The Wishing Star

Chapter Two (New Duties and Feelings)

After Vanora had explained the duties of barmaiding, Lizbeth and Riah found themselves at an empass. What are they supposed to do now, now that it is morning and the tavern won't serve drinks or need the barmaids till early evening? Finally deciding on what to do, they decided to take a tour of the fort. Seeing the sights that weren't really prominent in the movie.

They argued about what to look at first. Riah wanted to see the little market place that the fort had, while Lizbeth wanted to see the stables. Having been in love with horses all her life, she wanted to have a chance to be close to horses all day, even though she didn't know how to ride and no prospects of any lessons on the horizons. She wanted to just look at the horses.

Making the decision that they would just split up and view their own "attractions", like in a fair (to them), they went their own seperate ways. Riah to the market, and Lizbeth to the stables.

The journey to the market, to Riah, was crowded. There were so many people who, it appeared, called the fort home. Not just soldiers, but ordinary people. People who spend their days selling the wares it had taken them days, perhaps even weeks, to make was a new experience for Riah. The only time something like this occured at home was like on a Saturday market or a week-long fair. Apparently, the market was like this every day.

Wishing she had money, she purused the booths. There were food booths and there were trinket booths. Riah had a little difficulty remembering that this wasn't home. She didn't have the types of currency used in this time period.

Not realizing that she was about to walk into somebody, so deep was she in her thoughts, she bumped into someone. She looked up, and wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole. It was Lancelot.

"Careful. You don't want to hurt yourself again, do you?" Lancelot asked her, quickly steadying her while she got her balance. "You're Riah, right? Sorry I didn't get a chance to introduce myself earlier, but I'm Lancelot."

"Yes, I'm Riah. Or just simply Moriah. Nice to meet you, Lancelot. And I'm sorry for bumping into you, I was thinking about something." Riah told him, trying hard not to blush out of embarassment. She hated this tendency to blush when ever she encountered a guy she liked, but it was so hard not to blush.

"That's quite alright. You can bump into me anytime you feel like it." Lancelot said, teasingly. He hoped that he could put a smile on her lovely face, instead of the slight frown. From embarassment probably, he thought to himself.

The charm worked. The smile lit up her face, albet a little smile, it still was a beautiful one.

"So, what are you doing today? Out enjoying the sights?" He asked, as they started to walk down the lane.

"Yep. My sister wanted to see the stables, since she's horse mad, but I wanted to explore the sights. I've always enjoyed exploring new places." Riah explained, starting to feel a little comfortable around him as they walked.

"Well, she's going to be going crazy then, because there are plenty of horses to occupy her." he laughed.

They found themselves having a marvelous conversation, about nothing in particular. Lancelot, having never had this kind of conversation with a woman before, was entranced. He even started asking questions about her.

"Who's the oldest of you and your sister? The men were wondering because you guys look so alike, it's uncanny. I know you told Dag that you weren't twins, but the physical resemblance between you and your sister is, wow." Lancelot wondered, really wanting to get to know this woman better.

"Well to answer your question, I'm the oldest. I was born a little bit after the Winter Solstice and Lizbeth was born a bit after the Summer Solstice. I was 18 months old when she was born. I have two younger brothers at home." Riah told him, wondering what he's going to ask about her brothers and her home. She wasn't sure what she should tell him about her true home and what her sister had in mind about the story about their past. Lizbeth was always the creative one, writing stories all the time about people from books, movies and awhole lot of different things. She even attempted to write a story she made up, but she wasn't happy with the way things turned out, that she stopped working on it.

"What about your parents? Your mom and dad? What are your brother's names?" Lancelot asked in a rush of questions.

With a laugh, she tried to halt his questions. "My parents' names are Frank and Sheila. My dad died a little bit over a year ago. My mom is the best woman in the world, I couldn't ask for a better mom. My brothers' names are Ben and Daniel. They are 15 and 16. My sister and I are 18 and 19. Before you ask, my cats' names are Tigger and Meg. My sister's cats' names are Cupcake and Winks." Riah laughingly told him, stopping him from asking about her cats.

"Those are wierd names. Wherever did you get those kinds of names?" Lancelot asked her.

"I named Tigger. His name was originally Tiger but he mellowed down after a few months with me. The rest were named by my sister. You'll have to ask her why and how she gave them their names." she explained, continuing on their walk.

The sister under discussion by Lancelot and Riah, Lizbeth, was currently trying to decide what horse to look at first. They were all so beautiful. She was trying to make the decision when she heard a noise behind her at the entrance of the stable. Turning, she noticed that it was Tristan, the scout.

