Out of Time

Chapter 7

Dani spent the next few days practicing at pulling the bow string to build up her strength. She would get up, eat in the great hall, spend the morning just trying to pull the string over and over again. Then, since Alden had pretty much given up on her that first day, and never been back since, she'd started wandering off during the afternoons to run or walk through the area, as a way of both building up leg strength and learning her surroundings.

When she returned after her brisk, afternoon stroll, Arleigh raced up to her, "Ah, good, lad. You're back. The king wishes to see you."

"Thanks, Arleigh."

"Off you go, Dani."

Dani nodded, and walked quickly to the king's office, her muscles not quite as abused-feeling as they'd been that first day. She knocked.

"Enter," his deep voice said through the wood.

She pushed the door open. "You asked for me, my liege?"

He looked up. "Ah yes, Dani. I need you to go about and collect inventories for me. All supplies in the castle."

She nodded slowly, a little grateful she'd gone on those walks, otherwise this assignment would be daunting. She opened her mouth to excuse herself, but paused, remembering something. "May I ask you a question, sire?"

"Of course." He waved his hand, indicating she proceed.

"What's your name?"

He raised his eyebrows, but a small smile replaced it soon enough. "I haven't mentioned it, have I?"

Dani shook her head. "No, sire. Neither has anyone else."

"Well, then that was rather remiss of me. My name is Arthur, King Arthur Pendragon."

#

Dani left King Arthur's office in a state of shock. Holy shit. The King Arthur. As in the legendary King Arthur. She'd thought he was a myth, some made up piece of fiction. Which either meant she was stark raving mad, or the world was even stranger than she'd come to believe.

Though really, she should believe anything after the things she'd seen and experienced.

As she sat down to eat, she decided to start the inventories the next day, bright and early. Arleigh came up to her as soon as she finished sitting down with a heaping pile of food, and a smile on her face.

"Come. Eat up. You're too skinny." She sat down next to Dani, watching her as if doing so would induce her to eat more.

Dani started eating, eyeing Arleigh like a wild beast during a drought. Arleigh seemed about ready to bounce out of her chair with eagerness.

After a few bites, Dani put down her food, turned to Arleigh and said, "Okay, what?"

The older woman frowned. "You aren't eating."

Dani shook her head. "And I'll start eating again when you tell me what's got you so excited."

"So, what did the king have for you."

"Inventories."

"Oh good. I was wondering when that would be taken care of. But Merlin isn't back yet and the king doesn't have the time." She turned to Dani. "They're the only ones in the kingdom before who could read and write."

"Merlin?" As in the wizard? An image popped into her head of a guy in silver starred blue robes and a matching cone hat with a long white beard.

"Oh yes. We've been expecting him back for some time, but his wanderings seem to take him farther and farther, gone for longer and longer times. The king is always a little lost without his most trusted advisor."

Dani nodded, hardly being able to believe that Merlin was just as real as King Arthur. "So, does inventory get done a lot?"

"Not overly, but it's important during the winter, to make sure we have enough supplies to last. And, we need to know we would survive a siege, should the unthinkable happen. It's best to know early. Trading parties have to go especially long distances in the winter in these parts, and it can be a long time before they return with the supplies they've bartered for."

She nodded again, and as per their agreement, started eating again. Arleigh didn't leave until she'd finished all of it, then she pranced off with a smile, leaving Dani to her own devices for the evening.

#

Dani had gotten in a habit of waking to the sounds of people pouring into the great hall, accompanied by great boisterous laughs and unintelligible dialog. Not that it was a chosen habit—her room abutted the great hall, and the sound tended to carry quite well, even through a heavy, wooden door.

Unlike her norm, after breakfast, she gathered writing supplies, which in this time consisted of a wax tablet—two pieces of wood held together with pieces of leather, each having a facing of thick wax—and a bone stylus—which had one sharp and one blunt end.

She started in the keep, heading to the kitchen to ask the cooks about the food stores. She felt certain it would be a long day.

#

Several Days Ago...

Merlin was morose. As he meandered around his simple camp, he found he had no urge to move on. Thanks to his damnable power of foresight, which he frequently called simply "Truth," he found no enjoyment in the world at large, and he'd found himself more and more avoiding things, or more specifically people, he loved, because all happiness he tried to find was destroyed by the things he saw in the future, things he could see no way of circumventing.

He laughed at himself, a humorless sound that just seemed to drive home the truth. He was self-destructing, spiraling into patterns that would only see to his doom. And he knew it, but he found himself flirting with disaster again and again, with no motivation to try to avoid it. Truth was a dreadful gift. It could give you the power to make the best of things possible. And poison those things with the terrible things yet to come.

Which was why he found himself frequently wandering closer and closer to a lake he knew full well was fated to be the location of his fall. But did he avoid it? No. He came back, again and again, closer and closer with each trip. It wasn't intentional, he just couldn't seem to stop himself, and couldn't seem to garner the gumption to care about the fate that awaited. After all, Truth never lied.

Suddenly, he clutched his chest, as if his heart had stopped. It felt like it had. Truth, that gift which was with him always, whispering to him things about the future, taunting him with the futures yet to come, part of it had suddenly blinked out. As if that future no longer existed, as if the associated person was already dead, and thus that future could no longer be.

Merlin's heart started pounding erratically in his chest, his breaths bringing in no oxygen as he tried to react to the sudden fear and panic that gripped him. Forgetting the rest of his things, he grabbed his horse's reins, not even bothering to saddle him, and took off at full gallop for Camelot.

Arthur'sfuture had disappeared.    

Author's Note: Well, the holiday weekend is half over now.  I've written almost 7k words in the last 2 days, and have just under 7k to go to win NaNoWriMo (ugh, I hate having to write that word out...).  Feeling very good.  I'm going to try to hit my 50k before I go back to work on Tuesday!  

Wish me luck.