Recent Posts

Caitrin, having been to only two kingdoms in all her days, found a smile pressing on her lips. She certainly wanted to see her friend once she returned to her home lands, and she was sure that she would one way or another. “I shall have to come and make the journey to Ailantha one day, after listening to you speak of it I must confess I am itching to see it.” She knew that it would be a long journey to visit her friend in her homeland, but Yassia already struck her as the kind of person who would be worth making such a journey. She could always persuade Griff to accompany her on the journey anyway, that would certainly be interesting.

A rather girlish and amused smile pursed Caitrin’s lips as Yassia spoke of witnessing her wedding. “He hasn’t even proposed yet.” She giggled, she really did hope that he did ask her soon. She wanted that commitment to each other to just be there, to settle her mind. She knew that he wouldn’t leave her, but she just wanted to be completely sure. Caitrin imagined telling Griff to hurry up because Yassia had said to, he would certainly be incredibly confused to say the least. She giggled again, she usually wasn’t like this, but she was rarely in intimate female company so she was allowed to let her hair down for the time being. “I am sure he will ask me soon, and if not, you have my permission to poke him about the subject yourself.” Now that would be an interesting conversation.

It seemed as if Yassia’s nurse had played quite a similar role to Helgund had played to Caitrin. Helgund had been basically like a mother to her, she had taught her how to control her temper, her sorcery and herblore, and had even tutored her in the ways of courting and the ways of the court. All these things had helped her enormously when she had moved to Camelot, yet her nurse would never know just how much she helped the little girl she had been employed to work with. Although Caitrin had never admitted it to her family, she had cried more when Helgund had died than when her own mother had, as they were in quick succession of each other. “Helgund, my nurse, was like a mother to me. She was an incredibly brave woman, and I cared a lot about her.”

As Yassia revealed the name of the Prince Caitrin’s eyes just widened and she fixed them on Yassia for a moment. She could not be serious? Surely? The mere mention of the mans name sent shivers up her spine, he was certainly one of the most vile people she had ever had the misfortune of coming across in her entire life. That man had caused her so much grief, and had scarred her in unimaginable ways. She cleared her throat softly, “That man is vile.” She confirmed to her friend. If she never saw Vortigern again it would be too soon. To think she could have been carrying his child just made her feel ill. “He should not be entrusted to be Prince of anything.” She felt sick as everything that man had done to her came flooding back into the forefront of her mind. Caitrin had tried to repress the memories, almost pretend like it hadn’t happened because surely no one would understand what she had gone through during their time together. No, she had never entrusted anyone with that information, not even Griff.

Caitrin was rather surprised when Richard apologised to her and she fell quiet for a few moments and furrowed her brow at him. She knew that he was probably being genuine; she had no reason to doubt him after all. “Thanks.” She said softly, perhaps he had known that he had gone too far with her and she was quite grateful that he had apologised. After all, she hadn’t given him much reason to apologise to her, perhaps he wasn’t that bad after all. “I’m sorry as well.” She said softly, of course she was referring to the way she had acted that morning, she hadn’t exactly been civil towards him, but now perhaps they could start over.

She felt genuinely sorry for Richard as he told her his story. So he did have some sort of dark past then? Slightly understandingly, Caitrin just nodded to his words, surprised at how he could just so simply make light of such an awful situation. “Why do you prefer to be on your own?” That surely wasn’t too invasive of his personal story was it? Caitrin could not understand why anyone would want to be on their own through choice, she had been isolated in her childhood and never really wanted to go back to that sort of frame of mind.

As Richard laughed awkwardly she found herself laughing as well, this was territory that she could understand and control. Richard had his way of controlling the situation, this was her way of controlling it, and that possibly would never change. “Not with me.” She said mockingly, pulling a face at him, “Unless you wanted to that is.” No, he would probably never want to kiss her ever again, but she didn’t care, she could still tease him couldn’t she? She frowned slightly as he said he was more than half bad and shook her head, “No, you were alright, that is about as much as I am giving you.” It had been a rather awkward kiss at best, and it wasn’t the best she had ever had.

