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King Arthur

Arthur was a young girl who lived in small village several miles away from MT Tate. Unlike every other girl from her town she was always fascinated with the capital and the imperial soldiers. Her father was part of the imperial army. He was not part of the army’s front line and was much more part of a back up battalion so he had a lot of time spare that he used to spend with his wife and daughters. The country had a wicked king who cared not about the people but more about himself he drove taxes incredibly high and was more of a gold cladded rapist and scammer that had been given power. What the king did not know was that a lot of people had started to repel against him and formed an underground rebellion far in the south near a mountain group just outside of the city Orelion. It was not long until the rebels grew into a threatening force and started assassinations on public figures close to the king. After more and more of the king’s men died he decided to wage war and called upon his soldiers and amongst these soldiers was Arthurs father. Her father died in the long waging war, Arthur grieved the most over his death. She has always been a strange girl not only does she hold the name of a boy but she also acts the part. Her mother for this very reason has always scolded her, her father on the other hand always told her to be who her heart told her she was.  

Arthur soon left her mothers house to live at the foot of Mt Tate to become a student of master Michio training in the way of the samurai. She spent many years in training in solidarity with her Master, she worked through hardship with her father on mind often she would fall asleep to moonlight and wake to moonlight. Master Michio was very kind to Arthur but he was also very strict and didn’t treat her as a lady and more as his student. He would have her up in the morning to wander up to the spring onto the mountain to collect fresh water, there was no designated path up the mount, all there was where trails where goats regularly passed. Even this was still through very thick brush and steep climbs. At first Arthur couldn’t bring back the full bucket of water but as she tried morning after morning the buckets she brought back carried more water, till she could carry a full bucket back down without spilling a drop of water.

Arthur trained in many things, from Swordfight and Hand to Hand combat to Astronomy, Cleaning and Basic cooking skills “Because one needs to know how to provide for themselves” as Master Michio says. She learnt swift and after 3 years she was able to keep up with her Master's sword skills. Soon there was nothing old Michio had left to teach her, he had passed on all his knowledge to her. It was time to leave and start her real quest; to put an end to this blood shedding war that had now been raging several for years and overthrow the current king.

On her day of departure Master Michio led Arthur to a small shrine up top the mountain that she had never seen. He led her inside and towards where usually you would lay your offerings but in this shrine a stone was in its place. Out of that stone stuck a katana; it was not like any sword, it felt as if it were alive. “If you want to end the war then draw sword from stone and start the end of the beginning.” Arthur hesitated and walked towards the stone, she placed her hands on the hilt of the sword. It was warm as if someone had been holding it, she gave it a tug but the sword didn’t budge. “Pull with body and mind, envision it as you want it” Said Michio from somewhere behind her. Arthur closed her hands around the hilt again but this time closed her eyes and imagined she was pulling the sword at the same time she physically pulled it. The sword drew out of the stone with ease, as soon as it was no more in contact with the stone a blinding golden spiral light zoomed around its blade and as it vanished it left behind a scabbard. “This sword shall slice through even the toughest armor as if butter as long as its wielders heart is pure, the scabbard shall keep you from all ailments including death as long as your will is strong. This sword is the sign of the king of the people, the king of all beings, no one can touch its hilt but you and shall anyone try, friend or foe they will burn instantly. With this sword comes great power but it is also a great burden you will live while people around you fade. Are you sure you want this burden? ” The voice left as quick as it came. “Yes I take this sword not for me but the people” replied Arthur and turned around to where Master Michio had been standing just to notice he was nowhere to be seen. After Arthur searched around the shrine with no luck she decided to look at the house, so she made her way down the mountain the new sword dangling by her belt, she was about half of the way when she heard a tiny whelp, she stopped and followed the sound. As she got closer to the source of the sound she noticed a small bundle of fur caked in mud on the muddy ground, the bundle of fur was shivering “bundles of don’t shiver” thought Arthur to herself so she knelt down in front of it and poked at it with a finger “whelp” there was no doubt this was the source of the noise. Arthur picked the fur bundle up and inspected it closer, after a few twists and turns she was sure it was a fairly young male wolf cub; it had unusual ginger fur that was in some places darker than in others. The cub was clearly abandoned by its mother and had not eaten for a good amount of time. “You must be hungry little one” Arthur decided to take it down to the house and that maybe Master Michio would take care of it till it was big enough to take care of itself. So she made her way onwards down the mountain. As she reached the house she called out for Master Michio but got no answer so she proceeded to go inside. She got a blanket and rolled it up so that the cub could lie on it while she searched for Master Michio. She searched the whole house with no trace; she entered the sitting room and there on the Chabudai laid a note, which seemed to have been written in Master Michio’s handwriting, it read:

