The Storm (Merlin)

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Warning/s: None that I can think of

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

A/N: I get my GCSE results tomorrow D:

When the whirlwind dissolved into the air and Merlin was met with The Mugger, Merlin was reminded of how creepily like a human it was. Thick-set, muscled, long black hair down to its waist and long arms and legs. Evidently he was based off the male form rather than the female, Merlin noted from his lack of clothing.

The Mugger hadn't noticed his sudden arrival, concentrating hard over a bowl of sand. Merlin wondered what he was doing absent-mindedly, before he refocused on the task at hand. This task was going to be even more disgusting than the last one. Feeding someone their own flesh was one thing; dealing with a creature that ate babies was quite another, in Merlin's book at least.

What did Erran say? Feed the creature rocks instead of the children to convince it that the babies were making it ill, and therefore make it stop. Well, that would be easy. Rocks and humans had much the same flavour and texture, after all.

Edging away from The Mugger, Merlin disappeared behind a shelf that was stacked with bags of sand – seriously, why did everyone here love shelves? – and searched for any sign of a baby. He made sure to be silent as he went, pausing after every slight noise to make sure that he hadn't been discovered.

After what felt like an hour of creeping – probably ten minutes, at the most – Merlin came across a basic cot made of wood. There was a child wailing in it, uncomfortable on the wooden slats and probably hungry or missing its mother. It was wrapped in a white cloth and nothing else.

Merlin swallowed; he hated to see something like this, could only imagine the grief of the child's parents and how upset the child must be, away from family and hungry and cold and tired. He felt a surge of anger towards The Mugger for demanding such a disgusting price and resolutely picked up the child, cradling it to his chest and murmuring quietly to calm him.

Now he needed to find the rock – already a plan had formed in his mind. Judging from the way that The Mugger had been squinting at his work, his sight wasn't brilliant, so if he could just wrap a rock in the baby's cloth then The Mugger could be fooled into eating it instead of the innocent child.

Contemplating, Merlin tucked the baby inside his jacket to keep her warm – having taken the swaddling cloth off, he had discovered that she was indeed a girl – and examined the multitude of shelves. They were all full of bags of sand, and nothing else. Merlin growled in frustration, hitting one of the bags in anger.

Then he grinned. Because although most of the bag seemed to depress when he punched it, he had also scraped his knuckles on something hard. Using the curved knife to slit open the bag, sand poured out...and several large rocks.

This task was easier than he had anticipated. Merlin headed back to the cot, shushing the child as he did so, and singlehandedly wrapped the rock in the cloth. He had made sure to get the one as close to the child's fair complexion as possible, hoping that The Mugger would just see a blur of colour and nothing else.

He supposed he would have to wait now, to see if his plan was successful. The baby had fallen asleep against his chest, which was a small mercy at least. He didn't want her to cry and alert The Mugger that she wasn't in the cot. Merlin secreted himself into a gap between two shelves, drawing up his knees to his chest, and hoped that The Mugger would hurry up.

He had to wait for what was actually an hour this time; the baby woke up a few times but soon drifted off again, seemingly comforted by Merlin's body heat. She was probably hungry, Merlin realised, but there was little he could do about that.

When The Mugger appeared, he was feeling his way around to the cot, which meant that Merlin's suspicions about his bad eyesight were true. The Mugger eventually located the crib, and with a triumphant cry he reached down and patted the bottom. His hands grazed the cloth and with one fluent movement, he swept up the rock and with sheer force broke the rock in half, discarding the cloth.

Merlin shuddered to think what would have happened if the baby was still in the cloth. If he was able to break rocks in half...she would have been slaughtered within seconds. That thought in mind, Merlin cuddled the baby a little closer to his chest.

The Mugger didn't chew, just gulped down the two halves of the rock and belched satisfiedly. Then he frowned and clutched at his throat, and then a few seconds later he coughed up blood. The rock had grazed the skin of his throat, and when they settled in his stomach, Merlin almost laughed at the look of mingled surprise and horror on The Mugger's face.

Groaning, The Mugger collapsed to his knees and clutched his stomach in agony. "Oh," he moaned in a strangely human voice. "Ohhh." He shuddered as he retched up more blood, and toppled over onto his side. "No more," he muttered to himself in a mantra, over and over again. "No more no more no more no more."

Merlin, taking that as his sign that his task was complete, cradled the baby to him carefully and waited for the lilac whirlwind. It didn't come. Merlin frowned, wondering what else possibly needed to be done.

Then The Mugger started vomiting, at first clots of blood, but then whole children babies, who emerged from his mouth screaming and naked, calling out for attention for milk and comfort. Merlin watched in amazement as they kept coming, horrified by the sheer number of them. He counted them as they came up.

In total, The Mugger had eaten over two thousand babies, and it took him a long time to vomit them all up. Once he had, the whirlwind arrived, at first taking the regurgitated babies with it, and then finally moving over to Merlin, who accepted it gratefully.

He landed in front of Erran, and removed the baby from his jacket. "Can you return her?" he asked anxiously.

Erran bowed his hand in response. That is what I have done with the others, Emrys. With that, the baby was gone. You are performing well. I am pleased, Emrys, and proud.

Merlin smiled awkwardly. He wasn't good with compliments. "Just trying to help," he said honestly. "Who is it next? The One?" Erran inclined his head again. "Let's go then," Merlin said tiredly.