Caitrin nodded as he had said she had only been out for a few hours. Well at least her day hadn’t been totally wasted yet. She still had the rest of the afternoon and evening to make her own; or at least attempt to she supposed. Caitrin shrugged softly into his chest and pressed her lips together. She wondered if she would be able to sleep that evening, seeing as she had slept artificially for the past few hours. She would have to force herself to though, the last thing she wanted to do was face Richard when she was tired. Her stomach grumbled and she placed a hand on it, then realising she had never got her breakfast that morning during her little situation with Richard. That meant of course that she had not eaten since last night, which probably explained why she was hungry right now.

She looked up at Richard and pressed her lips together into a grin and let out a small laugh, “Are we risking a tavern tonight?” She asked with a slight tease, she had not seen anywhere to stop so far, and it seemed like they were in the middle of nowhere. Wait, would that mean they would have to sleep under the stars and make camp together? Because of course nothing would go wrong there would it? Would she even get any food if they couldn’t stop anywhere along the way?

Caitrin was still engrossed with the scribbling inside the book she was reading. Usually she was anything but an avid reader, after all there always seemed to be so many other things to do with ones day. She preferred to be outdoors, it was where she felt her happiest, but circumstances as they were she had to put up with this for the time being. She now found herself just praying that Lily recovered from her illness sooner rather than later so that they could go out on their usual rides through the scenery which Camelot had to offer. Caitrin began amusing herself, wondering if such a book had started a courtship or two in its time. She certainly would not be using any of its pretty, poetic words on any man who sought to court her in the future. No, Caitrin sought a much more crude, and flirtatious courtship rather than a traditional one. It was after all more fun to tease and toy with men than to increase their egos.

Edith was taking her time in presenting the woman so Caitrin amused herself instead with continuing her reading, only raising her eyes once more in front of her when a woman joined her in the room. Caitrin was still holding the book in one hand and felt slightly rude for a moment but those feelings were replaced with wonder and curiosity of who this woman was exactly. As Caitrin looked on at the woman, in pure wonder, her memories began to stir back to her childhood. She could have sworn she had exactly the same look about her as an old friend she had once beheld, but no, that was impossible wasn’t it?

“Caitrin.” Even her voice was the same, there was still a strong Mercian accent there, which Caitrin herself had twinges of from time to time. She just looked on at the woman in utter bewilderment, no, it surely could not be the same girl she had once known? She had died, Caitrin had grieved her death alongside her families but that was years ago. How could she be here? And still alive? This was impossible!

She stepped towards the woman, what Caitrin was about to suggest was so impossible, but at the same time it seemed like the only logical explanation. She just looked at the brunette in front of her and pressed her lips together in a smile, “Celta?” This was impossible, Caitrin kept telling herself that, but wasn’t it more impossible for a woman of exactly the same looks and voice to be seeking her out and addressing her as a close acquaintance? No coincidence in the world was that great. “It is you isn’t it?

Caitrin was surprised at how readily Griff admitted that she was probably the better out of the two at protecting themselves. Didn’t men always want to seem as if they were physically superior or something like that? Well, most men she had met in the past had, but then again, Griff was not like any man she had ever met. She beamed at him in a rather proud way, one thing she prided herself upon was her ability to take care of herself, and Griff agreeing with that just put her in a good mood overall.

Caitrin shot Griff the kind of look which said she knew exactly what he had been looking at, just so he knew that she wasn’t fooled in the slightest. As Griff focussed back on her, well, at least he tried to, she rolled her eyes and playfully his arm with the back of her hand. “I was just wondering what you found so suprising about how I got on the horse.” She resisted the urge to use any more euphemistic words, Griff didn’t need any more encouragement than she was already giving him.

Caitrin matched Griff’s smug look with ease. Of course she knew exactly what he meant. She raised her eye brows at him and pressed her lips together, then moving to nip her bottom lip softly before even thinking to reply to his flirts. “Well in that case you must enlighten me to how you intend to make it more enjoyable.” She grinned at him, putting more emphasis on the last word than was probably needed. She was more than enjoying her flirts with Griff, mainly because he rose to them. Too many men didn’t know exactly how to answer her, or were too innocent to catch the ulterior motives in her words, either way, he was the first man she had come across to actually be able to challenge her flirts.