“Dear Arthur, if everything went right you are now in possession of Excalibur and I am no longer with you. You may ask yourself how that is right so allow me to explain. I was the last owner of Excalibur, when I was your age I had the same dreams as you right now and thus acquired Excalibur, I grew old and tired of fighting but Excalibur would not let me die its gift of immortality is a curse as well as gift. So I placed the sword in a stone and started the ritual to pass the sword on to you.  Be careful and trust no one, immortality makes people foolish and careless, there are much worse things than death.

P.S I leave you the house and all my immediate belongings take good care of it.

Master Michio”

"Well at least he was strong till the end,” mumbled Arthur. She walked back to the entrance where the wolf cub was now whimpering in its makeshift bed. "Oh I'm sorry, what was I thinking you must be hungry." Arthur walked to the kitchen and got some of the left over venison from earlier this noon, she then grabbed a rice bowl and filled it with water. She presented this to the wolf cub that eagerly tried to sling down the deer meat but choked and spat it back out. "Too big huh?" Arthur ripped the meat up into chewable strips and presented the to the cub once more. This time the wolf slung them down with success and slurped some water. After it had licked its chops clean it curled up in Arthurs lap and began to sleep. "You and I we are alike, both lost in this big bad world" She then lay down, huddled the cub to her chest and went to sleep.

