Alfred dreamt of emerald eyes and purple flags. He dreamt of a castle with towers and the spade shining in the deep blues of his house. He dreamt of a warrior with long dark hair who became a wise man for a powerful person. He dreamt of the land he died for growing in power and prosperity for the people. His people were rare in this dream world. He dreamt of ships of people with dark skin that he had never seen land and become part of the large group. A black spade flew on the blue of his house in the winds. His flag, he realized. These were his people, his lands, his life. He dreamt of their safety and their freedom. He dreamt of the peace. He dreamt as centuries passed him by, Hidden in his hidden cave only three hours via horse from the castle. He dreamt as his people built a name for themselves in the world. He slept as the world changed.
His eyes flickered for the first time since his slumber began. His chest rose once. His heart beat a lonely beat. The spell had weakened for a moment, long enough for a clock to tick loudly in the early hours of the day as the court had started their session. The moment was surreal for Alfred. He had moved and he saw in his dream a round clock tick loudly.
'Strange. That clock has never moved.' Alfred pondered as he watched the wise man call to the armored people and witnessed the powerful one with emerald eyes be crowned. He watched as the armored ones searched the kingdom. He remained in slumber as the emerald eyed one and the wise man came closer to his cave, finding the last of the mages. He watched as they questioned the mage by the waterfall that hid the entrance to his prison or his grave. He never could decide which it was. Maybe he would be freed.
"Wake up." A voice had whispered in his mind. "Wake up for they need you."
'Who am I? Why do I need to wake up? Leave me in peace.' Alfred drifted into another view of the outside. Something was different. He could hear voices in a language he barely understood but saw nothing.
"Where is the King, Mage?" A voice filled with anger and irritation.
"Why would I reveal that secret to you, Queen? His grave was meant to be hidden." Matthias... Matthias the archer and his close friend.
"The clock moved. The second hand had ticked but once." Again the irritated voice.
"I... I can't tell you! Leave this clearing! Never come back! Kill me before I tell."
Alfred couldn't hear anything now except for the waterfall. He heard feet on the stones in front of the waterfall. The water fell on something up there than stone. The feet faded away, going down different tunnels. A thud of something metal being dropped outside of the tunnel leading to him. Muffled voices drifted into his subconscious. The many feet came down the tunnel.
"WAKE UP! THEY COULD BE FOES!" His mind was yelling.
'No. Mine. Sleepy. Leave.' Alfred shot back. The feet and the voices entered his cave. He dreamt of the lid of his prison or his grave being moved. He dreamt that the spell had been broken. He felt something caress his face. It was cool and familiar. The wind? It must have been. He felt his chest rise as he inhaled the cool air. It was a shallow breath but it was the beginning of the end of his deep slumber. Something warm touched his face and gently removed the grimy things from it with, what was it called, cloth! He felt something wet wash his face. It was cold. So very cold. His eyes shot open when the cloth brushed his eyelids. The hand shot back. Voices were speaking to him. He saw a pair of eyes that were so familiar looking down at him, shining with something he couldn't name. He blinked slowly a few times, the hand of the green eyed one touched his cheek. The lips moved but he couldn't hear it clearly. He was so tired. So very tired. His eyes drifted closed and he fell into a deep healing sleep, one he would wake up from. This time, he didn't dream.
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Arthur was extremely irritated as the weeks flew by after his coronation. He and Yao searched almost the whole kingdom for the king. What results did they get? Absolutely bloody nothing! Until an old man walked through a small village they were in. The man was incredibly old with shaky steps, the longest beard imaginable, and the robes he wore were of a style Arthur had never seen. The guards, Arthur, and Yao followed the old man into the old woods and to a waterfall. The old man was sitting on an equally old stump, fiddling with a Spadian bow. A bow that only a Time Mage could use. Arthur stepped forward.
"Where is the king, Mage?" He was angry and irritated after all the time he had been roaming Spadia to find this man.
"Why would I tell you, Queen? He remains hidden for a reason." The Mage stated, his bow glowing a brilliant blue.
"The clock moved. We need him. Where is he?!" Arthur found himself yelling at the Mage, his sword pointed to the throat of this man.
"I will never tell you where his grave rests. He was injured and he needs to remain in peaceful sleep where time will not touch him and slumber protects. In the valley and woods, he will dream of this land and I will never let him be harmed again, even in his grave. The solitaire king will remain safe under stone and river, darkness and dreams his constant companions." Matthias hissed at the Queen.
"You guard his tomb, correct? Than it must be somewhere near here. Guards, split up and search this clearing!" Arthur barked, smirking as the Mage's eyes widened. He paled when a guard neared the fall. Arthur smirked.
"He's beyond the waterfall. Thank you for your help." Arthur sheathed his sword and waded into the pool, finding steps that led up to the fall. He raised his shield above his head and crossed under the multitude of water. He was followed by the guards, Yao, and the Mage. The Mage sat on a ledge, watching as guards wandered down the many tunnels and couldn't help but smile at each wrong turn.

