Dancing in the misty forest, a young girl was twirling around in silent circles and was chanting a silent spell as she twirled. Slowly the girl came to a stop, opening her dark leaf green eyes that seemed to shimmer in the rays of sunlight, her snow-white skin wet with sweat, her hazelnut coloured hair fluttered in the light cool breeze and her dark emerald green ankle length dress softly followed the direction of the blowing wind. Then, everything stopped. She whispered coldly:
"I will be coming... Arthur Pendragon...."
With a sudden thrash of the wind, sprinkling dead leaves, the girl vanished leaving a large mark on the ground that looked like a large eye with Arthur's name engraved in the pupil...
"AAH!" screamed Morgana, panting as she sat up on her bed, staring out the window in fear and caution. She had another nightmare - no, a vision of the future. It was the same one that she had a day ago, the one with blood and bodies. This time though, there was a woman, standing there, raising her hand and chanted a spell and then ---
"My lady! Are you alright?!" Morgana's maidservant rushed to her side and took a handkerchief out of her pocket and wiped Morgana's sweaty face gently,"Was it another nightmare?"
Nodding quickly, Morgana mumbled something that sounded like an apology. Gwen couldn't bring herself to smile, worry rained over her. Gwen thought she was already use to Morgana's sudden cries of help and screams of warning, but obviously the maidservant wasn't and she was becoming curious. Why did her mistress have these nightmares every night? Gwen knew very well that all of Morgana's dreams come true, but why? Surely it can't be magic...right? With all those thoughts in Gwen's mind she had forgotten that Morgana was sitting on her bed still staring out the clear, cold window into the gloomy wilderness outside.
"Was it the same nightmare you had the day before?" Gwen asked, slipping the hankerchief back into her pocket.
"Yes, it was..." Morgana replied solemnly as she tore her eyes from the window, looking at Gwen,"But this time, there was a woman, she was chanting a spell and then everything just disappeared --- Vanished..."
As Morgana said this, she began shivering, her eyes showed fear, shock, and anger. Whispering words of comfort, Gwen gently helped Morgana lie back down and began humming a soft lullaby. Drifting into a dreamless deep slumber, Morgana finally closed her eyes and went into the world of darkness. Watching the sheets go up and down slowly, Gwen silently stood up and tiptoed out of the room, leaving her mistress sleeping soundly near the arched window with the moon shining down on her...
Lying awake in the middle of the night, Arthur unconsciously gazed at Merlin's sleeping face, thinking about what he had said yesterday. Why did he say Merlin would be a beautiful woman? If it was between normal men, this would have a disgusting topic, but it didn't feel disgusting at all... And shouldn't he be in love with Gwen? So why is he thinking about Merlin so much?
"Urrgh!" Arthur groaned in annoyance, lifting his hand into his blond hair messing it up as if trying to get rid of the awkward thoughts. 'What's wrong with me?!' Arthur shouted in his head.
Getting out of the bed and into the cold air, Arthur stretched out his arms out and went through his large wardrobe, searching for something warm to wear into the cold Autumn atmosphere outside. Finding a dark indigo blue woolly jumper, a pair of long chestnut brown pants and some woolly socks from the draw Arthur was ready to take a stroll into the chilly outdoors.
"Hah!" Arthur gasped, hitting the cold air as he continued to walk into the known yet unknown world of the darkness.
There were no lights to help Arthur see. Feeling vulnerable, Arthur was beginning to regret going outside, he was now wishing he was back in his warm bed covers lying next to the warmth of his manservant. 'Why did it have to turn out like this? I didn't even bring my bloody sword!' Arthur cursed in his mind as he roamed around the castle aimlessly.
"You shouldn't wonder around the castle in the dark young lad," came the voice of a woman with a thick Irish accent,"You could get hurt..."
"I flattered, that you would worry about a mere stranger, but I have been born to defend myself," reassure Arthur politely, turning around to face the woman.
