"Take your shoes off- you're making too much of a noise."
Arthur looked disapprovingly at Leon's feet. Despite wearing shoes himself Arthur managed to creep around without making a sound. Wordlessly Leon sat down and took his shoes off, while Arthur snuck off and poked his head round a corner, checking to see if the coast was clear.
He turned back to Leon and sent him a series of complicated hand signals, which were returned with a blank stare and a shrug. Arthur repeated the gestures, but Leon gave up and hissed a 'what' at him.
"The coast is clear, watch your back, and don't make a sound!"
Leon mouthed an apology and hurried after Arthur, who was staring at a simple looking wooden door. Arthur scurried off and pushed open the door. It opened with a creek, and both boys froze in their tracks. Luckily no-one seemed to have heard, and so they proceeded into the room. Once inside Leon shut the door behind him, and Arthur let out a sigh of relief.
"That was close. I thought we were going to get caught when your shoes were making that noise, and when you started talking."
"But you were talking too! And you're talking now!" Leon protested. Arthur ignored the first accusation.
"We can talk now because we're safe." Arthur surveyed the room, searching for something.
"Where are we anyway?" Leon could see what seemed like a human skull hidden in a corner, and couldn't stop a shiver running through his body.
"It's Gaius's room. He's the court physician, but I think he's a sorcerer." Arthur practically whispered the last bit.
Leon glanced back to the skull, then cast his eyes around the room. All around were strange liquids in bottles, and different coloured powders in jars. On the table the remains of a meal could be seen, with a row of tiny bones lining the side of a plate. Never one to jump to conclusions though, Leon asked:
"How do you know he's a sorcerer?"
Arthur leapt into action. "He's got all these weird books which are written in a different language, and he spends all day making potions." He ran over to the table.
"And if he's got enemies or people he doesn't like he shrinks them down and then eats them so there's only bones left and no-one knows where they've gone! And he always wears a robe which is what sorcerers wear and he never smiles and he's really old."
"Why are we here though?" Leon wondered if they were going to ambush the sorcerer, or destroy the source of his power. That was the kind of thing knights did, wasn't it?
Arthur made his way over to a large cupboard and threw the doors open.
"Ah-ha. That's what we're here for." He pointed to the top shelf, where a tiny vial of golden liquid sat. Arthur reached for it, but his hand came up short. Leon went over to see if he could reach, but he didn't even get as high as Arthur had.
"I'll find a chair." Leon thought he could see a stool underneath a pile of books, and so made his way over. Arthur was too impatient to wait though, and proceeded to jump up and down seeing if he could reach the vial at the height of his bounce. He soon managed to grab it, and he raised it above his head triumphantly.
Leon ran over to get a closer look at their prize. Although small, the golden liquid inside seemed to sparkle and glow.
"What does it do?"
"I don't know, but it must be something good. Maybe if you drink it you can fly, or breathe fire!" Arthur gazed in wonder at it.
"Maybe you can turn invisible!" Leon suggested.
"Or walk through walls!"
"Or run faster than a horse!"
"Or be as strong as a dragon!" Arthur considered this last one, then pulled the stopper out of the vial and swallowed the contents. Leon was horrified- while it was fun thinking what powers you could gain if you drank the potion, it was equally likely to turn you into a frog, or shrink you down to the size of an ant.
He closed his eyes, wondering if it would cause Arthur to explode, although if it did he would probably get the blame for it. Hearing no explosion, he cautiously opened one eye- Arthur was pulling a face at the vial.
"It tastes like onions." He complained.
"Can you fly?" Leon asked. Arthur jumped up and down a few times trying to take off.
"No. Maybe I can breathe fire!" Arthur again tried to display some sign of powers, but to no avail.
"Walk through walls?" Leon was beginning to think that the potion had done nothing at all. Just before Arthur attempted to run full pelt through the door, they heard footsteps on the stairs outside.
"Quick- in here." Arthur whispered and pointed to a door at the far end of the room. They ran through it and carefully shut it behind them. They found themselves in an even smaller room cluttered with even more books, and with a small bed in the corner.
They held their breath as someone entered the other room, and began to move about. Leon guessed that this was the sorcerer, probably back to shrink more of his enemies down. After a few minutes the footsteps made their way back to the door, hopefully to leave again. Unfortunately, the potion Arthur had drunk chose that moment to take effect.
Arthur hiccupped. Loudly. Leon gazed at him in horror. Arthur too was in shock, and clasped his hands over his mouth as he hiccupped again. The footsteps froze, and began to come towards where they were hiding. Arthur had to stuff his fist in his mouth in an attempt to stop the hiccups. The handle of the door began to turn, but then stopped.
Someone else had just entered the room. "Gaius, you're needed at once. Morgana has taken a turn for the worse." Leon silently thanked the person who has said this.
"Of course. I will come at once." This voice was presumably the sorcerer's. Two sets of footsteps made their way out of the room while Arthur silently chocked. Once the door had closed he spat out his hand.
"That was close! You nearly gave us away with your breathing." He told Leon, then hiccupped violently.
"What about your hiccups? They could have got us killed!"
Both boys paused for a moment as they thought about how close they had come to being shrunk, killed and eaten by the sorcerer.
"We need to stop the hiccups in case someone realises where we've been!" Arthur sounded nervous.
"Maybe we should get out of here first." Leon suggested, and Arthur agreed fervently whilst hiccupping. They crept out of the room and down the stairs without being seen, and began to make their way back.
"How do you get rid of hiccups?" Arthur asked as they made their way across the courtyard. Leon shrugged- he'd had hiccups many times himself, and they'd just gone away of their own accord. He told Arthur this.
"That's no good- we need to get rid of them now!" Arthur wasn't impressed. They hurried down another corridor, Arthur hiccupping relentlessly. Leon suddenly caught sight of Guinevere from before, staggering under a heavy pile of washing. Thinking she might know how to get rid of magical hiccups, Leon ran after her.
"Guinevere!" He managed to catch up with her, and she turned round, surprised.
"Oh…" She caught sight of Arthur heading down after Leon. She tried to curtsy but was prevented by the huge pile of clothes.
"Leon- what are you doing?" Arthur looked suspiciously at Guinevere.
"I was going to ask if she knew how to get rid of them" Leon guessed that Arthur didn't have a very high opinion of servants.
"There's no point in asking her- she's just a servant." Arthur would have sounded a lot more imperious had he not punctuated every few words with hiccups.
Guinevere spoke up, blushing furiously. "If it's the hiccups you need to get rid of, I know how to do that." She said in a small voice.
"See. She does know." Leon was triumphant.
"Shut up Leon." Arthur said darkly. He then turned to Guinevere.
"Fine then, servant girl. How do you get rid of hiccups?"
Thank you to everyone who has decided to read this chapter too! I know Leon seems a bit disrespectful to Arthur at the minute, but that's going to be part of the story. I'm also going to bring Morgana in sometime in the next chapter or so.
Please review if you have the time!