The cavern had twelve statues in alcoves over twelve bench looking things with weird writings on the tomb like benches. Each Statue looked like the warriors from the legends, swords untouched by time being held in the stone hands. One of the benches wasn't sealed but the sword gleamed. Matthias sat on this one, a tired sigh escaping him. The lighting of the main cavern made Yao stop and look, gasping at the history and tales so carefully and painstakingly painted, weaved, and carved into every section. The story wrapped around the visible twelve tunnels, the tombs of the other mages in the caves connected. Each cave was numbered, the carvings painted in gold. There were fourteen tunnels counting the one leading out to the waterfall. Matthias smiled as he knew they would not find his friend unless they were clever and looked through the shadows and behind a pillar and weren't fooled by the fake bolder that hid the entrance from view.  When they finally had one last tunnel to wander, the darkest one, the Mage sighed tiredly. His time was up as they would be entering his cave.

"Please don't harm him." The Mage closes his eyes after he uttered that sentence, taking in one last breath and falling into the eternal sleep known as death. Arthur was shocked, as was everyone else. They found that the ledge he had sat on was an open tomb, empty with one name written in the stone: Matthias, last protector of the King. They laid him to rest, the Spadian Bow resting on his breast, before continuing down the last tunnel. A single torch lit the cavern, a special  tapestry telling of the final battle of the mages. Artifacts from the temples of the Mages sat in this room and a symbol of a crown was carved lightly on the edge of the wall, pointing to the cavern. Yao instructed some of the guards to bring the artifacts to the castle, absentmindedly picking up what appeared to be a necklace. Arthur huffed in annoyance as he walked back into the main cavern, watching the orb that floated in the middle, it's light reaching to every part of the cavern except the pillar farthest from the entrance. He approached the pillar, studying it. A small golden crown symbol caught his eye. Arthur turned to tell the guards he had found something when he saw a guard reaching for the orb.

"Stop, you imbecile! If you disrupt the orb, the protection surrounding the island will will cease! Honestly! Didn't you read the bloody tapestries?!" Arthur was yelling at the guard, fuming. The guard dropped his shield in fright, the clank of metal on stone ringing throughout the cavern the only sound. Arthur took a calming breath, pointed to the pillar, and started to order torches or lamps be brought over.

"Sir, there is a strange bolder in the way. I don't think anything is there." the guard stated the obvious to Arthur who was standing right next to him.

"I can see that. Pass me the torch. This bolder doesn't look like any I have ever seen before." Arthur held his newly acquired torch next to the bolder but the light seemed to pass right through it. He took a step forward, going through the bolder. "It's a magic rock. Of course it is. Mages used bloody magic." Arthur muttered under his breath as the rest of the group started to follow him down the tunnel. 

