Tintagel, Chapter 3

[mamapranayama]

Title: Tintagel
Author: mamapranayama
Genre: Gen
Category: Action/adventure, H/C, friendship
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A disasterous voyage lands Merlin and Arthur stranded in enemy territory and depending on each other to survive and make it home.


A/N: Thanks again for tuning in and continuing to read this story. Y'all are making this first venture into the Merlin fandom a lot of fun and I hope you let me know what you think, I love reviews- good or bad. :D
Chapter 3

Merlin was never so grateful to see cliffs, but it felt like an eternity waiting for the waves to propel them to the shore. It was such pure torture to be so close, yet so far away. On top of that he felt humiliatingly useless with Arthur holding onto him, keeping them both afloat as did he his best to steer them towards land.

He wanted to help with the effort, but his arm was useless, his head throbbed painfully and each breath he took in was a stabbing reminder of the abuse his lungs had taken when they had fallen into the water. Also, he felt weak as a kitten and he had developed a wracking cough that was only getting worse with each passing and even after his initial excitement at seeing land, his body refused to let him keep his eyes open for longer than a few minutes at a time.

He was just too damned tired, too thirsty and in too much pain to care anymore if they even reached the safety of the shore. He just wanted some rest.

Unable to fight it any longer, he dozed once again, unselfconscious of the fact that he had laid his head back on the crown prince of Camelot's chest, finding it was his only escape from the pain and the bone-aching cold.

He was certain that he had only be asleep for a minute or two, before he heard Arthur shouting, but he couldn't force his eyes to open all of the way to bring him fully back into awareness, as he was just too drained. It was as if the world outside of his mind was so far away and growing ever more distant and he could only wonder why the devil Arthur was yelling. Was it at him? Had he done something wrong?

Those concerns however were so remote compared to the pull sleep once again had on him that he could care less about what Arthur was complaining about this time. He could shout all he wanted at Merlin, he just couldn't bring himself to care.

His eyes fell closed and soon he was once again submerged in darkness.

OOOOOOOO

"Merlin!" Arthur shouted. "Wake up...Wake up!" Weakly, he shook the younger boy's shoulders. "C'mon..."

Beneath his arm, Merlin coughed, his eyes opening for the briefest of moments before he groaned weakly then fell back into unconsciousness once more. It was getting harder and harder to keep the kid awake, ratcheting up Arthur's anxiety for his friend.

Merlin's breathing had become markedly worse in time between the first time the saw land and now that Arthur was afraid that if he stopped now and rested that it might be too late to help him by the time they finally made it to the coast.

However, Arthur had never known such pure physical exhaustion before. Sure, he had exercised his body since childhood to be a fit, fighting machine, but no amount of training could have ever prepared him for this level of agony. His limbs burned from holding onto Merlin while grasping the pole and he wasn't sure how much longer he could kick his legs in order to help them both make it to the shore.

He kept fighting though, Arthur was not one to accept defeat, he would rather die than surrender, even if his opponent was the ocean itself. Mother nature had nothing on Arthur Pendragon, he told himself in order to bolster his courage, she could shove it where the sun didn't shine. He was going to make. Period.

At last, his struggles were making some progress. He could feel the nature of the waves change from the up and down motion that had them bobbing to one that pulled them back and forth. They were almost there, he couldn't give up now, even if his body was screaming at him to stop.

For a brief moment, he allowed himself to rest, just so he could face the last part of this battle. As soon as he had done so, his eyes fixed on the shore. At first, Arthur assumed that he too had become delirious from the lack of water and fatigue, that when he saw a figure on the cliff face, he believed he was seeing things.

However, when that figure began lowing itself until it reached the bottom of the cliff then walked towards the shore, he was overjoyed to realize that it was a real person.

He started to wave his arm and shouted, hoping this boy might see them.

OOOOOO

Jack carefully tied the rope about his waist, twisting it into an intricate knot that he was certain would hold while Hammet tied the other end around the boulder that would act as an anchor.

As soon as Hammet had finished, He stooped low and picked up the leather satchel at his feet then walked over to Jack handing it over wordlessly. Jack took the bag and slung it across his shoulder and chest then used his belt to tie it over the satchel's strap and hold it securely, because nothing could be worse than risking your life to retrieve treasure only to lose because you hadn't kept it safe from falling out.

