Chapter Ten: The Dene

Sunrise, 1st June

Five days had passed and I still hadn't seen any more of the outside world other than the few glimpses of freedom through the slit windows of the corridors in the maze-like castle. It was starting to get weigh down on me. My days consisted of going to the oppressive maximum-security cell to try and understand how to use my powers – with all of the attempts thus far proving unsuccessful – then going to the guards' training rooms to do some sword training with Kate. I got occasional breaks for food and rest but past that it was almost solid. We weren't invited to any more feasts, that seemed to have simply been a special occasion. We tended to eat wherever we were at the time and were then given a larger meal in our chamber in the evening. We were told that we were meant to be focusing on our work, despite the fact that we still had no idea what we were supposed to do once I had 'mastered' my powers.

Despite the impersonal nature of King Harold's hosting, Princess Mary made a lot of time for us. She frequently visited me when I was trying to use the diamonds, though she looked increasingly more disappointed each time nothing happened, and she invited me back to her room a couple more times for a chat. These were not only the few moments I had to almost relax during this whole fiasco, but they also allowed Kate to continue her crude jokes.

I didn't immediately notice it, but on the second day Kate brought up that I had stopped suddenly waking up in the middle of the night. I thought back and realised that I hadn't had any nightmares about the diamonds. Indeed, I hadn't had any dreams at all, and it continued over the subsequent days. I was having the best sleeps I'd had since arriving on the island, probably the best since I'd left for holiday given the hangovers I'd had every morning on the yacht.

Every morning, one of the King's guards would wake us up at sunrise to a meagre breakfast and take me to the cell I had been trying to train my powers in. I hadn't seen Harold in the flesh since the feast. This morning, however, once we had been woken up by one of the guards, the King himself came into our room.

"Harding, you have not been progressing quite as expected," He rather depressively began.

"Good morning to you too," I sarcastically replied.

"For this reason," he continued, completely ignoring my comment, "I have decided that it would be best if you practised in a freer environment. We will leave the castle as soon as possible to try and train your powers in The Dene."

"Do I get a say in this?"

"No. Our window of opportunity is drawing to a close and we must act on it."

Kate, ever suspicious of the monarch, suddenly chimed in. "What exactly do we have a 'window of opportunity' for? We still have no bloody idea what's going on."

The King glared at Kate, a common look for him when looking at her by this point, and sternly said, "All in good time," before beginning to walk out of the room. It felt like his bloody catchphrase at this point. Without looking back, he continued, "Fetch your sword and meet me outside." He left through the door, shortly followed by his guard who slammed it shut on his way out.

Once we were alone again, I looked over to Kate and asked, "What's 'The Dene'?" not fully expecting an answer. She just dismissively shrugged her shoulders and hopped out of bed.

I did the same and we began to get ready. We'd both got our own clothes cleaned and repaired (as best as we could) over the previous few days so we wore those rather than the impractical and confusing clothes they supplied us with. This meant that getting ready was much quicker than previously because we didn't have to try and work out the puzzles that were the clothes supplied to us.

We exited the room to find two slightly confused looking guards judging our clothes. I had first assumed, rather foolishly, that they simply didn't like David's taste in fashion before realising that they'd just never seen modern clothes before. They simply pushed us down the corridor towards the front of the castle. We quickly retrieved my sword and a normal iron one for Kate before making our way to the entrance of the castle.

Every courtier we passed stopped any conversations and simply stared at Kate and me. Their distant gossiping was poorly disguised as we moved further away further away from them. Some were judging my unkempt facial hair which consisted of a pathetically uneven and stubbly beard with an even thinner moustache that didn't quite link up with the rest; others were discussing the state and style of our clothes, neither of which they had seen before since they had very strict dress codes and always kept them in the best condition possible.

We reached the opened wooden doors of the Great Hall. A brief look inside revealed a large group of servants moving tables and sweeping the floor in preparation for the next feast in the evening. A comforting sight as that indicated that the King wasn't planning to stay out overnight.

The guards heaved open the opposing big wooden doors, revealing a huge courtyard behind them surrounded by an impressive stone wall, complete with towers at each corner and either side of the main gate at the far end. The ten large but uneven stone steps in front of us led us to the muddied grass of the wide expanse that was littered with people doing a multitude of jobs. On the right-hand side sat the soldiers' barracks with a group of about twenty infantry wielding wooden swords and circular shields practising their sword fighting technique. They stood in rows of 5, giving a decent gap in-between each other and facing towards the centre of the courtyard all watching a high-ranking instructor in front of them. They attempted to swing their swords at the air in unison under their leader's instruction but their inability to do so reliably and their mismatch of lighter armours and clothing indicated that, despite being in the King's army, they weren't the most professional.

