Merlin's Story

An Unlikely Alliance

2010-06-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

An hour later, Merlin and Vortimer sat playing a game of Shatranj, which Vortimer had learned from a Persian trader who happened to be selling a set.

Though Merlin was supposed to be concentrating on the game, Merlin found he couldn't. He kept thinking about his conversation with Vortimer just over an hour previous. A born leader. The idea bounced around in Merlin's head.

Merlin also realized that in order for him to officially accept Vortimer's proposition, Vortimer's suggestion of alliance must be accepted. Being honest with himself, Merlin realized that was a far shot.

"The Shah is dead," Vortimer said, moving his Rukh to a place so that no matter what Merlin did, the Shah would die on Vortimer's next turn.

Vortimer put his hands behind his head and admired his move. Vortimer had a smug look on his face, a well deserved one it was, for Vortimer had won three out of three of the games that had been played.

As though the fates had been waiting for just that moment, a messenger popped his head through the flap of the medical tent.

"The Uther and Aurelianus War Councils have finished discussing your offer, and wish to inform you of their decisions," the messenger said, as if fearful of what Vortimer would do to him.

"Marvelous, tell them to come in!" Vortimer said cheerfully, still celebrating his wins.

Without another word, the messenger left the tent and fetched the War Council members. In file, just as they had left, the men reentered the tent, forming again around Vortimer's bed.

Aurelianus was the first to speak. "Vortimer, the Councils of Aurelianus and Uther have talked and we have ultimately decided that we will accept your proposal of alliance, on two terms."

Vortimer attempted to look surprised. "Oh? What might those terms be?"

Before answering, Aurelianus looked around and the elite men around him. "Our first term is that the three War Councils that are represented here today be merged into one for the duration of this war and anytime the Saxons should think to attack us again."

"Granted."

"And our second term is that once this war is over, provided that we win…" Aurelianus trailed off before continuing. "Is that you and I shall share the throne of Britannia, as we both know I am the true heir."

Vortimer could not help but be impressed by the audaciousness of the term. Yet, it was true. Aurelianus was the true heir, not he. To give up the throne would be the absolutely right thing to do, but Vortimer was reluctant to give up his throne. As it was, Aurelianus was only suggesting that Vortimer share the throne with him.

"I offer a counter proposal," Vortimer said finally, "We share the throne, but either of us will rule of different places. I should get England, as I have lived there all my life, and you should get Wales, as you have lived here for the past almost thirty years. As for the Kingdom of the Picts, you and I should rule it together."

Aurelianus thought for only a second before speaking. "Accepted."

Without any other words, everyone save for Vortimer, Catigern, Pascent, and Shiroix, who was now lying on his bed again, walked quickly and quietly out of the tent. There was nothing left to attend to, and no reason left to remain in the tent.

Merlin began to walk to his own tent as he left, but Aurelianus called to him.

"Merlin, we must speak. Come with us."

Obeying the simply command, Merlin jogged back over to Aurelianus and the others, falling into stride with Blaise.

"Where are we going Blaise?" Merlin asked, curious as always.

"You shall see Merlin. Just wait." Blaise said softly, never looking over at the boy beside him.

Indeed, Merlin did see where they were going before too very long. They were taking him to the tent where the War Council had held their meeting only the previous morning.

As quietly as they had left the medical tent, everyone entered the War tent. Everyone sat down in a chair, leaving Merlin standing at the end of the table closest to the entry flap.

"Merlin," Aurelianus started, "I should like to introduce you to some friends of mine. They have been on my side for many years, and are serving on the War Council."

Merlin eyed the group before him. There were only three he did not recognize. They must be the friends Aurelianus was talking about.

Aurelianus beckoned to one of the three, whom then stood to face Merlin. As etiquette dictated, Merlin bowed before the man. The man acknowledged the bow with one of his own, albeit not as low as Merlin's had been.

"Merlin, this is my dear friend Sire Leodegrance, King of Carmelide. He is a fine warrior, and an even greater king."

Leodegrance grinned widely and moved to shake Merlin's hand. Merlin quickly took note of the man's features; scruffy beginnings of a beard, shoulder-length dark brown hair, a silver circlet on head, fairly young, tall, handsome, muscular, and medium purple eyes.

"You have a strong grip boy, a warrior's grip! I expect that you were on the battlefield yesterday winning the battle for us?" Leodegrance said in a pleasant, vaguely Welsh voice.

"Yeh shoulda seen him takin' on Vortimer all by himself Leo!" Uther said pride fully, "He was doin' a fine job of it too!"

Almost imperceptibly, Leodegrance's eyebrows arched, now full of respect for the young warrior. "Is that so? I suppose my earlier comment has more truth to it than I had expected."

Aurelianus decided to butt in before a lengthy conversation started. "And over there is-"

"Gorlois!" Uther interrupted, just noticing the man. Upon hearing his name, the small man in the corner beamed at Uther and chest bumped with Uther. The two men began laughing heartily and beating each other on the back.

"It's been a long time Uther," Gorlois said, his oversized belly bouncing up and down as he spoke.

"Five years it's been! How've yeh been these days? The war had any effect on yeh up till now?"

"Ahem!" Aurelianus coughed, beckoning not so subtly to Merlin.

"Oh, yes, pleasure to meet you boy. Now where were we Uther?" Gorlois said, barely glancing in Merlin's direction. Apparently the two men were very good friends, but Merlin would never have guessed such. The only thing the two had in common was their circle beards. Other than that, the two were almost complete opposites. While Uther was tall and bulky, Gorlois was short and overweight. Uther had tanned skin while Gorlois was rather pale. The more Merlin observed them, the more differences he observed.

Aurelianus let out a sigh. "Quite sorry about that," Aurelianus said, "They're just happy to see each other again. They last saw each other when the two saved each other's lives in an adventure in Normandy five years ago. Needless to say, they became good friends because of it. But that's a tale for another day. There's one more person I want you to meet Merlin. Ulfius, why don't you introduce yourself?"

The third person got up from where he was sitting and walked through the crowd of socializing men to Merlin and Aurelianus.

The man was in truth, not a man at all, but still merely a boy, maybe a year or so older than Merlin himself. He was slightly taller than Merlin with tanned skin that complimented his shoulder-length ivory-colored hair, which was worn straight in a fashion that reminded Merlin of a flickering flame. The boy had a decidedly Slavic look about him, with hard, unforgiving eyes.

Merlin bowed to the boy, but did not receive a bow back. Rather, the boy gave a mere nod of the head, acknowledging Merlin's bow. Merlin wondered how the boy could be so ignorant of Briton customs. "Aren't you a bit young to be on the War Council?" Merlin asked the boy.

"Aye. Yet, who said I was on the War Council?" the boy asked in a thick accent that confirmed Merlin's suspicions of his Slavic origin.

"Oh, I believe there has been a misunderstanding here," Aurelianus said, "You see, Merlin, Ulfius's father served on my War Council after being exiled from his tribe in the east. Under normal circumstances, I would introduce you to both Ulfius and his father, but… But his father was lost in the battle yesterday."

Merlin suddenly felt a pang of guilt. He shouldn't have said what he had to Ulfius. He looked sheepishly over at Ulfius, curious to see what was on the boy's face. To Merlin's surprise, Ulfius had only a touch of saddened emotion on his face.

Merlin began to apologize for his behavior, but Ulfius held up a hand to stop him. "Enough about my father. It's best to put that behind us. I'm Ulfius. And you are?" Ulfius said, holding out his hand for Merlin to shake. Merlin gripped Ulfius's hand and shook it firmly twice.

"Merlin."

"Nice to meet you Merlini," Ulfius said, a smirk crossing his face.

Merlin for his part could not believe he was being called Merlini, and moreover, from a person he had only just met! Terribly rude he thought.

Aurelianus barked a quick laugh. "I'm sure you two will enjoy being tent mates."

"What?" both Merlin and Ulfius exclaimed as one. Aurelianus could certainly tell they weren't getting along well already, so why put them together in a tent?

"You heard me."

"But I already have Shiroix as a tent mate!" Merlin protested, Ulfius nodding as though he already knew this.

"And Shiroix has recently been moved to the medical tent while he heals up, leaving empty space in your tent, and Ulfius here can help to fill it."

The two boys had to agree with Aurelianus, though that did not stop them from arguing further.

Holding his hands up, Aurelianus spoke forcefully. "It's decided. You two will be tent mates. End of discussion."

Before Merlin and Ulfius could protest further, Aurelianus clapped his hands three times to gather the attention of the people in the tent. Once Aurelianus had their full attention, he poured himself a glass of beer, as did the rest of the adults present.

"Cheers," Aurelianus said, "To a new alliance with Vortimer against the Saxon invaders!"

"Cheers!" everyone said, clinking their glasses together while beer spilled.

Propositions

2010-06-01T17:41:00.000-07:00

When Merlin awoke, he was lying on a bed in a tent. How he had got there, Merlin had no idea. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep under the maple tree in the middle of the night.

"Ah, you're awake," Blaise said, entering the tent with Merlin's favorite: pancakes. Blaise put the tray of food on Merlin's lap, and told him to eat.

"How did I get here?" Merlin asked before even taking a bite.

"When you ran away last night, we let you be. We couldn't just leave you out there, however, and so several hours ago Caedmon led us to you. You two have a psychic connection now Merlin; no matter where either of you are, each of you will always know where to find the other one. It's a gift Merlin, and it saved your life just last night."

Vortimer. What had become of him, Merlin wondered. Was he dead? Was he still unconscious?

The memory of the previous night's events awoken within Merlin, Merlin found that he couldn't eat. That all he wanted to do was curl up and go back to sleep. He didn't want to know the aftermath of yesterday's battle; he was scared what it was.

"Come with me," Blaise said taking the tray off of Merlin's lap and placing it on a small table.

Quickly, Merlin threw the covers off of him, and followed Blaise without a word. Merlin did wonder where Blaise could be taking him, but kept his thoughts to himself.

Soon enough Merlin did find out where Blaise was going: the infirmary tent in the base camp. Merlin could only think of one reason why Blaise would take him to the infirmary tent. Vortimer was alive, and Blaise wanted Merlin to see that.

Blaise held the flaps of the tent open for Merlin and gestured for him to go first. Silent as ever, Merlin nodded his appreciation and walked in. To Merlin's surprise, only two beds were occupied. However, Merlin did notice that there were several people who chose to stand. Doing a quick look around the room, Merlin found that Aurelianus, Catigern, Vortimer, Pascent, Shiroix, the entire War Council and several others he didn't know were present. Vortimer and Shiroix were the only two in beds. Everyone else was gathered around Vortimer's bed.

"Welcome Merlin," Aurelianus said, his face down where Merlin couldn't see it, "We've been waiting for you. To save Vortimer the effort of explaining everything twice."

Merlin had no clue what Aurelianus meant. To save Vortimer explaining what twice?

"Catigern forgives small boy. Small boy didn't lie to Catigern and Catigern is sorry," Catigern said in a deeply solemn voice. To Merlin's utter surprise and terror, Catigern walked over to Merlin and gave him a giant bear hug that had Merlin lifted off his feet and lost in Catigern's giant chest and arms.

As Merlin was put back on his feet, he realized that Catigern was the only person in the room without a scratch on him. Everyone else was injured somehow, most of them minor injuries, but injuries just the same.

"Shiroix!" Merlin shouted turning to face his friend as he realized that Shiroix must surely have been injured himself. The Shiroix that Merlin saw in the infirmary was far different from the Shiroix he had seen confidently attacking Vortimer last night.

Undoubtedly, Shiroix had a great many minor injuries beneath the sheets that covered him, but Merlin knew the Shiroix had lived years on his own; he'd be fine, just fine with those injuries. That left Merlin only able to see and know what had happened to Shiroix's upper torso, arms, and face. What Merlin saw, nothing could have prepared him for. Shiroix's entire face was cut open, stemming from the left of Shiroix's face and spreading all the way down across his right eye and ending on the right side of Shiroix's jaw. Furthermore, Shiroix had a long cut on his left arm, not as deep as the one across his face but just as serious, that went from his wrist to his elbow. Both wounds were crusted with dried blood, fresh blood seeping from small holes in the dried blood.

Shiroix simply watched Merlin as he looked on in terror.

"What happened to you?" Merlin finally managed to ask.

Shiroix tried to laugh before responding, but his laugh came out as a ragged cough of pain. "What happened was that I learned when a sharp object is flying through the air at you, you duck."

It dawned on Merlin then what had happened, who had screamed last night. It had been Shiroix, from Vortimer throwing his scimitar. Judging from the looks of it, Merlin guessed that the scimitar had slashed Shiroix's face, and Shiroix had tried to deflect the blow with his left arm, which only had caused more damage.

Merlin would have stared forever at Shiroix's now sliced face had Pascent not spoke just then.

"Well we should begin the council immediately. We must discuss what will happen next, and who knows how long that will take!" the small and bookish Pascent said.

"Pascent is right," Vortimer said, propping himself up with one arm so as to sit instead of lay. Pascent and Catigern aided Vortimer with this, Pascent fluffing his pillow and Catigern sliding the covers up to Vortimer's bandaged torso. Caedmon had probably broken every rib in Vortimer's body.

"What council?" Merlin asked, "What am I here for?"

Before anyone could respond, Vortimer looked over at Merlin with shocking blue eyes with a hint of sea green. "This council is for us to determine who the enemy is. I've been told you really aren't Saxons, but if that is so, then the question remains if we should ally and combine our power to drive out the Saxons, or if this war between our two peoples is to continue if we find that we would sooner kill each other than the Saxons. So to settle this, your War Council has told me what your circumstances were. Now it is my turn to tell you what happened."

Without waiting for Merlin to respond, Vortimer launched right into his tale.

"You see, twenty-six years ago, two men landed in Britannia at Hraefn's ate named Hengist and Horsa. The two were brothers ruling a tribe of Saxons, a tribe of the fiercest and most capable as it would be. At first, my father saw that allowing the brother's to stay would be foolish, and invited them to a feast to tell them they were unwelcome. Alas, the elder of the two brothers, Hengist, brought his beautiful daughter Rowena to the feast. My father couldn't help himself; he was in love with Rowena. After several months, my father went to Hengist and asked if he could have his daughter's hand in marriage. Hengist said yes, knowing full well it would make him Vortigern's father in-law, and as such, Vortigern would be required to allow Rowena's family to stay. So my father asked Hengist if he would stay, on the condition that he and all the Saxons in his land serve as mercenaries under his banner. In return, the Saxons were free to settle as they pleased on the Isle of Thanet.

"My father was married to Rowena and soon the two were awaiting the arrival of me, their first child. Only a year after I was born they had Catigern and Pascent here, my twin brothers. All the while, Hengist and Horsa were extorting land and money from my father, gaining more and more control of the country.

"One day eleven years ago, my father said no to Hengist and Horsa. He soon found that they didn't accept no as an answer, as a full scale war was launched. My father was a coward and fled the kingdom, leaving me, just a boy at the time, to rule a country and war while taking care of my family. For that, I can never forgive my father.

"Now here we are, fighting this endless war against my grandfather and his brother. For the last eleven years it's only been a defensive war. No land has been lost or gained on either side, and few fights. Hengist is keeping his men in his kingdom, waiting for me to attack. When I received word that Deganwy was a secret hideout for some of Hengist and Horsa's troops, it made perfect sense. A sneak attack behind us, and while we're distracted in Wales, Hengist attacks in England. Thus I attacked. I had no idea that the people here were possible allies of mine or else I should not have attacked.

"I do not beg for your forgiveness. I know my mistake cost many lives and I can never hope to make up for every loss of life. But if we join together, this war will be over sooner! Far less will die if we join hands than if we remain neutral to one another! Alone, we are weak against the Saxons. But together; together we stand a chance. Together we can send them back to Germania to live out the rest of their days in shame and indignity! Now what do you say; do I have a new ally today or do we part ways?"

The room was quiet for several minutes as Vortimer looked everyone in the room straight in the eye, forcing them to look away. All but Merlin that is, who calmly held Vortimer's stare. To Merlin's surprise, Vortimer smiled at Merlin.

"Normally men, I'd leave you to discuss amongst yourselves, but seeing how I am injured as I am… Well, if you could discuss outside it would be greatly appreciated," Vortimer said in a pleasant voice to the men around him. Everyone except Catigern, Pascent and Vortimer got in file to leave the tent. Uther walked over to Shiroix and carefully picked him up in his giant arms.

"You boy!" Vortimer said, pointing a finger at Merlin, "I would like you to stay. I wish to speak to you. Also, Catigern and Pascent, I would like to speak to the boy alone if you would please."

Merlin watched as Catigern and Pascent obediently followed their brother's orders. Merlin couldn't wrap his head around it; Catigern and Pascent twins? It didn't make any sense.

"Sit boy," Vortimer said once the tent was empty save for Vortimer and Merlin.

Merlin obeyed Vortimer, and sat on the foot of Vortimer's bed, careful not to sit on Vortimer's legs.

"What's your name?" Vortimer asked.

"My name is Merlin."

"You're a great warrior Merlin."

Whatever Merlin had been expecting to come from this conversation, it most certainly was not that.

"I beg your pardon?" Merlin asked politely. He wasn't sure if he should trust Vortimer or not, and treated him as such.

"You were born to fight Merlin. A day will come when no one can match your skill with the blade. I suspect you'd be a great tactician and strategist. You are a born leader, just as I was. People want to take orders from you Merlin. They want to serve you. To them, it's an honor to serve under your leadership. And your fighting only makes them respect you even more Merlin. I expect great things will come of you someday, and I hope that I get to see it."

"I'm sorry, I don't think I understand."

"What do you mean you don't understand? Did you see how the War Council looked at you when you entered this tent? They were in awe of you Merlin; they were glad to have you on their side. You could potentially kill them all if things were otherwise.

"Merlin, I have a proposition for you. You don't believe me about your abilities, so I'll give you the chance to prove your worth to yourself. If my proposal of an alliance is accepted by your War Council, then I will be your puppet in the War Meetings."

"What does that mean?" Merlin asked with a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"It means that you and I will hold private conferences just before the Meetings and you will tell me what you think our next move should be. Should you make any errors, I shall advise you on what is brilliant and what is foolish. However, this will most likely be far and few between, if ever. Most of the time, we will go with your strategy, which I will voice in the Meeting and try to get it accepted."

Merlin thought about this for several seconds. Accepting Vortimer's offer would mean he would have raw power behind him, even if it was channeled through the king. But…

"Sire, you said that this was a proposition. What do I have to do in return?" Merlin asked, knowing full well that Vortimer wouldn't offer anything free.

Vortimer merely smiled without his eyes and stared Merlin down. "You are right, this is not free. My condition is that I will give you my voice in the War Meetings, only if you serve me by being a bodyguard of mine from now until a month after the end of the war if and when we win."

"Deal." Merlin said without a second thought. It was perfect; Vortimer was giving Merlin a greater position of power by this proposition, both by using his voice in the Meetings and allowing Merlin to be his bodyguard. If Vortimer happened to betray, then Merlin was close and could eliminate him if necessary. It would have been foolish if he hadn't taken the opportunity.

"Excellent."

The Battle of Deganwy

2010-03-04T20:37:00.000-08:00

"Are you sure you heard correctly Merlin?" asked Blaise.

As soon as Merlin had heard Vortimer give the order that they'd be attacking within the hour, he had ran as fast and hard as he could back to camp, and had burst into Blaise's tent. Blaise had asked Merlin what the matter was, and after hearing had gathered together the rest of the War Council to hear what Merlin had discovered.

"Yes, I'm positive I did," replied Merlin hastily, eagerness in his voice as every minute that passed was another minute wasted, another minute closer to Vortimer attacking.

Blaise look over at Uther, whose head was hung low. "Uther? Is it true? Did Vortigern have other children? Are they really commanding this army?"

Uther looked up at Blaise, looking much older with red eyes. "Yes, Vortigern had several children, his eldest, Vortimer, starting the war with the Saxons. Both Reli and me knew that, but we had thought Vortimer was still in Kent, not here in the Kingdom of Gwynedd, so Reli assumed it was Vortigern attacking. It made so much more sense, so I'd never thought to question it."

Everyone was quiet for several minutes. Uther was genuinely sorry, and tears were flowing down his face into his unkempt beard. No one in the tent had seen Uther cry before. The large man had always seemed so strong and warlike. Now here he was crying.

After a long silence, Blaise spoke. "Get the men ready. We fight as soon as possible. As we speak here, Vortimer is gathering his men to assault Deganwy, and the battle won't be one easily won."

***

Not more than ten minutes following his departure from the tent of the War Council, Merlin was leaning on Caedmon, dressed in full battle armor, including a helm from a foreign land called a spangenhelm. Caedmon himself wore his own specially crafted horse armor. Together, the two would charge into battle. Soon as it was to be.

Merlin was waiting between the hills that the army had arrived between, staring out to Deganwy. The view was breathtaking in the setting sun's light, even more spectacular than had it had been that morning. Light reflected off the face of the sea surrounding the small peninsula that Deganwy was situated on, bathing Deganwy in a golden glow. The one thing that ruined the picture was the army in front of it.

"Beautiful, isn't it Merlin?" Blaise asked from behind Merlin.

Merlin simply nodded his head without turning to face Blaise.

"The army has begun the march, Merlin. It's time to join them."

Without another word, Blaise turned around and began running to the army. Merlin didn't follow. It wasn't time yet.

Ten minutes later, Merlin mounted Caedmon. A silent message passed between rider and ridden in less than a second. They would protect each other in the battle ahead. Neither would die without the other by his side. Their fates were intertwined, and both knew it. Not speaking a word, Caedmon galloped with Merlin on his back to join the army in time for the battle.

The next several minutes were long and agonizing. Not a bird flew in the sky. The only noise to be heard for kilometers was the muffled sound of feet and hooves walking through the grass. It seemed as though the world had stopped to watch the battle of Deganwy.

The leaders of the army stopped half a kilometer away from Deganwy, and turned to face the army. Merlin thought Blaise was going to speak, as he had before, but instead he patted Uther on the back, and walked to a vacant spot in the lines.

Everyone looked at Uther expectantly. What words of wisdom did the great warrior have for his men?

"Men, women, wizards, and others," Uther began in a deep, booming voice that carried even to the back of the army. "Many of yeh will die this day. But know this: if yeh die, yeh will die honor'bly, fightin' the tyranny of Vortigern and Vortimer. If yeh die here this day, yer name will be remembered forever, and the children whom yeh've left behind will live knowin' that their ma or pa died for a worthy cause: to unseat the tyrants that rule this once beautiful kingdom!"

Uther's words were met with a cheer of approval from the army. Drawing his sword, Uther delivered the final words of his rallying speech.

"Before the day is out, Deganwy will be safely in our hands, our enemy fleeing with the blood of their own spilled upon this battlefield! This day will be ours!"

With those final words, Uther turned his mare around and began riding towards the army besieging Deganwy. The army quickly followed behind him.

Everything became a blur for Merlin, as if he were in a trance. Merlin barely registered that the armies had collided, and the fighting had begun. He saw everything, but heard nothing. He saw men falling in a voiceless scream. Swords clashed without their familiar clangs. Merlin realized that this bloody carnage was war. War was not the glorious grandeur that everyone said it was. It was a horrifying bloodbath over trivial causes that could and should have been resolved otherwise.

Merlin fought without thinking. If he thought about the people he was killing, he would not make it through the day.

As Merlin mindlessly sliced the man in front of him, he turned to see the armed forces of Deganwy engaging the flank of Vortimer's army. There was no turning back now; this battle must be won, or else Deganwy would fall.

Merlin took a brief moment to survey the battle around him. Vortimer was winning. Despite the tactical advantage of Uther's and Aurelianus' forces, Vortimer simply had far too many warriors on his side.

There was only one way this battle would end: if Vortimer died. Merlin knew this as well as any other man on the field, but no one else fighting knew what Vortimer looked like. Merlin was the only one who could end this battle.

Riding around the battlefield at dangerous speeds on Caedmon, Merlin searched for Vortimer.

"I see him Merlin," Caedmon said in Merlin's head at the exact moment that Merlin spotted Vortimer himself. Vortimer, dressed in full armor save for a helm, was fighting next to the biggest man Merlin had ever seen, even bigger than Uther. This man had no need for armor, and indeed, was wearing nothing but a loincloth around his waist that hung down to his knees. His upper body exposed, Merlin could see the man's veins coursing up and down under tanned flesh. The man was wielding a giant double-edged battle axe, at least twice as big as the one that Uther carried. Merlin estimated that from end to end, the blade was at least three feet wide, and another four feet long from the handle to the end of the head. The weapon must have weighed a ton, but the giant of a man swung the axe one-handed as easily as if it were his own arm.

The man was at the very least seven feet tall, towering over the men around him. The man appeared invincible to all, and surely would inspire fear amongst the army he fought. Surveying the man from head to toe, Merlin noticed something rather odd about the man: his head was too small for his body, and the only normal sized body part to be seen; even the man's neck was muscular!

Merlin hesitated. He didn't want to fight this man. It would be suicide, no, slaughter. But in a show of great will, Merlin rode Caedmon into the fray.

Vortimer never saw Merlin coming. But the man fighting beside him did see Merlin, and before Merlin could get any closer, he swung his meaty left arm into Merlin's abdomen, throwing him off Caedmon to fifty feet away. Merlin felt like the man had broken every bone in his body, and wouldn't have doubted it if someone had told him exactly that.

Merlin felt a strong hand picking him up off the ground. Turning around, Merlin saw the hand belonged to a grim Uther. Merlin turned to look in the direction that Uther was, and saw the man protecting Vortimer.

"Look at that beast of a man. Bet yeh never'd seen the likes of him before!" Uther said with a tone of wonder and awe.

"I don't believe I have," said Merlin with a touch of resentment in his voice, as was to be expected after being thrown by the giant of a man. "He's protecting Vortimer. He's the one on the giant man's left."

Uther looked over at the smaller man, who looked to be an effective warrior himself. Vortimer was swinging a long, elegant scimitar around him. It seemed no one could even touch him. Thought that may have been more from his bodyguard than his actual skill.

Not saying a word, Uther rode further into the crowd. His intent was obvious: kill Vortimer and bring an end to this battle and restore his brother's honor and dignity by placing him on the throne. Uther would die if he had to. It was written in his face.

"Merlin, I need yeh to fight Vortimer while me distract his guard," Uther said as they drew nearer. Merlin nodded his consent. Only Uther had a chance of holding off the guard long enough to kill Vortimer. That left Merlin with the job of killing Vortimer.

"When I say 'now'," Uther continued, "I want you to use the momentum to jump over the guard and fight Vortimer and while the guard is momentarily distracted, me will surprise 'im.

Seconds passed between then and when Uther said now, but it felt like ages. Merlin could have sworn time slowed down purposefully simply to build up the suspense of the moment. Once again, Merlin had the feeling the world was watching this battle, unsure of what to make of it, but clearly interested.

"Now!"

Merlin launched himself into the air with a powerful leap worthy of a lion, somersaulting over the giant man and landing on Vortimer's left lightly while swinging his sword over his head to hopefully sever Vortimer's head from his shoulders in one move.

Merlin's blade was met by Vortimer's scimitar with a loud clang! Merlin looked up to see Vortimer smiling wickedly at him. For the briefest part of a second, the two held their gazes. Then Vortimer broke the blade-lock and swung his scimitar in a round house. In response, Merlin jumped three feet into the air, just above the swinging blade, caught it, and pushed off of it, allowing him to corkscrew over Vortimer. In retaliation, Vortimer tried to kick Merlin in the stomach while he turned around, only to find that Merlin was sliding between his legs and regaining his feet behind him. Merlin braced himself as Vortimer delivered a powerful overhead strike against his sword. It wasn't enough. The force of the below had all of Vortimer's weight behind it. A risky move, but it crippled Merlin's defense, what with being on the ground from the force of the blow.. Now Merlin was at Vortimer's complete mercy. Vortimer pressed his scimitar to Merlin's throat, almost drawing blood.

"Your last hour has come. You die in blood," Vortimer said as his arm muscles tensed to deliver the final blow that would end Merlin's life. Merlin hoped it would be painless.

Merlin kept his eyes open as the fatal stroke came, staring deep into his killer's eyes. He would die staring into those cold eyes.

Neither Vortimer nor Merlin ever heard or saw what was coming. Out of the midst of battle, Caedmon reared up on his back hooves and kicked out at Vortimer. On Caedmon's armored back was Shiroix, swinging his own sword at Vortimer. In defense of the surprise attack, Vortimer threw his scimitar at the most direct source of danger, which he deemed to be Shiroix. Merlin heard a faint scream in the background as he watched Vortimer fall beneath Caedmon's hooves.

Within seconds of Vortimer's defeat, the guard was beside him, scooping Vortimer into his giant arms as if they were a cradle.

