The Cave Emu

by Merv Lambert

  “Very well,” said Merlin, as they watched Jellysox and Lady Gwendoline on their horse galloping off to Camelot. “Let’s go, everyone.”

  Colin did not see what the wizard did next. There was no flash of light, but it seemed that they were instantly once more in the main courtyard of Camelot, and the grooms from the royal stables were leading the horses away to tend to them.

  “Well,” said Merlin, “I see that Lady Gwendoline and Sir Go-Ahead have arrived safely too. It’s time for us all to find Arthur. Methinks he will be pleased.”

  “Verily,” agreed Daniel.

  “Yea, verily,” grinned Colin.

  When they were all ushered into the king’s presence, Colin was surprised to find that his youngest child Ethan was still awake, and had not gone to bed.

  “He could not sleep,” explained Olivia. “He was too excited waiting for you to return, and Jellysox, or should I say Sir Go-Ahead has made sure he won’t want to go to bed at all.”

  “Daddy, Daddy, I want to play with him!” The little boy was pointing at the huge wolf. “What’s his name, Daddy?”

  “I don’t know,” hesitated Colin.

  “I know! I know!” shouted Ethan. “I’ll call him Beanowolf!”

  “Don’t you mean Beowulf?” asked Olivia.

  “No, no, no, no! I don’t mean the hero or king called Beowulf. Charlie read me something about that. He was killed wasn’t he? No, I’ll call him Beanowolf.” He patted the creature’s head. “You won’t mind, will you, boy?”

  The wolf gave a grunt and allowed the boy to twist one of his ears gently in his small hand.

  Olivia sighed, and said, “Well, I blame you, Colin. It’s all those old comics you get for him to read on his tablet. I think you really buy them so that you can read them as well.”

  Colin shrugged. “Maybe you’re right,” he said, as he felt a royal hand tugging at his sleeve.

  “What’s going on?” asked Arthur testily, for he was the king, and he was being ignored.

  Merlin was quick to explain all that had happened. He thought that the king had heard most of it correctly, for Arthur smiled at the idea of having a guard-wolf, and positively beamed, when it was suggested that Baron Bonehead should spend the rest of his days as one of his servants.

  Delighted the king roared, “Well done, Sir Go-Ahead!”

  Jellysox bowed modestly.

  M meanwhile was again patrolling the upper gallery of the hall, still wearing his suit of armour. Now he was practising twirling a short sword in his beak, but he could not make it spin and whirr like Jellysox’s circular sword. However, he stopped and poked his head over the handrail of the gallery, when an exhausted messenger arrived to give Arthur news of the early arrival of the Saxon army threatening Camelot.

  Immediately the king summoned his knights to a council of war. He instructed them to keep to their normal plan for protecting the castle. They all knew what they had to do - all of them except Colin and Jellysox.

  Arthur beckoned to Colin, Jellysox and also Daniel.

  To Colin he said, “Your family will be quite safe. They will be with Guinevere.

  Merlin is in charge of their security, and I’m sure Beaverwolf or whatever his name is will help.”

  “Don’t forget Sammy,” remarked Colin.

  “Oh, yes, I did see that he can be a fierce little creature. I’m thinking of making him an honorary knight.”

  “He would love that, sire,” said Daniel. Sammy woofed his agreement.

  “Hmm. Now, Sir Colin, Sir Go-Ahead and you Daniel, I sense that although I shall be leading my men, you will be the warriors who will defeat the enemy. Merlin has foretold this, and he is seldom, in fact he is never wrong.”

  Colin was just about to reply, when Jellysox rushed out of the hall, shouting what sounded like ‘Jellysox, Jellysox, up and at ‘em’

  Arthur shook his head in wonder and remarked, “Indeed he is the most eager warrior I have ever seen. I doubt he will rest, but you must in order to prepare yourselves for tomorrow’s battle.” He had not noticed a certain emu clad in a suit of armour standing to attention behind him.

  When dawn broke, the defenders of the castle saw that already the Saxons had drawn up a shield-wall just beyond the final embankment that guarded Camelot. The warriors stood in am extremely long line with their shields interlocked in front of them. Their eyes glared defiantly beneath their helmets. They were supremely confident in this solid wall of fighting men, and although this was a defensive position, it could be turned into an attack by the soldiers all advancing together, whilst those behind them could hurl spears over the top. A few skinny men of various ages with long dirty hair, straggly beards and wild eyes had smeared mud all over themselves and their tattered clothes, and they were prancing about in front of the shield-wall, shrieking curses and claiming to be casting spells against their enemies. Smoke from the campfires behind drifted lazily into the air, and the noise was deafening. Some of the men in the ranks behind the shield-wall were banging the hilts of their lethal-looking daggers against their shields. Others were uttering strange loud war-cries.

  However, when Arthur, accompanied by some of his knights rode on horseback out from the main gateway of the castle, for a moment or two all the noise stopped. Then a howl of triumph arose from the Saxon hoards. A few hopefully tossed spears soared over the shield-wall, but fell woefully short of their royal target. One even struck the head of a tall warrior, who was in the middle of the shield-wall. He sank to the ground leaving a gap. Another warrior bearing a shield hastily stepped into his place in the line.