A vague mud track was marked out down the centre of the courtyard, more likely carved from use than intent, on which a small wooden horse-drawn cart was carrying five or six bulky sacks full of a wide variety of items including food, weapons and building supplies. The cart followed the track off to the left and towards the stables and storehouses. Pulling up outside the stone buildings, a couple of stable hands detached the two horses from their cart and led them to the wooden gates of the stables. At the same time, three men came out of a small wooden door next to the stables that led to some sort of rudimentary office for the storehouses. The driver of the cart dismounted, exchanged a few words with them and they all began to move the goods inside.

King Harold was waiting outside for us with two more of his guards, both of which had large leather sacks strapped to their backs. He had donned more practical attire than what we were used to seeing him in. He had covered himself in chainmail and leather armour with a black surcoat and red cloak beneath. Despite the practicality, his outfit was still incredibly ornate. It was covered in intricacies and painstakingly crafted designs, even the chainmail was coloured gold (whether or not it was actually gold was another matter). He was conversing with one of his guards, a guard that I recognised to be present when I was acquiring the sword from the castle's chamber.

As we stepped closer, we heard the King round off their conversation by saying, "Thank you, my friend," as he took his key necklace off and handed it to him. The guard gave a small but dignified bow, put the necklace on, and walked off, handing his leather sack to one of our guards and barely glancing at Kate and I as he passed us.

The grey, gloomy clouds in the backdrop of the castle grounds foreshadowed both rain and distinct trouble ahead. The King looked towards us, put his arms behind his back and waited patiently as Kate and I were ushered down the stairs by our entourage of two guards.

"Ideally I'd prefer a sunnier day for leaving the city, but time is of the essence." He stated on our approach. As soon as I stepped close to him, he turned around and began walking through the road in the centre. Kate followed behind as the three guards formed a triangle around the three of us.

"Leaving the city?" I asked, trying to keep some semblance of composure and valiance but hopeful that for some reason he just meant out of the castle as he had said earlier and not into the terrifying wilderness that had nearly killed me so many times before.

"Yes, Harding. Out and into the Dene." He glanced over at me as he registered my previous hesitation. His voice was barely audible through the annoying clattering of his chain mail. "It is a forest in a valley not far from here. Its trees have been used for centuries to build Sarthe so it isn't as large as it once was, but it's a fair place to get away from the city and practice your talents in peace."

I thought for a moment, trying to form a counter point without sounding cowardly. As I did so, we walked past the group of soldiers. Harold stopped and watched his men practice until their leader noticed him there. The heavily armoured guard turned around and shouted, "Group! Attention!" as he sheathed his sword, pushed his legs together, kept one hand on his sword's handle and the other down by his side. His men followed him exactly but were only mostly in unison.

"Excellent show." Harold began, glancing over the soldiers before resting his gaze on the captain before him. "How goes it?"

"Very good, your highness." He looked across the rest of us with a look of mild confusion and asked, "My liege, are you going somewhere?"

"I am. I have left my daughter in charge but I should be back by nightfall." They exchanged stern conversation that I didn't listen to for a minute or two. I was trying to think of ways to get out of leaving the city, but I was coming up completely blank. They eventually finished their chat with a firm handshake. The soldier went back to his training and the King set himself back on track. I only noticed when Kate walked towards me and nudged me forwards, breaking me out of my deep thought.

I caught up to the King and offered my carefully worded question. "What exactly is the difference between me doing my thing in here and out there?" As I spoke, we passed a group of five spear-armed soldiers marching towards the castle, all of which shouted 'hail' as they passed the King. "Isn't it just risky going out there?"

Harold let out a small condescending chuckle. "Harding. If you are to succeed, you must push yourself. As soon as you are comfortable, you will become complacent and you will fail."

"I might be more driven if I was told more information than 'do this thing because there's danger I promise.'"

The King, struggling to maintain a collected composure for his subjects, sighed and said, "I will tell you everything as soon as we leave the city. We wouldn't want the people hearing this and panicking, would we?"

