Merlin fic: Merlin Speaks (1/1)
Title: Merlin Speaks (Modern!AU)
Author: dk323
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,442
Characters/Pairings: Arthur, Merlin, Morgana, Gwen/Lancelot (established), OC
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything. No money is being made.
Summary: Arthur adopts a Labrador puppy, who he names Merlin. Really, he should have seen it coming...
~ * ~
Arthur had adopted the black Labrador puppy after his close friend from university, Lancelot, had mentioned that his wife Gwen was looking for someone to adopt him. The puppy had been the last one left of the litter, and he had been the runt of the litter as well.
Lancelot and Gwen’s young daughter, Charlotte, but everyone called her Charlie; had a hard time parting with the runt. She had grown quite fond of the littlest puppy, partially because she felt sorry for him as his fellow siblings shunned him because of his small size, and also, because she thought the puppy was the sweetest dog she had ever known. Considering that Charlie didn’t know a lot of dogs, that view didn’t hold much weight. And kids always would think that puppies were sweet and adorable. It just worked out that way.
And now Arthur was taking care of the puppy, officially his, and he had to admit that Charlie was somewhat right about Merlin being a sweet dog…although, that could have just been due to the fact that Labradors were usually friendly.
And yes, Arthur did name his dog Merlin. His older sister Morgana - the oh so funny person that she was - had suggested the name to him.
“Every Arthur needs his Merlin,” she had advised him, though Arthur had seen how his sister had been trying vainly to keep from laughing at his expense.
At any rate, Arthur couldn’t come up with a better name. Also, the puppy had seemed receptive to ‘Merlin’, so the name had stayed. While that left Morgana asking him about how the Round Table was coming along or if Merlin had done any magical things lately; Arthur had “kindly” reminded her that she had a son named Mordred. That silenced her for a little while, but Morgana was certainly not one to give up.
He was certain that Morgana had left Gwen and Lancelot out of her teasing (despite the glaringly obvious similarity there to Arthurian legend - Arthur himself was half-surprised that he hadn’t dated Gwen before Lancelot grew smitten with her) because she was good friends with Gwen.
But with Arthur, Morgana enjoyed teasing him mercilessly. Though he was no better with her honestly - they were brother and sister after all. No matter how much they loved and respected each other, they could never resist an opportunity to one up each other.
He was on his mobile, telling Morgana that no, he could not babysit Mordred - that he had already agreed to look after Charlie while Gwen and Lancelot went out for the night.
Meanwhile, Merlin was whining at him, the sort of whine that made Arthur want to cuddle the puppy and do anything he could to make him happy again. Though, of course, Arthur denied fervently that he had a fast-growing soft spot for Merlin. Morgana was never fooled. Sisters.
Merlin was looking up at Arthur and then down at his empty bowl. The blonde sighed. Of course, he was hungry. But he was presently distracted by Morgana continuing to get him to agree to babysitting. That, she told him, if he insisted in botching up every relationship he had - leaving Arthur currently and pathetically single as he approached thirty - then he better help out the “less fortunate” as his sister termed it. Like having children made you poor or something.
Sometimes Morgana could overdramatize things. Honestly.
“No, Morgana,” Arthur argued with her. “You’re not going to bring Mordred over so that I could watch him and Charlie. He’s creepy. Remember Charlie was nervous around him? It’s a bad idea, I’m telling you.”
Arthur moved his mobile away from his ear as Morgana yelled at him for even daring to say bad things about her child.
After several minutes, during which Merlin had progressed to scratching at his leg and his blue eyes stared up at him plaintively.
“Goodbye, Morgana. Find someone else,” Arthur told her and hung up on his sister before she could grace him with an irritated reply.
Arthur then turned his attention to his dog.
“All right, Merlin. I’ll get you something,” he told him, kneeling down to pet him.
“Good dog,” he murmured, feeling a bit like an idiot, but he had grown rather fond of Merlin in the almost three months that he had owned him.
The puppy barked happily and wagged his tail, following Arthur as he went to retrieve the puppy food from the cupboard.
Then he swore under his breath when he noticed that he was out of puppy food, the bag empty.
Merlin looked up at him expectantly. Arthur sighed. He didn’t have the time to go to the store and get food for Merlin. Lancelot would be coming any minute now to drop off Charlie for Arthur to babysit.
