Meanwhile, on the other side of the village, Prince Arthur and his ervant Merlin had finished their day's hunting.
'You know what you need after a hard day's hunt?' Arthur said.
'Sleep.' Merlin complained.
'A nice cold tankard of mead.' Arthur answered himself.
'Mead?' Merlin was unimpressed.
They rode round the village to the tavern on the other side.
'No better place to measure the mood of your people than the local tavern.' Arthur explained.
'This is one of those moments where I tell you something isn't a good idea and you ignore me, isn't it?'
'You're learning Merlin. Slowly, but you're learning. Now remember, in here you're not my servant, I'mjust a simple peasant like everyone else.' Arthur replied.
'The simple part's right.' Merlin muttered.
'What?' Arthur asked, luckily not hearing what Merlin said.
'I said the sun is very bright.' Merlin lied.
'Yeah. Yeah it is.'
They tethered their horses up outside the tavern and walked inside. The atmosphere had picked up a little bit, perhaps the people had though that Gwaine had been someone else.
'Afternoon. What will it be?' The flustered bartender came up to them and asked. She began to wipe the slightly dirty table.
'Err...' Arthur was thinking.
'Mmm, you're a handsome fellow.' The bartender commented whilst still wiping the table.
'Well, you wouldn't be the first to say it.' Arthur replied, thinking she meant him.
'Oh, no, sorry. I was talking about you're friend 'ere.' She looked at Merlin.
'Him?' Arthur was very confused.
'Thankyou.' Merlin said to the woman.
'Two tankards of mead, please!' Arthur said, trying to change the subject.
The bartender shuffled off to get their drinks.
'I was wrong, coming here was an excellent idea.' Merlin whispered, smiling at an annoyed Arthur.
All of a sudden, the door burst open. In came a vicious thug, with what seemed to be a very bad temper. He had a scar running down the side of his face, a blackened beard, short grey hair and his name was Dagr.
As Dagr entered the tavern, the amount of silence and the atmosphere in there fell to a new low.
Dagr swaggered over to the bar.
'Afternoon Mary. Business looks good.'
'We 'ave our better days.' Mary replied timidly.
'I don't suppose you'd begrudge me my share then.'
Mary tossed him some coins.
'And the rest?' he questioned, with a gruff tone in his voice.
'That's all we got.' Mary answered quietly.
Dagr grabbed the front of Mary's shirt and pulled a small knife near her chest.
'Take your hands off her.' came a voice from behind.
Dagr spun around to see Arthur challenging him, Dagr attacked Arthur but got thrown into a shelf.
'I'm gonna make you pay for that.' was Dagr's response.
'I'd like to see you try.' Merlin chuckled under his breath.
Dagr turned to look at Merlin and Arthur glared at him. Dagr whistled and in came the rest of his tough looking gang.
'You had to go and open you're big mouth, didn't you Merlin?' Arthur muttered to Merlin, who quickly looked at the ground, trying to avoid Arthur's gaze.
Gwaine stood up from his seat in the corner and headed towards Arthur and Dagr, Gwaine then stood between them. He still carried his tankard of mead.
'You two have got yourselves in a bit of a pickle, haven't you? he saud
'You should get out of here while you have the chance.' Arthur said in an authoritive voice.
'You're probably right.'