Post by ladygwain on Nov 25, 2008 15:58:01 GMT
first fic to go on here from me so I hope you enjoy there is a part two, it was written for my friend as she was feeling ill bless her
The World moves on as Arthur and Merlin sleep, the weeks pass and the years until the two brave men are nothing more than legends, but one remembers.
A young sixteen year old girl can sometimes be seen flitting here and there in the ruined castle of Tintagel, the ruined castle that was once known as Camelot.
She speaks soo infrequently that she forgets what her voice Is for, and when she remembers, in front of the innocent young sightseers she imparts the story of Arthur and Merlin telling it with such reverence that the children she speaks too feel like it has only just happened, that Merlin and Arthur rode away yesterday and have just been frozen in time.
When the children run back to their parents the girl weeps, she weeps for her brother and she weeps to be soo alone.
The children fall asleep in their cars or tour busses and when they wake, safe in the arms of their parents, the girl is but a dream but the story of Arthur and Merlin lives on.
For the girl it feels like weeks have passed, weeks since the king ascended the throne, and weeks since they went in search of Nimueh, but it is not it has been years.
When the girl sleeps, she dreams, and in her dreams everything is fine, the king is on the throne and her brother is his trusted advisor, and Gaius talks of moving to leyonesse. Everything is right in the world.
As the girl sleeps the enchantments that she has woven fall away and she is seen as she should be, an old and withered woman, as thin as a rake with her hair white in the moonlight.
Sometimes she forgets when she wakes and she calls for her brother or for Gaius or for Gwen, then she remembers and she starts the day with tears.
Sometimes she has visitors that stay, a stray cat, a sparrow, a family of mice, but over the years they too wither and fade, and she wonders why she bothers.
Every day she walks down to the orchard and picks four red apples, and every day come rain or shine she walks down the cliff and into a cave. There she sees the frozen faces of her brother and the king, and it is there that she leaves the apples. She sometimes talks to them, but not for as long anymore, she has run out of things to say.
When the tourists go home they leave behind their rubbish, empty crisp packets and plastic bottles of drinks, she wonders what these things are, because she has become soo detached from the world that she doesn’t understand their habits.
There was a time, fifty years or so ago when she understood everything, Motor cars, Sandwiches, Parasols, lemonade, picnic, but now she doesn’t feel interested, she just feels hollow.
She has long since forgotten the voice of her brother, his smiles, and the way he used to annoy her. But she remembers the last thing that he wrote to her, on a scrap of parchment that has now turned to dust.
He wrote
“When the world has need of us we will return”
And she wonders if he thought about what he would be leaving behind, who he was leaving behind, she decides that it would be better to know when that time was, she could at least be prepared for it.
The world turns and Tintagel crumbles a little more, more of the once majestic city falls into the waves and is forgotten. She wonders if the day when The king and his advisor awake will be sooner rather than later, because at this rate there will be nothing left to rule over.
She sometimes weaves her enchantments a little too well and she sees the past, It is then that she wishes that she didn’t have such power. Because she walks long in the past and is able to forget, but when she remembers and the spell she has woven has ended, she feels like her heart has been ripped in two, the hunger for the past and the hunger for the future to come is sometimes too much, and she forgets her task.
When the queen left this world she made the girl promise to protect Camelot, protect the king and his advisor until the time that they should return. She promised, and did not realize what her cost would be.
She realizes now, but it is too late to renege her promise, and anyway, what has she got to go to if she leaves, who can she go to, where can she go? Lyonesse has long since closed its gates to her and she would not be able to live in this new world of loud noise and change.
So she stays and she brings apples to the cave by the sea, because one day they will awaken and no doubt they will need sustenance.
The world turns and the girl gives up her illusion, and people see her for who she really is. She is tired of pretense, she is tired of the walk to the cave, she is soo tired.
She lies down on her bed of moss, and the world turns.
When she wakes it will be because her king and her brother have need of her.
The tourists come, and some children who have seen her before weep at the plight of the young girl. They carry apples from the orchard down to the cave on the cliff and they plead with the two men encased in magic to wake.