"STOP!" the guard roared to the world as though it would actually listen to him. In a way, the world did listen to him. Over the span of maybe a minute, all the clanging and screaming and fighting died away. Realization struck Merlin; the battle had actually stopped because this man had told it to.

The giant man looked at the fragile figure in his arms as a tear sprung from the corner of his eye and travelled down his cheek and off his chin. Then he recomposed himself and with immense hatred, glared at Merlin.

"You!" the man said in an unsteady voice, "You killed Catigern's brother! Now Catigern will pay for his brother's death in your blood!"

Putting Vortimer's body on the ground gingerly but quickly, the guard assaulted Merlin, waving his battle-ax high in the air. The man wanted revenge, he wanted compensation for Votimer's death.

Merlin ran. What more could he do? He ran for his life from the devastated ax-wielding man. The men of both armies cleared out of his way.

"Come back here you coward! Catigern must kill you to restore his dead brother's honor! Come back!"

The urge to look back finally overcoming Merlin's common sense, Merlin saw that the guard had collapsed on the ground and was trying to get back up to attack Merlin without success. Tears were streaming down the guard's face as he clawed the ground in a last desperate attempt to pull himself to Merlin. The man was experiencing a full emotional breakdown. Merlin didn't run any farther as he realized that he was to blame for this man's pain and suffering. It was his fault, and no one else's.

Merlin approached the giant of a man cautiously while the man himself sobbed uncontrollably and mourned Vortimer's loss.

"Catigern," Merlin said, assuming that the man he was approaching was Catigern. The man looked up, confirming Merlin's assumption.

"What does Catigern's brother's murderer want?" Catigern asked.

"Vortimer isn't dead," Merlin said, "He's only unconscious."

"Liar! You feed Catigern lies! Well Catigern won't listen to you! Catigern won't fall to your blade like Catigern's brother did!"

Merlin resolved that there was nothing else to tell Catigern. Catigern blamed him as Vortimer's murderer, and Merlin wondered if he really had killed Vortimer.

Slowly, Merlin walked around Catigern, his eyes never leaving the massive man weeping on the former battle ground. Then he ran when he was safely around Catigern. He ran and didn't stop. He ran past the grounds where the army had set camp, he ran past the forest, he ran past everything until he could run no more. He stopped running by a tree, a giant maple tree that covered Merlin from the world. There Merlin sat, and he wept. He wept for the possibly dead Vortimer, for the emotionally broken Catigern, for everyone he had abandoned today when he couldn't put up with the world any longer.

Hours later, Merlin stopped weeping. He stopped weeping, but his pain didn't subside. Even though it had been hours since it happened, he could still hear Catigern's screaming and crying in his ears.

Vortimer

2010-02-10T16:19:00.000-08:00

Merlin sat barely three hundred yards from the walls of Deganwy Castle. It had been a long walk to the castle, and had decided to take a short rest. The rest had served two purposes, them being that Merlin could rest, and the second being that he could watch Vortigern's army. It wouldn't be easy to get in, but it was midday and the troops were getting restless. All Merlin had to do was wait for an opening.

There! On his feet in seconds, Merlin ran through a narrow opening in the army, and was now in between the army and the castle. Merlin took a second to make sure he hadn't been seen, and looked around, trying to find the War tent. That was where Vortigern would be.

Not seeing it nearby, Merlin began to walk. He had no idea where the tent would be, or what would make it stand out from every other tent. Yet, Merlin knew that as he walked, he was getting closer to the tent. He could feel it in the pit of his stomach, and odd feeling of intuition.

Lost in his thoughts, Merlin nearly ran into one of the guards just outside a tent he hadn't noticed up until now. The tent was considerably larger than the other tents and the only one that had guards posted outside of it. Made out of red felt, the tent was much more decorated than the other plain, virtually colorless tents. It would make sense to assume this was Vortigern's tent. Granted, it was very different from the last tent that Vortigern had used, but that night had been one of urgency. This was probably Vortigern's personal tent for his own private use.

Merlin quietly snuck into the tent under the opening flaps. He was never noticed by the guards.

"… push back the Saxons to Thanet, back to whence they came," said a young man in his twenties. He had blonde hair and eyes of which their color changed with the reflection of light. He had a grim look on his face, pouring over a poorly drawn map of the area. Upon his head rested a golden circlet similar to Vortigern's, the only difference being it was slightly smaller. This young man was obviously king of something… But of what? Vortigern was the king here, not this man, whoever he should be,

In the corner sat a small man with small circular spectacles. He appeared a very bookish person, with a long nose and small brown eyes peering through glasses that kept sliding down his nose. As if to look even more the picture of a bookworm, he wore a long robe and carried a book under his right arm, and stumbled on his sentences as he spoke quickly, as if he were unsure of himself.

"Yes sire, of course, whatever you say must be done is surely such," said the small man quickly, furiously scribbling notes in a journal on a table next to him.

The young man's face drew an exasperated look on his face. "How many times have I told you, Pascent, to call me Vortimer? I am not our father and as such want to be treated otherwise, and I am also your brother. You owe me no allegiance, despite my being the elder and my ascendancy to the throne. Do we understand each other Pascent?"

The small man nodded furiously and scribbled down some notes.

"Oh for heaven's sake, stop that!" exclaimed the man Merlin took to be Vortimer.

The other person, the small bookish man, Pascent, threw the note book to the side and put one leg over the other while lacing his hands and putting them in his lap, as if nothing had happened. A comical moment, Pascent's face had a fake pleasant smile plastered to it.

Vortimer rolled his eyes and shook his head. To think this clown was his advisor… Very sad indeed.

Going back to what he had previously been speaking of, Vortimer began talking once more, keeping a careful eye on Pascent to make sure he didn't write down notes. "The Saxons are our enemy, but thankfully we have found a base of theirs here, at a remote outpost in Wales. Now we must drive them out, and hope that a victory here will bring the Saxons to their senses and they won't dare to fight me much longer thereafter. Meanwhile, my forces are engaging other Saxon forces across all of Britannia. Soon the war will be over. But first, our troops must gather at Epsford, where we will rest before marching to attack Hengist and Horsa at Hraefn's ate."

Merlin had heard all he needed to hear, and left the tent. Who were Hengist and Horsa? Where were Epsford and Hraefn's ate? Why did Vortimer think that Deganwy was under Saxon control? Did Vortimer even really know what was going on?

Outside, Merlin saw that the sun was much lower in the sky than he had expected it would be. He estimated about two to three hours before sunset. Two to three hours before battle. Merlin would be hard pressed to…. To do what?

Suddenly Merlin realized that he had no idea what to do. Should he go back and tell Blaise? Or should he tell Aurelianus that reinforcement had come? Should he try to kill Vortimer? What should he do? He didn't know, and found himself wandering. He just walked, hotly debating with himself what he should do. Merlin had not come to a decision when Vortimer walked out of his tent, closely followed by Pascent.

As Vortimer walked, the army around him quieted and looked over at their leader. Merlin could see that they held Vortimer in great respect, much greater than they had with Vortigern. A born leader, these men were Vortimer's to command. His voice strong and powerful, it carried with little effort on his part as he spoke.

"Men, we have been laying siege to the enemy castle for several months now. They are on the verge of starvation, and surrendering their castle to us, giving us a bloodless victory. But these cowards are too good for a bloodless defeat! For months they have stood behind their walls, hoping we would flee, just as they would have in our position! But we are the stronger men, and we will give the cowards behind their walls what they deserve! Tonight, we will attack! Your orders are simple: leave no man, woman, or child alive to see another day. Take no prisoners; we have no need for them. Any man who spares another will not be spared themselves. Now, prepare men. We attack within the hour."

Update

2010-02-09T18:34:00.000-08:00

After some time with writer's block, I've picked up Merlin's Story again and am working at a good pace. As you can see by the new ticker, I have set my deadline for November 1, 2011. At first, does not seem very far in the future. Look again. That's one and a two thirds years from now. That gives me more than enough time to finish if I'm not lazy and encounter few problems to finish writing. I do not plan on being finished revising by then. If I am, I will be genuinely impressed by myself. If I do not reach my deadline, then I will simply set a new one for myself. Kind of defeats the purpose of the deadline, but I'm not just going to throw away Merlin's Story if I don't make it on time.

Below is the next chapter in Merlin's Story. Enjoy! Note: in the final document, Ambro's name has been changed to Ambrose, more reflecting his personality.

Deganwy Castle

2010-02-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

"Alright men! Move out!" shouted Blaise as the fist rays of light came. As one, the army sat up and packed their things away, and was marching off as Merlin was still waking up. As Merlin scrambled to pack up his things, Caedmon and Blaise walked over.

"Merlin, you're going to have to be faster if you're going to fight with the army," Blaise said, "I'll give you a break today, but be wary in the future. Understand Merlin?"

Merlin hastily nodded his head. After several nods, Blaise walked off to join the army.

"Are you ready to ride Merlin?" asked Caedmon in Merlin's head.

In response, Merlin swung his legs over Caedmon's body and sat down, not bothering to place a saddle on Caedmon. As soon as Merlin was sitting on Caedmon's back, Caedmon took off from a stand-still to a lightning sprint. Merlin clutched Caedmon's mane in his hands and held on for dear life, watching the trees fly by, hoping Caedmon wouldn't run into any of them.

"Are you having fun Merlin?" asked Caedmon. Merlin could have sworn that Caedmon had an amused tone in his voice.

Within seconds, Caedmon had caught up to the army, but he didn't stop. He sped up if anything, and quickly bypassed the riding army, shooting out far in front of them. It was almost as if Caedmon was being playful with the other horses, egging them on to run with him.

After a while, Caedmon stopped sprinting and slowed to a trot, and joined the rest of the army. Meanwhile, Merlin's heart was pounding from the thrill of the ride. It had been scary, but fun too.

Several minutes later, Shiroix led Thunder up beside Caedmon. "Nice of you to join us Merlin."

"I can't control Caedmon Shiroix," said Merlin with a thin smile.

"Sure you can Merlin! The only difference between a horse and a unicorn is the horn. They both listen the same, you just have to break him. Mind if I take a shot at it?"

"Yes, Merlin, why don't you let him? He could be taught a lesson in unicorns," said Caedmon in Merlin's head with an angry tone.

Merlin had no idea how Caedmon spoke inside his mind, but Caedmon's words brought many pictures of his defeats at Shiroix's hand at just about anything. No matter what Merlin did, Shiroix always seemed to be better. In magic, in archery, in riding, in axe throwing, in dueling, even in eating. Merlin had never once beaten Shiroix, not once had he performed as well as Shiroix had, ever.

"You have a rivalry with him?" asked Caedmon.

Surprised at Caedmon's question, Merlin wondered how Caedmon had known what he had been thinking of.

"I heard you Merlin. If you think a thought, I will hear it. It is part of the bond that we have now and always will have until our dying days."

Basing his next move off this new found knowledge, Merlin thought of him getting off Caedmon and letting Shiroix get on, and Caedmon bucking Shiroix off.

"I have something better planned Merlin," said Caedmon with an eager tone.

"Alright Shiroix. He's all yours," Merlin said with a faint smile, and slid off Caedmon. Shiroix didn't waste any time and slid on to Caedmon from Thunder, his feet not even touching the ground.

As soon as Shiroix was on his back, Caedmon raced forward. Shiroix, being as good as everything as he was, was not easily thrown off. While it had taken Merlin two hands to hold on at the speed Caedmon was going, it only took Shiroix one, with the other held high in the air.

In response to Shiroix's expert riding, Caedmon suddenly turned to the left, but he kept skidding forward due to the speed he had gathered, and could not turn. However, Caedmon hadn't wanted to turn. As he had moved his body to the left, he jumped, creating a massive force that hit Shiroix full, knocking him off Caedmon's right. Yet, Shiroix still held on to Caedmon's mane, thus he absorbed all the shock when Caedmon landed, allowing Caedmon to sprint off in the direction that he had turned before jumping, and dragged Shiroix along with him. After some time, Caedmon did a complete one hundred eighty degree turn. Shiroix lost his grip on Caedmon's mane, and with all the momentum Caedmon had had, flew twenty feet across the forest and straight into a giant tree, which of course, had to be between Shiroix's legs.

For several minutes, Shiroix just lay there while Merlin and Blaise came over to him, moaning in pain.

Blaise spoke first. "No one ever told you not to insult a unicorn did they Shiroix?"

"No," Shiroix squeaked softly.

"Well now you know not to. Might want to keep that for future reference."

"Will do."

As Shiroix painfully got up, he steered clear of Caedmon and mounted Thunder with a great deal of moaning and whining. Quite unusual for Shiroix, but then again, he'd never been thrown by a unicorn.

Merlin looked over at Caedmon and thought good thoughts of his congratulations before mounting Caedmon. For once, Shiroix had been shown his place.

After several hours, the sun was finally visible in the sky. At this point, Blaise turned around on his horse to address the army.

"Attention men! Now that it is daylight, it is time that we use our magic to cut our journey shorter than it would normally be. All of you are to participate in this spell, it will take a great deal of power to transport more than two hundred men and women across an ocean to a land several thousand kilometers from here. On the ready men!"

As Blaise spoke these words, the army halted, the people which made it up summoning the power they would need from within them. Merlin could feel a great deal of powering coming to the area, fueling the spell that was about to be performed. Some provided a great deal, others provided a lesser amount. Yet, all contributed.

Merlin felt the presence of strong magic in the area, much stronger than everyone else combined, emitting from only a few sources, three that Merlin could count. One of the sources was Blaise. Blaise was emitting a powerful magic, much more powerful than Merlin would have ever imagined anyone capable of. Yet, what shocked Merlin was how weak Blaise's power was comparably to the others.

Blaise's was weak enough that Merlin could pick out where it was coming from, as he could everyone else as well. The only sources he couldn't define were those that were much more powerful than Blaise. One of them seemed to come from some faraway place, being very faint and hard to find. The last of the sources seemed darker somehow, a dark spot in the midst of a light collection of magic. The darkness almost completely covered the army, it's power overshadowing the presence of the other lighter magics that Merlin sensed. It still grew, growing ever more powerful by the second, as if it were drawing power from the sources around it and making it its own, dark power.

Then the spreading darkness quickly began to recede, to go back to its point of origin as a bright magic, a clean, white magic appeared and overpowered the dark magic, forcing it back. No matter how hard the dark magic tried, it could not penetrate the white magic and foul it. The white magic was using very little of its power to force the dark magic back to its place. The white magic was unstoppable, a great and powerful force that only wanted peace, whereas the dark magic wanted to have everything for itself, absorbing into the lesser, weaker magics.

Merlin closed his eyes, and felt the presence of the white magic everywhere, all around him, providing more than enough power to fuel the spell for everyone. Unlike the dark magic, it left the others magics alone, instead only adding its own power to the spell. The dark magic had tried to fuel the spell itself by consuming all others. It had wanted the glory of fulfilling the requirements of the spell without help, and it had failed, giving birth to the white magic.

For several moments, the world sat still. All was quiet, the white magic's disembodied presence floating in the air. Nothing moved, nothing breathed, nothing was anything. It was all one, it was all itself, one unified body of many things that came together to be one.

The silence was broken when Blaise shouted the words of the spell to the heavens, taking the army to Wales. When Merlin opened his eyes, he saw Deganwy Castle in the distance. The army could easily arrive within the hour.

People in the army began to mutter. They weren't supposed to have landed here! They were supposed to have landed kilometers away, they were supposed to have had a great distance to cover before coming within sight of Deganwy Castle, yet, here they were, Deganwy Castle looming in front of them.

None in the army had seen Deganwy before, aside from Uther and Merlin. The last time Merlin had seen Deganwy had been in the dark, and thus Merlin hadn't been able to see Deganwy very well. Here now in the early morning light, Deganwy was a spectacular site. Like many things, the first impressions were unreliable. The land Deganwy sat on was the neck of a peninsula, both ends of which ended in two hills, a slight dip between them like an 'm' shape, which was where a large gate lay. Merlin estimated that Deganwy was about a kilometer and a half wide, from end to end. Its towers had been built higher since Merlin had last seen the castle, and it appeared far stronger than before.

In front of Deganwy Castle was a giant, awe inspiring army. Every man just stood still, unmoving, waiting. The men were obviously well trained, and would be a worthy adversary, especially considering the navy that was blockading escape from Deganwy out the back entrance. It would be a hard fought battle for the sea fortress.

Blaise turned his brown and black spotted mare around to face the army.

"Men, in front of us lies Deganwy Castle, currently under siege by the followers of Vortigern. Tonight, we will break that siege. Meanwhile, the War Council will gather and develop a strategy for tonight's battle. The rest of you can rest up. I don't want worthless soldiers fighting tonight. Execute."

The well trained army broke apart upon Blaise saying 'execute'. Everyone went every which way, going to go find means of relaxation. Some men sparred with sticks to sharpen themselves for the night's battle, others pulled out a blanket and made a hammock between two branches to lay down on. A few pulled out their wands and used simple magic to set up a sea of tents for the men. Within minutes, the nearby area looked fittingly like a military camp.

Merlin dismounted Caedmon, giving him a cracker before he left, and walked up a small hill for a better view of Deganwy. Deganwy was a beautiful castle, very mystic, especially considering the army camping outside its walls. Merlin found it hard to believe that such a great place could possibly be defeated, but then again, the battle hadn't been won yet. The War Council was determining the course of action as Merlin looked over at Deganwy.

The War Council. What were they going to do tonight? Two and two formed in Merlin's mind to become four. What if he spied on the War Council? He'd know exactly what they planned tonight. He could help them without them ever knowing he had been there listening!

Quickly and quietly, Merlin moved over to the War Council's tent. No one saw him, no one stopped him. No one questioned him. He was free to go and listen in on classified strategy.

"There you are Merlin," said Shiroix from no more than a foot behind Merlin, scaring the living daylights out of him, "I've been looking for you. So how long have you been considering spying on the War Council?"

Merlin turned to look at Shiroix with a pained face. It figured. Shiroix knew exactly what Merlin had been planning. As always, Shiroix was better than Merlin. Doubtlessly, Shiroix would want to repay Merlin for the riding incident earlier in the day, and here Merlin was, providing him with the perfect opportunity to get even and more.

"Relax Merlin, I'm not going to tattle on you. No, rather the opposite. I myself was going to spy on the Council because I could, much like you are. However, I'd rather not be discovered, and so I have a proposition for you."

The word 'proposition' caught Merlin's attention. "What do you want Shiroix?" Merlin asked with a suspicious tone.

"I won't tell Blaise that you were planning on spying on him if you go in for me and report to me everything that was said. Everything. I'll put an invisibility spell on you so that you won't be caught quite so easily. Do we have a deal here?"

Merlin considered Shiroix for a minute. He gets to go undercover with an invisibility spell performed on him. He gets the information that he wants, and all he has to do is tell Shiroix just what has happened in the Council. It sounded great, except for one thing, but that could be easily changed without hassle.

"Alright Shiroix, I'll do it. But I'll cast my own spell."

Shiroix snickered. "You? Perform an invisibility spell? I doubt that you can perform one. Alright, let's see it then."

Taking a deep breath, Merlin whispered several words while watching Shiroix. After Merlin completed the spell, Shiroix's eyes grew wide, and his jaw dropped ever so slightly. Obviously, Merlin had successfully completed the spell and was now invisible. To test it, Merlin walked over to the right, and then jumped to the left. Shiroix's eyes stayed where Merlin had been.

"I told you so," said Merlin as he walked carefully away, unable to resist teasing Shiroix.

Quickly and quietly, Merlin walked to the tent of the War Council. In less than a minute, Merlin was listening by the entrance to the tent, not spotted, no one knowing he was around. Then he realized he was invisible and could actually go into the tent without trouble. Naturally, Merlin did such.

"… as if there was a surge of power coming from somewhere in the army," said Envok in his deep sing-song voice, standing up in a corner of the tent while everyone else sat in magically conjured chairs around a table with a three dimensional map of the area demonstrating the geography and altitudes of Deganwy.

Blaise spoke next. "Yes, we all felt that power. Even Uther here, and if a mortal has sensed it, then it was very powerful indeed. Far more powerful than the magic of anyone else thus far that the Light has encountered, save for a few."

"What gets meh is taht this is the fi'st time this has happ'nd in liv'n mem'ry," Anthon pondered aloud in his deep accented voice.

"No, Anthon, not the first time in living memory. There are some who still remember the last time it happened. Granted, it was very, very long ago, and there are few still alive who were such back then, most of which are veterans of the Wars who want nothing more than to forget the horrors of war. The only others who aren't such are either in exile, or else are of one of the other races. I can only think of three others who are among society that remember, and at this time, none will be of any use."

"Alright now, yeh lost meh; so apparently there has been this kind of power before?" asked Uther, holding his hands up in a stopping motion.

"Yes, Uther, but this is far more powerful than the last time, and at the time this last happened, the wizards who had caused this surge were the most powerful in the land, and look at what they accomplished. Now imagine that on a much greater scale…" Blaise explained calmly to Uther, trailing off in the end.

"Blaise," said Envok calmly, breaking Blaise out of his thoughts and back to reality, "The last time a surge like what happened back in the forest happened, great change happened. What's to say that won't happen again? We could be facing another war, and this time, there will be no mercy, no tricks, no hiding places. We'd have to fight our own against an invincible enemy, and we all know that the war would be far greater than the last time. After all, if the surge was so much more powerful, then what's to say that the war won't also be such?"

Blaise stroked his chin thoughtfully. "That is precisely what I was thinking."

For the first time, Geoffrey spoke. "But there were four major factions in the surge Blaise. One was yourself, we could all tell it was you, there was just something like you in it. Then there was the magic that someone was performing from afar, adding to the spell. We don't know who that was, for all we know it could have been a Dark wizard leading us to a trap. This could all be an illusion for all we know! And then there was the darker magic, something we've never seen before. Magic is magic, it's always been that way. Then there comes this magic, the magic that felt darker and almost overtook the army, taking everything for itself. Then the white magic, a pure aura of magic, again, something never seen before, magic is magic, which pushed back the darker magic and added its power to everyone's, though it could have fueled the spell itself."

"Geoffrey, I can tell you that the magician from afar is an ally," Blaise said, his half moon glasses half down the bridge of his nose, "I remember feeling his magic once before. It has never been something I could forget. After all, you hardly feel the aura of someone's magic, let alone feel such a unique one."

"A'right tehn, what 'bout the oth'rs?" asked Anthon, clearly very interested, as demonstrated by his wide eyes.

"Well, my magic had very little to do with anything. The far magician powered much of the spell. As for the darker magic and the white magic, we can only guess who they are, but we do know they came from within the army, so that leaves about two hundred possibilities," Blaise said, a far off look appearing in his eyes, "Yet, tomorrow we will have even less to consider. The two magicians are destined to fight one another late in life, and they will not die tomorrow. One will die at the other's hand, and the one who stands will die from heartbreak more than any other cause. Why these great friends will turn against each other and fight to the death, no one knows. Only time will tell." The misty look left Blaise's eyes, and his shoulders slumped.

"Did you…?" asked Envok almost with some emotion.

"Yes, Envok. I saw them battling on a hill not far from here. They have inexplicable link between them that they are discovering at the end of their lives, as they duel each other above a battle that will decide the fate of all of us, far off into the future. Yet, the battle won't decide the fate of the world, but rather the two magicians high above. I didn't see much, but I know that the magicians I saw are much older, too old to be anyone currently in the army. We have long before this battle, and maybe we can avert it."

Uther decided to speak up after waking up from a five minute nap, or rather the one he had tried to take. "Didn't we come here to plan this war, not one to come?"

Blaise nodded his head several times, as did the others in the tent. "Yes, yes we did, so let's take a look at what is happening," Blaise said, moving his hand, palm down, over the table in a sweeping motion. Magically, little figures and boats popped out of the map, and the water and trees began to move. Merlin figured that this was what was happening outside on the night's battlefield.

"As you see, for any normal army, there would be no way to get to Deganwy and no way to let them know that tonight we fight. Yet, we are not that normal army. We are an army of wizards and magicians, and so we can send a message to Ambrosius inside. As for tonight, well, we can have several wizards perform fire spells to break up Vortigern's tightly packed army, and a few water spells too. This will create a path for us to get through and separate the army in an effort to even the odds. Then, if all goes well, Ambrosius will see the fighting outside, and send his army to surround Vortigern's, us on one side, and Ambrosius on the other. Completely surrounded, the men will panic, and from there, it ought to be easy to finish the battle and claim victory here at Deganwy. Where the war takes us after tonight, well, that's a story that will tell itself."

Merlin sensed the council was over and left the tent. His mind swarmed with the new found facts and strategy he had stumbled upon. About a hundred yards away, Merlin saw Shiroix, waiting for Merlin to come and tell him what he had found. Merlin also saw Deganwy, not more than a kilometer away.

"We can send a message to Ambrosius on the inside," Blaise had said. What if Merlin did it himself? He could even spy on the enemy while he was there, pick up on things that would greatly help Ambrosius and Uther win the battle, and maybe the war.

Thinking thoughts of glory and greatness and helping his friends, Merlin set off to Deganwy Castle. He was going to spy on Vortigern without his ever knowing.

A Cry in the Dark

2010-02-06T18:20:00.000-08:00

The adults looked at one another before looking at Uther.

"Don't look at me," Uther said, surprised they would volunteer him, "Yeh two are his family."

Blaise let out a deep sigh before looking at Aithne out of the corner of his eye. Nodding his head once, he said "Uther is right. It's our responsibility."

"Merlin," Aithne began, but at that precise moment, the messenger decided he would butt in, take his chance.

"A royal message from the recently returned heir to the throne, Aurelianus Ambrosius, seeks help from the great wizard Merlin. Would you like to hear his message?"

Not waiting for an answer, the messenger barged on.

" Merlin, you must come to help. Deganwy Castle is under siege, and if you leave immediately, we will only be able to hold out for maybe another week. Though I am heir to the throne, more are loyal to Vortigern than to I, as he has been on the throne for years, and few remember I. Please come, I need your help. If Deganwy is taken, then all is lost. Please come, and bring Uther with you. End of message sire," said the messenger, bowing to Merlin and scuttling out of the way, still bowing.

Merlin, for one, was stunned. Aurelianus was asking him for help? He barely even knew Aurelianus, and Aurelianus barely knew him.

Blaise put his half-eaten apple on the counter and walked over to Merlin.

"Don't worry about it Merlin. You're not going, you're needed here," said Blaise, putting a hand on Merlin's back. "It's getting late. You ought to be getting to bed now, shouldn't you?"

Before Merlin could answer, Blaise was shoving him towards his bedroom, Shiroix being treated to the same.

"Goodnight!" Blaise said, spewing more of the apple he had just picked up again, and closed the door on Merlin. While the door had no lock, Merlin had no doubt Blaise had put some sort of spell on it or another, as that was how Blaise did things.

Merlin reluctantly walked slowly over to his bed and sat on it. When he looked over to Shiroix's side of the room, he found that Shiroix was swinging a bag he had bought from a local merchant over his shoulder. To someone who didn't know Shiroix, it would seem as if his bag were empty. But Merlin knew better. Shiroix somehow managed to keep all of his belongings in the tiny bag, and him draping the bag over his shoulder only ever meant one thing: he was going somewhere.

"So where are you off to?" Merlin asked, as could only be expected of him.

"Deganwy Castle," replied Shiroix, opening the window in their room.

"But Blaise said we can't go."

"Blaise said you can't go. He didn't say anything about me, so I am neither able to go and not able to go, and able to make my own decision for the matter. And I choose to go. As we both know, I am the better wizard and warrior."

Shiroix did have a point. While most children in Atlantis couldn't do magic at the age Merlin and Shiroix currently were at, Merlin and Shiroix could perform small types of magic, nothing like lifting a boulder or defeating an army. Yet, they could do things like change the pictures on a wall, temporarily cast an image over an object so as to make it appear different, and levitate objects no bigger than the hand. Occasionally, they had competitions and Shiroix always won. Never once did Merlin win.

"I'm going with you," said Merlin after a Shiroix who had one leg outside and one in.

"Well, two are better than one, even if one of them is second rate, ahem, Merlin," replied Shiroix, coughing the last part.

"Speak for yourself," said Merlin with a mostly straight face.

"You're getting better at comebacks, but keep working."

When both were outside, they began to creep along the wall of the house, ducking under the main room window where Blaise, Aithne, and Uther were. It was not long before the twosome managed to get past the house and on the road. The challenge now was to make it outside the city gates without being noticed, which presented a slight problem considering that coastal cities such as Ala Bora employed a guard that consisted of half the men over age twenty-five in the city.

"What are yeh two doin'? Yeh two are supposed to be in yeh rooms!" said Uther, who had somehow managed to sneak up on Merlin and Shiroix.

"W-w-we-e-e were j-j-ust-" started Merlin, only to be finished by Shiroix.

"We are going to help your brother, the sire Ambrosius."

