Camelot High

Four

After running about quite aimlessly for a long while, shouting myself hoarse, I stumbled upon a clearing of sorts, and finally I saw something. As I ran up to the human shaped lump lying on the ground, I realised it was Arthur, trying to sit up, but crying out in agony because of an injury to his side, "Arthur! Oh, goodness," I skidded to a stop next to him, falling onto my knees.
"Gwen?" He winced, trying to sit up again. "What are you doing?"
"Coming to find you. Both you and Mordred were MIA at roll call, and I got worried," I replied, swatting his hands away from his side and forcing him to lie still to see what he'd done to himself. I gasped at the blood stain on his t-shirt. "Good grief, Arthur! What happened to you?"
He just looked at me with a hard expression, "what do you think? Mordred went crazy at me. He had a knife from the kitchen." I nodded in response, taking off my jumper to steady the blood flow from his side. "No, use mine. It's ruined anyway," Arthur stopped me. I gently eased him out of his jacket, apologising every time he winced in pain. Each time he shook his head, telling me not to worry about it, but I couldn't help feeling guilty at causing him more pain.
"Gwen! What the heck are you doing?" Leon's voice called to me. I turned and saw him entering the clearing where Arthur and I were. "I told you to stay at camp."
"I heard a gun shot and got worried," I answered as he came jogging over.
"Have you seen Mordred?" Leon asked as he offered to help.
"No, haven't seen him since lunch time. What about you? Did you encounter him in the forest at all?" I countered.
"Nope," Leon shook his head.
"He'll be back at camp by now," Arthur inputted, hissing slightly as Leon tried to stem the flow of blood. "Ow. That's the same side as my damaged rib."
"Sorry, mate," Leon said sheepishly. "We need to get you back to camp, this isn't stopping anytime soon." He got up from the floor, wiping his hands on Arthur's jacket before getting his phone out his pocket and dialling a number. "Percival, tell Mr Monmouth to call an ambulance. Yeah, we found him. He is? Oh good. Keep him there, whatever it takes. Did he have a knife with him? Rats, the bugger must have dropped it somewhere. Okay, thanks Percival. Bye," Leon hung up the phone. "Mordred's back at camp," he said simply.
Together, so we cause Arthur as little pain as possibly, Leon and I got Arthur to his feet. He looked pale, and there was a sheen of sweat across his face. It took us fifteen minutes to navigate out of the woods, and another ten to get across the open plain back to camp where an ambulance was just pulling up, all the while Arthur was hissing intermittently with pain as we got caught up in branches. By this point, Arthur was white as a sheet, and struggling to stay conscious, only staying on his feet because Leon and I were holding him up. The paramedics quickly took him off mine and Leon's unskilled medical hands to treat him and rush him to hospital. Lancelot and Percival had a sour faced Mordred securely in their grasp, presumably waiting on the police to arrive. Shortly after the ambulance left, Mr Monmouth walked up to Leon and I with a stern expression.
"I hope you know how irresponsible your actions were," he scalded us. "Your parents will hear about this, as will Mr Pendragon."
"I can hardly see Mr Pendragon being worried about rule breaking when we just saved his son," I replied strongly.
"That is beside the point," Mr Monmouth tried to argue, but Leon cut him off.
"We just saved Arthur's life, sir. Give us a break. After losing Ygraine at the end of last year, the last thing Morgana and Mr Pendragon need is to lose Arthur as well," he responded. "I doubt Arthur would have managed much longer with the amount of blood he lost over the afternoon."
At that point, the police arrived, preventing Mr Monmouth from arguing with us further. The two officers marched up to Mr Monmouth after Merlin had greeted them and directed them in our direction, following close behind. He gave me a hug when he got over to us.
"What seems to have happened here?"
"One of my students attacked another. The attacker is apparently this young man over there, and his victim has been taken to hospital." Mr Monmouth explained.
"Right, and you, young man," the officer addressed Leon, pointing to Arthur's bloody jacket, "what have you got here?"
"This is Arthur's jacket, we used it to attempt to stop the blood flow from his knife wound," Leon explained.
"We?" The officer frowned, glancing at his colleague.
"Arthur and Mordred disappeared earlier this afternoon. I got worried because they've been fighting incessantly for the last six months, so when Mr Monmouth did the evening register before dinner and they hadn't turned up, I set off to find them. Arthur had gone towards the forest in that direction, so I started that way. Leon tried to stop me and went after them himself, but I heard a gunshot and ran after him. I found Arthur in a clearing about ten minutes into the woods, bleeding. Leon got there a few minutes later, and we managed to get Arthur back. We phoned ahead to tell people to call an ambulance, and to catch Mordred," I explained to the officer, who was nodding along.
"Gunshot? I thought you said it was a knife wound," he frowned again.
"Some hunter probably," I shrugged. "Arthur told me it was a knife."
"Mordred didn't have anything on him when he got back," Merlin inputted, "but a knife has gone missing from the kitchen."
"Well, seems like you lot need a congratulations. Good work thinking so fast, young lady when things went wrong. Though going into the woods with a dangerous youngster on the loose with a knife probably wasn't your smartest idea of the day," the police officer smiled, not seeing Mr Monmouth's foul expression at commending my rule breaking.
"I didn't know there was even a knife involved until I found Arthur. Can I go now? I'd like to phone Arthur's father," I smiled at the officer, who nodded his agreement.
"Though we would like you to show us where the crime scene was," the officer added as I started to walk off, "and we shall need to take a statement from you."
"Of course, I understand," I replied, walking to my tent to get my phone. I dialled Mr Pendragon's number and waited anxiously for him to pick up.
"Hello, Uther Pendragon speaking," he answered.
"Hello, Uther, it's Guinevere," I said politely.
"Ahh, Guinevere, hello. I suppose you're phoning about Arthur."
"Yes. You've heard?" I questioned.
"The paramedics phoned me from the ambulance, I've just got to the hospital," Uther replied.
"Have you seen Arthur yet?"
"He came in a few minutes before I did. The doctors are just stitching his wound up then I'll get to see him," Uther told me, "what happened, Guinevere?"
"Mordred. He attacked Arthur in the forest. We only knew something was wrong when they were both absent on the evening register. Leon and I went after them," I explained quickly and vaguely, this was the sort of thing you tell people face-to-face.
"You found him?" Uther sounded surprised.
"Yes, sir, and Lancelot and Percival apprehended Mordred, they were sitting on him until the police got here," I replied.
"Thank you, Guinevere, for saving my boy," Uther said sincerely, sounding more like the loving father and husband who lost his wife, than the indifferent professional head-teacher he had been for the past few months. Arthur fought, Morgana cried while Uther stuck on a business head when coping with their loss, everyone of course has their own way of dealing with stuff like this, but it was nice hearing Uther sounding more like his old self for once, even after another tragic event befell his family.
"Arthur is a good lad, sir, he means a lot to me. I just did what was right," I answered meekly, not really sure how to respond to Uther; he might be my boyfriend's father, but he was still my head-teacher.
"And I'm thanking you for it, Guinevere. Arthur did say you were never one to take compliments well!" Uther joked, causing me to chuckle. "I shall let you go, Guinevere. I assume you need to give a statement or whatever to the police."
"Yes, I do," I nodded, forgetting he couldn't see me, "let me know how Arthur is doing, and Morgana."
"I will. Goodbye Guinevere."
"Goodbye, sir," I said before hanging up and going to assist the police.