Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Arthur was sure Morgana’s scream could be heard throughout the entire castle. 

Arthur was waiting outside the throne room waiting for his father to call him in when he heard his half sister’s scream.

They’d been out on the training grounds together when Gaius, their physician, had called for them.

“Morgana, Arthur, your father wishes to speak to you. It is of the utmost importance”

They exchanged a look and followed Gaius back into the castle and into the hall in front of the throne room.

“Morgana, you go in first, your father wishes to speak with you”

Morgana had looked back at Arthur with some uncertainty, maybe their father had found out about their prank on Sir Olvdin, their stunt in the Royal Library, or the plethora of other things they had done.

 All they knew was that this must be serious.

 “MORGANA! COME BACK HERE!” Uther raged as Morgana burst through the doors and stormed down the hall, her face illuminated with fury.

The guards on duty stepped away from her as she barreled towards them.

Looking after her, Arthur was left very confused.

“Arthur, come in,” Uther called him, his voice oddly calm despite the loud outburst he’d had as Morgana left his presence.

Tentatively,  Arthur walked into the room. The guards closed the doors behind him. His father was standing by one of the stained glass windows that depicted his mother. Arthur was often told he had her nose, an odd thing to compare, but hey, who was Arthur to judge?

“Please excuse my outburst. I just had, my son, your sister just has a way of getting under my skin. I'm sure you understand” he said, without even sparing a glance at Arthur.

“Now, the true reason I’ve brought you here is to ask a favor of you” At this he finally looked down to Arthur.

Arthur always felt so small compared to his father. He wasn’t short by any means, in fact, he was rather tall for a twelve year old. His father had just always looked huge.

“In three weeks time, King Balinor and his son Merlin will be coming to stay with us for the rest of the summer. At this time, you are to become acquainted with and befriend Prince Merlin.”

“ What? But Father—” 

“ ARE YOU QUESTIONING MY AUTHORITY, BOY!? ” 

Arthur could’ve sworn the throne room shook with the force of Uther’s bellow and steeled himself to make sure he didn’t flinch.

“ Leave me ,” Uther hissed. Arthur was quick to comply, bowing low and rushing out of the room.

The first thing Arthur wanted to do as he fled his father’s presence was to go and ask Morgana why she stormed out of the throne room before he went in, so he headed straight to Morgana's favorite spot in the castle.

“How’d you find me?” She asked miserably, looking up at Arthur in her crouched  position. She was hiding in a secret room they’d found a year or so ago while running from their tutors together.

“You always go here to cool down from a fight with Father, why would today be any different?” He reasoned, plopping down at her right and looking at her, still confused.

“Sooo, why’d you run out of the throne room like that?” Arthur asked in an attempt to feign light-hearted casualty and change the subject. 

Morgana huffed out a small laugh, leaning her head against Arthur’s left shoulder in a rare act of affection towards her brother.

“Father told me that I’m to marry Balinor’s son, Mervin or something,” she scoffed in disgust.

“Why’s that a problem?” Arthur asked, oblivious.

“Arthur, he’s younger than you.” She stated, looking at him like he was an idiot.

“Well, pardon me! I didn’t know how old he is” Arthur rolled his eyes, exasperated.. 

“Wait, if he’s younger than me… HOW OLD IS HE!? ” Arthur demanded looking at Morgana, appalled.

“He is eleven years of age.” She stated, disgust written in the lines in her face as she glared at the floor like it was the cause of all her problems.

“ ELEVEN !?” Arthur screamed in shock, flabbergasted.

“Shush, be quiet you imbecile! Do you want us to get caught!?” She shushes him, glare now directed at him, albeit less enraged.

“Sorry, I just—is Father serious !? He’s almost five years younger than you!” Arthur said, stating the obvious. Morgana rolled her eyes.

“Obviously! Father says I’m to get to know him over the time he comes to stay with us,” she said looking down at her hands, almost studying them. 

“How long is that? Father told me they were just coming for the summer” Arthur asked, confused.

“Not just this summer, every summer until he’s of age to marry me, which will be about nine years time,” she said, glancing away from her hands and leaning her head against the bookshelf behind them with a small thump, closing her eyes.

Arthur just looked at her with a mix of pity and disgust, not towards her but towards their father. Why would he ask Morgana to do this? Surely he understands how ludicrous this is!? He’s asking Morgana, his only daughter, to marry someone she doesn’t know, and not only that but a boy who is five years younger than her , he thought furiously. 

“You’ll be twenty-five years old by that time! Who knows if you’ll even live that long?” 

“Wow, how kind of you my dear brother, is this a murder threat?” She asked sarcastically, raising one eyebrow at him.

“Wha- no! Ugh you know that wasn’t what I meant, I merely meant that illnesses are very common, even now with magic running rampant! You could get sick, or worse!” 

Arthur was beginning to get mad, again.

“Arthur, you getting angry doesn't solve any of my problems, you know” Morgana reminded him.

“All you need to worry about is what Father asked you to do, befriend Merlin. I’m sure that’s just a ploy to get him closer to me but, oh well we’ll just have to bear with it.” 

She sighed, setting her head on his left shoulder yet again looking miserable. 

Arthur already knew; He would never be friends with this Merlin boy. Damn what his father said. He’ll make it his own personal mission to make this Merlin boy hate him more than anything.

Chapter word count: 1,061

Total word count: 1,061

Last Updated: April 9, 2022

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

Chapter Text

Arthur was frustrated about the whole situation with his sister, and when he’s frustrated, he trains.

It was almost therapeutic, the jabbing, slashing, and stabbing. It helped him relieve out his anger.

Arthur didn’t know how long he’d been on the training field. He’d hidden from his ridiculously boring manservant, George, so Arthur had snuck into the kitchen to steal some breakfast instead. The cook always did have a soft spot for him.

Then he’d gotten changed into his armor and ran to the training field. He had no intention of meeting that prince, Merlin .

“Oh, my dearest brother, you will never believe what happened!” Morgana laughed, announcing herself as she walked towards Arthur and onto his private training field.

Arthur paused in his destruction of the training dummy in front of him to turn and look back at his sister.

She was in one of her nicer gowns, which is why she was bunching it in her hands while walking towards Arthur so the hem wouldn’t be muddied.

She had one of the biggest smiles on her face and looked like she could hardly contain her laughter.

“Oh, pray tell what has happened, dearest sister of mine?” Arthur asked in a mocking tone, crossing his arms over his chest, careful to mind his sword.

“You know, I'm a little hurt you chose to abandon me this morning while we had to welcome him. I was forced to watch him make a fool of himself all alone,” she said, finally reaching him.

“Apologies, but I didn’t think I could stomach having to greet him, we’re acting as if he’s the most important person in all the kingdoms. He’s a prince , like me, what’s so special about him?” 

Arthur rolled his eyes, finding the whole situation quite stupid.

“Well first off, he’s nothing like you, he has magic for one. But also when he arrived, he fell off his own horse !” She began to hysterically laugh and Arthur snorted.

“He what?” he exclaimed, starting to laugh as well

“When he and his father arrived, they were both on horseback. His father dismounted easily but when it was his turn to dismount, he just fell off!”  

And now Arthur was laughing.

“Oh, it was so pitiful! I tried so hard not to laugh!” Morgana gasped in between bouts of laughter.

“Ah, I just remembered! Father is not happy that you skipped out on welcoming the prince and the king, practically the whole kingdom was there to welcome them.” 

All Arthur did was roll his eyes.

“I don’t bloody care if Father’s angry, everyone is blowing this all out of proportion. They’re just another royal family, what’s so special about them anyway?”

“Arthur, they’re Dragon Lords ! They are some of the most powerful people in the whole world! They’re even more powerful than the druids!” Morgana spoke to him as if he was the biggest idiot in the whole kingdom.

“That doesn’t mean anything to me, they’re probably just stuck up pompous asses, they probably think that just because they have magic it means they’re the best.” 

“Oh my dear stupid brother, one day you’ll be taught properly about magic. I can only pray for when that day comes; now I must go, Lillian will go insane if I get mud on this dress,” she said, feeling a small bit of compassion for her elderly maidservant. After all it was her last year working for Morgana, soon there would be a new maid.

“Let me guess, you're going to stay here and train, aren't you?” Morgana asked, glancing back at Arthur with a knowing look in her eyes. Well, Arthur wasn’t going to stand for that. Morgana didn’t know everything .

“Uh no, I’m going to go train with the other lords' sons out in the public training grounds!” 

Arthur sniffed and stood up straighter in pride.

Morgana just rolled her eyes smirking at him, “ah yes, go train out in the public training area when Father is furious and looking for you, I’ll be excited to see that,” and with that she turned away and left Arthur’s private training field.

Arthur felt himself almost deflate once Morgana was out of his vision.

She was right , he knew it. He was an idiot, but he’d never give his sister the satisfaction of admitting it out loud.

He would be shocked if his father didn’t catch him training in the public training grounds, for it was right next to the smaller opening of the citadel 

Oh lords, he was sure he’d be spending the night in a cell.

But he said he’d do something and he always kept his word, so after wiping his face with the washcloth he’d brought with him, Arthur took his sword and training armor and walked out of the private training area towards the entrance of the public training center.

Chapter word count: 810

Total word count: 3,060

Last updated: April 26, 2022

Chapter Text

Merlin was stressed. No, he wasn’t stressed, he was way too overwhelmed. 

He was in some of his most uncomfortable clothes and the fabric made him feel like he couldn’t breathe. The high neck of his shirt, layered under an too-tight overshirt which felt like it restricted the movements of his shoulders. 

His pants also felt tight and uncomfortable, especially after a long horseback ride in the warm summer morning.

The only thing in his attire that didn’t feel unbearable was his dragon circlet that wrapped around the back and sides of his head, with the ends being molded into matching dragon heads; it was the only thing he actually liked in his formal attire; because it was his mother’s favorite.

After the completely mortifying meeting with the king and the princess, Merlin was very glad to be alone. He and his father were led towards the visiting chambers by an incredibly dull servant whose name was George.

Once Merlin was finally alone, he undid his overshirt and took it off as quickly as he could with his magic instinctively folding his overshirt and placing it on the bed.

Looking out the window, Merlin could see the citadel and the kingdom's town below and in the distance he could see the mountains that surrounded the kingdom and outlined its borders. It was quite a beautiful sight to see and while to most it might not have seemed like much, to Merlin it seemed almost like a paradise. Merlin’s kingdom was extremely isolated, as it was located on a bloody mountain , not unlike the ones that surrounded Camelot. The dragons preferred the higher and colder climate and there weren’t even really towns in his kingdom, just some druid camps in the surrounding forest at the base of the mountain.

Merlin’s train of thought was interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Sire, I've brought your trunk. Do I have permission to enter?” the servant George called out from the other side of the door.

“Oh. Yes, come in,” Merlin answered. The serving boy pushed the door open, pulling the heavy truck behind himself.

“Oh, let me help you with that!” Merlin called, using what little magic he knew to help take the trunk from the serving boy and lift it towards the end of the bed. His magic, however, wasn’t powerful enough to place it down gently so it ended up dropping down with a very loud and painful ‘THUMP!’

“Whoops…” Merlin muttered out, looking sheepishly at the trunk which no doubt had developed a dent in one of the corners.

The servant looked at Merlin in awe, “That was incredible!”

“Ah, it’s just a simple levitation spell. Nothing incredible, really,” Merlin said shyly, looking down at his feet as he felt rather uncomfortable with the compliment. 

“Well, magic isn’t widely practiced here in Camelot so what might be simple to you is very interesting to me, my lord,” the serving boy reasoned.

“Please, call me Merlin. My lord is too stuffy, just Merlin is alright” Merlin told the boy, smiling kindly at him.

“Well alright Merlin, when shall I come to help you prepare for bed?” The George asked, looking rather uncomfortable with calling Merlin by his name.

“I don’t think that would be necessary. I’ve never had a servant wait on me and I don’t feel that I need one. I’ll be alright, but thank you,” Merlin answered. Back at his castle, there weren’t many servants. He and his father mainly used their magic to take care of themselves, all they really had was a cook and some cleaners,who were Druid citizens that came every other day to help them. Most of the time, he and his father just took care of themselves and the dragons that they housed.

“Oh, all right then, well am I allowed to go si-Merlin?” The serving boy asked, looking very uncomfortable.

“Oh yes. Um, you’re dismissed? I mean, you can go,” Merlin said, feeling rather awkward. Camelot was quite odd.

The serving boy, George, bowed low and turned, walking out of the room and shut the door behind him as he left.

Finally alone with his trunk, Merlin changed into his casual attire, a simple blue cotton long sleeved tunic with a brown belt and matching brown trousers, simple worn leather shoes, as well as an old deep red neck scarf his mother had made him.

Finally, after folding and placing all his ceremonial attire away in his trunk, Merlin felt comfortable. He took off his dragon circlet and put it back in its case, making sure to lock the case before placing it inside his trunk.

“I wonder if I’ll be able to explore…” He muttered to himself, looking out the window again.

His father’s visiting chamber was right next to his so he decided to walk over and ask him if he could explore Camelot.

Knocking on the door, he announced himself and waited for his father to allow him entrance.

But no reply came.

Merlin knocked again, a little bit harder in case his father had fallen asleep.

Yet there still came no reply.

Merlin quietly pushed the door open, sticking his head inside to see if his father was present.

His fathers guest chambers looked similar to his. However it was larger and it was also empty.

His father wasn’t present, his ceremonial attire was folded atop his trunk at the foot of his bed, which was the only sign he’d been in the room.

Oh well, if his father wasn’t there to tell him he couldn't , what was stopping Merlin from exploring?

Slipping his head out from his fathers guest chambers, he looked down both ways of the hall and decided to just take the way the serving boy George had taken them up to reach the guest chambers.

After a lot of stairs and many halls that all looked the exact same, Merlin finally found himself outside in the citadel, only not in the same area he and his father had arrived in. He was on the other side of the castle.

“Where’s the target?” A voice rang out loudly from Merlin's right, a rather obnoxious voice if Merlin was honest.

Merlin stopped and turned to see a group of five men, four were wearing some form of practice armor, one was holding a basket of towels. Ah, he must be a servant , he thought.

“There, sir?” The serving boy with the basket answered the man, or boy, now that Merlin had a good look at him. He looked around Merlin’s age, maybe older.

“It’s into the sun,” the boy around Merlin’s age said to the serving boy, as if it was obvious.

“Well, it's not that bright,” the serving boy answered, looking up. Indeed, it wasn’t that bright of a day, Merlin noted. From the placement of the sun in the sky, he’d be inclined to admit it was only early in the afternoon and the weather indicated this as well, it wasn’t very hot even though it was summer.

“A bit like you then?” The rather obnoxious boy said to the poor serving boy. Merlin was starting to dislike this boy the more he opened his big mouth.

“I’ll put the target down the other end, shall I, sir?” The serving boy asked the other boy. He must be the son of a lord since the serving boy referred to him as ‘sir’. The sir in question gave the serving boy a look that indicated that the poor thing was nothing more than a slow idiot before he turned back to the other men behind him, who all seemed much older than him.

As the rather small serving boy picked up the large target, Merlin could hear the men all discussing.

“Go on and teach him a lesson .”

“Oh boy, this’ll be good.”

“Look at it, it's half his size!” One of them laughed out.

“This’ll teach him,” the annoying prat said to the men before turning back to the serving boy who was hauling the large target on his left side across the field.

The prat wound up and threw a knife right at the target, hitting the lower left outer area of the middle.

“Hey, hang on!” The serving boy called out, looking down at the target and then up at the prat with a little bit of fear.

All the men laughed at him. Merlin was starting to find them all rather irritating.

“Don’t stop!” The prat barked, slightly annoyed

The poor serving boy walked over to an area at the other end of the field. “Here?” He asked.

“I told you to keep moving !” The prat growled out, winding up his throw again to throw another knife at the boy.

The boy only had enough time to raise the target in front of his face before the prat threw the knife. It hit the middle of the target head on.

“Come on! Run!” The prat commanded and the serving boy could do nothing but comply, raising the target to cover his head again. He began to run back and forth along the field, looking like a rather headless chicken.

“We want some moving-target practice!” The prat smirked, throwing three more knives which all hit rather close to the middle of the target.

Unfortunately, the serving boy couldn’t hold the target up and he ended up dropping it. The target rolled along, stopping right at Merlin’s feet.

The serving boy, looking rather panicked, went to pick it up but Merlin placed his foot on it, stopping him.

“Hey come on, that’s enough,” Merlin called out to the prat.

“What?” The prat raised an eyebrow, looking rather offended. He must not be used to hearing no. What a spoiled brat.  

“You’ve had your fun, my friend”, Merlin responded, going for a calm and reasonable response.

The idiot started to walk up to Merlin now, looking unimpressed and rather annoyed.

“Do I know you?” The prat questioned, looking Merlin up and down like Merlin was a piece of dung stuck to the bottom of his shoe. 

“Uh no I-” 

“Oh, so I don’t know you,” the prat interrupted him before he can tell him his name.

“No.”

“Yet you called me friend.”

“That was my mistake.”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Yeah, I’d never have a friend who could be such an ass ,” Merlin scoffed, beginning to walk away.

“Or I one who could be so stupid!” The prat retorted, which made Merlin pause.

“Now tell me stranger, do you know how to walk on your knees?” He asked, what kind of stupid question is that , Merlin wondered.

“No.”

“Would you like me to help you?” The prat grinned, getting up into Merlin’s personal space and putting Merlin on edge. Merlin couldn’t help but notice that the imbecile was just a little shorter than him.

“I wouldn’t if I were you.”

“Why? What are you going to do to me?” The idiot scoffed at him. “I could take you apart with one blow!” He laughed out. 

“I could take you apart with less than that,” Merlin answered simply, which wasn’t really true. He could take him apart, it would just take more than one blow.

“Are you sure?” The stupid boy asked.

All Merlin did was roll his eyes, step back and stand up straighter, crossing his arms over his chest in both an act of defiance and self preservation. He really didn’t like people in his personal space.

The prat just laughed at him and turned back to his followersfriends.

One of them handed him a mace which he tossed at Merlin, who immediately dodged. Allowing it to hit the ground, Merlin bent down to pick it up as the idiot child’s friend then handed him another.

“Come on then,” he said, swinging the mace over his head in an act of intimidation.

“I warn you, I've been trained to kill since birth.” 

“Wow, and how long have you been training to be a prat?” Merlin asked in a mocking tone.

The kid just scoffed in disbelief at him “You can’t address me like that!”

“Sorry, how long have you been training to be a prat, my lord? ” He added a slight bow to this, just to infuriate the prat more.

The nincompoop just laughed at first but then he swung, aiming right for Merlin’s head. Merlin just had time to duck and again the prat swung at his chest this time, which Merlin dodged.

At this point, they were just going around in a circle, the prat swung, Merlin dodged but never hit back.

“Come on then! Try and hit me!” The prat goaded. Merlin didn’t listen, he just focused on dodging and weaving.

A crowd has begun to form around them, all of them watching and some cheering.

“Come on coward! Hit me! Stop dodging!” The brat provoked. All Merlin was focused on was not getting maimed by the mace. If there was one thing he could thank his father’s training for, it was the boost to his stamina.

He could do this for quite some time. However, he would get very sweaty and that’s something Merlin could not stand.

Okay, enough of this , Merlin decided, ducking under the brat’s swing one more time before using his magic to trip the boy and making him fall face first into a puddle of mud on the ground.

The crowd gasped in unison and some people let out startled laughter. Merlin just looked down and smirked as the boy lifted his face from the puddle, wiping with his face in one long swipe with his right hand. The mace had been dropped when he fell into the puddle.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?” The boy yelled, his startling blue eyes alight with anger. His whole front half was caked in mud, his red shirt looked brown, and his silver training armor looked as if it was leather.

“WHO THE HELL EVEN ARE YOU!?” The prat demanded, shaking with anger.

Merlin tossed the mace down to the boy, who was now sitting on his knees, in the puddle of mud.

“I am Merlin Emyrs, son of Balinor, and the next Dragon Lord,” Merlin felt very uncomfortable speaking his whole title, but it seemed to be necessary since some of the guards had begun to surge forward after the prat fell into the mudd. The crowd froze at his words.

“And who are you ?” He asked, because he would rather like to know the name of the brat he just humiliated.

“I am Arthur Pendragon, son of Uther Pendragon, heir to the throne of Camelot,” the boy, Arthur, said arrogantly.

“Ah, so you’re the prince who wasn’t present upon our arrival. Rather rude, I must say,” Merlin quipped, looking down at the boy whose mud covered hair still glinted with the promise of gold.

The prat just looked anywhere but at Merlin.

“ ARTHUR PENDRAGON! ” A voice boomed out from behind them, making Merlin jump and the prat flinch. Merlin could’ve sworn the ground shook from the force of the yell.

“Oh shit… ” he heard the boy mutter under his breath.

‘Oh shit’ indeed , Merlin couldn’t help but agree. His father would be furious with him.

Edited June 19, 2022

Chapter Word Count: ?

Total Word Count: ? (I’ll just add up everything when it’s done)

Chapter Text

“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?” Arthur could feel his fathers anger practically radiating off of him, Morgana was sitting in her usual spot on her throne, her left hand covering her mouth in a not so subtle attempt at hiding her smile.

“FIRST YOU DISOBEY ME AND NOT COME TO WELCOME THE KING BALINOR AND HIS SON! THEN YOU DECIDE TO ATTACK A RANDOM BOY WHO, IF YOU’D BEEN BOTHERED TO COME TO MEET THEM, YOU'D'VE KNOWN IT WAS THE PRINCE!” His father continued to rant, Arthur just kept his mouth shut, his jaw locked in tension.

He really needed a bath, the mud that remained on his clothes and hair were becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and Arthur knew he smelled terrible .

“He publicly insulted my honor sire.” Was the only thing he said, he needed his father to understand this situation wasn’t his fault! He’d been insulted publicly, perhaps he’d acted brashly, but how was he to have known that ass was the visiting royal boy? 

Merlin, the name sounded obnoxious.

“SO YOU INITIATED A FIGHT!? HEAVENS ABOVE I THOUGHT I RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THIS ARTHUR!” Part of Arthur wanted to say that his father hadn’t raised him, ever since Arthur was young he’d had many governesses and nanny’s.

“I CAN ONLY HOPE YOU CAN GET YOUR HONOR IN CHECK FOR THE LADY HELEN! NOW I MUST GO AND APOLOGIZE TO OUR GUESTS” Was the last thing Uther yelled out before storming out of the throne room.

Uther’s rant seemed to go on for hours when he finally sificed and stormed out of the throne room Arthur had developed a throbbing pain behind his right eye.

“Well done baby brother!” Morgana said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, standing up from her throne, she was slowly clapping her hands as she walked towards him in a few long strides.

“You might’ve saved me from a disgusting marriage arrangement, and might’ve started a war against the dragon lords!” She said a condescending smirk playing her lips as she looked at him.

Their heights were about the same, Morgana stood only a tad taller than Arthur, but Arthur knew eventually he’d surpass her; he was sure of it.

“I thought you’d be grateful, he really isn’t much” Arthur mutters looking out the large windows down to the side of the castle that looked over the lower town, he could see Morgana’s maid servant Guinevere walking through the town with a basket.

“Well that mud on your hair and clothes say otherwise.” Morgana mutters turning and looking out the window as well crossing her arms across her chest.

“Oh look there's Gwen!” She remarked with joy “you know she was beating out my curtain and was watching the whole thing, she gave me a very detailed recounting of the events, I must say that boy is quite something.” She smirked, glancing at Arthur, then looking back out the window.

“He just caught me unawares, I was already tired from training all morning.” Arthur huffed out tilting his head up to give himself an air of superiority.

Morgana let out a noise that sounded very much like a snort.

“Ah yes of course the Golden Prince Arthur Pendragon cannot be beaten unless he’s caught unawares, my apologies.” She said her voice once again dripping with sarcasm.

“Shut up Morgana” Arthur mutters, before feeling a very strong punch hit him on his left arm, ouch Morgana was always good at punching.

“Oh well I must go and prepare for the banquet tonight to celebrate the guests you so rudely greeted, I can only hope they are a forgiving bunch, the heavens knows we aren’t.” She said turning from the window and walking out the door, Arthur could hear her shoes clacking against the floor and the large doors being opened and shuting and her clacking becoming more and more distant. 

Once he couldn’t hear it anymore he allowed himself to relax, by the heavens he was an idiot. He could’ve just begun an all out war between Camelot and the dragon lords as his father accused him of.

Arthur felt panic begin to bubble in his throat but he pushed it down, it wouldn’t do for him to lose control, not now.

Steeling himself Arthur also turned and opened the throne room doors and walked back to his chambers.

Arthur knew the castle like the back of his hand, he could walk through it blindfolded and reach his chambers easily, which is why most of the time he’d allow himself to get lost in his own thoughts.

He’d been thinking about the small battle he’d just had with that boy, he’d been rather good at dodging him but he didn’t seem to want to do anything else. Which infuriated Arthur it made him look like a fool for not being able to land a blow.

‘SLAM!’ 

Arthur hadn’t realized there’d been another person walking down the corridor, as he’d turned the corner to go down the corridor his chambers were located on.

When another body knocked into him they both jumped backwards, somehow Arthur tripped over some type of invisible object and found himself on his ass looking up at the boy.

Merlin.

“What the hell are you doing!?” Arthur snapped at the boy, who was wearing an expression that looked like he was looking at something rotten.

“It’s not my fault that your castle is a goddamn labyrinth! Like honestly why is every corridor the exact same!?” Mer lin asked, throwing his hands up in frustration. 

“They aren't, you're just an idiot!” Arthur answered automatically, again he was an idiot . 

Merlin’s nostrils flared and his eyes flashed with anger, and something else, it seemed like there was a golden swirl around his iris.

There was a loud noise from down the hall and Arthur's gaze snapped to where he saw two doors burst open as if someone pushed them open with all their might.

“Oh crap no no no!” Merlin whispered out his voice rising with panic as he shut his eyes tight and took a few deep breaths as if to calm himself.

“What’s up with you? Wait, did you do that!?” Arthur demands standing up again, he had to look up slightly when looking at the gangly boy, which infuriated Arthur to no end.

“I didn’t mean to okay!? It just happens sometimes I can’t help it!” He muttered the last part looking downward to the floor.

“Whatever, what are you doing?” Arthur asked crossing his arms over his chest and standing up straighter to make himself taller, the boy’s gaze snapped back up to him, he really didn’t like how this boy was taller than him.

“I’m just trying to find my way back to my guest chambers alright! And again, your castle is a fucking labyrinth !” He spat out clenching his fists, Arthur was slightly worried that he was going to burst more than a door this time.

“Why didn’t you just call for a servant idiot?” Arthur asked looking at him in confusion, “just ask for George or something, he loves to help” gods above he hated George.

The boy made jokes about brass like honestly, how dull can one be?

“I haven’t been able to find anyone! The corridors have all been empty! Is your castle haunted or something!?” Merlin demanded fixing Arthur with a reproachful expression.

“Ah right everyone was preparing for Lady Helen’s performance” Arthur remembered suddenly.

