Excerpt: When All The World Was Young

If one had the nerve to ask him, Arthur would tell him that indeed, he had been truly shocked when he literally woke up to the 6th century one day. He had not been practicing his magic – no sir, Arthur shook his head resolutely, he had put them away in favor of studying all those economic charts Alfred and Francis and the Commonwealth (Seychelles, Australia, Wales – oh wait, Wales hadn’t sent him anything yet, had he?) had sent him. He had even gone to sleep on that table over those charts that very night!

So yes, Arthur had been very surprised when he found himself in the Dark Ages again.

But fortunately for him, he had taken everything in stride very quickly, with the very unfortunate exception of being discovered of his true identity by a very powerful warlock in that time and age.

Merlin.

Well, it must be due to your sudden reappearance that the country is without a King, England. If that is so, you are responsible to recover the King.

And that was how he came to lead this wild goose chase in search of a King, of a protector, for Britain.

Arthur cursed at the old wizard who still enjoyed foiling up his plans and making fun of him.

Merlin had not changed a bit.

But then again, Arthur reminded himself as he trudged through the mud, which was horribly reminiscent of those dirty, humid trenches of the World War One and World War Two times, things should not have changed, since it was he who returned to the past. The past. History.

And history, it should not have changed.

Everything that was happening just gave Arthur a bad premonition.