𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖐 𝕿𝖜𝖔
𝔖𝔲𝔪𝔪𝔞𝔯𝔶: From trolls to dragons to foreign princesses, Astraea Aphelion grows stronger as she
continues to navigate medieval Britain using her wit and heart, standing unshaken beside Merlin and Arthur as they face every threa...
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📍 Camelot
⏳ March, 505 AD
"We should get a dog," I told Merlin, who laid on a spare cot in my bedroom. "A dog running around the castle? Sounds like a perfect recipe for disaster," he replied in a sleepy mumble. "Exactly, which means fun," I countered with a giggle. "Shut up and go to sleep," he moaned, turning his back to me as he pulled the Captain America blanket I'd lent him over his head. "You're the one who wanted to have a sleep-over!" I protested as I sat up on my bed, narrowing my eyes down at him. "I asked if I could sleep here because the window in my room is broken and I was cold," my best friend retorted, his voice muffled by the blanket. I bit my lip. "Oh, yeah, sorry 'bout that," I said with a chuckle as I thought back to my latest great idea: playing 'baseball' (with a rock, 'cause I didn't have an actual ball) inside of Merlin's room while he had been cleaning it – which ended in a broken window.
Gaius made me pay for it.
It didn't take long for Merlin to fall asleep after I reluctantly shut up, and now the only sound in the room was the echo of his soft snores. I, on the other hand, struggled to follow suit. My body sometimes liked to save up some energy during the day and then unleash it at night, which resulted in a racing mind that could only be stopped with a blow to the head. Or an accidental bout of hypothermia, as I'd found out not long ago.
How dreadful that had been. I'd thought that nothing could beat the Christmas incident of '18, when I'd fallen off the roof while helping Gustab put on the lights and ended up with a sprained ankle, unable to ride until February. That had been nothing compared to waking up in the hospital after almost turning into a popsicle to find that my family was away on holiday.
Is 'family' right, or is it simply 'the people who raised me'? No, that's unfair. They did their best in a complicated situation.
Thankfully, I wasn't left alone with my thoughts for much longer as I started hearing commotion outside of my room, making me wonder if something was wrong. I reached out to check the time on my phone, finding that it was 3:04. Definitely not the time to be throwing a party in the corridor. So I decided to slip out quietly, not wanting to wake Merlin, and followed the sound.
"What's goin' on?!" I asked aloud, my Texan accent more prominent than usual given my tired state. "There is a fire in the Lady Morgana's chambers!" a frantic Harold replied as he passed by me on his way to the room. My eyes widened as I imagined the worst scenarios possible and I hurried after him, soon coming across Uther, Arthur and Morgana.
"Morg, you're okay!" I exclaimed in relief, giving her a brief hug. "Yeah," she whispered. Her face was pale and a frown clouded her features. I gave her a sympathetic look before turning to the two males.
"What the hell happened?" I asked as my eyes darted between the two. "Astraea, mind your language," Uther scolded, narrowing his eyes at me. "Sorry, Cap," I replied, giving a small smile in an attempt to appease him. "We do not know for sure. We will investigate in the morning. For now, we should all go back to sleep," the King answered my question briefly, his tone monotonous, before he turned around and walked away. "That's the spirit of adventure," I quipped with a snort as I watched him enter his room, earning a small grin from Morgana and a chuckle from Arthur.
