Merlin's magic (Oneshots) 1

Regent

Content warning:   Mentions /references to child abuse /rape 
                                         Evil Agravaine
                                         Morally gray Merlin

(The art on top is compensation.)
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In all his time in Camelot, Merlin had faced many threats.
He had a list. Maybe not in alphabetical order, but it was still a long one.
It contained witches, sorcerers, assassins, goblins, wyverns, dragons, griffins, bastets – nearly any kind of magical creature, really – poison, magical sicknesses or curses.
Just to name a few.

Merlin had to fight for his own life, for his friends, the entire kingdom, strangers sometimes.
Sometimes even the life of Uther, though Merlin shouldn't care shit about that one.

But for none as often as he had for his favorite pest of a king. Arthur Pendragon.

You could say, Merlin mostly fought for his own sanity, if you ought to be fair.

All in all, Merlin would describe his life as a reverse Escape room. Instead of trying to get out of an overly complicated situation, he was desperately trying to stay.
Which might be a toxic trait of his, or perhaps Stockholm syndrom, Merlin couldn't be sure.
Especially, since his observation skills lacked the modern vocabulary for the mental illness that described his relationship to one manic dragon.

Yet.

Fortunately, Merlin would be alive long enough to revision his old habits from a more academic point of view.

Under usual circumstances, Merlin knew exactly what he was facing.
If it was a poison, Gaius had some kind of antidote. If it was a curse, his magic would find a way to counter it.
With maybe a little bit of help from Emrys worshiping druids, insane overgrown lizards or random unicorn protectors who knew how to apparate. (1)

Dragons were ironically the easiest to defeat, considering Merlin was the last dragon lord, which meant his word to them was law and also there were only two dragons left.

You could say that there was always some kind of clue to what had happened and how to solve the issue.
Like a little enchanted pendant or poison in Arthur's goblet or a weird puppet on a string hanging from the side of the king's bed.

Then Merlin just had to find the vengeful witch that planted the threatening object or a Wikipedia article that would explain to him how to reverse a love spell.
(Older Merlin made the Wikipedia joke. He thinks he's funny like that.)

This time, however, Merlin was at a complete and utter loss to what the heck was going on.

"GET OUT!"

The sun was shining, the curtains were flying in the wind of the open window and in front of it stood a tiny version of his great menace of a boss and somehow best friend.
The best way to describe tiny Arthur, was maybe to compare him to a six year old peanut of a child.
Hair a shade darked as it was on his older counterpart.

He seemed paler though. Softer around the edges, as he was still growing into his still unharmed skin. Unaffected from years of training in the blinding sunlight that would bleach his hair in the summer.

He was dressed in his now way too big night robes that hung loosely over his shoulders and surrounded him like a tent.

He was glare was angry, yet not at all radiating the same power as his adult glare did. Simply for the reason that children weren't very intimidating at that age.

"What the feudal system?", Merlin stated, almost cursing for real, until an integral part of his mind reminded him that it was unwise to curse in front of children.
Slowly, he put the silver tray with Arthur's breakfast on the hard wood table near Arthur's bed.
Merlin was late to his job, as per usual. But that didn't matter right now.