Chapter 3: A/N I do not own Merlin, if I did, Gwen would have been different, and Morgana would've gone over to the dark side because of Uther alone, not because Merlin poisoned her, or her friends ignored her (they totally did her wrong!) The cast Gaius makes in this, the mixture works much like making a papier mache mix, except the newspapers are replaced by bandages and then wrapped tediously and carefully around the foot. Italics means they are still talking in Latin. Normal font is English.
The next day, once Cassie woke up and had breakfast, Gaius checked on her ankle.
"Breakfast was delicious Gaius, thank you." she said politely. Gaius just harrumphed in agreement, food still in his mouth.
"Gaius? When will my foot be wrapped? I'm tired of being bedridden, I want to go out!" Cassie complained to the old caretaker while he gave her the infamous 'Eyebrow'. "Stop giving me that look, you would go stir crazy too if you were confined!"
"I will stop looking at you like this when you start to behave more like a young woman and less like a spoilt brat!" He responded with an admonishing stare.
"I feel like a five year old again when I'm around you! Tell me about Camelot then, since I can't go out." she pleaded, looking at him with those big blue eyes. He relented with a small smile.
"All right, child. What do you want to know?"
"Those knights who saved me, who were they?"
"Sirs Leon, Bruin, Durnure, Epinogre, and Owiane. Fine men, I've known them since they became squires years ago. I've been told that Sir Leon found you under the horse. Sir Bruin is the one who brought you to me."
"They've got such strange names! I've never heard of anyone called Durnunre or Epinogre. But I suppose they might find some of the names from my land strange as well."
"Like what, Cassie?" Gaius asked, mirth shining in his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips.
"Well, my sister's name was Aintzane, I always made fun of her for it, it used to sound much sillier when I was younger. I called her Zazie, sounds prettier."
"Yes, you sound very close to her. You haven't said where you were from."
" I lived in Reccopolis, we were very happy there until we weren't. But that is behind me, I never want to think of that place or what happened ever again." Cassie's mood changing from pleasant in the former until she became rather melancholy in the latter half of the sentence.
"I've never heard of that place before. Where is it?"
"It is in Hispania. A long way from here. I will never go back there."
"How did you get to be here? Hispania is a vast land with many places to go, why come so far away?"
"So I can forget about it. I couldn't stay there anymore. Please, don't ask me anymore about it Gaius." she pleaded, there were fresh tears streaming down her face as she was clutching her necklace. By the end of the conversation she refused to look at him or answer any more of his questions and continued on as if he wasn't there.
Gaius went about his duties, made his rounds and gathered more herbs by the time lunch rolled by. Cassie still wasn't speaking to him, but that didn't discourage Gaius.
"So I see you're still angry at me? I won't ask you anymore, it's just that the King needed to know. He sent one of his councilmen to see if he could figure out where you were from."
"Am I to assume that you told him?" she answered scathingly. For such a small girl, she could really muster the venom in her voice!
"King Uther only wants what's best for his kingdom! You are an unknown, thus he set about finding out about you."
"So I'm just a variable, is that it! I don't hold any secrets to success! I am not an enemy! Why won't people see that!" she bawled, completely ignoring the food spread out for her. "Why don't you tell your precious King Uther," she spat with a cold detachment, "that as soon as I can, I will leave!" And with that all conversations were over before they started.
The next day, once the swelling had drastically subsided and the tension in the air had diminished, Gaius started to prepare the mixture for a cast. He sent word down to the kitchens to bring him the animal fat, egg whites and flour and got to work mixing. Once he was done with the mixture, he set to work carefully creating the cast. The cast had to be left to harden overnight before the second layer was placed. During this long process, Gaius and Cassie made small talk. Gaius was too afraid of stepping on her toes with probing questions for her to just close up again, and Cassie was just stubborn enough that she didn't want to release the grudge that she was holding at being 'just a variable' to him. Neither would admit it, but they quickly became like family to each other.