[BBC Merlin]: Dabbling in Falconry - Chapter 3
Title: Dabbling in Falconry
Fandom: BBC Merlin
Characters: Merlin, Gaius, Gwaine, Lancelot, Elyan, Arthur, Percival, Leon
Warnings: One swear word (this chapter). Though there will be spoilers if you haven't seen series' 1-3.
Summary: Once again, Merlin finds himself in a bit of a situation after he performs a transfiguration spell in his sleep. Things can only get worse when Gwaine gets involved - not to mention when a stressed-out prince and the rest of the knights join in. Can Merlin keep his secret and change back?
Previous Chapters: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2
-~-PF-~-
[Chapter 3]
Chapter 3
This was definitely not good.
Bad enough that Merlin had spent most of the morning being man-handled by Gwaine and then poked in the face with raw meat, but now he was expected to fly? And in front of everybody?
Any remaining novelty in being a bird-of-prey was wearing off quite quickly for Merlin.
At first (after he had calmed down from his almost-panic-attack in Gaius' chambers), he had been fascinated with the changes to his body and senses. His eyesight, for one, was amazing and his hearing was nearly as good.
When Gwaine and Elyan had finished making their crude perch and had placed him in the middle of the training field, Merlin had spent the first few minutes completely ignoring Gwaine and testing out his new eyes. He found that raptors could see much further away than humans could - when he looked towards the towers of the citadel, he could quite clearly see the faces of the servants who were opening the windows. It certainly explained how the birds could spot mice from high in the air - they had super-vision! Getting used to his third eyelid was confusing. He found that it was easier to 'blink' with his third eyelid - only closing the main ones to further protect his eyes.
He soon found himself almost constantly keeping his third eyelid shut when Gwaine kept insisting on prodding him in the face. Though he was gentle, the man was certainly persistent, and it took all of Merlin's self-control not to verbally chew him out or even try biting him.
And then Arthur had turned up.
Honestly, it was almost as if this was all planned to drive Merlin as close to a heart attack as possible.
For one heart-stopping moment, Merlin had thought that the prince had recognised him - his face flashing with recognition as their eyes met. Of course, then Gwaine had poked him in the face again and the moment passed with Arthur none the wiser. Always a good thing, he supposed.
He had to admit, the knights arguing over him was extremely entertaining. But then Prince Prat had to go and bellow at the top of his lungs because the attention wasn't on himself. Balance was restored to the universe when Merlin's face promptly met with the ground. That in itself was a revelation: Merlin had just fallen the equivalent of a rather great height (for his new size at least) and come out from it completely unhurt, and he discovered that the resulting embarrassed blush was covered up.
Of course, Arthur then had to go and add insult to injury and start petting him.
Merlin knew Arthur's mannerisms even better than the clotpole himself did at times. So he knew the physical touch was a veiled apology that the prince didn't want to admit in front of his knights. Seriously, Arthur never apologised to Merlin - even when he was clearly in the wrong - but he would apologise to a bird?
He deserved getting bitten. Truly he did.
Merlin also made a mental note that screeching wasn't appreciated and worked quite well in putting them off touching him for a bit. He would save that for later.
But now he was in a dilemma that no amount of screeching could prevent and Lancelot's version of help had been about as much use as a wax-fireguard. So, after being divested of the leather and twine wrapped around his feet, Merlin once again found himself tucked underneath Gwaine's arm as the whole motley crew made their way to the council chambers. They were probably going to throw him off of the balcony or something.
Yeah, this could only end badly.
Arthur pushed the doors open, all the knights making their way into the room behind him before Percival shut the door. The soft thud held a finality that scared Merlin almost as much as the long walk to the pyre had nearly a year ago. And that had been pretty damn terrifying.
Which was ridiculous because he could totally do this... sure he could. Maybe.
"Right then!" Gwaine fairly crowed into the room, his voice echoing amongst the pillars. "How are we going to go about this?"
The lot of them turned to Arthur and they all watched as the prince scratched at his jaw in thought. How the prat had gone from condemning their little escapade to leading it Merlin wasn't entirely sure.
Walking to the front of the room where a table and a few chairs were set up in front of the newly-restored window, Arthur dragged one of the seats into the middle of the room and gestured for Gwaine to put Merlin on the back of it, which he did. Arthur then pulled out a piece of cloth from his belt, which contained the raw chicken that the servant had brought just before they left the training grounds.
"First things first - we try feeding it the chicken." The prince glanced a few times between Merlin and the meat before tossing the bundle to Gwaine. "You do it; it seems to like you better."
