The Legend of the Brave Knight
Sarah giggled and she and her friends took turn telling each other stories. They'd each been given a category: fact or fiction. Sarah, of course, always had fiction because she had told the best fairy stories. As all four of the friends: Sarah, Ludo, Hoggle, and Sir Didymus, had taken their turn, Sarah decided that she wanted to mix it up a bit.
"Alright, now let's have someone tell a story that's fact is disguise of fiction. Maybe a legend or a myth. Who's up to the challenge?" The friends looked at each other but then Sir Didymus raised his hand. "My Lady, if I may, I would like to be the one to grace you with a beautiful true story wrapped in the arms of a legend; one that I've been telling for as long as I can remember." "Oh, that sounds lovely, Sir Didymus!" Sarah laid down on her bed and cupped her face in her hands, much like a child waiting for a grandfather of sorts to tell them a bedtime story.
Didymus's voice had taken on a serious note. He wasn't the high pitched little knight that he had been just a few moments before. "Once upon a time there was a brave knight and his loyal steed." Abrosious, who was napping on a rug next to Merlin under Sarah's window, perked up his ears at his master's story. "The knight was young and foolish, but he had his gray and white horse won many a battle and was fawned over by many a beautiful maiden. But alas, the knight had never taken a wife, and he vowed that he never would, for his only true love in life was to serve and to live by the knights moral code. True to his word, the young knight grew with age as well as with wisdom, as did his ever loyal steed. The knight saw many lands and watched many sunrises and sunsets, but he knew that he wouldn't live forever, so he made a vow; he would die an ever-brave knight in battle, but he refused to die in a battlefield. No one had understood this, not even the knights loyal steed. Where was the logic in dying in battle but not on a battlefield, when everywhere one fights is a battlefield. But the knight knew something that no one else had, and he didn't tell a soul. Then one day, the now very old knight was once more locked in battle. The knight fought atop his steed with all his might because he knew in his heart that this would be his final battle. The steed knew as well that he was not immortal and had vowed to himself long ago that he would live and die, always beside his master.
After a long and tedious battle, the knights opponent stabbed his sword just beneath the heart of the knight. The blow was hard enough to kill him, but it wasn't enough to give the knight a quick death. So the night lay on the battlefield, long after his opponent left. The knights ever loyal steed lay beside his master, bound to see his master die before he himself gave his soul to the gods, and the knight talked to his loyal steed." Abrosious walked slowly and steadily toward his master and hopped on the bed and lay next to him, staring up at the little fox knight, listening intently to the story being told. "Oh, my loyal steed, the old man, rasped. You've been with me since I was a young and foolish boy, bent on conquering the world. With me, you've grown and counseled me when I was down. You nursed me when I was sick. You have never left me, why?" The steed looked at his master intently, the horse spoke no words, but the knight understood everything that was said. "Oh, my brave knight. You've raised me since I was a young colt, you fed me, you taught me to walk, I was the horse that you learned to ride on. When I was sick, you cared for me. When others lost hope in me, you believed in me. I gladly rode into battle with you and when we would both get hurt, you cared for me before you cared for yourself, and you ask me why I never left you? My Dear Knight, please explain to me your intentions. You told me that that you would die in battle but not on a battlefield. You are too weak to move so how do you expect to leave this battlefield?" The old knight smiled and held on tightly to his ever loyal steed. "I wish, I wish," he rasped out. After tedious breathing, the knight managed to rasp out his right words and then fell into unconsciousness, never letting go of his loyal steed.
When the old knight awoke, he was in a beautifully furnished room, and his loyal steed keeping watch over his master. The knight touched his chest, the wound had disappeared and the knight sat up from the bed quickly and had made himself dizzy in the process. He held his head quick as a tall man in royal garments and shocking blond hair entered the room. "Brave knight! Why hast thou summoned me?" The man asked after the knight had recovered from his spell. The knight looked on in amazement at the sight of the regal man. "You're him, aren't you?" The knight asked incredulously. "I've heard legend of you, my Lord. and I am forever loyal to you and only you. When I took up my first sword, I vowed to forever live my life fighting for you and I vowed that the day I died, I would summon you. I vowed that one day you would meet me. The knight that saw you as his only king, you, the Goblin King." Sir Didymus heard a small gasp come from Sarah, Hoggle choked for a moment, Ludo just opened his mouth in surprise, and Abrosious simply stared at his master and listened. Didymus paid no mind to the others' replies and continued with the story.
