Mad Dash (part 6)
Author: weatherfeather
Title: Mad Dash (part 6)
Rating: PG-13
Pairing/s: none
Character/s: Merlin
Summary: Merlin searches for Arthur and surveys the destruction of battle.
Warnings: dead bodies
Word Count: 650
Prompt: 469 panic
Author's Notes: Other prompt: 466 Bingo "near dark"
Out on the landing, Merlin finds that it's suddenly raining.
A downpour is an after-effect of the weather magic that allows him to create lightning. He should have remembered he was going to get wet.
He leans back against the one closed door and puts his hands on his knees. He takes several deep breaths. The smells from the great hall still linger on him, but they're much less oppressive in the open air. After a few moments, he no longer feels unstoppably queasy.
Merlin stands straight and takes in the devastation of the courtyard. He can see broken statues strewn on the ground. There are people lying about, mostly knights, and he can't be sure in the dim light how many of them are still breathing and how many have stopped. There isn't a single beast among the bodies, but there are spots of pulverized paving stones that have clearly been crushed under the weight of one of the beasts crashing to the ground.
Nothing is moving here.
It's near dark, and the light will be gone soon. Merlin needs to search fast if he doesn't want to try to keep a torch lit in the rain.
He quietly casts a protective shielding spell over the door he came through so that only those who mean no harm to Camelot will be able to enter. Then, he hurries down the stairs and across the courtyard.
His heavy footfalls are partly muffled by the noisy rain.
With his back against a stone wall, he slides around the corner before the bridge to check that the bridge is clear.
He jumps over debris and checks the faces of the fallen as he runs around them. No Arthur here.
He slides to a stop on the slick stone.
The doors on the far side of the bridge are half-closed and only half-intact. The knights must have tried to close them against the beasts. The beasts - or maybe just one - ripped whole beams out of the ironwork. There are claw marks all over the wood that is still partly attached, and he can see great lumps of wood on the ground beyond the archway. Merlin's imagination runs wild with what the snarling, the frantic clawing, and the roaring must have sounded like to the people who didn't make it off the bridge.
He hears screaming, and realizes it's not in his imagination. It's coming to him through the rain. Now that his feet aren't slapping water, he can hear the clang of swords in the distance as well. He takes off through the broken doors.
The town beyond the doors is made almost entirely of wooden buildings, and they have fared little better. Some have large holes where their front doors once were. Some are missing entire front walls. Some have caved-in roofs. A few are completely collapsed.
Merlin has to make his way around, over, and through the debris blocking the streets and alleys.
It will be some clean-up job when this is all over.
If anyone is left.
As he has passed by all this destruction, Merlin has looked at every body lying in a doorway, every still family clumped together in a corner, and every lump under a red cloak in the street. So far, he has not found anyone moving outside the castle doors.
He has not found Arthur.
It should not be so difficult to find Arthur.
Merlin hopes that the reason he hasn't found Arthur yet is because he hasn't found the fighting yet. Even with Gwaine's assertion that Arthur headed toward the hospital, it wouldn't be out of character for Arthur to have stopped to help others even while he was injured.
Merlin tries not to panic. He needs to remain in control of his fear, or he might miss something important.
Something like a familiar magical taste getting stronger as it gets closer to him.
Title: Mad Dash (part 6)
Rating: PG-13
Pairing/s: none
Character/s: Merlin
Summary: Merlin searches for Arthur and surveys the destruction of battle.
Warnings: dead bodies
Word Count: 650
Prompt: 469 panic
Author's Notes: Other prompt: 466 Bingo "near dark"
Out on the landing, Merlin finds that it's suddenly raining.
A downpour is an after-effect of the weather magic that allows him to create lightning. He should have remembered he was going to get wet.
He leans back against the one closed door and puts his hands on his knees. He takes several deep breaths. The smells from the great hall still linger on him, but they're much less oppressive in the open air. After a few moments, he no longer feels unstoppably queasy.
Merlin stands straight and takes in the devastation of the courtyard. He can see broken statues strewn on the ground. There are people lying about, mostly knights, and he can't be sure in the dim light how many of them are still breathing and how many have stopped. There isn't a single beast among the bodies, but there are spots of pulverized paving stones that have clearly been crushed under the weight of one of the beasts crashing to the ground.
Nothing is moving here.
It's near dark, and the light will be gone soon. Merlin needs to search fast if he doesn't want to try to keep a torch lit in the rain.
He quietly casts a protective shielding spell over the door he came through so that only those who mean no harm to Camelot will be able to enter. Then, he hurries down the stairs and across the courtyard.
His heavy footfalls are partly muffled by the noisy rain.
With his back against a stone wall, he slides around the corner before the bridge to check that the bridge is clear.
He jumps over debris and checks the faces of the fallen as he runs around them. No Arthur here.
He slides to a stop on the slick stone.
The doors on the far side of the bridge are half-closed and only half-intact. The knights must have tried to close them against the beasts. The beasts - or maybe just one - ripped whole beams out of the ironwork. There are claw marks all over the wood that is still partly attached, and he can see great lumps of wood on the ground beyond the archway. Merlin's imagination runs wild with what the snarling, the frantic clawing, and the roaring must have sounded like to the people who didn't make it off the bridge.
He hears screaming, and realizes it's not in his imagination. It's coming to him through the rain. Now that his feet aren't slapping water, he can hear the clang of swords in the distance as well. He takes off through the broken doors.
The town beyond the doors is made almost entirely of wooden buildings, and they have fared little better. Some have large holes where their front doors once were. Some are missing entire front walls. Some have caved-in roofs. A few are completely collapsed.
Merlin has to make his way around, over, and through the debris blocking the streets and alleys.
It will be some clean-up job when this is all over.
If anyone is left.
As he has passed by all this destruction, Merlin has looked at every body lying in a doorway, every still family clumped together in a corner, and every lump under a red cloak in the street. So far, he has not found anyone moving outside the castle doors.
He has not found Arthur.
It should not be so difficult to find Arthur.
Merlin hopes that the reason he hasn't found Arthur yet is because he hasn't found the fighting yet. Even with Gwaine's assertion that Arthur headed toward the hospital, it wouldn't be out of character for Arthur to have stopped to help others even while he was injured.
Merlin tries not to panic. He needs to remain in control of his fear, or he might miss something important.
Something like a familiar magical taste getting stronger as it gets closer to him.