Oh-Sixteen-Hundred Hours; Merlin
Title: Oh-Sixteen-Hundred Hours
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings/Characters: Merlin, Gwen, Morgana, Gaius (Traces of A/G)
Warnings: Crack, anti-pigeons.
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin still isn't mine!
Rating: PG
Summary: Merlin angers the wrong creature.
Author Notes: This is the LAST (finally) of my 2010 prompts. Which I DID finish in 2010! For those that don't know, on the 20th April last year mustbethursday3 and I made a bet. You can view the original bet here along with the proof that I finished them in time to win it! Thanks to everybody who prompted me last year! You all have tags on my journal to view what I have written for you.
My Merlin Prompt Table 2010 :: 2011
1600 hours
Merlin ducked behind one of the pillars away from the oncoming attack. It wasn't often when Arthur blamed him that it was actually his fault. This time however it couldn't have been his fault more if he had tried.
1000 hours
The spring morning in Camelot was bright. The sun shone high in the sky and the wind was light with a delicate breeze. The townsfolk whistled as they went about their days, the market in full swing in the lower town, the trade better than it had ever been.
The physician’s ward wondered gleefully through the town, he’d already completed his morning chores for the prince and now only had a few herbs to collect for his guardian before he could take a quick break as he ate his lunch before he tended to Arthur.
"Coo! Caw coo!" Merlin laughed as he wondered through the woods collecting herbs for Gaius. He'd been bored and looking at bird calls before bed the night before and now he was testing them out, with little success but found it amusing all the same, "Coo! Caw coo!"
The sound was repeated back to him angrily. Merlin looked around and spotted a common pigeon sat on a branch near his head, "Cawcoo."
"CAW!" the pigeon launched at him. Merlin turned back towards the city and ran.
1030 hours
Merlin ran into the Prince's chambers, slamming the door behind him. He let out a sigh of relief. The bird had been close on his tale all the way through the town and towards the castle, now he was safe. For a moment at least.
"Merlin, what on earth are you playing at?" he turned to look at the Prince win was sat at his table with am array of papers in front of him.
"Timing myself. On how quickly I can do my chores."
"Would you like some more?"
Merlin shook his head. Out of the window he spied the bird. It had followed him all the was back to the castle and was now perched on the balcony opposite Arthur's window. He narrowed his eyes, "Are you perfectly alright?"
"Dandy," he replied staring down the bird. This was ridiculous, he should be hiding from it. If he was alone he would have blasted the damned thing out of the sky. Unfortunately, so far he’d been surrounded by people.
1200 hours
Merlin promptly served the Prince and his father their lunch at midday. He'd spent the morning avoiding the courtyard all he could out of fear that the bird would attack him. The few times he had looked out over the courtyard through any window the damned pigeon was glaring at him. It didn’t seem to be moving.
Arthur had kept a sceptical eye on Merlin all morning. He was acting Shiftier than usual which roused his suspicions initially. Over his lunch with his father he watched him keep one eye on the window and one eye on his work.
If he had been in deep discussion with his father over more important matters he would have reprimanded his servant for being so distant. As it was he had more pressing matters to attend to.
1300 hours
Merlin stood clearing the plates from lunch in the corner of the kitchen. The fires were all extinguished to be re-lit again later to prepare dinner for the nobles. The younger kitchen maids were washing the dishes and pots from the lunchtime preparations, all chattering away.
"How much waste," the cook said rhetorically, "Could feed a family for a week on that."
"That was only the King," Merlin said. Arthur hadn't eaten much but he hadn't filled his plate and half eaten everything like Uther had. Merlin didn’t throw away the untouched food, he knew how much the other members o the household staff replied on quick pickings from the leftovers that the nobles would never touch again.
“Not the point, is it? Wasteful bunch, the lot of them,” she complained.
“Caw coo!” Merlin’s gaze snapped up to one of the high windows that led into the courtyard. The same bird as sat there staring at him.
“Get out ya filthy scavenger!” the cook shouted waving a tea towel at it, forcing it back out the way it came, “Bloody rats they are, rats with wings.”
1400 hours
Gwen crossed the courtyard from Gaius’s quarters back towards her lady’s bedchamber. Morgana, for one, hadn’t been at her best most of the morning and had requested a remedy from Gaius to help her complaint.
When she’d left Morgana’s chamber she’d seen Merlin stood in the stairway staring out of the window through squinted eyes. She hadn’t expected him to be there when she came back up the stairs.
“Merlin? What are you doing?” She asked following his gaze out of the window and towards the bird. She squinted.
“That pigeon is watching me.”
“The pigeon is watching you?”