"Hello. What are you doing in here so early?" Tristan asked the girl, not knowing if it was Lizbeth or Moriah.

"Hi. I'm just admiring the horses. I've always loved horses but never had the chance to see them this close and so many. I'm Lizbeth, by the way." She introduced herself, a little nervous being this close to the real man from her movie.

"I'm Tristan. And this little baggage is Sianese, my hawk." Tristan said, motioning to the hawk on his forearm.

"Hello Sianese. It is a pleasure to meet you." She said, greeting the beautiful hawk. Looking up, she met Tristan's eyes. "Where did you get her and how long have you had her?" she asked, really curious about when and how he got the beautiful hawk.

"I got her off a falconer. He was training hawks and she was just a baby. So the falconer decided to let me train her and bring her back when she was done. When her training was done, I went back to the falconer's and found out that he was dead. He died during a Woad attack and the hawks escaped, or were captured. That was six years ago. Now she and I are best of friends." He told her, gently stroking Sianese's breast feathers.

"And your horse? Which one is he? Or she?" Lizbeth asked, looking toward the reasons she came to be in the stable.

"Windrider? He's the white one over there. He's "best friends" with Lancelot's and Dagonet's horses. They're the black ones on either side of him." Tristan said, pointing him out.

Lizbeth looked toward the horse he was pointing to and fell instantly in love. "Oh, Tristan. He's gotta be the most beautiful horse I've ever seen." She gushed, trying with all her might not to go over there and stroke his nose.

Tristan, noting the longing on her face, asked, "Do you want to help me brush him?" The look on her face was pure joy and excitement. She nodded eagerly.

Tristan, nodding back, went over to the place where he kept the brushes that he uses for his horse, grabbed some extras and tossed them to her. He was a little surprised that she caught them one handedly. Usually, girls caught things with two hands, not one.

Going over to the stall that housed his horse, he motioned Lizbeth over. "Do you know how to groom a horse?" he asked.

A look of profound regret and disappointment crossed her face. "No, I don't. I've never actually got the chance to learn how to. I've never actually ridden a horse before. Only once, when I was six." The last two sentences were spoken in a near whisper, as if she was ashamed of her lack of knowledge. Looking at him she added, "If you don't want my inexperienced hands grooming him, I'll understand."

The pleading and the hope in his eyes almost made him cry. Almost. "I would be glad to teach you. And, if I have the time, I will teach you how to ride. We have several extra horses, horses of former knights who died in battle, that I'm sure would love to be ridden for once. Instead of just being walked, with nobody on their backs." He offered, wanting to put the joy and excitement back in her eyes.

The offer worked. Pure joy and gratitude were shining brightly. "Yes, Tristan. I would really like to take lessons. And could you tell me if whether they have weapons training? I would love to learn. I've always wanted to learn archery. I'm not really good with swords or anything. When my brother and I would have mock sword battles, I would always not know how to use the "sword" and end up either getting hurt or losing. Usually a little bit of both." She laughed at the last bit, enjoying the memory of one such "sword fight".

"I'll look into it." And with that said, Tristan proceeded to show her how to groom a horse. Because before a person learned how to ride a horse, they have to first learn how to properly groom it and care for it.

~~~~~

Later that day, when Riah and Lizbeth were getting ready for their first day of work, they discussed the day that they had.

"So you're going to be getting riding lessons? And weapons training? Oh that just sucks. How come I don't?" Riah was complaining after hearing about her sister's day and the fun she had of learning how to groom a horse.

"Well, maybe you should ask Lancelot for lessons. I bet he'll love to teach you." Lizbeth teased her sister. She knew how much Riah liked Lancelot. He was her favorite person in their movie, after all.

"Maybe I will." With that, they both finished getting ready and together, headed out to the tavern.

~~~~~

The noise level was deafening. Lizbeth wondered how Vanora can do this and keep an eye on her eleven children all at the same time. She was just lucky that she didn't have that many children. The stress of working as a barmaid alone was stressful, always filling the cups of the soldiers who were always trying to get her to go to bed with them after the night was done, dodging the hands going for her bottom.

Oh, how she sometimes missed her home, and the non-complications of a job so stressful.

Going to the bar for refills of the knights' tables, she again had to dodge the hands and this time, there were hands in front of her this time.

"Where you off to, girlie?" A drunken soldier slurred, running his hands over her body. "You should leave with me and we'll go have us a bit of fun."