“Who?” Merlin asked with confusion lifting his left eyebrow

“A woman from the court, she's famous for her operatic singing so she travels around the kingdoms singing for entertainment, she’s come to sing for you and your fathers arrival” he said putting just a little bit of spite into the last few words and he saw anger flashover Merlin’s face quickly, he then gave a condescending smile and fixed Arthur with a look of superiority.

“Awe, is the little prat jealous?” He said with a mocking tone that irritated Arthur he also didn’t appreciate being called little .

“Shut up, and come on I’ll show you to your guest chambers because you’re obviously slow and need help with simple tasks” Arthur huffed out and walked past the boy who fixed him with a glare but followed begrudgingly.

As it turns out Merlin’s guest chambers were just down the hall from Arthur’s chambers, he wondered in the back of his mind if his father told George to do that.

“There, now I recommend that while you’re here you should learn your way around the castle, I’m not going to help you every time you can’t find your damn room” Arthur scoffed, turning to walk back to his chambers.

“Ugh!” He heard the boy scoff as he walked away, hearing the door slam behind him.

Pushing open his chamber door he could see the wooden tub he uses for bathing, thankfully George wasn’t anywhere near, he must’ve just set up the tub and left. 

Honestly Arthur was glad, he didn’t think he could stand listening to his brass jokes, taking a deep calming breath Arthur undid his training armor and stripped off his shirt.

Arthur was so bored he really didn’t want to be there, he always found that these banquets tend to drag on too much.

“Announcing! The princess Morgana!”

Morgana always looked lovely at banquets, she always took her time to doll herself up for the occasion, tonight she was wearing one of her newer gowns, it was deep red and had large golden leaves under lining under her chest, and it had a triangle neck that was connected to a golden chain that was around her neck, and no sleeves so it left her shoulders and arms bare. She also wore a red bejeweled band around her forehead and had her hair pulled back and she had a long shawl that she draped over her forearms that was a matching red.

What was so entertaining about her entrance was that many of the young lords and some of the knights all stopped to stare at her. Arthur was speaking with a group of young lords who  in fact stopped speaking to stare at her. Arthur just turned and gave an appreciative smile, that's when he noticed the lord Jadis who was sending her ‘cow eyes’ and looked as though he was about to walk over and annoy her the whole night, which caused Arthur to dismiss himself from the conversation to go over to his sister.

“Well don’t you look positively radiant tonight dearest sister?” He asked, walking up to her and stopping lord Jadis’ approach on his sister.

“Why thank you dear brother, did the toad rear its ugly head again?” She questioned cocking her head to the left, a smirk playing on her lips.

“Announcing! The dragon lord Balinor and his son Merlin!” 

Arthur and Morgana turned to see them enter, the boy Merlin looked stiff and uncomfortable.

He was wearing a stiff white tunic that had silver embroidery on it, he was wearing black trousers that were tucked into black leather boots that came up to his knees, and a silver circlet that wrapped around the back of his head and stopped at his temples, the ends depicted two dragon heads.

He seemed very stiff and awkward and rather uncomfortable, he didn’t speak to anyone, and only sent a small glare towards Arthur when their eyes caught.

“Announcing! Lady Helen!”

That was everyone’s cue to be seated as Lady Helen took her place in the center of the room, clearing her throat as the music began and she began to sing.

“Blah khien barrah fweelah. Blah khien aiza krum. Aloe khio bragam harah eefnell…”

There was something odd about her singing, Arthur could feel himself becoming drowsy. But that didn’t make sense, he hadn’t had time to drink any ale yet. He could see he wasn’t the only one feeling drowsy as he looked down the table he could see that his father’s eyes had begun to droop and Morgana also looked as though she was struggling to keep herself awake.

“Broe floe mesing lah, breeyoolah naadryu. Broilin sar akhwah, roe hagroe nonestroe…”

Arthur very much wanted to place his head down and sleep but he forced himself to stay awake, as he looked around the court he saw that others had also placed their heads down and fallen asleep.

Arthur quickly took his sharp meat knife and gripped the blade with his hand, he felt the sharp pain as the blade cut his skin but it did what he intended, he could feel the adrenaline course through him keeping himself awake, he often did this on patrols when he felt too drowsy to keep watch.

“Broilin sar akhwah, roe hagroe nonestroe…”

That’s when Lady Helen turned towards the table Lord Balinor and Mer lin were seated at, both had fallen asleep; her eyes showing nothing but hatred, but there was also a golden shine that Arthur hadn’t noticed before.

Magic.

Arthur shot up in his chair, he hadn’t noticed he’d been slouching, and felt as though he was fully awake.

Lady Helen hadn’t noticed him yet, she’d reached into her long flowing gown sleeve, she pulled out an intricately carved knife.

“Broilin sar akhwah, mortsin danah dradeh. Broilin sar akhwah, noe…”

Arthur glanced upward and noticed she was standing directly underneath one of the old iron chandelier, if he was able to throw his knife just right…

Arthur cautiously stood, he raised his knife that had blood covering its steel blade slowly above his head, just as he had practiced earlier that day, calculating the best way to hit the chain.

Lady Helen also began to raise her knife but much slower than Arthur, a deranged look in her eyes as she smiled as if what she was about to do pleased her more than anything.

Arthur closed his eyes and took a deep breath, opening his eyes he focused and threw his knife with all his force and might.

‘BOOM!!’

The knife hit the old rusty chain dead on, breaking some of its links and the iron chandelier fell onto Lady Helen with a resounding ‘CRASH!’ Which caused everyone to jump awake.

The chandelier only landed on her back, her upper half was pinned to the ground, three of the pointed ends stabbing straight through her back.

Arthur ran over to her and kicked the knife from her hand and glared down at her.

“What do you think you're doing !?” He demanded, “these people are our guests and some of the world's most powerful beings! How dare you raise a weapon towards either of them!” Arthur knew he shouldn’t be the one scolding her about ‘raising a weapon towards either of them’ for that was exactly what he’d done not a few hours ago towards Merlin.

“Dragons are nothing but a plague on this world! They’re nothing but overgrown lizards! All they do is taint magic, they shouldn’t be allowed to live!” She hissed out, he could see blood seeping through her dress, she didn’t have long.

“They are beings of magic! And you used magic to justify your actions!? That doesn’t make any sense!” He shouted down at her, he really was confused with her logic. She really must be mad if she thought that her reasoning was sound.

She shifted her weight more and a necklace fell out from under her dress, it had a single pendant on the silver chain, there was small triskelion was engraved into it.

A mark of the old religion, Arthur knew of the symbol from his studies with Gaius.

Faster than he could comprehend, her eyes flashed gold again and she looked at the knife that had been thrown to the side, then at Arthur and time almost seemed to slow.

He knew what she’d intended, she was directing the knife to stab him, but it never happened.

Instead he felt a body beral into his back and pulled him back and tackle him to the ground.

Opening his eyes he looked up into deep blue ones, Merlin.

Arthur felt his breath live him as he was thrown to the ground, the other boy’s body draped over him as if to shield him. 

The knife embedded itself into a tapestry on the wall, and Lady Helen collapsed fully, blood trickling from her mouth, she was dead.

Arthur and Merlin just looked up at each other in shock and held gazes for a few moments, just looking into each other's eyes.

Time seemed to slow as he stared into deep blue eyes, inwardly he wondered what secrets they held.

They were both snapped out of their stuper when the hall broke into applause, they both jumped and Mer lin climbed off of Arthur quickly.

“Well done my boy! Well done!” His father bellowed, he was standing a joyful expression, so was Morgana but she looked more confused than happy.

Lord Balinor was also standing, only he did not look happy, nor was he clapping, he was wearing a worried expression that was poorly masking the rage in his eyes.

Both he and Merlin stood, Arthur dusted off his trousers they really needed to clean these floors better.

He could feel the other boy's eyes on him, he turned to look and they locked gazes, Merlin only sent him a seething glare and then turned away, Arthur just rolled his eyes to the heavens and scoffed.

The banquet ended shortly after, Lord Balinor wished for him and his son to retire.

To his annoyance his father asked him to lead Merlin back to his chambers.

His father had called him over when Lord Balinor had expressed wanting to retire to his guest chambers.

“The boy will probably get lost along his way. This is a very large castle, and you’re walking the same way since his chambers are right down the hall from yours; you should take this time to get to know him.” His father had told him, using a stern voice to announce the last words, and Arthur knew better than to challenge him after the stunt he’d pulled earlier that day.

So that's how Arthur found himself walking down the corridors he’d walked down earlier with the same boy, neither of whom we're speaking to one another.

There was a tension that hung in the air as they walked, their footsteps echoing throughout the empty corridors.

By now Arthur’s hand had begun to hurt, the adrenaline from before having dissipated he could now feel blood trickling down his palm and onto his cloak and trousers. 

Merlin had also noticed apparently. 

“You’re bleeding” he noted, Arthur only rolled his eyes and kept his gaze forward, not even sparing the boy a glance.

“Yes I gripped the blade to keep myself awake when that Witch tried to kill you or your father, and from where I was standing it looked as though she was aiming for you; oh and your welcome by the way.”

“Well if I remember correctly I also saved you, so I think that makes us even” Merlin scoffed in response.

They turned the corridor and were now walking down the corridor to both their chambers, once they’d reached Merlin’s chambers Merlin turned to him with a determined look in his eye.

“Give me your hand.” He said decisively, holding out his right hand.

“What no!” Arthur scoffed, pulling his injured hand back.

Merlin just reached out and snatched his injured right hand in his right and looked at it. Arthur actually hadn’t taken the time to study the wounds so he examined his wound too. 

He saw that he had a clear cut along his palm that started from the base of his thumb, there was also a long cut along the area where his fingers met his palm, there was blood trickling down his hand and arm, it had already stained his sleeve. 

Merlin then took his left hand and placed it over Arthurs injured palm and focused his eyes on Arthur’s injury.

“Þurhhæle licsar min” he spoke in a hushed voice his eyes flashing gold, Arthur was momentarily mesmerized; then the pain came, it was seering and hot and there was actually a bright light that emanated from Merlin’s own palm he could in fact smell burning skin. 

He wanted to rip his hand away and push Merlin hard into the guest chamber door, hard , but he steeled himself and just focused on the light, which dissipated almost as quickly as it came.

Arthur looked down to his hand and realized that Merlin had just burned the skin over and helped close his wound.

“Huh thats a neat trick” Arthur said calmly looking down at his freshly healed hand.

“Aren’t you going to say thank you? I did just heal your hand”  Merlin asks him giving a disapproving look.

“Hm” Arthur only hummed, turning away and walking away “good night Merlin!” He called back.

“Ugh!” Merlin scoffed, slamming his chambers doors behind Arthur.

Arthur just smirked and pushed open his chambers doors.

Chapter Text

It was official, Merlin hated prince Arthur, he was a spoiled immature prat ; sure he saved Merlin’s life, but Merlin saved him too so they were even.

Merlin didn’t have time to sit in his anger for he passed out almost instantly after taking off his ceremonial overshirt, trousers, boots, and circlet; before he collapsed onto his bed.

Then he was off and asleep, using healing magic always took a lot out of him, his father figured it was because it caused him to use a lot of energy.

The next morning Merlin awoke early, the sun was just beginning to rise, he always woke up early; he never understood why it just always happened.

He quickly got dressed in the same clothes he’d worn the last afternoon, they hadn’t gotten that dirty after all, and he could just ask his father to spell them clean if he so wanted.

He turned to look out the window, looking down to the town below, he could see smoke already leaving the chimneys of some of the homes, or were they businesses? Merlin couldn’t tell.

Since it was so early Merlin figured he could probably sneak down to the town and see the people in a different way, he’d never been to a town before, he practically grew up in the castle and the woods.

Looking back down to the town Merlin nodded to himself. Quickly he opened his trunk and found his small leather satchel, it had some flying dragons which were breathing fire and other elements embroidered on the strap.

He opened the front flap and looked into the front pocket and pulled out his pouch of gold coins; he didn’t have many coins, his father had given him some coins before leaving, the druids mainly worked in trade so he didn’t fully understand paying with coins.

Quickly he put the coins back in the pocket and shut the front flap and buckled it and pulled it over his head and arm and placed the bag at his hip. And quietly crept towards the doors to his chambers.

Slowly opening the left door he peaked out, but only saw two guards coming down the corridor; quickly Merlin shut the door, he’d prefer to not be acknowledged as ‘the next dragon lord’ but just as Merlin.

After the metal footstep sounds were distant Merlin opened the door once more and slipped out.

Hopefully the prat prince wouldn’t be awake, as he swiftly walked down the corridors and staircases; eventually he did ask a serving woman for guidance on how to leave the back entrance.

Eventually he found himself at one of the back entrances to the citadel, he found himself in the middle of the town.

As he walked down the dirt roads people were bustling around even for early in the morning.

Merlin couldn’t help looking around the town, most probably would’ve considered it rather shabby looking, but to Merlin it looked beautiful.

However since he wasn’t paying attention he slammed right into something, or rather someone.

“Oof!-” he huffed out stumbling backwards he remained standing, the person he’d slammed into however wasn’t so lucky; he caught sight of dark brown curly hair as the woman he’d slammed into fell to the ground.

“Oh my goodness I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking!” Merlin babbled, holding out his hand to the lady he’d knocked down.

“Oh don’t worry I’m alright! A little dirt never hurt anyone” she smiled as she took his hand, Merlin pulled her up to help her stand.

She was rather beautiful, she looked to be the same amount of years as Merlin, she had dark olive complexion with dark brown eyes that matched her dark brown hair, she had a few small freckles; she was wearing a vermilion and white dress with a small light brown woven leather belt, with a deep vermilion cloak, she was a little shorter than Merlin so he had to look down a little to meet her eyes.

 As she stood she shook out her cloak, dirt flying off, looking back at Merlin she smiled, then a look of realization passed over her eyes then she looked at him in shock.

“Oh my! You’re lord Merlin! I’m so sorry sire!” She said quickly, giving him a bow, which Merlin didn’t like at all; some people began to look over in confusion.

“Oh ah! No you don’t need to do that! Please…” he muttered the last part, after babbling out the first, he’d raised his hands as if to defend himself from her trying to honor him. 

“Please just call me Merlin, no sire, or Lord Merlin, just Merlin” he smiled kindly to her, hoping his smile looked disarming.

“Oh alright, Merlin, I am Guinevere the princess Morgana’s lady’s maid, you may call me Gwen” she smiled up at him kindly.

“Why hello Guinevere” he said with a teasing tone, bowing down to her just as she’d done before to him.

Gwen let out a gleeful laugh as he stood straight once more laughing as well, the people surrounding them were looking at them like they were mad.

“Lord Merlin! the king has requested that you return to the castle, he wishes for you to meet the princess! Oh hello Gwen” the young knight had dark blonde hair and a slight stubble, he had light skin and icy blue eyes, he was a decent height, he was a little bit taller than Merlin so he had to look up slightly when addressing him, he couldn’t be more than five years his senior.

“Hello Leon!” Gwen chirped, smiling up at the young knight, Merlin scowled inwardly, he’d wished to spend more time in the village.

Gwen seemed to pick up on his change in mood and spoke before any of them could say anything else, “I can take his lordship to meet the princess! I’m on my way there anyway!” She spoke, smiling up at Leon kindly moving more towards Merlin.

“This way your lordship!” She gestured towards the way Merlin had just come, Merlin smiled at her, and they began to walk.

The young knight spluttered, looking as though he was going to insist on leading Merlin by himself but then thought better of it and sighed, and began to walk after them at a distance.

“Don’t worry about Leon, he was knighted just last winter, so he just wants to do his best.” Gwen spoke as they walked together and she sounded very fond of the young knight.

“You sound as though you know him personally” Merlin noted glancing over to her and her face showed a fond smile.

“Ah my mother worked in his fathers estate, I grew up with him technically, though he is five years my senior he’s about the same age as the princess” she explained, glancing up at Merlin and smiling wider.

“He acts all big and stoic but he is really a big sweetheart” she explained looking forward once more.

“I hope you aren’t defacing me in front of his lordship” Leon called out from behind them, teasing tone in his voice; they’d made their way through the village entrance and were now walking through the citadel which was much busier than when Merlin had left, he hadn’t realized how long he’d taken trying to find his way out of the castle.

“Oh please just call me Merlin!” He said, turning around, pausing in his walking to face the young knight, who was looking at him with confusion. 

“I am not really comfortable with the title, it doesn’t feel right…” he muttered the last, Gwen and the knight had also paused in their movements Gwen had also turned to face Leon.

“Ah, all right Merlin if that is what you wish, then you can just call me Leon” Leon complied, giving him a small nod and a smile, which Merlin returned albeit more grateful.

“Oi Leon!” An obnoxious voice shouted from their left, they all turned to see the prat Arthur speed walking down the main steps towards them.

“Will you train with me this morning? I wish to work on my form with sword fighting!” He said eagerly looking up at Leon with an excited expression.

“Ah sire, I’d like to but I was ordered to escort his lor- I mean, Merlin to meet the princess” he said, correcting himself when he almost called Merlin by his title.

Arthur made a face that looked as though he’d smelled something rotten and glanced back at Merlin, then looked back towards Leon. 

“Oh come on I’m sure the boy can find his way, besides this is more important” Merlin just scoffed, indignant.

“That’s rich coming from a prat whos the height of a gnome” Merlin muttered crossing his arms and fixing the back of the prats head with a glare.

Gwen made a sound that sounded like a choking laugh, Leon looked like he’d been told that it was going to snow during summer, Arthur had stiffened.

“Oh Leon don’t worry I’ll lead Merlin to the princess! You can go and train!” Gwen jumped in before Arthur could turn and throw something back at Merlin.

Leon gave Gwen a grateful expression, “ah alright, come sire I’ll stop at the armory and grab our weapons, you may wait at the training field”

Gwen tapped Merlin’s right arm and when he turned to her she nodded towards the main staircase and door, an indication for them to go inside before another mini battle happened between him and the prat once more.

Merlin nodded and they turned and began to walk once more, up the stairs and Merlin held the door open for Gwen who sent him a smile and they continued walking down different corridors and then they were at a door.

Gwen knocked on the door “my lady? Are you presentable?” Gwen called out.

“Yes Gwen you may come in!” A voice came from behind the door, Gwen opened the door to reveal the princess sitting at a table with a decent breakfast in front of her, Merlin’s stomach growled, he’d completely forgotten about eating breakfast.

“Ah my lord!” The princess said dabbing her lips with a napkin before standing, and giving a slight bow, she was wearing a purple dress with sheer blue flowing sleeves and gold accents.

“Oh please just call me Merlin” he said, quickly stepping into the chambers after Gwen, who’d gone over and taken her clock off and draped it over a chair and went to work, she sent Merlin a smile; the princess looked slightly confused as she straightened, glancing back to Gwen who sent her a small shrug in answer.

“All right Merlin, would you like to sit and eat with me?” She asked, noticing him eyeing her food hungrily, indicating the chair across from the one she was sitting at.

“Oh thank you, that’s very kind of you“ Merlin sent her a kind smile as he made his way towards the table, he noticed absently that she wore a conflicted look on her face.

He removed his leather satchel and hung it on the back of the chair she’d indicated, pulling out the chair he nodded at her to indicate that she could sit before him, to which she complied, seating herself once more before Merlin sat as well.

Merlin reached for an apple before looking up to her, his gaze silently asking for permission, the princess seemed to be taken aback by this but then nodded giving him said permission. 

Merlin took the large ripe apple and took a bite into it, it was rather delicious and juicy; the princess also began eating once more.

They ate in silence for a time, the only noise coming from Gwen who was walking around the chambers doing different things, Merlin wasn’t fully paying attention.

When the princess set her utensils down she began to stare at Merlin, as if she was evaluating him, Merlin felt himself stiffen under her scrutinizing gaze.

“Merlin, what is your intention with being here?” The princess asks, Merlin paused in his eating of his apple looking at her with confusion.

“My intentions?” Merlin asks, looking at her with extreme confusion, he was just trying to be courteous.

“Yes, is this your attempt at getting to know me before you court me?” She asks, causing Merlin to violently choke on a piece of apple, coughing violently, Gwen rushes over and begins hitting his back; finally he’s able to stop violently choking and he swallows the piece in his throat.

“I- I’m sorry what !? Why would I attempt to court you!?” Merlin asks, baffled at the question looking up at the girl, who was five years his senior. 

The princess now looked confused as well, Gwen just looked as confused as Merlin felt, she was looking between the two of them.

“Isn’t that why you’ve visited the kingdom? To court me?” She looked at him and cocked her head to the left confusion written all over her face.

“I was under the impression that we were just visiting to be courteous, I didn’t fully pay attention, but I know I would remember if we visited for me to court you, I don’t even know if I want to court anyone !” he said the last with feeling, now the princess looked even more confused.

“So you don’t wish to marry me??” She asks, looking at him with a little more clarity, but still with confusion.

“ No! I don’t wish to insult you but I really do not wish to court you” Merlin explained

“However… If you were under the impression that this was the cause for our visit, I might have to speak to my father about this; it could be entirely possible that this was our fathers intentions, and I was just not privy to it.” He reasons setting his finished apple down on the plate.

The princess seemed to consider this, looking down at the table taking a moment to collect her thoughts, then she nodded.

“Or alternatively, you could not ask your father…” the princess says slowly, Merlin looked at her as if she’d gone mad.

“I thought you didn’t want this? You are five years my senior, it would be quite odd for me to court you” Merlin states but the princess doesn’t respond, she’s still staring intently down at the table collecting her thoughts.

“My father is rather set about me marrying you, I fear if you and your father reject him on it he will see it as an insult and a just cause for war, besides from what I’ve seen of your father, he doesn’t seem like one who takes these kinds of decisions lightly…” which Merlin had to concede to, his father didn’t take these things lightly at all. 

“I also believe there was a reason for not telling you of our arranged engagement, my father has told me that in the future you will be visiting every summer for the next nine summers, until you come of age for marriage; I wonder perhaps your father decided not to tell you for you to fall in love with me without obligation.” She said, propping her elbows on the table linking her fingers together under her chin fixing Merlin once again with that scrutinizing gaze once more.

That made sense, in an odd way, but Merlin still didn’t understand why .

“My father wants me to marry you for power” she informed him, reading his expression correctly.

“He wishes for us to bring about a powerful succession and such” she explained, putting her right hand down on the table, waving her left hand in a circular motion, rolling her eyes.

“Ah,” Merlin said in response.

“I don’t wish for things to be awkward, I’d like if we could be friends if we could” Merlin said, smiling at her in what he hoped was a reassuring manner.

The princess however stiffened.

“Oh I don’t wish to court you, believe me! I don’t think I even wish to court anyone, or if I do, it will not be a woman” he whispered the last looking down at the tabletop almost in shame, but the princess still heard.

She looked at him for a moment, not saying anything, just thinking about the confession he’d just given her.

Nodding to herself she stood and stepped over to the chair at the end of the table, the one next to Merlin, he looked up at her with a confused look.

As she sat she leaned forward and took her left hand and placed it over his clasped hands that were seated on his lap.

“I understand, I’d like for us to be friends as well, you are quite something Merlin” she smiled at him, Merlin knew exactly what she was referring to, his standing up to the prat Merlin just gave a sheepish smile at that and looked up into her icy blue eyes.

“And from now on please call me Morgana, if we are to be friends we shouldn’t have formalities between us” she smiled back at him, it was a kind smile.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

“Who is it?” Morgana called, leaning back in the chair looking towards the door.

“It is Gaius!” An older man’s voice came from behind the door, Gaius, his fathers old friend.

“Ah of course, you may enter!” She called with a smile, the door opened and a kind looking old grey haired man walked in holding some vial of liquid.

“Hello Morgana, I’ve brought your sleeping draught” he said lifting the vial of liquid in indication.

Gwen came from behind a screen walking over to Gaius, “I’ll take that Gaius! Thank you” she smiled, taking the vial from him and walking over to the bed across the room and setting it down on the bedside table.

“Oh Gaius! Meet Merlin lord Balinor’s son” Morgana said standing, introducing Merlin to the old man, Merlin hastened to stand as well, smiling at the elderly man. 

The man’s gaze looked over Merlin, he felt himself stiffen once again, what was it with these Camelot people and staring, it was weird.

“Apologies, you just remind me of Hunith” he said kindly, Merlin felt his heart ache at that.

“How long has it been since her passing?” He asks.

“Two winters, father and I have still been getting used to it” Merlin says self consciously shifting on his feet.

“Hm, I’m glad she was a strong woman. She'd want you and your father to continue living after her passing” he says kindly, smiling fondly at the memories, with just a hint of sadness.

Merlin felt the distant ache of grief in his chest, it had lessened in intensity after the first winter, but it was still difficult sometimes.

“If you’d like any books on magic I have quite a nice collection, just come and visit me in the physicians tower.” He says with a smile.

“I will keep that in mind” Merlin says kindly, which he meant, he quite liked this elderly man he reminds him of an older grandfather figure.

Gaius gave a small nod and bowed to them both before leaving the room once more.

“He’s a kind man” Morgana noted turning back to Merlin with a smile, “he’s been treating me ever since I was a little girl”

“What ailment do you have if you don’t mind me asking?” Merlin asks, sitting back down, she does the same.

“Oh I’ve suffered from night terrors ever since, well, I became a woman” she said flushing at the end, Merlin flushed as well.

“Oh I understand, I-”

There was a second knock at the door, interrupting Merlin.

“Princess! Your lordship! The king has requested for you both to meet him in the throne room” a guard’s voice came from behind the door.

The two of them just looked at each other, oh what is it now?

Merlin, Morgana, and Gwen made their way down to the throne room from Morgana’s chambers.

As they reached the doors to the throne room the garuds pushed open the large doors.

Merlin paused and indicated for the women to go inside before him as a courtesy, Morgana sent him a small smile, Gwen sent him a silly smile, calming her face as they walked in.

After they’d entered the room Merlin turned into the room, inside he found his father, the king, some old rich looking men who must be council members, Gaius, and some guards.

“Hello Merlin my boy!” Uther greeted him with a very large smile, turning towards them as they entered the room, Morgana and Gwen walked over to sit and stand respectfully to the smaller throne .

“I trust you had a restful sleep” he stated, which told Merlin all he needed to know about him; he was arrogant, almost as much as his own son.

“Ah yes sire it was quite restful” he replied awkwardly, he didn’t know what to say with everyone staring at him with so much intensity, he really didn’t like being the center of attention.

“Ah good, good” he nodded, turning away from Merlin to look at Morgana who was sitting next to him, still looking stiff as a board. 

He grimaced at her and she just sent him a tight smile that fell immediately after he turned back around.

Merlin sent her a knowing look which caused her to huff and allow herself to relax slightly.

“I see you’ve met my daughter, Morgana” he nodded to her in indication.

“Yes I have, she's a very kind and beautiful person” Merlin blurted out looking at Morgana who sent him a kind smile.

“Good! That’s good, very good! I’m sure she thinks the same of you!” Uther blurted out then at Merlin’s odd look he amended, “that you are very kind! You seem like a strapping young boy!”

That made Merlin cringe internally, the use of “strapping young boy” didn’t sit well with him, it made him feel far too young.