The Goblin King grinned, almost mockingly. "How, Sir Knight, did you come to hear about me?" The Goblin King asked, smugly. "I first heard of you as every young human child did. Atop his grandfather's lap listening to him tell the legends and stories that he grew up with, and passing the legends on to future generations." The king seemed unimpressed. "And what, pray tell, sparked your interest in me?" The king was still unimpressed but the knight only looked at him, confused. "Who wouldn't be interested in you, my king?" It was a genuine question. "You are brave, you are headstrong, you are the only person to ever control the Labyrinth! A living, breathing, creature whose power far surpasses your own! A beautiful creature who provides food and shelter for the inhabitants living inside the walls and protecting the creatures inside the walls from outside intruders! My king, who other than you could possibly control such a creature?" The knights eyes were sparkling with admiration and clearly the king liked the high praise coming from such an insignificant creature such as this human. "What, or shall I say whom, Sir Knight, pointed you toward the many men and beasts you had engaged in battle with throughout your lifetime?" "My King." The knight said, bowing the best he could while bedridden. "I traveled the world in search of any information I could find about you.. Along the way I heard tell of thieves in small defenseless towns, or beasts pillaging and ravaging towns, I defeated man and beast alike as well as any creature whom I had reason to believe was an enemy of yours." "What was your source for these beliefs, Knight?" "Why, legends, stories, myths. I spent a great deal of my life putting together pieces of stories that had been broken apart and locating many enemies of the king that I had sworn my life to. I have never met you, My Lord, but I had such faith, that you were real."
After talking with the knight, the king nodded. "Alright, Sir Knight." The king said, after a moment of thought. "I can be generous. I will let you stay in this room while I think over our discussion." He went to the door and stole a glance at the steed that was still keeping watch over his master. "Oh, and, Sir Knight," the king added, turning around. "Yes, My Lord." The knight sat up straight in the bed and looked back at his king. "Teach your companion to listen. My guards tried to take him to our stables where he would be fed and nurtured to health, but he refused to leave your side." The knight looked at his steed with a smile. "My Lord, this horse will never leave my side, and I will never leave his. We are bound together by a string of fate." The old knight tenderly looked at his companion. "My dear friend. You are hungry and injured, and the good king has offered you food and shelter. Go with him, let his staff tend to your wounds and feed you. I will visit you as soon as I am able, after all, you will know if something is amiss." The horse bowed his head in compliance and the king summoned his guards to lead the horse to the stable. "Rest. I will come back when I've decided what to do with you."Said the king, leaving the old knight alone. The knight fell back into a dreamless sleep.
Sarah could see the paid in her friends' eyes when she heard Sir Didymus telling them the story. "After some time," the fox knight continued, "the king came back with a proposition." "Sir Knight," the Goblin King said, "I have come to a decision. As you are human, you are mortal, as well. You were nearly dead when you were found on my doorstep and my goblins carried you in and healed you. As you are, you are too old to turn into a goblin, and too old to keep here as one of my soldiers. Therefore you have a choice. You can return aboveground with your steed and live out the rest of your life, or you can stay here and live forever in my kingdom. But it comes with a price." "I will stay." The knight said, proudly. "Do you not wish to know the consequence?" The king asked him. "I do not, My Lord. I will stay here and serve you whatever way I can, on one condition." "What condition do you speak of, knight?" "I wish to keep my companion." "I am a generous man, Sir Knight, and I will grant your wish." The old knight smiled and followed the king to the stables where they picked up the knights companion. The king led them to an open pasture and handed the knight two potions. One for him, and one for his loyal steed. The horse looked apprehensively at the liquids but trusted is master. First the knight gave the potion to his steed and then drank his own. Both of them blacked out once more.
Months later, the knight awoke with a start. He was sure that the potion had killed him. When his blurred vision cleared, he was in a large room, similar to that of which he had stayed in, except bigger. The king was keeping vigil in a chair across from the old knight. When he noticed that the knight had awaken, he stood up. "How do you feel, Sir Knight?" "I fell as if I've had much rest, My Lord, now what is it that you'll have me do?" "First, Sir Knight, there are things that we need to discuss. The potions had some unexpected side affects on you and your companion." "Yes, My Lord?" The Goblin King held a mirror in front of the old knight and the knight smiled. "I say I look much better, My Lord." He said, in good spirits. The knight looked at his hands which were no longer hands, but paws with orange fur. "A fox, My lord, one of my favorite creatures. What of my loyal steed?" The king motioned to a shaggy dog asleep on a rug under a nearby window. "My loyal steed." The old fox knight cooed. "What be your name, Sir Knight?" The king asked after months of having these guests in his castle. "My Lord, I am known as Sir Didymus, and Abrosious is my loyal steed.
The dog nuzzled his master affectionately and Sarah, Hoggle, and Ludo realized that the Goblin King might not really be what he seems. Outside the window a barn owl kept watch over the girl who had beaten his labyrinth, and the traitors who had helped her. All night he had spent listening to them taking turns telling stories until the fox knight began telling a story. A story that the Goblin King knew well, as it was a story that belonged to he and the knight. Upon hearing the end of the story, the Goblin King felt a knot in his chest. Sadness, he recognized the feeling instantly and knew that the fox knight was feeling the all, Sir Didymus was simply acting on his instincts. While the king saw opposition, the fox knight saw a beautiful damsel in distress and was simply doing the only thing he knew to do. The Goblin King made a mental note to call the knight to his palace once the visit with the girl was over. With that final thought, he took wing and flew into the moonlight.