what it means to be good.

chapter 18: the strangers part I

 It's been a while already since merlin left for the crystal cave and also Arthurs dissapearence, if he believes what the knights witnessed. Then the great dragon has taken the young king. He has him at his mercy. He can only fear for what the dragon is planning with Arthur. Gaius can atleast ease his worries for the king, the dragon wouldn't want to hurt or better said kill the man that is supposed to restore magic nonethless he still doesn't trust Khilgarrah completely. His worries lean more towards a certain young warlock who has a knack for getting himself almost killed on a daily basis. Gaius lets out a loud exasperated sigh as he massages his forehead. He is far too old for this, at his age he would rather have a peaceful life flowing into retirement and dying in his sleep. Is it too much to ask. Apparently it is in this kingdom. He gets up from the diner table he usually uses to serve food for him and his ward but lately he found himself not having much of an appetite. The situation has become somewhat complicated seen to as Gwen is not in the right state of mind right now. She needs some time alone to collect herself, and he didn't want to impose so he left her to it and returned right to his living quarters. With nothing much to do he spends his time going through vials to mix up a potion for calming the queen nerves. it's the least he can do for her. It will work as the sleeping drought he used to make for.... Morgana. A somewhat apologetic expression flashes across his face, thinking about the kings ward always puts him in a sore mood. He could have--...... no he has done enough thinking about what ifs in his lifetime. What's done is done, wether they were good or bad choices, everything he did was for the greater good. To keep the people close to him safe. Some will think Morgana included that he is just making excuses to himself. The warden however in the bigger picture has brought it upon herself. But he can't help but feel he played a part in her turning out to be like the prophecy foretold. The moonlight shining through his old worn out old window makes him feel nostalgic of quiet nights far before Uther became mad with hatred and it eating him up through out the years. His younger days were far simpler then the current present he is living in. In his reminiscing of his past, he didn't hear the knock on his door so he is quite startled by the sudden intrusion of Leon. The said person has to hide his smile by putting his hand infront of his mouth. Gaius tries hard not to let the knight see how much he is shaking up by his sudden appearance so he puts his hands behind his back and raises his chin up. The knight clears his throat and speaks up " i am sorry for the intrusion sir, but the queen is asking to see you.". That got Gaius attention as his eyebrow made its trademark move upwards then he replies with a simple yes as he nods his head and moves past the still standing knight and walks out the door striaht towards the distressed queen direction. Leon now left alone in the physicians room looks around and laughs awkwardly. He gathers himself and suitly goes after Gaius.

"fast! We gotta move. They are catching up." a cloaked woman yells as she is pulling someone along in the middle of the night through an moon illuminated forest. " what about Mary! We can't leave her behind!" the person being dragged yells back tears falling down. The woman turns to face the distressed girl and puts her hands on the girls shoulders " we need to keep going, Mary...." she takes slow steady breaths before she continues. "would want you to be strong and push on. always Remember. In this life or the next. " the woman exclaims conveying the meaning behind the words as she looks straight into her eyes. The girl nods slowly body shaking and swallowing a lump of air. "besides what did she used to say when we got in trouble" the woman continues trying to light up the mood. The girl feels a smile creeping on her face " we will work this out, we always do. besides she is the strongest of us. if not ---we kick their asses." the girl finishes the womans sentence with a full on smile on her teary eyed face. The woman smiles back and is about to go in for a hug when she notices an arrow flying towards the girls back,in a split of a second the woman shields the girl and the arrow finds itself piercing the back of the womans right shoulder. She grunts out in pain and falls down on her knees grabbing her shoulder. "VOILET!" the young girls eyes widen as she screams the womans name with despair. Voilet who is feeling an agonozing pain shooting through out her whole right arm grits her