To Break a Curse

Chapter 2

A/N   Hello everyone, thanks so much for the votes on my last two chapters! If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it. Hope you enjoy this chapter just as much as the other two :)

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Will groaned and opened his eyes. He became aware that he was lying on grass wet with dew and the sun was shining through the trees.

He suddenly sat bolt upright: that last sentence definitely wasn't right. The last thing he remembered was the wind, rain, dark and Tom with those lights in that stone circle.

He looked around: Rose, Oliver and Tom were all lying on the grass nearby still inside the stone circle in the woods. It was clearly early morning; the sun was turning everything golden, the frost sparkled crisply on the leaves and he could hear birds in the trees.

Had they spent the night here or been knocked unconscious by something in the storm or was he dreaming or... what? He didn't know.

Will crawled over to Rose and shook her awake, 'Rose? Rosie?' She opened her eyes, glanced around and struggled to her feet, 'what happened?'

Will shrugged hopelessly, 'no idea. It looks different somehow-'

He was interrupted by Oliver waking up.

'Oliver!' Rose helped him to his feet while Will went to wake Tom up.

'What?' muttered Tom sleepily. 'I'm busy,' he flung an arm over his eyes.

'Tom, wake up,' said Oliver. Something in his voice made Tom scramble to his feet, immediately alert. His mouth dropped open as he looked around. 'Is it morning?'

'No, it's still midnight,' said Rose testily. She turned to Will, 'we need to get back home, find out what happened.'

'Rose...' Will trailed off, still looking around.

Rose looked at Oliver, 'you alright?'

He nodded, 'what happened?'

Rose opened her mouth to reply but Will saying, 'the wood looks different,' made her shut it again and take a proper look.

He was right. The trees were all in different places; she had been exploring and walking through these woods for as long as she could remember and knew them like the back of her hand. These trees were different types and in odd places and...

Oliver said it before she could, 'the stones are younger.'

'They can't be,' Will was still inclined to disagree with whatever Oliver said, so went over to the stones and examined them closer. The stones were still rough granite but not so weathered and chipped. He stepped away, 'you're right,' he admitted.

'Have we time travelled?' asked Tom brightly. He began to feel quite excited, imagine if the stones were a time portal! He could go back and visit Camelot, as he had always wanted to do!

Oliver tried to pull himself together, 'why don't we go to your farm, Rose, and see what's happened?'

As they started to make their way out of the circle, a marking on one of the stones caught Rose's eye. As she ran her hand over it, she realised that a verse of writing was carved into the stone.

'Look at this,' she called the others over and they all read what was written on the stone:

Once was Camelot true and fair,

To break the curse, the branch repair,

Restore the branch most cruelly taken,

Shalt Camelot then from its curse waken.

Tom was the first to break the ominous silence that had fallen. He took a breath, and, not taking his eyes from the inscription said, 'I don't get it.'

Oliver frowned, 'does it want us to fix a branch on a tree or something?'

Will raised his eyebrows, 'we're in a wood: trees fall down all of the time!'

'Maybe it means a particular tree?' Rose suggested.

Before they could say anything else, a loud rustling nearby made them look around and instinctively draw closer together.

'Er, hello?' An apologetic voice made them all relax slightly: no one could sound that apologetic and be dangerous. Rose walked towards the bushes and pulled back a branch to reveal a man in his early twenties crouching down. He looked sheepishly at her and said, 'I think I'm stuck; do you mind?'

Rose stared blankly at him for a moment before realising he had caught his cloak on a thorn and was trying to pull it loose.

She gave herself a mental shake, 'of course. Hang on.'

After a minute the man was standing upright, saying, 'they advertise the cloaks for warmth but all that really means is they're big, thick and get caught easily.' He brushed himself down.

He was quite tall with an untidy mop of brown hair. He was wearing a loose, grubby brown shirt secured with a belt and a pair of dark trousers that had streaks of mud on them and his cloak wasn't much cleaner.

The man seemed to remember something and stuck out his hand, 'sorry, where are my manners? I'm Merlin, very pleased to-' He broke off. The four of them were looking at him with wide eyes.

'Merlin as in Merlin from the legends of King Arthur?' Tom asked slowly.

The man looked at them as if they were mad, 'ye-es. Is there a problem?'

Tom grinned and shook his hand enthusiastically, 'not at all, I've read all about Camelot.'

'Did you say we all become legends?' Merlin asked. He laughed, 'I like that idea.'

'Sorry,' Will interrupted, beginning to panic. 'We're meant to be in the 21st century, not here.'

'Oh,' Merlin clapped his hand to his forehead. 'I forgot, let me explain. The prophecy says that whoever appears through the door of the stone circle will rid Camelot of the curse.' He scratched his head, 'I wasn't expecting so many of you but the more the merrier.'

Will pulled Tom, Oliver and Rose away, 'well, good luck with that, but I don't think we're the right people.'

'Oh, no, no!' Merlin held out his hands. 'You must be: the prophecy is never wrong.'

'There's a first time for everything,' said Rose. 'And our families will be wondering where we are so we really must be going.'

'Don't worry about that,' Merlin flapped his hands dismissively. 'Time will have stopped wherever you come from until you return.'

The four of them exchanged glances. That was one worry out of the way, at least.

'So, what's this curse?' Oliver sat down on the grass. The others followed suite, awaiting an explanation.