Moonlight Secret

The Elvish Lady

Prince Arthur Pendragon was in a very bad mood.

His father, the King Uther, was pushing him deeper in some black hole he wasn't sure if he'd ever could come out. Like yesterday morning, when there had been an execution of an innocent man.

The Prince's older sister, Morgana, had been watching it from her window and had yelled for at least a whole hour while complaining about how disgusting and cruel it was.

Arthur still got the chills when he thought back about it, especially what the woman had said in the end before revealing her powers: 'a son for a son'. Yet the Prince couldn't help but imagine that that man could have been him.

After all, Arthur had magic.

When he'd use some, the irises of his eyes would turn white like the moonlight, which referred to his birth on a full moon night at precisely 12 o'clock. Arthur had known this since the day he accidentally used some when being examined by Gaius when he was much younger.

Luckily, Gaius promised him to never tell Uther about it and Arthur was the physician very grateful.

King Uther was a cruel man, Arthur knew that. The Prince wasn't blind to his people's cries of hatred.

And if the King loved him and Morgana, it was in a way neither royal children could see or feel.

Back to reality, a servant boy was placing the target.

"Hey! It's in the sun!" Arthur called.

The servant boy looked up. "It's not that bright."

"Just like you." one of the knights behind him said, getting the others to laugh.

Arthur laughed too, just without actually meaning it.

The servant began moving the target.

One of the knights came to whisper in his ear: "Teach him a lesson."

Arthur decided to do it, throwing one of the knives at the target while the boy was still moving it.

The boy lowered the target. "Hey! Hold on."

"Don't stop moving!" Arthur called, in a very arrogant tone. "We want some moving target practice!"

The servant boy turned a little white as he started to move around again.

Arthur threw one knife after another until the boy couldn't carry it anymore and let the wooden target roll over the ground and fall at the feet of a young girl.

Arthur had to blink with his eyes as he saw the girl.

The girl had long deep raven black hair, a paler skin than was healthy, full reddish lips and bright cerulean blue eyes that shone like light in the darkness. She was quite skinny, but she had just the right amount of curves for how small she was. Her clothes were like that of a commoner, simple and not formfitting: a blue tunic, brown pants, brown leather jacket, black leather boots and a red scarf around her neck.

Her whole appearance reminded Arthur of those mythical winged creatures named elves, but it were mainly her strange ears that were also a little pointy that made him think of such.

"Please, just stop." the girl spoke, her voice sounding soft, melodic and angelic in the Prince's ears.

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "And who may you be, miss?"

"Merlyne." the girl replied.

"I haven't seen you around before." Arthur commented. He felt there was something about this girl, but he couldn't figure out what it was.