<< yeah i have like 15 wips for this collection but i haven't been working on any of them because writer's bock sucks. so if any and all of these are bad, that's why. >>
<< update like years later after the first half of this note: HEY HEY HI I'M BACK HELLO FRIENDS don't mind any strange shifts in writing style :D >>
"Are you sure we should be here? After all, neither of us are immune to her call," Merlin said, stumbling behind Arthur as he tripped over rocks, struggling to keep his balance.
"Quit worrying, Merlin. We'll put in the ear plugs when we find her."
Exploring out on a rocky beach are our two unfortunate souls, King Arthur Pendragon and his servant Merlin, out on a hunt for a dangerous creature known as the siren. This siren in particular had been hunting people along a boulder-y shoreline in an enclosed bay, with cliffs bordering its edges. The siren's song lured people off the fatal cliffs, causing them to plunge down into rough water that crashed into rocks with frothy whitecaps.
"But what if they fall out? We have no way to stop ourselves from being drawn in by her song?" And of course, Merlin wouldn't stop worrying about their safety. Well, mainly Arthur's safety, since Merlin could somewhat take care of himself.
"That won't happen, Merlin," said Arthur with the surety of someone who could control fate. Unfortunately, the king didn't have that ability, and was actually more concerned than he let on. The man who had brought news of the siren to the castle had been traumatized, having watched his friends fling themselves from the cliffs towards the horrid siren. He'd been the only one to survive the incident, for reasons unknown to himself.
"Wouldn't it have been better to let Morgana go? After all, the books said that women aren't affected by sirens that take a feminine appearance," Merlin said, before toppling over on his side after slipping on a patch of algae.
Arthur bent and heaved Merlin back to his feet. "The books could be wrong. I won't let Morgana get injured on a mission that should have been handled by a knight."
"Morgana's better with a sword than you."
"She is not!"
"Yeah, she is. But it doesn't matter right now. You still have the map, right?"
There was a pause as Arthur glared at Merlin before he responded. "I have the map. The rocks where the siren was spotted are just over there."
"So we should put our ear plugs in, right?"
"Yes, we should." Arthur handed Merlin a pair of the ear plugs they'd made from candle wax. He took them and shoved them into his ears, blinking as Arthur said something else. Merlin couldn't understand what Arthur was saying, as the words were highly muffled, proving that the ear plugs were working as planned.
Arthur then nodded and turned away, starting to walk towards the rocks again. His hand moved to the hilt of his sword, but he didn't unsheathe it quite yet. Merlin followed behind, trying to be a little bit quieter in his clumsy movements.
As they moved closer to the rock formation, a low, haunting sound started to float around the bay, reverberating from the cliff walls. Merlin could feel the song in his chest, but he couldn't actually hear it that well. He could feel the magic behind the enchanting words, though, the air starting to shimmer around them as they continued to approach the rocks.
When the two men reached the edge of the rocks, where the waves lapped at the shoreline, they could see a large outcropping of rocks sticking out of the water, fanning out like a sea urchin. On one of the dark spires was the siren, her kelp-green hair fanning out and flowing as though she were in the water. The most eye-catching thing about her, though, was her legs. Or rather, her lack of legs.
Around her hips was the sickly green mouth of a giant fish, as though her lower half had been consumed by the fish, but it died before swallowing her whole. The fish's eyes were glazed over, covered by a layer of grey, its tail stretched out over the spire that the siren laid upon.
Merlin recoiled when the tail twitched, and then stumbled backwards farther when the siren's head turned towards them, revealing a face painted with runes and eyes as black as the abyss. Her lips split open and spread into a wide smile, her teeth pointed like a sharks.
And then the singing began again. Once more Merlin could feel the siren's song calling to his soul, swirling through the air around them in jarring spirals of power, demanding that they wade into the water. Demanding that they sacrifice their lives, attempting to swim across the bay to the dark spires, to the siren calling out for them.
He turned just in time to see Arthur take a slow step forwards, eyes unfocused, but then he stumbled, almost falling to his knees as he shook his head, lax expression turning down in a frown. Fear lanced through his chest at Arthur's movement, worries that the ear plugs weren't muffling the song enough for Arthur to resist it starting to lift their ugly heads.
"Arthur." He moved to stand by his king's side, offering an arm for stability. To no surprise, Arthur batted his arm away with a slightly flailing hand as he stood up straight, glaring right at the siren. It was hard to tell, but it almost seemed like the siren was glaring right back.
