[Fic] Summer Snow - for syllic
Title: Summer Snow
Author: Anonymous
Recipient: syllic
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Arthur, Merlin
Warnings: none
Spoilers: none
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1750
Summary: When winter comes in summer, no-one knows why.
Author's Note: Betad by K_S. :)
Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction - none of this ever happened. No copyright infringement is intended. No profit is made from this work. Please observe your local laws with regards to the age-limit and content of this work.
In Merlin's fifth year in Camelot, winter came in July. They all thought, at first, that it was a freak occurrence, but a month later the snow and ice still had not melted. The surrounding fields lay under thick white blankets, marred only by the chaotic thrashing left behind by those determined enough to try and cross. Boughs of trees hung low and heavy, encrusted with sparkling ice and smoothly translucent icicles.
The castle itself stood as an imposing, sandy monolith against the dull grey of the sky, as though refusing to succumb to the faint veneer of frost that coated near everything else.
In the last days of August, Uther's patience ran out - supplies of food were adequate for the moment, but were inevitably finite, and the abnormal winter showed no signs of ending. Whispered rumours began to run through the lower towns, mutterings of sorcery and witchcraft - what else could explain it? Some said it was punishment sent by the Old Religion, others had heard talk that Uther was planning war, and the enemy had pre-empted him.
Merlin was a little impressed. Mind you, he didn't much appreciate waking up in the morning and seeing his breath escape in misty puffs, nor the fact that he had to rub his feet for a few minutes before getting up in order to force some feeling back into them - but that aside, it had to be quite an amazing piece of magic. Worrisome, yes, but the winter had not been overly aggressive, just persistent. If it was the work of an enemy, he wasn't quite sure what they thought they were doing, as maintaining an enchantment of this scale long enough to do them some damage would take an almost unthinkable amount of energy and effort. If their goal was simply to destroy the coming harvest, there were far easier ways to go about it.
Besides, all of the water pumps within the castle walls still flowed easily. That was quite a clever (and benevolent!) aspect of the spell, he thought. It was hard enough already trying to keep his water-heating tricks from Arthur at bath time - if he'd had to start from snow it might've become a bit too obvious.
He slowly scuffed up the chill stone stairway, hands buried deep in his pockets and breath fogging the air - weather this cold really took the energy from you. It was still dark outside even though Autumn had barely begun, and only the faintest glow of pink tinged the horizon. He was glad he'd remembered to magic up a decent supply of wood to Arthur's room yesterday, as even thinking about having to go out and fetch it now made his fingers gratefully aware of their current temporary warmth.
Knocking on Arthur's door gained no response as usual - he didn't know why he bothered anymore, really. Upon pushing open the door there was no noticeable change in temperature - the fire had burned out during the night and he almost managed to avoid glimpsing the basin of water on the sideboard which, yes, was covered with a thin layer of gleaming ice. There was still no movement from beneath the heaped pile of blankets and furs which had taken over the bed, so with a tentative whisper he vanished the ice and managed to raise the air temperature by a couple of degrees - though he should probably have got the fire going first by way of explanation.
Merlin yawned and finished up around the room, finally sitting himself down in from of the hearth, hands outspread. His head ached a little, and thankfully Arthur hadn't stirred yet. It was quiet in this part of the castle, far above the bustling kitchens where everybody would have already been up for hours. The only noises were those of horses and footsteps which drifted up from outside in the courtyard.
He hadn't meant to fall asleep, but the fire had been warm and his eyes heavy, and Arthur really hadn't looked as though he was going to get up any time soon...
"Merlin!"
He blinked as something small and heavy hit his shoulder, and then skittered away in a flash of silver. Slowly pushing himself up he glanced over at the bed, and from the look of things Arthur was still reluctant to get up.
"Did you just throw your ring at me?" He rubbed his temples to try and ease the headache as Arthur glowered.
"Yes. I shouldn't have to get up in order to wake manservants who've fallen asleep on my floor! And pick up the ring, will you?" There was a short silence as Merlin rolled his eyes and complied, depositing the ring back into Arthur's outstretched palm. "Good. Do you have my breakfast? It must be awfully late by now... not that there's a lot we can do in this weather." He sounded horribly frustrated.
Merlin shrugged and started removing and folding the thickly piled blankets - the fire had been going for so long that Arthur appeared flushed. "That is a bright side, though," he said casually, as Arthur turned on him an incredulous look.
