Merlin's Sister

The Once and Future Queen

Morgana walked into the dining room with Parva trailing after her as she did most mornings now. Uther wasn't keen to let the little creature stay in the castle, but Morgana convinced him she was beneficial, at least at catching mice. The cat would appear most mornings after Gwen arrived to start the day then disappear shortly before dusk. Gaius said this was because she likely was out hunting at that time.

"Morgana, why do you bring that little beast to meals? We have no clue where it's been," Arthur said. He never really liked the thing, especially when she took it in public.

"Because she won't drool like a dog, and she's smart enough to just follow me," Morgana snapped at him. This was a fairly common argument. The whole time the cat watched Arthur with intelligent, brown eyes. Gwen and Merlin took this as their cue to distract their masters from their reoccurring argument. They offered them each a drink, and Gwen picked up the cat and held her for the duration of the meal. If the two of them kept this up Uther would eventually just kill the cat, and despite his dislike of the little beast Arthur would feel bad for Morgana. She was oddly fond of it.

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 Merlin watched as Arthur unhorsed another knight. The lance broke with a sickening crack and the man few backwards of his horse.

"That has got to hurt," Merlin said with a weird sort of pride that he always got when his master won one of these matches. Arthur, whose mood had definitely improved since this morning, gave a sarcastic snort.

"That's the point, Merlin," He said almost fondly. "It's not a pillow fight. Fetch me another lance will you?" The Prince seemed almost giddy. Merlin assumed it was because of the upcoming tournament. While he was happy Arthur wasn't treating him like a slave, he knew that tournaments had a bad habit of opening up the gates to potential prince assassins. Arthur saddled up again and jousted against Sir Leon. It was going like every other match that day until the sun, reflecting off Sir Leon, got in Arthur's eyes. The prince could have easily been dismounted, but Sir Leon held back. It took everything Merlin had not to groan. He could already see where this was going and he could only sit and watch the castle crumble.

 "Why did you pull out? I was wide open," Arthur demanded. "You could have unhorsed me."

"I was fearful I might injure you, Sire," Leon said and immediately regretted.

"You had the advantage," Arthur said getting his temper under control. "You can't afford to hesitate."

In his head Merlin was silently chanting 'Please just say Yes, Sire. Please just say Yes, Sire.' in his head over and over. He really didn't want to deal with an Arthur with his pride hurt. The knights seemed to be doing something similar as they watched the two head knights clash. Unfortunately, Leon didn't seem to notice this and said, "I wouldn't have if I were facing a different opponent." Then he seemed to realise what he said and tried to catch himself, "You are the future king, My Lord."

It didn't work. "You’re jousted in the tournament last year. Are you saying, you let me win?" And there it was. The rest of his day was ruined.

"No, My Lord," Leon said quickly.

"It doesn't matter who I am, I don't expect special treatment from you," Arthur was fuming. He turned around. "From any of you! Is that understood?" They all nodded quickly.

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Arthur paced in his room. "How am I supposed to prove myself if my opponents aren't trying their hardest?"

"I'm sure it's not happening all the time," Merlin answered carefully.

"So it's happening some of the time?" Arthur said not taking the bait.