"Well I guess we'll be keepin' each other company then," said Uther, a fierce look in his eye.

Uther waited as the words sunk into the twos' heads.

"Wait, you mean you're coming with us?" asked Merlin.

"No, actually, yeh're coming with me," Uther said in an unarguable tone, "I decided I was going to go help me brother, for after all, he is me brother, and he was calling for help. Then I heard yeh two climbing out as I was leavin', and here we are now."

Thus it was, and the threesome set out. With Uther with them, Merlin and Shiroix had no need to worry about the guards, for Uther was a greatly respected man amongst the wizards.

Before too long, they were back on the mainland and finding a place to camp. Eventually, they settle upon a clearing in the forest about a kilometer from the coast. The fire lit the entire clearing, and nothing would be able to approach unnoticed.

"Merlin, come here, I need your help," called Shiroix as he finished setting up what he called 'precautions', which looked to be all sorts of devilish traps.

"You asking me for help? Me, the inferior little boy that is a burden to the great master's work? Why, it will be a pleasure!" over-exaggerated Merlin in a sarcastic tone.

"Even the greatest need support, as you have yet to learn, Merlin. As you know, I lived solitary for as long as I can remember before I met you. I think I know a little more about setting up camp than you."

As if to prove his point, Shiroix cut a string with his fingernail. Almost immediately following, a net appeared out from under a pile of leaves, and caught Merlin, who was not pleased.

"See?" said Shiroix, a devilish grin on his face.

"Put me down Shiroix," said Merlin, who was swaying slightly upside down in the net while rotating. Not at all a pleasant experience.

With another movement, Shiroix sliced another string, and Merlin fell on his head

"Wasn't that lovely," muttered Merlin under his breath, rubbing his now sore head.

"Havin' fun, eh Merlin?" asked Uther who had been watching Merlin and Shiroix with mild interest.

"Oh yes, this has just been a bundle of fun!" replied Merlin with a grimace.

Uther chuckled. "Well yeh two ought to get some rest. I'll take the first watch."

Neither Merlin nor Shiroix argued. They both almost happily walked over to the fire and lay down on the ground. From his small bag, Shiroix pulled out two thin cots and blankets, both of which should not have fit in the bag. Merlin just shook his head and forgot about it. Shiroix never told him how he managed to fit so much stuff. Merlin suspected it was magic, but Shiroix would not confirm it. Typical.

"Sleep tight Merlin, let the bed bugs bite. We all know that'll be a benefit," said Shiroix with a smile on his face, passing Merlin a cot and then a blanket.

"You too Shiroix."

***

"Merlin! Merlin! Wake up! It's yer turn for watch!" whispered Uther as he gently shook Merlin awake.

Merlin felt as though he had only gotten five minutes of sleep, though he knew it had really been several hours. Reluctantly, Merlin sat up and rubbed his weary eyes.

"Your watch is over when the moon is above that tree," Uther told Merlin, pointing to a tree about two thirds of the way across the clearing from where the moon currently was. Merlin estimated he'd be on watch for about three, maybe four hours.

Merlin walked over to the bush where Uther had been keeping watch and looked around. There wasn't much to see, except Uther lying down on Merlin's cot and falling asleep. The next few hours were to be boring ones.

Through the night, Merlin developed a routine. For a hundred foot taps he would look one direction, then he would turn to his right. Then another hundred taps and he would turn again. This pattern was repeated until he had gone in a complete circle, and then he would start again.

Coming to the end of his third rotation, Merlin turned to face away from camp. He saw nothing, nothing but darkness.

"Now you're dead," said Blaise behind Merlin loudly.

Surprised to hear his uncle's voice, Merlin turned quickly on his heels to face Blaise.

"I thought I had told you to stay at home Merlin. Or was that my imagination?" asked Blaise, his arms folded over his chest, his half moon glasses half way down the bridge of his nose.

"You did tell me Uncle," said Merlin, looking down sheepishly at his feet.

"And so why did you leave, if I may ask?" asked Blaise, who obviously already knew the answer.

"What goin' on Merlin?" asked Uther groggily.

"You are all dead now Uther," said Blaise turning to look at Uther.

Uther, for one, did not want to look Blaise in the eye, and turned away from him.

Blaise sighed and rolled his eyes. "Alright, look, this one time, I'm not going to be mad at any of you. You had the right idea. But next time, tell me when you're going somewhere against my wishes. Now, Merlin, this was your first lesson in war. Always be sharp during your watch, and don't ever feel like something is secure or fine, because things have a habit to go wrong when you think like that. And don't do what you did tonight in watch tomorrow, because look what happened. I managed to get an entire army behind and around you."

"What army?" asked Uther, not certain if he should believe Blaise or laugh at him.

"Why, once I knew that you had left, I figured I'd bring some reinforcements," said Blaise in a matter of fact tone, "Three adventurers and an old man are not enough to even the odds against a siege. No, not at all. So I rallied together some old time friends, and brought them here to help. We have about two hundred men and women at the ready, completely surrounding us."

As if that had been their cue, about two hundred fighters emerged from the woods into the clearing, their faces grim and dark. Amongst the fighters Merlin saw dwarves, elves, and wizards. Many faces he recognized.

Three people stepped forth from the fighters. These three were Envok, Geoffrey, and Anthon. Not surprisingly, Geoffrey was between Envok and Anthon.

Blaise looked over at Uther expectantly. "So you see Uther, here is my army, or should I say, our army. You, me, Envok, Geoffrey, and Anthon will form the War Council for as long as we stay and fight with you. Tomorrow night, we will gather and discuss how to break the siege at Deganwy. Tonight, we sleep, but first, I must show you your mounts."

With that, Blaise walked over to the edge of the forest and reemerged several minutes later leading four steeds, whom he kept in the shadows.

"Shiroix! You first!"

Shiroix eagerly got up and trotted over to Blaise.

Blaise took the reins of one steed and passed them to Shiroix. Shiroix naturally led the steed out of the shadows to where he could see his horse. As it would turn out, Blaise had given Shiroix a black stallion.

"His name is Thunder Shiroix. Be sure to take care of him," Blaise said with a slight smile.

"Of course sire."

"That's all that is asked. Uther, here's your horse. You left him in the stables in Ala Bora."

Uther graciously got up to reclaim his horse, a brown mare. Uther reached into the saddle and pulled a small cracker, which he fed to his horse.

"That's a good girl Beauty, that's a good girl," said Uther, rubbing Beauty's back.

"Alright Merlin. That leaves you. Come on up."

Merlin hesitantly got up. He'd never learned to ride. He'd always walked, always trusted his own two feet, and now here he was, a horse being offered to him.

"Uncle, I don't really want a horse," said Merlin quietly when he came up to Blaise to receive his steed.

"Well then my boy, you don't have to worry, because this is no horse," whispered Blaise back, a wide grin on his face. Not even a second later, a equine creature emerged from the shadows. Merlin had heard of such creatures, but never seen one. With the single horn in the center of its forehead, the creature was a unicorn.

The unicorn was majestic and beautiful. It had a slender muscular body, covered with moderate length snow white hair that was softer than anything Merlin could have ever imagined. The unicorn's mane was long, and hung several inches below its neck. The unicorn had brilliant sapphire blue eyes that reflected a caring nature. Its horn looked like it was made of a shining white ivory, which glistened with all the colors of the rainbow in the light of the camp fire. The unicorn was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful things that had ever been.

"His name is Caedmon," said Blaise, seeing Merlin's gaze of awe and admiration, "He's a strong one. Normally unicorns are solitary creatures, but Caedmon is different. I met him a few years back, and he was cared for in Ala Bora by the stable boys up until today when I asked him if she would like to have a rider. He said yes, and well, here we are now."

"Caedmon… that's a fitting name isn't it boy?" asked Merlin of the unicorn.

To his amazement, Merlin heard a reply in his head. "It is, isn't it Merlin?"

Shocked, Merlin looked to Blaise. "I just heard him in my head!"

Blaise chuckled. "Ah, yes, that would be right. You see, unicorns are very beautiful and intelligent creatures, and rarely stray to civilization. Thus the unicorn rarely forms a bond with the rider, but when they do, it is a great thing indeed. The bond lasts a lifetime, both mutually serving the other. It is a great honor Merlin to be this unicorn's rider."

"Blaise is right Merlin. You are indeed lucky to be my rider, and I am fortunate to be the steed of such a great man."

Quietly, the unicorn walked away. "Goodnight Merlin. We ride for the first tomorrow." With that, Caedmon found a tree, and laid down next to it, folding her legs under her much like a dog.

Blaise clapped his hands together and turned to face the army. "Alright everyone, get some shut eye. We got a long day of traveling tomorrow, and I want to set out early and get to Deganwy by nightfall. In the morning we will use our magic to get to Britain, but that can only take us so far with so many, and thus much of our journey will be walking. Execute."

Upon hearing execute, the army walked over to their horses and assorted steeds and pulled something to lay on from the saddle pack. Within less than a minute, everyone was on the ground sleeping. Merlin took it that execute meant do it, and so he lied down on the cold ground and fell asleep quickly.

Training

2010-02-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

"Merlin! Wake up, yeh! I need to go run some errands for yeh uncle, and yeh need to come with me!" yelled Uther, tossing a tunic at Merlin. It had been almost a year since Merlin had arrived in Atlantis, and he had grown used to his uneventful life.

Groggily, Merlin turned around, burying his head under the covers. Seconds later, he was drying off with a towel, while Uther was laughing on the floor so hard, Merlin thought he might burst a kidney.

"It's not that funny!" Merlin said defiantly, albeit with a smile on his face.

Uther managed to get few words out in between the tears of laughter, those being, "You shoulda seen the look on yeh face!" followed by more laughter.

Merlin swung his tunic at Uther, then grudgingly put it on, gathered his things, and began to head out with a recovering Uther, and a grinning Shiroix. As Merlin found out upon his coming to Atlantis, Shiroix had become a part of the family, yet, no one knew how. It was almost as if he had been meant to be with Merlin, Aithne, and Blaise.

"You shut up," Merlin said to Shiroix, pointing a finger at him.

When Uther had finally managed to calm down sufficiently enough, he started to read the list.

"Alright, so Blaise wants me to go find him some books and animal parts, while yeh two work on something much more valuable.

"What is that?" Merlin and Shiroix asked simultaneously.

"Yeh two are gonna go to the training grounds."

Both of them complained, but when Uther bent down to scoop up some of the water from the ocean beside them in his bucket, their mouth magically stopped running.

Within twenty minutes, the trio was at the training grounds, and Uther was talking to someone.

"So Blaise told me that he wanted me to take these two to the training grounds for a couple of hours while I run his errands. He told me to put these two in the care of someone called Geoffrey. Do yeh know him?"

The man Uther was speaking to, a clean shaven man with red hair wearing full armor over a purple robe, replied to Uther slowly as he turned around to face Uther. "Yes, I think I might know him. How may I help you?"

It took a few minutes for Uther to register that this was the man he was looking for, and when he did, he violently grasped the man's small hand, and pumped it up and down quite rapidly.

"I'm Uther, third born son of King Constantine II of Britannia, brother to the true heir of the realm, Aurelianus Ambrosius," Uther introduced himself.

"Quite the name you have," said the small man, rubbing his arm, "I'm Geoffrey of Monmouth Shire, one of the three Council members."

"Council?" said Uther inquiringly.

Geoffrey put on a pained smile before answering. "The Council is the governing body of the political network that sustains the delicate structure of the Wizards of Atlantis."

Seeing the uncomprehending look on Uther's face, Geoffrey simplified his definition. "The three people who are the kings that the people choose."

Uther understood that much, as was clarified by his, "Ah."

"Well then," continued Geoffrey, "Since you two are here to train, I will show you each to your instructors. We will be seeing you, Uther."

Uther tried to persist, but lost quickly with a quick wave of Geoffrey's hand. Neither Merlin nor Shiroix know how Geoffrey did it.

Geoffrey began introductions. "Let's get to know one another, shall we? Indeed, let's. I am Geoffrey. And you two are…?" said Geoffrey, leaving Merlin and Shiroix to finish.

"Shiroix," said Shiroix.

"Merlin," said Merlin.

"Alright boys," said Geoffrey, placing a hand on each of the boys' backs, "Here in the training grounds we have several methods of training, which are swordplay, archery, axe throwing, and spell casting. You two are too young for spell casting, so you will be instructed in the other three, each with an expert in the craft."

"Who are the experts?" Merlin asked.

"You'll see," was Geoffrey's smiling reply. Merlin had a feeling he would regret this training.

After some walking, Geoffrey stopped with Merlin and Shiroix at the swordplay area of the training grounds. Then he picked up a sword and told Merlin and Shiroix to do likewise.

"You will both attack me," instructed Geoffrey, "and you will have no mercy. I am a Dark wizard, and you must slay me."

Without warning, Geoffrey struck at Merlin with lightning speed, who was able to successfully block the blow, paying for it with the loss of his balance. He toppled over, and was at Geoffrey's mercy.

"If I had been a Dark wizard, you would've been dead by now. Work on your swordsmanship. Now it's your turn Shiroix."

Shiroix did not waste any time. He immediately struck Geoffrey, who blocked the over hand blow, only to find it was a feint, and Shiroix was actually attacking his left side. Geoffrey quickly moved his sword to block Shiroix's blade, only to find that when Shiroix's sword struck his own, his went flying due to the angle of which it was hit.

"Impressive boy. Keep working and perhaps we'll have to send you to the military."

Shiroix sent Merlin a smug look. Before Merlin could reply, Geoffrey was up again and taking them to the next division of the training grounds, the archery range.

Waiting for them at the archery range was an elf. He stood tall, about six and a half feet, with his hands laced behind his back and a smile that said, "Welcome. I will crush you like a bug if you don't work hard."

"Hello, King Envok!" said Geoffrey, holding out his hand to the elf.

The elf took notice of the hand and gripped it firmly. He shook it up and down twice, and released his grasp.

Geoffrey pulled his hand away hastily and rubbed it gently. Then, noticing others were watching, he quit nursing himself and introduced Merlin and Shiroix to Envok.

"Sire, this is Merlin and this is Shiroix. They are here to learn from four masters, of which you are the second."

A mischievous gleam came into Envok's eyes. "Whom was the first master? Surely not you; you can barely withstand a handshake!"

Geoffrey's face turned a bright red, followed by stomping off and muttering to himself.

Envok laughed. "Ah, I always love to do that. I'm sure he'll try to come up with something tonight that I'll see right through and only embarrass himself further. Anyhow, I will be your archery instructor for the next few years, and if you do good enough we may even have one on one sessions and I may teach you in other arts as well. Come along now."

Envok waked hastily to an open target, and handed Merlin and Shiroix each a bow and a quiver of twenty arrows.

"Your goal," said Envok, "Is to get every last one of your arrows through any sign of danger. If there is none, you will aim for the centre of the target. Go."

Merlin barely had time to string his bow before seven wooden figures sprung up. He madly strung the bow and began aiming at each of the targets. He hit two in the head, which fell down, hit three where the heart would've been, and missed one. Of course, that still left one, which was shot down by Shiroix.

Merlin surveyed what Shiroix had accomplished with his targets. Every figure had been hit, right between the eyes just above the bridge of the nose. Shiroix had also hit a robber who had thought it would be safe enough to run past the entrance to the archery range, hit Merlin's last target, and shot the rest of his arrows into the centre of his target.

"Very good," said Envok, "You both did very well. Shiroix, you managed to hit all the targets and a few bonus. Merlin, you only managed to hit five, all in varying places. So overall, you did better."

"What?" asked Merlin and Shiroix simultaneously.

"Yes, Merlin did better," confirmed Envok, then explained, "You see, Shiroix, while you hit all the targets, you did not innovate, you only hit the targets. You also hit two objects which you were not instructed to do so, which more often loses a battle than wins it. Merlin, however, you shot two arrows into each target, slightly apart from each other, and you did not hit all the targets. Therefore, you have room for improvement, which is always a good thing."

Needless to say, both Merlin and Shiroix were surprised at Envok's answer.

"Moving on," shouted Envok, walking hastily away towards the ax-throwing range. Merlin and Shiroix had to run to keep up.

When Merlin and Shiroix saw Envok again, they noticed he was talking to a dwarf of small stature. Well, all dwarves have small stature, but this one was smaller than the rest. He had a red hair, and full beard, which was typical of a dwarf.

The dwarf threw his hands up in the air and stomped towards Merlin and Shiroix. "Never seek help from an elf," said the dwarf in a very deep voice, much the kind one would expect a dwarf to have, "Yer only will embarrass yer self."

Merlin and Shiroix looked at each other curiously, both knowing what the other was thinking. Then the dwarf spoke. "So yer two must be Merlin and Shiroix, no need to tell meh who's who, I alre'dy know. Now, I here am Prince Anthon II of th' Sev'nth Royal Dwarf Family."

"Um…" Merlin and Shiroix both mumbled simultaneously. They both found it very hard to understand the dwarf, who's accent was even thicker than Uther's.

Prince Anthon calmly explained. "Yer see here, there are sev'n dwarf families who cun ascend teh th' throne. I b'long teh one of them. Compendo?"

Both Merlin and Shiroix nodded their heads while they mentally deciphered what Anthon had just said.

"Ah'right now, so I'll beh teachin' yer how teh axe throw. Very usefel. So get teh it!"

"How do we do it?" asked Merlin.

"What? Yer don't know how to throw an axe?"

"No…" said Shiroix slowly.

"Well it's very simple. Yer hold the hand'l, yer bring it back, yer bring it for'd, and yer let 'er go. Now start throwin'!"

Hesitantly, Merlin and Shiroix started throwing axes at a square target several yards away, taking them from a rack on the wall. Meanwhile, Anthon leaned on his axe, watching Merlin and Shiroix. Once the rack was empty, he started laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked Shiroix, his face turning red.

"Yer two throw like elves!" said Anthon, quaking with laughter.

Calming down, Anthon explained further. "It's somethin' only a dwarf would u'derstand. Yer see, we dwarves and them elves has some riv'ry, and dwarves pride thems self on bein' better axe throwers."

"I see," said Shiroix, his arched eyebrows showing he really didn't.

"So an'how, yer two are done trainin' for the day, yer free to go, blah, blah, blah, no 'un cares, get a move on, I'll see yer two termorrow."

Merlin and Shiroix began walking hesitantly, then faster when Anthon picked up an axe.

Unsure where they should go, they started moving towards home. It was only midday, and Uther hadn't been given specific instructions by Blaise. At least, none that Uther had told Merlin and Shiroix.

"It's him!", "Merlin!", "The Victor!", were only a few of the things that Merlin and Shiroix heard as they walked down the streets. Usually the people shut their mouths when Merlin looked around, making him think he was hearing things.

"Shiroix?" started Merlin.

"Yes, I hear them too," Shiroix said as if he had read Merlin's mind. Sometimes Merlin wondered if Shiroix could. It most certainly would explain a great deal. "Perhaps if we ignore them they'll go away."

As Merlin and Shiroix soon found out, Shiroix's theory was flawed. Ignoring them only made them more aware of their presence, which was quite odd.

"Excuse me sire," said a little boy, tugging on Merlin's shirt, "How did you kill Vortigern?"

Merlin, naturally, was stunned. For years his life had been a solitary, quiet life. He and his mother had rarely spoken to one another, and there had been no one else to talk to. Now here he was as some sort of idol to these people.

"Um, well actually, I didn't kill Vortigern," confessed Merlin. The onlookers' expressions immediately changed to one of disbelief and disappointment.

"You didn't!" whined one boy, his eyes so believing and innocent.

"No, I didn't. I only fought him, and he got away," said Merlin, turning in a small circle to find to his surprise that he was encircled, not only by children, but also adults.

"Yes dearies, Vortigern got away, but Merlin will get him next time," said one of the mothers in the audience to her children.

"No, no, you don't understand," started Merlin.

"Tell us how you showed old Vortigern Merlin!" screamed a little girl in the outer audience.

The scream became a chant, and Merlin looked for Shiroix for help.

"Don't look at me," Shiroix said in a matter of fact tone, a grin spreading across his smug face, "I never get tired of this tale. How the great Merlin got himself locked in a dungeon for a night, and what's more, was nearly executed."

Merlin had no choice but to give in.

"Alright, alright, settle down. I'll tell you the story," Merlin said, his hands raised in surrender. The response was a cheer from the little ones.

"So here goes…"

***

Merlin's story took a while, as many questions were asked, but eventually he was through. By the time he was done, it was almost supper time.

"Since when did you single handedly kill a hundred men?" asked Shiroix casually on the walk home, "That's a part I haven't heard before."

"Oh like you wouldn't exaggerate it," replied a grinning Merlin.

Shiroix appeared to think about this one. "You know, you have a point."

Before too long, the twosome reached Blaise's house. Inside, a messenger was arguing with Blaise, who was sitting on his counter eating and apple. Beside him was Uther and on his other side was Aithne.

"No, he is not going, and that is final! Now be gone with you!" said Blaise, giving the messenger a face full of chewed apple.

"Who's not going where?" asked Merlin out of curiosity.

Now Continuing

2010-02-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

Contrary to what I said in an earlier post, I will be continuing to post chapters online until the first book is finished. After the first book is finished, there will be no more chapters posted to this site, except perhaps a teaser chapter here or there.

Recently, I have reconsidered a piece of advice I received several months ago concerning the time span in between Merlin arriving at Atlantis and the Fall of Atlantis. I came to the conclusion that the chapter I threw in there between them simply doesn't belong, and has been removed from the final document and this blog as well. Instead, I will be posting several new chapters that fit neatly in between, of which about 10,000 words are completed. When I'm finished, I'm expecting the new section will be between 20,000 and 30,000 words, closer to the previous.

This new section deals with something that I have only fleetingly mentioned in the story so far: the war with Vortigern. In the chapter "Aftermath of the Fall", Uther mentioned war with the Saxons was inevitable, and earlier in the chapter "The True Heirs" it was said that the Saxons were allied with Uther and Aurelianus. Due to some changes, this is no longer so, and this re-write below from the chapter should explain. It starts with Merlin speaking.

"If you don't mind me asking, who are you? Why did you save me? Why did you betray Vortigern? Was the battle caused by you"? And who's your brother and how did he get a castle when Vortigern is the king?" fired Merlin.

"My, my, my, aren't you inquisitive. Anyhow, I suppose yeh do deserve some answers. After all, I saved yeh from death and told yeh to follow me without explanation. Me name is Uther, third and youngest son of King Constantine II of Britannia. I saved yeh because I saw the so called stick yeh carried. It's a wand. Yeh can't fool me by a change in clothing. Also, I didn't betray Vortigern; I was a spy for my brother, and the battle was my doing, at least partly. Yeh see, Vortigern was a fool and let the Saxons settle in Britannia. The Saxons, though, didn't think them were given enough land, and Vortigern, being the idiot he is, refused the Saxons. So them tricked him and sweet talked him into giving more land, and here we are now, the Saxons at war with Vortigern now that them are strong enough to declare war and win, and them will win too with Vortigern commanding his army.. So I gathered together a bunch of men and them became me army just in case something like today happened.

As you can see above, Vortigern seems now to be at war with the Saxons. Why? Well, for that, you'll have to read the new chapters being posted, one a day until they have all been posted up to where I am currently. However, several other changes have been made, which are listed below.

Two chapters have been deleted: The First Battle, and the prologue.
A revised version of the chapter "The Fall", which will describe the Fall as more of a battle than a flee is coming soon.

Merlin's Story Update

2009-12-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

As of approximately five minutes ago, Merlin's Story reached 40,000 words. The average novel is between 75,000 and 100,000 words, or about 300 to 400 pages. Now being longer than 40,000 words, Merlin's Story can no longer be considered a novella under the definition established by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Rather, Merlin's Story can be now be considered a novel.

I have not published any chapters on this blog for over five months now, and will no longer be publishing them for book publishing reasons.

I have written approximately 10,000 words in the last two weeks. Working at a steady pace, somewhat slower than this last week, Merlin's Story can be expected to be finished by the end of 2010 if things remain the way they are, by the end of May if things go well, and by the end of 2012 at the absolute very worst.

Sitting pretty at 186 pages currently, Merlin's Story is becoming considerably longer than I had anticipated, which was supposed to be a stand alone novel, spanning all of Merlin's life. In that, I have failed miserably, adding more and more to the story until finally one book would not do justice to Merlin. Thus Merlin's Story will not be one book, but rather two for certain, and more than possibly three books to form the Merlin's Story trilogy.

Keep checking up here for more info regarding Merlin's Story, due to be finished within the next year.

1 Year Anniversary

2009-09-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

As of today, it has been exactly one year since I began writing Merlin's Story. I have started developing several other stories since, but Merlin's Story still remains my main project, as it is closest to completion.

1,000 Visitors

2009-09-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

As of Friday, September 11, 2009, there have been over 1,000 visitors to Merlin's Story, over half of which have been international.

750 Visitors

2009-07-27T19:04:00.000-07:00

As of today, 750 visitors have come to Merlin's Story. A remarkable accomplishment, especially considering the 500 visitor mark was hit last month and almost 80 visitors have come in the past two days, mainly from the U.S. and Canada. The most common search term people have come to Merlin's Story with is the search term 'merlin's story', or 'merlin story'.

Not long ago, NBC started their new series, "Merlin", and visitors have skyrocketed since. If you have not watched "Merlin", it is a remarkable series, very good, and offers a unique twist to the traditional versions of the Arthurian legends which can't be found anywhere else. A highly recommended show to watch.

Days of Now

2009-07-15T18:08:00.001-07:00

Merlin heard loud, high pitched noises in the distance, as if someone were screeching. The stench of where he was almost unbearable, for he was surrounded by metal cans as big as himself filled to the brim with all sorts of things, from banana peels to small metal cylinders with letters on them like ‘AA’ or ‘C’.

Merlin looked around him to find he was in some sort of a dead-end hall with an open roof. At one end there was nothing but an impossible-to-scale wall. At the other end was a sight to behold.

There was a small white walking path, with many lines in it, forming squares. People walked in both directions along this path. Further beyond this was a black walking path, with odd lines drawn on it. Sometimes it was one line, sometimes it was two. Sometimes it was a solid line, sometimes it was dashed. Sometimes it was white, sometimes it was yellow.

And on this black walking path there were not people, but rather giant metal cages that moved incredibly fast and on their own as it appeared on four wheels. And inside these cages were people, many people. But in every cage, one person held a wheel of some sort.

Intrigued by this unique and fascinating sight, Merlin walked toward it slowly, as if in a dream. But the world Merlin saw from inside the strange hall was not the world he was walking toward. No, it was very much different, as Merlin soon found.

“Hey, watch it!”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in school?”

“Get outta my way you vermin!”

All of these and more was yelled at Merlin. For such a beautiful world, these people apparently did not like him. But Merlin didn’t care. If things went the way they had been for the last several hours, he wasn’t going to be here for long, so why worry?

Merlin walked down the white walking path for a ways, not caring of the dirty looks he received. He was intrigued by this world. Was it some realm Blaise hadn’t told him about? If it was, why hadn’t Blaise told him? Or had Blaise told him about this realm without Merlin realizing it?

Either way, Merlin intended to look around while he could, for this was the first time the voice wasn’t speaking and Merlin was free to go where he’d like. And Merlin intended to take full advantage of that opportunity.

Merlin passed several glass windows, something only the rich could afford. But then again, most of the people on the walking path were elegantly dressed, though from what Merlin had heard, these clothes he saw were ‘casual’. Where Merlin was from, these clothes were so fine, not even royalty could afford them.

Inside the glass windows, Merlin saw many odd devices. Being the curious boy he was, Merlin went inside many of the doors next to the glass windows to look at the marvels inside the rooms. The room seemed to be an indoor merchant’s stand. Merlin could tell because people were handed others coins and paper, which looked oddly familiar. Not only that, there was much yelling, presumably bargaining. The merchants here were very stubborn on their prices it seemed.

Some of the things Merlin saw were so marvelous he had to ask others about them. There was one thing, a strange box, almost like the color box back in the Utopian realm, that when you pressed a button, music played.

“Sire, could you tell me what this is?” asked Merlin of a man walking past him dressed elegantly in black leggings, a black overcoat, a white shirt, and a red drape hanging down over his chest. The man was also holding a small rectangular metal object to his ear and talking to it.

The man looked curiously at Merlin as if he had come from a completely other world. As it happened, Merlin did come from a different world. “This is a radio,” the man told Merlin, then asked questions of his own, putting away the small rectangular object in his pocket.

“My, isn’t this a fancy outfit. Is your dad a businessman?”

“What’s a businessman?” asked Merlin.

The man gave a small chuckle. “You must be from a small part of Britain then.”

Merlin was about to ask how the man knew he came from Britannia, but Merlin realized it must be his accent and instead replied to the man’s question. “Yes, I do.”

“Well then. Are you an actor for a play? You look like you’re dressed for a Shakespeare play,” the man said.

