Excalibur Arisen

Chapter 1

     "Remin! Time to get up!"

       Half grunting with effort, Remin pushed himself up from his bed and checked the time. Seven thirty. Then he realized he'd forgotten to take his contacts out last night. Oh well, it wasn't going to kill him. Still only half awake, Remin nearly fell down the stairs and into the kitchen. His mother was seated at the kitchen table eating cereal. Searching for pancakes, Remin discovered them on the side door of the freezer. Only four left; they'd have to get more soon. He microwaved two of them on a plastic plate, grabbed a small silver fork and syrup, and sat down. He looked at his mother's facial expression- he could see was a talkative mood.

        "So, Remin," she began, eyes lighting up, "I think I've finally found myself a job!"

         "That's great!" I remarked. It was just the two of us living here, so we had to support ourselves with whatever money we could gather up. My mom had been looking for someone who'd take her as a waitress for months now. It's not the best-paying job in the world, but it's what she loves to do, so why should I stop her?

        "Isn't it?" She beamed. "There's so many things to like about it. It's close to the house, the pay is pretty good, they're lax on the dress code..." Now she finally began to get talkative, and as much as Remin would love to stay and listen to her talk, he had something else in mind for today.

         "That's great, mom, but I have a small job to do for the neighborhood." I claimed.

         "Shoveling snow out of the forest, huh?" She guessed.

           "Yeah," I admitted, "I get paid nine dollars an hour for it, so I figured, why not?"

           "You'd best get going soon then, the weatherman predicts more snow to hit by noon."

           "Will do. Thanks for the advice." Hurriedly I rushed upstairs to take a quick shower, get some new clothes and deodorant on and brush my teeth. All this I accomplished in less than a half hour. I then put on my winter jacket and boots. As I fumbled to find matching gloves, I overheard the newscaster talking about a new world threat that wanted to "conquer the world". Probably just a bunch of crazy, old, rich fools. Finally finding a pair of gloves (and not very warm-looking ones), Remin headed out the door, shovel in hand and made his way to the forest. After an hour and a half, he'd made a decently sized, rectangular shaped clearing in the small forest. As he shoveled to clear a small patch of forest from the snow, he'd hit something hard. He tried shoveling there again, to no avail. Remin decided to dig whatever this thing was, likely just a rock, out of the ground. He began shoveling dirt out of his way, and he noticed a shiny, sharp tip. But what was it a tip of? He dug out the earth to the sides of this tip, and what he found both shocked and amazed him. He'd found a sword, buried under the earth. Looking at the handle, he felt a sense of familiarity. Then he gasped. He recognized the sword from illustrations of it in a book. Now Remin started shaking his head. It couldn't be Excalibur...could it?