Merlin: the rise of Camelot

Chapter one

Author's note: I do not own any of the characters in this story. They belong to the people who wrote BBC Merlin. I own only two or three Original characters in this story.

Author's note 2: In this version of the story, Lancelot is still alive. I hated how he had to die before he was a knight very long. In this version, he didn't die during the season four premier. He just disappeared for a few months Anyway, enjoy the story.

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[Merlin POV]

"Rise and shine, sire!" I said, opening the blinds to King Arthur's chamber.

"MERLIN! Let me sleep for five more minutes, please!" Arthur grumped. He rolled over and blocked out the sunlight with his pillow.

"You have to get up, Arthur. You have important guests coming today. You can't expect Gwen to do all the work of greeting them." I said to him.

Arthur sat up. "You're right. I have guests to greet. Merlin."

"What?"

"Get out." Arthur said, taking me by the arm and throwing me out of his chamber. He slammed the door after me. I landed on my face on the cold hard floor. I looked up when I heard someone laughing at me.

"Is he up yet?" Gwaine asked. He stood right outside Arthur's door chewing on an apple, casually standing there in uniform.

"Nope. Well, sort of. He's awake at least. He's not particularly in the best of moods at the moment." I said to him, stating the obvious.

"Of course. Never mind the important guests coming today. He told me to stay away from the tavern today just for his guests. Something about having sober knights. I didn't listen to all his words." Gwaine said, shrugging.

I shook my head, grinning. Gwaine was the one knight who didn't listen to Arthur and could get away with it. "I better go get Arthur's breakfast. He won't be too happy if I don't have it ready for him." I said, taking off in the direction of the kitchen.

"Don't even think of making off with one of my pies, young man." The cook snapped as I took Arthur's breakfast.

I grinned innocently. "Who, me?" I asked as she turned back to her work of making food. I heard a clattering overhead and looked up to see Percival and Leon lowering something through the vent they sat in. Percival held a finger to his lips and pointed down to an apple pie.

I nodded and grabbed the rope they had lowered, wrapping it around the pie. The two knights took the pie and ran as soon as they had it.

I took the tray of Arthur's breakfast and went on my way back to Arthur's room.

"Merlin, what took you so long? I'm starving." Arthur said angrily. He had buttoned his red tunic by himself. However, he had buttoned it rather crookedly.

I set the food on his desk. Arthur ate it all pretty quickly.

"Arthur, you buttoned your tunic all wrong." I said to him. Shrugging, Arthur set to work re-buttoning his tunic properly.

Princess Mithian and her family soon arrived at the palace.

"Welcome to Camelot." Arthur said to them. Gwen stood beside him, Gwaine, Leon, Lancelot, Elyan and Percival standing behind them both. I stood next to Lancelot.

"You haven't used your magic on him, have you?" Lancelot whispered. "You know, to make him more royal?"

I shook my head. "No. He does this all by himself." I said to him. Of all the knights, he was the only one who knew about my magic. He'd disappeared a few months before Arthur became king. Then Leon and Gwaine found him one day when they were on patrol to search for Morgana. It was rather suspicious, but Gaius had done several tests and there was no necromancy involved or anything at all involving magic. When we'd asked him about what had happened during that time, he shook his head, not wanting to talk about it.

"Remarkable. Never thought he'd be such a great king." Lancelot said. He stopped talking when he saw one of Mithian's serving girls. She was a lovely thing, like something from the tales I had heard growing up in Ealdor. She had red hair and blue eyes. I hadn't taken Lancelot for the red-head type. Not that she wasn't pretty.

"Merlin, where's my sword?" Arthur demanded. He threw all his clothes out of his wardrobe in an attempt to find it.

I reached under the bed and grabbed his sword. "I dunno. Probably somewhere around here?" I said sarcastically. 

Arthur hurriedly strapped on the sword. "Now, clean all this up." He said to me.

"Clotpole." I muttered under my breath setting about determining which of his clothes were clean and which were not. I decided to throw all of them into the laundry, as soon as Arthur left the room to go to the feast prepared for Mithian and the rest of her party.

 I knew I was going to be late to the feast and I didn't care. I really, really did not want to go to the feast. At the same time, I really, really didn't want to be cleaning up after Arthur. Couldn't I get a day off once in awhile?