I know, I know. I'm horrible at updating, but I've had a lot of exams this whole time. I'll try to update better but I make no promises.

This is is my first story and I'm going to warn all of you right now that the writing is going to be terrible for this chapter. If you still decide to stick around, then thank you and enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own yada, yada..

5. I throw some arrows out of the way.

Annabeth

When Annabeth woke up the next morning, the tension and fear lingering in the air was so thick, she could've cut through it with her bone dagger. The villagers were all antsy about what was going to happen. Annabeth didn't blame them - after all, their survival depended on today's outcome. She had just had breakfast that Hunith had graciously prepared for her, and all the guests to Ealdor. She walked to the hut in front of which everyone was gathered to make plans to take down Kanen, with Gwen. She was bringing Arthur his food. Arthur and Merlin were a couple of steps ahead, bantering. Annabeth found it amusing. She certainly hadn't though the great Merlin would be a servant, but she was more surprised to see that while Arthur and the warlock weren't friends (atleast they wouldn't admit to it if asked), there seemed to be a very strong bond between them. She could imagine how devastated Merlin would've been when Arthur died. And that wasn't going to happen for a couple more years, so their friendship would've grown much stronger. If Annabeth had any say in it now (and she did, thanks to the Gods), she wouldn't lt anything come between their not-exactly-friendship.

Annabeth had talked to Percy the previous day. Thankfully, nobody had caught her doing so. Otherwise it would've been hard to explain what she was doing. Percy had been ecstatic to talk to her. She told him of everything that had happened since she left. Percy had rolled his eyes when he heard that Hecate hadn't as much as given her a warning that she would lose consciousness after traveling back in time, but they were both used to the Gods being inconsiderate by now. As much as they wished they weren't. They had talked for a bit longer and before going to sleep, Annabeth had told Percy not to IM her as she might be around other people here. She promised him that she would IM him instead. If she didn't IM for three days continuously, then she must be in a problem. He could go to Chiron. Percy had agreed. As much as she would like to call him a Seaweed Brain, her boyfriend wasn't stupid. He knew when to accept the situation.

Arthur and Merlin stop in the woods. Merlin goes off somewhere Annabeth doesn't bother trying to keep track of. That boy wandered around so much with the tasks Arthur gave him that she stopped trying to keep his location in mind all the time. Gwen hands Arthur the bowl Hunith had given her. "Arthur, Hunith made you some food."

"Thanks," he replies to Gwen and she turns to leave. "I think," Arthur mutters after a second. Gwen turns around with anger in her features, but before she can say anything, Annabeth beats her to it.

"Food is scarce for these people, Arthur! You shouldn't tuen your nose up at it!" She exclaims. Arthur stares at her. Annabeth doesn't look away or try to apologize. After a few seconds, Arthur looks away.

Annabeth thinks that's the end of it, but he says, "Thank you. You're right. And you were right to call me out on it. I should've listened to you three. We're going to need all the help that we can get."

"We'll be fine." Annabeth assures him.

"How can you be so sure?" Arthur asks her. This time, it's Gwen who replies. "Because we have faith in you."

Arthur looks at them both and thanks them.

Gwen, Arthur, Merlin and Annabeth are in their position, hiding. Kanen and his men ride out of the woods and into the village. Annabeth can easily pick out Kanen from the group. Next to her, she can see Gwen's jaw tense. She puts her hand on Gwen's and smiles at her. "We can do this," she whispers. Gwen nods with determination in her eyes. Annabeth returns her gaze to the men on horses. She isn't scares in the slightest - she's faces much, much worse, but she's only concerned for the villagers' safety. She knows that they will win this battle (the history books prove it), but she intends to minimise the casualties as much as she can. Even though Annabeth had helped Arthur with the plan to put Kanen and his men off, he hadn't given her an important job, which would put her in the crossfire. She understood this as he wouldn't want a royal guest to be wounded under his watch. She doesn't mind much, because now, she can easily help anyone who needs help without feeling guilty of abandoning her post.

"Come out, come out wherever you are!" Kanen calls, turning around on horseback. The villagers don't waste much time. On their cue, Gwen and another villager pull up a hidden gate, trapping the riders inside. At this point, Morgana is supposed to light a fire, but something seems to have gone wrong as they see no fire.

"Now Morgana. What are you waiting for? Something's gone wrong," Arthur says. Merlin runs off, probably to find Morgana and help her light the fire. "Merlin!" Arthur calls after him while Annabeth shakes her head at him to stay quiet and not give away their position. When they turn back to look at what's happening, they hear Kanen tell one of his men, "There's one. Get him!" Annabeth swears under her breath but doesn't move as she knows this isn't the day Merlin dies. If Arthur heard her swear, he doesn't show it. Merlin dodges an arrow that zips past him, and disappears around another hut.

"Come back! Don't run away!" Kanin taunts. More of Kanen's men appear in the village.

"Now!" Arthur signals. Annabeth lifts herself up from her crouched position and instead of running to somewhere where there are less people to fight, like Arthur had asked her to, she runs alongside him. He gives her an exasperated look which she returns with a smirk. As they reach Kanen, Arthur takes him on. Annabeth Ducks down to avoid a swinging sword at her from a man to Kanen's right. She sees that these men have no actual fighting style or training, just brute strength. This was definitely a bonus for her. As she ducks, Annabeth swipes the attacker's foot from below him and pushes her dagger into his palm, pinning him to th ground. As many monsters as Annabeth has faced, she's never had to kill a human before. She doesn't plan on doing so now, so she just renders them useless in the battle. She quickly pulls out her dagger and spins around to face another attacker. When he comes within her range, she jumps up and twists her body to kick his sword out of his arm. When he loses his balance, she punches him in the face and she hears a satisfying crack from his jaw as he goes down, unconscious. She turns to look at how Arthur is doing and spots him duelling Kanen. She has to admit that he's not bad - while he might not be as good as Percy, Nico or Jason, he was definitely not an amateur.

