The Legend of King Arthur is more of a fantasy to me. As well as in my world. There had been historians who take the stories as completely ‘legendary’ with the presence of powerful wizards and magical swords, but removing those aspects and one will find how humane the rest of the story itself is. But for one as well, there are too many flaws to completely accept the truth of it; that’s why history evicts it to be the real happenings and consider it to be plain fiction.

For me who have set my eyes to be an archaeologist to figure out facts from legends, I guess I must learn that I shall believe even the imaginary ones in hopes that I can one day bring light to what was once just considered a question.

And also, I will say that the very moment that I return to my world, I’ll surely pay attention onto epics and heroes. In any case that I’ll find myself being part of one once again such as this.

I sigh heavily from my pondering, not realizing for a second that I’ve been left all alone in the forest by the wizard Merlin as some sort of task if I’ll be able to survive the night in here. I guess, I can do that since I have my backpack with me that will be enough for a camper to have in one night. But I didn’t consider that my trip will not finish with a travel to Madame Tussauds, and for me to end up here that I didn’t even have some food with me to go along. Not to mention that I’ll need to stay here, wait for morning that Merlin can fetch me himself, and try to succumb to the notion of all of this happening is real and not a dream.

To top all my other worries, I am to deal with the night in the forest with a lion.

I turn to where the lion is, admiring how silky its golden mane is and at the same time keeping my heart from jumping out of my chest due to fear about what this creature can do. I am not dumb enough to know that lions are considered to be the King of the Jungle. And due to my intuition of always being careless and unlucky myself, I try to avoid everything that I know will cause harm to me.

I chuckle dryly knowing that there are surely more dangers after this than what is currently on hand, just as what Merlin had told me. He said that this is just his own test if I am indeed the one that the prophecy had talked about. And all I wanted to do right now is to return back home and laugh this all off like some silly dream.

I sigh another time, resigning myself into this situation. There is nothing else I can do but remain here, and admit that it had been the fates own twist to lead me here for reasons that I’ll surely know off later on once Merlin tells me the rest of the details that I need to accomplish in order to make it back to my world.

The thought of what I must do just to make it back seems to rest rather heavily on my shoulders. Putting the pieces that I know of about King Arthur makes my head ache, knowing for myself that it will be tragic and at the same time heroic. The rest of the details seem to leave me for all that I know of King Arthur, to be honest, is him, Merlin, King Uther and Excalibur. Other details seem to be so far-fetched from my mind.

My stomach suddenly grumbles causing me to yelp and cover my belly with my hands as if that will stop it from making that sound. I slowly turn to the lion which appears to have heard the same sound, making it turn the other direction a second later and moving with decisive and slow steps. I bite my lower lip and succumb back to a nearby tree for me to lean on as my stomach grumbles another time, and I wish that I truly manage to hide at least a small snack in my backpack.

I’ve successfully brought in a Swiss knife inside Madame Tussauds. It surely had been equally that easy for me as well to bring in a small snack bar with me. I’ll surely need to remember bringing one again every time that I am heading off to a museum once I am back.

But before all those planning and reminders, I really need to fill my stomach with something to eat. Or I’ll find myself dying of hunger here and all my notices about how to survive another time will be useless.

Another growl of my stomach and the lion appears once again along with the rustle of the tall grasses. It turns to me with every intention of it being completely dissatisfied with hearing the sound oy my empty stomach. With its intense stare at me, it draws closer.

I take a quick move back as if that will give me a very good chance to survive. The sun is still up and I am already fretting about the knowledge of being eaten by a lion. I am surely not going to survive the night in this forest with that knowledge in mind.

However, the lion turns away for a second, and buries its face onto the tall grasses just close to me. The next time that it turns to me again, it is already biting on a huge basket filled with different kinds of breads and cheeses, pies and tarts, and bottles of fresh milk.

My stomach registers another growl at the sight of food. I look at the lion in inquiry. “Is this for me?”

