Saaagaaaaa...
Title: Death, Love and Everything In Between [5/7]
Fandom: Merlin
Pairing: MerlinxArthur
Length: This part is 1,850 words. Overall, it’s about 13,000 words, chapter average 1,800.
Rating: PG-13.
Status: Complete. Beta’d by princessezzy and fortassetu, who also made my wonderful banner ♥
Notes: In each part I’ve done some research to make sure I know what I’m talking about. If you read something and go ‘hang on a sec...’ check if I’ve done the research first; if not, please let me know. :) I know the producers of the show don’t bother, but that’s no reason for me not to.
THE MOUNTAINS ARE SO TOTALLY CANON NOW :D
Back to the Start
Last Chapter
The creature mentioned is the Cu Sith, from Scottish Mythology. Link to the Wikipedia page for more information. I know Merlin says fuck. He says ‘okay’ in the show, so I guessed that the dialogue has been, ah, ‘modernised’. Camlann is the battlefield where Arthur is mortally wounded. Wikipedia.
Chapter V
The thing raised its huge, shaggy, green head to let out a bark and Merlin rolled and kicked out violently, scrabbling on the frozen rock. It howled and it was monstrous, a shriek more than anything, and Merlin knew with dread it was going to kill him.
MERLIN!
He dodged a huge paw again; the thing reminded him horribly of the hunting dogs he used to play with outside the kitchens, but it was no natural creature. It was repulsive, huge and strange, and its cry was tearing at his heart.
MERLIN, MOVE!
“MERLIN!” Belvedere jumped in, sword in one hand, torch in another. He swung with violent movements at the creature’s head and it backed away, howling as the blade struck home. Hungry, confused and now injured, it lashed out with a vengeance and Belvedere took the blow. Merlin’s hand came up automatically, a surge of magic hurtling towards the creature, but it appeared to take no effect; Belvedere took the blow on his sword, and grappled with the beast. “MERLIN, RUN!”
“I’m not leaving you!” he cried, moving forward and fiddling with the sword around his waist.
Merlin, do as he says, or God help me -
“Shut up, Arthur,” he hissed as he ran beside Belvedere. He’d made some progress; the creature had been driven further into the cave and was whining pitifully.
“Merlin, you have to get out of here,” he hissed, shoving pieces of paper frantically into Merlin’s hand; the map and the letter.
“I’m not leaving you,” he repeated. “I keep my promises.”
“You never promised me anything!”
“Well, I’m promising you now, and I’m not leaving you!” The torch was spluttering and dying in Belvedere’s hands, and nothing Merlin said could revive it. The creature turned back towards them, new vengeance in its eyes, and it snarled once under its breath.
“You’re an idiot!” Belvedere hissed, and Merlin chuckled.
“I’ve heard that before.”
“Custom and Tradition, remember?” The creature had turned, and its legs were tensing, ready for the charge.
“Fuck them,” Merlin growled, and in steady, loping bounds the dog-thing sped towards them. Merlin felt himself go numb with terror.
“I’m not who you think I am, Merlin,” Belvedere whispered, and then the thing was upon them.
Merlin watched with horror as it tore into Belvedere with alarming alacrity; with a gurgling howl and covered in blood the two of them writhed to the floor. “Bel-”
You can’t do anything for him, Merlin. Get out while you can. Arthur sounded terrified. Merlin, please! You promised you wouldn’t die, please!
“I can’t just - ” He’d been steadily backing to the exit, watching the two figures grapple inside of the cave.
You can, Merlin! Please!
Blind terror flooded his system.
Merlin ran.
Alone, lost, petrified, Merlin ran. He stumbled through what had become a blizzard, terrified the thing would follow him, terrified Belvedere was trying to find him, terrified he was lost, terrified he’d never see sun or smiling or Arthur again, oh god, he thought desperately, oh Arthur, I miss you so much, I just want this to be over…
The cave was a godsend. He knew when he collapsed inside he couldn’t have gone much further, and he sank into unconsciousness.
Merlin, Arthur whispered, and the word itself held power. A white mist settled over him, and Merlin slept.
When he woke, it was over. He was still desperately hungry, but there was a harsh, fresh sunlight breaking in from outside; he peered into the cave entrance, his pupils thinning in the light. There was a warm fire beside him, and Merlin sat up, scanning his eyes in hope for Belvedere.
Morning, sleepyhead.
“Where’s - ”
I don’t know. You did this yourself.
“… I set a fire going in my sleep?”
It’s a wonder we’re both still alive. You had some weird protective thingy going last night, as well. The wolves rebounded off it, it was quite amusing. “Wolves?” Arthur chose not to reply. “You didn’t get any sleep?” he whispered softly as he straightened up.
Not much.
Merlin smiled as he walked to the cave’s entrance, dowsing the fire with a wave of his hand. As he walked into the crisp, clean snow he looked around helplessly at his surroundings; he had no idea where he came from last night, and even no idea where to go next. He sighed. “I hope he’s okay,” he murmured.
You’re the one stuck on a mountain you’ve never visited before with no previsions, no guide and no idea about walking on rocks.
