He was walking down Buchannan drive on his way back to his house on the hill. The sound of the bus rolling past almost masked the noise in the bushes behind him. He spun around, calling to his magic instinctually just as a group of five men in shining armour burst onto the street. The sun glinting off the metal nearly blinded the old man and he shielded his eyes with a raised hand. The dark red capes billowing about the figures gave him pause as the image tickled something at the back of his mind, a memory from long ago.
The young men looked up and down the street. One of them spotted him with a look of recognition and made his way to the front of their little group to face him. "You!" The young man's face twisted into a look of outrage as he pointed his finger roughly into the old man's chest. The old man raised his hands in the air in an effort to seem nonthreatening. Something then passed behind the old man's icy blue eyes, and the memories of the men before him came rushing back.
"Ah," Was all the old man said as he frowned. He lowered his hands and looked at the knights before him sternly. "Ser Leon, you will stop pointing that finger at me this instant." Leon's mouth opened in shock and was about to speak when he heard a voice coming from down the street behind the old man.
"Michael?" The old man spun around, ignoring the noise of protest from Ser Leon. He looked at the old couple that had just rounded the corner. "What's going on here?" The old man looked into their worried faces and smiled, spreading his hands out in front of him placatingly.
"Maude," He gestured to the elderly woman with her dull gray hair pulled up into a loose bun atop her head. "Paul!" He added turning to the elderly man with his wife's arm clasped in his own. "It's certainly lovely to see you both. This weather is good for a walk, don't you agree? The rain we've been having" The old man groaned and shook his head. "Not good for the ol' joints, hm? These young whippersnappers were just offering to walk me home." The old man stepped forward, again ignoring the protests of the knights behind him, and placed his hands on the couple's arms.
The knights gasped as the couples eyes flashed golden and their faces relaxed into matching serene expressions. "Oh, Michael. You're right the weather is quite lovely today" Maude said dreamilly.
"Good for a walk," Paul added.
The golden hue faded from their eyes and the old man spoke. "Go on about your day friends." They smiled and nodded to him as they stepped around the group and continued down the drive without so much as a second glance.
"Magic" Leon hissed, turning back to the old man who was watching the knight with a frown.
"Yes, yes, Leon" The old man sighed and waved his hand as though he were swatting at an annoying fly. The knights looked at each other uneasily at the mention of the name of their interim leader. "Oh don't look so surprised ser knights" The man eyed each knight intently, most of whom shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny. He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Ser Leon, who was still glaring daggers at the old man before him. "Where is Arthur?" The knights, again, glanced between themselves and Leon scowled before opening his mouth to respond.
"Why would we tell you? You're a wanted criminal. A dangerous sorcerer!" Leon brought himself Up to his full height in front of this dangerous adversary of old as he spit the name, "Dragoon."
The old man crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "You lot would do well to bring me to Arthur." His eyes scanned their surroundings "And soon."
"That's King Arthur to you. And why would we do something like that? Hm? So you can kill him?" Leon sneered "You'll have to go through us. We'd never let you harm our king."
"Gods, Leon" The old man said, exasperated. "I don't want to harm him. Do you all have any idea what's going on? Why you've returned? Where and when you've returned?"
Leon gaped at his questions. Elyan spoke up behind Leon "You don't wish to harm Arthur?"
The old man put a hand on his hip and brought the other up to his face to rub the bridge of his nose. "Elyan, If I had wanted to harm him, or any of you, I would have done so already."
The knight started at the sound of his own name. "How do you know our names?" Elyan thought back to the handful of times they had encountered the old sorcerer and tried to remember if they had ever been introduced.
The old man looked up into the sky. "Why are you testing me?" He muttered at the sky, The knights also looked up, and saw, well, nothing. The sorcerer looked at the men before him. "Leon, Elyan, Percy, Gwaine, and even Lance." He pointed to each knight as he named them.
