gazing out at the waods who were slowly sinking back into the forest that surrounded the clearing.
-o-
"Arthur!" Bors called as he stared down at a grizzly sight. They had just entered the forest to begin fallowing Tristan and Aria who had gone into begin tracking the woads.
"What is it?" he asked riding over.
"Look at this." Arthur peered down from his horse and frowned before leaping down. He could see a small hand peeking out from under some brush. He walked over and cleared it away and took a step back as he stared down at a roman man and woman and small child.
"They didn't take the family…" he said.
"The woad said they did…" Gawain said looking back at the man in question who was struggling to get back to his feet beside the abandoned carriage.
"Well he lied. Dag get him!" Dag rushed back out atop his horse as Arthur mounted his and they went back.
"Don't you run!" Dag said as he leapt off his horse and grabbed the woad who had begun to crawl away. "You lied to us!" he threw him up against the carriage and to his surprise and the surprise of the others he was laughing.
"Yeah I did… But it was fun." He said.
"Kill him." Bors said.
"Not yet." Arthur stated walking forward.
"You fell for it so easily…" the woad said. "So easily…"
"Fell for what?"
"I wonder if your other knights have fallen for the second part as well?" he stared at the waod for a long moment.
"My other knights who rode off to track your people…"
"I bet they've been captured by now… If you ever want to see them again you'll wait here for their ransom…" Arthur took out his sword and stabbed it straight into the woads throat pinning him to the carriage.
"Damn it!" he bellowed before pulling the sword away.
"Arthur what do we do?" Lancelot asked.
"You don't really think they took Aria and Tristan do you?" Lucan asked.
"Yeah I mean they would be way too hard to catch…" Jameson said.
"We should stay here; if a woad doesn't come by to gloat we go looking for them…" Just as Arthur said it a tall lean man with blue paint came out of the tree line with a smile.
"Should we kill him?" Lancelot asked.
"Not yet… Dag come with me."
-o-
As Aria watched for waods to advance their cave Tristan lit a fire. She turned back and looked to see it was small but enough to light up the whole cave which was vast, large enough that the horses we're fifteen feet back standing tall with room for their heads to stretch.
"Now that we have light we should see if we can't find a way out." He said and she only nodded. "Are they still out there?" she nodded again.
"You stay here and keep watch for them to advance, I'll go look around see if I can't find some way out." she said.
"I'll go with." He said.
"No someone should stay here."
"If they hadn't advanced by now they won't… They're going to wait for us to come out there for food or for water." She thought about it for a moment before nodding.
"Still I think we could use a alarm system…" she brought over a cross bow and leaned it up against a small stack of stones. She tied a piece of twine to the trigger and then tied it to a clump of ivy. "When they pull this it should release and we should hear a scream or something…"
"Good idea…" he said.
I wouldn't have ever thought of that… he said remembering the set up for later use. He took a large stick and dipped it into the fire which illuminated it.
"Where did you get the fire wood?"
"Arthur asked me to carry wood in my saddle bags in case of rain." He said. "That way we could light a fire on dry wood…" as they walked past the horses Aria looked to Tristan out of the corner of their eye. "What do you think they would want us for?" he asked. "Ransom?"
"I don't think Rome would pay a ransom for two salmation knights." She said bitterly. "The woads may not know that though… We might be here for a while. I'm sure if that's the case Arthur will try to get the money then he'll come for us which would took a few days I imagine."
"You think too much of Arthur."
"You think too little of him." She muttered. "Besides if Arthur doesn't come for us I imagine the others will."
"What makes you think that?"
"Galahad promised."
"Galahad knew we were going to be taking for ransom by woads?" he asked dryly.
"No. I saved Galahads life and he promised that if mine was ever in danger he would come for me…"
"And you didn't see that as him trying to repay a debt?" she looked to him for a long moment as she came to a stop.
"No… I didn't because he made it clear it wasn't a debt… Just a promise between friends, I'd do the same for him…"
"So mine wasn't a promise-."
"No no it wasn't because you weren't upfront with it. Then again you aren't up front about anything."
"I'm not going to be stuck in a cave with you for days on end with you angry with me, tell me what you're really mad about." She turned to him.
"You know what I'm mad about."
"I thought I did now I am unsure." He said with the usual stoic expression he always wore. She leaned back against the cave wall and looked him over. "Before by the lake when I told you about the promise I made as a child you took it as that I indebted myself to you and that stuck close to you and became your friend so I could up hold that debt I thought up…" He said and she nodded. "That's not what happened at all… I tried to not become your friend because I knew that if I failed in protecting you that I wouldn't feel right about it…"
"I don't understand what you're trying to say Tristan…" she said with a soft expression.
