Hey, hello! First off, I would like to thank the reviews I have received from hiddenhorcrux, lurkspur-ruby73, KimiBrazil, xXxFantasyAmorexXx and xxmadmooxx1995xx! Thank you so much for you words and I hope you will like this chapter. :) I know that my updates have been,...well, not so frequent and I am sorry for that. I already have the next chapter ready so you won't have to wait for chapter 30 very long! :D

Enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 29

She opened the door slowly and walked with soft steps into the room. Galahad, Gawain and Bors had seen her with Lancelot on the battlefield and she had been forced to tell them the most crucial details about her disappearance. She wanted to tell them more and she knew they wanted answers but for now, for now everyone were concentrated on Tristan.

Everyone of the knights were in the room, except Arthur, who had been forced to be elsewhere because of obligation. Aurora chose to stand by the door and keep a safe distant to her former life.

There was a new pain in her chest, besides the sorrow of losing Darin, and it was that she felt like a stranger to them. They had placed her in their memories and thoughts, but could they now accept that she was back?

Therefore, she kept to herself in the background, but even though she might not be observed by them, she in return held a close eye on Lancelot while praying. She prayed that he would not have to lose another friend, another brother. The healers did what they could but it seemed that after all this time death would finally have its final hold on Tristan.

"We have done what we can." They said to the waiting knights and they only nodded as an acknowledgment.

Galahad prompted to sit a Tristan's side. Lancelot were standing against the wall, his eyes cool as if he did not dare to hope, but only await for Tristan to draw his last breath.

"What if he does not survive?" Gawain said out of the blue and looked down at Tristan's pale face. Aurora gazed at Gawain from her position by the door and then studied Lancelot's response to Gawain's remark.,She could see how he stiffened, he drew in a large breath and gazed at the floor.

"Tristan's time has not yet come." She said from the dark and kept her gaze on Lancelot since she had said it for him. The need to be by his side was great and she intended for him to know that she was in fact there for him. The knights turned around to behold the owner of that voice and they still seemed to grasp that she were there among them. She turned away her eyes from Lancelot and looked at them all and with a delicate smile she repeated it once more.

Lancelot turned around when he heard her soft voice from a corner in the room. Aurora noticed this and looked directly at him. He looked quite irresistible in that moment, leaning against the wall and gazing back at her with his dark hair and black eyes and it was something in his gaze that made her shiver. The image of him, which she had carried with her this last year, was nothing compared to the real sight of him now.

She looked at her own appearance and saw that her shirt was still covered with blood, her hair was a filthy mess, which hang heavy down her shoulders. Not a pretty sight, she thought to herself.

Lancelot looked at her for a long time. Her appearance still took him by surprise, she was not the woman he had once known, that was clear to him. She reminded him of Guinevere, yet when he heard her voice in that moment and when he looked into those eyes, he could still see the girl in the tavern and the woman that once had shared his bed.

"Aye," Bors said to Aurora's hopeful comment, breaking the moment between Lancelot and Aurora. "His time has not come." He nodded as if he tried to persuade himself but it seemed to help and that was all that mattered.

Aurora felt the door open behind her and she saw Arthur's face look inside. He walked without hesitation to Tristan's side and looked at him gravely. The knights waited in silence for what Arthur might say and Aurora felt them change their postures now that Arthur had arrived. Lancelot for one became more alert.

"What did the healers say?" Arthur said in a silent, yet powerful voice, not taking his eyes of Tristan.

"All we can do is wait." Galahad said with despair. He had always been the knight who have had it easiest to show his emotions. Seeing him like this, seeing all of them like this, was unbearable and there was nothing Aurora could do.

"Perhaps you should pray Arthur." Lancelot's dark voice cut through the air and all eyes were on him. Arthur looked at him, scrutinized him, as if he searched for something, something which was not there. Aurora, too, were taken surprise and she was not certain what Lancelot would say next.

"This time I would not make a remark." Lancelot said after a while and Arthur nodded thankfully. Then they waited in silence.

When the sun had set, still no change were visual. Aurora still leaned against the wall and so did Lancelot, both on the opposite side of the room and each were moments when they stole glances of one another but Aurora did not dare to go to him, inside she knew he was not yet use to the reality that she were alive, so she observed from a distance.

From her place she could hear a conversation between Arthur and the healer.

"My lord, as I have said, all we can do is wait." The healer answered.

"But surely there is something you can do?" Arthur insisted.

"What are they talking about." Gawain asked everyone in the room.

"They are just discussing Tristan's condition." Aurora answered and stood up straight.

"My friends." Arthur said and came inside the room, accompanied with the healer.

"I will look at him once more my lord but I doubt I can help him." The healer said and walked to Tristan. He shook his head after the examination.

"His wound is infected." The healer said and walked to Arthur with sad eyes. Everyone knew what that meant, the knights had spent to many years fighting not to know how fatal an infected wound could be. Too many of their brothers had died that way.