Arthur woke to something warm and moist lapping at her nose. She opened her eyes and stares directly into the eyes of the cub. Stretching and yawning she gets up. "Hungry again are we?" Arthur walked into the kitchen to find something suitable for a wolf cub to eat. She didn't find much apart from some bread and vegetables, which she doubted a 4-week-old wolf cub would eat. Even so she still presented her findings to the cub that sniffed at them several times before slinging them down. She herself settled for some bread. “You need a name, not an animal name but a person name.” Arthur sat in thought for a while. “How about Shuya? Yes I like that, Shuya!” The young wolf looked up at Arthur for a split second then rested its head back in his paws. After she had finished her sparse breakfast Arthur started packing a bag she had lying around with clothing and other essentials such as a hunting knife, medical herbs and the rest of useful provisions that where left in the house. Once she was done packing she walked over to where Shuya was resting crouched down and said “It is time to set of, we have stayed long enough” the young wolf tilted its head and looked at Arthur with an almost human like confused expression. Arthur got up and walked to the front door as soon as she opened it a bone shivering draft rushed through the house. Shuya whimpered and snuggled his snout into his own fur “Come on the sooner we leave the sooner we get used to it” Shuya lowly but surely got up and walked past Arthur and through the door, he didn’t look particularly happy to be leaving the warm inside of the house. “We don’t have a horse so this journey may take a lot longer than it is meant to.” With that she shut the door and locked it with a key, which she hung around her neck along with the medallion that she had worn since she was little. “First we go north then back down to the south, this will be an interesting journey” she petted Shuya’s head. “Lets be off” and so they set of down the gravel path that lead to the woods, which separated the mountain from any civilization. Shuya kept constantly switching position from in front of Arthur to behind and sometimes Arthur picked him up for his legs where not accustomed to walking long distances. By the time they had reached the edge of the woods they were meant to cross it was already dusk and the temperature had fallen even more. “Lets set up camp and go hunt” Arthur went of looking for decent firewood, which was hard due to the rain that had fallen the night before most of the wood she found was wet and soaked. In the end Arthur managed to find an arm full of sticks and branches that where somewhat dry enough to burn. She rummaged through her bag and found the old tinderbox she was looking for she kept looking through her bag and found the bag of dried leaves she needed to fuel the fire. With the materials gathered she struck the flint from the tinderbox with the steel it only took a couple of skilled strikes to get the dry leaves to catch fire she then laid the sticks on top of the leaves and outlined her makeshift fire place with stones. With the fire don’t Arthur only had one more problem left which was food, she had seen a group of rabbits around 30 metres away from their little camp she did not have a bow and arrow with her so she had to hunt by hand but this required a technique which she was not too fond of. Michio was skilled with animals he would sit hours on ends playing and conversing with animals. He had passed his techniques on to Arthur but to use this to hunt felt like betraying the animal this was part of the reason why Arthur did not particularly like eating animals but in a situation like this she had no choice where she alone she would have found edible plants and survived on those but now she had Shuya who was a young wolf who could not yet hunt and needed to eat regular meat. With that she decided to go for the rabbits, she positioned herself in front of the rabbit hole and sat still as silence waged through the woods all that was to hear where the rustling of leaves and the birds whistling their never ending songs. As she sat there a rabbit on its way back to the hole hopped by and she could instantly feel its thoughts which were more chains of instincts than thoughts, as the rabbit saw Arthur it stopped and stared at her who stretched out a hand towards it and said in a quiet voice “I come in peace” Arthur felt the fear and anxiousness disappear from the rabbits mind as she uttered those words and as it got within grabbing reach Arthur grabbed it by its neck and dug the hunting knife deep into its chest. The rabbit died instantly and Arthur bowed her head and whispered, “I’m sorry” she got up and walked towards where Shuya had been watching her with anxious eyes. She skinned and gutted the small rabbit but this time left the meat whole so that Shuya could learn how to rip the flesh of an animal. She displayed Shuya’s portion to him who sniffed at it and then started ripping at it. It took him a while to rip of the first piece of flesh but it seemed he understood the process after that and only had little difficulty devouring the rest. Arthur roasted her portion of the meat on the fire. After they had both finished their meals she dug out a small blanket and added a few sticks to the fire then she laid her bag down to be used it as a pillow and covered herself with the blanket. A few minutes later Shuya lapping at her face woke her and she lifted the blanket for him to crawl under.

She woke just before sunrise the fire had died a long time ago, she lifted her dew covered blanket and she noticed was that Shuya was missing so she took a look around and saw him just a few meters away from the camp. “Shuya!” she called out to him but he didn’t respond after calling his name a few more times and still getting no reaction she got up and walked towards him. As she got close to him she could see that he was eating something but could not quite make out what it was until she walked around and saw that Shuya had ripped a young rabbit all by himself and was now proudly devouring his prey. Arthur squatted down next to him and watched him eat for a while,and then she got up and walked back to the center of the camp to clear up her belongings. After 30 minutes she was ready to be on her way. "Let's go, Shuya," she said as she slung her pack over her shoulders. Casting her gaze upwards, Arthur could see that it would soon begin to rain; the sky was slowly transitioning into a thunderous gray that held the promise of a storm. A shiver ran down Arthur's spine. Her main priority for the day would have to be food and shelter. Shuya wouldn't be able to cope with the weather and Arthur wouldn't be able to light a fire to keep herself warm, nor would she be able to roast any kills she regretfully made. With a deep sigh she trudged onwards, Shuya at her heels. His fur of his snout and muzzle was stained black with the lifeblood of the rabbit he had devoured,ears alert and happy. After walking for 2 hours straight the trees started to get further and further apart from each other till it eventually they gave way to a huge field that dropped into a slope after a few hundred metres. Shuya kept playfully running back and forth several times nearly tripping Arthur up.Arthur enjoyed his playfulness. Shuya seemed to have found something in the long grass and was carefully approaching it. As from what Arthur could see it was a hedgehog. "I wouldn't get too close if I were you" she warned

