The Image of a Hero

KANE OPENED HIS eyes and saw light.

He rose from where he laid on a bed of soft grass. His hands trailed over his body, finding no wounds or aching pains. His clothes were pristine and smelled fruity. When he checked his hair he was pleased to discover that it was thoroughly brushed and clean.

"Hello?" Kane called out. "Is anyone here?"

A breeze caressed his skin. It was warm, like the wind that was born when spring shifted into summer. The scent of grapes wafted over Kane, igniting a fresh wave of hunger within him. He clutched his stomach, feeling a touch of annoyance.

Even in death food was a necessity? That kinda sucked.

Kane followed his nose, going deeper into the woods. Trees towered over him like gangly giants. Their leaves were the brightest shade of green he'd ever seen. The bark of each tree was radiant like the sun. Kane had never seen plants look so healthy before.

Everything looked perfect.

Kane passed broad fields of grain and endless rows of produce. There were apples everywhere and he lost count of how many orchards he'd passed. His fingers itched to pluck an apple from each tree he came across. Never before had he felt so famished.

With no one around to ask, Kane stopped and reached upwards. His fingers grazed the roundest, reddest apple of the bunch. Its aesthetic was so delectable that it looked like something straight out of an animated movie.

"It's ok to take it. Everything here is at our disposal."

Kane screeched, whirling around in such a hurry that he tripped over his feet and face planted. "Ow."

A booming laugh filled the air. Kane squirmed. A warm flush crept up the back of his neck. When he looked up there was a large hand hanging in front of his face. His gaze followed it upwards, past the pale forearm, beyond the plain shirt and met hooded ice blue eyes.

"You alright?" the man asked, slightly rolling his r's. "You took quite a spill there, yeah?"

"Uh, yeah." Kane grabbed his hand, allowing the man to haul him up. "Thanks."

The man towered over Kane much like the surrounding trees. Kane felt like an ant when he reached over him. The perfect apple filled Kane's ravenous vision seconds later. He actually considered taking it for a moment.

After all, his grandma warned him not to take candy from a stranger. Not apples.

Yet he wavered because deep down, he knew Tempest would be annoyed with him if he didn't investigate.

Even in death he worried about letting her down.

"Take a bite first."

The man's wide lips curled upwards into a loopy half smile. "Alright." Juices ran down his trimmed golden beard. "Happy?" he asked, still munching loudly while offering Kane another apple. "Go ahead. It's safe to eat."

Kane accepted the fruit. It was cool, like it'd just emerged from the fridge. When he bit into it the most saccharine taste touched his tongue. It fueled his hunger with a newfound lust. He devoured the apple within seconds yet his hunger wasn't satiated.

"Still hungry?" the man asked with a knowing glint in his kind eyes. "Take as much as you want. This place never runs out of food and it's all free to take."

Kane discarded the core without a second thought. To his disbelief it sunk into the rich soil. A small sprout immediately emerged.

"Give it a little while and a new tree will come," the man said, walking away with an air of nonchalance.

Eager to keep up, Kane made a basket out of the bottom half of his shirt and loaded it with apples. He jogged after the man with his yummy contraband pressed against his stomach.

"I haven't seen you around here before." Kane's ears perked up, liking the way the man's gravelly voice went from a higher to lower pitch. He sounded like he was singing when he was speaking. It was cool. "Did you just arrive?"

"I think I just died. Which sucks because it made my friend cry and I'm kinda the only hope she had for getting her sister back. Well, she isn't actually my friend. Or, I don't know." Kane hummed, stuffing his face with another apple. "I like to think we're friends but she thinks I'm kinda dumb. So I'm probably more of a nuisance to her. It would've been cool if we were friends. Or more. She's pretty, y'know? And there's a lot more to her than what she tries to let on." Kane dropped the second core. The ground swallowed it up in the blink of an eye. "I'm kinda cursed though so it wouldn't have worked out anyway. Is it bad that I'm dead and not devastated? Probably."

The man's beefy figure stopped walking once they reached the edge of a cliff. He glanced at Kane with a look of bewilderment that he was used to seeing on Tempest's razor-sharp features.

"That... was a lot to take in."

Kane ducked his head. "Sorry."

The man blinked, tossing his half eaten apple into the dark water below. His feathery lashes reminded Kane of his grandma. He briefly wondered if he'd be able to see her again now that they were both gone.

The possibility lifted his spirits. Kane guessed maybe that's why he wasn't so upset about his demise.

Silver and Tempest were safe. He might be able to see his grandma again. Kobe had Death (a sentence he never thought he'd ever use) and Earth...

