Prologue:
A wizened old man slowly strode through the enchanted woods. His old bones had reached a stable state of creaking, his huffs came at the same rate as they did a decade before. The man pushed aside some branches, feeling something pulling at him, drawing him towards the center of the woods. He passed shimmering magical trees that pushed up through the canopy, chittering fairies trying to engage him in tricks or conversation, and many different kinds of eyes peered around trees and through bushes, studying him. The wizard ignored them all. He'd dealt with them before, and although his insatiable curiosity told him to study all that was around him carefully, he had more pressing matters on his mind.
The magical force that pulled him on felt familiar. It was so like one he knew through the earlier years of his life. But it was weaker. Less developed. He had his theories, of course. But Merlin found it dangerous to devote one's mind too closely to one idea or another. They often turned out to be the exact opposite of the truth, his traversal of time in reverse playing strange tricks on him. He kept his mind open, tried to keep it as clear as possible. But it was so cluttered, it was nigh impossible to focus on any one task. He found himself drifting off every few minutes, lost in one train of thought or another. He absentmindedly parted some branches in front of him, revealing a clearing with a pond in the center. The pond was around 5 spans across on its longest side. It was a shining sky blue, shimmering with the magic that permeated all of the Fey Woods. They would not be named such for a few years, though. People hadn't ventured in this remote corner in Britain, yet. It was still a baby of a country, full of civil war to find one decisive ruler. But where Merlin came from, the country was established, world-renowned, and doomed to one certain demise. His musings were interrupted by two large, graceful, slender hands breaching the still pond water.
"What? Is that you, Lady of the Lake? This isn't a lake. At least, it isn't now. It will be. Or for you, it was." Merlin muttered, the last of his thoughts mostly to himself. No voice answered him, but when he adjusted his glasses and squinted to get a better look at the pale, gentle hands in the water, he noticed they were holding something aloft. He stepped closer, one hand on his glasses, squinting harder. The hands were offering up a small baby boy. The baby was sleeping peacefully, although Merlin saw it was clearly newborn. The hands descended back into the pond that was only a couple feet deep, but Merlin saw no sign of the Lady they belonged to. The pool was still again, but the baby remained. It was floating upon the water, blissfully unaware of the magic it had come from, the magic that held it aloft.
Merlin stepped into the pool, finally causing ripples to appear. The baby began crying at once, and Merlin realized who he was holding as he pulled the baby out of the pond. "So this is how we meet." He said. Merlin brushed a gnarled old hand over the baby's head, and it stopped crying. It stared up at him with deep blue eyes that were almost as inquisitive as Merlin's. "Goodbye, Inton." There were tears in Merlin's eyes, as he must age backwards and say goodbye to the boy who would age as the rest of the world did, becoming someone important. Whether it would be the wizard apprentice he tried to train him as, or something the child aspired to himself, Merlin could not say. He could tell what would happen to every being, as he had seen their futures, and traveled through their pasts. With Inton, all he could remember was a fog filled with infinite possibilities. "I hope the Lady gets what she wants through you." He said with spite, upset that his powers could tell him of everyone but the one who he was closest to, someone he considered a son. "I hope you get what you want." He said more softly, before resigning himself to never seeing Inton again. That was in his past. The future.
Chapter 1: The Castle at Forest Sauvage
Inton walked purposefully through the woods near the Castle of Forest Sauvage. He knew it was called that because Merlin told him. Merlin had a weird way of saying things sometimes, but he was always right, in a way. So when he told Inton it was dangerous to go talk to anybody from the castle or the village outside it, especially other boys his age, Inton listened. Still, living with Merlin and studying all sorts of things for the ten years of his life that he had known Merlin got boring sometimes. Merlin could show him all sorts of cool things about magic, but he was more interested in the stories about knights and chivalry in some of the books Merlin had. Inton wanted to see more of the world. Merlin told him magic was something many others would kill to have, but for Inton it was just another subject to learn. A little stranger, but just as dull at times. He wanted to go on an adventure like a knight, questing and helping people.
Inton listened to Merlin, but decided it wouldn't hurt to just observe the local village folk. So when Merlin instructed him to gather elderberries all day and bring them back for Merlin's spells and potions, he looked for the bushes as close to the forest edge as possible. Merlin hadn't specified where to look for the berries, and Inton read that the bushes often grew in more sparse areas. Where the rolling fields ended and the forest began was a prime location. Besides, Inton had already filled his basket making his way to the edge of the Forest Sauvage. Merlin seemed to lose track of time, leaving Inton on his own for extended periods. Inton was fine with this, as it meant more of a chance to read and learn what he wanted, not what Merlin thought he should know. Inton set his basket down beneath a thick oak tree with many low hanging branches, and scampered his way up.
