To Camalot (2)
Eddie Stone

 

“No, just became unconscious.” I looked around the tent. There was another cot and some water. I pulled the covers off and joined Arthur outside. A man with chin leaghth hair and a sword by his waist was tending a fire.

“Oh look, sleeping buetie has risen. How dose it feel to be part of the living?” He said jokingly.

“Um, good I gusse,” I shrugged.

He stood up.

“I’m Gawain, by the way,”he said while shaking my hand. “Nice to meet you.. uh, what’s your name?”

“Theo,” I said shaking it back.

“Oh yay,” said the witch in a sarcastic tone. “He actually woke up, whoop de do, lets all have a part,” she grunted as she trudged a way.

“What’s your problem Morgana,” scowled Gawain. She pretended not to hear him.

“I’m sure she’s just tired or something,” Arthur whispered gently and putted a hand on Gawain shoulder. That’s the thing about Arthur, he all ways trys to see the best in people, it’s kind, and extremely annoying.

“No,” he said surely. “She’s just upset because she realized she’s not the most powerful being in the world.” He then mumbled some words that I dare not repeat. Soon after, he walked a way.

“Good moring Theo.” I turned around to see Morfin sitting right next to the tent where I was sleeping. I nodded in return. He got up and joined me.

“We have to start your magic training soon if we want to go and find the Excalibur.”

“What do you mean by we?” I asked stunned.

“I mean what I said,” he exspaind like it was obvious.

“You’re saying that you’re going to teach me magic?”

He nodded. “Pretty much.”

I didn’t know wither to try to back out of it, to ask the millions of questions flying around my head, or to jump around like an excited chipmunk. In the outburst of the all, I just stood there with my mouth wide opened.

“But you’re a dragon! How could you teach me magic if you can’t do any?” Morfin looked insulted for a momment, but being a dragon, it takes to long for him to understand anything completely.

“I’ll have you know that dragons can do more magic then anybody eles in the world. And though it bothers me to be spending so much time with an immiscible who just goes and knocks himself out for a couple of days just because he can’t just wait for a momment, I will still teach you whatever I know for the sake of the world, do you hear me?!” he shouted. I looked down at my shoes ashamed and nodded.

“Yes, sorry. I’m just confused and tired, I have so many questions--”

“Listen Theo, we’re all teird and stuff, but that is no excuses to why you should be completely out of it.” I rolled my eyes, but nodded.

“So,” I asked Arthur, “were are we?”

“Remember those people who tried to kill us? We’ll, comes out that they’re on the same quest as we are, so, I decided to join them.”

“You joined us with a group of people who all most slaughtered us?” I asked in as loud of a whisper that I could.

“Okay, first of all, all most, and second, they thought we from the kings side. They know alot more things about the Falcon and the sword then we do, and they all ready have Lancelot.”

I had a hole argument in my head ready to exsplode, but then I realized, this is Arthur where talking about, if you say anything more then three syllables long, he’ll give you the blankest stare ever known to man. Plus, when it comes to trusting guts, Arthur’s the ones you want to trust. So I just bit my lip until the bridge of pain, and followed him to the camp fire which was just about to be built. The gut we met earlier, Gawain, dumped a pile of fire wood on the floor.

“Supers soon,” he said as he began to rub the flint stones to gather to create friction. Then the girl, Morgana stepped in.

“Do you need any help?” She asked. Gawain grunted in response. She rolled her eyes and shoot a flame out from her hand.

“I could of done it,” he mumbled.

“Sure,” she said sarcastically. He added some wood to the fire and sat down, Arthur joined him while I sat next to Morfin. After a while of Arthur making awkward small talk, Morgana came out of the other tent with the other girl and a boy around Arthur's age.

“Oh look, he woke up,” he boy said cheerfully.

I’m beginning to wonder how long I’ve been out.

“I’m Lancelot, by the way,” he said putting his hand out for me to shake.

“Theo,” I said ignoring the hand. He putted it back sheepishly.

“And I’m Guenevere,” she said as she sat down next to Morgana who scooted a way as soon as she did.

“You could call me Gwen.” I nodded in reply.

“So, getting down to business,” said Lancelot. “In three days time, I want to be at the lake of Avalon where the stone should be located. Meaning, we have to leave to morrow as early as we can. Any questions?” He looked around the circle.

