I slowly open my eyes, getting worried myself. For a second, it had been best of me to think that I am lost and didn’t have any idea where I am. Finding out that he seems to be so far away from lying to me means that this is way too real for me to conceptualize and take in as the truth. But here he is, and here I am, in the middle of a forest that I don’t even know where at all.

“Do you have any idea how to bring me back home?” I shiver at my request. I hate to admit that I am starting to be scared much more. “I don’t know what is going on. I am not supposed to be here. I really want to go home.”

He looks grim and apologetic. “I am sorry, but I can’t help you with that. Even with all my magic, there is not a chance or a spell that will make me bring you back in your own time. Or, in other words, a spell that will ensure that you’ll make it back safely.”

I know about Merlin, King Uther and Logres. I know all of them being combined to that of a legendary British king named Arthur and everything else is a matter of Britain. I know the story itself, and I know that the ending hadn’t been a good one. But in regard to details… not much.

And yet… I question myself what exactly am I doing here. Like, why am I here in the first place? What happened for me to be here? Is there really no chance for me to return to my own time?

I press my lips together. I am sure that Shannon is already panicking, guilty and regretful for losing sight of me. She’ll surely be so remorseful at that notion. My parents will also be worried of me, and the rest of England or even the world will try to find me. The school will certainly prohibit any trips, and poor Miss Mackenzie being fired due to her incapacity to ensure her students’ safety.

I really need to make it back.

“But… aren’t you supposed to be the greatest magician of all time?” I inquire, hoping that my knowledge of the Legend of King Arthur is up to date and will be used at this moment on. Yet, in the stories that I’ve read, Merlin is so different from the one standing right in front of me now with a lion.

The Merlin from the stories had been described as an old man with long white beard, wearing a conical hat and small round spectacles that were balanced on his nose with no bands. But the Merlin standing right in front of me appears as a man about the same age as I do, not to mention that he is also a gentle and beautiful man… too far from the eccentric one that had been detailed in the legends.

“Sorcerer,” he corrects me. “Not ‘magician’. To answer as well your question, I will not say that I am the best there is, or the ‘greatest’ as you have defined. There’s also a limit to the things that we, wielders of magic, can do. I do not have the rights to return you to your own time since I am not the reason that you are here.”

Defeated, I hang my head. “That means that you can’t just really return me to my own time in the future? Can’t you at least try?”

“I can help you make it to the London of this time, but not of the future where you’ve come from, my lady,” he explains, “Once again, I am telling you, I’ve seen your arrival through my visions of the future. There is no doubt that you are meant to be here at this point of our time. It will mean that the reasons that I have such vision is that it had been the will of God for you to be here. No matter what happens.”

“No matter whether I want to or not? Even if I continue insisting you for a way?”

“I am being honest. To speak ill is supposedly a bad attitude in my character for someone blessed to see the future. You surely are aware that those who receive a bequeathing gift from the Lord is due to one’s character. A good action is bestowed with a good future.”

“If that’s the case… then, do you have any idea about what is going on with that of my time? Will everything turn into a good tide for everyone then? A lot of people are surely worried about me already. I can’t help but to feel guilty of having them worry too much when I am here. I also don’t quite remember what actually happened before being here, except that… there was someone following me. Someone who’ve been telling me that she had finally found me and all that. I don’t know.” I didn’t realize that I am already crying and that I sound crazy, and I hate this part of me. “I don’t quite get what is really going on. Why me?”

“It is also a question to me, why, but there must be a good reason for that,” he tells me as some sort of assurance. He looks up at the sky and continues, “And your inquiry about the time where you come from… I know that they are surely worried about you as you’ve pointed out, but they will do well. They’ll coped up with it, just as how you will do so as well, until the moment of your return. Just as how your arrival here had been one that I’ve known, your return as well will be imminent every single passing day.”

“So… how long I stay here will be reflected onto the time where I’ve come from as well?” I start to wonder what it will be afterwards. If I am to stay here for a month or a year or even a decade, will it mean that I’ll return as well a decade from what I am aware of? I don’t think that I can stomach that knowledge.

“Given that you succeed on your mission here… you’ll return back on your time without even losing too much. I, Merlin, stays true with my words that I can see the future of your own time, and see it clearly on how it is ticking right there. And it is way slower than the time we have here. A year here certainly equates to half a day in your time, or even less.”

“Are you serious?” My eyes widen at that knowledge. That will mean that if I am to stay here within just a day or for a week… it will not appear that I’ve been here at all? It’s as if all will just be part of some dream.

He bows his head with a small smile. “Yes. First of all, if you truly wanted to make it back to your time right away, then, you better start with fulfilling your missions. Because, in the future that I’ve seen, the only way you’ll make it to your time is after you fulfill such. I can see the outcome, but I don’t know when it will happen, or how the rest of your life here will be. I know too well that you will succeed with being here to make it back on your time.”

