After washing Arthur's clothes and setting them out to dry, Merlin headed towards one of the tallest towers of the Camelot castle. Recently, it had become his favourite place to spend his sleepless nights: staring up to the night sky and thinking about everything and nothing at the same time. It was peaceful, quiet, perhaps even deafeningly so. The boy again reached into his pocket to retrieve the remedy he had created and looked at it regretfully before taking another sip. Experiencing the same gut wrenching feeling as before. When he first started using the potion a sip's effect had lasted for 12 hours but now it would only last an hour at most, it was becoming hard to come up with excuses to leave Arthur so he could take it. Merlin leant against the cold stone wall of the castle and watched as he waited for the sun to rise and a new day to begin.
~~~
He felt awful, absolutely awful, In the early hours of the morning his chest pain tripled leaving the boy writhing in agony on the floor of the balcony, screaming as he did so. At one point the warning bells had sounded, Merlin was sure it was because of the noise he had been making: when they hadn't been screams it had been an almost inhuman sound much like that of a monstrous creature. The warlock had wanted to go to his friends to tell them that there was nothing to worry about but he couldn't exactly do that whilst being incapacitated on the floor screaming in pain.
When the agony finally subdued to a more manageable pain, it had been at least four hours since it had started, Merlin's throat was sore from all the screams, his body was ice cold and hands still shaking slightly. The guards continued running around the castle grounds searching for the source of the sounds for at least two hours after the boy had managed to silence himself. Which also meant that two guards had come up to the tower searching. The servant had to try hide himself by climbing up onto the cone roof, wedging his feet on the slates he laid on his back. He had hoped that the guards would see nothing was there and leave but much to the ravens dismay the guards decided to stay up in the tower watching over Camelot, completely ignoring the presence of the boy.
~~~
When warning bells had sounded, Arthur immediately jumped up from his bed, telling Guinevere to stay put.
"Merlin?!" "MERLIN!" The king shouted for his servant as he scurried to grab his own chainmail, it was odd for the boy to not to be here, this was usually the only time he could rely on the boy to be on time to help suit him up. "I'm going to kill him" Arthur shouts as he tries his best to get ready. Upon seeing this Gwen gets out of bed and rushes to help her husband prepare.
The doors burst open, the blonde looks up to find Sir Percival and Leon standing in the doorway "Sire"
"Whats wrong, why have the bells sounded?!" The king demands
"Haven't you heard it?" Percival questions
Arthur goes to deny but is interrupted by a monstrous roar "What was that?"
"We don't know, we are searching the castle for a signs of the creature, but nothing yet" Leon responds.
Arthur nods as Gwen hands him his sword "Tell Merlin to come find me, when he finally decides to show up."
The three men run out of the room down the hallway towards the courtyard to help in the search. "Do you think Merlin will know what this is?" Percival shouts over the sounds of guards as the three run down the hall.
"Who knows what that boy knows" The king replies exasperated.
"Should we send for him?" Leon asks.
"If he was in the castle he would have already found us, there's no point looking for him"
~~~
"Any luck?" The queen asks to her returning husband
YOU ARE READING
The Aftermath (Merlin)
Fanfiction*Sequel Out now* Kilgharrah may have told Merlin that nothing he could do would save the Once and Future King, but that doesn't mean he was right. The warlock takes things into his own hands when he revives Arthur at Avalon, but there are consequenc...
