*Disclaimer: Digimon and all fairy tales used in this fic do not belong to me.
Knights of the Round Table
By: RaspberryGirl
Matt glowered at Tai. "I said I will rescue the princess. Why do you always copy what I say?"
"I did not—" began Tai.
"You can both go," King Cornelius cut in. "How very kind of you both to offer. You may begin your quest at once. Go forth and rescue Princess…Princess…" He looked at one of his advisors. "What was her, er, name again?"
"Her Royal Highness," said the king's advisor in a formal voice, "Princess Adelina Constance Josephine Mona—"
"I asked for one name, not a hundred," the king snapped. He turned back to Tai and Matt. "Yes, go forth and rescue Princess Adelina. If only I had something of the princess's to give you two as a token of good luck on the journey…"
"Your Majesty!" The princess's nurse cried excitedly. The old woman rushed through the crowd. "Your Majesty, I have just the thing!"
The old woman approached the two knights and pressed a piece of cloth in each of their hands. "It's the princess's handkerchief. How lucky that I was carrying two of them with me. She embroidered them herself."
"A fine token!" The king cried. "There is no way the two of you can fail now! Away! And good luck to both of you!"
"Yes, Your Majesty," Tai and Matt said in unison. Both bowed deeply, but when the king looked away, they glared daggers at each other.
* * *
After putting on some chain mail and a few pieces of light armor, Tai and Davis rode out to the castle courtyard only to discover that Matt was already there. The blonde-haired knight was astride a gray stallion and surrounded by many of the court ladies. Many giggled flirtatiously or batted their eyelashes at him. No one noticed Tai.
"Let's turn around," Tai said angrily to Davis, swinging his horse in the opposite direction. "I don't want to be where he is."
"But," Davis protested, "how else are we going to leave the castle? There's only one front gate and entrance."
"One entrance, but many exits," Tai corrected. "We can leave through the back across the meadow where the wedding was. I think Matt is going to go east, so let's go south, then."
"But shouldn't we try to follow the ogre?" asked Davis.
"We are," Tai announced. "At least, I think south is the direction the ogre headed. As long as we go in that direction first, we don't have to worry about our perfect knight-in-shining-armor over there. If we run into Matt somewhere along the way, we can say he followed us. You can be my witness."
Davis wanted to comment on how childish Tai was behaving, but he swallowed his words. Instead, he said, "Tai, there aren't any other exists that can let a horse and rider through besides the main entrance. We still have to go out through the front gate."
"What?" With a jerk, Tai swung his horse around once more. "Why didn't you tell me earlier, you dolt?" Tai spurred his horse and charged past Matt and the crowd of ladies, riding swiftly across drawbridge. Davis followed close behind.
Once outside, Tai turned left and rode around the castle wall until he reached the meadow in the back. It was then that he realized the princess's tower also happened to be located on this side of the castle.
"That ogre really did some damage," Tai observed, staring up at the remnants of the tower. "There's a hole the size of Matt's bloated head up there. Oh well, no use looking. Let's ride on."
But there was no reply from Davis.
Tai turned around to see what the squire was doing. The boy had gotten off his horse and was digging through the rubble of the tower.
"What do you think you're doing?" Tai demanded.
"I thought I saw something," Davis muttered. "Something shiny…"
Tai sighed. "This is no time to look for pretty trinkets. You're fifteen years old for God's sake. How can you call yourself a man with this kind of girly behavior?"
"You sound like my father," Davis muttered. After rummaging for a few more moments, he suddenly exclaimed, "I found it!"
"If it's anything that belongs to the princess, let me keep it," Tai called. He got off his horse and strode over to Davis. "Well? What is it?" He squinted at the glowing thing in the squire's hands.
"I think it's a piece of glass," Davis said.
"Glass?" Tai snatched the shiny object from Davis. It was a shard of glass—no bigger than Tai's palm. It gave off a strange silvery glow.
"What a waste of time," Tai complained. "I told you not to look through rubbish." Carelessly, the young man tossed the shard aside.
