A/N: Who ever thought up the concept of summer vacation, I love you. You're most likely dead, but I love you.
Just as a precaution, this excerpt was about three pages in the book…not really sure how long it's gonna be on the comp, but you YOU MUST READ THE HIGHLIGHTED PORTION OR YOU WILL BE LOST LATER ON!!!. That said if I get any reviews saying you have absolutely no ides what's going on, I'll smite you. I will strike you down with lightning and leave you to burn in the middle of some random alley. Don't think I won't do it. I can be pretty vicious when I want to be. Don't mess with me.
I'LL SAY THIS AGAIN, YOU DO NOT NEED TO READ THIS WHOLE CHAPTER UNLESS YOU WANT A BIT OF BACKGROUND INFO, YOU ONLY NEED TO READ THE HIGHLIGHTED PORTION!!!!!!!!!!!
Summary: What's up with Harry? Why are Hermione and Ginny disappearing all the time? Who is this enticing new Gryffindor? And just where in all hells is Ron? Reincarnation is a strange and dangerous thing that toys with the present in hopes that the present will somehow turn out like the past, but will the past repeat itself in this occurrence, or will the reincarnation of the great King Arthur fail to save the world as we know it from a foe greater than any seen in this word yet?
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
And We Thought it Was the End
Swallowed by the Mists
An excerpt from The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley:
"Arthur! Arthur, stand to the challenge, or do you fear me too much?"
"No man can say that I ever ran from a challenge." Arthur turned as Gwydion came from the wood. "So," he said, "it is you, Mordred. I nevermore than half believed that you had turned against me till now when I see it with my own eyes. I thought those who told me so thought to undermine my courage by telling me the worst that could befall. What have I done? Why have you become my enemy? Why, my son?"
"Do you truly believe that I was anything else my father?" He spoke the word with the greatest bitterness. "For what else was I begotten and born, but for this moment when I challenge you for a cause that is no longer within the borders of this world? I no longer even know why I am to challenge you- only that there is nothing else left in my life but for this hatred."
Arthur said quietly, "I knew Morgaine hated me, but I did not know she hated me as much as this. Must you do her will even in this Gwydion?"
"Do you think it is her will I do you ool?" Gwydion snarled. "If anything could bid me spare you it is that- that I do Morgaine's will, that she wishes you overthrown, and I know not whether I hate more her or you. . . ."
And then stepping forth into their dream or vision or whatever it might be, I knew that I stood on the shores of the Lake where they challenged each other, stood between them clad in the robes of a priestess.
"Must this be? I call upon you both, in the name of the Goddess to amend your quarrel. I sinned against you Arthur and against you Gwydion, but your hate is for me, not for each other, and in the name of the Goddess I beg of you-"
"What is the Goddess to me?" Arthur tightened his fist on the hilt of Excalibur. "I saw her always in your face, but you turned away from me, and when the Goddess rejected me, I sought another God. . . ."
And Gwydion looked on me with contempt, "I needed not the Goddess, but the woman who mothered me, and you put me into the hands of one who had no fear of and Goddess or God."
I tried to cry out, "I had no choice! I did not choose-" but they came at each other with their swords, rushing through me as if I were made of air, and it seemed that their swords met in my body. . . and then I was in Avalon again, staring in horror at the mirror where I could see nothing, nothing but the widening stain of blood in the sacred waters of the Well. My mouth was dry and my heart pounding as if it would beat a hole in the walls of my chest, and the taste of ruin and death was bitter on my lips.
I had failed, failed, failed! I was false to the Goddess, if indeed there was ay Goddess except for myself; false to Avalon, false to Arthur, false to brother son and lover . . . and all I had sought was in ruin. In the ski was a pale and reddening flush where sometime soon, the sun would rise; and beyond the mists of Avalon, cold in the sky, I knew that somewhere Arthur and Gwydion would meet this day for the last time.
As I went to summon the barge, it seemed to me that the little dark people were all around me and that I walked among them as the priestess I had been. I stood on the barge alone, and yet I knew there were others standing there with me, robed and crowned, Morgaine the Maiden, who had summoned Arthur to the running of the deer and the challenge of the King Stag, and Morgaine the Mother who had been torn asunder when Gwydion was born, and the Queen of North Wales, summoning the eclipse to send Accolon raging against Arthur, and the Dark Queen pf Fairy . . . or was it the Death-crone who stood at my side? And as the barge neared the shore, I heard the last of its followers cry, "Look-look, there, the barge with the four fair queens in the sunrise, the fairy barge of Avalon. . . ."
