Phoenix Fire

15 - Full of Surprises

KAENA

Whatever I was expecting Hild to look like, it wasn't that.  

"She's full of surprises today," Merlin whispered to me. 

"She most certainly is." I agreed. 

Whatever she had done to her hair, it had worked. Instead of looking like an untamed lion's mane, it was curly, falling in natural ringlets all around her head, with a shine to it that I really quite envied. I wondered if my hair could look like that, instead of the general waviness I normally had. 

She was wearing a green velvet dress with long sleeves that were a lot  wider at the ends, and a silver belt that hung low on her hips. She was, to my utmost surprise, wearing lipstick. She always had really thick eyelashes, another thing I was jealous of, but tonight they were matched with soft blush and a light almost pastel coloured lipstick that reminded me of autumn. She looked taller than usual and far less wiry. The dress hugged her in all the right places. She looked like an autumnal goddess with all the greens and her red hair and freckles. All that was missing was a woodland garland as a crown. 

She was laughing with Morgana near the head table, her curls bouncing as she moved. 

Arthur sidled up to me. 

"Morgana and Gwen certainly worked their magic on her, although I don't mean actual magic, of course." Arthur remarked.

"They could have fooled me." I confessed. It wasn't that I didn't think that she wasn't pretty usually, I'd just never really considered it. 

"It's funny she almost looks like she's..." Arthur snapped his fingers trying to get the right word.

"Grown up." Merlin finished for him.

Merlin was right. She looked far more mature than she was. 

Sir Leon the knight came to join us, and nodded in Hild's direction. "You lot surprised by the transformation as well?" He asked.

"What do you mean as well?" Merlin ventured.

"Well some of the knights didn't even recognise her, they thought she must have been visiting from a different court," Leon chuckled to himself, "I think she's made quite the impact tonight." 

"She just normally looks so...young?" I mused.

"Well she's not." Merlin pointed out. "She could be eighteen for all she knows."

"Doesn't her brother know?" I asked.

"I haven't asked her. I didn't realise she didn't know until today. But she's been through a lot in her life, of course she takes every chance she can to live the childhood she never had. Responsibility is difficult." Merlin said, "She's short and acts immature, that's why we all see her as so much younger than us. In reality the only person we know she's actually younger than is Lona." He made sure to use my alias in public. 

"Why how old are you?" Arthur asked me.

"Twenty two." I replied.

"Well I'm twenty." Arthur pointed out. 

"Yes Arthur, in body only." Merlin snorted. 

"Merlin what's that supposed to mean." Arthur asked, sounding confused.

"Well your brain still has a lot of developing to do." Merlin grinned.

Arthur gave Merlin a warning look, "Did you like going in the stocks that much Merlin?"

"I'll go serve some wine," Merlin replied, his jug clutched to him as he dodged out of the way of Arthur who was after him. 

I looked at Leon who was shaking his head and smiling. "I don't know how he gets away with it, I honestly don't." He said.