"Ready?" Hammet asked.

Jack blew out a breath and nodded. Truth was, he was nervous. It had only been a few day since Kernow, another lad from the village, had fallen when his rope snapped and Jack certainly didn't want that to happen to him. But, Jack had been doing this for over four years now, climbing down the cliffs and gathering the eggs the guillemots laid within the ledges and he always made certain his ropes were in good shape and expertly tied about him. Plus, he had his younger brother, Hammet there to watch out for him should anything happen. He really had nothing to worry about, he told himself, he just had to remember to keep his wits about him just as his father had taught him.

No one could deny it was dangerous work, but the rewards outweighed the risk in his opinion as the eggs were a favourite delicacy of the king and if he gathered enough today, he and Hammet would likely see a nice, heavy purse as payment so their mother, Bronwyn, could put food in their bellies for the rest of the week. And this money was sorely needed, especially now that their father had passed and he was the man of the house.

Jack took hold of the rope tied about his stomach and began to walk backward towards the cliff, keeping an eye on his footing as he went while Hammet held tight to the other end, helping to lower him down the face of the cliff.

Jack had learned to not do much looking around at the scenery other than keeping his eyes on the cliff face for the eggs as being up this high could cause any man to come down with a serious case of vertigo, but he kept his senses sharp as mother guillemots could be fiercely protective of their eggs, especially since they could only lay one at a time, and a swooping attack from one of these birds could easily throw one off balance.

Slowly he continued to descend, collecting what he could reach and carefully placing the blue-green, speckled eggs he found into his satchel. Jack braced his feet against the wall of the cliff and with a hand on the rope, he sidled over to one particularly large egg, hoping to pluck it from its tiny ledge and add it to his growing collection. Reaching out, he almost had the thing in his grasp when out of nowhere came a squawk.

All he saw after that was beak and feathers as the mother bird came swooping in straight for his head, he gave a little squawk himself as he wave the bird from his face then swept himself over quickly to retrieve the egg. Mother bird was giving up the fight though and as soon as he had the egg in his grasp she came him for another shot at him and this time she actually made contact with her beak to his arm.

The impact and the suddenness of the act sent him swinging from the rope and instinct forced him to let go of the egg and grab the rope with both hands. He watched in utter dismay as the nice, large egg he had just plucked, fell.

"Jack!" Hammet shouted from above as he dangled and spun until managed to right himself again, his back braced against the face of the cliff.

"Dammit!" Mad at himself for losing such a valuable prize and letting it break apart on the rocks below, Jack looked down forlornly. It was then that something else caught his attention.

He saw a white mass out in the water. He studied it for a moment, squinting his eyes against the bright morning sunlight so he could get a better look. There was definitely something floating out there. Perhaps it was just some floating debris, but when he looked hard enough, he wasn't certain, but it might be bodies.

It wasn't uncommon for bodies to wash ashore there, so he wasn't terribly surprised. Boats sank near this coastline often and given the severity of the storm they had last night, he wouldn't be surprised it a ship had broken apart against the rocks somewhere where he couldn't see it yet and this was just the first of the debris to come ashore.

For a small village like their's, wreckage from a disaster like that, though tragic that men might have lost their lives, could sometimes be a nice boon for the community. Often ships carried good like wine, food and sometimes even gold or other precious metals and if they crashed in their territory, it was King Howel's law that the first finder would get salvage rights and would be allowed to keep half of what was found while the other half would be taken up to the king's castle at Tintagel. If a ship had broken apart nearby, it was worth investigating.

Hopefully, once he was nearer the coast, he might also be able to see better where the wreckage, if there was to had come to land and if he was to be the first finder, his family could live comfortably, perhaps they could even afford to buy another cow to milk or pigs to breed. Perhaps they could live without the feeling of an empty stomach as they went to bed when money ran low. But, even if it was just a couple of bodies washing up and there wasn't a wrecked ship about, they could still have valuables on them that might fetch him a few coins.

"Hammet!" He looked up the cliff and shouted to his brother. Hammet stuck his face over the side of the cliff.

"What?"

"Lower me down to the bottom."

"Why? There's no eggs down there."

"I know that, you idiot. Look out at the sea...something's out there. I need to take a look."