“ Ahem regarding the incident that occurred yesterday, I do hope you can excuse my son's reckless actions, he is still erm maturing.”

There was a small snort that was masked with a cough from Morgana, glancing over he could see that Gwen was also biting down on a smile.

“Think nothing of it my lord, I must take some accountability for I was the one who spurred him on with my goading.” Merlin said stiffly, he knew had he made a huge deal of the confrontation he could spark an all out war between the dragons and Camelot; which was something he was very much not inclined to do. 

Uther’s face showed a pleased but entitled smile, as if he was saying ‘I knew you wouldn’t even try to call for war against my powerful kingdom’ it made Merlin want to roll his eyes and pray to the heavens for strength.

“While you are here you and her should bond, get closer! Right Lord Balinor?” Side eyeing his father as if saying ‘you better agree with me on this’ .

His father, who was also in his informal attire, was standing against one of the side columns of the room.

His long black and gray hair was as it normally was along his shoulders his beard of the same coloration looked freshly trimmed, he was wearing his black cotton and leather long coat, he was wearing his long burgundy tunic with his leather belt and grey cotton pants tucked into his black leather knee high boots.

His face was set in its usual calm serene way but there was something in his eyes, something only Merlin could notice, deep annoyance.

He could tell his father also didn’t want to be there, however he’d been there longer than Merlin so he could only imagine how much control he had over his magic at the moment.

“Ah yes of course, my son could always use a sparring partner” his father says with a hint of sarcasm in his voice that makes Merlin smile inwardly, he knew what his father meant.

“Then it is settled! You two shall spar with one another every time you visit!” Uther exclaims joyfully.

“Every time we visit?” Merlin asks, deciding to play ignorant, he already knew he and his father would be returning every summer but he only knew that because of Morgana.

Uther shut his mouth quickly, glancing over to Balinor who just simply shrugged in explanation.

“Ah yes, you will be returning every summer to Camelot” 

“Wait, only I? What of my father?” He asks turning to look at his father in question, he assumed that they’d be coming together every summer.

Again Uther shut his mouth quickly, also turning to look at Merlin’s father, who was now just staring out the window.

Now all the eyes were on his father, who was now very tense.

Now Merlin was worried that his father was looking out the window as if planning to jump from the window and use his magic to protect him from falling to his death .

“Yes my son, I apologize but I cannot remain in Camelot for each of our visits, one of us must stay behind and keep a watchful eye on those who wish to steal the new dragon eggs that come during the spring; one of us must stay behind to help protect and guide the new dragons.” Balinor looks Merlin in the eyes; he could see true remorse in them. Merlin understood, his father did not want to leave him.

“Ah yes the pains of being a ruler, however worry not young boy you shall be safe here in Camelot” Uther said to him, almost as if scoffing at the thought of Camelot not being safe.

That’s when the throne room doors burst open causing everyone in the room to stare at the conceded ass that was the prince. 

He’d seemingly had a bath, for he didn’t look dirty after the “training” he’d done with Leon earlier, the only thing that reflected the training was that his hair was extremely disheveled and the red cotton tunic he wore was wrinkled and partially untucked in the front and back, while his dark brown trousers were tucked in his leather boots.

He walked in quickly with his head up flashing a confident smile to all in the room “apologies father, I wished to make myself presentable before attending; for I’d just been training.” He said in way of explanation, Merlin just rolled his eyes and turned away from him, then the prat just walked up right next to him and stood to his right a few steps away from him. 

“Ah understandable my son and perfect timing, I wish for you and the young Lord Merlin to make up, we’ve already established that there is no ill will felt so you both should shake and let this issue rest.” He explained and looked upon both of them expectantly.

Merlin just side eyed the prince, who’d done the same and was also side eyeing him; Merlin just looked back forward, shut his eyes, took a deep breath and turned towards the conceded prat and extended his right hand in an act of “peace”.

The prat took a moment, taking a deep breath just as Merlin had and turned as well and extended his left hand and took Merlin's in his.

His hand felt calloused and rough, a stark contrast to Merlin’s smooth hands; his hands were also very warm, he seemed to be freakishly warm always, Merlin had also felt his warm body heat when he’d tackled him and when he grabbed his hand when he healed his wound the previous night. 

They looked into each other's eyes and stoically shook hands twice, then turned back to the king, who smiled widely and began to speak about their summer arrangement of the two of them training together each summer.

He ended the discussion with “And won't it be so much fun!”

They side eyed each other once more, and although they couldn’t hear each other, he and the prat both had the same thought.

“This is not my idea of fun.”

Chapter Text

Arthur felt like he was about to go mad.

It had only been two months since Merlin arrived in Camelot and already Arthur had a feeling he'd never make it through 9 more years of this.

The two of them bickered every single day , the boy just wouldn’t shut up; he seemingly had something to say about anything and everything Arthur did.

They’d be practicing and after Arthur failed to doge the boy seemed to always have a snarky comment or quip to say. 

However despite how good the boy was at dogging he was terrible at actually fighting.

All he did was complain, complain, complain .

“Im sweaty, ew I hate being sweaty”

“Ugh can you not be a brute for five seconds!?”

“This is exhausting!” 

It drove Arthur up the wall, everytime the boy opened his mouth Arthur could feel his blood begin to boil.

“Honestly how on earth are you going to stand marrying him!?” Arthur asks Morgana, he was exhausted; after a particularly grueling afternoon training with Merlin, he finds his sister waiting for him at the end of the training grounds with an amused smirk playing on her lips.

“He’s not that bad, honestly he’s a sweetheart, he only acts like that to you.” She says turning away and beginning to walk towards the outer corridors nearest to the training grounds, which lead to the citadel. 

She was in a dark purple gown with a dark almost navy blue sheer cover that had flowing sleeves. It was one of her simpler gowns.

“ Mer lin , a sweetheart !? Have you gone mad!?” Arthur asks, questioning his sister's sanity, beginning to walk next to her.

“Yes he is also quite a fine conversation partner, I do understand why he’d be an arse to you, it is quite easy to be irritated in your presence; everyone else keeps their thoughts inside but he seems to not care, it's quite refreshing.” She said, smiling almost peacefully as they walked towards Arthur’s chambers side by side.

Arthur just rolled his eyes to the heavens “he doesn’t wrestle, hunt, or even box! It’s such a total bummer!” He groaned, throwing his head back.

Morgana let out a small girlish giggle at Arthur’s complaining, “hey I’m being serious! He doesn’t like anything fun! He only likes books, studying, and magic, all girly stuff!” Arthur complained, while Morgana just glared at him.

“Arthur your idiocy never fails to surprise me” she snapped out as she turned and walked quickly up the stairs towards his chambers.

“What!? Hey Morgana!” He squawked indignantly, rushing up the stairs to catch up to her.

She’d paused at the window and was looking down into the courtyard below.

Arthur made his way over next to her and looked down as well.

There in the courtyard was the very bane of his existence himself, Merlin, standing and laughing with Gwenivere, his sister's ladies maid.

Merlin was standing in front of her with his hands out and open. From behind the partially stained glass window, Arthur could see that there was a small golden dragon flying around in his hand then it flew up and around Gwen’s head. 

Arthur couldn't hear them but her expressions it was evident that she was laughing in delight, those two had become quite close in the recent months; most of the time they could be found hanging around one another in the town or in the castle.

Some other people in the courtyard had also noticed Merlin’s display and some had come to watch, as if he was some performer.

From the window Arthur could see how the boy tensed at all the attention, it was obvious that he was uncomfortable.

“What royal doesn’t like attention?” He scoffs looking down at the boy who's now been surrounded by a bunch of random people who were watching his displays of magic.

He could feel Morgana’s gaze boring into the side of his head.

“Again I will restate, your idiocy never fails to surprise me” She states with full seriousness.

“What!? I'm no idiot!” He exclaimed outraged, turning to look at her to glower at her, she just glared right back.

“Arthur you called liking books, studying, and magic girly stuff ; if that doesn’t prove how much of an idiot you are I don’t know what will. Also yes some people don’t always like being the center of attention because they aren’t selfish asses who think the world revolves around themselves!” Her voice had begun to raise the angrier she got so by the end she was yelling at him, in the late day lighting her normally grayish blue eyes seemed almost golden. 

When she finished she just took a few deep breaths and glared at him then spun on her heels and stormed off towards her own chambers.

Arthur was just stunned for a few moments just staring after her, he didn’t even register that Gwenivere had rushed past him after her lady before a particularly annoying voice spoke up coming up next to him.

“The hell did you do to get her so upset? We could hear her all the way down in the citadel!” Merlin asked, walking up the stairs towards him with a very confused look on his face.

Arthur just scoffed and looked away, then did a double take looking back to make sure he saw correctly; which it had been.

The boy was clean; there wasn’t any dirt or mud on his face or arms, there wasn’t even mud in his hair however there was still dirt on his tunic, trousers, and boots, however the last time Arthur had seen him he’d had mud and dirt caked onto practically everything on him there wasn’t even a smell of sweat on him.

“You smell disgusting !” He’d reached the top of the stairs and was looking at Arthur with a disgusted look on his face, pinching his nose shut with his right hands thumb and pointer finger.

“And you don’t, why? I beat your arse into the ground earlier you should look and smell like me, only worse” He remarks snidely glaring at the boy who’d only rolled his eyes at Arthur’s jab and lowered his hand.

“I have magic, remember? I did heal your hand after you gripped the blade of a rather sharp knife, or can your pea brain not remember that?” He asked sauntering up in front of Arthur so he was practically looming over him, Arthur wouldn’t admit it out loud but it made him feel inferior, and he despised feeling inferior.

“So do you just use your magic for everything ? Sounds like your just lazy” Arthur scoffed, puffing out his chest and standing up straighter to give himself at least some height.

“I am no-”

“My son.” A booming voice came from down the corridor, it made them both jump.

“ Shit… ” he heard the boy whisper out as he stepped back and out of Arthur’s personal space, they both turned to look at Lord Balinor who was walking down the corridor looking hard and stoic, but there was something about his eyes; something that made Arthur want to shrink away and hide it was so intimidating.

Merlin also seemed to feel his stare for he put his head down; “hello father” he said calmly, with no shake in his voice.

“My son, I wish to speak to you, alone.” He said the last towards Arthur.

“Ah of course, please excuse us sire” how one could make the use of a title sound like an insult was beyond Arthur.

The two of them walked down the corridor towards the guest chambers that Merlin was going to be staying in for the next nine years .

Just the thought made Arthur want to throw his head back and groan out loud.

Looking back down the corridor he saw the chamber door slam shut.

Now Arthur wasn’t a gossip, he detested the kitchen girls who spent most of their time gossiping about all the lords and ladies; however, this was an opportunity.

So Arthur quietly and quickly snuck down the hall and stood next to the chamber doors pressing his right ear against the dark oak door.

“What were you doing out in the citadel!? What have I told you about using your magic for entertainment!?” 

Lord Balinor’s voice was clear, he didn’t sound mad however, he just sounded very irritated.

“To not play with it, for magic is a tool not a toy” 

The boy sounded dejected, Arthur could imagine him with his head down with his father standing over him.

“My son I am glad that you are progressing in your magical strength, but you mustn’t use it for such trivial things.”

Arthur felt a stab of jealousy at that, whenever he and his father fought his father never complimented him, he always only got yelled at.

“I understand father, I won’t do it again”

There was a small chuckle from Lord Balinor that was so quiet Arthur almost missed it.

“Oh my son you may still practice magic like that; but only in private, doing so for a crowd of people is demeaning for us, that work is done by Court Jesters and such not Dragon Lords.”

Another stab of jealousy; Arthur really hated this Merlin.

He hadn’t been listening and must’ve missed Lord Balinor saying goodbye, for in the next moment the door he was in front of opened inwardly and he saw Lord Balinor’s back as he was saying something to his son, he’d missed it in his moment of panic. 

He had just enough time to slip behind a large pillar that was next to the room before Lord Balinor walked out and down the hall in the opposite direction, in all of his intimidating glory.

“Are you done spying? You look like an idiot behind that pillar” Merlin’s voice called out from inside the room causing Arthur to freeze, how in the hell  had he gotten caught!?

“I have magic you dumb arse, remember?” The obnoxious voice called from inside the room.

Oh right magic, Arthur just straightened his shoulders in order to not look embarrassed and walked into the chambers, the boy was just leaning against the bed in the center of the room looking slightly annoyed. 

“Did your father know I was outside?” He wondered, since it hadn’t seemed as though he’d noticed him when he left.

“No, it’s odd but I have stronger instinctual magic, my father has stronger practiced magic, but we were both born with it; I could sense that you were outside the doors, which is also how I’m able to evade you much easier and make you look like an idiot, even though you don’t need my help with that it’s still fun.” Merlin just looked smugly at him when Arthur just rolled his eyes and gave an annoyed scoff.

“Well then how am I able to nock you down during practice when we do one on one combat?” Arthur challenged.

“Well I can’t just evade you all the time, I am actually trying to train for my fathers sake, it’s not my fault your a shit training partner.” Again Arthur scoffs.

“You only say that because I’m better than you! And you don’t like it” Arthur sniffs, Merlin just gawks at him.

“You might be physically stronger, because you are very thick, but I surpass you in intelligence because you are nothing but a Cabbagehead!” Merlin smirks at Arthur’s incredulous expression.

“Now please can you get out of my chambers so I may change out of these disgusting clothes, I personally don’t like looking like I rolled in a horse dung unlike you.” Again Arthur let out an incredulous sound before an invisible force slowly pushed him out of the room, his leather boots making squeaking sounds along the cobblestone.

The boy Merlin just gave him a condescending smile and waved ‘goodbye’ to him by waggling his fingers, his eyes glowing golden.

After he was pushed out of the room the doors slammed shut in front of him and Arthur was left staring at them for a solid moment of incredulity before steeling himself and walking back to his chambers down the corridor almost as if in a daze.

Finally the day came for the boy Merlin to leave.

Before they’d had the public farewell, he’d caught Merlin and Gwenivere hugging in a corridor.

“I will definitely bring some of my mother’s old fabrics for you the next time I visit, they’ve gone to waste now that no one’s used them!” He’d heard Merlin promise Gwenivere when he accidentally stumbled upon them.

“I’m sure Morgana will love them! I’d love to see and work with them!” Gwenivere sounded so excited, it confused Arthur, it was only fabric.

“Oh and I almost forgot! I’ll bring some of our special minerals and metals for your brother and father!”

“Oh they’ll greatly appreciate that! It’ll greatly help with business!” 

Now that got Arthur a little excited, special metals meant better weapons and armor for him and his men. 

Now they were standing on the main stairs in the citadel as the other two men and their soldiers saddled up after saying goodbye.

Arthur couldn’t be happier that the boy was leaving, he only had ten months of peace before this hell would begin again.

As they rode away Arthur felt glad to see him go, but there was the lingering dread and one single question plaguing his mind.

How the hell will he survive nine more years?

Chapter Text

Merlin couldn’t believe he was back here, it felt like riding to the gates of hell, and he was all by himself.

This was his second summer in Camelot and he was alone .

He was only accompanied by their caravan, and the Southern Druids decided to come along to help keep him company.

Among them was the young Mordred, he was only seven years but he was very eager to learn from Merlin of all people.

He was also extremely excited to see Camelot.

“Do you think we’re close Emrys!? Do you recognize anything!?” These were the most repeated questions asked to him almost every mile, eagerly walking next to Merlin while he rode on Frik, his favorite horse.

“Mordred my boy, you’ve asked him that question several times, let the boy rest please” Iseldir, the southern Druid leader, chuckled walking up next to the two of them.

 “No, no, it’s alright; although Mordred I do think we should allow the others peace” Merlin said smirking down at the young boy, he found him irritating most times but he knew not to be rude to him, he wasn’t heartless he didn’t like seeing the child upset; most of the time he brushed him off but he knew that the boy was eager to hear all about Camelot.

When Merlin had returned after the first summer he visited the southern Druid camp the boy followed him around constantly and questioned him on everything he’d seen and experienced.

Mordred was a small boy, he was the smallest one in the camp, aside from the youngest children, however he was very underdeveloped for his age; he was very pale, he had rather wide eyes causing his ice blue eyes to seem very startling.

He was picked on by most of the other children, which was why Merlin didn’t particularly fancy upsetting him, the boy had experienced enough pain from the other children already.

Mordred nodded quickly, looking down and turning away from Merlin to look back at the road ahead. They walked in silence for all of a couple of seconds before Merlin heard Mordred speak again, this time however it was in his mind.

‘Testing one, two, three, Emrys can you hear me?’ Merlin heard Mordred's voice in his mind, it was a Druid way of communicating; it took quite a lot of focus, most couldn’t do it without immense training that went over many years.

‘Yes Mordred I can hear you’ Merlin smiled to himself glancing down at the boy who was looking straight ahead, focusing intensely on something ahead.

Mordred was powerful, not as powerful as Merlin, or his father, or many of the elders; for now, Mordred was naturally powerful, he was also a very quick learner. 

‘And to answer the question, no I do not, we took a different route so these woods don’t look the same.’ He could see Mordred visibly slump in disappointment at that, it saddened Merlin.

“Hang on, Iseldir can you help me please?” He asked verbally, turning towards the older man. 

“Yes Emrys, whatever do you need?” The man asked, looking up at Merlin.

“Could you pick Mordred up and put him up here with me?” Mordred looked up in surprise at that, Iseldir’s eyes also widened in surprise at that request, looking down at Mordred; they’d paused at this point.

Iseldir looked down at Mordred who nodded vigorously and Iseldir only shrugged, he bent down and picked the boy up under his arms and placed him on Frik in front of Merlin in between his arms; then they began moving again, the others hadn’t paused for long they’d been ahead of them so those in the back didn’t need to pause.

“If you look up between those trees you can see the tips of Camelots towers, do you see?” He indicated to Mordred, pointing with his right index finger up between the tall trees towards the mountains.

Mordred craned his neck to see shifting around to see, causing Merlin to tighten his arms more, caging Mordred in between them so as to make sure he didn’t fall off the horse.

“Oh! Oh I can see it! Oh how close do you think we are!?” Mordred asked, getting excited, turning to look up at Merlin eyes alight with excitement.

“Oh I think we’ll reach right around sundown, don't you Iseldir?” He asked looking down at the leader, causing Mordred to also look.

“Oh I’d say that’s a reasonable guess” the man mused looking up ahead, then at the sky.

Mordred squealed in excitement bouncing in the saddle, causing Merlin to laugh as they continued.

Merlin’s estimate had been spot on, they’d reached the town's entrance just at sundown, the golden lighting reflecting off the glass windows of the castle.

Mordred was looking at anything and everything, still seated with Merlin in the saddle.

The other Druids had stopped at the towns entrance to hold up camp, only Iseldir accompanied them, Merlin had allowed Merlin to remain to make sure he could see everything first hand; after all he was technically his apprentice.

“Well? What do you think Mordred? Is it everything you wanted?” He asked the boy whose face was split in the largest smile, his eyes practically sparkling with excitement as he looked around, he seemed too distracted for he didn't answer .

As they entered the citadel he saw The king, Morgana, Gwen, Gaius, Leon and the prat; standing on the main steps.

As they rode up the prat had the audacity to yawn as if he was bored it made Merlin straighten in annoyance.

That was when he made eye contact with Gwen, and she smiled warmly at him and gave him a small wave which made him relax partially, he gave her a small smile.

“Is that the prince!?” Mordred whispered to Merlin glancing up at him in question.

“Yup, that's him,” Merlin gritted out.

As they came up to stop in front of the steps, Iseldir came up and took Mordred from the saddle and placed him down next to him, Merlin swiftly dismounted from Frik, he’d practiced after his disastrous first dismount in Camelot grabbing ahold of his reins.

“Ah, welcome young Lord Merlin!” The king walked down the steps, arms open a large smile plastered on his face, it disconcerted Merlin, he wanted to slink away, jump back on Frik and ride off into the sunset.

“Hello your majesty, thank you for welcoming me back to your wonderful kingdom, it’s an honor” he gave a slight bow, looking over at Iseldir and Mordred who’d also bowed however much lower than he had; considering they were strangers to this kingdom he understood.

“My son, don’t you wish to greet our guest ?” The king grit out looking back at the prat who begrudgingly walked down the stairs, extending his right hand to Merlin, who took it, albeit hesitant.

“So happy you could come visit us, Lord Merlin” he says with a very strenuous smile that looked like he was about to snap.

“So happy to be here, prince Arthur” he said with an amused smile knowing just how painful it was for the prat to be nice to him, he was in the ceremonial ensemble he’d worn the first banquet of Merlin’s arrival. 

After their greeting handshake the prat almost sprinted back behind his father, which was when Morgana moved to stand next to her father, her eyes were on Mordred who’d straightened after his low bow and was now standing behind Iseldir’s juniper green cloak.

“And who is this little one?” She asked her moving her hands in front of her, causing her long white sleeves with silver accents to swish in front of her as she looked down at Mordred with a kind disarming smile, she was wearing a simple all white gown with warm undertones that was covered in different silver accents, and had matching silver jewelry; it almost matched Merlin’s ceremonial ensemble, however his had cooler undertones with his white and silver.

 Mordred just poked his head out from behind Iseldir’s cloak to look up at her timidly, then swiftly hid back behind the cloak.

 Causing a startled chuckle to escape Morgana, “shy is he?” She asked Iseldir and Merlin looking between them both with a small questioning smile.

“This is Mordred, he is, well he’s kind of my apprentice” Merlin shrugged, it was odd Merlin was only twelve years of age but now he accepted that he was Mordred’s mentor !?

“You have an apprentice? Aren’t you a bit, well, young?” She asked him quietly.

“Yup, but it’ll be good for him; he's pretty naturally powerful, at least that's what the Druids say” Merlin babbled, the king and the prat had begun to look elsewhere, obviously bored with their hushed discussion.

At that point Mordred rushed out from behind Iseldir and went right up to Morgana and reached into his small pouch tied to his left side under his dark teal cloak and pulled out an intricately weaved leather bracelet with a magically amplified luminescent moonstone.

Merlin had seen him work on it for months when he’d visited he hadn’t known who it was for, he’d guessed it was for Morgana but everytime he tried to ask him about it he would avoid the topic.

He looked up at her and offered the gift to her with a sweet smile, glancing over at Morgana Merlin could see the expression on her face; it looked as though her heart had melted.

She kneeled down in front of Mordred and pushed back her right sleeve and offered her bare wrist for Mordred to put the bracelet on her, Mordred’s small smile then grew into a large smile as he loosened the ends and put it over, then tightened it to fit it snugly around her right wrist.

“I love it, thank you Mordred, it’s beautiful” she said smiling at him, then looking down and admiring the bracelet, Merlin had to admit it was quite lovely; Mordred didn’t stop smiling.

The next morning Merlin went down into the town to grab Gwen before she was needed in the castle, he had squares of the fabric in his leather satchel, and some small portions of the rocks and minerals he’d brought, he also had some weapons that were forged with help from the Druids, just as samples before he gave all the items to them.

When he arrived at the Blacksmiths home he straightened his satchel before knocking on the door three times.

The door opened to reveal a boy who was taller than Merlin, it was Elyan Gwen’s younger brother who was actually older than Merlin, by only one year.

His skin was darker than Gwen, as was his hair, which was short and with dense curls.

“Hello L- Merlin, Gwen is preparing for the day, my father is inside, come in”  he opened the door wider and gestured for Merlin to enter.

The home was rather small, and Gwen and Elyans father, Tom, was standing in the middle of the room.

Tom was a kind man, he was a rather large man who looked intimidating at first glance, however once he gets talking it’s revealed he's a very sweet soft spoken man.

“Hello Merlin! How was your journey?” Tom greated him.

“It was alright, we took an alternative route so it was smoother than last”

“That is good, I’m glad” he smiled

“I’ve brought you some metals and minerals from my kingdom,” Merlin explained, opening his satchel and pulling out three different large rocks.

He pulls out a dark blue rock that shifts to a dark red color when moved “This one is forged when the elemental breath of the wæter dragon and the fȳr dragon meet in the  river of the Vilia; from what I’ve learned is that when it’s put with fire it can become so hot it can burn through stone and other metals.” He explained placing the rather large rock on the table in front of them to show them; Elyan moved from the door to see the rock picking it up before his father could, holding it in his left hand moving it around quickly to see the color shift on the dark rock.

“Because it is formed when elemental breath combines there isn’t much, it’s also very difficult to forge, considering it can’t exactly be melted, but with magic they can be made into smaller weapons” he pulled out an ornate quillion dagger he’d had the Druids help him in creating, the long blade was made with the stone, the hilt was silver and wrapped with leather; Tom picked it up and inspected it, he weighed the blade in his hand turning the blade to see the color shift just as his son had.

“This next one is forged from the elemental breath of the gicel dragon is combined with pure silver, which when magically forged can make arrowheads that have the ability to freeze anything they shoot” he explained taking out the special arrow, which he’d wrapped in some of the special fabrics he’d brought which had some magical properties that allowed it to resist certain magic; he cautiously unwrapped the arrowhead and carefully and held it out to them, they both looked at it with skepticism.

“Don’t worry if it touches you it’ll only cover you in some frost and cause your body to maybe go into shock with how cold it is, but don’t worry! The main danger is when it touches blood, when that happens it’ll freeze it to the point where whatever the blood is mainly flowing in, like an arm or a hand, or a heart.” He said the last quickly looking down at the arrow then back up at the two of them, Tom looked intrigued but disconcerting, Elyan looked very interested placing the rock he was holding down on the wooden table, taking the arrow by the middle in his left hand, inspecting the arrowhead.

“It’s… cold,” Elyan said inspecting the arrowhead, showing it to his father who placed the dagger he was holding on the table as well, holding his right hand up above the arrowhead to feel the coolness radiating off it.

“Now this last one I bought is a kind of protection crystal, its found in rare moonlight caves, most don’t have the same amount of magical energy since they’re normally not as exposed to moonlight since most caves have more than one entry which causes light to come in and dampen their magical properties; these are able to help disarm certain magic like curses and such.” He says placing a medium size white crystal down on the table in front of them, it's less shiny than the others it more sparkled in the morning light.

“It’s better when kept in darkness but it can be forged into chain mail to help power it more, I haven’t really tried anything but I’d be happy to stay and help you with it with my magic” he smiled at them taking the arrow back as Elyan handed it back to him wrapping it in the same fabric as before.

“Oh no I couldn’t ask that of you, my forge is very filthy it’s no place for a young lord such as yourself!” Tom answered immediately, looking up at Merlin with urgency.

“Tom, I really don’t mind; I said I’d help you with this, and I will, besides I’m not wearing anything that a normal ‘son of a lord’ would wear” he gestured to his simple light blue cotton tunic and red neck scarf ensemble.

“Besides making these need magic, and last I checked neither of you practiced magic” he asked, looking between the two of them.

“No I guess not, but-” 

“Father you’re not going to convince him, he will help you no matter what” Gwen interrupted them walking into the room wearing her yellow and cream dress, Merlin smiled widely at her and she threw her arms around him in a friendly welcoming hug.

