Merlyn - Arthur x Female Merlin [1]

Chapter Sixty-Five: The First Test

Pain, that was all she felt. It radiated across her body. It always ran across her body.

Looking to the ground there lay the purest creature ever, a coat the colour of snow, a horn glistening bright white in the light ... a pool of bright red blood standing out starkly against the white.

A unicorn's cry of pain ... mixed with her own. She didn't understand what was happening but it hurt, hurt a lot.

.........

Merlyn gasped as she shot up in bed, her heart racing, sweat pouring all over her. This had become a nightly occurrence for Merlyn. Ever since the unicorn had died, Merlyn had been reliving the moment over and over again. It was emotionally tiring and Merlyn felt weary. Sighing, Merlyn wiped at her forehead struggling to regain her breath. When would this torture end?

Eventually, Merlyn had gotten herself up and ready for the day ahead though she could see the large bags beneath her eyes and knew people would comment on them. With a flash of her eyes, the purple bags disappeared and for all intents and purposes she looked well rested.

As usual the girl made her way into the main part of the chambers where Gaius had breakfast already set out. However, the pair of them were down to their last scraps of food, the breakfast was meagre to say the least. Though it did look like Gaius had found some water from somewhere to make some tea. Merlyn couldn't fathom where he had found water.

"Where did you get the water to make the tea?" Merlyn asked as she picked up the small cup. She could already start to feel the affect the lack of water was having on her system and it was not pleasant.

"Fortunately, for both of us, you forgot to empty your bath yesterday" Gaius said. Merlyn cringed at the thought of drinking her bath water, that water had all the grime she had had on her skin floating in it. Noticing Merlyn's face Gaius chuckled "It's not so bad. I boiled the water and strained it multiple times it's just ... a little soapy." Merlyn sighed before she took a drink of the tea. The fact was that there was barely any water anywhere; you couldn't be fussy where you got it from really.

"So do you believe what this Anhora said about the curse to be true?" Gaius asked as they tucked into their small (very small) bowls of porridge.

"Well, you said there's a legend that misfortune comes to anyone who slays a unicorn. It makes sense" Merlyn argued, reflecting the same points she had already said the day before. Merlyn did truly believe Anhora and she saw no reason not to trust the old man.

"What does Arthur think about the curse?" Gaius asked. Merlyn just scoffed.

"He doesn't believe it's his fault" she replied with a hint of frustration in her voice. "He's convinced Anhora's responsible for it. Because heaven forbid he is." Why did she like him again?

"If you do not wish to drink bath water, you better make sure Arthur sees sense" Gaius urged. Merlyn knew he was speaking the truth. But there was one major issue with that plan ... Arthur.

"Easier said than done."

~8~

Arthur was not in a good mood that morning. Anhora had blamed him the night before, claiming he had cursed his kingdom to which Merlyn obviously agreed with even if she hadn't said it out loud. Then there was also the fact that Arthur had no idea how he was going to catch a sorcerer who could teleport in the blink of an eye. So Arthur had taken to denying everything he knew in his heart of hearts to be true.

Whilst Merlyn was in his chambers cleaning up after him, Arthur was sat upon his made up bed slipping his shoes onto his feet when suddenly he noticed that he could see his foot through his shoe. Ripping his boot off Arthur stuffed his hand into his shoe and quickly found the cause. Arthur growled in frustration as he poked his finger through the large hole that was in his boot.