“Um, no I’m not an actor,” said Merlin, speaking slowly, his reply laced with confusion, “And if I may ask, who are you?

“Lebaiy Norclans, small business owner and astronaut for NASA. A pleasure to meet you…?” asked the man, extending out his hand to Merlin to shake.

Merlin gripped the man’s hand firmly and shook it, stating his name as he did so.

“Named after the famous wizard, eh? Well anyhow, I have some business to attend to, so if you will excuse me, I’ll be gone. But first, Merlin, I would like to get in touch later, so here’s my card, be sure to call when you have time. Comprendai?”

“Um, yeah, ok,” replied Merlin, not sure how Mr. Norclans would be able to hear him when he was all the way in the Utopian realm.

Merlin continued looking at the indoor merchant’s stand after Mr. Norclans left. Some of the things Merlin saw were just wondrous, strange, and familiar all at the same time. A few of the things that caught Merlin’s interest after the radio was the color box, which he learned was a television, something called a ‘computer’, which when you pushed buttons did amazing things like connecting to the world wide web. Another thing that caught Merlin’s interest was a book. Merlin had seen many books, but these books, there were many, many copies of this book. Not only that, these books were the best bound books Merlin had ever seen.

Merlin read the words on the cover. The letters were oddly shaped, so Merlin had a hard time reading it. It looked like the book was called ‘Lofd oj the Fings’. Underneath that, it said ‘J. R. R. Tolkien’. Then Merlin looked at it closer and he saw the book was actually called ‘Lord of the Rings’.

Curious, Merlin opened the book and began reading. It started with a story called ‘The Hobbit’. Merlin read the first few pages, and couldn’t put it down. He would’ve been there all day had the merchant not asked him if he’d like to purchase the book.

Merlin looked up, an expression of slight surprise on his face. “Um, yes, I would actually.”

“Then come on,” said the merchant in a deep voice and led Merlin to what he had heard people refer to as a ‘cash register’.

The merchant held out his hand for Merlin to shake, so Merlin did.

“No, give me the book!” yelled the merchant. Apparently he hadn’t wanted to shake Merlin’s hand. Merlin handed him the book.

The merchant looked at the tag on the book and punched in a few numbers on his cash register. Then he told Merlin a number.

“Twenty-two fifty.”

Merlin was puzzled by this number. The man looked a Merlin with an expression of impatience, rolled his eyes, and told Merlin it meant how much money he owed. Twenty-two dollars and fifty cents.

“But I don’t have any money,” said Merlin. Again, the man did not look pleased with the world.

“Look in your pockets,” said the merchant, “Maybe, just maybe, there’ll be some money there! Just maybe, and you can pay for this book and get out of my shop!”

Merlin did as the man advised and pulled out a large wad of green paper. In the corners of the paper were numbers. Merlin looked for a twenty-two, but all he saw were hundreds. He counted them as he went along for future reference, but lost count on thirty-seven.

Meanwhile, the merchant looked on with awe, a small trail of drool escaping his mouth. Merlin pretended not to notice and handed the man one of his slips of paper.

“Will this cover it?” he asked.

The merchant eagerly took the slip of paper and said yes so fast it sounded like a dog barking.

“Wait,” Merlin said, a hint of suspicion in his voice, “That’s a hundred. You told me I owed twenty-two fifty. You need to give me back the money you owe me.”

The merchant’s childish grin flew off his face at those words. He reached into the register and started pulling out slips of paper angrily, muttering to himself as he did so. It sounded like “Out of all the things this boy doesn’t know, he has to know money! Why? It’s just not fair! But of course, it has to be this way!”

Turning in Merlin’s direction, the merchant put on a clearly fake smile and gave Merlin one slip of paper with a fifty, one with a twenty, one with a five, two with a one, and one coin with a fifty on it. Merlin assumed the man was being honest, said thank you, and left the indoor merchant’s stand.

Merlin walked on the white path for a while until he found a small area of grass and trees, with smaller walking paths more like the ones at home. He heard this area referred to as ‘the park’.

Merlin found a shady tree and sat down by it. Then he opened his book and began to read.

For hours Merlin read, completely oblivious to what was around him. He read of small people called hobbits, and dwarves, and wizards, and dragons, and Middle-Earth, and treasure. He read about a strange creature carrying an invisible ring, of elves, of exciting adventure.

Merlin read and read, and saw similarities that could not be. The author’s representation of many of the creatures to be found in the book were much like those in real life, such as elves. Happy most of the time, but serious when need be. And then dwarves, always thinking of gold and jewels and fighting with axes.

Merlin kept on reading. For hard-to-read letters, Merlin sure got along fine. By the end of the day he was almost done with the first segment of the book. He would’ve finished, had he been able to resist the call of coming slumber.

For all that Merlin saw in his dreams that night, he may as well have been awake.

The first thing that Merlin saw was an old lady walking with a carrying bag. She sat down to talk to someone, and put the carrying bag on the edge of the chair. She was so engrossed in conversation that she didn’t notice a man walk up near her chair and take the carrying bag. A thief. Back in Britannia, that would cost the man his left hand.

A flash of light and Merlin was witnessing a robbery. A violent robbery. The robber was holding in one hand a canvas bag filled with the green slips Merlin had used to pay for his book. In the other hand was a smaller version of the exploding pipe Merlin had seen. And the exploding end was being held to the head of a terrified man.

The people Merlin was hearing referred to as ‘police’ also held exploding pipes, which the people were calling ‘guns’. Merlin heard the police speak in a calm, but firm voice to the robber, telling him to lay down his arms and no one would get hurt. But the robber wasn’t about to let his prize go. No. His answer to the police was shooting the man he was holding the gun to. The man fell instantly to the floor, while the robber made a dash for it.

A light flashed again and Merlin saw a war. Despite his limited knowledge of this place, a war was a war; nothing could change that.

Another flash and another and another, each time showing Merlin horrifying scenes of brutality and evil. What had happened to the peaceful world Merlin had seen?

Then it came; a big explosion. The sky turned so red it looked as if it were on fire. Perhaps it was. Merlin didn’t know, for he wasn’t looking at the sky, but the innocent people dying so quickly they couldn’t possibly know they were dying. One by one they fell, still smiling from enjoying the weather the world had been offering only to take it away.

From the explosion, a mushroom cloud emerged, exactly like the one Merlin saw on the bronze wall. For a few moments, all was quiet, and then Merlin heard the boom. It was deafening. There was a final flash of white light, and Merlin was in his red dragon form high above the earth. And flying towards him was a giant black dragon that was missing its front feet. Riding on this dragon was a hooded wizard dressed completely in black, save for his or her pale skin.

The black dragon engaged Merlin with its back claws, gripping Merlin’s abdomen. Caught, Merlin tried his hardest to escape the black dragon’s grasp, causing both to lose altitude in a terrifying free fall.

The black dragon didn’t loosen his grip on Merlin. If anything, he tightened it. Merlin, unable to contain himself, roared in agony, serving another purpose; warning the people below of Merlin’s coming.

The people fled just seconds before Merlin impacted the ground. Only then did the black dragon loosen his grip and fly off Merlin. In a normal fight, Merlin would’ve taken this moment to fly away. But this was no normal fight.

The black dragon’s rider dismounted and walked over to Merlin. Merlin heard the slither of a sword being unsheathed. Moments later, he felt the iron pierce his soft underbelly, straight into his heart.

500 Visitors

2009-07-15T08:05:00.000-07:00

As of today, approximately 500 people have visited Merlin's story and counting. A great milestone, this event is celebrated with this post.

Chapter 22: Days of End

2009-03-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

Merlin was in a dark place, perhaps a cave or tunnel of some sort. He heard a faint dripping sound, presumably from stalactites above. Far of down the passage was a faint flickering light, similar to fire light.

Merlin, being the curious boy he was, went to investigate the light source. He stopped dead in his tracks as soon as he heard a bellow of pain. Merlin, thinking it was just his imagination, continued walking after an initial shock. Then the sound came again, and again, a man's voice breaking from pain, pain that Merlin nor any mortal man could know.

Merlin eventually came to the end of the passage, where it met the chamber from where the light was coming. Peeking around the corner, Merlin saw a man and a woman. The man was bound to the cave floor in the middle of the cavern by five chains: one for his head, two for his arms, and two for his legs, each chain leading to one of three small rocks. He was slightly hunched over, head down, his mildly long dark hair hanging over his head. The man was without a shirt, and had pants that had ripped just above the knees, leaving the man with long tatters flying around his legs.

The woman was almost the exact opposite of the man, Merlin noticed. She was well dressed in silk clothing with well kept hair. She held a cup just above the man's head. In the cup was a green-yellow liquid. Quickly, the woman leaned forward, and caught another drop of the same color liquid. Merlin, looking for the source of the drop, saw a snake suspended above the man's head, a dark green one with two long fangs. It was from those fangs that the drop had come from, and Merlin could see the trails of the venom down the fangs.

Out of nowhere, Merlin heard a deep boom. It sounded as if someone were pounding on the cave wall. The woman, startled by the sound, was unable to move fast enough to catch the drop of venom that fell on the man's head. Once more, the man howled and thrashed against the chains.

The booming noise came again, combining itself with the man's howling to create an unearthly sound. Merlin closed his eyes and covered his ears, wincing from the pain. When he opened his eyes, he looked over at the man, and saw a giant crack in the wall behind the man. There was another howl, yet, the man's mouth didn't open. He just stood there, hunched over and breathing hard. Th howl came again, followed by the booming noise again, then suddenly, the wall wasn't there anymore.

Standing where the wall once was a giant red wolf. The wolf was unlike any Merlin had ever seen. It had red fur, the same shade as blood, and four fangs, two on the bottom and two on the top. The fangs on the bottom lip curled up over the top lip and the ones on the top curled over the bottom lip. Where its eyes should've been were two black round balls that stared at anything and everything. Not only that, it was as big as two full-grown horses.

Merlin watched as the wolf bounded over to the man, grabbed the chains binding the man's head in its fangs, and snapped them into a hundred pieces. The wolf repeated the process with the other four chains, and soon the man was free. For what seemed to be an eternity, the man stayed hunched over, muttering words Merlin could hardly make out.

"So long ... Baldr... Odin ... ten-thousand years ... Asgard ... burn ... pay," were some of the things Merlin heard the man mutter in his deep, hateful voice.

The wolf howled, breaking the trance that had set. The woman ran to the man and was about to catch the drop of venom that would fall on his head any second. She was to slow, but the man wasn't. Just as the drop was about to fall, the man gripped the neck of the snake in an iron grasp, and forced the snake to drink it's own venom. In less than a second, the snake stopped trying to escape the man's grasp. The man dropped the life-less snake on the ground and slowly rose, revealing his facial features to Merlin.

The man's face was much different than Merlin had been expecting. The man had a clean-shaven face covered in many scars, the most prominent among them being the one cutting through his right eye. His eyes, Merlin noticed, were blue with a small ring of red around the pupil. This man, Merlin wisely decided, was not one to get into an argument with.

The man, standing full, was much taller than Merlin had previously thought, standing as tall as two men. He strode slowly toward the hole in the wall, the wolf and the woman following. Merlin also followed after a few moments, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Outside, it was howling. The wind was hitting whoever was foolish enough to stand its way, the rain whipping them. Merlin surveyed his surroundings and saw he was standing at the very peak of a mountain in the middle of the sea. Looking over the edge of the small ledge he was standing on, Merlin saw a sheer cliff, mile-high waves smashing against the side. The man stood just at the edge, his hair and tattered pants swirling around him.

"Free!" the man yelled, victory in his voice "free at long last! Now all shall pay! No one will live!"

"Thus it was in the end that the fate of the beginning was sealed," said the booming voice that seemed to emit from everywhere, followed by a flash of light.

The place Merlin was looking at was completely different from the cave where the man had been imprisoned. He was now looking at a vast plain. On one side of the plain was an army of giants. On the opposite side was a city with giant walls. Merlin guessed that the walls were at least a thousand meters high. In side the city was an army that seemed to glow. They filled every empty spot Merlin could see, yet, they were outnumbered, one to ten-thousand. Leading the army of giants were two. One was a giant himself, and seemed to burn. The other was the man that had been imprisoned in the mountain, now wearing full armor and carrying an odd weapon. A bow, that looked normal for the most part, but the arrows were what Merlin found odd. They weren't the wooden steel tipped arrows Merlin saw everyone use. Rather, it was made of a bushy plant, one that Blaise had called mistletoe.

Merlin watched the scene with great interest as the armies stood their ground, neither firing. A slight breeze was present, causing the hair of those without helmets to sway gently. The man said one word under his breath, which carried to all of his army due to the direction of the wind. Less than a minute later, the army began to march to the walls of the city. The defenders of the city took up their bows and began to pick off the attackers in vain, for it seemed that for every one killed, two sprouted up in place. The man who was leading, meanwhile, avoided the arrows by shape-shifting to become a lion, a bear, a mouse, whatever suited his fancy. The army of giants was unstoppable.

"Brothers will fight and kill each other," said the booming voice, whisking Merlin off to see what it had foretold.

Men were now fighting on the side of the attackers, along with many others of many species. Two men, who looked exactly like one another, were fighting each other with swords, the one that fought with the giants eventually ending the fight with a thrust through the heart.

"Sisters' will defile kinship," said the booming voice, followed by a flash of light. The scene Merlin saw was a young lady that was fighting with the defenders stabbing her mother in the back and opening the gate to the army outside.

The voice continued to show Merlin the happenings of the battle, taking him from place and narrating what was to happen there.

"No man will have mercy on another," was the last thing the voice said before showing him a rapid scene of events. The wolf killed one of the defenders in an epic battle in the center of the city. A young man who had an undeniable resemblance to the one that had just died came up on the wolf, rolled under it and stabbed his knife through to the heart. A flash of light and Merlin saw the giant that had seemed to burn. First the giant set a rainbow bridge on fire, causing the land the bridge lead to to also catch fire. Then the giant, surrounded by defenders of the city, did the only thing he could do. Set the world itself afire.

Before long, the fire spread, engulfing everyone and everything, leaving in its path nothing but ashes. There was another flash of light and Merlin was looking at the same place he had first seen, the place where Gaea had created the world. Except there was a tree floating there instead of land. Merlin heard a frightened scream and saw two people in the tree, a male and a female, looking down below them. Before Merlin could see what the two people were looking at, there was a flash of light and he was in a different place once more.

Chapter 21: Days of Old

2009-02-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

"My son has finally come back to me!"

Those were the words that hung over Merlin as Aurelianus held him tight, weeping tears of joy. All his life he had been without a father, and here he was, the one person whom he would've wanted most as a father telling him it was true. Even Blaise hadn't been as fatherly as Aurelianus in the short time Merlin had known Aurelianus.

Questions buzzed in Merlin's head. Why was Aurelianus here? Who were these other people? How could Aurelianus be his father? What had happened to the world outside? Where was he?

"Your son?" asked a tall man with a deep voice. He had elliptical-shaped glasses and wore a red shirt that folded out at the neck which was tucked into blue leggings that had many pockets and cuffs around the legs. His dark brown hair stood up and leaned forward slightly, all of the individual hairs being the same height. He had thick arms and big hands. His skin was slightly tanned, and he had brown eyes looking out from behind the elliptical glasses.

"Calm down Kirk," said Aurelianus, releasing his death grip on Merlin, and standing to face the man. Merlin had always thought Aurelianus was tall, yet, he barely came to the man's chest.

"Why should we?" asked a pale woman who had gray hair and gray eyes, and was a little shorter than Aurelianus, "You come back to us after millennia of hiding, and then announce that boy is your son. What is not to be angry about?" As the woman said this, she stayed calm, sitting in her seat, her long gray hair swirling about her.

"Merlin," said Aurelianus, "I think you should go upstairs. There will be a bedroom. It is yours while you stay here. Get some sleep."

Merlin obeyed without hesitation, sensing he was the cause of the tension in the air.

Upstairs, Merlin found a bed large enough to fit four people side by side and still have room for them to move around. Merlin crawled into the bed and collapsed from exhaustion, falling asleep before his head hit the pillow, despite the yelling below him.

***

A few minutes after he had fallen asleep, Merlin woke up. He drearily climbed out of bed and looked down to find himself standing on . . . nothing. Merlin stumbled backwards into his bed from shock, wondering how such a thing could be. Taking in a fuller view around him, he saw pinpricks of light, much like those he saw at night, except many, many more. All around him were those pinpricks of light, but he had no eyes for their captivating spell; instead, all he saw were the people beneath him.

Below Merlin were six people. Two were female and four were male, two standing off to the side. Curiously, each person's hair and clothing were the same color. The first woman was wearing a green dress. She was fairly tall and had a determined look on her face. As Merlin watched, she walked away from the rest, turning into ground as she did so. Soon, the woman was completely gone, leaving only a giant stretch of land floating in the middle of nothing.

The two men who had been standing off to the side stepped forth, one wearing white, the other, blue. The one in blue walked upon the newly formed land, and where he walked, water formed. Soon, the man himself turned to water, making a giant splash where he landed, causing oceans to rise. The man in white stood back while another came forth.

This person's color was red. He had many scars upon his face, and walked boldly to where the last two people had. Unlike the previous two, he didn't walk straight. He walked under the land, and became a giant cave.

Next the second woman came forth, dressed in silver, and walked above the land, melting into a dark substance. Quickly after her transformation, a man in black walked to the cave and became a substance much like the woman had become, but darker.

The only remaining person was the man in white. He stroked his beard before walking toward the land. Then, slowly, he walked over the land, and melted into clouds. Suddenly, the land began to sprout mountains, reaching for the sky. They grew ever taller, until one touched, when the sky and land recoiled from each other, as if bitten by a snake. Where they had touched were fourteen people, eight male, six female. One seemed to be younger and angrier then the others.

Merlin heard a noise, and the land became a ball, the cave wrapped in the inside. A few minutes following, the first six people Merlin had seen reverted to their original forms, and joined the twelve people standing on the land, except for one, the one who had created the cave. He instead raised his arms, lifting the ground and creating a deep pit. Not too far away from the pit the dirt landed, and solidified into a mountain.

Slowly, all but three of the people who had been created when the sky touched the earth walked toward something, touched it, and a crown made of that substance appeared on their head. One walked to the water. Another to the fire. For everyone, it was different. Two of the three who hadn't moved moved walked off. The one remaining was the younger boy, the one who seemed to be angry. Unless Merlin was mistaken, he was looking at his father, the one in white, with great hate and disgust.

Merlin was so engrossed in watching what was unfolding around him, he hardly noticed a voice speaking.

"Twas in the beginning that the seeds of fate were planted," said a deep, booming voice that seemed to emit from everywhere around Merlin. There was a flash of light, and Merlin was looking at a different scene, yet he could tell it was the same place he had been looking at, but in the future.

Where the sky had touched the land was now a magnificent palace. Standing on the roof was a man that had not been there before, holding up the sky, which was trying desperately to reunite with the land.

There were many more people roaming the land now, including many with only one eye and three with many arms. They all looked happy, as far as Merlin could tell. Then the man in white picked up the people with one eye and the ones with the many arms and threw them into the pit the man in red had dug. The woman in green seemed to be angered by this and summoned her sons. She told them they were to kill their father with a sickle, which looked to be a curved hook. Only one accepted the task: the young boy who was angry at the man in white.

Merlin watched as the boy crouched behind a tree, waiting to ambush his father. The boy's father, unaware of ambush, was quickly over taken by his son, who took his father's crown. As soon as the crown touched the boy's head, he grew to become a man. He walked up to the palace and sat where his father had sat. No one dared to defy him.

The woman in green was angered that her son, the one who had overthrown his father, did not free the people his father had sent to the deep pit. She was so angry, she yelled that his fate was destined to be the same as his father's.

"A pattern thrice begun," said the booming voice. Once again, there was a flash of light and Merlin was looking at a scene even farther in the future.

In this time, the one person who overthrown his father was now swallowing his own child whole, to avoid the coming of the prophecy. Yet, when Merlin looked closely, he saw the king wasn't swallowing a child, but a rock.

"Twice sealed the prophecy," said the voice again, followed by another flash of light.

Now Merlin was looking at a battle raging near the mountain where the palace was located. The people who had been imprisoned by the man in white were fighting on the side of what seemed to be the children of the king of the other side.

Watching the battle, everything finally clicked for Merlin. He realized he was watching the final battle in the War of the Titans, that the man in white was Uranus, his son was Kronos, and the boy leading the army to what must be Mount Othrys was Zeus.

Merlin watched as Zeus and his siblings defeated Kronos' army. Soon, only Kronos himself was left, armed with the sickle he had killed his own father with.Zeus took the sickle from him, and tore Kronos into hundred of thousands of pieces, and cast him into what must be Tartarus.

As Merlin looked, he thought he could see the man in red and the woman in green looking at one another. Suddenly, the woman in green, who Merlin thought must be Gaea, grabbed the hand of the man in red. From their grasp sprung a new person, on whom could hardly be called a person at all because of his grotesque appearance.

The creature's top half was man, or mostly, for his arms were covered in the heads of dragons, far more than Merlin could count. Below the creature's torso were two legs, made from coils of giant snakes. The heads of the snakes stuck out here and there, snapping at anyone who came close enough to feel their wrath. Merlin know instantly the poison of these snakes was fatal.

The creature was also covered in wings, some big, some small, some scaly, some made of feathers, but all gruesome. Yet, what caught Merlin's attention was the creature's eyes; two balls of fire, with a lump of ash dead in the center.

"Thus, Typhon is born, king of the winds," said the booming voice.

A flash of light ensued, and Merlin was looking at Typhon approaching Zeus, challenging him. Zeus accepted the challenge, and within a second was on his back, Typhon about to bring the final blow. The other Olympians join the fight, trying to save their king. Even when twelve are fighting one, the odds are grim for the Olympians.

Typhon shakes each Olympian off him, one by one, yet, Merlin only counted ten. One was missing.

Out of nowhere, Hades rams into Typhon's eye with Kronos' sickle. Typhon, momentarily blinded, howls in pain. Zeus took adavantage of the opportunity and struck Typhon with a lightning bolt. Typhon stumbled back into Hades, who pushed Typhon down the hole he had opened, a hole leading to the darkest realm of Tartarus. All that remained of Typhon was a few snake heads that were slithering on the floor, slowly losing life, and the sickle, now melted.

The person Merlin took to be Hephaestus walked over to the melted sickle, and with his bare hands, molded it into a familiar shape. With his fingernail, he carved one word into its hilt: Fanomar.

"An uncle yet to return," said the deep, boming voice before spiriting Merlin to an entorely different place.

Chapter 16: The Wild Hunt- Revised

2009-02-15T13:51:00.000-08:00

This is a revised version of Chapter 16. It adds a little more dialogue between the Young One and Blaise, and changes the setting slightly. I hope you enjoy it.

***

Hurry, hurry, hurry, Merlin's wings seemed to say as he beat them up and down, and yet, Merlin was already flying as fast as he could, which made it all the more frustrating.Merlin knew time was limited. He knew he had maybe a few hours left to reach Blaise, if he was lucky. If he wasn't. . . Merlin decided not to follow that thought through to its conclusion.

Hurry, hurry, hurry, Merlin kept hearing, for every moment in the air was another precious second in which Merlin could save Blaise.

How will you find Blaise? taunted a voice in Merlin's head, How will you save him? What if you don't arrive in time? When Merlin thought these questions over, he realized he didn't know the answer to any of them.

Merlin was woken from his deep thoughts when he heard the clop-clop of a horse's feet from far below him. As he listened closer, he heard the familiar clink of a scabbard hitting the buckle of a belt. Merlin knew at once that the rider could be none other than Blaise.

Looking ahead of him, Merlin saw the forest end, and a small cabin a few yards away from a cliff, and flew faster towards it, hoping Blaise's course would take him to the cabin. Slowly, Merlin shape-shifted to his normal form and walked to the edge of the forest, ignoring the glare the windows of the cabin in the clearing gave him as he walked past. For some reason, Merlin felt as if something monumental had happened here.

Or was going to.

Merlin heard Blaise's horse approaching the clearing. Curiously, the horse stopped abruptly where the snow on the cliff met the forest. Blaise dismounted his horse and walked calmly and slowly to the cabin. Blaise did not knock; he simply kicked the door wide open, splintering it. Curiosity won over Merlin's better judgment, so he followed Blaise.

The cabin was empty. There was nothing in the cabin, nothing at all. This seemed odd as it had clearly been built several years ago, as could be told by the decaying wood. Again, Merlin felt the monumental feeling, stronger this time. On impulse, he looked out the window nearest to him. He thought he could see a boy of his age running into the forest. But Merlin had never been able to quite trust his own eyes, due to poor sight. Blaise had once promised him glasses.

Blaise. Where was he? Merlin got up from the window sill and began to look for Blaise. Moments later, Merlin heard a thundering boom come from the bedrooms of the cabin. Already forming a plan, Merlin ran towards the bedrooms.Merlin heard swords clashing against one another. He knew that one of the swords he heard was Excalibur, Blaise's sword. The other was one he had hoped he would never be near again if Merlin was right.

Flying around the corner, Merlin saw to people fighting. Blaise was one of them. The other had his back turned to Merlin. Suddenly, the man with his back turned took out a wand a screamed an incomprehensible word. As a result, Blaise went flying through the solid wood wall and landed on his back in a bath tub. The man flew at Blaise, wielding his sword high above his head as if it were an ax he would bring down on Blaise's head. Blaise quickly rolled out of the way and on to his feet.

The man's sword was stuck in the wood floor of the cabin. Taking advantage of the man's predicament, Blaise ran at the man, swinging Excalibur from the side in a long arc. The man merely said another word and Blaise's foot froze, causing him to trip. Anyone could clearly see the man was an expert when it came to magic. If the battle continued to progress this way, Blaise would die.

The two continued to fight each other, driving one another closer and closer to the cliff. For the third time, Merlin felt the monumental feeling. It was the strongest feeling of them all, so strong, Merlin fell on the ground and struggled to get back up. As he lay on the ground he heard Blaise and the man yelling at each other

."It's been many long years that I have been waiting for this day!" shouted Blaise at the man.

"I don't want to fight you!" screamed the man, his voice as sharp and cold as ice. It was a voice Merlin would recognize anywhere; it was the Young One.

"Of course you don't! You're afraid I will avenge your father!"

"I didn't kill Ambro!" said the Young One calmly.

"Then why is he not with us?"

"He left! He suddenly disappeared just as he was about to kill me! Why won't you believe me?"

"You most certainly earned your name, Shiroix, or as it means in the Speech, teller of lies."

"I am not lying!" screamed the Young One with fury as he brought his sword so hard against Excalibur, Merlin heard a high pitched squeal, which undoubtedly meant Excalibur had received a deep gouge.

Merlin, still shocked from the feeling, crawled to where he could see the Young One and Blaise fighting. The Young One muttered a few words, and made Blaise lose his footing, who staggered back and fell off the cliff, catching the edge with one hand, hanging for dear life. The Young One walked to the edge, and looked down at Blaise.

“Is this what you did to Ambro?” asked Blaise, “Did you kick him off the walls of the city? After all that he had done for you?”

“No. Like I told you, he was about to kill me and then disappeared.” replied the Young One, looking unforgiving into Blaise’s eyes.

As the Young One lifted his sword, fear came to Blaise’s eyes, as he realized what the Young One meant to do.

“Please Shiroix,” muttered Blaise as it began to snow and a slight breeze rocked him on the edge, “Do for me what Ambro did for you: forgive.”

“I can’t,” said the Young One sadly, averting his gaze from Blaise’s pleading eyes, “It is my destiny.”

Then the Young One kicked Blaise’s hand. Blaise fell without a sound.

Anger welling up in Merlin, he got to his feet and pointed his wand at the Young One, holding it with both hands.

"Zamaj!" Merlin bellowed. Suddenly, out of nowhere, came a stampede of giant dogs, slobber trailing behind them as they raced towards the Young One. Among the dogs were blood-red stags, fire-orange birds, horned lions, and a great many other creatures who all reminded Merlin of one thing: death. Leading the stampede was a creature riding a skeleton horse. The creature's face had much resemblance to that of a goat, except it was as black as ash. It had pointy ears, much like some of the elves Merlin had seen. It also had horns and two sharp fangs coming out of it mouth facing up like an elephant's tusk. When the creature turned its revolting features so it's red eyes were looking straight into Merlin's green eyes, Merlin felt one thought.

I am Perchta, was the thought the creature sent Merlin as it passed him.

Perchta turned her eyes back on the Young one and threw a flaming sword at him. It hit him right between the eyes.Seeing the sword, the stampede behind Perchta started to ravage the Young One's body, leaving nothing, not even a bone. Just as quickly as they had come, the stampede left, except for Perchta."Who are you?" asked Merlin.

I am Perchta, the leader of the Wild Hunt and the bringer of death, replied Perchta.