She hears a man scream in anger behind Arthur and sees that he's about to stab him in the back. Annabeth doesn't think twice before putting herself between Arthur and the man. Her eyes become stormy with the knowledge that this man was going to stab someone in the back. She scowls and raises an eyebrow before running into him with all her weight. He crashes to the ground with her on top. She quickly gets up with her foot on his chest, so that there nowhere he can run to. She grabs her blade and bending down, she whacks him on his head with the dagger. He immediately passes out.

When Annabeth looks up next, a windstorm is surrounding Kanen's men. This serves as an excellent distraction. Annabeth knows that Merlin is to be thanked for it. The villagers gladly take the opportunity to strike Kanen's men down. When the storm subsides, most of his men are down. In the corner of her eye, she sees Gwen and Morgana hug. Kanen looked mad. Well madder than he already was. He stomps towards Arthur. "Pendragon!"

Arthur and Kanen fight. Thankfully Annabeth doesn't have to intervene as Arthur wins, running Kanen through with his sword. Annabeth winces. Before she can ponder on it though, Arthur stomps toward Merlin and his friend, whose name she'd learned was Will. "Who did that?" He demands.

"What?" Merlin squeaks. Annabeth rolls her eyes. He was a terrible liar, but he seems to have fooled everyone.

"Wind like that doesn't just appear from nowhere. I know magic when I see it. One of you made that happen." Arthur states.

Merlin looks very uncomfortable and possibly scared now. "Arthur.." He tries to say but before he can get through that statement, Annabeth catches a movement at the corner of her eye.

"Watch out!" She exclaims at the same time Will screams "Look out!" and throws himself at Arthur. Befor Kanen's arrow reaches where Arthur stood (and now Will stands), Annabeth's bone dagger hits it and it falls away.

For a moment, everyone looks stunned and all eyes fall on her. Arthur stands up and looks at Will first and then Annabeth. His eyes are wide with shock. "You just saved my life," he tells Annabeth. Annabeth bites her lip and shrugs. He turns towards Will and thanks him too. "You put your life on the line for me," he says.

"Yeah. Don't know what I was thinking." Will replies. Arthur just laughs and shakes his head. "That's teice I've saved you," Will continues. Annabeth's brows furrow for a moment before she realised what was happening.

"Twice?" Arthur questions.

"Yeah," Will says, "it was me. I'm the one that used to magic." Arthur looks even more shocked, while Merlin was shaking his head. "Will don't." At this, Arthur looks at Merlin.

"It's alrigh, Merlin," Will says, "I trust him." He looks at Arthur. "I did it. I saw how desperate things were becoming and I had to do something."

"You're a sorcerer?" Arthur asks, as if it wasn't obvious what he was implying.

"Yeah. What are you going to do? Kill me?"

"No. Of course not!" Arthur says. "You saved my life, and everyone else's in this village." With that, he walks away into the woods. It must have been difficult for him to see magic, a weapon he's been told since birth was evil, be used for good. Annabeth had to give him some credit for not exploding about it. He'd dealt with it quite impressively though he'd walked away from the scene.

After congratulating Gwen and Morgana for winning the battle, Annabeth herself heads off to the woods. After all that happened, she wants be alone for some time before they leave to Camelot. She probably won't get a chance to IM Percy while traveling, so she might as well do it now. Everyone in the village was celebrating and no one had a reason to come to the woods right now. Some distance into the forest, she sees Arthur. Apparently he had still not gone back to the village. Well, she thought, so much for alone time. She decides to head back but before she can turn, Arthur turns to see who had come into the woods. When he seen her, Annabeth gives him a small smile.

"Thank you," Arthur says. "You saved my life today. Either I or Will would be bleeding on ground right now if it wasn't for you, Princess."

"Please call me Annabeth," she replies. "And I'm glad I could save you. I'd be beating myself up otherwise."

He laughs at that but quickly stops. "You're very skilled at fighting." He states. Annabeth simply stares at him, silently asking him to continue. "When you told me you were skilled yesterday, I admit I was skeptical about it. Women don't fight in Camelot."

"Where I come from, women are equal to men, in all respects. A woman can join the Kingdom's army if she wants and she can choose to stay at home if she wants. As I told you, my mother is an excellent strategist and she passed on her skills to me. I have trained to fight since I was 7." Annabeth stops herself from saying anything else. She's already shared too much, but Arthur seems to be deep in thought.

"It would be my honor to take you to Camelot, Annabeth," he says. "My father will be very pleased to meet you."

"It would be my honor to be your guest as well, Prince Arthur," she tells him genuinely.

"If you're staying in Camelot for some time then there will have to be some changes." Arthur says. Annabeth narrows her eyes, not knowing where this conversion was going now. If Arthur asks her to change her choice of clothes like Gwen, Hunith and Morgana had, she might deck him right then and there. She doesn't care that he's the Prince and they'd just had a polite conversation. But what he says relieves her of any urges to deck him. "You'll have to call me Arthur, no titles. Atleast when we're alone"

Aaand we're done for now. This chapter is longer than usual so I hope it makes up for not having updated properly. Also, I hope you enjoyed the story from Annabeth's POV. The fight scene is entirely made up. It won't match completely with the episode but the basics are the same. I had to fit Annabeth in. Next chapter, they'll all be in Camelot. To inform you guys, this isn't an Arthur/Annabeth story. Percabeth for life. All the pairings will be canon.

Please review and tell me if there are any mistakes. Thanks for reading!