Sorry for any confusion, but I was reading through Type-Moon Wiki and found out that Kay fit the role I had for Constantine much better. So I have to go through the entire two chapters and replace every instance of "Constantine" and "Cousin" with "Kay" and "brother." Sorry lol.
The next morning was dreary. Arthur had woken late, though none of the household wondered why. And they made it known. Even the maid joined in some of the teasing that went on.
"Well now, if ye hadn't spent half the night wailing and screaming, I think ye might have woken at regular time."
Though Arthuria was fond of the maid- Generia was her name- the comment made her frown.
"It wasn't that bad. I just did a lot of work yesterday, that's all."
"Sure ya did, my dear. Now come on. Wipe the sleep from yer eyes and get a move-on. Kay's already departed for his hunting trip."
"He didn't!" She cried in surprise.
"He did as well. Left not half an hour ago."
She grabbed her coat off the top of her dresser, threw her boots on, and dashed out the door.
"Oi, just where do ye think yer going, young lady?" called Generia.
Arthuria sighed. "I was going to catch up with him." She stiffened and turned back to face Generia, expecting her disapproval- not that she needed her opinion, technically, but she highly valued it. Generia had been around all Arthur's life, so she was a very important figure to her. The main thing that Arthur was used to having getting disapproval about was her boyishness.
From a young age, she didn't much care for being a girl. The girls were always powerless and weak, and when they did have power, everyone else disapproved. All they could ever do was make men do stupid stuff, which she found to be unchivalrous, and she had no clue how it could be entertaining, as Generia and others had told her. So, she acted like a boy. She hardly ever wore a real dress, always had her hair in a sloppy pony-tail (save for when Generia insisted on playing with it), and not-to-mention her eating habits. Kay,being the kind and accepting person he was, had even encouraged her behavior. He'd let Arthur watch him spar and joust, and in secret, he often trained her.
Generia chuckled, and tossed her a quiver and bow. "Ye forgot yer effects, dear."
Arthur smiled. "My thanks to you, Generia!" And down the stairs she darted.
She saddled up and bridled her favorite horse, Throrin, and mounted. Having been a former cart horse, the beast had once been a nuisance to anyone who tried to ride him. But, with much guidance from Kay, and many, many months of hard work, the stallion had warmed up to her. More time and toil was given, and now she could sit on him backwards and not worry at all that he'd take off, leaving her face in the dust. Though she often did have to make sure that her head wouldn't run into a branch.
Not that she was going to do such silliness now. Now she had to catch up with her brother. He had promised that today, they would practice a bit more with swordsmanship. She'd been begging him for over a week, seeing as how it was one of the few actual knightly skills she was talented at.
She nudged the back of her calf into Throrin's flanks, and he took off at a steady trot. Away they went, into the wood outside the small fortress that she lived in.
The woods were cool and misty. She savored the cool, dense air that blanketed the countryside so often. Mushrooms popped up on the side of the trail every so often. Birds were quietly spouting their songs from the branches as she trotted on by.
She made her way down the cluttered trail, and finally into their clearing. Just as she did, there was a rustle and a jestful "Aha!" She whipped her head around just in time to catch Kay with a sparring sword being trust toward her. Her first instinct was to jump back, which caused a near yard-long fall to the ground off her horse.
"Agh! Damn it, Kay, don't sneak up on me like that!"
He stood, laughing uncontrollably. "You-you should have seen the look on your face!" he spouted breathlessly between laughs.
"It's not funny, you big-headed, warty troll!"
"Ha, troll?"
She moaned as she stood, brushing the wet grass and mud off of herself. "Falling off of a horse isn't funny at all, especially one as tall as Throrin." It wasn't until now that she could feel just how much of the brunt of the fall her left elbow had sustained. She grimaced and rubbed it with her other hand, feeling faint scraping and a deep bruise. She didn't want to complain otherwise, however, as she feared that Kay wouldn't go through with practice if she did.
"Well, besides that," he pointed to a large pouch sitting next to a log towards the middle of the clearing, where they'd sit and eat lunches. "I've already snatched a rabbit and a pheasant."
Arthuria mad a sort of sour face. "Can't believe I woke up so late this morning."
He looked at her, an eyebrow raised. "Well you surely did give one hell of a fit last night. And you're sure you don't want to talk about it?"
Her stomach felt so ticklish it almost hurt as she remembered fragments of images of the nightmare. She shook her head.
Her kinsman shrugged. "Alright, then."