“Please,” I chide, bowing at him equally. “I am not as you expect of me at all, Lord Merlin.”

“Please.” He chuckles lightly as he straightens. “’Merlin’ will do. Before I begin detailing your missions to complete as some help to you in order to make it back to your own time, may I be honored by knowing your name?”

“Oh, I almost forgot about it.” I raise my head for a second and smile, still a little bit hesitant about everything that is currently going on. “My name is Eira. Eira Prowell. No! Actually, it is Gwyneira Prowell; but I hate being called that. So, ‘Eira’. I am Eira.”

“Eira…” He tests my name first, rolling the first two vowels with a distinct accent that reminds me too well of an Irish.

He is surely from the Gaelic region then; or perhaps, it had been the condition that this had been hundred years ago from what I know, and if I remember correctly, Dad once told me that England is dominantly of Gaels before those from the Gaul settles here. I will say that majority of the characters of the Legend of King Arthur are originally from the Gaul than Gaels.

He chuckles again before smiling warmly. “Lady Eira, as it seems to be.”

I flush. “No. Just ‘Eira’. No need for such formalities.”

“But it is only the common endearment at this time. The same way that you are to call the knights with the title of ‘Sir’, a maiden is to be regarded as ‘Lady’. We’ll surely tackle about such later on when the studies begin and education is deemed a necessity for you to fulfill your missions. As I’ve said, the reason that you’re here is surely because you must fulfill the missions according to the prophecy that people like us who surrounds the Chosen One have. And you, you’re the one that they deemed to be Incompertus Alwyn Olim Videns. Surely, your ticket back to your world will be to complete such, just as it had been transcribed in the prophecy.”

“Are you saying that my coming here had been one that is filled with predictions from the past?” I raise an eyebrow.

“Yes.” He frowns a little as he contemplates about it. “I believe so it is from the past, rather than that of the future. The ability to know what is to come seems to meddle me sometimes. Just as I tend to lose sight of the present and forget the important things in need of precaution.” He sighs heavily. “Anyway, do you have any idea about how the life of Arthur Pendragon is meant to go? You’ve said that you’re from the future. That means that you are aware of his life, is it?”

I bite my lower lip. I need to be honest that even though I’ve known about such a legend, I consider it just as a story but not of reality. And there are too many works about his life and yet, there are no exact proofs that he is indeed real than a fantasy character. I tell him, “To be honest, I don’t know the exact details, per se. All I know according to our discussions in class is that he was born to be the King of England, considered to be the wisest among the wisest, and that his life, despite its ups had ended as a tragedy. I guess it had been normal for people to actually succumb to such, isn’t it?”

His frown deepens. “Do you, by any chance, know about the Battle of Camlann?”

I think hard. Once and twice. I really do. Trying to find my memory bank all about King Arthur. In the end, the words itself doesn’t seem to tick me off at all. I shake my head. I don’t know anything about such a battle, not to mention that I don’t even know that there is such a place as ‘Camlann’.

“If that’s the case, I can proceed on to giving you your first task to indeed prove that you are the one that we’ve been waiting for. The Unknown Seer,” Merlin proceeds on before offering a hand in my direction, or rather, ushering the lion to draw closer to me. “Your first task is to survive the night with the lion here in the heart of the Forest Sauvage’s woods. Consider this as your first lesson. I’ll be back tomorrow to check on your progress and from there on, I can decide if you are not just the one who is prophesied to arrive here on our world, but also the one who deserves to be next to a future king as him.”

“W-Wait!” I stop him before he even goes somewhere or whatsoever. The knowledge of having to spend the night in this forest with a lion suddenly makes me tremble. I thought from his words that he had been expecting my arrival despite him not knowing the truth of how come I’ve been here. I thought that my coming here had been prophesied in the first place; and isn’t it wrong to make me stay here? What if something happens to me? “Is this really… what I must be doing? After all, I don’t even know this place at all. And what is there to expect at night in this forest?”

He smiles softly as if that will assure my quivering heart. “There is nothing for you to worry. For I have full faith on you that you’ll be able to overcome this task first of all. This is only the start; not to mention the easiest to handle. How come you’ll be able to succeed on the future about the real depths of your mission to be here if you truly want to make it back? The way for the end of the mission isn’t going to be easy. Rest assured.” His entire body starts to be enveloped by wind. “I have faith that you’ll succeed on this one and then the rest of the hard trek. Your soul is so strong than you know of it, and it will be your greatest weapon until the time that you are to return back to your world. You surely are so much more than you thought of yourself, Lady Eira.”

With those words alone, he disappears as the wind that previously surrounds him at first settles and vanishes, his position replaced by a small campfire. He leaves me all alone with the lion for whatever first task this is of surviving the night in the middle of a forest in a world that is too far from home.