A Scattered Table Part One
To Defend Once Was and The Dream of What Could Be
The Words at the Head of the Round Table, the words of Camelot and the Dream of the Future that is not yet to come…
The Age that should have been lies scattered, the great men of these nobility and Virtue would remain unbound and lost to the Sea of Time and Memory.
Unless...The King Returns.
But alas the poor fellows who remain, for as a storm strikes stone...only together could they have been strong to be the wall against it…
But alas, Stone can stand and weather many things, this world is one of them.
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The Lancer of the Fay….
Lancelot De Lac
Age: 13
(Lance POV)
You quietly awoke to the sound of screaming, the Haunted Forest and its many horrors it seemed had claimed yet another victim. Again, yet another sign to get up, pray and break ones fast and continue the lessons and works expected of you.
A quick brush of the hair, and a set of clothes on later you moved about the many many winding corridors of this castle to the main feasting hall to see the Lady and Master of the Castle Maleficent enjoying morning sup as she was sending her crows and ravens out into the world.
"Lady Maleficent." You said partly timid as you moved to the chair to quietly see the set and meal that was waiting.
"Good Lancelot, you are on time as always…" She said without looking at you as she always did every morning.
"Yes my lady." You said trying not to stutter as the aura of authority around her flexed as the shadows and fires flickered between red-orange and green.
She was silent as you ate your breakfast , only intercut by the cawing of crows, the occasional pattering of servants and the hushed curses against a man named Frollo.
When you felt the top of the hour arrive when you finished she then turned. "Lancelot, for the day you will train with Sir Michael until sundown and on the marrow you will assist the guards in patrolling the forest for any troubling crusaders."
It was stern, polite and to the point...as she always was.
"Yes Lady Maleficent." You said.
She gave a dark smile. "Good and be sure to give Michael my regards for the day, as you should."
The lady has certain guests he's not allowed to see, speak to or try to listen to...She insisted that it mattered not suited to a child...
Michael said it was better off not knowing what goes on in that part of the castle, he knew from experience and wanted you not to experience that until you were ready...to handle such things.
You nodded and moved to the practice yard where most if not all of your time was spent training for the day you more or less became a man. Michael is many things to you, the closest thing to a father, a mentor and a man with joy hidden behind sad eyes.
Sad eyes every time you give regards from the lady to him, sad eyes every time the lady tells you that you cannot leave the forest and sad eyes that seemed to feel more and more as the days go on.
"Master Micahel...the lady sends her regards." You said as you saw him standing near a dummy.
He looked at the dummy for but a moment. "I'm sure she did...now...Lance!"
You straightened yourself out of reflex.
He looked, "Good, glad you got that still in you...we are now going to be working on the core region."
He then poked your belly. "This cannot do...if you are to serve it is going be hard as steel."
The next several hours were spent working the core, the sides and the parts of the lower back you didnt' even know you could work...and yet it did.
The Sword training continued after mid day...and you were left with welts and bruises everywhere.
You lay on the ground utterly exhausted by the third hour of the afternoon as he sits next to you.
"The Practice still works wonders, you'll be thanking me when this is all over." He said.
"I know.." You said.
"I'm just tryin to instil some virtue into you, not that mess that the Lady seems to enjoy." He said bitterly.
That made you raise an Eyebrow. "Won't she hurt you for saying such slander against her?"
"She already hurt me many times...I'm not dead yet...You deserve better Lance?" He said.
"I deserve better, I haven't earned it?" You said.
"Oh...I see. What I mean is you deserve better, you deserve real love and companionship not this arms length sort of thing the Lady is spoon feeding you. That is not love...that is control." He said.
"How would you know?" You said.
"I've been alive for a long time...and I've seen the sort of Terror she can do to a mind just with words not magic." He said. "I just want you to think for yourself...to know she's not always right."
"Is this to train my warrior mind?" you said.
That took him quietly, "Yes...its a warrior mind exercise. You may not always be able to hear orders to follow."
And then he sighed. "Come on...we're done for the Day Lancelot."
