Arthur opened his eyes to the wonderful sight of Selenia smiling at him, and her smooth, supple hand in his. He mouthed the words 'morning' to her, before glancing over at Beta to see him still fast asleep. He motioned upwards to Selenia as he pulled off his cover and began to rise to his feet. Selenia rolled her eyes in annoyance, but did the same.
As Arthur retrieved the sword from the rock he had placed it against the previous night, he realised Selenia had stopped halfway towards the shoreline, and seemed to be transfixed on something above Beta. He followed her gaze, and realised with a grin what she was looking at.
Beta's bed was positioned directly below the end of the leaf, and on the end of the leaf lay a huge droplet of water, probably left over from last night's rainstorm. Selenia slowly turned to him, a mischievous smile covering her face. She nodded to Beta's knife, which was positioned a few feet away from Beta, and then to the sword in Arthur's hand. A wide smile on his face, Arthur gently but firmly threw the sword to her. She managed to catch it, twirling it round in her hand, apparently getting used to it. Arthur had forgotten that she hadn't even touched the sword in ten moons.
Moving silently step by step towards Beta, Selenia brought the sword backwards, then with one quick slash, swung it back round into the rope that protruded from Beta's knife. There was a loud snap, and they both looked up to see the leaf spring backwards into its regular position. But the droplet of water that had been balancing so precariously on the end of the leaf, was launched into the air, where it seemed to remain stationary, floating for a few seconds, before beginning to fall with impressive speed, until it collided with a tremendous SPLASH directly on Beta. Beta sprung upwards in an instant, randomly waving his arms about like a panicked child, before actually opening his eyes and looking crossly at Arthur and Selenia. But by that point, they couldn't even see Beta's reaction. They were too busy rolling around on the floor, laughing.
"Shower time!" Selenia managed to choke through her extensive laughter, and even Beta managed to join in after that. While his body continued to convulse with humour, Arthur's mind drifted into a state of joy. He was glad they were still a team.
Gathering up what little belongings they had with them, they finally poked their head out from under the shelter. Arthur turned to them.
"Right. I'm going to go gather some water from the lake before we go. Beta, try and find us some dragonfly eggs for the journey, and Selenia, try and get to a high point and scout the area around us." He explained. They both handed him their water canteens; Beta jogged off happily into the foliage, and Selenia nodded with a smile at him, before strolling up towards the peak of the hill. Arthur made his way back to the shore of the lake, unscrewing their canteens one by one and scooping up bottlefuls of clear, sparkling water. But as he filled up his own, his eyes just happened to glance at the surface of the water, and fell on his own reflection. It almost startled him, looking at himself when he wasn't human. He was so used to the face of the young boy staring back at him, not a Minimoy with a huge afro of spiky white hair.
Focusing more closely on his face though, he seemed to notice that many of his features seemed to have altered. Apart from the obvious things, like his general appearance, his face seemed more complex. More mature perhaps. Now that he thought about it, they all looked different than when Arthur first met them. He sighed and chuckled to himself, marvelling how much they'd been through together since he fell out of the telescope. It was incredible.
There was a rustling of leaves behind him, and he turned to see Beta emerge from the huge leaves, munching on a dragonfly egg, whilst carrying about five others.
"Are you really going to be able to carry all of those, Beta?" Arthur grinned.
"Oh, it's fine. I can store them inside of my knife, you know!" And he pulled out his knife and pressed a random button. A small hand shot out of the knife, in which he placed a dragonfly egg. The hand shot backwards into the small metal circle, seeming to absorb the egg into the metal itself.
YOU ARE READING
Arthur and the Invisibles 4: Defender of the Seven Kingdoms
FanfictionAlmost an entire year has passed since the events of the War of Two Worlds, and Arthur has returned home to his grandparent's house, home of the Minimoys. The sky is looking clear, the telescope has been repaired, and even his father is allowing him...
