The Pearl of Avalon

We walked through the dead forest for what seemed like an eternity. We never really spoke much. Trying to concentrate on the darkness ahead of us was hard enough, without getting sidetracked in a conversation. There was complete moon cover at times, making our surroundings pitch black. Both Arthur and myself were being torn to shreds by the tree branches. I’d say “Ow,” one minute, then he, the next minute. He didn’t have his coif anymore. That had been left by the fire pit, so it was definitely his head that was getting tormented with branches. Once in a while, the moon would peek through, but not as often as I would have liked.

There was no trouble to hear the dragons. And there were definitely more than one. We’d hear roars in the distance. Sometimes close. The flapping of wings broke the silence more than a few times, and of course, the occasional shadow when the moon shone.

I never let go of his hand once. I felt safe holding it. His grip was firm, yet gentle. I bet he was a remarkable king in his time. He cared. Knowing the stories were one thing, but knowing the man was another.

It may have only been a short time, but I think I got a clear picture of his personality. First impressions were what stuck most with a person, and even as a frightening skeleton, his first impression was good. He became my protector almost immediately. And he was always polite, which was a nice quality.

I always found when I walked, I’d think a lot. And boy, was I doing a lot of thinking now. I started to wonder why Guinevere left him. He thought the world of her. Done everything for her. Then, I started to think of Mark. Of course, he would have to wander in my head. I did whatever I could for him. I thought I was nice enough. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. The same goes for Arthur and Guinevere, I guess.

Even though I couldn’t see much, I still glanced at Arthur. I could vaguely make out the profile of his face in the dark. I started picturing myself as Guinevere. I didn’t know what she looked like, so I just imagined myself, wearing one of those beautiful, medieval style gowns that I’ve seen in many movies.

An image of my favorite painting came to mind. Edmund Blair Leighton’s “The Accolade.” I pictured myself wearing that flowing white gown with gold trim and accents. The crown was on my head. I was dubbing a young man a knight. Then, I pictured Arthur beside me. My imagination was just about to place me in his arms when I heard a scurrying sound.

Arthur heard it too. I could hear the sound of a sword drawn. He pulled me close, “Stay still,” he whispered.

The clouds moved to let the moon shine through long enough for us to get a look at our follower. It was about the size of a German Sheppard, with the body and tail of a lion, and the head, wings, and front claws of a golden eagle. “It’s a griffon!” I said a little louder than I should have. The creature's beady eyes glistened red in the moonlight. Well, at least I could identify it. My recreational studies in myths and legends turned out to be helpful at identifying our enemies.

“Another creature of Avalon,” Arthur observed. “I guess this one did not have as pure a heart as the unicorn.” Personally, I would not have associated griffons with Avalon. But hey, nothing is what it seems.

“So it’s corrupt like the dragons?” Not a good thought at all. Now we have two different predators to look out for, and this one was ground level! “What do we do now?”

“Stay silent,” Arthur whispered, “and back up slowly.”

I did as I was told. Not that it helped much. I could see in the pale light that the griffon was following. Every step we took, it took. “It’s going to follow,” I said that too loud. As soon as I finished speaking the griffon let out a screech, sounding just like an eagle, and spread its wings. It had the wingspan of an eagle too! I couldn’t deny that this was a magnificent creature. I just wished I could actually admire it instead of fear it. I really had always pictured them much bigger.

It leaped off the ground and sprang towards us. Arthur swung Excalibur, but the griffon was too agile. I don’t think he will be able to kill one as quickly as he killed the dragons. The griffon leaped from every sword swipe with ease and grace. It jumped high enough to grab onto Arthur’s arm. He knocked it over the head with the sword hilt, and the griffon fell to the ground, stunned.

Arthur was just about to impale our attacker when several more griffons sprang from the trees. “Holy Shit!” I yelled as the creatures surrounded us, snarling like rabid dogs. “There are too many!” I readied my dagger.

“Jump over them and run while there is still some light,” Arthur said, pulling on my arm, turning to run himself.

“Jump over? I can’t jump that high!” But I did. I guess that little extra adrenaline rush helped a bit. If I had tried to jump over a medium height dog at home, I certainly would have failed.

The griffons were flying now. Not above the trees, though. They were flying through the branches, at about eye level. The way a bat would. Oversized bats. They were clawing at our hair and trying to peck at our eyes. I tried shielding my eyes with my hands but it was hard enough running through a dark forest as it was!

We came to the base of a mountain. I figured it was the smaller mountain that Nimue had mentioned. At least we were chased in the right direction. I held my dagger in my left hand and scooped up a rock with my right. “I don’t think I will be able to climb and fend off these little monsters at the same time,” I said, pitching the rock at one of the griffons. I hit it square between the eyes. It dropped to the ground and shook its head. Take that you little bugger!