Then he saw the pot of alphabet soup, on low heat to keep it warm, on the stove. He had cooked the soup for Charlie. But now, looking at the pot and then at his dog, Arthur figured it wouldn’t do any harm to give him some of the soup. Maybe Merlin would like it…and if he didn’t, he believed he had some ham or sausages in the fridge.
So he grabbed Merlin’s bowl and ladled some of the soup into it. Arthur set it down in front of Merlin who barked in gratitude at him and began to eat the soup in the bowl.
The doorbell rang and Arthur went to answer it. Lancelot and six-year old Charlie were at the door.
“Just on time,” Arthur greeted them.
“Good to see you, Arthur. Here’s Charlie and here’s her stuff,” Lancelot said, giving Arthur his kid’s night pack.
“Hi, Arthur,” Charlie said cheerfully, coming inside the house while her father stayed at the door. She peered behind Arthur, and the blonde knew that Charlie was looking for Merlin. She always enjoyed playing with him. She never quite had the chance to miss him, really, after Arthur had adopted him because Gwen and Lancelot brought their daughter by quite often.
“Thanks again for doing this. You’re a lifesaver. Gwen wanted a romantic evening. You know how women are,” Lancelot said, smiling at him.
Arthur nodded. “Yeah, you don’t need to tell me,” he said, giving him an understanding look.
Lancelot shrugged, as if to say, ‘What can you do?’
“You have a nice evening with Gwen,” Arthur wished him.
After saying his goodbyes, Lancelot left.
“Where’s Merlin?” Charlie wondered.
Arthur grinned at her. He dropped the bag at the foot of the stairs and then he took her hand. “He’s in the kitchen, eating. He’ll be glad to see you,” Arthur told her.
They went into the kitchen and Charlie let go of his hand, kneeling down as the puppy bounded up to her. He licked her face in welcome.
“Hello, Charlie,” Merlin said.
Arthur stared at his dog. Did Merlin just speak? What the hell?
“I didn’t know that he could speak,” Charlie commented as if nothing strange happened (and how much weirder can you get than a dog starting to talk to you?).
She pet Merlin on the head. The dog expressed his appreciation for the gesture by rubbing against her hand.
Well, at least Charlie wasn’t freaked out by it. She always took to things well enough besides Mordred really, but even Arthur was a little disturbed by the boy.
“No, not exactly,” Arthur said uncertainly, rubbing the back of his head in consternation.
“Are you going to feed me that soup all the time, Arthur?” Merlin spoke again, looking at him inquisitively, his blue eyes bright.
Arthur wondered if this was some really bizarre dream, but then Charlie was here…and no, this had to be real.
Charlie stood up and asked Arthur, “Oh, is it alphabet soup?”
Arthur nodded. “Yeah. You like that, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. But dogs don’t eat soup, don’t they?” She asked him, puzzled.
“They don’t?” Merlin spoke again.
Arthur glared at him pointedly. “Would you stop talking? You’re not supposed to talk!”
Merlin only stared up at him in bemusement. “Do you have any sausage?”
“I guess he’s hungry,” Charlie remarked, taking all this way too well. It worried Arthur a bit. Did kids just not get bothered by weird stuff like this?
She went over to the fridge to look for the sausages.
Arthur shook his head. “No, that’s all right, Charlie. He’s had enough to eat.”
“No, I haven’t,” Merlin protested.
Whatever had happened to lead to this strange turn of events…Arthur could only think of one cause. It had to be the soup. Merlin had been a normal dog before he had given him the soup. And…the soup was alphabet soup…and that meant there were letters in the soup and letters formed actual words… and in some inexplicable way, maybe, just maybe, something had occurred that had the soup doing more than just feeding his dog.
But still, that didn’t make any sort of logical sense really. Arthur didn’t know what to think. And he certainly wasn’t going to take Merlin to see the vet about the ‘condition.’ He could just imagine what the vet would do - if he or she didn’t faint from shock first. And what would happen if - Arthur paled - Merlin fell into the wrong hands? And he was subjected to experiments…to satisfy people’s curiosity as to why a dog was suddenly able to communicate in human speech?
With those worries in mind, Arthur caved and he allowed Charlie to give his dog a few small sausages.
