"In a land of myth and a time of magic, the destiny of a great kingdom rests on the shoulders of a young man... his name, Merlin"
This show may have ended a long time ago but the memories and heartache it caused, have not. I hope to give you joy and...
It was all awfully sudden; for the kitchens in Camelot to ask of the knights to go on a hunt and bring back game for cooking, and for Queen Guinevere herself to ask the knights, doing so in the name of having received word from the kitchens. Merlin who was most displeased about the day's plan, grumbled no small amount of unintelligent gibberish to himself that earned him a concerned albeit amused glance from Arthur.
No one ever thought of asking the knights to hunt. When short on game to cook –they almost never were- the kitchens had hunters for the very job. There was only one thing a knight did for others, and it was his duty to protect and uphold his code. Hunting for others and sharing his hard-won game was not in his list of duties as far as a knight was concerned.
And so to lead this most noble and atrocious quest, Guinevere sent her restless husband King Arthur himself who was close to picking battles with the kitchen cats from boredom, along with Sirs Gwaine (newly arrived from Nemeth on a diplomatic mission that rendered him more mischievous), Percival (seen the other day hand wrestling with a peasant boy over who owned a biscuit), and Leon (he had to be dragged from his well-meaning but tedious grain reports and village patrols) to follow their head-over-heels King most eager to please his wife.
"Arthur, darling, I love you. But you have to leave the castle or we're going to be looking for a new King."
As one can imagine, the rest of the group was none too pleased to be riding in the blazing hot sun of summer, in chainmail, for the majority of a whole day. And to make matters worse, Merlin was riding with them. Not that the boy was disliked by anyone, but his subtle attempts at scaring the animals to save them from death was not so subtle as he'd like to believe. And the gesture was unappreciated by knights forced to spend an extra amount of time running after an enthusiastic king and prolonging hunts that simply did not serve their selfish benefits.
"Merlin" Arthur ground out as they strolled into the courtyard, towards the stables. "If you even think about scaring away good meat, I will personally lock you in the stocks for a month."
"You said that last time and yet you did nothing," Merlin replied with a smirk. And to rub salt in open wounds, he added a muttered "Prat" that was not so quiet as he liked to think.
Arthur shot his manservant a steady glare and walked away from him to collect his horse.
//
"Gwaine, for the love of all gods, shut up!" roared Leon suddenly. A man who famously never lost his temper had been driven over the edge by endless hours of chatter of getting drunk and being rejected by every breathing woman on the planet. Gwaine was quick to shut his open mouth, shocked at his fellow knight's outburst.
As Arthur was about to thank Leon for silencing the insufferable man, a deer poked it's head out of a nearby bush and trotted over to a running stream for a drink that could serve to be its last. All four knights silently slid off their horses, momentarily forgetting Leon's outburst and withdrew crossbows from bags attached to their saddles. Merlin, with certain illegal ideas brewing in his mind, prepared to clamber off his horse as noisily as he could. Yet before he could even let go of his reigns, Arthur hissed out a warning.
"Merlin, I know what you're about to do and I'm warning you, I will not go back on what I said earlier". The servant got the message and slid off his horse as silently as the knights had done whilst mumbling something about a pompous prat.
The group took Merlin's obedience as a good sign and began their sneak attack on the poor and unsuspecting creature drinking a few feet away. However, Merlin had a trick up his sleeve. Seeing as he couldn't cause a scene himself, he might as well make the others cause one.
As Percival followed Gwaine, the cunning servant's eyes flashed gold and a thick tree stump was suddenly protruding out the dry ground. The large knight lost his footing for the moment, tripped, and as he regained his balance, kicked Gwaine in the back of a leg, sending the man flying, followed by a loud thump as he hit the dirt and not at all silent groaning, which alerted the deer of their presence and prompted it to go gracefully prancing away.
To say Arthur was angry was an understatement. The idiot he called a dear friend (although he'd never admit it even on pain of death) had managed to remain quiet the one time the knights cause a ruckus. He found himself questioning his wisdom in entrusting the protection of his kingdom onto them.
So, as Gwaine was hauled to his feet by the giant who tripped him, Arthur smacked him round the head with his hand (because has anyone seen Percival's height? That was no man to trifle with), causing the victim to yelp like a girl; Merlin to snort and Leon to pinch the bridge of his nose in annoyance with a terrible resemblance to that of a disappointed grandfather.
AN: My first chapter completed! I hope you guys like it and thanks to thefangirlofhpfor expert editing, making it sound very professional 💕
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