~~Unknown POV~~
Now it's time to continue my plan. I've already set doubt in the prince's head about magic, now it's time to test Emrys's loyalty to him.
This hunting trip will truly show if Arthur Pendragon will be the once and future king to unite the lands of Albion.
~~Uther's POV~~
Knock, knock.
"Come in."
I look up from my desk to see Arthur standing at the doorway.
"Arthur."
"Father. I wish to go on a weeks long hunting trip."
"Did you complete the papers I left for you?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Leave it for me and you may go. When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow morning."
"And who is joining you?"
"My usual knights and my manservant."
"Marvin?"
"Merlin."
"Ah. Are you sure it is wise to bring the boy with you?"
"He has come with me prior. He is a good cook and he carries everything. Although, his clumsiness seems to scare off all of the animals."
"He scares off the animals?"
How does someone scare off animals?
"Merlin tends to trip a lot and causes a lot of noise."
"Are you sure the boy isn't doing it purposely?"
"I assure you father, Merlin couldn't walk in a straight line if his life depends on it. I must go now."
"Of course."
With that, he leave.
I wonder, why does my son allow a servant on his trips with him? Though, I'm not draft enough to see that the boy is much more than just a servant. What my son does to protect the boy is beyond me. But, what intrigues me more is what the boy does to protect my son. I wonder why a simple servant is so loyal to Arthur. I guess that blind loyalty can come in handy in the future if Arthur is ever in trouble. I know the boy would give his life before he lets something happen to Arthur. And, the boys has shown to be a great asset against magic. He has warn me of several magical users around and lied to protect Arthur from killing me.
One day, I'll have to formally get to know the boy's mother and find out how she managed to get the boy to be so loyal. For now, I just have to get back to all this boring paperwork. At least I know when I'm dead, I don't have to deal with all this work.
~~Arthur's POV~~
"Gaius, is Merlin in here? I need him to pack my bags for tomorrow?"
"Good afternoon sire. I sent Merlin out to gather some extra herbs to bring on your hunting trip. Always somebody tends to get hurt on one of these trips."
"Not always. Only the ones where Merlin scares away the animals. Then somebody gets hurt. Oh wait, I supposed that's always then."
"You know, sire. You should give Merlin a little more credit. He does more then you think for him."
"Merlin? Sure, he sometimes actually decides to do his chores. I must leave now, but please send Merlin to my chamber when we gets back."
"Yes sire."
With that, I leave Gaius's chambers and head back to my own to finish the paperwork that I need to send to my father by the end of the day. Maybe if my buffoon of a servant comes back soon, I can have him help complete some of this work.
*Two hours later*
As I'm in deep concentration of my work, I hear my chamber's door being opened and closed. There is only one person who dares enters a prince's chambers without knocking first.
"Merlin. Nice of you to finally join me. Hope your time picking herbs were eventful. Now, I believe you have some bags to back."
I can feel Merlin rolling his eyes at me.
"Yes sire. Would you like me to scrub your fat bottom while I'm on it?"
"You know, I can have you thrown in the stocks for that. You shouldn't be insulting a prince."
"How about an ass?"
"You really love the stocks, don't you?"
"And when will you put me in the stocks, sire? Today, before I pack all your bags or after? Or how about after we get back from the week long hunting trip that we leave for tomorrow? Or maybe I can go tomorrow morning before I prepare the horses? Or should I go afterwards? No, not enough time. Why not just bring the whole thing with us and you and the knight can just pelt me with rotten food while you guys are killing animals? Or how about-"
"Okay Merlin, I get it. What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I'm sorry. I just have a bad feeling about this hunting trip."
"You have a bad feeling about everything."
"And I'm usually right."
No he's not. I mean, besides a few times. Or, a lot of the times. But, Merlin doesn't need to know that.
"You are just trying to come up with excuses not to go on the trip. It's your punishment you know. You can't skip out of you punishment."
"I'd rather get flogged."
Over my dead body.
"Well, too bad. If you rather get flogged, then I know bringing you on a hunting trip will bring you the worst misery. Perfect punishment."
"You are cruel."
"Maybe. But it's not like I woke up my master in the middle of the night with frogs, tied him up, wake him up extra early for breakfast with his father only to-"
"Okay, okay. I get it. Now, I believe you have paperwork to finish and I have bags to pack."
~~Merlin's POV~~
After a long day of completing chores for Arthur and Gaius, I'm finally able to get some sleep. Given, I only have three hours before I have to get up again. But, three hours is better then no hours.