He stared through the thick leaves to catch glimpses of the village. People were going about their daily business, men leading horse drawn carts laden with goods. Some were in the fields leading oxen driving plows to till the earth. There were a few boys helping out with simple tasks in the fields, too, but Inton avoided looking at them. Merlin said not to talk to them, and he figured not looking at them was even safer. Although he didn't know what danger could come from other people. The only one he'd ever really talked to was Merlin, and even though he forgot things sometimes, he wasn't all that bad. Inton hoped he would one day be able to meet a knight, maybe even become a squire. Merlin had said he could do whatever he wanted after learning enough from him. He hoped that day came soon.
Women carried baskets that from a distance looked pretty similar to the one beneath Inton's tree, and a few people lounged about their small thatch roofed huts, relaxing in the cool of the early spring morning. Inton watched the impressive castle of Forest Sauvage longest. He hoped to catch a glimpse of something amazing, like a hunting party setting out after a boar. Maybe he would see one, and be able to direct the hunters to it, joining the hunt himself. Or maybe a questing knight would gallop forth from the castle gates, and pass under his tree in a hurry. The knight would ask Inton directions, and maybe give him a chance to be a squire. Or perhaps a rider would ride into the castle in haste, or Sir Ector would gather the knights and builders and begin assembling a ground for a tourney. Inton's daydreams drew him into a peaceful slumber, nestled in his tree.
He awoke with a start as he heard abnormal voices approaching him. They weren't the usual chirps of birdsong, or even the far off, barely audible voices of men working in the fields. It was much closer, and the pitch higher than the human voices he was used to hearing from Merlin or the working men. It was more like the laughter of children playing games in the fields at the end of a day of labor. Inton looked around to discover the source of the voices. He quickly saw two children approaching from the direction of the castle, although by now they were already in the woods. Inton prepared to drop down and grab his basket of elderberries to return to Merlin. He couldn't be caught in the danger of talking to a couple of boys. But a closer look at the two kids walking towards him revealed that while one was a slightly stocky boy who looked to be his age, with a rough looking round face and wild red hair, the other was a girl. He almost mistook her for a boy at first, because of her short cut hair, but something about the gentleness of her face and the softness of her light blue eyes told him she was a girl. That, and her distinctly higher voice, even more than the young boy she seemed to be arguing with.
It was more of him arguing at her, Inton realized. The girl only muttered apologies or agreed with the boy's claims. The boy was boasting of how great he was with a bow and arrow. He mentioned how many times he hit the target in training that morning. "But Kay, I hit the target as many times as you did. I hit the bullseye more, actually." The boy named Kay did not seem to like what the girl said, and she seemed to regret it instantly, covering her mouth with her hands. Kay turned on her. "Shut up, Wart. You just got lucky. You know I'm a better bowman. Father said Ser William Twyti said so when he visited last time." "Sorry, Kay." The girl whose unfortunate name appeared to be Wart said. "You should get used to saying 'Ser Kay' or 'Lord Kay' because that's what I'll be soon, and you'll just always be Wart. Maybe you could be my squire, though." Kay appeared thoughtful, trying to imagine whether or not Wart would make a good squire. Wart practically squealed. "Sorry, Lord Kay. Please, let me be your squire. I want to see the world of chivalry almost as much as you must." Kay appeared satisfied with the praise, and grunted his approval.
"Hey, Wart, look at that basket. It's free berries!" The pair had reached the bottom of Inton's tree before he could make his escape. He'd let himself become too enthralled in their conversation, recommencing his daydreams by wondering who this Ser Twyti was. He was about to let them leave with the berries, Merlin's warning ringing in his ears. However, Wart spoke up. "But, Ser Kay, this basket must belong to someone. I'll bet they are nearby still, perhaps just searching for more bushes to gather from." "So what?" Kay sneered. "I'm lord of this village, and if I want berries, they're mine to have. These woods are mine, as much as the castle will be."
At that, Inton jumped down the tree to the ground. These woods didn't belong to anyone, Merlin had told him as much. They were free land for any, an ideal land without borders for all who wanted them. Although Merlin had also said nobody else chose to live in the woods, except for maybe a witch. "Hey, those berries are mine, and even if you are a lord, these woods are free for all!" Inton declared at the two startled children. Kay jumped back at his sudden entrance, then sat there fuming. Wart merely looked him in the eyes a bit, then said, "I thought I saw someone in the tree on our way up. But I thought better of it, knowing nobody ever really comes here. I guess I was wrong."
