• Circling. Like hunter and prey. Sizing up my enemy, looking for any weakness, I lunge in directly towards his chest. Just as I suspected he parried out of my way. He tries to strike my head with the butt of his sword but he underestimated me. I jump to the side and quickly lunge again. All I am thinking of is my family. I will kill him if its the last thing I do. And it just might be...
    3 years earlier...
    Why can't Mother or Father go out to fetch water or go to the market? I am always the one to go. Usually I would have Ara by my side but her illness has kept her bedridden for days. More often than not I am quite annoyed by her childish antics and her jumping around like a hooligan, but I find myself afraid I might lose her to this illness. She is so frail, and colorless. We can not afford a physician to see her so Mother has been trying to take down her fever with peppermint,lung wort, and angelica. It's not working well.
    As I come to our small home I hear yelling and crashing coming from inside. “Where is he? You will tell me or you'll pay with your lives and your daughter will be mine!” I hurriedly ran to the nearest guard. “ Please sir you have to help my family! I am afraid someone is in our house threatening their lives! Please, help me!” He stood there shocked for a moment and then sprang into action. “ Stay here I will be back in a moment with help.” He ran off and I couldn't help but ran back to my house. I hear no noise. I see no light. The next thing I know I m surrounded by guards and they are storming the house. The guard who I had found, grabs me and pulls me out of the fray. “ Are you hurt? Where were you when this happened? Did you see the man who did this?” “ No, no. Where are my Mother and Father? My sister? All I heard was that he wanted them to tell him where someone was. Where are they?” He looked at me sadness in his eyes and pulls me against him. He says, “I am so sorry young friend. Your parents were killed. And it appears your sister was taken.” I stare at him in a stupor. I can't comprehend nor do I want to, the fact my family has been destroyed in less than an hour .Then everything fades to black...
    I awake in a soft bed with a gentle breeze. Mother must have put extra blankets under me during the night. And Ara must have asked her to open a window to temporarily relieve her of her fever. I never want to get up. Suddenly the events of the previous night hit me in the head like a lance. I sit up much to fast and my head spins.”Whoa, easy young friend. How are you feeling?” I look up to see the guard from last night. I start crying, sobbing uncontrollably and he sits next to me and says “ Its all right. Get it out. Whats your name?” “ Daniel. My name is Daniel.” He says to me “ Alright Daniel. I am Lancelot.” I nearly jump out of my skin at the sound of his name. “Lancelot?” I stutter. “Yes?” I stare dumb founded at King Arthur's best knight. I jump of the bed and am on my knees in an instant. Before I can utter a word he said “ Please. Do not honor me more then you would any other person on the street.” I uneasily stand back up. He leads me out of the room and into a small kitchen. He offers me a mug of milk, a plate of cheese, and some dried meat. I take it, a little sick. I still can not believe what my eyes are telling me. My family....My sister!” Sir Lancelot, did they find the man who killed my parents? Did they find my sister?” He looks at me sad again.” No we could not find him. Though we did find a witness who saw a man with a young girl in his arms fleeing from the house. He wore the Saxon seal. Your sister may already be dead.”I still can't believe all this. It so awful and unexpected. You never think it will happen to you until it does. I won't think about my parents. If I do I will break down and begin crying again and I will not do so in the presence of such a renowned knight. No, I will only think of my sister. And finding her. Dead, or alive. “Daniel, we need to take you to court. I don't know if I can keep you here with me. With me being a knight and all, I travel a lot and am rarely at home. I will bring you before Arthur himself. He will know a good, safe place for you. You may borrow some of my older cloths. Your cloths are covered in mud from when you fell.” ”But Sir Lancelot, why would I need to go before King Arthur himself?I am nothing but a lowly peasant.” He looked at me and said with certainty, “ So long as you are loyal to King Arthur and Camelot, he will help you. This I am sure.”
    As we come closer to the palace I start to feel a pain growing deep in my chest. It hurts but not much and it won't go away. I try to ignore it and I do for awhile. As we come up to room where we will see King Arthur I start to shake. Unsure about where I might be tomorrow I step through the doors to meet the greatest king whoever lived.
    He is not what I expected. I expected to see an elderly king with a hard face and a brisk walk. But what I saw was a young man. Maybe 24 winters old. He walked toward us with a grin on his face. Then Lancelot moved to the side so I may be in full view. His smile falls and his stride slows. He walks towards us solemnly and takes my hand. I was starting to kneel when he stopped me. He said ”No one who has lost as much as you have needs to kneel before any king. For I have the greatest respect for you.”
    I am even more shocked than when I was when I saw Lancelot standing over my bed today. I flinch at the memory of hearing my mothers screams and my fathers shouts as the man demanded they tell him where someone was. I replied, ”Sir, you have defeated many kings. You have ruled this large land in peace with few squabbles in your city and almost none in the outer lands. You have no need to pay me any respect.” He smiles at me and guides me towards a chair. We three sit down and King Arthur asks for mead and water for us. As we drink he says, “Daniel, I hope you can understand we can not let you live on the streets by yourself.” “ Yes sir, I understand but what is to become of me?” He looks to me and says “ I have a good friend, he is my best blacksmith. He has offered to house, cloth, feed, teach, and protect you. You are 14 am I correct?” I replied”Yes sir.” He says,” Excellent. Daniel I see something good in you. Something strong. There is no doubt in my mind that when you are of age you hunt down the monster that slayed your parents.” I couldn’t reply for a minute. The pain in my chest was getting worse. “ Thank you sir, for your kindness. I shall always remember this.”
    Four Years Later....