"I couldn't really give a toss, frankly."

He rolled his eyes as the first of two large portcullises ahead of us were drawn upwards, their ascent accompanied by the loud clanging of chains. They were made of heavy, latticed iron and took the best part of a minute to fully open. The second slowly opened as we walked through the gateway. I looked up and saw the dangerous murder-holes they would use in the event of an attack. Despite being with literally the most important man in this world, I quickened my pace to get out of there as quickly as possible. The gates quickly closed behind us as we stood at the top of the small hill above the city.

The King stood in a powerful stance with his hands on his hips and proudly sighed. "Sarthe. Quite something, isn't it?"

In all honesty, I was a little disappointed. While it was neither small nor unimpressive, I was expecting something more London-sized. I thought that there would be buildings as far as the eye could see but, as it stood, we could make it to the other end of the city in about twenty minutes of gentle ambling. The fortifications were impressive, however. It was clear that the city had been built in chunks as there were three more walls in total. We could see the entirety of the first before us with its four gatehouses that sat on all four of its rough sides. The second wall surrounded both the first wall and the castle's hill and so we could only see the gatehouse in-line with us and the two on our left and right sides. The third also encompassed the two inside walls but stopped at the sea to our right, leaving a large open space where the ocean could be accessed. Only two outer gatehouses were visible, one in-line with us that led to a forest – presumably 'The Dene' – and one to our left that led to some farmland.

The first and oldest wall was relatively small but was still double the height of any building within it (and most outside it). It was clearly hastily constructed as it only featured one wooden gate per gatehouse and was relatively thin. It also seemed to be ageing and falling into disrepair, especially when compared with the pristine castle wall that we had just passed through. When the city was first built, it seemed as though this wall was built before the castle's. The 'motte and bailey' layout meant that the castle would not have been the main line of defence and so wasn't the first priority. The second wall seemed to have more thought put into it. A large barbican protected the two gates of each gatehouse with imposing circular towers above them.

The largest wall looked as though it was only a couple of decades old at the most. It was thick and looked extremely expensive to build. Towers ran at regular intervals across it with bigger ones at the huge gatehouses. Two portcullises blocked entry and consisted of the standard iron lattice structure with wooden reinforcement behind each one. The houses in this section were generally larger as well as being sparser with some of them still under construction.

A moderately sized river wound its way under the outer and second walls and through the area between the first and second walls, before passing under the second and into the sea. Its brown waters slightly tainted the blue water of the ocean before dissipating in its expanse. Several bridges of varying sizes and construction spanned the river's width; the larger and more important bridges in-line with the gatehouses being made out of stone while the smaller footbridges were made out of wood.

Just outside the second wall were a set of small fishing piers that went some way into the calm sea. A few smaller houses were near the piers that looked as though they could house the few people doing the fishing at the time.

A large cathedral stood out among the small buildings. Its huge square spire with points at each corner towered above the second wall that it was inside. The main body of the building ran parallel to the wall and was about the equivalent of about five of the small thatched cottages near it.

I could make out the top of a white stone statue just in front of the second wall, partially obscured by the first. On top of the figure's slightly large head was a crown very similar to that of Harold's. The lower half of his body was obscured, but he wore very regal clothes with an imposing but collected stance. I assumed this must have been Henry II.

"Bloody Nora," Kate said in awe as she moved next to me. "It's huge!"

I shrugged my shoulders as I made sure that the King was distracted by his own glory and muttered, "I've seen bigger."

Kate jokingly put her arms up defensively, "Alright, London boy. Sorry this is isn't up to your lofty standards."

King Harold, visibly annoyed at our presence, moved forward and said, "Let us just get this over with."

Our group moved down the castle's hill on the large dirt track before us towards the first wall's closest gate. At the bottom of the hill, the path split at a makeshift intersection, two paths surrounding the wall while also continuing through the wall's gate straight ahead. We passed under the aging stone wall and through the wooden gate that was in dire need of replacement. The area inside the wall was only a little bit larger than that of the space inside the castle's wall. The path led straight ahead and also to the gatehouses to our left and right, but we continued on our journey through the centre. The area was full of thatched cottages of various sizes. They were packed incredibly tightly and the buildings on both sides of the path blocked out a lot of light. We passed a small blacksmith's shop on our right. The middle-aged man was blackened with soot and was visibly sweating from the heat of his nearby red-hot forge. He was standing behind his small stall that was adorned with various weapons and armours as he was exhaustedly trying to make a sale to three picky individuals. He lifted an iron mace up from the wooden table before him and insisted that one of the younger men of the small group hold it to test how it felt. They remained unimpressed as we walked by and left them to it with only the blacksmith recognising the King's presence as the others were distracted by their own dissatisfaction. We heard the beginnings of intense haggling as we walked past a small church on our left. It contained a modest spire with a small nave underneath it. It looked like it was still in use but had been somewhat superseded by the larger cathedral.

