#oldwill

[Meme]

Nestled just off the famous Covent Garden, Will watched the crowds whirl by, wetting his palate with a lemonade from the Tuttons restaurant as he sat outside on their terrace. His spirits flitted cheerfully, enjoying the sunlight that so very rarely graced London as a vague smile danced on his lips. And he waited.

It wasn’t necessarily that his dining partner was late; he had merely arrived early intentionally, treasuring the time to allow the musings of his own mind. Truthfully, he so rarely had the chance to leave Oxford, to escape the university town, that even coming to the crowded Covent Garden was something of a relief. His eyes drifted lazily over the square, picking out one of the street performers who breathed a puff of fire at just that moment—as if to defy Will’s idea of relaxation—but he still felt at ease, in a detached, cheerfully-appreciating-the-sunlight-sort-of-way.

Besides, what was that saying he heard once? A wizard is neither late nor early, he arrives precisely when he means to. Well then.

Additionally, the outdoor setting gave him a very good vantage point to spot his dining partner when he did show up and if the man wished to move after that then so be it. The meet-up was as much to help the other decompress as much as it was for Will.

Ah, Arthur, Will thought, taking a sip of his lemonade, condensation long since coating the glass making his hand damp as he raised the glass to his lips. You were so young when we met…

Granted, Will had been much younger too, when he had traveled along with his master back to the Time of King Arthur and the Battle of Badon, granting that great king the Six Signs for the first great Rising. While his master had been at the King’s right hand, there on the king’s left had been a boy. He swirled his glass thoughtfully.

But then again, perhaps “young” wasn’t the right word, the person wasn’t quite young. After all, he had seen the Romans and the Celts, and countless others before them that called the island home. But perhaps this was one of the first times he began to think of himself as something united. Perhaps that was why he took the king’s name for himself; Will had never asked, but he had always assumed as much.

"...gathering the troops at Badon hill, the Britons and Anglo-Saxons were to face off in a battle that would halt the Anglo-Saxon advance for a few years. However, as old things go, no one quite remembers where this battle took place, or even when..."

Professor Stanton's voice filled the lecture hall, struggling to push back the boredom that inevitably encroached on his less than eager students. Not that English History 101 was necessarily a boring subject, nor that he was a boring lecturer--he reassured himself of such things repeatedly--but that an 8 o'clock morning class did not make for the most attentive students, and even those armed with coffee still had their heads drooping at the earliness of the hour.

It was almost as great a fight as the Battle of Badon hill, Will thought wryly, flicking the screen to display a map of one of the suggested places of the Battle of Badon, or any of the battles he himself had fought in.

"And of course, the reason for such interest in this battle comes from its ties to one of England's most famous legends, King Arthur," Will said just as the bell rang. Some of the class murmured at the name but Will merely bobbed his head. "Be sure to read about the Viking invasion for next class, the pages are in your syllabus."