As they finished up hunting, which granted them two more small pheasants, one more hare, and even a deer, the day went by slowly. It was only past noon when they stopped with the deer. They followed their usual routine: Arthuria would stay in the forest while kay would run the kills back to the palace, using Throrin to carry the deer back this time around. That way, most people wouldn't notice that she'd been gone in the first place upon her arrival. He'd come back, "simply exploring," and they'd practice sparring until near dark.
As he strapped the deer onto the back of the dark bay stallion, he called to her over his shoulder. "Don't fall asleep before I get back, that you don't end up screaming and flailing again. The witches and trolls out west will hear you and come after you."
"You jest far too much for your own good, lad." She remarked, unhappily resting her chin on her palm, her elbow propped on her knee as she sat on the lunch log.
"Oh, don't take anything I say far too seriously, now." he chided.
"Whatever," she mumbled, blowing a strand of her bangs out of her face.
It would only take about an hour for him to run the kills back to their small palace and back. So she decided she'd walk around the clearing a bit, stare at plants and little bugs, and let her mind wander wherever it liked. As usual.
The sun peaked through the clouds and streamed through the trees as Arthuria squatted near the ground, staring passively at a trail of ants.
She wondered. And thought. She couldn't find any reason or meaning for her nightmare. None of those people were familiar to her, nor their personalities, nor stories. She couldn't quite recall their names, either. Yet, the images were too crisp and clear in her memory. Their faces stood out, their voices, and the thoughts that the one man had had. The man in black- he'd just seen and done so much. As far as she could tell, he was under the impression that he'd just killed his loved ones, and that he needed to stop the world from crumbling. He'd yelled at her, screamed at her madly. But she hadn't stopped. The pain from the nightmare was all too real, too. She could almost feel the sucking in her chest at the memory. The blade piercing her leg. Her own screams.
She shut her eyes and shook her head, trying to keep the nightmare from coming back to her any more. Those visions were evil- that black moon, wreathed in the color of blood…
Stop it, don't think of it any more.
She tried to make it go away, but the more she tried, the more it resisted. She could remember touching the golden chalice-
Look at the ants. Wonder about the ants. What goes through their tiny little heads? What makes them trolley on, day after day like this? Just how big is the world to them? Or is it even smaller to them because they themselves are smaller and have less to worry about?
That was always how she got her mind off of things. Look to something else- something small, something intricate and curious. Sometimes it was mushrooms, sometimes ants, sometimes songbirds. Mountains and trees were fun to think of as well.
Upon Kay's return, she couldn't have been more eager to practice with swords. Today was learning to disarm your opponent.
It took her only three tries to get the spin of the blade just right enough to pry the practice sword from Kay's hand. He was impressed by this.
"Took me at least ten attempts to get that one right," he remarked, sitting on the lunch log a couple of hours later.
She held her chin high. "Haha, finally got something on you, eh?"
"Oh, don't get so big, now. You got it quick enough, but you only did it right thirteen times out of thirty."
"That's nearly half," she debated.
"Half of what you'd need to get through a real fight with a real knight," he said flatly.
She frowned.
"You know your mum was ranting today when I got back."
"Oh? What over?"
"She kept yelling about how you disappear all of the time, saying you'll never get a husband like that, and that you should already be a wife and mother."
Her face flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. "Well maybe I don't want a stupid husband," she growled.
kAY gave a small chuckle. "If you did have one already, he'd not be real happy with how childish you still are."
"If mum wanted to marry me off that badly, all she has to do is find some bloke who wants to marry bloody nobility, and that'd be the end of it! She wouldn't have to worry about whether or not I'm ever at home."
Kay stared at her. "You know you'd have to marry a knight or prince in order to maintain that title and stay in the family, right?"
"I don't care. Half the royalty in the land is already related anyways, and I don't want to marry some cousin or something. It's weird."
Kay dropped from the log and kneeled in front of her, his facial expression, pretend Latin accent, and dramatic hand wavering all giving him an air of theatre. "Surely you wouldn't be opposed to our forbidden love!"
Her cheeks growing rosier, and a grin breaking out on her face, she took her foot and planted it in his face, shoving him to the ground. "Well I am, and if ye'er not, ye're just going to have to take it up with the ol' warty troll out west!"
A little taken aback by the bravery of her shoe, he laughed along with her.
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They joked around and sparred some more until the dark of night was nearly upon them. They both mounted Throrin, and began to trot away and down the trail back home.
