Doing it Over

Mysterious Illness

            Merlin walked into Arthur’s room the next morning to wake the young prince.

            “Arthur, wakey wakey,” he said quietly, sitting on the side. He brushed some of Arthur’s blonde hair off his forehead and frowned. Arthur was burning up!

            “Gwen!” he called as she walked by the door and stuck her head in, “Can you get Gaius for me? Arthur’s sick.”

            “Of course, I’ll be right back,” she aid, hurrying off. She returned a few moments later with Gaius and they rushed over to the bed. Merlin was holding piece of fabric to Arthur’s forehead. The five year old was now awake and looked completely miserable.

            “I don’t feel good,” he said as Gaius took Merlin’s place on the bed and the servant stood to the side with Gwen,

            “So I hear,” Gaius replied, “Let’s see if we can figure out what’s wrong.” Arthur sat there as Gaius ran through a series of tests, all of them leading to no result.

            “This doesn’t make any sense,” Gaius said, “He is clearly ill, but nothing is coming up as a definitive cause.”

            “Could this be a result of the magic that made him age back?” Gwen asked.

            “It’s possible,” Gaius replied, “I’m not sure there is any other option.”

            “What do we do?” Merlin asked.

            “Try to treat his symptoms as best we can until we figure out what’s wrong with him,” Gaius told them. Merlin and Gwen both nodded and sprang into action, doing whatever they could to lower Arthur’s temperature. They worked for hours, but to no avail. By mid-afternoon, the only change was that Arthur was gradually getting worse.

            “I think someone needs to be sent to inform the king of what is happening,” Gaius said.

            “I’ll go find Sir Leon and ask if he can do it,” Gwen said. Merlin watched her run form the room, hoping this second chance between Arthur and his father wasn’t about to meet a tragic end.