"Arthur," Merlin repeated again, trying to make Arthur look at him, but the king continued to stare down the siren, hand making its way back to the hilt of his sword.
"How are you planning on killing it, when it's protected by spikes?" Merlin asked, grabbing Arthur's arm to force him to pay attention to him. "We can't swim across to it without getting impaled or smashed into rocks!"
Arthur jerked to the side at Merlin's grab, and then shook his head again. When the king turned towards the warlock, he could see that his eyes were unfocused again, only slowly starting to refocus once he looked at Merlin. Of course, even when his eyes were focused, it was easy to see that he hadn't heard what Merlin had said. He cocked his head to the side questioningly, brows furrowing as he shook his head slightly.
Merlin sighed but didn't bother to repeat himself, knowing it wouldn't make much difference. He knew that in the end, he was going to have to use his magic to kill the siren, but would have to somehow stop Arthur from seeing it. Of course, the easiest way to do that would be to knock the king out, but then he'd have to come up with a whole story on how they both survived and how Merlin had managed to kill the siren. He'd also have to do the whole fighting thing, which he really wasn't looking forwards to.
He turned to look up at the siren, who seemed to be peering down at them with a narrowed, angry gaze. She was moving, tail undulating slowly, and at first Merlin couldn't place what she was trying to do, before he realized that she was moving. She was shifting down the spire, closer to the water, her song thinning before she vanished under the surface of the water. Merlin was just able to catch a flash of her hair before she left his field of view, proving that the bay was much deeper than it appeared to be.
Merlin took this chance to yank one of the earplugs out of Arthur's ear, and took one out of his own, saying, "You really didn't think this through, did you? We have no way of getting at her if she's on those spires, or if she's in the deep waters. And, you're still falling under the thrall of her song despite the earplugs."
Arthur was silent. Merlin stared at him for a moment before continuing, "We should turn back. I know it took a while to get here, but I'm not taking the risk of you drowning just to kill that thing. Next time, I'm bringing Morgana." Besides, Morgana was well aware of Merlin's magic, and was learning how to use her own. Together they'd be able to take down the siren with ease.
"We're not turning back, and there won't be a next time," Arthur said firmly. "We'll kill the siren today. All we need to do is lure it close, and I know how."
Merlin grew more and more outraged as Arthur explained his 'brilliant' plan. Arthur was just going to let the siren take him under it's spell, but Merlin was going to tie him to a rock before that happened. The siren would hopefully get more and more angry that her prey wasn't coming closer to her, so instead she'd get closer to him. When she was close enough, Merlin would put the earplugs back in Arthur's ears and then untie him so he could kill the siren.
"How do you know that there aren't any long-lasting effects? You only barely went under her spell, and it took a bit for your to clear your head. And we don't even know why you were able to escape it!" Merlin said, waving his arms about. He huffed as Arthur arched an eyebrow, crossing his arms and pouting at the king. "I still think we should try this again some other time, so you don't get us both killed."
"We're not going to turn back, Merlin, not when we're right here. Come on, let's get the rope we saw." Arthur turned around and started crunching along the rocky shore towards where a soggy line of rope had been washed up. It seemed long enough to wrap around Arthur and a tall-ish boulder that was close to the cliff face, and not too far from the water.
A while later, Merlin was twitchy and jumping at every sound from the water, scared that the siren was going to return too soon and they wouldn't be ready for its song. Arthur just laughed whenever Merlin snapped his spine whipping around to face the water, laughing harder when Merlin whined after getting whiplash.
"There." Merlin yanked the rope tight, suppressing his smile at Arthur's sound of annoyance. "Now you're secured and can't get lured in by the siren, and will also have to wait here until she returns from wherever she went."
Arthur frowned at that, before saying, "Merlin, why don't you hide somewhere? That way it will look like it's only me remaining here. I don't think the siren liked how you weren't drawn in by her song."
That gave them both pause as they stared at each other, silent until Arthur continued. "Why were you not drawn to her song? You weren't affected like I was."
Merlin just pursed his lips and said nothing, turning to look for a place to hide. He purposely turned his back on the king, knowing that the blond-haired man was surely staring into the back of his head, trying to force an answer out of him. Merlin continued to ignore him, ending up just circling around the boulder that Arthur was tied to, crouching behind the back side of it.
"Merlin, you never answered me," Arthur said loudly, turning his head to the side despite not being able to see around the side of the rock. "Why couldn't the siren's song affect you?"