“Yeah,” said Morgana. “Why are we taking these nitwits along,” she complained pointing to me and Arthur.

“Because with Theo’s magic, and Arthur’s fighting skills, and the fact that we all most killed them, it makes them eligible to join our group. And they have a dragon so we don’t have to walk all the way there, or at least we’ll have someone to carry our stuff.”

Morgana growled put didn’t say anything. Gwen emptied out a dead duck from her pack and gave it to Morgana to clean. With a flash of green light, it was clean and on a spit. Lancelot took it from her and putted it over the fire and began to roast it.

“I don’t understand why the falcon is so powerful,” I said as I watched the fire crackle. “How dose it even keep the king immortal if he can’t use it, and if he lost it so long ago, then why is he still alive?”

“The falcon was made for the king by the knights tempest. But they didn’t know that the king was a warlock, so, they didn’t realize that the King would put his soul in there. You see,” Gwen explained. “ Because our soul is trapped in a mortal body, it can only do what the body allows it to do, but when the soul is in something so precious as the falcon, it is unlimited. With his soul near him, he had unimaginable power, but someone had discovered how to destroy the falcon, so the king hid it in the ocean, but when the man was put to death, the king went to go retrieve it, but it was gone. He wanted everyone to forget the falcon, so he made up the story that you must know, that it was lost before he could get it. He was scared though, without the falcon, he didn’t have nearly as much power as before. If somebody found the sword, he would be killed. The only way for him to be safe was for him to find the falcon, but it’s taking a hole lot longer than he expected.”

“You know,” Arthur said. “She is way better at explaining things then you are. You just say like two sentences then expect everyone to understand you...” I zoned out for the rest of his speech.

So basically the whole story with King Charles the great was just a cover up? That stinks, I really like that story. I tured to Morfen.

“I’m bored,” he said gruffly. I nodded. “Aren’t we all.”

“Aren’t we all what?” Asked Arthur, the rest gave curious looks.

“Uh, nothing,” I said quickly. Morgana raised her eyebrow, but besides that, no one said anything. There was an awkward silence, but Arthur’s good when it comes to those.

“So, how did you all meet?” Arthur asked.

“We met at an inn,” said Lancelot as he bit into his duck. “My father owned the inn and I helped him. When Gawain asked for me, and tolled me about the quest, I couldn't refuse. Then, Gwen had passed by our table and begged to join, having no where eles to go after her family had been killed in a fire that King James solders made because they were one copper short on tax. After traveling for a few days, we bummed into Morgana, who was egar for revenge on the King, and joined us.” Lancelot bit off another peace of duck.

“Who did you two meet?” Asked Gawain, as he put his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, like a child waiting for a story.

“We’re brothers,” Arthur said like that was impossible not to realize. “I mean come on, can’t you tell?” Gawain laughed.

“No, seriously, what happened?”

“Arthur’s and idiot that’s what happened,” I mumbled.he gave me an ice glare, but went on.

“We look like different sides of the family,” Arthur explained.bummed into Morgana, who was egar for revenge on the King, and joined us.” Lancelot bit off +another peace of duck.

“Who did you two meet?” Asked Gawain, as he put his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, like a child waiting for a story.

“We’re brothers,” Arthur said like that was impossible not to realize. “I mean come on, can’t you tell?” Gawain laughed.

“No, seriously, what happened?”

“Arthur’s and idiot that’s what happened,” I mumbled. He gave me an ice glare, but went on.

“We look like different sides of the family,” Arthur explained. He then went into random details about our life in the cottage, I realized how much I’d miss it. The loud, annoying sheep, the stuck up goats, Grandfather trying to wake me and Arthur up in the morning, it was the life I always knew. This, this was new. I never went on an adventure with random people before, and I never thought I would, it seemed like life was this way, and it always would be; it’s amazing to see how wrong I was. After Arthur talked to his hearts content, we all went back to our tents to go to sleep.

Arthur flop-ed down on his cot.

“You know,” he said. “I have a good felling about them,” he sighed happily. Wish I could say the same. I rolled over to my side, and in no time at all, Arthur was snoring a way. But I couldn't fall a sleep. I gave up and went outside. Morfin was sitting next to the tent, he got up.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said.I raised my eyebrow.