And then, to insure the bare minimum amount of people knew about Merlin’s ability to speak, Arthur made Charlie promise not to tell anyone - not even her parents - about Merlin’s condition. Yes, he did feel a little bad for scaring her about how very bad people would take Merlin away to hurt him if she told anyone about his condition; but in the end, Arthur knew it was all for the best. He knew that Charlie would not want anything bad to happen to Merlin after all.
After he put Charlie to bed, Arthur was graced with Merlin talking and talking… and talking.
He told Arthur about when he was born, how frustrating and mean his siblings were, and how he sometimes wished he wasn’t so small. Merlin adored Charlie and was sad to leave her when Arthur adopted him. But that now, he was getting used to Arthur and he thought that he was very nice. Arthur tried not to think about the warm feeling that swept over him when Merlin had reassured him that he did like the blond. He was most definitely not a sap, but still, Arthur couldn’t deny that it was rather nice to have confirmation that Merlin liked him.
He had adopted the puppy on a bit of a whim after all. Arthur had come off a disastrous relationship with a flighty woman named Vivian and after that, he decided to take a break from dating. He had never quite managed to hold a steady relationship…and it had come to the point where the whole thing just frustrated him. Most women were out for his money and an honest, long-term relationship had always eluded him.
And so, he decided that getting a pet would be better companionship. At least he would be assured that a dog or a cat wouldn’t have an ulterior motive to be with him. Despite all of that, Arthur certainly hadn’t anticipated that his dog would be capable of speaking to him. There was weird, and then there was weird.
Feeling restless about the unexpected turn of events, Arthur sat on the couch in the living room with the TV on low volume. Merlin was fast asleep, resting on his lap. The blond sighed and he contemplated on how to deal with his dog’s condition as he petted Merlin.
~ * ~
A week later…
Arthur came home from work to find various items - framed pictures, vases, bowls, the remote control to name a few - floating…just floating as if by magic.
“Merlin…” He said slowly, rubbing his face. He was exhausted from a long day at work. He did not exactly appreciate the sight of his belongings floating in midair at that moment.
Merlin came to meet him. “Hi, Arthur. How was your day?” He asked him rather cheerfully.
Arthur took a deep breath and then he released it. “What is this?” He waved in the general area around him as one of Merlin’s chew toys flew past him.
His dog had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. “I was out digging in the yard…” He started.
“Not the best way to start a story,” Arthur admonished him.
“Yeah, er, sorry about that,” he said apologetically. But then he continued on, “So I was in the middle of digging, and then a blast of something hit me in the face. The blast was so hard that I was thrown backwards a few feet. And then, I was standing a few inches above the ground. I wished to land on the ground again, and then a moment later, I was back on the ground.”
“So you levitated?”
Merlin looked at him in confusion. “What is that?”
“To levitate means that you rose in the air. No part of you was touching the ground,” Arthur explained to him.
“Oh, yes. That’s what happened,” Merlin agreed with him.
“And you don’t know anything more about that blast?”
Merlin shook his head.
“Are you the one who is making all of my stuff float?”
Merlin nodded in confirmation, noticeably chagrined at his actions. “Do you want me to make that stop?”
Arthur gave him a pointed look. “That would be appreciated, yes.”
A moment later, every item that had been floating had settled back down to its rightful place.
“I’m sorry,” Merlin said sincerely.
Arthur just sighed and he knelt down to pet him, stroking behind his ears.
“This is all Morgana’s fault for having me name you Merlin. I should have known then that you were never going to be an ordinary dog,” Arthur confided in him.
“Is that a bad thing?” Merlin asked him.
“No, I suppose not,” Arthur admitted as he allowed Merlin to lick his hand.
So yes, it was weird that he could hold a conversation with his dog and that now Merlin could apparently do magic (the blast must have been something magical or it could have been toxic gas - Arthur made a mental note to call in some experts to check for sure); but at the end of the day, Arthur found himself being grateful for Merlin’s presence.
~ * ~
Author’s Notes:
For anyone who’s interested about where I got the alphabet soup idea from…
There’s this kids’ show, Martha Speaks, based on the premise that a dog named Martha is able to speak in words after she ate alphabet soup. The show tries to make the reasoning logical, but the logic is up to debate. Anyway, it’s a cute, sometimes cracky show. So I couldn’t resist applying it to Merlin fandom with some differences, of course. And the show’s supposed to be educational where kids are meant to learn words from watching the program. There’s a hint of that here because I couldn’t resist. ; )
Author: dk323
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,442
Characters/Pairings: Arthur, Merlin, Morgana, Gwen/Lancelot (established), OC
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything. No money is being made.