"Ow!" said a voice. "Watch where you throw me, you nincompoop."
"What? Did you say something just now, Davis?" Tai frowned.
"Huh?" The boy looked confused. "No, I didn't say anything."
"Yes, you did," Tai insisted. "I heard you. If it wasn't you, then who was it? Don't tell me you think I hear random voices in my head."
"It was me," the voice said again. "Me."
Tai stared at Davis. Somebody had spoken again, but it couldn't have been the squire because his lips had never moved. Tai grabbed the boy by the shirtfront. "All right, what lame tricks are you up to now? How did you do that?"
"It wasn't me," Davis stammered. "I already told you. May-maybe it was that shard of glass…"
"The shard?" Tai scoffed. "Glass can't talk."
"Of course I can," said the voice. "You really are stupid."
Tai dropped the mirror shard with an alarmed yelp. The knight dropped to his knees and searched the ground for the piece of glass. When he found it, he snatched it up in his hands, staring. "Talk," he ordered.
"You're a moron," said the shard.
Once more, Tai cried out in astonishment, but managed to hold on to the glass shard with trembling hands. "How did you do that?" He looked at his squire and shoved the bit into the boy's hands. "Here, you hold it. I don't want to touch it anymore."
"Be careful with me," the glass warned. "If she finds even a chip in me, she'll be furious. And she'll be mad enough already when she finds out that stupid ogre cracked her mirror."
"Who is 'she'?" Davis asked.
"Why, the princess, of course," exclaimed the shard as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. There was a brief silence, as if it were thinking. "I suppose I should introduce myself," it finally said, "or else you two nitwits will never figure it out." The glass put on a fake, overly bright voice, "Hi, hello, I'm a shard from the princess's magic mirror."
"Magic mirror?" repeated Tai incredulously.
"You got a problem?" the shard said coldly.
"As a matter of fact, I do. Magical creatures like you are all evil," announced Tai.
"Humans are all stupid," the mirror piece retorted.
Tai's temper flared, his patience was beginning to run out. "Maybe if you were cracked a bit, you wouldn't be talking so snidely now," he threatened.
"Be careful what you say, boy," the glass warned. "I can turn you into a toad for that remark."
"You can?" Davis asked with interest.
"Well…if you come right down to it…no," the shard admitted.
"Then what can you do?" questioned the squire.
"Answer riddles and the like, I suppose."
"That's what wisemen are for," Tai snapped.
The mirror shard ignored the remark. Instead, it spoke to Davis. "Unfortunately, my power fades if I am separated from the rest of myself for too long. So if you would please return me to the mirror, you have my gratitude. And I'm sure the princess will be delighted as well."
"We're on a quest to rescue the princess," Davis told the glass. "But we don't know where to find her."
"That's not a problem," said the shard cheerfully. "I can give you directions."
"You mean, you know where the princess is?" interrupted Tai.
"Certainly," said the shard. "I am a piece of a magic mirror. Of course I would know where the rest of me is. The magic that keeps the mirror whole calls to me." It began speaking to Davis again. "Now, if you would kindly take me…"
"Oh no, you don't," said Tai. "I'm coming along, too. After all, I'm the knight. I do the rescuing."
"You're a knight?" The mirror piece burst out laughing.
"Maybe we should give it a name first…" Davis mused before Tai could say anything else.
Tai gave an exasperated sigh. "Why should we give it a name? It's not a pet. What's wrong with just calling the thing 'it,' or 'hey you, piece of glass,' or—"
"You can call me 'Shard'," said the mirror piece more to Davis than to Tai.
"Well, that's original," Tai muttered.
"Where can we find the princess?" asked Davis.
"Travel until you reach a pass between two mountains," said Shard.
"And…" Tai prompted expectantly. "And…?"
"And I can't tell you the rest," finished Shard with a laugh in its voice.
"Okay, that's it," Tai said, glowering. "You're going to be in a hundred pieces in just a few moments."