teeth and shuts her eyes as she takes in ragged breaths. She tries to pick herself up and continue to run. " Violet, oh no!!" the girls says frantically as she kneels down on the cold damp forest ground infront of injured woman. " it's.....okay alice I just need to.....take a few breaths....." Violet says through ragged breaths. Alice looking over Violets shoulder can hear the footsteps of the men chasing them coming closer. She looks franctically around. What should i do? She thinks to herself feeling fear quickly creeping up on her. She looks back at the woman in pain and watches how Violet is desperately trying to keep it together. Alice closes her eyes and calms herself down. She takes in a deep breath. " let me pull it out." Alice says her voice cracking. Violet immediately refuses "NO! it will only make it worse and it will just do more damage. We have to leave it in." she finishes sternly. Alice realizing her mistake voices a small sorry and looks away. " it's okay lis" Violet says smiling through her pained expression. The scared little girl looks back at the mentioning of her nickname and smiles back. In some weird way it gives her a confidence boost so she now being a bit adjusted to the darkness surrounding them she looks for a place they can hide from their captors. It's still very difficult for her to see a clear route. Her newfound confidence slowly starts to fade, she looks up for any sign of moonlight escaping the cover of dark clouds but in vain. She looks down in defeat again when through a miracle the wind picked up its speed wich resulted in th rustling of nearby bushes. Alices head shoots up and turns to where the sound came from. She hurriedly runs up the direction of the sound and finds a spot behind some bushes that would be good place to hide and for Violet to rest. Alice whispers shouts Violets name and waves her arms around signaling for her to follow. The young woman still in pain notices it and stands up practically dragging herself, as soon as she arrives she throws herself behind the high bushes. Alice who is finding a hard time collecting herself goes back to the spot where Violet got hit. She looks towards to the direction from where the arrow came from wich turns out to be a hurdle since its deep in the night in a forest full of trees. She lets out a frustrated sigh and goes back towards the new hideout she found. As she arrives she sees Violet clutching her right shoulder. She hears the yelling of men in the distance and looks back over her shoulder. She purses her lips and furrows her eyebrows looking slightly mad." I will heal you before they arrive. it's my fault--- No! You can't" violet interjects. " They are just Sarrums men. We can...we can outrun them. you know very well enough that 'they' will find us so we can't risk you performing any kind of magic.". " but I-- no buts Alice, we have to get you to safety. We didn't leave Mary behind......--- Violet tries to reason as forming the right words begins to be very diffucult due the pain that is taking its toll on her. " We....i--" she takes in a deep breath, her sight also starts to get affected, everything start to get hazy, feeling herself getting more dizzy by the minute. "Ma....ry is fighting for us.....so don't worry about me, i just need to rest some bit and then we just have to keep moving" and with all her remaining strength Violet manages to pull herself up not sliding of the wet dirt beneath her worn out feet in the dark with only the light of the moon presenting the gift of sight. " i will be fine. They are still far away. The archer is still along way out seeing he only shot once "Violet reasons not very convincing. Alice just purses her lips and and nods her head slowly, she walks up to her good friend and puts the injured womans good arm around her shoulder to help her keep on walking seeing as Violet is having much trouble just standing up straight. Alice worries grow as soon as she sees the arrows head edging out her shoulder. the wound the arrow inflicted much damage to her bones too. " don't worry, i can heal it to the point i can atleast go on" Violet vocalizes trying to assure Alice. She looks down and takes the underside of her cloak and rips a big piece with all her might. " since i can't use magic, i will atleast bandage around it. your healing powers aren't enough to stop the bleeding." Violet moves her head to her right shoulder and winces as she tries to move it. she looks back at Alice and nods. " But be quick" she manages to utter still breathing heavily. " go lay down" Violet doing as being told lays down in the dirt.Alice not wasting much time put the ripped piece of cloth from under the wounded womans