The King's Armour

Arthur

Merlin
Now

Merlin strolled through Camelot's market. He saw a chubby woman yelling at a man stealing fruit, some lads throwing vegetables at each other and toddlers playing with wooden horses. At the very back of the market, Merlin saw some boys playing ball with the dead man's head. He shivered at that sight and carried on trying to shake the image off his head.

"Agh!" he heard someone groaning at the distance. Confused, he glanced to see who it was, but he didn't see anyone.

"Agh!" he heard again. He followed the sound until he found a young man holding a bulls eye at the level of his face while a group of four armoured knights threw knives at it. What Merlin thought was oddest was the fact that no one seemed to notice them.

"Not good enough." said the blond one. "Have you ever heard of something called aiming, Sir Frederick?". He stared at him trying to intimidate him and laughed sarcastically. "Hand me the dagger, Ulsten!" he ordered his servant.

Ulsten placed the bulls eye on the grass, took a silver dagger from his belt and handed it to his master. The knight admired it and flipped it a few times, then he gave him a furious look. "When did I tell you you could stay here? Go back to where I instructed you to stand or I'll stick this right between your eyes!"

"Hey!" Merlin approached him until he was close enough for the knight to clearly hear him. "Have a little respect, mate! He's doing you a bloody favour!"

The blond knight laughed. "How dare you address me like that?" he said insulted and slightly pushed him, which made the others laugh. Many people in the market turned their heads to see what was going on.

"I've been trained since birth!" the knight said loosening his sword from his belt.

"Oh really? Did they train you to be an arse?" he said pissed off, but trying to sound sarcastic. "Because they've done well."

The knights stayed silent and waited for the blond bloke to react. Suddenly, he took out his sword and laughed. "Come on then. Let's see what you've got."

Merlin smiled and threw a punch right at his face, but the knight blocked it and held his arm behind his back. When he let him go, he fell to the floor. "What now? You're not that brave anymore?" the knight said mocking him. "I guess I was right, you're no more than just a piece of scum.

Merlin lay there silent, slightly regretting what he was about to say. "At least I'm not an arse." He said and ran away as fast as he could back to the market. He heard the knight coming, but he was no longer afraid of him. He was escaping from one of the King's Knights.

"Come back! You won't get away that easily!" the knight yelled as he pushed an old man from his way. "I command you to come back!" But Merlin didn't. He kept running, but out of nowhere, the knight caught up with him and made him stop.

What do I do now?, Merlin thought, He'll either get me or kill me, there's no escaping now. He felt disappointed and beaten up. Another idea occurred to him. He focused on a pair of buckets right above the knight's head and made them fall. The knight fell and groaned, so Merlin ran away again and smiled faintly to himself.

The knight got up again a little dizzy and didn't understand what happened next. Buckets, brooms, pots and fruits kept falling out of nowhere and knocked him down several times, but no more, he had to get that brat and make him pay for his insults. He jumped over a stand of fruit and knocked Merlin down.

Merlin fell and a batch of hay got in his mouth. The knight pushed his face to the ground "You'll pay for what you did!" the knight threatened to his ear.

"Yeah right, who do you think you are? The King?" Merlin answered half-choking.

"His son, actually." he said and tried to strangle him. People gasped and some covered their mouths in shock.

"STOP!" an old man yelled. Merlin turned his eyes to see. It was Gaius approaching rapidly. "He's with me. Your Highness, he didn't know, please forgive him." he said and bowed respectfully.

Arthur's eyes widened and nodded. "Of course, Gaius." He said in a more friendly voice and let Merlin go. "Just make sure he doesn't do anything like this ever again."

"I'll make sure of it, your Highness." Gaius said softly and gave him a kind look with his weak tired eyes.

Merlin stood up and shook the dirt off his pants, awkwardly bowed and tried to leave quickly, but Arthur held his arm and wouldn't let go. Merlin looked into his eyes trying not to appear too frightened. "There's something odd about you, and I'm going to find out what it is." Arthur whispered. "Go." he said and let go.

Merlin ran and caught up with Gaius. "What were you thinking?!" he finally snapped when there were no more people around. "He could've killed you, or worse, he could've found out about you!"

"Thank you for caring about my life, Gaius." he answered sarcastically.

"You should be thankful, if he had found out they would have executed you!" he exclaimed. "This isn't a joke, you're in Camelot now and you'll have to get used to it! No one can know about you!". Merlin kept walking quietly, ashamed of his previous actions. "I'm sorry, Merlin, I just want you to be safe." Gaius said and patted him on the head. 

They both walked together back to the castle and remained in silence for the rest of the path. Gaius worried about what could have happened if he hadn't gotten there on time. Merlin, on the other hand, just wished he didn't have to see the Royal prat ever again.