"Not on your life, buster. Now if you please, kindly remove your offensive hands and breath away from my person before I hit you over the head with this tray." Lizbeth threatened, feeling slightly apprehensive. This type of occassion has never happened to her before.

"Why would I want to do that?" the soldier asked, leering at her through bloodshot, drunken eyes.

"Because your head will still be connected to your neck, if you do." A voice said behind her. Lizbeth looked over her shoulder and gave a sigh of relief. It was Tristan.

"Tristan!" she breathed. She mouthed to him, "Help me?" He nodded slightly, moving forward to put his arm around her waist.

"I don't believe that you've met, my fiance. Lizbeth, honey. Why don't you go sit down at the table and I'll go get the drinks. The others won't mind." With that, Tristan took the tray from her and angled her toward his table.

Lizbeth sat down at the table Tristan showed her to, and she looked around at the faces around her.

"Hello, I don't believe we've met. I'm Lizbeth. And you guys are?"

The knight with the long curly blondish hair spoke. "I'm Gawain and this rascal is Galahad. It's a pleasure to meet the "fiance" of our favorite scout, Tristan. By the way, who's the oldest? You or your sister?" Gawain asked, leaning over to thwak Galahad on the head for almost falling off his chair looking at a barmaid.

The other knights laughed as Galahad drunkenly tried to swing back at Gawain and his fist was caught by Tristan, who was back with the drinks. The other knights being Dagonet and Bors. Lancelot was away gambeling with some soldiers, while Arthur was in his rooms, relaxing from the hard mission that they had just come from.

"Well, since you guys are all so curious about me and my sister, I'll just tell you a story." Lizbeth remarked. A little mischevious smile was across her face. Oh she was going to have fun with this one, she thought to herself.

"Once upon a time there were two people. A man and a woman. The man said to the woman, 'Hey, woman. Let's get married and have lots of babies.' The woman, smitten with the man, answered: 'I'll marry you if we have two girls first than you can have two boys.' The agreement was settled. The woman got with child and three weeks from the woman's due date, she went into labor. The baby was born and it was a girl. The couple, being told by physicians not to have any more children, waited for almost a year to have another baby. Three weeks after her due date this time, she went into labor. She had a baby girl. The man and woman then went on to have two boys, born almost a year apart, but turned out that they would have twins for two weeks for the rest of their lives. One boy was born in May of one year. And eleven months after that, they had another boy. He was born in April." Lizbeth finished her story. "And that, gentlemen, is my life story. You'll have to deduce who's oldest by the information that you glean from me and my sister."

The men, even Tristan, looked dumbfounded and confused. Lizbeth took one look at their faces and burst into laughter. "Oh don't look at me like that, I give up. Riah's the oldest. I'm the second born. There are you happy?" Galahad and Gawain each had triumphant looks on their faces. Thinking that they were the ones to decided her, she thought, when it was Tristan who did.

The night was slowly winding down. Riah was chatting with Lancelot and flirting outrageously. Lancelot was flirting right back. Lizbeth was currently helping Vanora clean up the bar and helping her with watching her many children.

Feeling two strong arms wrap around her, she turned her head. The arms belonged to Tristan.

"You look tired." he remarked, moving one arm to massage her neck, keeping one arm around her. "Maybe you should get some rest."

Leaning her neck back so Tristan can reach the knot on the back of her neck, she responded, "I will when I finish what I'm doing." The arm around her waist was warm and comforting. She moaned a little when Tristan found the knot. "Oh, right there. I have a stress knot on the back of my neck whenever I'm stressed. I've been stressed alot lately and nobody was around to massage it."

Tristan, finished with the massage, took his arm away and stepped back to let her finish her work. "We'll start the riding lessons tomorrow, if you're able. Come by the stables early and I'll introduce you to your horseriding buddy." With that, he turned her around to face him and looked into her eyes. Stroking her face softly, he said, "See you tomorrow. And I've never felt like this about anyone. We've only known eachother for a day. Yet I feel as if I've known you my whole life." He softly kissed her cheek and left, going to his room to have a sleepless night, thinking about her.

Touching the cheek he kissed, she said softly to herself, "I've never felt like this either. I'm confused and scared. You might be the man I'm supposed to be with. But will you survive long enough for us to find out? Or will the movie prove true, that you'll die battling the Saxon leader who, in a few weeks, will march on Hadrian's Wall?" With that said, she finished cleaning up and went with her sister, who had finished her confersation with Lancelot, to her room. She knew she would not be getting any sleep tonight, and not for the next few nights if this confusion continue.