He lay there, his hair matted with blood, my Gwydion, my lover, my son . . . and at his feet Gwydion lay dead, my son, the child I had never known. I bent and covered his face with my own veil. And I knew that this was the end of an age. In the days past, the young stag had thrown down the King Stag, and become King Stag in his turn; but the deer had been slaughtered, and the King Stag had killed the young stag and there would be none after him . . .
And the stag must die in his turn.
I knelt at his side. "The sword Arthur. Excalibur. Take it in your hand. Take it and fling it from you into the waters of the Lake."
The Sacred Regalia were gone out of this world forever, and the last of them, the sword Excalibur, must go with them. But he whispered protesting, holding it tight, "N- it must be kept for those who come after- to rally their cause, the sword of Arthur-" and looked up into the eyes of Lancelot. "Take it, Galahad- hear you not the trumpets from Camelot, calling to Arthur's legion? Take it- for the Companions-"
"No," I told him quietly. "That day is past. None after you must pretend or claim to bear the sword of Arthur." I loosed his fingers gently form the hilt. "Take it Lancelot, "I said softly, "but fling it from you far into the waters of the Lake. Let the mists of Avalon swallow it forever."
Lancelot went quietly to do my bidding. I know not if he saw me, or who he thought I was. And I cradled Arthur against my breast. His life was fading fast; I knew it, but I was beyond tears.
"Morgaine," He whispered. His eyes were bewildered and full of pain. "Morgaine was it all for nothing then, what we did, and all that we tried to do? Why did we fail?"
It was my own question, and I had no answer; but from somewhere, the answer came. "You did not fail, my brother, my love, my child. You held this land in peace for many years, so that the Saxons did not destroy it. You held back the darkness for a whole generation, until they were civilized men, with learning and music and faith in God, who will fight to save something of the beauty of the times that are past. If this land had fallen to the Saxons when Uther died, then would all hat was beautiful or good have perished forever from Britain. And so you did not fail my love. None of us knows how she will do her will- only that it will be done."
And I knew not, even then, whether what I spoke was truth or whether spoke to comfort him, in love as with this little child Igraine had put into my arms when I was a child myself; Morgaine, she had told me, take care of your little brother, and so I had always done, so I would always do, now and beyond life . . . or was it the Goddess herself who had put Arthur into my arms?
He pressed his failing fingers over the great cut in his breast. "If I had but- the scabbard you fashioned for me, Morgaine- I should not lie here now with my life slowly bleeding from me. . . . Morgaine, I dreamed- and in my dream I cried out for you, but I could not hold you-"
I held him close. In the first light of the sun I saw Lancelot raise Excalibur in his hand, then fling it as hard as he could. It flew into the air end over end, the sun glinting as if on the wing of a white bird; then it fell; twisting, and I saw no more; my eyes were misted with tears and the growing light.
Then I heard Lancelot: "I saw a hand rising from the lake- a hand that took the sword, and brandished it three times in the air and then drew it beneath the water . . . ."
I had seen nothing, only the glimmer off light on a fish that broke the surface of the Lake; but I doubt not that he saw what he said he saw.
"Morgaine," Arthur whispered, "is it really you? I cannot see you, Morgaine, it is so dark here- is the sun setting? Morgaine, take me to Avalon, where you can heal me of this wound- take me home Morgaine-"
His head was heavy on my breast, heavy as a child in my own childish arms, heavy as the King Stag who had come to me in triumph. Morgaine, my mother had called impatiently, take care of the baby . . . and all my life I had borne him with me. I held him close and wiped away his tears with my veil, and he reached up and caught at my hand with his own.
"But it is really you," he murmured, "it is you, Morgaine . . . you have come back to me . . . and you are so young and fair . . . I will always see the Goddess with your face . . . Morgaine, you will not leave me again, will you?"
"I will never leave you again, my brother, my baby, my love," I whispered to him, and I kissed his eyes. And he died, just as the mists rose and the sun shone full over the shores of Avalon.
And so came the end of the Great King Arthur Pendragon, called Pendragon for the image of the dragon on his red banner.
But the story isn't over yet.
Excalibur rests still in the Great Lake and the Lady of the Lake lies still awake in search of a new sword bearer. This Bearer will find a new Arthur, a new savior and save the world yet again from the evil and the darkness.
A/N: Well? Did you read the whole thing or did you just read the highlighted? No matter… there's a summary and an explanation in the beginning of the newt chapter.
Next Chapter: Hermione encounters some terrible news, Ginny lies unconscious.