“Ooo these look beautiful! Will you explain to me what they do later?” She asked, looking down at the objects on the table with interest, picking up the gilion dagger weighing it in her hand just as her father had.

“Of course, but I’ve also brought you pieces of the fabric! I’ll have the rest delivered, unless you’d prefer to have them sent to the castle?” She looked up from the dagger, considering his question.

“I think you should send it to the castle, I don’t think I’ll have enough room here” she smiled shyly, setting the dagger down; Merlin nodded, opened his satchel and pulled out one of the pieces of fabric, putting it on the table.

It was gray, and had a slight shimmer to it, as if the thread had silver woven into it, it was the same fabric that was wrapped around the special arrow “This fabric has some magical properties to it, it can protect against certain dark magic, like this” he held up the wrapped arrowhead and unwrapped it.

“This is a magical arrow that can freeze anything, this fabric is resistant to the freezing, it’s also resistant to magical fire, but only if its pure elemental magic, not like these weapons; these use elemental magic but if these are used to stab through the fabric, it will not stop it because it's still fabric, but if say a dragon used its elemental breath on it then it will resist the breath” he explained to her, she’d placed the dagger down while he was speaking and picked up the piece of fabric to look it over while actively listening to Merlin, after he stopped talking he rewrapped the arrowhead and placed it back down on the table.

“You said it has magical properties, is that why it shimmers?” She asked running her right fingers over it as she held it in her left hand “yes my mother liked to experiment with magic and her fabrics, it was her favorite past time since we are with dragons all the time, she used the fabric to help make protective clothing for him, even though Dragon elemental breath doesn’t really hurt us, destroyed clothes aren’t fun” Gwen chuckled at that, while they were speaking Elyan was admiring the dagger while Tom had gone to do some cleaning from their breakfast.

The next fabric was a thick black wool type fabric “this next fabric has elemental magic that is used to retain warmth, this is normally used to wrap the dragon eggs during the winter to help them remain warm so they can hatch safely.” He explained handing the fabric piece to her, as she took the fabric she rubbed her thumb over it feeling the thick fabric.

The next fabric was a light purple silk like fabric, it was soft, softer than any other fabric Merlin had ever felt “this fabric was magically enchanted to be the softest fabric, my mother used it when making night clothes, it was the last thing she really made before she became ill; so there's not a lot of it but I think Morgana would appreciate a nightgown made from its material” Merlin smiled as he handed Gwen the fabric, she’d set both the other fabrics down and took this fabric rubbing it in between her hands, then taking it in her left hand and rubbing the fabric against her cheek.

“It’s so soft!” She said with admiration as she felt the fabric over again “thank you Merlin! These fabrics are amazing! Morgana will adore them!” She seemed very excited to work with the new fabrics.

“Ahem, well I’m all ready to head to the castle, if you’d like to join me I’d love the company” she smiled at him, putting the three fabrics into her pouch on her left, grabbing her vermilion cloak and looking at him in question.

“Why I’d be honored to accompany you my lady ” he said the last with a flourish and took a rather dramatic bow to her and offered her his left arm, she giggled and took his arm and they walked out of the home with Gwen after saying goodbye to her father and brother.

They walked up towards the castle arm in arm, with Merlin telling her about his journey and the alternate route they’d taken, she spoke of the winter months how the harvest was a bit harder since the spring had been dry, when they reached the citadel Merlin had to pause.

“I actually have to check something, do you know where the library is?” He asked her, no one had actually told him last summer he’d gone to Gaius to find books to read and most of his books were about medicine, herbs, and magic which was interesting.

“Oh yes! I can show you I still have time before Morgana needs me, follow me!” She said holding out her arm instead for him to take, he laughed and took it then allowed her to lead him.

They walked through the corridors and some stairs until they reached a pair of old looking doors.

“And here you are, sire the library of Camelot” she said with a flourish, calling him ‘sire’ was a joke they shared.

“Why thank you my lady, I am greatly honored” he said, moving away from her and giving a very dramatic sweeping bow to her causing her to giggle.

“I’ll find you after I do this, I just need to research something” he smiled at her moving towards the doors, she nodded and smiled “alright I’ll meet you later, good luck researching whatever it is you need!” She waved goodbye to him and walked down the corridor back the way they came.

Merlin looked back at the old dark oak doors in front of him, then pushed open the doors and walked in.

The library was nothing short of astounding, there were so many shelves all stacked with books upon books, it made Merlin’s heart swell; he wished he could spend the whole summer here. 

As he walked through and around the shelves he found an old balding man sitting at a desk in the center of a wall behind a desk the sound of a quill scribbling against parchment.

Merlin walked up to the desk and opened his mouth to speak when the elderly man held up a hand to silence him.

Merlin just waited patiently for the man to drop his hand to allow him to speak; finally the man dropped his hand and set his quill in the ink bottle, and looked up at Merlin, it took only a moment of realization for him to abruptly stand, a look of fear in his eyes.

“My lord! My apologies! I didn’t realize it was you!” He said with great urgency, Merlin wondered if he was actually going to fall on his knees and beg for forgiveness.

“Oh don’t worry, I understand getting lost in one's work, I just came to ask a question; do you have any books on raven sending?” The man sighed, seeming relieved.

“Ah raven sending, yes I do think we have some old texts on that” he said moving out from behind the desk and walking, Merlin just followed the old man.

“Oh also please just call me Merlin, I don’t use my title, and I forgot to ask you your name” the elderly man looked at him with slight surprise then just looked back in front of them turning down another row of shelves.

“Geoffrey, that is my name, and this is…” he removed an old dusty book from a shelf “…is the book you are looking for”

He handed Merlin the book, he had to brush some dust off of its front to read the title.

It read ‘Drumanic ways of communication’ 

“Oh this is perfect, thank you Geoffrey! When should I return it?” He looked back up at the man

“Oh return it when you’re finished my lo- apologies, Merlin”  he smiled at Merlin with an elderly smile.

“Oh alright, thank you! Thank you very much!” He said happily, taking the book and giving the man a slight bow in thanks before turning and walking away.

He hadn’t seen but Geoffrey had given a kind and soft smile to his back.

As Merlin read he walked, maneuvering and dodging Lords and servants who walked by him.

He had no real direction, he was just walking and reading; it wasn't until he heard the sound of annoying jeering that he paused.

“Look at the little runt! He can barely carry a sword!” An annoying voice guffawed.

There was more laughing and the sound of blows landing.

“Scrawny little thing wants to be a knight! That’s the funniest shit I’ve ever heard!” Another voice laughed.

Merlin was about to walk away when he heard one voice that made him halt.

“Look at him, he’s putting up such a fight! It’s so pitiful!” An obnoxious voice called out.

The prat

That made Merlin halt, he stopped in his reading of the book; snapping it shut and looking up.

Prince fucking Arthur was standing in front of a small frail boy who was holding a sword that was almost twice his size, he was beating the absolute shit out of the boy, going as hard as he did when they trained together.

Merlin paused to watch, he watched as the small young boy tried to hold his own against the much bigger older boy.

The boy was Mordred .

As he watched he saw the prince strike him in the check with the hilt, so hard that Mordred spun around and landed face first in a puddle of mudd.

All of the other knights began to laugh, which only encouraged the fucking prince, who smirked and kicked Mordred in the gut laughing at how the boy writhed in pain.

That made Merlin see red.

He didn’t know what came over him but he threw the book in his satchel before his magic took over.

He sprinted forward his magic amplifying his speed, he extended his hand and flung the fucking peice of horse shit of a prince across the training field into a rack of swords so hard he thought he saw some of them dent.

“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!” Merlin screamed as he ran to Mordred, who was struggling to breathe after being kicked so hard in the gut.

He’d be told later, but his eyes had apparently blazed brighter than any the men had ever seen.

He dropped to his knees not minding at all how muddy his breeches got, he moved Mordred’s body, his head laying on his knees wiping some of the mud from his check, which was badly bruised from being hit with the sword hilt, he could see blood trickling from his mouth.

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO HIM!?” He screamed at the knights, who all took a step back from him as if he was a wild animal.

Sometimes his magic took over his mind when he was overcome with great emotion.

The fucking dickhead was starting to get up from being thrown into the rack of swords, so Merlin’s magic plucked him up by the throat with and invisible hand and brought him towards Merlin lifting him a few feet off the ground.

Distantly he could hear the older boy choking for air as he clawed at the invisible hand that held his throat captive.

“Listen well prince Arthur, if you ever touch this boy again I will personally use my magic to smite you where you stand, do you understand?” His voice radiated power so much that the ground seemingly shook from the force of his powers.

“I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND PRINCE ARTHUR PENDRAGON!?” His voice didn’t even sound like his own, it sounded like it came from another being entirely.

The fucking prat of a prince nodded as best he could and chocked out a very difficult “ ye- yes, I- I understand ” he let out a great sigh when the hold on his throat released as he was dropped from the small height, his knights rushed forward to help but Merlin’s magic instinctively pushed them away.

“Emrys…” the small pleading voice of Mordred was the only thing that drew him out of his magical stupor.

“Mordred! Mordred don’t worry it’ll be okay!” He insisted, his voice sounding like his own once more, wiping more mud from his bruised and bloody face.

Carefully Merlin picked Mordred up, putting his right arm under Mordred’s bottom, pressing his muddy front against his own, pressing his left hand against his upper back.

Merlin sent one more seething glare at the knights and the shit prince, who looked like a daft dolt, before he took Mordred and ran.

He had no real direction in his mind but his magic knew where to go, he ran straight to Gaius’s chambers.

“GAIUS!? GAIUS I NEED YOU!” He all but screamed as he burst through the door.

Gaius was in the middle of having a conversation with Morgana when he burst in, they both stopped speaking the moment he burst open the door.

“Merlin? Mordred! Oh my goodness what happened!?” Morgana shreaked at the sight of them as Merlin put Mordred down on the patient table in front of them.

“Prince fucking Arthur happened.” He seethed, he gripped the edge of the table, he felt like he was going to start crying, his palms were sweating, his head throbbed in pain, he wanted to fall down and sleep for a day at least, he knew he fucked up but he couldn’t bring himself to give a damn.

Gaius got to work immediately he grabbed herbs and medicine, Gwen was there too Merlin hadn’t even noticed her, she was helping Gaius with removing Mordred’s dirty clothing Morgana had a bowl of water and was helping Gaius with wiping Mordred off they were speaking but Merlin couldn’t decipher what they were saying.

Merlin’s head was swimming, the world was spinning, his ears were ringing, he couldn't focus on anything, his head was throbbing; he moved away from the edge of the table and saw a bed, he stumbled over to it and collapsed onto it. 

He was dead to the world within seconds.

“Merlin…”

Merlin didn’t know how long he was out, when he blinked awake he was in the same bed.

He sat up quickly then immediately regretted it, his temples throbbed, he groaned in pain and rubbed his temples with his left hand.

“Mordred!” He whispered looking up. 

He looked around, the room was empty, it was dark; he must've slept through the day.

Merlin slowly stood, someone had put a blanket over him and it slipped off as he stood.

He was also barefoot, someone had taken his boots off of him while he slept, they sat at the edge of the bed next to his satchel.

He looked around but no one was around, no Gaius, no Gwen, no Morgana, and no Mordred.

He grabbed his boots and slid them on moving slowly, he hadn’t fully regained his strength. 

“Gaius? Gaius are you there!?” No response… he was met with dead silence.

With nothing else to do he picked up his satchel slowly and walked out of the chambers.

He walked against the wall pressing against it when his head began to swim too badly again.

The corridors seemed dead, no servants, no guards, no one.

He walked and walked until he arrived at the citadel, which was still empty.

Where in the hell was everyone!?

“Merlin…”

He heard a distant voice call out to him from behind.

“…Merlin…”

The voice was oddly familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

“…Merlin beware…” 

He spun around only to be met with a face.

A pearly white dragon.

It was beautiful, when it moved its scales seemed to radiate all different colors, its eyes were bright blue, the same color as Merlin’s eyes.

It was the size of a fully grown horse, it stared at him with interest.

“Merlin!” 

The voice called with more urgency.

“The prince…”

Something told Merlin that the voice wasn’t coming from the dragon.

It seemed to be coming from another person, or persons, the more he focused the more he realized it sounded like multiple people all talking together from somewhere far away.

“Prince Arthur…”

That got Merlin's attention.

He whirled around trying to find the host of the voice.

“…He is your destiny…”

‘What!? Who are you!? What are you talking about!?’

“…He will be your savior, and you will be his…” 

‘Savior!? Never! He can rot for all I care!’

The dragon apparently didn’t like that, for it turned away from Merlin to look up at the sky.

…the sky… it wasn’t dark as he’d thought, it was night but the sky was alight with stars and colors such as purples, blues, pinks, magenta, sapphire, mauve; all of the stars were sparkling like all the colors of a rainbow. Merlin was transfixed

“Merlin! He will be your savior and you will be his for you are two sides of the same coin! One of Magic and one of Courage!”

The voices had now grown in volume, all screaming at him, all repeating it with urgency it made his head hurt again.

The dragon shook its head, the voices had obviously irritated it, for it had begun to spread its wings preparing to take off.

With every beat of its wings Merlin felt his vision blur.

He felt his legs give out and he felt himself fall, distantly felt his body collapse against the cold unforgiving cobblestone.

Watching as the beautiful dragon flew away as he felt himself fall into a dead sleep once again. 

He woke up once more with a start back in Gaius’s spare bed.

It was dark but it felt correct Merlin sat up and his head only mildly swam.

“Merlin my boy! You’re awake!” Gaius was next to him in an instant.

“How long was I out?” He asked confused

“A day and a half, you overexerted yourself my dear boy” he explained, placing a hand on Merlin’s chest. 

“Lie back you must rest more you still look exhausted” he tried to push Merlin back but Merlin didn’t let him.

“Mordred! Where is he!? Is he alright!?” He all but shoved Gaius back in his panic.

“He’s all right, he’s staying in Morgana's antechambers” he reassured, pushing against his chest softly.

This time Merlin allowed himself to be pushed back against the rickety bed.

Gaius placed a wet towel against his forehead helping calm the throbbing.

There was a bowl sitting on a stool next to the bed which was filled with cold water.

It only took a few minutes for Merlin’s head to stop throbbing.

Gaius gave him a cup of water which Merlin drank up gratefully, he was parched.

“What happened my boy? I heard what happened from Prince Arthur’s point of view, but forgive me if I don’t fully trust him, he tends to over exaggerate certain details in these types of situations.” Gaius explained once Merlin sat up again, his head didn’t swim this time.

“The fucking-” 

“Merlin! Language!” 

“…sorry, anyway Prince Arthur and his knight buddies decided that it would be funny to beat Mordred up; I watched Arthur hit him with the hilt of his sword in the cheek which caused Mordred to fall to the ground, then he kicked him while he was down, how is Mordred how are his injuries!?”

“He has a bruised cheek, some minor cuts, and a few bruised ribs, nothing major”

Merlin felt anger fill him, he clenched his fists digging his nails into his palms.

“That ass…” he muttered clenching his jaw

“That ass as you so colorfully call him has spoken to his father, and is not pleased with the magic you performed on him” Gaius raised an eyebrow at him 

“Well that sucks for him, for I have no intention of staying here, I’m leaving; that bastard has performed an act of treason towards my kingdom's citizens, he attacked a child not only that but my apprentice that is an act of treason and war” he seethed glaring at Gaius.

‘…He is your destiny…’

There was that same whisper in his mind.

“Merlin you performing aggressive magic against the heir of Camelot is also an act of treason” Gaius warned looking at him warily.

‘…He will be your savior, and you will be his…’

“The Druids are peaceful people! They are not aggressive. He had No right.” His magic came forth then a few pots smashed, a window cracked.

Gaius looked around alarmed.

“How did you do that!?” He asked bewildered “did you incant a spell in your mind?” He turned back to Merlin in question.

‘…Two sides of the same coin…’

“No it just happens on instinct, it runs in my family. My father can do it, my mother could; when I feel strong emotions it takes over sometimes, that's why I did what I did on the field I didn’t mean to. I just lost control when I saw him beating Mordred.” Merlin looked down at that, feeling shame in losing control; his father had been training him but it obviously wasn’t enough.

‘… One of magic one of courage …’

“But that doesn’t change the fact that I am leaving, I don’t want to marry Morgana and I don’t want to be in the same castle as that fucking pig. ” He seethed jumping up from the bed and moving past Gaius, who tried his best to stop him but his old bones couldn’t move fast enough.

Merlin’s boots and satchel were in the same place right at the foot of the bed; he snatched up his satchel and boots and ran out the door, he distantly heard Gaius calling for him to stop.

He didn’t listen, he let his magical instincts take over as he ran out to the horse stables he found Frik, he untied him and jumped on his back without a saddle, he did this when at home during the spring when the flowers and plants grew great; his magic loved it his bare feet and no saddle being able to just ride free.

Frik complied immediately, galloping almost immediately, he heard people calling out was it to him, he didn’t know, all he knew was that he had to get out.

He rode on into the woods as fast as Frik could go. The cold night wind blowing through his hair felt amazingly freeing; he shut his eyes to feel it caress his cheeks.

‘…Emrys…’

The sound of trees whipping by filled his ears, he could hear his quick heartbeat in his ears.

“…Emrys…”

The smell of pine and other herbs hit his nose, it was refreshing, he hated smelling the dirty castle and the musty gross knights.

“…EMRYS…”

The thick cobblestone castle felt like it stifled his magic, during the summer he preferred to stay outdoors.

“EMRYS!”

That voice made Merlin’s eyes snap open, Frik also heard apparently for he reared back and neighed loudly in fear.

Thankfully Merlin held on to his mane tightly and clenched his legs tightly on his back and stopped himself from being thrown.

Frik just trotted in a circle as Merlin looked around to see who had called him.

That’s when he heard something that caused his blood to freeze.

He heard a few twigs snap.

Trees rustling.

The wind began howling.

He could hear something in the distance.

He’d brought Frik to a halt, now only looking around. 

That’s when he heard it.

The sound of a loud snort.

One from a pig.

…or a boar…

He heard it before he saw it, the galloping of large hooves coming straight towards him.

His magic helped him in moving, he urged Frik forward and they just narrowly missed the titanic large Boar that barreled towards them.  

Merlin just urged Frik to gallop, going anywhere, they had no general direction, his magic was all jumbled he could focus, he obviously hadn’t recovered fully from earlier; his head began to hurt once more.

The boar was chasing them; he could tell that much.

But the trees all looked the same, it was so dark he couldn’t see.

He had no idea where Camelot was. 

Where he was.

He just galloped on and on and on.

The boar smashed a tree and threw it with its tusks and it fell right in front of them.

He urged Frik to jump but they were too close to it, Frik’s back hooves hit the fallen tree and when they hit the ground he fell.

Merlin fell and rolled off his back.

Losing his boots and satchel fell on the ground in the process.

“Frik…? Frik…” he crawled over to his horse and rubbed his back making sure he wasn't injured too badly.

His horse snorted and whined in slight pain.

Merlin used his magic to give him strength.

‘Go back, get safe’ 

He told him in his mind.

The sounds of tree branches breaking reminded Merlin of the boar.

He fell back and crawled back to his satchel and grabbed it and got up and ran.

His head was really hurting now.

He could barely see, it was like earlier in Gaius’ chambers.

He was sprinting as fast as he could. 

He wasn’t focused and ended up tripping over a branch and fell.

He fell and rolled down a hill getting hit with branches and stones.

He was getting scratches on his face, arms, legs.

When he reached the bottom he smacked his head against a hard unforgiving rock.

Then he blacked out.

When Merlin awoke it was still night, his body had grown so cold.

He was shivering when he sat up, his hands were shaking, when he breathed out he could see his breath in the air.

He sat up and crossed his legs. 

His feet were numb with pain, he pulled his left foot onto his lap to evaluate the damage; he had a bunch of small cuts in his feet and twigs stuck in his foot.

Thankfully his energy had been restored so he had some sense in where he was.

He looked around, he’d fallen down into a small ravine in his haste to get away from the boar.

The boar… how in the hell was it so big?

Slowly Merlin stood, he was shivering harder now, the use of his aching muscles causing him to grow colder.

He looked up and around him, the darkness around making it too hard to see.

“Léoht” he whispered using the light in his shaking right hand to see around him.

The ravine was small so he could probably climb out, straightening his satchel, making sure it’s secure.

Closing his palm the light dissipated, he needed to conserve his energy.

Slowly he began to climb up allowing his natural magic to guide his hands to each root.

Pulling himself up slowly, his arms and legs were burning, he could feel each of the cuts and bruises.

Finally when he reached the top he flung himself onto his back heaving breath into his body.

It was quiet, he heard the distant sound of an owl hooting, some grasshoppers chirping, but aside from that there was only wind.

The boar was gone.

Merlin let out one of the biggest sighs of relief he’d ever felt.

‘Emrys…Prince Arthur he is your destiny…he will be your savior…and you will be his’

“What does that even mean!?” He called out to empty space.

“It means Emrys that you and Prince Arthur Pendragon are going to need to get along soon.” The voice of a random man spoke which caused Merlin to sit up quickly looking up at the old white haired man standing above him.

“Who are you!? Are you the one who’s been speaking to me! Were you the one in my dream!” The man just smiled down at him almost as if he was amused by his questions.

“My name is Taliesin, I am a seer and I can foresee that you and the Prince will need to befriend one another soon for-”

“Oh no I’m not befriending that pig !” Merlin snapped, interrupting the man who just looked at him with an amused smile.

“Emrys you will have to-”

“No! I refuse! I don’t care what you say!” He heard a tree branch snap somewhere and fall with a loud ‘thump!’ Behind him.

He was sitting on his knees now and was struggling to breathe. The anger was so great.

“He is nothing but a foul pig he is selfish , condescending , he acts like he’s above everyone ” with every insult he felt his magic act out in some way, a tree falling, a branch breaking, the wind howling. 

“I will never ever befriend him I would rather die .” He glared up at the man, feeling the wind whipping around them.

“Lord Merlin! Are you there!?” 

“Emrys! Are you there!?”

“Your friend is almost upon us, we don’t have much time, but you will have to brefriend Arthur Pendragon eventually, fate calls for it” 

“Well you know what FUCK FATE! ” He yelled at the man the his magic caused the wind to pick up even harder than ever, then it all stilled, lightning struck where the man stood.

Previously stood, he’d disappeared.

“Merlin! I found you!”

Leon burst through the trees ridding on the back of a brown thoroughbred horse looking extremely worried and hassled.

“Leon!” He rasped trying to stand but only falling flat on his face in the dirt, he was exaughsted he felt like he could barley breathe.

“Merlin!” Leon called dismounting immediately and rushing to him and helping him up.

He’d obviously grown over the seasons, his previous stubble had grown and become thicker, his hair was a bit longer and he’d grown more muscle.

He pushed Merlin up into a sitting position and looked him over for major injuries, he only found minor ones.

“Merlin what happened!? Why did you run off!? Why did you attack Arthur!?” Leon kept throwing question after question at him it made Merlin dizzy, he already could barley keep his eyes open. 

“Merlin don’t worry I’ll help! Just hang on I’ll get you back to Gaius!” He said helping him up and picking him up and putting him up on the horse, then mounting, they were in the same position that Merlin and Mordred had been in yesterday.

He rode quickly, it all seemed like a blur to Merlin, again his ears were ringing, his body felt numb with pain.

The sounds of hooves beating against dirt were soon replaced with the sounds of hooves beating against cobblestone.

Distantly he heard the sounds of shouting.

He heard panic cries but he couldn’t decipher them.

His head was ringing louder than before.

“You must befriend Arthur Pendragon…”

Before he fell asleep he made himself a promise.

‘I will never befriend Arthur Pendragon. I will never follow fate.’

He felt people helping him from the horse, then he was once again dead to the world.

Chapter Text

The anxiety in Camelot was almost palpable.

 Arthur couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen his father so anxious.

He’d been at dinner he’d been eating with Morgana and his father when the warning bells had begun to ring.

His father stood at attention immediately, when sir Olvdin burst through the doors.

“Your majesty! It’s Lord Merlin! He’s taken his horse from the stables and rode off into the woods!” He’d spoken with great urgency that made Morgana stand.

Arthur had remained seated, he was very happy eating with his dinner, and he felt that the boy deserved whatever came to him in those woods.

“Aren’t you coming!?” Morgana had called at him, his father had already raced out of the room upon hearing the news that the precious Mer lin had run away ! Horror of horrors; Arthur couldn’t care less.

“Why? I don’t see anything wrong with this, he deserves it” he’d shrugged and went back to eating.

Next thing he knew his plate of chicken was flung against the wall by Morgana.

“What the hell!? Morgana! I was eating that!” He shouted up at her, looking at her he had to pause at the deadly glare she had been giving him.

“What? What did I do!?” He asked, he really hadn’t understood what was happening.

“What did you do wrong!? This is all your fault !” She’d accused glare becoming more murderous by the second.

“ Excuse me!? How is this my fault!?” Arthur demanded as he looked up at his sister as if she’d gone mad .

“I’ve done nothing wrong!”

“Nothing wrong!? Are you serious!? Merlin collapsed because of you!” She’d shrieked at him.

“He collapsed because he overreacted when I was messing around! It’s his own fault!” Arthur sniffed, he hadn’t done anything, he was just messing around, that little Druid boy Mord something had come to the training field and asked to train because he wanted to become a knight.

It seemed like one elaborate joke but then the boy picked up a training sword and Arthur realized he’d been serious.

So Arthur had “trained” with him, and the boy couldn’t take it. 

That wasn’t Arthur’s fault, when he was that little boy's age he would’ve been able to hold his ground at least.

“He was a little boy Arthur, you went too hard on him!” That had made Arthur pause, she didn’t call him by his name normally, she’d done it last summer which also caused him to pause, she started calling him by his name when that Mer lin came. 

“So!? When I was his age I would’ve been able to hold my own!”

“You have been training since you were young! Because our father dearest didn’t know how to bond with you since you were a child!” That had gotten Arthur angry, he’d stood giving her a glare just as murderous as the glare she’d been giving him.

“Father trained me since I was young to make sure I’m the best warrior Camelot has! Besides, that little runt can’t even be a knight! He’s an uncluttered Druid! He won’t be anything -”

‘Smack!’

He’d stopped because Morgana, his own sister, had slapped him.

The sound seemed to reverberate around the quiet room.

Guinevere had been there, she’d been serving them their drinks, he’d heard her gasp.

Leon was standing guard against the wall he’d straightened at the action.

“Arthur you better pray that Merlin is alright, for if he isn’t we might be on path to a war, a war we will never be able to win.”

After she’d basically threatened him she’d turned on her heel and walked out the doors, Guinevere trailed her not before giving Arthur a slight bow, then she scurried after her lady.

Leon cleared his throat which is what snapped Arthur out of his stupor.

“Sire if I may, I must leave you and aid in the search for Merlin.” He’d said walking forward and giving Arthur a low bow then hurrying out the door.

When the door closed Arthur was left alone.

His left cheek still burned from where Morgana had slapped him.

‘…Arthur…’

This was all Mer lin’s fault.

‘Arthur…’

Before he came everything was all right.

‘Arthur’

Everything was perfect. 