“It followed me. Now it won’t leave me alone.”
“Right,” Gwen turned her squinted eyes on him, “Is there anything I can do?” she asked, trying her hardest not to laugh.
“Have you any way to catch it?”
“No,” he smile dropped from her face when she noticed he was deadly serious.
“Then no.”
Gwen went to say something but closed her mouth. She bit her lip and chose her words carefully, Merlin was one very confusing person, “I should get these to Morgana,” she bid Merlin farewell, watching him as she walked away.
1500 hours
On making his deposit of Arthur’s shirts and bed linens to the laundry maids, Merlin ran into Morris, Arthur’s former manservant. He was talking to one of the kitchen maids. He seemed happier now he had escaped the clutches of the Prince.
Still, Arthur wasn’t that bad a master. He could be a lot worse. Though Merlin did wish that Arthur would stop throwing things at him, he treated him marginally well. Even if he could be an arrogant prat a lot of the time. Still, he was getting better with every day at passed.
He left the kitchens intent on going to see what chores Gaius wanted him to complete.
“CAW COOO!” the pigeon came flying towards him at high speed. He ran as it plummeted towards him.
1600 hours
Merlin ducked behind one of the pillars away from the oncoming attack. It wasn't often when Arthur blamed him that it was actually his fault. This time however it couldn't have been his fault more if he had tried.
Why didn’t he just ignore the thing? He could have dealt with the problem back in the forest but he had to bring it back to the castle where he couldn’t just magic it out of the sky without the staff and occupants all seeing.
He ran towards Arthur’s chambers at high speed with the bird now following him inside. He wasn’t going to escape this beast on his own.
“Merlin, there you are!” Arthur was walking down the corridor from his room, he looked annoyed to the point of wanting to send Merlin on a job so huge it would take him long into the night, “Where on earth have you been?” the manservant pushed past him and through his chamber door, “Merlin!”
“Just hurry up!” he slammed the door behind Arthur as he entered.
“What is going on?” He asked Merlin as the servant leant up against the door breathing deeply.
“Evil pigeon.”
“Pigeon?”
1700 hours
There was a soft knock on Arthur’s door, “Arthur?”
“Come in, Guinevere,” he called, though it was distinctly muffled.
She pushed open the door, a food tray in her hand, “Are you okay?” she looked around but couldn’t see him, “Arthur?” he emerged then from beneath the table. She raised her eyebrow and looked at him before she placed the tray down on the table, “I brought you your dinner, your father called a council meeting later and Merlin seems to have disappeared.”
The servant appeared from beneath the table then and smiled at his friend. Gwen frowned and looked between them, “Pigeon again, Merlin?”
“It attacked us…” Arthur replied sheepishly looking to his boots.
“It attacked you? It’s a pigeon… I’m sure you could take it with a swing of your sword.”
“I didn’t have a chance to get it.”
“It alluded you?” Gwen tried to suppress her laughter but couldn’t. Arthur looked at her with raised eyebrows, she bit down on her lip but couldn’t help but laugh, “I’m sorry but you were hiding from a bird. Merlin’s been hiding from it all day.”
“Has it gone?”
“I believe so.”
1800 hours
In the council chambers Arthur sat beside his father with Morgana on his other side as they were addressed by the people of Camelot. Merlin stood with Gaius and Gwen to the side of the room.
“Cawcoo.”
Merlin’s head snapped around to the noise.
“Cawcoo.”
It came from the other side of the hall.
“Cawcoo.”
Came from the other end again.
Gwen looked up at Merlin confused. Arthur was watching him and his odd behaviour too. It was far more interesting to watch than listen to the people before him. He should pay attention to them really; they were going to be his people one day. But Merlin’s torment was too good.
1900 hours
Court proceedings were quite possibly the single dullest thing about being the Crowned Prince of Camelot. Of course the good points far outweighed the bad. He could have anything he wanted. Nearly.
His eyelids were heavy, his head drooped but he caught himself and blinked a few times to waken himself up. He looked over to his servant who was still looking around for the bird he was adamant was on his case. Gwen caught his eye and smiled, “Wake up,” she mouthed at him.
Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose and leant on the arm of his throne.
It wasn’t long before the King called an end to proceedings. The Prince tried not to make his relief known. The people exited the room to make their ways home. It was getting dark and the lower town wasn’t the safest place after dark.
Morgana followed the Prince out of the hall and towards his chambers, “What do you want, Morgana?”
“What’s wrong with you and Merlin?”
“What are you talking about?”
“He’s looking shifty, and you looked amused.”
“He’s being followed by a pigeon.”
