#was a descriptive essay for English in highschol

[snake-cutie]

The Day I Became a Time Traveler And Introduced Merlin the Wizard to William Shakespeare

The started day started normal. I was out in the garden, taking care of my plants and flowers so I could eat later that day and me, being clumsy as always, I tripped over something and fell flat on my tush. I got back up, and as I looked down, I saw an odd, shiny amulet. It was oval shaped, and since it was kind of shiny, I bent down to pick it up. As I touched the faintly glowing, dark-crystal-blue, coppery object with strange, circular markings on it with what looked like bites taken out of the etched symbols, I felt a faint electrical shock run up my arm. It was a bit painful. Me, being the sane person that I am, I dropped it in shock.

I went to find a stick to pick it up. I pushed it, but of course couldn’t pick up the object with the stick. I looked at it curiously at all angles. It was a flat, oval object about the size of the bottom of a can of soda pop. It was surprisingly heavy – the stick couldn’t move it at all.

“What an odd and interesting amulet this is,” I thought. “Wait. Maybe it’s a locket. It looks like there are hinges on the side. I wonder if it can open.”

Curiosity got the best of me. So, ignoring the shocks of pain, I picked it up. Surprisingly, it was very light and not hard to open at all. I pried the two sides open and what did I see? Glowing, freely-swirling silvery-gold fine sand filled one side of the cavity.

I dipped two fingers into it, and to my surprise, it was deeper than I expected. In fact, I was able to dip my entire arm into it. What the …?

I pulled my arm out. The silvery-gold sand (pixie dust?) started glowing brighter than before. My arm felt a tad warm but no worse for the wear. The dust started making a chain, extending and moving out of and away from the amulet locket, up my arm, and around my neck where the two sides of the chain met in the middle behind my neck and clasped itself.

I started to panic when I couldn’t get it off. The chain wouldn’t come off my neck. The rest of the locket dust seemed to have a mind of its own and started swirling angrily around me. Like a tornado, swirling, swirling all around me, I felt like I got caught up into the wind storm and then started to free fall through the sky, down and down and down!

The only thought running through my brain was, “Oh, gosh. This is how I’m going to die!?”

So I started panicking even more.

Then all of sudden, it was over. I felt my body hit the ground. The dust stopped swirling around me. I could feel dirt and sticks under my body. I could feel the sunlight around me, but barely. I slowly picked myself up off the ground and sat up. I looked around me. I saw that yes, indeed, I was in what appeared to be a forest. But where?

It looked as if it was evening. Which I thought was odd because just a few minutes ago it was morning. I started getting up. I looked down.

“What the heck? Why am I wearing a dress?”

It was a very medieval dress: long, flowing, in a style and material that was better quality than a servant’s but lower than a queen’s. It was a dark indigo blue, the same color as the locket.

That’s when I noticed that I was still wearing the oval amulet. I looked down at it and held it up. It didn’t give me a shock or anything, which I thought was odd. But I was hungry so I decided to think about the amulet later and decided to walk toward the direction where I thought there might be civilization. And where the people spoke English, of course.

I walked and walked and walked for what felt like miles along the side of a stream, pushing bushes out of my way and climbing over rocks. After what felt like hours, I heard a haunting howl. Wolves? Here? Oh dear! I stopped in my tracks. It was almost dark. I sort of panicked. It was close to night. The wild animal might smell me. Fight or flight set in. So I booked it, running as fast as I could, trying to put distance between me and the inhuman noises behind me. I ran and ran and ran, gasping for breath until … I hit hard against something and felt on my back. I screamed as loud as I could.

“Quiet, girl. You’re going to wake up the entire wilderness if you keep screaming like that.” It was a quiet but fierce whisper. A man’s voice. Young? Old? I couldn’t tell.

I clamped my mouth shut, shaking with fear. I gathered all the Gryffindor courage I could muster, and I looked up.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Who would’ve thought?

“Lancelot?” I asked. “What the heck are you doing out here?”

“Milady, I do not know what you mean,” said the brave and handsome knight. “What are you doing out here alone, without any guards to protect you?”

“Oh …” I stammered. “Well, you see, sire, Merlin and I decided to play a game with some of the village children and teach them how to play ‘Hide and Predator.’ I guess I hid too well and they couldn’t find me. I guess they gave up and decided to go home.” I am such a liar.

“Well then, milady,” said Lancelot, “I guess I should take you back to Camelot where you will be much safer than in the forest and Merlin won’t have to worry about you anymore.”

