Week 13 Story: Time Traveling Natalia
Dear Diary,
Entry #429
I have just returned to the year 2197, from my 3-year adventure in Italy. This time, I traveled around the southern region of Italy, primarily around Sicily all the way north to Naples. I also took a boat ride to the Greece city of Athens to visit the Castle of Maidens. The time period was during the Middle Ages, specifically the years 881-883. I have embarked on many many adventures during these 3 years, trying to establish honorable, compassionate, and diligent leaders in these regions. While also fighting off many enemies lurking in the darkness.
To give a summary of my primary adventures, I found a sword wedged in a rock apparently named Excalibur and I pulled it out, much to the amazement of a large group of knights who observed. I traveled by boat through the Ionian Sea and rescued a group of sailors from a Gyarados sea serpent. Arriving in Athens, I trained the Castle of Maidens to be fierce warriors who would come to be known for their heroism, kindness, and compassionate leadership across Greece. Out on a training mission with them teaching them how to fire arrows, we came upon the largest wolf I have EVER seen. She was a white wolf, which is said to be a mystic creature capable of seeing the future, tracking across countries, and its ability to understand human feelings. In that first moment, she came up to me and laid down at my feet. We have been inseparable since that day.
In this entry, I want to focus on a story the White Wolf and I shared while on a trek from Crotone to the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. We were in a group of mountains now known as the Aspromonte National Park. Something CRAZY happened next. We were about halfway through the mountains on the way to our next stop in Messina, when White Wolf talked!
"Wait Natalia, I sense something... dark in these mountains. Sniff sniff*. Yes, an artifact I presume. It does not have the smell of something alive, and the smell of water comes with it. It must be near a stream or waterfall perhaps. Before you speak, my name is Lyra and I am an immortal being just as you are."
After we got to know each other, we decided to go after the darkness and destroy whatever it was. A few days later, we were coming upon where we thought the dark object was. I remember Lyra collapsed near a tree, and she warned me that she could not sense it anymore. Something... happened to it and it seemed to affect her abilities. We decided to keep searching when we noticed a handsome swordsman in a meditating pose on the ground. Dark energy swirled around him. He opened his red eyes and called us out of our hiding.
After he finished monologuing about being an immortal evil spirit controlling this man, I believe he threatened us. "If you face me, you will die. Your immortality cannot save you from death by my hand."
I had had enough, I grabbed an arrow and loosed it aimed at his head. He unsheathed his sword and easily smacked the arrow away. Lyra charged and dove at him knocking him down as they rolled down a hill. I shot arrows after him from the top of the hill and he dodged or blocked every one. He used his magic to snare me with tree branches and toss me down the hill.
Arriving at the bottom I unsheathed my sword to block his incoming attack. I kicked him off me and jumped up as Lyra took out his legs. He swung his sword as he was going down and he hit my knee armor light enough for it to hold together.
On his feet, he stomped on the ground sending energy that knocked me back onto the ground. Lyra leaped after his neck but he was too quick and he caught her and viciously threw her at a tree, knocking her out.
I ran after him and engaged in sword to sword combat. I felt like Obi-Wan vs Anakin as neither of us could land a hit on the other. I would obviously be the wise and powerful Obi-Wan and he'd be the corrupted evil Anakin. Anyway, as I did a flip over him to avoid being trapped against a large rock, he slashed my upper leg in the air. I screeched as I could not stand back up! With a death threat, he let Lyra and I go so we could feel the shame of what he would do next.
The next few months Lyra and I stayed in Messina to heal, but our hearts broke every day as we heard stories of a man with red eyes torching small cities and killing all who would not submit to his authority. One day after meditating by the ocean, Lyra came to me with tears in her eyes and said she could not live with the shame and guilt anymore.
We knew we could not best him in physical combat with his sword mastery and his magic, so we decided to go after the artifact. One night, we snuck into his newly built kingdom and searched for it to no avail. After nearly giving up, Lyra caught an extremely faint whiff of dark energy. It led us to a dark cave, and we found a gem overflowing with dark energy.
"NOOOOO" the swordsman screamed charging after us. Lyra leaped at him but he smacked her away, as I unsheathed my sword and destroyed the gem. The swordsman crashed into me, cutting my torso with his sword as we fell to the ground.
The swordsman stood up and turned to me, his eyes now green as he helped me up and carried Lyra and me back to Messina.
There, we finally rested after a long adventure and celebrated the end of the evil spirit's tyranny.
Author's Note
Inspiration for this story came from two stories by Andrew Lang. Sir Galahad and the White Knight and The Drawing of the Sword. A summary of the first story is Sir Galahad was on a quest to find a shield that was protected by the White Knight. The knight ends up giving the shield to Galahad who goes on to perform heroic acts and become a great powerful knight. The second story is about Britain after their king died and they were in need of a new king. Arthur, later to be discovered as the unknown son of the previous king, was the main character who pulled Excalibur out of the stone to help his brother who needed a sword. After Arthur having to prove that he could pull the sword out of the stone many times, he eventually became a knight and king.
From the first story, I adapted the White Knight into the White Wolf character and I gave her a much larger role in my story as well as a partner in Natalia. I also pulled the idea of the "Castle of Maidens" which I added a little bit of context to them by making through warriors and leaders through Natalia's training. From the second story, I was inspired by the idea around Excalibur. I felt that The Drawing of the Sword focused a great amount on the actual sword and I wanted to make a story where the power of that sword is understood to an extent, but not focused on.
I made Natalia an immortal time-traveler because I thought it would be an interesting contrast to the Middle Ages, a unique viewpoint of a diary, and so that I could include some future references like Obi-Wan vs Anakin and the Aspromonte National Park.
Sir Galahad and the White Knight by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1902).
The Drawing of the Sword by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1902).
Image Information: Natalia and the White Wolf
Hello Justin,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your story of Natalia and Lyra. It was a tale full of mystery and adventure! I like how the story is told as an entry in a diary. It makes me want to know what other adventures your character has written about in her diary. I am a huge fan of Excalibur. So, it was nice to see someone write about it. I would like to know more about the mysterious gem and why it turns people evil. Good job!