If I Could Tell It

The Darkling Forest outside Camelot, Britain, 646

Summer in Camelot, unlike in America, went by like any other season, it just happened to be warmer. The same patrols were run, the same training exercises, the same terrible Latin lessons, the same war. Each day fading into the next like shades of gray drawn with the side of a pencil. It was all the same, that is, until the annual August capture the flag exercise.

Capture the flag was a game that my grandfather had brought over from Rome and had become a traditional training exercise. We either played it in the forest just north of Camelot, or the troops commandeered the palace and played throughout the towers. In August, we played it in the woods because it was usually nice and sunny out and therefore we did not have to worry about things getting ruined.

So, we all headed out to the forest, all thirty two of us that is. That was all the men and boys of Camelot that were not off fighting in the war. Lionel and Kay were captains. That was how desperate we were for men. Kay was second rank in fighting. If it had been up to me I would have at least chosen Kay’s friend Bedivere to be captain, at least he could be slightly nice to me.

Lancelot and I stood next to each other with the other twenty eight boys under the cool shade of the trees of the forest. Kay and Lionel stood in front of the group holding their metal staffs in front of their bodies. Kay stood with his chin up, looking quite haughty, the worst part was that it looked as if he was looking straight at me, almost as if to say. I am better than you Arthur, look I am captain and you are not.

Lionel announced the concepts of the game and how him and Kay would pick who would be on their teams. Then he offered Kay first pick, and as predicted, he chose Bedivere and Bedivere went to stand next to him. I had a looming feeling that Lancelot and I would be picked close to last, or worst of all, on separate teams. So, surprise struck me when Lionel called my name first.

I walked to his side and he smiled at me and patted my shoulder which was now only a couple inches below his own.

The picking continued, and Lionel did pick Lancelot, thank goodness I would not be alone. Towards the dwindling end of the supply of boys, Lionel picked someone named Perceval. I had never met Perceval before, even though he looked about my age, maybe his father had gone to fight in the war and he was to be fostered here in Camelot, that was a common occurrence.

Once everyone was picked, the teams followed their captains to their respective bases to collect capes and banners of their team’s colors. Lionel was yellow, so we all put on an ugly, urine colored cape and were given time to socialize while Lionel formulated a strategy.

The yellow base was basically a large stone bowl with jagged sides making up the edges. Moss lined everything, blending it almost completely in with the forest. Crevices in the jagged sides made storage areas for spare weapons, food, and other supplies. Lancelot sat down with our legs crossed, alone in a corner watching the men mill around and struggle to fasten capes to their shoulders.

Perceval walked up to Lancelot and I. We just watched him, calculating. We both stood up as he approached.

“Hello.” He said. I noticed that he was two inches taller than me and that bothered me.

“Hello.” I replied, tilting my chin up ever so slightly.

“My name is Perceval.” He said, not knowing that I had already knew. “I figure I best introduce myself to you since you were first pick.”

“Ah.” I said as if I knew exactly what I was doing.

“So what is your name?” He prompted me, obviously annoyed at my lack of nicety.

“Arthur.” I told him. Then arrogantly. “Arthur Pendragon.”

“My lord.” He bowed his head slightly to me. Lancelot elbowed me in the ribs at my arrogance and my exploitation of my title. Usually I would never use my title to make myself look better, I just felt a bit insecure around Perceval for some reason.

“Mhmm.” I replied. Lancelot elbowed me again and I punched him in the arm. “Nice to meet you Perceval.”

“We better go get our capes.” Lancelot motioned to the boy who was handing out the atrocious yellow capes. “Coming Perceval?”

I saw Perceval smile at Lancelot’s including him. Usually it was me who introduced new people to our friendships, it bothered me. Part of it may have been self-doubt, I was afraid that if Lancelot made another friend, then he might not be friends with me anymore, but that was silly, I must keep these thoughts out of my head.

We each received a cape from the light haired boy who was handing them out and Lancelot fastened mine and Perceval’s. Lancelot was always the best with clips and ties after all. The yellow, as predicted, looked dreadful with our brown tunics, but it was Lionel’s color so we had to cope with it.

“Gather ’round!” Lionel yelled to all the boys at the base.

We formed a semicircle around him to listen to him tell us about the strategy that he had decided upon.

“We are going to be almost exclusively defensive.” Lionel explained. “So we will have almost everyone guarding the base, three of us will be invading the blue team and retrieving their flag.”

“Who will be the three on offense?” A large, stocky boy asked. I knew that his name was Alb, and that he was incredibly strong even though he was only fifteen.