armpit around her shoulder. She acts fast and binds the area around the arrow head. The footsteps that were far of in the distance are still a distance away. The archer must have been very skilled to have hit her from so far away. Violet laying on the floor huffing and puffing feeling some relief from the bandages moves herself over to a nearby tree and leans against it. "I think i will have to rest a bit more."Alice who is looking out for any of Sarrums men squats down and hopes that this place will be well hidden for their enemies eyes. She has to be strong for the both of them. Atleast untill Violet can continue, Alice turns around to asses Violets condition and by the looks of it they will be sitting ducks for a while. Alice crawling on all fours over to her companion takes a seat on the cold damp ground next to her and lets out a sigh. She pulls up her knees to her chest and puts her around them. She looks up at the starry night sky and feels a certain longing she hasn't felt in a long time. "what are we doing here? She mumbles to herself. Violet turns her head to the side and trying hard to keep the movement of her shoulder to the bare minimum. " remember..... when we had found that injured...bird". Alice looking back at her smiles sadly at the memory. " sunny" she voices. Violet moves her tongue across her dry lips to wet them continues " you brought her with you feeling sorry for, remember what you told me back then?". Alice looks up ahead and shakes her head. " you said, our gift counts for nothing if we can't even save the smalles of creatures" Violet says smiling. Alice only smiles back and answers. " i remember now. I was so shaken up and you,Silvya,saphire,crystal,malika,bea,lilith,ava....Mary. You all were just taking me for a fool and found me strange. Me myself too wasn't too keen on opening up to you. I also didn't really trust you guys in the beginning and then we got closer as time passed us by. And all for what?" tears start to well up in the scared little girls eyes as she burries her head in her knees. Violet adjsuting her sitting position to have a better view at her friend tries to reach out her hand " It's not your fault, we all chose this path. You made us....better. " Alice now looking giving her a deadpanned look narrows her eyes at the wounded young woman. The woman cringes inwardly at the cliched words she is using but she needs to show Alice that she truly did change them for the better. " And who says Mary is dead, she will be soon catching up on us". "No! it's too damn dark! I can't see through this shitty dark forest. Sarrum will have our heads if we don't bring those witches back" Another yells back. Alice and Violet both eyes widen to the size of apples, Alice starts to panick and Violet tries to stay calm. " They must have come through here, Let's split up and look for them. They couldn't have gone too far." A third person yells as he continues fearfully when two more people come into the picture. " sirk we might have.....lost their trail." The leader looks back at the scared man and just passes him without even awknowledging him. The second man just stands still and has his hand on the hilt of his sword ready to strike. The leader stops in his tracks and kneels down, he inspects the the ground and notices " blood, almost dried" he announces to everyone. Violet and Alice almost yelp by the sound of that mans ice cold voice. Violet putting her index finger infront of her lips signaling Alice to not make any sound as the said girl covers her mouth with both her hands. " they are somewhere close, scatter!" He orders in a demanding voice. " sir, how did the witch get hurt" the fear stricken man asks. The leader looks from left to right and replies " she was likely hit by an arrow." The man confused " how would you know that, sir". " there is no sign of a fight or struggle. Also there is a little piece of cloth on the ground that show signs of being ripped by a small sharp piece of metal." the man is impressed to say the least, he knows that he was specialized in tracking but not to this extent by so little information. A realization hit him "but who shot the arrow, it wasn't one of us." The silent man speaks up "that's the question isn't it." the man has to jump from him suddenly speaking up. " Well well boys hope i am not too late for the party, well it isn't much of a party witout the honoured guest. So sorry that i am late." A mysterious woman voices in an almost hypnotizing way as she takes slow steps towards the men. " I am terribly sorry but i was coming as fast as I could but i got hold up by .....let's say pesky vermin on my way." The leader not at all fazed by a strange woman suddenly