Arthur managed to slice the tail off of another one, and it ran in through the trees, howling. He fell back against the mountain side as the moon vanished behind clouds. A large shadow landed in front of us. Well, not overly large. I could make out the outline. It was a dragon. That was just what we needed. Not! I backed into the mountain next to Arthur as I heard the griffons shriek. Scampering sounds. They were running away. Guess a dragon is good for something. Beside food.

It flapped its wings, sending a force of wind at us. “I cannot see well enough to fight it off,” Arthur said. “I will be slashing at shadows in the dark.”

It hissed. Just flapped its wings and hissed. Why wasn’t it attacking? It had us cornered. It could easily tell that we could not run away. I’m sure it could see better in the dark then we could.

“It is taunting us,” Arthur commented as if he was reading my mind. The cloud cover parted slightly. The dragon was so close. Too close. Arthur readied Excalibur and stepped forward, pointing the blade toward its throat. The dragon roared and clamped its teeth on the blade. It started to tug on it the same way a puppy would tug on a pull toy. “It seems to only want the sword,” Arthur said, finally pulling it from the dragon's grip. Arthur lifted his foot and gave the dragon a swift kick under its jaw, causing it to shriek and step back.

“Be careful!” I screamed as the dragon reared it’s head back. It might not have attacked before, but it was certainly going to attack now. It lunged forward. I ducked and its head crashed into the rocks behind me. As it moved it’s head to the side, it caused Arthur to fall over. This was certainly not a good area to fight a dragon in!

Arthur managed to scramble back to his feet. The dragon reared back and flapped its wings, causing both of us to tumble backward. I swiped at it with my dagger. Missed, of course. It shrieked at me and darted sideways. Bad choice of direction. I stumbled and fell, twisting my ankle. Pain shot up through like an arrow.

Through my tears of pain, I saw Arthur regain his footing and face the dragon. It kept snapping at Excalibur, but Arthur kept wielding it around. The dragon was getting more angrier, I could tell. Arthur knelt as the dragon plunged its head towards him. He came straight up with Excalibur, impaling the dragons head. It let out a high-pitched squeal and tumbled backward.

“Is it dead?” I asked.

“If not now, soon.” His voice was so calm and collected.

Was that 3 or 4 dragons killed now? I had lost count. “Either you are a really good dragon slayer or they don’t put up much of a fight.” Probably both. I certainly was no dragon slayer, that’s for sure and certain. Personally, I preferred the run away and hide method.

“They must be young. The dragons of Avalon that I have heard about are much larger. I am guessing that when we reach the other side of this mountain we will see the larger ones.”

That was not what I wanted to hear, “Great,” I said, sarcastically, trying to pull myself up with the aid of a rock.

“You are hurt,” Arthur said and took hold of my arm. He pulled me to my feet.

“I’ll be fine. I just twisted my ankle.”

“We need to climb, milady. You will need to rest first.”

“No,” I said, putting a little pressure on my injured foot. “No delays if we can help it. I can climb. Really. Slowly, but I can do it.”

“Go up ahead of me. I will stay directly behind you, in case you slip backward.”

“Thank you,” I said. How sweet can a person be? Guinevere certainly wasn’t thinking straight!

I needed both hands to climb with so I clamped my teeth around the dagger blade. Not the safest thing in the world to do, but I didn’t want to put it in my pocket. Number one, it probably wouldn’t fit right and I would lose it. Number two, if it did fit in I would bend a little too far and probably get punctured. Number three, if I needed it in a hurry it would be easy to grab hold of from my mouth. I was thinking that the number three reason would be the main reason because who knows what other creatures we would come across!

It was really dark, and I really didn’t like the idea of having to feel around for something to grab hold of. What would I do if I grabbed something other than a rock? Being this close to the dragon valley was very unnerving. And almost as if on cue, I heard thunder. Perfect! All we needed now was rain to come! If it’s not already hard enough to climb!

My foot was feeling slightly better, so I tried to move faster. Tried. Moving a bit faster caused me not to feel the rocks very carefully and I ended up grabbing more loose ones than solid ones. I just hope I never knocked one loose on Arthur, because he was right underneath. I’m pretty sure I kicked his head by accident though, but I never heard more than a slight “Ouch” from him.

Lightening flashed in the distance. During that brief flash, I caught a glimpse of what looked to be a ledge. It was a little to the right, but reachable. “I think I see a ledge,” I called out through clenched teeth. It was quite hard to talk clearly with a dagger in your mouth!.

“We should head there then,” he called back. “It would be safer to be on a flat surface if the rain comes.”

