Boom boom boom!
My head lifts up off the table looking around lazily. "Who is it? The beers in the cupboard." I let out unintentionally. I hear someone laugh. "It's just me. We're supposed to be up by now." He says a smile on his face. I put my face in my hands nodding.
"Ugh. Something knight... travel... Arthur... you." I mumble trying to remember. "What?" I peek at him through my fingers. "Well Lancelot I just got you your first chance to impress Arthur and become a knight eventually." I say and his smile brightens. "Really!" I nod his happiness spreading to me, a smile on my face.
"We have to be at the castle right now. So let's go." I stumble out of the chair and slip my boots on. I wash my face with water and go to the door. I lean my head on it, exhausted. "Are you sure your in shape to leave?" Lancelot asks putting his own boots on. "Yes very." I push the door but it won't budge. I push harder but nothing. "Lancelot! I think the doors stuck." I push again to no avail. "Anika. That's because you're supposed to pull the door." My eyebrows furrow at his words. I try it out and to my surprise it opens. I sniffle. "Yeah, I knew that. I was testing you for when we travel!" I exclaim stumbling out of the door.
Lancelot comes to my side holding me up. "Yes of course you did."
We make it to the castle gates and I lead him to where the stalls are for us to get our horses. When we arrive we see Arthur. "Hello prince Arthur." I sniffle. "Hello, son of a bitch." I grumble my eyes half opened. Arthur looks at us weirdly. "The hell you looking at!" Anika!" Lancelot warns and I face my head to him. "Yes sir?" He sighs. "Shut up will you?" He says and I smile like it was the funniest joke I've ever heard. "You keep telling yourself that that's gonna work."
The reason Arthur was looking at us weirdly was because I was on Lancelots back. On the way here we found out not all the alcohol had left my system, so I was stumbling everywhere.
"Anika, are you in any position to fight?" Arthur asks in that Arthurly voice he has that annoys the living daylights Of of me. "Yes I am, thank you very much." He cocked an eyebrow still not believing me. I scoff. Patting Lancelots shoulder I say, "get me off." Politely and as asked he puts me down. It takes me a second to gain my balance but Arthur takes it as a chance to lunge.
I glare at him. Moving to the side I avoided his sword. I held out my left fist and Arthur face was met with it. He stumbles back but returns to his fighting position. I had left my sword at home, I already missed my baby.
"One." I say holding up a finger. "One what?" Lancelot answers for me. "She counts the amount of times she can attack you. It shows how easily someone can take you down." "Two." Arthur's attention returns me and he swipes his swords. I take one step back, and duck under the sword. When I stand back up my face is inches away from Arthur's. "Three. Four. Five."
"Three four five?" Right as he finished his sentence I bonk him in the head with my own head"three.", kick upwards into Arthur's lower regions"four.", and he kneels down holding himself. I flick his forehead and he tilts backwards falling to the floor. "Five."
Cheers from the knights erupt.
"Ha I can even beat you drunk!" I mock and look back at Lancelot holding my arms out. He sighs but turns around anyways. "Yayy!!!" I jump onto his back snuggling into his neck.
"So Arthur am I still not in the position to fight?"
He clicks his toy he, rolling his eyes at me. "It was just luck." He grumbles and I giggle at him.
After a while the knights and Lancelot put on their armor as I played with the horses. They seemed to like me very much. Or they just liked the apples I gave them.
"Are you not going to put on armor?" Arthur asks walking up to me. "I shake my head looking back at the horse. "No. Stealth and speed is what I need. Strength isn't my best ability. If I wore the armor I wouldn't have anything." I guide my hand down the middle of the horses face. It was brown with a black mane. I think this one genuinely liked me.
He nods. "But if you get stabbed don't blame me for it." He says and walks away.
After a while the knights get their horses and I get on my own. It wasn't the one I liked but it was second. She was feisty and aggressive, I felt like we had a connection.
Sitting on my horse I put the sword They had given me away and stayed behind the rest. Lancelot rode next to me.
"Anika some days I think you are really crazy." He says randomly and I chuckle looking at him. The alcohol had completely left me and I felt sober as ever. "Really? Like when?" I ask amused. "Like what?! You called the prince a son of a bitch, beat him up, refuse to wear armor, and your riding a basically wild horse!" My horse huffs at him.
"I'm aware of my actions. But what's so fun about calling the prince a prince? I only beat him up because I could. I don't wear armor because I don't have the physical features for it. And I like this horse more than the other ones. It has a better sense of what's dangerous and what is not. The others get scared off by loud sounds and get distracted by butterflies. I don't need that." I say letting the white horse I rode. It blew air from its nose in agreement. "Even though what I do doesn't always make sense or is crazy, it's kept me alive. Believe me though. I surprise myself as much as I surprise everyone else." We laugh and continue our track through the woods.
We stop when there was no more light to see where we were going. We tied down our horses and got wood to make a fire. Everyone set up their tents and two of the knights come back with deer. We were all laughing in the fire light, enjoying the food we cooked. Lancelot seemed to be getting a lot Well with the rest of the knights and I smiled. Even though he was older I felt like an older sister to him. I was really proud of how far he came.
I watched him enjoy himself til I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see Arthur. "What's wrong?" I ask standing up and brushing off my pants. "It's Merlin. He's not feeling well. He asked for you to help him though I don't know why you specifically." He says and I nod. "Where is he." Arthur points behind a couple of trees.
I raise my eyebrows. "Why would he be all the way over there?" Arthur just shrugs. I notice someone but act like I didn't continuing to follow Arthur.
Narrators POV
Arthur leaned against a tree as he watched his team. This Lancelot guy seemed to get a long with the rest of the knights very well. Then he noticed Anika. She was staring at him smiling. A figure went up to her and tapped on her shoulder.
When Arthur did a recount that figure wasn't supposed to be there. Merlin has fallen asleep and was a couple yards away from him. The my shared a couple words and Arthur watched intently. Then they turned to go somewhere. When they almost go back into the forest away from the clearing he sees the figures face. It was his.
It took Arthur a second to understand what he was seeing. But the moment he did he started running to where they went. If Anika thought it was him she wouldn't be on alert or become violent with him either. And that's what worried Arthur the most.
"Anika!" He enters the forest he saw them enter. He looked this way and that but didn't see them. Then he heard the scream of a woman. He panicked running into the direction it came from.
After getting my the trees he saw Anika in one piece standing on top of 'Arthur' holding one of his arms behind his back while he was on his stomach. Arthur sighed in relief.
"What were you trying to do? I'm not going to asks again!" Anikas voice was so stern it almost made Arthur say what he was doing there.
"For fucks sake. It was Nimueh. She wants you dead. She has my daughter, please." He let's out wincing. Anika looks at Arthur like she knew he was there. "What do we do?" She asks her attitude from earlier replaces by concern for the man.
Arthur shrugs. "Let him go." Anika looks at him as if he were crazy. "If we do she'll kill him and his daughter." Arthur bites his lip looking at Anikas desperate face. It was a look that made him feel something inside. He sighs. "We can go after Nimueh. But we've tried getting her for 23 years. It's a suicide mission." She cocks an eyebrow.
"Not if I'm there."