This is a story lost to time
recorded through legends
this is a story of truth
this is the true story
the one we lost
and the one we will gain
this is the story of
Arthur Pendragon.
"You rotten scum" a familiar voice beckoned
"Please I'm sorry" Arthur replied
"This is the 6th time this month you've stolen from me you poor bastard" the clerk yelled "if ya' so much as come near me stall again I'll get the guards to kill ya"
Arthur got down on his knees
"Please sir I beg of you, don't tell the guard I want to pay you I really do! But I cant afford it I am but a poor lonely orphan"
"I wouldn't care if you were the bleedin' king of England, I don't like your kind you shit eating scum"
"Sir, I promise you that when I am able to obtain a job, any job ill pay you back, please just lend me an apple I don't think I can live another day without it" as he said that his stomach grumbled as if to agree with him and back up his claims "Please sir just one I'll never come to your stall ever again!"
"Fine" he replied picking out his oldest most rotten apple "This is the only one I can afford to give ya"
"DID YOU HEAR, THEY FOUND IT, THEY FOUND THE LEGENDARY SWORD!! THEY FOUND EXCALIBUR IT WAS AT THE BOTTOM OF A LAKE, THERE HOLDING A SWORD PULLING CEREMONY, THE SWORD IN THE STONE HAS BEEN FOUND!!!" a noble screamed at the top of his lung loud enough to were he could be heard even in the slums where Arthur was standing.
"Well I'll be damned" the stallholder said "I've just lost my wife"
"Wait I-I'm sorry you bartered your wife?"
"Well yeah she is just a woman."
Arthur stared at the man in shock, never before had he seen a man take such little regard of his loved ones, this man in Arthur's eyes was the epitome of evil. Although Arthur didn't really see himself as good either, he had stolen and swindled to survive and in this day an age that was the worst thing someone could do, they didn't want him to live.
"Hey kid, why don't you try to pull the sword, I'd love to see you fail miserably" he said laughing to himself
"You know what, I will! And when I do pull it from the stone your gonna be sorry" he replied in a moment of anger, throwing the rotten apple at the stallholder
"Right, you rotten little child, that's it" he replied pulling out his shovel from under his stall
Arthur began to run as fast as he could and the stallholder followed "Your not getting away you little shit"
Arthur ran
and he ran
and he ran
until he was no longer in the slums he ran to the site of the sword pulling ceremony, he ran to a place the stallholder couldn't attack him, this 'rotten child' had outsmarted this man, he truly was gifted even without a formal education to rely on.
"Let us begin, to start off with the king who has graced us with his presence will pull the sword from the stone." a noble had shouted into the crowd.
as he said that an old man walked down as he did everyone knelt to him, everyone but Arthur, when he saw this the stallholder forced him to kneel
"Show some respect boy!" he said
"Who is he?"
"You damn parent-less leach, he's the one you've been leaching off, he's the king of this country"
"QUIET DOWN OVER THERE PEASANT YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH THE SIGHT OF OUR KING SHOW RESPECT!" a noble shouted
"No, no worry not young one" the king spoke "I have no ill will toward you" he said as he grabbed onto the sword, as he pulled it didn't even budge one bit, he tried and he tried, he pulled and pulled and then when he was done a droplet of sweat on his forehead however this wasn't from exhaustion, this was from fear, the fear that he was about to be dethroned.
Then many nobles were given the privileged one by one they went and they pulled and the pulled, the smallest and biggest men you could see all went down however never once did they allow a woman to try, eventually at the dawn of night all of the nobles had attempted, with a sigh of disappointment the man who had been acting like an announcer this whole time had said
"Very well, the peasants may try starting now, however no fighting is to break out for this stone is worth more than your very lives and staining it with blood would be a sin against God himself!"
many people had tried, the stallholder had tried as had many men that Arthur had stolen from, hundred of people had gone until it was roughly 3 AM it was now Arthur's turn, he walked up to the sword which glistened in the night light, the radiant energy it emit enough to truly calm him.
he walked up to the sword, he grabbed it and he pulled...