"Why did you come?"

You summoned us.

"Will I see you again?"

Only when your time has come.

With that final word, Perchta and her steed too left.Merlin ran to the edge and looked down. He saw Blaise lying on a ledge far below, the snow around him stained red.

"Blaise!" yelled Merlin as he flew down to his mentor.

"Merlin?" asked Blaise weakly, "Is that you? What are you doing here?"

"I had a dream and came to save you."

"It is too late for me. . ."

"No, it's not. I could use the healing spell you taught me."

"You don't understand; I have seen Perchta before. She told me the next time I saw her, it would be my death." said Blaise, his voice ever weaker.

"Merlin," continued Blaise, "I am dying, and there is nothing you can do. I will always remember my time with you and your mother because it was the happiest time of my life. Take Excalibur; pass it on to Uther and his son. For yourself, take this." With that, Blaise handed him the ring Merlin had seen in the dream. Merlin took it and put it in the pocket of his robe.

"Take this and go to the Utopian Realm. I trust you with this; do not let me down. Fare well Merlin." Blaise turned his head to face the sky and held his arms straight up. "Spirits . . . have I redeemed myself on this day?" Blaise asked of the sky, just as he had in the dream.

Slowly, Blaise lowered his arms, the light in his eyes slowly dying. Then he was dead.

"No! Blaise, no! Don't leave me! Don't leave me! I'm not ready! Stay here Blaise, stay here!" sobbed Merlin, tears rolling off his cheeks onto Blaise's lifeless body, "Blaise. . ."

For hours, Merlin sat there, shedding tears for his uncle. Watching from deep in the forest, Perchta almost felt regret for what she had wrought. She herself shed a few tears for Blaise. Crying was something that Perchta had never done, and yet, here she was. Although Blaise was dead, Perchta would make sure to do something to ease Merlin's pain. Something. . .

Unable to think of anything at the moment, Perchta took to the skies, heading back to her master, Hades.

Below Perchta Merlin continued to cry, and would for several hours. Even after he stopped, he would still feel the pain of losing Blaise, and would continue to feel the pain for many long years.

A Slight Mispelling

2009-02-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

Pertcha is supposed to be Perchta. All future references to Pertcha will be Perchta.

Minor Changes

2009-02-01T15:11:00.000-08:00

While planning the next few chapters, I had some great ideas I couldn't pass up, so I included then in the outline for the next few chapters. However, to make the ideas work, I had to go back and change a few things. Annwn, the Spirit Realm, has been changed to be the Underworld, and the mention of Arawn in the Wild Hunt has been changed to Hades. Future references to either Arwan or Annwn will be Hades and the Underworld.

Name Change

2009-02-01T11:47:00.001-08:00

I have recently realized I have borowed an original name from another author, and so I am changing the name of that character. From now on, Nasuada will be refered to as Aithne, pronuced Ath-nuh.

Chapter 20: Ruins

2009-01-25T17:38:00.000-08:00

Days had passed since Merlin encountered the lights. There had been good winds, pushing Merlin well on his way aboard the Eagle. However, the winds had pushed Merlin farther and farther away from the lights. By the end of the second day, there was no telling on what direction the lights lay.Yet, the lights were not to be last of the unusual events Merlin experienced on his voyage; far from it. For early on the third day, he saw something glimmering on the horizon. Being so far away, Merlin couldn't quite make out what it was. For a while, Merlin thought it might be one of those metal ships he had seen near the lights. Following this instinct, Merlin changed his course, and headed for the glimmering thing.

As Merlin came closer, he began to make out exactly what the object was. It seemed to be made of bronze. It was tall, and wide, and stretched across the sea as far as Merlin could see. Merlin didn't have to get any closer to know what it was: a bronze wall.Merlin knew from experience that no wall continued forever. It had to stop somewhere, somewhere there had to be a way to get in. So Merlin sailed along the bronze wall's edge, and surveyed the intricate markings that were carved on the sides.

The first markings Merlin saw were of people. The people were doing things, like holding a torch or rolling a wooden wheel. Then the pictures started to become more descriptive, showing a man riding a horse, man floating on the sea by way of a piece of wood. The pictures continued to get more and more descriptive, and Merlin began to see pictures like a man stabbing a giant with one eye with a flaming sword, a mountain being stabbed by a sword, releasing the wind, and a great many other pictures of those likes. These pictures were so detailed, it looked as if a great artist had carved it. Yet, it was the pictures ahead that Merlin wanted to see.

Merlin saw pictures of men shooting each other, not with arrows, but tiny little balls, that caused a small boom when fired. He saw the construction of a great metal pyramid, except it was only the skeleton of a pyramid, not the skin. He saw a great hollow metal box on wheels, which rolled over the flattened metal string beneath them. He saw more metal ships, these not quite so fantastic. He saw a box with pictures moving. He saw something like the winged-thing he had seen a few days ago, except it was white, and it flew off to the stars. He saw a strange, cylindrical object rotating around what looked to be like a giant blue marble, as if hung there with a piece of string. He saw everything, and the drawings were so realistic, they looked as if time itself had made them. The pictures even had color, something none of the other pictures had!

Merlin watched the pictures pass in awe. Such wonderful things, things he would have never had imagined in even the wildest of dreams! Then came a picture that Merlin would remember forever.The picture was of a city. Above it was a giant cloud. Yet, it wasn't the puffy clouds Merlin knew lived in the sky. This one was gray, and was shaped like a mushroom. In the next picture, the city was nothing but ruins, a sad site. Over and over this picture occurred, and it was always the same, a destroyed city with nothing left but its ruins. The cause was always the same: a gray mushroom cloud above a city. Then suddenly, there was nothing. No more pictures. Just a bronze wall.

Before Merlin could take in what was happening, a gust of wind came, pushing the Eagle into the wall, and forcing Merlin's head against it, knocking him unconscious as great bronze gates opened, and the Eagle was blown inside.

***

When Merlin woke, he found he was on the beach of a place he had never seen before. Yet, didn't this place seem so familiar to Merlin? As Merlin thought about it, it occurred to him that he had seen this place before. In one of his more enjoyable dreams. This beach was exactly the beach he had dreamt of once, in the dream where he was running along the water beside his son, laughing and enjoying himself. Merlin had thought no place could be so perfect as that beach, yet, here he was.

The beach had the perfect shade of golden brown sand, its waters were a majestic blue-green, and the sky was without a cloud. Everything was so perfect, yet. . . something was wrong. But what?

Leaving the beach, Merlin walked to where he saw buildings poking out over the horizon. It was not a long walk, and despite the sun shining brightly high above, seemingly never moving, it was perfectly warm. Along with the sun, the weather was odd; the wind wasn't blowing, not a single cloud as far as the eye could see, and everything was exactly the way Merlin liked it.

Before long, Merlin found what seemed to be a path to the buildings. It was made of black stone, and had white and yellow lines going up and down its length in various patterns. Sometimes it was double line. Sometimes it was a dotted line. Sometimes it was an unbroken line. The path was very wide. If Merlin were to lay down across its short side, he would make it almost halfway across the path, and Merlin had become quite tall.

The buildings, as Merlin found, were part of the city that was in ruins. Just as shown in the picture. The big hollow metal boxes were everywhere, but unlike the picture, these had long tubes attatched to a rotating top, and were painted to match the forest. Strewn across the ground were tubes with a squarish base with a hole in it. In that hole was a stick, pushing out from the tube. Merlin, curious as he was, picked up one of the tubes and pulled the stick. He stumbled as he heard the thundering explosion and burst of light, and dropped it like an uncontrollable torch, and looked up to see a sign that said 'Welcome to Washington, District of Columbia!'.

Littered everywhere were tiny little metal balls, small enough to fit in to the tubes on the ground that was covered in blood. The buildings that Merlin had originaly seen were crumbling like bread rolled between someone's fingers. Exploring one of the buildings, Merlin saw some of the moving-picture boxes that had been on the wall. Merlin jumped when he heard a sound. It seemed to be coming from the room across the hall.

Merlin walked to the room cautiously, as if expecting ambush. Yet, all he saw was one of the picture boxes, this one moving. A man with white hair sat in front of a desk, holding papers as if to read them.

". . . is not going well," said the man as Merlin began to hear his voice coming from, the box, "Thousands have died and many more are at this very moment. It seems as though our great emperor has gone too far this time, declaring war on the Allied Chinese Republic, and the people are suffering. American troops are barely hanging on to survival in the Chinese Republic, and we have reports the Chinese are preparing an invasion of America and all who aided us in previous campaigns. I am sorry to say that the great empire we have forged since our emperor overthrew the failed democracy fifty years ago is looking into the sunset, watching the twilight of the American Imperialism. We have maybe weeks left. Enjoy them while you can." finished the man, a sad look in his eyes. Then the picture box went blank.

Merlin exited the building, his mind swarming with new information. He looked up and saw a building he hadn't seen before, this one untouched by the battle that had occurred here. It was a giant whit building and looked much like a futuristic castle, with many pillars, windows, and two long flights of stairs on either side. In the center of the building was something that looked very similar to the colleseum Merlin had seen in his travels. On top of the colloseum object was another one, this one smaller. Then was a giant dome, and on top of that, a small spire, with a statue resting on top.

By instinct, Merlin walked to the building, climbing the steep hill to get to it. Finding a door wasn't too hard. It seemed as though there was one every twenty or so feet. Merlin walked around in the building, looking at the many statues and pictures, presumably of people dead in the battle.

As Merlin walked, he began to hear voices. At first he had thought the voices were a hallucination, just something in his head. However, as he walked, they began to get louder and louder. Curious, Merlin walked towards the noise.

". . . must aid them! The Third War is going badly and it is time we come and fight along side the Light! They need us!" shouted an all too familiar voice.

Finding the room the voice was coming from, he walked in to the doorway and saw a rather tall man banging his fist on the table. "Why not?" he bellowed, standing up as he did so. The man's hood fell back as he swung around violently, and Merlin saw the graying hair, which told him who the man was, and that he had seen him only once before.

"Aurelianus?" whispered Merlin.

As soon as those words left Merlin's mouth, everything fell silent, and the man whirled around as if Merlin's words could harm him. As the man's green eyes rested on Merlin, they softened, and told of the emotions their master was experiencing.

"Merlin?" breathed Aurelianus, still in a fighting position, "Is that you? Is it really truly you, or are my eyes taking to playing tricks on me?"

"It's me." said Merlin flatly.

"Merlin? Oh it really is you!" yelled Aurelianus, running to Merlin and picking him up in his arms and swinging him from side to side. "What took so long?" Aurelianus sobbed, tears of joy streaming down his face.

"What do you mean?" asked Merlin.

"Oh, never mind! You're here now and that's all that matters," weeped Aurelianus, putting Merlin back on the floor, "My son has finally come back to me!"

Explanation of Donate Button and Editing

2009-01-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

Recently, I have been invited to travel with People to People as a student ambassador to Europe this summer. The trip is very expensive, so I have started asking for donations from people. If you would like to donate, click the button and enter the amount you would like to donate. Even the smallest donation will be greatly appreciated! If you would like more info, go to ssenrahontour.blogspot.com.

Also, I have gone and edited Merlin's Story. The last sentence in Apprenticeship has been cut.

Chapter 19: Lights

2009-01-20T15:54:00.000-08:00

Merlin had been sailing for a few days now. It had been almost a week since he set off from Jeddah. The winds had been merciful and pushed his ship to the edge of the Red Sea in good time. If the winds kept this way, Merlin would be in the Indian Ocean before the end of the hour.
Merlin kept sailing, not paying the slightest attention to the dark clouds gathering. He was solely focused on getting to the ocean. Perhaps if he had looked up or down every now and again, he may have been able to avoid the storm. But he hadn't.

Merlin noticed the clouds only when it was too late. The rain began to come down, and Merlin heard a soft rumble in the distance. Knowing he was to face the worst storm ever to be seen, Merlin went below deck and braced himself for the inevitable titanic waves.

They did not come immediately; first came the lightning, which struck one of the three masts, and collapsed on the deck with a thud. The winds forced Merlin to listen to them as they screeched their sickening screech, and tore the ship apart, making the noises every man at sea feared: the voice of death.

Then Merlin spotted a leak in the side of the ship. It was a small leak, but a leak all the same, and one that would eventually sink the ship if not tamed. Merlin knew he had to fix it, but the only things that could plug the hole were on the upper deck. Courageously, Merlin ran onto the deck, grabbed a small cork, and shouted his victory to the winds. His victory would be short lived.

As Merlin was walking back to his hole, he heard a noise from behind him. Looking back, he saw what appeared to be a man of water. His chest was bare, and he had long hair flowing around his shoulders. He was as large as the largest waves, more than likely larger. In front of him, he held a trident. For what seemed to be years, Merlin and the water man stared at each other, neither blinking, neither swaying. Around them the storm had stopped, watching and waiting for the outcome of this meeting. Then realization dawned on Merlin.

"Poseidon?" he asked.

The water man gave a slight nod, and lunged at Merlin with his trident. As he collided with the ship, he became water, washing over the deck and swiping Merlin off of his feet. As he sank to the depths of the ocean and began to lose consciousness, Merlin thought he saw the face of a man looking at him.

***

Merlin woke to find himself on the coast. It was very cold, and there was deep snow all around him. His ship was nowhere to be seen, and the sun was setting fast. How Merlin had gotten here, or even where he was, was something Merlin would probably never know, but Merlin knew one thing: he didn't come here by accident. He was meant to be here. Why, he would soon find out.

The sun set in a spectacular array of orange and red and yellow colors, shifting as it settled into its bed behind the mountain, tossing and turning until it was comfortable. Yet, when the sun set, it was dark for only a few minutes. Merlin thought he must surely be in the land of the gods if the sun rose and fell so quickly. However, it wasn't the sun making the feeble light, nor the stars, nor a flame or torch, or any other light-making object Merlin could think of. It was a curtain in the sky, waving like a flag in the breeze. The curtain was painted brightly with colors, all sorts of colors, red, yellow, blue, purple, and many other colors Merlin had no names for. The majority of the curtain, though, was the same shade of green as Merlin's eyes, a bright green that was caring and understanding, and had a hint of blue, a blue that told the tragedies Merlin had encountered.

"This is why I'm here," whispered Merlin to himself, staring at the semi-transparent curtain that waved in front of the stars. Looking closely, Merlin thought he could see something emerging from the curtain.

As the thing came closer, Merlin could see it had the shape of a globe that had been split in half with its sides pushed in closer to the center. It came closer and closer, and before too long, Merlin could see long sticks coming out from the sides, a couple sticking out from the top, intricately carved patterns, and writing on the side of the object.

The object settled in the water, and Merlin walked towards it, realizing it for what it was: a ship.

The ship had three masts, all close to one another in the center of the ship. Each of the masts were connected to one another in an intricate array of rigging and lines. The hull was rounded, unlike the junk, and its headpiece was an eagle, which seemed live up to the name of the ship: Eagle.

Climbing aboard the ship, Merlin saw it was much like other ships he had been on, only bigger. Much bigger.

It was not long before Merlin, not so rushed this time, pulled up the anchor and put it near the side of the ship. Then Merlin raised the sails and caught the wind blowing to the south.

***

A week had passed since Merlin had set sail aboard the Eagle. Upon closer inspection of the vessel, Merlin had seen the hold had enough supplies for a year's voyage, that there was a small kitchen, and that it had comfortable living quarters.

As Merlin was just getting into his bed, he felt a sudden chill. Looking out the porthole, he saw. . . nothing. Nothing at all. All he saw was black, as if the world had just ceased to exist. Merlin, although not the expert sailor, knew he shouldn't be looking out only to see black. He should be seeing fish and water and sand. During the night, yes, perhaps he would see black. Only one thing was wrong: the sun still shone. Yet, Merlin saw only black.

Wondering as to what going on around him and why, Merlin trekked up to the upper deck. Upon emerging from below, Merlin's jaw dropped in disbelief, awe, amazement, wonder, and all other similar feelings. For the sight he was seeing was one no one had ever seen before, and one that he would fondly remember for the rest of his life.

No longer did Merlin see only black; he saw now a wide sea, shining a mighty blue, fish jumping through it and dolphins swimming in it, surrounded by a thick fog. Merlin, however, was far more interested in what was above, below, and on the sea.

A curious creation was above the water, Merlin noticed. It seemed to be a thick stick with odd shapes sticking out. They looked almost like. . . like. . . like a bird's wings! On the sea, Merlin's attention was torn between two sights: the sight of what seemed to be giant metal ships shooting small, rounded objects and large, elliptical objects at each other, and the sight of an eye almost as bug as he was, possibly bigger. Suddenly, the eye jumped, and caught the strange flying thing. With the eye came a giant body that must have been as long as the walls of Caernarfon Castle were tall. From the sides were giant flippers, which were close to half the size of the ship.

The giant creature landed back in the water with a tremendous splash, rocking the Eagle. When the mist cleared, there was nothing. Everything had disappeared. Everything.

Looking around for the strange but wonderful sights, Merlin saw that the giant creature was coming back. This time, it didn't swim along Merlin's vessel; it went under and bumped it, hard. Merlin, unprepared for the sudden bump, stumbled. His wand, which had been loosely held in a large pocket, flew through the air, spinning, going faster and faster towards the water.

Just as the cane-wand was five feet above the water, it was almost as if time slowed. The falling wand righted itself, and stayed upright. Slowly, ever so slowly, it came closer and closer to the water. Awed, Merlin just stayed where he was, his hand drooping over the side like a dead plant and his mouth and eyes wide-open.

The wand touched the water, but it did not sink. It was as if the surface of the sea had suddenly become hard as a rock. The water was perfectly flat, and the wand was standing straight up as the lights began to appear. From everywhere, where ever Merlin looked, he saw a small white light, scarcely bigger than his hand. All the lights shone brightly, and appeared everywhere. Some were on the surface of the sea. Some were on the deck of the Eagle. Some were even in midair, looking like pieces of parchment.

It took Merlin some time to figure out exactly what had happened. Years in fact. But when he finally figured it out, he cried, for what he had seen was something marvelous, something that would rock the very foundation of both the Dark and the light. Yet, if he told anybody, he would be criticized, and would be mocked. So when he figured it out, he kept it to himself, and tried in vain to find the place again. It was only when he realized that never would he be able to go to the magical place of lights and strange creatures, that he returned home and stayed there, and unknowing played right into the hands of fate, coming closer fulfilling his destiny.

Celebrating 100 Pages!

2009-01-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

As of today, the final document of Merlin's Story has reached 104 pages. It is approximately 20,304 words. When completed, a novel should stand at about 75,000 to 100,000 words, equivalent to around 300 to 400 pages. By the end of the week, I should be about quarter of the way done with Merlin's Story, standing close to 25,000 words. Currently, Merlin's Story is 18 chapters, and the next 10 chapters are planned and drawn. Merlin's Story is also attracting a lot of attention; I get an average of six visitors a day, two of them from the US and the other four international. I have two regular readers from London and one from Switzerland.

Chapter 18: The Shipyard

2009-01-18T19:25:00.000-08:00

"Ready Merlin?" asked Khoury.

"Give it your best shot." replied Merlin.

Upon hearing those words, Khoury ran at Merlin, holding a small elliptical ball in his hands. Merlin moved rapidly toward Khoury, trying to keep the ball from passing the goal line. Khoury was running so fast, he tripped over his own feet and lost the ball. Merlin, having years experience of walking rugged terrain, had no difficulty staying on his feet. He retrieved the ball as Khoury was still getting up, ran to the opposite end of the grass field, and crossed the line of sticks Khoury and Merlin had made by the beach.

"Beginner's luck!" shouted Khoury at Merlin.

"That may have been so, but we've played this game all week. I don't think I'm a beginner anymore." replied Merlin, handing Khoury the ball as he walked back to his position.

Some children had been watching Merlin and Khoury play, and asked to join in. Merlin and Khoury welcomed them. Throughout the rest of the morning, many other players were attracted, and before long, one team had seventeen, the other eighteen.

"Seems to me that you aren't playing a fair game," said a man from behind Merlin, "Mind if I join?"

Turning around, Merlin saw it was Abdul, returned from Mecca. Oddly, a week after Abdul had found Merlin wandering the desert, he had been called to Mecca, and hadn't told Merlin and Khoury why.

"We are one short; of course you can play." replied Merlin, a broad grin coming across his face.

As it turned out, Merlin's team won time after time. Strangely, it was always Abdul carrying the ball across the goal line.

After a few matches, Khoury and Merlin left their teams to speak with Abdul.

"Good game Khoury!" shouted Abdul to his son as they walked towards each other.

"How did you get so good?" asked Khoury.

"I'm the one who taught you the game, remember? I was coming back from a mission in the north where I had heard of a game they called 'fute ball', and taught you how to play when you were just a little boy."

"So why were you wanted in Mecca?" asked Merlin.

"I have another mission. They want me to go to a port some ways south and across the sea." replied Abdul.

"Won't you need a boat?" asked Merlin.

"Already have one," said Abdul, "Want to see it? Come with me."

Before too long, they were at the shipyard. Resting in the shipyard was a wide variety and array of ships. But the most curious ship was the one Abdul was pointing at.

The ship, unlike most that Merlin had seen, was shaped like a banana, and it hull was squared. Towards the back of the ship was a small cabin, with two windows. Behind the cabin, there was a small sail, insignificant compared to the massive sail on the cabin and the large sail close to the head of the ship.

"I've never seen the likes of this ship." said Merlin.

"I would say you haven't! This kind of ship is rare in parts, especially were you come from. I'm the only one with a ship like this as far as India." replied Abdul proudly.

"What kind of ship is it?"

"It's a Chinese junk. An Indian man had bought one from someone else and I bought it from him. It is a truly rare ship in most parts, and an extraordinary one as well. One of the fastest ships out there at eight knots. Now come on; let's get home. I'm sure you two want to hear about my trip."

Several hours later, long after Abdul had finished telling about his journey, Merlin laid in bed, sleep slowly overcoming him. He had been staying with abdul and Khoury for two weeks, long enough to refresh himself, and he was ready to continue his quest. The only problem was, he didn't know where to go. That hadn't kept him before, but it did now.

Merlin fell asleep still thinking of what Blaise had told him years ago, and was visited by dreams of the future. He saw himself on the sea, a storm coming close. The storm hit, and Merlin was knocked into the ocean. Just then, he woke, knowing he had to continue his quest by sea.

Silent as silence itself, Merlin stole into Abdul's room and placed a note, explaining why he had left and why he had taken the means he had. Then he followed the path to the shipyard, taking great care not to wake anyone in Jeddah.

It wasn't long before Merlin saw the ships. He quietly looked at them, searching for one in particular: Abdul's Chinese junk.

It took a while to find because it was so small, but Merlin found it with about an hour until sunrise. Merlin din't have long to raise the sails and prepare the ship for travel, and so raced against time. If Abdul were to see Merlin stealing his ship, Merlin wouldn't be able to continue his quest, keep his promise to Blaise.

Just as the sun was coming over the horizon, Merlin cut loose the anchor, and caught the south wind. Within seconds, Merlin was sailing away from the coast, and was on his way to the Utopian Realm.

Chapter 17: Wandering

2009-01-14T16:08:00.000-08:00

"Take this and go to the Utopian Realm." Those words had been a few of Blaise's last. And those had been the words Merlin had been hearing in his head for a long time. Merlin couldn't remember how long ago Blaise had died. Hadn't it been. . . Two cold times since Blaise died? Yes, that was right. Two years since Merlin had last seen Blaise, the Young One, Pertcha, Geoffrey, and all of the others. At times Merlin forgot about the people of his past; other times, he couldn't sleep for he kept seeing them and hearing them. They were all around, so close Merlin could reach out and touch them. But then they weren't there. It had merely been a trick of the desert.

Was Merlin in the desert? He thought about. Yes, he was in the desert. Blaise had once taught him geography. From what Merlin remembered, he had recently passed the Mediterranean sea, and had crossed over into Africa. He was walking across what he thought was Egypt, and at the time he had had to cross a river, his mind had gone blank, and he had crossed the river and left it, thinking he would run into another in an hour or two. He had forgotten the river must be the Nile, the only water source any human being with no supplies could get necessary hydration from. Merlin was a wizard though, and that did a little to help him along his way.

Now Merlin was crossing the wide and endless expanse of what he thought to be the Sahara, or whatever other desert he was crossing. It was an endless task, and a life or death one at that. If Merlin were to stop even for a moment, he would surely not get back up. If he didn't get back up, he would die. So he continued, day and night, night and day, never straying from the constant walking.

Merlin knew he didn't have much longer to live. He had to find a town and soon. Whether it be large or small, wealthy or poor, so long as Merlin could get some water and rest. He had had no rest since he had left the water.

Merlin heard a sound behind him. It sounded like the clop of a horse's hooves. Instinct took over Merlin and he broke into a sprint fast enough to rival any horse. The horse's hooves also sped up. Merlin ran and ran, the same routine he had done since Blaise's death. It was the routine to survival, and Merlin desperately wanted to carry out his promise to Blaise; take the ring to the Utopian Realm. And he couldn't do that if he was dead.

Slowly but surely, the horse caught up to Merlin, and its rider tried none too gently to pull Merlin onto his horse. Merlin purposefully slid off the horse, and landed head first in the sand. There happened to be a rock not to far under the surface, upon which Merlin hit his head and fell unconscious.

***

"Father! He's waking up!" shouted a small boy of about Merlin's age.

Looking about him, Merlin saw he was in a a damp cottage, which looked to be made of some sort of yellowish stone. He was sitting on a thin blanket on the floor. Other than his uncomfortable bed, there was no other furniture. Furthermore, there seemed to be no other people as the boy returned with his father.

The man the boy called father had brown eyes, a goatee, and was wearing a sand-colored turban on his head. He looked at Merlin with something like concern in his eyes.

"Are you alright?" asked the man, kneeling down to be eye-level with Merlin.

"Yes, I think so." replied Merlin, rubbing his temples.

"You hit your head pretty hard. What's your name stranger?"

"My name. . . My name is Merlin."

"Interesting name. You don't come from here do you?" asked the man casually.

"No. I come from Britain."

"Britain!" exclaimed the boy, "How long have you been traveling? It must have taken ages to get here from Britain by foot!"

"I have been traveling for two cold times."

"Well Merlin, you are welcome to stay with us for a while. You must be very tired after such a long journey." said the father, apparently impressed with Merlin's perseverance.

As the man stood up to leave, Merlin asked a few more questions. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you names?"

"No, of course not! My name is Abdul and my son's is Khoury." replied the man.

"Where am I? Thebes? Memphis?"

"Heavens, no! Why Thebes and Memphis are on the other side of the Great River! This is Jeddah!"

"Where is Jeddah?"

"You don't know where Jeddah is!" exclaimed Abdul, "You truly are a stranger. Jeddah is only a day's ride from Mecca, the holy city of Allah. I was returning from spreading the faith when I saw you. You had better get some rest Merlin. It's been a long day for you."

Abdul ushered Khoury out the door. Within minutes, Merlin was fast asleep.

Chapter 16: The Wild Hunt

2009-01-04T10:45:00.000-08:00

Hurry, hurry, hurry, Merlin's wings seemed to say as he beat them up and down, and yet, Merlin was already flying as fast as he could, which made it all the more frustrating.

Merlin knew time was limited. He knew he had maybe a few hours left to reach Blaise, if he was lucky. If he wasn't. . . Merlin decided not to follow that thought through to its conclusion.

Hurry, hurry, hurry, Merlin kept hearing, for every moment in the air was another precious second in which Merlin could save Blaise.

How will you find Blaise? taunted a voice in Merlin's head, How will you save him? What if you don't arrive in time? When Merlin thought these questions over, he realized he didn't know the answer to any of them.

Merlin was woken from his deep thoughts when he heard the clop-clop of a horse's feet from far below him. As he listened closer, he heard the familar clink of a scabbard hitting the buckle of a belt. Merlin knew at once that the rider could be none other than Blaise.

Looking ahead of him, Merlin saw a small clearing, and flew faster towards it, hoping Blaise's course would take him through the clearing. Slowly, Merlin shape-shifted to his normal form and walked to the edge of the clearing, ignoring the glare the windows of the cabin in the clearing gave him as he walked past. For some reason, Merlin felt as if something monumental had happened here.

Or was going to.

Merlin heard Blaise's horse approaching the clearing. Curiously, the horse stopped abruptly where the clearing met the forest. Blaise dismounted his horse and walked calmly and slowly to the cabin. Blaise did not knock; he simply kicked the door wide open, splintering it. Curiosity won over Merlin's better judgment, so he followed Blaise.

The cabin was empty. There was nothing in the cabin, nothing at all. Which seemed odd as it had clearly been built several years ago, as could be told by the decaying wood. Again, Merlin felt the monumental feeling, stronger this time. On impulse, he looked out the window nearest to him. He thought he could see a boy of his age running into the forest. But Merlin had never been able to quite trust his own eyes, due to poor sight. Blaise had once promised him glasses.