I lay down in my not so comfortable bed. Even though it's not that comfortable, it's a lot better then sleeping on the floor, like I did back in Ealdor. Closing my eyes, I can only hope for Gaius to wake me up in time.
"Merlin."
I pop straight up in my bed and look around. I don't see anybody around.
"Merlin."
The voice is in my head. I know exactly who it is and they are just going to have to wait.
"Merlin. I know you can hear me. Don't ignore me."
At least I can try to.
"Merlin. It concerns your destiny."
Ugh. I hate you overgrown, cryptic lizard.
Sluggishly, I change from my night clothes to yesterday's clothes. Though, I might as well put on tomorrow's clothes.
I walk out of my chamber's quietly, trying not to wake Gaius. At least one of us should get a good nights rest. For the first time, I manage to sneak out without knocking anything over. I call that a win.
"Merlin. Merlin."
Okay Kilgharrah, calm down. I'm coming. He does know that it takes a half hour to walk over there, right?
During my entire walk to the clearing, Kilgharrah would randomly start talking.
"Merlin. Merlin"
"Merlin, hurry up. I don't have all night."
"Merlin, your destiny is counting on this."
I swear if I hear him one more time, I'll kill him.
Finally, after a long walk, I reach the clearing. Kilgharrah is standing there, looking like I'm wasting his time.
"KILGHARRAH, I'M HERE!! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?"
"No need to be angry, young warlock. We need to discuss something of great importance."
Okay. Deep breath in, deep breath out.
"What do we need to discuss?"
"On your trip, there is a sorcerer coming to harm Arthur Pendragon."
"When is there never somebody trying to kill Arthur?"
"You must do whatever it takes to protect the prince."
"When are they going to try and attack Arthur?"
"I trust you will do the right thing, young warlock."
With that, Kilgharrah flies away. At least he wasn't super cryptic this time. I wonder what sorcerer wants to kill Arthur this time and why.
I look up into the sky. I've been here a half hour? It felt like ten minutes. If I leave now, I can still get an hour and a half of sleep. But, what if somebody gets hurt on this hunting trip? We'll need lots of healing herbs. If I spend a half hour picking up herbs, then I can get an hour of sleep. That should be enough.
*Half hour later*
I take it back. We didn't need extra herbs. I could be sleeping right now. But nooo. I still need to walk a half hour back. I can see the sun begin to rise. Why did Arthur want me to polish his armor again last night?
I get lost in thoughts and don't realize how close I am to the castle.
"Merlin?"
I snap out of my thought to see Gwaine standing there, looking at me. I put on my usual, happy smile and wave at him.
"Gwaine! What are you doing up?"
"I was getting some extra training in before we leave. What are you doing?"
"Oh, I was collecting some extra herbs for the hunting trip."
"Did you even get any sleep?"
"Yeah. I just woke up a little while ago and decided to collect some extra herbs."
I can see the doubt cross Gwaine's face. Please don't question it and let me go to sleep.
"Okay. You should probably change though. You look like you went mucking out the stables."
I look down at myself to see my clothes covered with dirt.
"Thanks. I better be heading back now. See you in a little bit."
"Yeah, sure. See you."
With that, I continue walking back to the castle. I have forty five minutes to sleep. Finally, I reach Gaius's door. Please not be awake. Please not be awake.
I open the door, only to see Gaius standing there, packing a medical bag for me.
"Merlin! What are you doing up? I wasn't going to wake you for another half hour. Are those herbs?"
"Yeah. Kilgharrah called me and told me that there is going to be a sorcerer trying to kill Arthur, like always. So, after that, I decided to pick some more healing herbs, just in case."
"Smart thinking. Maybe you can become a physician one day. Did Kilgharrah say when the sorcerer will attack?"
"This is Kilgharrah. What do you think?"
I see Gaius give me a knowing smile and continues back to packing the medical bag.
"Hand me the extra herbs and I'll pack them. You go clean yourself off and get changed. You need to wake Arthur in a half an hour."
I guess that means no sleep for me. Thanks Kilgharrah.
"Okay, here you go. I'll go get ready now."
At least I'll get some sleep tonight. I walk into my chambers and take off all my clothes. I grab a random rag and dip it in a bucket of water. With that, I wash off my body, taking off all the excess dirt. I dry off and get changed. At least I'm a little more awake now.
I walk back out of my chambers to see Gaius preparing some kind of potion.
"Hungry?"
"No thank you Gaius. I have to wake up Arthur and serve him breakfast. I'm already running a little late."
