Storymania - To Camalot by Eddie Stone

To Camalot (1)
Eddie Stone

                                             To Camelot

My brother is an idiot. Forget idiot, he’s mad! How could someone like him solve a quest like that? Nobody knows what happened to the Falcon, I mean, the ship probably just sunk, what else could have happened? Unless they where hijacked at sea, or eaten by a shark.
I think I’m getting ahead of myself here. You see, it all started at the spring festival. Me and my brother, Arthur, where at a story telling event. The man telling the story was short and squat, but he had a voice that sucked you into the story, and trapped you there. He made you feel that it was happening to you. But I should probably tell you the story, it’s kind of important.
“There once was a crusader named Richard the lion heart. He was invincible. Anyone to stand up to him would soon see the face of death. He would go from village to village across Europe. Everyone was frightened of him. He was the horror story that parents told their children who where misbehaving. But nobody doubted what the high and mighty Richard could do. There was once a time when he put a siege around Castle of the Knights Tempests.
Everyone knew it was his end. They all said their goodbyes and forgave each other, for they knew that they wouldn’t be around to see the next sunrise.”
“Why not?” asked Arthur. You see, Arthur’s blond, so we all take pity on him.
“Because,” the story teller said in a misty voice. “They would all be dead by moon rise.”
“Well this is a jolly story,” he said sarcastically.

“But the brave knights Tempests decided that when they died, they wanted to do it fighting. So they all gathered their weapons and put on their armor and went to the front room, ready to sell their lives dearly. ???? burst through the door to find a small army awaiting him. For all the women and children left before the siege Richard the loin heart was so surprised by their bravery and strength, that he decided to let them go, but only if they left right there and then. But now they where homeless, so the king gave them the island of ????. You see, this is the island that all the traders have to go by to do their trading in England, meaning that they could collect tax, and legally too. The solders where so thankful to the king, that they made him a beautiful golden falcon with amber eyes, and its wing embedded with the finest jewels they could find. They sent it to king of England, but it never got there.” A silence hung around us. Was he going to continue? What happened next?

“What happened to the falcon?” asked Arthur.

“That,” he said, “is a story waiting to happen.” Arthur stood up.

“I shall find the falcon!” He exclaimed. Everybody laughed and I tried pulling him away. He just pushed me off.

“I’m not joking,” he said sternly. “I will find that falcon.”

“Listen to me, lad Many knights and kings have tried to do it, and nobody has, nobody ever will.”

“Well that’s because I am not a “nobody,” I am a somebody. And I will find that falcon.” But everyone continued laughing as me and Arthur walked backed to the cottage.

“We’ll find it, they’ll see.” He said as we walked up the path. I halted.

“Wait, what do you mean by we, I’m not going on that quest with you. It’s embarrassing enough being related to you.”

“Listen Theo,” he said. “We both know that I can’t find my own slippers for the life of me and we both know that you can hardly use a weapon. I need your help, and since you are my brother, you’ll help me. In return, I'll make sure you don't get beaten up too badly.”

How very kind.

“I don’t want to go on a quest,” I complained. “There so uncomfortable and dangerous. People die on those things. Plus, the falcon probably just got sunk, or stolen, or had a shipwreck, or got swallowed by a shark. I don’t think it’s worth it.”

Arthur stared at me. I knew what was going through his mind. He wanted an adventure, something exciting. With our king, James III and his annoying laws, excitement was rare.

“I will never understand you, Theo,” he sighed.

“And me you,” I mumbled. We walked through the front door to see Grandfather cleaning the dishes.

“Guess what?” Arthur asked enthusiastically.

“You want to do the dishes?” He said hopefully.

“No, guess again.”

“You want to dry the dishes?”

“You are really bad at this, aren't you?” he said disapprovingly. Grandfather shrugged.

“I’m going on a quest!”.

Grandfather’s face fell.

“Oh, you are then. What are you looking for?”

“I’m not looking for anything. Theo’s doing the looking part; I’m just going to chop heads off with my sword!” He said gleefully.

“That’s nice,” Grandfather said. “Now, who wants to clean the dishes?” Arthur did an over dramatic yawn.

“Well, I don’t know about you two, but I am exhausted, good night.”

“‘Night,” I said. Arthur skipped up the stairs and began to sing about his quest.

