"Hey Amaru! Fancy meeting you here! And Bryn Aeron... now that is the real surprise! It's been a few hundred years, hasn't it? Long time no see, my King!"

These words lingered in the cool evening air as the four of them stood on the field near the ancient stone circle.

Amaru raised an eyebrow and, looking at the woman who had just called over to them, said: "Is that you, Yuka? What are you doing here? You know him?" he pointed and looked at the detective next to him, "And what are you saying? He's a king?" Bryn remained silent as he attempted to identify the two strangers who had probably not coincidentally joined them in this place at midnight...

As the woman responded, Bryn's eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could make out a few more details. She was fairly tall, just shy of two meters he guessed, had blood red long hair that went halfway down her back, more a mane than human hair, and had pale skin. She wore a black leather jacket and dark jeans, giving her the look of a member of a punk-rock band. Next to her stood an about 1,80 m tall, similarly pale young man with snow white short hair that almost glowed in the moonlight, who seemed to be very interested in Bryn -- if he had expected to see him here, then at the very least he had not known about him being a king...

"Amaru, calm doooown." Yuka said, clearly quite amused, "Yes I know him, though I think the way I look right now might make it a bit hard to recognize me. Bryn Aeron here once was known as King Arthur Pendragon and I was his Crimson Dragon!"

Silence.

No one spoke for a few moments until Bryn, whose eyes had opened wide at the red-haired woman's words, said: "You are... Yuka Keyo... YOU ARE MY DRAGON?!?" this was a monumental revelation to him!

He stared at her and asked: "Why didn't you just tell me?! At the very least when we staged my death, when I had to disappear you could have told me! Or when I came back to look for you! Where were you all these years??"

Yuka simply chuckled at the detective's reaction, though Amaru's facial expression also contributed to that, as it very clearly showed that he was quite shocked.

"Hey, hey, hey! I didn't think it was necessary! I thought about it when you had to "die"... but well I... I had other business to attend to!" she evaded Bryn's gaze, "Look, it... I kept tabs on you, I didn't forget you! It's just that after you left, you took up different work and seemed to be quite happy with it! It was... easier this way! I'm involved in some serious stuff, so staying out of your life was actually me being nice to you!" Yuka appeared a lot less confident than when she had started the conversation for which she evidently hadn't really been prepared.

It took Bryn a moment to respond, he, the pale white-haired man next to Yuka and Amaru next to him, they all were a bit blind-sided by how the evening was unfolding.

"Wow... so... that's... that's how it is..." he slowly began, "So... how come you reveal yourself to me now?" Yuka shrugged and responded: "I honestly had no idea that you'd come here! After that explosion at your place in Swansea I thought you'd probably just disappear and find a new identity again, I mean I know you can't actually die... This was...  a bit of a spur of the moment decision, you know how much I like to make an entrance!" she grinned a little awkwardly, showing some very, very sharp teeth, causing the detective to shake his head and sigh.

"Okay... Usually I would indeed just have disappeared after something like that, but this time... this time is different.".
He fell silent for a moment as he relived the incident at his apartment in his mind, forgetting temporarily that he didn't trust half of the people present and continued in an agitated and worried voice, his eyes looking for answers in Yuka's amber eyes, "I was murdered! Practically disintegrated by some sort of shadowy being called Baraas who apparently had been looking for me for quite a while! I came here to check on my most valuable possessions to see whether or not this thing had found them! If someone like him... or it... got their hands on them, that could be catastrophic! You know that!"

Hearing the name Baraas clearly surprised Yuka, her eyes turning wide as they slowly moved from Bryn to Amaru.
She whispered: "Oh... well, that's... awkward..."

Bryn almost painfully slowly turned to look at Amaru, took a step back and said: "You have got to be kidding me!" he pointed at the dark haired man who was staring at the grass on the floor, eyes cold as ice. "He?! He is Baraas?! He is that monster?! That doesn't make ANY sense AT ALL!"

