Within the Pages

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

After about two hours I wake to the sound of a knock on the door. "Master Charlie" a voice calls out from what I assume is one of the servants of the house. "King Arthur requests your presence in the dining hall for dinner. He also said to tell you that there are plenty of clothes in the wardrobe inside your room for you to choose from."

"Thank you!" I call out to the servant, "I'll just be a couple minutes"

I look around my room again and notice that there was a wardrobe just to the left of the entryway into the bedroom which I missed before. I get out of the bed and walk to the wardrobe. Grabbing the knob I pull the door open and my jaw drops at the sight of the amazing quality and variety of the clothes. While the wardrobe looks small the clothes in there look like they could fill a small clothing shop. I pick out a black collared tunic, pants made out of a very soft black material, a smooth black belt, and long brown boots that fit perfectly. In the pocket of the pants lies a message that reads 'Young Charlie come to see me at your earliest convenience, Merlin' For a moment I am puzzled but then I remember that Merlin has the gift of prophecy, which means that he saw me coming. But that might also mean that Merlin knows he is in a book or at least that I come from another place. I have to go find him but King Arthur is waiting so I have to go see him first. I quickly change into the clothes and put the note back in my pocket as I head out back into the hallway. In the hallway I am again surprised as I see that Goldilocks is now wearing a long blue dress with golden sleeves and is wearing silver shoes that make her a bit taller almost reaching my height.

"I'm taller than you now" She says sticking out her tongue.

"Take of the shoes and say that again" I say sticking out my tongue back at her.

"We really have to be going to the dining hall now" Says the man who, I guessed correctly, is a servant.

"Oh yeah I guess we do" I say only now alerted to the fact that he is also in the hallway with us. "Lead the way please"

He turns around and heads down the hallway with Goldilocks and I following. The castle is bigger than I had imagined from the outside. We turn right and head down this hallway, turn right and head down another hallway and turn right again to head down another hallway until we get to about halfway down that hallway and we turn right yet again to go down a hallway and turn right one last time...to go into a room that is five doors down from where we originally started out walking from. Goldilocks and I exchange a look that conveys how weird we think it is that the servant didn't just turn left instead of wasting about five minutes going a completely different way.

"Why didn't you just turn left instead of going the right 4 times?" I ask the servant.

"Left?" He replies, " Left is wrong. Never head left if you can at all help it"

"Ok" I say and nod pretending that I understand his explanation but exchange a look with Goldilocks who clearly doesn't understand that explanation either. The servant opens the door and introduces us to the first look at the dining hall. Bright chandeliers hang down from a high ceiling that showed the night and its stars, it was a class ceiling not an enchanted ceiling like in Harry Potter. Six rows of tables spread from the door to a platform in which sits King Arthur with two empty chairs on to the right of him and one empty chair to the left of him, Sir Kay, Sir Launcelot, and a few other knights were also in that table looking over the dozens of dozens of other knights and royalty sitting at the tables below. As soon as we walked in King Arthur beckoned to us to sit in the two chairs to the right of him. We walk up the aisle with knights staring at us from the tables on either side of us. When we get to the table we walk to the seats he points us to and sit down. When we sit down Arthur stands up and everyone else stands up with him making us stand up too.

"My knights of Camelot, I would like to make a toast", he says raising his glass and everyone else including us raise our glass. "This toast is to honour these two kids who helped save my life after a hard battle. Without them I would not be here today"

All around the dining hall we hear the clink of glass so we clink them together as well. Luckily for us our glasses only had milk instead of wine so we weren't put into a situation in which we had to drink. Just as everyone has finished toasting the door to the hall opens revealing a man in long blue robes with a beard and a big pointy hat.

"Ah Merlin I'm glad you're here. We were just celebrating these two heroes" King Arthur says, pointing to the two of us.

Merlin looks at us and then looks back to Arthur. "I am glad you are well, Your Highness. I will have to thank these two personally. May I talk to the boy first after we eat?"

"Of course you may Merlin. You should come and eat now" Arthur says beckoning to the seat to his left. Merlin walks up the aisle and takes his seat next to King Arthur. "And now we can eat!!" King Arthur annonces to the hall and everyone starts eating. We look at the selection in front of us not knowing what to eat when I spot some bread and cheese on the table so I reach for it and put some on my plate. While I eat the bread I also notice some fish which I also bring onto my plate. When I finish the plate I realize that everyone is already done eating except for me. Nervously I put my utensils down and wipe my face with a napkin. Arthur, looking at me amused tells everyone that they may leave and everyone except King Arthur, Goldilocks, Merlin, and me, leave. King Arthur turns to Merlin. " You may speak with them now, I have to go sort out some things" and with that he leaves the hall. Merlin turns to me.

"Now listen here and listen well. I know you are from another world and I know where your father is. Your mother on the other hand has been captured by Morgana and I cannot see where she is exactly but I know she is alive. You must be the ones to rescue her as I cannot leave Arthur without him being in serious risk. Your father is in the Old Fox Inn in room six. Go to him now." He reaches into his pocket and takes out a dozen gold coins. " Take these, go find your father and rescue your mother." Turning to Goldilocks he says "In Wonderland you will find someone that you will come close to, but in another place you will lose someone that you were close to. This will not be your fault so you shouldn't blame yourself for it." He looks from Goldilocks to me. "That is all I can tell you. Go now" and with that Merlin gets up and ushers us outside.

We watch Merlin walk off both of us completely shocked at what we both heard. Why would my mother be captured by Morgana. Why would my dad be living in an Inn instead of going after her. Who could Goldilocks possibly find in Wonderland and who would she lose. Talking to Merlin resulted in more questions than answers but I now know that my parents are alive and I will soon be reunited with my dad.