Stories I'm not writing: Morgana and the Bear of Mercia
Title: Morgana and the Bear of Mercia
Fandom: Merlin BBC
Genre/Characters: Series 1 AU, Morgana, also Gwen, Lancelot, Merlin, Arthur
Notes: Back when I was in Merlin fandom and in love with Morgana, I loved coming up with epic plots in which Morgana got to pretend to be an elven prince or have a familiar who was a bear. This is the latter. Three whole people would have read it -- the other characters appear only at the beginning and for part of the end, and for shits, the pairing is Morgana/OMC. In my defense, Merlin also fights a fairy queen.
A Very Long Summary:
THE PROBLEM: Basically, the story starts with Morgana losing time.
She wakes up in places she didn’t expect to be and in the middle of conversations. Her visions begin to show places very far from the present, disorienting and impossible to calibrate. It’s all so flagrantly magical that eventually she wakes up in the nicest, comfiest prison cell in all of Camelot with Arthur watching her, pale-faced. Arthur has two invincible people in his life - Uther and Morgana, and it’s a toss up as to which one of them brought low is a more impossible thought.
Uther can’t decide whether Morgana is cursed or herself a sorceress. Obviously, he prefers the former. Arthur can see that she knows it’s not a curse. He makes a polite suggestion of escape.
“It wouldn’t be barbaric,” Arthur says. He would send her with Gwen to Ealdor or some deserted keep, equipped with servants and an allowance, of course, mentally ill and fully cared for. Morgana stares at him, horror growing in her gut. She would much rather be a mad witch in the woods, thank you very much; and in no future, ever, in any world, is Guinevere joining her in exile.
ESCAPE FROM CAMELOT: With the help of some fumbling and inexperienced magic (she tells the lock that it’s always been a little broken and the castle that it’s asleep and so is everyone in it, and quite to her surprise, they listen), Morgana leaves Camelot alone, furious, and certain she’s doomed to be a crazy witch with sticks in her hair.
The magic has different ideas.
The story segues into a little world-building interlude of the day-to-day routines of survival; of controlling one’s visions to practical purpose - on the subject of what to eat and where to find it and when to wear one’s cloak because there might be a bit of rain. She can spot a faery glamour 100 yards away, distinguish truth from falsehood always, and sometimes, in a weird beasty way, she can talk to animals. They don’t sound human -- unless they’re really fae folk in disguise --- or used to be fae -- or were cursed at some point -- or are descended from animals that were cursed -- but they still listen. She catches glimpses too, between branches and in reflections, of worlds running parallel to her own. If she knew the right path to walk, she could step out of hers and into theirs.
BEAR: At some point Morgana is almost eaten by a bear. This bear, let’s call him Bear, is loud and irritable and speaks more than regular bears - a lot more. Morgana, up a tree, has a long, barbed and sarcastic argument about whether she would make a delicious treat.
Bear doesn’t care for - or about -- anybody and he has a few things to say about Morgana’s upbringing and tendency to believe that everything ought to go the way she wants it to. But the truth is, Bear’s not much of a planner (though he does like things neat and tidy), and any girl who can tell him where to find an unpicked berry bush or fresh deer carcass is worth - temporarily - letting down from a tree. He’s easy-going, for a pessimist, though every once in a while Morgana suspects he’s not as cynical as he acts.
Anyway, they become comrades, if somewhat prickly and argumentative, and after a while it's hard to pretend that they don't rely on each other. Morgana works magic that comes from knowing more than those that stand against her. And she builds a home in the woods and deals with country girls asking for love potions and with the fae who have some strong opinions on Morgana, on Magic, and worst of all, on the future of Albion - and Arthur. She gets a reputation as the beautiful witch of the woods, who walks with a bear at her side and has the gift of sight.
Bear, it should be noted, finds this mostly worth laughing about - the beauty and the tame bear. Because Morgana is horribly small, hairless, and bony - very ugly - and he’s hardly tame. Even if he’s saved her life in at least one scene involving Bad Guys.
There is also, eventually, a magic horse. Or rather, a regular horse that Morgana may have borrowed from a wealthy man who made poor travel plans. He was rude. Morgana speaks to this horse in the voice she has that tends to change things, and gives the horse the ability to speak and to understand. It is still a horse, nothing like Bear, and it says horsey things, albeit articulately, but at least it listens when Morgana says that Bear isn’t going to eat it.
(Bear had better listen too).
THE THREAT: Morgana on the other hand, has been listening to the fae. Of course, of course, there is a threat to Camelot, a King who is consorting with the Saxons, and maybe that wouldn’t be trouble except the fae are meddling in all sorts of irritating ways. Of course, Morgana has to take a hand in that.
GUINEVERE: Morgana rides close enough to Camelot that the that farmers who come to her with sick cattle and the girls who come to her with love and other troubles can tell her news about Uther and Arthur. So close in fact, that on an otherwise unremarkable Tuesday, Guinevere appears, escorted by Merlin and one of Arthur’s knights - no, wait, that’s Lancelot. He’s hanging back, awkward and uncertain of his role here, but clearly Gwen has his number. It’s happy, but a little heart-breaking. Morgana hadn’t realized - it’s been months since she wasn’t in control of her visions - but she still looks crazy to the people who knew her in Camelot.
