15th Century Girl

Chapter Eleven: Excalibur

Arthur vs. Befiline, Arthur vs. Goldlot, Arthur vs. Constantine, and finally Arthur vs. Valiant; this is how that day’s battles ensued. The King of the North argued that since both Arthur and Valiant were injured and had to be taken off of the field that there was not a victor; to this King Uther protested. Arthur was still standing whilst Valiant was taken off of the field, then and only then did Arthur waver and finally fall due to his injury. Gaius now stepped in and agreed with King Uther, but, the King of the North threatened war if Valiant didn’t get another chance to defeat Prince Arthur; Uther had no other choice but to agree. I ran down to Arthur’s tent before he went into battle.

“Gah! Percyla, you’re not supposed to be here!” Merlin yelled shielding Arthur’s body from my vision. I giggled and Arthur smiled at seeing me.

“It’s alright, Merlin, I’m decent” Arthur said staring into my eyes. With that Merlin moved out of the way and Arthur grasped my hands; again, Arthur was shirtless and again the feelings taunted me. Merlin helped Arthur into his armor and with a final farewell kiss Arthur hesitantly left the tent, leaving Merlin and I alone to contemplate what happened earlier in the morning. I explained to Merlin what happened and he understood, or at least, acted like he understood; all of a sudden the entrance to the tent was opened and Gaius stepped through. Gaius smiled and told Merlin and I to come quick, Arthur was about to compete with Befiline.

I told Gaius to tell me when Arthur faced off against Valiant, for that was the only battle that I cared about; this was because I knew Valiant could defeat Arthur. Merlin and Gaius went to watch the carnage whilst I stayed inside Arthur’s tent, sitting upon a small, wooden bench. I was not disturbed for a long while, until Arthur faced off against Constantine; Whilst Arthur was out fighting and I was drawing in a small journal I found in a drawer of the bench, the entrance to the tent opened once more. A tall man wearing the seal of the Kingdom of the North stepped through; he was in chain mail but not in armor, he had black hair and black eyes to match. I stood and dropped the journal in alarm “Who are you? I demand you tell me” I said trying to sound forceful, the man chuckled and pulled out a sword; the man pointed the sword towards my throat and with a deep voice said.

“You’re coming with me, little princess” I was in a state of panic; this man was attempting to kidnap me, on my own grounds! I slowly walked to the entrance of the tent and with one foot out I turned and ran for it. I jumped over stumps and carts of food, water troths and shields, people and animals; I started running for the stands, I knew King Uther would protect me. My shoes brought great pain upon my feet, so I took them off and held them as I ran; I then felt a sharp pain in my back. The man stabbed me with the tip of his sword, I cried out and turned, throwing a shoe at him and hitting his nose.

 This caused the man to stumble and fall away, but only for a moment; he quickly returned and attempted to stab me again, so I hurled my other shoe at him. My second shoe missed him completely and fell to the ground, I ran harder and tried to find the entrance for the stands but I could not. I turned my head and looked upon the battle of Arthur and Constantine, Arthur forced Constantine to surrender and the lot of the audience of Camelot was cheering in great joy; my cries of help were not heard. I turned back to the tents of the knights and their servants to find an entire rack of swords, unattended; my luck had come through, I diverted my course but as I was reaching for one the man knocked the rack down with his giant boot. I stumbled over a fallen sword and rolled away from the man, behind a pile of swords.

The man chuckled “Well, well, well, all out of ideas now are we?” he said waving his sword tauntingly before me. I sighed and grasped a handle, pulled it up, and with a great ‘clang’ the blades of our swords clashed together.

“Not just yet” I replied but I really was, the only other time I used a sword was to kill the giant boar because it was running for Arthur; and that was sheer luck, I was amazed I wasn’t skewered with a tusk. I looked down at my sword to see that it was the very same one that Arthur had given to me when we went on the hunt; this made me feel a bit better. The man broke his sword free and raised it high above my head, quickly bringing it down; I gasped and it felt like someone else was wielding my arms, for I quickly brought my sword above my head in the nick of time, catching his. This time, when our swords collided, a yellow spark was sent to the ground and my sword rang a high toned sound. The man fell away and I pulled down my sword, my sword was now shining a golden color.