The Silver Lining

The first thing that came to Sophia's mind as she awoke slowly and with a groan as the back of her head began to pound was that she had not been with her brother and sister when she had awoken the first time, then came the children who spoke a language she couldn't understand, her fear of dying in a cage before being able to stop her siblings, the men who had seemingly saved herself and the children from their prison and finally that she had fallen unconscious again.

She slowly sat up; her hands moving to her head which was light and yet felt heavy at the same time. Feeling something cuddle against her, Sophia looked down and found Celcie. A large wave of relief overcame her as the child smiled up at her before she wrapped her arms around the tiny girl, thanking god that they were alright. The sound of footsteps coming towards them made Sophia look up.

Her eyes widened at the sight of the man from earlier and she quickly moved back, trying to put distance between him and them. He stopped and put his hands up, as though in a gesture of peace. Sophia saw the group of men sitting behind where he stood and only inched back a little more.

He suddenly spoke and Sophia frowned a little. She could pick up only a few of the words. Sophia looked down for a moment, trying to remember something Latin as her head was still somewhat cloudy. "Ah... I don't speak... Latin well," she stammered as she tried to remember.

Seeing him smile a little and nod, Sophia relaxed a little. "Your name?" he asked.

She knew what he had said that time. "Sophia."

"Sophia. I'm Arthur Castus, commander of Badon keep," he continued though he spoke slowly so she would be able to understand him a little better. She nodded. "You're safe with me and my knights."

These men were knights? Sophia looked at the group of men. They looked more like a bunch of ragtag rebels and nothing like what she had seen in books that she'd read. Sophia slowly moved back towards the bed roll where she had awoken, searching for words so she would be able to ask the questions that she needed answers to. "Where am I?" she inquired. That was one thing that had been nagging at the back of Sophia's thoughts since first awakening. It wasn't like home at all. The people were dressed strange, they talked in languages that they really shouldn't for areas in or around Romania and on top of that, she had no idea where Anna and Zachariah were.

"Briton."

It was like she had just been punched in the ribs by her brother during one of their more close physical fights. That was impossible. She hadn't been unconscious for that long. "No. I can't be."

"You are lady," Arthur said. "You have taken some nasty bumps to your head, perhaps your mind is not recalling all that has happened to you."

Sophia gave him a pensive look; she'd caught half of what he'd said. "My head is fine," she grumbled in her own language and saw him frown a little, saying sorry and asking her to repeat what she'd said in Latin. Sighing heavily and knowing that they were the only help she had at the moment until she found out just exactly what had happened, Sophia didn't repeat what she said, opting to discover some more things out about this predicament she was in.

"What is the year?" she inquired. It was all too clear that she was not in the year 1887, she couldn't be. This man acted as though she was a lady who had just gotten lost and caught in a bad predicament. Sophia knew that she was in a bad predicament and that she was lost, but she was too headstrong to accept that at the moment.

Seeing him glance over at one of the men, Sophia climbed to her feet and held the back of her head, wobbling a little. She wasn't feeling all too good but that would pass as the bump went down. "The year, lady?" Arthur asked, looking at her curiously.

She rolled her eyes slightly. "Yes, the year. What is it?" she snapped this time. It was not fair that her sword had been taken from her by those men prior to these so-called knights helping her and the children, because she somehow guessed that it had not been picked up and was now laying among dead bodies probably lost for good.

"The year is 467AD, lady," he answered her.

She paused and looked at him in astonishment. The year was what-? For a second her head felt heavy and her eyes unfocused, she was close to fainting again. Determined not to collapse, despite that a pair of arms were suddenly around her helping her to stand, Sophia straightened herself up. "Are you alright, lady?"

I am far beyond alright if what you just said to me happens to be correct she thought, pushing aside a sick feeling rising in her throat.

Sophia pulled a face as she looked up at Arthur. "My name is not lady. It's Sophia." She looked down as Celcie hook her hands around the buckles of her boots and stood in close to her leg, looking at Arthur with wide and frightened eyes.

"Sophie?"

She groaned. "Not Sop-hie, So-phi-a," she rattled off first in Latin before going off in Romanian, "Like Sophia the Martyr of Rome." That seemed to confuse the man before her even more. This was not good. How was she going to find the home of these children and give them back if she could not even communicate properly with the inhabitants of this accursed and strange place.

Where was Carl when she actually did need him? Probably off explaining to someone at the moment that he was still just a friar and not yet a monk of the Holy Order and so he could swear all he liked. She inwardly laughed a little. He knew Latin by heart, he would have no trouble in communicating with these men like she currently was but fortune had not seemingly sent Carl with her and so she had to find a way to remember the Latin that she had learned.

"So-phi-a," Arthur repeated her and she nodded. He smiled, turning away from them. "Rest, we head out at first light."

