Fic: Fear No Darkness, Promised Child
Fear No Darkness, Promised Child.
The thunder claps loudly and the ripping winds shake her tiny hut as the storm rages outside and Hunith attempts to comfort the small child in her arms. With each loud boom Merlin shrieks and tries to bury himself further into her warm embrace. He’s only 4 and probably doesn’t remember the last time the village was ravaged by a storm this bad. She disentangles one arm from him and manages to reach behind her for an extra blanket. The wind comes through again and makes its way through a tiny gap in her window, blowing out all the small candles she had been using for light (the storm had hit quickly and there hadn’t been enough time to grab firewood). Merlin begins to cry and Hunith makes soothing noises at him.
“It’s all alright my darling, it’s all alright. You’ve no reason to fear the darkness.”
She rubs a hand up and down his back in soothing circles. Gods, she hopes that he’ll be able to sleep soon even with the noise of the storm. He sniffles and looks up at her with his large eyes.
“Why not?” he asks.
“Well, we’ve only lost the light, but it will be back in the morning. There will always be light again, even when everything is at its darkest.”
He seems to be considering her words deeply (if the frown that has appeared on his brow is any indication) and she sees the moment that he comes to a decision. She sees a flash of gold in his eyes and a strange glow fills the tiny hut. Hunith gasps as she looks down at her child. He is holding a ball of shimmering light in the palms of his hands, smiling up at her.
“Merlin, what have you done?” she gasps.
“There’s light now Mama, you said there’s always light. This is a special light, so that you fear no darkness.” He nods at her as if the whole thing makes sense in his small world. If there is dark and he’s afraid, why not find some light. Hunith’s throat tightens when she looks at him with his magical light still safely in his hands. He looks like his father, who had always been thrilled by even the smallest amount of magic. Her little boy was just like him. Suddenly she knew that for the rest of her life she would be worrying over him and his magic. If Uther could find Balinor here, what’s to stop him from coming after her son? She felt a fierce surge of protection and knew that she would do whatever she could to keep him safe.
She smiled down at him. “You’re right Merlin. Fear no darkness.”