Chapter Three: Ceremony

## Chapter

About 8 ½  Years Later…

(The Present)

My name is Cyrus Pendragon, and today’s my birthday. I’m fourteen, turning fifteen, meaning that an Avalonian ceremony is today, which will mark me as the crown prince. I’ve been learning how to perform the ceremony for **2** years now, and I’m still not sure that I’ve completely got the hang of it, but I am willing to try.

This ceremony will not just mark me as crown prince, but it will let the citizens of Avalon decide if I will be a good king or not.

The pressure is incredibly high, as nearly every single person in all of Avalon will be watching me, though I do usually do better in front of a big audience- the pressure does actually push me to be my best.

The day starts as I get up sleepily at 5:00 in the morning, meaning I’ve gotten **12 hours** of sleep (I sadly had to go to sleep incredibly early to rest well for the ceremony). I shower and make sure to comb every inch of my hair before realizing that I still need to put a shirt on, which I tried to do carefully, but **that** completely messed up my hair. So I had to comb my hair again, which I was not happy about.

I practiced for the ceremony, starting with my first bow to introduce myself, then going to the 3 incredibly hard and advanced traditional Avalonian dances I picked out for myself, one named MidKnight, another named Etna, and the last named Dance of Camelot, and practicing my sword-fighting skills for the sword-sparring. I moved on to the magical performance step, which was a new part of the ceremony, added just for me. I had decided early on I would make the illusion of beautiful, burning, colorful, phoenixes dance across the sky of Avalon, which was way harder than it sounded. I had perfected it though, throughout my two years of practice. I skimmed through the vow part of the phaze, and then recited the 100-page speech I had written and memorized about how I would protect Avalon and make it a better place. I took my final bow, and practiced the kneel I would do as the Crown of The Successor was placed upon my head.

Speaking of which, the Crown of The Successor was no ordinary crown. It was worn by every crown prince, and was a family heirloom that Merlin had created for Arthur. I hadn’t really paid attention while we were learning about it, as I was sort of stressed out and all after being told everything I’d have to do for the ceremony, but I knew that it had a connection with it’s last wearer who had King Arthur’s blood. It didn’t matter, and if it did, I would study it later.

My dad opened the door to my room.

“Oh, you’re already awake!” he exclaimed, then laughed, “Well to be fair you went to sleep at 5:00PM…”

I was always an early riser. I actually had to cast a spell on myself to sleep for longer after I’d woken up three hours after I’d gone to sleep.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

Suddenly my stomach grumbled, and I realized I needed to eat! I quickly ran to the kitchen, and made myself a “royal omelette” filled with tons of delicious Avalonian herbs and veggies. I cooked some poached eggs with bread to the side, and made Father French Toast with a special Avalonian Syrup ***I*** created all by myself, and small vegetables decorating a circle around the French toast.

I gave him his dish, and munched up mine. We ate in silence, as we were both really hungry and Father didn’t like when I talked with my mouth full. It “wasn’t good manners” and “wasn’t very princely of me.”

When I finished, I ran down to the castle gym and worked out a bit, though I got all sweaty and had to take another shower. I started practicing my magic not long after, sending sparkles and beautiful light swirling around the room. Then, I looked behind myself and saw my father stare at the magic I’d performed in complete awe.

“Oh.” I whispered, “Hi, dad!”

“Hi!” he smiled, “Noble Dra is requesting you!”

Noble Dra was my wardrobe and fashion stylist. He’s one of the best in the *world* and is over 120 years old, and still can move and function adequately.

I nodded and ran down the palace stairs and through the hall until I got to the fashion section of the palace. Noble Dra was waiting for me there.

“Hi!” I greeted, doing a little bow.

He smiled, gesturing to the chair, “Please, have a seat.”

I nodded, and walked to the comfy barbers chair, sitting down as he did my hair. Even though I’d already gone through the trouble of combing it after my shower. After he was done gelling and styling my hair (which I’d have to admit, did look better than when I’d combed it), he moved on to my outfit.