We passed through the open gate of the first wall that led into the second area of the city. As before, roads weaved through the buildings on our flanks and in front of us. The huge cathedral was visible over the tightly packed buildings and made everything else seem insignificant. The outside was beautifully carved with sculptures and architectural marvels. We were told that it took them over one hundred years to build.

Before that, however, was a large square to the right of the road; London Square. In the centre was the statue of Henry II I had seen earlier. Its lower half was currently covered in scaffolding as it was having some work done to it. Everything else we could see was in pristine condition, they clearly looked after it diligently. The stone-paved square around the statue was spacious and perfectly clean, it was more like a statue to a god than a man who, to their knowledge, was never King. The statue was surrounded on all sides but one by buildings as it backed onto the river that wound its way through this area. The other side of the wide and dirty river was full of buildings packed as tightly as possible.

Before us was one the bigger bridges that spanned the river. Made of cobbled stone, it was covered in mud and manure like the rest of the roads in this area. It clearly saw heavy use and constantly needed to be repaired and reinforced. Looking down the river at the houses on its front, we saw a couple of people throwing buckets of filthy waste water into the already brown river. Immediately after the bridge, we saw a large inn, with a hanging wooden sign over the door that said 'The Glistering Melon.' We thought it was a pretty bad name, but the guards spoke highly of it before Harold told them to shut up and do their jobs. The inn sat on the side of the river so that it could have a perfect view of the statue.

The huge cathedral sat up against the second wall with only a small gap in between, a risky move when it first would have been built, but the river on its other side meant that the large amount of space needed for the building, its graveyard, and its grounds wasn't abundant.

Passing through the large open gates of the second wall revealed the much more spacious third area of the city. With no river to contend with, the multiple paths spreading in several directions could be unhindered. The buildings in this area were generally larger and more expensive. While none of the people we had seen so far were particularly poor, the clientele of this area were certainly wealthier as they were all wearing more expensive clothes and we saw some directing the construction of their new houses to their very specific desires.

The double gate to the outside world was closed but was quickly pulled up by the gatehouse's chains when the King ordered it open. We stepped out and were immediately greeted by a wide-open grassy expanse with 'The Dene' forest before us, flanked on both sides by shallow hills. The mud road quickly faded out as it got further away from the wall, leaving the field seemingly nearly untouched.

We walked away from the final gatehouse and headed for the forest ahead of us. During these few minutes, the King finally spoke up. "This island is in dire need of your help, Harding."

"Oh, are you finally going to tell me what the fuck is going on?" I quickly replied, reassured that he wasn't going to have me killed for being rude since he needed me.

"Yes," He frustratedly answered with a quick glare. "We have informed you of the 'monsters,' yes?" I nodded hurriedly in an attempt to get him to hurry up. "And the wielder of the Shield of Control?" I nodded again. He told his guards to move away from us and spread out to keep an eye out for threats, but he just wanted them to not be listening. He told Kate to do the same, but she simply moved back a step from us and kept pace. "The wielder was a member of the royal court. We don't know who he is, but he has a personal grudge against my family."

"You have no idea why?" I asked suspiciously.

He hesitated before replying, "None at all. In any case, he is extremely dangerous and must be dealt with. He has the power to control the minds of men and monsters alike."

"How long has this guy had the shield for?"

"It was stolen roughly three years ago."

"Three years?!" I exclaimed. "How can I possibly compete with three years of practice?"

"He was never meant to wield the shield, Harding. He had to train himself. You are naturally gifted. With a little practice, you can beat him."

"How do you know he was never meant to wield it?" I quickly asked, hoping to put pressure on the King.

He stuttered and hesitated. "I'm sorry?"

"You don't know who this bloke is, right?" He tentatively nodded. "How do you know he's not 'naturally gifted?'"

