Arwen moved around the physician's chambers, gathering up some herbs she needed to prepare a potion for a young boy in the lower town who had come down with a fever. Luckily, it wasn't anything too serious, and Arwen knew it could easily be cured with proper care. Gaius was away at the moment, tending to other patients around the castle, and Merlin had been freed from his duties with Arthur to run some errands for Gaius in the woods. That left Arwen on her own in the chambers, but she did not mind. She enjoyed the rare moment of peace and quiet as she began stirring the ingredients of her potion in one of the pots while humming a soft tune.
Her serenity was soon shattered as the door of the chambers burst open and her eyes snapped to Merlin who rushed in with the body of an unfamiliar man draped over his shoulders. Due to her shock caused by the sudden interruption, Arwen had dropped the pot from her hands. But she disregarded the mess at that time as she hurried to Merlin's side after he had set the man down on the bed in the corner of the room.
"He got hurt in the woods, you have to help him." Merlin spoke in a worried tone, pushing aside the tunic which had by now been completely stained in blood to reveal a large gash on the man's torso. Arwen quickly nodded, instructing him to get her some water and a clean cloth so she could clean the wound and get a better picture of what she was working with.
Arwen moved to scour the shelves, hoping that Gaius still had some of the paste which would prevent the gash from getting infected. Having to brew a new batch would take much time and possibly give the man's state a chance to deteriorate further. Luckily she managed to find it just as Merlin set the other supplies she needed beside the bed on which the unconscious man lay. Arwen quickly got to work, gently cleaning all of the blood. She didn't want to cause him more pain than he was most likely already in.
"What happened? Who is he?" Arwen asked her brother as she worked, wondering how picking mushrooms in the woods ends with him bringing her a wounded unconscious stranger.
"I was in the woods when this thing appeared from the sky, I don't know what it was but it was big and it was attacking me. Lancelot must've been near because he came to help me. He managed to send it away, but got hurt in the process." Merlin gave her the short narration of what had brought them to this point.
"Remind me to thank him then." Arwen said with a small frown on her face. She was starting to think of whether coming to Camelot was truly a good idea. Someone seemed to be in danger all the time and she wasn't happy about that.
"The wound doesn't seem to be too serious. He should be alright." Arwen informed her brother once she had cleaned all the blood. Luckily it had stopped bleeding and she could see no signs of infection but she still applied the paste for good measure before wrapping it as best as she could in his position.
"Thank you." Merlin said as she stood up to put away all the things she had used to treat the man, Lancelot. His words made Arwen set down the bucket of water on the table so she could approach him and throwing her arms around his shoulders as she pulled him in for a simple hug.
"From now on, I'm going with you to pick mushrooms." She said with a smile, making Merlin chuckle at her protectiveness, however, he also wondered how serious she was being. She was continuously given more and more reasons to worry about him, and Merlin suspected that someday soon she would start following him around like a royal guard would follow the King. It seemed inevitable.
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