Aurora clenched her jaw. She thought she would have gotten use to feeling powerless, but this made her terrible angry.

"If there where any hope before.." The healer began and raised his gaze from the ground. "Then, I am sorry, because.."

"There is none now." Lancelot cut in. A thought came to Aurora, distant but she felt the urge to express it. Uncertain she made her presence known and walked to the middle of the room.

"I could," she began and watched hesitantly at Lancelot who awaited for her to continue. "I could go to Guinevere and Merlin," She added, " and ask if they have any aid they can give us." She finished.

She looked directly at Arthur, confident that this was the right decision. "They posses a wide knowledge of herbs, they could help us." She said bluntly.

Arthur nodded. "Yes, perhaps," he said and watched her."Can you go to them?" Arthur asked with reluctance in his voice.

Aurora could not understand why he would doubt to send her to them, did he not want to help Tristan? But then she understood. He thought it would be hard for her, that it would be hard to return to her captivators.

"Will you?" Arthur asked again when she did not respond. She felt Lancelot's gaze burning into her and she could see a hint of betrayal in his eyes when she nodded, but it disappeared in a heartbeat.

"I will go and ask them to help us." She said and drew away from them all. " And I will be quick." She said before casting one last glance at Tristan's pale face and returning to the woads.

When she later returned she found that Vanora and the others had also returned. Seeing the woman reunited with her husband made Aurora punch herself for forgetting to send word to them.

"Vanora." She said and walked to the woman. "I am so sorry, you must have thought.."

"Forget it." Vanora said and embraced her. "I understand that you had other matters to attend to." She said and winked at Lancelot. Aurora smiled a little at this but it did not reach her eyes.

"Will they send someone?" Arthur asked and gave her the possibility to focus on the faces in the room, instead of Vanora's remark.

"Merlin will come as soon as he can." She answered. "He.." She looked at the floor as her voice cracked. It took a few seconds for her to compose herself.

"He is," She bit her lip after her second failed attempt to tell them what was going on. "He's attending to his son's funeral." Aurora said fast and brutally, avoiding everyone's eye contact. "He will come as soon as he can."

Arthur nodded. "Good." They all contemplated at this and gave Aurora the chance to restrain the urge to cry. Darin's face appeared before her and she bit her lip hard to feel physical pain instead of this, brutal, pain. She closed her eyes and and took a large breath. Vanora touched her shoulder.

"Should I get us something to drink?" Vanora said and looked at her with concern, she however waited for no reply as she swished out of the room and returning a short while later carrying a few bottles of wine.

"I think we need something strong." She whispered to Aurora and gave her a whole bottle. Aurora took a mug and poured up some wine to herself and noticed how she relaxed a little when she took a zip. Then suddenly she felt how her whole body became covered with goose bumps as she felt a warm breath against her neck.

She could sense his presence as she turned around and, without surprise, looked into a pair of dark brown eyes starring back at her. Aurora could see the questions he wanted to tell her and the hesitation which stopped him from asking them.

"A glass of wine?" She offered to break the silence.

"Yes." Lancelot said and took it from her at the same time Aurora remembered that she had already had a zip of it. Oh, who cares, she thought to herself. He was my husband, or, he is my husband she corrected herself.

"You are not hurt?" Lancelot asked even though he knew the answer. "No." She said and looked over her body in case she had missed something.

"You?" She tried to keep herself composed but then Lancelot grinned, that grin which had made all women, including Aurora, fall for him, and she felt passion return to her veins. "

Nothing fatale." He said, not knowing how his smile had made her mind go crazy and then he returned to his place at the wall without waiting for her to tell him how relived his answer had made her. That was uncomfortable, she thought to herself and then, to make everything worse, Merlin entered the room.

He stopped when he passed her and greeted her with the Celtic tongue. Suddenly, unaware of where she was, she greeted him back in the same tongue. When she had uttered the word she glanced at the knights and she could see their questioning glances. I wonder if Merlin did that on purpose, she thought.

"What can I do?" Merlin said and directed the question at her. Taken by surprise she shot him an angry look. Why did he have to do this more difficult? She thought and clenched her jaw.

"Do what you can to save him." She said defeated not wanting to participate in Merlin's game.

"Anything?" Merlin said once more in Celtic.

"Yes," She answered him. He nodded and walked to Tristan's side. "I want to be alone with him, except for an extra pair of hands."

"Out of the question." Bors said and stood up.

"Bors." Galahad warned him.

"No!" Bors said defiantly.

"Arthur." He said and turned to look at him. "We cannot trust them!" He whispered. "Only because we have fought together once, once! Does not mean we are friends." They all seemed to have gathered around Arthur in the back of the room.

Reluctantly Aurora joined them as well, she glanced at Merlin and knew that he heard everything they had said.

