"No." I shake my head as comes closer and closer. "No, please!"
There's a gaping wound in his side where my sword was, where I killed him. I look away from it and to his eyes that hold nothing. His lips turn up into an inhuman smile as he says, "You killed me. You MURDERED me! And you will pay!"
He pulls back his sword ready to strike at and kill me. I make no move to defend myself. But just as he is about to stab me, he turns. His sword lands in him. In King Arthur, the one I am supposed to protect and save.
"Nooooo!"
A hooded figure stands behind us all, hidden in the trees; but all I see is the man I murdered killing the one I swore to protect.
I scream out it anguish. Because they're all dead.
"Missione! Missione!" The voice yells at me as it shakes me awake.
I sit up. My heart is pounding and I'm sweating profusely. My breathing is heavy and labored as arms on my shoulders try to push me down. I shake them off as I stand. King Arthur is looking at me with worry and confusion.
I only say, "Sorry. Bad dream."
He doesn't say anything more.
....
I hand the berries to the Kin- Arthur, who gobbles them up quickly as I shift from foot to foot, my hand resting on my sword hilt and my eyes wandering the forest. It feels like someone is here watching us, it isn't a pleasant feeling and it doesn't help that I saw that hooded figure last night. I am on edge.
"What's the matter?" Asks the King.
I look over at him carefully before sitting down next to him on the log he occupies. I whisper quietly, "I saw a dark hooded shadow figure of a person last night, and it feels like are being watched."
He looks at me skeptically, raising his eyebrow and saying, "You can't be serious. You're just as bad as Merlin," before laughing rather loudly.
I get up feeling foolish as he laughs until the sound of trees rustling stops his laughter and puts me back on edge. I tighten my grip on my sword hilt and look closer toward the trees where it came from and wait. There. A glimpse of dark blue as the trees rustle some more. I then chase after it.
I get closer until I can see the outline of a person in a dark blue cloak. He is only just barely taller than me and quick on his feet but the trees slow him down, giving me an advantage. He trips to the ground by an over grown tree root into a small dirt clearing. I unsheathe my sword and turn the person over as I hold the sword up to his neck. It is a young man. A boy.
He looks only a year or two younger than me, with dark brown, almost black hair, and blue, grey eyes that seem dull but also can hold so much more. He wears a sword, almost awkwardly at his side, like how a beginner would and his clothing is stained, and ripped by years of wear. They are also smaller than his current size, and barely just fit him. He is tall and lean but almost sickly, like he hasn't had a good meal in a long time.
I hold out my hand and he takes it. I help him up and lower my sword. I ask, "Why are you watching us? Or is it that you are following us?"
"I – I was look- looking for help." He answers with honestly and a touch of innocence.
"Why?"
He looks apprehensive but I assure him I just want to help, so he says, "My older brother was taken by very bad men and I need help getting him back. I just started learning how to use a sword and there's too many of them. I can't do it alone."
"Well maybe I and the Knight I am with can help you." I say. "My name's Missione, but you can call me Missy."
"I'm Gareth, and my brother's name is Gaheris."
....
We head back to where Arthur waits and I tell him what Gareth told me.
"Why was you're brother taken in the first place?" Questions Arthur.
"He was only trying to help." He says. "You see, these men, these thieves go around and steal from people that can't afford to be stolen from. My brother tried to stop them from stealing from a very beautiful damsel but one knocked him out on the head and they took them both. I was hiding in the shadows like Gaheris told me to and I would have done something if I could, but I couldn't."
"What should we do Arthur?" I ask the King.
He looks at me then to Gareth and says, "Of course we'll help you. Do you know where they are?"
"They made camp not too far from here, east. I overheard them saying they will be leaving tomorrow."
"We should wait until tomorrow Arthur. You can have another day to rest and I can have a day to teach Gareth the very basics of the art of swordsmanship." I say.
The King nods his head and says, "Okay. Tomorrow though we'll have to make our move." He pauses, then looks at Gareth. "Gareth, do you have any other weapons with you?"
A few minutes later his large sack is at our feet which he hid in the bushes not too far away. Inside is a crossbow, and ammunition for it along with a small knife that he puts in his belt.