“So,” Grandfather said as he continued scrubbing the dishes. “You agreed to this?”

“No,” I huffed. “But try telling that to Arthur.” He laughed.

“Grandfather Merlin, do you really think he’ll go through with this?” I asked.

“Your brother is very perseverant when he wants to be, Theo,” he said. “I wouldn't be surprised if you left tomorrow.” He was serious.

“Why do I have to have to be Arthur's brother?” I asked rhetorically.

“Because you’re the only one who can deal with him.” This was true.

We stood in silence for a while.

“So what actually happened?” Grandfather Merlin asked. “Arthur won the title of village fool?”

“No, he’s disqualified since he has the unfair advantage of being Arthur.”

“I’m kidding,” I said through chuckles, and told him what really happened. Grandfather nodded.

“Looks like there’s no way out.”. Like that wasn’t obvious.

“Yeah,” I agreed then went upstairs.

I walked into my room to find Arthur waiting for me.

“You’re still up?” I asked. Arthur usually plopped down in bed and then slept like a dead man.

“I just wanted to ask you where would we be searching first.” I thought for a moment.

“I need to sleep on that,” I said as I climbed into bed. I can’t believe Arthur is dragging me on a quest. I didn’t even know where to start looking. Well, the falcon was gold, so it probably would have something to do. But before I could think further, my eyelids became heavy, and so did the thoughts of consciousness.

*************************************************************************************

    I woke up the next morning hoping the whole yesterday was a dream, and I wouldn’t have to go with Arthur on some stupid quest for some long lost Falcon.

    No such luck.

    “Theo!!” Arthur screamed in my ear. “Did you sleep on it? You better have because where leaving soon, you know, and I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to start walking in the middle of no where,” he said as he walked down stairs.

I rolled my eyes and got out of bed. After getting dressed I walked into the kitchen and followed my nose to the sweet smell of oat meal. Arthur and Grandfather where all ready there, I sat down to join them.

    “The thing about cleaning the dishes,” Grandfather said mournfully as Arthur took another plate to put cottage cheese on.

“Is that no matter how many times you clean the, they will always get dirty again.”

We both looked at Arthur accusingly.

    “What?” He said innocently. We both ignored him and continued to eat. Arthur began to talk about this and that like he always dose. I find the best thing to do is nod, and make some random grunt once in a while, and he’ll never know the difference.

    “Grandfather,” I said. “Can you give me any ideas about where to start looking?”

    “Try dragons,” he said. I raised an eyebrow but took the advice, now only if I could tell Arthur that. We said our good byes, Grandfather made Arthur promise not to do anything stupid and to listen to me. And so we began to walk into the forest, the place I’ve avoided my whole life. The trees where as green as summer apples, as brown as new mud. The floor was covered with leaves and dirt. There was a slight breeze, and a whole lot of pointy stuff that pocked your foot when you walked even if you where wearing thick sold shoes. We walked for a while. I was just wondering when finally it was night fall and we collapsed on the floor. We must have walked miles, even Arthur was puffing.

    “Theo, I’d like to know, where are we going?”

    “Uh..... I was thinking dragons cave.” Arthur laughed.

    “You’ve been spending too much time around that old nutcase Theo, why would we search in a dragons cave?”

    “Dragons have a reputation for having gold and stuff, maybe it has the Falcon,” I suggested.

    “Theo, everyone knows that dragons don’t exist. If they did, we’d be long...........” he stopped talking and looked above my head terrified.

“What?” I asked. But he didn’t say anything. He just got up and ran. I slowly stood up and turned around. There a big pair of gray eyes where staring right at me.

It was a dragon.

I stared at him. He stared at me. I stared at him. He stared at him. I stared at him… Well, you get the point.

“Psstt! Theo! Run!” I turned my head to see Arthur’s head behind a tree. I didn’t take his advice.

“Theo, run!” He yelled.

“But it’s so cute! I mean come on, look at those eyes. How can you not love those eyes?”

Arthur rolled his eyes and went back behind the tree. I raised my hand to his muzzle; he flinched, but then relaxed. I stroked the area between his eyes. He quickly raised his head and roared. He bent down and picked me up with his hand and dropped me on the side.

“Wait here,” he said. Hold on a second, did that dragon just talk?