Ah, so they were back to the ‘riding’ comments. She knew full well that Griff’s words had another dimension to them and she grinned back at him, “I’m sure you are.” She replied, almost trying to feign innocence but it was ruined somewhat by the suggestive look she was giving him. “Perhaps you would like to show me just how much of an experienced rider you are sometime.” That was enough, she didn’t need to add anything because Griff knew exactly what she meant. She was however glad when he did get the horse to start moving in the direction of the house. She placed her head on Griff’s shoulder, and held him tightly so that she was pressed right up to his back. Just enjoying the sensation of being in such close proximity with him for the moment.

Caitrin was starting to feel quite uneasy with the situation. In a way, she would have been happier if they had been being attacked by soldiers or even just bandits because at least they would know what they were facing then, or even how to defeat them. Caitrin wasn’t sure if any of the weapons would work on whatever Griff had seen, but they had to try. If they did not, she could always use her gifts to aid them, and deal with the consequences of that later. She had never got around to telling Griff she was a sorceress, mainly as she wasn’t particularly sure how he would take it, but perhaps they would find out tonight if everything went wrong.

The corridor was possibly not the best place for them both to be standing, but it was the only way to get to the store cupboard, so uneasiness aside, it had to be endured for the time being. Was it Caitrin’s imagination, or had things suddenly just become a lot colder? She shivered slightly as she waited for Griff to finish with the lock. She let him deal with fumbling about with the lock, he had more patience with things like that. After all, the keys for it were in her Uncle’s study, and if the pair had been spooked just coming down the hallway to the store cupboard, there was no way they were venturing to the study.

Caitrin was trying to focus, to see if she could see what on earth she had seen. Had she just imagined the white smoke? Maybe she was so desperate to see something that her imagination was now messing with her head to spook her. However, she couldn’t ignore the odd shapes that were moving in the torchlight, and it scared her.

She nodded slowly at Griff’s words and took another step backwards. She didn’t like this, and she was regretting her boldness at having suggested the store cupboard right away. You could attack what was little more than white smoke with swords and daggers; she’d put them both in danger. Squeezing Griff’s hand back she kept her eyes on the corridor in front of her. For a moment she held her breath, she couldn’t remember feeling this scared in a long time and it unnerved her in a way; she didn’t like it one bit.

There was just silence, and it felt like the calm before the storm in a way but she was determined to protect them both; no matter of the costs. She loved Griff and would see no harm done to him if she could prevent it. There was a ripple of wind through the air, why was there wind? They weren’t near a window. Then, in front of her eyes, and she hoped Griff could see it to, the white shape was back, but this time it had a more solid sort of form, it looked like a skull of some sort. Caitrin just froze for a moment but then her head kicked into gear. She swung at the white smoke with her flame, hitting it directly as it flew towards her and Griff. Without waiting to see whether she had actually stopped it, she half pushed Griff in the direction of the store cupboard, surely they would be safe in there? “Quick, get in there.”

She pushed Griff towards the store cupboard before he had time to protest. The torch she was holding was slowly dying out and she put it out of its misery with a flash of her eyes and a small whisper. Throwing the now extinguished torch to one side she quickly joined Griff in the room, slamming the door shut behind them. Well she’d thought this one out hadn’t she? Now they were in total darkness and that thing could still be out there! Backing away from the door, she half tripped over her own feet and spun around as she was falling, which was just enough time to grab Griff and pull him down with her; so she had fallen on top of him. Taking a moment to compose herself, she could just about make out Griff’s face and whispered, “Sorry,” down at him.

Caitrin could see no reason from moving from her current position on top of her husband for the time being but she did remain still for a few moments and breathed out slowly. “Do you think it’s gone?”

