Merlin stories

You're a what?

    The great future king of Camelot, Arthur, was flailing backwards as he tripped on his own feet. A knife came flying threw the sky, missing Arthur's head by an inch. Sir Gwaine struck down a bandit that thought he could mess with the knights of the round table. Percival threw another one of the bandits around like a rag doll. Leon and Elyan were back to back fighting one scum bag after another. Lancelot ran over to help Arthur, he got the prince to his feet and together they fought the absurd amount of men. Merlin, who had no weapons, stayed behind a tree helping when he could. With a flash of magic here and a flash there, tree branches would fall and sword handles would become burning hot. It was just Merlin's luck that one of the bandits would be bold enough to go for the unarmed guy. Merlin ducked as the man went straight for Merlin's face. 

    Merlin ran forward a bit grabbing the sword of the man unfortunate enough to experience Lancelot's swordsmanship first hand. Merlin had been to ever training session and been on countless patrols, yet he never really learned how to fight. Merlin managed to block the bulk of the attack and he even tried to swing a few times himself. Gwaine looked down after another win and smiled, he looked up for approval from another knight and saw that Merlin was in trouble. Immediately he ran to help, just in time too. Gwaine blocked what could have been a fatal blow and finished off the jerk who went for his friend, "Are you alright Merlin?" Gwaine asked. Merlin let out a laugh of relief and smiled, "Yes, thank you." Elyan sliced through the last of the men and their work was done. "That was more than 10 men." Leon huffed. "Yeah, someone needs to teach the other patrols how to count." Gwaine added as the knights made there way to the horses. 

    There was word of a small group of bandits in the woods, it wasn't as small as they said. The men gathered near their horses to make their way back home. "Percival." Gwaine said, "Your arm." Gwaine pointed at a big cut across Percival's biceps. Merlin went to his horse, grabbing water, cloth and a bandage from his bag. He cleaned the wound and bandaged it. "Thank you." Percival said, getting on his horse. Merlin went to his horse, he was the only one who wasn't ready to leave. As soon as it was untied from a tree it started freaking out. Merlin fell back as the horse started rearing. It ran off into the  woods before Merlin could get back up. Everyone shared confused glances. "Should we go after it?" Elyan asked. Arthur sighed, "No, we'd never catch up to it. It's going into thick forest, we'd get knocked off our horses in all that." "Merlin can share with me." Percival offered. "No fair, I want to ride with Merlin." Gwaine said with a smile. "I would share a horse with you Merlin, if you want." Lancelot said. Merlin chuckled, "I'll just ride with Gwaine." "What? But I asked first." Percival joked. "Ha! I win." Gwaine said as Merlin got on behind him. "Feel free to hold my waist as we ride." Gwaine added. Arthur rolled his eyes and started making his way home.

   The sun started setting and Gwaine started complaining about how hungry he was. So they decided to stop for the night. A fire was started and all the knights gathered around it and started talking, leaving Merlin to cook the food. Merlin was putting spices and vegetables in a stew. He then set it over the fire to cook. As he stared at the fire he thought he heard someone from behind him. He got up to investigate. "Where are you going?" Arthur asked. "Watch the stew so it doesn't burn will you?" Merlin replied not looking back. They knights exchanged glances of curiosity as to what Merlin was up to, then went back to their conversation. Merlin ventured off still hearing something. He made it quite far before he stumbled upon two people talking.

    "Hello?" Merlin said. One of them quickly turned, it was a girl just a few years younger than Merlin, she appeared to be with a boy. "Who's there?" Merlin heard it in his head before she spoke. "Who's there?" Merlin squinted a second. "Are you a druid?"  Her eye's shot open, "How did you do that!" "Do what? Who is this?" The boy asked. "Druids have telepathy with each other. Technically i'm not a druid, but I still can talk with you this way, long story." Merlin explained.  "Does he know? What you are?"  Merlin asked. She looked back at the boy, "I was about to tell him."  Merlin nodded, "You must be nervous, I must have heard you thinking about what you were going to say or something. So you trust him enough not to turn you in?" The boy was looking at the the girl and Merlin intensely staring at each other without talking. "I do trust him." The girl said. "I love him and I don't want to keep this secret from him. It's a part of who I am. If he truly loves me  like I love him, then he will understand."  She looked at the boy thoughtfully. Merlin nodded, "Sorry to interrupt." Merlin said. The boy was extremely confused as the weird man who just showed up left only saying two things. 

