The Once and Future King

The Tournament

The next day they woke up, and Arthur had to face the crowd without Merlin by his side. He frowned as Gwen and the farmer in armour came into his tent. "Be careful out there." Gwen said with a smile.

Arthur looks at her with a frown. "I wish he was here to call me a Prat or say something stupid." Arthur states looking quite upset.

"That servant is still here, even if you can't see him. I bet if you listen close enough, you'll hear him tell you something." The farmer stated, and Arthur smiles. He put on his helmet and jump on his horse and closes his eyes and listens with all his might and heart, and then in the whisper off the wind he hears. "Try not killing yourself out there Clotpot." And his smile spreads as he opens his eye and rides out, facing his opponent not knowing he was the assassin.

The man on the middle waves down as he run off, both man tapping their feet against their horses, and the horse start running. Joust in front of him, Arthur was determined to finish this quickly, so he could go check on Merlin. As they go got closer together, the assassin presses a button that causes a sharp metal blade to come out the front of the fist at the end of his joust. The assassin uses the mettle on his joust to shin the sun off it to temporarily blind Arthur which he does, the blade making contact with Arthur. He felt nothing but pain, Merlin body flinched, as his breathing got faster, and Gaius got worried, he could do nothing but watch Merlin, for he didn't know what was going on.

Grey started freaking out in Gwen's house, and once Arthur was back in the tent and Gwen was trying to help his badly bleeding wound, but he was still determined to go back out there, the moment he stood up and but his helmet on, Grey's round pupils became slits, and that was it. Grey growls an extremely dangerous growl, he funs to the front door, and head-butts it, and the door flies open with miserable force and he ran to the arraigner. Knight had seen him burst out of Gwen's house and followed him, seeing him as a threat. Merlin got to the arraigner and quickly found Gwen, who was shocked to see him. "Mer-Grey, what are you doing here?" Gwen asked in shock but kept as quiet as she could.

"I haven't got time to explain, there are knight after me! Where is Arthur?" Merlin practically demanded.

"He's out there. Why? What's wrong?" Gwen panicked.

"He's fighting the assassin!" Merlin explained.

"Oh no! Grey what are we going to do?" Gwen asked with worry in her eyes.

"I'm going out there." Merlin stated with determination in his eyes.

"No, you can't! Whatever happens to you happens to your body to." Gwen states, trying to persuade him otherwise.

"I don't care! I love him!" Merlin states and runs out there, he sees that their horses are already running towards each other, and that many have already taken notice of him, but he didn't care, he ran out there towards the assassin's horse. That is the moment everyone's eyes are one him, as he not only catches up to Arthur's horse within seconds, but passes him. Arthur's eyes widen at the very familiar pure black fur that belonged to Grey.

Merlin runs up to the assassin's horse, and then jump up to the horse with a fierce growl and the horse starts freaking out, but just before Arthur's joust makes contact with the assassin's body, the assassin's joust hits Merlin and he lets out a painful yelp. The assassin was on the floor unctuous and Arthur was off his horse and ran to Grey as did Gwen, but Arthur forgot one frightful detail, he was supposed to be hiding his identity until the end of tournament, but he forgot that in his state of panic and took the helmet off, everyone gasping to see it was actually he who fought in the tournament. The knight came over as Uther gave a frightful order. "Capture the wolf and don't hesitate to kill him, he is a threat to the throne!" The knights were about to do so but.

"Nooooooooo! Don't touch him! He is tamed by the most loyal and bravest man I now, and I'm not about to let you harm him!" Arthur demands.

"You Arthur Pendragon are in enough trouble as it is!" Uther proclaimed with anger filling up every bone in his body.

"Then father...punish me however you see fit! However, I will not allow you to kill Mer-My friend's pet wolf!" Arthur practically screamed at the King who now stood there with shock oh his face, suddenly gasps came from the crowds.

"Arthur!" Gwen caught his attention, and Arthur now looks at her then notices the wolf lying on the floor, blood leaking from his body where he had been hit. "That wasn't a knight you were going up against, is was the assassin sent to kill you, and Grey came all the way here stop him." Uther looked at the wolf in guilt as hearing this. Then wolf growls out of pain, then he starts fading into the background. Then magic blows out from him and he was no longer there, like he had never existed.

"Merlin." Arthur whispers in fear, Gwen looks at him in shock.

"Sorcery! The wolf was one of magic! Arthur, you said that you knew the one who owned the wolf! Who is it?!" Uther demanded, Arthur winks at Gwen and she smiles softly. He pretends to be in a lot of pain and then collapses onto the ground.

"We have to get him to Gaius now, he's lost to much blood." Gwen stated, then in that moment two knight lifted Arthur off the ground and carried Arthur to Gaius. When they got to his door, Gwen couldn't let them see Merlin, they'd get suspicious.

"I'll take him into Gaius to explain the injuries, you two go inform the King that Arthur is with Gaius and being helped as you speak." She states they nod their head, and run off. Arthur opens his eyes and they enter Gaius' quarters to find Gaius working drastically on Merlin, he had a wound just like Grey and it was bleeding just as badly. "Gaius, is there anything I can do to help." Gaius looks over to her and Arthur.

"Go fetch some water, the when you get back help Arthur with his injuries as much as you can until I've finished with Merlin." Gaius proclaims. She does as she's told, and what seemed like hours later Gaius came over to Gwen and Arthur, to help with Arthur's injuries.

"How is he?" Arthur asked with concern written all over his face.

"He will be fine, but I still don't understand what happened. One-minute Merlin was fine, then his body started acting out, then out of nowhere he got the injurie." Gaius explained.

"It was me. He came to me in the form of a wolf he tried to convince us was his pet named Grey, which I unfortunately fell for. I got injured in the tournament by a man I didn't know was an assassin who had been sent to kill me. I don't know how he knew I got injured, but he did, so he broke out of Gwen's house to come save me." Arthur explained in a panic.

"Sire, relax...this is not your fault, you have done nothing wrong." Gaius explains, trying to calm the young prince. "Merlin's magic becoming a wolf beside him make a lot more since now but I will tell you about that in a minute, right now this is what you need to hear...Merlin care about you, very much. He would die for you in the blink of an eye without hesitation, that is way this is not your fault...Merlin knew what he was risking, and it wasn't just his life, it was also the risk of revealing his magic...and I know that you would not have told your father within that moment who it was the wolf belonged to because your father would have seen him as a threat, and we must keep Uther from knowing, until which point you feel it is the right time to tell your father." Gaius explained, and they both nodded their heads. "Now, I shall tell you how Grey appeared." And with that Gaius told them both so many stories about Merlin and his magic and how much he used it to save peoples live, Gwen and Arthur were fascinated by the stories, and when Merlin woke up, Arthur was determined to tell Merlin he knew of his magic and has excepted it as another part of Merlin charm.

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