"And how would that be, exactly?"
Still absently folding, Merlin turned to watch the falling snow outside for a moment. "This way you can't go to war. Everyone's been talking about it y'know."
There was silence as Arthur just stared at him, and faintly from the outside they could hear the muffled commands to keep shovelling.
"...have they now, Merlin. I'm not sure why I expected better of you than to listen to rumour, but--"
"--you mean you're not?" He interrupted, moving to grip the bedpost as his headache worsened, "but I heard your father--"
"Eavesdropping, Merlin? Better and better."
"But he was talking about - about expanding Camelot, gathering the army and training them and you - you at the head! He said you could prove yourself!"
Arthur looked at him quietly for a moment, blond hair burnished in the firelight. "Unsurprisingly, though you actually managed to have the right information, you still jumped to completely the wrong conclusion. It's my plan, to try and incorporate more of the outlying villages into Camelot, which yes, will mean expanding our borders a bit. I want to help them," he added softly, "places like Ealdor.
I already had people approach the villages - I know which ones would like to join us. But obviously, we will encounter resistance - though I have my ways to stop it escalating into a war. I wanted to give the men extra training - both for that, and also to give their farming a boost before we move on - Camelot always will always need the extra stock... and now more than ever." He scowled out at the snow, but his expression was shadowed by puzzlement. Merlin felt dizzy. "My father is now convinced that this weather is nothing more than malicious magic, and I suspect all he's interested in now is finding the culprit and taking revenge, which will of course become my job."
"Do you think it's magic?" Merlin managed to get out, fingernails still digging into the wood, vision slightly blurry.
"I didn't want to, but it's gone on too long." Arthur absently twisted the ring around his finger, gaze moving away from the window, back to Merlin. "The real question is why - who can be gaining anything from this? There's still quite a long way to go before any real damage is caused..." He trailed off and shook his head, before giving Merlin a wry smile. "Unless you've been going around and telling rogue sorcerers that we're planning on going to war, because that really won't have been very helpful, Merlin."
The pressure in his head was agonising, but accompanied by an unexpected sense of relief that he hadn't realised he'd been waiting for.
Arthur was looking at him strangely. "Are you alright? I think all the cold must be getting to you - you're certainly too skinny to keep yourself warm--"
"I - I'm fine," he forced out, backing away and leaving Arthur sitting up in bed, obviously confused, "I'll get your breakfast." He turned and hurried from the room, the cold hitting him immediately. What was wrong with him? It had been good to hear Arthur say those things. His footsteps echoed loudly as he descended the stairs, as the world suddenly slid sideways, and everything dissolved to blackness.
*
When he awoke, it was strangely warm. Well, comparatively. He could feel his feet! Low voices were murmuring elsewhere in the room, and he could hear the bubbling sound of water boiling.
"Ah, you're awake." His vision shifted into focus, and he grimaced as it turned out to be Arthur peering over him, looking oddly concerned. "You never brought me my breakfast, you know."
But the complaint was accompanied by a small smile, so Merlin concentrated on reach up to gingerly touch the swollen lump on the side of his head. Gaius approached to stand beside Arthur, looking faintly disapproving. "Do try to be more careful, Merlin, you're lucky you didn't break anything!"
"Yes, well I can assure you it wasn't intentional."
Arthur smirked. "Well, you missed all the excitement - the snow is finally melting."
He felt faintly sick. "The winter's ending? Why?"
"No-one knows, but no-one seems to care - think they're just glad it's over. Though my father's still livid that we might never find out who did this."
Merlin tried to force a laugh, "yeah, well, maybe they didn't mean any harm."
Arthur gave him a strange look before shrugging lightly, "yeah, perhaps." He turned and began to head for the door, but paused and looked back at Merlin. "By the way, Gaius said you'd be fully recovered in a few days. Make sure you're fit enough to pack everything for the trip."
"Wait, what?" Merlin's head began to hurt again.
"Well, now the snow's finally going I want to get started as soon as possible. And it won't be our first stop, but you know we will be passing by Ealdor...?" He paused upon seeing Merlin's growing smile before adding, "and you can't expect me to go for that long without a servant."
His head was still pounding as the door swung shut, but it was as though a weight had been lifted from him. So he closed his eyes, and listened to the rhythmic dripping of melting ice outside his window.
