Deviation Actions
Literature Text
The Chronicles of Bournemouthshire: Amber's Story Arc
The Risible Adventures of Rita Arthurs
Chapter 17
Eclectic Escape
Chancellor Pansy seemed to have been on fire of darkness since he was surrounded by it to the point that his eyes were as dark and hollow as an abyss. Rita steadied herself with one hand holding the Excalibur and the other open with an etched in Sun Crystal shining, ready to strike. The tension was rising as the villagers watched in horror a match to the death about to occur. Pansy lifted his hand as a black scythe formed from the darkness encrusted with gold fell into his other outstretched hand.
“I’m not sure whether you know but… I am one of the followers of the God of Power and Destruction…” Pansy leaned forward as he was ready to charge, “I also hold power over death since I know the dark arts myself. Why, that very same portal was in fact opened by me while Roxanne let me into Glenton the night I captured you!”
Rita’s anger started to overtake the shock and fear as she also stood her ground, ready for Pansy’s strike, “Big deal, you’re just another stinking necromancer.”
“Not just any necromancer…” Pansy smirked as he started to disappear in the shadows, “I am a Messenger of Death.”
Rita did not even blink as Pansy was already behind her and swung his scythe to behead her; luckily Rita dodged it just in time and swung her own sword but sliced only through a shadow figure.
“I am not what I seem, I must warn you…” Pansy tried smiting Rita with his scythe once again but Rita countered it with her sword which clanged loudly. If it was any old sword, Rita probably would have been long dead by now. Rita targeted her crystal’s light at Pansy but he merely disappeared once again.
“Dammit… YOU COWARD! COME OUT AND FIGHT!” Rita shouted bewildered.
“I haven’t even started…” Pansy laughed as he threw books around Rita so quick that she did not have the time to realise what was going on and clicking his fingers, the books started to connect into a golden star, striking Rita with lightning.
“FIGHT IT, ARHURS! GODDAMIT, DON’T YOU DARE GO DOWN THIS EASILY!” Kiera was screaming as Ellancelot held her back.
“This is their fight Kiera” Marketa who was now freed tried to calm Kiera down, “I am sure that King Arthur was a great sovereign for a reason and will not go down without a fight.”
“Just give up!” Pansy cackled madly as Rita dropped her sword and gritted her teeth while trying to reach something, “It will do you no good trying to reach that sword now! Why don’t you be a good reincarnation and fall to your demise already!”
But what Rita reached was not the sword but her dagger which was not responding to lightning unlike Rita who was nearly glowing as bright as the actual star on the ground because of so much energy. As soon as Rita touched Carnwennan though, she was shrouded in a shadow and disappeared from the star which stopped glowing with no one inside it.
“W-what?!” Pansy rushed near the star to where Rita used to be.
“O-of course!” Marketa gasped, “So that’s why Rita asked me in secret to give her a bunch of books with ancient artefacts and legends about them!”
“Huh? What’s going on?” Ellancelot looked around.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this but – you’re a genius, Rita!” Kiera exclaimed happily.
“I am so confused!” Ellancelot moaned.
“In the Arthurian Legends, King Arthur used to posses three sacred weapons” Marketa explained, “’The sacred weapons that God had given him: Rhongomiant his spear, Caledfwlch a sword, and Carnwennan his dagger’ as known from the original text. Caledfwlch was also known as Excalibur while Carnwennan was known to have magical power to let it’s possessor be shrouded in shadows which is what happened just now!”
“…I have no idea what you just said but it sounds clever so I’ll agree to it” Ellancelot nodded as Marketa sighed.
To defeat fire…you fight it with fire…
Rita’s voice could be heard from the shadows while Pansy was frantically looking around, “Where are you, Arthurs?!”
And to defeat a shadow…
“YOU FIGHT IT WITH SHADOW!” Rita sliced Pansy in half out of the shadows as he fell into his own golden star.
“No…NO!” Pansy’s cries remained as the hall flashed brightly with lightning striking everywhere around in every possible direction.
The ceiling started to crumble just as was the floor of the hall as the what used to be a gold star became a mini-black hole, sucking everything in it.
“MOVE!” Rita shouted as she quickly grabbed her sword as it responded with light to its master’s touch. Most of the villagers of course were evacuated during the time Rita was fighting Pansy but Kiera, Marketa, Ellancelot and Did still remained and were now running for their lived from the crumbling away floor and the rocks falling from the above. Although Marketa’s gown did not help in this situation, she still managed to make it past the door just as Ellancelot and Did have. Rita was about to run out of the door herself when she noticed that Kiera was still not out. Rita quickly looked back to find Kiera clinging for her life on the floor’s tile as she tried to reach her bow which was about to fall into the black hole.
