Chapter Text
Merlin had been having a wonderful dream just a moment ago. It was spring, he was back in Ealdor with his mother cooking at the hearth, and Will was alive and sitting across the table munching on bread and listening to his aimless rambling. Occasionally his mother would laugh at something he said, and throw in a comment of her own, or Will would roll his eyes and toss out a far more condescending remark. Merlin couldn’t remember the topic of conversation, but he was certain that this was more memory than dream.
Even knowing it was a dream, that Will was no longer alive and he himself was no longer as welcome in Ealdor as he once was…just sitting there with the sun coming in the window and the idle sounds of his neighbors milling about outside, settled him. It was easy to pretend that he was back there, in time. When food was tight and everyone had to work so hard to just scrape by another year. But still…the sense of community had held them all together, made it all worth it…until he’d slipped up, that is.
Merlin had shaken off that old memory when the sunlight had begun to dim and his mother’s voice had started to fade. No use dwelling on past mistakes. Turning this dream into a nightmare wouldn’t help anything.
The sun had just come back into full strength, and his mother’s voice returned to that sweet hazy dream clarity when he’d felt something. A prodding, at the edge of his mind. A familiar feeling he couldn’t quite place.
Frowning, he tried to stay in the dream, but the feeling returned. And now, a slight thrum of tension, a presence, someone he knew very very well.
The confusion was enough to allow his dream to slip away, and Merlin found himself reluctantly slipping back into the waking world. Shifting against his unusually uneven mattress, under blankets a lot heavier and warmer than he remembered, Merlin slowly blinked awake to see…Arthur?!
Like a brick, Merlin was hit with memories of last night. The singing, the dancing, the wild animals and the faeries. And the fact that they were all still there, cuddling up incriminatingly against him. In front of his prince.
This split moment of realization was enough to throw Merlin’s heart into overdrive as he scrambled to come up with a believable, non-treasonous reason for this situation.
Unfortunately, his mental scrambling also induced physical scrambling as he attempted to get to his feet and explain everything and maybe even run, all at once, and the combination of shouting “Arthur!” with as much panic as he could muster, and also flailing around like a fish on land, was enough to throw the rest of the clearing into a panic.
Merlin only had time to call himself an idiot in his head before a blur of wildlife turned the clearing into a storm of chaos. Smaller animals all bolted for the underbrush, birds tore off into the sky, something with claws dug into his chest for traction before vanishing into the long grass, and he narrowly missed getting his head stepped on by the deer taking off into the bushes.
Distantly, he could hear the knights shouting, the pounding of paws and hooves against earth, and then…quiet.
Not quite silence. He could hear the heavy breathing of the knights, some low cursing, his own heart hammering in his chest. Pushing himself cautiously up onto his elbows, he turned slowly to face Arthur and the knights, who were standing stock-still together just at the edge of the clearing, obviously stunned by how fast everything had just happened.
A small heaving sound drew his eyes away and back towards his feet where…a small, naked blue faerie was bent over, puking into the grass. Well…there went the option of pretending that nothing magical happened last night.
But…eyeing the faerie, he had the perfect excuse. Clearing his throat, he sat up and leaned closer to the figure.
Seeing the shadow cast over her frame, she turned to squint back up at him.
“Um, quite the…faerie party…wasn’t that?” Merlin said loudly.
Cursing colorfully in Sidhe, the faerie clutched at her head and scowled sharply at him.
“Oh, sorry, um. Just relieved that it wasn’t anything dangerous that happened last night. Just faeries messing around, yeah? Nice change from murderous sorcerers, you know?”
The faerie glanced from the knights back to Merlin and then rolled her eyes and nodded. Then her wings became a flicker of motion and she darted up in the air, throwing Merlin a two-fingered salute before she vanished into the upper foliage.
“Ah…so…” Merlin glanced around again, spotting his mare still lying drowsily in the grass, snorting noisily as a long blade of grass tickled her nose. “Luca!” he exclaimed. Stumbling to his feet, he paused as he felt something tighten around his leg, just above his boot.
Looking down, he spotted his passenger easily enough. A thick-bodied, vibrantly patterned serpent coiled about his calf, tongue flickering out to taste the fabric of his pants.
“Oh, somebody didn’t wake up with the rest,” he muttered.
“Merlin!” Arthur exclaimed. “Don’t move! That snake is venomous!”
