Chapter Text
“Father, why can’t we just fly to Camelot? We have the dragons.”
Merlin didn’t understand why they had to take a carriage and a whole caravan, when they had dragons that could easily fly them the whole way.
“Oh my son, no matter how mature you act, you always find some way to remind me of how young you truly are,” Balinor chuckled, turning to look at his son fondly.
“My son, we cannot abuse our powers over the dragons, they are sacred beings. We are merely their lords; their will is their own, they do not belong to us. Just because we have powers over them does not mean we should use those powers for our own means.”
He was speaking to Merlin with so much patience that made Merlin feel like he was so much younger than he actually was.
“Oh, I see…” Merlin said, looking down to the stone floor feeling ashamed for what he had thought.
His father looked at his son's lowered head, not unkindly, then he patted and ruffled his son’s hair with his right hand.
“Son, do not feel ashamed. It’s natural for you to think this, you’re still young and naive, you have much to learn about the world.”
He moved his hand down to his son's left shoulder and squeezed. Merlin looked up at his father with a small and sheepish smile. Even with their height difference, Merlin had never truly felt small or insignificant to his father in any way. Sure, sometimes he’d feel too young but rather than hold that against him, his father had always tried to guide him.
“We’re ready, sire,” said one of the guards whose name Merlin couldn’t bother to remember.
Merlin didn’t really care for the guards and the physical training his father had attempted to make him do. Merlin didn’t care about “training”, it was stupid, all that sweating and fighting. It wasn’t at all what Merlin liked, he’d much rather use some of the little defensive magic he knows against an opponent.
“Ah yes, of course. Come, my son, our journey will be long,” his father said, giving his son’s shoulder one last squeeze before pulling away and waking after the guard, leaving Merlin no choice but to follow after. He knows if he tries to run, his father will just use magic to pull him back.
~ a few days later ~
Finally, they’d made it to Camelot, Merlin didn’t think his arse would ever recover from sitting on a horse for five hours.
“They’ve arrived!” Merlin heard someone shout from the gate entrance to the city.
Merlin really didn’t want to be here.
A large retinue of guards lined up and the citizens of the capital city came out to welcome them in an official-looking ceremony. There was so much attention on Merlin that all he wanted to do was to turn himself invisible and hide.
“Smile, my son. They’re here to welcome us,” his father said next to him, with his biggest fake smile on. Only Merlin could tell the smile was fake because he’d seen his father’s real smile countless times.
Merlin took a deep breath and showed the best smile he could, he only hoped it looked real. Looking over at his father, he nodded. Merlin hoped that meant his smile looked genuine.
As they made their way into the citadel, they could see King Uther, his daughter Morrigan (Moragan? Meralyn? Margary?) and his father’s old friend, Gaius.
Once they reached the grand staircase into the castle, Uther descended down the stairs, a large smile on his face at seeing Balinor and Merlin.
“Balinor! Welcome old friend!” Uther greeted as his father descended from his horse. They met in the middle in front of the final step as Uther pulled Balinor in for a brotherly hug.
Merlin didn’t know what he should do with himself, he knew he should get down from his horse but if he was honest he didn’t think his legs would work. His legs and butt were so sore. Lord, how he hated horse riding.
So instead, he decided to look over at the people in front of him.
The princess Mirabelle (Morgause? Morwenna?) was standing at the top of the stairs. She was wearing a dark blue dress with bits of gold on it, as well as a gold necklace with big blue jewels and what looked like matching golden earrings.
That’s when Merlin noticed that the princess’s smile and posture looked very tight. It seemed as if she was forcing herself to look cheerful.
“Uther, may I introduce you to my son, Merlin?”
This is what made Merlin snap out of his own thoughts, everyone was looking at him now.
He had to dismount from the horse.
Silently, he prayed to all the mythical creatures and dragons he knew of, apologizing for what he thought before about ruling over them.
As he swung his left leg off the back side of the horse to hop down, he felt his right foot get caught in the left stirrup and before he could stop himself he fell arse first onto the ground.
“Pfft-” Merlin was very sure he heard the princess snort, which she attempted to mask with a cough.
Merlin just quietly got up from the ground, brushing himself off, looking down ashamed. His lower body felt bruised and his cheeks burned with shame
Thankfully, he’d felt like he hadn’t hit the ground as hard as he would’ve. His father must’ve used a spell to cushion his fall as best as he could, though his reflexes weren’t as good as Merlin’s.
“Ah, Balinor. Your son needs some horse riding lessons, he’s worse than some of the lord’s sons.” Uther let out a loud chuckle and Merlin winced internally.
“My son Arthur can help teach him. Morgana, where's Arthur? Uther asked, looking back towards the princess who had schooled her face into neutrality.
“I do not know father, he wasn’t in his room this morning when George brought him his breakfast,” Morgana shrugged and seemed unfazed by her brother’s absence.
Uther, however, seemed very bothered by this, his body became rigid and jaw tightened. Merlin couldn’t see his face but he figured it looked angry.
“Ah well, I’m sure he’ll join us later. Come let us go inside and allow you two to get situated,” Uther offered, looking back towards Balinor and Merlin, who’d walked over towards his father.
All Balinor did was begin to walk up after Uther. Merlin followed and once they’d reached the doors, the princess gave a short bow out of respect then quickly spun around and entered the castle attempting to seem like she wasn’t running away; it didn’t work.
A man, Gaius, also waited at the door, Merlin noticed how his father kindly smiled at him; it was a real smile this time as a way of saying his greetings to his old friend. Gaius returned the smile to the both of them.
As Merlin looked back towards the citadel, he could only wonder what this new kingdom would have in store for him and his father.
Chapter word count: 1,189
Total word count: 2,250
Last updated: April 26, 2022