My Choice(LANCELOT)

[Lady Raven Silvester]

Raven rode through the forest astride a beautiful black stallion. She was lost in thought. The child within her was not one but two. She didn't want Lancelot to know. She was right. He did love another, but she would forever love him. She stopped her horse and dismounted. She heard something. Suddenly slave traders emerged from the bowels of the undergrowth. Raven didn't have anything but her short blade. Fear consumed her. The slave traders attacked her and she did her best to defend herself. Nothing could be done. They brutally wounded her. "Leave her here. We don't need nobles." one trader said. The traders fled. Raven was left on the leaf strewn floor bleeding constantly. Was this what death felt like? She managed to cast a homing spell. A raven shot into the sky and cawed. Hopefully someone would find her before darkness took her and her babies.

[Lancelot Du Lac]

Lancelot, after his visit to the Ram, had gone back to the stables to take out his rested black stallion on a bit of a hunting trip. He had always enjoyed exploring the Balor forest. He found the occasional enchanted beast to e quite interesting, and it served to keep him alert and on his toes. The Balor, he knew, was indeed a strange and unusual expanse of mostly-untouched forest. However, as he slowly rode and walked his horse down one of the overgrown paths he got the strangest feeling that all was not right. It took him several minutes to finally put his finger on it. Finally, though, the solitary caw of a raven cut through the silence. That was it! It wasn't just the caw of the bird, but the fact that the forest was still as death. And the caw of the raven could only mean 2 things. It had either sighted some dead prey and was attracting its fellows or someone had sent it there as a beacon.

Whichever way it was it meant trouble as far as Lancelot was concerned, and he drew his sword as he dismounted and walked him as quickly, but silently as he could. There was always the possibility that they were bandits, or worse, slavers, and he had no desire to present them with an easy target of the upper half of his body sticking above the brush-line. He saw a group of men,, slavers by the look of them, who were joking. It sounded as if they were gloating about a noble woman that they had left on the trail. He could hunt them down later, he told himself grimly, as he began to back-track down the trail. Finally, coming around a bend he saw a body lying in a heap by the side, unfortunately showing little movement. Despite this he approached carefully from the woods-side of the path, being wary of a trap, even though he was sure that the men he had passed in the forest had left the area.

[Lady Raven Silvester]

Raven groaned. After what Lancelot had said at her birthday she wanted to die. She screamed in agony when she tried to sit up. She was releived that her children were ok. Raven took a glance at Lancelot and shuffled away from him. She was in a bad way. Cuts to her arms, legs and head. Bruises everywhere. "What are you doing her Lancelot. Its clear your heart isn't mine but I chose you a long time ago. I had a friend of mine look into your past. Your heart belongs to Gwen. Just go. Leave me here. I dont want your help." she said. Raven tried to get up but just fell over. She was to weak to move.

[Lancelot Du Lac]

He saw the form stir and heard it grown. Even before it spoke intelligibly he knew that it could be none other than Raven. Had those men, hardly more than slavers, done this to her. They would pay for it and pay dearly. She stood up, finally, and began to move away from him, but it was apparent that she was badly injured, and she was with child. He could see the blood, and he wondered if the child were alive, let alone injured ... that she carried.

"You may not know it, Lady Raven, but I am well known to dwell in the Forest of Balor, whenever I can. It is not an uncommon thing. No .... my heart does not belong to you. Would you prefer that it be a slave to yours. Yes, my heart was lost to Gwen long ago, but she will be with a better man one day. You can not have a thing by just wanting it Raven. And by the way, just because you don't want my help doesn't mean that you can refuse it. I will not permit you to allow your life to be taken as well as the one you carry." He saw her fall down, and he simply scooped her up and put on his horse's back and speedily as he was able took her to Camelot where the Court Physician could treat her.

[Lady Raven Silvester]

Raven instantly got down. "I never want to see you again knight filth. You used me." she said she ran. Raven didn't know where she was going but she wanted to be far away from Lancelot as possible. Raven at last found a small cave. She went inside.

The witch lit a fire and cried silently. This was all men ever did to her. She took a vail from underneath her cloak and took the glass stopper out. This mixture would kill his spawn but not her. She drank it. It was time he got a taste of her revenge. The children where gone and Ravens slim form returned to her. She felt stronger but she was still injured. Lancelot had just cast her aside like she was nothing to him. She deserved Dreamer, but what she did to him was unforgivable and it pained her. She knew that stupid knight would find her soon enough so she cast a spell and a sword formed into her hands.

[Lancelot Du Lac]

It was obvious that no matter how badly that she was hurt that she wanted or would accept any help from him. "That's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black now isn't it. You accusing me of using you. You are the one that took me prisoner against my will," he said as she ran away.

