Update! Hope you like it :)
Chapter 25
The winter arrived and left. The days grew lighter and slowly the warmth of the sun was evident again. The first flowers had started to blossom and Aurora thought she never had seen anything more beautiful, more at peace, then the sight of the small flowers on the forest floor.
However, as the warmth of the sun and the spring heated her body the love for Lancelot had reduced itself to a memory. A strong memory, a memory which she carried with herself every day, but still a memory. She occupied herself with various things every day. Guinevere had continued to learn her to fight and it had become something Aurora could look forward to. She had developed a skill but not near the ability Guinevere had to wield the sword.
As a "prisoner" Aurora was not punished to do hard labour but she had to contribute to the society, if you called it that. She had been present when Guinevere and Darin hunted and had managed to catch a few rabbits.
She often thought of Lancelot, how could she not, but she noticed that for each day she thought a little less of him. There were so much things which happened around her constantly. People joined the woads, some died, perhaps killed by Arthur and the knights, some left when the hope of freedom faded.
It was a hard life, not the one she was use to, but it had given her the thing she had longed for for years; Freedom. There were no boundaries, no obligations and no rules. There was a part of her though that was frightened. She was afraid her identity would be reveled. The woads were suspicious of her and she wondered why her? Why had she been sparred? How could a roman be granted life and then live among the woads as one of their own? There were a lot of questions which had not been answered and she had not dared to ask. Her heart still went out to the traders wife whom the woads had killed.
These was one of those days when she thought about her previous life. She remembered the knights and their laughter, Arthur and his frown of worry which he constantly bore and Lancelot. Lancelot helping her when she was drunk, Lancelot consoling her when her father was dead, Lancelot in the rain screaming he would come back to her and he had but, she would not.
"Hurry up!" She heard and saw Guinevere a few meters away. They were out hunting on this spring day. Darin was first scouting and Guinevere was searching for tracks. Aurora did her best to keep up.
"You know." Guinevere smiled. "You have become a little faster." She stood up and looked at one direction. "But not fast enough." Guinevere said with a laughter and started to run.
"Oh no." Aurora cursed herself and started to run as well. She wore leather trousers and a shirt but didn't wear a weapon because Guinevere and Darin didn't think she could master it yet.
"What is it?" Aurora asked when she reached a silent Guinevere and Darin.
"Be quiet." Guinevere said and bent down.
"Still haven't learned?" Darin teased with a grin.
Aurora sighed and did as she was told. She could see now what the two cousins had spotted. A deer was standing at the river drinking. Aurora wasn't particular fond of killing animals, or seeing it, but out here you couldn't be squeamish.
"Will you or I?" Guinevere asked Darin.
"Ladies first?" He responded to Guinevere who already had her bow ready.
"Correct." She answered. For a moment everything was silent before Guinevere unleashed the arrow. It took a second and then the deer fell to the ground, its legs still twitching. Aurora felt a little sick.
"Come on." Darin said and clapped her back. "You will get use to it." Aurora grimaced.
Guinevere had already finished the animal's suffering and put her knife away.
"This will feed the people for the time being." Darin said and looked at the dead animal.
"Mm." Aurora nodded and walked to stand next to Guinevere.
"Especially when Aurora can't eat what we catch." Guinevere said and she and Darin smiled devilishly.
Aurora gasped with a smile in her eyes. "That is not faire! I just wasn't hungry." She said dismissive.
"Yeah, that was the problem." Darin said and started to search for a branch.
"They don't eat meat in Rome?" Guinevere asked and raised her eyebrow.
Aurora gave her a sarcastic smile. "No, we just drink wine."
Aurora sighed and helped to bind the deer's legs to the branch. When they were done. Aurora and Guinevere took each side of the branch and carried it.
"Well, you girls are doing a wonderful job." Darin smirked.
"Oh, shut up Darin." Guinevere said. " You concentrate on your part."
"Protecting you?"
"Hardly." Guinevere responded. "But checking so the road is clear. We don't want Aurora's friends to sneak up on us." Guinevere grined.
Now it was Aurora's turn to say shut up.
"Anyway, they wouldn't even be so far north." Aurora said in correction.
"Well, they might surprise you." Guinevere raised her eyebrow and smiled a little.
"Arthur being up here?" Aurora laughed. "Hardly." but then she silenced herself and felt a feeling most recognized these last months. Guilt. She shouldn't be talking about the knights and Arthur with Guinevere or Darin. This was treason were she came from.
"Now, when we are on the subject." Darin said from his position on a small hill. " We really should hide cause we got company." He ran down the hill and spoke in soft words.
Guinevere reacted at once and immediately chose a fallen tree as their hideout.
"What about the deer?" Aurora asked, her pulse increasing as she heard the sound of hooves.
Guinevere gave her an annoyed look and gestured to Darin to solve the situation.
"Hide!" Darin shuffed her to the fallen tree trunk and then broke a few branches and laid them on the deer. He then gathered leafs on the dead animal, Aurora hoped the riders wouldn't notice it in their high speed.