Sophia moved forward and found a sword landing against her wrist as she reached out to turn Arthur back to face her, still wanting some answers to other questions. She looked at the blade which in one clean swing would be able to remove her hand she had no doubt in that and from the blade, she followed it up to where a gloved hand held it steady and firm. Her eyes followed the arm up to the face of the man who owned the sword. At first she was a little taken back. The owner of the sword was extremely tall, especially compared to Sophia's stature and he had dark eyes, shoulder length black hair that was matted and messy. It half hid his face from her but what she could see, that had taken her back, was the bottom of a scar running dangerously close to his right eye and down his cheek, nearly to his jaw bone.

He seemed to flinch under her stare and turned his head away, giving her the chance to push the sword down and make Arthur turn to look at her. "I still have questions," she said as best as she could in Latin.

He nodded at her. "They can wait, we need rest."

"What about the children? Are you going to help them?" she demanded as he turned away. From some of the looks of the knights, Sophia gathered that there was a lot more to this predicament that they were all in then what she was being informed of. "They are just children."

"They're Woad." A gruff grunt came from one of the men who sat feeding a bird, not looking over at them.

Sophia shook her head not understanding. "What are Woads?" All the men turned to look at her and she gathered that she had just said something wrong or had shocked them.

"Woads are British rebels who hate Rome," a blond-maned knight mumbled to her. "People who want their country back."

She frowned, folding her arms across her chest. The way he had said it almost made him sound like that was what he wanted for his own country. "I do not understand what is going on here," she said, "they are children, who are frightened and probably want to go home."

Arthur shook his head at her. "We can't take them back."

Sophia looked at the man and then over her shoulder to the children who were all looking at her. She looked at the ground before meeting Arthur's eyes. "So you'll just let them go? And what hope that their own kind find them before something else does?" she accused.

The forest coloured eyes of the man's saddened before he lowered his eyes away from hers and looked at the ground. "It is not as simple as you may wish to believe, lady."

Turning, she walked over to the children and sat down on the end of the bedroll, letting Celcie climb into her lap to curl up and go to sleep as the other three relaxed onto the bedroll. She stubbornly kept her attention on anything but the men around the fire. Instead, she was stroking Celcie's hair back from her face as the child slept soundly. Even though her stomach growled and complained for food, Sophia refused to ask the men for anything, they were cold in her eyes. Any man who just abandoned children who needed help was not what she would call a knight in the least.
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It was not long before exhaustion took over and Sophia was struggling to remain awake. She hadn't even realized that she had fallen asleep until someone shook her awake. Lifting her head up, she headed up knocking skulls with whoever was shaking her and they groaned. Celcie had moved out of her lap and she got up, apologizing to the person quickly. She found it was the same man who held the sword to her earlier. He shook his head and mumbled something to her.

"Sorry, what?"

He looked at her, or she at least thought he was- it was very hard to tell with his hair covering his face like it did. "They will be awake soon," he remarked, nodding towards the sleeping men, "and they'll want to move quickly. Wake the children up and eat." With that he started to walk off.

"Thank you. I'm Sophia," she said, not knowing what else to say.

He stopped and glanced over his shoulder at her. "Agravaine."

Sophia nodded and he disappeared into the forest surrounding the small camp after that. Despite confused by the man, she turned and found he'd left food for them. Looking over to where he had disappeared, Sophia smiled and crouched down, gently waking up the children.
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It was evident from the look of Arthur's face he was a little surprised to find Sophia and the children already awake. The children were tired but they walked with Sophia who kept their distance from the knights. She looked over her shoulder when she heard someone walking up behind her.

The knight, Agravaine, nodded to her slightly and Sophia regarded him for a moment. He did not appear to be a talkative person and looked as though he was uncomfortable with Sophia and the children. She looked down as he walked by her. Carrying Celcie, she was surprised when Arthur asked her if they were alright.

"We're fine," she replied.

He sighed heavily. "La- Sophia, we are unable to return the children due to conflict between Rome and the Woads."

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "In other words, the natives do not agree with being forced to their knees and so they fight back, which clearly puts you and your men in the line of keeping the rebels at peace?" she retorted.

A lot of laughter followed her broken up words. Clearly the knights found that amusing. "I like her," one commented, "she isn't afraid to speak her mind." Sophia discovered early that he was Bors. He was burly, big, bald and very gruff.

"What is Rome's hold like where you are from?" a young one asked. He was not much older than Sophia actually she guessed and his name was Galahad as she had found out by Arthur who had named each of the knights before they'd left the camp earlier that day.

Sophia knew of the knights of the round table from the books she'd read when she was smaller, however these men were not like the knights of the legend she knew of. "It does not matter," she lied, knowing that explaining things was clearly going to prove difficult if she said that Rome was both the same and yet different to what it seemed like in this age.

Surprisingly they did not press her on it and she breathed out a quiet sigh of relief. She however was still determined to either have their help to return the children or she would do it on her own.