━━ ⦗the swan princess! ⦘
❝ you're beautiful!
thank you, but what else?
... what else is there? ... ❞
███████████ 𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝
the courageous odette teaches the
once and future king a less...
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chapter twenty-seven! 027. humble beginnings
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"WOULD YOU stop squirming!"
"You don't have to be so close, you know?"
Merlin mimicked the way Odette snapped at him as the two of them pressed shoulder-to-shoulder against each other, trying to dangerously lean down the side of the stone wall that stood the length of the bridge that passed between the Upper Town and Lower Town. The young handmaiden elbowed her friend slightly as she tried to stretch her arm further down, fingers grasping at a small flower that had been growing out of the cobblestone cracks. Merlin hissed in pain as he kept a hold on her to make sure she didn't fall over the edge.
"Do we really need to go to all this trouble?" he said as he did, glancing around them as bystanders passed them, giving them both a wide birth with incredulous looks upon their faces. "There are other flowers."
"No," stated Odette, stubborn. "This one matches Guinevere's new dress she made I must get it for her."
Merlin sighed, exasperated. He glanced up at the heavens, "This is how we shall die, I am sure of it." He casually reached to hold up Odette's hair as it started to fall into her face. "Also▬where's my flower? Growing out the side of the bell tower?"
Odette chuckled sarcastically, her fingers almost touching the stem. "If it is you are climbing it!" she quipped back in a sing-songy voice. "Ah! Yes▬I've gotten it!"
When she didn't hear a reply from him, still hanging over the side. Odette frowned, "Uh, Merlin? Did you hear me?" still no answer. "Merlin! I got the flower▬" he pulled her back up abruptly and spun her around. She went to argue her annoyance at his sudden movement only to freeze when she understood why. Odette immediately hunched up, matching Merlin's expression exactly as they both stared back at Arthur who stood there, arms crossed and very unimpressed. The two servants shared a quick glance that expressed no other thought than: they were done for.
For a short while, Arthur was silent. He just stared at them with a furrowed brow. His crossed arms moved as he then set his hands on his hips, still dressed in a loose white tunic and pants▬not even prepared for the day ahead. In the end, he let out a disappointed sigh, having been in this position too many times.
He looked down at his feet before taking a final breath and returning his scowl onto the two servants. "Tell me, Merlin," he began, "what impression does it give when I wake up, and I find that my manservant is not there with breakfast nor to prepare me for a council meeting I have to attend? Instead, as I go searching for him, I find him dangling the Lady Morgana's second handmaiden over the side of the town bridge."
