The King's Collie

Part V, Chapter 13: Of Sir Afon's Visit

It had been three days since the event. Everybody from Valentia to Aragon, to Lusitania to Mauretania, from Narbonia to Aquitania, all had some notion that Sir Cameron of Valentia had been put to the stake. It was a tiring day. Thrice he had to convince the crowd around the stage to scatter off. He even threatened the last of these crowds with arrest. It was after this long day that he lied down in his bed, and turned over, pulling the sheets and blankets over him, trying to get comfortable, though he had to fend away his thoughts.

If I could just go back in time—

No. What's done is done, and he rightly should have done it. Nothing could be changed now.

Telling those people to go away, how mean it was—

No. They shouldn't pay any mind to a dead heretic.

Just to kiss him once more. To hold my sweetest love close... Oh, what have I done?

NO. No such thought along those lines would do anything but bring unneeded grief. He bit his lip, and inhaled deeply, trying to calm down. For Valentia; else, flame and wrath. That's what he kept in mind. He recited it, for he knew how awful it was, yet also how it was logical. Thousands of lives, over one.

He slept, and lied on his back, slightly snoring.

—

Felix awoke, the sweat running down his brow. He was intensely warm, for some reason, almost hot. It was as if a million blankets were covering him. He tried to reach and pull off the only such blanket covering him now, but was unsuccessful. He was paralyzed.

This made him truly scared. He shuddered, and his fur stood on end. He helplessly mewled, breathing heavier. What on God's green Earth was going on? He felt anxious, like he was about to throw up, or that his insides would explode, or something terrible along those lines.

He felt someone coming, crossing his way. It was a figure, a glowing shadow, different than how usual frights of sleep were. This was hardly any such demon. It glowed a bluish white, appearing out of thin air, and at first seeming like an ambiguous cloud of light.

"Felix..." a voice rung out from this apparition.

The king suddenly remembered that accent, and deep voice. "Afon!" he gasped out. "By God— It must be!"

"Felix," this glowing figure stammered. The cloud manifested itself into the shape of this corgi, though only vaguely. "It is indeed I, Afon." When he said this, Afon became visible, in ornate armor, as clear as day. He took a seat in a chair in the room, staring with such a grievous, disappointed countenance.

"Wherefore have you come here?" Felix asked, straining. "Why are you saddened, fallen knight?"

"You know damn WELL!" the corgi knight replied, standing again, that last word booming like holy thunder! "What you've done is horrendous. I simply couldn't believe it, once I knew it."

"I know, I know, and I'm sorry!" Felix groaned, turning his head.

"Apologies will do nothing now, yet— O! ungrateful king—" Afon grunted forcefully, "they must be heard."

Felix mewed helplessly out. "I'm so sorry, my God! For lusting, for going after such strange flesh! For betraying the love of my wife for this sinful purpose, I'm sorry! For putting the lives of my kingdom in the hands of an angry God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"No, Felix, no," Afon barked, in disbelief. "You are wrong, Felix. These words hurt to hear. What are you saying?" he moaned, in his ghastly tone, his ears folding as he held his foreheads. "To hear these words are worse than to be pierced through the heart—!"

"What is wrong?" Felix confusedly asked, quaking.

"You apologize for the completely wrong thing!" Afon cried out frustratedly.

"What do you mean?!" the King still confusedly wished to know.

"How could you not see your own monstrosity? You killed your love! An innocent youth!" Afon yelped, then corrected himself. "No! Rather— a very noble, pious youth! Verily, one who saved your life! One who you called yours, who dedicated himself for you, who said he'd love you forevermore!"

"Sin, it was," Felix mewled resolutely.

Afon slapped his ghostly hand against his forehead— or, at least attempted to, but ended up putting his hand through it. "And who told you that?!"

"Our Cardinal, Iago," the lion stated.

"He is wrong!" Afon barked.

"He can't possibly be," Felix shook his head.

"You don't think he can be wrong?" the corgi asked.

"I shouldn't think so," the King shook his head.

Afon stared in disbelief. "I'm a spirit, who's using my power to talk to you from the heavens, in a dream, and you'd listen to a cantankerous cardinal over me?"

"Okay, look," the king now exasperatedly said. "How else was I supposed to know what God would want?"

"Ask yourself something. Didn't doing what you did feel wrong to you, Felix?" the corgi asked.

"...Extremely so. I hated every second of it, and I— I kept having second thoughts about it," the king explained.

Afon lowered his head as he offered this: "This is simply what happens when you don't think for yourself. When you put orders of fear and war over your own sense of life and love."

"But the people—" Felix tried to object. "I needed to protect them all."

"The people see you as changed, and for much the worse," Afon explained, then suddenly lifted his head. "If you may turn your ears upon them now."

Sure enough, the summoned voices of what Felix knew were the people of his kingdom started to chatter around his room.

"I heard Felix has gone insane," an echoed voice of a commoner said.
"He executed his best musician," another said.
"He's changed."
"I'm scared of Felix."
"I'm scared FOR Felix."
"Is the king okay?"
"The king has never been okay."
"I miss Sir Cameron! Damn that king!"

Felix gasped as these voices concluded, knowing they were indeed from his own people.

"This is a lesson," Afon said, "but it is not the one I came to share. Listen now, for what is," he then beckoned.

A sudden, younger voice's lamentations reverberated in the room now: those of a collie.

"WHY DID HE DO THIS?!" Cameron wailed out. "I LOVED HIM! I LOVED HIM SO MUCH! I SERVED HIM TO MY BEST, I TRULY DID! HE HATES ME! HE WANTED ME TO DIE!"

"No! No!" Felix now sobbed out to this ghostly vision. "I love you, my sweetest Cameron! I LOVE YOU! I'M SORRY! Afon, stop this! I can't bear to hear him like this!"

It all stopped, as soon as he said this. "These were only echoes from the higher plane. It seems that the reality of the situation has finally come to you," Afon nodded. "But I mustn't leave without a final note."

"And what is this, O woeful spirit?!" Felix asked, barely getting the words out, as he suddenly saw grey, twisted shadows surround him.

"You killed someone your kingdom loved. You made them miserable and fearful, and I must tell you— that I did not die for a selfish and ignorant king like YOU!" Afon suddenly raised his voice to a snarl, then lunged at Felix, with teeth as sharp as spearheads all aimed for him. These shadows, too, jumped at him, and it all turned into one black shadow of himself, a large lion. Felix screamed as he felt the searing pain of the ghostly lion's teeth land upon him, except it suddenly turned into a certain other searing pain, of an unnaturally hot fire burning his whole body.

"NO!" Felix shouted out, and sat up.

It was early morning, with an orange light coming in through his window. He was covered in sweat, and buried his face in his massive paws, sobbing.