Prince Merlin of Tristram (AU)

The Storm

The sun shone through the tall, stained glass window into a small nursery. It cast beautiful hues of red, blue and green into the room and over the inhabitant's face. Inside, a young prince, only three years old, sat on the floor playing with a small wooden dragon that he had been gifted for his birthday. The figurine was rather large for his tiny hands, so he currently held it rather tightly with both hands over his head. Tiny roars escaped the boy's lips as he pretended that it was flying over his head and in turn, over the small citadel that he had carefully constructed with small wooden blocks, though anyone looking at it would see nothing but scattered blocks. The wooden dragon was given to him by his father. When the king learned that his wife was pregnant with their first child, he carved the toy from wood himself, only calling in a local woodworker to add the details that he lacked the skill for himself. The woodworker had done a beautiful job. The toy itself was intricately carved, the wings, body and head brought the figure to life on it's own, without any additional work. But the detail added was elegant. Every single scale could be made out as well as every tooth and every horn. The man had even stained it, adding color that only brought the creature to life further.

He played alone in the room, but the look on his face, accompanied by the giggles of excitement from the boy as he made the dragon fly throughout the wooden village he had created, suggested that he did not mind. Rather, he did not notice. The other children around his age in the palace were the children of knights or servants, not of royalty. They were raised differently from the young prince. The children of knights were given small wooden swords to play with and could be heard chasing each other with them from almost every room in the castle. The goal was to get them familiar with a sword early on, even a wooden one. If the knights thought it odd to give their children wooden weapons, none of them said anything. The majority of the parents liked to watch their children run and play with the others anyways. Giving them something to play with only helped spark their imagination and made play time much more entertaining for the parents and caretakers.

Plus for the parents of magical children, they felt safer knowing their children were playing with sticks and wearing themselves out. Many of them had learned the hard way that having a restless and magical child could have unexpected consequences. Like many of the people who called Tristram home, Merlin, the young prince, had been born with magic. The difference between him and the other people born with magic though, was that Merlin had been performing acts of magic since before he could speak. Toys would float over the young boy's crib as a baby and more often than not, they were launched at the king and queen, which had always caused a rather large and gleeful laugh to erupt from the child. To baby Merlin, throwing toys was fun. He could never see the things that he had thrown or who they had hit and how hard. When no one was hit with random flying toys, it was amusing, but it was once he had started throwing larger, heavier objects, that Balinor realized just how powerful, and uncontrollable his magic was. Thus, the decision was made to keep Merlin's interactions with the other children limited until his powers could be better controlled.

When playing, the young prince was often attended by his mother, Queen Hunith, or his caretaker when his mother was busy. On this particular day, he had been left unattended for no more than a few minutes while his mother's presence had been requested in the throne room. It was not unusual for the boy to be left unattended, even at his age, as both the king and queen, and his caretakers knew that when one person left, another would be by shortly to take over. Knowing such a thing, the queen was confident that her son would be safe for the moment that he would be alone.

Queen Hunith reached the throne room in no time at all. The guards greeted her warmly and swung the doors open wide for her. She smiled and thanked them politely as she entered the room. The sound of the doors closing behind her could be heard throughout the room, and every step she took seemed to bounce off the walls around them, alerting anyone who was not previously aware of her presence, that she had arrived. The queen walked closer to her husband, a sweet smile plastered on her face as they made eye contact. His expression matched hers quickly as they had not seen much of each other so far that day, with both of them being called to separate duties throughout the castle. The two of them held their hands out to each other warmly causing the council members of the room to smile at the couple as they embraced. It was not common for kings and queens to show affection towards each other in front of their court, but Balinor and Hunith did not often care about such formalities.