“Pearson, you big idiot! What do you think you’re doing?!” Rita rushed over to Kiera, jumping from tile to tile as they were crumbling away, “Leave that bow! You can get another one!”
“NO!” Kiera screamed, “You don’t understand!”
“YOU WILL DIE!” Rita screamed back as she reached for Kiera’s collar right as Kiera grabbed her bow. Rita tossed Kiera as far as she could while quickly trying to reach something as she fell into the black hole.
“RITA!!!” Kiera screamed at the top of her lungs as Did covered her mouth with both her hands and Ellancelot dragged Kiera away from the hall, “Let me go, you fools! It’s my fault Arthurs-! I could still-!”
“You could still what?!” Marketa shouted, tears flowing down her cheeks, “We need to get away from here and look after our people! That child’s sacrifice cannot be in vain!”
Kiera held back her tears but nodded as she started to run towards the exit. Even the hall was starting to be pulled in the black hole so Kiera and the other had to avoid even more rocks falling down and trying to crush them. When they finally ran out of the Guild of Teaching, they turned to see it disappear forever as the black hole eventually faded away leaving nothing but emptiness behind.
“…Come on…” Marketa said softly as she nudged Kiera to follow her while Kiera’s hand which had her bow in clenched it even harder while shaking.
“The poor peasant…She was a good peasant…” Ellancelot was wailing in Did’s coat while Did patted her on the head merely saying There there…
Kiera led all the villagers to the carriage and stopped while slowly turning around, “How are we going to fit everyone in there…?”
“Well…we could have them being taken to the village in groups and then having the carriage come back and so on…” Marketa’s voice faded as she could no longer carry on speaking.
“I-I still can’t believe that peasant left uuuus!” Ellancelot did not stop weeping.
“Even though I didn’t like her much… she was fun to annoy” Kiera smiled mildly but then noticed a shadow move closer to them. She immediately loaded her bow and pointed it at the shadow, “Another filthy necromancer?!”
“Gees…I’m gone for ten minutes and you already nearly bury me and announce me dead…” the shadow grew into a familiar figure.
“PEASANT!” Ellancelot jumped to hug Rita as she kept on wailing but this time from happiness, “I thought I could not have you do my dirty work for me foreveeer!”
“I nearly die and all you can say to me is this?” Rita had a blank expression since she did not even know whether she was happy to be alive or would have rather died if Ellancelot was going to further make her do all the work.
“Child…” Marketa approached smiling while wiping away her tears, “You did well…”
Did merely nodded while smiling, she was not much of a talker.
“Arthurs?” Ellancelot was finally dragged away by did from Rita so Rita could not turn around to face Kiera.
“Ye-?” Rita was hit in the face with a boot and thrown back a couple of meters, “O-ow! What was that for?!”
“You moron! Why did you save me?! If you didn’t have that dagger or if you didn’t grab it in time! You would have been…been-!” Kiera smacked herself in order to stop the tears starting to overflow. She jumped around a couple of times and waved her hands on her face before finally going up to Rita who was still on the ground, shocked and pointed her index finger at Rita’s nose, “This now means that I owe you a favour! Thanks a lot, you idiotic Arthurs!”
“Why you…” Rita’s anger was starting to boil up but Kiera’s hand relaxed and she now offered her hand to help Rita up. Rita smirked and grabbed it; once she stood up, she threw Kiera on the floor, “That’s payback, Pearson brat.”
Kiera merely stuck her tongue out as always before both of them laughed then gasped as they remembered that they were supposed to hate each other, scowled and grinned broadly.
“Alright now, children” Marketa helped Kiera up, “We must now solve this dilemma of our method of travel!”
“Pff. That won’t take too long to solve” Rita grinned as she lifted her left hand while the rest of the villagers gulped.
The villagers of course at first screamed in terror as the carriage rode back to Glenton at an immense speed while Kiera, Marketa, Ellancelot, Did and a couple of more villagers sat inside the carriage while Rita was sitting on the top of it with her sword through the top of it while she clung onto it with one hand while the other glowed as the crystal’s power carried the rest of the villagers.
Kiera sat silently in the carriage the whole time which was unusual for her but she could not stop thinking about what she saw while she was near the black hole. She remembered that there stood a figure of a man so cold that she could not utter a word at the moment. She would never forget the face of that man which she saw only once on a picture of a book – one known as the High Priest Glove.