2000 hours
Merlin walked through the courtyard, across it towards Gaius’ chambers. He kept his eyes down thinking that maybe, if he didn’t look the bird in the eye it wouldn’t come after him. He couldn’t hear it. He couldn’t see it. Eyes to the floor, he liked to pretend that he hadn’t spent his day cowering from a pigeon.
He felt something dribble onto the arm of his jacket. He frowned and looked at it before he figured out what it was and groaned in disgust. He picked up his pace and clambered into Gaius’ quarters and grabbed the first piece of cloth he came across and wiped it away, “That bird!”
“What have you done now?” Gaius questioned as he sat with his glass bottles, mixing his lotions and medicines for his patients.
“Nothing,” he grumbled as he threw the rag into the bin, they wouldn’t want to use it again.
2100 hours
As part of his final chores before he could retire to his chambers, Merlin had to deliver the clean shirts to Arthur’s chambers. Tomorrow he would change the sheets over. He met Gwen in the halls between the kitchens and Arthur’s chambers. He’d stopped questioning her whereabouts a long time ago; it wasn’t unknown for her to pop by Arthur’s chambers. Merlin wasn’t going to get involved, the less he knew the better.
“Morgana and Arthur have been arguing about your problem for the last hour.”
“It won’t leave me alone.”
“Where is it now?”
“I don’t know, which worries me.”
“Maybe it’s moved on-“
Just as she spoke her words they heard the faithful cry of the two royals. They weren’t argumentative shouts, more of a pained cry. The two servants looked at each other before taking of at a sprint to save them from whatever ailed them.
2200 hours
“Get it out of the window! Open the window!” Arthur squealed. For a moment the two girls paused and looked at him. He cleared his throat, “WINDOW!” They still stood looking at him, “Now!”
The lurched into action, Morgana yanked the window open. Gwen angled the broom she had in her grasp and waved it towards the bird. It squawked at her as she forced it through the wooden frame. Morgana forced the window shut, she leant back against it.
“That thing is the epitome of evil.”
“And Merlin brought it to us, what a gem,” Morgana replied sarcastically looking out over the courtyard where Merlin was stationed.
2300 hours
Merlin stood in the middle of the courtyard staring up at the bird that sat on the balcony. He narrowed his eyes at him. This was far from over.
END NOTE: One more time for good measure: I WIN! Na-na-na-na-na!
Authors: mydoctortennant
Pairings/Characters: Merlin, Gwen, Morgana, Gaius (Traces of A/G)
Warnings: Crack, anti-pigeons.
Disclaimer: Not real. Despite birthday wishes and night time prayers to Santa (all Hail Amy Pond!) Merlin still isn't mine!
Rating: PG
Summary: Merlin angers the wrong creature.
Author Notes: This is the LAST (finally) of my 2010 prompts. Which I DID finish in 2010! For those that don't know, on the 20th April last year mustbethursday3 and I made a bet. You can view the original bet here along with the proof that I finished them in time to win it! Thanks to everybody who prompted me last year! You all have tags on my journal to view what I have written for you.
My Merlin Prompt Table 2010 :: 2011
1600 hours
Merlin ducked behind one of the pillars away from the oncoming attack. It wasn't often when Arthur blamed him that it was actually his fault. This time however it couldn't have been his fault more if he had tried.
1000 hours
The spring morning in Camelot was bright. The sun shone high in the sky and the wind was light with a delicate breeze. The townsfolk whistled as they went about their days, the market in full swing in the lower town, the trade better than it had ever been.
The physician’s ward wondered gleefully through the town, he’d already completed his morning chores for the prince and now only had a few herbs to collect for his guardian before he could take a quick break as he ate his lunch before he tended to Arthur.
"Coo! Caw coo!" Merlin laughed as he wondered through the woods collecting herbs for Gaius. He'd been bored and looking at bird calls before bed the night before and now he was testing them out, with little success but found it amusing all the same, "Coo! Caw coo!"
The sound was repeated back to him angrily. Merlin looked around and spotted a common pigeon sat on a branch near his head, "Cawcoo."
"CAW!" the pigeon launched at him. Merlin turned back towards the city and ran.
1030 hours
Merlin ran into the Prince's chambers, slamming the door behind him. He let out a sigh of relief. The bird had been close on his tale all the way through the town and towards the castle, now he was safe. For a moment at least.
"Merlin, what on earth are you playing at?" he turned to look at the Prince win was sat at his table with am array of papers in front of him.
"Timing myself. On how quickly I can do my chores."
"Would you like some more?"
Merlin shook his head. Out of the window he spied the bird. It had followed him all the was back to the castle and was now perched on the balcony opposite Arthur's window. He narrowed his eyes, "Are you perfectly alright?"