He’d taken a deep breath and began to walk towards the doors.

“Arthur”

The voice made him stop.

It hadn’t been in fear, no Arthur didn’t get afraid.

The world seemed to still, the world seemed to go deadly silent, the only sound seemed to be his own breathing.

He’d turned around and saw an old man.

The man had white hair and a white beard, he was in dark brown robes.

Arthur reached for his sword, but he didn’t have one on him.

Leon had left.

He was alone.

“Who are you!? How did you get in here!?” He had nothing better to ask so he asked the obvious.

“I am Taliesin, I am a druid seer and I have a message for you from fate” Arthur had a small memory when Gaius had taught him about druids.

“You must befriend Merlin, the you-”

“EXCUSE ME!? I would n ever become his friend!? He can go and die for all I care! He’s DESTROYED EVERYTHING !” He knew he shouldn’t but he really wanted to punch the old man, he’d had a rough past few days he should be allowed to let off some anger.

“You must, your highness, it has been decided by fate! Do not be so hasty in your decisions!” Arthur had it, he turned back to the doors and pulled them both open with so much force that they’d slammed against the walls.

He’d run out of the room looking for the guards who were meant to be stationed at the doors.

They were gone.

“GUARDS!?” He walked down the corridors.

There was no one.

“GUARDS!?” Then he began to run, all the corridors were empty.

“ANYONE!?” Now he was beginning to panic.

He’d made his way to the citadel, which was also empty, everyone was gone.

“They’re not here your highness…”

Arthur spun around looking for any sign of the man.

“Where did you go!? Show yourself!” He yelled to empty space.

“Show yourself coward! Show yourself and face me!” He knew internally if the man did show himself he’d be fucked but honestly he couldn’t care less in the moment.

“Young prince you mustn’t be so rash…”

When Arthur turned again he was face to face with a dragon .

A pearly white dragon, however when it moved its head Its scales seemed to radiate all different colors, its eyes were a familiar bright blue, that stared down at Arthur with interest.

It was the size of a fully grown horse, it looked down at him and cocked its head to the left in interest.

Then it pressed its snout into his chest.

It made Arthur freeze, now this time it was in fear.

This great beast was sniffing him.

Its snout felt cold against his clothed chest.

It made a chittering sound and reared its head back looking at him with interest again.

“The boy Merlin…”

Arthur had almost forgotten about the druid man, only the voice didn’t sound like the druid man's voice, it had sounded as if there were multiple voices speaking all at once.

“…He is your destiny…”

“EXCUSE ME!?”

“…You will be his saviour, and you will be his…”

“SAVIOUR!? ABSOLUTELY NOT HE CAN GO AND DIE IN THAT FOREST! I’M NOT SAVING HIM!”

The dragon hadn’t liked that, for it reared back from him, its eyes showing hurt and pain as if Arthur’s words personally harmed it.

It spread its wings and began to flap taking off into the sky.

The sky, it was colorful it was still night for the sky was still alight with stars, but they were all sparkling with different colors of the rainbow, they’d been accompanied by different colors such as purples, blues, pinks; magenta, sapphire, mauve, and a plethora of colors Arthur couldn’t name. 

It would be a sight Arthur would never forget.

“He will be your saviour and you will be his for you are two sides of the same coin! One of Courage and one of Magic!”

The voices were so loud it hurt Arthur’s head.

The dragon paused in its flying and looked down at Arthur.

It’s bright eyes showing urgency.

It turned its head towards the back entrance to the citadel. 

Arthur turned to follow its indication.

‘…Go…you will find a sign…you must go…’

He wanted to ignore the dragon but something called for him to listen.

“Befriend Merlin young Pendragon, for fate calls for it”

“Well you know what FUCK FATE!” He’d screamed to the empty space around him, closing his eyes.

When he opened them again he was back in the dining room.

He spun around looking for the druid man.

He was alone once again.

‘…go you will find a sign…’

The dragon's words rung in his head.

He groaned loudly, walking towards the doors he‘d flung them open and stormed out of the room.

“Sire is everything alright!?” He heard the guards call after him.

He hadn’t responded, he just rushed down the corridor.

 He’d run out into the citadel which was absolutely swarming with people preparing and leaving to search for Mer lin.

He’d just run past all of them.

“Sire!” He heard Leon call after him.

That made him pause, he turned to see Leon leading his brown thoroughbred horse behind him. 

“What are you doing out here? I thought you weren’t going to help in the search?” He’d asked walking up to him.

“I’m not, I just need to check…something” that was all he’d said turning and going back to sprinting towards the back entrance.

He’d heard Leon as he followed.

When he made it to the back entrance he was pulled to go farther, there weren’t many houses, it was mostly quiet, the only sounds coming from the distant citadel.

“Sire where are you going!?”

He’d ignored the calls.

When he reached the edge of the woods he found what he was being guided to.

Mer lin’s horse, it was cantering out of the forest, it was obviously wounded, there was blood glistening from its left side.

He’d run faster then, upon seeing the unmounted horse Merlin wasn’t anywhere near as it seemed, which Arthur didn’t mind at all; Hopefully he perished in those woods.

“Is that Merlin’s horse?” He heard Leon ask distantly, Arthur ignored him as the horse came to a slow stop in front of them.

Arthur grabbed the reins and looked the horse over, he had many cuts on him, the worst damage was his left eye.

It had fragments of wood in it, it’d looked terrible, it'd made Arthur worry that the poor horse wouldn’t be able to keep it’s eye.

“Sire, could you lead the horse back? I must check to see if Merlin is nearby!” Leon had called before mounting his horse and taking off in the direction the horse had come.

Arthur just took the horse by his reins and led it back to the citadel.

One of the stable boys had taken the horse; he'd also been worried about his injury.

Arthur had waited in the citadel, he’d sat on the main steps of the castle, he had nothing else to do anyway.

He really hoped Leon didn’t find him, part of him regretted listening to that dragon.

He hadn’t been paying attention to how long it’d been but the next thing he knew there was a bright light followed by a loud and resounding.

‘CRACK!’

Everyone had paused at that, lightning? It was summer lightning only ever struck during storm season.

It hadn’t taken long for Leon to come galloping through the back entrance, an unconscious body on the horse in front of him.

Many knights had rushed forward to help Mer lin’s unconscious body down from the horse; his father had ran forward to thank Leon personally.

That had been Arthur’s cue to leave.

He returned to his chambers, though the noise from the corridor kept him awake.

Merlin slept for a week adventure in the woods.

Everyone had been acting as if the boy had died .

The druids had secluded themselves in their camping area, Morgana had decided to fully ignore him, Gwenivere followed her lady’s example, though most times she was to be found in Merlin’s chambers watching over his sleeping form, his father had taken to snapping at anyone and everyone who tried to speak to him, Leon refused to train with him, the other knights had taken to only occasionally.

Everyone was so eternally boring the boy wasn’t dead, he was still breathing.

So why was everyone acting like he was?

His father and Morgana had taken to eating in their chambers so now he was forced to eat alone.

He felt isolated.

He hated it.

Finally after another meal spent alone he had enough.

If that boy didn’t wake up soon Arthur would go insane .

So he waited in his room, standing next to the door he pushed it open just a crack so as to be able to see into the corridor where Mer lin’s chambers were.

Guenivere had been in there since lunch, Morgana had accompanied her but left for dinner. 

Now all Arthur had to do was wait for her to leave.

Finally he saw the left door open and watched her walk down the corridor, she was holding a single candle as she left, its light illuminating her face, she was sniffling as if she’d been sobbing her eyes out not moments earlier.

Finally as he watched her turn the corridor and watched as the light faded, then he made his move.

Quickly and quietly he made his way to the other chambers, pushing the left door open he swiftly made his way inside.

The room was deadly silent.

The bed situated in the middle of the room held the boy, he was laying in the center looking peaceful and undisturbed.

His hands lay on his chest, which rose and fell evenly showing his deep sleep.

He walked right up to the bed and stood at the right side looking down at the boy. 

It was dark so the only light in the room was the bright light of the full moon, the light making his pale face shine almost white. 

It made Arthur’s blood boil.

How dare he sleep while Arthur’s life was falling apart!?

All because he arrived in Camelot.

He should’ve stayed in that forest.

He had to remind himself the reason he’d come into that room.

Wake the boy he wasn’t a monster, he wasn’t going to do anything too drastic.

He lifted right hand and placed it on the boy's left shoulder, then he began to shake him.

“ Psst! Dragon boy! Wake up!” He didn’t wake.

So Arthur started to shake him harder.

“Oi! I’m telling you to wake up! You’ve slept enough! Stop being a lazy ass! And get up!” He insisted.

Still the boy didn’t wake.

Arthur let out a loud groan, throwing his head back in exasperation.

“Gods above, why must this be so difficult?” He asked the empty room, sleeping bodies didn’t count.

‘…must be gentler…’

He spun around to look for the host of the voice, then realized it just came from inside his own thoughts.

“Oh of fucking course, is this just another way of making me befriend him!? Well it’s not going to work!” He yelled to the empty room throwing his hands up in exasperation.

When he brought them down he hadn’t realized how close he was to the bed, for he accidentally dropped his right hand on the boy's flat hands.

A loud gasp made him look down at the, previously sleeping boy. 

He grabbed Arthur’s right hand in a death grip, his eyes snapping open and showing the golden color they became when he performed magic.

He began to hyperventilate looking around in a panic.

It alarmed Arthur, by some damn trick of fate he began to comfort the boy.

“Hey! It’s all right, you're safe, you're in Camelot in your chambers, you're safe” he insisted at the boy, bending down so that he was close to the boy, placing another hand on the boy's left shoulder again although softer this time in order to comfort him, it disgusted him.

The boy evidently hadn’t noticed who was comforting him, for he calmed.

He calmed enough that his eyes changed from gold to his normal bright blue.

Finally he looked at the hand he’d grabbed in his panic, the up at Arthur.

He let go of his hand immediately sitting up in bed and scooting away to the edge of the bed almost falling off but Arthur grabbed his blanket covered leg.

“Hey! don't fall, you idiot!” He called, the boy kicked his hand off. 

“Don’t fucking touch me you pig! ” He spat at him, giving him a murderous glare that could rival Morgana’s.

“Who the hell are you calling a pig!? I just woke you from a week-long sleep, you ungrateful little shit !” He yelled angrily down at the boy who just glared harder at him.

“If you want a ‘thank you’ it’s not coming you dick !” He shot back.

“Oh I wouldn’t expect one from an ungrateful ass such as yourself!” He called, the young boy looked up at him, his mouth falling open in outrage.

“ Ungrateful!? I have nothing to be grateful for! All of this is your fault!” He accused, now it was Arthur’s turn to be outraged.

“My fault!? Why does everyone keep saying that!?” He threw his hands up in exasperation once more turning his back to the boy who sat up more scooting back to the center of the bed.

“Because it’s true you piece of horse shit ” he spat out, turning back to the boy who was still glaring at him.

“How!? I’ve done nothing wrong!” He insisted he was getting really sick of having to repeat this. 

“ Nothing wrong!? Are you stupid!?” He accused sitting up on his knees now so that he was closer to Arthur. 

“You beat children! You act like an arse! And you claim you’ve done NOTHING WRONG!?” His eyes glowed gold again, and a pot shattered.

“Shit…” he muttered sitting back down, closing his eyes taking two deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth.

“What’s wrong with you? Why do you always do that?” Arthur asked the boy who glared up at him.

“My magic acts out when I’m angry, so that happens a lot when I’m with you” he smarted at Arthur giving him a sarcastic smile.

“Ohh so you're just too weak to control your own magic?” He laughed slightly at that, this boy had so much power but he was too weak to use it, how sad.

“Oh please I’m much stronger than you, you're nothing but a pig who hurts beautiful things! The very sight of your face brings me disgust!” He’d gone back to being up on his knees so he was all in Arthur’s face.

Arthur knew he overreacted the moment his right hand rose.

The resounding ‘SMACK’ left them both frozen.

Well Arthur froze, Mer lin fell back onto the bed clutching his left check that was slowly turning red.

He looked up at Arthur, eyes full of hatred and pain, it reminded him of the dragon’s eyes he’d seen in his hallucination.

He stumbled back looking at the boy below him regret settling in his gut.

“I- I’m-” what was he about to say? ‘ Sorry’ no he’d never said that word and he never would.

“Get out…” he whispered so low Arthur almost missed it.

“What?” Arthur demanded, his right hand tingling painfully at his side from the slap, he really wished he hadn’t overreacted so suddenly, he was no better than the impulsive boy below him.

“I said. GET. OUT!” His eyes glowed bright gold, next the right window shattered Arthur jumped hard, some of the glass hitting his side and cut him. 

Realizing his mistake the boy’s eyes flitted back towards the window and all the shards that had flung out all went right back into place perfectly, not even a trace of blood on the shards, it was as if nothing had happened.

So he was powerful.

“Are you deaf!? Or do I need to shatter another window to get you to understand? GET OUT!” This time his eyes didn’t glow gold but Arthur got the message for he rushed out of the room, almost colliding into Guinevere who was returning with a small basin of water and a towel.

“That won’t be necessary, he isn't sick, and he’s awake.” He said to her, the first words he’d spoken to her in about a week.

She looked up at him with wide eyes glancing over his injuries then registering his words she almost dropped her basin of water.

But caught herself before and just rushed inside.

As he walked back to his room he heard their joyful crys.

His hand still tingling, feeling the many superficial cuts on his skin, they’d be fine with just a small bit of treatment.

As he shut the doors to his chambers he looked at his right palm, it wasn't red at all, all the tingling feelings were only in his mind.

He clenched his fist and walked over to his bed and just flopped face first onto it.

He gave himself a moment before he screamed into his bedding, the sound thankfully muffled for had anyone heard it would be quite an awkward conversation.

With the waking of Merlin the castle seemed to come alive once more.

The druids came out of their solitude and began to walk amongst the people once more, trading, communicating; to everyone but Arthur.

Whenever one of the druids crossed his path the most they’d do is a slight incline of their head.

No words, nothing but an indication of acknowledgement.

The young boy, Mordred, Guinever had begrudgingly told him after he’d cornered her, ended up staying in the castle in Mrogana’s antechambers, she’d evidently become very taken with the young boy.

His father had taken to being extra nice to Mer lin after he awoke.

Anything the boy asked for, he delivered, he spoiled him more than he spoiled Morgana.

Though the boy never took him up on anything.

All he did was hide in his room, the library, and the druid camp site, the blacksmiths workshop, and sometimes he could be found walking around with Guinevere keeping her company while she did her many chores.

His father had been very insistent that Arthur make up with the boy.

“If you don’t make up with him soon you will have ruined everything you already messed up our alliance with the druid people by attacking that boy-”

“But I didn’t!”

“WHAT HAVE I SAID ABOUT INTERRUPTING ME BOY!?”    

Arthur had hung his head and put his hands behind his back in an act of submission.

“Apologies father…”

“You will make up with the boy! And that is an order by your king!”

What could Arthur say to that? His father had ordered him, he had to find a way to make the boy his friend, he knew that fate had called for it but he reassured himself that he was only doing this for his father.

They hadn’t spoken since the night he woke up.

Arthur still felt guilt from slapping him, he’d overreacted he knew he had, but he refused to apologize.

The only thing he’d done wrong was slap the boy, everything else wasn’t his fault.

Since the boys awakening they hadn’t trained together, when he asked Leon about it he confessed that Mer lin had requested no to be forced into training with Arthur.

He’d also been too weak to even train, half the time Guinevere would have to catch him when he lost his balance and became faint.

He was like a fragile maiden who’d break if breathed on wrong.

He ended up having very little appetite and ended up taking meals in his chambers.

The oddest thing was multiple times during the week at night Arthur would be woken by odd noises coming from the corridor.

He’d get up and crack his door open only to not find anything out of the ordinary. 

That brought them to this night, he decided he was going to stay awake and wait for the sounds.

So he sat at his desk wearing his night clothes, barefoot, with his drawn sword laying on the desk.

Whatever this thing was it had obviously been evading the guards who patrolled the corridors of the castle.

So Arthur sat and waited.

He waited.

And waited.

Eventually he decided closing his eyes wouldn’t hurt, he’d had a long day of training after all.

Suddenly he was jolted awake by one of the weird noises again.

He’d fallen asleep, shit.

Silently he stood grabbing his sword and stalked towards his doors. 

Peeping out he saw a large shadowy figure move against the far left wall.

Silently he slipped out into the corridor, holding his sword at the ready, he stalked down the corridor following the shadow.  

The shadow, whatever it was, was very fast.

When he finally reached the end of the corridor the figure had already reached the other corner.

This time he saw a small flash of something white.

So Arthur sped up his pace, going into a slight jog.

The thing apparently didn’t like that because when he turned the corner all the torches were snuffed out.

He was left in complete and total darkness.

With nothing better to do he continued forward to the next lit corridor.

When he’d almost reached the other corridor, some of the light showing at the end of the long corridor, heard a sound behind him.

Immediately he stopped and struck out with his right hand, the one that held his sword.

There was a sound of impact as the hilt of his sword collided with something.

Next he heard the sound of a body hitting the floor.

He spun around and could see the outline of a body.

A frail, gangly young body.

Side stepping so more of the light hit the figure, he found the same sleeping face he’d seen no less than two weeks ago, Mer lin.

Before Arthur could even react the boy’s eyes flew open and he saw that panicked gold once more.

Then the corridor was bright with light once more, too much light.

The flames grew so high they reached the ceiling.

“Shit!” The other boy said quickly, shutting his eyes and making the flames go back to normal.

“What are you doing to me!? Why am I here!?” He crawled back away from Arthur quickly, a look of fear and anger in his eyes.

“Me? I haven’t done anything!” Arthur was getting really sick of people repeatedly accusing him of things.

“Then why am I here!? And why does it feel like I was punched in the throat!?” Was that where Arthur had hit him? He hadn’t noticed it was so dark.

“Oh I thought you were an intruder so I struck you with the hilt of my sword…” he shouldn’t have said that, he realized that right as the words left his mouth.

“Excuse me!?” He demanded his eyes showing more anger than hurt now, he put his left hand up to his throat beginning to cough slightly.

Arthur must’ve hit him too hard, great another thing for him to feel guilty about. 

Merlin struggled to stand having to put his right hand on his knee just to stand, Arthur immediately stepped forward to help the boy.

“Don’t fucking touch me. I’ve already told you this.” That made Arthur take a step back, he really didn’t want another window to shatter, he had to lie his ass off to his father when he’d seen all of his cuts.

When the boy finally stood, leaning against the wall for support, Arthur just trailed behind prepared to catch him like the fair maiden he was.

“Where are we even?” The boy asked, looking around the apparent unfamiliar corridor.

“We’re not too far from our chambers, come I’ll show you” on instinct he reached for the boy's right arm.

“I said don’t touch me.” The torches blazed dangerously bright at his words, Arthur had to slap himself mentally, the boy had just said that why did he do it again?

He took a step back from him, he didn't have a place to sheath his sword so he just tightened his hold on it with his right hand letting it hang at his side.

What a sight they made, the both of them in their night clothes, Mer lin hugging the wall as he hobbles down the hall, clearing his obviously sore throat, Arthur trailing slowly behind him making sure to pause every time he stubbles prepared to catch him in case his frail maiden like body were to collapse.

Finally they’d reached the corridor that led to their rooms.

A problem arose when his clearing of his throat became actual coughs and choking.

He fell to his knees, clutching his chest while choking on his own breath.

“What’s wrong!? Hey! Hey! Stop that! Get up!” Arthur was starting to panic now, why did this boy have to be so weak !?

“My chambers” he was able to choke out.

“What? What are you saying?” Arthur was so confused, he wanted his chambers?

“Healing talismans there” healing talismans of course! Arthur remembered the day they’d set them up, there was so much chanting coming from down the corridor it had given Arthur a headache.

“Alright come on then!” Arthur was at a loss for what to do, the boy had told him not to touch him so how was he meant to bring him to the room?

“Can I help you up!? You told me not to touch you! You literally shattered a window with your anger!” He really didn’t want to get another window shattered at him.

“Yes you- ass- help me!” His coughing interrupted his speaking.

Arthur bent down and took Mer lin’s right arm and threw it over his shoulder letting the boy put his weight onto Arthur.

Then they quickly made their way towards Merlin’s chamber since it was Arthur who was doing most of the walking.

Finally when they made it into the room Arthur dropped the boy onto his bed, setting his sword down on a table.

“Do you have water? Something to drink!?” The boy was still coughing but it had become less violent.

Merlin just points, looking over Arthur finds a steel water pitcher and a steel tankard stirring on a table.

Quickly he rushed over and poured the water into the empty tankard, once it was filled enough he went over to Mer lin who was laying on the bed where he’d dropped him still coughing up a storm.

Quickly he helped him sit up and handed him the tankard, Mer lin gulped it down gratefully as if he’d been starved of water.

Finally after he finished all the water he took a large gulp of air.

“Are you alright? Have you stopped having a coughing fit?” His hand was still on his upper back and he rubbed small circles to help him, help him what? Breathe better? How would that work?

Apparently Mer lin had also noticed and moved to disconnect Arthur’s hand from his back.

“Don’t tou-”

“Yes yes I know don’t touch, apologies fair maiden ” he’d said the last with sarcasm which caused Mer lin to roll his eyes in annoyance.

“Now if you don’t mind I’d like to sleep again, after I was so rudely interrupted you ass…” he’d muttered the last.

Arthur just rolled his eyes and turned to grab his sword to leave, then he stopped himself.

“Why does everyone keep saying this is my fault?” He asked, looking down at the table in front of him.

He couldn’t see it but Merlin had paused in his drinking to stare at Arthur’s back intently. 

“Because it is,” Merlin insisted.

“But that's not an actual reason! Give me a list or something!” He spun around to look at the boy sitting on the bed looking anything but bothered, leisurely drinking his water, looking unbothered.

“A list ? Seriously?” Arthur gave the boy a hard look, once he saw a look of realization dawned on him.

“Oh you're serious…?” He asks, looking up at him with a shocked expression.

“Yes! I want to know why I’m being blamed for everything!” Arthur leaned against the table now, his father had commanded him to make up with this boy, maybe learning why he was being blamed for everything would help.

“Well to start, you act like an ass to everyone around you because you think you are above them which is what got us in this damn situation”

“I do no-!”

“Don’t interrupt!” That made Arthur shut his mouth, the command in his voice wasn’t like his fathers, that made him feel fear, this just made him comply, he hated it.

“Now as for your actions, I don’t fully understand what made you want to physically abuse a child-”

“I didn’t!”

“What did I say?” Again Arthur just shut his mouth, was the boy using a spell on him? Why was he just complying and not fighting back. 

“From what I saw, you were being overly aggressive towards an eight year old child, you were ‘training’ with him just as hard as you do with me, if not harder! You caused him to sustain a bruised cheek, minor cuts, and bruised ribs, He’s a small underdeveloped child! You could’ve injured him permanently!” He’d set his tankard down on the side table and was now just sitting on the edge of the bed staring at Arthur intensely.

“So please explain to me what could’ve possibly happened to make you want to physically fight a child!?” Finally he was able to tell his side of the story.

“The druid boy, Mordred, right?”

“Yes”

“Well, he came to the training field that day and announced to us all that he wanted to become a knight, which is obviously a joke-”

“Why is it a joke!?” He’d stood at that, and stood right in front of Arthur, which reminded Arthur that he was taller than him, though Arthur had also grown over the winter so now he was eye-level less with his neck now he was more at his chin, he still had to look up to look into his eyes.

“Because he’s a druid! Druid’s can’t become knights!” Wasn’t this common knowledge?

“What! Why not!?” Apparently it wasn’t common knowledge.

“Well knights are only chosen from those with noble blood! So unless that druid boy has a secret Nobel heritage he cannot become a knight by the law!”

“That is, so stupid ! What the hell!?” The boy question stepping back looking at Arthur in outrage.

“Well it’s been the law since before either of us were born! It’s just how it is!” He tried to make the boy understand, while also trying very hard to not anger him, there was a steel pitcher right behind him he’d prefer not getting hit in the back of the head.

“Fine whatever! Still you went way too hard on him! You hit him in the cheek with the hilt of our sword! Then you kicked him in when he was down!” 

“Okay! That was my fault! But-”

He shut his mouth when Merlin gave him a side eye of annoyance, he must be using magic Arthur would never be like this normally.

“So I went on the field to protect Mordred from you ” he’d turned and poked Arthur in the chest to emphasize the ‘you’, rude.

 “Oh right, how’s your throat?” He looked down a little to get a better look at Arthur’s throat, a slight look of concern in his eyes.

“It’s fine, it was red and sore for the first week you were asleep but it healed, obviously” he gestured to his fully healed throat, it had been difficult to talk, swallow, even breathing caused pain for the first week, but after a bit of recovery, and some of Gaius’ potions he was fine.

“Good, now I will admit I went a tad overboard with my magic-”

“A tad!? You threw me across the training field! Into a rack of swords that's not exactly a soft landing you know!” He puffed up his chest to seem bigger than the boy in front of him; it didn’t really matter he was still shorter.

“Well I didn’t have control! I already told you my magic takes over when I’m angry! I’m working on it!” He threw his arms up in exasperation looking down at Arthur.

“And how is that my fault!?

“Because you were the one who made me angry!” He insisted

“That isn't a real reason!” 

“Yes it is!” 

“This really isn’t fair!

“Honestly, I really couldn’t care!” They’d begun to lean into each other almost literally butting heads.

“Whatever! After you got me upset and caused me to lose control!” The slightly taller boy turned crossing his arms while eying Arthur.

“Again not my fault !” How many times did he have to insist on this?

“I took Mordred to Gaius where Morgana and Gwen helped bandage him up while I walked over to a spare bed and fell asleep for a day and a half”

“All right I understand how some of this could have been my fault, but how is you running away my fault!?”

“Because I don’t want to be here with you! I don’t want to marry Morgana! I didn’t even know I was marrying Morgana when I first came here! I thought my father and I were just coming here to meet the kingdom that lived below our mountains! I want to go back home ! I want to be with the dragons ! I want to take care of the new eggs that should be hatching soon! I want to be with my father!” Arthur noticed that his eyes were brimming with unshed tears as he yelled at Arthur.

He knew he shouldn’t have doubled down, he knew he should’ve kept his mouth closed, but once he opened his mouth he knew he should’ve just listened.

“Aw, you wanna go back to your mummy?” The moment he said it he remembered. 

The boy didn’t have a mother, just like Arthur’s she’d died.

“Shit wait I for-” 

He was cut off by the resounding and burning sensation of the hand hitting his left check. ‘What was it with people and slapping him?’

It was weaker than Morgana’s slap he’d experienced when he’d insulted the Druid boy but it still took him by surprise.

Mer lin also looked shocked by his own reaction, immediately retracting his right hand and pulling it close to his chest in shock.

“I, I’m-” it sounded like he was about to say he was sorry but Arthur cut him off.

“I’m leaving don’t worry” he turned and grabbed his sword from the table and walked out the door without another word or looking back at the taller boy.

When he made it back to his room the questions began to form.

‘Why hadn’t the boy used his magic? Hadn’t he said that when he got overcome by emotions his magic acted out?’