“Definitely!” I shifted my climb to the right. Arthur shifted along behind me. I hoped it didn’t rain until we were safely on the ledge. Providing it’s big enough, of course. But, I also didn’t want it to continue with dry lightening either. That was bad. Especially since I had a dagger in my mouth and Arthur was wearing chainmail!

A rumble of thunder sounded and the lightening flashed. I started to feel a speck of rain. Luckily it only took me about four seconds later to reach the ledge. I could feel Arthur pushing on my foot to give me a boost. What a relief it was to get on the ledge! And even luckier still, was that it was a large ledge, with another one sticking out above it for shelter. I gladly took the dagger from my mouth. Not a nice taste.

Arthur managed to join me in the mini cave just as the clouds burst. The rain poured down like a waterfall. More lightening and thunder. Loud thunder. At least we were dry and not sliding down a mountain. It was about time a little good luck showed up!

I started to shiver. I wasn’t cold. I didn’t feel cold. More than likely, it was my nerves. Seriously, though, a person can only take so much. Dragons? Griffons? What else? And that was not even normal troubles!

Arthur placed his arm around my shoulders. “You are cold. I wish I had taken my cape. You need it.”

What a sweetheart. We had left his cape, along with his coif, where we had our dragon meal. “Thank you,” I said. “But I’m not cold. No worries.”

“You shivered, milady.” His voice was full of concern.

“It was nothing. Just a slight chill. It’s gone now.” I didn’t try to remove his arm from around me or anything. I actually started to feel peaceful. “I guess night travel is out,” I added.

“Yes,” Arthur agreed. “It is probably for the best, anyway. Now that we are so close to dragon valley, it would be best to have a clear view.”

“That’s for sure! Especially if we will have big ones too!”

“Let us not think about the dragons, milady. Rest would be helpful. We still have to finish climbing this mountain, then sneak down the other side.”

“As tired as I am, I highly doubt that I will be able to relax,” I said, shifting slightly to get more comfortable. Okay, I admit it. I was slightly getting closer to Arthur. I was hoping it wasn’t that obvious, but it probably was. “Tell me about the tournament you were going to have. The one between your nephews.” I had to break the silence. And I enjoyed hearing his voice.

“The tournament never took place,” Arthur said. “Modred saw to that. He was Morgana’s only son. Morgause had four. Gawain, Gaheris, Agravaine, and Gareth. Gawain was my most dedicated. I would have chosen him even without a tournament, but Modred was so very jealous and made the others jealous as well. Of course, I had to hold the joust to be fair.”

A clap of thunder paused the story briefly. After the long rumble, Arthur continued. “Modred knew his skills were no match for the others. He spread lies and turned a lot of my people against me. Then, the day before the tournament, he lead a Saxon army.”

“Then came the battle on the field of Camlann,” I added.

“Yes.”

I sighed. There was a brief silence. I knew the battle of Camlann. A major point in most all the stories. The death of King Arthur. I shuddered, knowing now that it really happened.

“You know a lot about me, milady.”

“I know lots of stories. Just not sure of the truth.” I stared out at the pelting rain, thankful we were not out there trying to climb. “How did you become king? Did you really pull Excalibur from a stone?”

Arthur laughed, “I did.” He almost seemed surprised that I had asked.

“Really? Wow! Tell me,” I said, giving him my undivided attention, “Tell me how. Did you know you were the son of Uther Penndragon?”

“You even know of my father? It seems I do not have to tell you much.”

“Tell me anyway. Your own words.” Not like we are going anywhere soon.

“I grew up believing I was the son of Ector and Ethel Morvan. We lived on a farm. They only had one other son, my brother, Kai. Even after I knew the truth, I still considered them my family.”

“Sir Ector?” I thought for sure he was a knight.

“He was not knighted until I took the throne.” Okay, that answered that question. Arthur continued, “Uther was a powerful king. A high king. Never married. He always preferred the company of another man’s wife though, so Merlin told me. Because he was the king, most men did not object to their wives being desired by him. And, of course, the women did not mind either. Except for one.”

“Igraine,” I said.

“Yes. Igraine. She did not wish to be with him, nor did her husband wish to share her. Uther turned to Merlin for help. He knew that Merlin was rumored to be a wizard, and made him use an illusion.”

I knew what the illusion was! I saw it in several movies and read about it. I could not keep quiet, I just had to say it, “He made Uther look like the Duke of Cornwall!”

Arthur laughed, “He did indeed. Merlin did not want to, he told me. He did not wish to bring the magic of Avalon to the world. But, Uther insisted, and what the king wanted the king got. Nine moons later, I was born. Merlin took me himself and brought me to Ector’s farm. His wife had just given birth, but the child died. Merlin told me it was a good place to hide me. He made Ector, Ethel and Kai swear to never say I was not their own. He did not tell them who I was, either.”

“Did Uther search for his stolen child?”

