Arthur

I observed her quietly as she went to lean against the tree. I was still taking a moment to take in her beauty. I had nothing to say to a woman like her, for she had silenced me into a stupor.

"Why were you watching me from the shadows of the bushes?" she asked, tiptoeing to pluck an apple from the nearby tree.

"I was curious. I saw you crying and you looked defeated."

"I was not crying" she rebuffed, her white eyes revealing her truth. She turned her attention back to the tree and tiptoed to pluck the fruit. Although she persisted, she could not reach them.

"So what do you call what you were doing?" I asked, trying to pluck one for her. She persisted her oath of silence and still tiptoed to try and pluck the fruit. I reached over her head, my frame easily covering hers and plucked the fruit from the tree.

Her back rested against the bark of the tree as she peered into my eyes, wondering what I would do next. She slowly snatched it from my hand, squinting her hand to observe the object. "It is an apple." I revealed, "It tastes like... "

"Nectar? from the bees?" she asked.

"You mean, honey?" I asked her through parted lips. Her eyes opened wide with excitement, hearing the familiarity of my words. "You humans have honey?" she asked rather eagerly.

"Loads of it." I hinted, pulling the apple back from her reach, "It is sweet, but not as sweet as the nectar you like" She carefully bit into the fruit and chewed, tilting her head to determine if she favored it.

"So that is all you do? Run after women and stare at them?" she smirks, peeking to meet my gaze.

"Maybe." I laughed, pulling a strand away from her face.

"Hmmm... I thought a busy king like you would be pre-occupied with the affairs of your kingdom?" she quired, snatching the apple back from my palm.

"How did you know?" I asked, through firm tone. I hadn't even told her my name yet. She pulled my brown satchel from behind her a back and lifted a crown from my satchel. I must have packed it in my bag when I hurriedly fled the castle in Camelot.

She lifted it to my head then held it up to her own. "Yours is still bigger than mine" she pouted, then smiled sensually, "I figured you must be some sort of king or ruler? Only an elite displays a crown."

"And what are you? A queen of your land?" I question, lifting her halo of gold from against her scalp.

"Something like that" she whispers, pushing me aside to venture back to the waters. She dipped her legs into the waters then sat, taking in the subtle air of peace.

There was an uncomfortable silence shared between us as we stared at the streams.

"You look young for a king" she muttered as a matter of fact.

"And you look young for a queen." I retorted. She looked into my eyes accepting my quip and smirked. "So tell me..."

"Arthur" I reveal my name.

"So...Arthur, you're a king who can have anything he wants?"

"Yes, I can" I brag.

"So humor me this? You can have any girl in the kingdom, any harlot of the land, yet you came here to follow me into a cave? Why?" she peered up, looking again to meet my gaze.

"I was always keen on challenges" I revealed, moving to scratch the ears of my horse.

"You know idle prattle never built a kingdom in a day" she bragged, lifting her legs from the waters and walking to face me. She trapped me against the tree, pressing her body against my frame. "You could take me here if you wanted Arthur, behind the trees of this forest?" she suggested.

What a temptress she was.

"Who says I want you?" I returned, trying to hide the smirk from my lips. She rests an arm around my collar, trailing her other down my chest.

She grinned, tilting her head to the side before she brushed a palm against the protrusion of my pants. "Sometimes the thoughts of the brain reveal the actions of the eyes?" she whispered against my ear before distancing herself from within my reach.

And it was there in that moment, that she encaptured my heart.

Instantly I grabbed her neck, seizing it to prevent her departure. "Don't mistake my curiosity for folly, my king," she muttered, staring down at my chest as if she was peering through my soul. "I pity the woman who loves you" she scoffed.

"Pity? As if a woman has no choice on who to admire?"

"Someone is in love with you... but you do not love them back?" she accuses, still within my reach.

"What?" I hummed in surprise; how could she read me so accurately?

"You're are not in love with her, are you?" she frowned.

Genevieve. I thought to myself.

"Your heart is heavy Arthur" she hinted, resting a palm against my heart, "it is heavy and plagued with guilt," she revealed, looking into my eyes.

I studied her ivory orbs and looked down at my feet. How did she know of this? I never revealed this to anyone? Maybe she was a psychic or a fortune-teller.

Oshun

"No.. no.." he stutters, "my friend I mean, my teacher told me the girl I liked, would bring me nothing but trouble and for some reason I didn't believe him" he confessed.

"But he is your mentor? Why wouldn't you believe him?" I ask curiously.

"Because everything he has told me has basically been a lie. My whole life has been a lie. He took me from my father at birth" he confessed looking into the distance. "I feel so lost...and so confused without him. So, I ran away." he conceded, finally looking into my eyes.

"So because he lied to you, you decided to abandon your kingdom?" I ask through a smirk. How absurd he was to make that conclusion. "Who needs enemies when you have a friend like that?" I read him with sarcasm.

"And who are you to tell me that!" he shouts, bending down to meet my gaze. Obviously I had struck a chord.

"Are you unsettled because it makes you sound like a coward?" I ask him brazenly. He scoffed at my boldness but I knew he was thankful I had said it.

"Well, when you put it like that" he shrugged, finally releasing my neck. I stared at him as he moved to pluck an apple from the tree. He winced once more as he remembered the pain of his bruises."I will banish him from my kingdom or from ever speaking to me again."

Arthur

"I am not one to tell you what to do.... but just remember, sometimes what you wish for isn't what it turns out to be..." she tisked, moving back to the edge of the spring to sit. There was wisdom to her words.