He awkwardly coughed and stalled before saying, "Some sightings have shown that he has had trouble with the artefact." I was about to continue with my questioning before he quickly cut me off. "It matters not. He is dangerous, but you can be more so with training. That is why we are here." We passed through the trees and entered into The Dene. We were quickly surrounded by large oak trees and the guards moved closer to us. The trees weren't too densely packed but there were hundreds of them, meaning that we couldn't see very far forwards at all. Excepting the occasional slight hill and dip, the ground was extremely level and posed little difficulty when traversing.

We walked mostly silently for over three hours through the same scenery before the leading guard put his fist up in the air, indicating for us to stop. He'd spotted a point of interest in a small clearing. The grass and flowers inside had been severely flattened from constant use and a few tracks went in all directions from the clearing. Some of the grass in the centre had been burnt from a log fire but it wasn't recent. A few twigs and small branches from a nearby tree lay broken and scattered on the ground but little damage had been done other than that.

"Someone, or something, has been here," the guard gruffly said.

"It's probably just a bunch of sheep or something," Kate said before she was immediately shushed by the King and all of his guards.

The lead guard inched forward after silently instructing the rest of us to stay put. He moved towards the tree that had the most damage. It was relatively large and had a thick set of leaves that completely obscured view. The trunk had been heavily worn and most of the tree detritus on the ground seemed to have come from this one. He looked up and gave a brief look of surprise before shouting up, "You! Come down here!"

The person in the tree let out a small yelp of surprise before a familiar but terrified male voice shouted back down. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Come down here!" The guard repeated as he drew his large iron sword.

"Ok, ok!" The person in the tree quickly replied in a panic. The guard stepped back as the person began to move. The tree's leaves rustled and branches bent as the person's weight was moved across it and down their clearly predefined route. A shoe appeared out of the leaves. It reached for the remains of the small broken branch on the trunk but missed, the person put too much faith in their ability to accurately step on it and so slipped and began to fall out of the tree. They tried to grab onto another branch but only slowed themselves down as they fell further and swiftly collided with the floor. They remained where they were, slightly obscured in my vision by the guard in front of him, before looking up at the sharp blade pointing at their neck. He panicked and ungracefully shuffled back to the tree where he sat up against it cowering and covering his face with his hands.

I stepped forward, sure that I knew the person, and tried to move so that I could see around the guard in front of me. "David?" I tentatively asked. David hadn't fared well with survival on the island it seemed. He was covered in small cuts and bruises and generally looked filthy and malnourished. His 'salmon' coloured shirt and khaki chinos were ripped and torn in several places; his worst nightmare.

The front guard glanced at me as the others looked at me with uncertainty. The cowering figure slowly lowered his hands from his face and looked over to me. He looked confused for a moment before a look of recognition came over his face.

"Mark! Fucking hell!" He began to excitedly stand up before the guard in front of him threateningly moved closer.

"Stay there," he said before turning back to me. "You know this person?"

"Yes, he's my friend. Let him go." The guard looked at the King for instruction. Harold pondered for a moment as David's eyes flicked between me, the guard and the King.

Harold stepped forward. "Who are you?"

"D… David Wright," came the timid reply, David shaking with fear as the guard's sword pressed lightly against his neck. He glanced over to me. "Mark's friend." Eventually, Harold sighed and slowly nodded to the guard, who pulled his sword away from David but kept it at the ready.

David scrabbled to his feet and sprinted over to me, uncharacteristically gave me a huge hug that nearly floored me and exclaimed, "Jesus Christ, Mark. It's so fucking good to see you."

"You too, mate," I warmly replied as I heavily patted his back revelled in finally being with someone I knew.

He pulled away from the hug after an uncomfortable amount of time. "What on Earth is going on with you? Who are all of these people? Why are you wearing my clothes?" He looked over to Kate before lowering his voice and intriguingly asking, "Who's this?"

"You know that big city just over there?" I pointed in the direction we'd come from. He shook his head and shot me a confused look. "Fuck me, we've got a lot to catch you up on." I turned to the King. "Can we stop here for a bit? We haven't seen each other since we got to this island."

"We cannot spare the time, Harding." He sternly said. "You may talk when we get back. Practice while you have the chance."

I looked over to Kate in the hopes that she would have some reason to go against him. She just said, "He's got a point to be fair."

I sighed. "Ok. We'll catch up in a bit. Just tag along and I'll explain everything later."