Blaise. Where was he? Merlin got up from the window sill and began to look for Blaise. Moments later, Merlin heard a thundering boom come from the bedrooms of the cabin. Already forming a plan, Merlin ran towards the bedrooms.

Merlin heard swords clashing against one another. He knew that one of the swords he heard was Excalibur, Blaise's sword. The other was one he had hoped he would never be near again if Merlin was right.

Flying around the corner, Merlin saw to people fighting. Blaise was one of them. The other had his back turned to Merlin. Suddenly, the man with his back turned took out a wand a screamed an incomprehensible word. As a result, Blaise went flying through the solid wood wall and landed on his back in a bath tub. The man came flying at Blaise, wielding his sword high above his head as if it were an ax he would bring down on Blaise's head. Blaise quickly rolled out of the way and on to his feet.

The man's sword was stuck in the wood floor of the cabin. Taking advantage of the man's predicament, Blaise ran at the man, swinging Excalibur from the side in a long arc. The man merely said another word and Blaise's foot froze, causing him to trip. Anyone could clearly see the man was an expert when it came to magic. If the battle continued to progress this way, Blaise would die.

The two continued to fight each other, driving one another into the clearing. for the third time, Merlin felt the monumental feeling. It was the strongest feeling of them all, so strong, Merlin fell on the ground and struggled to get back up. As he lay on the ground he heard Blaise and the man yelling at each other.

"It's been many long years that I have been waiting for this day!" shouted Blaise at the man.

"I don't want to fight you!" screamed the man, his voice as sharp and cold as ice. It was a voice Merlin would recognize anywhere; it was the Young One.

"Of course you don't! You're afraid I will avenge your father!"

"I didn't kill Ambro!" said the Young One calmly.

"Then why is he not with us?"

"He left! He suddenly disappeared just as he was about to kill me! Why won't you believe me?"

"You most certaily earned your name, Shiroix, or as ot means in the Speech, teller of lies."

"I am not lying!" screamed the Yoiung One with fury as he brought his sword so hard against Excalibur, Merlin heard a high pitched squeal, which undoubtedly meant Excalibur had recieved a deep gouge.

Merlin overcame the feeling that had grasped hold of him just as the Young One went for the killing blow. He ran around the corner and screamed a word at the top of his lungs, pointing his cane-wand at the Young One.

"Zamaj!" Merlin bellowed. Suddenly, out of nowhere, came a stampede of giant dogs, slobber trailing behind them as they raced towardsthe Young One and Blaise. Among the dogs were blood-red stags, fire-orange birds, and horned lions. Leading the stampede was a creature riding a skeleton horse. The creature's face had much resemblance to that of a goat, except it was as black as ash. It had pointy ears, much like some of the elves Merlin had seen. It also had horns and two shrp fangs coming out of it mouth facing up like an elephant's tusk. When the creature turned it's revolting features so it's red eyes were looking straight into Merlin's green eyes, Merlin felt one thought.

I am Pertcha, was the thought the creature sent Merlin as it passed him.

Pertcha turned her eyes back on the Young one and threw a flaming sword at him. It hit him right between the eyes.

Seeing the sword, the stampede behind Pertcha started to ravage the Young One's body, leaving nothing, not even a bone. Just as quickly as they had come, the stampede left, except for Pertcha.

"Who are you?" asked Merlin.

I am Pertcha, the leader of the Wild Hunt and the bringer of death, replied Pertcha.

"Why did you come?"

You summoned us.

"Will I see you again?"

Only when your time has come.

With that final word, Pertcha and her steed too left.

Merlin looked around for Blaise. He saw him lying on the ground near the cabin.

"Blaise!" yelled Merlin as he ran to his mentor.

"Merlin?" asked Blaise weakly, "Is that you? What are you doing here?"

"I had a dream and came to save you."

"It is too late for me. . ."

No, it's not. I could use the healing spell you taught me."

"You don't understand; I have seen Pertcha before. She told me the next time I saw her, it would be my death." said Blaise, his voice ever weaker.

"Merlin," continued Blaise, "I am dying, and there is nothing you can do. I will always rememer my time with you and your mother because it was the happiest time of my life. Take Excalibur; pass it on to Uther and his son. For your self, take this." With that, Blaise handed him the ring Merlin had seen in the dream. Merlin took it and put it in the pocket of his robe.

"Take this and go to the Utopian Realm. I am trusting you with this; do not let me down. Fare well Merlin." Blaise turned his head to face the sky and held his arms straight up. "Spirits. . . have I redeemed myself on this day?" Blaise asked of the sky, just as he had in the dream.

Slowly, Blaise lowered his arms, the light in his eyes slowly dying. Then he was dead.

"No! Blaise, no! Don't leave me! Don't leave me! I'm not ready! Stay here Blaise, stay here!" sobbed Merlin, tears rolling off his cheeks onto Blaise's lifeless body, "Blaise. . ."

For hours, Merlin sat there, shedding tears for his uncle. Watching from deep in the forest, Pertcha almost felt regret for what she had done. She herself shed a few tears for Blaise. Crying was something that Pertcha had never done, and yet, here she was. Although Blaise was dead, Pertcha would make sure to do something to ease Merlin's pain. Something. . .

Unable to think of anything at the moment, Pertcha took to the skies, heading back to her master Arawn.

Below Pertcha Merlin continued to cry, and would for several hours. Even after he stopped, he would still feel the pain of losing Blaise, and would continue to feel the pain for many long years.

Chapter 15: The Council

2008-12-22T15:54:00.000-08:00

"Why?" asked Nimue.

"This is no time for questions! Just take me to them! I don't care if they are asleep or not, just take me to them! Blaise's life may depend on it!" replied Merlin, already running to where he thought the Council might be.

Less than one hour later, Merlin was rapping on the door of Geoffrey's house, where the Council was meeting.

"Merlin? What are you doing out and about this late? I thought you had gone to your cottage." said Geoffrey in a sleepy voice, indicating he had recently dozed off.

"May I come in? I have vital information that you and the rest of the council needs to know immediately." replied Merlin, already pushing past Geoffrey.

"Yes, you may, and so may Nimue."

The first thing Merlin saw was a small round table in the center of the room with two people sitting around it. Merlin had thought the Council would be old, but in fact, they were fairly young, almost as young as Geoffrey.

"Come sit Merlin," said one who had a bald head, "We would like to hear what you have to say. If it is what you say, I fear for the worst."

As Merlin recounted his dream, he saw that the Council did not look surprised by what he was saying.

"And you would like permission to go after him I presume?" asked the other Council member who had a goatee.

"How did you know?" asked Merlin bewildered.

"I too lost a family member that I could have saved, but the Council then wouldn't let me. I know your pain Merlin, but we can't let you go. If you go, you may end up dead. I am sorry." said the second council member, the one with a goatee.

"Then death is a risk that I will have to take; I don't care what the consequences would be if I were to return unharmed, but I will take them, if only I am able to save Blaise." said Merlin, nearly shouting the last few words.

"Even if the punishment for disobeying the Council is long-term exile of sixty years minimum, starting from the moment you return to the Light from your venture?" asked the bald Council member.

"Yes."

"Then go," whispered Geoffrey, "Go so you may return sooner from your exile. Go save Blaise, and hurry, before it's too late!"

Without thanking the Council, Merlin ran off, faster than he had ever ran before, knowing every moment he wasted here meant another moment that could result in Blaise living.

"Wait Merlin!" cried Nimue from far behind Merlin.

"What is it?" asked Merlin impatiently.

"Let me come." she replied. Merlin realized she wasn't asking.

"No."

"Yes, I'm coming with you."

"No, you're not. It's too dangerous. I promise that someday I will come back." said Merlin with finality.

"I'll be waiting." said Nimue in such a soft tone, Merlin had to strain his ears to understand what she was saying.

"Goodbye." said Merlin. With that final word, Merlin ran off into the forest, and burst into flame. Moments later, a phoenix flew out of the forest where Merlin had disappeared, circled back to fly above Nimue, then started its journey to save Blaise.

"Goodbye." said Nimue with a touch of sadness, watching Merlin fly off into the sunrise.

Chapter 14: Blaise's Task

2008-12-15T17:14:00.000-08:00

"Merry Christmas Merlin!" called Blaise as he entered the room he and Merlin shared. It was Christmas morning and Blaise was kneeling under the tree, reaching for one of Merlin's presents.
"Here you go lad," said Blaise, handing Merlin the present he had found. Merlin, meanwhile, was still waking up. After nearly a month of vigorous training, Merlin was looking forward to sleeping in. Unfortunately, it was Christmas, Blaise's favorite holiday. No matter what Merlin did or said, he knew Blaise wouldn't leave him alone until he unwrapped the present.

"Thanks," said Merlin, blinking his eyes rapidly. Merlin slowly unwrapped the present, still not all the way awake. When the present was unwrapped, there before him lay a chalice. The chalice was unlike anything Merlin had ever seen. It was an iron-gray but shone as if it had been polished endlessly. It was decorated lightly, holding only a few symbols Merlin didn't know how to translate. Despite the fact it looked like it had been picked up on the side of the road, the chalice had a aura of power about it.

"Do you like it?" asked Blaise.

"Yes. Where did you get this?" replied Merlin.

"I'll tell you when you're older. What do you have for me?"

Merlin climbed out of bed and walked to the tree, taking his cane-wand with him. He tapped the tree with the cane and muttered a few words. Moments later, a sword revealed itself.

"This is what I got you," said Merlin holding out the sword. Tears came to Blaise's eyes.

"Where did you get this?" he asked.

"I made it myself. All those hours I was gone after training I was learning how to forge a sword from the elves."

"What is the sword's name?" asked Blaise, still looking at the sword in wonder.

"Excalibur." replied Merlin.

"Fighter. I like the name. It fits great. Thank you Merlin. Thank you."

As Blaise removed Excalibur from its scabbard, he revealed the true beauty of Merlin's craftsmanship. The sword had two little rounded squares cut out of it where the blade met the hilt on either side, which would provide a harder hit by easing off the weight. The sword came to a good point before slightly curving to a side, which would act like those hooks the fishermen that Merlin had seen used. Running down the middle of the sword was a small indentation, like a shallow trench, which took more weight off the sword. The entire sword was a light gold, and sparkled like star in the sky. It was a truly beautiful sword.

"I'm only sorry blood will be on this sword so soon," said Blaise. Merlin couldn't tell whether or not Blaise's tears were of joy or not.

"What do you mean?" asked Merlin, curious as to why Blaise would say such a thing.

"The Council believes they have found a rogue Dark wizard, and they would like me to convince him to join our side. If he doesn't, I am to remove any evidence he existed." replied Blaise.

"Then how will I continue my training?"

"You will train with Geoffrey. He is a good a wizard and I trust him with my life."

"When will you be back?" asked Merlin, already knowing the answer.

"I don't know," said Blaise, "It all depends on how powerful this wizard is. I fear he may be part of an elite organization that is part of the Dark. If he is, our battle will be legendary."

"When will you leave?"

"Tomorrow. The Council is allowing me to celebrate Christmas with you."

The rest of the day passed quickly, Merlin and Blaise performing magic for the peasants of Caernarfon Castle, and Blaise humored Uther with his tales of long ago, while Merlin put on a flight performance even natural born birds would be jealous of. Come dusk, Blaise and Merlin left Caernarfon Castle, and traveled by magic to the Light's make-shift headquarters. Geoffrey was waiting for them.

"Good day Merlin, Blaise," said Geoffrey, bowing to both Merlin and Blaise in turn, "We are glad you took this obligation upon yourself. You are quite well suited for this particular job."

"Thank you. I look forward to completing it." replied Blaise.

"Merlin, you will be studying with me until Blaise returns. Understood?" asked Geoffrey.

"Yes." replied Merlin.

"Farewell Merlin. I hope see one another again soon." said Blaise.

"As do I," Merlin said calmly, watching Blaise mount a brown horse and ride off into the forest.

"Come Merlin. I have had a small cottage built for you." said Geoffrey, leading Merlin towards the small village that had been erected.

"Halt! Who goes there?" asked a guard who stood up top the wooden fence that encompassed the village.

"Tis I, Geoffrey of Monmouth. Let me pass."

"Yes sire."

A moment later, the gates swung open, revealing a delightful celebration.

"It is the Wizard's New Year," said Geoffrey, seeing Merlin's puzzled face,"Always we celebrate the Light's existence on the anniversary of Betrayal. You have never witnessed it before because you have always fell asleep before it began."

All around were wizards, dragons, elves, and all sorts of other creatures, having a jolly time in the dim light of candle-lit street posts. Regardless of how tired he was, Merlin joined his fellows, and began to shift different features of his face, giving himself a pig-nose with cat-ears and wolf-teeth, and a good many other humorous combinations.

Hours later, as people began to go home, Merlin shifted back to his normal self, much to the disappointment of small children. It was time he got some rest that night. He began his walk towards his small cottage, admiring the different homes that had been built by some one's own hand. They were all beautiful.

"Merry Christmas Merlin," said a voice behind him. Merlin turned around to see it was Nimue.

"Merry Christmas to you as well," replied Merlin.

"It's been a while since we last saw each other."

"We saw each other two months ago. That's not that long ago."

"All the same, I'm glad to see you again."

"As am I." replied Merlin in a flat tone.

"I don't remember you being a stone wall last time we saw each other."

"A lot has happened in two months; I killed someone for the first time. I began training as a wizard. I became an advisor to a king. I am not the same person, nor shall I ever be for as long as I live."

Frustrated, Merlin turned around and began to walk towards his cottage. But he saw something; he saw his uncle in a forest, dying.

"Merlin," Blaise wheezed, "I am dying. Take this."

Slowly, Blaise handed Merlin a ring he had never seen Blaise wearing before.

"Spirits. . . Have I redeemed myself on this day?" Blaise asked of the sky. Then he was dead.

"Blaise! No! Don't leave me!" screamed Merlin, falling down in the snow.

"What's wrong Merlin?" asked Nimue, worry written on her face.

"Take me to the Council! Now!" commanded Merlin, knowing if he was to succeed, he would need to move fast.

Slight Changes

2008-12-15T14:24:00.000-08:00

For purposes that will be relveant to continuing the story properly, I have made a slight change to Chapter 4 when Merlin is eavesdropping on Blaise, Nasuada, and Uther and a change to Chapter 3 when Merlin first meets Aurelianus. Below are the changes.

***

Chapter 4

"WHAT!!! That man sired the boy! There is absolutely no likes between the two, and I’ve known him all my life! How can they be father and son? HOW!!!" boomed Uther so loudly, Merlin nearly wet his pants.

"Calm down Uther! We don't want to wake the boys. They cannot know any of this! If they knew, then the Dark would have a powerful weapon; the boy would be thirsting for revenge," said Blaise, trying to calm the enraged Uther.

"I'm sorry . . . But how can he be the father of those two? For heaven’s sake, none of the three of them look alike!"

“He is actually the father of only one of them; the younger one was born from the trickery of another wizard.” corrected Blaise.
"My true husband did keep much secret. I was always mad at him for not telling me anything. I realize now that if he had told me anything, my first son would never had been born. Now, looking back, I see those were the happiest years of my life. By being secretive, he saved me. But it meant we were separated, and it meant the birth of my second on a man who disguised himself to be mu husband. He only knew there was one child, his child. He didn’t witness his son’s birth. If he had, he would've known that I had two children. Right now he thinks there is only one. Someday, he will learn of the second child. And that will be the Light's darkest hour, when he realizes there are two, one who is bent to his will, the other against him. Yet, it will also be the Light's strongest hour, for it will be the first time he's felt fear in millennia." said Nasuada.

"Then why can't he know?" asked Uther impatiently.

"If we tell him, we have to tell him everything, and if we do that, he will know many secrets, all of which have been kept secrets for millennia." explained Blaise.

"Then why not just give him hints?"

"At his age, we can't tell which path he will go down, and if the knowledge that there were two children that I had were to reach him, the things he could learn would ultimately destroy us. He could one by one find all of our cities, crush any resistance there, search the survivors' minds, and eventually cause the downfall of Atlantis. If we find a way to tell the boy without him finding out, we would do it, without hesitation. But we know of no way to do so at this point in time. Can we trust you to keep this a secret?" asked Nasuada.

"Ehhh, I guess so. But if the boy still doesn’t know when I'm laying on my death bed, then I will tell him if he is near."

"Agreed." replied Bernie.
What are they talking about? Merlin asked himself, Who is him, and who are the boys, and what are the secrets? As Merlin's head swarmed with this new knowledge, he made his way to bed, and fell asleep pondering these questions.

***

Chapter 3

Aurelianus had green eyes and graying hair. He had a weary look to his eyes, and an air about him that Merlin couldn’t quite place. It seemed almost as if Aurelianus was old.

“Who is this boy you bring with you?” asked Aurelianus of Uther. When Merlin looked back on that moment several years later, he would recall see a slight expression of surprise coming over Aurelianus’ face as he said it.

“He’s the boy who saved me life. He calls himself Merlin.”

“Merlin. . .” said Aurelianus, looking at Merlin with an expression of awe, “Could it possibly be? No, I’m a fool for thinking so. He couldn’t still be here, not after. . .” Aurelianus’ voice trailed off before putting on a warm smile.

“Come dine with me. We have much to discuss,” said Aurelianus.

Aurelianus showed Merlin to his place by him. The sun was setting when a most curious thing happened. As Merlin was sitting down, Aurelianus noticed how Merlin shivered, and muttered a few unintelligible words. A moment later, the fire roared to life as Aurelianus began conversation.

“You’re a wizard aren’t you lad?” asked Aurelianus.

Merlin nearly choked on his food upon hearing this. “No I’m not,” he said hastily.
“Yes you are. Do you think I don’t know what that stick is on your waist? I’ve seen my fair share of wizards. How would you like to be an advisor to me? I could use your help when my own forces join the Saxons at Vortigern’s castle.”

“I would love to, but I can’t. My mother is probably worried sick about me.” replied Merlin.

“What is her name?”

“Nasuada.”

“Nasuada. . .” said Aurelianus, his voice trailing off for the third time that night.

An hour later, Aurelianus called a squire to show Merlin to his room. Merlin fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the mattress.

Change of Arms

2008-12-12T19:13:00.000-08:00

I have recently come across a new weapon in my reserch for Merlin's Story called a sai. Seeing how a sword is a traditional weapon, I thought I might give Merlin something a little different. From now on, Merlin's sword, Fanomar, will be referred to as a sai. Below is a picture of two sais.

A New Beginning

2008-12-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

Just today, I thought of a new beginning for Merlin's Story, and have written in what will be the final document of Merlin's Story when finished and pasted it below. I hope you enjoy it!

Before the Story was Told

“Little ones! Stop fighting over whether Merlin or his son was a better wizard, because both of them were two of the greatest wizards of all time.” said an old man to two children who had been fighting.

The man had white hair, and walked with a cane. He had many scars, but it was the scar across his right eye that had caught the children’s attention.

“Now listen, both of you,” continued the man, his voice shockingly loud and forceful, “I can tell you the story of Merlin and his family, but if I do, you must promise me you will never tarnish the Ambrosius family name by continuing your petty dispute. So what will it be?”

The man leaned on his cane and looked expectantly at the children. One could tell that before the man had been injured, he must have been very handsome.

“Yes,” said the children, delighted to hear the story of Merlin’s family, starting with him and ending with his son.

“I thought you might say that,” replied the man, grinning, “So take a seat. The story of Merlin and his family is a long one, and it will take some time for me to tell.”

Eagerly, the children sat on the ground, not caring that they might become uncomfortable during the story.

“I suppose the best place to begin is at the beginning.” said the man looking off into the sky, “So here goes. . .”

Chapter 13: Apprenticeship

2008-10-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

"Well Merlin, we have a lot to accomplish today. Better get to work," said Bernie, waking Merlin.

Merlin's wound from his battle with the Saxon dragon had been bandaged. The Saxons had fled Britain after receiving news of the dragon's death, allowing Uther more time to prepare for the war. Uther had left his remaining men stationed at Stonehenge to fend off any raids. Meanwhile, Merlin and Uther had traveled back to Caernarfon Castle, arriving only the day before, December 3, 1336. They would have been back sooner, but Bernie had told Merlin not to use magic. Besides, Merlin had figured he and Uther could help tone each other's fighting skills.

After arriving, Bernie had looked Merlin over, healing Merlin's wound as best as he could. Bernie had said that it was time for Merlin to begin learning the arts of Gramarye. Training would begin tomorrow he had said.

Now here Bernie was, waking Merlin earlier than even the earliest peasants.

"Here are some pancakes. Eat while I explain the works of magic.

"You already know the history of magic, so I'll cut to the chase. Magic is divided into three different branches, each working differently than the others. The three branches are charms, spells, and hexes. You also have alchemy, but that isn't considered magic. Anyhow, each branch has specific rules and abilities.

"Let's start with charms. Charms are the easiest of any magic you can perform. However, they can't control anything, and they can only manipulate unanimous objects or else rodent-sized creatures. To cast a charm, you merely have to think what you want, and you have it. No words or wands required.

"Spells are a little different. Spells can manipulate anything, and control relatively few things. Casting a spell is also a little different. First, you need a wand, which you use to harness the magic energy in the air around you. Then you speak what you want, using the Speech. Unfortunately, magic is not thinking, and so you have to guide it when performing spells, word for word. If you don't your spell won't turn out correctly, and may even backfire. That's why wizards have ti be careful with their wording, and it's why I didn't want you using magic to get back here.

"The third and most dangerous branch of magic is hexes. Hexes can be used to control anything, even time and space themselves. Hexes are very intricate, and require exact wording. If you don't say it exactly right, or don't gather enough energy, hexes will drain the remaining energy they need from the caster and anybody near him. This has won multiple battles, but it's something to avoid unless absolutely necessary. Fortunately, the art of hexes is an ancient one, and therefore not widely used. Now come on; while you were gone I set up a shape-shifting exercise for you."

A few minutes later, Merlin was in the courtyard, looking at an elaborate array of walls, hoops, rings, holes, and targets.

"Here's what I want you to do," said Bernie, "I want you to pass all of these obstacles by using your shape-shifting ability. You may not use magic, and you may not change back to your normal shape after you have first shifted once starting the course. Your goal is to do it in two minutes. Go!"

As soon as Bernie said go, Merlin was off, in his dragon shape. His first obstacle was a ring halfway up the castle wall, and the next obstacle was a target a few feet above the hoop. This was going to be easy!

Flying parallel to the wall before him, Merlin soared through the first hoop, and scorched the target. Shape-shifting to a lion, Merlin ran the length of the wall, jumping hurdles and ramming any targets. Done on the wall, Merlin shifted to become a spider crawling down the wall. Breezing through the rest of the course, Merlin made it back to where he started in just under a minute.

"Not good enough," said Bernie, "try again. This time under fifty seconds.

Not foreseeing what was going to happen, Merlin repeated the course. This time, everything went wrong. As he was flying up the wall, Merlin saw the wall suddenly heighten and swerve, taking the hoop with it. Still flying towards the hoop, Merlin was then attacked by a mound of earth rising up like lava spewing out of a volcano. The mound of earth hit Merlin square in the chest, pushing him up onto the wall. Inexplicably, the wall tipped, knocking Merlin onto the ground below. Wrapped in pain, Merlin heard a low rumbling coming from beneath him as the ground opened, leaving Merlin to fall fifty feet.

"Alright?" Bernie called, looking over the edge of the crack in the earth.

"How did you do that?" asked Merlin, shifting back to his normal self.

"I'm the Elemental Earth, remember? I can manipulate anything having to with the earth, including the structures above it. Come on let's try again."

It was late afternoon when Bernie called it quiting time. No matter how many times Merlin tried, he never succeeded in successfully maneuvering through the course. Every time Bernie had done somthing different, preventing Merlin from attaining victory over the course.

"What was that exercise all about?" asked Merlin.

"I wanted to help you develop your shape-shifting skills." Bernie replied calmly.

"Then why did you manipulate the course with magic?"

"It was to help develop your sense of foresight. Before we all got comfortable in Atlantis, it was a requirement that wizards successfully manuever an obstacle course like the one you did in a short time. It was one of the many vigorous training exercises they did."

"Will I be doing these exercises?"

"Of course. You may be my nephew, but you still need to hone your talents further than you possbly can. I can gurantee you, that you shan't fight with the Light until the day you master every last one of those exercises. But you did good today, so I'm letting you take the rest of the day off."

"Thanks."

"You are most welcome. Oh, onne last thing; did you bring Fanomar?"

"Yes, I always carry Fanomar, why?"

"I need to see Fanomar." Bernie replied.

Fanomar taken from its scabbard, Bernie turned it on to its flat edge, resting it on the side of Merlin's neck.

"Rise, my apprentice." said Bernie, twisting the sword away from Merlin.

Although Merlin would undoubtfully be known by many more names throughout his life and beyond, 'Apprentice' was the one name that would always stick.

Chapter 12: The First Battle

2008-10-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

Merlin watched from a hill as Uther's army and that of the Saxons collided. He had seen this day coming more than four years ago. He had hoped he would be wrong, but he hadn't. His dream had become a reality.

After Merlin, Bernie, and Uther arrived at Caernarfon Castle, Uther had been informed that the Saxons were about to attack near Amesbury, England, and that troops had already been sent to guard the area. Not one to wait for results, Uther immediately started towards Amesbury, hoping he could get there in time. Merlin had accompanied him, and Bernie would have too if he hadn't forgotten his weapons and armor.

Any moment now, Merlin knew that two dragons would loom over the horizon, and fight each other, deciding the fate of the battle. As Merlin looked to the east and then the west, he saw only one dragon coming: the white dragon. The dragon of the Saxons. And the red dragon, the Celtic dragon, was nowhere in sight.

Why hasn't the red dragon come? thought Merlin to himself, the red dragon has to come.

Five minutes passed, and still no sign of the Celtic dragon. Gazing off into the sunset, Merlin knew what was to happen.

Merlin cleared his thoughts, until only the image of the red dragon remained. Slowly, Merlin felt scales crawl onto his skin, and felt a strange warmth in his throat. He felt his teeth lengthen to become fangs, he hair recede back into his scalp. He had become the Celtic dragon.

Testing his wings, Merlin rose from the hill he stood upon, flying to meet the Saxon dragon. Flying was like nothing Merlin had ever imagined; it felt as if he were free for the first time in his life. His instincts told him which way to move to go where. Although this would not be the last time he flew in the shape of a dragon, Merlin never forget his majestic first flight.

People of both the Saxon and British armies looked up in awe at the shape-shifted Merlin. Once the armies realized that the red dragon flying above them was going to fight for the British, the Saxons redoubled their efforts, no longer successfully penetrating the British forces. The Britons' hope had been renewed at the sight of the Celtic dragon who was Merlin. No longer fearing the Saxons, the Britons charged with all their might in a devastating, head-long assault on the Saxon front line, which was quickly broken.

Although the battle below was being won, there was still another, more challenging one coming, one Merlin, and only Merlin could accomplish. The death of the white dragon.

Merlin and the Saxon dragon clashed in an array of sparks flying off each of their claws. The white dragon lunged for Merlin's throat, which Merlin successfully blocked by twisting his head so the spines along his back met the teeth of of the white dragon. Not discouraged, the white dragon did a barrel roll to Merlin's right, twisting so he would come under Merlin and be able to overpower him. Merlin countered this move by diving towards the battle below. Frantically, the soldiers below ran from the place where Merlin would collide with the Earth. The Saxon dragon wasn't going to let his prey get away so easily. He too turned and dived towards the ground.

Knowing that if he didn't act now, Merlin would become crater two miles from Amesbury, Merlin quickly pulled up in his flight, parallelling himself to the ground five feet below him. The Saxon dragon, who was bigger and not as agile, took a serious blow to the head, but nothing fatal. Blood gushing out of his wounds, the Saxon dragon once again lunged for Merlin, this time fueled by an unforgiving rage. Merlin, not expecting the attack, was able to keep the white dragon from severing his head from his body, but not able to keep the dragon from leaving a deep gash all the way down Merlin's side. Howling in pain, the white dragon opened his mouth, releasing a torrent of fire. In agonizing pain Merlin made a last attempt to go for the white dragon's throat. The dragon, laughter in its eyes, avoided the assault effortlessly, and pinned Merlin to the ground.

He was helpless. Merlin was helpless. Not only had the first part of hs dream become a reality, but now he was going to die the death he had seen the Celtic dragon experience in his dreams. It was over. Only eleven years old and already dead.

Just a all hope seemed lost, Merlin suddenly saw something in his mind's eye. He saw Nimue. He suddenly knew that this dragon wouldn't stop with him. It would keep going, killing everything in its path, in much the same way as a hurricane. Including Nimue.