Golden images of people and battles, stories long forgotten, a lady in red standing over a boy in blue as he was bound. Temples and constellations painted all on the walls and the top of the tunnel. Figures in the same blue as the boy fighting under the blue flag against an army of green soldiers. A figure in blue, red splattered in places and a golden crown upon his head, depicted with a sword through the king of the green's chest. Many more scenes were upon the tunnel, precious jewels and metals entwined into the walls to make the art come to life.

The tunnel came to a small cave, a bow hanging on the wall across from the group. There were artifacts of military importance throughout the cave, shining brighter than the steel of the guards' armor and as black as the spade symbol. A tomb lay in the center. It was simple in comparison to the rest of everything they had seen, sapphires and emeralds and amethysts and other jewels and gold creating the image of a rising and setting sun. The tomb was surrounded by runes of blood red rubies and the magic in the air was felt by all. Arthur walked towards it with two others and carefully slid the lid off. 

"Is that..." One of the guards muttered in shock. Arthur nodded weakly, not believing his eyes. Yao made his way over to Arthur, who continued to stare in awe. All the soldiers gathered around the opened tomb and stared in awe at the figure within.For with in this sealed tomb lay a teenager in the Blackest of black armor that was dusty, blood splattered, and battle worn. It glistened in the torchlight, every dent and scratch speaking of the battles it had seen. He could see the bloody bandages peeking through some bits of armor that had been wrapped around the teenager's wounds, The extent of the many wounds was unknown but they knew that they needed to tend to this teenager or he would perish. He understood why the Mage was sealed away, protected in a timeless limbo to keep him alive. The head laying on the stone of the tomb, face upwards to the sky was too pale and youthful in sleep. Arthur Could not believe that was the face of a warrior. The crest of the Time Mages was in the center of the breastplate of his armor, barely seen through the dust. Arthur's first thought was that the teenager was dead. The chest rose as a small breath was taken in. More followed that one small inhale. Arthur released his breath, not realizing he had held it. The eyes remained closed as the dreamer breathed.
Arthur gently placed his hand on the face and gently tried to remove the dust with his hands while a guard was wetting some piece of cloth and brought it to him. The teen's eyes snapped open after the cloth moved over his eyelids. The startling sky blue eyes, still glazed over, stared into the shocked eyes of Arthur.

"Who are you?" Arthur asked the slowly blinking teen, his eyes studying the teen. A blank look was all he received. "How old are you? Yao, he's awake. We need to move him to the castle." Arthur watched as the guards made a stretcher for the teen out of some white canvas looking stuff and some long spears laying around. The teen looked into Arthur's eyes, too blue eyes filled with pain and fear. 

"It'll be alright. You'll be okay soon." Arthur said softly, his words laced with a little magic. The teen fell into a deep sleep in seconds and didn't wake when they lifted him out of the tomb. He didn't wake when they carried him past the waterfall. He didn't wake when they patched him up with stitches or broke and splinted bones that had healed wrong. He remained asleep when they cleaned him and found the King's mark. He slept as Arthur waited at his bedside for him to wake up. Days turned to weeks and weeks to months as he slept and healed. Arthur was almost always at his bedside, but Matthew never left unless ordered to by Arthur. He slept until Arthur"s yelling broke through the haze. He didn't know that Arthur was yelling at someone for wanting to put him out of his misery by killing him. 

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!! YOU WON'T BLOODY WELL KILL HIM!!" Arthur lost it on the poor soul. Movement to his right brought silence as Arthur turned to see what had moved. The teenager on the bed was staring at him through the bandages on his face, eyes filled with pain. The teen moved again, twitched his arm but that was all the teen could do. The movement caused the teen to wince. Arthur sighed before sitting down on the side of the bed.

"Hello, puppet. Who are you?" Arthur asked gently, having a feeling that the boy would not respond well to anger or annoyance yet. The teen looked fearful and confused at the eyes he had seen so many times in his dreams. Something told him that the man could be trusted and he did feel safe with the man close.