Kane winced. He'd sort of dropped the ball there.

"You're an odd fellow." The man laughed when Kane shot him an offended look. "But if it makes you feel any better, you're not dead."

"Huh? How do you know?"

"Well," the man motioned at Kane's body, "you don't look dead."

Kane's brows furrowed. "Um, what exactly does a dead person look like?"

"Me."

Kane eyed the old brown trousers the man wore. The simplicity of it all didn't look so different from the all white outfit Kane sported. He didn't look much different from Kane at all.

"Am I missing something or is there nothing different between the two of us?" Kane asked, face scrunched up in confusion.

"I've got a bit of a glow," he replied, referencing the dewy shimmer covering his pale skin. "You've got about half of that glow."

Kane rolled up his sleeves, noticing nothing besides his usual need for a tan. "I don't understand."

"You're only half dead."

"Half dead?" Kane repeated. Oh, he didn't like the way that sounded. He didn't like that at all. "How can I be half dead?"

The man shrugged, plopping down on the grass without a care in the world. "Why don't you tell me the last thing you remember and we'll work through it."

Kane sat beside him, letting his legs dangle over the edge. He recounted his last battle in great detail. When Kane finished he realized the man was looking at him with a peculiar stare.

"Your sword vanished? Did you call for it?"

Kane stammered, "No. I panicked. But I still had it when I was done fighting the Unseelie fae! I swear! It just... disappeared when I needed it most."

The man made a noise in the back of his throat. "How strange. Call for it now. See if it will come."

Kane let out a heavy breath, holding out a hand. "Caliburn." When nothing happened he frowned. "So, like, clearly that didn't work. Maybe—"

"What's your name?" Their eyes met. The man leaned backwards, keeping himself propped up on his forearms. "What do they call you?"

Kane let out a sigh of relief, feeling the knots in his stomach give way now that he could breathe easier. "My friend—well, not my friend, the pretty girl—Tempest, uh, she calls me Pendragon."

The man let out a low whistle. "Pendragon, eh?"

Kane groaned, feeling even more useless after failing to call his sword back. "Yeah, yeah. I know. King Arthur. Don't remind me."

"Not a fan of the king?"

"It's not that. It's just..." Kane ripped out a handful of grass, exasperated. Fresh blades replaced the lot he'd taken almost instantly. "Did you know that he fought giants? Witches? Killed a shit ton of monsters? And he made the Round Table so his knights did more super cool things because of him." Kane's cheeks puffed up with air that he blew out like a deflating tire. "I needed help to kill just one lycan. The only reason I took down a vampire was because it hadn't eaten in a while. I almost died because of a few sirens. And then I kinda sorta did die in this last battle. I just, I feel like I'm not good enough to be his descendant."

Let alone his reincarnation.

"And where did you hear of all those things?"

"In the books. My friend, Silver, read some of them to me. Back in Hiraeth."

"And did those books ever tell you that Arthur threw up in the middle of his first battle?" The man smiled, raising his rosy cheeks. It was warm and reminded Kane of his grandma. "Did they mention the time a giant almost smashed him with one fatal stomp? Did they tell you about all the times his friends had to save his sorry ass because he was too reckless?"

Kane shook his head. "All the legends ever talk about is how great he was."

The man scoffed, eyeing the mist settling over the water. "He wasn't that great. Arthur was just a man, y'know? A bit hot-headed. Brash. Annoying. Thankfully, he outgrew two of those characteristics as he got older. But still. He was just a man."

"You knew him?"

"You could say that I was his oldest friend."

Kane's eyes widened. "Are you Merlin?" His shocked gaze trailed over the man's wavy blond locks that ended at his shoulders. "But all the stories said Merlin died an old man and had a long wizard beard. Whatever that means."

The man tipped his head backwards, letting out a harsh bark of laughter. "Gods, no. I'm not Merlin. You can call me Chief, though. Some people do."

Kane pursed his lips together. "I don't remember any mention of a Chief in the stories."

Chief's smile slipped into something a little more lopsided. "I suppose they used a different name when referencing me then." He shrugged, looking very amused when he locked eyes with Kane again. "It's in the past. Just like Arthur is. Pendragon," Chief let out a quiet chuckle, "there's no point in comparing yourself to a ghost. The only life that matters now is yours. Not his. Arthur's time has long come and gone."

"That's not true," Kane muttered. "Arthur will rise again when his people need him most."

Chief hummed, peering at Kane from the corner of his eye. "Has he risen?"