Merlin returned his attention to the knights, who were…ah, right. Very alarmed. A natural reaction to seeing a venomous snake wrapped around your servant’s leg.
Merlin opened his mouth to reassure him that he was fine, but caught Lancelot’s rapid cutting motions before he could put that foot in his mouth.
“Ah, right. Of course. I’ll just…wait for it to leave…”
“If we’re fast enough,” Elyan said, “Perhaps we could…kill it. Before it can strike.”
Arthur shook his head. “If we were within range, I might risk it. If any of us attempts to approach, the movement could shock it into striking before we could reach it.”
Off to the side, Luca clambered to her feet, shaking the morning dew and stray bits of grass and dirt from her coat.
Merlin, watching her, became aware of the mess of grass and twigs sticking uncomfortably to his clothes and hair. Unthinking, he reached up and removed his jacket, intending to shake it out.
The sudden muted exclamations of the knights froze him mid-shake, and he remembered his position.
“Ah,” he said. “I was just thinking…maybe I could…use this to pick up the snake.”
They all stared at him, and it didn’t take a social genius to realize that every single one of them was wondering if he truly was an idiot as Arthur frequently claimed.
Arthur, in particular, looked torn between stepping forward to strangle Merlin where he stood, and begging him not to bend over and attempt to grab the very venomous snake resting around his calf.
Merlin also noted that Gwaine had been quiet this whole time, never a good sign. The man also looked one step away from tackling Merlin where he stood and wrestling the snake away himself.
Lancelot, perhaps noticing that one of the knights was bound to snap, spoke up. “Perhaps,” he said, “the…faerie spell…rendered the creature…uncommonly docile.”
Merlin nodded minutely while the rest of the knights shifted their attention away from Merlin.
Encouraged, Lancelot pressed forward. “So,” he said. “If Merlin feels as if it’s safe to…pick the snake up with his jacket…perhaps we should let him try.”
Now everyone was staring at Lancelot like he was the idiot.
“Lance, mate, I don’t think we should jump to conclusions like that,” Gwaine said tightly. “This is Merlin’s life on the line here.”
Merlin frowned. “Well, probably not my life,” he cut in.
“Is it only mildly venomous?” Elyan asked.
“Well…” Merlin hesitated. Making that claim would be taking the easy way out, but he didn’t want any of the knights stumbling across this type of snake in the future and assuming it was less dangerous than it was.
Um, well, it’s still pretty venomous,” Merlin said, “Life-threatening, even. But it’s not like I’d die instantly. It would take time for the venom to work it’s way up to my heart. I have some things here that could slow the spread, and I’m sure Gaius would have some kind of antidote back at the castle. So, it’s really not that big of a risk. And! I think Lancelot is right. And the um, the spell is still, working a bit. I also feel…sleepy. So, the snake is probably also sleepy. And unless we’re all just going to stand around all day waiting for it to just…leave, then…I’m just gonna grab it.”
Before anyone could do anything drastic, Merlin swiftly leaned over and plucked the snake up into his jacket. There was a muted, displeased hiss as it coiled partly along his arm. Before the knights could do anything, he walked briskly over to the edge of the clearing, and eased the ornery snake into the long grass, where it vanished in a swift whisper of motion.
Straightening, he gave himself a mental pat on the back before an abrupt punch to the arm knocked him out of his moment of satisfaction.
“Merlin, you idiot!” Arthur exclaimed.
Hands gripped his shoulders, and he was roughly shaken. “Don’t do that to us!”
“Hey, hey,” Gwaine, interjected, prying Arthur back. “Take it easy on him. It all worked out.”
“And we should probably head back,” Elyan said, eyeing the long grass warily. “We don’t know how many of those animals could still be lingering in the area.”
“Right,” Arthur agreed, taking a step back to put a more respectable distance between himself and his manservant. “Right,” he repeated. “We should head back. Merlin, tack up your mare. We left our horses further back, lest they be controlled by…” he trailed off.
“The faeries,” Lancelot cut in. “Which are gone now.”
“Presumably,” Elyan muttered, glancing warily at the bushes around them.
“I don’t think it was anything malicious,” Merlin said. “Just, um, a kind of party. Sleepover. Something.
“Seemed harmless enough,” Percival agreed.
“I’d hardly consider wolves and wild boar to be harmless,” Arthur stated sharply. “Whatever those faeries were up to, we should be glad they were only doing it out here, where there aren’t any innocent people at risk…well, besides Merlin here.”
