The Flower of King and Knights

A Moment of Reflection

The night sky sparkled with star light, and the full moon gave the countryside a peaceful serenity as Ector looked out over the whole landscape before him. He wished he could have enjoyed the scenery, but the news of Morgan’s and Mordred’s army took his mind off the beauty in front of him.

He could hear Catelin’s footsteps coming close to the doorway of his bed chamber. She opened the door slowly, not wanting to alert him to her entering. As the door moved, it made a loud creaking noise. “I like to know if someone is coming in,” said Ector.

“Excellent method, my king.”

Ector turned to Catelin, “Now my lady, what brings you to my bedchamber…And could you leave that door open. I don’t need people making up gossip and trivial stories.”

Catelin approached Ector, “Is there something troubling you my lord?”

Ector took a deep breath. “It’s just Morgan and Mordred. Ever since I came to place I haven’t had one moment to…you know…revel in this place.”

“What do you mean?”

Ector chuckled, “When I was a child, I grew up on the stories of King Arthur, and his Knights of the Round Table. In my time, he represented everything that a good leader should be. Kind, modest, knew right from wrong, above corruptible forces, and even in the end, when faced with certain death, he stood his ground. He represented age of men that was slowing fading away in my time.”

“Fading my lord?”

“Aye, most men in my time couldn’t live a day in a world like this. Hell, most pride themselves on what they couldn’t do, then on what they could do. If their wives were under attack, they’d try to pay someone else to rescue her. Manhood was measured by how emotional or how many hours one spends picking their clothes for that day.”

“My God!” exclaimed Catelin, “How…I cannot think of word to describe such a sad and pathetic that sounds.”

“Try living with these men for over twenty years.” Ector shook his head in disgust. “And what was sad was how they chose to be that way. Life never took from them, it rarely made them incapable to achieving greater ends. They wanted to be nothing, they wanted to show how little they could be.”

 “And what was sad was that the society wanted them to be like that. Initiative was seen as sin, sloth was king. Arrogance was modest, and modest was worse than murder. Intelligence, pride, everything that made society reach the very stars of the sky, were abandoned for useless gadgets of wonder, or the lust for self indulgence.”

Catelin pressed her hand against Ector’s. “Was it all that bad?”

“No, but it seemed that mankind was more concerned with blowing the world up than to preserve it for future generations.”

“Were the women that bad as well?”

“Just about. Most didn’t know what they wanted in life. Some swore to wanting men who would treat them lovingly, and then they’d go searching for drunks, lazy, loose morale, narcissist, men who cared about anything other than the woman who loved them.”

“Not very intelligent are they?”

“Not by a long shot.” Ector said bitterly.

“Were your women bound to such arrangements?”

“Oh no, that practice died long before, these women choose to be with these men with all their heart’s content.”

“…Your women are slightly imbecilic, are they not?”

“My lady, you said it, not me?”

“Well what made you any different from your peers?”

“Merlin made sure I didn’t follow those habits. I never it until I came here. But he, Sir Kay, and Sir Bedivere were all raised to be a king, and I never saw it. I just thought that they wanted me to be more suited to succeed in what I did in life.”

“And what was that my lord?”

“University professor.”

Catelin was surprised, “…Really?”

“Yeah, I wanted to teach students history.”

“…I never would have thought of that.”

“That’s what I lot of people have said when I came here. But I’m glad that things have gone differently.”

“How come?”

“Because here I can make difference. Maybe the world here can be different. It can be better. It can avoid the flaws that doomed my world.”

Catelin looked at him. Ector turned to her, noticing her staring at him. “What, did I say something?”

“No, it’s just…you look like your father right now?”

“You knew my father?”

“Aye, he had that idealism that you have. To make the world better for all. He had the gift of making anyone have that sense of hope for a better future.”

Ector smiled as he looked at her as the stars glittered in her eyes. They both leaned, touching each other’s lips.