onepassingnight | ♔ 2 | The Other Side...

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♔ 2 | The Other Side...

The rain is pelting down and the rocks are hard under Arthur's feet as he flees through the forest looking for somewhere to hide.

Behind him are thundering footfalls, the sound of a band of knights in pursuit.

Arthur picks a bad moment to look over his shoulder to see if his pursuers are gaining ground on him, suddenly he's tripping on a fallen log and tumbling down a steep embankment to the bottom, collecting any number of bruises and scrapes.

The wind is knocked out of him for a moment and he finds himself unable to move for a moment, which is long enough for faces to appear at the top of ditch, the knights of Camelot! Coming for him!

They have however, grouped themselves together and Arthur sees his chance. He scrambles to his feet and makes a desperate gesture, his eyes momentarily flash gold - so quick one would be hard pressed to notice - and a large heavy branch falls on top of the knights knocking them down.

It gives him precious time, time that he can use to escape...

If there even is escape.

Magic in Camelot will get you killed.

(OOC: No prizes for guessing the Chessboard flip - Arthur's warrior skills have been replaced by magic. He's now a Druid and an enemy of Camelot...)

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[Arthur looks a little put off by her comment. He straightens his shoulders.]

"Of course it isn't. I only meant I could conjure a wall of fire. But I have my ways, I've kept alive so far."

"Good." She says no more on the subject; it's on his head whether he chooses to strain for power and strength as she has, making it her driving force for the past several years.

"Where are we exactly?" Has he used this place before? What do they have available here to make their stand? "Don't get comfortable assuming they won't find this place."

"The Darkling Woods, a few miles north of Camelot. There's not much food in the outer areas, so someone needs to come here for food." [Arthur had volunteered and had been hunting rabbits when the knights came upon him.]

"We're very well hidden, I don't think they'll come after us."

With that assurance, she can begin to ask questions.

"You were too kind," she decides. "It won't stop them. You get nothing from it. But you plan to keep on helping the humans of this world?"

[Arthur looks at her quite puzzled.] "What do you mean? We're all human."

[The King would say otherwise, but Arthur's hardly going to listen to him.]

"And someone has to go for food, otherwise the children will starve."

That's different. She's alert at once. "Do you mean there are children in hiding?"

"Of course there is." [Arthur assumes that the girl is from Albion and thus somewhat familiar with what is going on.] "We Druids won't allow ourselves to die out. At least...not without a fight."

[Although, the children should be kept out of it.]

She's from the furthest thing from his world. Magic in hers is wielded only by a small handful of people, not a portion of the population. And magic brought them forward, in the Moon Kingdom that developed and advanced beyond anything Earth could have imagined.

But it is often hated and feared in her world as well, throughout its long history.

"Suffering for nothing more than that..." She trails off, then becomes firm. "I won't forgive the ones who drive it to this."

[Even magical!Arthur would never imagine something like that. Even if she tells him it's unlikely he'll believe her.

He clenches his jaw.]

"The King of Camelot claims all magic is evil, but how could children be evil? He has shown us no mercy and we will have to fight back."

[Which isn't as easy as it sounds...magic, even powerful magic has it's limits.]

Her motives are so much more mixed, and less pure, than his. They aren't the motives of the noble prince still inside Arthur's dream self. She simply wants the ones who'd deny her the power that's hers by right and by her heritage, to suffer. And, she'd say, the ones who should rule are the same ones with power.

"Power is the same, no matter the source," says the warrior whose world was equally threatened by the demon of darkness from the sun and the moon's princess of light.

[Arthur doesn't want to see anyone unduly suffer, in his mind even the King's death should not be prolonged. It's more than likely he'd be horrified if he could read her mind.

He can't though, so he nods.]

"I have seen those who would use magic for evil, just as I have been helped by those with no magic at all." [At great risk to themselves.]

"There's water in this cave, I should at least collect that if nothing else."

[She has not become a kind person in the Darkness.]

Magic is the same. It's the person who uses it, that you should accept or hate.

[Arthur nods.] "Some fail to understand that, unfortunately...they're the ones in power."

[He reaches into his cloak for a waterskin.] "Come on, this cave has an exit out the other side. I doubt the knights would go that far even if they knew where we'd gone."

"And if I go?" she asks coolly. "You plan to stay here in this kind of life?"

[Arthur has begun heading deeper into the cave, towards the sound of running water. He looks over his shoulder at her.]

"I can't leave my community," [he looks at her in surprise.] "They took me in when no-one else would."

"You have power," she argues. Somehow, she doesn't feel the water approaching, and she won't think to call that strange until she wakes up.

"Use that power to make the world you want."

[The girl seems strangely...intense...most Druids don't really feel a need to intergrate with society in general, just be able to live in peace.]

"I don't even know your name. I'm Arthur of the Ferdiad community. Which community are you from?" [It's the standard way that Druids recognise each other.]

The soldier of Fire and Wisdom, Mercury.

Call me by that. [She doesn't seem to wonder why the daughter of the water planet wields fire; perhaps that, too, is different right now.]

[Arthur is quite curious, he's never heard of that community before.]

"You're a solider? A magical one? I didn't think...Are you not from Camelot?"

[Arthur is intrigued by the idea of a magical solider...a group of knights to protect the Druids.]

To me, Camelot is a legend. [She still has a tendency to be slightly cryptic.]

However, if I exist, and I see Camelot for myself, I have to believe that Camelot exists.

[Arthur is quite confused by her statement.] "Of course it exists, we're here in it now."

[He finishes filling one waterskin, then begins with another. He then smiles at her.] "You do look as if you come from somewhere very far away, but rest assured you're on solid ground."

If I told you where I came from, would you believe me? [The question is thoughtful, as if there's no real urgency attached.]

"Of course I would," [Arthur looks surprised by the question.] "Why wouldn't I?"

[She's a very strange girl that's for certain...]

I was born on planet Mercury. My powers are because I was born under its protection.

[Have an extremely puzzled looking Arthur...the planet Mercury is known at this time, but not certainly not to him (awake or dreaming).]

"I see...I've never heard of it, I'm afraid," [he gives a shrug.] "Not that it matters, the important thing is that you were here."

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