He’d designed a magnificent robe for me, with the beautiful Avalonian colors along with white fur around my neck. Instead of the cliche: spots on the fur, the fur was decorated with sparkling gems. He fit the robe around me, and I had to admit, I did look magnificent!

Noble Dra did put dashes of makeup around my face, just to smooth out and blend some of the features of my face in, but then I was done.

He slapped my back, surprisingly hard for a frail old man like him, “Good luck.”

I gave him a thumbs up, smiling brightly, and headed out to show my dad.

Father loved it.

“Oh… my… gosh… You look *just* like a prince!” his eyes sparkled.

“Um… ***look*** *just like a prince*?” I asked, “I **am** a prince!”

He gave out a soft chuckle, “You know what I mean.”

We walked to the stables, and took out three of the horses, tying them to a carriage, and getting in. We rode out of the castle, and yes, onto the streets.

Everyone in Avalon was supposed to attend the meeting, but commoners weren’t allowed in the palace grounds, so we were having the ceremony in the ghetto city.

A crystal stadium was built up from the ground in the spot where hundreds of acres of grass used to stand.

My jaw dropped. This stadium was amazing. We entered from the back, and walked onto the stage. Hundreds of people surrounded me, and my heart gave a loud Thump, as my dad spoke.

“Welcome, everyone, to a scene that you will only see *once* in your life!” my father shouted to the crowd, “Please give a round of applause for your to-be crown prince, Prince Cyrus Pendragon!”

Everyone clapped and cheered. A few of the girls shouted, “I LOVE YOU CYRUS!”

Flushing, I took a deep breath and bowed with my dad. Then, he exited the stage, leaving me by myself to perform.

I started exactly how I had practiced, except the pressure gave me motivation, and I’d performed way better than I’d dreamed of! After completing the three dances, I drew a sword from my belt, and handed my robe to a person who went up to me, as an Avalonian knight stepped onto the stage.

I’d never seen him before, which they probably did on purpose so I couldn’t really prepare with him.

I scanned him, looking for a hint of weakness, but he had an amazing posture, better than my own, which I realized was putting me at a disadvantage. I immediately tried to mimic his fighting stance, but my father called for the battle to begin, and the knight caught me off guard, his blade nearly hitting my armor.

I dodged the attack by a millimeter, and sent a counterattack, thrusting my sword at his.

The knight's wrist bent, and he released his grip on the sword, sending it slightly flying up. To my dismay, he jumped and caught it just in the knick of time, and backflipped away from me the second I was about to hit his chestplate to knock him back and grab his sword.

To win this, I would have to knock the sword out of his hand, and catch it, but even if I could, he always would catch it again and retreat. This spar would be harder than I expected.

I decided to try a messy way of attacking, and slashed my sword at him relentlessly, trying to find the right place to disarm him. He blocked the *hundreds* of attacks I threw at him, and tried to kick me in the chest, which wouldn’t do much damage since we had armor on, but it would’ve caught me off guard if I hadn’t noticed.

And he did kick me, but I realized in that moment that he was vulnerable, and grabbed his leg.

Startled, he released the sword and fell down, as I somersaulted in midair, and caught his sword.

I helped him back up, as the audience clapped and cheered. And some of the girls were even crazier this time, shouting, “MARRY ME, CYRUS!”

I bowed, happily.

Next, my father stepped onto the stage. My stomach dropped as he took off his robe, and handed it to the person who’d also taken my robe. He had silver armor like me, which glowed and gleamed in the sun.

I wasn’t expected to beat my father, of course. The council just wanted to know where I was compared to him.

“*Can you just let me win this one?*” I whispered, making sure nobody else heard this, of course.

Father smiled, “What’s the fun in that?”

Sparring was his specialty and hobby. He was the best swordsman in the kingdom, and was said he might’ve even been better than **King Arthur himself**!

