Merthur - The King and His Guardian Angel

Chapter 2 - Onwards to Ealdor

"I heard it from somewhere. That is all." The king looks towards the shelf, seeing the physician pull a large, leather bound book from the ledge. 

Gaius sets the tome down on his desk, and begins flipping through the pages. "I recognize the name. He's a figure of an old druid legend," Gaius says, pointing at some lines of text in his book.

Arthur walks over behind the old man's chair. He leans in over his shoulder, reading the words off the page and frowning. There's nothing new. Nothing that the druid had not already told him, actually, the book contained less information. At least Iseldir had given him a location to search for the man. The book speaks only of the legend of the Once and Future King, about building Albion and the sorcerer that will bring magic back to the land. It seems the legends are generally an oral tradition, passed down through storytelling from generation to generation rather than written down in text. The information written in the tome is limited at best. If he wants to find out more, he'll need to speak with the druids, but he doubts they'll tell him anything more. They're rather strict with the information they choose to share. He's lucky to have even gotten as much as he had. 

Arthur sighs, moving away from the book. He rubs at his temples, feeling a headache begin to form from the pent up stress. He has no other choice it seems. It's either wait here, twirling his thumbs or head to Ealdor and search for the man himself. At least the latter would lead him somewhere, keep him moving. 

"Thank you, Gaius. If you find anything else, please, come find me." Arthur turns and heads out the door after receiving a nod from the physician. 

Arthur walks through the castle, stopping the occasional passing knight to tell them to inform the nobles of the court that he is calling a council meeting. He needs to plan a trip to Ealdor.

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The king rides out in front with his Knights of the Round Table. The small group is more than enough, any larger and Cenred may believe Camelot is calling for war. 

Then again, that was if he could even have mustered a larger group. The council had argued strongly against the idea of heading out towards an enemy kingdom and only to search for a man no one knew. Agravaine had been the most opposed. The man had paled when the name Emrys was mentioned. He fumbled with his words, almost losing his composure as he attempted to convince the king not to go. Alas, Arthur could not be swayed, not even by his uncle. This is his duty. If Emrys had one chance in a million to end Morgana then he had to at least try and search for the man.

Arthur glances down at the map in his hands, hoping he's headed in the correct direction. The weather is not nearly as nice as it had been the last time the group was out and he didn't want to stay out any longer than he had to. Instead of the clear, sunny day, the sky is obscured by grey clouds, looking as though it would rain any moment. 

There is another reason he didn't want to stay out. The longer the trip, the more Gwaine talked. 

"And then," Gwaine says with a proud grin, "I swooped in and saved the princess' arse from Dagger and his men in the melee. He was practically begging for me to stay and be his knight, but alas his father wouldn't allow it and I had to leave."

Percival rolls his eyes at the story. Lancelot only sighs in exasperation, looking towards Leon who shares his look of annoyance. Elyan groans, after having heard the story for the fifth time in a week. 

"Gwaine, could you please shut up?" Elyan says, turning around to glare at the man.

Gwaine smirks, "Nah. You'd get bored."

"You're already boring us to death," Leon says, "it honestly cannot get much worse."

"Of course it can. We could be attacked by bandits, or mauled by a bear. Oh, or perhaps Morgana could come and burn us alive."