A Warrior At Heart (Arthur Pendragon x oc)

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^^^Alexandra Daddario is the face of my oc (Adira), choose your own if you want to.

It was a quiet life in Ealdor, the same routine day after day, but on those occasions when trouble would arrive Adira always fought to protect her family. She craved adventure, something she knew she would never get if she remained in Ealdor, but still, she stayed. Her mother Hunith wanted the best for her children so she would never admit she didn't want to be left alone, but Adira knew. So when merlin decided to move to Camelot with one of Hunith's old friends, she decided against joining him, despite longing for more out of life.

It was just another quiet day in Ealdor until Kanen and his men arrived. They came every year to take the harvest and the people of Ealdor were always left with barely enough food to survive. Adira knew the village wouldn't last much longer living this way so the only option she saw was to fight, she just needed the other villagers to see this too. So, when Kanen arrived, that was her goal.

The good thing about being a woman is that men always underestimate her, since she was able to walk, she has practiced the art of combat, often with long wooden sticks because she didn't have a real sword, but she coped just fine. Most of the time she trained with her brother merlin, him being the target practice with a makeshift shield much to his dismay, but when he wasn't available, she would make her own targets or, on the rare occasion, sneak out and cause some trouble to give her some real experience. She knows it's dangerous, but she also knows its important to be able to fight.

So when she heard the carnage that followed kanen's arrival, she decided this was the year to fight back rather than let her village suffer.

She left the small house that she and Hunith lived in and searched for Kanen, who wasn't heard to find. She saw all the villagers with tears in their eyes as they watched Kanen's men tear through their homes to find what they were looking for. They all looked so hopeless it broke Adira's heart.

When she looked back at Kanen she saw that they had found Matthew and the food he was hiding, the rage visible in his eyes.

"What's this? Where's the rest of it?" he demanded.

"I only kept back what we need to survive."

He sounded determined. Adira could see that Matthew also knows they need to fight back, she's glad despite being nervous for their safety.

"Survive? I'll be back in one week, farmer. And I want to see all of it." He started to turn away when Adira and Hunith ran forward, pride be damned, and they started pleading with him to see reason.

"You can't take our food!" Hunith shouted

"The children will starve! Please don't do this!" Adira continued. They could both see their attempts were futile but as a last resort Adira grabbed one of the long wooden sticks she used for training and swung at Kanen in hopes of doing some damage. He was knocked off his horse and had a large gash in his cheek dripping with blood but before she could do any more, she was grabbed by his men who kept her held back while Kanen got back to his feet and stepped toward her menacingly. Before she could even process the trouble that she was in, Kanen backhanded her around the face with enough force to send her crashing to the ground. And after taking the wooden pole that was just used against him, he repeatedly swung down on her back, tearing her skin with each hit until she was left a bloodied mess, no one daring to interfere for fear of meeting the same fate. But she held in her cries, not wanting to make it any more painful for her family and friends to watch nor give Kanen the satisfaction of hearing her screams. After countless swings and seemingly endless pain, he finally stopped and smirked down at the mess he made.

"next time I won't be so gentle" he spat at her with his men chuckling behind him before they all rode away with a last warning about being back in a week.

As soon as they were out of sight, Hunith and Adira's friends helped her up and into her house where they all helped her get cleaned up and bandaged, but the pain only lessened when she focused her magic on the area. No one else could see but it was subtly healing the open wounds into scabs and dulling the pain. She couldn't do any more than that to help herself because her magic was a secret to all except merlin and their mother. She knew it would scar but she didn't mind too much, there was no doubt she'd get many more in the years to come so she may as well accept them. They are the marks of a fighter, not a victim.