turning up out of nowhere shouts " Who are you? State your business!". The woman just continues walking up to them in a graceful way. After some steps forward the moonlight finally hit her. All the men stand frozen at the sight of her even the leader has to gasp. There standing before them is a 7-8 foot tall dragon/humaniod looking woman. Her skin is made out of purple scales that reflect the moonlight so beautifully. She is wearing a full on Knights armor with a sword hinged or her hip and no boots. She is walking barefooted. But that's not even her most srtiking feature, she has horns growing upward straight out of her forehead. They are abourt 6 to 8 inches tall. Then bat like wings growing out of her back. She has no claws on either of her limbs. Just your everyday humanlike arms and legs except for the color and scales.Her most draggon like feature however are her eyes. A shining golden with slits as pupils. If you there isn't any light you might mistake her for a striking beautiful woman but as soon as the light hit her all the men had one thought a monster...She just ignores their stares as she walks the two men who were in a discussion about the one who shot the arrow. She stops in her tracks and stands infront of the leader. The leader has to look up to be able to meet her eyes. She astleast three heads bigger. " I take it, you are the leader of this pathetic lot. I am going to have to ask you to quietly pack up and leave." She voices more in a threat then a favor. The leader having had his deal fighting of all kinds of creatures has to admit he is indimidated by her but heck he is not going to show her so he replies in a monotonous voice trying hard not to crack under her.literally. " we aren't going anywhere, beast! In fact...he looks at his right hand man who is still having his hand on the hilt of his sword signales with his eyes to attack her from behind. The man nods and swifly unsheaths his swords and starts runnning towards as he raises his arm to slash her back. Just a few inches away he sword in the air, his eyes never leaving his target. A smirk appearing on his face as he bring down his sword. The next the man knows is darkness. The other man who is silently watching from the sidelines starts to tremble as his feet give out under him and he falls down on his butt. He just saw the mans body cut diagonally in half by an invisible force. " well well, you humans never learn. Even though i asked nicely. Just like her..." she looks down and the leader and the man on the floor both follow her eyes as she they finally notice that she has a bperson in her hand. The man on the floor looks over at his right and sees a track of blood. It must be coming from....her. The leader swallows out loud and looks at the woman in the beasts hand. "......Mary! that's how she called herself." the dragonoid woman yells out excitedly. The leader shies away from her takes a closer look at this Mary. Her boody is completely bloodied. Like she has been cut up over and over again. His eyes slowly move back to look at her. She isn't looking at him, this is my chance. He pulls out a dagger he always has with him as he moves to stab her in hear wretched heart ." die! You bitch!" he yells with a crazy smile look on his face. He looks straight in her eyes as they wander to his arm. His grin is gone just like his right...arm. " like i said you humans, never learn" she says whispering in his ear as she pierces his chest " AAAAAAGH! He growls like an animal. He looks straight into her eyes and finally understands how everyone of the people he killed felt. " Wha....Wh-what.....are you" he asks absolutely terryfied. She rips out his heart and crushes it " Dragaria" she answers smiling as the blood splatter on her face. The leader body falls limp next to the cut in two man. The third man starts to wet himself and starts crying as he yells out. "PLEASE, DON'T KILL ME! I AN NOT EVEN WITH THEM. I JSUT TAGGED ALONG. LET ME GO. I SWEAR I WON'T DO ANYTHING. I BEG OF YOU!". Dragaria just ignoring the desperate man throws Marys body untop of them. " always these damn humans, never learning...why." she mutters to herself. He gets frustrated by her ignoring and and his pride takes a hit. Pride is stronger then fear" HEY YOU I AM TALKING TO YOU!" seeming not to get a reaction he lashes out very stupidly so. " BITCH, BEAST, YOU WRETCHED ...monster!" And that got her attention as she looks back and in seconds she is holding him by his throat. " what...did...you...call....me?" she asks as a low growl escapes her. Feeling satisfied by getting to her he goes further. " you....Monster. At least when i die i have a chancce of being forgiven and going to a