Yuka was about to respond when Amaru lifted his hand to stop her. "It's okay, I'll explain." he said calmly, "I am not Baraas, but... Baraas, is a part of me. Remember how I said the reason I have such a long life was pretty dark? Well he is... was... the reason." Amaru sighed and made an effort to smile reassuringly. "In the month that you were... recovering... we dealt with him. He won't be a problem anymore!"

Bryn let those words sink in as he looked back to Yuka, to the only person he -at least in the past- could trust.
She nodded.

"Okay... well that is... I honestly don't know what to say...", the detective fell silent for a moment and then remembered why he had come to Stonehenge.
"Even if this Baraas guy isn't going to come back, I need to check on my things! If you indeed kept an eye on my life, you probably know I haven't been here in centuries!"

Bryn made his way over to the stone circle and headed right for the center. As Yuka followed him with Amaru and the mysterious white haired young man, she called over to him: "Bryn! Can we come with you this time? Back when I was your dragon you never took me with you!" her words made him stop right before reaching the center of the structure.
Bryn turned around and looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "You were a little big for that..." Yuka pouted at him and crossed her arms, which caused Bryn to roll his eyes and gestured for the three of them to join him.

When they all stood in the circle he cleared his throat, "Okay! So the way this works is I will summon the portal to Avalon and those who are deemed worthy will come with me, and those who aren't... well they will have to wait here until we come back! Everybody ready?" he told them and before anyone could react, he went on to call out: "REYAK YA CYLRA YIROYI!"

A familiar feeling enveloped Bryn and his companions, it was like a blanket of tingling sparks covering the whole body and then for a few seconds their bodies felt like like they were asleep or even paralyzed. There was a quick flash of extremely bright light... and then... they were somewhere else!

The group found itself on a beach, surrounded by mist on all sides. The only sound they could hear was that of the waves of the ocean behind them, there was no wind, no voice, no sound, just eerie silence aside from the waves hitting the sand.

Bryn broke the silence: "Welcome to Avalon everyone!" and turned to look at the others. Yuka and her white haired friend eyed him curiously, so he asked: "What? Not what you expected?" the redhead avoided the question and said: "Looks like  Amaru couldn't join us..." Bryn nodded as he couldn't spot Amaru anywhere either. The detective also got the feeling that Yuka wasn't telling him something important, but he decided that he should check on his things first
--after all, he thought, he could simply ask her later.

"He'll have to wait for us then, come on let's go!" Bryn said as he started to walk straight ahead towards solid land and motioned for the others to follow him. As they crossed the beach it seemed as though the only part of the island that was actually real, were the few square meters of it they could see at a time --the rest was obscured by the thick, wavering mist. Temperature and vegetation -of which they hadn't seen much yet- resembled what they knew from the normal world, not that anyone could say for certain that this place wasn't just a remote island somewhere on Earth...
The beach bled into slightly mushy grass and mud as they reached a clearly manmade path, the mist still preventing them from seeing any farther than two to three meters.

"Excuse me, uhm, Sir.... Aeron?", a voice came from behind Bryn. It was the young man Yuka had brought along, he had walked up closer to him and seemed to feel quite awkward as he spoke to the man he had been told was King Arthur at some point in time. "I uhm, honestly I had hoped that I would have gotten a chance to introduce myself before we came here, but... yeah I have to admit I was a little baffled there... I don't think that many people can say they randomly ran into the legendary King Arthur!" he scratched the back of his head and smiled nervously. Bryn kept his head turned toward him as they continued to walk down the muddy path and smiled back, "Ah yeah, that is very understandable. We really didn't let Amaru and you in on anything at all there! And please, most of these 'legends' are rather... embellished..., honestly, I am also feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment...", he let out a sigh, "Anyway... What's your name, mysterious friend of Yuka?" He said and gave him a pat on the back.

The young man seemed a bit more at ease as Bryn assumed this more warm and friendly tone. He chuckled and responded with a slight inclination of his head as he introduced himself.

"I am Kuraak Varokzin Mahrokhorak! Please just call me Zin, I realize the full name is quite a mouthful!", he offered his hand and Bryn shook it and said: "Nice to meet you Zin! Indeed, I assume you tend to have to repeat that full name a lot to people trying to write it down? If I had to guess... the reason for such a long name is... that you are a member of the royal family of wherever you are from?" He had slipped back into the detective mindset, the inquisitive way of thinking that came so naturally to him.

