Galahad knew that he stood no chance with a traditional attack and siege yet, he did not have the equipment and the manpower to break through the gates. Instead the horns marked an opening volley of arrows and the hunters took to the trees to pick off the enemy as they showed their faces. Meanwhile those without bows worked on a battering ram cut from a very old and straight oak tree.

The enemy tried to shoot arrows, but since the hunter took to the trees and were well camouflaged they were essentially firing blind. As the arrows of the enemy were expended, the birds and animals would find them and give them back to the hunter to use against the enemy. By the end of the first day the enemy was feeling many losses while the army of Galahad was in relatively good shape.

That night more hunters arrived and some trained warriors from several of the towns on the edge of the great forest. Word was indeed spreading of the fight for the land, and all who heard of this joined the rally of Sir Galahad. Work continued on the battering ram all through the night.

The next day the darkness of the city attempted to spread over the forest again. Seeing this Galahad had the hunter blow their horns again and the echoing and triumphant sound push back the dark cloud. Hope was serving in the stead of strong magic and it was working. The army of Galahad was again encouraged and the arrow barrage continued.

By mid-afternoon King Morpheus must have become agitated with the fight and sent a contingent out to attack Galahad frontally. They did not last long to the clever fighters and hunters of the land and soon Galahads army had more equipment for the siege that would eventually have to come.

By nightfall Galahad received word that the King was pacing the parapets of the castle, fretting the isolation forced on him by the defenders of the land. More hope was spread at the news and still more fighters filtered in.

That night the ram was ready for use and bears and hearty stags were harnessed to carry the solid tree. In the dead of night Galahad guided the ram to the gates of the city and began to batter it relentlessly as the hunters provided cover. Many fine animals were lost in the siege but the gate held but barely before Galahad had to call off his first major offensive battle.

The third day saw a return to the tactics of picking off the enemy as they saw them. But unexpected help showed up in the evening in the form of ballista’s from Furnace. Throughout the night Galahad placed the war engines in strategic spots and focused their potential on the gate and wall above the gate, that being the walls weakest point.

At first light Galahad let loose with everything he could from the massive crossbows. The response from King Morpheus was furious. The huge trebuchets behind the wall let loose flaming bails of pitch and tar and began to light the forest on fire. Galahads worst fears were being realized. Without the cover of the forest his people would be exposed to more attacks. The forest burned and Galahad retreated his forces back beyond enemy range.

That night King Morpheus sent out more raiding parties to further diminish the forces of Galahad, and although none of Kings Morpheus’s forces returned, Galahads army was gravely wounded.

The next day dawned cold and dank with black rain fueled by the ash of the burning forest. The Dread Despots spell of misery was taking hold again and Galahad spend that day and night fighting more skirmishes and rallying those he had left to the cause.

Once again the day dawned dark and more of his army was succumbing to the depression of Morpheus, and even Galahad was having a hard time maintaining the hope he once had. And then real hope arrived.

From the west came the sounds of many trumpets and horns. The ground began to rumble and through the forest the Knight of Old returned to free the land. With them they brought and army raised from every village and every town along the way. The sight of the parading knight is their shining armor lifted the malaise. The fluttering banners brought renewed joy as the protectors of the land once again came into action that was their birthright and duty.

The next morning under grim skies the Army of Galahad made one final all out attack. The fighters expended the last of the ballista missiles and then picked up the ram. Many were lost but before ling the gates of Skye fell and the final assault commenced. The knights rode in on powerful chargers and soon the battle for Skye was over, for King Morpheus had no more men to protect his hold.

Galahad claimed the right to confront King Morpheus on his own and no one would disagree or attempt to stop him for all saw his passion for the encounter was so great. After all, he had earned the right to finally dethrone the King, it was his hope and faith that got them all to this point after all. 

The gates to Castle Phantasm were already open as if inviting Galahad in and he did not hesitate to enter. Through the main hall he went and finally into the throne room that he remembered, revered and once loved. It was now lined with black cloth everywhere and the once beautiful statues and paintings we defaced and horrible. The chamber was lit with sooty torches adding to the depression of the place. At the far end was Morpheus and the casket of Ionia as Galahad had seen her the week before.