But it was too late as the young wolf proceeded to nudge the hedgehog with his snout the hedgehog rolled up in an instant before shuyas snout nudged it .  The wolfs snout got pierced by the spikes and he  squealed and jumped back more in surprise than in pain and Arthur burst out laughing. "You have a lot to learn little one" Arthur reached down to pat his head, she liked this, it was different from the usual days she spent in solitude with her master training day in day out she didn't dislike those days but if she had to choose this would have to be what she would choose without hesitation. Her train of thought was cut off as she noticed the pitch black clouds moving in from the west "Looks like we are going to get wet" and she straightened back up and continued walking "come on" she called back to shuya and he trotted along behind her. It wasn't long till the skies broke open and the rain came pouring down, it was bearable at first but came down harder with time, shuya was walking snout down and dripping wet behind Arthur. The rain had made the field dangerously slippery and  Arthur slipped on grass covered mud patches several times which hindered her progress.

They reached a gravel road that led to a small village in the distance arthur new this road all to well, this road led to a place that once she called home but now was a place filled with strangers. As Arthur and shuya stepped onto the road Arthur stopped and took a deep breath before carrying on down the road. The closer Arthur got to the village the tighter her chest grew. As they entered the village she noticed a lot had changed since the day she said goodbye to it, not aesthetically but the mood had changed it wasn't the friendly village it was back then, it now reeked of fear. Windows were shut, no kids being shouted at by their parents while playing in the rainy streets.

a few yards down the main road Arthur hurried down a small path muddy from the pouring rain to the right leading past the backs of several houses she followed it for a while until she got to a house cut of from the rest of town. She approached the porch before the house stood a sozu (japanese water fountain made of bamboo) which shuya wearily eyeballed as it made its clacking sounds. along the with sozu there were several wind chimes hanging around the porch creating a out of time harmony. Arthur stepped closer to the door and took another deep breath before knocking on the door. After a few moments the door opened and Arthurs heart jumped as she saw her mothers face. “Arthur!?” Arthur's mother stared at her in disbelief. “i thought you werent coming back.” “All i said was that id be gone for a while” arthur still felt uneasy she wasn't on good terms with her mother since she left home so abruptly. “Well come in or you’ll catch a cold” Arthur's mother stepped aside so arthur could walk through the doorway. arthur turned to where shuya was laying curled up out of sight and called for him he lazily got up and trotted towards arthur. “What is that?” arthur's mother called out. “Its shuya he’s a wolf and my friend” and she proceeded to walk in with shuya at her heels. “whatever it is its not coming in my house” Arthur stopped in her tracks and turned around: “Well we’ll be camping out here then, if you want to tell us a bedtime story you are more than welcome to join us we can light a fire and get real cozy” Arthur knew her mother was never too fond of animals and she wasn’t surprised that this hasn't changed over the years. she would just have to sleep under the porch and in the morning somehow persuade her mother to give her provisions to get to the army reserves in Kwahei. There was no way was she going to leave shuya alone at night by himself. “Don’t be absurd it was born in the cold and rain it can survive by itself.” Arthurs mother was reaching out to Arthur “Just come in and if you trained it well it will be there waiting for you in the morning” Arthur turned round to her mother “ ‘It’ is called shuya and he nearly died in the cold, in the rain, by itself.” “Well be it He or It that.. Thing is not entering my house, You of course can come in if you change your mind, ill leave the door unlocked.” and with that Arthur's mother walked in and shut the door behind her.  

Arthur dropped her pack against the wall and sat next to it, at least they were out of the rain here. Shuya laid his head in her lap and worryingly gazed at her. “Don’t worry she has always been like that but she does have her cool side, my dad would have loved you.” She stroked Shuyas head and he nuzzled his head against her hand. after a few minutes Shuya suddenly got up and walked to the steps leading down the porch and started howling at the moon. Arthur smiled and walked up beside him and followed suit, howling at the moon lost somewhere behind that vast sea of rain clouds.