When the going gets tough, it's all a dream

Artie opened her eyes.

She fought the urge to gasp for air while her lungs protested. She didn't know how long she'd been out, but she knew it wasn't long enough for the ceiling above her to change so drastically. When Artie had closed her eyes, she'd had the false sky above her, and pain radiating from the wound in her gut. When she opened her eyes, she felt no pain in her gut, and she stared up at red cloth draped between wooden beams that looked to be in the shape of a square. Maybe a bed? But she'd never seen anything like this before. Confused, she kept quiet, trying to listen to see if she could get any context to where she was, because if this was the afterlife? She wasn't happy with it so far. 

Murmuring broke the stillness and she turned her head towards the noise. From where she was laying down, Artie could make out two men inside the room, standing near the door and as far away from the bed as possible. 

Artie furrowed her brows as she took in the space. She was right to assume she was in a bed, but something was strange about it. It was a…four post bed? Something she'd only seen in movies and recreated in older castles she'd toured when on vacation in Europe. The floor was wooden, but covered in several carpets, and the walls were stone. They too were covered in cloth, but they really looked like tapestries she'd seen in recreations of older castles. The more she looked at them, the more she was able to depict the pictures created in them. They appeared to be filled with creatures of legend. She turned her head to get a view of the other half of the room. On the left side she was able to see that there was a small desk in the far left corner, opposite of the door. A wooden chair, seemingly carved from one piece of wood, sat at the desk. A small window was carved into the stone, and a crude, glass panel was covering it. The glass wasn't quite clear, and there was a giant metal latch on the bottom of the frame. A huge, red curtain was to the left side of the window, and even the curtain seemed to have creatures sewn into it. The door was made of thick, hard wood, with a giant metal latch used to open and close it. The guards themselves made her very confused as well. They both had swords at their hips, and wore strange looking pants and a billowy looking top. It looked like it was made of linen, and was an off white in colour. Artie wasn't sure where the hell she was, but she knew it wasn't the apartment where Ginnie lived, and it wasn't the hospital. Had she died? Where was she?

The guards noticed then that she had her eyes opened, and both became flustered. One lost all colour from their face and turned and ran from the room, while the other seemed too scared to approach her. While she realised that this was odd behaviour, she was more worried about where she was, why she was here, and why was she being guarded from the inside out? 

Thankfully, whoever had placed her in this bed had raised her head with a rather thick, hard, pillow, and that gave her a view of the whole room. The bed was far too soft for her liking, and the sheets felt like linen. Soft and smooth, they were one of Artie's favourite sheets, but paired with the several thick blankets she was overheating. A long, suffering sigh left her body and she decided it was time to try to move. If this was the afterlife, it should be easy. If it wasn't, well, she'd get to that when it came to it.

As soon as Artie tried to get her arms under herself and push up, a sharp, jarring pain clouded everything and she sucked in air. The pain was familiar, and only made her more confused. The other guard remaining in the room panicked, and Artie stopped moving, half raised into a sitting position as the pain continued to knock the breath out of her. 

The door flew open and a young, wispy girl came rushing into the room followed by the previous guard and rushed to Artie's side, helping her lie back down. 

"You shouldn't be disrupting such a serious wound! The spirits know why a woman has a wound like that, let alone you. As Merlin's guest, we must take proper care of you. If he heard that you had reopened your wound after he had taken such pains to close it, he would be angered." Artie watched the young girl as she poured water from a jug out of her range of sight into a mug she also hadn't noticed, before shoving it into her face. Stunned, Artie stared at the clay mug before the young girl rolled her eyes and approached her. Artie was expecting rather rough handling, but instead the girl was gentle, and kind as she helped Artie take a few sips of water. Artie went to thank her, when the doors opened again. 

A fresh faced young man far too handsome for his own good entered. He had dark hair, a short beard of the same colour and vivid green eyes that had an unnatural swirling shade to them. Unlike the guards, his clothes draped off of him reminiscent of a fusion of ancient Greek and Celtic clothing. Almost like he was wearing a tunic but it was tucked into a leather belt that divided the fabric. The fabric itself was heavily patterned, a dark blue shade with a floral design. The skin below his neck was covered in tattoos, and he was grinning from ear to ear. 

"The fair maiden who fell from the sky has awoken! What blessings! Tell me dear, do you know why you fell? And where do you hail from originally since you were wearing such strange garments, and the short sword we found was quite unusual as well." He was quite enthusiastic and Artie eyed him warily. He laughed at her expression. "Forgive me, I didn't introduce myself. Quite rude, I must say, since you are my guest. I am named Merlin, and I am considered a wizard. One who knows quite a bit of magic." He winked. "And you are?" Artie's head swam with the new information. She looked around, maybe to see if there was a film crew around that was trying to get a reaction out of her. This felt like the new premise to t.v. show. Hell, it sounded like something one of her coworkers would watch. They loved reality t.v., while Artie hated it. She barely watched t.v. these days. 

But the more she stared at the two who were at the bedside, the more she began to feel this wasn't a t.v. show. Both grew more concerned with the fact she wasn't speaking. The guy who called himself Merlin was freaking her out the most. His eyes kept moving, swirling, and she wondered what kind of contacts the kids were making these days? She hadn't bought any since she was 13 for that one halloween that wasn't a nightmare. 

"Are you wearing contacts just to freak me out?" Artie asked, and the guy who called himself Merlin frowned. 

"Con tacts? What are those?" Artie frowned at his response. 

"They are thin pieces of coloured plastic that you put into your eye to change the colour temporarily? Most times they are used to help you see better, but sometimes they are used for cosmetic reasons?" Merlin's eyes brightened, even as he seemed more confused by her words. 