Summary: Arthur adopts a Labrador puppy, who he names Merlin. Really, he should have seen it coming...
~ * ~
Arthur had adopted the black Labrador puppy after his close friend from university, Lancelot, had mentioned that his wife Gwen was looking for someone to adopt him. The puppy had been the last one left of the litter, and he had been the runt of the litter as well.
Lancelot and Gwen’s young daughter, Charlotte, but everyone called her Charlie; had a hard time parting with the runt. She had grown quite fond of the littlest puppy, partially because she felt sorry for him as his fellow siblings shunned him because of his small size, and also, because she thought the puppy was the sweetest dog she had ever known. Considering that Charlie didn’t know a lot of dogs, that view didn’t hold much weight. And kids always would think that puppies were sweet and adorable. It just worked out that way.
And now Arthur was taking care of the puppy, officially his, and he had to admit that Charlie was somewhat right about Merlin being a sweet dog…although, that could have just been due to the fact that Labradors were usually friendly.
And yes, Arthur did name his dog Merlin. His older sister Morgana - the oh so funny person that she was - had suggested the name to him.
“Every Arthur needs his Merlin,” she had advised him, though Arthur had seen how his sister had been trying vainly to keep from laughing at his expense.
At any rate, Arthur couldn’t come up with a better name. Also, the puppy had seemed receptive to ‘Merlin’, so the name had stayed. While that left Morgana asking him about how the Round Table was coming along or if Merlin had done any magical things lately; Arthur had “kindly” reminded her that she had a son named Mordred. That silenced her for a little while, but Morgana was certainly not one to give up.
He was certain that Morgana had left Gwen and Lancelot out of her teasing (despite the glaringly obvious similarity there to Arthurian legend - Arthur himself was half-surprised that he hadn’t dated Gwen before Lancelot grew smitten with her) because she was good friends with Gwen.
But with Arthur, Morgana enjoyed teasing him mercilessly. Though he was no better with her honestly - they were brother and sister after all. No matter how much they loved and respected each other, they could never resist an opportunity to one up each other.
He was on his mobile, telling Morgana that no, he could not babysit Mordred - that he had already agreed to look after Charlie while Gwen and Lancelot went out for the night.
Meanwhile, Merlin was whining at him, the sort of whine that made Arthur want to cuddle the puppy and do anything he could to make him happy again. Though, of course, Arthur denied fervently that he had a fast-growing soft spot for Merlin. Morgana was never fooled. Sisters.
Merlin was looking up at Arthur and then down at his empty bowl. The blonde sighed. Of course, he was hungry. But he was presently distracted by Morgana continuing to get him to agree to babysitting. That, she told him, if he insisted in botching up every relationship he had - leaving Arthur currently and pathetically single as he approached thirty - then he better help out the “less fortunate” as his sister termed it. Like having children made you poor or something.
Sometimes Morgana could overdramatize things. Honestly.
“No, Morgana,” Arthur argued with her. “You’re not going to bring Mordred over so that I could watch him and Charlie. He’s creepy. Remember Charlie was nervous around him? It’s a bad idea, I’m telling you.”
Arthur moved his mobile away from his ear as Morgana yelled at him for even daring to say bad things about her child.
After several minutes, during which Merlin had progressed to scratching at his leg and his blue eyes stared up at him plaintively.
“Goodbye, Morgana. Find someone else,” Arthur told her and hung up on his sister before she could grace him with an irritated reply.
Arthur then turned his attention to his dog.
“All right, Merlin. I’ll get you something,” he told him, kneeling down to pet him.
“Good dog,” he murmured, feeling a bit like an idiot, but he had grown rather fond of Merlin in the almost three months that he had owned him.
The puppy barked happily and wagged his tail, following Arthur as he went to retrieve the puppy food from the cupboard.
Then he swore under his breath when he noticed that he was out of puppy food, the bag empty.
Merlin looked up at him expectantly. Arthur sighed. He didn’t have the time to go to the store and get food for Merlin. Lancelot would be coming any minute now to drop off Charlie for Arthur to babysit.