Wart then turned to the red faced Kay, who seemed to be trying to think of the best way to express his indignation. "See, Kay, those berries belong to this boy… What's your name?" "Mine is Inton, and I've heard yours are Wart and Kay. Wart can't be your real name, can it?" Kay finally burst, shouting "I am Lord Kay, and I can have what I want in my land. I'd take those berries, if I thought them worth carrying back. If they were picked by some weird forest kid like you, then I don't want them!" Kay turned to leave in disgust, but Wart stayed, seeming to ignore Kay's outburst. She seemed used to his anger.
"My real name is Artoria, but most people call me Wart. They say it's easier." She looked down at her feet. "Well, I think Artoria sounds nicer than Wart, so I'll call you that, if you like it better." Artoria looked up at Inton. "Thanks, Inton. Do you have another name you wish to be called by?" Inton thought for a moment, remembering how Merlin often called him Int because he said it was easier. "If you want something shorter, you can call me Int. Want to play in the woods, Artoria? I don't get a chance to play with many others my age." Merlin's warning was already fading.
Artoria looked back at Kay storming his way back to the castle, then turned back to Inton. "Sure! Nobody back at the castle lets me have much fun, anyways. They all pay more attention to Kay, since he is going to be lord of the castle someday. I'm just a ward up there." She explained. Inton grabbed the basket of elderberries, offering some to her. They popped a few tart berries, and Inton led Artoria towards his favorite place to have fun in the woods, a pond a short distance from Merlin's hut.
"So, what does a ward do? Is it like being a squire?" Inton questioned Artoria. He hoped she would be a squire, because that would make it easier for him to do, too. "Not exactly. Lord Ector took me in as a kid, and I serve and stuff. I may be a squire one day, if Kay lets me when he becomes a knight." Inton frowned at the suggestion that being a squire wasn't a certainty. It didn't seem fair that someone couldn't just be what they wanted.
"I want to be a knight someday. We can both do it, but I think we need to squire first. Merlin won't tell me much." Artoria picked another elderberry, staring at her hand before replying. "I don't think it's that easy. Kay is always training for it, and he has so much trouble. I just want the chance to train as well, and not just stand by and watch." Inton sidestepped a bush and leaned closer to Artoria. "You mean you see the training he does? I wish I could learn more than what I do from books."
"Yup, I get to see it all up close. Maybe you can come by sometime, too. Then it's just one more step and we can actually start training!" Artoria beamed, any sadness at not being able to participate forgotten for the moment. "Let's start training right now!" Inton declared as he grabbed two sturdy sticks from the grassy ground. He tossed one to Artoria, and she caught it with her right hand. She stood up straight, and said in a commanding voice "Sir Knight, I challenge thee to a duel until one of us yields. Do you accept these terms?"
"I most graciously accept your offer, Sir Knight, and may this bout increase our greatness." He intoned formally, completing his acceptance with a bow. "But first, let us reach a proper tourney ground. There is one such just a ways over yonder." Inton led the way, both marching like knights in full, clunky suits of armor. It was hard to navigate the gnarled roots all over the ground when stepping like a knight. Was that only because he didn't actually have armor on? Real knights must be much more graceful. He tried his best to walk with power and grace, but it didn't really work.
They were only a few hundred yards away from their destination of the clearing with a pond that Indigo liked to play at, so he didn't have to march for long. When they arrived, the pair spread apart to opposite sides of the clearing, about ten paces away from each other, the woods at their backs. "Have at you!" Artoria exclaimed as she rushed at Inton.
Her strikes hit him hard, and he barely parried the first few. As much as he liked knights, he never practiced swordfighting, or even saw it being practiced for that matter. With one desperate swing, he managed to land a glancing blow on her left shoulder, but Artoria simply shrugged it off and pressed closer. Before Inton could bring his stick back, Artoria whacked him across the chest, sending him stumbling to the ground.
"Do you yield, Sir Knight?" Artoria asked with her stick pointed at Inton's throat. "I yield unto thee, Sir Knight" Inton held up his hands. Artoria laughed, and helped him back to his feet. "That was fun! I guess maybe I have learned something from watching others train. Maybe Kay will spar with me if I ask." Inton thought Artoria might forget about bringing him along to the training yard, after his weak fight. "Can I still come with you to watch the training sometime?" He wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer.
"Of course, I'll come get you when I have the chance. For now, though, I think I should get back. Kay might find a way to get me in trouble. Let's play again sometime!" Artoria turned to leave, but a high pitched, nasally voice stopped her in her tracks. "Leaving so soon, are we? Why not stay a while, and let Inton explain what's going on here?" The voice seemed to come from all around them in the woods, and Inton knew at once that it was Merlin.
