Wings

Chapter 6

"Why don't you just tell the king?" Gedmin asked.
"Because he wouldn't believe me if I did and he'd have us all banished if we accused one of his knights of being the man we're looking for," Serkad replied. "We need to find a way for the king to see the wings. He'll have no choice but to believe us and hand him over then."
"How do we do that?" Gedmin asked.
"We make it look like an accident. Cut one of the wings during a fight. When they check the injury they'll see them."

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It was easy to set up a fight with a few bandits. They all wanted the chance to fight and possibly kill Arthur Pendragon so they were more than happy to agree to Serkad's request. They waited, ready, in the western part of the woods.

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The next day was supposed to be the brothers' last day in Camelot before they continued their search elsewhere. Arthur planned to search to the north, but Serkad requested the west and Arthur agreed. Lancelot and Gwaine were both suspiscious when Serkad didn't say anything to Arthur. They'd seen Daigo earlier and had mentioned Serkad finding out but Daigo had been shocked and seemed genuinely worried about Lancelot. He'd promised to stay with the pair during their final search since, they all knew, Serkad must be planning something.

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The fight wasn't long, the bandits had been expecting Serkad to help them but he struck them down instead. Just as the last bandits were being taken down or running away, Gedmin saw his chance. He ran over to Lancelot as a bandit tried to stab him from behind. Gedmin stabbed the bandit, but as he pulled his sword out of the man's stomach he pretended to stumble and his sword swiped along Lancelot's back.

Lancelot gasped as he felt the rope loosen. The sword had missed him but it had hit the rope, cutting straight through it. He felt his wings try to push back. Serkad and Gedmin were smiling, but none of the others seemed to notice yet, still busying themselves wih the remaining bandits. Lancelot panicked even more when he felt an arm that was suddenly around his waist pull him into the trees beside the path.

He tried to struggle and pull away but the arm didn't disappear. Instead a hand gripped his shoulder and spun him around.

"Lance, calm down, it's just me," Gwaine whispered.

Lancelot didn't have time to be relieved because as soon as Gwaine's arm was gone the wings were pushing back again. He gasped and tried hold them down himself. The belt on his chainmail stopped them from fully being released, but most of the wings were only being held down by the shirt and chainmail, both of which were getting close to breaking. Gwaine saw this and quickly wrapped his arm around Lancelot's upper back and below his arms. The wings were hard to hold down, they were strong, but all the time they'd been kept down by the rope had weakened them to the point that Gwaine could keep them still with one arm. Lancelot whimpered and bit his lip as he tried to calm himself down so the wings wouldn't push back as much.

Like expressions, it was instinct for Lancelot to move his wings to match his emotions, though they were a lot harder to control than expressions. When he was calm, they were relaxed, almost limp. When he was angry, they would stretch to their full length on either side of his body. When he was happy, they stretched upward. Each emotion caused a different movement in his wings and at that moment they were trying to wrap around him because he was scared.

Just as Lancelot was beginning to relax, Arthur called out for him and Gwaine. He tensed again immediately, knowing Arthur would easily be able to find out, and if Gwaine hadn't been there the wings would've gone straight through his shirt and chainmail.