I grab the medical bag off the table.
"Thank you for packing this for me."
"No problem. Just remember to be careful too. You don't know what this sorcerer is capable of."
"I know. Same problem, different day. I'll be alright. See you in a week."
"Goodbye."
I walk out of Gaius's chambers and begin walking to the kitchen to pick up Arthur's breakfast. We all know how he gets if he doesn't get his breakfast.
Walking into the kitchen, I see the head kitchen lady, Audrey, yelling at the other servants. I quickly grab Arthur's breakfast on the table and leave. How delicious everything smells. The last time I ate was yesterday morning. I can feel my stomach begin to growl. No stomach, now is not the time.
I get to Arthur's chambers and push open the door. The prat is still sleeping. He does look kind of cute when he sleeps.
No, stop. I cannot think like that. He is the prince and I'm his servant. I refuse to let my mind think like that.
I place Arthur's food on the table and I take out his clothes for the day. Afterwards, I walk over to the window and throw open the curtains.
"Rise and shine, dollophead. We have a long day ahead of us."
I can hear a groan from behind me and look over to see Arthur throwing his blankets on top of his head.
"Do you want me to drag you out of bed again?"
With that, Arthur pushes his blankets off of him and swing his legs over the bed to get out.
"There we go."
"Merlin, shut up. It's too early for this. I feel like I got no sleep last night."
Know the feeling.
"Well, you did. Now, eat some breakfast and you'll be your cheery self again."
Arthur gives me a look like he's going to kill me on the spot.
"Or not."
Arthur gets to the table and pops a slice of bacon into his mouth.
"At least the foods warm."
"Oi! The foods always warm!"
I know because I may or may not use magic to insure it stays warm.
"Hmph."
Thinking about Arthur's food is making me hungry. No, can't be hungry. Think of old dirty-
Growl.
My stomach betrayed me. It does the loudest growl I think it has ever done. I look down and feel my cheeks reddening.
"Merlin."
I look up to see Arthur staring at me.
"Yes Arthur?"
"Sit down."
Arthur uses his foot to push the chair next to him away. I guess that mean he wants me to sit there. So, I do. When I sit down, Arthur pushes his plate in the middle of us.
"Eat."
I look directly at him.
"What? You can't be serious."
"If I'm going to have to hear you complain all day, I might as well not have to hear your stomach yelling for food all day too."
Say no more. I grab a piece of toast and quickly eat it. I grab another piece and eat it just as fast. Am I eating too much of his food? I look up at Arthur and he is just staring at me.
"Sorry."
I go to stand up.
"I should probably-"
Arthur grabs my arm and pulls me back down to my chair.
"I said sit and eat. I'm not that hungry anyways."
Arthur not hungry. Is he feeling alright?
"Are you ill? Would you like me to fetch Gaius for-"
"No, I'm perfectly fine. I just need to finish up some paperwork."
With that, Arthur pushes his entire plate to me and grabs some papers.
"Are you sure? We won't be eating until tonight and I know how you-"
"You know Merlin, you're so concerned with me eating, but when was the last time you ate?"
With that, I look down at the plate and begin eating a piece of bacon.
"Merlin."
I quietly answer back.
"Yesterday morning."
"What? I couldn't hear you with your mouth full of bacon."
I repeat myself, but louder.
"Yesterday morning."
"Yesterday morning!?!?! No wonder why you're so skinny! Does Gaius even feed you?"
"Yeah, but I was busy with chores for you and Gaius and I forgot. You know, not everybody need to eat all the time."
"You're probably just hungry, so I'll ignore that insult. But, you need to eat more."
"Yeah yeah. Don't you have paperwork to finish before we leave?"
"Yeah."
With that, I finish Arthur's food and take it back to the kitchen. Afterwards, I go to the stables a prepare the horses. This is going to be the longest week ever.
*A few hours later*
It's mid afternoon now. I'm so exhausted. Gwaine has been talking nonstop about his tavern stories and I've been talking here and there to keep in appearances. Arthur said that he wants to keep riding until nightfall. Maybe if I just take a quick nap on my horse until then.
No, I need to stay awake. But, that's hard with the black dots swirling my vision. Come on. Can't pass out, can't pass out.
With that, I feel my eyes fall to the back of my head and I'm suddenly falling. I feel myself land on something hard and right before everything goes black, I hear a voice yelling my name.
"Merlin!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Word Count: 2784
Wow, that was a long chapter. But, the breakfast scene was to cute not to include.
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