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Strangely, Camelot is quite busy this time of the year though there are no harvests to celebrate, any tournaments with their neighbours or even a holiday.
The marketplace has been the busiest with many coming from afar to sell their wares while others have come to shop for local and distance products. Not just citizens or tourists wandering the streets but knights and young knaves.
Lancelot has been keeping an eye out on the knights-in-training who are starting their first rotation in the city walls, even though it hasn’t been his job this month. His task was to go check on the knights out on the training grounds outside of the walls. Not that he wants to be wandering around the kingdom, trying and failing, to find all of them.
Though, he guesses that’s what he gets for waking up late for the first time in months.
Actually, Galahad and Lamorak were there to wake him up like usual. Those two tend to be the main reason why Lancelot, Gawain, and Percival even wake up so early in the morning. But since the boys have taken their knightly duties more seriously, they have been spending more time at the training grounds instead of the castle.
The training grounds aren’t far outside the walls where their students can focus on their training without worry. Not that there’s much to worry about since it’s been fairly peaceful after the Fake King was taken care of about a year ago.
Sometimes Lancelot forgets that Camelot had lost two kings in a short amount of time.
Instead of focusing on that, he decided to go to the grounds and find the boys to see how their training was going.
He gives a wave to the blacksmith when the fox waves happily at him, before returning back to his work.
The knight continues on until he reaches the gate; Lancelot taps his heel against the ground to activate the air gem inside of them.
A rush of wing and energy flowed through and around him before he was off, racing towards the grounds.
…
With each swing of the knaves below, Lancelot grows bored with watching.
The knight still can’t believe that Gawain tricked him into taking over the Echidna’s job. Gawain should’ve just asked either Percival or even Galahad to take over for a little bit…actually, Lancelot still hasn’t found his son, last seeing him at breakfast.
It’s noon now.
Where could that boy be?
“Have you seen Galahad or Lamorak?” Gawain questions as he walks back up the hill to stand next to Lancelot. “I need to talk to them.”
“About what?”
Gawain gestures towards Percival, who has been training her troops quite harshly for the past hour. Her gaze has been changing into annoyance the longer she’s out there.
“They decided to prank Percival this morning, I have no idea what they did but whatever it was had gotten her in a rotten mood.”
Lancelot sighs; already coming up with a few lectures to give Galahad and Lamorak the next time he sees them. He gets why they have been acting out lately but it’s not helping anyone.
Ever since the King’s disappearance almost the whole kingdom has been in a funk. There have been more fights breaking out among the knights while the townspeople started locking themselves away at night again.
It’s almost as if Arthur had never been overthrown.
Lancelot almost went to Morgan le Fay a few times to create another fake king. He wanted to give the knights someone to follow but he knows how that’ll end.
It won’t help with the townspeople or the fighting or even the threat from the neighbouring kingdom.
Lancelot silently wishes that Sonic didn’t leave them. Maybe it wouldn’t have hurt so much if the king hadn’t told Lancelot that he had to go home.
It’s a betrayal that Lancelot took to heart but never uttered a word.
“I’ll talk to them the next time I see them,” Lancelot said instead of everything he actually wanted to say. He needs to keep those feelings bottled up for now. He’s the knights’ leader and he has to act like one. “I wonder where they are…”
“Sir. Lancelot! Sir. Gawain!”
The voice catches the knights’ attention, causing them to face Vulcan - the King’s favourite blacksmith - running up the hill towards them. The blacksmith come to a halt in front of them, struggling to catch his breath and swaying a bit.
Gawain moves forward but Vulcan just waves him off.
“What’s going on?” Lancelot asked, only after the blacksmith had a moment to catch his breath.
The training grounds aren’t that far from the town but the Round Table and other knights are used to the trip out here. Those that aren’t would have a hard time getting here.
Lancelot doesn’t get tired from running easily anymore, especially since he has his air gems as well.
Gawain and Percival had been here before the sun had even risen.
For Galahad and Lamorak, Lancelot has to take another look at their training but he’s sure if he takes a moment to think he can remember.
Anyways, making the journey out here easier seems to be worth looking into at some point.
“I’m not sure but it’s coming from King Claudas’s Kingdom!”
…
Sages dance around the neighbouring kingdom without care.
Though Sages are a common sight, it’s unlikely to see so many hanging around a kingdom without reason. The only reason that Lancelot can think of would be if Claudas had been messing around with magic.
Wouldn’t be the first time and definitely won’t be the last time.
Lancelot scouted ahead to make sure what Vulcan was saying was true, and it was.
Seeing the Sages raises questions but the strange mental creatures guarding the walls caused alarm bells to ring. Lancelot had only seen these things went the Fake King was still around; following his command without a single question.
Sonic had just scoffed and told him not to worry about them too much, just to focus on keeping the people safe. His king had mumbled something about ‘Robotnik’ and ‘egg bots’ not that it gives much insight into what Sonic was thinking of.
“I forgot how fast you are.”
Lancelot looks over his shoulder to see Galahad walking over with a tired-looking Lamorak right behind him.