It was not yet night, yet it seemed as though it was beneath the trees. Through thinner parts of the forest, she could glimpse the warm, golden hues of sunset just over the distant hills.
Then she noticed Throrin beginning to act oddly. He was swishing his tail and tossing his head far more often than usual, and his steps seemed unsure. Eventually he began nickering and whinnying.
"What do you think is wrong with Throrin?" She asked Kay.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, he'll have to put up with until we get back to the stable. The sun's almost completely set, and it's not like we'll have any light to go by.
She didn't like the idea of her stallion (she considered him her own) being upset for that long. They still had about half an hour to go.
"Are you sure we can't stop and at least check his mouth?" She asked.
"And have him chomp down on my fingers? No thank you," he replied.
Arthuria rolled her eyes. "He won't bite, I look in his mouth all the time."
"Yeah, you, the one he's with the most. And it's not like we have any light to see with anyways."
She groaned. "Fine."
"He'll be fine 'till we get home, alright."
She just nodded.
However, while looking off the side of the trail, she glimpsed something peculiar. A small, patch of white in the distance, on the ground. It looked an awful lot like a cat. Above it, there was a small yet strong, crimson light. Her brow furrowed strongly at the sight.
"Constantine, did you see that back there?"
"See what, Arthur?" He sounded irritated now. "Look if you're that desperate to stop and-"
They were both lurched back by Throrin rearing, screaming and whinnying all the while.
"Damn stud, be still!" Kay cried.
But the horse continued to rear, even began to crow hop. His head kept turning sideways, enough to where Arthuria could see an exceptional amount of white in his eyes. He kept trying to turn around, but Kay wouldn't let him, his hands struggling to keep a firm length on the reigns. In circles he kept spinning, pirouetting them into dizziness. He reared once more, and Arthuria couldn't hold on any longer. She fell to the ground, and looked up just long enough to know that she needed to roll. Throrin fell backwards, Kay still in the saddle. They would have fallen on her if not for her quick enough thinking.
She heard a gut wrenching crack as they landed, and Kay let out a terrible cry. Throrin thrashed, regaining his footing in order to run away. Kay was lucky that he wasn't trampled on or that his foot wasn't caught in the stirrup.
Despite this, he was just beginning to feel the agony that was pulsing in waves from his leg.
"Throrin!" Arthuria staggered to a stand, making a feeble attempt to reach out for Throrin as he galloped by. She was torn from her state of confusion and upset when she heard Kay let out a gurgling groan.
She whipped around to find him on his back, face contorted in pain, his hands shaking over his right leg.
"Oh, God," she muttered under her breath, as she ran over to him. That's all she could say, and keep saying. "Oh, God, please no…"
She didn't know what to do. She couldn't carry him. He couldn't walk. And now they had no horse to ride.
She couldn't carry him but she had to. In the dark. In a forest. What if the man in black came after her-
Shut up, Arthuria. Just think. Think, think, think! What about the white cat she'd seen just moments earlier? But surely a cat couldn't help. And that red glow? What on earth had that been?
She remembered hearing adaptations of stories from the north. There were little whispering sprites called Will of the Wisps. According to the tales, they led one to their death.
Just then, a low, wolfish howl sounded through the wood. Arthuria's hair stood on edge, and Kay's eyes widened, and he stopped his groaning and gasping as best as he could.
An unnatural light began to flicker around them, as though a violet lantern were buried in fog around them. From that light sprouted atrocities- dancing wooden dolls, red mushrooms with eyes gouged in them, and many, massive wolves made of dead leaves.
The trees became an ugly shade of pink and gnarled out of shape, their leaves shed and bare limbs like claws grasping for victims. A wall made of intertwined purple and blue splotched vines seemed to dome up around them.
Arthuria shook her head. This couldn't be real. Surely it wasn't. This was just another nightmare. She would be screaming in bed and Kay would come to wake her up, and he'd comfort her once more. That's what she thought as the dolls kept dancing and the wolves kept howling, their voices like that of a massive wind storm through a forest.
All she could do was take her kinsman up into her arms and sit there.
The air didn't help her think. It was acrid, like a burning village. It was heavy with negative things- emotions-she didn't know how but they were. Despair and confusion filled her nostrils, and she could only shake and tremble as the sound of howling winds and the stench of a dead and dying village were all she could distinguish.
They were going to die. Right here. Right now. In this nightmare. This time, she really was going to die. There was nothing she could do. Surely they were going to die.
Oh, look. A review box.