Author: Anonymous
Recipient: syllic
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Arthur, Merlin
Warnings: none
Spoilers: none
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1750
Summary: When winter comes in summer, no-one knows why.
Author's Note: Betad by K_S. :)
Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction - none of this ever happened. No copyright infringement is intended. No profit is made from this work. Please observe your local laws with regards to the age-limit and content of this work.
In Merlin's fifth year in Camelot, winter came in July. They all thought, at first, that it was a freak occurrence, but a month later the snow and ice still had not melted. The surrounding fields lay under thick white blankets, marred only by the chaotic thrashing left behind by those determined enough to try and cross. Boughs of trees hung low and heavy, encrusted with sparkling ice and smoothly translucent icicles.
The castle itself stood as an imposing, sandy monolith against the dull grey of the sky, as though refusing to succumb to the faint veneer of frost that coated near everything else.
In the last days of August, Uther's patience ran out - supplies of food were adequate for the moment, but were inevitably finite, and the abnormal winter showed no signs of ending. Whispered rumours began to run through the lower towns, mutterings of sorcery and witchcraft - what else could explain it? Some said it was punishment sent by the Old Religion, others had heard talk that Uther was planning war, and the enemy had pre-empted him.
Merlin was a little impressed. Mind you, he didn't much appreciate waking up in the morning and seeing his breath escape in misty puffs, nor the fact that he had to rub his feet for a few minutes before getting up in order to force some feeling back into them - but that aside, it had to be quite an amazing piece of magic. Worrisome, yes, but the winter had not been overly aggressive, just persistent. If it was the work of an enemy, he wasn't quite sure what they thought they were doing, as maintaining an enchantment of this scale long enough to do them some damage would take an almost unthinkable amount of energy and effort. If their goal was simply to destroy the coming harvest, there were far easier ways to go about it.
Besides, all of the water pumps within the castle walls still flowed easily. That was quite a clever (and benevolent!) aspect of the spell, he thought. It was hard enough already trying to keep his water-heating tricks from Arthur at bath time - if he'd had to start from snow it might've become a bit too obvious.
He slowly scuffed up the chill stone stairway, hands buried deep in his pockets and breath fogging the air - weather this cold really took the energy from you. It was still dark outside even though Autumn had barely begun, and only the faintest glow of pink tinged the horizon. He was glad he'd remembered to magic up a decent supply of wood to Arthur's room yesterday, as even thinking about having to go out and fetch it now made his fingers gratefully aware of their current temporary warmth.
Knocking on Arthur's door gained no response as usual - he didn't know why he bothered anymore, really. Upon pushing open the door there was no noticeable change in temperature - the fire had burned out during the night and he almost managed to avoid glimpsing the basin of water on the sideboard which, yes, was covered with a thin layer of gleaming ice. There was still no movement from beneath the heaped pile of blankets and furs which had taken over the bed, so with a tentative whisper he vanished the ice and managed to raise the air temperature by a couple of degrees - though he should probably have got the fire going first by way of explanation.
Merlin yawned and finished up around the room, finally sitting himself down in from of the hearth, hands outspread. His head ached a little, and thankfully Arthur hadn't stirred yet. It was quiet in this part of the castle, far above the bustling kitchens where everybody would have already been up for hours. The only noises were those of horses and footsteps which drifted up from outside in the courtyard.
He hadn't meant to fall asleep, but the fire had been warm and his eyes heavy, and Arthur really hadn't looked as though he was going to get up any time soon...
"Merlin!"
He blinked as something small and heavy hit his shoulder, and then skittered away in a flash of silver. Slowly pushing himself up he glanced over at the bed, and from the look of things Arthur was still reluctant to get up.
"Did you just throw your ring at me?" He rubbed his temples to try and ease the headache as Arthur glowered.
"Yes. I shouldn't have to get up in order to wake manservants who've fallen asleep on my floor! And pick up the ring, will you?" There was a short silence as Merlin rolled his eyes and complied, depositing the ring back into Arthur's outstretched palm. "Good. Do you have my breakfast? It must be awfully late by now... not that there's a lot we can do in this weather." He sounded horribly frustrated.
Merlin shrugged and started removing and folding the thickly piled blankets - the fire had been going for so long that Arthur appeared flushed. "That is a bright side, though," he said casually, as Arthur turned on him an incredulous look.