Fueled by anger, Merlin realeased a wind of fire, forcing the Saxon dragon off of him. Merlin didn't hestitate to take advantage of the oppurtuniy before him. Merlin jumped on the white dragon and sunk his fangs into the dragon's flesh. The white dragon had been killed and the Britons had won the battle.

Shape-shifting back to his normal self, Merlin saw Uther rushing towards him, apparently worried.

"Are yeh alright?" asked Uther, looking over Merlin.

"Yes."

"What were yeh thinking attacking that bloody beast!" exclaimed Uther, skipping to the next topic he wanted to discuss.

"I wasn't killed, was I? And it won us the battle, diddn't it?"

"Well, yes, but yeh should-"

"I'm still alive Uther," interrupted Merlin, "And that's all that really matters."

"Well we should get you to the medical tent. You still; have that gash that the dragon gave you."

Following Uther's gaze, Merlin saw that the right side of his shirt was soaked with blood.

"Indeed. But there's one more thing I need to do." replied Merlin

Turning towards the battlefield, Merlin said "Hasha Vajar!" Slowly, stones began to rise from the ground, each pair topped by a stone running lenght-wise. When the spell was finished, Merlin was looking at a circle of stones, two standing upright and one on top of the two. This pattern was the same all the way around.

"This will serve as a monument to the blood shed here today. It shall be called Stonehenge." said Merlin, walking towards the medical tent.

Chapter 11: Starting Anew

2008-10-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

"Hello Merlin," said a voice, "I've been waiting for you. It's time for you to learn what you can truly do."

Merlin was in a place very familiar to him; the woods of Ala Bora. He was looking around for the source of the voice when a boy steeped into the clearing. Merlin was startled to see it was him.

"Jorma!" the other Merlin shouted, shape-shifting to become a red dragon, then a white, and then back to his normal self. The other Merlin looked over at the awestruck Merlin, and disappeared into a mist.

"Merlin, wake up! Uther shall leave without us if you don't get a move on!" shouted Bernie, walking towards the tent he and Merlin shared. Groggy, Merlin got up, stretching his long legs as he did so, and put on his traveling robe. Uther hadn't been planning on leaving for another few days, but battle had called him away. It seemed as if the Saxons had been planning their revolt for years, for everything was already in place. Merlin had to go with Uther, for he had promised that he would advise Uther.

"Ah, good, all ready! Now we can start our journey to Uther's magnificent castle! Oh, what a joy to be called upon by a king!" rambled Bernie.

"Bernie, I have a question. Do you mind if I ask it?"

"No, not at all!"

"Well, last night I had a dream. In it, I saw myself, and I said-"

"Don't say it now!" interrupted Bernie, "I know what you are talking about. The Quine. It's one of the two things that make each wizard's abilities different.

"What is the Quine?"

"It's a dream that shows you a spell that will give you special powers. These special powers can be anything from shape-shifting, to instantaneous transport, to for seeing the future or past. Mine was the Elemental Earth, which allows me to control anything having to do with the ground beneath us. Really quite useful."

"What's mine?" asked Merlin.

"Well, the part of the dream after you hear the words usually shows you what your spell will do. To activate the spell permanently, all you have to do is say it, but you never know what might happen, so it will be best to wait until we're in the forest."

Understanding his dream better, Merlin walked out of the tent with Bernie, only to be met with a chorus of voices.

"They've come to celebrate," Bernie told Merlin, "There isn't really any thing to celebrate, to tell the truth, but people want to celebrate after their lost, so we let them."

"Good to see yeh, Merlin! I thought yeh would never wake up! But then, I guess that can be expected. After all, you haven't slept since the night before your birthday," said Uther, who had been waiting outside the tent.

Presented with the white horse Merlin had ridden to Atlantis, the trio set off, Geoffrey yelling to Merlin that he would send a messenger when the time for the meeting came.

"Alright, let's see what your Quine is," said Bernie once the trio was in the forest.

"Jorma!" screamed Merlin.

Suddenly, Merlin felt his skin moving, and felt as if something were growing out of his skin. He started to see different colors, his hearing became more fine-tuned. Then it was over.

"Oh, my," said Uther, astonished.

"Amazing. You are a shape-shifter," said Bernie, "here, look at yourself," holding up a mirror.

Merlin had become a lion!

"Try thinking of somethng else," said Bernie, "you might shape-shift into it."

A few minutes later, Merlin had become a red dragon.

"Amazing. It's been so long sonce I've seen a shape-shifter. I had forgotten how majestic the changes are. Well, now go back to your normal self, so I can take us to Uther's castle," said Bernie, awestruck.

Shape-shifting back to his normal shape, Merlin couldn't help but think that he was starting his life all over again. He had lost almost everything he held dear, and was now starting anew.

Chapter 10: Aftermath of the Fall

2008-10-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

As Merlin was walking to Uther's tent, he saw the sun peak over the horizon. Much had happened since the sun the last rose. Merlin had celebrated his birthday, received a sword, wand, and bow, met the Young One, learned the truth about Bernie's past, and had lost Shiroix and Nasuada. All in less than a day.

When Bernie had recounted his life, he had made Merlin swear not to tell anyone of anything that had been said in the tent. Reluctantly, Merlin had sworn.

As Merlin walked along the beach, he noticed he wasn't the only one on the beach. Many others were also on the beach, pondering the many questions that had risen the previous night, such as how did the Dark find the Light, why did the goblins, trolls, giants, and sirens betray the Light, and what was going to become of the Light? No one really knew; everything had been lost in the Fall except for what you had carried with you. Vast libraries had been lost, and many had given their lives so the Light could escape. More Atlantians had come to where the former residents of Ala Bora resided from where they had taken themselves through the works of a spell. After the recent tradegy, the Light's future still looked bleak.

Merlin saw many people were mourning the death of a loved one. Merlin stopped momentarily and mourned for Shiroix and Nasuada. When he had finished, he saw a small ball, glittering in the sunlight. As he came closer, Merlin was astonished to see it was the crystal ball Shiroix had given him the previous day. As Merlin suffered from the pain of knowing he could have saved Shiroix, he pocketed the ball, and continued on to Uther's tent.

"Greetings, Merlin. I see you salvaged your crystal ball. i hope you still have your sword King Envok made for you." said Geoffrey, a grim expression on his face.

"I do. How are things going with the rest of the Council?"

"Not so well. Atlantis had been our capital for millennia, and now . . . it's gone. Everything we've worked for is gone, and I'm being blamed for it! Everyone says it was my fault that the Dark got past the gate, that I didn't have enough soldiers posted to the guarding, that-"

"It wasn't your fault," Merlin interrupted, "and we didn't lose everything we've worked for."

"How did we not lose everything we worked for?"

"Because we were working for peace, and still are working towards that goal. The Fall was just a set-back. We can still win the war."

"You are most certainly right," said Geoffrey, " it was just a set-back. Thanks for helping me. Oh, and before I forget, the Council is meeting to discuss what should happen next. They want all of the most well-known and respected wizards to be there, and they've asked me to invite you. After all, your reputation as a warrior has made your name one of the most recognizable in the world of wizards. Anyhow, would you like to attend the meeting?"

"I'll be there."

"I'll tell the Council to reserve your spot."

Geoffrey's spirits heightened, Merlin continued to Uther's tent. Soon he stood at the small canvas structure.

"Come in Merlin. I've just received grave news." said Uther, noticing Merlin's shadow.

"What has happened?"

"The Saxons have revolted. I couldn't give them the land they wanted fast enough, so they betrayed me. I give them hospitality, and they turn on me."

"So it's war with the Saxons?"

"Yes. With the coming war, I have to ask yeh if would yeh would be so kind as to become my advisor. Will yeh?"

"Yes. I have no one except Bernie, who will most certainly agree to accompany me in your castle."

"Thanks Merlin. I know how tough it must be for yeh, what with losing everyone you've come to think of as family. It happened to me too."

"I know." said Merlin, finishing their conversation.

As Merlin trekked back to his tent, he saw Nimue walking down the beach.

"Hello Nimue." said Merlin as he walked past her.

"Hello to you too Merlin."

"It must be terrible."

"What must be terrible?" said Nimue, obviously surprised.

"Losing the only home you had ever known and watching it disappear, knowing you will never return there for as long as you lived."

"How do you know how it feels? It's never happened to you!" snapped Nimue, trying to keep from crying.

"It's all right. I may not know how it feels, but I do know how it feels to lose something you had never thought you would lose. For you see, my mother died in the Fall, trying to keep the Dark from discovering the secrets of Atlantis."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I really am."

"Its alright," mumbled Merlin, not wanting to be troubled by the painful emotions triggered by the memory, "I just don't like to think about it. But I can sense you want to tell someone how you feel. You can tell me anything you'd like to."

"How did you-? Never you mind. I- I do want to share what I feel, but its too painful."

"Everyone feels pain. It's what makes us human. If you don't want to share, you don't have to. Just remember, I will always be available to listen to you."

"I'll remember that. Thanks." sobbed Nimue.

"You are most welcome."

As Merlin turned away from Nimue, he saw something that he would remember for as long as he lived.

"Hello my old friend," said a cold voice that Merlin didn't recognize, "We are friends right? Or has it been too long for you to remeber?" Horrified, Merlin looked up, and he saw the handsome face of someone who looked very much like the Young One. Overcome by shock, Merlin started looking around, seeing he was alone on a forested hill with the man, a battle raging below. Slowly, the man took a sword from his belt and brought it level with Merlin's throat.

"Where has your fighting spirit gone?" chuckled the man, "Gone with the Fall? Well, no matter. You wouldn't live even if you were fighting back." With those words, the man swung his sword at Merlin's throat, slicing it clean in half, severing Merlin head from his body. Merlin felt no pain, and yet, he found he was screaming.

"Calm down Merlin," soothed Nimue, "It was only a dream."

Seeing he wasn't on a battle field, Merlin looked around the medical tent, wondering why it was so cold.

"You've been asleep all day. For some reason, you fainted when you started walking away from me this morning. What was your dream about anyhow?"

"Nothing I want to recall. It was a nightmare, and that's all you need to know."

"Alright," Nimue replied, "I was just curious. Here, I'll help you get back to Bernie's tent."

As Nimue helped Merlin up, he noticed that there was snow just under the edges of the tents. There had been no snow this morning. It must be getting close to Christmas again. After all, that was when it snowed.

"Thanks for helping me get here," said Merlin when he and Nimue had reached the end of their journey through the two feet of snow that had piled up during the day.

"It was my pleasure."

Just then, the two heard a slight whoosh sound above them, and saw a mistletoe.

"How did that get there?" asked Merlin, already knowing the answer.

"I don't know, but tradition is tradition." replied Nimue, bringing her eyes level with Merlin's as she looked down from the mistletoe.

"Yes, you're right." siad Merlin, looking straight into Nimue's ocean-blue eyes.

* * *

"It was you wasn't it!" accused Merlin as he walked in to the tent, pointing a finger at Bernie.

Bernie, it seemed, was very ammused by his use of magic, and was bursting with laughter.

Chapter 9: Bernie's Story

2008-10-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

"You're the Prophecizer?" asked Merlin in an awed voice.

"Yes. I am." replied Bernie grimly.

"But how? The Seven lived millennia ago."

"Just listen to what I have to say. If you still have questions at the end, I'll answer them.

"The Vasillan Realm wasn't the only realm. In fact, there's seven realms: the Akanavian Realm, the Bengorian Realm, the Jakashin Realm, the Human Realm, the Vasillan Realm, the Utopian Realm, and Annwn, the Spirit Realm. Each of these realms is unique in their own way, and is named after their dominant species. The only exception is Annwn, which received its name from the Celts before we even understood it. Anyhow, the Utopian Realm was the first of the realms. All of the realms' base comes from the Utopian Realm.

"The Utopian Realm was besieged by war when I was a boy. They were a very advanced race, and had recently prospered in the Isolation, the time when every country in the Utopian Realm isolated themselves from the rest of the world. They had weapons that were unimaginable; they had found the secrets of many branches of science, mixed them with those of nuclear war-fare, and had the most powerful weapons in the world, more powerful than even a nuclear bomb. They fought one another, all the while developing new technologies, and incorporating them in their weapons.

"Then one day, something happened. I'll never forget that day. I was your age on that day. A man had come to our city to talk to us. He was in his mid-twenties, and carried with him two things had never seen or heard of: a bow and an arrow. He explained to the world that we need not fight one another meaninglessly. He explained that there was much more to life than war. Then he told us. He told the world something no one knew besides him. He told us of magic, and that our world was overflowing with it, and that we could use it to our advantage; not for war, but rather peace.

"He told us how this strange energy could be harnessed. He even demonstrated for us that we could charm the magic itself so that it would give us anything we pleased. So many secrets were found, so many lives saved, so much more food, no more war, starvation, prejudice, or unfairness. Everyone was happy. Satisfied, the man disappeared for a number of years. If he hadn't, we might have survived.

Although everyone thought they were happy, they weren't. Everything they had was false. Their joy was only mask. When they realized that, everyone became plagued by despair and disappointment and sadness. The magic noticed this, and saw only one way to make them happy: take them away from this realm. I still remember the day my mom walked home and collapsed on the floor, dead immediately. My little sister, your mother, was also shocked. It took days to calm her down. Then the man came again.

"He asked what had happened. I explained, blaming him for everything. After listening to me, he told me there was other escape, for both me and my sister. He told me he would take me to a land where the sun rose and fell. That land happened to be the Vasillan Realm.

"Over the years, he found more survivors, and tutored us all in the ways of magic. Eventually, we became the Seven. I became the Prophecizer, and Nasuada became the Sorceress. The man took the name of Ambro. Only one thing was missing: the Young One. Ambro had been keeping a secret.

"For years, Ambro had been training a boy he had found shortly after the Plague. He turned out to have been named Shiroix by his parents before they died. Ambro had been training him,

supporting him, fathering him. They had developed a close relationship that very few people ever had. Ambor, the day he told us about Shiroix, he suggested we give him a seat in what was the early version of the Council. After Shiroix proved himself, almost everyone agreed he would be a great Council member. I didn't. I had had a dream the previous night. I saw what Shiroix would become. I tried to prevent, but Ambro didn't listen; he thought Shiroix was harmless.

"As the years went by, I began to doubt whether what I had seen was really going to happen. Then it was Betrayal Day. That tragic day when Shiroix attacked with his Jakashin army, killed Ambro, and forced everyone to flee. That day; I can never forget how Ambro loved Shiroix, and ended up having to kill the person he had come to think of as his son. I just can't imagine how painful it must have been for him . . .

"Anyhow, when the war ended, the remaining five gathered together. We all decided we had still to fulfill everything fate wanted us to in our lives. The problem was, not everything that had to happen could happen then. For weeks we searched for the solution. We finally realized we could hide out in the Utopian Realm, helping the other realms when we felt it necessary. Your mother found it hard to stay in one place, and was constantly on the move, making excuses to visit other realms. Eventually, we settled here, in the Human Realm. The others of the Seven are still alive, save for Ambro and Nasuada, but prefer to stay in the Utopian Realm." finished Bernie.

"Are there any descendants of the others?" asked Merlin, curious as to how you could tell you were of Utopian blood.

"Of course! Look at yourself; you're a descendant of the Sorceress!"

"Are we marked in any special way?"

"Yes. Let me show you how to tell if one is a descendant of one of the Seven." said Bernie, taking a small feather from his robe and dusting Merlin's hand with it. What was on Merlin's hand looked something like this:

"What is it?" asked Merlin.

"It's what we call 'The Story'. Everything about us is in that mark. I saw it in one of my dreams. I knew it was our symbol, and cast a spell on all of the Seven so their descendants would have this mark. You see the v? It stands for the Vasillah. Those other symbols, I'm not quite sure of yet. But I do now that those two intersecting lines at the bottom represent Ambro and Shiroix. The bold line is Shiroix, and the thin one is Ambro. The reason the thin line ends at the bold one, is because Ambro's life was taken by Shiroix. That dark blotch behind the bold line represents the Dark. Everything of great importance is in this mark. Also, I presume your blood has turned gold?"

"Yes. How did you know?" asked Merlin, bewildered.

"It's what marks us as coming from the Utopian Realm."

Just then, several thoughts occured to Merlin.

"Is Shiroix the Young One?"

"If you mean the one whom has lived with us for a while, then no. He was just an regular boy."

"He died in the Fall, didn't he?" proposed Merlin.

"I hate to tell you, but yes, he did."

"Who was that man in the forest? And why did he call you an old friend?" asked Merlin, already knowing the answer.

"That man was the Young One."

Chapter 8: The Fall

2008-10-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

"Merlin, what do you say we really try out that new bow?" said Shiroix, grabbing his own bow, "Let's go hunting."

"Why not."

Soon Merlin and Shiroix were in the forest on the edge of Ala Bora, searching for a Small prize to take home. It was not long before they found a hare. It was a speedy one, and it would be well after night-fall that they caught it if they ever did.

A few hours later, when the sun was setting, Shiroix and Merlin were in a tree, looking down on the hare.

"On my signal, release your bow," said Shiroix, " . . . Now!"

As the arrows whizzed out of the bow, Merlin and Shiroix saw a flash of lightning not to far a way, followed by a strong gust of wind. Merlin never saw whether or not he hit the hare, for an eerie blue light began emitting from deeper in the forest, which steadily became less intense. Curious as to what had caused the light, Merlin and Shiroix walked toward the light. The sight they saw was one they would never forget.

What used to be a forest was now a scorched clearing, the light coming from the center of the clearing. As their eyes adjusted, Merlin and Shiroix saw a man on his knees leaning over what looked to be a large cube. The man's black clothing was in ribbons, flowing around him like a black cloud. His hair was jet black and he was breathing heavily. After some time, the man stood up, revealing he had a clean shaven face, cold blue eyes, and was about the same height as Bernie.

Walking towards the two, the man began to speak for the first time. He spoke quietly, but his cold voice commanded the attention of all.

"Come now, there is no need to be afraid of me. I'm just a lost traveler, that's all. Can't we be friends?" said the man, smiling a false smile. Shiroix, as it seemed, didn't trust the man, for he took his bow and shot an arrow towards the man.

Reaching his hand out effortlessly, the man caught the arrow out of the air.

"I see we don't like each other. Well, that can be fixed, now can't it?" said the man, taking his sword from within the confines of his torn cloak.

"NO!" shouted Bernie as he ran into the clearing, bringing his sword to meet the man's neck.

Once again, the man moved his hand and effortlessly took the sword from Bernie, and threw it out into the forest along with his own.

"If we must fight, my old friend, we do it the right way." said the man, taking a wand from his tattered cloak. It was going to be a wizard's duel.

"Get back home!" shouted Bernie.

Without hesitation, Merlin and Shiroix ran, Shiroix taking the cube that the man had dropped. They ran and ran, never looking back. They encountered Nasuada along the way, who was looking for them.

"Oh, there you are! Quick, get to the Bridge! NOW! Uther, you go with them," screeched Nasuada, "Bernie will be along shortly."

When the trio reached Ala Bora, they saw a massive battle. Dragons were fighting amongst each other in the air, the merpeople were fighting sirens, goblins, trolls, giants, and minotaurs were terrorizing the streets.

"What's happening?" Merlin tried to yell over the noise.

"It's the Dark," Uther screamed, "they've found us!"

Suddenly, Merlin was somewhere else; in the forest, watching as the man fought Bernie.

"You'll never win, my old friend," screeched the man gleefully, "you'll never win!"

"Then I'll die trying!" Bernie retorted as Nasuada entered the clearing.

"Another old friend! My, isn't this a lovely reunion!" laughed the man as Nasuda told Bernie to protect Merlin.

"This is for my son, the Light, and everything they stand for!" howled Nasuda as she brought her sword over her head to come down on the head of the man.

"I thought you might have changed," said the man, sidestepping Nasuada's blow which went straight into the ground with enough force to bury the sword, "But it seems as though you haven''t. It pains me to say this, but goodbye forever." the man finished as he put his sword through Nasuada's heart.

"NO!" screamed Merlin.

"Calm down boy! We enough to worry about right now!" shouted Uther. When Merlin had seen the duel with the man, he had fallen on the ground. Uther had picked him up off the ground and sprinted for the Bridge.

"Where's Shiroix?" Merlin asked, looking around.

"I don't know, but we have to get out of here and now! The Fall is going to happen any minute, and if we're here when the Fall happens, we die!" said Bernie coming up behind them.

Without another word, the three doubled their speed to the bridge. They were only twenty feet away and the trolls were close on their heels!

"We can make it!" screamed Uther.

Then the Fall began. The ground began to rumble, cracks started to spread and widen, the sea seemed to get higher, and the three were running faster than Merlin would have thought possible. Then the trio jumped over a crack to the Bridge and not a moment too soon. A few seconds after their jump, Atlantis fell. The Third War had begun.

* * *

"Bernie, can I come in?" asked Merlin, peeking his head in Bernie's tent. After the Fall, some wizards had started to make tents. As hard as he looked, Merlin couldn't find Shiroix.

"Yes. You have questions, and you deserve to have them answered."

Merlin came in and sat on a chair.

"Go ahead. Ask anything. I will try my best to answer it." said Bernie calmly, his eyes grim.

"Who was that man, and why did he call you an old friend, and how did the Dark find us, and-"

"Enough," interrupted Bernie, "All these questions will be answered, but first let me tell you my story."

Just then, something clicked in Merlin's head. He made a connection that would forever change how he looked at his uncle.

"You're not who you say you are, are you?" asked Merlin.

"No, I'm not."

"Then who are you?"

"I am the Prophecizer."

Chapter 7: Nimue

2008-10-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Merlin! Happy birthday to you!" Nasuada, Bernie, Shiroix and Uther sang.It was November 1, 1336, Merlin's eleventh birthday. Much had happened in the last four years; Uther fought with the troops the wizards had sent to help Aurelianus, earning himself the name of Pendragon for great courage, Vortigern had been overthrown, though not killed, Aurelianus had been killed by a group of traitors shortly after his coronation, leaving Uther to the throne, and Merlin had learned a great deal from Bernie's library.

" Uther, what are you doing here? I haven't seen you since you left to fight Vortigern. You must be busy with the keeping the Saxons happy."

"Well, yes, but I couldn't miss yer birthday, now could I?"

"No, I guess not. It's nice to see you again."

"Indeed it is! My, how you've grown! Oh I almost forgot. Reli wanted you to have this." Uther said, handing Merlin a longbow and a large quiver of fifty steel-tipped arrows.

"It's magnificent! Is this of Saxon make?"

"With a little changing to make it our own."

"Thank you."

One by one, the rest of the family gave Merlin their gift. Bernie gave Merlin a book titled A History of the Vasillan Races A-Z, Nasuada gave him a green robe, much like the one he had long outgrown, and Shiroix gave him a crystal ball.

"Oh crystal ball, who is the greatest of them all?" Shiroix asked the crystal ball. Thanks to a charm he had placed on the ball, it showed his face whenever the question was asked.

After Merlin had tried on the robe, breezed through the book, and divinated the future through his crystal ball, Merlin decided he would try his bow. He set off for the Archery Range as soon as he was ready.

"Mornin' Merlin!" shouted one of the sentries, " goin' to the Archery to try your bow?"

"Yes! I'll see you a little later!"

"All right!"

Since Merlin had come to Ala Bora, he had become well-known for his duel with Vortigern. Everyone knew him, and he knew everyone.

When Merlin came to the Archery Range, everyone who was practicing stood back as they watched Merlin release his arrows, three by three, each one hitting a bulls-eye, faster than the eye could track, until he had none left. Everyone applauded Merlin's excellent marksmanship. Very few people had ever accomplished such a feat.

"Well done, Merlin, well done! Only eleven years old and already better than most of my warriors with most sword and bow!" said Geoffrey, one of the Council members, as Merlin retrieved his arrows. The Council was the three wizards who lead the Light. Each one lived in a different shire of the three shires that composed Atlantis: Monmouth, Gildas, and Anthon. Geoffrey was the leader of Monmouth shire.

"Thanks. I got this bow from Uther. It was a birthday gift."

"Uther has returned? I need to pay more attention if I didn't know that! I think I should have a word with him." said Geoffrey, his eyes curiously surveying the bow.

"Why? Has he done something wrong?"

"No, not at all. But this bow, it's amazing. I want to ask him if he would be so kind as to share with us how he made such a beautiful weapon. Anyhow, Envok of the elves has a gift for you." said Geoffrey, beckoning to King Envok behind him.

The elves were a curious race; they despised war, and yet, they were the most fearsome race when it came to war. They had skin the color of that of Europeans, slightly pointed ears, and were a good few inches taller than most wizards. They wore tight silk clothing, and were very cheerful.

Except when they helped to promote war. The elves had long adopted a policy of peace. The despised war. They had seen too many of them to love wars. They knew that the war with the Dark was necessary, but if they could find another way to supply swords to the Light without having to forge them themselves, they would do it in an instant.

"I have had my smiths working on this for many years. Today, they finished it, and asked my to give it to you, the one for whom it was made." Kneeling, Envok pulled a scabbard from his belt, and held it out to Merlin. Merlin took the scabbard from Envok, and took the sword from its sheath to examine it.The sword was beautiful. Its sides were lined with a clear streak of green, the same color as the emerald in the hilt. It was nearly as long as Merlin was tall, a great deal bigger than any sword Merlin had ever handled, yet, he felt more at home with this sword than any other. On its hilt was the word Fanomar, meaning hope in the Speech.

"Thank you. I will take great care of it."

"That is all I ask," said Envok, completing the ritual.

As Merlin walked home, he swung his sword from side to side. It felt as if he were moving his arm, not the sword. Once, Merlin swung too low, and took a patch of skin off his left arm. Merlin didn't howl in pain for their was none. He watched as his skin grew over his wound, leaving only a few drops of blood on the surface. Merlin, who had expected blood to come gushing out, was appalled by how his skin had repaired itself so quickly. Even more shocking, Merlin saw that the blood was not red; it was gold.

After recovering from his initial shock, Merlin looked up to see a girl he hadn't seen before standing right in front of him. She had long, flowing black hair, blue eyes the color of the ocean, tiny, golden rings haning from her ears, and a silver tunic.

"So you're one of them," the girl muttered, looking up at a speechless Merlin, "I never thought I'd see one."

"Wh- who are -y-y-you?" stuttered Merlin.

"I'm Nimue. And you're Merlin. I was wondering when we'd meet. This is a gift for you." the girl said, handing Merlin a staff, "My mother told me to give it to you. It's a wand." continued Nimue.

"T-t-thanks," Merlin stuttered.

"You're welcome. I hope we see each other again soon. Bye!" said Nimue cheerily as she ran off.

Who is she, Merlin asked himself, and who are them?

Chapter 5: History of the Atlantians

2008-10-02T16:21:00.000-07:00

"Oy! Merlin! Over here!" shouted a man. He had gray eyes which complimented his trimmed beard and brown hair. He was fairly tall, with a pointed nose upon which rested his half-moon glasses. He was dressed in blue robes more splendid than Merlin's. The man had a pine wand which looked inferior to the bow slung over his shoulder and sword at his side. How this man knew Merlin, Merlin didn't know. He'd never seen the man before.

"There you are Merlin! Your mother's been worried sick about you! She will have you in her arms so tightly, you will have the life squeezed out of you." said the man, reaching Merlin.

"Who are yeh?" asked Uther in a gruff voice.

"I might ask the same of you. I know everyone in this city, but I have never seen you."

"I'm Uther, son of Emperor Constantine III of the Byzantine Empire. Now who are yeh?"

"Ah, so you're of royal blood. A pleasure to meet you," said the man in a false tone of joy, "I'm Bernie, Merlin's uncle. Nasuada, Merlin's mother, came to me after finding Merlin was gone."

"Nice to meet yeh. I was wondering if Merlin had any relatives here or just wanted to come for the sight."

"He has family here. You must be tired after your long journey from Britain; would you care to join us for dinner?"

"Well actually, Merlin used magic to get us here, but Reli doesn't expect me back for a couple of months so why not?"

"Merlin used magic?" asked Bernie, obviously startled.

"Well, of course. How else would we have gotten here so soon?"

"Never you mind. I was just a bit surprised. Come, let me show you to my home."

* * *

" Tell me everything, Merlin, right from the very beginning!" said Nasuada after nearly squeezing the life out of Merlin. As soon as Merlin had stepped into Bernie's well-furnished house, he had been greeted by Nasuada. When Nasuada let go of him, he was able to see his surroundings for the first time. Bernie's home was nicely furnished, bragging an immense library. Books were wherever chairs could be found, and not a single one was dusty, a great feat considering the amount of books. As Merlin looked closely, he saw they were organized alpahbetically.

"Come on boy, even I want to know what happened to yeh," said Uther, obviously eager to know what Merlin had endured before he met Vortigern.

"All right, all right!" said Merlin, grinning as he told his tale.

