One-Way Trip
Author: shadowspun
Title: One-Way Trip
Rating: G
Character/s: Merlin
Summary: After waiting for Arthur for too many years, Merlin decides to take a trip.
Warnings: none
Word Count: about 345
Prompt: Voyage
Author's Notes: The idea of Merlin waiting for thousands of years makes me sad.
Merlin wasn’t sure if he was making the voyage out of spite, stubbornness, or sheer desperation. It had been so long since he’d started his vigil. There had been so many times he was positive Arthur would return. Plagues, invasions, wars of every kind, and natural disasters hadn’t brought him back. Merlin was sick of waiting. He’d traveled the world, always ready to return on a thought if the alarm spell he’d left at the lake was triggered, but he’d never had to return.
The lake itself had long since dried up and the ruins were an archeologist’s wet dream. Merlin had even worked the dig site once, just to make sure they didn’t find anything they shouldn’t. Luckily, the scientists were so conditioned to believe Arthur and Camelot were simply tales that they thought they’d just encountered another post-Roman settlement. Merlin had managed to hide the good stuff from them and make them forget they found anything he’d missed seeing them pull from the ground.
Waiting in line for his turn to board, he tightened his hold on the bag slung over his shoulder. If he went through with this he was truly giving up. There would be no return. Even he wasn’t powerful enough to transport himself through literal space. This ship was headed for a colony planet ten years away.
“Merlin Emrys?” The crew member took his identification papers and ran some sort of check before handing them back. “Last chance to stay on Earth. Once you get on, you can’t get off.” He said this with the boredom of someone who’d repeated it for hours and had gotten the same response each time.
Merlin nodded. “I’m ready. Ready for my future.”
The slight jolt of the ship as it left the orbiting space station made Merlin put his hand over his heart. He was in the observation deck with other passengers, wanting one last glimpse of Earth. As he watched the planet recede his heart grew lighter. It was done. He was finally living just for himself.