Merlin's magic (Oneshots) 1

Preening

A.N.://  Prompt by: @sylvanao222007
I hope this is kind of what you had in mind :) 
I'll probably add a second chapter too. That ending is by no means an actual end.

as for the art, visit me on
tumblr: @changelink
Or instagram: @changelink23

I know it doesn't completely fit the story.... but man - i just wanted to get the colors right, okay!?

Now enjoy :)


--------------------------------------------------

Preening was one of the most sacred practices in the entire world. Every culture, every religion, every person knew the importance of self maintenance.
Preening is, when one person decides to completely trust another person. To be preened is putting yourself in a vulnerable position. Because yes, dirt and stones within your feathers hurts a lot. But an accidentally pulled out feather hurts about as much as breaking a fingernail.
Wings were extremely sensitive.
And not only that – their entire appearance could put you in danger or raise your status at the court.
Colorful wings could make you a royal – while brown and green colors made you a peasant by default.
If the tips of your feathers were black however – you were marked a sorcerer and burned at the stake.
White tips and your fate would be even worse. But warlocks were rare.

The color of wings could change throughout your life. They could intensify in their color or become dull. Your tips could become black when magic came to you later in life.
That is why it was important to make sure you took good care of them. And to let someone take care of them whom you trusted.
You could hardly take care of your wings yourself, because they were attached to your back.
And you couldn't dress them up, because to wrap up your wings was like walking around handcuffed.

Even the knights had trouble protecting their wings with armor. Of course it was important to protect your most sensible areas. But to add metal plates on top of your wings took away your ability to fly. One of the reasons why it was so important to train their back muscles every day.
To fly while fighting could decide whether of not you made it out of a life or death situation – or it helped you ambush people.
However, to fight while flying meant a huge amount of stress for both your physical and mental abilities.
Being fought from all sides had a different meaning when your wings were flapping mid air.

Wings were also the first thing that would be taken from you, when you were tortured. Hurting or breaking wings was one of the most effective methods to make a captured person talk.
Hurting the wings was easier, because it exhausted the tortured to a point where they could hardly move at all and they could easily be removed without risking the captive to die an immediate death.

All in all – wings were vital points in society, painful points in your physics, important for survival, but unimportant for self preserving.
They were an easy target. And thus – most protected.

Arthur Pendragon prided himself with the fact that his wings were of the upmost red. They were the brightest in the entire country. Small golden feathers were woven within. But they were so golden, he could use them to pay food with. That was how rare golden feathers were.
Not as rare as pure white ones maybe – but still pretty rare.
And that was how his wings were viewed. Arthur had a hard time finding someone to preen him who didn't take his feathers away.

He might not have been so happy when his father assigned this peasant country boy to be his servant – with his muddy wings that were definitely only ever preened from stones and maybe small branches. Merlin definitely didn't look like someone who knew how to maintain his own wings. Maybe Merlin's feathers were just naturally colored this way.
But at least Merlin was not a thieve. Not once had Arthur heard that Merlin was paying for food with golden feathers. And he was pretty good at avoiding to pull them out.
His last manservant had been so harsh in his care taking that Arthur had been playing with the thought of firing him multiple times before Merlin stumbled along.