  Arthur raised his famous sword Excalibur into the air, but he and his knights remained where they were. They did not advance as the enemy had expected. Suddenly another knight burst onto the scene. His chain-mail matched his bright blue, yellow and red clothes. As he dashed on foot towards the shield-wall, he started up his circular sword. It whirred ear-piercingly loudly and menacingly. Next there appeared behind him an even stranger, scarier figure. To Arthur and his men, due to the influence of the magic bookmark, which was glowing gently in Colin’s pocket, it simply looked like a soldier in full armour striding forward to support Sir Go-Ahead. To the enemy it was something absolutely terrifying. They saw an empty suit of armour marching towards them. M had flipped up the visor of his helmet, and of course his face was invisible to them. As Jellysox and M closed with the enemy, for a moment or two the shield-wall held. The whirring of the circular sword rose to a crescendo, as it sliced easily, cleanly through the nearest shield and the left ear of the warrior holding it. His screams mingled with those of the warriors all around him. The shield-wall broke, and then all the Saxons were fleeing towards the distant forests pursued by Arthur and many of his knights plus Colin and Daniel. Jellysox was now riding a superb grey steed, and M, still in his armour, had leapt onto a riderless horse, and, standing upright on its back, was chasing the defeated enemy.

  Some time later everyone was back at Camelot sitting round a roaring fire and eating roasted chestnuts. Lady Gwendoline had snuggled up to Jellysox, whom she wouldn’t let out of her sight. Colin and Olivia had their children around them, and Ethan kept trying to feed Beanowolf with some of the roasted chestnuts, but he didn’t seem to care for them. Guinevere sat informally on the floor with them, resting her back against Arthur’s knees. She had spent some considerable time talking to Olivia and Becky, who was extremely interested in history, and who could not resist asking lots of questions.

  The king was in a very happy mood. He and his knights could not stop talking about that day’s battle.

  “Pray tell us, Sir Go-Ahead,” he said, “why do your friends call you by another name? What is it? Silly Fox or Jelly Box or something like that?”

  “Oh,” murmured Jellysox modestly, “it’s a long, rather boring, very tedious story. It all started as a family joke
and it has remained so. Anyway, I rather like it. It’s Jellysox actually.”

  “Well, Sir Jellyfox, I declare that you are now a fully-fledged Knight of the Round Table. And wherefore is your guardsman, who followed you into the shield-wall?”

  Jellysox was perplexed. He had been concentrating so hard on his circular sword, he had not noticed anyone behind him.

  “Er, perchance allow me to explain,” put in Colin. “He is called M and is a special guard for me and my family and my friends. He prefers not to be seen.”

  Arthur looked up at Merlin, who nodded his head. “Then he said, “I have had a sort of vision. Something tells me that I will never meet him face to face, but I would like to confer on him my royal favour. I declare that he, M, is to be an honorary Knight of the Round Table.”

  Sammy gave a little woof of approval, for he too was an honorary knight.

  Olivia clapped her hands with glee, and Becky hugged their invisible emu’s legs, as he was now standing next to her minus his armour.

  Colin glanced across at Merlin, who was standing in his long purple robes next to the fire. Merlin nodded slightly and winked.

  Colin stood up, approached the king, and whispered in his ear.

  “Sire, may I let you into a little secret?”

  He was not sure whether Arthur had really heard what he had just said, for the latter shook his head and said, “What?”

  This gave Colin the chance to bring the magic phoenix bookmark hidden in his sleeve close to the king’s ear. It pulsed once, giving off a little green glow, as Colin repeated, “Sire, may I let you into a little secret?”

  This time the king replied, “Gladly, of course, of course. And there is no need for you to whisper so loudly. I can hear you perfectly well.”

  Again Colin and Merlin exchanged glances. They knew Arthur’s hearing had been restored.

  Now it was Colin’s turn to nod to Merlin, saying, “Very well, Merlin. I believe you have something to say.”

  The famous wizard turned to face them all with a broad smile on his face.

  “I agree, Sir Colin. It is time.” He glanced down at Ethan, who had fallen asleep against the soft fur of Beanowolf. He picked up the little boy and placed him in Olivia’s arms. Then he said, “My friends, I know you are from another place and another time. It is indeed time for us to make our farewells. Rest assured the thanks for all you have done for us here at Camelot go with you. In the hope that perchance we shall meet again, on behalf of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, all the Knights of the Round Table and the rest of us remaining here, including myself, I say farewell, good friends, farewell.”

  He raised his arms, and the magic phoenix bookmark did not flash. The fire glowed suddenly green, and Colin, Olivia and their three youngest children plus one small dog and a very special emu were once again home in the kitchen of their house. Little Ethan was still asleep in Olivia’s arms. But where was Mr. Jellysox? He was not there. Colin was sure that Merlin had sent him back to his own house. The very next moment there was a burble of a mobile phone.

  “Colin, will you get my phone?” asked Olivia. “Someone is texting us at this hour. It’s really rather late. I wonder who it can be?”

  When Colin looked at the latest message, he said, “It’s from Jez Jellysox. He says he wants to bring a lady friend to meet us, and that her name is Gwen.”

  Olivia, Daniel and Becky were all staring at him in surprise.

  He shrugged his shoulders. “He’ll probably think he was just dreaming,” he said, but it could be another story.” He held up one of the two silver goblets Arthur had given him, and pretending to make a toast, added, “Here’s to Jez Jellysox, Knight of the Round Table!”

  M, wearing the medieval helmet he had brought back with him, nodded his head enthusiastically and the visor clanged shut to a burst of laughter from everyone else. He nearly always stole the show, but not this time. Jez Jellysox had been the star.

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