The woman seemed to be the same age as Arthur was, she was just a head shorter, hazelnut coloured hair, snow-white skin and those piercing leaf-green eyes. She was wearing a long white nightgown that glowed in the pitch black background, a big golden heart-shaped locket hung from a long strand of black rope was around her slender neck and she was shoeless, so her feet were scratched, bleeding and looked incredibly sore.
Noticing Arthur's wince slightly, the woman asked,"What's wrong? Are you cold?"
"No, I'm fine..." Arthur mumbled, ripping his eyes away from the petite woman's scratched feet and then added,"I think I should take you inside. You need to have some ointment on those sore feet of yours"
"Oh..." the woman looked down to her feet and blushed in embarrassment,"I'm sorry, I ran away from home and I forgot to bring some emergency shoes with me... The other pair fell into the river will I was trying to cross the border."
"Well, I'm sure there's always another pair of shoes in the castle," Arthur offered, motioning her to come with him into the castle,"We'll see the court physician tomorrow morning"
"Thank you," the woman thanked as she stumbled beside Arthur in the dark," I believe we didn't introduce ourselves yet"
"Yes, I apologize for my rudeness," Arthur said,"My name is Arthur Pendragon, I'm the prince of Camelot, and I'm twenty-three years old, single"
"Well, I'm Vera O'Sullivan daughter of the well known artist Ealadha O'Sullivan, and I am twenty years old, engaged to a man I do not wish to marry," introduced the Irish woman as she and Arthur reached the entrance into the castle.
"Vera... What an interesting name for an Irish woman," Arthur mumbled, opening the door and let Vera get inside first.
"My mother is a Russian lass," Vera stated, following Arthur through the long dark corridors, the only source of light was the glimmer of the silver crescent moon shining through the large windows,"My mother named me"
"I see you love your mother very much," Arthur said, smiling at Vera lovingly,"Your face shows everything"
Blinking in shock, Vera immediately went scarlet red and looked away, trying to hide her blush. Chuckling lightly, Arthur wondered, 'Vera, eh? I'm pretty sure Morgana would love her'. Vera whispered something that sounded a lot like 'where am I going to sleep?' and stared at Arthur, waiting for an answer. Pondering for a moment, Arthur scanned through every spare bedroom in the castle that was safest in his head.
Ding! The light bulb appears.
"There's a spare room next to my chamber, you can sleep there if you want," Arthur offered, suddenly sharply turning right into another corridor, but this one had no windows and had glowing red torches lit on the stone walls.
When they reached the room Vera thanked Arthur for his hospitality and entered the room gracefully and froze. My goodness... Vera had never seen a room as big and grand as this one; there was a queen-size bed, with deep sea-blue covers and two soft white pillows resting lightly on the bed; next to the bed was a oak wood draw, on top of the draw was a candle that seemed to be unused for quite some time and there was a large dusty ancient book sitting next to the candle; the walls were made of cold hard limestone, where the a big bookshelf leaned on.
"Wow..." Vera breathed, amazed by her surroundings.
"Too grand for you?" Arthur laughed,"My manservant will bring you an extra set of clothes. I don't know how long you have been wearing that dress"
"Two months, I think," Vera replied, lifting the ends of the pure white, untainted nightgown,"It looks clean though..."
"You'll never know," Arthur stated, yawning loudly.
"True, true," nodded Vera in agreement.
"Well, goodnight then"
"Goodnight"
The birds were singing happily in the chilly Autumn morning sky, the trees all lost their last sunset leaf and are standing tall, dark and naked in the cold. Sitting by the window daydreaming, the blond prince was interrupted by his skinny manservant, who woke up late and nearly trampled over their little fawn.
"Go away," Arthur grumbled, shooing Merlin away as he continued gazing out the window.
"But Arthur, Uther wants to see you!" Merlin persisted, ranting about what would happen to him if Arthur didn't go.
"Just tell him that I have a headache and can't attend!" Arthur ordered irritatedly,"You have a brain! So use it!"
