The Golden Effect

Gwaine (babes)

Enjoy!

Two hundred pounds. Seven flights. Thirty-two stairs per flight. Two hundred and twenty-four stairs in total. Merlynn's first order of business was to haul Sir Oswald and Ethan's trunk up those many, many flights to their guest chambers.

By the time she nudged open the door, she was panting, sweating heavily and her chest was in pain. The dress hadn't helped either; she had stumbled and fell at least four times up every flight, bruising her arms and legs dangerously.

"Merlynn!" Oswald roared from within the room.

"Here…it…is," she wheezed, dropping it down in front of their feet.

They sat languidly in their chairs, snacking on raisins as they watched her with amused grins. "What took you so long?" Oswald questioned with a hazardous brow.

"What?" she retorted, forgetting he was a knight. He had to be kidding though, right? "It weighs a ton. The stairs…" she tiredly motioned toward the door. "Seven flights. That's two-hundred and twenty-two steps."

"That's very kind of you," Ethan mocked. "But we don't need a sob story and a whine. Get over it."

"Yeah," Oswald chuckled. "You can't leave it there, either."

Merlynn released a pained breath as she stood. "Why not?" she groaned.

"It's in the way," he explained, as if speaking to a three-year-old.

She sighed. "Okay, where do you want it?"

"Over there, by the bed," Ethan motioned to the spot.

Merlynn grunted and hefted up the trunk into her arms, carrying it over to the desired position and dropped it.

"Oh, no. The...other side."

She followed orders, her arms stinging and burning from the strenuous lifting. As she dropped it down onto the other side of the bed, Ethan decided to put more pain into her body by exclaiming, "It's going to get in my way there."

Merlynn stood, irritated, and raised her brow at them angrily. "Fine. Where do you want it?"

Oswald snorted. "On top of the wardrobe."

"On top?"

"You're absolutely right, Oswald," Ethan agreed elatedly. "That's exactly where it should be."

Merlynn gasped as she picked the trunk up for the last time and hefted it over to the wardrobe, where she was forced to place it onto her back. She leveraged it onto the edge of the wardrobe. Behind her, Oswald had a smirk on his face as he flipped open the latch. Clothes and other belongings toppled onto her and she fell to the ground with a yelp of pain, the trunk then landing straight onto her stomach. Oswald pulled the tunic from her face and pet her cheek mockingly.

"You can clean this mess up, Merlynn," he hissed, and the two strolled out.

oOo

Every muscle in her body ached. She was going to kill Arthur when she saw him next, as it was really all his fault in the first place for 'offering' her employment to Oswald for the duration of his stay. Gaius gave her a strange look as she lifted her dinner bowl and drank the pea soup.

"It's very hard to work out whether you are eating or inhaling that soup," he observed.

Merlynn put the bowl back down with a smack of her lips. "I haven't had anything all day. Sir Oswald had me at his beck and call."

"How is he?" he asked curiously, as if they were old friends.

"Awful," she groaned. "So very awful. He treats me like dirt, and my body aches like crazy."