He didn’t budge.
“To be fair, it was a small giant. But my feat has not been bested by another man—or child as I was really.”
“How surprising,” Britt said when she realized Lancelot was expecting a comment of some sort.
“It is, isn’t it? I did kill a much larger giant, though, when I first set out with my cousins Lionel and Bors.”
Britt’s eyes glazed over as Lancelot launched into another story. She relaxed in the saddle, her shoulders slumping, and let her mind wander.
It was important to remember why she endured Lancelot’s presence, and dared to venture forth in to Guinevere’s domain. It was all for the Round Table.
She hadn’t told Merlin, but she was planning to steal the table.
“It must come apart, or it wouldn’t be able to fit through a door unless it is the size of a coffee table. I bet we could reassemble it in the hallway and roll it out,” Britt mumbled. “We would have to keep rolling it down the road, though. That would get it very dirty…”
“—net couldn’t properly hold back a giant of such size, so Lionel and I set out to wrestle it to the ground.”
“Who will I allow to sit at the table?” Britt wondered. “It will have to be a limited amount of people, and it certainly won’t include chatty, flighty foreign princes,” Britt said under her breath. “But how will I be able to invite Gawain to the Round Table and not him? Hmm…”
“After we killed that giant we discovered it was naught but a babe, and its father found us.”
“It won’t be a problem. He can’t plan on staying long. I’ll get rid of him before then. He would have to pledge himself to me, and I can’t see that happening,” Britt decided.
“—and I plunged my sword through his heart, killing him in one blow.”
“Yep. I’ll see Guinevere in Camelot before I accept an oath of fealty from him,” Britt decided.
“What do you think of that, My Lord? Was it not an entertaining battle?” Lancelot finished.
“Oh certainly. Not,” Britt said.
“What tales have you to tell of your strength and valor in battle?”
“Oh. Um.”
“Arthur, come up here for a moment. I need to run over the plan with you,” Merlin called right on cue.
Britt smiled in relief. “I apologize,” she said to Lancelot before nudging Llamrei ahead. “Thank you, Merlin. You are a hero,” Britt said when she reached the handsome wizard.
“Mmhmm. You owe me.”
“Absolutely.”
“And don’t let that young buck fill your head with silly ideas. You aren’t going to get a chance to ride off and challenge blackguard knights to battle. EVER. Am I clear?”
“Perfectly.”
This next scene depicts how Merlin, Lancelot, and Gawain got into Camelgrance after it was sealed up and prepped for a siege—with an unknowing Britt inside. I knew how Merlin got inside the castle, but I didn’t include it because I try to keep the story with Britt, seeing things from her point of view. If I stray from her too many spoilers are to be had. But including this scene in the extras seems harmless enough, and it lets you feel a little sympathy for Gawain and Lancelot and what they endured to get inside Camelgrance.
“This isn’t fair, I want to go too,” Ywain complained, straining forward.
“Rescue missions aren’t about what’s fair, boy. It’s about what is smart,” King Pellinore said, easily holding Ywain back by grabbing the collar of the young man’s tunic.
“But why does Gawain get to go?” Ywain said, pursing his lips at his older cousin.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to,” Merlin said, the tip of his tongue hanging out of the corner of his mouth as stood on his tip toes and planted a hand on a Camelgrance’s wall.
“But Merlin,” Ywain said.
Sir Kay placed a hand on the younger knight’s shoulder. “It is not wise to speak to a wizard when he is working magic,” he said, nodding at Merlin.
Merlin ignored the comment and squinted up at the brick he was touching. “You will do what I want you to do,” he said to the wall, almost falling into the brush hugging the stone structure.
“Father always said you have to be half mad to work magic,” Ywain said.
“Ywain,” Gawain scolded.
“Alright, lads. Here is the situation. I will be working two sets of simultaneous, powerful spells to get us inside this sorry excuse of a castle. It will take a great deal more of my power than I thought, so I can’t take all three of you like I said I could. One of you will have to remain behind,” Merlin said, brushing his clothes off.
“Gawain and I should go, if that is the case,” Sir Kay said.
“Oh?” Lancelot asked.
“Arthur is our king and our sovereign. You have taken no oaths to aid him, it is only natural that Gawain and I would be the ones to accompany Merlin,” Sir Kay said, bowing slightly to Lancelot.