Beat The Clock.

Jan. 13th - Ruins

A small toddler sat in the lap of his shivering sister to escape the cold blowing from outside. With gentle fingers, she placed the faded azure wrap closer to his body to keep him warm through the next dark hours. It would be long night, being trapped in craggy cave, but it was one that many have been waiting for centuries to witness.

The little girl's brother pulled anxiously on her shirt sleeve. She took her eyes away from the Azure Palace in the distance, and looked down into his baby blue eyes. "What is it, Little One?"

He shivered a bit as a gush of air blew past his face. "Why are we here, Sister? What have they brought us here?"

The little girl used her sleeve to wipe away some of the snot that had frozen on his upper lip. "We're here to see the birth of your future. We're here to see the moment you become king."

The toddler looked out into the scenery, his grey eyes fixated on the Palace, glowing in the night sky with bright blue tiles that line every floor and outside-wall. It was one of the most beautiful things he had seen in his life; and, from the the celebration he could see, raised laughter lifting itself to the air where it could dance among the other voices of joy and delight and freedom. Such a display brought a wide grin to his face.

He turned to his sister to see if she saw what he had - lights and music and joy - when he caught her expression as she talked their protectors. The Cave Men did not look happy. Anger better suited their long, hairy faces.

"The time to go is now!"

"Not," his sister demanded. "Until the absolute end."

"The end is now, Princess."

A large boom through the air, sending everyone in both the cave and the palace into screams. The toddler pulled from the clutch of his sister and went to the cave opening to see what had happened. Large block of stone and support down beneath the Palace. Blue tiles tumbled from the perch, leaving on specks of brilliant blue in the wake of the rumble. Everything had toppled over onto itself, smashing everything in it's path.

The horror of the destruction made the toddler weep in sympathy for all the people lost. "Can we do nothing?" He whispered to his sister.

She lifted a calming hand and placed it on his shoulder. "No, Arthur. There is nothing you can do. The ruins that now stand before are the last remnants of your father's tyrannical reign." She knelt down so they could be eye-to-eye. "Now is the time for you to built your own kingdom and be a king the people will grow to love."

Arthur buried his face in his sister's neck, the long, dark curls of her hair hiding his face. "I'm scared, Morgana. Will you stay with me? Will you help me build this kingdom?"

"Of course." She cuddled him close, a small smile playing of her lips. "When have I even been anything but true?"