He just wanted to eat

Chapter 3

"I'm worried, he was limping and then he just fainted. Something's wrong, Merlin, something's really wrong," Morgana told him and the wizard sighed.

"He said he fell and hurt his hip, maybe it really was just that," the old man said.

"That might've happened, but something else did too. When was the last time he spent so long without speaking? He didn't speak at all when I was there, and the only time he did was when he was about to faint."

"Well, the first few days he spent here, he was quiet, he was scared that he'd speak too much and kick him out," Medlin answered.

"But now he has no reason to be afraid, so why is he not speaking?" She asks.

Merlin doesn't get to say anything as the boy starts to stir awake.

He opens his eyes and looks at them before he looks down again, a sleeping Archie laying on his legs.

"What happened?" he asked.

"You were sweeping and then you just fainted," Morgana answered, trying to put her hand on his shoulder, but the teen moves away from it, so she doesn't.

"Why did you faint?" Merlin asked, in a tone of voice that made Hisirdoux think that all this was a waste of time.

"My hip hurts a lot," the apprentice answered as he shifted a bit.

"Can I see it?" Merlin asks, but Hisirdoux shakes his head.

"No!" He answered, almost a bit too loud.

"Doux, we just want to help," Morgana said, petting the sleeping dragon.

"But I don't want you to see," the boy said, looking to the side and playing with a loose thread on his sheets.

"What if one of us leaves and you only show the other one?" Merlin suggested.

"Who do you prefer to stay?" Morgana asked.

Oh, so he has to choose.

If he chooses Merlin, he may think it's disgusting, and then he'll stop teaching him magic.

If he chooses Morgana, she would probably feel disgusted too, but she would ask who did it, she wouldn't believe that he got it just from falling.

"I don't want to choose, I don't want anyone to see," he tells them, raising his voice more than he intended to, which made it all uneven.

All the commotion woke Archie, who was now stretching.

"What's happening?" The dragon asked.

"Your friend doesn't want to show us where he's hurt, and doesn't tell us why either," Morgana answered, she sounded as if on the verge of losing her temper. It was an issue she had since Gwen died, most of her patience died too.

"Doux, they just want to help," Archie told him.

"Maybe I don't want help," the teen responded, starting to get overwhelmed by all of this.

"I wasn't going to mention this, but you were talking while you slept," she said.

"He always did, since his mother passed away," Archie said.

"What did I say?" Douxie asked, petting Archie.

"You were asking someone to stop, and saying that it hurt. Did someone hurt you?" Morgana asked, sounding genuinely worried.

"Well, I lived in the streets for years, it wasn't easy, most people would kick me as they passed by, and some would even go as far as calling me a thief and beating me up, so yeah, I was probably remembering that," he answered, accidentally sounding passive agressive.