The Adventures of a King and His Warlock

Zip lining(Humor)

Merlin POV

"I dare you to pay for all of our drinks tonight." Arthur states, smirking. I groan. Of course he'd make that dare. Oh well, all there's left to do now is make all of them do something twice as bad. It's my turn anyway.

"I dare all of you," I point my finger at them for emphasis. "I dare all of you to meet me at the tallest tower of the castle tonight at 9:00. I'll tell you your dare then."

"Why do I get a bad feeling about this?" Gwaine says.

"Aww, is Sir Gwaine scared?" I reply, grinning in he same way I do when I have a mischievous plan.

"No!" He retorts. "When does Sir Gwaine ever get scared?" I snicker into my drink, barely masking it as a cough.

"How do we know your not asking us up there to kill us or something?" Lancelot asks, but he too is laughing.

"You don't. You'll just have to trust me. Right, Arthur?" I emphasized his name as payback for every time he's said the same and we end up getting caught.

Arthur gulp before answering. "Now that I know for a fact that we are going to die, let's go get ready."

"Yah. Don't wear chainmail or any of your armor alright. Don't want you to catch on fire or anything."

"On fire?" Leon questions incredulously.

"Yes, on fire Leon. Now go get changed." They all mumble a quick "great" before leaving the tavern. I'm left alone to pay for all the drinks. "Definitely payback." I mutter.

______________________________________________________

I look up in the wind, waiting for the rest if the group to come out. Lancelot is already here, he always seems to be on time. just as I'm thinking they might not come at all despite the dare, they all enter the scene, dressed in their usual attire, without the armor and chainmail of course.

"Oi, Merlin. We're all here now. What do we have to do?"

"Follow me."

"How mysterious can this guy get?" Gwaine mutters. We all snicker in response. I lead them to the top of the tower, there's a window there, in which I've already placed the dare. Ten minutes later we are there and I finally come out with what they have to do. I lean against the open window, where the zip line starts.

"What," Arhtur points at the metal wire. "Is that?"

"This, sire, is your dare." His eyes widen incredulously along wit the rest of the Knights. "How about you demonstrate for us?"

"What? Merlin, no. This is absurd you can't possibly ask us to-"

"Zip line all the way to the bottom in a safety harness and I metal wire not even an axe could break? Yes I am. Or are you too chicken to give it a go?" He huffs in annoyance and desperation.

"Fine." He says finally.

"Excellent." I grin cheekily. "Right this way." He hesitates for a moment before walking to the window and placing a foot on the ledge. He looks down and gulps. The Knights and I snicker behind him. I help Arthur in head first(all you modern people just imagine the zip line scene from Divergent) and tighten the straps around his body.

"You sure this is safe Merlin?"

"When am I ever sure sire?"

"What! Get me out!" He fumbles to get out but I scream at Gwaine to help me pull him back to the wall. He hurriedly obliges and we both share a grin before we give him a quick shove out the window.

He screams as he flies down. "Don't forget to pull the brake!" I yell at him. I had already showed him how to use it, but I just wanted to remind the clot pole.

The Knights and I all howl with laughter as we crowd the window and watch as the flailing King of Camelot zip lines all the way to the edge of town. We eventually lose sight of him, but the satisfying squeal as the brakes are pulled gives us all relief.

Twenty minutes later, Arthur trudges upstairs with a zip line safety harness in hand. His hair is sticking up in all angles as he comes into view of the group. We all fall to the floor laughing as he just steams there. But eventually his face cracks into a huge grin and he pronounces, "I have got to do that again!" And joins in with the laughter.