Then it hit him how insane he was being, hadn’t just last week he’d been feeling guilty about slapping the other boy?

It was too late to deal with these questions.

So he just placed his sword on his desk by his bed and flopped into his bed, not even bothering to go under his covers.

Chapter Text

When Merlin awoke he felt exhausted.

After the prat left Merlin just stood for a moment, he was still in shock from the fact that he’d slapped the other boy.

It wasn’t that he felt bad the prat deserved it.

What he was in shock about was the fact that he’d had a physical reaction rather than a magical one.

He didn’t know how long he stood for, just staring at his still tingling hand, still allowing his brain to catch up with his previous aggressive actions.

Once his brain finally loaded he began to feel joy, accompanied by guilt, which surprised him.

He understood the feeling of joy, he hadn’t used his magic! He controlled it!

But the feeling of guilt was what surprised him.

He felt guilty for hitting the prat prince.

He’d almost apologized for hitting him!

He shouldn’t feel guilty at all, the prat definitely deserved it, he needed to be knocked down a peg.

But also the boy had seemingly been trying to understand why everyone had been blaming everything on him; which Merlin thought was justified, but it still surprised him that the boy actually wanted a reason for all the blame, which seemed very mature for the older boy, Merlin honestly thought he was an idiot and that Merlin was the smartest of the two of them.

But when he’d made the comment about Merlin’s mother, his emotions took over and he slapped him.

The memory made Merlin start to giggle hysterically.

The pit of guilt seemed to deepen at his giggles and he felt his emotions come over him, and he began to cry.

He began to sob, clutching his right hand with his left, pressing it against his chest as he began to sob uncontrollably.

He felt his throat begin to close up as he sobbed, he staggered back onto his bed, as he sat he just flopped onto his left side, curling in on himself, pressing his knees against his clasped hands, pressing them harder into his chest.

Gods how he missed his father.

When he’d ranted to the prat he’d meant it all.

He didn’t want to be here.

He wanted to be home.

He could almost imagine the feeling of the high thin air, he thought he could smell the scent of the snow and the pines.

He thought he felt the cold brisk wind blowing against his cheeks, causing his nose to feel frozen.

He opened his eyes and breathed out of his mouth, he could see his breath in the air as a puff of steam.

He felt such joy, as he looked around he found he was indeed back home and was standing on their highest snowy mountain, where the gicel dragons are born and raised.

After a moment he began to feel drowsy, his eyelids growing heavy, as he shut them the comforting cold slipped away.

As he opened his eyes he realized it was all a dream.

He sat up in his bed and saw the morning light coming through the top of stained glass windows.

His chambers had a slight chill to it.

His fireplace was out and he hadn’t slept under the covers.

The chill made the tears begin to fall once more.

How he wished he could return home. 

Over the next month, Merlin stayed away from the prince.

He wasn’t exactly ignoring him, the other boy hadn’t exactly tried to speak to Merlin.

Instead he just stayed with Morgana, Gwen, and the other druids.

When he wasn’t with others he stayed in his chambers studying all he could about drummanic communications.

More specifically, Raven communication.

Without magic ravens could be trained, but it took many months.

But with Merlin’s natural magic he could communicate with animals, well it wasn’t exactly like he was able to speak with animals; it was more like he could just send them messages, like how he did with Frik.

His poor Frik.

His horse’s worst injury was his left eye; he'd lost it when a large piece of wood had gotten lodged into his eye.

After Merlin’s late night adventure with the prat he had to stay in his room for about a week.

A few of the healing druids had spent hours helping his poor stallion, trying to make sure it was as painless as it could be.

When his stallion had been fully healed and Merlin was able to visit as he looked at his poor stallion he rubbed him on his left cheek, as to make sure he doesn’t startle his poor stallion.

As he stroked his stallion's left cheek his stallion turned his head slightly to look at him more, his eye didn’t show any malice to Merlin, instead it showed gratefulness.

“My poor Frik, I’m so sorry, this is all my fault…” he whispered to his stallion, pressing his face into the strong stallion's neck, rubbing his cheek against the stallion’s deep brown coat.

Frik just moved his muzzle against Merlin’s shoulder, as if he was giving him a hug.

Merlin felt tears prick his eyes as he wrapped his arms around his stallion’s neck and began crying into his loyal stallion’s coat.

He seemed to be able to cry much easier recently, he figured it was because he’d been so exhausted recently.

Merlin didn’t know how long he stood there clinging to his horse just crying into his stallion’s coat.

He jumped back at the sound of something wooden clattering to the floor, Frik had also reared back in alarm since the sound had come from his left, Merlin automatically moved to calm his horse, sending some calming words to him with his magic.

Looking up Merlin found a stable boy looking sheepish as he held a wooden broom, the wooden object that had clattered against the floor had been a bucket that he’d accidentally kicked over.

“Oh my apologies my lord! I wasn’t aware anyone else was present!” The stable boy called, giving Merlin a low bow; the boy couldn’t be more than a few years older than Merlin, Merlin just wiped his tears away quickly.

“Oh it’s all right, I just wanted to see how Frik was holding up, I’m glad he’s standing now; also you don’t need to call me Lord, just Merlin will do” he reassured the boy, before Frik used to only sit and lay, he’d lost his confidence and strength.

It had taken many weeks before Frik had even tried to stand once more, this boy must be to thanks.

“I assume I have you to thank for Frik’s recovery, apologies what is your name?” Merlin asks, looking away from Frik to the other boy who just looked at him with an awed expression.

“The names Tyr my L- apologies, Merlin, Tyr Seward, and indeed I have been tending to your stallion; he is quite strong” Tyr explained, Merlin just smiled softly at him, and rubbed Frik’s neck once more before he moved back and away from him, placing another kiss on his stallion’s muzzle, rubbing his muzzle on the spot he’d just kissed, keeping his hand on his muzzle.

“Tyr, I cannot express my gratitude to you enough, thank you, so very much” he said turning and giving the other boy a genuine smile, Tyr just stared in shock at his genuine smile, the few times he’d been in public in Camelot he’d always used a type of fake smile.

 But here, he just let his walls fall down in front of this other boy.

The amount of relief he felt for Frik’s safety.

The exhaustion he felt almost daily now was getting to be too much.

“Tyr! Where are you!?” The voice made Merlin’s blood run cold.

The prat rounded the corner looking furious.

Once the prat turned around the corner standing behind Tyr he froze, his eyes only focused on Merlin, not the stable boy he was behind.

Tyr spun around, his face as pale as a sheet.

“Apologies, sire!” Tyr said, spinning around and giving him a low bow and rushing off to get the prats horse, leaving Merlin and the prat staring at each other.

Merlin just stayed standing with his arms wrapped around Frik’s neck, rubbing his hands against his coat to comfort himself, the silence felt almost suffocating.

“So… how’s your horse?” The prat asked awkwardly, most likely just to fill the heavy silence.

Merlin didn’t answer, he just looked back at Frik and continued to stroke his coat, he felt both rage and guilt begin to rise in his chest.

It had been a month since they’d last spoken in Merlin’s chambers.

He thought they’d had an understanding to not speak to one another, apparently not.

“Listen I-”

“I’m sorry.” Merlin interrupted, the guilt had been eating him alive every time he saw the other boy.

Merlin didn’t look up and just continued to focus on Frik.

“What are you apologizing for?” The prat asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“I don’t know, I’ve just been feeling guilty about slapping you, and I guess I’m trying to clear my conscience, so I apologize for slapping you” he explained, finally glancing at the other boy who was just staring at him like he was mad.

“Why do you do that!?” The prat demanded, Merlin just looked at him in confusion.

“Do what?” He asked, looking at prat with equal confusion.

“You don’t act like a prince!” He exclaimed like it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

“Maybe because I’m not a prince?” He said now looking at him like he was mad now.

“I am not a prince, I am the son of a lord!” He exclaimed, speaking to him like he was a child.

“What’s the difference!?” The prat demanded.

“The difference is my father is not a king!” He exclaimed, now getting angry at the other boy.

“But he’s a lord! Isn’t that close to a king?” Now Merlin was sure the other was an idiot. 

“No! I’m not royalty! Well not your royalty!” He exclaimed, moving from Frik so he was facing the other boy, but still keeping his left hand on Frik’s neck, Frik had turned his head so that he could see the prat with his right eye.

“What does that mean!?” He demanded getting angry, if Merlin was also beginning to get frustrated.

“My father and I are basically druid royalty! But we aren’t the ruler over anyone! We’re just powerful enough that we could smite anyone, we have no real noble blood” he explained, the prat just scoffed at him.

“I highly doubt that you are powerful enough to smite anyone” the other boy scoffed, rolling his eyes in dismissal.

“Last I remember, only a few months ago I lifted you up from the ground and threw you across a training field, and I did all of that without spoken spells” he reminded the other boy, who just looked anywhere but at him.

“Yeah well, you also passed out for about a week afterwards! So you’re not that powerful!” He exclaimed, Merlin rolled his eyes once more.

“That’s because I am still in training, my father however is not, if it was my father facing against you, you might not have survived” he explained simply cocking his head to the left against Frik’s neck, moving the hand that was placed against his coat into his dark brown mane.

The prat glanced down, seemingly conceding to Merlin’s point.

“But if you have no noble blood why has it been decided that you are to marry Morgana , she’s a princess why would my father want her to marry you” he said the last with seeming disgust.

“Well if you must know, my mother was a princess to a small kingdom called Ealdor; she eloped with my father against her parents wishes and left with my father to his mountain, so I do have noble blood in me, now the sight of you has ruined the pleasant afternoon I wished to have with my dear Frik so good day to you!” He exclaimed in anger, giving Frik one last pet before stepping away and beginning to walk around the prat.

“Wait!” He called, grabbing Merlin by the forearm in an attempt to stop Merlin from walking away; Merlin felt his magic surge as the shorter boy touched him, he pushed it down and only sent the other boy a furious glare.

“You don’t deserve my apology, you will never change” his voice dripping with disgust and barely repressed fury.

The other boy removed his hand from Merlin’s forearm, his eyes cast down.

Merlin didn’t wait as he’d been commanded, pushing past the boy and walking to the stable door.

“Also if you want to be an actually good prince, suck up the fact that you need to apologize sometimes, you aren’t above being a person just because you are a prince” Merlin scolded the older boy’s back, who stiffened at his words.

He didn’t wait for a response, as he turned and walked out the door and made his way up to Gaius’s chambers.

As he reached the door he knocked on the old door.

“Come in!” The elderly man’s voice called from inside the chamber.

As Merlin pushed open the door he found the elderly man standing in front of a bookshelf, picking out book after book.

“Hello Gaius!” Merlin greeted, the elderly man turned to look at him, giving him a bright smile.

“Oh hello Merlin my boy! What brings you to my chambers this fine afternoon?” The elderly man asks moving to descend the staircase next to his bookshelf, holding three books in his arms.

“I wished to ask you about a certain way of drumanic communication I’ve been researching” he explained walking over to the wooden table in the center of the room, Gaius did the same, setting the books down on said table.

“Oh? Pray tell what is this drumanic communication?” The other man asked, looking up at Merlin; Merlin just reached into his leather satchel and pulled out the book he’d borrowed from the castle's library and set it on the table along-side the other books.

Flipping through the book he found the chapter he’d been reading extensively.

“Ah, Raven communication” Gaius read off the page, Merlin looked up at him with a smile.

“You wish to write to your father?” The man said simply, Merlin only nodded sheepishly, looking back down at the book.

Gaius walked away from the table after a moment where he seemingly collected his thoughts.

He walked back over to the staircase once more, as he reached the bookshelves he scanned them, seemingly looking for a specific book.

“Ah ha!” The man made a small exclamation as he grabbed a book off one of the shelves, walking down the stairs and setting the book down on the table.

The title of the book read ‘Old religious communication’

“I can kind of speak to animals, with my natural magic but it doesn’t help with this specific task, I can’t seem to get them to understand that I want them to send a letter to someone, all I can ask them is ‘go here’ or ‘give this’ but I can only do that to short distances; like I attempted to send something to Gwen but was unable to send it to her cabin, the Raven seemingly forgot the request I’d made, but when I sent something to Morgana in her chambers it was able to remember the request” he explained as Gaius flipped through the book finding a similar chapter on ‘Raven communication’.

“Here you are my boy, this is an ancient drumanic spell, when reciting it you explain to the Raven who you wish to send whatever you wish to send to the person the Raven will automatically locate said person wherever they may be” he explained pressing his finger down on the page where the spell that was written.

Merlin looked over the spell, it had an English translation underneath it.

“Cume mec, hræfn wann... bebuge me. Nim bod min þissere nihte þinum dryhten. Geðo hit his agendum handum.” Merlin whispered out, he knew it was common knowledge that you shouldn’t just read out a spell when you first find it.

It took only a moment before they heard a ‘tap tap tap’ against one of the large windows.

Merlin looked up and found a raven sitting on the ledge tapping his beak against the old glass.

The two of them just looked at each other before Merlin began to laugh delightedly.

Merlin stood and walked over to the window, opening it and allowing the raven inside, holding his forearm out, the raven hopped onto it looking up at him and cocked its head to the right in intrigue.

Merlin just smiled at it and sent it a greeting through his natural magic.

The raven greeted him with quite a loud ‘squawk!’ Merlin smiled down at the raven.

“Do you have anything planned to send to your father, my boy?” Gaius asked behind him, Merlin’s smile dimmed slightly, he hadn’t really, he was still figuring this all out.

“Not really, there are many things I could say but I’d also like to avoid a war” Merlin said with feeling looking over to Gaius who nodded almost sage-like.

“Your father does not appreciate disrespect, I think he might call for a dragon to come and pick you up from the castle!” Gaius guffawed, but there was a slight hint of anxiety in his laugh, making it sound slightly hysterical.

“That is very true…” Merlin conceded looking back down at the Raven who was staring at him intently cocking its head from side to side, waiting for instructions.

Merlin just smiled down at it and sent it a message ‘I have no message for you now, I will summon you once more when I do’ with that he held his forearm out the window once more, the raven only gave him another ‘squawk!’ Before it hopped off his forearm and hopped back to the ledge, only looking back at Merlin and giving him one more quieter ‘squawk’ before flying off into the distance.

Merlin looked down from the window and found Gwen, Morgana, and Mordred walking towards the citadel from town, he turned back to Gaius, intending to catch them and see if he could spend some time with them.

“Gaius, can I borrow that book? I’ll give it back once I’ve finished studying it!” He reassured the elderly man who just gave him a kind wrinkly smile and nodded.

“Of course Merlin, bring it back whenever you’re done” Merlin gave the man a grateful smile before going back to the table and taking both books and putting them in his satchel, before giving the other man a rushed ‘goodbye’ before he ran down the tower stairs to catch the trio.

After an extremely long and awkward dinner with the king, the prat, and Morgana; Merlin was finally able to return to his chambers.

Sitting down at the table, he grabbed a parchment and quill, dipping it into the ink he began to write a letter to his father.

Dear father,

As you can see I’ve been studying magical ways of communication, Gaius has been helping me study, I am very grateful for his help. How have the newborn dragons been? I wish-

Merlin was interrupted by someone knocking at his chamber doors.

Merlin turned and pushed out from the table walking over to the doors, pulling the left door open.

Merlin didn’t exactly know who he was expecting at his door, maybe he was expecting Gwen or Morgana.

But the person standing in front of him was Arthur Pendragon ‘the prat’ looking very awkward and uncomfortable.

Merlin’s jaw clenched, gods could this insufferable prat not take a hint!?

“Can I help you?” Merlin asked, raising his right eyebrow, not trying to hide the annoyance in his voice at all. 

The insufferable prat shifted uncomfortably once more, keeping his eyes cast down to the cobblestone floor.

“Morgana gave me a very stern talk about my ‘actions’ and she said that I needed to apologize,” he said, still not looking Merlin in the eye, Merlin only leaned against the heavy door watching the other boy as he continued to look anywhere but at Merlin.

“Now I want you to know that I don’t do this normally, but because there's a possibility that you and your father could possibly call for war because of my actions; I just wanted to say, I am sorry.” His whole body was tense, his hands were clenched into fists at his sides, his eyes still cast down, as if he was a child being forced to apologize by his parents.

Or in this case Morgana.

Merlin could distantly sense there was another presence in the hall.

Merlin just stared off for a moment, focusing his magic on the figure and found it was indeed Morgana.

She was pressed against the cobblestone wall trying to hide herself from view.

Merlin smirked inwardly.

Focusing once more Merlin just looked up at the other boy with an unimpressed look.

“What exactly are you apologizing for?” He asked, cocking his head to his left and leaning it against the door, the pratt's eyes snapped up and stared at him with an offended spark in his eyes, which dimmed when he saw the stony stare Merlin was giving him.

“I am apologizing for my actions, specifically when I slapped you, and insulted your mother which caused you to slap me, I am sorry, especially for insulting your mother; my mother also passed, only she passed on when I was born, I never knew her, which is why disrespecting your mother was worse because you actually got to know your mother, that is what I am apologizing for.” As he explained, his eyes moved to look anywhere but at Merlin. 

“And? I am quite sure there is one other thing you must apologize for,” the prat looked up at him giving him a confused look, Merlin only stared at him.

“Mordred?” He prompted, the other boy’s expression changed as the realization dawned on him.

“Yes right, I apologize for my actions against the young druid boy, Mordred, I realize now I did in fact act too harshly against the boy,” he explained, Merlin noticed that while his words sounded apologetic his tone and his is hands were so very tense, it looked as though he was stabbing his own nails into his palms.

Merlin knew this was difficult and practically painful for the other boy, to admit that he owed Merlin an apology; Merlin found his strained effort hilarious.

Merlin had to try with major difficulty to not burst out laughing, he was biting his inner cheek to not laugh, Merlin figured this was extremely difficult for the other boy, it amused him to no end.

“I accept your apology Arthur Pendragon; is there anything else you wish to speak to me about?” He asked the last after a few moments of slightly awkward silence.

“No, I just wished to say this, thank you for accepting my apology, good night” he said turning around and walking towards his own chambers, Merlin shut his door right after the other boy turned to walk away.

While Merlin had said out loud that he accepted the other boy's apology, they both knew he’d been lying.

So while he said he accepted the apology, he would never forget let alone forgive the other boy's actions.

Neither of them truly meant what they said.

As Merlin pressed himself to the door he heard the sound of heeled shoes clacking down the hall.

“See I told you it wouldn’t be that bad!” 

It was Morgana’s voice that he heard in front of his chamber door.

“Yeah sure whatever you say Morgana” 

The prat dismissed seemingly walking into his chambers, before his door shut Merlin heard Morgana call.

“Love you too my dearest brother!” 

Afterward he heard the clacking of her heeled shoes walk down the hall once more.

The next month wasn't as terrible as the first few months.

Thankfully he and his father were able to exchange letters back and forth, which helped Merlin feel much better.

Which is why Merlin was excitedly running to meet Gwen and Morgana to tell them the amazing news.

“GWEN! MORGANA!” He yelled rushing to Morgana’s chambers knocking on the door perfunctorily before bursting into the room.

He knew Morgana would be modest, she had Gwen lock the door when she wasn’t after a very embarrassing situation Gwen had told him about; where the prat had burst in while she was changing.

Merlin had begun crying for how hard he’d laughed.

“Merlin? What is it!?” Morgana asked, standing from her desk, Gwen looked up from her sewing she’d been doing.

“My father just wrote back to me! He says that I will be able to hatch my first dragon newborn this winter! And I will be allowed to bring it here!” He called practically jumping up and down with excitement.

Gwen made a loud and shrill squealing sound as Morgana stood her face alight with excitement.

“A baby dragon!? We get to meet a NEWBORN DRAGON!?” Morgana called rushing up to Merlin, she sounded like a young child who’d just been told they were getting the best possible gift in the world.

“YES!” He practically screamed, they all began to squeal and laugh excitedly, he handed the letter he’d just received from his father, she looked over it excitedly.

“What in the hell is happening out here!?” An annoyed voice asked from the anteroom.

Merlin looked over and found a groggy looking clotpole, who had a bandage wrapped around his forehead.

“What the hell happened to you?” Merlin asked automatically, he heard Gwen make a snort that she covered with a small cough, Morgana just rolled her eyes a small smirk on her lips.

While Arthur the prat had apologized, Merlin and he weren’t exactly on speaking terms, they were barely on acknowledgement terms.

Every time they saw each other they’d make eye contact but not speak, it was odd but not too uncomfortable.

The prat just grimaced putting a hand up to his bandaged forehead, Gwen immediately set her sewing aside, preparing to jump up and help the other boy.

“Someone was too distracted and accidentally fell down the staircase” Morgana said the last to the prat, in a way that sounded as though she was chastising him.

“It’s not my fault! I was distracted!” The prat called, then immediately grimaced once more, pressing hand into his forehead, showing that he was in more pain than he was letting on.

“Oh come on clotpole!” Merlin scoffed, moving forward, forcing the prat to turn around and pushing him back into the antechambers.

“Clotpole?” He heard Morgana whisper behind them.

“Get on the bed” Merlin instructed, the clotpole looked at him with a suspicious expression.

“I’m not going to kill you, just lay down” he said softer than the first instructions, hesitantly the clotpole sat back on the bed and laid down on his back, looking up at Merlin.

Merlin kneeled next to the right side of the bed, situating himself so he was right next to the prats face, who turned his head to look at Merlin with another concerned expression.

“Don’t turn your head, keep it straight, it’ll make the spell flow easier” Merlin instructed, the prat conceded after a moment turning his head back once more so he was staring up at the ceiling.

“Shut your eyes” The prat just looked at him with an odd expression, Merlin just gave him a flat annoyed look, the prat just rolled his eyes and shut them.

Merlin took his right hand and laid it over the prat’s closed eyes and began to hum an ancient drumanic spell, one that stemmed from his natural magic.

It only took a few moments before the other boy had fallen asleep, Merlin stood back up and walked out of the room.

Both Gwen and Morgana were staring at him with confusion, he just smirked.

“The spell is just an ancient drumanic sleeping spell, it just puts the person into a magical slumber until whatever is causing them pain recedes, he’ll wake up soon” he reassured them, Gwen just smiled at him, Morgana just stared in wonder.

Finally the last banquet arrived, it was the last hurrah before Merlin and the Druid’s traveled back to the mountains.

Mordred was given the honor of sitting next to Morgana, who was wearing the bracelet he’d made for her.

Merlin felt this trip had been rather fulfilling all things considered.

He’d spent many hours at the blacksmiths, helping Elyan and Tom with their forging.

Tom had tried to make a fuss over Merlin being in such a messy and dirty place but Merlin always brushed him off, he didn’t really care about his clothes, they weren’t lavish at all.

Thankfully the king hadn’t forced he and the prat to train daily, he didn’t think he could’ve lasted had he been forced to.

Merlin was seated on the end of the table, the prat was seated on his right, Leon was sat at the other table on his left, as they made casual conversation the king stood.

“As another summer draws to a close we must sadly bid farewell to our Dragon Lord Merlin and his druids” Merlin tensed at his wording, the Druid’s weren’t his why was the king describing them as such.

“But as always we will be able to look forward to next summer when he visits once more! And when my son is allowed to become a squire to Sir Leon!” He gestured with his free hand to Leon, who stood as people applauded with a sheepish smile.

Merlin glanced at the prat who was smiling proudly.

Great Merlin thought, now he’d have to deal with the other boys annoying bragging, and the other meat-headed knights.

Once the banquet drew to a close he and the prat walked back to their respective chambers together. 

They walked in pleasant silence for a time, before the clotpole made a small noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort. 

“What?” Merlin asked, glancing over to the other boy.

“Nothing, just remembering the first banquet you attended here, when that old hag tried to first kill you and your father, then me, then I saved you both” he explained, Merlin just looked at him.

“Well I saved you after you sliced yourself with a knife!” He said, the prat just scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“Well I had too if it wasn’t for me you would probably be dead!” He said tilting his head up in pride, Merlin just gawked at him, gods his ego was huge.

“Well I had to heal you so I saved you twice! You probably would’ve bled out if it wasn’t for me!” He called clenching his jaw as the prat scoffed and gave him an obnoxious look.

“I could’ve just gone to Gaius! I didn’t need you to heal me!” He defended, the two of them had stopped walking and were now facing off against one another.

“Well you didn’t look like you were on your way to Gaius’s chambers, so you did need me to heal you! Had you stayed in your chambers you would’ve gotten an infection! Or bled out! So I’ve saved you twice” he said the last with pride, tilting his head up and continuing to walk.

The prat just gawked at his back before rushing to catch up.

“Well if it wasn’t for me Leon would’ve never found you in the woods! I found Frik running away and Leon decided to look around that area in the forest and found you!” He called, Merlin just stared at him, was this boy serious?

“So Leon saved me? Because that’s what it sounds like” he says smirking at the other boy, who just glared at him.

“No! I was the reason he decided to look there! So it’s because of me you were saved!” The prat called, growing more angry as they walked.

Merlin couldn’t help it, he started laughing, it was almost hysterical.

The clotpole looked at him with a confused look, which made sense he was laughing rather hard.

“Why are you laughing? What’s so funny?” He asked, looking at Merlin as though he were mad.

“It’s just, you’re so up in arms over the fact that I’ve saved you more than you’ve saved me, what’s so terrible about that fact? Perhaps being the damsel in distress is too much for your fragile ego?” He asks with a small chuckle, this whole situation was so stupid.

The prat stopped at this, Merlin could practically see the the thoughts in his head working.

“My ego is not fragile! I am not some damsel in distress! That is Morgana’s job!” He called, beginning to walk quicker down the halls.

Merlin just scoffed, rolling his eyes he quickened his past and rushed after the overdramatic boy.

“I highly doubt that’s Morgana’s job, she seems more like the one to rescue the maiden from the tower” he says simply with a smirk, the clotpole looked at him with an almost offended expression.

At that point they’d reached the area in front of their two chamber doors.

“Well I guess this is goodbye until next summer, clotpole” is all he says, turning and walking away to his chamber before the other boy had a chance to retort.

 Merlin’s teeth were chattering.

He was freezing.

His father had woken him before the crack of dawn to bring him to the very top of the mountain's highest peak.

It was the place they went to when they had to call out a newborn.

Normally his father would do this, but this time it was Merlin’s turn.

When a dragon egg is created the environment and season they are hatched determines their magical breath.

This dragon was fated to be a gicel dragon.

As they continued to hike up the mountain they finally reached the peak.

At the top of the mountain there was a round cobblestone pedestal which was where the egg was to be hatched.

The sun was finally creeping up on the horizon.

It was a freezing winter morning as his father set the light pearlescent blue egg on the pedestal.

“Come closer my son, it will not harm you” his father said, holding out his right hand to Merlin’s.

Merlin took his fathers hand and his father pulled him to stand in front of the podium.

“What do I do?” Merlin asked, looking at his father, he was worried he would screw this up.

Maybe he’d call to the dragon and it wouldn’t hatch.

Maybe he’d give it the wrong name. 

“My son, nothing you can do will mess this up” his father stated, taking a few steps back from Merlin, letting him stand in front of the egg; allowing him the modicum of privacy.

