A/N: I posted the first two chapters. I'm three chapters ahead, but I will post only once or twice a week, seeing how I cope with it. :)

Chapter two: They

Leera and Taun reached the part of the woods where their brothers were chasing the Knights in less than an hour. She could hear the horses' feet as they were trying to get rid of the harsh plants along the way. The forests weren't meant to be crossed by Romans. And the Woads didn't ride. Ever.

"I will leave you here. Good luck, Leera."

She merely nodded in the man's direction, and ran faster and as silently as she could towards where their scouts were hiding and ghostly following the men's traces.

She soon spotted a man who looked at her, his painted face quizzical. She approached and signalled him she was there for the Knights. He nodded and gestured her forward.

Leera opened her ears and closed her eyes. The sound of the rain ceased as she closed it from her mind. Every other sound seemed muffled, her own heart, her own breathing, the cracking of leaves under her feet.

She snapped her eyes open once she heard it.

Horses.

Coming her way.

Leera moved swiftly and quickly, climbing in the nearest tree, her dark hair and attire hiding her better than her white skin.

Under her, soon, the seven horses that belonged to the Sarmatian Knights appeared.

The first one was a white stallion, mounted by a tall man with messy brown hair and green eyes. His shoulders bore a red cape. Arthur. Leera was glad she could see his Briton blood flowing in his ways. It would be easier than protecting a pointless Roman.

Behind him came the Lancelot, whom she had already seen countless times. Dark hair, dark eyes. The following was most the same, with a soft pair of blue eyes though. Behind them came the blond one, and the bold one, the one who was cursing between his breath every time his cape got caught in a branch. And then came the giant. The one with the scar across the face. The one Leera knew to be a healer. He had healed a Woad once. She still didn't know why he had done it.

Then, after the sixth first passed her, Leera narrowed her eyes as the last rider seemed to be fully aware of being stared at. His dark eyes were piercing before him, not watching anything in particular as Leera guessed his ears were his best weapon.

She nodded in the dark. That one was the scout. The best scout she had ever witnessed. As silent as the breeze, as deadly as a snake's bite.

His long dark hair was plaited in place, his eyes hidden behind bangs similar as her own, and he bore two tattoos on his cheekbones.

He stroke her as handsome. But such a man was a threat. And Leera knew that threats that came in the form of men were the deadliest.

She straightened her post on the tree, and the man's head snapped in her general direction.

Leera ceased to breathe as he made his grey horse walk towards Arthur's, and she heard his grave and quiet voice over the rain drops.

"We are being followed."

Though the words didn't ring anything in her, Leera couldn't hide that the scout's voice sounded as lethal as his posture.

She hated herself for her ragged breathing.

The best of archers. Not the best of stalkers.

The Sarmatian would notice her as easily as the sun in his face.

She cursed the gods between her teeth and got down the tree, running behind her kind, trying to get the gears in her brain work harder and quicker.

As soon as she got her idea, she silently asked a man to point the direction where the Knights would have to get out of the woods. He pointed the direction, and she ran faster than everyone, cutting through the forest to get there first.

The rain followed her tracks, providing a noisy distraction as well as a calming companion.

As soon as Leera reached the end of the forest, she clamped herself hard on the soaked ground, and reached for her bow. She knew all the Knights could take her down as easily as any other enemy, so she pushed it to the ground and leaned on it. Her highly displayed skin seemed to glow in the light of the moon, as the rain slowly stopped.

The horse's feet weren't long now.

As soon as the first Knight got out of the woods, his horse whinnied as he saw her right front, and the man drew out his sword.

It was the Lancelot.

Leera stared at the man calmly, her green eyes startling him.

He was about to get down and kill her when Arthur came behind him, stopping his hand.

"Lancelot, don't!"

Leera narrowed her eyes as she understood a negation. Don't. She kept the word in her mind for later.

Arthur stopped his white horse in front of Leera and eyed her carefully. He saw she was a female, and his green eyes, so darker than her own, widened. He got down his saddle, his sword ready to strike, and walked up to his visitor.

Leera repressed a smirk. She had expected this.

She couldn't follow them unseen when the scout was so good.

The best way to protect the man was to make herself known.

She slowly put her hand up her chest, pointing at herself. "Leera."

Arthur looked surprised, but understood the word. He nodded. "Artorius Castor. What are you doing here, lady?"

Leera widened her eyes and tilted her head, making sure he understood what it meant.

Lancelot sighed behind his captain. "She doesn't understand a thing, Arthur. Let's go, she's only a Woad!"

The other Knights then all got down their saddles. The two bold ones turned around and eyed the forest as if in search of ambush, the blond one took his axe on his back and smirked at her, while the youngest just sad down and sighed heavily.

The scout eyed Leera strangely. His piercing eyes seemed to see through her soul.

She looked down.

Arthur took her chin and made her look back up into his eyes. "Leera." She nodded. "What. Are you. Doing. Here?" She shook her head. She still didn't understand.

Though she could guess. She pointed herself, then her bow, then him. "Protection."

The scout narrowed his eyes when she spoke, and then walked up to Arthur, still staring deep in her green orbs.

"Arthur. I think she means to protect you. Her word sounded close to shield." Leera jumped at the sound of a known word. So that man knew a little of her language. And she nodded, signalling the word used as "shield" was indeed close to "protection".

Arthur looked at her closely. "Merlin?"

She nodded.

Lancelot sighed again, his horse stomping with impatience. "Arthur. The old goat might want you safe, but an ambush in the middle of the forest isn't the best way to show it."

Arthur shook his head. "He hasn't killed us. And this one seems honest."

"And here he goes. Arthur, the Woads can't be trusted! Kill her and let's go!"

Leera hissed in the Knight's direction as she understood kill. Her knuckles gripped her bow harder, and she readied herself for some battle.

Arthur shook his head, while the scout just looked slightly amused. Though his face didn't give anything away. But Leera could see it in his eyes.

"Bind her hands. She comes with us."

The scout moved so quickly Leera didn't see anything coming. Her hands were pulled in her back, her quiver taken down, and her arms bind with a scratching rope. She had expected that too.

What she hadn't taken into consideration was to ride.

The scout pulled her towards the blond Knight's horse. "I can't take her with me."

The blond nodded, and soon the scout took her in his arms and pushed her onto the horse's back, just behind his brother knight. He bind her to him so she wouldn't fall, and she was gone.

She was beginning to think it wasn't bad to be on a horse's back when the man kicked its sides and it started galloping.

The youngest one, with his kind blue eyes, chuckled a little when she let out a startled cry.