Galahad doesn’t appear winded, well not as much as Lamorak is.
The younger knight doesn’t have any speed abilities to his name but that didn’t stop Galahad from being trained the same way that Lancelot had.
His son can run almost the same distance that Lancelot can, just without the air gems for boost. Galahad’s magic has grown a lot since it first awakened back when he was small.
Lamorak has his hands on his knees, trying and failing to catch his breath. If Lancelot remembers correctly, Lamorak follows roughly the same training routine as his sister so there wasn’t much need for him to run long distances.
Lamorak and Galahad are always partnered up so one tanks while the other acts as speed.
Maybe Lancelot should switch up the partners for everyone. It’s clear that the knights have grown far too comfortable with who they work with.
Lancelot knows the difficulties of working with someone you barely know or have worked with before. It’s also the reason why he now branches out to the others after the King left.
Lancelot tightened his cross arms at the thought of their King.
He can’t protect his knights much longer without telling them about their King.
It’s been two months since Sonic left Camelot, leaving Lancelot in charge, but the older knight hasn’t figured out how to tell anyone yet.
He promised that he’d protect the people and the Round Table to Sonic.
However, how far does that promise go?
To lie to the others about their King’s whereabouts?
To withdraw when the stress of both knighthood and kinghood becomes too much?
Does his promise mean pushing his son away?
Lancelot doesn’t know.
“Dad?”
Lancelot snaps back into focus; glaring down at the person next to him.
Galahad’s hand froze from where it was reaching but slowly he pulled it back, staring wide-eye up at him. His son looks at Lancelot for a moment longer before stepping back and giving his attention to Gawain and Percival, who are running over.
Gawain and Percival are used to following after Lance; always letting him take the lead while they take up the rear. It works for them but maybe it’s time for a change, get some new members involved. They have been opening up the Round Table to new knights as of late.
“Holy! That’s a lot of Sages!” Percival seems to be already counting the number of Sages. “I wonder why they’re all here.”
“The Blacksmith said that Claudas is behind this, right?” Gawain said while moving to stand beside Lancelot. “Sages only show up when a high level of magic is being broken.”
Right, there were thousands of Sages hanging around Camelot when the fake king was still present. None of them knew, save for Merlina.
Frankly, Lancelot hasn’t heard from Merlina for a while now. Merlina could be halfway across the country or locked up in the smallest dungeon for all Lancelot knew.
Maybe he should ask Morgan if she answers his letters.
“If that’s true then we got to stop him or else the world might be split apart,” Percival said, who seemed to be already forming a plan.
“Claudas would be in the main castle which would be the most guarded of the kingdom by those things.” Lancelot points out the metal things rolling around down below. “From there, there are passageways that can take us straight to the castle.”
Lancelot points out the two entrances for the knights to take, no other words were spoken as the knights set off.
Percival and Lamorak went to the west while Gawain went straight down the middle to give everyone a distraction.
Lancelot motioned for Galahad to follow, leading the way towards the east of the kingdom’s walls.
“There’s a passage that hasn’t been sealed in years.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this without backup.”
Lancelot and Galahad had ducked down behind a series of boulders just out of the way. A tunnel with dark and sick water flowing out dares him to follow through with his foolish plan, and want to call his knights back and listen to his son.
He barely escaped this kingdom the last time; doubting heavily that he’ll get out this time. Lancelot knows his luck has reached its limits this time.
“There’s no time,” Lance settled on saying.
His son stares at him - so much trust resting on Lancelot’s shoulders - and gives a nod after a moment. “How do you know this was here?” Galahad question instead.
“Let’s get inside first then I’ll tell you.”
Galahad follows Lancelot as they make their way to the tunnel and get inside. This should lead them straight to the kitchen, as long as the new king hasn’t moved anything around that is. It’s not like Lancelot bothers with keeping too many ideas on this place.
“Morgan brought back maps of this place.” Lancelot places a hand on the wall and blindly follows it into the dark. There aren’t going to be any lights in here and Lancelot wasn’t going to risk making any. “Keep a hand on the wall, we aren’t far from the castle.”
Galahad didn’t answer, just placed a hand on Lancelot’s shoulder before letting go.
The passageway went on and on. Lancelot remembered this was a shorter trip than the last time. Though that was when he was leaving, going back is a whole other thing.
The fear and the shouting must have made the trip to the walls feel like time moved far too fast for comfort.
“What was that?”
Lancelot’s ears flick around while freezing in place, trying to pinpoint the noise.
In the darkness, Galahad is barely an outline though it didn’t last long before a familiar cyan coloured magic spread across his son’s hands and lights the surrounding area.
Lancelot frowns, narrowing his eyes just past Galahad.
An outline of something…
The knight shoots forward; barely grabbing Galahad and pushing his son behind him just as lightning shoots through his body.
He crashes harshly against the ground, something warm trailing down his side.
Lancelot blurrily looks up, a figure stands overhead just staring down at him. Guilt flows through Lancelot as soft red eyes stare down at him.
His King stares pitifully down at him as the darkness drowns him.