Merthur One Shots

Behind the Mountains

"Say!" the little boy came running to the woman. "What's behind those huge mountains?" he asked with glowing eyes and a look of amazement.

"Behind the mountains?"

"Yeah!"

"It's a huge, deserted field! People say it used to be a great kingdom!"

"What kind of kingdom?"

"A kingdom ruled by a good king, a kingdom where everyone was accepted, regardless of their origin", the woman lied.

"And behind that?"

"A lake", she answered, a melancholic smile on her face.

"A lake?"

"Yes, a lake."

The child watched her in anticipation.

" But, you see the thing about this lake, no one ever found it", she finally continued. "People know of it, they know it's there, behind the huge mountains and the deserted lands, but they never got there. Maybe they don't even want to."

"Why wouldn't they want to?"

"I don't know."

"What's it like?"

"They say the water has a colour never before seen by human eye, glowing golden and red from time to time. They say it's because of the royal blood and tears shed in that lake."

"Whose blood? Whose tears?" The boy could not tear his eyes away from the pointy tops of the mountains he dreamed of getting past one day.

"The blood of a great king and the golden tears of his servant. A king who died way before his time, and a servant who failed to fulfill his destiny."

"Is it true?"

"I don't know!"

"What else do they say?"

"They say that there's a man, waiting where the wind blows from the west, where the sun only lazily peeks from behind the hills once a month, where leaves never die, waiting."

"What is he waiting for?"

"Nobody knows. Some say he's waiting to take his last breath, alone where no other human soul ever reached, others say he's waiting for his daughter who had been brought down by illness many years ago, others don't even believe the stories to be true. But I like to think that he's waiting for his king."

"Do you think his king will ever return?" the boy didn't even seem to hear the other sides of the story.

"I don't know!" came the simple answer again, failing to satisfy the blonde boy's curiosity.

He reached out a hand, as though he could grasp the answers to his questions, but it hit the window instead, making him feel as though he had lost all hope, hope for what, he didn't know exactly. His blue eyes stared into the distance, as his heart pounded fiercely into his chest. He felt an inhuman attraction to the places the woman described. He felt as though he belonged to those places, to that awaiting man's side.

The woman then took the boy's hand and led him towards the bedroom, forcing him to tear his eyes away from the horizon.

"Let's go now, Arthur! It's time for bed!"