The Once and Future King? [A Modern Merlin FanFic]

Chapter 3: the Order of Merlin

Chapter 3: The Order of Merlin

Merlin felt obliged to tell Arthur about Camelot's fall; but if he had to tell it, he had to sit down first. This was going to hurt him emotionally.

"At the final battle of Camelot the Great Dragon told me that you were the once and future king, meaning you weren't supposed to rule the Camelot you know, which now isn't possible. He said you would rise again to save the kingdom and create the-meant-to-be Albion. And after you had died we waited and waited, but the time for your arise never came.

“Anyhow the Time of Camelot was a success and for 3 generations the Pendragon line ruled with peace, but the evilness showed up in shapes of Romans from the south. We were completely outnumbered; the citadel crushed, we then tried to reason with them, but it didn't do much. The Romans kept us under observation for 20 years after, until they died of plague. I managed to escape with some of the Pendragons before the plague got to us. I returned to Camelot many years after in hope of see still standing, but time had eaten it." Merlin made a short pause before continuing, "Today it's nothing more than a ruin on a hill."

There were silence between the king and his friend. 

"What of Gwen?" Arthur asked with a lump in his throat.

Merlin attached a little smile on his face, not everything was bad news for Arthur. 

"After you -you know- died, Gwen was distraught, Gaius told me she was expecting."

"Expecting what?" Arthur asked while looking like a big question mark. 

Merlin didn’t think he was the one to tell him "Are you telling me you didn’t know? Yours and Gwen's child" 

 “My what?!" And Arthur jumped up from the chair, which made him bang his hands into the lamp standing next to him.

"It later showed to be a baby boy. And a few minutes later, a baby girl. Gwen told me she wanted to wait for your return and tell it herself. But when you didn't come back..." He did not know how to end that sentence and started a new, "But you'll be pleased to hear that the Pendragon line is still alive."

"But how can I be pleased Merlin? All my friends are dead which I really can't understand, I’m a father without being a father and more like 100 times great grandfather and Gwen isn't here..." Now Merlin started to wonder if it even was a good idea to introduce him to the neighbour Jenny, whom actually was Arthur's 100 times great granddaughter, because of the resemblance between her and Gwen Arthur might get a heart attack after the story of Camelot’s downfall.

"I mean it Merlin seriously, without Gwen, my knights, Gaius or Camelot I'm no one. I’m nothing."

"You got me," Merlin said trying to cheer him up.

"I'm no king either, as you say, Camelot fell so what is there left for me to rule over?"

Merlin hadn't actually thought that much of what Arthur just had said, he'd had been far too busy with watching over the Pendragon line. Right till the year 1000 the Pendragon family were hunted and fled to France, went into hiding by taking the name of Arthur's mother’s birth name, De Bois. Fifty years later the De Bois' moved back to England to regain their rightful place in society except later a boy, named Robin was born and the line almost ran down the drain. Though people didn't know him by his birth name, but by Robin Hood (the De Bois' knew their rightful place but didn't give their true Pendragon name to anyone in fear of being persecuted again, they therefore kept the name De Bois which their friends translated to English, meaning "of the Wood" which another jailer clearly misinterpreted as "Hood" instead of "Wood" but that's another story. If Robin's wife, Marian of Knighton, hadn't hurried and got their child to Robin's nearest aunt before she died the line would have stopped there. Slowly the line rose up to its actual place in society taking its seat in Gloucester as Earl William. But they never ever reached neither the throne nor the status, as the Pendragon line had in Camelot.

Somewhat it did surprise Emrys when a cloak dressed minister during the middle-ages, confronted him and told him about the organisation with the goal of promoting laws to protect and benefit Muggles, a word he hadn’t heard before and was really surprised to hear it was non-magic people, which later turned out to be an order they named Order of Merlin. Flattered he was when he found out the order was made in his honour, because of what he did to Arthur’s family (a thing that clearly shouldn’t be mention to Arthur was a part of the Wood-family suddenly got a letter on their 11th birth day, and Oliver Wood were off to see Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in England).

But the point is, every generation the Pendragon family was being looked after by Merlin in shape of Emrys. All this he ended up telling Arthur, except the little detail that his Gwen's look-a-like was living next door.

“How can you possibly create an order?”

 “Well, possibly I can. And didn’t you listen to all I just said?”

“Yes, but I just… You create an order?” Arthur looked surprised as only Arthur can look surprised.