“At risk of getting some excellent shut-eye,” Merlin muttered.
“What?”
“I said we should head out, then,” Merlin said loudly.
He walked decisively over to Luca’s tack, piled in some bushes, and started struggling to heave it out of the shrubbery.
Lancelot and Gwaine, bless their hearts, rushed over to help him, while Arthur simply snorted in disdain and muttered something about “twig-arms” that had Merlin rolling his eyes and making a mental note to put something wet and goopy into one of Arthur’s boots later in retaliation.
By the time Luca was tacked up and Merlin was able to mount her with only one near-spill onto the ground, he’d decided that he was going to convince one of the castle cats to puke into Arthur’s boots right in front of the man. This was he’d avoid any blame, as Arthur had started to catch on to the fact that some of his “little accidents” only occurred after he’d had an argument with his manservant. Sure, he wouldn’t get to see Arthur’s expression when he actually stepped in the mess, but “twig-arms” was honestly a pretty light and accurate insult, so he figured he’d save the full force of the prank for a more serious future insult.
The knights, still jumpy after the animal tornado and the issue of the snake, insisted on leading Luca along as if Merlin was a child on a pony.
Merlin’s pride urged him to protest this treatment, but Lancelot’s pleading expression and the lingering edge of sleepiness had him simply sighing and sucking it up.
Fortunately Gwaine ended up being the one leading Luca back through the forest, keeping him entertained with a witty tale from earlier yesterday about a bar-fight and a very complicated bit of gossip about the citizens of the lower town and a small feud between rival butchers that had recently escalated when their children were caught locking lips behind the flower-shop.
In the end, Merlin nearly ended up dozing off in the saddle before they reached the rest of the horses.
Taking back the reins for the last leg of the trip and making sure Luca didn’t trail too far behind Arthur and the knights did keep him awake, but he was still grateful to see Camelot come into sight again.
Passing through the gates, the hustle and bustle of the lower town reminded him of the atmosphere from his dream. The background sounds of a community hard at work. Craftsmen hawking their wares at the stalls, shop-owners idling about their store-fronts exchanging gossip, teens selling flowers at the roadside and making eyes at the flustered potter’s apprentice across the way. One of the women selling wicker baskets caught Merlin’s eye and smiled his way, and one of the store-keeper’s raised a hand in greeting to him as they passed.
Merlin wondered idly if he’d still be so welcome if they knew what he was, but...Will had known, and he’d never treated him like a monster. And he knew that Camelot was not as magic-free as Uther wanted everyone to believe.
Even here, in the open market, he spotted one of the girls selling flowers who he’d helped a month or so back when Uther had thrown Camelot into chaos attempting to find the “wicked sorcerer” who was…causing wildflowers to glow in the dark. Merlin had helped her control her magic, and now she simply used it to add an extra bit of life to the flowers she sold.
Further along, he spotted the washer woman waiting in line at a food stand, who’d caught him heating the laundry tub a whole year ago and simply scolded him (rather harshly, he’s not going to lie) about “being such a reckless boy” instead of calling for the guards.
So, leading Luca up through the lower town behind Arthur and the knights, Merlin figured that even though last night had been a very magical experience, and his dream had reminded him of the past he sometimes longed for, he still had a place here in Camelot, alongside all the common-folk doing their best to make it day by day, beside the knights who cared enough for the well-being of a simple manservant to saddle up and search for him after only being missing on night. And…beside his prince. Sure, the threat of the snake hadn’t been as real as the others had believed, but the serious concern on the prince’s face in that moment…Merlin truly believed that it was all worth it. He might have moments when a chimera tried to rip him open like a rabbit and a revenge-blinded sorcerer tried to burn him to a crisp, but he also had moments like this to remind him of what he was working towards.
“Merlin!” a voice called, breaking him out of his thoughts. Looking ahead, he realized that he’d let Luca slow to a stop in the street, flicking her tail and idly watching a pair of children throwing dice off to the side.
Ahead, Arthur and the knights had brought their horses to a halt, looking back at him expectantly.
Merlin smiled brightly. “Yes, I’m coming, sire. No need to get your royal panties in a twist!”
He nudged Luca forward as the rest of the knights muffled laughter, barring Gwaine, who was doing no muffling.
Yes, this was definitely the right place to call home.