Lancelot cocked his head at how familiar the old mage was being and frowned. He took the time to truly study the old man before him. He had a white beard and matching white hair that reached to about his shoulders, and he wore some sort of loose gray head covering. He also wore a baggy black coat that hung off his scrawny shoulders, and a pair of strange leggings made from a material that was foreign to him. Finally, he carried a gray pack slung over one shoulder. The old man's face was exceedingly wrinkled, and the scowl he wore only deepened the creases in his face. The man turned his eyes to Lancelot and their gazes locked on each other. A pair of bright blue eyes stared into Lancelot's and the knight sucked in a quick breath as recognition flooded through him.
The old man winked at Lancelot who smiled brightly. He looked down at his nails before speaking again "I've done terrible things with less information Ser Elyan. I see you five here, so that means that Arthur has returned with you. So" the sorcerer turned his hard gaze back on Leon. "Where. Is. Arthur?"
"We should just gut you where you stand," Leon scowled, reaching for his empty scabbard.
The old man snickered. "That would be tremendously ambitious of you." Leon growled at the man, and stepped forward menacingly.
"Or!" Lancelot started nervously, wanting to relieve some of the tension. "We could bring him to Arthur." Leon turned to glare at him. "He'll know what to do," Lancelot pointed out. "He is the King after all."
"Finally, someone with some sense!" The old man threw his hands in the air. "Let's be off then, yes?" Leon glared at the old man.
"Lancelot is right." He said begrudgingly, clearly still debating on killing the old man in front of him. "We'll bring him to Arthur. He shall decide his fate"
"Great, let's go" The old man rubbed his hands together and stepped into the bushes where the knights had just recently emerged from.
"Oi!" Leon called, and the old man popped his head out of the bushes, his eyebrows raised. "You are our prisoner, we give the orders."
The old man chuckled as though he were remembering some long forgotten memory before he said "Of course." He inclined his head slightly, and continued. "Are you ready? Let's go." And he disappeared into the bushes again. Leon yelped and rushed forward, following the sorcerer into the bushes, followed by the other knights. They quickly caught up to the old man, though he moved faster than any man his age should be able to. As soon as Leon caught up he grabbed the old man's arm roughly and continued walking with him in his vice like grip.
"Is that really necessary, Leon?" The words came from the gentle giant, Ser Percival. "He seems to be coming willingly." The old man lent a glance at the knight, while Leon spoke.
"Percival, do you not remember? He is a dangerous sorcerer!" The old man gritted his teeth, keeping himself from correcting the young knight.
"Yes but magic is no longer against the laws of Camelot. Our queen saw to that."
"Sorry, what?" It was Gwaine's turn to speak up. "Magic is legal?" The old man looked over his shoulder at the knight, his eyes shining, and a sad look on his face. A shove from Leon caused him to stumble forward, only just catching himself before he fell to the forest floor.
"Regardless!" Leon shouted, as soon as the old man had recovered. "This man is still wanted for treason and for the murder of our King Uther."
"I didn't kill Uther." The old man muttered, earning himself another shove.
"We still have yet to gather any information," Elyan added. "We don't know why we are here, or even where 'here' is!" He added echoing the old man's words from earlier.
"So you all don't know why you've returned?" The old man stated, looking to Elyan. He frowned as the words confirmed his own internal musings.
"I suppose you do then?" Gwaine commented.
The old man was silent for a moment before responding cryptically. "There are many, many things that I do know, and even more that I don't." The man grunted as he stepped over a particularly gnarled root. "Everything will be explained in time."
"Are you going to be the one to explain?" Lancelot asked the old man.
"I hope to." Was all he said, before they fell silent. Something seemed to occur to him however before he spoke up again. "You didn't leave Arthur alone, did you?"
"He is the king of Camelot," Elyan said. "I'm sure he can take care of himself."
The old man abruptly ripped his arm out of Leons grip and started jogging through the forest, again seemingly ignoring his age, causing the little group's speed to increase. "No he can't, the clot pole" He muttered under his breath as he led the way through the forest, now, somehow knowing where they were headed.
