"Skwirelogets?" Arthur struggled as he tried to pronounce the word. He and his tutor were seated at a small table with papers, scrolls and heaven knows what other hundred things that were needed in order to learn how to read tough vocabulary. Merlin had given Hazel a small list with the english alphabet on it. And even though Hazel could already read English perfectly, she accepted it, not mentioning she was already literate. She thought she would have a little fun with this.
"Close, it's actually Squirrelologist." Merlin corrected. Hazel sat sideways in a nearby chair as she couldn't help but mentally giggle at Arthur struggling to read. She knew she was being incredibly mean and that it was wrong when she remembered how funny and odd English first sounded to her.
"What does it mean?" the brown eyed blonde asked.
"Well it's the future term for the study of squirrels."
"Study of squirrels!?" both the blonde and redhead exclaimed, worried.
"Well the last time I checked, that's how the word squirrel is spelt," he said as he reread the word. "Maybe I ought to take a look," he said standing up. "Behave yourself children, I'm going to the twentieth century real quick." he said as he snapped his finger and disappeared from the room.
"Did he just….."
"Yeah, he does that alot." Arthur concluded, establishing their first line of dialogue together.
"What's the twentieth century?" she asked.
"I don't know." The room was silent for a moment.
"Afraid of squirrels, are you?" Hazel easily asked as she looked back down at the alphabet paper.
"I'm not afraid of anything."
"Really." she said not believing him. "Then what's the big shock about squirrels?"
"Something beyond your imajation." Hazel looked up.
"First of all, it's imagination, and second, I can imagine quite a bit." she said, still reading the paper in front of her.
"Even if I said I turned into a squirrel?" Hazel clapped the pamphlet closed and stared at him, wide eyed.
"What did you just say?" she asked, thinking about a familiar interaction from her past. So that's why he looks so familiar.
"I told you you wouldn't believe me. Nobody ever does."
"No, I believe you. In fact the same things happened to me before."
"What?"
"It's a bit of a long story," Hazel replied. "But I mean it when I say you wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Well I don't know. I can believe in quite a bit." he said proudly, crossing his arms.
"Can you now?" she asked, already plotting a satire remark in her head.
"Well sure."
"What if I told you I could already spell? Better yet, what if I told you I could read?"
"You can read?" he asked wide eyed.
"Anything and everything." she confirmed.
"Then read this." he said, giving her the list of words he was to pronounce. Words which had to be made of about 50 letters. Hazel panicked at the sight of the enormous word, but wasn't about to make a fool out of herself.
"In English or Gaelic?" she said seriously.
"You can read in Gaelic too?"
"It's a one or the other question, your majesty." she snapped.
"Oh, In English… I suppose."
"Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia." she easily read as she put the pamphlet down.
"How did you do that?" Arthur asked, naively.
"Eh…luck?" she said as she put her hands behind her head.
"No I mean it, how?"
"You really want to take something from me? I'm Pictish, remember? You're supposed to hate me."
"Well I don't hate you."
"Not yet that is," Hazel added. "But, all ethnicities aside, and since you're the King and since I do not want to die, all you have to do is just break it into smaller words and then put it all together."
"I don't even think adults can read this."
"Look, if there's one thing I know about the average adult trying to teach somebody something, they only want you to take everything you know about life and bury it deep deep down. So that way you're blinded into thinking life is nothing more than a routine." Hazel said as she put her hands down.
"Huh?" Hazel gave a tiny chuckle as she shook her head with a smile.
"I'm just playin'." she said as she giggled.
"Well it isn't funny!"
"Oh sure it is," she said "Look you'll get used to it. As we say in Pictland: Lean ort ag obair gus nach fhaigh thu ceàrr tuilleadh."
"What does that mean?"
"Keep failing till you fail at failing."
"You mean just mess up all the time? T-t-that doesn't sound like a good idea."
"Of course it doesn't because that's not what I said."
"Then what did you say if that's not what you said?" 'You have got to be joking!'
"You know what, forget what I said, and just read the word till you get it. It worked for me and it'll work for you…I think."
"Oh….alright."
"Well give it a try."
"Su-per-cali-fragil-istic-ex-piala-doc-ious."
"What did I tell you?" she said with a small smile.
"Wow, gee thanks! That's a weird word. What does it mean?"