It talked! He opened his mouth and didn’t blow me to bits! This, my friends, is a very happy day. I looked up to see a loud blond head with a copper dagger running around the dragon, trying to confuse him. The dragon bent down closer to the floor and hissed. Its wings arched and his ears pricked and folded, Arthur's plan was working. He came closer with each step, Arthur was becoming predator. I had to stop it, but how? This was Arthur we where talking about. Once he’s involved in something, there’s no way to get him out of it. But he was going to kill the dragon, and I get a little squeamish when it comes to blood.

Arthur came closer, making the dragon whimper, it was done for-- or so he thought. I jumped in between them both; the dragon swallowed a fire ball. It was a pretty Arthur like thing to do, in other words, the dumbest thing anyone could think of doing, but I had no other choice.

“Stop!” I shouted. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the most original thing to say, I admit, but it got their attention, and that's all that really mattered. Arthur stared at me, and so did the dragon.

“Get out of here, Theo, you all ready got us into a fight; you don’t need to make it worse.”

“I have no idea what he just said,” grumbled the dragon.” But you should get out of here, that man is dangerous, and we need all the Reptrobuter’s we can get.” Arthur pointed his knife closer to the dragon’s throat.

“He’s a dragon, Theo, he doesn't understand what you’re saying. And it doesn't seem happy about it, and I don’t like the sound of roaring.” I raised my eyebrow.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “He wasn’t roaring, he was talking.”

“Have you gone mad?”

“Why is that human so temperamental? I can’t even understand what he’s saying.” The dragon said and fell on the floor laughing.

“You get it? Because I can’t understand it anyway?” I don’t know about you, but I didn’t get that joke at all.

   After he calmed down, and Arthur finally gave me his word not to use the sword, we began to make camp. Arthur started making a fire while I putted down the blankets. The sunset was the color of purple silk, the laws of King James the Third seemed to die down, just like the sun. King James The Third was a warlock with unusually great power. He ruled the kingdom of Camelot without justice or mercy. All he wanted was war, death, and riches. No other king dear make an alliance with him, for they new there would be no ally’s, only betrayals. Meaning, we’re enemy's of everyone, which isn’t good, at all. But he was impossible to kill, like he was invincible. He had followers all over the kingdom; he was evil and immortal-- the worst possible combination. Nobody knew what kept him alive, and no one dared to find out. His knights killed anyone who they pleased, excuses or not. It was a terrible time to be a civilian of Camelot.

“You darn fire wood,” Arthur muttered under his breath. “Why won’t you just light!” The dragon eyed Arthur then blew a fire on to the wood.

“Or you could just do that, either one works,” he shrugged.

“Humans,” the dragon scuffed. “So useless and weak.”

“If we’re such pests to you, why are you still here?” I asked.

Arthur raised his eyebrow. “I never said you where a pest,” he defended.

“Yeah, but he did,” I said pointing to the dragon.

“He doesn't talk; he’s a dragon for heavens sake! Dragons don’t talk you bone head, and they say I was stupid,” he said as he rolled his eyes.

“No, he talks, I’m not kidding.”

“Sure, and I’m the king of London, nice meeting you,” he said sarcastically. It made no sense. Why could I understand the dragon, but Arthur couldn't? It wasn’t like I was a dragon speaker or something, by the way, what was he’s name? I looked at him; he was laying down and staring at the fire. The sparks danced like little fairies consuming the wood with each leap they took.

The night was warm and the moon was whole, the shadows where dark and light at the same time, even Arthur seemed to understand its beauty. I turned to the dragon.

“Do you know anything about the Maltese Falcon?” I asked. He looked at me blankly.

“Yes, it’s the cursed bird, the one which when in the wrong hands, could kill the entire civilization of dragons, I know it all to well,” he said darkly.

“Oh, I just thought it was a stupid gold falcon. Do you know where it is?”

The dragon shook his head. “I wish I knew,”

“Why?” I didn’t see the deep wanting behind a lost Falcon, even if it could kill all the dragons, it wasn’t like anyone knew where it was.

“Because it’s the only reason why King James the Third is still here, he may be bad for you humans, but as for us dragons, if he finds the falcon, we’re all going to be extinct. That bird is more then just an antique Theo, it gives unbelievable power.”

“What type of power?” I asked cautiously.