Zin grinned at Bryn's comment on his name and nodded. "Yup, though I haven't used that name in public here on Earth, so I don't have to worry about that for now." On Earth? Bryn raised an eyebrow at that, but Zin just continued on, "And well done detective! It's true, I am a prince! That is actually what the word 'Kuraak' means. The rest is name and surname, pretty much like it works around here..." he broke off as if suddenly remembering that he perhaps wasn't supposed to talk about a certain topic.

"How much DID Yuka tell you about who she is? About WHAT she is... ?" Zin's tone had changed rather abruptly, now he seemed to attempt to tentatively determine how much the man he'd just met actually knew. Bryn turned his head to look at Yuka for a few moments. He didn't like this feeling of distrust these questions had caused, but at the moment he had more pressing issues to attend to...

The detective shook his head and continued to walk on straight ahead. "Looks like we need to have a bit of a talk later... But now we are almost at Caer Avalon, so I'll focus on that first." Zin nodded in response.

Only moments later Bryn and Zin stepped out of the mists into a kind of valley that opened up to a meadow as wide as the horizon with the silhouette of a castle-like structure a few hundred meters away from them. The mist ended right as the muddy path reached the bright-green grass of the meadow as if it was afraid to touch it.

Yuka came out of the wavering gray wall behind them, "Woooaaah...." she gasped, taking in the wide expanse in front of them  --clearly not having expected this.
Bryn just shook his head and walked ahead, not waiting for them to catch up.

He always found the walk across this endless seeming meadow to be very relaxing and refreshing.
There was something about it he couldn't quite put his finger on, something that just felt... peaceful...

A light breeze caressed the landscape, making the grass dance as if there was a slow melody to lead it. The temperature was pleasant and light from an undeterminable source gave the meadow and the castle they were closing in on the feeling of a warm summer's day.

"This is... beautiful! Wow!" Zin commented "Where... where are we here? I mean, it's like we traveled to a remote island in an instant!" Bryn shrugged and responded: "It certainly is beautiful! Unfortunately I can't answer that question... I have no idea... Not that I am one to believe all the conspiracy theories... but for a loooong time people have speculated that Stonehenge was a portal to another dimension. Who knows? Maybe they are actually right!"

Zin nodded and looked back at Yuka who was trailing behind them. He chuckled at the sight if the woman he had gotten to know as a powerful dragon and warrior with quite a temper now prancing about on this meadow, seemingly absolutely fascinated every detail. He also noticed how differently she was acting since they had met Bryn. Most of the time she was a lot more assertive and confident and would not have asked nicely or pouted at anyone. Zin suspected the usually fiery redhead had some feelings beyond friendship for the King...

Yuka then caught Zin looking back at her and gave him a glare that loud and clear, in capital letters one might say, expressed: 'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING AT???' which made him turn around swiftly.

When they'd reached the enormous wooden castle doors, Bryn walked up to the dragon heads that served as doorknockers and proceeded to knock three times, causing a hollow echo to rebound off of the castle walls.
"Hmm... this is not right..." Bryn murmured, scratching his chin. "Hm?" Zin inquired. "What's wrong?" Yuka had caught up to them and looked at the doorknockers with unveiled curiousity.

"It is too quiet here... even if Morgan left this place after she helped me get back here... Excalibur should still be watching over this place... the doors should have opened already!" Bryn said and tried to push the giant-sized doors open.

"Morgan... Le Faye? Excalibur? You mean..." Zin asked wide-eyed.

Having finished her examination of the doorknockers, Yuka commented: "Yeah, Morgan Le Faye and the legendary Excalibur! A nice blade, but that treacherous witch... I should have just eaten her when I had the chance, but I could never get close!".

No matter how hard Bryn tried, his door opening efforts had no effect and so he turned to his companions,
"Yuka... we went over this, Morgan regretted her actions, we don't know why she did it, but I believed her then and I still believe her now. She must have had some sort of reason..."