"Hey, I read words, I don't define them. And frankly I've never heard of a word like that. It's probably from the twentieth century or whatever that place is called."
"Maybe. But can I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"Did your family teach you this?" he asked. Hazel's eyes widened as they started to sting with spawning tears. "Hazel?" The Pict shook her head and blinked the tears away.
"Huh?" she asked.
"What happened to your family?"
"Oh them uh…they uh.. They passed."
"Oh I'm sorry, I-I-I-I didn't mean to—-." Hazel weakly chuckled.
"It's ok. You just gotta brush it off."
"You seem to do that alot, don't you?"
"You can say that," she said. "What happened to yours?" she asked, lifting her head.
"Oh, they passed as well. I never knew them. That's how I came to live with Sir Ector and Kay. Well, after the orphanage. Were you ever sent to one?"
" I was put into one when I was five, ran away when I was seven, and do not plan on going back."
"Well then who took care of you?"
"I took care of myself! Nobody here would ever take me in because I'm not English and because I have dark red hair. And because they say all girls with red hair have terrible tempers and are servants of the devil or something stupid like that," She exhaled. "They're not wrong."
"I think it's pretty."
"Thank you," she said, not believing him though. "But that don't mean anything. Even if we all looked and acted the same, we'd still find something wrong with each other."
"I never thought about it that way."
"Why would you? Why would any member of nobility think like the vicious Gaelic girl?"
"Well….I wasn't always nobility. I only became the King a couple months ago. There was just this sword stuck in some sort of anvil and the only heir to the throne could remove it. And, I got to find out who my family was that day."
"Must be nice," she uttered as she picked up a book and started to flip through it. "Oh uh, your Majesty." she added.
"Oh uhm, you…..you don't have to call me that. You can just call me Arthur."
"Are you kidding me? I've already risked my life by stepping foot in here, and if I call you that it'll be the last thing I ever do."
"Oh they won't hurt you. They do whatever I say, but I don't know why."
"Oh yes I can't imagine why," she said sarcastically. "But I don't think I should."
"Please. You don't know how tired I get of people only seeing me as 'King' not 'Arthur'."
"I see," Hazel said, closing the book. "Very well then, Arthur. I'm happy you got your happy ending with no trouble. I've never met anybody with my luck." Arthur innocently pushed his chair a little closer to hers, not thinking anything of it. However Hazel grew quite anxious and she hated to admit it, but flattered.
"Well…..it's…it's luck…isn't it supposed to be…lucky?" Arthur said numbly, looking into her deep hazel eyes.
"Yeah well there's such thing as…..badluck." she replied, the same tone affecting her.
"You know, it makes sense why you're called Hazel."
"I never asked. But…do you really think so?"
"Sure. Your eyes…..they're really pretty." Hazel grew warm and blushed.
"Oh uh, thanks." They both snapped away from each other when Merlin appeared.
"Well, I do say, third dimensional motion pictures! Oh twenty-first century, what will you think of next?" He looked to see the two children sitting closer than they were before. "Did I miss anything?"
"Not a thing," Hazel said as she stretched out of the chair and started to walk out of the room. She tossed the letter chart on the table. "Here. Let's just say I already got the hang of the alphabet. Oidhche mhath (Good night)." Hazel said as she walked out the door to go to her room.
"Whatever was that about?" Merlin asked his scrawny pupil.
"Merlin….she can read."
Late at night, every single person in the castle was asleep….all but one. Hazel had changed back into her ragged clothing and took off the dress. Her feminine trousers were easier to move around in. She needed it to be since she was about to make a visit to someone who lived deep within the forest. Hazel undraped the tiny window and quietly and easily slipped through it and stood on the ledge, starting to walk. Arthur and Merlin were still in the same study, only now they had fallen asleep. Arthur had passed out on a window seat and was sleeping soundly until he heard a strange noise. He shakily opened his burnt sienna eyes to see a tiny silhouette creeping on the side of the window in a blurry background. Half asleep, he continued to watch, knowing that he should get up and tell somebody about this, but he was too tired at the moment. The shadowy figure turned around and stared at him with a pair of glowing honey yellow eyes, but then quickly turned back around and continued to walk. Arthur immediately knew who it was, and fell off the window seat. Fully awake now, he stumbled to get up and ran to his teacher.