"Ah. I have no idea what you speak of. Con tact? Plastic? You use these…things to improve one's vision? We just use spells for that, darling. Do you not have wizards where you're from? It sounds ridiculous, since you fell from the sky, but I feel it's a fair question. Especially given the day that you fell." That was the second time he had mentioned her falling from the sky. What the hell did that mean? And he didn't understand plastic? Or contacts? They were widely used, and the cause of a lot of problems. The use of plastics in everyday life was a point of contention for the state of the Earth. Everyone knew that. 

She sighed, glancing down at her body and where she lay covered in the thick sheets on the overly soft bed. Shaking her hands free, Artie went to pull the sheets off of her again when the young lady gasped and pulled them back up.

"My Lady! Not when there are men present!" She seemed scandalised at the thought. Artie glanced at the men who were too afraid to even look in her direction, and Merlin, who seemed to be viewing her as an exotic animal, and flipped the blanket off of her again. Merlin threw his head back and laughed, while the young girl seemed to be upset, but held her tongue as she frowned. Artie stared down at the state of her body, taking in the fact that she was naked except for her underwear and a large swath of linen bandages that were wrapped around her midsection. Where she had been stabbed. By Ginnie. She went to remove the first layer and the young girl freaked out again. "My Lady, please!" She held onto Artie's hand, holding it in place while Artie gave her a look. The young girl sighed, releasing her hand and Artie began to pull back the bandages to look at the state of her wound. 

She was not in good shape. With the state of the wound, it had been a couple of days since she had begun to heal. It didn't look infected, so at least it had been well taken care of, but it was healing slowly. Outside of that, with where it was, and how deep it had been, she should have been dead. She actually remembered the feeling of dying.

"I should be dead." She stated finally, breaking the silence and Merlin met her gaze with mirth. 

"You should be, but magic is a fickle beast that few know how to tame. You were saved, and fell from the sky in front of the round table no less, on the first official day of mourning for the late King. We were in the middle of holding the ceremony to return the holy sword back to the lady of the lake when you fell from the sky into the lake. You were covered in blood, in strange clothes, with a short sword still in your stomach. We were actually worried that the spirits had given us another body to bury." He chuckled while Artie felt her face go white. Round table? They were really getting into the role play of it, weren't they? But wait. Return the holy sword back to the lady of the lake? Why on Earth would they be doing that? A bad feeling began to creep up Artie's spine. 

"Returning the holy sword? You aren't talking about Excalibur, are you?" She asked, and he seemed to be surprised that she knew, but not enough to truly shock him. The young lady on the other hand, gasped, covering her mouth. 

"It should surprise me more that you know the true name of our holy sword, but after the many years I've spent alive, not much rouses a great stir from me anymore." His eyes glimmered as he stared down at Artie and he smiled. "You are a recent surprise. I didn't know magic could drop someone from the actual heavens, but yet here you lie. Tell me, strange maiden, are you a spy from another nation? Or a fey?" Artie shook her head at his question. 

"I don't even know where I am. How could I be a spy?" He laughed at her response and sharp tone. 

"Good. Can you use a sword?" He asked and she shook her head. 

"Nope. Not in my wheelhouse. I'm a good shot, but never got into those kinds of weapons. I'm decent at hand to hand combat." She told the man, before glancing down at herself and chuckling. Maybe if she'd been paying attention to her surroundings, this wouldn't have happened. Or maybe if she didn't get involved with Ginnie from the beginning this wouldn't have happened. Merlin watched her for a moment. 

"Is she well enough to stand?" He asked the young girl beside Artie, who shook herself before she responded. 

"No, of course not. The wound is deep. She should not be up and moving." Artie sighed at her response and began wrapping the wound again. 

"Don't listen to her. I've had worse." She joked, and the two on either side of her stared at her in horror. 

"I doubt that my Lady, but I will humour you. Moira, please get her in working order. The others, no doubt, have heard of her awakening and will want to see her." The girl bowed her head to Merlin, and he turned with a grand flourish and left the room. The guards remained where they were while the young girl, Moira, began to fuss over Artie. 

"You fall from the sky, barely breathing and covered in tattoos like Merlin, and then he saves your life. Now, you are saying you've had worse when I've seen wounds like this that have taken a man to his grave. Then Merlin orders me to dress you up to meet the round table. If you were anyone else, I would think you a witch." Artie's heart jerked at her words, trying to read the young lady's expression. Her eyes were focused, and unclouded. She had not said the words to hurt Artie, and was clearly just making observations. Artie laughed softly, as Moira shoved more and more pillows behind Artie's back, gently raising her into a sitting position. 

"You aren't the first to say something like that to me. Uh, he said that your name was Moira?" Artie asked and she nodded, while gently pulling the blankets away from her body now that she was in a seated position. The guards shifted, and Artie glanced over to notice that they had turned their backs to the two women. They probably weren't used to seeing or dealing with an injured woman. 

"Yes, my Lady, my name is Moira. Merlin thought it best for you to have a woman attend to you when you awoke. I was…free to do so." She hesitated for a moment, her hands pausing at the same time, before she added a few more pillows to help aid Artie's attempt to stand. 

"Um, why are you calling me Lady? Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't we the same age Moira?" Moira huffed.

"You're a guest of Merlin, of course you're a lady. You were also so well taken care of, I can only assume you come from a higher class, even if it is from a strange place. I'm 18 since you're asking, and I know you are older than I am. It boggles my mind how a Lady of your age is without a ring, or even signs of having a child. Why, I've already done both." She was very proud of herself, while Artie could feel her face turning white. That was not the response she expected to her question. She could tell Moira was young, but…to be that young? And already have a kid? Artie could feel her head spin, and she wasn't sure if it was from the pain or not.