"I don't understand," David said. "What can you not spare the time for?"

"I'm not even sure I understand what's going on. Stick with us and don't worry about anything that happens."

"Don't worry? What the fuck is happening, Mark?" He was understandably concerned. I reiterated my point of not questioning anything until we were back before we moved on again. I made sure that David was being kept safe by one of the guards and we continued on our way to the King's chosen destination in the forest.

After another few minutes of walking, we approached a much larger clearing. Several trees in the area had been chopped down and only their stumps remained. Four of these stumps lay in a straight line and straw-coiled archery targets of various condition had previously been set up on them.

"Some of my men used to practice here when they needed some open-air training away from the city." Harold began as we entered the clearing. "I felt as though this would be the best place to test out your abilities." The lead guard moved up to the closest stump, pushed the target off and took a relatively large piece of scrap iron out of his bag to place it on the stump. He then handed a small burlap pouch to the King who, in turn, held it out towards me. "Have a go."

Confused, I examined the pouch and, upon recognising the shape of the contents within the King's grasp as the dreaded diamonds, asked, "May I ask why your men don't practice here anymore?"

"Circumstances have changed." He pushed the diamond sack into my hand. "Do this, and they may change again."

I thought about pursuing this further, before realising that he wasn't going to give me much more information and reluctantly accepting the diamonds. "Might as well, I guess." I stepped forward as I prepared for the disappointment and embarrassment of failing to activate the sword again in front of my peers. I held the pouch to my side and untied its fiddly drawstring without looking inside. Once it was loose, I drew my sword and focused in on the iron a few feet in front of me. I took in a deep breath, pointed the sword at the iron and lifted the pouch's opening into my visual range. My eyes shone the same deep blue but nothing happened again. I could feel the frustration building in me. Despite the supernatural eye colour change, nothing ever happened. I was beginning to think that the King was completely wrong about me.

An exasperated sigh came from Harold behind me as he started muttering to one of his guards. As the muttering became louder and the frustration in me grew, I tightened my grip and focused harder on the scrap. Eventually, I was infuriated and shouted, "For fuck's sake!" at the top of my voice. I suddenly heard a distant thunderclap as electricity ran from the now-glowing pommel of the blade and through the handle before quickly flowing down and building at the tip. The point started to glow brighter and brighter as I began to have a hard time keeping the sword from shaking uncontrollably in my grip. It grew for a few seconds before I was deafened by a crash of thunder in my ears as the lightning shot out of the blade and struck the scrap iron. The iron disintegrated immediately, leaving only a small pile of black ash where it once stood. The blue in my vision quickly faded as I felt the energy drain from my body. My legs could support me no longer and my grip on the sword failed. I couldn't support my eyelids any longer as my vision darkened and I found myself on the floor. The diamond pouch was removed from my person as I tried to catch my breath while I laid still on the ground.

"What the fuck just happened?!" David shouted. "What the fuck is going on?! Mark! Are you ok?!" I heard him begin to rush over to me but he was quickly stopped by one of the guards.

Kate ran up to me, apparently managing to evade the guards, and rolled me over so that I was on my back and facing the sky. She put her ear to my chest and her hand on my wrist to check my heartbeat and pulse. When she was satisfied, she moved her head up to mine, wide eyed and frantic, and asked, "Are you alright?"

I gently nodded. Still out of breath, I replied, "I think so." I showed a small grin and said, "I guess I didn't die?"

She laughed in relief. "I don't think so. More surprisingly, you didn't kill any of us."

David eventually managed to get over to me. His head entered my vision as he moved Kate slightly out of the way. "Mark! What? How? Why? I just don't-"

"David, was it?" Kate interrupted. He stopped his questioning and nodded at her. "Let's give him some space. He needs to rest." He looked between Kate and I a few times before sighing and agreeing. Both of them moved away as the King moved up to me. He stood above me and looked down.

"Well done, Harding. Whatever it was that you did clearly worked. I think we can take your break for now."

I eventually managed to sit up and all of us moved to sit in a loose circle. Kate, David and I sat closer together whereas the King and his guards sat just far away enough from us to have their own conversation. The King himself sat on one of the stumps with a rug placed over it. The King's guards had packed a small amount of food for us and, fortunately, they let the starving David eat some of it as well as us.

"Can you please tell me what's going on now?" David begged.

