A/N: Re-uploaded to try to fix weird formatting errors and missing words...

Gwaine and Leon walked back, Gwaine with a stack of good wood for the fire. When they returned to camp, Percival was still sitting next to Fira. Gwaine joined him, hesitating as he thought about grabbing another bottle of ale. He ended up deciding against it.

"She's warming up," Percival told Gwaine. "Gave her my cloak too."

"Now I'm cold," Gwaine muttered with a slight smile. "But good she's warming."

Percival looked at Gwaine. He got up and sat beside his best friend. "What'd she say to you that got you so upset?"

Gwaine sighed and looked at the stars. "She started going on about Destiny and Fate and giving of herself."

Percival shook his head. He looked at Fira's quiet face and sighed. Then with a chuckle he finally responded. "Never change, Fira. Never change."

Leon woke Elyan and Gaheris next. Gwaine lay down near Fira with Percival beside him. He had to try to sleep at least.

And sleep he did. Next morning, he woke to Fira cooking breakfast. She was using her magic to place food on plates from where she sat, much to Galahad's amusement, as evidenced by the comical expression on his face. Elyan was helping her.

"Why are you making breakfast?" Gwaine chuckled as he watched. "Surely Elyan can do it."

"I tried to tell her that," Elyan insisted. "But she told me off."

Fira smirked as she floated a plate over to Gwaine. "Don't deprive me of the ability to stretch my powers now that we're out of Camelot. It's not like I can do this there.  What with the law and all."

They all fell silent. She hadn't intended to condemn King Arthur's ruling on magic, but the farther she went from Camelot, the more she wished things were different. She understood Morgana more and more, but she knew if she said anything, they would find her crazy. Her face fell at this revelation.

"At least you will not live in fear while we are in Somerset," Tor assured her. "That is how I suspect we will be granted safe passage in the kingdom. Once we tell the King that you are Nyx, he cannot deny us."

Morholt agreed. "He wouldn't dare deny you. The people would be outraged. Your name is legendary, I mean, at least your title is."

"If you say that these men of Camelot are good men to be trusted, they will not argue." Tor smiled before taking a bite of food. "They wouldn't dare."

"Well that's good news for us," Leon agreed as he bit into a bite of pheasant breast.

Fira smiled and shook her head, chuckling. She didn't know what to think about that. She was indeed glad that she would be permitted to practice her magic freely and openly. Yet at the same time, it was only a year since she had learned of her place in Albion's history as Nyx. She was still adjusting.

As breakfast drew to a close, they packed their bags and prepared the horses for travel. They began the day's march early that morning, and went far into the night. So they continued for many days. Fira would use her magic to heal her wound some small way each day until on the fifth, she had but a little pain. That fifth day they passed into Avon.

"We need to cross the Forest of Avon," Morholt explained to the company as they sat atop their steeds outside a woodland area. "Fortunately Avon is but a loose kingdom. No one will stop us."

"No one of a natural variety," Tor corrected. "There are said to be Cú Sídhe in these woods."

"The Cú?" Gareth leaned forward on his horse, face plastered in fear. "We have tales of them in northern Orkney."

"What are the Cú?" Elyan asked hesitantly.

"The Hounds of Annwn, called Cú Sídhe, are monstrous demon hounds." Tor sat back in his saddle and stretched his arms wide. "They are said to be as big as donkeys and more ferocious than wolves."

Leon, Percival, Elyan, and Gwaine exchanged nervous glances. They did not like the sound of these beasts.

"Magical in origin, I don't doubt?" Gaheris sighed. "Seems to bring a lot of trouble wherever we go."

Fira lowered her eyes. He wasn't wrong. She figured these Cú Sídhe were part of the Unseelie Court Merlin had spoken of. It made her wonder how many members of the Seelie Court she would someday meet.

"We should get moving," Tor prompted after a quiet pause. "We want to make it through here as quickly as possible."

As they urged the horses forward, Fira observed their surroundings. The trees were tall, thick pines. Shedded needles covered the forest floor and the dark trees blocked out most of the sunlight. Fira remained near the back of the traveling line, behind Percival and before Galahad.

"I don't know about Cú Sídhe here," she muttered to herself. "But there is magic."

Galahad, behind her felt it as well. There was something in the air in the Forest of Avon, something which gave life to the trees. He fancied he saw eyes in some of the trees themselves, but nothing he was certain of.

An hour or so later, a crash was heard in the undergrowth to their left. Instantly swords were out and Gaheris notched an arrow to his crossbow. He had bought it back in Oxfordshire.

When nothing more was heard, they relaxed slightly and continued on. Fira was twitchy. She had never liked magic forests, especially not since her run-ins with evil dryads. Nature spirits were particularly dangerous.

By nightfall they found a small clearing to settle down in. The moon was rising in the sky as they built a small fire.

"Won't it attract the Cú?" Gareth looked concerned.

Tor shook his head. "Even if it does, fire helps against such beasts I'm told."

The group settled down, after a small meal, began to drift off to sleep. Tor and Percival took first watch as the others slept.

Gwaine lay on his back, watching the stars dance in the sky. His mind raced with old memories of Somerset. He'd almost settled down there with his first love, Lorie.

He had not thought about Somerset in many years. He had first visited the kingdom at the age of twenty, fleeing his family from Orkney up north. He'd needed space and decided Somerset was as far as he could go without a boat.

Lorie had been otherworldly. Her beauty, unparalleled, her sorcery unmatched, even her kindness was truly remarkable. Sir Gwaine regretted leaving her. But he had felt a calling, something inside him that forced him towards Camelot. That's when he'd first met Arthur and Merlin.

He had never gone back.

Gwaine smiled fondly when he thought of the people of Somerset as a whole. He had done great deeds for them as a rogue wandering the wilds killing monsters for gold. But he never kept more than he needed. The rest had gone to the poor. He had even become famous in a few local villages for defending the honor of a young woman.

But leaving Dame Laila had hurt him badly. He had gone back to tavern hopping in Camelot and the surrounding kingdoms until Merlin gave him something to fight for again. And now he had many causes: Merlin, Arthur, Fira, his brothers, the Round Table, and all of Camelot.

Suddenly he found a butterfly composed of water droplets flying around him. He frowned, confused, until he heard a soft laugh.

"Go to sleep," Gwaine growled softly, turning to face her as he propped himself onto his side. "For the love of all that is good, sleep!"

Fira smirked as she sent more dew butterflies fluttering around the campsite. Percival watched her with a small smile while Tor was amazed. He merely felt honored to be in her presence.

Gwaine lay back down. He needed sleep desperately. He willed his mind to stop racing and finally, finally he slept.