better place. But you a vile abomoniation, a creature made by hell itself a MON--- she snaps his neck by brute force and throws his body away. Dragaria looks down and shows a flash of.....sadness. Not anger but sadness. She looks back up and says " I know you are there" she announces. Violet walking out of the bushes lips trembling tears falling as she stumbles on Marys cold body. A small no escapes her. "you promised you will teach me how to fight with a sword. And Alice lost another close friend....again" she says in a small voice almost whispering as tears kept streaming down. " why...why!..." anger grows in her chest and she turns to face her friends murderer "YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS." she screams out ash her eyes turn golden." I see that arrow hasn't hit where i was aiming for. It hasn't weakened you enough." she looks straight at marys body and smirks. You are after all cut of the same wood. well well, seems atleast you have the decency to care about each other.... She was a hard one i must say. Always standing back up. Took me a whole lot cutting up to finally make stop breathing." Dragaria responds calmly with a hint of mirth. Violet storms forwards with rage fueling her actions numbing the pain on her shoulder" YOU...Bitch! DIE". Dragaria grinning seeing as she fell for her trap into having her act blindly. Her hand on the hilt of her sword. Ready too cut her down. before Violet or Dragaria can do anything could do anything Alice jumps out and stuns the dragonoid with a spell. Dragaria being sent flying gives Alice the chance to hold unto Violet " i am sorry mary" are her last words as a single tear drops and before it hit the floor they both dissapeared into a cloud of dust. Dragaria shaking her head and getting up from the floor rubs her head. " Damn she got me good. Well well Master won't be happy about this....but atleast i have a track and can see him back pretty soon" she says to herself as wide ear splitting smile appears on her face.

" we can't go back untill we have atleast a lead." Gwaine voices frustrated. " Gwaine we have been going at it for days. We need to heaad back as soon as possible." Perceival replies. " perc we can't return. How are we supposed to face our queen." he responds as he walks through the forest on the outskirts of the kingdom. " the others will start to worry, we need to head back and-- Listen if you want to head back. Go! I am not stopping you but i will continue." Gwaine lashes out at Perceival as he turns around continues to walk up ahead. Nothing usually angers him but this cut deeps Perceival " reaches out and hold Gwaines arm. " that's unfair, and you know that. don't think you are the only that cares." he voices strictly. Gwaine sighs and nods at him. " I know, i am sorry man, I didn't mean to I—eeh...we were responsible for him and seeing him taken away like that under our nose is....". " frustrating "Perceival finishes for him with a nod. " I failed him..... iim aI failed him and I don't feel like I can meet her queens eyes." Gwaine finally admits the real reason. " we all failed him, when one of us fails we all fail. When one of us succeeds we all succeed." Perceival says putting his arm on Gwaines shoulder in a brotherly manner. " wow man, I didn't take you for someone so thoughful, usually you are more resigned ane queit. Maybe we should lose our king a few more times could bring out the poet in you" Gwaine adds feeling like his old self again as he tries to lighten up the mood. Perceival just gives a blank stare. " well there is the Perceival we all know and love, no but seriously though. Since when--- suddenly they both hear a thudding sound nearby. Both on alert unsheath their sword and go to the comotion. Slowly moving along the leaves and vines they found themselves eye to eye with two bodies lying next to each other. They got closer and at the long hair they both seem to be women. Gwaine looks at the taller woman of them both, with long raven hair and a porcelain face. "Those are women and...." he looks back at her he notices a arrow lodged in right shoulder. " one of them is hurt." he puts his sword back in its sheath and runs up to her. He kneels down and orders for Perceival to go tend to the other one. " Miss! Can you hear me! Are you okay!" He tries to put his hand on her chest to feel the beating of a heart when suddenly her eyes shot open , she grabs his hand wich startles im and makes him jerk back a little bit. " Morgana.....Merlin......Camelot......they are coming. Must find the sphere!" She manages to say before she blacks out again. Gwaine who is totally out of it can only respond with " wow , what beautiful Violet eyes."