"B-But"
"No buts!" Arthur demanded, angrily this time as he heard his manservant's loud stomping footsteps to the door, and a loud SLAM that woke his female guest from last night.
Stepping inside quietly without knocking, Vera went up to Arthur and asked what was wrong. Arthur didn't reply and just stared out the window in a trance. Sighing softly, Vera left Arthur in la la land for a moment and went to get some things. Returning from where ever she went, Vera appeared by Arthur's side and 1...2...3...
CLANG!
"What the fuck was that for?!" Arthur yelled, covering his ears in pain glaring at Vera.
"You were in la la land so I, being an Irish lass, had to wake ya up," explained Vera, holding up a metal plate hanging from a string and a metal pole.
"I'm pretty sure Irish women don't like that," Arthur said.
"Ya sure? Well, I'm pretty you have never been to Ireland, lad," Vera smiled smugly,"Anyways, you seem to be in a depressing mood, what is wrong?"
"I didn't get enough sleep..." Arthur replied,"I woke up really early..."
"I see..." was all Vera managed to say, then she remembered something. "Then who was that angry lad? Who stomped out of ya room?"
"Merlin, my manservant," Arthur answered moving away from the window frame and towards the well-made bed, bending over to see if Cara was still underneath the bed sleeping. She was there, but not sleeping. Cara crawled out from under the bed and pushed herself up to a proud standing position. Ignoring Vera, Cara pranced past her towards the bathroom and while she was prancing past she glared at the pale woman standing there in confusion.
'Who are you? What do you want with the prince?' Cara questioned suspiciously, waiting for a reply. 'Revenge....' Vera whispered, her leaf-green eyes flashed with blind hatred as she stared at Cara and smirked...Wickedly. 'I will have my way...' Vera sounded confident, so confident that she sent shivers down Cara's spine.
"I think I shall leave now," Vera told Arthur as she went, leaving Arthur and Cara.
"Why do people all seem to be ditching me?"
'Oh, I have absolutely no idea...'
Gwen was helping the laundry maids hang up the washing; it was a pretty hard task, especially when there is strong wind and the clothes keep flying around wildly like a flock of crazy ducks.
"Hey girl! Catch that runaway shirt! It's royalty!" shouted a panicking old lady as she waved her arms about frantically, trying to catch the shirt.
"Here you go," Gwen handed the shirt that she just caught to the old lady. The old lady smiled pleasantly, thanking Gwen and skipped merrily away. 'What an odd old lady...' Gwen chuckled in her mind as she picked up the now empty washing basket and carried it back inside.
"Good morning, young lass"
Spinning around, Gwen came face to face with Vera and accidental dropped the basket as she jumped in surprise. Bending down, Vera picked up the washing basket for Gwen and grinned.
"Vera O'Sullivan," introduced Vera, shaking Gwen's hand,"Nice to meet you"
"Guinevere Leodegrance, but most people call me Gwen," Gwen introduced back,"Nice to meet you too"
"So... Where are you heading?" Vera asked, following Gwen towards the laundry room. It was a small chilly room with at least ten women scrubbing away by the wooden buckets of soapy cold water. Even in a place where cleaning is done, the girls could still smell the foul scent of sweat, manure and blood in the pile of unwashed clothes.
"Excuse me, I'm back with the basket," sounded Gwen, putting the basket beside the laundry maid and excused herself, with Vera eagerly leaving, happy to be out the horrible stench.
Running after Gwen, Vera wondered where this servant was going this time. Gwen noticed Vera following her, and wasn't very happy about this, but being Gwen, she let Vera catch up and started a conversation with her newly found friend.
"So, you're new here aren't you?" Gwen asked,"Where are you staying?"
"Yeah, I'm new here and I'm staying in the castle," Vera replied, kicking a small stone on the ground.
"Prince Arthur let you in?" Gwen asked, flicking a strand of hair out of her dark chocolate eyes as a cool breeze started to blow.