"And I still think I should have eaten her... slippery, double-crossing, lying sorceress!" Yuka retorted,
"That's enough Yuka!" Bryn and Yuka stared at each other in conflict for a few moments, but then both decided to drop the subject.

"Whatever... Can you help me with the door please? If you transform into a dragon again we might be able to get inside." Yuka nodded and patted Zin on the shoulder. "Confused little Zin here could help too! If we both help, then opening these doors should be no problem!", Zin, who had been speechless in his curiousity concerning his two companions' past, shook his head as if breaking out of a trance and nodded, "Oh! Sure!"

"What? Zin?" Bryn asked, now confused himself, "What can he do that I can't...", but then it dawned on him, "Oh... you're not serious... he is..." he stopped talking as Zin and Yuka's bodies started to change shape and grow. Their shoulders moved apart and they rose up far above Bryn's head, their skin and clothes quickly turning into scales. The astonished detective could barely believe his eyes as within half a minute there were two dragons right there in front of him.

One white and one red dragon stood next to each other at the castle doors, towering over the now relatively tiny Bryn. Their shoulders were at four meters above the ground and their heads even higher. The enormous pairs of wings cast a shadow that darkened the area where they stood and about half of the doors.
"Okay...." Bryn managed to say after a few seconds of speechlessness, "We... really... need to talk after this..."

The two dragons pushed the doors open with relative ease and the three of them stepped inside.
Their heavy, slow steps' echo reverberated off of the walls, intensifying Bryn's impression of himself being a mouse between two cats.
Not a single candle, not one fire, was lit. The darkness was oppressive, making the detective feel like they were about to be ambushed at any moment --not that he actually believed someone else was in the castle.

He reached for his torch but then realized he was wearing Amaru's mantle! Everything he had, including the whole building his flat was in was gone! He mumbled a curse and asked over his shoulder to the dragons looming over him: "Hey, could you guys conjure up some fire or something like that? I can barely see a meter ahead of me...".

Without responding, Yuka opened her maw slightly, the fire inside of it turning her head into a massive lantern casting a ray of light down in front of the group. "Thanks." he accelerated his pace, wanting to find out what was going on here. Never would he have thought that someone who wasn't specifically chosen by the portal could reach Caer Avalon, but it was looking like someone at some point had somehow managed to bypass the portal and gain access to the inside of the castle!

Just the thought of that set Bryn on edge. Caer Avalon, and the mysterious island it was supposedly on, always had been a safe, quiet and protected refuge to him and now, now it seemed like that was no longer the case, after centuries and centuries of it being undisturbed!

No one said a word until they had reached the end of the hallway. It melted into a octagonal chamber where they found a large circular table with a sword stuck in the center of it.

"Is that..." Zin started. "Yes indeed, the famous Round Table! And Excalibur! Also hopefully..." Bryn responded as he dashed to the table. Taking a closer look, he spotted a relatively small chalice made of azure crystal right next to the sword and let out a sigh of relief. "Yes! Phew! Okay, it's all still here then!"

"What's that?" Zin asked. "The one and only Holy Grail!" Yuka told him, giving him a dragon-nudge with her shoulder. The white dragon turned to face her. "You've... you've got to be kidding me...!"

"It's true Zin! This little thing was quite hard to get... me and my fellow knights had to fight our way through a horde of enemies and solve a good few riddles to get to it!" Bryn explained as he took the chalice and drank a sip from the clear, odorless liquid that had appeared inside of it out of thin air. A shiver went through his body, his skin literally vibrating for a brief moment, as the liquid energized his body's regeneration, strength, reflexes and movement speed.

"Ah.... It's been too long!" he said and reached for his sword. When he pulled it out of it's socket, the runes, engraved on it's blade in an otherworldly language, began to glow in a sapphire blue, slightly blurring the edges of the sword. All the candles and chandeliers lit up and in an instant the whole chamber was bathed in their warm light.
Now the glamorously decorated halls were presented to them in all their glory.

From the king's seat at the Round Table came a voice: "Well would you look at that... Long live the King!"