A long, long time ago, a traveller entered the meagre shack of an old apothecary.
Although only coming upon the village by chance, the wanderer, having taken a nasty fall earlier in the day, saw this as an opportunity to have the wound to his knee cleaned and bound. The old man, a seller of drugs and special compounds, was also known to work spells for people in the village. He greeted his customer warmly and had him sit while he attended to the injury. The tiny village itself lay hidden in the rugged greenery between coast and moor and received few visitors. Because of this, the apothecary saw it as a welcome occasion to tell his story. He remembers the day that another stranger came to the village seeking him out. The old man enjoyed telling the story to anyone who’d listen.
“This reminds me of the time I had a similar encounter with a stranger,” he began, “although this visitor was just a young lad. He came to me with a most unusual request. Yes, most peculiar it was. This youth wanted me to provide him with a spell that would separate metal from stone.” He looked into the eyes of the other. “Well, I could hardly refuse such a challenge, could I? It took some work in the doing of it, I can tell you. But, it was managed and the boy went away happy.”
He finished applying the herbal ointment and began bandaging.
He went on. “It was some time after that, I couldn’t rightly say how long, anyway that’s when I heard that this same fellow had visited a cousin of mine who lived in another village. He was a carpenter you see?” He chuckled to himself. “What a job that was! My cousin was asked to build this huge, round table. Well, he did, and when it was finished it was carted away to some castle. Then, the story goes that a great number of knights gathered around it.” He finished the dressing and the man stood and paid him for his trouble.
The stranger said, “I myself live something of a hermitic life, but have heard such stories before. I must say, not from anyone so close to it.”
As he was leaving the stranger asked, “so, what happened with this stranger that you speak of?”
“Well, as for that, I cannot rightly say, but there are rumours that he’s our king!”