The lion places back the basket just right in front of me and growls lowly before moving behind me and settling in comfort, keeping its paws crossed to the ground as it drops its head against them. It comfortably closes its eyes as if wanting to sleep.

I take a quick look at it for a second before crawling back to the tall grass where the lion had come from, to where it had taken the basket of food. As I brush away the grasses in vain search of where it could come from, I end up seeing nothing but the same grasses; with no indication that the basket of food had been there since the start.

The lion lazily growls another time as if telling me that it is him who’ve brought it, and it is fine to eat such goods. Perhaps it had been true that Merlin is a wizard—sorcerer, I mean—and that this lion is left under my care for the night in order to truly test my knock for survival things.

Perhaps, in the later date, as I proceed on with whatever mission is waiting for me to accomplish while being here to completely make it back to my own world, I’ll understand that this is a foundation of the lessons. And probably the easiest one to solve than what is to come, as Merlin had already pointed out.

“You’ve brought this for me?” I inquire to the lion as I turn to look at its direction, crawling back to my previous position and facing the basket full of treats.

The lion makes a soft sound as of some reply.

I smile timidly as I cautiously touches its mane. I am afraid that it will immediately attack me if I do but when my fingers thread on its mane, the lion seems to be much more comfortable than earlier on. “You know,” I start, “you remind me of my pet back home.”

Back then, even before that school trip to London, Dash, the puppy we have at home, had been clinging too close to me a week before I leave Edinburgh. He loves me threading my fingers through his furs until he whimpered upon seeing me rolling my luggage. I’d promised that I’ll be back after a week.

But thinking of it now… I wonder if I’ll actually be back in a week.

“Oh!” I clap my hands together. “I always want a kitten, too. But my parents said that it will be chaos having a cat and a dog living under one roof. Is it possible…?” I turn to the lion with an enthusiastic smile. “…if I’ll name you ‘Pebble’?”

The lion roars as it keeps its eyes close.

“Did you say ‘yes’? Alright! It is decided then.”

It roars another time, rather loudly, but it remains firmly steady on.

“You really like the name, don’t you?” I giggle.

Maybe, the reason that I am meant to be tested if I’ll survive the night is because I’ll need to start conquering my fears if I really want to fulfill my mission here and return home.

Seems like there’s a lot of things to get used to.

Surely, if I’ve never been so clumsy and less athletic, I would have been allowed to come during camping. There had been activities back then throughout my education that there were school trips where survival skills were tested; but I myself had been filled with initiative to tell my parents that I will not attend. They know this silly sickness of mine, and they fret over the matter of what could happen. So, in the end, I do not have any idea about what to expect.

After all, I do not even expect, among all things, that I’ll be brought to this world and will need to spend an entire night fidgeting in the darkness and emptiness of my mind to survive the forest. Though I have the idea, I will still not be able to know what to do since this place is entirely foreign. But, looking at the good side, if I’ve joined such camping trips, I’ll have at least the tiniest of idea how to deal situations such as this one.

Though the food that Pebble had handed to me remains, since it had been too much for one meal alone and not to mention really delicious at the context, I am much more afraid of how wild my imaginations could be.

Even though Pebble remains by my side, I am still on the process of trying to organize everything inside my head. On top of the list had been my understanding that as the situation now currently stands, there is no hope that I’ll be back to the London of my time; that for some sort of trick by fate, choosing me among the billions of people on Earth, I’ve been one that Merlin had thought to be the prophesied one—the Unknown Seer—according to him. And I’ll be needing to fulfill my role here in order to make it back.

Then, the next inquiry flows after that about what will be my duties then. What are those missions that I need to succeed on? I have little to a little bit over no knowledge about the Legend of King Arthur. At least, I can assume this much since there’s Merlin being not how the stories described him, and the mention of King Uther, Logres, and Arthur. But… I only know one thing about King Arthur; that he had pulled the sword out of the stone, and that’s all. The rest about him after he became king… well, I am starting to hate that I didn’t pay attention to such legend, me more interested like Dad about the artifacts that could be discovered in other lands such as that of Greece, Egypt, Turkey and others.

