Pacing back and forth, Gwaine chewed at his thumb.
"You should stop worrying, Merlin knows these forests better than anyone, he'll be fine," Sukie chuckled though they could all tell that she was just as nervous.
"But what if something went wrong." Gwaine was not calming down.
"Nothing will have, Yvain was running after him," Dala announced with a sense of pride. "My brother may be an idiot but he is very fast." Dala glanced over, smiling as he watched Kiki talk to the kids.
Arthur growled, suppressing the urge to storm away. "How can you be worried about him when he's been lying to us?! When he let the dragon that destroyed Camelot live."
"To be fair, you let the dragon live as well," Percival interjected with a smirk. "Besides, Merlin is Merlin. It's hard to see him as a threat."
Gwaine nodded, conveniently forgetting the high swordman ship that I had demonstrated before we left.
Walking back into the camp, I looked around for the knights. Stopping their conversation.
“And then Athe here kicks in the door, screaming at the barman. ‘Where’s the man who dared come near Kiki!’” Doing a rather poor inspiration of Athe, Kiki buzzed around, grinning ear to ear to the children. “She raised her fist high, pointing the sword at the bartender and said, ‘Say your last prayers for he will not hear you!’ Bang! The ceiling collapses and Luo charges in. The bar is empty in a minute! All the bad guys were defeated and we stood victorious once more!” Kiki held her hand up in the air proudly, receiving an excited clap from her audience.
“‘We’? I don’t remember you doing anything that night, Kiki,” I announced with a smirk, making her pause.
“I was there for moral support!”
Shaking our heads, Yvain and I walked past her, joining Arthur in the back. “Evening clot pole.”
“Mer-lin!” Arthur faltered, pausing halfway through as he changed dramatically from happy to see me to pissed off. “Where did you run off to?!”
“Some cave.”
“A beautiful cave,” Yvain added, collapsing by his brother. “Have you killed anyone yet?” Arthur glared at him as he lifted up his hands. “Just asking. You might not realise but we have funerals too and that takes labour and time that we need to plan for.”
Snickering, the runners rolled their eyes, fully used to the boy’s behaviour. Kiki fell beside Me. “Was it like the cave we found after six castles?”
“You really like taking credit for things you didn’t do, don’t you,” I joked, making Kiki jump up in offence.
“How dare you?! I found the hole fair and square!” She puffed out her chest proudly, holding up her head highly.
“You fell in a hole.”
“And the hole was spectacular.” Kiki crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against the logs.
“Merlin,” Arthur paused, glancing around the camp, “you didn’t answer my question.”
Sighing, I nodded. I closed my eyes, lifting my head to look up at the sky. Yvain reached out, taking my hand as he tried to calm me down. “Yes, the dragon is still alive. He won’t attack Camelot, I ordered him not to and he cannot disobey me.”
Arthur sighed heavily, a large weight being lifted from his shoulders. “Are you sure it can’t attack us?”
“Yeah, certain. Well, I’m not sure what will happen if I die but as long as I live, he will not attack you.”
Narrowing his eyes, Luo turned to me. “Can you die?”
Gulping, I shrugged, speaking into his mind. “I don’t know and don’t plan on finding out.”
“Wait, why would… it ask that,” Percival questioned, glancing between the dragon and me.
“Firstly, ‘it’ is a he and secondly, dragons are notably hard to kill. Dragon Lords have a similar reputation as we share some qualities with our kin.” I turned away from the knight, suppressing the look of confusion as I completely made up something about my own kind.
Osanne snickered, knowing it was complete bull shirt. “Plus, Luo basically views Merls as a god and could never imagine him dying.” Osanne laughed at how embarrassed that made both Merlin and Lou.
“Leave them alone, Osa,” Dala ordered, smirking slightly. “Lou’s opinion of Merlie is nothing compared to Yvain’s.”
Yvain jolted, blushing. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Sure,” Sukie grinned, leaning on her hands, “you haven’t been obsessing over Merlin since you two met. What is it that you used to say? ‘He was an amazing, incredible, indescribable angle. A single look from those eyes and you know you are worth nothing in comparison. Unbelievable-’” having enough of Sukie’s recital, Yvain tackled her, covering her mouth. “You can’t stop the truth, Yvain!”
“Shut up! Are you licking my hands?! Disgusting!” Whipping his hand on Sukie’s shoulder, Yvain scowled.
Gasping, dramatically, Sukie placed an ‘offended’ hand on her chest. “I am not disgusting. I am refined dirt.”
Laughing, the group settled down. The knights stayed at the side, an uncomfortable feeling in their stomachs. They really didn’t fit in and they couldn’t find a time to speak.
Gwaine grinned as he spoke easily, falling into a relaxed conversation with Osanne. He was the only one to achieve basic conversation that night.
Nestling into the tents, the knights began drifting off to sleep. Yvain cautiously snuck to my side, lying beside me. “We’ll be gone before you wake up. Cirus is going to make sure of it.”
Nodding, I knew that.
“Are you going to be okay?” Yvain stroked my shoulder, bringing his hand to cup my cheek.
“I’ll be fine.” Leaning into the touch, I gently closed my eyes, sighing softly. “I’ll miss you.”
“We’ll always find each other, Merlie. For now, complete your destiny.”
That was the last I heard. By morning, everything was gone and we were sleeping on the forest floor. It was for the better.
Smiling, I spotted something in the dirt, a small necklace in the dirt. A tiny dragon charm was attached to the end, the words ‘I’ll be with you, forever. M’ were engraved in the back, making me smile. Putting it around my neck, I waited for the others to wake so we could make our way back to Camelot.
“Merlin! Merlin!” Appearing out of nowhere, Athe grabbed me. “Morgana! She’s got the others!”
YOU ARE READING
Burning Change
Fanfiction"When you live with a fire chasing after you, you only let it burn you once before you learn to run. That is who they are, Arthur. They are people who learnt to run, and somewhere along the lines, they forgot what is was like to not be running." Dur...