Code for: I don't want to get bitten again.
Well, well, well, the great Prince Arthur did have a brain after all.
Rolling his eyes, Gwaine unwrapped and tore off a small piece of the chicken while stepping forward to do as told.
Merlin's superior hearing clearly caught the knight's murmur of something along the lines of 'pussyfooter' and he shot an amused look at Arthur. The warlock found himself both saddened and relieved that he couldn't physically smirk at the prince, but that thought soon faded from his mind as he was subjected to being poked in the face with raw meat... again.
Merlin kept his beak firmly closed and repeatedly tilted his head away. After a few minutes he turned around on the chair - without nearly falling this time, he was getting more used to his new feet the more he used them - and presented his back to the group, hoping they would get the hint.
No such luck though. With a frustrated grunt Gwaine tossed the small piece of chicken to Elyan instead and bade him see if he could do better.
This time, Merlin had to try his damndest not to laugh. The knight was enthusiastic about it and pulled the most ridiculous faces while trying to get him to eat; making doe-eyes at him, sticking his tongue out and even miming chewing. Still though, Merlin refused to open his beak even the littlest bit and even Elyan soon retired.
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all?
But as a group, they just wouldn't give up and over the next few minutes both Gwaine and Elyan tried again. Even Arthur had a try, so Merlin decided to grant him an exception and opened his beak to bite the prince's finger again.
"This is ridiculous!" The prince complained in a voice that was close to a whine as he inspected his throbbing finger.
Merlin scoffed, though it came out as a squeaky croak. But Arthur seemed to understand on some subconscious level, because he shot Merlin a ferocious glare.
"You think it may be just a case of getting it started? Maybe if we forced its beak open for the first piece, then that may encourage it to eat?"
No, no, no! Why couldn't Gwaine just shut his face today?
Arthur's answering grin was almost feral, maybe biting him a second time wasn't the best idea.
"Aye, that might work."
Both Gwaine and Arthur started to advance and Merlin leaned backwards as far as he could go, knowing that he couldn't exactly escape them.
"Wait."
God, Merlin loved Lancelot right now.
Both of them turned to face the gentle knight, who was leaning against a pillar and had been since they entered the room.
"What? You have a better idea?" Arthur said while crossing his arms, looking every bit the Petulant Prince.
"Not really. But perhaps you should let the rest of us try before you go doing something so drastic."
Arthur raised an eyebrow, but it was Elyan who spoke.
"I thought you were against the idea of feeding and training it?"
Lancelot just shrugged and with a grunt Arthur stepped aside, passing Lancelot the meat as he did. Stepping forward into Gwaine's place, Lancelot held up the meat, giving Merlin a sympathetic look. Under the pretence of trying to soothe and coax, Lancelot started murmuring quietly to him.
"Maybe you should just go with it, hey? They're only going to carry on."
Did he say he loved Lancelot? Yeah, not so much now.
Though Merlin had to admit that the knight was correct; they were only going to keep trying and as things stood, even if Gaius did find a solution there was no way that Merlin was going to be able to get away in order to change back. Not to mention that they were going to go looking for him soon...
No, Lancelot was right - the only thing he could do was to go with it and bide his time.
Clacking his beak once in frustration, Merlin darted his head forward and snagged the meat from Lancelot's fingers, swallowing it in one quick gulp.
Merlin had been expecting it to taste awful, but he couldn't have been more wrong; it had a slightly tangy taste and slid pleasantly down his throat. Merlin was also reminded that, in all the hubbub, he had never eaten his breakfast this morning. It felt like his stomach was one huge void and he couldn't remember ever being so hungry before. How could he not have noticed this earlier? Was this how hungry birds were all of the time?
"Alright Lance!"
Gwaine seemed genuinely pleased that Merlin had eaten and was soon shoving the rest of the chicken into Lancelot's hands.
"I can't believe that worked..." Was Arthur's stunned comment and Elyan nodded in agreement, similarly shocked. Leon and Percival just seemed amused.
Gwaine either didn't hear, or chose to ignore them. "That makes you official feeder then."
"Spectacular..." was Lancelot's only reply.
Merlin found himself leaning forwards slightly and Lancelot raised an eyebrow in an uncanny impersonation of Gaius before offering another tiny piece of chicken, which Merlin quickly snapped up. Gods, he was famished.
"Well, now that's sorted, what do we do next?" Arthur's earlier frustration had vanished and he looked at Gwaine expectantly, passing leadership over to him.
