The Royal Scandal *Book Two*

Familiar Faces S2 E4

"Of course I'm going after them. What do you take me for? I couldn't disagree with father in public," Arthur said.

He did up his bag and chucked it over his shoulder. He then started to walk over to the door, only stopping when Morgana's voice rang out.

"Arthur... bring them home," Morgana requested desperately.

Arthur raised an eyebrow as if to say, 'that was the plan' and left Morgana alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile in Gaius' house, Merlin was running down from his room with his own bag packed. Gaius was stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting for him.

"I suppose you and Arthur are going after Chelsea and Gwen?" Gaius predicted when he saw Merlin's bag.

"Gaius. Don't even think about telling me not to go," Merlin said, determination rushing through him. "Nothing you can say will stop me."

"I wasn't going to try and stop you. All I ask is you make sure you come back safely too," Gaius corrected him.

Worried about what Merlin was about to face, Gaius pulled Merlin into a tight hug before he pulled away and rested his hands-on Merlin's shoulders.

"Bring back our Princess."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chelsea POV

It was honestly astounding at how revolting men could be. Gwen and I had been forced into sitting at the head table of a rowdy feast. Men were drinking barrels at a time and laughing obnoxiously at each other's stupidity.

On the table in front of us was large chunks of meat that looked still raw. Gwen and I hadn't touched anything in front of us and instead sat there in silence, holding each other's hand in comfort under the table.

I was sat to the right of Hengist and Gwen was then on my right. Despite keeping my eyes focused on the spot in front of me, I could sense Hengist looking over at us.

"Silence!" Hengist yelled at everyone, standing up. The room fell silent, so silent that if anyone dropped anything, it would be heard by all. "Our royal guests, Princess Chelsea and Lady Morgana, have grown bored." He rested a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it tightly making me use my free hand to ply it off. He glared down at me before regaining his composure. "They need entertaining."

All of the men started to laugh obnoxiously and I wondered what this entertainment was going to be.

Our eyes were then pulled over to the large cage in the middle of the room. Its door opened and a large, shirtless man walked into the cage holding two swords. He was yelling and cheering for himself along with the other men. He paced around the edge of the cage, hitting the swords against the bars.

"Bring on the challenger!" Hengist ordered.

Already bored, I looked down at the table only looking up when I heard Gwen mutter, "Oh, my God."

I looked into the cage and was shocked to see a familiar face staring back at us. His hair was shorter but his face was still exactly the same. Staring back at us was Lancelot.

Clearly he couldn't show that he knew us so he turned away, keeping all emotions off his face.

"What's he doing here?" Gwen whispered to me.

"I have no idea," I replied honestly.

"Only one of you will emerge from the cage alive. Do you accept the challenge?" Hengist asked Lancelot, who bowed his head respectfully. He was far too noble for a place like this.

With a nod of his head, the fight began. Not wasting a split second, the shirtless man started to attack Lancelot who hit back every attack. He leapt, dodged, and swerved out of the way of the mans brutal attacks. Every time Gwen would flinch and squeeze my hand ever tighter.

The men all around us were cheering barbarically as Lancelot and shirtless mans swords clashed. They pushed against each other with all their might before Lancelot shoved him away.

They continued going at each other like this for several minutes and by now my hand was starting to lose its blood circulation due to the tightness that Gwen was squeezing it.

But then it happened. Lancelot had the advantage and elbowed shirtless in the face before hitting him multiple times with his sword, making him fall like a lump to the floor. Shirtless' face was plastered with fear as Lancelot pointed his sword at him.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" The men all chanted while Gwen looked away and I watched Lancelot intrigued to see what he would do. Although I already had a feeling I knew the answer.

He shook his head and straightened up, stepping away from shirtless. The gate was then opened for him before it fell shut again. Lancelot approached us and seeing as we would have to all hide our knowledge of each other, we tried to avoid eye contact.

Hengist chucked a bag of coins and looked at him in interest.

"What's your name?" Hengist asked.

"My name is Lancelot," Lancelot introduced.

"You have proved yourself to be a skilful warrior. I believe you may have even impressed our royal guests, Princess Chelsea and Lady Morgana," Hengist commented.

Lancelot's eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise before he covered it back up and bowed to us.

"Your highness, my lady," Lancelot bowed.

"Next time you fight, do not expect any mercy. Release the wilddeoren," Hengist ordered.

My head snapped over to Hengist is shock as I had read about this creature. It was an absolutely brutal beast that tore its victims limb from limb while they were still alive. In looks it was like a giant hairless mole that sensed its enemies through smell alone as it was blind.

Realising what was about to happen, I looked away from the cage, as did Gwen and Lancelot. We all then shared a glance. As happy as we were to see each other, we still needed to find a way out; we needed a way home.

1573 Words