Those Who Waited (BBC Merlin)

Chapter 10: The House in the Forest

A month later, Merlin had grudgingly gotten used to his new sort-of neighbors. The two children tended to be noisy and ran around startling the animals and trampling the undergrowth, but he did learn that they only played outside on certain days at certain times. Never after the sun had begun to set, and only on days where there was no other activity on the roads nearby-which wasn't often anyway, but still. So, he kindly made slight adjustments to his schedule.

He did need to replenish his food supply, though. Luckily, despite being old and creaky, his magic was a magnificent hunting tool, and he collected herbs, birds, and other small animals for both food and material. He was in the middle of eyeing a deer, the lone arrow raised to his lips, which were pursed and already forming the words of a spell to fly the arrow perfectly into its heart, when the animal straightened and darted out of sight. Merlin scowled, lips now forming a curse word in frustration as the cracking continued. For their normal behavior, the children were actually being fairly quiet. But not enough, dammit!

He turned in the direction of the clumsy footsteps, deep scowl and glare at the ready, before reality poured like ice down his back, freezing and shocking him so that his body and mind fell into a blank, stunned state.

The gangly boy climbed with almost too many limbs through the bushes and fallen branches, his hair in a shaggy mop hanging over his eyes. Yet, the saunter with which he covered his obvious lack of grace and the easy grin on his lips betrayed him and Merlin knew exactly who he was. Somewhere below his shock, a tiny voice wiggled in the back of his mind to be grateful for his habitual cloaking spell. It was a light one that didn't require much concentration and thus didn't cover much more than sight-if he stomped on a branch, or coughed they could probably hear-but it kept the boy's curious glances from lingering on him. But still, that wasn't quite what left Merlin choking for air as his lungs froze in his chest.

As Gwaine stepped past the invisible old man, his steps purposeful and covering the ground quickly, the little girl lagged behind and huffed as her brother's head stayed firmly in the clouds. She looked tall for her age-or maybe he had estimated wrong and there wasn't as strict of a pattern as he'd thought-but did not walk nearly as loudly or clumsily as her brother.

Until her eyes locked with Merlin's. He watched the blue eyes widen and then disappear from his line of sight. Jolted into confusion, he glanced down to see the girl's legs tangled in her thin skirt, the thin body managing to look both spread out and curled up awkwardly on the ground. Part of him wanted to chuckle until the soft, tentative sounds of sobs trickled into his ears and the details of her pupils and corneas blurred under the layer of unshed tears.

"Shh, don't cry," Merlin croaked automatically, knees bending with surprising ease to get him to her level. Her brow was furrowed and her eyes glassy, yet her lips were pressed together in a proud line and her chin was tilted up. He felt a prick at the corners of his mouth.

"I'm not," she ground out, and Merlin could see her clenched teeth as her lips moved. Her voice was quiet and high-pitched as a child, but admirably not all that shaky. "I scraped my leg and it stings."

He nodded, feeling the businesslike expression on his face and wanting to react to it. She spoke like she made so much sense, as if the idea of her being a crying little girl at the feet of a strange old man was preposterous.

Then Merlin froze again. She was looking at him, talking to him. With his spell still on. "How did you scrape your leg?" the words were still half-thought, his being just knowing to continue speaking to the child Susetthe without doubt, even while his conscious mind continued to spin at her being able to see through his magic.

"I was following Gwaine and then I saw you," she mumbled quickly. "Mama said nobody else lived very close. But then I fell." Her shoulders twitched in finality.