With her injuries though, she could not run away quickly, and the trail of blood she left from her several injuries made her easy enough to track. He followed the signs of her blood to a small cave. It was likely that this was its only entrance, and that a cornered animal, though injured, could be the most dangerous when it had no place else to run to, At the very least it could be the most likely to lash out unpredictably. He entered the cave, dimly lit by the fire, seeing only the outline of her form, but here was something wrong. She was much thinner than she had been just moments before. Was she not still pregnant, and what was it that she now held in her hand? He stood only a few feet from her now, and uttered, "What is the meaning of all this Raven?"

[Lady Raven Silvester]

Raven lookes at him. "Stay away from me... I loved you and yet you played with my heart. If I am of no meaning to you then leave please." she said. Heartbreak and anger stirred in the depths of her icee blue eyes and clouded her voice. Why was love so difficult for her? Raven was begining to think that maybe to stop her pain and suffering she should take her own life. She placed the sword beside her without any sound. She turned her back to Lancelot, took out her knife and cut a symbol deep into her left hand. She winced at the pain but didnt cry out. She wanted to be left alone. Death was all she welcomed right now.

[Lancelot Du Lac]

Lancelot looked on her with some sadness, took some moments to formulate his reply, then said, "As you wish. However, if you are attacked I will still defend you. I wonder, though, milady if it is possible for you to love beyond your order, as it is beyond me to love anything beyond my King. I lost my one true chance for love long ago, and I wonder, even now, whether it would have survived. I was not worthy of her. Did you ever consider that I was not worthy of you either."

He shook his head back and forth. "Every person is of meaning to me, especially you, milady. I think it might be best if I stayed and watched over you for a bit. One never knows, your friends might return and look for some more sport." He watched as she turned her back, and having some suspicions of what she might try, grabbed her right arm, squeezing her wrist until she dropped the weapon. "Exactly what is that symbol?," he asked.

[Lady Raven Silvester]

Raven snatched her arm back. "I said leave me." she said. She muttered a spell and some goblin like creatures starting attacking Lancelot. "Go and never come back. I knew you were supporting the Templars." she said. She looked at him, snapped her fingers and the goblins retreated. She sighed. "I did love you and to be honest you were worthy of me. Now Im begining to think Im not worthy of you." she said and looked away sadly.

[Lancelot Du Lac]

Lancelot was not really surprised when she snatched her arm back, but he did not respond positively to her command. "I do not serve you at you leisure, but as a Knight of Camelot, serve the Pendragons and all of Camelot." He was somewhat taken a back by the enchanted creatures that he sent at him, as she commanded him to leave once more. He fought them off, one at a time, and answered, "I do not condemn a man for the group he associates with but by the actions of the individual, as any true leader should."

He saw her call off her minions and look away with sadness. "You captured me and I was subject to your bidding. If we were on equal terms there is no telling what we could be to one another, be it friend or something more. You are in error to think that you are not worthy of any man, me in particular," he said as he sheathed his sword once more.

[Lady Raven Silvester]

Raven stared at him. "I'm just a witch. Lancelot, I loved you and I still do. Just please leave. I am not worthy of any man because of what I am and what I do." she said and tried to conceal tears that were stinging her eyes. She looked away. Heartbroken, alone and cold. Raven had some of her strength back and got up. She whistled for her horse and he galloped straight up to her. Raven patted her horse's velvety nose. No man wanted her. She was nothing.

[Lancelot Du Lac]

He saw her stare at him for a moment, speak her piece, and then whistle for her horse. "Well, at least you are being honest with yourself now. You know that nothing worthwhile is possible unless you begin with honesty. For my part, I serve the Pendragons and Camelot, not the Templars. You had me in your power, as your prisoner. It did not seem like love. However, whether you are worthy or not is not up to you, but others." He came up behind her, brushed the tears from her eyes and bent down, planting on a soft kiss on her lips, trying to see if any real connection like love did exist.

[Lady Raven Silvester]

Raven weakened at his touch. When he kissed her she fell into a blissful oblivion. She kissed him back, gently but sweetly as more tears fell. "I am truely sorry." she whispered. She had to go and inform the Assassins at Masayaf so that would mean he departure. "This will be the last time you will see me. I must inform those of my Creed in the Middle East." she said. She hoped with all her heart Lancelot would ask to go with her. However, she didn't want to put him in anymore danger. Just being around her would get him killed.

[Lancelot Du Lac]

As soon as he kissed her he felt a change in her and a sudden spark of electricity. He wondered almost immediately, knowing that she was magic, and he was not, whether he was falling under some kind of spell. "There is nothing to forgive ..... we are all human ..... we all make mistakes .....", and he kissed her, still softly, but more deeply, as he fell more deeply into her, as if into a spider's web. "The last time, but surely you will not go alone. You should have some sort of escort .... shouldn't you?" He couldn't believe that he was saying these words, but he heard them just the same. "If I was worthy I would offer my services, but I am sure there are others you would rather do the task."

[Lady Raven Silvester]

"Then come with me." Raven said. She needed him and she was casting no spell. She loved him and she wanted to be with him always. "It will be a long journey." she said. She stayed in his arms. In her opinion it was where she belonged.