"What I mean was there was no debt none at all just a promise to myself…" She slowly nodded starting to understand. "And also that I wanted no friends… Just like you wanted no friends… but it happened."
"Yeah the guys grow on you…" she said with a smile.
"Not the others…" He said quietly his eyes averting from hers for a moment.
"What do you mean not the others?" she asked softly. The tone in her voice bringing his eyes to hers once more. He could hear it the soft sound of vulnerability, and it was a rare tone to behold.
"The others are allies, brothers, not friends…"
"So am I not a friend?" he sighed shaking his head.
"You don't understand me…"
"You mean that I am just your friend?" he looked to her for a long moment before nodding. "Alright…" she said.
"So you understand me?" he asked.
"Yes I do… But I'm still angry."
"What?" he asked as she continued to walk and he followed. "But I just explained."
"I came to understand what you meant when you said that a while back." She said.
"Then why have you been this angry this long?" he asked.
"Because though I was angry about that I wasn't any more instead I was angry about something else."
"About?"
"About the fact you treated me like a child." She said turning and glaring at him. "You tried to drag me up into my room like a two year old…"
"I already said sorry about that."
"No you didn't…" he thought back to the lake.
"I am… sor-." He halted before taking a breath. "Why are you so angry with me anyways?"
"I almost got the words out…" he muttered.
"What?" she asked not hearing him.
"I am sorry for that." He said looking up.
"That doesn't sound genuine."
"What do you want from me Aria?" he asked his voice rising slightly.
"A genuine apology Tristan!"
"I'm sorry!" she sighed loudly and walked off only to have Tristan grab at her hand.
"That's another thing!" she turned. "You constantly grabbing at me it goes along the lines of you trying to drag me up the bloody stairs!"
"You keep walking away from me what else am I supposed to do?" he asked.
"Oh I don't know you could say Aria please don't walk away?"
"Would you listen if I asked?"
"Probably not but you could try and ask!"
"You are impossible!" he shouted before storming off.
"So are you!" he turned quickly and walked back to her getting in her face. He took a few calming breaths before sighing. "Would you please forgive me for grabbing at you?"
"Is that genuine?"
"Please Aria…" she looked at him for a long moment before crossing her arms over her chest as if waiting for something else. He looked at her for a long moment before slowly holding up an apple in front of her. She looked at it for a long moment before smiling softly and taking it.
"Fine…" she said walking away.
"Fine?" he asked following.
"Mhm." She said with a happy smile as she munched on a piece of apple.
"We're good?"
"Mhm…" she smiled at him and he relaxed.
"I was hoping you would forgive me with the apple this morning."
"I couldn't not with the others watching." She said looking at him like it was obvious. "Here…" she held out a pear and he took it. "Sorry for being stubborn… I should have just gone up to bed." He smiled softly as he took a bite.
"Fine." He said and she nudged him with a small laugh.
"You were going to drag out being angry with me as long as you could weren't you?"
"Just a bit…" he scowled at her though Aria could tell it was all in a good hearted nature.
"This cave goes far back…" she said looking back to see the entrance to the cave was a good fifty feet back.
"And we still have farther to go…" he said peering into the darkness.
"How long do you think it will take the others to come for us?"
"However long it takes for them to sneak away from the Romans…"
"Maybe Arthur would come as well that way they wouldn't have to sneak away."
"Maybe…" she looked to him to see he had a dark expression.
"It's too bad glider isn't here." He looked to her with a questioning glance. "We could send messages with him to the others and they could send them back, so we could see how long it would take…"
"I never thought of him as a carrier bird…" he said.
It's not such a terrible idea… he thought. Aria stopped and put her hand out halting his movements.
"Do you hear that?"
"What do you hear?"
"Water…" she said. "I hear water…" he stayed silent for a long moment before nodding.
"I hear it as well…" Aria took a step forward and very suddenly she was gone with a small scream fallowed by a splash.
"Aria!" he called taking a step forward only to have his feet sink down very suddenly, he took a leap back before he could fall and looked down the fire lighting up the ground. There was a hole in the ground he moved forward and shined the light only to see darkness. "Aria!"
"Tristan!" her voice echoed.
"Aria are you alright!?" he called.
"I found the water I'm in some sort of underwater lake!"
"Can you see anything?!"
"Nothing!" Aria peered out in the darkness. "It's freezing though!"
"I'll throw down a rope!"
"Hurry please…" she muttered hating the dark that surrounded her. It helped that she could look up and see the fire from Tristan's torch lighting the hole she had fallen through. Aria watched him lower a rope as she felt something brush against her leg. She pulled an arrow and stabbed it into the water, instantly whatever had been moving next to her halted. The rope brushed against her face and she wrapped it around her wrist and gripped. "Alright pull me up!" she called.
