Hello, all! I've been a Merlin fan ever since the show first came out, and I must say I was so sad when it ended. I've been wanting to write a Merlin fanfiction for a while now, but I only recently came up with this idea. It's still a work in progress – I am not even completely sure where I want the story to go at this point, but I will do my best to make it interesting. I also may decide to turn this into a series. I will try to update every week or two, probably on the weekends, but apologies in advance for delays between chapters. Reviews and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated, and thank you so much for reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own any Merlin characters, settings, quotes, plots, etc.
Chapter 1
"Merlin!" Prince Arthur's shout jolted Merlin rudely from his sleep. Ugh he thought as he heard the door to Gaius' chambers open and Arthur's boots clunk toward his room. A moment later, the door opened, and Arthur was standing by his bed holding a cup of water above Merlin's head.
"No don't!" Merlin exclaimed, putting his hands up to shield his face.
"Then get up and be on time," Arthur said, exasperated.
"All right, all right," Merlin grumbled, rolling out of bed, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
"I need my laundry done, some shirts mended, my armor polished, my sword sharpened, my chambers cleaned, and some papers copied for the meeting this afternoon," Arthur instructed, "And, my stables need mucking out."
"Great," Merlin said shortly, pressing his lips together to mask his frustration.
"Good," Arthur nodded, paused for another moment, then left.
Merlin yawned as he splashed cold water on his face and got dressed. He said good morning to Gaius as he left, not having time to eat breakfast.
Merlin spent the better part of the morning cleaning Arthur's chambers – despite being the heir to the throne, Arthur wasn't a particularly neat person, and Merlin found what he suspected was evidence of a rat infestation. He made a mental note to set some traps as he gathered up Arthur's laundry and walked down to the launderers. Just as he rounded a corner, Merlin crashed into someone. The person was carrying a tall stack of books, and when they collided, both the books and the clothes Merlin was carrying went flying.
"Oh no, I'm so sorry!" the person exclaimed, flustered.
"No worries, it wasn't your fault," Merlin replied, smiling to reassure the person, who was a girl. She and Merlin gathered up the books and clothes, then they both stood up. Merlin straightened and looked at the girl.
She was short, but clearly not a little girl. Merlin wasn't sure just how old, though, he'd never been very good at guessing ages. She had thick, black hair in a braid down her back, a round face, dark brown eyes, and she was dressed plainly in a simple gray tunic.
"What's your name?" Merlin asked.
"I – I'm Lia," the girl said, "I'm a servant for Lady Morgana."
"It's nice to meet you, Lia. I'm Merlin, I'm Prince Arthur's servant," Merlin replied. The two stood there for a moment, then Lia ducked her head.
"I need to get back to work," she said.
"Of course. I. . . maybe I'll see you around," Merlin smiled again. Lia gave a brief smile in return, then hurried past Merlin and continued down the hall.
Merlin continued on his way, his mood somehow lifted from the encounter. When he arrived at the laundry room, he saw Guinevere working one of the barrels. Gwen smiled as Merlin dumped Arthur's clothes into a barrel next to her.
"Laundry run?" Gwen asked.
"Yep," Merlin replied brightly, then on a whim, asked, "Gwen, do you know a girl named Lia? She says she's one of Morgana's servants."
"Oh yes, I do. She's new, only been here a few days. She's really nice," Gwen replied. She paused, then looked slyly at Merlin, "Is that why you're in such a good mood?"
Merlin blushed slightly, "No, I just met her today. I ran into her – literally."
Gwen just smiled, "All right then, though I must say I've never see you so happy to be doing laundry," but didn't press the matter.
Merlin's good spirits didn't last long, though, and by the time he was done mucking out the stables at the end of the day, his mood was borderline foul. Merlin tried to brush bits of dung off his clothes as he headed back into the palace. Just as he was entering from the courtyard, he happened to glance up at a window, and what he saw made him trip and nearly fall over. Sitting at the window was the girl, Lia, and just for a moment, Merlin saw a glint of golden in her eyes as she turned away from the window. Regaining his balance, Merlin looked back up at the window, but Lia had disappeared inside. Rattled, Merlin forgot about the fact that he was covered in horse dung as he hurried back to Gaius' chambers.
"Ah, hello Merlin. Another hard day at work I see," Gaius looked up from a book and upon seeing – or rather smelling – Merlin's clothes, wrinkled his nose, "Hmmm, you'd best get cleaned up."
"Gaius, you won't believe this, but there's another one living in Camelot, in the palace!" Merlin told him excitedly.
"Slow down, another what?"
"A girl like me. With magic!" Merlin exclaimed. But Gaius didn't appear to share his enthusiasm.
"What, what is it?" Merlin asked.
Gaius frowned, "It's not necessarily a good thing, Merlin. This girl, she might not feel the same way you do about the Pendragons. Did it occur to you that she might be here with ill intentions? The last time you thought a serving girl was cute, she turned out to be Nimueh! How did you find out about her anyway?"
"I don't. . . think she's cute," Merlin blushed slightly, but shook it off, "And I don't think she's like that. I ran into her this morning, she's a new maid for Morgana, and Gwen thinks she's a nice girl. When I came back from the stables, I saw her from a window, and her eyes flashed golden," Merlin replied.
Gaius sighed, "Well, I suppose there's not much to do about it, anyway. We can't very well tell Morgana her new serving girl is a witch, or priestess, or whatever she is. No, best thing to do is wait and see."
Merlin relinquished, "All right. But I'm telling you, she's like me – she doesn't want to hurt anyone."