Then he saw the pot of alphabet soup, on low heat to keep it warm, on the stove. He had cooked the soup for Charlie. But now, looking at the pot and then at his dog, Arthur figured it wouldn’t do any harm to give him some of the soup. Maybe Merlin would like it…and if he didn’t, he believed he had some ham or sausages in the fridge.
So he grabbed Merlin’s bowl and ladled some of the soup into it. Arthur set it down in front of Merlin who barked in gratitude at him and began to eat the soup in the bowl.
The doorbell rang and Arthur went to answer it. Lancelot and six-year old Charlie were at the door.
“Just on time,” Arthur greeted them.
“Good to see you, Arthur. Here’s Charlie and here’s her stuff,” Lancelot said, giving Arthur his kid’s night pack.
“Hi, Arthur,” Charlie said cheerfully, coming inside the house while her father stayed at the door. She peered behind Arthur, and the blonde knew that Charlie was looking for Merlin. She always enjoyed playing with him. She never quite had the chance to miss him, really, after Arthur had adopted him because Gwen and Lancelot brought their daughter by quite often.
“Thanks again for doing this. You’re a lifesaver. Gwen wanted a romantic evening. You know how women are,” Lancelot said, smiling at him.
Arthur nodded. “Yeah, you don’t need to tell me,” he said, giving him an understanding look.
Lancelot shrugged, as if to say, ‘What can you do?’
“You have a nice evening with Gwen,” Arthur wished him.
After saying his goodbyes, Lancelot left.
“Where’s Merlin?” Charlie wondered.
Arthur grinned at her. He dropped the bag at the foot of the stairs and then he took her hand. “He’s in the kitchen, eating. He’ll be glad to see you,” Arthur told her.
They went into the kitchen and Charlie let go of his hand, kneeling down as the puppy bounded up to her. He licked her face in welcome.
“Hello, Charlie,” Merlin said.
Arthur stared at his dog. Did Merlin just speak? What the hell?
“I didn’t know that he could speak,” Charlie commented as if nothing strange happened (and how much weirder can you get than a dog starting to talk to you?).
She pet Merlin on the head. The dog expressed his appreciation for the gesture by rubbing against her hand.
Well, at least Charlie wasn’t freaked out by it. She always took to things well enough besides Mordred really, but even Arthur was a little disturbed by the boy.
“No, not exactly,” Arthur said uncertainly, rubbing the back of his head in consternation.
“Are you going to feed me that soup all the time, Arthur?” Merlin spoke again, looking at him inquisitively, his blue eyes bright.
Arthur wondered if this was some really bizarre dream, but then Charlie was here…and no, this had to be real.
Charlie stood up and asked Arthur, “Oh, is it alphabet soup?”
Arthur nodded. “Yeah. You like that, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. But dogs don’t eat soup, don’t they?” She asked him, puzzled.
“They don’t?” Merlin spoke again.
Arthur glared at him pointedly. “Would you stop talking? You’re not supposed to talk!”
Merlin only stared up at him in bemusement. “Do you have any sausage?”
“I guess he’s hungry,” Charlie remarked, taking all this way too well. It worried Arthur a bit. Did kids just not get bothered by weird stuff like this?
She went over to the fridge to look for the sausages.
Arthur shook his head. “No, that’s all right, Charlie. He’s had enough to eat.”
“No, I haven’t,” Merlin protested.
Whatever had happened to lead to this strange turn of events…Arthur could only think of one cause. It had to be the soup. Merlin had been a normal dog before he had given him the soup. And…the soup was alphabet soup…and that meant there were letters in the soup and letters formed actual words… and in some inexplicable way, maybe, just maybe, something had occurred that had the soup doing more than just feeding his dog.
But still, that didn’t make any sort of logical sense really. Arthur didn’t know what to think. And he certainly wasn’t going to take Merlin to see the vet about the ‘condition.’ He could just imagine what the vet would do - if he or she didn’t faint from shock first. And what would happen if - Arthur paled - Merlin fell into the wrong hands? And he was subjected to experiments…to satisfy people’s curiosity as to why a dog was suddenly able to communicate in human speech?
With those worries in mind, Arthur caved and he allowed Charlie to give his dog a few small sausages.