"Yes, met him last night, he was taking a stroll," Vera giggle at the memory of Arthur the 'gentleman' and then returned to concentrating on kicking the stone forward.
Smiling softly, Gwen proceeded walking and stopped in front of a big brown door. Knocking on it, Gwen asked for permission to come inside and turned the golden doorknob, opening the door with a creak. Vera peered over Gwen's shoulder, noticing a large bed by an arched window with a beautiful young woman sitting on it.
"Why hello there," greeted the blue eyed beauty as she stood and strutted towards them," You brought an interesting friend Gwen"
"Yes my lady, her name is Vera," Gwen introduced for Vera, giving her a light push on the back,"We met at the laundry area"
Vera stared at Morgana, she swore in her mind. 'Speak Vera! Speak! Oh damn!' Vera cursed, putting her hand on her throat and rubbed it simultaneously until she got her voice back on track.
"Sorry, I seemed to have lost my voice just then," Vera coughed,"I was shocked by your beauty, my lady," added Vera truthfully as she curtsied gracefully.
Morgana laughed at Vera's compliment, the king's ward has been called beautiful many times before but never had anyone become speechless like Vera did. Motioning them inside, Morgana introduced herself making Vera twice as shocked and amazed. 'You kidding me?! I'm talking to the king's ward?!' Vera screamed in her mind, she thought Morgana would have been nobility but she never knew the beauty was actually royalty! Watching the other two women laugh hysterically at her innocent reaction, Vera felt warm blood flush into her cheeks again...
"It's not that funny!" Vera whined, these are the days when she hated her skin colour,"I wish I wasn't pale..." Vera muttered grumpily.
"S-Sorry, but you should of seen your face, you looked like monkey!" Morgana cracked up, nearly falling to the ground. 'The beauty is so immature...' Vera thought venomously, not noticing Gwen, who saw the cold death glare Vera gave to her mistress and frowned.
Finally calming down, Morgana fanned herself with her hand, crawled over her bed and roughly pushed the window open, letting the cool wind travel inside, blowing against Morgana's fine features as she did so. Paper's began to float into the spacious air as the wind attacked them, pushing them in different directions. It was like standing in a flock of square doves, some pure, some tainted...
"This feels better," Morgana exclaimed, feeling the wind fluttering against her flawless pale skin and travelling through her long, wavy, chocolate brown hair.
A gush of envy rushed through Vera's veins, as she realized how beautiful Morgana was. Gwen noticed all of this, becoming cautious, she went over to Morgana and shut the window in her face. The sheets of paper fell to the floor when the wind got locked out and Vera went up to the girls trampling over the scattered sheets of paper. Morgana sensed Vera's aura. It was dark, evil, manipulating and mysterious. Gwen shrank behind Morgana in fright while Morgana crouched on the bed, arms spread protectively and stared coldly at Vera.
"What do think your doing?" Morgana hissed,"What's your real purpose here?"
"Ha ha ha, my real purpose?" Vera cackled and smirked,"You should know Morgana le Fay... Or is your magic getting rusty?"
"Magic? What magic?" Gwen asked cluelessly,"You have magic?"
"Yes, I do..." Morgana whispered, guilt clouded in her grey-blue eyes,"I'm sorry, I didn't tell you earlier..."
"Awwww.... You didn't tell your best friend? Some friend you are!" Vera sneered, as she moved closer to Morgana and Gwen, intimidating them severely.
Growling at Vera, Morgana stood her ground and then suddenly she screamed.
"HELP!! SOMEONE"S TRYING TO MURDER US!!"
Taking a step back in alert, Vera dashed out of the room, leaving Morgana and Gwen shaking in fear. Guards came crashing in asking what happened.
"What happened, my lady?" asked on of the guards in a concerned tone.
Morgana and Gwen remained still and silent, staring out the door like they just seen a ghost. The guard waved his hand in front of their faces, and shook their shoulders roughly.
"HELLO?!" shouted the guard as Morgana finally snapped back to reality.