"The woads have killed almost everyone of our brothers because of this mans orders!" Bors continued. Aurora could she Merlin flinch at this remark but his facial expression remained blank.

"Bors!" Arthur commanded him to be quiet. "But it is true." Lancelot said. "How do we know the woads will not turn against us now?" They could all see Arthur's thoughts and how he struggled to come up with a good answer. "

We need their help." He said after a while. "Perhaps we cannot trust them yet." He said in a very quiet voice. "But Merlin is Tristan's only chance."

With silent steps Aurora snuck out of the room after Arthur's answer. She wanted to escape before anyone could ask her opinion. The last thing she wanted was to become the middle hand to Arthur and the woads. For heavens sake, she just wanted to talk to Lancelot!

She ran quickly to the wall, her legs carrying her there through memory. She needed air and the possibility to think. When she arrived at Hadrian's wall she was breathing heavily and for a moment she stood there in silence, then she broke down in tears. It was too much to handle. Being here once more, seeing the view from the wall, seeing her fields, losing Darin and her awaited return with Lancelot.

Feeling her hot tears down her cheeks made it better for now and after a while she felt her heart slow down, eventually her tears started to dry up and her thoughts seemed to belong to her once more.

"God, how I want to get out of this cloths she murmured to herself and tugged at her bloody shirt. She smiled when she noticed how she sat like a boy. Her legs up and her arms leaning against them. "How I have changed." Aurora thought a little bittersweet.

There were fires everywhere, fires made to burn the bodies after the battle. Saxons, woads, fortunately non of the knight's bodies were among them, not yet anyway she thought.

Then a sudden thought came to her mind. A thought which had never occurred to her. No she thought and shook her head.

"I must not think like that." She said outl loud.

"What can you not think about?" A voice asked beside her. Aurora was surprised and looked up. Guinevere leaned against the wall beside her, typical for Guinevere Aurora thought.

They looked at each other silently. "How are you holding up?" Aurora asked with concern and sorrow. To Aurora's surprise Guinevere smiled.

"Don't change the subject. What thought dwell on your mind?" She asked with the same concern.

Aurora rolled her eyes. "That is not as important as your loss." Came her answer and Guinevere stiffened.

"Darin died a good death." Guinevere whispered. "He died for his country. No greeter death can be bestowed on a warrior, let alone a leader." Her certainty came from her own beliefs. If Guinevere had to sacrifice her life for her country and her people she would do it, of this Aurora was certain.

"So." Guinevere stood up and faced Aurora. "Don't mourn his death. He died for us and now we must continue with our lives." Aurora shock her head.

"Your thoughts are innocent and honest Guinevere. But I will mourn him, because that is my nature." Guinevere nodded at this.

"Was Lancelot the one you were thinking about?" Guinevere then asked not looking at her.

Aurora sighed. "Him, and many things." "Have you spoken to him?" Aurora nodded.

"A little." Guinevere smiled. "I must confess, Lancelot was the last knight I would have guessed to be you husband." She said and looked at Aurora. "He seemed cold and.." Guinevere gazed to the horizon. "..wild." She added.

Something in her voice or in Guinevere's eyes made Aurora feel uncomftarble. "Really?" Aurora replied in a more high pitched voice then she would have liked. Guinevere nodded.

A few moments of silence went by. "But," Aurora began dreading to ask the question. "Didn't he speak of me?" She asked hesitantly.

Guinevere turned around and looked at her straight into her eyes for the first time. "No." She confessed and then she added. "None of them did."

This pierced Aurora's heart and she could feel how her whole face was drained of blood.

"I am sorry Aurora. But when I met them a whole year had went by.." Guinevere said. "And they thought you were dead." Aurora felt tears in her eyes after Guinevere's reply, but she held them back. Guinevere always spoke the truth, even though you did not want to hear it. So instead she dried her tears with her mind and excused herself, ignoring Guinevere's calls after her.

Suddenly she thought of her sister and she felt extremely guilty knowing that her sister must think she was dead. I must write to her immediately, she thought and began to walk to her room. Yes, her sister Sarah, the thought of family came as such a relief to her and for a moment she felt safe until she stood outside her room.

Aurora found herself unable to go inside, it all felt so utterly strange and at the same time all she wanted was to get her life back. With a little hesitation she opened the door and entered the room. She had prepared herself for many things but the sight before her shocked her utterly.

"Lancelot?"

So, this was chapter 29 :) Perhaps some of you are wondering why I let Dagonet die and Lancelot live. (I will not say how Tristan's destiny will be.) I thought personally that it was really sad that Dagonet died, but I also thought that it was an honorable death. He died for his friends and in a, twisted sort a way, I didn't want to steal that from him. However, Lancelot's death was just a joke and I cannot understand why they had to kill him...plus the story would be rather hard to continue without him. ;) As for Tristan...

birello