“Why?” He’s going to eat me, he’s gonning to eat me, three two one.... He’s not eating me, thank goodness, I am so not in the mood of being eaten right now. I’d rather live a nice happy long life.

    Notice how I said long.

    "If you going to be a Retrubutar, you might as well find out what you’re supposed to do,” he then hunched down and spreaded out his wings.

“Hop on,” he said. “ But just don’t step on my tail, it herts. People don’t seem to realize that dragons have very delicate tails.” I cautiously made my way around his very delicate tail and climbed on to his back; it was surprisingly stable. I assumed I’d fall of and break my neck before I even got on. I tend to be very bad when it comes to riding. When Grandfather was teaching me and Arthur to ride, it took me two weeks to figure out how to hold the rains, then another month of figuring out how to stay off the ground, and on the horse. Arthur was a natural though, he practically didn’t need any help from Grandfather Merlin at all, he just jumped on and rode. Which was great because I sure needed a whole lot of help, so Grandfather was able to have all his attention on me.

Morfin’s back on the other hand, was wide and unlike a saddle, was extremely ruff, so it was all most impossible to fall off. And unlike a horse, he had scales, which in my opinion, was ten times better then rains. You didn’t need to know where to hold your fingers, just how to hold.

“Okay,” he said. “You put your--”

“I’ve got it already,” I said.

“You do?” He asked surprised.But he didn’t wait for a reply, instead he began to run, and I held on for my dear life. Then, I felt weightless. I looked down. The tents where as small as ants, it was like they’ve all been magically minimized till two inches.

That was until he zoomed forwards, I admit, I screamed so loud, even Arthur could probably hear me. But at the last second, when I was mentally preparing myself for a crash landing, he swooped upwards until we where air born again. I felt all the hairs on my head spike up like a porcupine.

“You do that again, and I’ll kill you,” I threatened. He laughed.

“So, what did you want to tell me?” I asked.

“Retrobuers are much more then just people who can talk to dragons, they can also, as you know, can do magic. They are very important to dragons for they are the only translators for us, without them, we might as well be dead.Humans rule this world, but they do not take care of it, that’s what we’re for, but without Retrobuters, we cannot get our message across. But there are very few left, you’re one of those few. You need to train if you’re going to help Lancelot on his quest, you are a important part of this story Theo, though no one will know about it, you will be a big part of finding Camelots new and rightful king.” I nodded.

“Fun,” I said sarcastically. We flew down to an open area which was covered with grass. He landed (quite ruffly I might add), and I half fell, half climbed off his back.

“The first and most important thing thing you will learn, is how to move objects, in other words; defying gravity. You cannot fly, but you can make other things sore. Once you’ve masted this, everything eles will just be a matter of thought. There is no magic spells, just thought. The only people who use words for sorcery are hose who are bad at it. I’ve seen you do black fire Theo, and I have to say, you are no where near bad. You just need practice. The fire you made was out of your control, it was done by your emotions, this type of magic is called Farcoles. It’s strong, but unreliable.”

“Okay, so how do I, as you say, “defy gravity.””

Morfin took a rock from the ground and dumped it in front of me.

“Left it,” he demanded.

I shrugged and went to go pick it up.He pushed me back.

“I meant with your mind, genius,” he scowled.

So I stared at the rock. And stared and tyred and, you got it I stared. I tyred to visualize it in the air, but it just sat there, grounded to the earth, stubborn as a mule.

“It’s not doing anything,” I said.

“That’s because you’re not doing anything,” he yawned.

“I’m staring at it, that’s something,” I defended.

“You’re making you’re self control the rock, but you’re not letting the stiffness of the rock control you,” he declared wisely.

“Why would I let a rock control me? Who knows what it will make me do?”I reasoned. But Morfin didn’t understand my logic.

“Just do it,” he scowled.

I tyred to do as he told me, to let the rock take control. It wasn’t easy mind you, but within an hour, I saw it move a bit, then, little by little, it was in the air, as free as a bird.

“Morfin look! I’m doing it!”

“Wha?” He asked sleepily lifting his head up from the floor.

“You got it, finally, I thought we’d be here all night.” He got up.