"Hold on!" he said as he began to pull. To his surprise she was much heavier than he had expected. She was heavier then when he had carried her into the fort after the bear attack.
"Guess what I got?" she asked as she neared the top.
"What?" he asked. He watched as a hand holding an arrow piercing a large salmon was held up from the hole. He smiled realizing that had been what had made her seem so heavy.
"I got dinner." She said as she climbed up from the hole, water dripping off her as she did. "I think it's best if we turn back..." He only nodded and helped her to her feet. They backed away from the hole slowly and carefully before heading to the front of the cave once more.
"Nice catch." He said seeing the size of the fish.
"Pretty good considering I had no idea what I was stabbing." When they got back to the fire it was to see it was dwindling.
"I don't suppose you have any more wood…"
"None." He said. She looked out at the clearing in front of them before firing the bow she had rigged. When no return fire came she and Tristan looked to each other.
"What do you think?"
"I think it would be mad to go out there."
"Then its right up my alley." He watched her peel the wet cloak off herself and set it off to the side. "There is a bush not far from us, I can run to it and hack off a few pieces…"
"They could still be hiding." He said watching her get her axes ready.
"If I don't do it we don't eat and if I don't do it we'll freeze me way faster than you because I'm sopping wet, two very good reasons for me to run out there don't you think?"
"Let me." He said.
"No I need you to cover me you're more accurate with a bow anyway…" he thought about it for a long moment. "Trist come on… I can do this…" he slowly nodded before readying a bow. "Okay…" she faced the opening hidden by ivy.
"One… Two… Three…" she rushed out into the open, and to Tristans surprise there was no firing of arrows from the tree line.
He didn't know if it was because no one was watching or because they couldn't see her in the dark. Then Aria made it to the bush raised her ax and hacked at the bottom of the bush. Instantly arrows began to be fired. Tristan fired more and more arrows hitting tons of Woads in the tree but it was to no avail, they were literally raining down over her. She suddenly turned as one struck her in the arm and ran back for the cover of the cave without wood. She dove past the Ivy and to the ground her hand clutching onto the arrow that stuck from her bicep.
"Aria…" he moved to her side quickly.
"I'm fine… I'm fine…" she said as she grabbed her cross bow and tied a rope to the end of an arrow. She got to the opening and fired he watched as it struck the bush. "Pull the rope…" she said wincing as she fell back against the caves wall. Tristan began to pull and to his surprise the bush moved with the rope, he smiled as he pulled it all the way into the cave and set it aside. He went to congratulate Aria when he saw blood pouring down her arm. "I think I need your help." She said quietly as she leaned her head back. He looked around before reaching for his cloak and slitting two strips of cloth away. He tied it tightly above the wound and winced as she made a sound of pain. He put the other cloth under the wound and tied it tight once more and again she made a sound of discomfort.
"Take a breath on three… One. Two. Three." She took a breath and he pulled the arrow from her arm he closed his eyes as she cried out in pain. "Worst part is over…" he said securing the ties tighter until the blood stopped flowing. After a long moment he slowly let go and smiled when he saw no blood racing to get out. "It will do…" He said with a nod.
"Worth it for the wood…"
"Was good plan not dragging it back…" he said as he broke off a branch and threw it into the fire, instantly it burned high and bright. He looked back to Aria who was looking at her arm which was covered in blood. "Is it okay?"
"Twinges I've had worse… Thanks to that bear." She smiled as she took her wet cloak and wiped the blood away. "I think we can use this to hydrate the horses… Rest it over their coats…" she got up and carried it over to the two. She took the saddles off and got them close together where she threw her cloak and it rested over the two. "Best I can do for now…" she said before coming back to see Tristan had begun to cook the fish. She slowly sat down and looked out at the clearing that was riddled with dead woads and countless arrows. They sat in silence for a long time. The whole while Tristan watched Aria. She seemed troubled as she looked from her arm out into the clearing in front of their cave filled with bodies.
"You seem troubled." He said making her look to him.
"Well I was stuck with an arrow."
"Other than that…"
"I was just in thought." She said with a shrug as she looked back out into the clearing.
"About?"
"Do you ever feel bad after slaying the woads?"
"No." he said before turning the fish over to cook evenly. "Do you?" She slowly looked to him.
"Not for them but for the ones they've left behind like their wives and children…"
"I don't think of that." He said looking to her. "You shouldn't either." She slowly nodded as she watched him go back to tending the food. As she watched him she couldn't help but examine how he looked. He had always had a stoic expression even when they were small children, but he had grown into that expression. His black hair lay around him wild and un tamed. Some in long strands other in loose braids. He was an attractive man there was no denying it and Aria wondered when she had started to think of him as handsome and not just interesting as she always had. He looked up at her and she instantly averted her eyes.
