Mostly because dead people don't talk back

4: Imbecilic

It was the near end of a week's patrol to the border when Lancelot and Gwaine found Merlin bleeding out. Well, they didn't know he was bleeding out yet.

Some moments previous, however, they were speaking of this exact person.

Gwaine was futzing around with an apple in his hand. He might eat it, or he could save it for the rest of the patrol. "Did you know?"

Gwaine was abrupt of course, as this was in line with his personality.

"Know what, exactly?" Lance offered, as he adjusted a saddlebag on his horse, Athena.

They were far enough from the vicinity of the castle and anyone influenced from Uther's reign that Gwaine gained the confidence to say anything incriminating. He threw the apple briefly, catching it in his other hand. "Did you know about Merlin's magic?"

Lance barely had to look up or hesitate to answer the knight. "Yes." He brushed out some mud on Athena's coat.

He had known about Merlin's magic for years. Out of the warlock's friends, Lancelot alone knew how much Merlin needed someone to confide in other than Gaius.

Merlin was not secretive, per se, but he was protective and a hell of a lot more stubborn in that than Arthur. If that was a surprise to anyone, then they didn't know Merlin. With great protectiveness came kept secrets. Merlin kept these secrets if he thought them harmful to others. Magic, Lancelot knew, was the one and only secret that, if discovered, would harm his friend to a horrible extent.

If Merlin's killings came to be known, it would hurt him and scandalize some people but it wouldn't scar Merlin's mental state.

The fact of the matter is, if Merlin was discovered for his magic, he would not care that he could die for it (well, everyone cares if they die, but that's just mortality kicking in). Merlin cared only for what Arthur would do and what he would choose in the effect of his treason.

"Has he told you of when a griffin ravaged Camelot?"

"You've mentioned, but nothing comes to mind, no." Yes, many (idiotic) things had been told to him about years past, but the griffin was a new one.

"He was out in the forest, as was I when the beast attacked. He ran, and I came upon him in this time. I fought- failed to even puncture the hide- and ended up wounded."

Speaking with apple in his mouth, Gwaine cut in."So Merlin brought you back to Camelot?" Gwaine knew how similar he and Lance were to each other and how broadly...different their goals had been in life before knighthood.

"Naturally," He swept his hand across Athena's hip then pat at her head. "I wanted to become a knight, but Merlin forged a seal of nobility-"

"And they looked and discovered your treason?"

"Of course. I didn't know of his magic till a later time, however, when he used it to help me kill the beast."

The tales of Lance and Gwaine meeting Merlin: an idiot takes a wounded man home who shares information about his past that includes knighthood, befriends the idiot, and also takes a liking to Gwen. The two stories ended with leaving Camelot.

They, however similar, have different goals in their life. Lance centered his goals on Gwen, romance, and wanting to become a knight. Gwaine? He's centered on family, loyalty, and had no care for knighthood.

Either way, they became knights of the round table because of one idiotic manservant and his loyalty to the prince, now king.

The two mounted their steeds and continued the earlier trip they'd taken a break from. Their orders had them edging the border of Cenred's kingdom, near the ridge of Ascetir.