Soon, they broke through the line of trees into a clearing next to the lake, and there he was, standing with his back to them, looking out across the lake toward the tower ruins. Hearing them approach, he turned around to look at them. The old man halted, seeing him, his golden hair reflecting the sunlight, creating a halo around his head. His red cape was blowing around him with the Pendragon crest stitched into it, the plate armor and chainmail gleaming in the sun. The old man shuddered, his eyes damp, and his legs wobbled underneath him. "Arthur?" His voice hushed as he whispered the name.
The once and future king frowned at the old man, not recognizing him for a moment, but then his eyes went wide and he smiled, throwing his arms out to his sides. The old man ran forward, throwing himself into Arthur's tight embrace, despite the cries from the knights. His tears were flowing freely down his face now, and he buried his face deeper into Arthur to try and hide his emotions. He gripped Arthur tightly, making the king concerned for his friend.
When the old man had recovered a bit Arthur held his shaking shoulders at arms length as the old man sniffled. Arthur frowned at the old man, and then at the knights, and then back at the old man, who was now wiping his face. "Now what is all this about?" He glared over at the knights standing at the edge of the clearing.
"Sire!" Leon spluttered, finally recovering. He watched as His King tucked the old sorcerer under his arm as though they were old friends. "That," he said pointing violently at the old man "Is the dangerous sorcerer known as Dragoon. He is wanted for the murder of your father, King Uther!"
"Yeeeessss," Arthur said, drawing out the word, as though confused by something. "What was that about?" He looked over at the old man still tucked under his arm who looked up at the king sheepishly.
"Arthur, I can explain that. Honest, it wasn't me."
"There, see?" Arthur turned to look at Leon again. "He can explain!" Leon's jaw dropped and looked at his King in shock. "For goodness sake," Arthur said looking down once more. "They're so distrustful of you because you look like this!" He gestured at the man. "Can't you do something about that?"
"Ah, right, well, you see Arthur" The man squirmed under the King's watchful eye. "They don't know about me, about my magic." The old man whispered the last part as the king frowned at him, and then frowned at the knights.
"Oh, I see." he muttered as the old man nodded.
"Of course he has magic!" Elyan shouted. "We all saw it just a moment ago!" All the knights looked at their king in confusion.
"So you see my predicament?" The old man said, standing up straight, no longer leaning against Arthur. The king sighed trying to think quickly. He looked from the old man, standing next to him, his arm still around his shoulders, to his knights watching the encounter with wide eyes. "I will defer to you Arthur. What would you advise?" Arthur's head turned sharply to look at the old man in shock. Was he being respectful? That wasn't like him. Arthur frowned but shook it off, before again looking at his knights.
"Just show them I suppose," Arthur shrugged as he spoke. "That is what you did with me, is it not?" The old man sighed and stepped away, out from under Arthur's arm. The knights looked around nervously, aside from Lancelot and Percival, who just stared at the pair intently.
The old man brought his hands up to grab his head covering and put it in his back pocket. He gripped his scalp, his thumbs going just behind his ears and his fingertips touching on the top of his head, effectively covering his hairline. He pulled his hands back along his hair, and the knights gasped as his hands revealed short jet black hair replacing the long white strands. As his hands came away, his long white hair changed into a glimmering golden dust, and drifted to the ground. He then started to brush off different parts of his body, as though he was brushing off dirt, though instead of dirt, puffs of gold dust came off him, and fell, shimmering, to the grassy floor. First both his arms, then his torso, and finally his legs. Eventually the knights were looking at a young man, with the wrinkled face of the old sorcerer. Finally he brought one hand up to rub his chin and rid himself of his white beard.
With one final look back at his king, the old man covered his face with his now smooth and young hands, and dragged his hand down across it in one smooth motion. Finally he dropped his hands to show the knights the familiar face of the man now standing in front of them.