"I can certainly try," I replied before thinking about where to begin with my story. "First things first, this is Kate." I indicated towards her sitting to the right of David and me. They awkwardly shook hands before he turned back to me. "She's saved my life more times than I can count. It's ridiculous." I went on to explain everything that had happened to Kate and I. Explaining the diamonds and everything that surrounded them took a long time and I had to be careful with my words when explaining the kingdom since the King and his entourage was within earshot. The King did object slightly to me telling him about the person I would be fighting, but I ignored him and told David anyway.

"I still don't understand," David said as he polished off his food towards the end of the story. "How come you can do all of this stuff with that sword?"

"I've no bloody idea." I flatly stated. "No one seems to know. Some genetic thing maybe?"

David processed everything for a moment. "Fucking hell, man. This is crazy. I feel like this can't be real; like I'm just going to wake up on the yacht with a ridiculous hangover and Tom throwing seawater over my face or something."

"I know what you mean. I don't suppose you've seen Tom or Sam, have you?"

He shook his head. "The last thing I remember before waking up in this place is vowing that we wouldn't be twats."

I let out a small laugh. "I thought as much." Somewhat knowing how the answer would go, I asked, "How have you been faring so far?"

His voice turned sullen and dejected. It was a strange sight; he was normally very animated and relatively joyous when he spoke, but it seemed as though any positive emotion had been sapped away from him. "It's been horrible. I've been living out of that tree and scavenging whatever I could find to eat. When I got here, I tried to just sleep on the ground in that clearing. I had no idea that those…" He paused as he tried to think of a name for the creatures he'd seen. "Those monstrosities would come out. Thank Christ I saw one of those green fuckers coming, I had just enough time to climb into the tree and stay out of their way. What the hell even are those?"

The King, apparently listening into our conversation, chimed in. "The townsfolk have taken to calling them 'Creepers' for whatever reason."

"Call them whatever you want, mate. They're terrifying." David replied. Everyone sat in thought for a moment before David remembered my mention of the King's family and spoke to Harold. "So your family's from England originally? What family is it?" I could see that his historical interest had been piqued.

"House Plantagenet," He proudly answered.

"As in, the House Plantagenet?" He excitedly asked. His eyes widened and he leant in as he spoke.

The King gave a look of mild confusion. "Yes. I wasn't aware that many people would be familiar with our house since our throne was robbed from us."

"What throne was that?" David asked, slightly confused since he was fully aware that Henry II had actually taken the English throne.

I nudged David in an attempt to subtly tell him to not pursue this line of questioning as Harold responded, "The English throne. Do you not know your history, young man?"

"I must have misremembered," David said, thankfully picking up on my signal. David skirted around that point but asked as many questions as he could about the family's history and what medieval life was like. He was like a school boy again; it put a smile on my face to see someone vaguely happy during this difficult time. The King was more than happy to field the questions; he slowly became more and more self-absorbed as he regaled tales of himself and his ancestors.

A vibrant orange shone through the clouds in the sky. We realised that we had stayed in this clearing for far too long, we now had no chance of getting back before the sun completely set. We started to discuss plans for where we should stay for the night.

"The tree's pretty big," David said half-heartedly.

Harold shot him a look of disapproval. "We are not sleeping in a tree."

Kate looked around exaggeratedly. "I'm not sure we have much of a choice."

"We will find somewhere else."

A short while later, the three guards were clumsily helping the King clamber up the tree that David had made his home. One had already climbed up with surprising agility in his armour and was trying to pull the King up while the other two were giving him a lift up from the bottom. Using the broken branches and notches on the tree, he eventually managed to get secured on the large branch that David had once spent his nights. The rest of us made our way up, all sitting on separate branches. The branches were large enough for us to all stay stable without too much issue. The guards took branches around the King's and they were to take turns staying up and watching for any trouble. Kate decided to light torches around the area to ward off monsters as David and I settled into branches near to each other's.

"What's the deal with Kate, then?" David quietly asked me.

"What do you mean?"

"Like… What's her deal?" He made suggestive looks at me as he emphasised the word 'deal.'

"Dude," I began condescendingly. "She's, like, twenty-nine and essentially a widow. I wouldn't go there."

"You mean you haven't? I assumed you'd already 'been there.'"

"I've had a few other things on my mind, I'm afraid."

"Well, she's in serious danger of me turning on my charm."