"Merlin! Merlin wake up!" he whispered. Merlin let out a large and final snore before blinking several times at the pre-adolescent standing in front of him, gently shaking his arm.
"Oh good Heavens! What do you want!" the grouchy wizard said.
"I-i-i-im sorry to wake you."
"You're a bit late for that, lad!"
"Hazel's walking out on the ledge!"
"What is she doing up at this ridiculous hour!?"
"And on the ledge? Maybe she's leaving.
"Oh no she doesn't," Merlin grabbed his skinny wrist and dragged him behind him. "Come along my boy. But we must be quiet."
"This day just keeps getting longer and longer," Arthur mumbled, barely audible. Arthur was shocked to see Merlin was not dragging him towards the door, but the window. He looked to see if Hazel was far away enough so she wouldn't hear anything, and then opened it. "What are we doing at the window?"
"You'll see." He then searched his sleeve and pulled out his wand. He let out a few poetic words and the wand began to sparkle and shimmer. The next thing he knew, Arthur found himself looking up at the furniture and tables, they seemed to have gotten taller and extremely bigger. The window seemed further upwards and had also increased in size. Arthur moaned and shook his head. He lifted his hand to rub his eye, only to see not a hand, but a mousy brown paw. He panicked and turned his head to see a fluffy, bush tail attached to a slim furry mahogany colored body.
"Oh no! No! Ya've gotta be kidding me. I—" His words were cut short when a frail gray paw clasped over his muzzle.
"SHHHHH!" Merlin's squirrel form hissed. "Quiet remember!?" he whispered. Merlin began to jump up the furniture to the window, with a fluffy silver tail bouncing after him. He was about to book it when he realized that his companion wasn't with him. He looked down, to still see Arthur on the ground with a confused look on. "What are you doing? Get up here! This is your woman after all!" he breathed. Arthur felt disgusted yet unveiled at those whispers. There were two types of boys in the world. One, those who were actually boys, and two, those who were obsessed with nothing but gaining attention and flirtation from girls. And he definitely established himself in the first group. He cleared his mind and then began to grip his way up the leg of a chair. Merlin tapped his foot as he waited about five minutes for the boy to finally get up. After Arhur collapsed on the arm of the chair, he took several heavy breaths.
"But how are we gonna follow her?" the squirrel said.
"She's walking about seventy feet in the air. How far can she get? We'll be much faster this way. Now hurry it up lad." Merlin ordered, pulling Arthur up to the window, then pushing him out.
"Woah!" he exclaimed before immediately hugging the wall, refusing to look down or open his red eyes in general. Merlin rolled his eyes and tried to pry Arthur off the wall.
"Oh come on! May I draw to your attention that we are squirrels! We weigh less than a pound, we defy gravity, so we won't have any trouble!"
"What's gravity again?"
"Something we have no time to discuss! Now let's go!" Merlin scampered away on his paws with a terrified Arthur shortly after. They scampered until they ran into Hazel who was still walking on the surface that projected off the stone castle. She hugged the wall before slightly leaning over to see about a ninety foot drop. She gasped and hugged the wall even tighter, moving even slower now.
"The th-th-things she makes me do!" she shouted. It took her about ten minutes to fully make it to the edge. She shakily started sprinting and then the two squirrels watched as she leaped over to a tree, griping one of its branches and then pulling herself up, continuing to sprint on it. Merlin grabbed Arthur's paw. "Come along!" They then gained the momentum to jump onto the branch and keep following her. Hazel kept scurrying from branch to branch, not stopping or slowing down at all. Luckily she was unaware who the two squirrels behind her really were. Merlin had fallen out of Arthur's view, and the young squirrel started to get nervous, fearing he was getting lost. But his thoughts were wiped from his mind when he felt himself collide with the white squirrel he'd been looking for. Merlin was frozen on the edge of a branch. He didn't even flinch when Arthur crashed into him. Arthur looked at Merlin's blank expression.
"What? What is i….," He himself too stiffened up when he saw where Hazel was going. It was a somber cottage, with a roof in the shape of a witches hat. It was the home of the same witch who had kidnapped him. It was the home of Merlin's sworn rival. It was the home of Madam Mim.
To Be Continued...
This one was kinda short so I'm really sorry about that, but if I added the next chapter it would be like twenty pages longlol. But anyways, how was this Chapter? Please review :)