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Gawain and the Giant
(Gawain POV)
Gawain of The West (Now Gawain of Scarecrow Marsh)
Age: 12
"Well, that was a scrap." The Green Knight had said calmly as you peeked out from behind the wall.
"Are they gone Bred?" You said feeling the shaky feeling of terror subside as the wights died...again.
"They are dead…NO THANKS TO MY GREAT AX!!" He said.
And once again we were back to the usual affair, the Dead attack the farms, you happen to come by, kill a few, help the farm and then kill the second wave and leave.
"I got seven this time." You said looking down to your feet in shame.
"Seven...thats progress and for someone so young , you have the making of a good Sir in the future." He said.
"Bred...when are you going to swallow your pride and choose to leave this place?" You said as you both move back to your cart.
"Leave...we've got a good thing going, you get combat training, I get the thrill of killing undead monsters and we get money for doing our jobs." He said.
"No...we are coasting on luck as it is, we've been dealing with fodder and the occasional hunter, we've yet to meet a great Whight and we they are faster, stronger, and better then even you..and your a fay." You said.
He was quiet for a moment. "Yes...and what of it?"
"If we push our luck we'll be soldiers in the Horned Kings' Army...and dead until some other poor sod puts us out of out misery." You said. "You want that?"
"This is the seventh time you've made that argument...and for lack of better words, what are we to do...go south and join the crusades, Frollo wants to burn me to death for not being human, go into the Mirror Kingdom and sell out as a mercenary." He said.
"Just...I don't want to die out here because you're too stubborn to cut our losses." You said.
"And where the hell would we go...you've heard the Rumors about the Mirror Kingdom and their perpetual bullshit with the queen, we'll be dead by sneezing on someone wrong. " He said.
"Italy?" You said.
"That might work out or Province. That hunter guild sounds valid in its work." He said.
"Well alright..we're leaving in the fortnight. No if or buts." You said. "Better to be ahead of the Devil then close to it."
"Hmm, alright...for your sake as well as mine...but we will return without an army." He said.
And so you moved south, south to the Channel, south to the French and to the rest of the world.
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Light in Land of Shadows
Percival li Galois
Age:4
(Percival POV)
Romania...
Mother had come back covered in dust and poor fitting cloths again, though you felt the feeling of relief that had been lacking in the last several hours with her gone to the fields and town, leaving you alone with the heirlooms of your former life.
Your father had been once a king, a King of a part of a land called England.
Pellinore had once been a battle Brother to the old King before all of this madness. Mother said you were lucky, given that you escaped far before the chaos reached your homeland, though father and much of your family were separated from you, mother still carried some of his things on her walk to the Lands of the East.
The Ledger of accounts was what she had leveraged to gain employment under one of the many night walkers of this land.
"Mama are you okay?" You said.
"I'm fine Percy...I just had an argument with one of the other tenets thats all." She said.
The land was one of blood and one of fear and death, but in spite of that...life will grow and prosper, no matter how dark and deprived the suffering really is.
It was a difficult thing to be a child in these lands...but for now you could enjoy the quiet of a simple life.
Though fatherless, and without your siblings, your mother knew how to live in this land….and with her lessons refuse to let the Nightwalkers kill you.
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Though scattered like Leaves and Dust, the Lives of the Knights of the Round Continue, in less then ideal circumstances...some more dark then others.
Some led astray from the Better world they dreamed, but they waited, prepared and trained for the day the Once and Future King returned...to lead them once again.
AN: So I got Permision to use the Knights of the Round Table, and given Arthur's in the middle of a Training Montage, I thought it would fit that they would be running around having their own lives.
Lancelot was taken in/kidnapped from his home and his being trained by a huntsman in the employ of Maleficent, mercifully he knows nothing of her "Dealings"
Gawain and the Green Giant, called Bred by the young boy are a medieval buddy cop duo looking to get work outside of England.
And Percival is being raised by a single mother in Romania...where the vampires are.
They'll all be fine, mostly...but this world has not fully been kind to them given how its going, but I think with the right nudges, they will be the Hero's they will always be.