“Now through it at me,” he demanded.

“Gladly,” I mumbled under my breath. I threw the rock, but it just bounced off his shoulder. He smiled.

“Good, now do it again.”

You can imagine what happened next. We did this hundreds of times over untill there was no more rocks or trees for me to throw at him.

“Can we go back now?” I yawed.

He nodded.

“Yeah, my shoulder needs to rest.” So I fell onto him and we peacefully and we flew back.

I began to walk to my tent when I bumped into somebody, I looked up.

“Oh, hi Morgana, what are you doing up so late?”

“I was just about to ask you the same question,” she said folding her arms.

“Where were you, telling the king that we’re after him? Telling him our location?” She challenged.

“What? No, I was just flying with the dragon,” I yawed.

“Dose the dragon have a name?” She asked, like she was trying to collect evidence.

“Yeah, Morgana this is Morfin, Morfin Morgana, Theo, bed.” I said pointing to the tent and began to walk into it, but she caught me by the collar.

“I don’t trust you Theo,” she said.

“And I you,” I replied, then walked into the tent.

“Wake up!” Gwen screamed into our tent.

It seemed like I had just laid down. But it made no differents to them. Arthur got up and picked up his copper dagger. We began to help pack everything in bags; it was surprisingly not that much. The tents weren’t the real types, more like cloth and attached branches with rope.

I slumped them onto Morfin, who was surprisingly alert.

“How are you still awake?” I asked.

“Dragons don’t need as much sleep as humans do to function, we just really like it.” I rolled my eyes and got on his back. I yawed and tried to stay awake as we began walking, well, they were doing all the walking, I was on Morfin.

“Why are you so tired?” Asked Lancelot amused.

“Maybe it was because he was giving our location to the king,” Morgana suggested .

“Or maybe it’s because I have a dragon and I decided to ride on him because I couldn’t fall a sleep,” I snapped.

“Well, I’m sure that’s not a problem now is it?” Gwen giggled. Arthur laughed and they began to talk about whatever people talk with Arthur, which is truly a mystery to me.

“Theo,” Gawain said. “Have you ever been to the river of Avalon?” He asked. I yawed.

“No, I’ve herd a lot about it though, you?”

He shook his head. “No, what did you hear about it?”

“It’s supposed to be some magical river that has an opening to the farie world or something. Some people say that there’s some magic sword there, I’m guessing that’s the Excalibur. There’s all so something about dead people, but I left the room by that point.”

He gulped, but nodded.

“How do they say it looks?” He asked.

“It’s supposed to be a strange type of beautiful, I’m actually pretty excited to see it. They might have some good food there,” I stated.

He gave me a strange look.

“You’re really tired aren’t you?” I nodded, and then fell a sleep for a bit. I awoke a while later when everyone was eating fruit they found on a tree. Arthur gave me an apple, for he knows I hate those.

Did I mention my brother’s an idiot?

I got off Morfin and began to walk with the others. Arthur was still talking with Gwen but now Lancelot joined the conversation. From what I could tell, it was about ho we’d ill the king once we had the sword. I’m not that interested in plans, so I just zoned out.

“So, Morgana, where did you learn magic?” I asked.

“I taught my self,” she sneered. “And who taught you, the king?”

“Actually, no,” I said trying to keep my cool.

Morfin gave me a look which I interpreted as not to tell her.

“I highly doubt that,” she said.

“I have to agree with Gawain, what is your problem Morgana? Why do you hate me? What makes you think that I’d be a trader?”

“Everything!” She all most screamed. “You’re not nice, you’re not mean. You’re not funny, but you’re not homerless, you’re just—you don’t fit into any categories and that freaks me out! Only spies are like that! Sheesh, don’t you go to the theater?” I was a bit surprised by her outburst.

“Uh, no, not really. But I’m not a spy; I’ve never even seen the king before,” I reasoned. I looked behind us. Nobody seemed bothered by Morganas shouts. They must have been used to them bye now.

Gawain slumped bye us. “So… tired….” He said. “Could really use a rest, it would be great to have to walk the whole way.” He coughed.

“Yeah,” Morgana said. “It would be great, hint hint.”

I looked at them. Then I got it.

