The Silver Lining

Sophia sighed heavily as she stepped under the large branch. Remembering back to the day she ended up here, her heart pounded in her chest as she ducked under a branch and over a patch of leaves, trying to make as little sound as she could. Looking off to her left, she could see Galahad off through the trees and was somewhat relieved to know that they were now here to help her and not just villagers eager to do something more than just live a quiet life.

Now she had trained knights, men who were willing to help her despite that she had not exactly been all too nice to their leader especially, and somehow she was still a little wary of this plan actually working for her a second time round.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Sophia breathed in deeply, smelling the cool night air and trying to determine whether to keep going straight or turn around. She opened her eyes and gasped, moving back quickly seeing the man in front of her. He smirked at her and she looked down when he took a step toward her, noticing that he was limping. His calf was bleeding heavily.

He was the one who Tristan had shot earlier. "You look so much like you're big sister," he told her, smirking. Sophia scowled at him. "She was fun to play with and what she made me well... the greatest gift I've ever gotten." The man leered at her and Sophia noticed that he had a strange tattoo on his left arm.

"It won't be so great when I cut off your head," she snapped back defiantly, taking a few steps back away from him as he made to advance on her.

A deep laugh came from him and Sophia wondered where the knights had gotten to. They had been meant to be trailing her and she'd seen Galahad at her left not to long ago. She glanced round. It was dark, too dark to see anything anymore and the tree canopy blocked out the moon which had been her original source of light. "You look like you wanna play more than you want to kill me," he mused.

Sophia quickly did her shirt up realizing what he meant. As she walked backwards, she ended up falling over a log and groaned as she looked up at the man. He made to come down over the top of her only to lean back suddenly, just missing the sword that sliced the air between them. Her heart raced in her chest and she was frozen in fear when he growled and transformed. She had seen them before but only from a distance, but now that he was up close and right in front of her, she found herself terrified of its appearance. It was truly built like a giant wolf but it stood on its back legs and was more wide across the chest and its head was wolf like with the whole set of razor sharp teeth, hunter eyes and pointed ears. His fur was a very light shade of gray and appeared to be almost silver.

It lunged for whoever was behind her but Sophia closed her eyes as he jumped, curling up a little to protect herself, not knowing whether he would end up attacking her instead. She heard a yelp of pain clearly from the werewolf and then a grunt and thud.

Opening her eyes as she rolled over, Sophia got onto her hands and knees.

Her eyes widened as she looked at her savior. Lancelot stood over a now dead man, clearly a little more than shocked as he stared down at the body. Whenever heavily wounded or killed, they seemed unable to hold their unnatural state and became human again. It had happened earlier and this now confirmed Sophia's query.

He turned and held his hand out to her. She took it, letting him help her up. "Thank you," she whispered as he pulled her up and a little closer than she expected him to. He looked down at her and nodded. "I thought for a moment everyone had gotten lost from me."

She looked down at the body as Lancelot sheathed his second sword, he hadn't let go of her hand as he shook his head at her. "I was behind you the whole time, I just had to wait until you would not end up in the middle of it and in any more danger than you already were," he said quietly, smiling at her despite the situation. He watched her pull her hands free and frowned a little. "What?"

Sophia pulled the sword free from the man's chest, visibly looking somewhat sick as she raised the sword up. She had to make sure there was no chance that it would rise; she was a protector and in all her years of training a real kill had never been at her hands, Zach and Clara had killed and she had helped hunt that was all, now she was trembling at little, tightening her fingers round the hilt of the sword. She looked over at Lancelot who was watching her. "Like any creature, cut off the head, right?"

Just as she brought the sword down, a hand grabbed her wrist. Lancelot slowly took the sword from her and pushed her back so his body blocked the sight of the body. "You were terrified. You still are."

Sophia fought back tears as she shook her head. "I didn't ask to be born into my family but I was and they are my problem, my own and I can't even stop the very things that they created. What good am I?" she demanded, looking up at him.

Lancelot gave her a half reassuring smile. "Well I think you're good. You ran out to help a woman when you knew that those things were dangerous, you risked your neck protecting and returning Woad children even when most others, including myself and Arthur, would've seen it better to just leave them, you also can challenge anyone to an argument and win it nine times out of ten," he remarked and Sophia just lifted up one shoulder. "And... so what if you have never killed before, that is not what counts, you have help, you have people like me, Tristan and Agravaine who will spill blood with not much thought to it."

