"Knights of Camelot," called King Arthur. Everyone fell silent and stood up as the King entered, putting all their attention on him. Exactly what Arthur wanted. Despite him being a king who is very brave and honourable, he was very self-centred or, to put it another way, up himself. He paused for dramatic effect and to soak up the admiration, then continued. "The 71st round table meeting is now in session." said Arthur rapping the table with his fist. Everyone sat, picked up their papers and straightened them. "Merlin," whispered Arthur turning round to his servant who stood behind him. "Yes?"
"Does my hair look alright?" Merlin nodded slowly. Arthur gave a sigh of relief and turned back to face everyone else. Merlin couldn't believe how self -absorbed he was, and how stupid. "Now. Looking at the minutes from the last meeting we seemed to have covered everything so now we need to address the current threat … er that is threatening us." said Arthur.
"Threat, Sire?" questioned Sir Gwaine.
"Yes my very fit friend. Camelot is under threat from a very evil power."
"What Sire?" the Knights asked looking scared.
"A ring." said Arthur majestically. Silence. Merlin put his forehead in his hand and shook his head in despair.
"A ring sire?"
"I don't understand Sire how is a ring a threat?" asked Sir Percival looking puzzled.
"Well of course you don't understand Percival. You're all brawn and no brain. This is a situation you can't possibly comprehend."
"Sire," Merlin whispered, leaning over Arthur's shoulder "you shouldn't insult Percival. It isn't good for his self- confidence."
"Shut-up Merlin." Arthur sighed. "Look. If this ring gets into the wrong hands it would destroy everything we've worked so hard to build."
"You mean Morgana's hands Sire? said Eylan who was doodling on a piece of parchment.
"Yes of course I mean Morgana. That witch is nearly always involved in everything bad that has happened since I became King. She is so annoying, always insulting me, making me look like a bad king and trying to kill me. God I hate her!" moaned Arthur.
"Just ignore her Arthur. The only reason she does it is because she knows it winds you up," said Merlin "and try not to hate her. She is family after all."
"Shut-up Merlin."
"So what do you propose we do Sire?" asked Sir Leon.
"We stop Morgana from finding the ring. Now what is next on the agenda?"
"People are not wearing enough hats these days."
Meanwhile, deep in Morgana's secret cave …
"Tell me more about this ring of power Saruman. It sounds very intriguing." smiled Morgana. She swirled the contents of her goblet around before taking a sip. Saruman took a long drink from his own goblet before talking.
"Well," he put down the goblet "Long ago in Mordor this guy Sauron, ever heard of him? No? Nice bloke, nice bloke. Well he made this ring to rule over all the other people. There were loads of wars, and to put a long a long story short Sauron was defeated the ring was lost then found again by this hobbit, then this hobbit ,Baggins is his name, gave it to his nephew. Now his nephew is travelling to Mordor." Saruman paused and refilled his goblet and took another drink. "So what I'm suggesting is that you take the ring from Baggins and it's yours. Don't worry it'll be easy to overpower him he's only what 3 or 4 feet tall."
Morgana smiled an evil smile. "And this ring will help me kill Arthur so I can rule Camelot."
"Yes, although I don't see why you haven't killed before?" frowned Saruman.
"Arthur has some guy called Emrys protecting him. Every time I tried to kill Arthur Emrys stopped me!" moaned Morgana.
"Do you know who this Emrys is?"
"No," sighed Morgana. "It's so annoying not knowing who he is!"
"It's probably someone you'd least expect. Someone right under your nose. Oh I don't know someone like Merlin."
"Merlin? Ha! It couldn't be him. He's the biggest idiot I've ever met. He wouldn't know what magic was, even if it hit him in the face!" Little did Morgana know that as soon as she said those words Merlin was in-fact hit in the face by magic. One of his spells backfired. Long story.
"So how do we find the ring?" asked Morgana, throwing away the last crumbs off the plate she had been eating from and wiped her hands on a napkin. "With a highly trained animal who can hear the rings call from about 10 leagues off. Very clever, the latest in ring tracking technology." replied Saruman. "Very reliable as well. As soon as it catches a whiff of the ring it'll be off. It won't rest until it's found the ring."
Morgana positively beamed. She cleared the plates away and then returned to her chair. "Where is this animal?" she asked. Saruman whistled and called out, "Sméagol!" There was a sound of scrabbling and high pitch squeals. The two people stood and watched the front door. There was a loud yell and then a rather wild looking Sméagol burst in. "Master called Sméagol?" The creature said bowing low in front of Saruman.
"Yes, Lady Morgana and I require a service of you." Saruman paused. He looked uneasy, nervous. "We need you to find Frodo Baggins and take the ring from him." said Saruman very slowly. Sméagol's eyes widened and he grinned like a child at Christmas. "Master wishes us to seek the precious?" Sméagol whispered.
"Yes."
"Of course we shall finds the precious." said Sméagol happily. Then Gollum took over. "But theys just wants it for themselves." Gollum hissed. "They will keeps it from us!" "No, no. Master is kind he will lets us have the precious." retaliated Sméagol. "No they will keeps it from us. I says we finds the precious thens we cuts their throats and takes precious for ourselves." "NO!"
"Is he always like this?" asked Morgana who was gazing at Sméagol with confusion.
"Yes, not sure why. I think it's normal." whispered Saruman over the frenzied argument going on between Gollum and Sméagol. "Don't worry just give him time to finish his argument. Gollum nearly always wins anyway."
" Right," said Morgana "we will leave in the morning." And with that she walked off to her room leaving the white wizard with the crazed Sméagol.
...