"Dandy," he replied staring down the bird. This was ridiculous, he should be hiding from it. If he was alone he would have blasted the damned thing out of the sky. Unfortunately, so far he’d been surrounded by people.
1200 hours
Merlin promptly served the Prince and his father their lunch at midday. He'd spent the morning avoiding the courtyard all he could out of fear that the bird would attack him. The few times he had looked out over the courtyard through any window the damned pigeon was glaring at him. It didn’t seem to be moving.
Arthur had kept a sceptical eye on Merlin all morning. He was acting Shiftier than usual which roused his suspicions initially. Over his lunch with his father he watched him keep one eye on the window and one eye on his work.
If he had been in deep discussion with his father over more important matters he would have reprimanded his servant for being so distant. As it was he had more pressing matters to attend to.
1300 hours
Merlin stood clearing the plates from lunch in the corner of the kitchen. The fires were all extinguished to be re-lit again later to prepare dinner for the nobles. The younger kitchen maids were washing the dishes and pots from the lunchtime preparations, all chattering away.
"How much waste," the cook said rhetorically, "Could feed a family for a week on that."
"That was only the King," Merlin said. Arthur hadn't eaten much but he hadn't filled his plate and half eaten everything like Uther had. Merlin didn’t throw away the untouched food, he knew how much the other members o the household staff replied on quick pickings from the leftovers that the nobles would never touch again.
“Not the point, is it? Wasteful bunch, the lot of them,” she complained.
“Caw coo!” Merlin’s gaze snapped up to one of the high windows that led into the courtyard. The same bird as sat there staring at him.
“Get out ya filthy scavenger!” the cook shouted waving a tea towel at it, forcing it back out the way it came, “Bloody rats they are, rats with wings.”
1400 hours
Gwen crossed the courtyard from Gaius’s quarters back towards her lady’s bedchamber. Morgana, for one, hadn’t been at her best most of the morning and had requested a remedy from Gaius to help her complaint.
When she’d left Morgana’s chamber she’d seen Merlin stood in the stairway staring out of the window through squinted eyes. She hadn’t expected him to be there when she came back up the stairs.
“Merlin? What are you doing?” She asked following his gaze out of the window and towards the bird. She squinted.
“That pigeon is watching me.”
“The pigeon is watching you?”
“It followed me. Now it won’t leave me alone.”
“Right,” Gwen turned her squinted eyes on him, “Is there anything I can do?” she asked, trying her hardest not to laugh.
“Have you any way to catch it?”
“No,” he smile dropped from her face when she noticed he was deadly serious.
“Then no.”
Gwen went to say something but closed her mouth. She bit her lip and chose her words carefully, Merlin was one very confusing person, “I should get these to Morgana,” she bid Merlin farewell, watching him as she walked away.
1500 hours
On making his deposit of Arthur’s shirts and bed linens to the laundry maids, Merlin ran into Morris, Arthur’s former manservant. He was talking to one of the kitchen maids. He seemed happier now he had escaped the clutches of the Prince.
Still, Arthur wasn’t that bad a master. He could be a lot worse. Though Merlin did wish that Arthur would stop throwing things at him, he treated him marginally well. Even if he could be an arrogant prat a lot of the time. Still, he was getting better with every day at passed.
He left the kitchens intent on going to see what chores Gaius wanted him to complete.
“CAW COOO!” the pigeon came flying towards him at high speed. He ran as it plummeted towards him.
1600 hours
Merlin ducked behind one of the pillars away from the oncoming attack. It wasn't often when Arthur blamed him that it was actually his fault. This time however it couldn't have been his fault more if he had tried.
Why didn’t he just ignore the thing? He could have dealt with the problem back in the forest but he had to bring it back to the castle where he couldn’t just magic it out of the sky without the staff and occupants all seeing.
He ran towards Arthur’s chambers at high speed with the bird now following him inside. He wasn’t going to escape this beast on his own.
“Merlin, there you are!” Arthur was walking down the corridor from his room, he looked annoyed to the point of wanting to send Merlin on a job so huge it would take him long into the night, “Where on earth have you been?” the manservant pushed past him and through his chamber door, “Merlin!”
“Just hurry up!” he slammed the door behind Arthur as he entered.
“What is going on?” He asked Merlin as the servant leant up against the door breathing deeply.
“Evil pigeon.”
“Pigeon?”
1700 hours
There was a soft knock on Arthur’s door, “Arthur?”
“Come in, Guinevere,” he called, though it was distinctly muffled.