“*I don’t know.*” I thought aloud, “*Maybe NOT humiliating me in front of all of Avalon.*”

“Don’t worry, nobody expects you to win.” my father chuckled.

“Oh, wow. Thanks for the support.” I rolled my eyes.

My father reflected on what he said for a moment, then blurted, “No! I didn’t mean it that way-”

“It’s fine.” I gave him a half laugh, “I’m just *messing* with you.”

“Well… BRING IT ON!” he laughed, running at me.

“HEY!” I shrieked, barely managing to dodge his sword, “THAT IS SO UNFAIR! I WAS NOT PREPARED AT ALL, AND *YOU* WERE!”

“Well I’m the one announcing when our match starts!” my father knocked me back with his sword.

I fell to the ground with a clash, and quickly rolled away, dodging my father’s attempt to take my sword.

I jumped up, blocking a few of my father’s sword-jabs, and kicking his shin.

Father barely reacted to the attack, and flicked my chestpate, which for some reason had the most effect on me, and I stumbled back as he drew my sword from my hands.

I tried to retrieve my sword for a second, but father realized what I was doing, and used his leg to trip me. I fell to the ground, yet again.

My father helped me up, smiling brightly. My face burned with shame.

“Great job!” he complimented, “That should put you in the Gold swordsman league.”

Which left him 2 ranks above me. I bit my cheek, not knowing why I had a false hope I would actually beat him.

Father saw my sad face and tried a smile, “Hey, you’re way better than me when I was a kid.”

I gave him a half smile, “Really?”

“Well, um…?” my father looked around, “Hey, what do you think of the cloud up there?”

I looked up. The sky was cloudless.

I ignored the fact my father had just lied to me, and signaled him to leave. I was ready for the next step of the ceremony- something just added for me. All of the council had voted to add it, and for the first time in what? Decades? The council had made it required for me to do some magic in order to become the ‘official’ crown prince.

It was a good thing that I excelled at magic, though. I could master spells in months!

I concentrated, letting the magical energy in me flow through my body and into my fingertips. The colorful phoenixes bursted out of my fingertips, and I made sure to make them ginormous. They flew around Avalon’s sky, illuminating all of Avalon.

The audience cheered, awestruck. I decided it would be cool to make the phoenixes glide down, and I did something I’d practiced, but wasn’t planning on doing, and texturized the phoenixes, giving them a soft, furry, body. My audience leaned out to touch the phoenixes as they flew by. After all of the audience had gotten a chance to touch the phoenixes, I shot the phoenixes up to the sky, and let them explode into the illusion of a colorful micro-supernova. Glitter and dust from the phoenixes explosion covered all of Avalon, and I bowed, proud that I’d managed such a marvelous feat.

The audience’s cheer was deafening, even when I clasped my hands over my ears to block out some of the noise.

I took in all of the compliments that they shouted, and then moved onto the hardest, most boring part: The hundred page speech.

I recited the entire thing within a span of 45 minutes, trying to say what I’d memorized as fast as I could so I wouldn’t bore the audience. The audience emitted a slower, more sleepy cheer in return after I finished.

I smiled slightly and bowed. Then, my father came up to me.

“Please give another round of applause for your new crown prince, Cyrus Pendragon!”

And then the crowd clapped again.

The counselors each stood by me, and Vivian handed my father the Crown of The Successor. I kneeled, and Father placed the crown on my head. It glowed and shimmered in the bright sunlight.

And that’s when the world as I knew it fell apart. Thousands of humongous shadowmonsters surrounded the barrier, and destroyed it at a rapid speed, sending beams and waves of dark energy blasting at the barrier.

Hundreds of Avalonians screamed as the monsters sauntered into Avalon, sending our castle tumbling down, and crushing houses in the city.

“EVERYONE, CALM DOWN, AND SAFELY EVACUATE!” Father shouted.