"Sorry, Sir, but you warned me against boys, not girls. Besides, Artoria isn't dangerous, she's just a ward." Indigo puffed up his chest, trying to make Merlin see how brave he was to face an unknown danger and find the happy truth. "Be that as it may, you still disobeyed me, boy. I'll have you scrubbing the floors till your hands feel like they were made as mops. I could turn them into mops, too, if you give me more trouble." Artoria looked back and forth between Inton and the woods nervously. While Inton was used to Merlin and his magic, it would all seem like a fairy tale to her. A scary one.
Merlin appeared from somewhere within the woods, in a starry blue robe with that strange, starry blue matching, pointed hat. He walked briskly towards Artoria, and grabbed her face. He peered down at her appraisingly, then jumped back suddenly. "Wart? But I thought you were a boy! You were supposed to be a boy. Although I suppose I never asked… it seems Inton is messing this all up. I knew he would, but even I couldn't see how. This may change everything. Do I keep him isolated? But then, how much worse could it get than how it already was? Or will be?" Merlin muttered to himself, tugging at his beard every few seconds. When he finally finished his rambling, he adjusted his glasses on his nose, then stood up straight, looking almost like a thin blue tree.
Merlin turned back to Inton. "You stay away from this girl, boy. Her future is one that it is dangerous to be entwined with. I would know. Come." He grabbed Inton by the arm and dragged him back to the woods. He looked back at Artoria, and she managed a weak smile to encourage him. He tried to smile back, but just couldn't bring himself to do it.
Chapter 2: Merlin's Slip
Merlin kept a stricter eye on Inton after that. And when he wasn't on watch, his talking owl Archimedes had his beady eyes on Int, waiting for him to make some unallowed move. His time gathering in the woods was always supervised, and kept well within the depths where no person would be likely to stumble on him.
Still, Merlin was as scatterbrained as ever, sometimes forgetting to have an eye kept on Inton. Other times, when it was only Archimedes, the owl would get distracted by the sound of a mouse and go hunting. Or fall asleep during the day. Since Archimedes was a pretty poor hunter, only returning successfully with his prey once in a blue moon, Inton sometimes had a semblance of the freedom he'd had before.
During these times, he would make his way back to the edge of the woods, getting as close to the village or castle as he could get. But he never saw Wart, or even Kay. Just the usual village folk going about their business, or guards patrolling the ramparts of the castle. Most of them looked bored, though. He didn't see how, as the life of a knight or even a guard was always filled with adventure in the stories.
Even as months passed by, Int kept sneaking out when he could to try and get a glimpse of his friend. Merlin never seemed to notice. His muttering to himself increased with time, and he could spend whole hours talking to himself. Inton's training under Merlin continued, and while he still struggled to even move anything around with magic, the way Merlin seemed able to do so effortlessly, he felt he understood a good deal of it.
Inton began to give up on ever getting to see Artoria again. The magic Merlin had displayed when scolding Inton must have scared her away. His hopes of ever being a knight were barely hanging by a thread, as Merlin always steered him away from learning about chivalry, trying to focus entirely on magic. But Inton didn't have any inclination for magic. It almost seemed like cheating, using a force hardly anybody else could, doing whatever you wanted.
One evening, after Merlin finished having the dishes clean themselves up after dinner, Merlin settled down in his favorite armchair, preparing for Inton's nightly lesson. He had a chalice in one hand, and a bottle of wine floating nearby that refilled it whenever it got low. Merlin slurred through a lecture on giants and boasted of how easy it was to take them out with magic.
"Most fool knights think they can outbrawn the dumb brutes. But 'ere-but they're wrong." He burped. "Like that sad fool, King Arthur. He'ssss gonna try and beat that beard-cloaked gianttt *hic*, but It won't turn out as well for 'em as he'd hope." He paused, looking into his wine chalice thoughtfully. "Or, I suppose it's her now. I wonder, does that make her Queen, or will they still call her King?"
"Sir?" Inton interrupted. "What do you mean by a king, or queen? Don't we have a problem with missing one right now?" "Well of course we don't now, boy. But it happened for me, which means it'll most likely happen for you. Just make sure you don't meddle with that Artoria when I go to teach her about the world soon." Inton jumped up from where he sat cross-legged on the ground. "Artoria, sir? You mean we'll go to see her?"
Merlin stroked his beard thoughtfully, forgetting his wine for a moment. "I suppose you will see her again. I mussht take you with, to continue your training as well. But stay away from Artoria. You don't want to get tangled up with her doom. I guessh it's still your doom, too since it will be the doom of mossht of thisss nation." He slumped forward, the chalice slowly wobbling from his hand, uncertainly floating to the ground. The bottle clattered down next to it, empty. Inton stared open mouthed at Merlin. He wasn't usually this pessimistic, and he hardly ever talked about the future. Inton had pieced together over the years Merlin knew much more than he would let on. Merlin started snoring, and Inton could only think of what possible doom Artoria would be facing. And how he might help her out of it.