Disclaimer: I do not own any of the character names, save my own original creations. I do not wish to be compensated for this work, nor do I wish to infringe on any copyrights held by any stakeholders of the movie King Arthur. This work is an original creation, based on the legend of King Arthur and his knights.

Scribe Notes:

This was inspired by The Wild Woman and her short stories In the Snow. I have others coming, as her work has made my mind come alive!

I leave it to you to tell me who it is I am writing about, although I think it's fairly obvious. And don't cheat by scrolling to the bottom for the Dear Reader notes!

Watching the Watcher

I see you across the tables, watching me.

Always, you watch me.

You want to know me.

I think you want to reach inside my soul and understand what makes me. I think you want to touch me. Your desire is what radiates out to me, through your eyes.

No-one who knows me well wants to understand the twisted thorns that are in my soul. I am dangerous to most men. I am a horror to most women. I am strange, distant, silent.

I hear the whispers. I know what they think of me.

Yet your insistence through your vigil makes me want to show you what they see. Display to you my true nature. I am a warrior. I am a glorified killing animal.

Nothing more.

Would you recoil like the rest of them when you see what I really am?

You sit each night, watching me laugh, drink... you eyes never leave me. I can feel them, even when you think I cannot see you. Like moonlight can filter through the forest, your gaze always penetrates my senses. I can see you even before I know where you are.

There is something that raises my blood, in the way you watch. The same way I do. The stillness of your body. The unflinching observant stare. You aren't loud in any way.

I like that.

You draw me in each time I sense you, in the dark. I can't ignore your presence, no matter how much I will myself to try. Always I turn to find you just where I know you will be, sitting, hands wrapped around your cup. Apple beside your plate.

Always an apple.

I think that I should someday come to you and take that apple. Do you leave it there to tempt me? Is it bait? You've watched me enough to know.

You are the temptation that drives these thoughts I now have. Thoughts that you could give me peace. You could provide me comfort. Things I don't deserve and could never have.

But I want them.

You have given me that want, watching me every night. I have cursed you in my sleep as I slip to dreams of you. You have made me desire you, you have made my body ache to touch yours.

I have never ached for anything.

Even though I have never heard your voice, I can hear you whisper my name in my dreams. I can feel the ghost of your fingers on me when I awaken.

These thoughts urge me to walk away, push you out of my mind, bar you from my senses. Keep you from getting into my soul. Though I want to show you what you ask for each night with your eyes, I want to keep you from seeing what is truly there.

The torment and the pain, the horrors that will send you running from me. I want to stop you from watching, to protect you from my soul.

I can no more stop you than I can stop the rain from falling.

You are already there, across the tables.

Watching me.

Dear Reader:

I have always wanted to give Tristan a chance toshow hisinner thoughts.This seemed like an interesting idea. In one of Wild Woman's pieces, she describes Tristan right after a work, and the way it came out, it felt like someone was watching him, describing him.

So I wondered what he would think if someone did watch him. Someone that made him watch back, and really see.

Please do let me know what you think, and if I caught his essence with this short internal monologue. Thank you for reading.

Cardeia