    As I hammer a sword I am making the pain in my chest burns and throbs. I hammer harder and harder until the steel starts to break on the edges. This is when I must be careful. The pain is the anger and pain from the loss of my family. It fuels the drive that I have. It makes me work harder. It makes me push myself to my limits. My birthday is tomorrow and tomorrow I set out in search of my family's murderer.
    “Now you have your money, food, cloths, horse care, and maps?” “Yes yes Lancelot. You worry to much. I will use what you have taught me these years and I will survive. It will be hard but not as hard as you make it seem.” “ Ah Daniel, you still have much to learn. Come, the king wants to say some parting words.”said Lancelot. “Alright.” He looks at me with those same wise eyes he has looked at me with for four years now. I learned just how much patience Lancelot has. He taught me how to use a sword and be patient. The blacksmith I have stayed with ,Jack, has taught me to craft weapons. King Arthur has taught me compassion. These are the things I think of as we make our way to the palace. “Daniel! Are you ready for your journey?” “Yes Sire. I leave straight form here.” “Well, I wish you the best of luck in your search and hope you travel safety. I want you to send word to us when you do find whoever did that to your family. We have received word from neighboring kingdoms that this same man has been traveling the land taking children and murdering their families.” “ Sir, as soon as I find this monster I will either capture him, kill him trying to, or die in battle.” “ You are a good strong young man. I pray you come back with a victory.” “ So do I Sire. I must take my leave now if I am to travel to the next kingdom by nightfall tomorrow.” “Alright. May the stars watch over you.” “And may the heavens guide you my lord.”
    I rode fast and hard for days. Traveling kingdom to kingdom, I gather information and
    searching for people in each kingdom who might have seen someone fitting the description of the murderer. What I do understand is he is a Saxon. One of England’s greatest enemies. Why he is taking children is a mystery. One I intend to figure out.
    My research led me to a large city called York. What I saw there was not what I expected. It was overrun with Saxon invaders. The whole city had been captured. And the evidence of it was overwhelming. Blood covered the streets no doubt caused by their savage ways. I often heard in the stories I've been told of the Saxons, “They fight for what they want and if they don’t get it, blood will be shed.” It was all but written on a wall in blood. This place, these invaders, disgust and repulse me. I decide to send word of this place to Arthur through a messenger hawk given to me by Lancelot. It will take a note back to him and he will give it to Arthur. Until they arrive I will stay outside the reaches of this village, along the edges. I picked up a bow and arrows in a village I passed through awhile back and I went hunting for food not trusting the vendors. I read in my small camp and practice my sword skills that have served me well on my journey. Thieves like to sneak through camps and steal anything of value. Late on the third night of my encampment the messenger hawk returns with a note.
    It reads, “ Dear Daniel,news of York is troubling in deed. I have sent Lancelot immediately to come to you. For if this place is truly as overrun as you say one man alone, especially one from my court, is unsafe everywhere and anywhere. Lancelot shall be joining you soon. I beg you to stay where you are. Knowing you and your thirst for vengeance you will not stay in one place long so with regret I order you to stay where you are.” I stop reading for a moment to curse. He knows me to well indeed. I begin again, “ I hope your travels have brought much information to your ears and you are close on the heels of this man. My hopes are with you. Love Arthur.”I curse again and decide to take my anger out in practice. I practice my shooting with bow and arrow. I fight tree's with my sword when all of a sudden I am tackled from behind.
    I curse loudly and profoundly. I quickly roll over out of my attackers grasp and reach for my sword which had fallen out of my hands and in the dirt two feet away. My attacker is getting off the ground in a hood. I know I must act quickly if I am to survive a fight with a Saxon. I am on my feet in seconds and in my fighting stance. Suddenly my attacker bursts out laughing. I would know that laugh anywhere. “ For the love of all of Camelot, Lancelot don't scare me like that. I could have killed you!” He pulls the hood off and grinning, red in the face trying to bite back his laughter he pulls me into a tight hug. “ Ah Daniel, you couldn’t have killed me. I'm much to smart. I would have told you it was me before you beheaded me!” “Still you fool! You had no intention of hurting me whereas I didn’t know it was you and had no intention of being lenient.” He looks at me still ginning and I walk over to my camp and pull out some dried meat for us. “So have you seen the city yet? I didn't exaggerate it in the letter.” He has that sad look on his face that he gets when he's trying to reign in his anger and sadness. “ Yes.” I glace at him and he is looking at me. “ I will send word to Arthur that your words proved true and that the Saxons have a great many of people here. He will send an army. He also told me that he doesn't want you near here if he does send an army.” “Why must you and him treat me like a child? I can take care of myself.” He looks at me and says,”We understand that but we still want to protect you. He wont force you to leave but he doesn't want you to stay.” “But I'm so close to finding out the information I need to find my parents killer and sisters kidnapper. I've learned that he is going through a string of houses looking for his child. His boy who was taken from him as an infant by some of his servants in fear he would train the child to be another bloodthirsty assassin like him. When one family on his list fails to know his sons location he kills them. If they have children he takes them so that they may know his pain.” Lancelot looks at me in shock. “ And how, young Daniel, did you come across such an abundance of knowledge since you've been gone. Its only been 7 moons.” “I found one of the witnesses and questioned him. He said he had an accomplice. I received the accomplice's description which was very distinct and found him ,drunk, at a bar two cities away.” He stood silent absorbing this information.”Alright this is what we'll do. We'll track him down and question him. If he refuses to talk we'll take him to Arthur. If he does talk then we'll just imprison him.” Then Lancelot told me something that would change my life forever...