Chapter 33: A memory in the meadows

Lyra and Mordred were sitting in the meadows having a picnic. No guards, no servants... No one... Only them. It felt, surprisingly pleasant to both of them.

"So where did you actually come from?" Lyra asked. She had been wondering that ever since the day they met.

Mordred didn't remember, he never really thought about it, and he didn't care either. "I don't know."

"I don't either... I was found by Arthur, when he was five , near the lake." Mordred rose an eyebrow.

"I heard that you were found at the castle, right on the doorstep." He said.

Lyra smiled sadly. "Arthur told me the story." Mordred frowned a little at Arthur's name, that all she'd ever talk about.

"OK, so which lake was it?" He asked.

She thought for a while. "The Lake of Avalon." Mordred almost chocked on his wine.

When Mordred was five, he remembered a day when he was practicing his magic near the Lake of Avalon.

He saw, a bright light on the lake. He saw a women with a red cape holding a basket.

The women put the basket on the edge of the river and placed a topaz necklace into it and left, running far into the forest.

Mordred then heard a cry of a baby and was about to take the basket back to the camp but another boy, around his age, beat him to it.

Mordred couldn't see who was there only that the boy was accompanied by an adult.

"Father! Look, theres a baby!"

That boy must have been Arthur. If Mordred had looked a second sooner, Lyra wouldn't be a princess... She'd have learnt magic and Mordred wouldn't have spent his life in misery after Arthur destroyed the camp. He and Lyra would've escaped together...

"Mordred?"

Mordred stared at her for a moment. "Lyra, I was there... Before Arthur. I saw a women, she was holding you in a basket." Lyra gasped.

"Why didn't you take me then?" She asked, hardly believing him.

"Arthur. He got there before me, I was watching your mother leave." Mordred said, seriously.

Lyra gasped again. "My mother? What did she look like?" She was smiling, much to Mordred's annoyance.

"She wore a red cape, I think she had black hair... I don't really remember. I try not to remember my childhood..."

"Why?"

"My family was murdered by Arthur and his knights. And I spent the rest of my life running away from Uther and Arthur. Thats why." He said darkly.

"I'm sorry..." Lyra said.

Mordred smiled slightly. "If I'd have taken you with me, if Arthur hadn't been there. We would have grown up together."

"Mordred, I-..." He cut her off.

"Don't. I know what you're going to say and no, Lyra. Arthur will die and theres nothing you can do."

Lyra didn't look at him as she said in a minor whisper. "I'll do anything."

Mordred pretended he didn't here her, Anything? We'll see about that...

Hope you like it! ^^