And then, to insure the bare minimum amount of people knew about Merlin’s ability to speak, Arthur made Charlie promise not to tell anyone - not even her parents - about Merlin’s condition. Yes, he did feel a little bad for scaring her about how very bad people would take Merlin away to hurt him if she told anyone about his condition; but in the end, Arthur knew it was all for the best. He knew that Charlie would not want anything bad to happen to Merlin after all.
After he put Charlie to bed, Arthur was graced with Merlin talking and talking… and talking.
He told Arthur about when he was born, how frustrating and mean his siblings were, and how he sometimes wished he wasn’t so small. Merlin adored Charlie and was sad to leave her when Arthur adopted him. But that now, he was getting used to Arthur and he thought that he was very nice. Arthur tried not to think about the warm feeling that swept over him when Merlin had reassured him that he did like the blond. He was most definitely not a sap, but still, Arthur couldn’t deny that it was rather nice to have confirmation that Merlin liked him.
He had adopted the puppy on a bit of a whim after all. Arthur had come off a disastrous relationship with a flighty woman named Vivian and after that, he decided to take a break from dating. He had never quite managed to hold a steady relationship…and it had come to the point where the whole thing just frustrated him. Most women were out for his money and an honest, long-term relationship had always eluded him.
And so, he decided that getting a pet would be better companionship. At least he would be assured that a dog or a cat wouldn’t have an ulterior motive to be with him. Despite all of that, Arthur certainly hadn’t anticipated that his dog would be capable of speaking to him. There was weird, and then there was weird.
Feeling restless about the unexpected turn of events, Arthur sat on the couch in the living room with the TV on low volume. Merlin was fast asleep, resting on his lap. The blond sighed and he contemplated on how to deal with his dog’s condition as he petted Merlin.
~ * ~
A week later…
Arthur came home from work to find various items - framed pictures, vases, bowls, the remote control to name a few - floating…just floating as if by magic.
“Merlin…” He said slowly, rubbing his face. He was exhausted from a long day at work. He did not exactly appreciate the sight of his belongings floating in midair at that moment.
Merlin came to meet him. “Hi, Arthur. How was your day?” He asked him rather cheerfully.
Arthur took a deep breath and then he released it. “What is this?” He waved in the general area around him as one of Merlin’s chew toys flew past him.
His dog had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. “I was out digging in the yard…” He started.
“Not the best way to start a story,” Arthur admonished him.
“Yeah, er, sorry about that,” he said apologetically. But then he continued on, “So I was in the middle of digging, and then a blast of something hit me in the face. The blast was so hard that I was thrown backwards a few feet. And then, I was standing a few inches above the ground. I wished to land on the ground again, and then a moment later, I was back on the ground.”
“So you levitated?”
Merlin looked at him in confusion. “What is that?”
“To levitate means that you rose in the air. No part of you was touching the ground,” Arthur explained to him.
“Oh, yes. That’s what happened,” Merlin agreed with him.
“And you don’t know anything more about that blast?”
Merlin shook his head.
“Are you the one who is making all of my stuff float?”
Merlin nodded in confirmation, noticeably chagrined at his actions. “Do you want me to make that stop?”
Arthur gave him a pointed look. “That would be appreciated, yes.”
A moment later, every item that had been floating had settled back down to its rightful place.
“I’m sorry,” Merlin said sincerely.
Arthur just sighed and he knelt down to pet him, stroking behind his ears.
“This is all Morgana’s fault for having me name you Merlin. I should have known then that you were never going to be an ordinary dog,” Arthur confided in him.
“Is that a bad thing?” Merlin asked him.
“No, I suppose not,” Arthur admitted as he allowed Merlin to lick his hand.
So yes, it was weird that he could hold a conversation with his dog and that now Merlin could apparently do magic (the blast must have been something magical or it could have been toxic gas - Arthur made a mental note to call in some experts to check for sure); but at the end of the day, Arthur found himself being grateful for Merlin’s presence.
~ * ~
Author’s Notes:
For anyone who’s interested about where I got the alphabet soup idea from…
There’s this kids’ show, Martha Speaks, based on the premise that a dog named Martha is able to speak in words after she ate alphabet soup. The show tries to make the reasoning logical, but the logic is up to debate. Anyway, it’s a cute, sometimes cracky show. So I couldn’t resist applying it to Merlin fandom with some differences, of course. And the show’s supposed to be educational where kids are meant to learn words from watching the program. There’s a hint of that here because I couldn’t resist. ; )