Love, Faith and Family

Chapter 1

"Let me go, you bastard! Or I'll give you a scar to match your other," Miriam spat as Kanen held her bound arms, yanking her towards him as he grabbed her face.

"So eager to repeat our last encounter, spitfire?" he drawled deeply as she spat in his face, and Kanen only shoved her into Matthew, the village leader, as he wiped it off.

"Kanen!" one of his men called as he held up two of the ten bags of food they'd hidden in hopes of having something to eat during the winter.

"Please, we have to eat and resow the fields for next year," Matthew explained.

"Or else there'll be nothing for all you sorry arses to steal because not only will the fields be empty but all of us will be dead!" Miriam bellowed and it earned her a hard slap in the face, the metal of Kanen's gauntlet cutting her cheek as she fell to the floor.

"We only kept the bare minimum. Everything else you can take," Matthew promised and Kanen nodded his head.

"That sounds fair," he agreed.

And he slammed the hilt of his axe into Matthew's stomach as he doubled over in pain.

"Matthew!" Miriam screamed as she scurried to get to her feet, another hit to his spine sending her friend to the floor.

And as she was about to tackle Kanen, who raised his axe over his head, a sword flew through the air between them and embedded itself into a fence post.

They both turned to see a blonde knight riding towards them, but while Kanen was distracted by that, Miriam cut her bonds on the sword and wedged it out of the post.

And her battle cry was full of anger as she lunged at Kanen, a proper sword in her hands as opposed to the wooden sticks she practised with as Arthur dismounted his horse and battled several of Kanen's men.

Her raven hair that was half tied back, flew in every direction as she dodged and ducked Kanen's axe before taking a swipe at him, her attacks cutting through the chain mail but failing to draw blood so far. Meanwhile, the cut on her dirt-covered cheek was slowly trickling blood down her face, a few drops leaking onto her also dirty and old dress. One of the only two outfits she owned.

"Kill them!" Kanen yelled to his men and Miriam was distracted for all of a second as she watched a raven-haired boy jump off a horse and successfully block the advances of Kanen's men.

"Merlin?" she asked in confusion, Kanen's yell being the only thing that saved her from having his axe slash across her stomach.

But she wasn't able to dodge the fist he followed through with, sending Miriam to the ground once more as he made for his horse.

"You'll pay for this with your lives," he said to Arthur. "All of you."

"COWARD!" Miriam screamed after him as he and his men fled, the woman back on her feet as she pushed the hair from her face.

She was wiping the blood from her face as she turned to the blonde knight.

"Yours, I believe," she said as she held out the hilt of his sword. "Thank you for your help. All of you," she finished, looking to the two cloaked women behind him, one bearing a sword.

"It was our pleasure," Morgana assured her and Miriam turned back to Arthur.

"Are you going to take your sword back or make me stand here all day?" she asked with a raised brow and he grabbed the hilt.

"My apologies. I'm -"

"Miriam!" called Merlin and the girl broke out into a massive smile as she was scooped up in the arms of her brother.