"Huh? Oh, nothing, false alarm," apologized Morgana, shaking Gwen awake, murmuring her maidservant's name.
Since it was a false alarm, the guards exited the room and went back to their daily routine. Morgana and Gwen looked at each other in fear. Why did Vera suddenly snap? Where did she come from? And what does she want? Morgana decided to ask Cara since Vera was brought in by Arthur. Morgana had a very bad feeling about Vera O'Sullivan....
Arthur and Merlin were out hunting, again... Merlin was complaining childishly while Arthur just rolled his eyes and drew his bow and arrow and Fling! The arrow shot through the air piercing a lonely rabbit that was happily nibbling on some fresh grass until the arrow went though its petite head. Merlin covered his eyes from the horrible scene and took a peek afterwards. Arthur sighed, picking the rabbit corpse up and ordered Merlin to carry it.
"Merlin! Stop looking at me like I'm some evil monster!" Arthur demanded,"Besides, don't you eat meat?!"
"I do, but I don't like watching innocent creatures die!" Merlin argued, glaring at Arthur with a You-Will-Never-Understand look.
"Your such a girl," Arthur remarked, jumping over a large tree root that was sticking out of the moist ground.
When they reached the gates of the castle, Arthur noticed some smugged footprints among the sunset ground which lead all the way from the direction of Morgana's chamber and into Gwen's empty house. Becoming suspicious, Arthur investigated the footprint. It belonged to a woman. Not sure whether this was Gwen returning home or an imposter, Arthur followed the trailed with Merlin wondering behind him.
"Are sure it's a uninvited guest?" Merlin asked, staring at Gwen's bearly stable house,"It might just be Gwen"
"It never hurts to take a look for ourselves," Arthur replied, creeping towards the door and slowly opened it.
"Who's there?" came a petrified voice.
"Vera?" Arthur exclaimed in surprise, opening the door fully, giving Merlin a full view of the suspect,"What on earth are you doing in Guinevere's room, sneaking around like that?"
"Oh, umm..." Vera was lost for words, despretely scanning the room for an escape route she then lied,"I was getting something for Gwen"
Believing her, Arthur sighed in relief, he didn't want to arrest a guest of his but Merlin, however, didn't believe a single word and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. 'You know magic don't you? I can sense it' Merlin muttered in alert. 'Why yes I do. Your smarter than I thought, Emrys...' Vera replied, impressed that Merlin found out so quickly. 'Emrys again...' Merlin grumbled,'That druid boy called me that.'
"Merlin? You still there?" Arthur whispered, his baby-blue eyes showed concern as he repeated the word 'hello' simultaneously.
"Not anymore," answered Merlin calmly, grabbing Arthur's annoying hand that was still waving in front of his face.
Suddenly Vera popped out from inside the house and appeared behind them, scaring the shit out of them (well, Arthur wouldn't admit he got scared). Merlin took a step back as if saying 'personal bubble here' and glared at her. Vera introduced herself for the fourth time and shook Merlin's hand, but Merlin immediately pulled away.
"Why are ya so shy, lad?" Vera asked laughing half-heartedly,"Afraid of a young lady like me, my, my..."
Arthur laughed loudly at the comment and slapped Merlin's back in a friendly way nearly making Merlin fall. Since nothing odd was happening, Arthur walked back towards the castle, Vera followed him with Merlin catching up, still holding the dead rabbit and heavy bow and arrow.
'Everything is going as intended...' Vera smirked as she entered the stone castle with the prince...
Cara galloped through the slippery hallway, her hooves weren't made for newly waxed wooden floors and it made sending a urgent message difficult.
'S-Shit,' cursed Cara, dodging the stone wall by a inch and proceeded her small voyage to Morgana's room.
Crashing into the wooden entrance of Morgana's room, Cara bucked the door until Morgana came rushing to the door and swung it open. Realizing that her impatient guest was Cara, Morgana quickly invited her in and frantically told Cara about what had happened with her and Gwen a moment ago. Listening to Morgana speak in a frantic voice filled with fear and worry, Cara's suspicion of the Irish intruder grew and grew.