"I'm not entirely sure," Merlin replied, which wasn't the full truth, but it at least wasn't a full lie either. He had a small hunch as to why the song hadn't affected him, letting his head thump gently against the boulder. He let his eyes flutter closed, focusing on his breathing as Arthur made a sound of annoyance from the other side of the rock, obviously unhappy with his manservant's answer but he wasn't going to push it any further when it seemed like Merlin didn't want to give him a straight answer.
They waited in silence for a while, nothing but the wind howling along the cliff above them, and the crashing of waves against the rocky shore to keep them company. Other than each other, of course. It wasn't the most comfortable position for either of them, but they both still took comfort in the faint sounds of rope rubbing against cloth, or boots crunching on small pebbles. It wasn't until everything got eerily still, the waves seeming to recede into the ocean, the wind ceasing it's harsh breaths, that Merlin could feel the pull of magic from the depths.
"I'm putting the ear plugs in, Arthur. She's coming," Merlin said.
"What? How do you know?" Arthur asked, but Merlin decided that he didn't hear that question, following through with his former statement and shoving the ear plugs into his ears, nose crinkling at the uncomfortable sensation.
He could faintly hear Arthur speaking loudly even though Merlin didn't respond, but the warlock continued to ignore the king as the pull of magic from the water grew stronger, the source of the magic growing closer. He let out a shuddering breath, able to feel that the siren was already singing as she drew close to the surface of the water, putting more magic into the song than she had been before. He shuffled his feet around quietly, shifting into a more crouch-like position, wanting to be ready for when he needed to jump up.
The siren breached the surface of the water, her song carrying straight through Merlin's earplugs as though they weren't there. He froze, terrified at the realization that he had no protection against the siren's song. Moments later, his heart was still racing but he came to his senses, blinking slowly as he looked down at his hands, still fully aware and in control of his own mind. The song still had no effect on him, not like Arthur had been effected the last time they heard the song.
He took a few steadying breaths as he felt the siren draw closer to the rock he was hiding behind. He pulled the earplugs from his ears, now hearing the song at full volume as Arthur was hearing it, but was still not effected by the song. His little hunch as to why he wasn't effected by the song was quite more than a hunch now.
Now he could hear Arthur clearly, who was calling out for the siren, demanding to be untied. "Let me go! Let me go! I need to feel her embrace, need to be held by my eternal love."
Merlin's mouth twisted into a snarl, expression scrunching. Arthur's words were so stilted, so fake. He never spoke like that, even when he was being annoyingly formal. Those words weren't his own, being forced from his mouth by that creature approaching him.
Merlin mentally counted down, tensing. He could hear the sound of the siren slithering over rocks, able to picture her horrible tail pushing her along, sliding and crawling over the rocky shore. He just needed to wait a little bit longer, until she was close enough to be within sword range, but far enough to give Merlin time to give Arthur the earplugs back and cut him free.
Only a few more heartbeats passed before Merlin sprang into action, scrambling up and dashing around from the far side of the rock, Arthur's sword in one hand and the earplugs in the other hand. He dropped the sword and tried to put the earplugs into Arthur's ears, which isn't an easy feat due to the fact that Arthur is actively swatting at his hands, yelling at him. Merlin glares and uses a flash of magic to pin Arthur's hands by his sides, praying to whatever deity that would listen that Arthur would not remember the gold in his eyes.
Only after the earplugs were in Arthur's ears did he remember what he'd heard earlier. The siren's song was much more powerful now, and that only reason that Merlin could resist the song was because he was completely and utterly in lo--. . .
He was completely and utterly in love with Arthur.
There really wasn't much other explanation. Obviously his magic may have something to do with it, but he'd read that magic users could still fall under the spell of the song. No, it was because he was in love with someone else. He'd never felt much attraction to women. Freya was the only exception and he truly did love her, but slow realization over the months that followed was that his love for her could never match the love he felt for Arthur.
The siren's song was broken by a shrill screech. Merlin whipped around to face her, crouching to pick up the sword and hold it in front of him. He took a few steps forwards, away from Arthur, who was still crying out to be released, although there was a quaver of confusion in his voice now, as though he didn't understand what he was saying.
"Don't do this," Merlin ordered, eyes beginning to glow golden. "Just leave this bay and never come back. You don't have to die today but I will not hold back if you continue to come after my king."
The siren hesitated for a brief moment, letting out a sound akin to a low, rasping hiss, before speaking in a voice that sounded like shale breaking away from a cliff. "Do not block me from my prize, boy," she snarled.