All those people who come looking for the Witch of the Woods expect a certain appearance from a wild woman of power, so Morgana had never realized: even though she’s “better”, she still answers questions people don’t ask or haven’t asked yet, she still pauses to take in little visions as they come, and worst of all, there really are sticks in her hair. It doesn’t make it better that she put them there on purpose: a sprig of feverfew and meadowsweet next to a twig from a hundred-year Oak. At least no one can look down on the bear.
Morgana is still a proud, ambitious woman. Wherever she is, she values respect and recognition. She absolutely cannot accept looking like a fool or that people might think she deserves pity for the same.
What she doesn’t realize is that while Gwen and Lancelot are taken aback by her obvious sorcery, but they never once mistake her for mad. Her clothes are worn and dully colored, her hair has been pulled out of the braids around her head by wind and grabbing branches, but she still has the gifts she was born with -- stunning beauty and an effortless, regal pride. Even as she seems uncertain to see them, she is competent and in control of her surroundings, which seem to include a giant, ginger bear and a dappled gray charger.
TEAM MORGANA: Lancelot wants to take Guinevere home, but is too polite to say it directly. Morgana is still unwilling to reconcile and worried all over again about being a crazy witch with sticks in her hair. Luckily there’s still the problem of that northern King and his Saxon hordes.
Morgana tries to get involved, first with the fae, which doesn’t go well, and then with the northern King himself. She has Merlin with her, who keeps trying to talk to her alone and is a bit bumbling when it comes to the fae, to be honest, and Gwen and Lancelot, whose determinedly optimistic expression gets more and more miserable the longer he fails to bring back Guinevere (and Merlin!) safely to Arthur.
The fae world is a pretty strange place. The colors are off and everything sounds different, muted, empty. Morgana isn’t equipped with the eyes or the ears to take it in. They meet a faerie queen. She isn’t very helpful, though she does have the most interesting things to say about Merlin. Actually, maybe it was good they brought him along, especially for the part where they get out.
IN THE KING’S COURT: The latter plan - the one with the northern king -- starts very badly. Morgana eventually joins the King’s court as herself, the exiled sorceress, Lady Morgana of Camelot with a few assorted retainers (though Merlin went home to fetch help) but the journey began with a bloody ambush. Lancelot, Guinevere, and Morgana barely make it out, and only because of Merlin, who is still wincing a little bit every time someone stares at him after he casts a spell. Bear does not.
So, Morgana is in the court of this King who wants to destroy her home and her family and who has killed her friend who was her partner through the worst part of her life. Let’s just say she is not happy. She’s dressed to impress again, every inch The Woman Who Might Have Been Queen. The King’s court finds her kind of terrifying. At the same time, she’s also planning and reforging bonds with Guinevere and getting to know Lancelot, so that’s nice.
They hatch a plan to sabotage the alliance between the King and the Saxons and even take notes on the politics that would allow an alliance with Arthur instead. There’s also the machinations fae to deal with. Morgana is an icy, dangerous badass. Also, it turns out that Guinevere is a hell of a planner. Nice job, Gwen.
THE BEAR OF MERCIA: Basically, the point is - once upon a time there was a bastard son of the King of Mercia, who was big and broad and very strong and cared about very few things-partly because he wasn’t paying attention. He was slow to anger and to act, but also slow to stop. And when he was young and rash, he killed a man in a duel, a duel which may not have been fair or even-tempered, and he got himself cursed. Before his banishment, during his glory days in battle and contest, he was called the Bear of Mercia.
And Bear is killed, except - of course - his curse is broken, and he’s a knight again - a huge, ginger knight with freckles - though his bear strength remains and also his hearing and his sense of smell - riding around on Morgana’s magic horse. At which point he gets tangled up with Arthur and Merlin and the knights of Camelot. He’s a bit prickly when he realizes they are looking for Morgana.
Why? he wants to know, a hand on his sword, and also, Beautiful? Clearly you’ve never met her. He may be in for a bit of a shock when he sees her again. He squints at Merlin: Don’t I know you? Merlin stares at him blankly, then stares at him not blankly at all, and then makes a lot of throat-cutting motions.
ANYWAY: Then Morgana saves the day with some help from her friends.
(Note on me and Merlin: I quit BBC Merlin after Series One because I developed a squick for both fic and canon appearing to write Morgana off as doomed to be evil or mad, which was usually justified in passing by her ambition or by madness brought on by some kind of mental inability to handle the stress of magic or power. As someone who likes a good, empowered, ambitious female -- wow, that was really poisonous. Yuck. For the record, historical Arthurian mythology does not make a strong argument here, and not just because BBC Merlin decided to establish Morgana as a compelling female heroine. If nothing else, consider the number of times Lex Luthor does not turn out evil in Smallville fic.)
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