“The type that could kill. If he gets hold of the Falcon, he’ll kill all of us dragons, and the rest of the world who won’t bow down to his commands. The bird was better lost, but know, King James decided to start a search for it, and their getting close.” He watched the fire carefully, as if expecting it to attack.

“Why would he want to kill the dragons?”

“Dragons are the only thing strong enough to withstand his power, once he’s done with us, the rest of the world is his for the taking.”

Oh, that may be a problem. I looked over at Arthur who was giving us a quizzical look.

“I often wonder what you two talk about,” he said suspiciously. I ignored him.

“Why can’t he understand you?” I questioned.

“Only some humans called Reptrobuters, can understand us. To others, our voices sound like a loud series of roars.” I nodded.

“What’s it saying?” Arthur asked.

“That the Falcon we’re looking for is a whole lot more powerful than we expected.”

“Uh?” Again, Arthur’s blond, so a lot more explaining is going to have to be done then for a normal person.

“The falcon is the thing that’s keeping King James the Third immortal, but it’s lost. He made a search group for it, and once he finds it, he’ll destroy everything with his power. We have to get it before he does, and we will,” I said sternly.

“Yeah, that’s a great idea!” He said enthusiastically.

“The only problem is that I don’t know where to look first,” I mumbled.

“There’s no looking to be done,” the dragon said in a cross voice. “We can not go and find it in a couple of days when it took King James the Third 15 years just to get close. The only thing we can do is try to find the Excalibur.”

“What’s the Excalibur?” I asked.

“The only weapon that can destroy the immortal.” I don’t really how that makes sense because once you’re immortal, that means nothing can kill you, but if a sword could, then technically, they’re not immortal. If so, why do we call them immortal? As Arthur would say: “I don’t get it.”

“The Excalibur was made by a very powerful sorcerer Aguet, it could destroy the living dead. He carried it with him everywhere, with fear that it might get stolen. He was once battling an evil man by the name of James.” Yeah, real evil sounding. “Aguet was weak and old, he could not fight any longer, but he couldn't let the sword get onto the hands of James either, so he stuck it into a stone where nobody could get it. He knew though, that one day it would be needed again, and it will; but only by one whom the Excalibur saw worthy.”

“So basically this sword scenario dose absolutely no good for us,” I clarified. Arthur looked up from his shoes.

“What sword? We have a sword and no one told me?!” He ?????????

“No Arthur,” I said patiently. “We don’t have a sword. And if we did, I wouldn’t trust you with it.” I then began explaining to Arthur what the dragon had told me, it took a while, but finally I convinced Arthur that we had no weapon in our possession. It then took me another millennium to explain the definition of scenario to him.

“The Excalibur is not impossible to acquire,” the dragon said. “I have been told that the one who can yield the sword is not far, he’s from the country of Camelot, he is said to be a peasant who is worthy enough to be king; and I have a pretty good idea who it is,” he smiled.

“Who?” I asked

“A man called Lancelot.”

“Lancelot,” I repeated thoughtfully. “Interesting name.”

“Who’s Lancelot?” He asked blankly.

“A man we need to find,” I said, trying to sound heroic.

“Huh?” And here we go again.

***************************************************************************

We woke up early the next morning, thanks to the horrid smell of Aurthur's cooking, and his uh..... “great” singing.

“Will you stop torturing thaw cow please?” groaned the dragon as he tried to claw his cover his ears.

“It’s not a cow,” I said doing the same. “It’s Arthur singing.”

“Oh come on,” Arthur said laughing. “I’m not that bad.”

I didn’t respond to that; I’m not that mean. He seemed to get the hint.

“Oh,” he said as his face fell. “Well, who wants breakfast?” He said gleefully. Did you ever try Arthurs cooking? Let me tell ya, you don’t want to.

“No thanks, I’d rather go hungry,” I mumbled. Arthur laughed. That’s the thing I like about Arthur, he just takes any insult I throw at him, and treats it as a joke, even when he knows I’m not kidding.

“We have no time for tortured cows,” the dragon yawed as he stood up and stretched like a cat. “We should get going, every minuet eating a victim of animal cruelty is a minuet wasted.”

“There was no animal cruelty going on, it was just Arthur singing.”

He raised his eyebrow. “What’s the differents; I’m a type of animal aren’t I?” I rolled my eyes but smiled. To day felt good, the world felt more open than it ever did, to day felt different, special, new. I got up and brushed myself off. Arthur tasted a bit of his eggs cringed, then threw the leaf which he was using as his plate over his shoulder.