I let out a small and quiet laugh. "Man. I've missed you."

"You too, mate."

Kate, having finished her task, clambered up the tree and asked, "What're you guys talking about?"

Since she wasn't looking at us as she quite adeptly moved onto an adjacent branch, David subtly winked at me and said, "Just some of the shit I did while I was by myself." It seemed as though having a proper meal for once had brought the real David back a little.

I got comfortable to watch the incoming train wreck as Kate settled into position on her branch and asked, "Oh yeah? Like what?"

"There was this one time; I was totally surrounded by those skeleton fuckers. I kicked one of their legs in, ripped its head off and threw it at another. One of them launched an arrow at me which I caught and stabbed a zombie with it that had just appeared out of nowhere." He went on like this for a couple of minutes. Kate was admirably feigning interest as his story got more and more ridiculous. It was painfully obvious that he was making it up on the spot, his pauses to 'remember' exactly how it happened and his multiple amendments to what he'd previously said made sure that it was clear bullshit. His final mistake was bringing the 'creepers' into it since he'd only recently talked about how terrifying they were to him. He also had clearly no idea what they actually did. "One of those creepers was trying to bite me, so I finished them off by jamming one of the spider's legs into the its mouth and kicking it into the river," he concluded before glancing around at the both of us for confirmation that his story was as incredible as he thought it was.

"Very good," Kate said after a short time of thinking. David nodded proudly before she continued. "There's just one problem with your story."

"Oh?"

"It's complete bollocks."

I inadvertently let out a quick snort of a laugh as David shuffled uncomfortably. "Well…" He said, thinking for a moment. "I might not have drop kicked quite so many zombies."

"Listen," Kate said seriously. "Drop the act. It doesn't suit you or this situation. Play to your strengths." She waited for a moment to see how he reacted. When he only averted her gaze and retracted slightly, she continued. "Mark tells me you're crazy good at history. Why don't you show that off instead?"

"No one finds history interesting enough to talk about."

"That's ridiculous. History's great," she said excitedly, making David perk up slightly.

"Oh God, there's two of them!" I half-sarcastically interjected.

"You know you're wishing you could have known a little more about history," Kate countered.

David lowered his tone so that the King and his guards couldn't hear. "Speaking of, I think I've actually heard about these guys." Kate raised an eyebrow and listened intently. "I remember reading something about a small group within the Plantagenets that left England during 'The Anarchy.'"

"The Anarchy?" I asked, resulting in a condescending look from both Kate and David. I put my hands up defensively. "Sorry! I've been scraping through a Maths degree, not acing a history one."

"Basically," David began. "Henry I's only male heir died in 1120. He gunned for his daughter Matilda to take over but, when he himself died in 1135, his nephew, Stephen of Blois, took the throne. Stephen had a load of trouble though; Matilda invaded from Normandy and they ended up fighting it out until 1148 when she got her son, our Henry Plantagenet, to take over for her. He re-invaded in 1153 and eventually managed to piss Stephen off enough that they signed a treaty in 1154 to make Henry the rightful heir to the throne." I nodded along and desperately tried not to lose interest as this was important. "I've heard about a small group of lesser-known nobles loyal to Matilda. After she returned to Normandy in 1148, seemingly defeated, they saw fit to leave England. The house later declared them traitors and attempted to have any knowledge of their existence wiped from the records. Accounts still exist though and I tried to study them as part of one of my uni projects. No one actually knows what happened to them, but I reckon it's these guys."

"See, David?" Kate said, sparking a look of confusion from him. "That's sexier than your bullshit."

Ignoring the comment, I continued to tap David's knowledge. "So these family members just fucked off when things got tough?"

Still slightly taken aback by Kate, he took a moment to respond. "I don't think that they were family members, not close ones at least. But essentially, yes. It's kind of weird that they're so fond of Henry rather than Matilda though. Henry had barely done anything by the time they left."

"Guess they're really not fans of female rulers."

The night was a cold one. As the sun finally set, we all settled into position under the orange glow of the torchlight and stayed silent as we tried to ignore the roaming monsters as best we could. It wasn't easy but they tended to stay away from the torches so nothing ever found out where we were. Kate and I kept our swords handy though. We agreed that we would stay up for half of the night each to keep watch as we didn't entirely trust the King's guards. I took the first watch which went by without a hitch. When I figured that it was roughly 2 o'clock, she and I swapped over.