"It's just some driftwood."

"No it's not..." He argued back, he didn't want to waste any more time bickering with his brother. "Just lower me down, NOW!"

"Fine." He barely heard Hammet grumble and a moment later he felt the rope begin to slowly lower him down.

Once on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff, Jack carefully navigated his way across their slippery surfaces until he reached the pebbly shore.

He chucked off his boots then rolled up his pant legs before walking out towards the breakers. At first, he was set to wade out only a little bit until the floating mass reached him, but as he peered harder out to the sea he could see that these bodies not in fact those of dead men. They were alive!

He could hardly believe his eyes. Jack had never seen anyone survive these waters, especially after the kind of storm that had struck last night. Dumbfounded, he could only stare until a voice called out from the water, shaking him from his amazement.

"Hel-lo!" He saw an arm lift up and wave at him.

It took Jack a moment to finally find his legs and get them working. Whoever they were, they needed help and his father had always taught that nothing was greater in this world than coming to the aid of his fellow man.

Splashing into the sea, heedless of the shock the cold water sent down his spine, he dove in and swam.

OOOOOOO

Jack never could have imagined how hard it would be to help haul two water-logged men get the final 100 yards back to the beach even though he was considered one of the stronger men in his village. He was tall, nearly six feet, and at nineteen years old, he had spent the better part of his life working from dawn til dusk in the fields hauling hay, plowing and anything else that required strong arms. However, he hadn't been prepared to pull in the dead weight of two men at one time.

The blonde, larger one, refused to let go of the thinner, dark-haired boy, making matters all the more difficult and by the time he finally had dragged them both out of the water and onto the beach, he was sore and exhausted.

"Help him!" He gasped. The way the man demanded his help chafed a little against Jack's ego but, obviously the man was accustomed to people jumping at his commands, so he let it slide. It was clear that his friend was in dire need of help as the man , a boy really about his own age, was barely awake and coughing fiercely.

"It's his arm...it need to be reset." The blonde insisted breathlessly. "I don't have the strength.

Jack knelt next to the kid and saw through his sodden clothing that he had indeed a dislocated shoulder. He knew that had to hurt, he had himself acquired the same injury last year when a gust of wind sent him hard into a cliff while he had been collecting eggs.

He knew it wouldn't be easy to fix, but he remembered basically how his father had laid him down on the ground, placed a foot on his chest, then pulled his arm straight up and over, popping the joint back into place as quickly as possible. It had been terribly agonizing for those few moments, but afterward, it almost immediately felt better.

Jack had never done this to anyone else, but seeing the pained expression on the boy's face, he knew he had to try at least.

He took the kid by the wrist and made his way to his feet. Immediately he saw the boy's eyelids flash open, and he was struck by deep blue irises staring up at him. At first he was taken aback, he had been hopeful that the kid would have been out of it for this and the fact that he wasn't and would fully awake for the painful procedure sent his heart pumping. However, Jack saw comprehension settle over his features and he gave a little nod.

"Do it!" The fair-haired one ordered from the ground, but Jack paid him little mind, his eyes were still locked on the black-haired lad.

"I'm sorry." He apologized ahead of time for the pain he would inflict, then without giving him any warning, because sometimes the anticipation of pain was worse than just getting it over and done with swiftly, he pulled up hard.

The boy's eyes went wide with pain, then squeezed tightly shut. His skin had blanched to a deathly white as he shouted in agony and Jack wished he had thought to give him his belt to bite on, but it was too late for that now, he had to finish this quickly. He pulled harder and winced when he felt the ball of the shoulder joint slip into its socket with a pop and an audible click.

Within moments, the kid's screams died down, turning into a soft groaning.

"Is he okay?" The blonde demanded to know, his head barely off the ground.

"I think so." Was all Jack could think to say.

The man just nodded after that, but his face was filled with relief and not a second later, he collapsed, his face planting into the sand in a dead faint. Jack darted his eyes back to the other boy, he had quieted and was again looking back up at him with those somewhat disturbing, yet kind blue eyes.

"Thank-you." The boy actually gave him a tiny lopsided grin before closing his eyes again and passing out as well.

Jack stood there between the two unconscious men he had just saved then threw up his hands. Just what the hell was he supposed to do with them now?

To Be Continued...