“You must give the dragon a name, this name will come from your very bones, you must listen to the nature around you, listen to the wind, feel the snow, nature is all around you my son; you are one with it, it is one with you…”

Merlin couldn’t tell if his father had stopped speaking or if the sound of the wind swept the sound of his voice away from his ears.

All he could hear was the rushing of the wind.

He heard it blowing through his hair.

He felt it blow against his clothes. 

He hadn’t realized he’d shut his eyes, he only felt peace, he was one with nature.

And it was one with him.

Aithūsa…

The name seemed to spark a fire, like steel being struck against flint in Merlin.

The whisper had come from the very depths of his body.

He couldn’t tell if the whisper had come from the egg or from the wind.

The sound of cracking caused his eyes to fly open.

Merlin watched the egg and was mesmerized as the dragon, Aithūsa, broke through the egg.

The newborn dragon’s head poked out of the top of the egg.

It was a white dragon.

They weren’t exactly rare.

Most dragon scales were very bright and colorful, none of them were pure white, they normally had a small bit of color.

Most gicel dragon's scales were a very light blue, which almost looked white but under sunlight it was clear they were blue.

Aithūsa’s hide however was pure white, almost as white as the snow that covered the mountains.

Aithūsa’s shell fell away from its body.

It stared up at Merlin with a curious expression, Merlin just smiled at the dragon.

“A white dragon…” his father whispered in awe, stepping close to be able to get a better look at the newborn.

Aithūsa made a small chirping sound in greeting, spreading its small translucent wings.

“She’s beautiful…” Merlin whispered, his father looked at him in surprise.

“She? How can you tell?” His father asked, most dragons were genderless, there was only one other dragon that had a gender, Kilgarah, the great dragon.

“I heard her, she told me, I think” he said the last with uncertainty, it seemed as though the knowledge had come with the wind alongside her name.

“Aithūsa… The Light of The Sun… how beautiful” he whispered, Merlin didn’t fully understand the dragon tongue, his father said the full knowledge came when a dragon lord grew to be more powerful. 

Athusia just looked between the two of them with curiosity before making another chittering noise.

Perhaps her presence would make the next summer in Camelot more bearable.

Chapter Text

After a blissful winter, Arthur was back in hell; only this time there’d be another companion accompanying Merlin.

As Arthur stood on the palace steps he could see the caravan ride up through the town.

Merlin was at the front as always, only there was a small white animal seated on his saddle in front of him. 

It was seemingly about the size of a cat and was pure white, Arthur could see how bright it was from where he was standing.

As the other boy rode up to the front steps, he dismounted from Frik, the animal which had small translucent wings, which it flapped a few times and did a type of glide down and landed on the younger boy's shoulders.

It opened its mouth and yawned, which showed all its small youngling teeth.

It was a baby dragon.

He heard Guinevere and Morgana make small sequels of excitement behind him.

His father was stiff as a board next to him, his father was never exactly fond of dragons.

Before Merlin and Lord Balinor arrived, his father was always hesitant dealing with magical creatures, he’d preached to him in private that made people turn evil, he’d never say it in front of the counsel, only to Arthur, he’d never say anything along those lines to Morgana, she was very sensitive about the topic of magic.

For now Arthur was withholding judgment on the little beast, after last summer when he’d had that vision of the white and colorful dragon he was eager to see if this dragon was the same as the one in his vision.

He and his father descended the steps to greet the other boy, just as they had last summer.

As he and his father walked up to the other boy Arthur noticed that he was actually at equal height with the younger boy, he’d seemingly grown more over the summer than the other had.

Arthur’s eyes locked onto the dragon that was resting on the boy's right shoulder and was staring at him with similar intensity.

“So happy you could come to Camelot Lord Merlin” he greeted, holding out his right hand in greeting, repeating what he’d done last summer with no feeling behind it.

The other boy took his hand in his and shook it, “so happy to be here, your highness” he said with strained politeness, his jaw and hand were tense.

The dragon on his shoulder perked up the moment their hands made contact.

As quick as a whip the dragon spread its thin translucent wings and did the same flap descent and landed on Arthur’s right shoulder.

“Aithūsa!” Merlin hissed, the dragon hardly weighed anything, even though it was the size of a normal cat it weighed more like a kitten.

“Aithūsa?” Arthur asked, moving his head slightly to the right as the dragon began to rub against his cheek almost affectionately.

At the sound of its name the dragon made a chirping sound, which sounded almost like a greeting.

Distantly he thought he heard even more repressed squeals from Guinevere and Morgana.

The dragon's scales felt smooth, there were groves in between its scales which he felt as they rubbed against his cheek.

Arthur released the other boy's hand moving it to help keep the newborn dragon on his shoulder, placing his left hand under its bottom.

Said dragon moved so as to force Arthur to hold it in his arms like a babe.

The dragon snuggled into his arms, its stomach facing upwards, seemingly in an act of trust.

“Oh gods I do apologize to your majesty! I didn’t know she’d act like this!” Merlin hastialy apologized to his father.

Arthur didn’t know why he was apologizing, Arthur was practically mesmerized by the young dragon, it was beginning to make purring noises, the sound almost sounded like angels singing to Arthur.

“It’s not a fire breathing dragon, correct?” His father asked coldly, Arthur noticed he’d referred to the dragon as an ‘it’ while Merlin had called her a ‘she’.

“She has yet to gain her elemental breath, but she is also a gicel so there is no fear” he explained simply.

Arthur didn’t pay them any mind, his whole attention was focused on Aithūsa, who was now sleeping in his arms Arthur felt as though now he could die happy. 

Arthur was snapped back to reality when Morgana and Guinevere came up in front of him.

They both were practically crying over Aithūsa, Arthur could hardly blame them, the dragon was quite adorable.

“She’s so adorable! Is she purring!?” Guinevere called, it looked as though there were tears brimming her eyes.

“Oh I wish to hold her!” Morgana called bending down to get a better look at Athusia.

Merlin was grinning from ear to ear at them while Aithūsa slept in Arthur’s arms.

“Oh Merlin, she’s beautiful, you did such a good job!” She complemented the other boy, why was she complimenting him?

“Why’re you complimenting him?” Arthur asks looking up at them in confusion.

“Because he hatched her, only dragon lords can hatch newborn dragons” she explained looking at Arthur as if he was stupid, Merlin wore a similar expression.

Arthur only rolled his eyes in annoyance and went back to focusing on Aithūsa once more.

In the end he, Morgana, Guinevere, and Merlin had to walk to Merlin’s chambers together, well Morgana and Guinevere didn’t have to come but they decided to tag along.

Aithūsa was still fast asleep in his arms, he’d tried to pass her off to Morgana before.

However even though Aithūsa was asleep she could seemingly sense he was trying to pass her off; for her tail had moved to wrap around both of his hands so tight he wasn’t able to let her go.

As they reached Merlin’s chambers Guinevere opened the doors for them all, the other boy had been magically carrying two trunks behind him.

One was his own, the other was seemingly Aithūsa’s.

As they walked inside Merlin placed his trunk softly down at the foot of his bed while the other was placed down next to the empty fireplace.

Merlin did all of this without looking at the two trunks, with a flick of his right hand Aithūsa’s chest opened, inside there was a large plush pillow which was surrounded by multiple blankets and other fabrics, one seemingly looking like a small tunic.

“What's this?” Guinevere asked, pointing to the open trunk.

Merlin was opening his own trunk, with his hands, not magic.

“It’s Aithūsa’s nest, all newborns have them, it’s a type of bed they keep until they grow out of them” he explained, picking out some of his folded peasant clothes and placing them down on his bed.

After he’d done that he removed his dragon head circlet and placed it down on the bed alongside the folded peasant clothes.

Morgana sat down at the table while Arthur stood awkwardly in front of the open chamber doors.

Merlin didn’t pay him any mind as he took his folded peasant clothes and walked behind the screen in the far left corner of the chamber.

Arthur immediately averted his gaze feeling very awkward now, Morgana and Guinevere seemingly didn’t mind however.

“So Merlin I’m sure you heard about Bayard of Mercia’s visit, correct?” Morgana asked the screen, Arthur watched as the other boy draped his formal outer shirt over the screen top.

Gwen moves immediately to grab said shirt, folding it she places it on the other boy's bed, next to the silver circlet.

“Oh right, isn't that some type of war thing?” Merlin confirmed, Arthur rolled his eyes, that was such a terribly simplified explanation for what the meeting was.

“It’s not just some type of war thing, it's the signing of a treaty that marks a beginning to a new friendship between Camelot and Mercia!” Arthur called, Morgana just turned back and gave him an unimpressed look, Merlin just poked his head around the side of the screen, giving him an annoyed look, Arthur couldn’t help but notice that the boys neck was bare, which was a type of odd sight the boy always had something around his pale neck be that his neck scarf or the high collar of his formal outer shirt; even Guinevere sent him a slightly annoyed look.

“Whatever, there's a banquet and a signing of a treaty and it’s going to be boring” Merlin called, moving his head back so his whole body was back behind the screen, Arthur rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“I’m sure Bayard will give some long boring speech and we’ll all have to suffer, so boring is definitely correct” Morgana said turning back, propping her right elbow on the table, propping her chin on it with a bored expression.

“Lovely, will the food be decent at least?” The boy asked, as he threw his trousers over the top of the screen, Guinevere didn’t move this time to grab the trousers; Arthur figured it was because it would be improper.

“It should be, Bayard will bring his own kingdom's cuisines so we’ll have some variety at least” Morgana explained simply, after a moment the other boy walked out from behind the screen now fully changed into his peasants clothes, his deep red neck scarf around his pale neck.

“That sounds interesting at least I wonder-”

The other boy was cut off by someone knocking loudly on the door right behind Arthur, the sound made Aithūsa jump awake in his arms, the sound must’ve terrified the poor thing.

Immediately Arthur reassured the small newborn, removing his left hand from under her bottom petting her just as one would a cat, Aithūsa began to make a similar purring noise just like a cat, Arthur felt his heart melt.

“Princess Morgana, the king wishes for your presence in the throne room!” Leon’s booming voice came from behind the door, Morgana let out quite a loud groan throwing her head back in a dramatic way before standing and walking towards the door; Guinevere followed quickly behind her.

“I’ll see you tomorrow Merlin, maybe we can have some fun before Bayard and his caravan arrive” she said to Merlin as she pushed past Arthur to get to the door, Guinevere sending him a smile and wave as she followed her mistress out the door.

When the large door shut an awkward and tense silence fell around the two boys.

Arthur walked over to Aithūsa’s trunk and tried to place her down in it, however she wrapped her tail around his hands once more, refusing to allow him to let her go.

“She’s not going to let you go, she likes your body warmth” Merlin said simply, as he moved to place the folded clothing in his trunk.

“So will she just stay attached to my arms the whole time?” Arthur asked, standing up straight once more, turning to the other boy, who had picked up a case of some kind, placing his circlet in it and placing it back in his trunk.

“She likes warmth so once a fire is started in here she’ll remove herself” the boy explained, shutting his trunk and standing up straight once more.

“I have a fire already going in my chambers, we can place her in there for now, I do need to go back to training with Leon soon” he nodded towards the door behind them, Merlin looked tense, glancing from Aithūsa in his arms to Arthur, seeming hesitant at the suggestion.

“I won’t do anything! I’d never do anything to this little one, I've only known her for a few hours, but if anything happened to her, I would kill everyone in this castle and then myself” he said everything with a serious expression and tone.

Merlin stood for a moment before he burst into laughter, it wasn’t hysterical it was actually joyfull, the sound was something Arthur had rarely heard before, it was interesting, but not unpleasant.

“All right, fine, go to your chambers, I'll bring her trunk” the boy instructed after he’d calmed himself down, stealing his expression so it was more neutral than before.

Arthur only nodded before turning and walking out the left door and walked to his own chambers, as he opened the door he found that the fire in his fireplace was still strong. 

Waiting for only a moment before the other boy walked into the room with the trunk floating behind him.

As the boy walked inside he placed the trunk in the same place next to his fireplace, opening it and nodding for Arthur to place Aithūsa in the center.

Arthur bent down and moved to place her down, this time she hesitantly moved away from Arthur’s body heat, once she sat in the center of the trunk she kneaded the blankets underneath her before she laid down in a curled way, her tail tip at her head, her head placed on her own paws and she began to sleep; she was oh so like a cat, it was adorable.

“Well, it looks like you’re not a cold heartless prat…” Merlin muttered behind him, Arthur’s head snapped towards the other boy, incredulity written all over his face.

“Excuse me!?” He demanded, the other boy only smirked at him before he shrugged.

“Oh nothing, didn’t you say you have training?” The boy avoided the question, Arthur glanced out the window looking at the position of the sun; shit he was going to be late.

“Don’t touch anything, I’ll be back” he instructed before running over to his wardrobe and began to throw clothes out of it, where was his training armor!?

Something was thrown at the back of his head, it smacked the back of his head before it fell to the floor.

As he looked down he found it was his leather training armor.

Glancing up he found the other boy was leaning against the table, the gold in his eyes subsiding.

“Thanks…” he muttered, rushing to put the armor on, only to get tangled in the leather straps, shit.

He heard the other boy scoff before the straps of the armor began to right themselves on their own.

Arthur looked up at the other boy who just gave him a bored expression, his eyes still glowing golden.

Arthur only had time to mutter another quick thanks to the other boy before he had to sprint to the training grounds.

The next morning Bayard of Mercia’s caravan arrived.

His father had instructed him to be present to welcome the king.

He’d also asked Merlin to welcome the king, which confused Arthur; the other boy wasn’t a citizen of Camelot, why did his father wish him present?

Once the caravan reached they met in the throne room, the Mercian blue that they were wearing was a stark contrast to the Camelot red.

“Camelot welcomes you, the Lord Bayard of Mercia, the treaty we sign today marks an end to war and a beginning to a new friendship between our people” his father greeted the bearded man, holding his hand out to shake; the other man took it and they shook, Arthur was the first to start the applause which everyone else echoed.

The preparation for the banquet began after the greeting.

 His father had canceled all training for the day, since they had a visitor, Arthur felt a small bit of resentment; he wanted to train with Leon today.

As he went back to his chambers, Aithūsa was awake, sitting up in her trunk next to the fireplace.

Merlin was crouching down in front of her seemingly scolding her, trying to wrestle something from her jaws.

It looked like as if it was one of Arthur’s old shirts.

The other boy was speaking in a different language, it sounded like a bunch of random hisses and growls.

The tongue of the dragons, Arthur remembered being taught about it distantly.

Once the chamber doors shut, the other boy looked up at him shocked.

So shocked he’d accidently let go of the shirt, which Aithūsa quickly snatched and kneaded into her nest.

Merlin cursed at the dragon, who made a victorious chirping noise and seemingly wagged her tail, it made repeated thumps against the chest as she gave them both a victorious look.

“Ugh I’m sorry about her, she loves stealing old clothes, I tried to take it from her but she’s very stubborn” he said the last to the dragon, giving her a glare that held no true heat.

Arthur couldn’t help but smile at the dragon.

“It’s alright, she is allowed” he said walking over to the small dragon giving her scaled head a pat then a pet.

Aithūsa chirruped at him, rubbing her head into the hand and making a purring noise.

“She’s like a dog and a cat mixed together,” Arthur noted, partially to himself and to the other boy.

“She’s young, most dragon’s aren’t like this, she’s just different” was all the other boy said.

Arthur stood once more looking at the other boy, who was leaning against the table with a stony expression on his face, as he was looking out the window as the sun set.

“Listen,” Arthur began, he felt extremely awkward doing this, he’d “apologized” last summer but that one was forced by Morgana, this time he just wanted to give a genuine one; this was going to be weird.

“I know last summer I apologized, but I had only done that because Morgana had forced me and-”

“I know, I felt that Morgana was at the end of the hall when you apologized; you didn’t mean any of it did you?” He asked the last with a type of cold dead sarcasm that made Arthur feel even more uncomfortable.

“I- I did mean some of it, but I just wanted to apologize truthfully; no Morgana no outer force, just me; and just know I rarely ever do this and it feels very odd doing it now but, I am sorry” he shut his eyes and tensing, waiting for something for the boy to blow up at him, for the boy to hit him or cast a spell on him, anything.

But nothing happened.

As Arthur opened his eyes he found the other boy staring at him with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“I don’t know if I can forgive you yet, I’ll think about it but as of now, thank you for a truthful apology, and I will think on it” the boy answered, Arthur wanted to let out a sigh of relief, he could work with this.

“I must go, I have to get ready for the banquet, good bye” the boy said quickly walking out of the room.

When Arthur had said he hadn’t been forced, it wasn’t entirely true.

He did want to apologize to the boy, but it was mostly because his father had told him that if he didn’t truthfully apologize to the boy he’d end his training for being a squire prematurely and Arthur would never become a true knight.

That fate would be worse than anything Morgana or the other boy could do to him.

Finally when evening had come the banquet and signing of the treaty began.

After the treaty had been signed his father and Bayard shook hands once more.

The hall erupted into applause and Arthur and his father moved to sit once more.

Arthur, his father, Morgana, and Merlin all sat at the head table.

Bayard moved to the center of the hall begging his speech.

“People for Camelot! For a great many years we have been mortal enemies, the blood of our men stains the ground from the walls of Camelot to the gates of Mercia, and although we remember those who have died, we must not allow any more to join them” a servant walked next to Bayard holding two cases.

“As a symbol of our goodwill and of our newfound friendship, I wish to present two gifts to you all” the servant held up the first case which Bayard took.

“I present a ring from my own treasury to the young dragon lord Merlin,” the bearded man said, holding up a small box and opening it.

Inside was a golden ring which held a large deep blue sapphire in its center.

Arthur glanced over to the other boy in shock who was in turn staring at Morgana with an equal expression of surprise, only taking a moment to glance at Arthur before he looked back to Bayard.

Bayard moved to give the box to the other boy who stood and took it with a grateful albeit tight smile.

“Now for my second gift, I present these ceremonial goblets, to you Uther, and to your son Arthur; in the hope that our friendship may last” Arthur looked at the two goblets before he glanced at Merlin who was now seemingly frozen.

The other boy's eyes looked distant as if he was staring at something that no one else could see.

Arthur knew Bayard was still speaking but Arthur couldn’t find it in himself to pay attention to the other man.

Arthur looked back to Bayard when the man walked forwards and placed the goblets in front of him and his father, Guinevere walked forward and filled them both.

As Arthur glanced back to Merlin the other boy was staring at Arthur, well not at Arthur but at his goblet.

Arthur could tell there was something wrong but as he looked at his father he found that he was giving him a stony death stare that caused him to look back forward at Bayard, who was still speaking.

“And may the differences from our past, remain there” he said, lifting his own goblet prompting a toast, all people sitting stood for the toast, lifting their own goblets.

“To you Uther, Arthur, the princess Morgana, the lord Merlin, the people of Camelot!” Arthur had a feeling of dread, after Merlin had been staring so intently at his goblet, part of him didn’t want to drink out of it, but he knew that would be extremely offensive.

“And to fallen warriors on both sides” his father conceded Arthur glanced at his father who returned the glance and there was a clear look in his eyes that made Arthur want to sink away in fear.

Bayard gave a slight bow and Arthur moved his new goblet to drink before a voice called.

“Stop! It’s poison. Don’t drink it!” It was Merlin who ran from his spot at the left side of the table and ran to Arthur snatching the goblet from him and running in front of the table with it to make sure Arthur couldn’t reach the goblet.

“What!?” His father demanded looking from Bayard to Merlin.

“Merlin, what are you doing!?” Arthur called also glancing from the boy to the man.

“Bayard laced the prince’s goblet with poison.” The boy said with full certainty, turning back to the other lord, Arthur felt his heart drop to his feet at the statement.

“This is an outrage!” The man called unsheathing his sword.

The moment he unsheathed his sword all the knights in the hall unsheathed their own.

“Order your men to put down their swords. You’re outnumbered” his father commanded, at his words other knights came into the hall and surrounded the offending man.

“I will not allow this insult to go unchallenged!” Bayard called, pointing his sword at Merlin.

“On what grounds do you base this accusation young lord?” His father asked, staring at the other boy with such intensity.

“He was seen lacing it” Merlin said with clenched teeth staring his father in the eyes, Arthur was surprised by the confidence in the young boy.

“By whom?” His father asked, the boy looked away for a moment. 

“I can’t say,” Arthur stared at the other boy, who would make an accusation like this then say something as stupid as that!?

“I won’t listen to this anymore!” Bayard called. 

“Pass me the goblet” his father commanded, walking around the table to the other boy, Merlin passed him the goblet silently.

“If you’re telling the truth-”

“I am.”

“Then you have nothing to fear, do you?”

Bayard sheathed his sword and held out his left hand prepared to take the goblet.

“No, if this does prove to be poisoned, I want the pleasure of killing you myself” his father said, turning slightly and holding the goblet out to someone behind the table he and Morgana were still behind.

“The servant Guinevere shall drink it.” His father said, holding the goblet out towards the girl; Arthur felt his heart drop even farther as his eyes turned to the maidservant who looked as pale as a sheet.

“But if it is poisoned she’ll die!” He heard Morgana call in defense of her servant.

“Then we’ll know lord Merlin was telling the truth” he said coldly, moving the goblet filled hand in a beckoning gesture to the other girl who moved slowly, she looked as though she was walking to her execution.

“And what if she lives?”

“Then you have my apologies and we can discuss what to do later” his father said turning to Bayard after handing the goblet to Guinevere who’s hand was shaking, she glanced at Morgana who looked ready to jump across the table and snatch the goblet away from her.

“Father please she has nothing to do with this!” Morgana called out desperation clearly in her voice.

Before his father could even respond the goblet was yanked from Guinevere’s trembling hands by an invisible force and flew right into Merlin’s right hand, the gold in his eyes subsiding as he looked up from the goblet to Arthur.

Everyone froze, as the other boy held the goblet up and moved it to his own lips.

Arthur moved forward prepared to knock the goblet away before the other boy could drink it.

But he was too late.

The boy began to drink, downing the whole goblet in a few gulps.

After he drank it all he stood still for a moment.

The whole hall was silent, as if they were all frozen in time.

Merlin turned to Bayard before looking back at the occupants of the table once more.

“It’s fine.” The whole hall let out a sigh of relief at his words, Bayard showed a triumphant smirk.

Before anyone could move back Merlin began to make a choking noise, moving his left hand to his throat.

Arthur could only watch in horror as the other boy began to choke and cough, before the boy fell to the floor unconscious, the goblet rolled out of his limp right hand.

“It’s poisoned! Guards, seize them!” His father yelled, it sounded faint to Arthur’s ears all he could hear was ringing as he sprinted forward and fell to his knees next to the unconscious younger boy.

“Merlin!?” He called to the unconscious boy in panic looking over the boy's unconscious face. 

Gaius rushed forward with a speed that surprised Arthur for his old age. 

“Merlin, do you hear me?” The man asked moving his right hand to try and manually open the boy's eyes, the boy didn’t respond, he was out cold.

“We have to get him to my chambers” Gaius instructed Arthur, as he turned he found that Guinevere, Morgana, and Leon were behind him.

Leon moved to pick the thin boy up.

“Bring the goblet, we must identify the poison” Gaius commanded again, Arthur grabbed the empty goblet and rushed after them as they all ran out the hall.

“Lay him on the bed quickly!” Gaius instructed once they reached inside the chambers.

Leon laid Merlin down on the spare bed Arthur could hear the other boy gasping for air.

Leon had to run back since he had to aid in the seizing of Bayard and his people.

“He’s struggling to breathe, Gwen fetch me some water Morgana please find me a towel” Gaius instructed the two girls, both jumping into action.

Arthur had nothing else to do so he kneeled down next to the spare bed watching in horror as the boy gasped for air before going still.

“Is he going to be alright!?” Arthur asked Gaius, he didn’t know why he was so panicked over this, he figured it was because the whole situation was so stressful.

“He’s burning up… you can heal him, can’t you Gaius?” He asked moving his right hand to lay on Merlin’s temple, it was as if the boy had a fever.

“I won’t know until I can identify the poison, pass me the goblet,” the elderly man said, Morgana sat next to the unconscious boy placing a soaked cloth on the boy's temple while Guinevere soaked a second one.

Morgana took the goblet from Arthur’s hand, passing it to Gaius who took it and examined it.

“Ah there’s something stuck on the inside…” the elderly man noticed taking the goblet and walking over to a table that held multiple books.

“What is it?” Arthur asked immediately, standing and walking over to the table with Gaius.

Morgana and Guinevere were at Merlin’s side, Guinevere soaking a cloth before trading the other, making sure they remained cool.

Gaius walked behind the table and picked up a large leather book, flipping through it quickly before he found the correct page he was looking for.

“Ah the petal comes from the Mortaeus flower” the man said, holding up what looked like a translucent flower petal he’d picked out from the inside of Arthur’s goblet.

On the page in the book he’d opened Arthur saw a flower that was bright yellow, Arthur wondered distantly how that bright yellow flower had become so translucent.

“It says here that someone poisoned by the Mortaeus can only be saved by a potion made from the leaf of the very same flower,” the man explained turning the page to show two others one on the left depicting a lizard with wings hybrid monster, on the right a depiction of where the flower seems to grow.

“It can only be found in the caves deep beneath the forest of Baloch, the flower grows on the roots of the Mortaeus tree” Gaius explained, Arthur leaning over placed his hand on the left page, indicating to the lizard with wings monster.

“That doesn't look particularly friendly…” Arthur muttered

“A cockatrice, it guards the forest it’s venom is potent a single drop would mean certain death ‘few who have crossed the mountains of Isgard in search of the Mortaeus flower have made it back alive’” the man quoted the text in front of him, Arthur felt restless and began to pace, looking to the unconscious boy who was being cared for by Morgana and Guinevere he said the first thought that came to him.

“Sounds like fun,” he said, walking towards the door.

“Arthur, it's too dangerous, and you aren’t even a knight, you've just begun training as a squire!” Gaius chastised him immediately.

“If we don’t get this antidote what’ll happen to Merlin?” He asked the elderly man.

“The Mortaeus induces a slow and painful death, he may hold out for four, maybe five days in that time the king can send out riders; that’ll be more safe than you running off without permission!” The man told him, moving in front of Arthur to block him from the door.

“But father is busy dealing with Bayard and his people! He won’t focus on Merlin until all his men are taken, he cares about his pride too much!” Arthur called, growing more irritated, Merlin was lying on the bed right next to them slowly dying and here they were arguing over how to save him!

Gaius only looked down, not disagreeing with him, but also not agreeing with him; Arthur took his momentary pause to run out the door and to the armory.

As he ran to the armory he heard a horse leaving the citadel which caught his attention for a moment, before he pushed the thought away and ran to the armory.

Even though he was a squire, his father had demanded for real armor to be made for him, chainmail and all.

Once he got his armor on he ran to find his father.

“Arthur you are my only son and heir; I can’t take the risk of you losing your life on a mission that the knights, who have actual training and can do infinitely better than you!” His father scolded him as he walked to find more of the knights to help round up Bayard’s people.

“I won’t fail no matter what you think!” He called keeping stride with his father.