Notes: Because clearly this won’t lead *anywhere* with these two If I’ve moved it along too quickly let me knooooow. Also slight god mod, will edit if you don’t like

Not a good thing, as a description, was hardly going to satisfy Caitrin really, and surely Griff knew that already? This was really getting them nowhere. What worried Caitrin slightly was that Griff could not describe what he had seen. It couldn’t just be a warrior because he would have said so; even the immortal army had a human shell to define them. She furrowed her brow, living in Camelot certainly kept you on your guard. In all the time that she and Griff had been courting, they had always managed to create situations where they argued ferociously with one another; it was just one dimension to their relationship really. Irritatingly, Griff always looked rather attractive whilst arguing with her and it rather ruined the effect of some of their previous arguments as one thing always led to another.

She still had one hand on her hip, and she was still quite unimpressed at how she interpreted his words. “Well that’s what it sounded like.” She replied sharply. As husbands go, Griff was quite unconventional, but then again Caitrin was hardly a dutiful wife so they slotted together quite nicely. However, for the moment Caitrin was slightly annoyed at the tone of voice he had used towards her, she flinched slightly and ignored his later plea for them to stay in the room. She turned away from him for a moment, resisting the urge to unleash her temper on him. No, that wasn’t the way to go forwards. Once she had composed herself she turned back to face him and just looked up at him, half pleading with him to see that she was right, and they needed to arm themselves. “I’m not waiting in here for that thing to get me,” She faltered slightly, “Or to get you.” Now that was said in a softer tone and Caitrin just looked up at her husband for a moment and took his hand in her spare one and squeezed it softly. “I wouldn’t know what to do if anything happened to you.” This was what it came down to, she wanted to protect her home yes but she wanted to protect him from any harm. She wanted him to be safe.

Caitrin let go of Griff’s hand as she stepped outside the door, once again ignoring his words that he was going first. She had the torch; she was going first and that was the end of that. She was still confused to why the corridor was so quiet, there weren’t even any servants to be heard bustling about. There was just...nothing. She breathed out slowly before telling Griff to join her, and that there was nothing in sight. When he did join her she put the torch about so that it lit different aspects of the corridor, showing him that indeed there was nothing there. She did however grin at him as he scratched his neck; he always did that when he was nervous, even though he would never admit it of course.

Well, despite the fact there was nothing here now, there had certainly been something outside because she did believe Griff, and no one could have faked that blood chilling scream they had both heard. Because of this, Caitrin wanted to get to and from the store cupboard as quickly as possible. Caitrin wasn’t even sure why her Uncle called it the store cupboard, it was basically a guest room, but as they had few guest rooms it now housed her Uncle’s mens weapons when they were not in use. She slipped her hand into Griff’s and began to stride quite quickly to the store cupboard which it turned out, thankfully, was unlocked.

As she waited for Griff to open the door, as she was still holding the torch, she could have sworn she saw another odd shape move in the corridor. For a moment she forgot about Griff opening the door, slipped her hand out of his and took a few steps forwards and lifted the torch so that she had a better view of the corridor. She felt like she was going crazy, maybe she was, living with her Uncle and Griff was probably having that effect on her. It looked like there was a shape moving again and she took a step backwards so she was standing quite close to Griff again; her heart thudding in her chest. “Griff?” She said softly, trying to find his hand with hers but failing as she kept her eyes on the shape which was getting bigger somehow. Suddenly there was a scream again and the shape changed into some sort of white smoke. Her eyes widened as the shape advanced on them both, as she kept the torch high, still trying to entwine her hand with her husband’s.

A thing? Well wasn’t that incredibly helpful. Caitrin rolled her eyes at him and just stood in front of him, waiting for him to elaborate on his description. When he didn’t she sighed softly and wondered what to do next. She was taken aback that he would even try to suggest that she stepped back, had he so quickly forgotten his wife’s temperament? “What sort of…thing?” She now asked, furrowing her brow at him. No one saw something and was unable to describe it, surely he had a better description than that for her?

Raising her eye brows, one hand went on her hip, “So are you saying it’s not alright for you to go out there, but its fine for me to go and face whatever it is?” Wasn’t he supposed to be the one who was supposed to protect her, not the other way around? Then again, Caitrin had multiple experiences under her belt which showed she could look after herself and this was probably going to be another to add to them; presuming they both survived whatever it was attacking them. She of course would be lying if she said she wasn’t scared, but she couldn’t let fear take over, not this time.