"And how would that be, exactly?"
Still absently folding, Merlin turned to watch the falling snow outside for a moment. "This way you can't go to war. Everyone's been talking about it y'know."
There was silence as Arthur just stared at him, and faintly from the outside they could hear the muffled commands to keep shovelling.
"...have they now, Merlin. I'm not sure why I expected better of you than to listen to rumour, but--"
"--you mean you're not?" He interrupted, moving to grip the bedpost as his headache worsened, "but I heard your father--"
"Eavesdropping, Merlin? Better and better."
"But he was talking about - about expanding Camelot, gathering the army and training them and you - you at the head! He said you could prove yourself!"
Arthur looked at him quietly for a moment, blond hair burnished in the firelight. "Unsurprisingly, though you actually managed to have the right information, you still jumped to completely the wrong conclusion. It's my plan, to try and incorporate more of the outlying villages into Camelot, which yes, will mean expanding our borders a bit. I want to help them," he added softly, "places like Ealdor.
I already had people approach the villages - I know which ones would like to join us. But obviously, we will encounter resistance - though I have my ways to stop it escalating into a war. I wanted to give the men extra training - both for that, and also to give their farming a boost before we move on - Camelot always will always need the extra stock... and now more than ever." He scowled out at the snow, but his expression was shadowed by puzzlement. Merlin felt dizzy. "My father is now convinced that this weather is nothing more than malicious magic, and I suspect all he's interested in now is finding the culprit and taking revenge, which will of course become my job."
"Do you think it's magic?" Merlin managed to get out, fingernails still digging into the wood, vision slightly blurry.
"I didn't want to, but it's gone on too long." Arthur absently twisted the ring around his finger, gaze moving away from the window, back to Merlin. "The real question is why - who can be gaining anything from this? There's still quite a long way to go before any real damage is caused..." He trailed off and shook his head, before giving Merlin a wry smile. "Unless you've been going around and telling rogue sorcerers that we're planning on going to war, because that really won't have been very helpful, Merlin."
The pressure in his head was agonising, but accompanied by an unexpected sense of relief that he hadn't realised he'd been waiting for.
Arthur was looking at him strangely. "Are you alright? I think all the cold must be getting to you - you're certainly too skinny to keep yourself warm--"
"I - I'm fine," he forced out, backing away and leaving Arthur sitting up in bed, obviously confused, "I'll get your breakfast." He turned and hurried from the room, the cold hitting him immediately. What was wrong with him? It had been good to hear Arthur say those things. His footsteps echoed loudly as he descended the stairs, as the world suddenly slid sideways, and everything dissolved to blackness.
*
When he awoke, it was strangely warm. Well, comparatively. He could feel his feet! Low voices were murmuring elsewhere in the room, and he could hear the bubbling sound of water boiling.
"Ah, you're awake." His vision shifted into focus, and he grimaced as it turned out to be Arthur peering over him, looking oddly concerned. "You never brought me my breakfast, you know."
But the complaint was accompanied by a small smile, so Merlin concentrated on reach up to gingerly touch the swollen lump on the side of his head. Gaius approached to stand beside Arthur, looking faintly disapproving. "Do try to be more careful, Merlin, you're lucky you didn't break anything!"
"Yes, well I can assure you it wasn't intentional."
Arthur smirked. "Well, you missed all the excitement - the snow is finally melting."
He felt faintly sick. "The winter's ending? Why?"
"No-one knows, but no-one seems to care - think they're just glad it's over. Though my father's still livid that we might never find out who did this."
Merlin tried to force a laugh, "yeah, well, maybe they didn't mean any harm."
Arthur gave him a strange look before shrugging lightly, "yeah, perhaps." He turned and began to head for the door, but paused and looked back at Merlin. "By the way, Gaius said you'd be fully recovered in a few days. Make sure you're fit enough to pack everything for the trip."
"Wait, what?" Merlin's head began to hurt again.
"Well, now the snow's finally going I want to get started as soon as possible. And it won't be our first stop, but you know we will be passing by Ealdor...?" He paused upon seeing Merlin's growing smile before adding, "and you can't expect me to go for that long without a servant."
His head was still pounding as the door swung shut, but it was as though a weight had been lifted from him. So he closed his eyes, and listened to the rhythmic dripping of melting ice outside his window.