"Wait," Davis said, "maybe it has its reasons."
"What reasons?" exploded Tai. "It's only a piece of glass! It has no reason."
"Humph," said Shard. "As it turns out, the squire is quite right, actually. I can only give you one part of the directions only after you've done a heroic act."
"What idiot made up that rule?" shouted Tai. "Do you know how hard 'heroic acts' are to carry out?" He looked angry. "You could have given us a longer part of the directions. And next time, maybe a little more detail would help!"
"Stop complaining and get going," said the mirror piece. "Ah, it feels good to be able to say whatever you want, instead of answering the princess's incessant question over and over again."
All of sudden, Tai reached out and brushed some imaginary dust off of Davis's shoulder. "There," said the knight. "A heroic act."
Shard snorted. "That does not count. Unfortunately for you, the acts have to be done out of the heart. Now get moving!"
"Great," Tai said. "A knight, his squire, and a crazy shard from a magic mirror. Now that's a fine start to our wonderful adventure, isn't it?"
__________
For many days, Tai and Davis traveled across the land. They passed green pastures, yellow fields, sleepy villages, and bustling towns. At last, on the seventh day, the land began to grow rocky and soon, mountains sprung into view. Tai and Davis traveled up a mountain road until late in the afternoon when they stumbled upon a rugged mountain pass.
"This is it, I guess," Tai said. "The first mountain pass we've come across." He stared. The pass was nothing he had expected. Steep, jagged mountains rose up on both sides, leaving only a narrow bit of space in between for a horse and rider to go through.
"If Matt tried to get through, I bet he'd get stuck," Tai muttered. He turned back to his squire. "I'll go first, Davis. You follow." Hesitantly, the brown-haired knight approached the pass. He shivered. There was something very eerie about this place. The air had suddenly turned cold and there was a stale, almost putrid smell about the area.
Even Tai's horse had become skittish—not a very good sign at all.
As Tai urged his mount forward cautiously, he felt as if he were being watched. His eyes wandered to his right
"It's a cave!" Tai heard Davis exclaim.
Tai started, realizing that the squire's words were true. What he had thought was a cast shadow from the other mountain was really the huge mouth of a looming cave. A curtain of thick moss and tangled ivy concealed most of the opening.
"Tai, I have a bad feeling about this," Davis said uneasily. "Haven't you noticed it smells like fire and sulfur here? And look at the mountain sides. They're all scorched. I think we should ask Shard—"
Just then, something crunched inside the cave. Both Tai and Davis froze. The squire's face went pale. "There's definitely something in that cave," he whispered.
"It was a bat," said Tai shakily, trying not to look scared. "Bats live in caves."
More noises trailed out from the cave mouth, as if something large and bulky were moving in there. There was the sound of something scratching against rock floor. Something that sounded like scales.
"It's a lizard," said Tai.
"I don't think—" began Davis when a hiss pierced through the air.
"It's a snake, then," Tai laughed. "A snake." But his voice trembled.
Something screeched within the darkness of the cave. It was a sound that Tai had never heard before—a cry that sounded like the combined voices of all the vicious beasts in the world trailing off into a falcon-like scream.
"Snakes don't shriek like that," whispered Davis.
A green sheen flashed near the cave entrance. A moment later, the creature emerged. It hissed menacingly as it prowled out of its cave, keeping low to the ground. But even then it towered above Tai and Davis. Its body was serpentine, covered with scales that shone and glinted from emerald green to purple lavender. It had long, knife-like claws that glowed brighter than silver. Enormous, leathery wings protruded from its shoulders. Its head was narrow with a long snout and sharp, pointy teeth. Yellow, slit-pupil eyes watched Tai and Davis shrewdly.
"That most definitely is not a snake," was all Davis could say.
The creature opened its mouth and spoke in a rumbling voice. "No one may pass."
Tai began to back away. "I swear, Davis, that diabolical mirror piece is conspiring to kill us all."
"No one may pass," the dragon boomed again. It smiled cruelly. "And no one ever has."