He couldn’t keep order, and the screams grew louder as a bird-like shadowmonster flew into the stadium.

“ᛚᛁᚷᚺᛏᛒᚱᛖᚨᚲ!” I shouted.

The monster exploded into blinding light, but 4 more monsters flew in.

“ᛊᚺᚨᛞᛟᚹᛊᚲᚨᛏᛏᛖᚱ!” I tried.

The shadowmonsters were distorted into flecks of darkness, and I tried the first spell again.

“ᛚᛁᚷᚺᛏᛒᚱᛖᚨᚲ!”

And again, they exploded into light, though this time the light was dimmer. I was wasting too much magic, I needed to save up some more magic if I was going to explode another one.

Suddenly, a shadowmonster swooped down at me. I readied a spell that would use up my last bits of magical energy, but instead of attacking me, the pesky shadowmonster stole my crown.

Startled, I forgot to cast my spell, and the shadowmonster flew off. Father looked at me.

“Cyrus, get out of here!” Father shrieked, drawing out a sword.

“What do you mean!?” I shouted, “I’m your only hope, you imbecile.”

“Yeah, so live for another day!” he interjected, too shocked and frightened to even focus on the fact that I’d called him an imbecile, “You have a teleportation pendant! Take advantage of it!”

“But you’re coming with me!” I replied.

“Cyrus, let’s be honest, you don’t have enough magic saved up for that.” Father gave me a chiding look.

“Do you value life?” I questioned, “Because I value yours.”

Father sighed, “I am not abandoning my people-”

“It’s fine.” I interrupted, “I’ll take us to a place where we can get help!”

I held out my left hand, and father grabbed it tightly. I took out the teleportation pendant with my other hand, and examined it.

It read “*ᛁᚾ ᛗᛖᚱᛚᛁᚾ×ᛊ ᚾᚨᛗᛖ, ᛏᚨᚲᛖ ᛗᛖ ᛏᛟ…,”* meaning, “In Merlin's name, take me to…”

I finished the sentence.

“ᛁᚾ ᛗᛖᚱᛚᛁᚾ×ᛊ ᚾᚨᛗᛖ, ᛏᚨᚲᛖ ᛗᛖ ᛏᛟ ᛞᚱᚨᚷᛟᚾᚲᚨᚢᛖ, ᛖᚦᛁᚨ!”

I screamed, realizing that I didn’t have enough magic power to teleport us both. But I wouldn’t give up. Father sighed, and then grinned at me.

“Try again. I know you can do it. Give it all you’ve got!”

I tried again, and right as I casted the spell, Father let go of my hand.

“What!” I shrieked, “NO!”

Father gave me a sad smile, and that was the last thing I saw before my vision faded into white light, and I was at the destination Father and I were supposed to be: Dragoncave, Ethia.

In this cave, there was mythed to be a powerful dragon, the last source of intelligent life from Ethia, that could change the tides of this war. The problem is that no one who went in the cave came back.

Father would’ve called me crazy. I needed to go back for him. I didn’t know how I would do it, but I would muster up all of the magic left inside of me, and go back to him. I opened my right hand, expecting to see the teleportation pendant, but instead, all I saw was golden ash, which blew away in the wind.

“NO!” I sobbed.

It seemed as if the amulet could only manage one teleport. I made a promise to myself that right as I went out of the cave with the dragon, we would fly to Avalon. I didn’t care that it was what? 3.5 **thousand** miles away. That dragon would fly at his fastest speed, and we would save **everybody**.

I ran into the cave, out of breath. I had a plan, and I was a complete improviser! I would go into the cave, make an alliance with the dragon (as he probably holds a grudge against Morgana for, you know… destroying his kingdom), and fly to Avalon. It was impeccable!

## Summary

Cyrus has to perform in a humongous ceremony to become crown prince. The Shadowmonsters invade Avalon, and Cyrus runs to the Ethian Ruins.