"Apparently." Kane let out another heavy sigh. Guilt curled within him once he was confronted with the reality of Merlin's Prophecy. "There's a banshee that has a scream strong enough to wipe out countries. Queen Mab is using her to claim Earth for the Unseelie."

"That's unfortunate. For humanity, I mean," Chief tacked on with a humorless laugh. "I can't believe that old bat is still alive. Would've thought she'd be dead by now."

"You knew Queen Mab?!"

Was there anyone important that he didn't know?

Chief made a tsk noise. "No. But Merlin did. They were... close. He spoke of her often."

A line appeared between Kane's brows. "But Queen Mab's Unseelie."

"Mhm."

"She's, like, the baddest of bad guys as far as the fae go."

"Correct."

"Why would Merlin be close with her?"

Chief sat up, dusting off the lumps of grass Kane accidentally dropped on him. "Why wouldn't he?"

"Um, because he's a good guy?" Kane replied with uncertainty. "Good guys don't usually associate with the bad guys."

Chief went from resting his chin on his hand to covering his mouth. "And who said he was a good guy?" he asked.

"The stories." Kane felt a little dumb when Chief raised a brow at him. "He was Arthur's most trusted advisor. He... did a lot of good things for him. Right?"

Chief hummed a low tune. When he dropped his hand to wrap his arms around his legs, Kane pressed pause on his internal conflict. Why was he smirking?

"Merlin did a lot of things for Arthur. That's true." Chief's icy gaze gleamed with something vacant that Kane couldn't put a name to. "Arthur was conceived because Merlin deemed it possible. Merlin raised Arthur, educated him, helped him rise to power, and build up Camelot. Arthur would've never done any of the good things he did if it weren't for Merlin intervening at the right moments."

Kane stopped biting the inside of his cheek. "But?"

"Merlin did good. But that didn't mean he was good. Not all of him, at least." Chief grinned yet there was no mirth gracing his face. "Merlin had darkness buried deep within him. He could be incredibly cunning. Manipulative. Cold, if it suited him. Then a flip would switch and he'd go back to being that great wizard you've heard all about."

Kane toyed with his fingers. "Why don't the legends show him like that?"

"Why don't they talk about Arthur being a dick?" Chief retorted. "Because it doesn't fit the narrative they want to portray." Chief gnawed on his bottom lip. Something murky clouded his features. "No one wants to acknowledge that the great Merlin is a cambion. It ruins the good image he has. Makes people question his character."

"What's a cambion?"

"Someone that's part demon and part human."

Kane's mouth fell open. He didn't even know what to say.

"Merlin's magick came from his incubus father." Kane stiffened when he caught the harsher tone used on the last word. "His powers were legendary. There were two things that he was best known for, though. Shapeshifting and the knowledge of prophecy."

"And those things are bad?" Kane asked, doing his best to tread softly.

Chief shook his head. "No. It's what he did with those gifts that shifted the way Arthur saw his... friend."

Kane gulped, shivering when the blue sky darkened a few shades. "What did he do?"

"Arthur's mother, Queen Igraine, was married. Merlin foretold that a powerful son would result from their union." Chief clenched his jaw. His eyes hardened into something downright mean before continuing. "Merlin used his magick to change Uther so that he looked like Igraine's husband. Uther raped Igraine then killed her husband. Igraine's daughters escaped here, to Avalon. The oldest, Morgan, was an enchantress and she was close to the Seelie fae. They gave her this island as refuge."

Kane squirmed. Knowing he was descended from Uther's heinous crime made him nauseous. He had to change the subject or he'd get physically ill the longer he thought about it.

"Morgan as in Morgan le Fey?"

"The one and only."

"I—I thought Morgan le Fey was a goddess?"

"She earned the right to be elevated to the position of goddess," Chief explained. His tone softened a bit when he spoke about her. "But she was a good witch first. Morgan and her nine sisters all were."

"Did they become goddesses too?"

Chief shook his head. "Only Morgan did. The rest of her eight sisters decided to just stay here after she became the Lady of Avalon. Most of them are healers."

"Eight?"

"Hm?"

"You said Morgan's eight sisters stayed." Kane licked his lips, feeling antsy when Chief didn't respond. "She had nine at first. What happened to the missing sister?"

Chief froze. Then, slowly, as if emerging from a spell, he shifted to glare at the sky.

"Morgause hated Uther for raping her mother. She hated the product of it even more."

"Arthur."

Chief nodded. "She swore to bring ruin to him. At first her plan was to wage war. But then she thought of something more nefarious."

Kane frowned. Silver never told him any of these parts regarding Arthur's origins. He was starting to see why.