“I was just getting to that.” Lionel explained. “Arthur, Perceval, and I will be the offense. The rest of you will be defense.”

I looked at Lancelot and he shrugged. Perceval was grinning at me. Oh joy. All I could think of was that Perceval was going to screw it up, after all, how much experience could he have had if he had just come to Cadbury Castle?

Lionel went on to give everyone their posts. Perceval and I walked up to where Lionel was standing and stood next to him. After Lionel finished speaking to everyone he turned to us.

“You are fine being offense right?” He asked us.

We nodded.

“Great!” Lionel clapped his hands together. He seemed to catch on to my slight aversion to Perceval and was smiling nervously. “I thought the three of us would be a great team. Perceval works mace, Arthur sword, and me staff. That way we can be diverse.”

I shrugged. “How do you know Perceval?”

“He is my cousin.” Lionel told me. I looked at the two of them. Lionel’s tan skin and curly blonde hair, Perceval’s short dark straight hair and pale skin. Lionel was average height for being twenty-one and all, but Perceval was as tall as Lionel and he was probably only thirteen or fourteen. To be frank, they looked nothing alike.

I just looked at Lionel and raised my eyebrows.

“Adopted cousin.” Lionel clarified. “My father was good friends with his, when Perceval’s father...passed, he went to live with my mother in Cornwall, where I am from.”

I nodded, processing the information. When Lionel’s mother had died a couple of months ago Perceval must have been forced to move to Cadbury Castle when that happened. He had probably gotten here only about a week ago which explained why I had not seen him.

We sat down in a small three person circle on the mossy stone ground and Lionel explained the strategy he had come up with to us.

I would sneak in through the back of their base and grab the flag while him and Perceval came in from the front to cause a distraction. Once Perceval and Lionel got free of the tiff they would likely be in with Kay’s men, I would trade the real flag to Lionel for a blue tunic. Lionel and Perceval would in turn hide in a small cave that they knew about way in the back of the forest where Kay would probably not have anyone on guard. Then, when I had the attention of the blue defense, because they had seen me pull the flag in the first place and now had a blue strip of fabric, I would climb a tree with the flag and wait the night out. When all the men had gathered around the tree to wait me out, Lionel and Perceval would slip back to our own base undetected, and thus, win the game.

When Lionel finished explaining, Perceval and I nodded in understanding and submission and glanced at each other as if we were sizing the other up.

We heard the dong of the silver bell call out over the forest signaling the start of the game. The rest of the boys went to their posts around the base and around the bright yellow flag that stood in the center of the stone bowl.

“Ready?” Lionel asked us.

“Ready!” Perceval said cheerfully. I glared at him, people should not sound that cheerful.

“Mhmm.” I answered and patted Caliburnus at my side. I noticed Perceval had a large, mounted, metal mace in his left hand. He was left handed as well, such a surprise, left handed people only added to the lack of structure and uniformity of the human race. I suppose one could say that variation was good, and I agree in terms of race and personality. However, when there were right and left handed people it made it so that some things had to be made two ways and that was just plain inefficient.

Lionel nodded, still gauging my demeanor, and stood up. “Do you have the things you need?”

“My sword.” I answered, drawing it from its scabbard.

Perceval held up his mace.

The mace was bronze, which was quite interesting, most often steel or gold was used. The Greeks used to make their weapons out of bronze, maybe he was Greek and it had been passed down to him from there. That would make sense after all, based on his very dark hair and fair skin.

“For Britain.” Lionel chanted softly.

“For Britain.” Perceval echoed.

I said nothing.

Britain was my father’s country.

Sprinting through greenery while the world blurs around you and adrenaline turning your blood into liquid energy is a most amazing and horrifying experience I love. All I feel is clean, thick, refreshing air filling my lungs and being expelled through my mouth in wheezes of sticky panting. I know that sweat forms on my arms and soaks through my tunic but it feels like raindrops with the air rushing by my running figure. My cape flies behind me like an ugly yellow banner being proudly displayed in a show of defiance. The blue flag is bunched in my left hand that does not hold a sword. It feels wet. And sticky.

Urine.

They pissed on the flag.

My eyes searched my surroundings for Lionel so I could pass the contaminated flag away from my hands. The smell caught up to me and it burnt my nose hairs. My disliking of Kay increased dramatically due to his disgusting battle strategy and his inherent lack of hygiene.

I saw a flash of yellow cape behind a thick sycamore tree and I aimed my sprint toward it, knowing that it was Lionel who was waiting for me.

I handed him the soiled flag and he nodded to me, shoved the blue tunic at me and immediately sprinted off in the direction that I had been running. I doubled back, holding the tunic just so the blue could be seen, listening carefully to the trampling feet of Kay’s men running after me.