“Be quiet,” he said absently as he checked around the cave. He peered at the map. “We must be quite far along the trail,” he said decisively. “We’d been walking for a couple of days, and Belvedere said it’d take a few at most.” He rolled it up and stuffed it in a various pocket. “I reckon the best chance is to set out in one direction and hope for the best!”
That’s it? That’s your wonderful plan?
“I don’t see you coming up with any ideas.”
Can’t you use your magic to… I don’t know, point you in the right direction?
“Oh!” Merlin said brightly, beaming. “I suppose that would be quite useful!”
… can you?
“Of course not. I can’t just do magic, I have to learn it!”
He could almost feel Arthur’s sigh. Blindly stumbling about on the mountainface it is.
“Oh come on, Arthur,” he teased as they set off. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”
Oh come on, Merlin, Arthur said sarcastically as Merlin frowned at the map, where’s your sense of adventure?
“Shut up,” he muttered. “You’re not helping.” Pointing, he opened his mouth to continue, but Arthur caught him short.
That rock looks familiar because we passed it half an hour ago. Face it; we’re hopelessly lost. “That’s not my fault,” he muttered. “We’d have been a lot better off if you’d told me half an hour ago I was holding the map the wrong way up!”
It was very funny.
“Not laughing now, though?”
It got boring quickly. Are you sure you can’t do any better than charging off, yelling ‘it’s this way!’?
“You’re still not being much of a help!”
You want my advice? Get up somewhere high and see if you recognise anything. Merlin doubtfully eyed the path he’d been about to take; it led rather stubbornly downwards. You went down that one three times ago.
Merlin sighed. “You’d better be right about this,” he muttered, and began to hike up the incline to his right. Conversation ceased as Merlin saved his breath for climbing; his fingers became torn on the sharp rocks as he used them to scramble up the mountainface. Arthur didn’t feel the slightest bit remorseful, he could tell. He nearly fell twice, at least; the comforting way his magic seemed to wrench his feet back to the rock reassured him, and with a few more close shaves he burst out into the sunlight, and he was on top of the world.
Wow, Arthur said, and Merlin couldn’t help but agree.
Behind him was purely mountain and cloud, but ahead the wisps cleared to reveal green fields and blue, sparkling sea, stretching to infinity. “It’s so beautiful,” he whispered, and his mind captured every precious second.
I think we found our way down. Merlin smiled as he picked out the path beneath him, correlating it with his map and feeling hope swell in his chest.
“I think I’ll stay here for a while,” he murmured as he sat down on a rock, staring across at the beauty before him. He munched on a few berries he’d found on an earlier expedition and stared, a smile slowly working across his face. “You know, when I set out on this, I couldn’t imagine anything worse. But being here, with you… I wouldn’t give it up for the world.”
There was a long pause.
You girl.
Merlin couldn’t sit and stare at beauty forever; he could tell the vain man sitting in the back of his head was getting jealous. Besides, he had a kingdom to save. Hopping down the mountain was a lot easier than going up it, and a lot more satisfactory, too; for the first time in a long while he could actually see where he was going. (Besides, there were those fantastic moments when he got to actually roll down the hill, regardless of Arthur calling him a child in the back of his head.) He made an easy way through snow, then rock, then patches of grass, and spending only one night in a rather hospitable cave he was at the foot of the mountain again, endless green plains stretching before him. “Belvedere said half a day’s walk from this point,” he muttered as he set off, peering at the map again. “I reckon I should be there before noon.” He did, however, make sure to avoid any areas with big question marks beside them, as, on later referral, he found the forest they’d passed through before had one present. “Better safe than sorry,” he told Arthur, who simply sighed.
Whatever. Just do it as quickly as possible; the inside of your mind is getting incredibly dull. Besides, I have an itchy nose. Merlin trudged. It appeared to be perhaps the most boring place in the world; nothing but fields of grass, cropped as short as his ankle, stretched beyond him. And yet they seemed somehow more eerie than the forests, more foreboding than the mountains against the horizon behind him. It was so quiet his whispers to Arthur felt like a shout.
There are no animals here. The wind rippled through the short grass. No birdsong, no prints in the soil. It’s meaningless.
“It’s like a fantasy,” Merlin whispered back to him.
It feels like death. What does this map say it’s called?
Merlin peered at it. “Camlann,” he said slowly. “I’ve never heard anything of it before.”
Me neither. I just… have a feeling. Like nothing living can ever reside here again. This place is meant for something, and it scares me.
Merlin shrugged. “Seems alright to me. It’ll just be dodgy soil, or something.” Arthur, however, said little more for the rest of the journey. “According to this, the house is just in the middle of a field somewhere.”
Which field?
The grass stretched on around them, silently. “I can’t see anything. Not for miles.” Merlin came to a halt and turned; the mountains had completely disappeared behind him. There was nothing; no trees, no sea, nothing but the wind and the grass. “O-kaay,” Merlin said slowly. “This is starting to creep me out a bit.” He turned back to the way he had been facing, squeaked and fell flat on his arse.
There was a house in the middle of the field ahead of them, not two hundred yards away.
Merlin picked himself up and dusted himself off; even Arthur wasn’t taking the opportunity to mock him. We’re here. This is it.
“I’ve been expecting you, Merlin,” a voice said behind him, and Merlin turned.
Next update is on Wednesday 17th December