A New Acquaintance [Morgana | Nora]

[Lady Elenora]

Lady Elenora was nervous. She felt like a hundred butterflies were fluttering in her stomach. It was the King's ward's birthday and there was to be a feast held for the Lady Morgana. This would be the first time Nora would be allowed to attend such an occasion, now being of age and she was very anxious. What if she made a mistake and made the wrong impression? Everyone who knew Nora, knew what happened when she was nervous -- or indeed not nervous -- she tended to fall over, or trip, anything that ended up making her look clumsy. Well, alright she was clumsy, but people tended to think that she was therefore stupid, when in fact she was not.

Hours turned into minutes which turned into seconds and Nora finally was ready to be presented to court. The page boy announced her entrance and Nora concentrated on everything her governess had taught her, and entered the hall. Everything was going fine, she made sure she nodded to everyone and walked regally with her head high, then the unthinkable happened. She tripped and landed on her stomach, right in front of Lady Morgana and some of the other noble ladies. Mortified, Nora had no idea what to do, she could hear the snickers coming from the ladies and felt so embarrassed. She wanted to get up and run, run far away from there, but she stayed on the floor, still. Like she was paralyzed.

Tag: Lady Morgana
Timeline/Setting: Several years before series 1, Grand Hall.
Time of day: Nighttime.

[morg]

So far, Morgana was less than impressed by her birthday feast. Uther must have gotten the idea that Morgana needed more female friends, because he seemed to have invited every young noblewoman in the kingdom, as well as many of the allied kingdoms. The trouble with that was that most of the women clearly thought a bit too highly of themselves. Most of the girls Morgana had met so far were so busy trying to distinguish themselves as the most beautiful, the most eligible, and the most perfect potential brides for Prince Arthur that they seemed to have absolutely no interest in befriending Morgana at all. They would smile coldly, comment on her bold choice of wearing green and tell her how perfectly the color complemented her eyes. She'd already heard the exact same comments at least four times, as though the same conversation kept repeating itself over and over again. She would thank them and tell them to enjoy the feast, they would smile and wish her a happy birthday... and then ask where Arthur was. Morgana found them all utterly insufferable.

At the moment, she was attempting to escape from a particularly persistent blonde woman who kept asking her all kinds of terribly impertinent questions about Arthur. But even as she attempted to dodge the unbearable woman, she found herself in the middle of another group of ladies, all of whom were wondering about the possibility of King Uther marrying again! Morgana turned away in disgust, just in time to see another young lady trip and fall right in front of her. The other girls immediately began to laugh, but Morgana rushed forward and knelt beside the girl who had fallen.

"Are you injured?" she asked gently. "That was a terrible fall... I hope you haven't torn your dress. Let me help you."