Adventures of Enchantment [1/3] [e] Merlin, Arwen - Spoilers: 3.03 Goblin's Gold
Title: Adventures of Enchantment
Rating: e
Characters/Pairings: Merlin, Arwen
Warnings: Spoilers
Spoilers: up to and including 3.03 Goblin's Gold
Genres: Humor, Het, Romance
Chapters: 3
Completed: Yes
Word count: 1560 (4664 overall)
Disclaimer: *wonders if she can enchant the creators to not only say she owns it, but maybe pay her a small stipend* ... Oh who am I kidding? Forget the money, I just want to hang out on set all day!
Notes: Somewhat silly three-part reveal!fic. This wasn't at all what I intended when I started it, but thus is the nature of Muses and writing. Corrected and approved by tunes84.
Summary: Arthur discovers Merlin's secret. That's the least complicated part of his day.
In reality, Arthur's discovery of Merlin's magic was quite anticlimactic.
Which is not to say it didn't have some excitement and stress about it, but it wasn't anything like Merlin had expected.
Merlin had always imagined the most likely method of revelation would involve him performing some grand magical undertaking to save the kingdom-or even just Arthur. Blasting an enemy sorcerer with a fireball during a siege or using his telekinesis to throw away a rampaging attacker on the battlefield. Perhaps revitalizing the kingdom's crops from a curse or restoring the water supply. (That last one had happened more than once already, so it wasn't completely unreasonable to expect it would happen again.)
The next most likely way he imagined was being outed by someone else who finally had proof enough and him with no ready explanation on his tongue. That one scared him more than the former, frankly, because at least it would be easier to plead his case of not plotting against Camelot or the royal family when he was witnessed actively trying to save it.
Though, to be fair, it kind of was that second scenario that was his downfall. Except the "someone" in question was himself. Really, Gaius would be well within his rights to say "I told you so".
Rights he would no doubt exercise just as soon as he found out about this.
But before they could get to the "well-deserved lecture" portion of his day, he had to find a way to convince Arthur to not kill him for being a traitor and a criminal and a really rubbish friend.
Mind you, Arthur wasn't really looking like he was about to execute anyone. His hand was on the pommel of his sword, ready to draw it, but that could be said of Arthur a goodly portion of any given day.
His eyes weren't on Merlin either. They had been, his brows drawn down into a scowl as he'd stormed through the thick branches that had blocked his way, already berating Merlin for being a lazy, useless, good-for-nothing failure of a manservant. He'd trailed off mid-insult, eyebrows soaring the opposite direction at what he'd found along with said errant servant: Fairies. An entire glade of tiny, glowing, winged persons who, it could not be denied, were magical in nature.
And in the middle of it all, Merlin.
Now, being found in a glade of fairies isn't proof of magical abilities in itself. It can get you in trouble in Camelot, but Arthur would normally have just berated Merlin more for getting himself into a potentially dangerous situation. Again.
But while merely being in company of fairies wasn't enough to accuse of sorcery, streamers of soft golden light emanating from one's hands and swirling through the air around the numerous fairy couples dancing about was definitely a bit more... incriminating.
Not to mention having one's eyes matching the golden streamers in color and intensity. That was really, really incriminating.
(The soft words being muttered under Merlin's breath in the language of the Old Religion were just overkill at this point in the evidence collection exercise.)
Arthur, happily, wasn't looking at that either, though it was unlikely he'd missed it completely.
He was too busy ducking and dodging, waving his hand in front of his face as if being harassed by a particularly annoying fly. Or a fairy. The Fairy Queen, if Merlin wasn't mistaken. Sadly, he was not.
Arthur dared to glance at Merlin-who was, thankfully, not being so obviously, glowingly criminal any longer-and scowled.
"What is this... thing saying?" he demanded, unable to understand her with his lack of magical abilities.
Merlin-along with everyone or thing-else in the glade winced at that.
The Fairy Queen jerked to an abrupt halt and then with a forceful thrust of both hands toward Arthur unleashed a burst of rainbow-colored, sparkle-laden magic that bowled the prince head over heels and into a tree.
"Arthur!" Merlin immediately got to his feet and hurried over, only to find that instead of a prince clad in chainmail and armor there was... a pile of chainmail and armor. No clothes, either, but that was hardly as distressing as the missing Prince of Camelot. Even if she had just magicked him out of his clothes to embarrass him, that would be loads better than making him completely disappear.
"Oh no. Oh no." Merlin looked up at the queen who was nodding, her tiny arms crossed over her chest, the very picture of satisfied indignation. "What have you done? You've got to bring him back right now!"
Her eyes widened and there was another collective wince.
She flitted right up into his face and began lecturing him on what exactly it was that she did and did not have to do on the orders of mortals-prophesied warlock or no.
"But you don't understand! This is Arthur Pendragon, Prince of Camelot!"
She shrugged. As if mortal names or titles meant anything to her.
"You know who I am, correct?"
She rolled her eyes and leveled a stare at him that spoke volumes.
"Well then you know what my destiny is! To protect and guide the Once and Future King so that magic can be restored to Camelot and all of Albion united under one peaceful rule!"
A tiny, delicate eyebrow arched.
Merlin rolled his eyes and waved a hand at the pile of chainmail. "Well how many future kings do you think I know?"
She blinked. Then looked down at the chainmail. Then looked up and blinked again. This time, the wince was hers.
A tentative tinkling chime filled the air.
"Exactly! This one is the one! Now bring him back."
Eye contact was suddenly hard for the Fairy Queen to make. She scuffed her petal slipper on the air beneath her and wrung her hands in front of her.
Merlin understood very well what she said next, but his brain wasn't quite ready to accept it. "What do you mean you can't fix him? You have to! Bring him back NOW!"
She shook her head, sincerely abashed, and spread her hands in a shrug.
Merlin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's fantastic. Really it is. Now my destiny is to protect the Once and Future Armor. Brilliant."
He put his head into one hand and tried very hard to think about how to fix this before Gaius-or, more importantly, Uther-found out what had happened. Because his head was down, he missed the surprised blink of the Fairy Queen.
She glided forward and gently patted his shoulder.
He lifted his head to glare at her. "If it's all the same to you, Your Majesty, I could really do without any more of your help right now, unless you've got a way to bring back Arthur."
She merely pointed downward.
"Yes! I know! He's..." Merlin stared at the face that stared back at him.
Lids dropped briefly over wet glassy eyes and then a moist, rubbery-looking throat ballooned out.
Rrrrr-IBBIT!
Merlin swallowed thickly. "Arthur?" he said hesitantly.
Another blink and a longer croak and Merlin dropped to a seat from the crouch he'd been holding with a soft thump. He stared for a moment longer, then-ever so gently-scooped up the massive bullfrog that had climbed out of Arthur's armor.
He might have been inclined to believe that this was another trick except, well, he'd never seen a frog with blue eyes before. He'd certainly never had a frog with blue eyes use them to glare so accusingly at him.
And the fact that the frog was dressed in a tiny red linen shirt and tiny leather breeches-the exact outfit Merlin had assisted his royal master into before helping him into his armor that morning-didn't hurt either.
"I am so ending up in the stocks for this," Merlin breathed.
"Rrrrr-IBBIT!" Arthur agreed.
Next