    Merlin made his way back to the fire and checked on the food. He didn't say anything about where he was, he just got dishes to serve the food that was almost done. He passed out bowls of stew and cups with ale. He thought about what the girl said about trust and understanding. Everyone started eating and Merlin just sat there staring at his food. "Is something wrong?" Lancelot asked. Merlin kept his eyes on his food and gulped. What's the worst that could happen if he told them? Oh yeah, death. "Merlin?" Elyan slightly shook Merlin's shoulder.  Merlin stood up dropping the bowl and almost yelled, "I'm a sorcerer!" Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the boy who seemed like he was about to explode from being so nervous. Merlin gulped again, waiting for one of the knights to freak out and attack him. Lancelot who already knew was also eager to see the way the knight reacted. Percival was the first to verbally react, "Huh, okay." He then continued to eat. Gwaine lifted his glass, "Cheers mate." He then drank and kept eating as if nothing happened. Elyan just stared blankly at Merlin. Leon looked to Arthur for answers. "What?" Arthur asked.

   Merlin slowly sat down and started squeezing the life out of his fingers, "I-I'm a sorcerer?" Merlin was looking at all the men around the fire, no one had tried to kill him so far. "Merlin." Arthur started, "You're not a sorcerer, I would know about something like that." "I can prove it." Merlin said nervously. Leon seemed to be the most nervous out of all of them, but Percival looked eager to see magic. Merlin extended his hand towards the fire. "Stiadragon." The flames suddenly formed a dragon flapping it's wings. Most of the knights seemed impressed, but Leon and Arthur were worried. They were the one's raised to fear magic their whole lives. "Where did you learn how to do that?" Elyan asked. Merlin was cautiously excited to tell them all about his magic, "A book. I've always been able to do somethings though." "Are you a druid?" Gwaine asked. "No, I was just born with magic. Although I am friends with the druids." "What other kind of magic can you do?" Percival asked excitedly. "All sorts of things." Merlin started to smile, "I can move things without touching them, I can slow time and I can control dragons." Elyan's jaw dropped, "Really?!" Merlin chuckled, "Yeah. I'm a dragon lord."

    Arthur watched as they talked about magic like it was nothing. He couldn't believe it. Leon  stood up, "What are you doing? He's a sorcerer, we have to take him to the king!" "Leon!" Gwaine stood up too, "Do you really plan on turning Merlin in? He's our friend!" Leon looked at the knights like they were crazy, "He's a sorcerer! We can't trust him!" Lancelot stood up and put a hand on Leon's shoulder, "Yes, we can. If it wasn't for Merlin's magic, we wouldn't be here." "How do you know that?" Leon looked at Merlin and saw a scared boy who had been their loyal friend for so long. "I already knew about Merlin's magic. When I first came to Camelot, You praised me for defeating the Griffon." Lancelot turned to Arthur, "It was with Merlin's magic that it was defeated. When Morgana attacked with an immortal army it was thanks to Merlin we won that battle. Did you not find it odd all the soldiers just disappeared? That was because Merlin. I am sure there are plenty more examples of Merlin saving us all, it's about time we gave him credit."  Everyone stared at Merlin who was slightly embarrassed. He didn't really like all the attention. 

   Arthur finally spoke, "Lancelot is right." Merlin met Arthur gaze, it was his response he was most anxious about. "Merlin has always been loyal to Camelot. If he had ill intentions he would have acted by now." Merlin let out a sigh of relief. Gwaine smiled, "If all the dramatics are over I for one would like to hear more about Merlin's magic. I'm sure he has an interesting story or two." The men sat back down and looked to Merlin. "Well, there was this one time when Arthur was set up in an arraigned marriage. Not only did he not love her, but she had a changling inside her trying to take the throne of Camelot." Arthur scrunched his face, "A what?" Merlin chuckled, "A changling, it's a little blue fairy creature. That's why she was so... Unlady like. And her nurse wasn't human, that's for sure. But the nurse did have a thing for Giaus." Merlin started to laugh, "We had to use him as bait to trap her while we expelled the changling." The knights listened intently as Merlin told story after story of his magic saving the day. Leon and Arthur warmed up to the idea of having a sorcerer as a friend. And everyone lived happily ever after. For about five minutes, then Morgana did evil stuff and we were sad again.