Risible Adventures of Rita Arthurs

Chapter 4 ~ The Lady and her Lake

  After meeting the Elders, Rita was escorted to a guest room. There she wondered what her comrades were doing at the time, they were probably worried. She wished she could somehow contact them but right now it was impossible. If Rita could be accepted to a tribe then maybe she could even convince them to take in her comrades and work together to get rid of the life of poverty in the Sixth Realm. Thinking of the bright future ahead, Rita doze off into the night. The morning came quickly and Rita was summoned to be given her briefing.

"Our scouts lately have discovered a lake which is North East of Glenton" one of the Elders began to explain, "There have been some strange things happening lately and we want you to investigate what is really going on."

Rita was displeased that her first mission would be an investigation but then again – you never know how things might turn out. As she was given the supplies she required, she began to wonder who her 'assessor' might be. It didn't take long for her question to be answered as the door opened revealing a familiar figure.

"Missed me?" the petite ninja girl smirked as she leaned against a wall.

"Not really... I hardly know you" Rita answered honestly, her bluntness wiped the smirk off the girl's face.

"Good point but don't get too excited since I'm not your assigned babysitter" the girl nodded in the direction of the window on which another girl now sat.

"Greetings, Topazians! I come in peace!" the girl laughed a hearty laugh, "They call me Jamanda Woman! But Jamanda is just fine too."

"Show off," the petite ninja rolled her eyes, "She's a fellow Topazian too and she has this weird habit of having an accent but don't listen to a word she say-"

"We shoud' be equal, mun! We need to luv our broders and sisters and respect everyone!" Jamanda suddenly started talking in a very strange accent which Rita has never heard before.

"There she goes again..." the petite ninja sighed.

"Umm...I was wondering...what is your name?" Rita asked the petite ninja but she was nowhere to be seen now.

"Bah! Forget 'bout dat, mun! How 'bout we get going, ya?" Jamanda dragged Rita out of the room and outside where the rest of the scouts were waiting. One of them was chewing on her shoe.

"Mun, like, what ya doin'?" Jamanda asked the strange girl.

"Chewing, what does it look like?" the girl said with pride.

"She's asking why you're doing that, you fool!" Rita could not stand this type of people.

"No reason. They call me Liwie the Weirdo after all for a reason" the girl carried on chewing her shoe.

"Mun, I like dat attitude, yah. From now'a on, I'll call ya Olive" Jamanda said and walked away leaving Rita thinking Why Olive? while 'Olive' did not mind at all and carried on with her very exciting and productive activity. Jamanda finally signalled for the scouts to move on and they all disappeared at once.

"H-huh?!" Rita looked around where there was nothing but clouds of dust left due to the fast movement of the scouts.

"C'mon, mun! Move along!" Jamanda motioned for Rita to follow her. The method of travelling for Topazians was unbelievably fast and similar to how Rita travelled with her comrades – what she called 'Tree Transportation' where you basically run and jump through trees at immense speed. They ran like that for quite a while before reaching a large lake.

"Like what's up with dat lake, mun" Jamanda peeked at the lake from the bushes not far from it while Rita noticed that all the scouts were once again behind Jamanda. "Like all scouts try to look around for any strange activity, yah."

And so the scouts disappeared again. Rita tried to look out for anything suspicious but there was no strange activity going on as they were told. It went on like that until it was evening and Jamanda decided that enough was enough and they needed to start camp. As everyone was resting, Rita sat by the campfire polishing and sharpening her dagger. She was bored so she decided to give it a name, Carnwennan was the first thing that came to her mind. Carnwennan it is then! Rita thought cheerfully as she put it away. She decided that she should take a midnight walk since no sleep came to her. The night was rather peaceful and the lake was still. A gentle breeze blew and Rita sat down by the lake, watching it curiously. There was some strange feeling which she felt by being near the lake, one that she could not explain nor describe. She reached out her hand towards the lake when unexpectedly a face rose from the lake. Rita in shock stumbled backwards and grabbed her dagger. The figure rose from the lake, revealing a tall blonde beauty. Rita noticed as the lady was coming towards her from the lake that she wore a lovely turquoise dress. The lady stopped right before the shore, not coming out of the lake. The lady stared at Rita with her blue eyes until she finally spoke.

"How long are you going to stare at me?" she said, clearly irritated, "You think I like standing here, being stared at? At least come closer!"

Rita took a few steps forward but kept her distance from the lady, just in case.

"Sooo..." the lady fiddled with her hair, "What's your name?"

Rita stared at the lady in disbelief. First she comes out of the lake with no explanation what-so-ever and now she wants to know my name? Rita shook her head.

"Arthurs. What does it matter?" Rita decided not to give the lady her first name.

"Arthur? My! You look so feminine!" the lady gasped.

"No no no. It's a surname, and it's Arthurs and I am a g-" Rita tried to clear up the misunderstanding but it was too late.

"Yes! It was Arthur who I needed to meet indeed! I am the Lady of the Lake, you see! My actual name is Niki but since I'm LOL – Lady of the Lake, everyone just calls me NikiLOL." Niki explained to Rita, interrupting Rita trying to clear up the misunderstanding Niki seemed to have, "You are a bit younger than I expected but I have something for you!"

The lady fiddled around in the water, as if trying to find something and then took out a large beautiful sword.

"This here is the good old Excalibur! Take it; it is yours, young Arthur!" Niki offered Rita the sword. Rita decided that since there was no way of clearing the misunderstanding, she might as well play along and get a sword out of it.

"So why exactly do I need it?" Rita looked suspiciously at the sword in her hand which seemed to glow a little in her hands.

"Since you will need it! You are the re-incarnation of King Arthur so you will need your old sword back!" Niki was already starting to submerge back into the lake before Rita could ask any further questions. This is just crazy! King Arthur? Lady of the Lake? What kind of a joke is this?! Rita was not sure whether she was supposed to believe that crazy story or not but at least she had a sword now; it would surely prove useful to her later on.

Rita decided to make her way back to camp and the next morning Jamanda received a message that everything was clear now and that they should return. The whole scouting trip seemed all suspicious especially since Rita apparently passed so she would have been welcomed to Topaz with open arms if she wished to enter it. When Rita arrived back, she received a letter telling her that the next tribe which she will have to try out would finally be the Ruby tribe as promised since Ellancelot was finally back from her mission.