"I'm thinking of getting a bucket… Tie it to the end of a rope and pull some water for the horses…"
"Not with your arm the way it is." He said. "I will do it."
"I can manage." She said.
"Wait until after food." She slowly nodded as she moved a little closer and put her cold hands close to the flames.
-o-
"What did they say?" Gawain asked as Arthur came into the round table room.
"Arthur…" Lancelot said after he didn't answer. "What did the fort master say?"
"He said he would ask for the gold from the romans but that it would take weeks to get word back and that the answer would most likely be no…"
"What?" Galahad asked. "They are knights for Rome."
"That is what I said."
"So we can't get the money…" Bors said.
"What do we do?" Dag asked.
"We go after them ourselves." Arthur said.
"Who knows where they are though…" Lancelot said sitting down.
"Aria leaves clues when she goes somewhere in case something happens to her." Galahad said. "It's something we asked her to do when we were children in case the romans found out she was a girl and took her we could come after her…"
"That's right." Gawain said remembering. "When she was tracking those woads I bet you anything she left a trail for us to follow…"
"Then we start there." Arthur said. "We leave tomorrow first light."
-o-
Tristan watched as Aria sat back down placing her torch into the fire. She had gone and gotten the water after eating just like he had asked. He had been surprised she had managed such a fete considering her injured arm. Then again she was so stubborn she could paint a mural with no hands if she really wanted to.
"We should take turns resting, you sleep first…" Tristan said.
"I am fine…"
"You're injured you should rest…" she looked down at her arm. She had to admit it did hurt and her body was still recovering from the bear attack. She would welcome some sleep but she didn't find it fair to leave Tristan alone to watch out for woads.
"I'll stay up and keep you company…"
"Are we going to get in another fight about you not resting?" She only smiled and he raised an eyebrow with a good hearted glance.
"If I fall asleep I fall asleep deal?" she asked.
"Fine…" he said. Tristan knew it was unlikely she would fall asleep. Even as children she slept less than he did. She would instead always sit at their cell window and look out at the hills that rolled far and free. He smiled as he looked down at the fire and was reminded of a night that had occurred many years ago.
It had been a long day of combat training and when they had gotten back to their cell all had fallen asleep except for himself and Aria. She was instead sitting in her usual spot looking out a barred window at the moon that shown high in the sky. He had been watching her for some time trying to work up the courage to say something, anything. He had always been quiet and sometimes he truly thought he had lost his voice. He slowly got up and walked over an apple held behind his back. He had already given her one that day but he knew she wouldn't mind the second one. She never minded any of the apples he bestowed upon her.
"Aria…" she turned and looked to him the moonlight illuminating her white skin.
"Yes?" he slowly held out the apple and she took it with a small smile.
"Thank you…" he only nodded as he sat down across from her.
"What were you looking at?" He asked after a long moment of comfortable silence.
"The moon."
"What is so interesting about it?" he asked looking. "Looks the same to me…"
"Didn't you know?" he looked to her. "It's a new moon every night." He looked at her for a long moment before shaking his head.
"No it isn't…"
"Sure it is… Every day the sky collects the hopes and dreams of children like us and at night those hopes and dreams shine, and that's the moon…" he looked to her to see she was smiling softly her head tilted to the side. He at that moment wondered how the roman soldiers could have ever thought her as a boy.
"So we have the moon instead of our wishes being granted…" he said and she looked down at the apple that was held in her hands.
"Sometimes the sky answers our hopes… Our dreams…"
"It never has once with me…"
"What is your hope or dream Tristan?" she asked and he looked at her surprised that she had asked.
"What's yours?"
"I have it…" she said as she cut the apple in half. "Someone to share my apples with…" she handed him over the piece of fruit and he looked down at it for a long moment before looking up at Aria. "Oh would you look at that." He gazed at the moon. "It looks dimmer to me now…" she smiled at him before laughing softly and taking a bite of apple. Every night until the day they were taken as knights for Arthur they had shared an apple together at that window. Tristan slowly looked up from the fire to see Aria holding out an apple which was cut in half. He looked at it for a long moment before reaching out and taking his piece.
"Where did you get this one?"
"I asked for it back from Gawain after we rode off this morning for our mission… He was upset but I promise a whole bushel if he gave it back…" she said taking a bite.
"So you did want it."
"I just didn't want you to know I wanted it."
"Stubborn…"
"Would you want me any other way?" he smiled softly as he looked down at the fire.
"No… I guess I wouldn't…"