He guided me to his horse and we rode to Camelot, and he took me back to a young version of Merlin. Which is how I met Merlin, who was still a little bit older than me and not yet the famous wizard. (But of course I didn’t tell Lancelot that.)

Very quickly, Merlin and I became fast friends, and nobody seemed to think it was odd that a princess and a man servant could become friends. Heck, I didn’t even know I was a princess at that time.

I did tell Merlin one afternoon that I knew he was a wizard and I reassured him that I would not tell anyone else that I knew this – because I knew that he wasn’t the only one keeping secrets.

“What do you mean by ‘secrets’?” he asked.

“Heh, heh, well, you see, Merlin,” I said, “I’m not really from this world.”

“What do you mean by ‘not from this world’?” Merlin was very puzzled.

“Well, you seeee … I picked up this locket,” I pointed down at it, “while I was gardening, and somehow it took me to this parallel universe where you are really quite real.” I chuckled nervously.

“Where I’m ‘real’? So you’re saying that there’s a reality where I’m not real?” Merlin shook his head. “So you’re saying that magic brought you here?”

I nodded.

“And you expect me to believe that,” he scoffed.

“Well yeah. Because it’s the truth,” I said impatiently.

“I don’t believe you.” He reached out to grab the locket.

“Don’t touch it, Merlin!” I yelled, but it was too late. Right as he touched it, blue-gold dust started swirling around us angrily, just as angrily as it had the first time I had opened the locket.

Merlin and I swirled around and around in a tornado wind, rising and spinning off the ground.

Panic flashing in his eyes, Merlin yelled above the wind, “What is going on?! What is happening?!”

Me, feeling extremely sarcastic because it was his fault that this was happening to us, started singing, “Let’s do the time warp agaiiinnnnnn!”

Just as he was starting to say something, we both crashed onto the ground in a pile, him landing on me. Which was quite uncomfortable, if you ask me. “Ooomph!”

“Zounds, forsooth and by Saint Mary!” exclaimed a low and startled voice. “What? When? How? How didst this come to be and who art thou?”

Merlin and I looked at each other.

“I, I, I cannot say, for I do not know the answer meself,” Merlin stumbled. “And where are we, pray sir?”

“Thou art in my study,” came the amused reply. “Where dost thou think thou art?”

“This isn’t Camelot, that much is certain,” Merlin said, untangling himself from me, shaking and dusting off his clothing as he stood up.

“Camelot, my man? Tell me more.”

I stared at the stranger and stood up quickly. I took in the man’s appearance. The pointed beard. The twinkly eyes. By golly, even the earring. And those clothes … could it be?

“You’re, you’re … You’re William Shakespeare!” I gasped.

The man stood up from his desk. “Aye, that I am. And how, pray tell, might thou knowst me?”

“Well, you see … it’s quite a long story, Mr. Shakespeare,” I said shyly as the blood rushed to my cheeks.

“Eh, a long story, you say?” Mr. Shakespeare smiled at Merlin and me. “I do love a good story. Pray tell, would you tell it over supper? I am quite hungry and you two look quite famished yourselves.”

“Are you sure, Mr. Shakespeare? We wouldn’t want to take up any of your time.”

“We? What do you mean by ‘we’? You seem to know him quite well already. I’ve barely just met the man. Somebody please tell me what is going on!” exclaimed Merlin.

“Oh, all right, if you insist,” I said, glaring back at Merlin. “Mr. Shakespeare, this is Merlin the future famous wizard of Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table. Only Prince Arthur doesn’t know it yet. Merlin, this is Mr. William Shakespeare, who will someday write lots of plays and become so famous that the Queen of England will come to watch them and people all over the world will study him and know about his works for hundreds of years. Sorry about all the spoilers, Mr. Shakespeare. Afterall, all the world’s a stage and all the people are the players.” I bowed theatrically to both men and grinned. (Okay, I really smirked like I knew everything that that the men were going to do. Because I did. Not that the men liked that.)

“You two can discuss your lives over supper,” I added. “Shall we be off to the tavern, or wherever you take your suppers, Mr. Shakespeare? It’s been a long day, and I’m quite famished, thank you very much.”

The two men stared at each other and then at me. And off we went to the tavern for bread and a pitcher of ale.

And that is how I introduced Merlin to William Shakespeare.

How Merlin got back to his timeline and how I returned to mine, using the dark-crystal-blue, coppery amulet-locket with strange, circular markings on it with what looked like bites taken out of the etched symbols – and how that forever changed my interest in history and literature – is, well, another story for another time. I guess you’ll have to come back and see me again, dearies.