I sat down next to her, taking a bite from the freshness of the apple.

"All my life I had been wishing to do something greater! To be something greater. But when the time came to prove myself...." her voice trails off into a whisper.

"You want to run away from it all?" I finish her sentence, looking into her eyes.

"Is it strange to have these thoughts?" she asks, now understanding the basis for my actions.

"Not strange at all. It's what makes us human" I advise but by now I had figured out she was no human. She looked toward my eyes then back into the waters.

"But if I run away from my challenge, that would make me as much a coward as you." she reminded me. Her words stung my soul even though there was some truth in them.

"Then don't run away" I advised her, my advice now resonating with my own spirits. I would return back to Camelot at once. She looked into my eyes with her soft white ones, scanning my face for clarity.

"Who are you? What are you?" I asked, fascinated by her details, "Are you a witch?

"And why would I tell you if I was a witch?" she teases standing to greet my horse who had now woken from his rest.

"Well.... are you?"

"Maybe" she frowned, continuing to lead me on. She didn't look like a witch and she would have shapeshifted into another entity by what Merlin had informed me.

"Hmm" I hummed, running a palm against my cheek. She stood and strutted to face me, playing with a curl behind my ear. "I will tell you...but it's a secretttt" she sang, smiling with ease.

"And what secret is it" I ask eagerly. I was curious to know anything about her.

"Well King Arthur, it depends"

"On?"

"Whether you believe in deities?" she asks. I looked at her, trailing my eyes against her figure. She couldn't be...

"Like gods and spirits?" I clarified. She nodded.

"No... I don't. There is only one true God. The father of Christ."

She giggled softly and stared into my eyes, refusing to break contact. "Then you don't believe in me and I cannot tell you who I am" she bragged, trailing to leave my sight.

"Wait?" I pulled her into my chest with longing. Her breath hitches as she met my gaze. "Tell me" I urge. Closer and closer we came, our lips were barely separated as the evening wind blew against our bodies. Just before we had the opportunity to lock lips, a group of people yelled my name. "ARTHUR!!! ARTHUR!!!"

I heard the familiar voice of Lancelot with a party of men. She broke from my reach and looked their way, desperate to escape me. She quickly backed away, starting her descent into the forest.

I lurched to grab her arm. She furrowed her softened brows, hesitantly meeting my gaze.

"Let me go, Arthur" she begged.

"And what if I choose not too?" I asked boldly. She looked down at my palm that was around her wrist and pouted.

"Tell me your name and I'll let you go"

"I go by no name" she whispered meekly. I hesitated, fighting my will to allow her to escape.

"Arthur!!! Arthur!!!" the mens' voices grew closer.

She craned her neck in the direction of the noise and begged me to let go.

"When will I see you again," I asked. What a charm she had over me. Guinevere nor Elaine did not have this impact.

"Arthur...please" she pleaded. I couldn't stand to see her distress, it was too much to bear and eventually, I let her go.

"ARTHUR! YOUR ALIVE!!!" Lancelot exclaimed as he came into the clearing with a few of the knights. Gwain ran off his horse and quickly attended to the rest of my bruises.

My heart felt empty as I gazed into the clearing where she had disappeared. I wanted to follow after.... so desperately, but I knew I had a kingdom to run. I had to face my fears and would be a coward no more.

—-

"Arthur! We have been searching everywhere for you!" Lancelot exclaimed, pulling into his arms to embrace.

"We?" I asked.

"Gwain and I" he clarified. Merlin was nowhere to be seen.

"Arthur... we need you back at Camelot. The people need a king. Guinevere needs you! I need you" Lancelot whispered. I look into his eyes as he stands beside me. He looks to my wounds seeing them wrapped in gauze and cloth.

"I have witnessed and done more than I would like to admit," I confessed, acknowledging his curiosity, "too much to even reveal" I smirked. He studied me in question but nodded, taking my words as truth.

—-

"I know you might not want to hear this, but the Saxons are planning a revolt. They want to seize the southern territories of Leeds nd take the land as theirs" Lancelot confessed, steering his horse to steady it.

"The Saxon's? I thought the last king got rid of them?"

"Ayeee but 10 years have passed. They have been recruiting some villagers and procuring their rank. They wish to take the land that was theirs."

"Great." I cursed, already seeing the issues arriving in the kingdom. I knew we couldn't afford a war, in Britain. I hadn't even been knighted in. The people of Britain were poor and desolate and although we had the resources to come out victorious, it was spirit that we needed.

"How far away are we from Camelot?"

"About three days rides." he confessed. He knew I had been traveling for longer than that. He came beside me and dared to look into my eyes. "Arthur... Merlin only did that to protect you. Was it right? No, but Britain needed a king. They would have killed you the minute they found out you existed" he admitted.

"Aye" I agreed, looking into the distance as he trotted beside me. Gwain was close behind. "Merlin... should have told me at least about my father before I went to take the sword. I trusted him Lancelot... I have no one... anymore. I have no one I can trust... no one I can turn to."

"You have me Arthur" he vowed, gently pulling the reigns on his horse to stop. I hadn't known him long but he had been loyal ever since I first met him.

"I will take you on your word." I nodded, stopping my own steed to meet his gaze. "Promise me, Lancelot, promise me you will keep no secrets from me and never betray me" I urge. He nodded, extending his arm to shake mine.

"I give you my word Arthur. Not only as a subject but as your friend," he whispered, pulling my arm into his palm. We clasped hands and we shook in oath and allegiance, riding on to continue to the town of Camelot.