A Herald of a New Age

Chapter eighteen. A proposal

|an| Thanks to everyone sticking with this story. Once its finished its finished and then hopefully anyone can come along and read it without all the annoying waiting. We are well over halfway, but lots to happen.

Okay, without further ado, |an|

Arthur trudged through the morning light of the woods, steadily climbing the valley. If you'd asked him where he was headed, he wouldn't have known. Just, away from it all. Elyan and Gwen played endlessly on his mind, only broken by thoughts of Merlin.

Why couldn't he let Gwen back into his life? His mind told him it was unrealistic to just forget about everything that had happened, but his heart told him to sod it. She had been enchanted- but.. But..

He couldn't think of a good come back. Perhaps he just didn't want to put all those months of confusion and rejection to waste. Something held him back, always.

Always things held him back. He kicked a passing tree stump. Whether it be his fathers drilling and training; his constant questioning of himself; his overly stressful existence and desire to prove to everyone that he could manage.. Arthur often found himself either giving up, or going ahead- there was no in between. If he chose to go ahead, he focused on a single task, if he chose to give up, it was because there was too much going on for him to single a destination out.

He could feel himself giving up now. A knight lost, a quest in peril, a relationship in the balance. What to do, where to go, how to do it?

He hadn't eaten in how long? It didn't matter, he wasn't hungry.

He continued to climb, numb, until he found himself breaking from the trees into what looked like the midday sun. He blinked in surprise, he hadn't noticed. He supposed it didn't matter though.

It was dewy and muggy up here, a fine breeze swirled about in all directions, so you couldn't hide behind a gorse bush and escape it, but Arthur didn't mind. The chill was a distraction, and he sank down on the open grass to take it in.

You could just about see Ealdor in the valley- while it was still in his sights, Arthur relished in the physical distance from his troubles. Some peace? If you could call it that.

He realised he was breathing in a light pant, the climb had been long without a horse, he hadn't noticed until now how tired he was.

Sleep? Surely wasn't possible... but if he just let his head rest against the grass, maybe he would find some relief.

He tried it, and quickly withdrew his now cold, dewy head from the grass. He sat back up again and pulled his legs in, to prop up his arms as he twiddled a blade of grass. This was pointless, he couldn't just sit around aimlessly, or wander endlessly without purpose, he was supposed to be leading this quest. He had a responsibility to his knights and Merlin to keep going, the children could stay here in Ealdor if need be, though Arthur doubted Medan would agree to such terms. He was a strange boy, no doubt, different even from the Druids, perhaps it was because he came from the War Tribe. The last stand against Arthurs father.

Arthur found himself sinking into thought.

He'd half expected Medan to hate him more than anyone else because of his upbringing, but he was learning that hatred was something Druids were not focused on. They were so wise that they couldn't hate and so peaceful that they wouldn't harm. Arthur felt a slap from the ever more chilling wind as he thought of how his fathers Purge had flipped everything upside down. He could change that though, he could prove to everyone that he could be different. He couldn't hate his father, nor lose his respect for the man, but he was his own King.