At Griff’s next words she raised her eye brows, just what was he insinuating? “I don’t keep weapons in our bedroom!” She replied, almost insulted. To be honest, it had never crossed her mind that she would be attacked in her bed. Anyway, she knew she was always armed, even if Griff remained ignorant of this, so to her mind there had never been any need to keep a weapon by her bedside.

Why was he being like this? Couldn’t he see the logic in arming themselves against whatever was attacking them? Caitrin had let someone attack her home before, and she was never letting it happen again. She was probably taking it in a more personal way than she should, but she didn’t care, this was her home; their home, and she would protect it. “It’s only down the hall.” She pointed out; gesturing to it with the torch she was still holding. When he still didn’t move she rolled her eyes and looked at him almost exasperatedly, why couldn’t he just do what she wanted him to for once? “Or would you rather wait for whatever it is to get us in here?” She now asked him, raising an eye brow at him.

Caitrin knew that nothing she could say would budge Griff from where he was standing and she pressed her lips together. Well, when words didn’t work, there was always the last resort. Using her shoulder, she heavily pushed Griff out of the way, and once she had cleared the door she quickly opened it and put the torch out in front of her, so that it lit the hallway. Caitrin had been holding her breath, expecting to see something, she wasn’t sure what as Griff was hardly helpful with his descriptions, but she had still expected to see something. Silently she stepped out of the bedroom into the hallway and breathed out slowly, spinning round on her heels; the hallway was empty.

Furrowing her brows she kept looking round at her surroundings, expecting something to jump out at her. Nothing did, and she waited a few moments in the silence before settling herself and grinning slightly. She wondered if Griff had just made up that he had seen something to make her worry. “You can come out, there’s nothing here.” She called back into the room and took a few steps towards the store cupboard. She turned around; sure she had seen something move in the flicker of her torchlight. Before Griff joined her she whispered to the flames, her eyes flashed and the flame increased slightly in size. “I thought you said you saw something?”

Caitrin was already sure she would miss Yassia dearly when the time came for her friend to leave Camelot. “I will miss you when you return home.” Caitrin said rather sweetly, “I can not ever imagine leaving Camelot now I have lived here for a few years. I certainly do not want to return to Mercia.” It wasn’t so much that she hated her home land so much, she just hated the family which resided there. She got on with her Uncle and cousin a lot more than she ever had done with her immediate family in the whole of her life.

Caitrin, in the back of her mind, knew that she was already quite far in her courtship with Griff. He just made her happy, and she was sure she made him happy in return so they were just going along with it and seeing where they ended up. In her more romantic moments, she hoped that Griff would ask her for her hand someday soon. “I am sure it will not be too long until I am going by another name.” She grinned softly, she had once imagined signing her name as Caitrin Aubert, and it just made her excited in a way. Caitrin flushed slightly as Yassia said that she believed Caitrin was well on her way to being completely in love, she hadn’t thought her feelings for him were that overt but clearly she was not as good at masking her emotions as she thought she was. “I think I am too far gone to stop myself falling completely one day.” She mused softly, and let out a wide smile and ran a hand through her hair. Griff was certainly deserving of her affections, she just loved being with him, and she never wanted that time to end.

The shock which Yassia showed as Caitrin announced that she too was well practised in herblore made her laugh somewhat. It was not exactly conventional for a woman of standing to know about herbs and how to heal others, but then again neither was it normal for that same woman to be a sorceress. Caitrin wished she did not have to hide her gifts, but she had gone so long now without using her magic in public that she was almost used to the restrictions in a way. “My nurse in Mercia taught me herb lore, as well as many other things.” She smiled softly, Helgund had been an incredibly learned woman; she had been the one who had brought Caitrin up to become a sorceress. Sometimes Caitrin wondered what her life would be like if Helgund had lived longer than she had done, perhaps her magic would have become stronger, perhaps she would still be in Mercia. Who knew? Caitrin laughed at Yassia’s later words but nodded all the same, “Yes, that would probably be wise.” Some healing methods of course were quite gruesome in their deliverance and certainly were not to be discussed over a meal.