“I don’t think Morfin will let,” I said, “but you could try.”

“Oh, I will,” Gawain said eagerly. He tried to climb on Morfin, but kept slipping off. I don’t understand why, it was so easy for me to get on, so why couldn’t he do it just as easily?

The world is way too complicated for me.

We stopped for camp a while later, but we didn’t bother to put up the tents.

“We’re making good time,” Lancelot said. “We should be there by tomorrow afternoon.”

“But I thought you said it would be a three day trip,” Arthur said.

“I always add an extra day or two so that if we get there later, I wouldn’t feel bad that we mist our goal of traveling days.” He said smiling.

“And here I was thinking Theo was complicated,” said Arthur. They laughed and after eating some other dead animal (I didn’t dare ask what it was,) we went to sleep.

When we woke up, Gawain handed out the rest of the fruit we had left from the tree, then we began to walk again.

It was up hill and boring. Once you finished climbing one mountain, there was always another one, and another, and then again another. Just like when you sheer sheep, one you sheer one, there’s all ways another flea bad. Arthur gave up and just ran the last hill and gasped. We all quickly joined him.

The gasp wasn’t unjustified. The hills in the distance where a china blue, the sky a lavender purple with strips of orange and pinks. The grass seemed fogy and distanent, but shoved up in your face in the same time. From the two tallest mountains was a body of water, as blue as safire, as green as jade. The evergreens and maples where covered in foreign fruit, coming in pastel colors.

“You where right Theo,” Gawain said. “There is food here. Thank the lord, I have one more of Lancelot’s dishes, I swear, I’ll do something that we’ll all regret.”

“Hey, I’m not a bad cook,” Lancelot defended, sounding insulted.

“I know you’re not,” Gawain said kindly. “You’re a horrid one.” He then began walking down the hill to the river. Lancelot said that the sword should be down stream, so that’s where we we’re going. We didn’t talk much, we where mostly looking at the glory around us. Once in a while Morgana would complain about something or other, but even she had to admit that what we where seeing was a once in a life time sight.

We came to an enclosed area which was surrounded by trees, it took a while, but we finally hacked through it all. There, a lady in white robes and hair the color of amber was standing in front of a large rock with a sword in it.

“I have been waiting for you,” she said. Her voice was wispy and light. “I have been assigned to give the Excalibur to the future king of Camelot. But I’m which one of you is it; so, you must pull the sword out of the stone, if the Excalibur finds him worthy, then it shall yield. I wish you luck,” she explained smiling weakly.

Lancelot confidently stepped up to the stone and began to tug, but the sword would not come. He pulled and almost dragged the stone out of the ground, but the Excalibur had a different idea.

“You’re not telling me that all these months have been a waste?” Morgana said hopefully. But we all knew the answer.

“What do you mean?” the lady said. “You are not the only man here.” Gawain shrugged, and came over to pull out the stone, but it was the same as what happened to Lancelot. The lady turned to me. I shook my head, “who ever this king is, it’s definitely not me,’ I said surely. She nodded. “If you say so, what about you?” She asked Arthur. He went over carefully and took out his dagger. He began chipping away at the edges of the sword. Slowly, chip by chip, until there was at least a two inches of space between the sword and the stone, he then easily pulled it out. The lady smiled.

“You have shown great wisdom, and patience. Take the sword and go save Camelot!” She said joyfully.

He showed great wisdom by chipping away stone? Okay, whatever the wired lady says. We began to walk back, Arthur holding the Excalibur close to his heart, (since he had nothing to hold it for him). I was surprised to see that Lancelot wasn’t a bit jealous. I asked him why.

“I don’t have what it takes to rule a kingdom, but Arthur dose, and I’m happy for him,” he said.

“So now what?” asked Gwen.

“Now,” said Arthur. “We relax and plane our battle against King James the third, for Camelot has suffered enough, soon, it shall be free,” he said and raise his sword.

“To Camelot! He shouted. Gawain, Lancelot, and Gwen raised their swords. I and Morgana raise our hands with electricity in them; Morfin blew a ball of fire.

“To Camelot!” We all shouted.

           And to Camelot it shall be.

               

 

 

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Copyright © 2011 Eddie Stone
Published on the World Wide Web by "www.storymania.com"