How to Mount an Alicorn
Chapter 1: Siege on the Castle
Slash and hack. Slash and hack. Slash and hack. Right. Arthur swung his large sword at the hay dummy, Limb by limb he destroyed that thing no problem. He grinned, happy with the results his effort brought. He was still fifteen years old, and he was excelling in sword fighting, archery, and horse riding slower than all the other squires and older knights in training, but that didn't stop him from trying. He had worked too hard to be accepted as a squire at the age of fourteen to stop now. A slow clap brought his attention away from the dissembled dummy. He looked behind him to see Aidan, a new-generation knight. He blushed in embarrassment. Was Aidan here to harass him like the other knights? He looked away and went to put his practice sword away.
"Arthur, right?" Aidan spoke up with his thick Scottish accent when he realized Arthur was preparing to leave.
Arthur looked at him startled for a second. "What's it to you?" His eyes narrowed and his brows furrowed.
"So I be guessin yer that lad all the squires been laughin at." Aidan crossed his arms with an intention-less smile.
"Don't need to rub salt in the already festering wounds." Arthur glared.
Aidan put his hands up in defense. "Sorry, didn't mean to hurt ye. Jes wonderin wot they all find so laughable 'bout a wee lad like ye."
"Isn't it obvious?" Arthur grabbed his leather-bound bag and slung it over his shoulder. "I look like a bloody girl, I'm weak, I was abandoned up on the castle's front doorstep, and I'm the slowest learning squire."
"And yer eyebrows." Aidan laughed. Arthur stopped, eyes darkening. Aidan stopped laughing immediately. He pushed past him to leave. Aidan grabbed his arm. "Don't go! I'll help ye train."
Arthur gave him a ridiculous look. "You can't be serious. Don't play with me." And he shrugged Aidan's grip off his arm and stormed off. Aidan sighed, resting his face in his palms.
The next day, Arthur was training again, except in the corner hidden behind a stall wall. Still aggravated by what had happened yesterday, he cut the dummy up like he wanted to cut up Aidan. Suddenly the creaking sound of a stall wall being leaned on startled him and he dropped the practice sword. It clattered on the ground. Aidan jumped up in surprise. "Sorry! Sorry! Didn't mean to scare ye. Jes want to watch ye train."
Arthur growled in frustration and picked up his sword, throwing it in Aidan's direction. At that point it was rather obvious the sword was a little too heavy for Arthur because it barely flew several feet. Aidan jumped back. "Whoa there, lad, no needin to be killin people 'ere." He grabbed the sword before Arthur could grab it and threw it aside. Arthur ran right into him, grabbing his waist and trying to topple him over. He managed to knock Aidan back a little and made him stumble back. Aidan grabbed Arthur and picked him up. "Calm daen, Kirkland."
Arthur struggled in Aidan's grip. "Put me down you bloody Scott!" Aidan frowned and put Arthur down, but not before pinching his nose.
"Look, Kirkland, I'm not 'ere to start a fight, aye? Ye seemed like a lad that loved swordfightin, practicing past hours an' all. I jes wanted to help ye train, ye know?" Aidan shrugged, making sure to keep a small distance from the angry Brit.
Arthur frowned, snatching the sword back from Aidan and practicing on the dummy again. "I don't need your help." He grumbled, hacking at what was left of the dummy until all there was left was a stump from the post the dummy was hung on.
Aidan refused to back down. He stood behind Arthur and grabbed his arms, positioning them correctly. "Ain't this sword a wee bit big for ye?"
Arthur flustered, shrugging Aidan's hands off. "The bigger the sword I train with, the faster I will be with the smaller."
"Ye don't know that." Aidan took the practice sword out of Arthur's hands and placed a smaller one in their grasp. "Now try."
Arthur swung the sword around with a lot more ease and he was able to advance faster. He stood up and blushed. "Huh." He was amazed by how much easier it was for him to move around, but he wasn't a whole lot faster since he wasn't used to swinging his sword faster than what he could've managed with the large one. He gave Aidan an apologetic look. "Sorry for throwing the sword at you earlier…"
"Nae, 'tis all in the past, lad." Aidan laughed, correcting Arthur's posture again.
That night Arthur awoke to the sound of horns. There was an attack on the castle. He grabbed his sword and ran outside, shrugging on poorly made chainmail. A large shadow passed above him and he gasped and looked upwards. Before he could see what it was, Aidan suddenly grabbed him from nowhere and pushed him aside just as an arrow flew by. "Get back inside!" Aidan shouted over the clamor of the fight.
