DollopheadedMerlin One-Shot Contest

Tear Jerker: Fire

This takes place during Season 1. Some slightly graphic gorey scenes, be warned. don't read if you have a sensitive stomach.

When Merlin woke up, he initially believed that Arthur was playing a trick on him and pouring warm water on over his face. Nothing hurt anymore, though, and Merlin recognized this, even if he did not quite remember why it would have hurt in the first place.

Now that he thought about it, Merlin almost felt as if he had a fever. His entire body was rather warm and he thought he must be bundled under multiple blankets on his bed. His face felt entirely flushed, and his throat dry.

Merlin supposed he should call Gaius. Taking a deep breath, he yelled out... Or, he would have, had anything less thick then syrup entered his lungs. Instead, Merlin felt himself in a bout of coughing. Some sort of liquid, phlegm, maybe, although it tasted weird, spewed through his lips. There was no air! Merlin's senses suddenly buzzed to life.

The first thing Merlin noticed was the sound. A type of crackling filled his head, almost reminding him of a trip with Arthur and the knights, where the twigs would be breaking and the dead leaves would be breaking underneath their feet. It wasn't a bad sound, it reminded Merlin of nature and of life. However, it was a little bit lonely without the trilling of bird calls and beat of the actual feet and horse hooves.

He opened his eyes drowsily. Despite Merlin's previous thoughts, he was not in his bedroom, nor was he on a woody trail. No, Merlin found himself propped up against a wall in the royal kitchens, Arthur's food spread all over his lap and the floor. Most of it looked burnt and black. Arthur would never eat it. Looking up from the spoiled food, Merlin was shocked and terrified at his surroundings. For a moment he thought he was in hell, and then he believed that he must finally be burning on the pyre. Flames shot from every corner, ebony smoke clouds filling the air. His eyes hurt, they were burning. Merlin would be crying even if it weren't for the pain.

The pain he had somewhere forgotten about. Each inch of Merlin's body was screaming for attention. Merlin knew that he was burning up. The heat would be underneath his skin, and if it were there for two long, his skin would eventually fall off, exposing his nerve endings and sending 10 times the pain signals to his brain. Those small patches of Merlin's body that weren't burning were begging for the oxygen that their environment could not supply them. His lungs were going to explode. Merlin couldn't get more than a pathetic wheezing breath through the lump in his throat.

Merlin, looking down at the liquid he had coughed up and was now on his shirt and nekerchief, could finally distinguish the disgusting taste in his mouth. It was soot, with a couple red highlights from blood.

It smelled as if something was burning, but it wouldn't take a genius to figure out what.

Gathering what air he had, Merlin screamed. He screamed for as long as he possible could, and as loud as he could, before another coughing fit interrupted him. In a few minutes, when the coughs ended, Merlin only tried again.

'Please, somebody help me.'
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Arthur was having a bad day, and it was all due to his dollop headed servant.

To start, that idiot had woken Arthur up too early, without having even finished preparing breakfast, cracking a joke about how it would help Arthur lose weight. Arthur, by that time feeling secretly self-conscious was too tired during training, and was, therefor, unable to do nearly so well as he should have. Arthur's father had been watching that day of all days, and had mentioned something about Arthur not working hard enough to make his kingdom proud.

And then there were the speeches. Merlin was a servant! What was his job if not to serve Arthur in any way possible? Even if that mean helping Arthur to write one or two documents? Still, Merlin refused to do his job, and so Arthur was left to do it himself, which meant Arthur would be unable to go to a banquet to congratulate a newly wedded noble couple.