Excalibur Awakens

Prologue The sea is glinting silver in the moonlight, reflecting off the wings of the eagle that soars above the sorrows of the world. We are for the time being seeing the world from the eagles point of view. The water is choppy, the wind cold, but for the first time in several months the sky is clear. Ahead is and island aglow with unearthly light. The eagle is heading for this rocky outcropping. The beaches that fall abruptly into the water are covered in a thin veil of ice and the grassy shore not far away is covered in the last vestiges of snow. For now the winter months are over and slowly the summer is approaching. It will be weeks yet until the grass is green and the land once more habitable, but still hope is something, no matter how small. The eagle soars down to an unimpressive rocky building from which the light emanates. He perches in a window that has no glass and makes a small noise to announce his presence. The man that responds stands. He is tall and has a commanding figure. His silver hair and beard are cropped short. His dark grey eyes show age that the eagle can scarcely comprehend. He speaks but the eagle cannot understand. The birds sharp eyes pick up the dark stranger sitting as far away from the roaring fire as it is possible to be. He sits in a dark shadow that seems to be more of his own making than anything natural. The eagle feels threatened as red eyes gleam from this shroud and he squawks to make his feelings known. The old man nods acknowledgement and throws him a piece of rabbit meat. The eagle with a flash of steely beak snatches it from the air and swallows it with a few movements of it’s head. The old man smiles his white teeth flashing momentarily and slowly he reaches out and scratches the eagles head. But still weary of the stranger the eagle pulls away giving him a gentle nip instead. And then in a flurry of wings he is gone leaving us with this odd pair. The old man turns back and speaks softly, “I still want to know why you are here son of evil.” His voice is regal and commands respect, but the figure merely chuckles his voice cold and hateful, “why is it old man that you ask questions you already know the answers to?” the red eyes continued to gleam and his voice was chilly and cold. “All these years and still you are after something which has been drawn out of your existence… Why?” The old man shook his head a grin on his face. This merely seemed to incense the man (if we may call him that) sitting in the corner, “you play with a dangerous foe old man! Why do you pretend that it doesn’t exist, help me find it and return it to the rightful owner and together we can rule the world!” the eyes gleamed like glowing coals and slowly a grin grew out of the darkness, but it was evil. The old man shook his head, “and now my old apprentice you resort to this, to bribery and creating impossible images of glory… surely your mother taught you better than that, surely you know that after all these years I couldn’t care less about the rest of the world. Oh you still have the mind of that young boy that defeated his father and thus destroyed himself.” The old man smiled and shook his head. “You are beginning to anger me old man, and how can you say I destroyed myself, look at me! I am the most powerful man alive, and I am near immortal! I could squash you like a bug” the eyes no longer grinned they leered and spoke of pain. “Come then. I await your wrath, you forget that I taught you much of what you know, I may be old but do not underestimate my power!” and as he spoke the fire guttered and died and the light that we saw emanating from the house began to glow from the old man. “Mordred I saw you grow and the woman that tried to control you feared me, Mauve was terrified that I would outgrow her and so she banished me. I have faced terrors that you could not begin to imagine in the exile she sent me on, but still I am here. Now if you feel that you can face up to me then now is the time!” “Spare me the speech old man, I myself have faced those horrors in my search for my fathers sword. I have gone further even than Mauve and those who my father feared and now, now I am the most powerful being in existence!” he stood up, the shadow that he wore spreading out around the house and threw back the cloak he had been wearing to reveal what he had grown into. He had been a handsome boy when he drove the sword into his fathers belly, but where his father had returned the blow was an oozing hole. This was the only blemish that was man made. He stood as tall as his father over six feet, but he was skeletally thin and pale. He wore no shirt, and his gaunt ribs stuck out hideously. His skin was white as though it had never seen the sun. his red eyes gleamed out from behind the pitch dark oily hair. And the grin he wore on his once handsome face revealed his teeth, yellow, the canines had developed into sharp fangs like that of a dog. The old man looked at him in disgust and spat at his feet, “if this is what you have become then I pity you. Is this the appearance of a world ruling king, where is your crown oh mighty ruler? In retrospect; as a gift for all those years of absence I will give you a gift, a crown. Fit for a king.” He gestured and a golden circlet formed around Mordred’s head beneath the lank hair and began to tighten. Mordred began to scream, “stop it! STOP IT” as the circlet tightened squeezing his head. “Oh come on, can’t the powerful Mordred ruler of the world accept a gift from his fathers most loyal friend?” and with that he gestured once again and Mordred still screaming vanished in a puff of smoke. The old man muttered something inaudible and shook his head. He looked out the window and saw a shadow fleeing his presence, the shadow is speeding back to warmer times…