Galahad released his sword and approached the Dread Dicator who did nothing at all to oppose him. As Galahad drew near Morpheus started to giggle. He explain that Ionia was not dead, but rather sustained by Morpheus’s exquisite malice and hate, and that if he should die, then the sad Queen of Tears would die too. Galahad did not believe him and Morpheus removed the high collar from around his neck. Beneath was a cut from ceratoid to jugular exactly as was on Ionia. The cut was not deep but it was dramatic and he explained that the two were joined, for how else could she be his Queen of Tears otherwise? Still Galahad did not believe.

With that Morpheus unsheathed a trifle of a dagger, not much more that a simple eating knife, and cut the palm of his hand. With that blood welled up under Ionia’s had too. The two were indeed linked, Galahad could not kill one without killing the other.

Furious, Galahad swung his sword and brought it down on the throne of King Morpheus, spreading the sac cloth, charred bones and rotting hides all over the raised dais, but he did not touch the Foul Despot. Morpheus scrambled away from Galahad, his righteous anger hurting him by proximity.

Galahad was at a lose of what to do. He had already lost Ionia once, or thought he had, and to loose her again would be torture. But he could not let the evil king live either, could he? But he had to.

He called for his brothers to come and shackle, gag, and bind Morpheus and take him to the tower that once housed Ionia. He then bade that minstrels should come and play happy tunes and bring him wholesome and good food to eat. Galahad decreed that Morpheus should always have gladness around him, thereby torturing him all his days until he was a changed man and could be trusted or agreed to break the spell over Ionia. Galahad was not above some retribution, and this was fitting.

Eventually, as the gladness of Galahad invaded Morpheus, the spell on Ionia weakened and she would wake will Morpheus would sleep. The cuts healed and soon she was the maiden of gladness once again.

Galahad was right in his belief that Ionia was the one woman for him in all the land and before long the two were wed. But though they were happy and their house was always light and joyous, they were never graced with children. All thought this was one last curse from the dread Morheus.

The Land and Skye cleared and returned to former glory and health. The people were again contented and the harvests were bountiful. In all ways the realm was returning to health. But the land did not have a king.

The people offered to Galahad the throne of the Land, for it was only he who had the faith and courage to finally fight for the good of the Land and the people, but Galahad refused. He was the people champion, not their ruler. And with that the knights formed a counsel to ruler the land until a rightful heir could be found.

Many years later, Morpheus escaped from his dark tower in the castle and no posse was sent to find him. Honestly, the guard had grown weary of watching him and the spell with Ionia so faint that is really did her no harm.

No land was perfect, and with Morpheus loose this was certainly the case. But the flaw can be so small that is not noticed. So tha land lived on and all the people were happy.

To the reader:

This was a great experiment for me. As some of you may know, I am a wannabe writer, but when I write my science fiction it is heavy with dialog. I have been told that I write very good dialog, and knowing that, I wanted to try something different. With this short story, I have used exclusively narrative to tell the story as you may find in a traditional fairy tale. For me this was not easy. So many times I wanted to slip into dialog to help things along, so many times I had to force myself not to.

There was also another reason for this story. That was as an illustration to another members of our little community of what perseverance could bring and that to be rescued may not be a bad thing. That if one has faith in ones self, can look beyond the hardships, and keep an eye on the future, incredible things can be done by the power of your own will. If you want it bad enough, you can make anything happen.

Along the way I have showered the story with many allusions, iconography, parables, and symbology to help it along, some of it on point, some of it as side comments. Like much of my writing, there are deeper messages written within.

This is also the fastest I have ever written anything of this scale (and when I say scale I include the depth of meaning and not just the word count.) It is, as presented, largely unedited and I am sure that the technically minded amongst our readers will find that there are tense problems, word meaning errors, typos and assorted other maladies that to be honest with you I have a hard time correcting myself.

Do I plan on continuing the story of Galahad, Ionia, and King Morpheus? I doubt it. I think this story will stand alone and I will leave it at that. Would I rewrite this as a longer story, with more description and complete dialog? Maybe. There are a lot of things about this story I like and there are elements that I am not happy with and maybe a rewrite could help, but then again, maybe not.

So for now I am going to let it rest. I have a lot of other stories to tell in my more serious writing (Truth Inc., Levis’ New Genes, Sands of Time, Celestial Mechanics For Hire, etc.) that I may not have time to get back to it. On top of that there is my “Tower” series that I want to write, Forces of Reath (a least 4 or 5 volumes, and big ones at that) that took me twenty years to tell and I would bet that it will take me twenty years to write. I have a lot on my plate, we’ll see where it all leads me and if I can get back to it.

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