I sigh heavily as I bury my face onto my knees, hugging my legs close to my chest as I continue listening to the songs I have on my phone with my earphones on. Surprisingly, my phone is working and it remains at its one hundred percent, not even draining at all. The bad news is that there is no signal; I guess I must not be surprise with that knowledge at all given the time that I am now in. Double bad luck since I want to at least research about King Arthur and there is no way that I can do that. Another bad luck is that the time on my phone had been stuck at 12:21, as well as the date remains; so that gives me no idea about the actual month and day here, or even the time.

I will surely need to learn the calendar of this world. All I can say, according to what Merlin had mentioned, is that this had be the twenty-fifth year of King Uther’s reign or Year 526. That means that I am almost one thousand and five hundred years back to the past.

It is a full moon tonight and I never think that the stars are so bright that I can almost see the expanse of the Milky Way even without a telescope. I guess that it is common since there is no pollution as of this time. Even the rest of my things and my own clothing will be regarded so out of this world. Though the sound of the crickets and the cuckoo of the owls to be a part of nature, I don’t want to get so relax with that and freak out with the sound of a rustle; that’s why I keep my earphones on to at least make me passed the time.

I really wish that it will be morning already, and Merlin will come back to fetch me. Then, he can tell me all the details of my mission to make my journey back home much faster.

Suddenly, Pebble wakes from his slumber and roars. This time, it had been deafening that make me jump away from him, in fear that he had heard or sensed something that troubles him.

And surely, there’s something that really made him act that way.

I remove my earphones, stashing them back to my pockets with my phone, and I trail my eyes onto Pebble as he suddenly thrashed on here and there, as if he is struggling to remove something from his body. In a closer inspection, I will have been completely startled with it myself, given my fears of them; but from this distance, with its fangs sinking so intently on Pebble’s tail, I can’t do anything but feel helpless for the matter.

With the light of the moon and the brightness of the stars, I don’t need to take my flashlight with me to be so sure myself. For right on Pebble’s tail, biting with clear intention of excreting its venom, is a serpent.

“Pebble!” I shout, wanting to do something to help. But I don’t know what is the best course of action to do. I’ve been always afraid of snakes, and I never consider that I have the guts to overcome them being in this strange world. Well, for one, if I’ve been poisoned, will this time be able to produce any antidote for such?

Will this kill me and make me lose all chances of making it back to my own time? But…

Pebble roars uncontrollably, trying to shake the serpent out. Not to mention that he looks at me rather helpless and hopeless as if he is trying to make me understand that he needs my help this time.

I remember the way that the kitten, drenched under the rain, looked at me as if seeking my comfort. That had been the day that my parents told me that to bring it home will cause chaos with having Dash as our dog back home. My heart breaks being reminded on how sad it had been, longing for comfort. That despite them being animals, they also surely have feelings that they can’t explain and help but to express in hope that someone will aid them.

This time, I will not allow Pebble to suffer the same fate of being abandoned like that kitten. If I do not do something this time, Pebble will surely suffer much longer. I take it that he’ll be able to make it long enough for the morning that Merlin will come and he can offer an antidote later on. But… what if this is the real test?

I take the Swiss knife that I have from my backpack’s outside pocket, not hesitating at all to wield its blade. “Hey, you! Let go of Pebble!” I scream at the serpent that still insists on keeping its fangs buried on Pebble’s tail. I threateningly motion with my knife as if that will help, but I can’t even draw closer with Pebble thrashing about. I guess I’ll need to ease him first so that I can finally make the kill.

Turning to Pebble, I reach out my other hand to pet his head. “Hey, buddy. Pebble, it’s alright. I got you. Who’s the good boy?”