I looked rapidly around me for a decent climbing tree, anything with broad low branches that I could pull myself up on without too much trouble.

I saw it, a huge field maple tree with an immense amount of lush green leaves and thick branches to show that it was healthy enough to hold my weight.

I jumped as high as I could and thankfully caught the lowest branch, my fingers staining to wrap around the rough bark. I used all my strength to pull my body up with my arms so I could hook my leg around the branch and pull up to a seated position. From there, I carefully stood up, supporting myself by leaning against the trunk and grabbed the next branch which was at chest height. I pulled myself up to standing position on that branch and looked down. I was only about ten feet off the ground. The branches were more tightly woven and would be easily scaled from here. I looked up and saw a place where I could comfortably sit and wait for either one of the blue team to climb the tree and harass me or for Lionel and Perceval to win the game.

I heard the sound of boys panting and feet pounding against the forest floor. I tried my best to quiet my heavy breathing from my sprint but it was still audible.

“I saw him go this way Bedivere!” I heard Kay’s voice say in frustration. “I swear I saw him!”

“Well he is not here!” Bedivere said back. “You probably just imagined that you saw him.”

“I do not imagine things!” Kay said harshly. Then I could almost picture him smirking. “Although he certainly does. I swear that boy does not have his head on straight.”

I gritted my teeth and gripped the branch I was holding harder. I wanted nothing more than to draw my sword and run some sense into Kay.

“Probably from the witch he has been lying with.” Bedivere snickered.

My chest was so tight I thought it would burst open and my stomach churned with hot lava. Rage pulsated through my body and I twisted awkwardly trying to compensate. I wanted to yell and swear and fight them. Talking about my insanity was one thing, I had grown used to it since my terrible decision to tell about my American escapades. Talking about Viviane, whom I had only held hands with, as a witch that I merely saw to sleep with was something completely different.

I accidentally broke a smallish branch from the tightness of my fist. My eyes widened nervously and I stood completely still.

“Bed’ did you hear that?” Kay asked quickly, hearing my sound.

“I did.” Bedivere answered.

“It had to be Arthur.” Kay breathed.

I hoped with all my heart they did not look up.

They looked up.

“Get down from there!” Kay yelled at me, then catching a glimpse of the blue fabric.“And give us back our flag!”

“The flag you pissed on?!” I questioned angrily. One) because of frustration. Two) to give Lionel more time.

“Well we thought it would keep you away!” Kay said meanly. “I suppose you do not notice though after the filth you have been in company with! What was his name? Merlin?”

“Shut up Kay.” My voice was incredibly low with my anger, my voice deepening in general, and my fight to keep high pitched cracks out of it.

“Do we need to shoot at you?” He sneered at me. “Give it up, you have been caught! Now give us back our flag!”

“I have not been caught until I give up! And I have no intention of doing so!” My anger invaded my senses. “Unlike you with that dragon!”

“You bastard…” Kay glared daggers at me.

“What dragon?” Bedivere asked, curious.

“You say one word and I swear-” Kay’s words were cut off as a flash of orange and yellow light cascaded our vision like a waterfall.

The leaves of my tree caught fire and I heard an ominous crackling sound. Tongues of flame licked up at me and I felt their heat through my tunic.

I had no choice but to jump.

So jump I did.

To my surprise I felt a body cushion my fall, and arms, a leather tunic and the hardness of a metal staff pressed against body.

Kay caught me.

A giant flaming bird appeared out of the fiery mountain that had once been my hiding place. Its pastel orange and yellow wings must have spanned ten feet and red and blue feathery tendrils of fire made up its long tail. The body of the beast was sheer burnt golden light, burning our eyes with its bright glory. The bird was like a sunbeam cascading into a dark room, although the room was not dark, the sunbeam was too much.

“Phoenix.” I heard Bedivere whisper softly as Kay pushed me away from his body, feeling the need to cement the fact that he still did, in fact, hate me.

I carefully drew Caliburnus from its place on my belt and held it weakly in front of myself. The birds eyes were fiery balls of light like on the fourth of July there, they were bursting in my eyes, hypnotizing me with their silent explosions.

I looked at Kay, he was frozen at the sight of the magnificent creature. I kicked his shin and his reflexes managed to function and he kicked me back, then moved his metal staff defensively in front of his body. Bedivere clutched the staff of his spiked mace to his chest.

The bird’s eyes continue to stay fixated on us as if we were an extremely interesting form of entertainment. One movement that was displeasing to it and it would expel waves of fire and laser like light upon us. One wrong step. How would we fight it if it could incinerate us in seconds.