"She tried to attack us!" Morgana exclaimed,"I have a bad feeling about her!"
'Same here, she said was here for revenge,' Cara remembered and shivered at the memory,'She sounded so confident...'
"You think she's after Uther?" Morgana asked, she was panicking too much that she couldn't talk telepathically with Cara.
'Probably, but I think she's aiming for someone else... Most likely Arthur,' Cara mumbled,'He was the first person she met when she came here'
"But Arthur is stronger than she is"
'Yes, but she knows magic'
"So your saying Arthur's in danger?!"
'Both Arthur and Merlin are in danger. This is bad! The problem is we don't know who's going to be her victim!'
"You said it was going to Arthur"
'Yes, but it seems she is very unpredictable even in her thoughts...'
"Great! We have three problems to solve now! Making Arthur realizing his feelings for Merlin, when is the perfect time for giving gifts and now this bitch appears out of nowhere filled with vengeance!"
'Could life get any harder?' Cara whined in her head, bashing her head on the soft mattress of the bed.
Morgana slapped her forehead in annoyance, then went to the draw and pulled out the scroll and the used quil she wrote with yesterday. Ticking the first thing she had to get, Morgana took out something that looked like a diamond bracelet, layed it on the table, ripped a strip of paper, wrote Merlin's name on in and wrapped a strand of string around it and tied it to the bracelet.
"Here, give this to Arthur," Morgana ordered, handing the gift to Cara to deliver.
'I'll do my job at ease...' obeyed Cara as she picked up the jewelery with her petite mouth and set of to Arthur's chamber.
Much to Cara's dismay, she found Vera with Arthur in his chamber... Merlin wasn't there, he must have went to get something for Arthur. 'I wonder if Merlin also sensed the evilness of this thing,' Cara hissed practically spitting the word 'thing'.
Crash!
Snapping out of her thoughts, Cara peered into the room, her eyes become wider and wider. Vera was on top of Arthur on the bed in a very awkward position, plus Merlin stumbled in with some fresh clothes and looked like he was about to burst into tears at what he was seeing. Dropping the clothes, Merlin turned and ran, sobbing violently while Arthur called after him but Vera pulled him back towards her and within seconds he found his lips against Vera's soft, moist ones. Parting for breath, Vera smirked then whispered something in Arthur's ear, then kissed Arthur on lips again and then left him in his room startled.
Cara nearly fainted at the sudden but short scene that just played in front of her, but reminded herself that she was here to give Arthur a present and quietly trotted inside. Arthur didn't realize Cara coming inside and fell onto the bed, sighing loudly. 'W-What the hell just happened?' pondered Arthur as he rolled around on the bouncy bed, trying to get Vera out of his thoughts. Placing the bracelet on the draw next to the candle, Cara slid herself under the bed and waited for a certain skinny, raven headed, blue eyed young servant boy to enter the room pretending that nothing happened. And he did.
Creeaak....
"Excuse me, sire," Merlin murmured as he stepped inside, his eyes all puffy and red from crying.
"Come in, Merlin," Arthur gestured him to come,"I'm sorry about what happened"
Merlin didn't reply and silently trudged towards Arthur, avoiding eye contact with the prince. Arthur felt a pang of guilt built up in his chest as he watched his manservant trying to shrink himself, sitting up straight he reached out for Merlin's hand and then dragged him towards him, making Merlin fall onto the bed.
"You still going to sleep here tonight right?" Arthur asked, surprising Merlin as he pulled Merlin closer and murmured,"If only you were a woman..."
The two boys found themselves drifting off into the darkness while Cara stayed wide awake. She came out of the bed, stood on her hind legs and blew the candle out and stuffed herself back under the bed with one person in her mind.
'Vera O'Sullivan...'
I thank all the people who reviewed this story! :) You guys give me hope...