Tomb of the King

Chapter 4

Morgandy Snowflake; how often now I hear that name nowadays. For better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death the memory of her face will stick in my mind. When I first saw her, however, I had no idea. I just knew that the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen had just winked at me. Immediately I'd fallen in love. I wanted to marry her and grow old with her. I could even imagine our children, male or female. I wanted to fit it into words, but they never existed. Probably never will do. I felt the heat rising to my cheeks and tried to fight it. Sadly, however, Morgandy noticed. She smiled and my heart fluttered more than it did as Rhiannon laughed or told me that she liked me. More than both put together. "What's your name?" She asked.

"Fletcher... Fletcher MacAuley." I told her mechanically. "Nice to meet you, Miss. Snowflake."

She grinned at me. "Call me Morgan, please." Her eyes were gleaming. She was wearing some kind of leather armour and had a red bandana-looking thing. She saw my eyes move up to it and informed me, "That's from my rank. We're ranked in order of how long we've been here. It goes..." She looked into the top left of her vision; this, I remembered, means she was remembering something rather than imagining it. "When you first arrive, it's just Trodaire, or fighter in English. When you've been here for 5 years or you've shown some kind of extreme awesome in battle, you get promoted to 'Ambaxtoi'. That's me... Ambaxtoi Snowflake. Bit contradictory, right? Strong, powerful word like Ambaxtoi, then Snowflake." Her voice was riddled with disdain when she spoke her surname. I sensed that she wasn't too happy with her family, as I thought Snowflake sounded pretty, but I chose not to mention that. I let her continue to speak; "I got mine for being here 5 years. Only achieved the rank a week ago. Then after 10 years or another immense battle feat you get promoted to the top spot; Uiros Uiramos. I know, a bit of a mouthful, but that's what we all aspire to. Most people don't last long enough for that, we only have two at the moment. There are four Ambaxtois, two for each Uiros Uiramos." She smiled at my befuddled look. "Don't worry, you'll remember it. We just call them Trodaire, Ambassadors and War Leaders. Not literal translations, but that's what we got. Welcome, Trodaire MacAuley. Due to protocol, it is my duty to bring you to my Uiros Uiramos for induction to Camp Avalon. If you would kindly follow me, I shall take you to my superior; Caedmon Ross."

I smiled. "Now that is a Celtic name if I ever heard one."

She smiled back. "And Morgandy isn't? But anyway, Caedmon; he's, in my opinion, the nicer of the two War Leaders. Fionn... Well, we call her Fionn the Fair, but that's just because her hair's pure white. She's quite the opposite of fair in the other manner of speaking. I didn't say that of course..."

I smiled reassuringly and asked, "Say what?"

She winked again and my heart entered my throat. "Exactly. I think you'll do well around here, Fletch. Now come on, let's get to Camp."

We strolled of casually towards Camp Avalon and I smiled. When I woke up this morning, I'd expected to go to school, maybe learn something, eat, talk, come home, eat more, talk more, then sleep. None of this about the gods and magic or anything. I took a deep breath, my thoughts clouding with worry. I have to stop worrying... We were silent, for the first time, as we were walking. I felt ominous, which I still find odd. What, after all, could've possibly gone wrong?

After a while we arrived at the Camp. That was when Morgan turned to me and told me, "Here we are, this is Camp Avalon. I'll take you to the Forum to meet Caedmon, then we'll find your parent."

I asked her, "How do you do that?"

She smiled in a surprisingly evil way, that cast a slight shadow over her amazing face, which I didn't expect to ever see. "We watch you die."