Just another day in Camelot - Merlin one shots

Alinthy - Part 1

"My feet hurt."

"Well, you should have brought better shoes."

"I don't have any more shoes!" Merlin was in a grumpy mood. They had been walking all day just to get to a stupid kingdom which was still about half an hour away. "Can we stop here?"

"No, we will stop at their borders, then we should get to the closest town this time tomorrow."

This stopped Merlin. "What?! A whole more day of walking?" Arthur ignored him and the raven haired boy had to run to catch up. They where on their way to a Alinthy all because of some magical illness spreading across Camelot at terrifying rates. Arthur had decided to go to visit one of the few last kingdoms which still allowed magic, but no one knew much about the place. Nobody had ever visited or even seen the place so for all he knew the place could not exist at all.

"Grow up." The rest of the way was silent; Merlin trudging behind dragging his feat and mumbling to himself grumpily. A while later Arthur stopped making Merlin walk into him.

"See that big bolder? That marks Alinthy's borders. Race you there." Arthur ran at full speed towards the rock with the clumsy Merlin stumbling behind him. Arthur looked over at him triumphantly when he had gotten to the border, then carried on walking withought waiting for him to catch up. "We will set up camp soon."

Merlin grumbled something inaudible and followed. As soon as he stepped into Alinthy he felt something change. It was only a slight change, one so slight that one might never notice it, Merlin did notice it but thought nothing of it. He continued walking, then stopped when he felt something tikling his leg. He looked down and saw grass growing abnormally quickly. Almost magically. Panic flared up in his chest as he realised, he was letting his magic out but that had never happened before. He looked back and saw a trail of wildflowers and long grass only in the places he had taken a step. He pushed his magic down trying to smother it, but it seemed to be overflowing out of him.

"You coming?" Arthur shouted from up ahead. He jumped nervously and looked over at Arthur, running to catch up with him while also trying to push his magic down. He succeeded to do it for a few seconds if he concentrated really hard. He just had to concentrate and-

A hand clamped down on his shoulder as he heard a far away "You ok?" It startled him so much that he lost his grip on controlling his magic and his eyes flashed gold just as he spun around to face Arthur. A strong wind pushed them apart; Merlin's doing. They where both rock still until realisation flashed through Arthur's eyes. There was no fear in them, just anger as he lunged at Merlin. The collided and rolled around in the ground, the grass and weeds growing faster than ever. Merlin was almost paralysed with fear, making him unable to push Arthur off.

"You. Dirty. Lier! You. Sorcerer!" He spat out each word with a punch after each one of them and Merlin thought with some sadness that Arthur could punch him harder. The king of Camelot had found out he had magic, probably wanted him dead but was holding back on his punches. The punches stopped abruptly. Merlin opened his eyes cautiously and saw Arthur get up, avoiding his gaze and walked away. The young warlock got up and cautiously felt his face. It was painful but nothing was broken or bleeding, the most that Arthur gave him was a couple of faint bruises. He walked behind Arthur, a couple of meters behind him, unsure what to do. They walked like this for some time until the sun went down, and the moon started to rise. The king sat down and rolled out his sleeping mat, his back to Merlin. Merlin got some fire wood ready and lit the fire using the old fashion way. He prepared some kind of stew which lay uneaten in the pot.

"I thought you where my friend." Came a ruff voice from in front of him. He looked up and saw Arthur with his arms crossed looking betrayed and angry.