"Oh, and Aurelianus says that he could use a thousand troops," finished Merlin.

"I'm not sure if the Council will grant his request, but his goals sound noble, and we' have been sitting doing nothing for millennia; I think's it is time we remind people we're still here." said Bernie as he laid the salad on the table and sat down.

"Yes, an interesting story," said Shiroix, speaking for the first time since Merlin had arrived. Merlin guessed he didn't talk much because he hadn't had to all his life.

When everyone finished with dinner, Merlin was shown to his room next to Shiroix's. He dressed himself in a night-robe Bernie had given him, but when he went back to the dining room with Shiroix, they were told to go back to their rooms while they explained to Uther.

"What do you think they're going to explain?" asked Merlin.

"I'm not sure. Perhaps they will explain to Uther everything that's going on. After all, the outside world is going through dark times and Uther must think we wizards had a part in it."

"But Mom and Bernie would have told us about anything lke that. Wouldn't they?"

"I don't know. These are secretive times. There's probably much we will never know."

As Merlin was about to reply, Shiroix turned and closed his bedroom door behind him. Merlin did the same for his own room.

After a while, curiosity got the better of Merlin. He quietly exited his room, going down the hall to hear the converstaion in the kitchen.

"WHAT!!! That man sired the boy! There is absolutely no likes between the two! That man is the most violent, terrible, wretched soul to ever walk the face of this planet! The boy wouldn't even hurt a fly! How can they be father and son? HOW!!!" boomed Uther so loudly, Merlin nearly wet his pants.

"Calm down Uther! We don't want to wake the boys. They cannot know any of this! If they knew, than the Dark would have a powerful weapon." said Bernie, trying to calm the enraged Uther.

"I'm sorry . . . But how can such a monster be the father of such a gentle person?"

"He hid who he truly was. But he never witnessed the birth of his son. If he had, he would've known that his children were twins. Right now he only has one. Someday, he will learn of the second child. And that will be the Light's darkest hour, when he realizes there are two, one who is bent to his will, the other against him. Yet, it will also be the Light's strongest hour, for it will be the first time he's felt fear in millennia." said Nasuada.

"Then why can't they know?" asked Uther impatiently.

"If we tell them, we have to tell them everything, and if we do that, they will know many secrets, all of which have been kept secrets for millennia." explained Bernie.

"Then why not just tell one?"

"At their age, we can't tell which one will go down which path, and if the knowledge that he fathered twins were to reach him, the things he could learn would ultimately destroy us. He could one by one find all of our cities, crush any resistance there, search the survivors' minds, and eventually cause the downfall of Atlantis. If we find a way to tell them without him finding out, we would do it, without hestitation. But we know of no way to do so at this point in time. Can we trust you to keep this a secret?" asked Nasuada.

"Ehhh, I guess so. But if they still don't know when I'm laying on my death bed, then I will tell them if they are near."

"Agreed." replied Bernie.

What are they talking about? Merlin asked himself, Who is him, and who are the twins, and what are the secrets? As Merlin's head swarmed with this new knowledge, he made his way to bed, and fell asleep pondering these questions.

* * *

"I know you had a late night last night, what with your story and all that excitement, but you have to wake up." Merlin woke to find Bernie on the edge of his bed.

"Today I'm to teach you Atlantian history, so we had better get a move on!"

"Alright," Merlin grumbled, "When do we start?"

"Now. You can eat your breakfast in here. It's on the table"

Merlin looked and sure enough, there was a plate of what looked to be round, flat bread.

"They are called pancakes. Here is some syrup," said Bernie, handing Merlin a bottle filled with a thick, brown liquid.

"It all began more than four thousand years ago, in the year 3023 B.C. other known in Vasillan time as 0. Back then there were the Seven, the first seven wizards. Some say they came from another world, so they are most commonly referred to as the Vasillah, after the world they lived in. The names of the Seven were the Ancient One, the Wise One, the Alchemist, the Wand Maker, the Sorceress, the Prophecizer, and the Young One. Each of these played a part in finding how magic worked.

"One day, the Young One asked for the rank of Master, and not for the first time. Over and over again he had proven himself worthy of the title, but every time he was rejected, because he was not old enough. But his time was different. It was the day that would become known as Christmas Eve. Everything seemed normal after the young One was rejected. Until night came. When night came, the City of the Seven was attacked by a race the Vasillah had never seen before, who called themselves the Jakashi. These creatures had six legs adorned with two claws each, three blood-red eyes, five rows of razor-sharp teeth, a forked tail, spines penetrating out of the back, and black scales to cover their body, thus the term the Dark. The only part exposed on these creatures was their soft underbelly, and they were protected from even that, for the Jakashi had two powers the Vasillah had previously thought only they could preform: shape shifting and twisting of the mind. And leading them was the Young One.

"The Ancient One told the remaining five to take the civilians somewhere safe. Without hestitation, they obeyed, leaving the Ancient One to fight the boy he had come to love as a son.

No one knows what happened when the Ancient One and the Young One fought, but the Young One survived, so we can assume he killed the Ancient One.

"The Young One followed the tracks left behind by the remaining five, and was lead to this world, where the war continued. For three bloody years, we fought the Dark, trying unsuccessfully to protect ourselves from the Jakashi. Eventually, the Jakashi became extinct, and that was the end of the First War. But not the end of the Dark.

"A century later, the Dark threatened the Light again. This time, the Light lost. We retreated to Atlantis and other places in the world. We've been in hiding ever since." finished Bernie, a sad look in his eyes.

"So what happened after?" asked Merlin, engrossed in the story.

"The end of the Second War lead to a Golden Age. For four-thousand, two-hundred thirty-two years we've lived in peace, all the while the Dark was conquering the outside world, one country at a time. Well, that's enough I think. Any questions?"

"What other species came from the Vasillan Realm?"

"I see you picked up on that; not many do. The other species are elves, dwarves, vampires, werewolves, dragons, phoenixes, giants, trolls, goblins, renya, merpeople, gryffins, centaurs, minotaurs, and sirens."

"Thanks for teaching me this Uncle."

"Anytime."

Chapter 4: Atlantis

2008-10-01T18:34:00.000-07:00

"Rise 'n shine, boy. We have a long journey ahead of us, and I don't even know where we're going." said Uther, giving Merlin a gentle kick in the thigh.

Grumbling, Merlin sat up on his bed. It had been such a wonderful night compared to the long nights he'd had sleeping on a sheet on cold, hard ground. Reluctant, Merlin climbed down off the bed and dressed, Uther leaning against the door of the room with his arms crossed all the while.

"Here yeh go kid; Reli wants you dressed nicely when yeh leave. He had his weavers work on it all through the night. I don't know why he insists on making such a fuss about having a wizard in his court. I mean look at Vortigern; he has hundreds of magicians serving him and so will Reli when the fat goose takes flight." Uther kept talking about magicians and how they could help the king significantly, but Merlin heard no more, for he was gazing his eyes upon the most beautiful robe he had seen. Even Vortigern's robes were scraps in comparison. The robe was an deep emerald green, the same shade as Merlin's eyes. The edges were lined with golden silk so soft, it felt like the fleece of the sheep of the gods. The upper torso of the robe just below the neck was expertly lined with jewels, gems, and precious metals of all sorts. It even had a pocket on the left side that had a steel interior. Merlin thought it was supposed to be a sewn-in scabbard.

"It's beautiful. How do people make such beauty?"

"What, the dress? That's nothing; yeh should see them when they have weeks to work on these things. Now that's a sight to behold. Well, we ought to be going now. Reli wants to see yeh off."

Down the spiral stairs they trekked. Aurelianus was waiting.

"Ah, there you are. Tell me, do you like the robe? I had my best weavers working on it all night."
"It's magnificent! It's even better than Vortigern's! Your weavers must be very talented." praised Merlin

"Well, maybe we can't defeat Vortigern in war quite yet, but we sure can beat him at weaving. If only this war were so easy. I was up all night organizing the war effort. If ever there was a good time to strike at that fat toad, it's now. He's being corrupted from within, we have our Saxon allies on the way, and my army is ready to march. While we're on the subject of war, there's something that's been pestering me all night; you're going back to your own people, and I was wondering, could you maybe convince your people to send, say, a thousand troops my way?" asked Aurelianus hopefully.

"I'm not certain; I could ask though. You've been so very kind to me, and I'll try to repay you by sending those troops."

"Oh, thank you Merlin! Thank you! You don't know how much this will help our efforts to win the war."

"Anytime. I hope to see you soon."

"As do I. Have a safe trip."

With that being said, Merlin and Uther rode off to the forest, Merlin riding a snow white stallion, and Uther a jet-black one.

"Want me to make our travels easier?" asked Merlin.

"What do yeh mean?"

"I can use magic to get us to the Bridge."

"Why didn't yeh say so? I could've taken yeh to Atlantis and been back by now!" exclaimed Uther.

"Yes, but then you wouldn't have had time to see the beauty of Atlantis. Now you can spend some time in Atlantis. Aurelianus doesn't expect you back for a few months."

"I guess yeh right. Go ahead, say the spell. We want to be in Atlantis, right?"

"Just let me think of the right words. . . Ah, now I remember! Ensans Atlantica."

With those words, Merlin brought the pair to the coast of Gaul. Everything was quiet and peaceful. The waves were lapping at the shore. The seagulls were muttering their soft cry. The breeze carried a sense of peace. Everything was as it should be.

As Uther recovered from the shock of traveling through the works of a spell, Merlin reached behind a bush. From behind the bush, he pulled a perfectly circular disc. Etched upon it was strange symbol. Merlin took his wand and placed it in the small ditch in the center of the disc. Moments later, a white granite bridge rose out of the water.

"Well are you coming?" yelled Merlin to an awed Uther.

"Yes, yes." Uther replied, never taking his eyes off the bridge.

* * *

"Here we are: Atlantis." Merlin said, his outstretched hand pointing in the general direction of the city Ala Bora. Ala Bora was a coastal town and the only entrance to Atlantis from the outside world. Being the only entrance, giant marble towers stood watching the entrance, connected by arched walls. Each tower had at least a dozen bow men patrolling and two dozen swords men guarding. Beyond the wall was an astonishing sight. The city had three story buildings, all ornately built and detailed. The edges of the crowded streets were lined with pure gold. People were all around, some on the beach playing with the sea creatures, others in the air, flying with dragons, phoenixes and gryffins. Some even rode centaurs, or clung to the back a giant. And humans weren't the only ones living in the city; fifteen other species also took up residence in the fair city, all being armed with a weapon of some sort. The elves had bows and swords of their own make, the dwarves had their axes and hammers, and the wizards had their wands and maybe a dagger or two.

"I'm home," said Merlin, a broad grin coming across his face as he watched the glee on the faces of the people, "I'm home."

Chapter 3: The True Heirs: Part 2

2008-09-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

At the nearest town, the man asked where they were and decided their route from there. Neither person spoke during their trip until sunset that night.

"Its almost sundown. Why aren't we stopping for the night?" asked a puzzled Merlin. People never traveled in the night.

"We're almost to me brother's castle. Besides, there are bandits in the woods who love to steal the food of sleeping travelers."

"If you don't mind me asking, who are you? Why did you save me? Why did you betray Vortigern? Was the battle caused by you"? And who's your brother and how did he get a castle when Vortigern is the king?" fired Merlin.

"My, my, my, aren't you inquisitive. Anyhow, I suppose yeh do deserve some answers. After all, I saved yeh from death and told yeh to follow me without explanation. My name is Uther, third and youngest son of Emperor Constantine III of the Byzantine Empire. I saved yeh because I saw the so called stick yeh carried. It's a wand. Yeh can't fool my family by a change in clothing. Also, I didn't betray Vortigern; I was a spy for my brother, and the battle was my doing, at least partly. Yeh see, Vortigern was a fool and let the Saxons settle in Britain. The Saxons, though, didn't think they were given enough land, and Vortigern, being the idiot he is, refused the Saxons. I saw that I could gain an advantage from Vortigern's stupidity, so I gathered all the Saxons Vortigern was stupid enough to give positions in his army, gathered them together, and told them we would rebel against Vortigern on my signal.

"Me brother is the true heir to the throne. His name is Aurelianus Ambrosius. He chose the name Ambrosius for himself. Yeh see, he couldn't carry the family name because it would alert Vortigern to his existence. Yeh don't understand, do you? Well I suppose I should have started at the beginning. When me father died, me eldest brother, Constans, took the throne and enlisted Vortigern as his advisor. If only he hadn't, he might still be here today. But then Vortigern has always had a way with words. That's how he made Constans his puppet, and how he convinced a group of mercenaries to poison Constans. When Constans died, Vortigern summoned Aurelianus and I to see him. He pretended to mourn for Constans, but as soon as the guards left, the devil told us what had really happened, and that if we wanted to see the sun rise again, we had to flee Britain and never return. We fled, but only to the edge of Wales. There, Aurelianus revealed he was the true heir to the village folk. They were a superstitious bunch, and claimed that one day, the true heir would claim the throne. They rewarded us with a castle, and obey our every command. As of late, Aurelianus has been plotting against Vortigern, assembling a giant army to face Vortigern in a duel of fates. And now that we have the Saxons on our side, Aurelianus says the only other thing we need to ensure victory is a wizard to advise us like all of our ancestors have. So there you have it. I've answered all yeh questions; now yeh answer some of mine. Who are yeh, what were yeh doing at Vortigern's fortress, and how did yeh become so good with the sword?" finished Uther.

"I am Merlin, son of none. I was at Vortigern's fortress to warn him that the Saxons would clash with him, but my plan back fired. And I've had nothing better to do for the last few years besides train with the blade. Now I won't be able to do that, thanks to an irreparable dulled edge."

"Well I must admit, I was surprised at how quickly yeh decided to break your blade, and for me life. It was quite brave of you to defend me, even though you don't know me. I'll have to get me brother's smiths to forge yeh a new blade."

"You could get me a new blade?"

"Yeh saved me life. I owe yeh."

"Thanks!"

They continued conversation until majestic castle stood before them.

"Behold, Caernarfon Castle." said Uther.

The castle was beautiful is the sunset. The water of the river sparkled orange fire, a mirror of the magnificent castle. Boats littered the harbor. The towers of the castle were like hexagonal spires, watching your every move. Merlin would never had though that a man-made structure could be so beautiful.

"How was this made?" asked a bewildered Merlin.

"Its construction was ordered by King Edward I when he invaded Wales. He wanted it to be the most beautiful building in Wales, and yet, also the most fearsome. Come, let's go see my brother. He's expecting us."

The twosome made their way into the castle and were greeted by a messenger, telling them they were to make their way to the banquet hall where they would dine with Aurelianus.

"Greetings, brother!" said the man heading the table that spanned the length of the hall.

"The same to yeh." said Uther, indicating they exchanged greetings like this often.

Aurelianus called a squire, and told him to relay the orders of a magnificent feast to the cooks. Before too long, servants were carrying everything from lamb to fish to spiders to wine to beer, to roast pig through the large double doors at the end of the hall. After having meager meals for months, Merlin was glad to have the opportunity to gorge himself. He didn't care if he looked rude; all he cared about was food.

"So I hear you're a wizard," began Aurelianus, "Did you know each and every one of my ancestors has had a wizard for an advisor? We've been very fortunate to have their advice; without it, my family would have lost the throne long ago."

"Are you offering me the chance to be your advisor?" asked Merlin between mouthfuls of lamb.

"Yes, I am. I have finally amassed an army large enough to oppose Vortigern and the Saxons are my allies. All I'm missing is a wizard for an advisor. Would you care to become my advisor?"

"No. I would if I could, but my mom's probably worried sick about me. I'm afraid I must leave tomorrow."

"My people could locate her and she could live here." suggested Aurelianus.

"You would never find her. After all she is a wizard herself. But if you would like advice, I'd be happy to supply it."

With that, Merlin recounted his dream he had had.

"I'll have my scribes record it," Aurelianus promised, "I'm sorry you have to leave tomorrow, but since you have to, Uther will accompany you across Britain and Germany."

Summoning a servant, Aurelianus told him to take Merlin to the guest quarters.

"Right this way." said the servant.

Merlin slept well that night, knowing he would set off the next day for home.

Chapter 3: The True Heirs: Part 1

2008-09-27T08:15:00.001-07:00

"Bring out the prisoner!" shouted the king gleefully, "He is to be executed the second the sun rises, no sooner or later!" The king was positively joyful. But then why shouldn't he be? He was about to end his problems with his fortress. Or, at the very least, thought he was going to.

Merlin was in worse shape than the previous night: he was covered in the hay littered on the floor of the stables and had many cuts and bruises on the part of he sentries who had thrown Merlin into the stables.

Merlin's head was shoved on to the wood, and locked in place with another piece of wood on top. Merlin watched as a man dressed in black armor and a helm walked towards him, wielding a long sword.

At least it will be an almost painless death, thought Merlin.

He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the inevitable pain. Instead he heard the king's advisor scream. Then all was quiet. Merlin opened his eyes, and there at his feet lay the king's advisor, his head rolling and blood gushing from the stump that was his neck. He looked up and saw a battle happening between the king's subjects. When he looked to his right, he saw the executioner bringing his sword down on Merlin. Once again, Merlin braced himself for the pain, and was relieved to feel the lock that held him released. He didn't have time to enjoy his freedom, for the executioner yanked him up and led him away from the battle.

"Traitor! Kill the traitor! After him! I want him dead!" screeched the king, all joy in his voice replaced fury. With unnatural speed, the king sprinted toward Merlin and the executioner, ripping off the helm of the executioner as he did so. Under the helm was a handsome face, sporting a full beard and scraggly black hair. The man had warm blue eyes that any other time Merlin would think to compliment his dark complexion quite well, but Merlin had no time for such thoughts as it seemed the king wanted a fight.

King Vortigern lunged at the executioner, aiming for the throat. The man with blue eyes raised his sword to parry, successfully blocking the king's lethal attack. The man retaliated to the king's unexpected lunge by sending an underhand swipe to meet the king's chin. The king caught the blow with his shield while bringing swinging his sword towards the man, whose sword had flown out of his hand after the king caught the blow in the shield. Merlin didn't hesitate to draw his own sword. He drew his sword from its scabbard and caught the king's sword on the edge, sliding his sword down the length of the king's, dulling the king's sword and his own, until the hilts were locked. The king, enraged at Merlin's skill, tried to pull his sword in an attempt to unlock the swords. The king succeeded in freeing his sword, but instead of flying towards him, it flew towards Merlin, who gracefully caught it in the air while kicking the desperate King Vortigern so he was on his knees. Putting the flat sides of the swords together, he crossed them so that King Vortigern's head lay between the two blades, the sharper edges facing his neck. Merlin had Vortigern trapped; he was completely at Merlin's mercy. With just a flick of his wrist, Merlin could behead the king who had ordered his execution. But yet, the question was, should he kill Vortigern? Should he kill the tyrant who lay before him? As Merlin pondered this question, he became oblivious to the battle around him, seeing only the king and the swords. He didn't known what half of what the king had done, nor did he know why the king had done them. As doubtful as it might seem, the king may have perfectly acceptable reasons to explain his tyrannous actions. No matter how he looked at the situation, Merlin left with only two choices: kill him or don't.

Kill him! said a voice in Merlin's head, He's evil and you know it! You can't let someone like him live! He'll look for you, and when he finds you, you will die at his hands! You can't trust a man like this! Another voice said, Let him go. He may regret what he's done and is trying to make up for it. At least give a chance. Even if he is evil, he may change after looking death death in the face. You have to give him a chance. Just one.

For what seemed hours, Merlin stared at Vortigern, seeing fear written on his face. He knew his life lay in the hands of the boy who stood before him, holding two swords that could end his life. Just looking at the king's face made Merlin want to forgive him. But time and time again, the same question came up: Should I or should I not kill him? Merlin struggled and struggled with this question, not knowing which path was the right one.

Merlin hadn't reached a verdict when the battle surrounding was getting closer to him and the king. Sensing there was someone behind him, Merlin turned, sending the sword of the man behind him flying, and before he realized what was happening, Merlin lopped off his head. turning back to Vortigern, Merlin saw the king scrambling madly away from him. So he had taken advantage of what he had been given. Perhaps the king was smarter than Merlin had given him credit for. He knew that although the king had escaped this time, he would someday finish what he had started. But that would have to wait. Other matters commanded Merlin's attention right then such as getting away alive.

Guided by the man with blue eyes, Merlin forced his way through the fight, killing or mortally wounding anybody foolish enough to stand in his or the man's path. They made great progress and were away by the end of the hour.

When they were a good ways away from the fight, Merlin looked back, and saw two dragons, the same ones Merlin had seen in his dreams. The red one was flying south were as the white one traveled east.

Chapter 2: The Orders of a King

2008-09-26T14:35:00.001-07:00

Merlin was on a plateau, higher than anyone else on the soon-to-be-battlefield. He watched as the Celts prepared for the march to battle. They were all outfitted in thin chain mail, and carried swords and longbows, and a quiver from which to take arrows for the bow. The Saxons were much more well suited for the coming war; they were dressed in full armor, held not only superior swords, bows, and arrows, but also war-axes and throwing knives. They had horses enough for every man to ride three, all wearing armor and all pure-bred stallions.

The Saxons outnumbered the Celts, an astonishing twenty-five thousand to a mere five thousand. To top it all off, there was a white dragon leading the Saxon forces.The Celts would surely be conquered.

Merlin watched in both horror and fascination as the two armies collided, the Saxon cavalry sending Celtic swordsmen scurrying for cover behind small canvas tents. Merlin was shocked as the mercilessness of the Saxon invaders. They drove right through the defenders, forcing them back all the while. Didn't they feel pain when they killed others? That's how Merlin felt when he hunted. Didn't they know they shouldn't be squabbling among themselves, but rather trying to make peace with one another? And if they did, why did they continue to fight?

Over the horizon, a small red dot was steadily getting larger, until finally, Merlin could distinguish the distinct shape of a dragon. The dragon of the Celtic army. Perhaps the Celts could win this battle! Maybe it wasn't so hopeless after all!

Merlin was wrong. The Celtic dragon engaged the Saxon dragon, keeping the white dragon from preying on the Celts. The skirmish was in the favor of the Celtic dragon for the first few minutes, but the larger Saxon dragon soon overpowered the red dragon. The white dragon tore at the red dragon, ripping flesh and muscle and revaling bone.

The Celtic dragon dropped from the sky after many bites, gashes, and torn limbs. He fell, and the battle was no more. The Saxons had won.

Merlin was sitting bolt upright in bed. He had had a terrible dream, on that he knew would become a reality if he didn't do anything about it. He knew he had to warn the Celtic king of the coming invasion.

Merlin quietly seeped out of his tent that he shared with Shiroix, and headed for Nasuada's tent. He knew he what he needed: Nasuada's wand. Although he didn't know how to use magic, he assumed it wasn't too hard. All you had to do was pick up a stick and say a few words and presto! Spell cast. The hard part was finding the words, but Merlin had been studying Nasuada's lists of words in the Speech of Gramarye. He knew the words he wanted to say were Ensans Nueva Hevre Gijfon: To Castle Of King. Merlin decided these words were best while he borrowed Nasusda's wand.

As soon as Merlin had the wand, he muttered those words softly, not wnting to wake anyone. The magic took immediately, for as soon as Merlin finished his last word, he was looking at the foundation of what would become a great fortress. It spanned for miles, ending only where Mt. Snowdon began. Yet, Merlin saw no builders. He looked around for an answer and saw there were tents encompassing the work site. The workers must be sleeping. After all, it was late.

Merlin didn't feel the ground rumble beneath his feet, for he was entranced with the size of the massive fort. Had he heard the rumbling, he might have saved himself from a dangerous adventure that would take place throughout the next few days. But he didn't, and was scrambling for cover from the falling stones of the fortress. The dust cleared before too long, revealing two sentries running towards Merlin. They wore a red vest over chain mail and carried with them a pike sharp enough to inflict damage rival to that of a sword. On their red vests was a line of diamonds going around their chests, a line of emeralds around their waists, and a line of gold between the two other lines. The sentries took Merlin none too gently by the wrists and led him to the king's tent.

"I want him slain," the king boomed as he stormed into the tent, "and then I want my magicians to ressurect him so I can use him as a target for my archers! And then I want him ressurected again so he can die again and again and again, each death being more painful than the last! I want-" The king stopped as he saw Merlin. The king, Merlin noticed, was wearing only thin robe and the golden circlet that showed he was king. He had many wrinkles on his face, belieing that he was fairly old, despite how young his voice may seem when he was in a fury. His gray eyes told he had only been on the throne for a few years, although he had witnessed the rise and fall of many reigns of many kings. Merlin thought he must be somewhere in his fifties, due to his graying hair.

"This is just a boy," the king continued in a much softer tone, "A boy this age couldn't have destroyed my fortress. I demand to see the real criminal now!" His adivisor, apparently used to such outbursts, calmly explained to the king why Merlin was there.

"I know that this boy did not commit the crime, but I know he can stop the crime from happening. Like your magicians said, in order to stop the destruction of your fortress, the blood of a fatherless child is needed upon the foundations. I believe this is just the boy you need."

"You're right. This boy is to be slain at dawn tomorrow. If he is slain even a second late, then the head of the person responsible is mine. Throw the prisoner in the stables for the night."

"Wait King Vortigern!" shouted Merlin after the leaving king.

Startled that the boy knew his name, the king turned around. "I know why your fortress is falling each night," continued Merlin, "There are two dragons under where you are building. Each night they wake and fight each other, causing the ground to shake and your fortress to fall. The two dragons are red and white; the red one is the Celtic dragon, your dragon, and the white dragon is the Saxon dragon. They fight because war is coming between these two people. I know, I saw it in a dream."

"You foolish little boy. The Saxons are not my enemies, rather they are my allies. I have invited them to prosper in this land. They will not betray me, nor shall I change my mind about your slaying. I will see you tomorrow."

Merlin was shocked. He knew his dream was real. Why didn't the king believe him? wNo need to worry about that, Merlin told himself, I'm going to die!

Chapter 1: An Unexpected Meeting

2008-09-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

"Come on Mom! You know we need food! So why won't you let me go hunt?" whined Merlin, now seven years old. He and his mother had been traveling for years, and were nearing Gaul, where the bridge to Atlantis lay. They had stopped for a few days on the border of Germany and Gaul. While resting, they had been caught unawares, and had been robbed of all food and useful tools, thus starting the argument between Nasuada and Merlin.

"Because you're too young and you never know what night happen. I've already told you people are afraid of us, and will kill you if given the chance. Why can't you leave it at that?"

"But we're in the forest; there's nobody in the forest!"

"I can see you won't let this go. If I let you hunt, will you promise not to leave the forest?"

"Yes, oh yes! Thank you Mom, thank you, thank you, thank you! I'll make sure to bring back a nice big deer!'

"We could use a meal like that," chuckled Nasuada, "Well, go on now, before I change my mind."

Merlin was skipping through the forest, a bundle of joy. This was the first time Nasuada was allowing him to hunt! Now all those years of training with the longbow would pay off! He would see a deer, and send an arrow to fly right through the eye! It might be a little messier than a wand, but wizards don't start training until eleven years old, and even when Merlin finished his training and became a full-fledged wizard, he wouldn't need his wand; he was an excellent bow ans swordsman.

After a few minutes, Merlin became aware his singing was scaring away the animals. He resolved to stop. The very moment he did, he was rewarded; a magnificent, snow-white stag stepped out of the trees. There was a slight rustling noise as Merlin found a perch in a tree where he could send an arrow to the throat of the stag. Merlin silently and quickly strung his bow, fitting an arrow in the notch. He slowly pulled the string back, and . . . whizz! An arrow flew towards the white stag, but missed as the stag turned his head to face Merlin, and pranced back into the trees. Merlin sat there, shocked. It hadn't been his arrow. He sat in the tree, knowing the crafter of the arrow would come to retrieve it. And when he did, Merlin planned to ambush him.

He was astonished to find the other bowman was a boy about his own age, with black hair and red eyes. Even though the would-be-hunter was just a boy like himself, Merlin still planned to ambush him. As the boy bent down to pick up his arrow, Merlin silently dropped from the tree.

"Hello. If you are planning to ambush me, you will find I'm a very capable swordsman, and I do not wish to kill you." said the boy, unimpressed at Merlin's sudden appearance.

"How did you know I was up there? And who are you? Why were you hunting that stag?" asked a bewildered Merlin.

"So many questions, so little time. But I'll answer your questions. I sensed you in the tree, and I was hunting the stag for more answers."

"Speaking of answers, I'd like to have more. You haven't answered my second question."

"To tell the truth, I honestly don't know who I am. All I know is that my name is Shiroix, and I only know that because the stag lead me to a tree with my name carved into it. That's why I'm hunting it. I've answered you're questions, now you answer two of mine: what's your name, and may I join you for supper?"

"My name's Merlin, and yes you may."