"He's not your prize. I'd do anything to keep him safe," Merlin replied venomously, lifting the sword. His eyes glowed brighter as the sword began to take on a shimmering blue sheen, responding to the magic that was swirling invisibly around the warlock.
"Then you shall die." The siren launched herself forwards, lunging for Merlin. Her arms extended, webbed hands revealing dark, cracked claws that were sharp nonetheless. She grabbed at Merlin, attempting to drag him closer to her.
Merlin dove out of the way, stumbling and crashing to one knee, but he pivoted and shouted a spell, launching the sword at the siren. It flattened and slid through the siren's ribcage, right through the lungs and heart, protruding from the other side. The siren's mouth parted in another shrill scream, devastated at being beat so easily. She began to turn to stone, cracks running over her cold skin and crumbling. Merlin watched in vague horror and pride as the creature collapsed into a pile of rubble and dust.
Coughing drew his attention up to the rock, where he watched Arthur slump down against his restraints. Merlin rushed over to the king, shifting to use the sword to cut him free. The ropes fell to the ground but Merlin dropped the sword and caught Arthur before he could follow after. Arthur leaned forwards against Merlin's chest, lifting his arms to grab at his manservant for balance, trying to regain his footing.
"Arthur. Arthur, are you okay?" Merlin asked, audibly worried. He shifted, lowering the two of them down to the ground. He leaned Arthur back against the rock, shuffling onto his knees and lifting Arthur's head to peer into the king's eyes. "Arthur, can you hear me?"
Arthur's eyes were unfocused, pupils dilated, but he still choked out, "Merlin?"
Merlin nodded, rubbing his fingers tenderly along Arthur's cheeks. "Yeah. It's me. You're safe now. We took care of the siren--you'll never have to hear her song again."
Arthur brought his hands up, wrapping his fingers around Merlin's wrists. Merlin stilled, waiting to see what the king would say.
"Merlin. Are you--did you--. . ." Arthur paused, frowning before getting his words straight. "Did you fall under her spell?"
"No, I didn't. She had no power over me," Merlin said with a smile, letting his hands fall away from Arthur's face. He wished he had the confidence to leave them there.
"Why not? This is important." Arthur was obviously getting better rapidly, jumping right back into seriousness. His face was drawn, revealing how taxing being under the spell had been, especially because he'd been trying to fight it.
Merlin took a slow breath. "The power of the siren's song is lessened when a person is truly in love with someone," he began to explain. "I. . . My heart belongs so wholly to another person that I wasn't swayed by her song."
That seemed to catch Arthur's attention. "You're in love with someone?" he asked incredulously, face scrunching up in confusion.
"Yes, I am," Merlin laughed, but it was stilted and rather fake. He realized the direction this conversation was going to take, and he wasn't looking forwards to it. He made an attempt to divert the attention from himself, checking up on Arthur. "Do you remember much from when you were under the siren's spell? I heard that the song induces amnesia."
Arthur squinted, seeing through Merlin's feeble attempt to change topics but going along with it anyways. "I remember some things. Vague notions. I know I was talking a lot, but I don't remember what I was saying."
"It's probably better that way. Come on, let's get you home." Merlin stood up, offering Arthur a hand. The king swatted away the proffered hand, heaving himself to his feet on his own. Merlin cast a wary glance at the pile of crumbled stone where the siren had collapsed, but luckily Arthur didn't seem to be bothered about where the siren had gone, preoccupied with something else on his mind. They started walking away from the beach in silence before Arthur began talking.
"Who are you in love with?"
". . . That doesn't matter."
"Merlin, tell me! We're friends, aren't we?"
"Of course we're friends. Why do you want to know so badly?"
"Because. . . I'm curious. Why wouldn't I be? Who knew you were such a hopeless romantic!"
"Why should I tell you?"
"Just stop avoiding the question! I have a right to know."
"No you don't. . ? Arthur. People can have secrets. I can have secrets."
"Oh, so a secret lover?"
". . . Maybe. . ?"
"Okay, but you're not allowed to keep secrets from me."
"Says who?"
"Says I. Tell me!"
And so this conversation carried on for quite a while as the two men trekked along, making their way steadily back towards Camelot. The trip should only have taken a few hours, but their slow progress due to exhaustion and scattered thoughts caused them to have to set up camp in a small clearing beside a bubbling stream. They had no bedrolls, food, or pots, but they had canteens, which they would be able to make do with.