"Good work." Guinevere glanced at the covered animal. Aurora couldn't quite figure out if she was being honest or if she was sarcastic. Either way Darin flashed them both a smile as he usually did.
The riders were visible to them now and as suspected it was roman soldiers. It was eight of them and they were riding in a high speed.
"Romans don't usually come as far north." Aurora said a little annoyed that she had been wrong.
"These does." Guinevere snorted.
They were lucky and the riders didn't notice them or the dead animal. Aurora stood up and sighed of relief. She didn't really know why she was nervous. She was a roman and she was being held prisoner. If she was as she should be she would have screamed of joy when she saw the roman soldiers. She brushed the leafs of her cloths.
"Who were they?" She asked Guinevere who were talking with Darin.
"We shouldn't travel by this route after this." A worried Guinevere established.
"No, I think you are right. But we won't arrive until tomorrow if we take the other road home."
"Well, if you can call it a road." Guinevere said and squinted her eyes. "Do you think she can make it?"
Darin made a grimace. "Don't now. If she slows us down it is possible it will take us two days to get home instead."
Guinevere nodded and looked to the horizon. "But we can't continue on this road. It is far to dangerous. Perhaps if.."
"Hey?" Aurora finally said catching their attention. "I am standing right here?"
"Have you been easedropping?" Darin asked with a smile.
"Well, of course she has." Guinevere said and gestured to Aurora to get ready to carry the animal again.
"I was standing a metre away!" Aurora exclaimed.
Guinevere smiled and they all started to walk again. But still on their garde.
"So?" Aurora said after a while.
"So what?" Darin responded.
"Which road are we taking?"
Guinevere laughed. "The long one. If you are up for it?" She looked back and had an questioning expression on her face.
"Yes!" Aurora answered. "I can manage" Aurora muttered for herself.
It started to rain. How unusual, Aurora thought.
"I love the rain." Guinvere said and tilited her face to the sky.
"Well, at the moment it is quite an nuisance." Aurora said and shivered. She loved Britain. The country had given her more then she could ask for. She loved the green hills, the deep forests and the fields of lusios grass. She loved the costline, with the high cliffs and aggressive waves, which with each movement crashed into the stonewalls. But she was born in a country where the rain was scarce, appreciated, but scarce. She was afraid she hadn't gotten used to the rain after all these years.
"No." Guinevere answered with a smile on her lips, responding to Aurora's comment. The small raindrops dripping down her features. "It is beautiful."
This was the kind of moment when it felt as if someone should say, "so are you". And Aurora was close to say it because she was, standing there in the rain smiling.
"So are you." Aurora heard and saw Darin with a sly smile.
"Oh shut up!" Guinevere said and the moment was broken.
Aurora laughed. They seemed more like siblings than cousins. It made her miss her own sister.
"I think my sister thinks I am dead." She blurted out when the thought occurred to her. The other two stopped and looked at her.
"I mean, I am probably presumed dead and I am sure Lance," She stopped herself. "I mean Arthur has sent word to her." She cursed herself. She had made a promise not to talk about her Lancelot or the knights.
"Perhaps not." Darin said and shrugged his shoulders encouraging.
Guinevere studied her and then shoot her cousin an evil glance. You might think Guinevere was the older of the two but she was not. Yet, something in her manor was far more superior. Aurora hadn't noticed what it was at first. She had wondered if it was her leader abilities or her lack of humor in some situations but now she could see it. It was Guinevere's coldness, her stone eyes, her high sharp cheekbones, her white skin against dark eyes, against dark wild hair. Her slender body dressed in men's attire. When Darin's humor and lightness tried to ease a troublesome situation, she saw the bitter truth and did not try to dress it up or hide the danger for those how feared it. Honesty was her virtue and honesty made her words hard and appearance cold but it also gave her the obligation to be the hero. Because she could see the truth, share it with everyone, it became her duty to save the people from it. The truth, the facts, the reality of the world was her burden to bear and her gift alone to see.
"You have soon been gone a year." Guinevere stated truthfully. "I doubt anyone thinks you have survived out here alone and I doubt you husband thinks the woads has sparred you." There it was. The truth. The reality. The facts. Did Aurora want another answer? Yes. Did she want Guinevere to say; They have not given up on you? Yes. But she didn't. The truth, the facts, the reality of the world could not be denied or turned a blind eye to. The truth was perhaps the purest thing in the world even though in most cases it was accompanied by pain. It was the purest in the world, except for one thing, except for love.
Aurora nodded her head and started to walk again, the other two followed her silently. No words were spilled. Enough had been said. The truth could not be taken back and it echoed through the trees, against the leafs. It caught a wind and followed it to new places far beyond her reach. But mostly it had unlocked thoughts in mind, which she had ignored.
"The sun has set." Darin concluded. "It will be dark soon."
"We cannot start a fire here." Guinevere eyed their surroundings. "Who knows who can see it."
"We should try and find a cave then." Darin answered.
"Go." Guienvere ordered and Darin flashed her a smile, already on his way.
The rain had stopped but with it the bad things of the world seemed to have gone away as well. As if the small drops of water had washed away the pain, the darkness in the world and left behind a brighter and more hopeful place for them all.