Unmaking Percy

Part I - II (The Sleeping Castle)

He left at dawn. That was when heroes left their homes, and now was not the time for missteps. Any earlier would have been suspicious; any later would have been underwhelming. He bid his goodbyes to his parents, and it felt, as it ever did with them, leaden with expectations.

He despised rising so early: his mind felt bruised and sore. As he made his way out of town, he thought, with a smirk at the expense of his lonely childhood, that he would be sad to leave his sibling behind and all the comforts it afforded him, the warm bed and the hot baths and the soft linens. But as he walked further and further away from the town and its waking houses huddled close together, he had the disconcerting feeling that he still wasn't alone. It was not comforting. He had maybe been wrong to think that his constant companion had always been his parents' wealth: it was instead, perhaps, the eager audience his parents' wealth had bought for him. And it stayed with him now, clinging to him despite the early hour and the deserted path.

When he reached the small camp, he heard the subdued bustling of tents being unmade, saddlebags packed, horses readied. The remaining glow of a campfire was melting into the orange and pinks of the warming sky. A little apart from the small retinue, he spotted Evans and Valeria saddling their own horses. It was only when they noticed Percy, and he felt the weight of their stare on him, that he remembered he didn't have a horse. He was a good rider, but ventured out of town so rarely that he had preferred not to keep a horse: the thought of letting an animal languish in stables with little attention made him anxious. He glanced to his left, just to avoid looking at Evans and Valeria, and spotted a small moss-covered mound between the camp and the woods. Here, he determined, was to be his new home. It looked sheltered enough from the elements, and it would be best for everyone if he stayed there forever. There was some notoriety to be gained in being a hermit, if he really put his heart into it. Right now, there was no other calling in life that appealed to him quite as much.

Valeria began to stride towards him, but Evans placed his hand on her shoulder, and stopped her before heading over to Percy himself. Percy stood motionless, longing very hard for his new home under the mound.

"I'm glad you came" the young man smiled when he reached him. He sounded horribly sincere.

"I have no horse" Percy mumbled.

"Oh, we have plenty of horses" Evans reassured him. "Don't worry, we didn't expect you to bring one."

"I do have the means to buy one."

"I know you do. And I suppose you did not buy one so as to not intimidate me with your means."

Evans had spoken with a grin that had nothing but playfulness to it. Now Percy had no horse and no tongue. He had a growing suspicion he would end that journey in little pieces. With some luck, they would be treated as relics, and be traded between fashionable people for great sums. Anything to make him feel special right now.

He followed Evans to the rest of the horses, taking care to clearly imprint his reluctance onto each of his steps. Valeria was already scowling at him. At least, he had been quick to find new familiar things to replace the ones he had lost. Not lost; the ones that had been stolen from him.

He tried not to look at anyone. It didn't take long before everything had been packed, and every horse mounted. The blue-clad dignitaries exchanged a silent nod with Evans. The young man held his horse's reigns with a kind firmness that made Percy envious – though he could not quite tell whether he was envious of the knight's grip, or of the horse held in it. Both were steeped in a self-assurance he would have given much to have.

At that solemn nod, the group's horses turned to the right and started down the road at a canter. Percy kept his attention fixed on Evans, and was glad he did: Evans and Valeria spurred their horses in the opposite direction. Evans turned his head back for a second, no doubt to check that Percy hadn't inadvertently ridden away with the other group. When he saw Percy was behind them, the knight had that same playful grin which Percy was starting to recognise from a distance.