"It makes me feel like I'm just a child again," she whispered, looking at the ground.

He lifted his hand up and for a moment made to reach out to her and pull her in close but he hesitated.

"There you-" Galahad trailed off when he finally broke into their line of sight and stopped upon seeing the dead man at Lancelot's feet and a clearly upset Sophia. "Is he dead?"

"As dead as can be having my sword run through his chest," Lancelot replied. He glanced from the younger knight to Sophia and back again. "Galahad, take Sophia ahead, I'll move north east and we'll meet up ahead."

Galahad nodded, moving forward to take hold of Sophia and lead her away.

Once they were out of sight, Lancelot turned to look at the motionless body on the ground and nudged it with his boot. Even though it didn't move, Lancelot decided that Sophia had the right line of thinking about removing the head and he looked up at the tree canopy for a moment, wishing he could see the stars and black blanket of the night sky, his hand tightening around the hilt before he let out a deep breath that he'd been holding. Without a seconds hesitation, Lancelot raised the sword and brought it down hard, listening to the sword of steel cutting through the flesh and feeling somewhat relieved in the knowledge that he'd done that.
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It was hard for Sophia to calm herself down as she let Galahad lead her through the forest. She knew there was still one more of them out there and she knew that it had probably already seen what had come of its companion. Something however confused Sophia about the creatures. They acted as though they had been turned for weeks and not a few days and that was another thing, if they had only been turned a few days ago, even with their unnatural speed Zachariah and Clara would not be that far away.

"Galahad do you think I could have been out longer than a few hours?" she inquired suddenly.

"How much longer are you thinking?" he answered. Sophia just said maybe a week, two or three tops or maybe time moved differently and yet at the same time in the two spaces. "Maybe, I mean your brother and sister have turned three men, left them here to wait and find you. They could be anywhere."

She frowned. "Optimism Galahad is something that I would gladly take from you at the moment," she replied, grinning at him when he apologized to her.

After a moment or so, they broke into a clearing where Arthur and Gawain were. "Found either of them yet?" Arthur inquired.

Sophia and Galahad nodded. "One of them Lancelot killed him and then headed north east of us," Galahad answered.

Lancelot appeared with Bors and Tristan at his side. "We managed to chase one the other but it got away when Bors fell over," Tristan grunted out, making Sophia snort as she tried to stop her laughter.

Bors glowered as Galahad chuckled. "See, all that ale that is making your belly large is making your job hard," Lancelot quipped, ducking away from Bors who took a swing at him. Laughing as the man grabbed him and tried to hit him, wrapping an arm around his neck and attempting to choke his as Arthur just watched them in amusement.

"Even in the darkest of situations they manage to make jokes, tease or entertain each other," he stated to Sophia as he stepped up alongside her when Galahad moved to aid Lancelot in getting Bors off him.
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When they returned to the village, despite only having found one of the werewolves, they found that Dagonet and Agravaine had retired for the night and were told that rooms were also prepared for them, however some would have to share. Bors said he'd go and find Dagonet's room, Lancelot and Arthur did not mind sleeping within the same quarters, Tristan took one of the single rooms, Galahad and Gawain took the last double room and Sophia found the last single room on the right at the far end of the hall was hers.

Sitting down on the bed, Sophia looked around for a moment and sighed heavily, easing herself down onto the covers once she had removed some of her clothing. Sleep did not come easily and when it did, all Sophia could dream of was the past night and few days of events which woke her up constantly and in the end, close to dawn the next morning, Sophia was sitting up in bed, her knees drawn up as she sat there and tried to think of ways in which to clear her mind of things for a few moments.

A knock on the door startled her and she said they could come in. Agravaine stuck his head round the door and Sophia smiled weakly at the knight who nodded his head at her. "Couldn't sleep either?" he inquired.

"How did you know I was awake?"

"You've been talking to invisible people for the past few minutes and these walls are thin," he replied as he shut the door and walked over to the chair in the room near the small fire and table. He eased himself down onto it and Sophia blushed a little.

"I woke you up? I am sorry-"

He cut her off. "You did not wake me, I've been up for some time and I thought it was better to check on you and make sure there was no one else in here." That sounded much odder coming out of his mouth than it actually had done in his head. "By that I meant trouble."