"Gareth, you will go rescue you're brother and the damsel. Missione, you distract them and I will cover you." Orders Arthur. "As soon as Gaheris is free give him a weapon and tell him to help Missy while you bring the damsel over to me. Everyone understand?"
We nod our heads. Arthur goes to check out the crossbow and rest while I teach Gareth what I can in the short amount of time of one day.
The next day we follow the plan very well, or at least I think so as I fight off and distract the men. Gareth sneaks around the tents and into the second largest one. When he returns out one of the men I am fighting with spots him, the damsel that is indeed very beautiful, and who I assume is his brother. Half of men left fighting me to go attack them. Luckily Gaheris has a sword and is very well trained. He fights them off with what only can be described as years of experience. It distracts me from the fact that he wears no shirt, revealing his skin that shows a few scars and a couple ones that are not fully healed. I recognize the new ones almost instantly as knife wounds, small but deep.
I keep fighting as best as I can but it is me against ten or more men, I am not strong enough. A sword hilt hits me in the side, between ribs, knocking all the air out of me as the edge of a blade and hilt collide with my forehead. I fall to the ground as a sword is held up above my stomach and comes crashing down at an alarmingly fast pace but it stops just above my stomach. A sword crashes into the one that is about to kill me and suddenly I can breathe again. I lean up off the ground as I inhale deeply. I look to see that it is King Arthur who saved my life, clutching his injured side as he does so and with a look of determination. He fights off the one man but just as he finishes two more, both at the same time swung from behind, and not I nor him am fast enough to stop them. It's a good thing we don't have to be.
Both of them fall to the ground as two more men stand tall with their swords raised, Gaheris on the left and Gareth on the right. I look around then and notice that all the men we were fighting are either dead or unconscious. Off by the trees the damsel a little younger than Gareth's age peaks out behind a tree. She has long orange hair with fading freckles, and she wears a long pink dress made out of very nice material. She is very beautiful.
Surprisingly it is Gareth who runs up to her and helps her. She looks famished, dehydrated, scared, and tired. It must have been a long couple of days for her, it's been a long couple of days for all of us I think.
When we make it back to Camelot everyone greets the King and new visitors graciously. His wife, the Queen is among the first to greet him, and I catch a glimpse of her as she does. She is beautiful as well and she has a way about her. I can understand why Lancelot did what he did, but only a little. I stay out of the crowd as I sneak away and towards the tavern where I plan to down a whole jug of ale and eat all the pickles that I can find. And that's what I do, for the most part.
"Missy?"
I look up as I set down my fifth cup of ale and reach for the sixth. It is Sir Gwaine. He stops my hand from reaching the next cup by grabbing it and saying, "Thank you for helping Gaheris and his brother. He's an old friend of mine. You should get your head checked out by Guise."
He says the last part indicating to the small cut I sustained while fighting, which I already poured water over, put lavender on and bandaged it.
I nod my head and he lets go of my hand but I don't take the cup, instead I take another pickle and look up at him.
"Was there some- something else?" I say, the ale getting to me. I know it won't really set in for another hour but it does, just only some before the hour or so is up.
"The Princess has requested you to be there at the Knighting ceremony of Gaheris and Gareth."
"You're kidding me?" I whisper under my breath.
"Afraid not. The Princess is always ruining a good opportunity to get a drink with a pretty maiden such as yourself." He says.
"That is too bad, Sir Gwaine." I say, feeling bolder from the ale.
"Not that I don't love the title of Knight, but you can just call me Gwaine."
He is smiling in strange way, and all I can think to do is smile back at him almost hesitantly as I get up and follow his lead to the Knighting ceremony.
...
The ceremony isn't small, it is big and the pride on the brother's faces is priceless. The smiles on everyone else's as well but somehow I can't find my own, because I want that to be me. I want to be the one being Knighted, not them. Haven't I done enough? Haven't I proven myself plenty of times? Why not me? And it's not that Gaheris and Gareth don't deserve it, but, don't I? They saved the King's life once. And I've saved his, twice, maybe three times. Why can't that be me?
I feel a bitterness grow inside me and no matter how much I press it down, it comes back up. But there is something, something else; determination.