A Warrior At Heart (Arthur Pendragon x oc)

4

Once Adira finally let go of merlin and finished saying hello he went and greeted an old friend of his, Will. Adira then looked towards the other newcomers, waved to her mother and started walking towards the people she didn't know, intending to introduce herself.

Walking toward the blond knight first, she held the blade of the sword, allowing him to grab the hilt,

"Thank you for the help back there, I'm Adira" she said holding out her hand for him to shake.

"Ah so you're the sister. Pleasure to meet you, I'm Arthur" he replied shaking her hand.

"Ah so you're Prince Prat that Merlin has spoken so fondly of in his letters" She said smirking at him.

"Wow, you two are definitely siblings" he said laughing, astonished at the similarities he can already see in their personality. "he's never mentioned you until your mother arrived in Camelot, I didn't even know he had a sister"

"he never was the type to gloat. Not to toot my own horn but I'm pretty amazing" Adira smiled, making Arthur smile too.

"I can see that. You were pretty impressive with the sword" he said impressed.

"I've been practicing technique with wooden poles my whole life, today was my first time using a proper sword. It was difficult to part with it so soon, it felt so good to use."

"you can keep it if you want, it's not like I have a shortage of them, and you clearly know how to handle yourself with it." He offered

She stood there with her jaw practically on the floor, staring at him wide eyed "I can keep it?!" she asked, wanting to make sure she heard him right.

"yeah" he said, laughing lightly at the look on her face.

"Thank you" she said sincerely, smiling widely.

"you're welcome, I'm going to gather the rest of the village, I need to speak with everyone. Bye"

"Bye"

Once Adira had gotten over her shock of being allowed to keep the prince's sword she made her way to the two new women who were currently talking between themselves while sorting through the things they brought with them.

"hello, I'm Adira, if my brother's letters are accurate, you must be Gwen and the Lady Morgana" she said looking at each of them.

"Oh please, just call me Morgana. You must be merlin's sister"

"That's me. Don't worry, I may be his twin but I'm much less irritating." She said playfully, making all of them laugh. "I just wanted to say thank you for coming, we really need the help"

"Don't worry about it, we'd do anything to help a friend like merlin. And from the looks of that fight just now, you can hold your own pretty well" Gwen replied.

"Yeah I've been on the receiving end of kanen's anger before. I wasn't about to let him do that to me again." Adira said with a stiff voice, remembering what happened the week before; knowing that it was what awoke the fighter inside her.

Gwen and Morgana didn't need to ask what happened, they knew it would've been bad and didn't want to make Adira talk about it anymore if she was uncomfortable

The three of them spoke for a bit longer about lighter topics until Arthur got everyone's attention, calling for everyone to gather around him.

"I know kanen's kind. He'll be back, and when he is, we must be ready for him. First of all we have to prepare—"

"Am I the only one wondering who the hell this is?" Merlin's friend, Will interrupted, making everyone look at him, Adira just rolling her eyes.

"I'm Prince Arthur of Camelot."

"Yeah, and I'm Prince William of Ealdor." Will said rather rudely.

"Will, please be quiet and give him chance, he's here to help" Adira said calmly not wanting will to get even more defensive and make the situation worse.

Will turned to face her, all the people gathered around still listening in, and said "He's made things worse. Kanen will be back and when he is, he'll be looking for revenge." Turning back to the prince he added on "you've just signed out death warrants"

"He saved Matthew's life!" Hunith shouted, knowing the prince deserved their gratitude not their blame.

"It's alright Hunith. This is his village. What would you have us do?" Arthur asked, genuinely looking for any ideas that could help, knowing asking the villagers to fight was risky.

Will took a few seconds to contemplate the question before he answered,

"we can't fight against Kanen; he has too many men."

"So, what's the alternative?"

"Give him what he wants" Will replied, making everyone look at him in shock.

"Are you insane, Will?! Then what? Those of us who don't starve to death will just have to face him again next harvest, and the harvest after that, and so on. It will never end if we don't fight back." Adira said, trying to make him see sense.

"We'll manage. We'll survive." Will replied with false confidence in his voice, making multiple villagers' question 'how?'

"The only way he can be stopped is if you stand up to him." Arthur said rather condescendingly, as if speaking to a small child, but no one can blame him considering Will is acting quite stupid right now.

"No, you just want the honour and glory of battle. That's what drives men like you. Look, if you want to fight, then go home and risk the lives of your own people, not ours." He finished and walked away. His words clearly affected some of the people's morale, but it won't take much to fix it. Everyone, except Will apparently, understands what needs to be done. Merlin followed after him, intending to try to change his friend's mind.

Seeing that something needed to be said to help the few unsure people, Adira spoke up, getting everyone's attention once again.

"ill follow you. If I am to die then I there's no better way than to die fighting for my family." She said, completely sure of herself, voice unwavering, determination shining in her eyes. Almost instantly she hears villager after villager voicing their agreement. All the while Arthur just stared at Adira as if she were the rarest diamond, having never before seen that kind of courage on anyone except himself, endlessly admiring the confidence and leadership she showed, and knowing without a doubt he needs her in his life, all while going unnoticed by Adira.