She pushed open the door, a food tray in her hand, “Are you okay?” she looked around but couldn’t see him, “Arthur?” he emerged then from beneath the table. She raised her eyebrow and looked at him before she placed the tray down on the table, “I brought you your dinner, your father called a council meeting later and Merlin seems to have disappeared.”
The servant appeared from beneath the table then and smiled at his friend. Gwen frowned and looked between them, “Pigeon again, Merlin?”
“It attacked us…” Arthur replied sheepishly looking to his boots.
“It attacked you? It’s a pigeon… I’m sure you could take it with a swing of your sword.”
“I didn’t have a chance to get it.”
“It alluded you?” Gwen tried to suppress her laughter but couldn’t. Arthur looked at her with raised eyebrows, she bit down on her lip but couldn’t help but laugh, “I’m sorry but you were hiding from a bird. Merlin’s been hiding from it all day.”
“Has it gone?”
“I believe so.”
1800 hours
In the council chambers Arthur sat beside his father with Morgana on his other side as they were addressed by the people of Camelot. Merlin stood with Gaius and Gwen to the side of the room.
“Cawcoo.”
Merlin’s head snapped around to the noise.
“Cawcoo.”
It came from the other side of the hall.
“Cawcoo.”
Came from the other end again.
Gwen looked up at Merlin confused. Arthur was watching him and his odd behaviour too. It was far more interesting to watch than listen to the people before him. He should pay attention to them really; they were going to be his people one day. But Merlin’s torment was too good.
1900 hours
Court proceedings were quite possibly the single dullest thing about being the Crowned Prince of Camelot. Of course the good points far outweighed the bad. He could have anything he wanted. Nearly.
His eyelids were heavy, his head drooped but he caught himself and blinked a few times to waken himself up. He looked over to his servant who was still looking around for the bird he was adamant was on his case. Gwen caught his eye and smiled, “Wake up,” she mouthed at him.
Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose and leant on the arm of his throne.
It wasn’t long before the King called an end to proceedings. The Prince tried not to make his relief known. The people exited the room to make their ways home. It was getting dark and the lower town wasn’t the safest place after dark.
Morgana followed the Prince out of the hall and towards his chambers, “What do you want, Morgana?”
“What’s wrong with you and Merlin?”
“What are you talking about?”
“He’s looking shifty, and you looked amused.”
“He’s being followed by a pigeon.”
2000 hours
Merlin walked through the courtyard, across it towards Gaius’ chambers. He kept his eyes down thinking that maybe, if he didn’t look the bird in the eye it wouldn’t come after him. He couldn’t hear it. He couldn’t see it. Eyes to the floor, he liked to pretend that he hadn’t spent his day cowering from a pigeon.
He felt something dribble onto the arm of his jacket. He frowned and looked at it before he figured out what it was and groaned in disgust. He picked up his pace and clambered into Gaius’ quarters and grabbed the first piece of cloth he came across and wiped it away, “That bird!”
“What have you done now?” Gaius questioned as he sat with his glass bottles, mixing his lotions and medicines for his patients.
“Nothing,” he grumbled as he threw the rag into the bin, they wouldn’t want to use it again.
2100 hours
As part of his final chores before he could retire to his chambers, Merlin had to deliver the clean shirts to Arthur’s chambers. Tomorrow he would change the sheets over. He met Gwen in the halls between the kitchens and Arthur’s chambers. He’d stopped questioning her whereabouts a long time ago; it wasn’t unknown for her to pop by Arthur’s chambers. Merlin wasn’t going to get involved, the less he knew the better.
“Morgana and Arthur have been arguing about your problem for the last hour.”
“It won’t leave me alone.”
“Where is it now?”
“I don’t know, which worries me.”
“Maybe it’s moved on-“
Just as she spoke her words they heard the faithful cry of the two royals. They weren’t argumentative shouts, more of a pained cry. The two servants looked at each other before taking of at a sprint to save them from whatever ailed them.
2200 hours
“Get it out of the window! Open the window!” Arthur squealed. For a moment the two girls paused and looked at him. He cleared his throat, “WINDOW!” They still stood looking at him, “Now!”
The lurched into action, Morgana yanked the window open. Gwen angled the broom she had in her grasp and waved it towards the bird. It squawked at her as she forced it through the wooden frame. Morgana forced the window shut, she leant back against it.
“That thing is the epitome of evil.”
“And Merlin brought it to us, what a gem,” Morgana replied sarcastically looking out over the courtyard where Merlin was stationed.
2300 hours
Merlin stood in the middle of the courtyard staring up at the bird that sat on the balcony. He narrowed his eyes at him. This was far from over.
END NOTE: One more time for good measure: I WIN! Na-na-na-na-na!