Said knight tossed his hair and clapped his hands before grinning hugely. Merlin however, didn't notice the excited gleam in the knight's eyes. His own were now well and truly fixed on the food.
-~-M-~-
So much for preventing Merlin from doing anything stupid... it was a little late for that now. The guy was eating raw chicken and Lancelot prayed that Gaius was nowhere near this room - the physician would tan his hide if he ever saw this.
"Right mate, keep feeding it. However, each time, pull it a little farther away."
There wasn't much else for it other than for Lancelot to take his own advice and go with it. He did as Gwaine bid, and was quite amused to watch Merlin reaching further and further forward, now showing no qualms over eating the meat and contorting his body in order to reach it.
"OK, now hold the meat just out of its reach but put your arm in the way, meaning it'll have to perch on your hand to get at it."
Lancelot did as he was told and Merlin stepped onto his arm with no hesitation. Not surprising really, as he would probably have done that if asked anyway. But if Lancelot didn't know any better, he could have sworn Merlin was in a kind of trance; all he wanted was the food and Lancelot started having second thoughts about all of this. Really, the last thing they all needed was for Merlin to go tearing around after mice or something. At the same time though, he couldn't deny that this was entertaining - Lancelot wasn't usually one for blackmail, but this would be excellent for future reference and he could only imagine what it would be like when the others discovered Merlin's magic as well.
They repeated the process a couple of times, putting Merlin back on the perch and making him step onto Lancelot's arm repeatedly and gradually increasing the distance until Merlin was literally leaping onto his wrist.
Something had to give eventually. On the tenth repetition, with Lancelot roughly five feet back from the perch, Merlin leaned forward and bobbed his head a few times before suddenly freezing. He glanced between Gwaine and Lancelot, suddenly seeming to come back to himself, before shaking his head, straightening and then fluffing his feathers up.
Lancelot laughed - he couldn't help it.
Arthur and the rest of the knights got up from where they'd sat at the table to gather around the perching-chair again.
"Now what?" Elyan glanced between Merlin and Lancelot, wondering why the progress had suddenly ground to a halt.
"We've hit a dead end. It still won't fly," was Percival's observation.
"Its balance is better though. It clearly had no problem jumping and it was using its wings to get the best distance so there's nothing wrong with them." Leon said, gesturing at the gap between bird and knight.
Lancelot nearly laughed again as Merlin lifted one wing and looked at it in puzzlement. Obviously the warlock really hadn't had any idea what he had been doing these past few minutes.
"So we're stuck exactly where we were before."
Arthur clapped Elyan on the shoulder good-naturedly.
"I wouldn't say that, exactly." The prince strode forward, picking Merlin up with both hands before he walked across the room to the door. "We've established that there's nothing obviously wrong with it. In that case it's likely a bout of laziness due to not flying when it was injured. The best thing we can try is getting air under its wings and hope that motivates it. Gwaine? If you would..."
Ah hell, Lancelot really should have seen this one coming. But noone else objected and he couldn't interfere without looking suspicious.
As Gwaine stepped forward so that he was facing Arthur, Merlin shot Lancelot a pleading look. But Lancelot was rooted to the spot - there wasn't anything he could do and both he and the warlock knew it.
"Ready? I'm going to toss it, but for God's sake don't drop it."
"Don't worry about me, Princess. I won't drop it if you throw it right," came Gwaine's haughty reply.
Somehow that didn't make Lancelot feel any better, nor did it seem to reassure Merlin, who was staring straight ahead and not making a sound in Arthur's hands.
Despite the posturing though, Arthur was extremely careful; dipping Merlin a few times to make sure Gwaine was prepared before finally chucking him across the room in one great heaving throw.
Lancelot held his breath...
Merlin himself made no real effort, in fact he even seemed to curl himself slightly into a ball as he tumbled completely gracelessly through the air to land in Gwaine's arms. The knight's catch was flawless and he clutched the bird to his chest for a few seconds, sharing a glance with Arthur, before looking down at him. After a second he lifted the warlock up so everyone else could see him. Merlin was sat dizzily in Gwaine's cupped hands, wings held away from his body, eyes wide and beak parted as his breath came in fast pants.
"I think we kinda scared the shit out of it."
Understatement of the century right there; Lancelot was terrified Merlin was going to have a heart attack! Arthur seemed to think the same because he made his way over and looked at the bird, seeming to be torn between disappointment and remorse.