Its powerful wings flapped less and it landed on two thin, crimson legs. The leaves around it caught fire and others roasted and turned to a dead brown color.

“What do we do?” Bedivere asked without taking his eyes off of the Phoenix.

I waited for an answer that Kay was not going to make.

Bedivere was asking me.

“W-well” I gauged our surroundings, broad trunked deciduous trees, a brownish green forest floor, and- I listened carefully. I heard the faintest trickling of water in the far distance. A tiny stream, maybe our one chance of not being burned alive like heretics and witches.

I looked in the direction of the sound of the water and thought quickly, my thoughts racing like a thousand horses, all edging the others out in order for the chance to receive first place, to be the winner. Water put out fire, I knew that much, and that was why my interests had been immediately sparked when I heard the stream. I also knew that water could be absorbed, one time in Physical Science in America we had done a lab project in which we tested the absorbency of different materials of water by measuring how far up the water rose on the material when one end was inserted into a glass. We had used dry cloth as one of the materials. The blue decoy tunic was still clutched tight in my left hand, it was made of cloth.

“On my count of three we run.” I whispered, having apparently assumed the leadership role in the threesome of nerve wrecked boys.

They both nodded to me and despite the fear welling up in my throat I felt a sense of pleasure come from their subordination and respect for me.

“One…” I pointed toward the sound of the stream so they would know which direction to run in. “Two…” I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the pounding sprint I was about to do. “Three!”

And then we ran. Adrenaline fueling our legs that were hitting the ground like horses galloping into battle. Our arms pumping as if we were boxing some invisible being that stood a few feet out of our reach with every step we took.

The river was closer than I expected, I did not even stop to make sure that the phoenix had indeed followed us, I casted the dry tunic into the tiny stream and shoved it under the light flow of water with the toe of my boot. Once I was satisfied that it was thoroughly sopping with liquid I picked it up incurring a waterfall down the front of my tunic and cooling my hot chest.

I turned back in the direction that we had come from. The Phoenix stood, as expected, watching us, almost as if it was curious of us rather than having the violent desire for our deaths.

Without another thought I threw the wet tunic on the great bird’s side and it sizzled like raw meat on a hot griddle. The Phoenix cawed the most brilliantly terrifying sound I had ever heard and its eyes flashed pure white as the flaming feathers on its side were doused revealing exposed pink skin. My opportunity had arisen.

I lunged forward while the phoenix still screamed in pain at the wettening of its flame and I plunged my sword into the skin that had been made visible after the disappearance of the feathery fire.

I expected some sort of blood to gush or ooze out onto my sword and myself as had happened with the dragon when I pierced its armor, but none such did. With a great burst of blinding white light the phoenix’s body was lifted into the ear by some unseen force, my sword falling to the ground with my hand. Then the body exploded into gray ash like the eruption of a volcano and a small something fell to the burnt ground.

I tucked my still clean sword back into my belt and looked at Perceval and Kay who were staring at me in awe. They were standing in the stream as if it would have saved them from the flames of the phoenix.

I looked at the small something that had fallen to the ground when the body had exploded.

It looked like an orange marble at first glance. I picked it up and felt its surprisingly heavy weight in my palm, dim orange and red light swirled around inside the sphere. Its exterior felt like warm glass and I was afraid that if I dropped it it would break and whatever was flowing inside of it would scatter, seeping into the ground to rain upon the roots of trees.

“Arthur I-” Bedivere stepped toward me and dipped his head that was the same height as mine down ever so slightly so I was taller. “I am sorry I ever doubted you.”

Kay just nodded curtly. To me that meant so much more than Bedivere’s words though. He was acknowledging that I was worthy of his respect, that we might one day even be friends and get along and consider each other’s thoughts and ideas like allies instead of adversaries.

We all heard the bell ring loudly. The game was over. Lionel must have gotten the flag back to our base.

I just looked from Kay to Bedivere and back again, trying to know what to do. Finally, figuring that I was still in the position of leadership I said. “We best go back to the meeting place then.”

“Yes.” Bedivere agreed.

I tucked the spherical object in the side of my breeches under my trousers and we began to walk in a quiet line of three back to the central area halfway between the two bases. When we were just a few minutes from emerging into the area crowded with blue and yellow clad boys Kay spoke to me.

“Arthur.”

“Yes?” I answered.

“You should train with Bed’ and me sometime, you might get better practice than with Lancelot.”

And even though he was completely degrading my best friend it still made me smile. Maybe I was finally going to be accepted by people that were not misfits among most of the palace community. And for that I was happy.