Caitrin felt nothing but sympathy for Yassia straight away as she told her that she had run into some trouble with a neighbouring kingdom. She could not imagine anyone meeting Yassia and wanting to cause her harm, but Caitrin knew there were those in the world who cared for nothing but themselves. She’d met enough people like that to know the world was indeed quite a dark place because of a few people tainting it. One man crossed to mind, but she wouldn’t bring up her own self pity now, after all, what comfort would that bring to her friend? She shifted herself so that she was leaning a bit closer to Yassia, she had noticed the young woman’s voice drop slightly as she had spoken of that Prince.

Caitrin shook her head at Yassia’s comment and smiled softly at her friend and felt slightly awkward for a moment. She knew this must be distressing for Yassia, but she felt something niggling in the back of her head as she had spoken about a ruthless Prince. Of course Caitrin had only ever come across one Prince who truly was the most ruthless and uncaring man to ever make her acquaintance. This couldn’t be the same man however could it? No, now that would be too much of a coincidence wouldn’t it? “I take it this Prince was not Arthur.” She joked lightly and winked at her friend to show that she was indeed joking. It also opened up the conversation so that Yassia could tell her who the Prince was, or not. Though she did hope she revealed his name as Caitrin was incredibly curious.

Caitrin didn’t feel incredibly like herself, and that was the nice way of putting it. She felt like she was in some sort of daydream, or a sort of trance. She was just going along with it for now, it was almost comforting even though something was niggling in the back of her mind, telling her that all was not well. She ignored that for the moment, she was just content with staying in this relatively safe state of mind. Nothing but darkness consumed her thoughts, and in those few moments while she was in her little daydream, she didn’t have a care in the world.

She groaned softly, or at least she assumed she groaned, or was she still dreaming? Caitrin, then knowing her day dream to be coming to some sort of relative end, began to try and focus on what was going on. She was moving, only softly but she could feel herself moving almost effortlessly. Hang on, why was she moving anywhere? Slight panic struck through her, but she didn’t muster the energy just yet to open her eyes, she still felt incredibly drowsy.

Caitrin began to try and piece things together in her mind, surely that would help? She groaned again and tried to shift herself and found that she was being held in place somehow. Her panic was growing and she opened her eyes, instantly regretting it as the high afternoon sun shone brightly in her eyes and she blinked a few times so that she could focus. She then realised that she was leaning on someone, and presumably it was their arm which was keeping her upright. As she focussed on the scenery in front of her she was satisfied she had been right about one thing; she was moving. She was on horseback. Caitrin furrowed her eye brows, that was ridiculous, why was she on horseback? Surely she was still dreaming?

And then it hit her.

Her eyes flew upwards and she knew whose face would be there before she focussed on him and straight away she became incredibly annoyed. She pulled her head from where it had been resting on his chest, just to check she had been right, and unfortunately she had been. There he was, Richard de Calys in his general smug like attitude. Her head flew around in the different directions, trying to figure out where they were. The sun was already falling in the sky so she was sure it was later in the afternoon, but she had met Richard in the morning hadn’t she? Great, they were probably miles from the inn; oh wasn’t this fantastic!

Caitrin looked back up to Richard and simply glared at him for a moment, “What the hell did you do?” She snapped at him and looked around at her surroundings once more, “And where are we?” She knew they were on their way back to Camelot, which just overall worsened Caitrin’s mood. She raised her hand to run through her hair but paused as she caught a glint of silver and just stared at it for a moment. It was like a small silver chain, but it was wrapped around her wrist, and as she followed the trail of silver back to the other end, sure enough it was wrapped around Richard’s wrist. Straight away she used her free hand to try and remove it. Her finger nails dug into the silver and she tried to pull it over her slender wrist, but it just wouldn’t budge.

She was sure Richard would be enjoying all of this, and that just annoyed her even more, if that were even possible. She held the wrist up which had the chain on it and stared seriously at Richard, gesturing to the chain. “So not content with kidnapping me, you thought you would tie me up as well?” She asked angrily and threw her arm back down to the side in her annoyance. Well wasn’t this going to be fun? They had a long ride ahead of them, and she got to spend the entire time tied to Richard; fantastic.