Arthur gripped his sword tightly. "But I want to fight!" He shouted back.
Aidan's face went through an array of emotions and finally it came to one. He sighed, drawing his sword out. "Don't get killed." And he rushed off to hack an enemy off a fellow knight.
Arthur's smile couldn't have gotten any bigger. He ran to the side and started swinging his sword at enemies with his new techniques. At first he didn't really get a good look at who he was fighting, but when one of them got close enough to breathe on his face, he saw the most sickening sight. Rotting flesh hanging off bones that have been chewed through by bone-eating worms. The man's face was bad enough, his smell was ten times worse. What was going on? Arthur pulled his sword out of the enemy's stomach and lobbed his head off.
Swiftly moving through the crowd of enemies, he cleared about twenty or so before the large shadow passed overhead again. He looked up for a second to try and see what it was but an enemy that had yet to be killed grabbed his ankle from down below and pulled him down. He panicked and swung, chopping the enemy's hand to bits and shaving off the top of his head. Arthur saw that the thing had rotting brains covered in some kind of fungal growth. Resisting the urge to puke, he scrambled back up onto his feet. He must've sliced through about five more enemies charging at him before something large and white swooped down out of the sky and knocked him onto his back. This time, he saw what it was. A large white horse with a horn and a pair of wings. What is that? On the back of the thing was a drow. Arthur got up on his knees and swung his sword and threw it. The drow dodged and it flew by the drow's face, scratching it slightly.
Arthur reached over and plucked a sword out of a dead enemy's hand, got up, and pointed it at the drow. The drow was smirking, his silvery blue eyes mocked him. More enemies advanced from the sides and Arthur showed off his new techniques, clearing out all those that went at him. Aidan taught him several tricks and he practiced hard, mastering them rather fast. Now he could see how well those tricks worked for him. He was so into slicing those enemies in half, that he totally forgot about the drow. The drow swooped down again to attack Arthur, but whatever he was riding reared and turned to the side. The drow gave Arthur an inspective look. "Interesting…" he said to himself. Back down again he swooped and grabbed Arthur by the back of his tunic and flew off with him. Arthur screamed, "AIDAN!" as he was brought higher.
Aidan, who was fighting nearby, heard Arthur's scream and looked up. He spotted the little teenager being carried off by a drow on an alicorn. "ARTHUR!" He shouted, running after, but was blocked off by more enemies. By the time he'd fended them off, Arthur was nowhere to be seen. He looked around and noticed that all the enemies were lumbering away into holes they'd dug out from and buried themselves back in.
Aidan rushed to the castle hall. There the last of the enemies were leaving, as if they didn't even remember there was a fight going on before. He ran up to King Nathan, who was staring at them in confusion as well. "Yer Highness!" King Nathan turned to see who was calling him.
"Ah! Aidan!" King Nathan straightened himself out. "Someone follow those cursed monsters back to their hives!" He ordered
"Yes sir!" Three knights followed the monsters into the holes, but then were pushed back out by some mysterious force and the holes closed themselves. The ground looked as though nothing had marred it.
"Yer Highness!" Aidan repeated. "One o' the squires has been carried eway bey a drow!"
"Who?" Suddenly King Nathan was gravely serious. He cared about all of his boys, whether they had terrible table manners or not.
"Kirkland, yer Majesty!"
King Nathan and the oldest knight, Nigel, both dropped their swords. "Kirkland!" They shared a look and King Nathan rushed off to his quarters. "Thank you, Aidan! Return to your station!"
"But yer Majesty-"
"I'll take care of this!"
Aidan's brows furrowed, but he did as he was told. He looked off in the direction the drow flew off with Arthur in. He just hoped Arthur was okay.
Kiwi: Oh lawd. I can't help it, but the whole time I was writing this, I was hearing Aidan's Scottish accent in my ear speaking what I was making him say. Like right now I'm imagining Aidan saying what I'm typing.
Cavan: Doesn't that happen when you do France too?
Kiwi: OH NOES. YOU HAVE A BRITISH ACCENT NOW.
Cavan: …Ooo…kay…?
Kiwi: And when Aidan says "Kirkland" I was dying to write "Kierkland" because that's how it would be pronounced! *%^^#$^*& The accent thing always gets to my head 8'D
Cavan: You don't say…?