Arthur was crouched by the stream, washing some wild berries that he had foraged and gathered. Merlin has been surprised that he knew they were edible, but Arthur had explained that all of the knights had been taught to recognize wild edible plants, in case they were in situations like these, where they had no prepped food. Merlin then wandered off to collect firewood, as was always expected of him. It was easy, as there was a tree that had fallen over, leaving a lot of dead branches for him to pick up and carry back to the clearing.
As dusk turned to night, Merlin and Arthur were sat side-by-side by the fire, blackberries in a neat pile on top of Merlin's neckerchief, which he'd taken off and laid on the ground as a makeshift napkin. Merlin reached out and popped one of the berries into his mouth, savoring the taste as he listened to the crackles and pops from the cheery fire.
"You never did tell me who your secret lover was," Arthur said, breaking the silence. He leaned to the side, bumping Merlin's shoulder with his own. The manservant turned his head to glare at him, snorting before eating another berry.
"I said I wouldn't tell you because I'm allowed to keep secrets," Merlin retorted, crossing his arms and giving an exaggerated pout.
"Oh, come on. You know everything about me," Arthur said petulantly, pouting right back at Merlin. The warlock didn't know why Arthur was so determined to figure out who Merlin was in love with. He stared at Arthur for a moment, before huffing and shaking his head, uncrossing his arms and slumping.
"Yeah, only because you drag me around with you everywhere," Merlin retorted once again, but there wasn't really anything behind it, not the usual teasing amusement that he often has, nor was there any bite to the statement.
"What's the big deal? You can trust me not to tell anyone. I promise," said Arthur, his tone becoming almost whiny as he continued to try and persuade Merlin. The warlock gave him an unimpressed look, but his pulse was jumping in his ears and wrists. Something was wrong about Arthur's expression--while he may be acting as prattish as usual, he was desperately trying to conceal the hurt in his eyes. It wasn't working; Arthur was often expressive in his tone and body language, wearing his emotions on his sleeve even if he couldn't express them very well using his words.
"Arthur," Merlin said, cutting Arthur off as he opened his mouth to whine again. "Arthur. I need to know. Why do you want to know so badly? You're not usually this annoying."
He tried to lift his tone as much as he could, making it more teasing rather than truly interrogative, but he watched as Arthur turned his head slightly to the side, guarding himself. So they were both hiding something, then. Merlin couldn't bear to hope that he knew what Arthur was keeping to himself.
"Well. . . I already said, Merlin. I can barely hide any secrets from you, so you should return the favor," Arthur repeated, but now the two of them both knew it was a lie. Merlin turned so he faced Arthur completely, reaching out to take Arthur's hands in his own and pull his attention back, meeting Arthur's gaze with his own.
"Arthur. . ." Merlin trailed off, sorting his words but forcing himself not to look away. "Arthur, are you jealous? It's not--I'm not angry! I just want to know."
Arthur had flushed brilliantly, avoiding Merlin's eyes but just ducking his head, not moving away. "Why would I be jealous? I don't have anything to be jealous of."
Merlin smiled, tugging Arthur closer and giggling. He knew his Arthur, knew him well enough to be able to see what Arthur was truly saying, despite the man's incapability to sort out his words and emotions. "Arthur, Arthur. Look at me," he said, still smiling and watching as the king slowly lifted his head to look at Merlin, eyes wide and mouth slightly parted.
"Can I kiss you?" Merlin asked simply, watching as Arthur's eyes widened more, stumbling over an answer.
"I--Uh--Well--" Arthur swallowed before clearing his throat, causing Merlin to laugh quietly. "Y--Yes. You may kiss me."
Merlin couldn't help but continue laughing at Arthur's formality, leaning in and pressing his lips to Arthur's, eyes falling shut as he sighed out a breath. He felt Arthur relax, leaning in to the kiss as well, smiling against Merlin's lips. Merlin pulled away, lifting his hands up to Arthur's face and holding him.
"I wanted to do that at the beach, but I wasn't sure if you. . . returned my feelings," Merlin explained gently, bumping his nose against Arthur's.
The king was quiet for a moment, before he said, "You were right. I was jealous. I didn't want anyone else to have you."
"You're quite lucky, then, that I fell head over heels for a prattish clotpole, rather than any sane person."
"Clotpole isn't a word."
"Yes it is!"
"Shut up."
"Make me."
<< fin. >>
<< any mistakes are my own :D >>