“I am never going to look at another Robin egg again.” he said with a sower expression, and got up to join me and the dragon on our walk deep into the forest. The path the dragon took us on was up hill, so I was huffing and puffing all the way.

“So, uh, whatever your name is,” I said to the dragon. “Where exactly are we going?”

“Morfen,” he sighed. “The most common dragon name you could think of.” Great, so now I could stop thinking of him as “the dragon”. Now I can think of him as “Morfen, the dragon.” Not that it makes a different what I think of him as.

I herd a thump in front of me, and looked up to see two girls dressed in men clothing, one was holding a sword, another, a ball of green fire. Witch fire, I remember Grandfather showing me this in his book of spells. Oh. ya, Grandfather Merlin's a warlock, I probably should of mentioned that. He’s been teaching me a bit of magic before we left. I didn’t actually do any spells though, just some background information about magic that Grandfather wanted me to know before we started. It’s a simple spell, but quite powerful.

“Put your weapons down, or suffer the consequences,” said the girl with the witch fire. Arthur took out the only sharp object we had, the copper dagger. But he didn’t drop it, instead, he held it in a war like position and smiled.

“I guess I’ll have to suffer the consequences then, won’t I?” Most people would think Arthur was fighting because he thought a girl couldn't beat him, but I knew Arthur better than that. He was doing it because his gut told him to, which is a pretty pathetic reason if you think about it. But again, this is Arthur where talking about, he doesn't know the definition of the word ‘think.’

“I’ll fight them,” he told me. “Go and take the dragon with you, I’ll call for you if I need help,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. He was existed, this was his first real fight, so I wasn’t going anywhere farther then that tree. I gave a motion of my hand for Morfin to follow me, took off, and I ran a bit then turned around.

“What are you doing?” He sceamed at me, “are you an idiot?”

“No, I’m an over protective younger brother.”

I ran behind the tree near where Arthur was having his combat. He was mostly fighting the red haird girl with the sword, and dodging the green witch fire. But then, there was a blinding flash of lime green, and Arthur was on the floor, his dagger lieing in his limp, pale hands. His face was white, and so where mine.

Arthur was dead.

I didn’t know where to scream or to cry,to die or to kill, live, or to understand this was for the best. But it wasn’t. That witch girl could smile that evil green all she wanted, but her happiness wouldn’t last long. She would pay, and she would pay hard. I felt my mind being wiped away from all the mixed emotions I felt at the moment, and replaced it with the one they all created to gather, I summoned strength.

I felt my eyes glow, something appeared in my hands, it was black on top and an ocean blue at the bottom. I was holding life and death in my hands, and I was content to use it. I threw the ball’s of flames at the girls, the witch tried to block them, but her flames where useless. I would of felt cruel, but she killed my brother, all she deserved was cruelness, all she deserved was hatred, and that’s all that she was going to get from me. She screamed in fright as the black flames began to make a cell around her, it didn’t look like fire, but more like darkness, clutching around her, closing off any bit off her body that might have been exposed to the sun. Every time she struggled, the flames became tighter with hatred and dispare.

My dispare.

The girl with the red hair, the one with the sword, tried to cut her free of the dark jail, but it was useless. I felt the wind from behind me become stronger with each breath I took. Stronger, deeper, more wild with each stroke of my hand, which each scream the witch took, with each second Artur was dead, she would pay. She would pay. She would pay until Arthur was back, but he wouldn’t come back, so why was I still doing this? Why was I tortering someone who did something that I couldn't change, or that they could take back.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was week and limp, but kind and warm.

“Theo,” said a raspy voice. “Stop it, I’m o--” but I don’t remember the rest of it, the world became as black as my fire, as sad as my sadness, as dark as the worlds end, like a dream that I would never awake from.

As cold as death, as warm as life.

********************************************************************



Cold, cold, really cold, okay, this is weird. At first, it just seemed a fact, but now it’s more of a feeling.....

“THEO!” I screamed and slammed my head into Arthur's.

“You’re finally up,” he sighed. “I thought you would die in your sleep or something.” I raised my eyebrow.

“Talking about death,” I said. “Didn’t you die when that flashing green light hit?”

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