THROUGH THE AGES || A ToA One Shot Collection

3 ⋅ Savior (DouxAn)

"Witch!"

Anthea huffs as she ducks down an alleyway.

She should have listened to her aunt. She should have stayed inside the castle walls. She should have been content with not being able to show off her magic. She should have figured that there was no tolerance for magic.

The girl ducks down between several wooden crates and barrels. Then, with trembling hands, she pulls a woolen cloth over her head in hopes to hide from King Arthur's knights.

Her breath is shaky, but she hopes that she's mostly silent. Even so, she places a hand over her mouth to mask her breathing.

"Which way did she go?"

Their voices carry to her and she feels hot tears roll down her cheeks.

She can't return to her aunt, she can't return to the castle, and she can't even leave Camelot without getting caught. There is no hope for her.

Suddenly, her cover is thrown off of her and she's staring up at the face of a boy about her age. His hair is dark and his eyes are hazel with more green than brown, strikingly so.

"I found you!" He offers her a friendly smile.

Anthea almost feels glad that he found her. However, despite seeing the boy around the castle, she's never actually spoken to him. She knows that he gets in trouble quite a bit and that he's always running errands for that old man with a staff. Yet, she doesn't know if she can trust him.

The boy holds out his hand to her, "Come with me. I'll protect you."

She removes her hands from her mouth in great caution, "Ho-how can I trust you?"

"Well," He chuckles sheepishly, "There's one way for you to find out."

Anthea leans forward and peaks down the alleyway. She doesn't see any of the knights down either end, but she can still hear their armored footfalls somewhere in the near distance.

Then, she looks back up at the boy before her. His hand is still outstretched and his expression is hopeful. Her hands are still shaking but she takes his hand, cautiously. Then, he helps her to her feet and brushes a few strands of stray hairs from her face.

He smiles warmly at her, "I'll take you back to the castle. My master is waiting for us."

Anthea nods, thankful for his help.

"Though, if we want to make it past the guard, I need to place an illusion over you."

"You can do that?" She questions, her eyes going wide. This boy is a magic user too?

He grins, "Yeah, it's one of the first spells Master Merlin taught me."

He lets go of her hand and taps his bracelet. The relic glows blue and several glyphs seem to come to life as he scrolls through them.

"Ah, here we go," He looks up at her, "Are you ready?"

She nods again.

"Right," He breathes, "Stand still."

Anthea does as she's told. Then, she closes her eyes and lets the boy cast the spell over her. His magic feels light and soft as it gently lands on her skin like petals taking to a light breeze.

"There we go," He says after a moment.

Anthea opens her eyes.

"You'll look completely different to everyone now," He says, "Your eyes are the only thing that my spell didn't hide, but that's alright."

He offers her his hand again, "Let's return to Castle Camelot, shall we?"

🙞⋅🙜

The trek back to the castle was easy enough.

However, Anthea's nerves were still frayed and her emotions were all over the place. If this boy helping her wasn't so nice, other people would think she's hysterical. Being a sorceress is already hard enough in Camelot but if she were to be diagnosed with hysteria, she'd never be able to walk the streets again.

So, doing as she was taught to do, she did her best to bury her fear and shakiness especially as this boy led her through the castle gates and up the several, long staircases.

By the time they stop climbing, Anthea's legs feel like pudding. Never in her life has she climbed so many stairs before. Sure, she knew that'd she'd need to someday, but she was not expecting today to be that day.

Without offering her anytime to rest her sore feet, the boy tugs her toward a door which he then leads her through.

"My master is just across the bridge in the tower," The boy explains, pointing at a door with daylight filtering dimly through its small window, "Before we go see him," He messes with his bracelet before sprinkling some magic over her again and dissipating the illusion spell, "I wanted to ask you what your name is."

"Anthea," Anthea replies softly. Her voice is low and small.

The boy smiles, "That's a pretty name."

Anthea flushes a bright pink and ducks her head, "Thank you."

"Of course," He returns, turning fully to her, "My name is Hirisdoux, but I prefer to go by Douxie."

"Douxie," Anthea repeats, testing his preferred nickname on her tongue, "Douxie."

"That is my name so please don't wear it out."

She giggles, "Douxie. But your name is fun to say."

He grins, sheepish. He looks as though he's about to thank her or say something of the like before deciding just to say, "Well, I better bring you to my master. He's been waiting to meet you."

That struck Anthea as odd. Who is this 'master' guy? And why does he have an interest in meeting her? She's not interesting, nor is she of great status. She's just a kitchen maid. Well, more like errand girl at the moment, but she intends on being a kitchen maid at some point.

No matter, Douxie's master seems nice. He did send the boy to find her after all, so he can't be that mean.

He seems rather nice actually.

Edited 09/04/2023