The Return of Arthur

Chapter 8

She swiped her hand across the dew slicked bench before sitting down to watch over the lake. Despite her half-hearted efforts, Wendy still felt an uncomfortable wetness seeping through the back of her jeans, too late now, she thought, and proceeded to open her steaming thermos of tea, allowing it to cool in the early morning chill.

Wendy had woken up early that morning - far earlier than normal - and decided that in lieu of sleeping, a walk to clear her mind would be beneficial. She was after all the remaining heir of Arthur Pendragon, a man that until recently she hadn't believed in, and she was meant to aid in his resurrection, which it was still unclear as to how that would happen. She released her long sigh and stared out onto the lake. Something she'd seen Merlin do for countless hours at a time.

A faint glow was just beginning to appear over the crest of the hills that surrounded the small town. In doing so, it provided a view beautiful enough to warrant being awake at such a ridiculous hour. The sky was just beginning to fade from its star speckled darkness when the first rays of sun peeked over the hilltops. It illuminated the near constant fog over the lake, making every swirl and curve visible. Seeing the swirls in the fog created a mystical appeal, as though invisible creatures were dancing across the ancient lake. Which, with all that had been revealed to Wendy in the past few days, would not have been terribly shocking. In fact, she almost suspected some form of magic to be involved. Especially so close to the Shee, she reasoned. As the sun rose higher and higher, the sky melted into a palette of oranges and yellows and violets and blues, with the ancient tower, still shrouded in an eerie mist, silhouetted against it. Now she realized just how easy it was to fall into a trance with the rolling water and the ever changing winds of Avalon.

It was nearly impossible for Wendy to imagine that tomorrow evening, when Orion rose over Avalon, history would be made. And if we fail, she shuddered, Morgana will rise and we will fall. Mankind will fall. She fiddled with the drawstrings of her worn sweater. It was one of the few things she'd kept from before she moved here. And today, among other days, she found great comfort in its frayed spots and faint stains and the way it had always held the smell of pine and rosemary.

Wendy held her thermos with both hands, hoping to ward off the chill, but to her dismay her tea had lost all heat and was tepid in its steel container. She had just taken a mouthful and was partway through swallowing when someone sat down beside her. "Hey stranger." Wendy, surprised and frightened, choked. She spewed her tea onto the sidewalk in the most ungraceful way and coughed whatever had gotten trapped in her wind pipe.

After her embarrassing episode, she turned unhappily to the stranger, "What?"

The girl beside her smiled, and then laughed as though Wendy was overlooking something that should have been painfully obvious, "Wendy, it's me." Wendy furrowed her eyebrows at her, her throat now sore from coughing. "It's me. Eris. We used to go to high school together." The girl added, looking disappointed.

If a freight train of memories could hit a person with the weight of a thousand bricks, then at that moment it hit Wendy. Hard. "Eris!" She screeched, throwing herself at the significantly shorter girl, nearly pushing both of them onto the sidewalk. "The hair, the piercings! I didn't recognize you." And they both laughed. Wendy remembered Eris as the blonde haired girl with large glasses and a bony frame, but years had changed her into an almost unrecognizable person. Her hair was dyed vibrantly blue, her nose piercing made her look edgy, and in the four years that they hadn't seen each other, she'd done some serious work in the filling out department.

Wendy was baffled by the sight of her old friend. "How are you- Why are you here?" Though after seeing the drop in Eris's smile, Wendy quickly added, "I mean, it's great to see you, but this certainly isn't a tourist destination."

Eris shrugged, her leather jacket falling back to reveal tattoos, "I just felt like coming here. I couldn't even remember the name of this place until I decided to drop everything and book a ticket. Call it an urge, I guess." She stared out over the lake, just as mesmerised as Wendy had been only minutes ago. "Like fate or something was pulling me here." The other girl couldn't believe what she was hearing, Is Eris intertwined with Arthur too? Does she have something to do with his resurrection too? Why else would she feel the need to come here so suddenly? It's crazy, so crazy, but it works. Wendy was speechless, deep in thought and buried in worry, and Eris was still caught in the sight of the lake.

They sat silently together for what felt like minutes but judging by the rise of the late morning sun and the way it shined brightly across the water it could have easily been hours. "It's our destiny. Together," Eris said, in a voice so quiet and so unlike her own that Wendy almost thought that she'd imagined it.

Wendy eventually offered Eris hot tea at Merlin's; to warm up and to find out more about her sudden visit. As they slowly made their way back, two things occurred to Wendy. One; she'd disappeared off of Merlin's couch without so much as a letter, and two; she was about to introduce her unsuspecting friend to a warlock and a man who is actually a dragon. Fab-tastic.