"Maybe we were a bit far apart that time. I can't think of any other way though - short of throwing it off of the balcony, which I think would just scare it more."
All six knights looked to the western side of the room, where the balcony hung at least thirty feet above their heads. No words needed to be spoken, that option was definitely out. Merlin seemed to have recovered from his little shock and was now shooting Arthur a glare that could have put Morgana to shame.
"Let's try this again then, half-distance."
With that, they set about trying to literally throw Merlin into the air, in the hope that the wind beneath his wings would allow him to take flight. After his initial trepidation faded, Lancelot actually found himself hoping for this to work. Technically-speaking there was no reason for Merlin not to be able to fly short of not knowing how. He also wasn't exactly going to get such a 'friendly nudge' the next time this inevitably happened and being able to fly would certainly be a handy skill to have in many situations. Merlin seemed to realise this too, because he started to work with Gwaine and Arthur instead of fighting them. He anticipated their throws, locking his eyes on the man opposite and then trying to flap his wings when they did. No joy though, and pretty soon both men and bird started to get frustrated.
"This isn't working." Gwaine said as he prepared to throw Merlin one last time.
"Maybe it's a fledgling that never learnt how to fly? Maybe it wasn't even injured in the first place? I don't know - we'd have to ask Merlin."
Leon brought them all crashing back to the present, reminding them that Merlin was still 'missing' and that they had been going to go and look for him.
"I nearly forgot about the idiot," Arthur glanced out of the window, obviously lost in thought. "Toss it here then, we should get it back to Gaius' and then we'll go and look for the fool. He's probably fallen into a ditch or something."
Lancelot would have had to have been a blind man not to have seen the worry concealed in Arthur's eyes. All of them did. But they wisely didn't comment.
However, Merlin seemed to see it too. Gwaine tossed him one last time and Arthur, distracted, half held out his arms. Lancelot didn't know whether it was his magic or some kind of twisted motivation, but it was like something suddenly clicked for the warlock. Fanning his tail, spreading his wings wide and tilting them just so, Merlin finally succeeded in his first flight - soaring across the room and over a now gaping prince's head.
Lancelot grinned, and he knew that the warlock would be beaming, even if he couldn't actually physically smile.
Merlin had done it! He was flying!
Of course, reality then came in the form of a wooden door...
Lancelot, despite being furthest away, was the first over there. He didn't know where the self-control came from, but somehow he managed not to shout out Merlin's name. It didn't prevent the tight feeling in his chest and throat however; Merlin had been travelling quite fast and all sorts of terrible scenarios were flying through his worried mind.
To his astonishment, Merlin was already up by the time he crouched next to him. He was blinking owlishly, but other than that and a tiny crack on the left side of his beak just under the nostril, he seemed completely fine.
"Phew, that was a close one." Gwaine was at his shoulder and after glancing Merlin over he turned his gaze onto Lancelot. "I don't think I've ever seen you move that fast bud, you look like you've seen a ghost."
Lancelot gave a half-hearted grin, too busy trying to calm his rapidly-beating heart to bother making up an excuse. He shot Merlin a silent glare which clearly said: 'don't you dare do that again.'
"I think that's enough for today. Come on; let's get it back to Gaius' chambers. If Merlin isn't there then we'll need to set off and look for the idiot."
There were no arguments, and while the others started filing for the door Arthur offered Lancelot a hand up while Gwaine reached down to pick up Merlin.
But Merlin wasn't having any of that. Just as Lancelot grasped Arthur's hand, the warlock surged into a flurry of movement. Faster than Lancelot ever credited the warlock for in this form, Merlin shot up the arm that Lancelot had braced against the floor, scurried across his shoulders behind his head and then ran along his other arm and onto Arthur's. Arthur reacted instinctively, letting go of Lancelot's hand and causing the knight to land flat on his backside while the prince then reeled backwards, flinging his arms back as he did so. This seemed to be what Merlin was counting on; it acted like a kind of sling-shot, catapulting him into the air and allowing him to glide effortlessly across the room to the window, where he alighted on the window-ledge in a surprisingly graceful manner.
While the six men looked on in mute shock, the warlock turned and gave them all a seemingly triumphant look, before turning to stare out of the window. They could only watch, flabbergasted, as he reached his head up to pull the metal latch free. Then, Merlin lifted a foot to push open the window before glancing over his shoulder one more time and jumping out into space.
Silence reigned for a long time, then:
"Baggy not the one telling Merlin."
The reply came from all five other men in unison.
"Shut up, Gwaine."
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