“He did, but failed,” Arthur said, then paused for another clap of thunder to cease. “I grew up not knowing the difference. I also used to see Merlin around from time to time, but never knew him. He was always watching me. Almost like a guardian. I was about 12 summers old when news came of the king’s death. No heir was ever brought forward, so the lords of the lands came together. Lords, dukes, lesser kings. All of them. They all wanted the high kingship.”

“So a tournament was held, right?”

“It was. And even those without noble blood were able to enter. The last one left standing would take the throne. It was then that Merlin showed up. He went against his own judgment and made Avalon public knowledge. Not everyone believed him. They called him a crazy old man. It was then he said he would use the power of Avalon to select a king.”

“A sword in a stone.”

“Yes.”

“Excalibur?”

“Yes. A sword forged on Avalon. It was lodged into a stone surrounded by a circle of stones. Very large stones.”

He’s talking about Stonehenge! I just know it. “I know the place," I said.

“Merlin later told me that the large stone circle was a gateway to Avalon.” He continued his story, “One day, Kai and myself went to the circle of stones to see this magic sword for ourselves. We had heard that Uther did have an heir to the throne. A son that he did not even know the identity of. And we also heard that only the son of Uther could lift the sword. It was quite a sword. Kai kept telling me to give it a try, but I used to just laugh at him. That was when Merlin came to me. He told me to do what my brother told me to do. So I did.”

“And it was then you pulled the sword, learned the truth, and became king, right?”

“Yes,” he said, thoughtfully. “That was the last time Merlin ever used Avalon’s magic outside of Avalon. And he never tried to explain any different if someone accused him of trickery. He would just stay silent and walk away.” Arthur looked at me, and through the quick flash of light, I could see a curious expression. “I know nothing of you, milady, except that you once had a husband who treated you terribly wrong.”

I hated telling stories, especially about myself. But to be fair I tried to sum up my life story for him. “I work for a newspaper. I’m a co-writer on a column called ‘Think About it.’ It’s very short stories that leave people thinking. Or at least that’s the idea. Food for thought stories. I usually did most of the writing, but since my divorce, I have hardly been able to concentrate. My boss told me to take some time off to get my head cleared. I took a trip to England, got kidnapped, escaped from them and ended up here.” I paused for thunder, and to decide what else to say.

I continued, “I have no children. Both my parents were killed in a house fire a number of years ago.” Painful memory. I trailed off my story and stayed silent for a while. Both Mark and I were in that house too. We managed to get out with only some smoke inhalation. But I didn’t voice that info. That was too painful to speak out load

I let the thunder clap again before I spoke. “I wonder if anyone even realizes that I’m missing,” I said, not wanting to talk about my life anymore. “Did the tour guide even look for me?”

“Tour guide?”

“The young man leading the Stonehenge tour. That’s where I got kidnapped. The stone circle.”

“I am sure you were missed. I am sure someone is looking for you right now. You seem like a very nice lady, and it would be strange indeed if no one looks. I also think that your husband is quite a fool to do what he did.”

“Guinevere was a fool too,” I whispered. I closed my eyes and rested my head on Arthur’s shoulder. I felt his head rest on my mine. I felt so comfortable that if we never moved out of that spot for days I would not have cared.

It seemed like the rain was never going to stop. It just kept pounding on the mountain side. The thunder rumbled and the lightning flashed. I do like thunderstorms, in a way. I’d have preferred to be inside, listening to the rain on the roof or window as opposed to on a ledge, but the rain still sounded nice. It had a calming effect. I think snuggling into Arthur added to my content feeling. I felt so safe beside him. Just with his arm around me, I felt as if nothing could endanger me. It was a foolish thought because there would be no way of preventing a dragon attack, but it was how I felt anyway. I tilted my head up slightly and felt the brush of his beard on my forehead. I couldn’t help but smile. I had always liked facial hair on men. I especially loved chest hair too. I wondered if he had any? Finger twirling length would be perfect!

Oh, what was I thinking? Daydreaming about him like that? I should be ashamed! But, I just couldn’t help it. The last time I had felt like this was when I fell in love with Mark. When I fell in love. Was I falling? Shit! Nothing like bad timing!

A clap of thunder brought me back to reality. Or at least the reality I was in at this point in time. I eased myself up a bit when I discovered I had been cramping my arm beneath me. As I lifted my head I turned slightly towards Arthur. I felt his lips brush mine. Oh, what a sensation went through my body! This was totally the wrong time and place for a first kiss, but I couldn’t bring myself to back away. I knew I had to though, unfortunately. “We should try and sleep, maybe?” I said lowering my head.

“Yes, we should,” he agreed and wrapped both arms around me. I fell asleep in his arms. A nightmare-free sleep.