"By that you meant Lancelot," she retorted and Agravaine grinned a little at her in reply. "Don't worry. If he came in to my room, it would not be by my invitation but him being nosy and rude. I'd knocked him flat on his ass out the door in two seconds flat."

"Never met a woman who didn't at least return his advances," he mused. "You must have a lot of men on their knees crawling after you back in your time."

Sophia scoffed and stood up, moving over to the window which was shut. She opened it a tiny bit and looked out at the dark and now haunting forest that was her view. "I don't return his advances because I'm not interested, plain and simple. As for having a lot of men on their knees, I never have attracted men to me in that way actually; its hard when you're the last daughter of a Gypsy king whose family has a history of killing off the villagers they originally protected."

Agravaine folded his arms across his chest as he watched her from the opposite side of the bed and room. He wanted to say that she would have men lining up around corners for her attention with how striking she was but it was not within him to voice such things, he didn't dwell in feelings and emotions like that. He only thought about freedom and surviving the months up until then- or really, he had only thought that.

Now Agravaine was thinking more of the woman standing in the room with him than he was about his freedom which confused him. In all the years since he had been scarred across the face, Agravaine had never even looked at a woman or let them look at him. That first night when she had woken up and looked directly at him when he had put his sword to her, Agravaine had actually felt vulnerable and afraid of what she thought of his appearance, which had never been a case for him before that moment. "Men desire to own what they deem to be a prize worthy of them Sophia, it has been that way for hundreds of years; it is why Paris wanted Helen, why Caesar and Mark Anthony loved Cleopatra-"

"And in all of those circumstances, people not only died but kingdoms and countries fell," she replied, turning to look at him.

He nodded. "You're right, but it is in a man's nature, they can't help it and only few are strong enough to fight the feeling. I am sure more than one man in your time would have looked at you and felt that way," he stated.

She lifted up a shoulder as she wrapped her arms around herself once she shut the window. "Well if they did, I never noticed them. I didn't really like many of them in that respect, they smelled really bad half the time and thought that hunting was the best thing in the world," she remarked softly, looking at the ground. "Tonight I felt like I was one of them, at first it was all going well and good but when one was finally right there in front of me, I froze- I was afraid of him. I shouldn't be afraid of what I am meant to be hunting and protecting people from. It isn't right."

Agravaine stood up and moved over to the window, opening one panel up, looking out at it. "Under the circumstances I'll admit that I was terrified when I first laid my eyes on the beasts but then I remembered that I had to kill it. That if I didn't then people would end up hurt." He glanced up at Sophia's face and noticed her watching him intently and made to look away, only a hand came to his cheek.

"How are your injuries from the fight?"

"Somewhat sore but fine never the less, pain is not something I feel with just mere scratches by a kittens claws," he remarked, smiling as the corner of her mouth turned upwards for a moment, well for as long as he dared look at her lips.

As the room fell silent, he kept his eyes off her face, nervous as her thumb traced the bottom of his scar. It made him want her to do it again but she pulled her hand away just as he made to lean into the touch. "How did you end up being scarred like you are?" she asked.

Despite he did not wish to say it, he did. Something about Sophia compelled him to and the true story, not some lie that his mind had worked up on the spot. "Nearly ten years ago saving a Woad infant from the Roman soldiers I was meant to be fighting alongside of. Our orders, both theirs and the ones Arthur had received, were to kill any and all of the Woads within the village during the attack. A Roman soldier, younger than you even had killed the little girl's mother and I found her hiding under furs in one of the huts. I tried to save her but the Roman soldiers just followed their orders, even attacking me when I tried to stop them for taking her away from me. She still ended up dead and I was nearly blinded."

Sophia gasped softly. "Is that why you helped me return the children?"

He mutely nodded and Sophia did something that Agravaine was, yet again, not expecting and hugged him round his middle. "Thank you for helping me," she whispered as she pulled away after a few moments.

While he had not returned the hug, he doubted Sophia wanted him to and so all he did was bow his head slowly to her. Agravaine glanced out the window as he felt the first touches of sun wash over his skin when the sun began to rise from behind the mountains and trees.

The door opened and both Agravaine and Sophia looked over to find Dagonet there, telling them the others were awake and already downstairs. Agravaine was thankful of one thing as he headed downstairs to leave Sophia to dress and that was that Dagonet had not stumbled upon Sophia hugging him.

His heart was racing as he remembered feeling her hugging him and smiled at how he enjoyed being hugged specifically by her when normally he disliked such gestures.