The Golden Effect

gwaine

Ireally could not wait another day to update! I hope you enjoy it - this will be split up into three parts, because I did length it out a bit :D

Is anyone else experiencing technical difficulties with their Hotmails? Because thats whats been happening to me...

It was her least favourite leisure activity of the month. The Hunt. Merlynn would never, no matter how Arthur tried to convince her how 'fun' it was, enjoy the experiences of the hunt. Killing helpless animals were not her forte.

"They're animals, Merlynn," Arthur tried to explain with a small scoff and a roll to his eyes. "It's nature taking it's course. A higher food chain. Besides, they'd happily kill you. In fact, some have the ability to."

Merlynn gave him a look and pointed to the rabbits which limply hung from the side of her saddle. "I'm sure it would tear my face off and eat the flesh of my eyes, Arthur." He sighed, defeated. "Swords and crossbows aren't apart of nature. It's apart of a man-made, forceful acknowledgement of power."

"Men need to show their dominance," he stated condescendingly.

"Please," she scoffed.

The argument ended there; Merlynn just could not be bothered to continue on with the silly fight about the welfare and dominating force of man vs. wild. So, she just kept silent and didn't say a word while Arthur shot off small rabbits and a large doe. It now set on the back of Arthur's horse, for she would not touch it. It was only rational for her to not have the urge to touch the dead mammal. Rabbits, she was fine with, but the larger animals saddened her when she was forced to watch as the light dimmed from their eyes.

Arthur had promptly called her a 'petticoat' and set the deer onto the back of Lamri. Merlynn was surprised that the horses didn't protest from the dead animals; she was sure that all animals at least had some sort of connection with each other.

After Arthur had called in the hunt for the day, he now paused at a hill, which overlooked a small, albeit fruitful village. The prince beamed as he caught sight of the tavern, which seemed to stand out amongst the rest of the village, at least to him. He turned to Merlynn. "You know what you need after a hard day's hunt?" Arthur began conversationally.

Merlynn groaned. "A warm bath and sleep? Amen."

"No. A nice cold tankard of mead," he said, and began to nudge his horse down toward the tavern.

"Mead," she muttered to herself. "Of course. Why not?"

They dismounted in front of the small village, where the wooden beams were set up to park the horses for the time-being. Merlynn tied Firefoot to the log, and motioned for Arthur to do the same. She was dubious about the whole 'tavern' experience; she truly had more expertise in that of a tavern than he did, and she was a couple of years younger. Merlynn was amused by that, but worried that Arthur would end up overexaggerating inside the bar. She frowned.

Merlynn was sure that Arthur would cause a ruckus – he had a superiority complex that the tavern folk would not accept. "No better place to measure the mood of your people than the local tavern," he sighed happily, ignoring Merlynn's hesitance.

"Arthur, you know this is one of those moments." He just gave her a look. "You know, the moment when something's a bad idea, but you ignore my foreboding and do it anyway, then I or another have to save your idiot behind and I get no appreciation. It's an endless spiral…do we really have to begin the cycle again?"

"Yes, Merlynn," he replied with a condescending note to his voice. "But I'm glad you're learning. Now, remember, in here you're not my servant, I'm just a simple peasant like everyone else."