“Arthur, you are still a squire! You are not a knight! The boy will survive long enough for my men to round up all of Bayard’s men!” Arthur knew his father was right, Gaius had even confirmed this when he said that Merlin had four to five days but there was something that was telling him to go now.

‘Something will go wrong, must go now….’

The voice in his mind sounded like the one that had told him to be gentler when dealing with the other boy when he’d been unconscious.

“I can save him! I’ll take Leon with me! We can ride out tonight!” He was practically pleading to his father now.

“No!”

“Why not!?” 

“Because one day I will be dead and Camelot will need a king, I’m not going to let you jeopardize the future of this kingdom because of your impatience!” 

“Please father!”

“No, that is the last of it!” His father shouted before storming off down the hall.

When Arthur returned to his chambers he slammed the door rather forcefully.

Suddenly he heard the sound of two small yelps.

Arthur turned and found the young druid boy was seated in front of Aithūsa’s trunk, both of them staring up at him in shock.

The young boy looked as though he’d been crying, he was sniffling and his eyes were red and bright. 

“I’m sorry! I just, is Emrys going to be alright!?” The young boy shrieked, his voice sounded thick and full of emotions.

“Gaius says he’ll have a few days, so my father will send some riders out to get the antidote tomorrow” he said sitting down on the wooden chair dropping his sword on the table in frustration.

“What's wrong?” The young boy asked, his bright icy blue eyes looking as if they belonged to some far older than he was.

“It’s just, something is telling me to go get the antidote now but my father won’t listen to me!” He called frustration evident in his voice, pushing his face into his hands.

The young boy stared up at him from the cobblestone floor seemingly collecting his thoughts.

“The elder druids say that some lucky few are able to hear fates voice, her true voice, in their mind, it’s possible you are in fact hearing fate herself as if she was your conscience” the young boy explained, Arthur moved his hands away from his face and looked down at the child, who was staring at him as if he was eons older than Arthur.

Arthur wanted to laugh, he was getting advice from a child and it was making sense! 

“Sometimes you’ve got to do what you think is right and damn the consequences!” The boy expressed, Arthur had to agree; he knew he had to go.

“If I don’t make it back, who will be the next ruler of Camelot!?” He asked the boy, feeling like an utter fool for asking this of a child.

“There’s more than just my life at stake!” The boy looked up at him collecting his thoughts before he spoke.

“And what kind of king would Camelot want? One who would risk his life because he knew fate was speaking to him? Or one who does what his father tells him?” Arthur stared at the young boy before nodding and standing, grabbing his sword and running out the door.

He’d never truly gone against his fathers orders, it was always only small things, this could almost be classified as treason.

As he rode out of the citadel the guards watching the gates tried to stop him but Arthur just continued to ride knowing he’d probably gone mad but doing it anyway. 

Arthur rode on until he reached the mountain of Isgard only stopping to check the map he’d snatched.

Once he reached the forest he dismounted and began to walk leading his horse behind him.

Soon he heard the sounds of quiet sobbing.

He turned and found a young woman wearing a tattered red dress, her blonde hair was messy and dirty.

Quickly Arthur tied his horse to a fallen tree and rushed to the woman.

“Hello?” He asked walking over to the woman’s side, she looked as though she was not a few years older than him, there was also something almost familiar about her.

“Are you all right?” He asked, kneeling down next to her, she backed away on the fallen tree she was sitting on.

There was a loud roar, the woman screamed in fear at the noise.

It was the cockatrice, Arthur felt panic and adrenaline course through him as he drew his sword.

“Stay back!” He instructed the woman, who remained seated on the fallen tree.

Standing tall he ran forward and swung at the beast who began to walk forward.

They went back and forth the cockatrice taking one large leap, Arthur ducked and just stared at the monster for a moment not knowing what to do.

Quickly he glanced at the sword in his hand and just decided ‘fuck it!’ Throwing his sword at the monster like he would his throwing knives.

It lodged itself into the beast's chest and the monster collapsed with a final shriek, it was dead.

Arthur felt like jumping and cheering, take that father! He thought triumphantly looking down at the dead monster.

As he looked back to the injured woman she stood from the fallen tree looking terrified, it seemed like she was going to run. 

“It’s all right, I’m not going to hurt you” He told the woman who stood and stared at him, still looking fearful but not making any moves to run away.

“Who did that to you?” He asked, pointing to her injured right arm.

“My master, I ran away from him but then I got lost; please don’t leave me” she begged him on the brink of tears.

“I won't, I'm not going to” he reassured the woman, using a deeper voice as to sound older.

“You can take me away from here?” She asked, sounding so very hopeful.

“Not yet, there’s something I have to do first” he told her, walking towards the fallen monster to retrieve his sword looking towards the cave that held the Mortaeus flowers.

The woman followed his line of sight as Arthur retrieved his sword.

“Why have you come to the caves?” She asked him as Arthur walked over to his horse grabbing a rag he wipes off his blood and gut covered sword. Gross.

“I’m looking for something, it can only be found here” he explained vaguely, he still didn’t know if he could trust this woman.

“What is it?” Arthur didn’t answer, he just put the rag in his saddle bag once more.

“I know this place, I could help you” she was being very pushy, Arthur had a feeling he shouldn’t trust this woman, but Arthur decided to give her just a little more information.

“It’s a type of flower that only grows inside the cave, it’s very rare”

“The Mortaeus flower? I know where they are, I’ll show you!” She seemed very eager to do this which also made some warning bells go off in Arthur’s head, but the woman walked away before he could respond.

As they made their way into the cave Arthur made them some makeshift torches as he followed her.

‘Arthur, it's a trap…’

The voice made him turn in the cave, looking behind him in the pure darkness behind him, the torch light not able to reach far.

The voice sounded so faint, almost like a sound in the wind, the woman turned to look at him and gave him a smile, and continued walking, Arthur decided to shake off the weird feeling and followed her.

Finally they reached the end of the large cave they were in, Arthur found himself in an inner cave ravine.

“There they are!” The woman exclaimed pointing at the cluster of green atop one of the small ledges against the other cave side.

Arthur walked forward moving his torch around to find a way across the ravine.

Below there was a small ledge that was only a jump from the other cave ledge, as Arthur looked up he found the cave was open at the top, the colors of the sunset able to be seen from where he stood.

As Arthur walked towards the ledge he heard some of the stone crumble and fall down to the bottom of the ravine, it took far longer than Arthur would’ve liked before he heard the stones hit the ravines floor.

“Keep away from the edge, we’ll be out of here soon” he instructed and reassured the woman before he began to slowly walk across the ledge.

“Eorðe, lyft, fyr, wæter, hiersumaþ me…” Arthur heard something behind him, however he assumed it was like what he’d heard in his mind before, so he just ignored it; the ledge crumbled under his weight.

“He þæs frore geband, weox under wolcnum, weorþmynde þah. Eorðe ac stanas hiersumaþ me. Ic can stanas tobrytan. Hiersumaþ me!” The voice spoke louder, Arthur spun around and realized it was the woman who was speaking, casting.

“What are you doing!?” He demanded, the woman just smirked at him before Arthur realized the ledge he’d been standing on had been about to fall.

As fast as he could he dropped his torch and jumped, his chest colliding with the opposite cave ledge, he quickly made sure his hands held against the ledge, he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold himself up for long this chainmail was so heavy.

“I expected so much more” the woman spoke, sounding truly disappointed in him.

“Who are you!?” He demanded trying his best to pull himself up on the ledge.

“The last face you’ll ever see” the woman said in a way of explanation, why are sorcerers so overdramatic?

There was a hissing and rattling noises coming from his right, as he looked he felt his heart fall and his blood run cold.

“It seems we have a visitor” the woman said gleefully Arthur did his best to turn his head to the right only able to make out what looked like a rather large spider.

If possible Arthur felt his heart fall even farther in his gut.

As best he could Arthur used his hands to move himself to the left away from the large arachnid.

Said arachnid crawled towards him, Arthur tried his best to unsheathe his sword with his right hand, swinging at the arachnid as best he could without falling. 

Finally he got a lucky swing in and knocked the spider down to the bottom of the ravine.

“Very good, but he won’t be the last, I’ll let his friends finish you off, Arthur Pendragon, it’s not your destiny to die at my hand” with that she walked away, back into the cave they’d just come from, leaving Arthur in the dark, only the low light of twilight coming from the open cave top.

“Who are you!?” He called in a last ditch attempt to get answers.

Silence was all that met him.

‘Arthur…’

There was that voice again

‘It’s too dark…’

‘…Too dark…’

Arthur couldn’t focus on the voice at the moment, he was too busy trying to pull himself up the ledge.

Then there was light around him.

Arthur looked to his right only to find a bright ball of light!

“Come on then! What are you waiting for? Finish me off!” He called to the ball of light which only flew below him and showed him a place that was a perfect foot opening.

Arthur placed his foot on it and pushed and was able to pull himself up the ledge.

Finally he was able to stand, resheathing his sword he looked up at the flowers he’d come for.

‘Leave them…’

Arthur ignored the voice in his head, suddenly he heard more screeching from the large spiders.

No time to debate, he tried to climb up and pick one of the flowers, they were just out of reach.

Finally his fingers were able to pull one of the flowers out of the bed of roots they were growing out of.

After stuffing it into his pouch he began to try to climb up once more, only his leather gloves had no grip on the smooth stone.

Quickly he pulled off his gloves with his teeth and threw them into the ravine, pity, he liked those gloves.

‘…faster…’

‘Go faster…’

‘Follow the light…’ 

Arthur looked up at the light and realized it was lighting his path to climb up and out of the cave.

Arthur climbed as fast as he could.

Finally he reached the opening, flopping onto his back gasping to catch his breath.

As quickly as he’d laid down he sprung up and unsheathed his sword in case any of the spiders came after him.

He stood for a moment, no spiders followed, as quickly as he could he sheathed his sword and sprinted to his horse.

Finally after hours of riding he reached Camelot’s gates.

“Inform the king! Arthur has returned to Camelot!” He heard one of the watch knights call. 

As he slowed to a canter some of the knights walked forwards, blocking his way.

“What are you doing? Let me pass!” He demanded.

“I’m sorry sire, you’re under arrest, by order of the king” sir Aldren told him, drawing his sword, Arthur swore inwardly.

“You disobeyed me”

“Of course I did! A boy’s life is at stake! Honestly father I’d think you would care more about him! Considering he’s a dragon lord” He called, his father’s face turned red in anger.

“The boy is fine! Gaius said he’d have days till he got worse!” His father called rage evident in his voice.

“There’s more, there was a woman in the mountains, she knew I was there for the flower, I don’t think it was Bayard who tried to poison me”

“Of course it was!” His father called, Arthur was fed up with this, he reached into his leather pouch and pulled out the flower, walking over to his father he held the plant out to him.

“Gaius knows what to do with it” he told his father, who looked at the flower skeptically.

“Guard!” His father yelled, it took only a moment before a guard walked to the entrance of the cell.

His father turned to the man and held out the flower.

“Give this to the court physician, he will use it to heal the dragon lord” his father ordered the man, who took the flower, bowed, then walked away.

“I’ll see you’re let out in a week” his father told him before turning and walking out of Arthur’s cell, shutting and locking the cell door.

Arthur just turned around and groaned loudly, he shouldn’t be getting punished, hadn’t he done something nice!? He helped! He was going to be the reason the dragon boy was going to be saved! This wasn’t fair, he shouldn't be getting punished!

Arthur heard heavy footsteps walking back towards his cell.

He looked back only to be faced to face with a guard.

Hadn’t that been the same guard his father had given the flower too?

The guard just stared down at him.

The man’s eyes were bright.

Gold.

Magic.

The guard lifted his right hand, the hand that held the flower.

The man crushed it in his hand.

“No!” Arthur shrieked in horror.

The guard just dropped it right in front of the cell door.

Then he walked away.

Arthur fell to his knees and tried to reach out for the flower, it was just out of reach.

“Food for the prisoner” Arthur heard a girl's voice call from outside the jail cells.

It was Guinevere!

A guard opened the cell door and Guinevere walked in with a plate.

“Set it down over there“ he commanded, nodding over to a bench.

She complied, placing the plate down and stepping back.

“Thank you” he responded, standing and walking over to the plate, quickly he placed the flower on the plate.

“Wait a minute, I couldn’t possibly eat this; it’s disgusting” he told her walking back to where he’d been sitting before they came inside.

“The state it’s in, I’m not sure it’s fit for anyone” he made sure to put feeling in words to silently tell her that the flower was on the plate.

She walked over to the plate, picked it up and paused looking at the plate before she looked at him before she took the plate and walked out the cell.

Arthur thought he could breathe, it would all be okay.

“You wait!” Arthur felt his heart stop as a guard called out to Guinevere.

Arthur held his breath, there was just silence.

“Waste not, want not, eh? We’re not all as precious as her Royal Highness” The guard said and Arthur let out a great sigh of relief, even as he felt offended at the ‘princess’ comment.

“Food for Prince Arthur” 

Shit!

“Stay where you are!” He heard the guard call and running footsteps.

In fact his father didn’t ‘let him see him out in a week’ he was let out the next  day.

When he got out he immediately went to Gaius’s chambers.

When he got inside the chambers he found no one inside.

As he ran back down the halls he seemingly couldn’t find anyone.

Quickly he ran to the window to look outside, the sky was normal; it was a clear blue sky.

So he wasn’t in another one of those dreams again.

Having no other idea what to do he walked back to his chambers.

As he walked back down the hall to his chamber he bumped into Morgana.

“Oh Arthur! You smell terrible” was the first thing she said to him, giving him a face of disgust.

“Yes, I’d assume so considering the fact I’ve spent a day and a half in the dungeons after getting back from almost dying in a cave to retrieve a flower that was apparently supposed to save a boy who decided to sacrifice himself to save me from an assasination attempt, also what’s going on with Bayard? Are we going to war with Mercia? Because I don’t think he was the one who tried to poison me” he rambled to her, Morgana just waited patiently before he stopped talking.

“Gaius said he was going to go to father and convinced him that Bayard wasn’t the one who tried to poison you” she explained to him.

“Merlin is asleep, he’s been weak after all the poison, also this poison was magically amplified, had you not gone when you had he would’ve died, he’s been spending most of his hours sleeping. You can go visit him if you’d like” she offered nodding down the hall she’d just come down.

Arthur thought for a moment before he nodded and Morgana smiled at him.

“You did a good job Arthur” she said patting his right shoulder Arthur gave her a smug look which she responded with an eye roll.

“Don’t let it go to your head” she chastised him before walking back down the hall.

Arthur watched her go for a moment, before he turned and walked over to his chamber door.

He placed his hand on the door handle and paused before opening it.

He turned back towards the other boy’s chamber door which was closed.

Arthur began to have a small debate with himself.

He could go into his own chambers and get cleaned up before seeing the boy he saved.

Or he could go in and see him now, in his whole grossness and rub the fact that he was in fact the one who saved the younger boy in his face.

He chose the latter.

Arthur practically skipped over to the other boys' chamber, as he pushed open the door he found the boy asleep in his bed in the center of the room on his back.

He felt a sense of Déjà vu as he walked inside, flashing back to their last summer.

However there were a few major differences between the two situations.

The first being it was daytime.

And the second being Aithūsa, who was laying on the bed in a tight curled position.

She was lying on the left side of the sleeping boy.

Arthur walked up on the left side of the boy's bed and gave into the urge to pet Aithūsa's adorable head.

The sensation of Arthur’s hand touching her head woke the little dragon up.

She blinked blearily still feeling sleepy before her eyes focused on Arthur above her.

When she finally realized it was him she uncurled herself and sat up, she stretched her translucent wings and gave a large yawn, stretching out her front paws almost like a cat.

Arthur began to pet her scaly head, she began to purr happily obviously content with the petting.

“You smell like horse dung” Merlin’s hoarse voice told him, Arthur looked over and saw the boy had woken and was now looking up at him with a slightly disgusted expression.

“Your voice sounds like hell” he responded giving the boy a smirk.

“Well I drank poison to save your sorry ass, what’s your excuse?” The boy asked, beginning to sit up, using his elbows to push himself up into a sitting position.

“I rode out to get the antidote for you then spent a day in the dungeon because my father commanded me not to go, but I still went so a thank you would be nice” he huffed, giving the younger boy an annoyed look.

The other boy just gave him a self satisfied smirk.

“Well I never asked you to save me” the boy said hotlily going as far as to tilt his head up and not looking at Arthur.

Arthur opened his mouth, prepared to shout at the younger boy, he didn’t risk dying for this boy to be so ungrateful.

“But thank you” the boy said, cutting him off before he could respond.

Arthur’s face must’ve shown his shock at the gratitude for the other boy just rolling his eyes at him.

“Don’t let it go to your head, if your ego gets any bigger you’ll topple over” the boy warned looking down as Aithūsa got up from where she’d been sitting and went over to Merlin, laying down on his lap.

The other boy's hands automatically moved to pet her just as Arthur had.

“By the way, that’s three for me and two for you” the boy said after a beat of silence.

“What?” Arthur asked in confusion looking at the other boy who just smirked up at him again.

“I’ve saved you three times now, you’ve saved me two times, so you are still the damsel in distress” the boy punctuated each number by holding up three fingers then dropping one down to be two. 

“You haven’t saved me three times, you’ve saved me twice now; I couldn’t have bled out from a hand wound” he scoffed, rolling his eyes at the other boy.

“You could’ve gotten infected!” He interjected.

Arthur only gave him an annoyed look.

Aithūsa made an odd sound, which sounded almost like a sneeze and cough.

“Oh fine maybe you couldn’t have died from the hand wound,” he conceded offhandedly, looking away from Arthur and begging to pout.

Arthur was about to boast when Aithūsa made a clearer cough as spouted fire.

It wasn’t a lot and didn’t light anything on fire but he and Merlin starred in utter shock.

“Was that-?”

“Yup”

“But I thought she was a ice-”

“I thought she was too!”

Aithūsa seemed to not notice their distress as she sneezed fire then laid back down and fell asleep once more.

“What do we do!? Father will flip his top if he finds this out!” Arthur called, he’d grown quite fond of the little dragon he didn’t want to see her cast out.

“We don’t tell him?” The other boy made it sound like a question, Arthur just spluttered.

“But-!”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him” the other boy shrugged, sounding more confident in his solution if it could even be called that.

“We’re talking about a dragon! Not a kitten!” This boy was starting to be a bad influence, first he goes against his fathers commands now he might lie to him about a baby dragon.

“We’re not lying to him, we just aren’t telling him everything, so unless he asks outright about her elemental breath we won’t be lying” he reasoned, shrugging once more, beginning to pet Aithūsa‘s head.

Arthur just stared at the other boy in utter disbelief.

“You’d just lie to your own father like that!?” He demanded the nonchalant boy.

“No, but I’d lie to your father like that” he smirked at Arthur who stared at him incredulously.

“You expect me to lie to my father!?” He demanded.

“No, I just don’t want you to blab to him ‘big mouth’ so keep your mouth shut!” He instructed, Arthur only huffed with annoyance not even acknowledging the insulting nickname the other had used.

“Whatever, I won’t tell don’t get your tiara in a twist” he huffed, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

“Ugh whatever, go take a bath Cabbagehead” the boy instructed, Arthur looked at him with another incredulous look, this boy had so much audacity.

“Cabbagehead?” He muttered before turning and walking towards the chambers doors.

“Just make sure Aithūsa doesn't light your chambers on fire!” He instructed before walling out the chamber doors to find his utterly dull manservant George.

As he turned the corner he bumped into an elderly body.

“Oh hello Gaius” he greeted taking a step back, the elderly man just looked up at him. 

“Ah, welcome back young prince, actually I’m glad you’re out of the dungeon, I have a question for you” the elderly man spoke with a type of urgency that told Arthur he should answer with no questions asked, so all he did was nod.

“When you were in the Gray Mountains, did you meet anyone there?” The man asked.

“Oh yes I did, there was a woman, she never gave me her name but she told me she knew I was there for the flower were and when she led me there she tried to kill me, but she also said I wasn’t meant to die at her hand, it was confusing” he explained, the elderly man just listened intently.

“What did the woman look like? Do you remember?”

“She had pale blonde hair, brown eyes and wore a tattered red dress, there was something about her face that was sort of familiar…” he explained what he could remember about the woman who left him for dead.

After he’d saved her, why is it that every time he tries to do something nice it always ends in him getting in trouble!?

Gaius didn’t respond, he just looked down and stared off, not looking at anything seemingly.

“Thank you my boy, I saw George in the kitchens if you were looking for him” it was obvious he was trying to distract Arthur, he just went along.

“Oh thank you, good day Gaius!” He called walking past the elderly man to find his boring manservant.

Inside the throne room Uther, his counsel men, and his best knights were preparing for an attack from Bayard’s army that was left in Mercia.

“Sire, forgive my interruption, but may I speak with you?” Gaius asked as he entered the room. 

Uther, who was looking over maps, looked up at him with narrowed eyes before turning back to the maps in front of him.

“Not now.”

“Your Highness, it is important” Gaius urged, Uther relented, turning away from the battle table and walking towards some of the columns away from the other men, Gaius followed.

“I know who tried to poison Arthur”

“So do I, he’s locked in my dungeon” assuming this was all the elderly man had to say Uther began to walk back to the table.

“It wasn’t Bayard, the poison was magical, and I’d recognize the hand that made it anywhere…” he paused, looking over to the table to make sure no one was eavesdropping on them.

“Morgause.” The name held so much weight as he spoke it.

“You must be mistaken-”

“I wish I was”

“It can’t have been! We’d know her, her witch’s face is not easily forgotten” the king shifted looking almost fearful, Gaius knew he most likely was.

“She’s a powerful sorceress, she can enchant the eye that beholds her, we never knew it was her” Gaius didn’t know if he was reasoning or reassuring the man. 

“Have you any proof?” He demanded turning back to the elderly man.

“The poison used against Merlin was made more potent by the use of magic “

“You’re saying that she conspired with Bayard to kill Arthur?” 

“No, Bayard is innocent; look at what’s happening, this is what she’s wanted all along, a war to bring strife and misery to Camelot” the two looked over to the table, Uther seemingly realizing that Gaius was right.

“How long before Bayard’s armies reach our walls?” He asked the men around the table.

“A day, maybe less” Sir Bedivere told him.

Uther walked over to the table, looking over at the documents on the table; documents that sparked pride before but now made him feel only dread in his gut, he knew Gaius’s was right, however he’d never admit out loud.

“We should send our cavalry out to meet them” Sir Bedivere continued speaking, Uther didn’t respond, he just continued to look down at the maps and scrolls.

“Instruct your men not to leave Camelot until I give the word” he instructed, Sir Bedivere just bowed and accepted his orders, no one would ever dare question his decisions.

“You are making the right decision, sire” Gaius reassured him, having walked up next to him; the other counsel men and knights all began to leave.

“Do you think Arthur should be told the truth about Morgause?” Uther doesn’t respond and just keeps looking down at the maps.

The next day the Mercia caravan procession left, surprisingly Bayard didn’t want to call for war.

Arthur and Morgana were standing at the top of one of the castle tops looking over the caravan leaving the kingdom.

“Ok, I didn’t allow it before but, let the bragging begin, how did you manage it?” She asked with a smirk.

“If I’m honest, I’m not sure…” Arthur muttered, Morgana turned to him in absolute shock.

“All I do know is I had help, someone knew I was in trouble and sent a light to guide the way” he leaned forward against the stone parapet in front of him.

“Ah, I see…” she muttered, looking away from him with a knowing smirk.

Arthur looked over to her with suspicious eyes.

“You know who it was, Morgana?” She didn’t respond and didn’t look to him, she only hummed and continued to watch the caravan.

“Morgana!” He demanded, his voice made Morgana smirk slightly, and turned to look at him with that smirk.

Arthur was now slightly taller than his sister since his growth during the winter so he no longer had to look up at her when they spoke.

“I’m not the one to ask my dearest brother, Merlin is” was all she said, looking over at him with a sweet smile, before she turned and began to walk inside.

Arthur just stared at her back in surprise, what did that mean!?

Chapter Text

Hey guys! So uh, I live? 

Here’s an obligatory life update: I graduated high school and started college, which has caused me to want to go back and revisit the things that previously gave me joy (this is also my way of ignoring my midterms) 

Backupbiter will be returning as my co-author and grammar police! Yippie 

I’m back on my Merlin juice and felt like rewriting this fic! I will be rewriting (almost) Everything that I’ve written so far

The main changes will be as follows:

The amount of summers: originally there were going to be 9 summers (holy shit younger me was WAY too ambitious) there will now be only 5 summers, as seen in the Swan Princess movie Odette and Eric are shown at five different ages during the This is My Idea song. Sooo 5 summers it is!

Age changes: 

Merlin will be 15 instead of 11

Arthur is now 16 instead of 12

(I honestly don't know why I made them so young, they can be a little older)

Morgana is now 18 instead of 16

Gwen is now 19 instead of 13 (she just gives off mother energy so I've decided that she's the oldest)

Character ages will be listed at the beginning of each chapter as done previously.

Any other important changes will be mentioned in the chapter notes for the corresponding chapters.

What will remain the same:

The main story beats will remain the same

• The summers will correspond to seasons 1-2 of the Merlin show
• (they will fall in love over the course of the last few summers)
• Each summer will be restricted to around 2-4 chapters, to show both Merlin and Arthur’s POVs of the summer 
• There will be an extra chapter that will be more of a third person objective POV rather than third person limited, to summarize the rest of the summer that I don’t feel like writing the personal POVs to (it won’t be anything major, just fun little stories that have to do with, updates on the status of characters relationships, and power growth) 
• The summers will end with season 2 episode 5 & 6 Beauty and the Beast parts 1 & 2
• Afterwards the story will mostly be a retelling of the Swan Princess (omitting the one true love proclaiming their love for another killing the one under the curse) 

Honestly I’m still figuring out the plot of the second act- 

But fear not! It will be done! Eventually I will keep you guys updated on my future plans!

I will be removing the previously posted chapters soon.This note too will be deleted alongside the older chapters as well; but not until I finish rewriting chapter 1 & 2.

So soak up my poor writing while you can, because rereading this honestly makes me cringe hardcore

(though some of the jokes make me laugh and go ‘oh damn I wrote that!’)

Anyway! Hope you all look forward to the updated version of my fic! I know I’m more hopeful about this iteration than the previous one- 

(Younger me had FAR too much ambition for this story)

And in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night! 

Chapter Text

hi this is backupbiter

i live. the ao3 author curse got me (no financial aid for college even after they PINKY PROMISED, currently several thousands of dollars in debt for my first year 💪) but i am returning as grammar police & editor.

gonna do my best to edit as soon as humanly possible. if u read a chapter and it doesn’t look the same that’s prob my fault feel free to frown in the direction of the pacific ocean 👍. if yall spot any funky things I might’ve done pls give me a shoutout and holler @ me.

anyways im like. pleasantly surprised that yall r still keepin up w this. thanks for all the support so far and please look forward to the new and improved dragon prince!

-backupbiter

ps: if u saw my old pseud no u didn’t. the change of pseud name is bc I created the account back in like. 7th grade. guys i promise im not edgy anymore.