Arthur Returns

Arthur entered a large building and looked around nervously. Surrounding him were papers all binded and had front and back of extremely thick leather all varied in colors. The once King pulled one off a shelf and opened one, seeing that it seemed like a different shaped kind of scroll. Arthur continued to take climb up more flights of stairs, hoping someone could give him a sort of clue to where he was. Then the blond heard a voice that made him stop and "subtlety" dive behind a shelf to look.

There, sitting criss cross on a thin rug, surrounded by children of all sizes, was a familiar raven. Merlin was wearing a simple white button up, blue pants of unfamiliar material, and black rectangular glasses placed flawlessly on his nose. His face bright with his smile, his eyes full of age, and his shoulders seemed heavy. But Merlin held himself like it was gone from his mind a long time against ago.

"And with a final nod of his head, Kilgarrah said, "young warlock. What you have shown is what you will be... I will not forget your clemency. Our paths will cross again." And he spread his large wings, and took off into the night. Merlin stands there for a moment, before hearing a groan come from behind, and realizes that Arthur was waking up. He raced to his side to make sure the prince was okay.

"Where's the dragon gone?" He asked, looking around in confusion. Merlin smiled kindly at him, and once more aloud for the prince to believe in himself that he will be a great king one day, for he was strong and noble already. And responded with, "he flew off. You dealt him with a mortal blow." Re two stared at each other for a while longer, before Arthur threw back his head and laughed, Merlin joining him at the sight of the giddy relief in his master, his friend, his king. The end." Merlin took a breath, "alrighty, story time is over, I'll tell another one tomorrow."

That made all the kids whine and groan, all begging for just one more story, but Arthur watched Merlin shake his head. "Sorry, your families are waiting for you guys, time to go! Bye!" He stood up only to get tackled in hugs by all the children, which made him laugh.

An older lady, presumably a grandmother to a child, approached Merlin, "that was an amazing story, Mr. Morgan. How do you come up with varied stories of Arthurian legend?"

Arthur frowned at the name, 'Mr. Morgan', but continued to listen.

"Please, call me Colin. And thank you very much, I just feel as though I lived and dedicated my life to this kind of legend. But it would be a bit boring with just the usual noble, perfect king, and a wrinkly old man. What could be better than two confusing, and crazy confused, teens instead?"

The woman laughed at that, "very true Colin, I know May enjoys your stories. Especially you calling her a little princess."

Merlin, Colin?, beamed at that, "always happy to help lift spirits and engage imaginations! Any who, if you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I do have to catch the subway. Have a great day, ma'am"

Merlin stretched and picked up a messenger bag, and quickly headed towards the stairs. Which just so happened to be right past where Arthur was getting out of his hiding spot to go somewhere else. He wasn't sure if this was his Merlin or 'Colin Morgan'

This caused a full on crash, making both of them take a tumble back to the ground. Merlin's glasses fell off.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't see you, my friend always did tell me I was horribly clumsy. Too bad that he didn't know I needed glasses. Though you didn't need to learn that. Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Merlin spewed out, searching for his glasses, fully blind without them.

Arthur spotted them and decided to take a chance, picking them up, "do I know you?" Merlin froze and shut up immediately. "Just kidding." He placed the glasses back in place on so Merlin could see him. "Hello, Merlin."

Arthur felt the panic rise within him as Merlin stared. Maybe this was Colin Morgan. A few more seconds of silence and Merlin started to shake, before throwing his arms around the blond for a hug.

"Arthur! You came back! Oh my gosh you're back! You're back! You. Are. BACK."