Shit was fucked up.

"What did she do?"

"Arthur had a wife that he was... in love with at the time." Chief snorted, the corner of his mouth curling upwards into something cynical. "Guinevere. So Morgause took a page from Merlin's book. She disguised herself as Guienevere and then..."

Chief fiddled with his clothes. Kane felt the distance between them grow the longer the quiet dragged on.

"Mordred didn't just kill Arthur because he didn't get along with his dad, right?"

"No. Mordred killed Arthur because his mother told him to. Arthur didn't even know he existed until it was too late." Chief looked away with a tinge of guilt coloring his lowering eyes. "Not that it would have mattered anyway, him knowing. Arthur wasn't too fond of facing his... Mordred. Things were different back then. Men couldn't be raped. No one but his knights understood why Arthur didn't want to try and take his son under his wing. I doubt the stories talk about that, though."

Kane shook his head, disgusted. "I think I'm starting to understand why my family decided to bury the past. What a fucking mess."

And they hadn't even gotten to the curse yet.

"Wait—" Kane's mind raced as his one good brain cell kicked into overdrive. "Did Arthur and Guinevere have kids?"

"Uh, no. Kinda hard to do that when she was banging his best friend."

"Excuse me?!"

Chief chuckled, waving off Kane's sputtering like he hadn't just dropped a major bomb. "Lancelot and Guinevere. It's a whole saga of betrayal and infidelity. Irrelevant now considering they're all dead although..." Chief tilted his head to the side. "Last I heard, Arthur was pretty pissed that Guinevere ended up buried next to him when she died."

"That's... ok." Kane filed that knowledge away for later. He couldn't deal with half of the things he'd just learned about his ancestor/past life's hardships. Shit was getting too damn dark way too fast. "So then... Mordred was Arthur's only kid?"

Chief sighed. "Unfortunately. Why do you ask?"

"Well, Morgause had magick, right? So if she passed it onto Mordred and he had kids..." Kane trailed off. The more he thought about his last moments with the athame, the more his budding theory made sense. "Do you think I could've inherited some of that magick too?"

Chief gave him a once over. "Mordred had a daughter with an Unseelie fae before he died. I believe her name was Maleficent. It's possible. But you'll never know for sure if you don't go back."

"I don't think that's really my choice to make."

"Of course it is," Chief said, looking at Kane oddly. "You can choose to go back. Or you can choose to die. You're only half dead, remember?"

Kane looked around Avalon. He loved the beauty of the land and the serenity it granted him. He could see himself spending eternity here, content.

The possibility of seeing his grandma tugged at his heartstrings. He could feel it now, her small body wrapped in his arms. The scent of her mango shampoo tickling his nose as she pressed her head against his chest. He wanted to have that again.

But then he remembered Silver and Tempest. What would happen to them if he didn't help get Odette back?

Kane sighed. His grandma always said that his heart was too big for his own good. He never knew it to be more true when, in this moment, he chose Silver and Tempest over her.

"I'm going back," Kane said, confident in his choice. "Not for the magick. But for my friends. They need me."

Even if one of them would rather die than ever admit that.

"Mhm. Pretty girls are a great reason to wanna live." Chief laughed at Kane's disgruntled expression. "What?"

"That's not it!"

"I'm sure it isn't."

Kane's ears burned. "It really isn't. I swear." He shoved a laughing Chief over. "It's the right thing to do!"

Chief's laughter quieted, then he said, "Call for Caliburn."

"Why?"

"Just, humor me."

Insecurity crept into Kane's chest. He held out a hand, murmuring the sword's name. When nothing happened his shoulders slumped. But then a slight shimmer appeared. Kane held his breath as the sky ripped apart and Caliburn emerged from the 'tween.

"Sometimes swords need reassurance that the person wielding them is truly worthy." Kane's mouth fell open when Chief grabbed Caliburn. The blade didn't rebuke him. Chief passed Caliburn to Kane then nodded at something behind him. "Looks like it's time to go."

A loud bark caught his attention. Kane beamed, overjoyed to see Kobe running towards him with Death following.

"Take care of our sword. And don't forget, no matter what the stories say, I was just a man. You're doing fine."

Kane whipped around, mouth hanging wide open. "You—"

Arthur's smirk widened. Above his head a golden crown appeared. He waved and said, "See you around, Kane."

"Arthur—"

Kobe yipped, barreling into Kane's chest and throwing him into an abyss.

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QOTD: What are your thoughts regarding Kane × Arthur's discussion and what it could mean for Silver × Kane's future?

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