Strong hands carry the girl to Lyonesse; soothing voices talk to her and promise her that they have returned that the world had need of them, that she had need of them.
Fin
The World moves on as Arthur and Merlin sleep, the weeks pass and the years until the two brave men are nothing more than legends, but one remembers.
A young sixteen year old girl can sometimes be seen flitting here and there in the ruined castle of Tintagel, the ruined castle that was once known as Camelot.
She speaks soo infrequently that she forgets what her voice Is for, and when she remembers, in front of the innocent young sightseers she imparts the story of Arthur and Merlin telling it with such reverence that the children she speaks too feel like it has only just happened, that Merlin and Arthur rode away yesterday and have just been frozen in time.
When the children run back to their parents the girl weeps, she weeps for her brother and she weeps to be soo alone.
The children fall asleep in their cars or tour busses and when they wake, safe in the arms of their parents, the girl is but a dream but the story of Arthur and Merlin lives on.
For the girl it feels like weeks have passed, weeks since the king ascended the throne, and weeks since they went in search of Nimueh, but it is not it has been years.
When the girl sleeps, she dreams, and in her dreams everything is fine, the king is on the throne and her brother is his trusted advisor, and Gaius talks of moving to leyonesse. Everything is right in the world.
As the girl sleeps the enchantments that she has woven fall away and she is seen as she should be, an old and withered woman, as thin as a rake with her hair white in the moonlight.
Sometimes she forgets when she wakes and she calls for her brother or for Gaius or for Gwen, then she remembers and she starts the day with tears.
Sometimes she has visitors that stay, a stray cat, a sparrow, a family of mice, but over the years they too wither and fade, and she wonders why she bothers.
Every day she walks down to the orchard and picks four red apples, and every day come rain or shine she walks down the cliff and into a cave. There she sees the frozen faces of her brother and the king, and it is there that she leaves the apples. She sometimes talks to them, but not for as long anymore, she has run out of things to say.
When the tourists go home they leave behind their rubbish, empty crisp packets and plastic bottles of drinks, she wonders what these things are, because she has become soo detached from the world that she doesn’t understand their habits.
There was a time, fifty years or so ago when she understood everything, Motor cars, Sandwiches, Parasols, lemonade, picnic, but now she doesn’t feel interested, she just feels hollow.
She has long since forgotten the voice of her brother, his smiles, and the way he used to annoy her. But she remembers the last thing that he wrote to her, on a scrap of parchment that has now turned to dust.
He wrote
“When the world has need of us we will return”
And she wonders if he thought about what he would be leaving behind, who he was leaving behind, she decides that it would be better to know when that time was, she could at least be prepared for it.
The world turns and Tintagel crumbles a little more, more of the once majestic city falls into the waves and is forgotten. She wonders if the day when The king and his advisor awake will be sooner rather than later, because at this rate there will be nothing left to rule over.
She sometimes weaves her enchantments a little too well and she sees the past, It is then that she wishes that she didn’t have such power. Because she walks long in the past and is able to forget, but when she remembers and the spell she has woven has ended, she feels like her heart has been ripped in two, the hunger for the past and the hunger for the future to come is sometimes too much, and she forgets her task.
When the queen left this world she made the girl promise to protect Camelot, protect the king and his advisor until the time that they should return. She promised, and did not realize what her cost would be.
She realizes now, but it is too late to renege her promise, and anyway, what has she got to go to if she leaves, who can she go to, where can she go? Lyonesse has long since closed its gates to her and she would not be able to live in this new world of loud noise and change.
So she stays and she brings apples to the cave by the sea, because one day they will awaken and no doubt they will need sustenance.
The world turns and the girl gives up her illusion, and people see her for who she really is. She is tired of pretense, she is tired of the walk to the cave, she is soo tired.
She lies down on her bed of moss, and the world turns.
When she wakes it will be because her king and her brother have need of her.
The tourists come, and some children who have seen her before weep at the plight of the young girl. They carry apples from the orchard down to the cave on the cliff and they plead with the two men encased in magic to wake.
Strong hands carry the girl to Lyonesse; soothing voices talk to her and promise her that they have returned that the world had need of them, that she had need of them.
Fin
