Okay, lovelies, this is an experiment in AU. Teen Wolf characters in BBC's Merlin universe. It's gonna be great. Maybe.
Some warnings: child abuse active IN THIS CHAPTER ALONE, off-screen suicide IN THIS CHAPTER alone. If this changes, I'll warn you at the beginning of the chapter. Also, suspicious things of a magical nature.
Feedback is our friend! Feed the writer before she starves! I'll love you forever if you do!
**8**
She died of a wasting disease.
It was sudden, except for how it wasn't. She'd started to forget things. Small things, at first, things like where she'd stored the grain or whether she'd mended her son's tunic. It had been bothersome, but Claudia was never the type to burden others with her private concerns. As far as anyone knew, the young mother was only stressed about the upcoming winter months.
Her son played with his only friend, unconcerned.
He was young, and so naturally oblivious to many of the terrible things in the world, so he only took notice when his mother shouted at him for the first time. Claudia was known to be a gentle soul, and had never raised her voice in such a manner at anyone undeserving.
He had blinked up at her, eyes wide and teary, his toy horse forgotten at his feet. Claudia's sudden burst of anger dissolved as soon as she'd closed her mouth.
"'M not a horrible child," he sniffed. One small hand came up to wipe at his cheek. Claudia felt horrible.
"No, darling," she breathed, kneeling to scoop him up into a hug. His arms wrapped around her neck tightly. "Of course not. I'm sorry."
"S'ok," her son mumbled, burying his face into her blouse. "'Slong as you don't say it again."
"Of course not," she promised, shaken. She didn't know what had come over her. "Never again."
At the turn of the season, some weeks after Claudia had started to worry, someone knocked on Melissa's door. She was slightly surprised by this, as everyone knew she had an open door policy for those who needed her. Confused, Melissa instructed her young son, Scott, to stay at the table and finish his evening meal while she answered the door.
The knock came a second time before she got there. It was hurried, and quiet, as though the fist that caused the sound was small, or not much force was put behind the blow. Melissa found herself slightly concerned, and opened the door without any hesitation.
"Saker?" She recognized her son's playmate, Claudia's child from a few houses over. He was visibly upset, scrubbing at the tears on his cheeks and hiccuping every few seconds. Melissa had never seen him so upset over anything, even when Scott had pushed him into a mud puddle and ruined his favourite red tunic. Concerned, she crouched down to get his attention. "What's wrong?"
"It's mum," he cried, reaching for her with one hand. The other he kept pressed to his face. "There's something wrong with mum."
"Oh," Melissa hummed, her heart aching for the distressed child. She drew him into a quick hug, slightly surprised when he fell wholeheartedly into it with a wail. "What happened, dear? Why are you so sad?"
Saker had Melissa's sleeves bunched up in his hands, face mashed into her shoulder. He was still crying hard. "Mum said - she said I'm a monster but I'm not, I'm not a monster, she told me I wasn't and then she h-" he hiccuped, and dissolved into another bout of hysterics. She hummed soothingly and patted his back. There was much to consider here, she thought. On one hand, she'd never seen Saker so distressed about anything; on the other, Claudia had nothing but kind words and a giving heart for everyone, especially her son. Unless her private home life was entirely different from the show of love and devotion mother and child presented…
Melissa thought of Scott, and could hardly imagine such a thing to be true.
"Why don't you come inside," she said, rather than giving voice to her progressively darker thoughts. "Come on, up you get - oof." It took some effort to hoist him up and get to her feet. She stepped backwards into the house and kicked the door shut. "You're getting big, Saker!"
"I don' feel very big," he mumbled, pulling away from her shoulder and releasing her sleeve long enough to rub at his face again. It only smeared the tears and snot around more. Melissa tutted and pulled a cloth out of her pocket to clean his face with. "Thank you."
"You're very welcome," Melissa said softly, trying very hard to make it look like he didn't just break her heart. She set him down and pushed him lightly towards the table. Scott, who had clearly been listening, waved cheerily with his spoon. A bit of stew spattered on the floor around him. She would've been upset about it, but Saker apparently needed it: he gave a strangled giggle, started to smile, and waved back tentatively. Good.
"Sit with Scott, here," she directed, ushering Claudia's son to the other chair. Her own meal was set there, and she welcomed him to it. Her appetite was on hold until she could go to Claudia's and talk it over with her friend. They hadn't seen each other in days. "There, have a seat and eat, okay? I'm going to go out for a visit - don't touch the candles, I'm looking at you, Scott - and I'll be right back. Alright?"
"Yes, mum," Scott said cheerfully. Saker agreed with a slightly wider smile. She kept a playful eye on them until she'd stepped over the threshold and left the house.
It was dark outside. Their village was small, too small to have earned its own name, with perhaps twenty homes packed closely together at the edge of the forest that travelled the border between the kingdom they resided in and another. None of the village's residents were particularly skilled carpenters, and the village was actually rather old despite its small size and lack of growth, so the thatch and wood houses were in a state of general disrepair. It lent strange shapes to the outskirts of the poorly lit path that played at being the only main road. Melissa traveled this path quickly and with purpose, refusing to so much as glance into the shadows that seemed to move if one looked too close. She was not a particularly superstitious woman, but the village had yet to grow for a reason, and that reason felt a lot like the magic and mystery which oozed from the forest and fogged up the fields. There was a reason she never let Scott out past sundown.
The same reason Claudia had never let Saker go out that late, as well.
Claudia's windows were dark, and the front door had been knocked off its hinges. It was very quiet here. If ever Melissa had seen a place she did not want to enter, it was this home at this moment. Not even the wind seemed to move, lending the building a cold, airless feeling. It was nothing short of uninviting. She steeled herself, righted the door, and stepped inside.
The inside was as silent as out, and just as dark, if not darker. Melissa reached out to the table most residents of this village kept by the door for a lantern. Her hands brushed several objects that felt unfamiliar before settling on a candle, since she couldn't seem to find the lantern. Dragging the candle and its holder closer, she dug around her pocket for the pouch of quartz and steel and proceeded to struggle to light it in the dark. Eventually it took, and Melissa, now thoroughly unnerved by the complete silence, lifted it high enough to spot another candle. She used the first to light the second, choosing to leave it at the side table while she took the other further into the house.
"Claudia?" she called, slightly more confident now that she had a light with which to see things coming. The light cast away some of the shadows, catching on the edge of a table, the cold mantle, a flash of reflected light in the corner. Upon further investigation, she realized she'd just found the shattered remains of the lantern she'd been searching for previously. It had been made of glass and cold iron, and now lay twisted and irreparable on the dirt floor.
"Claudia?" she tried again, moving away from the broken lantern. She took a moment to explore the dark fireplace before stepping, more carefully now, further into the house. "Are you here?"
Then she heard it: a quiet shuffling and even quieter sniff, somewhere in the darkness before her. Armed with only a candle, Melissa was starting to wonder if she needed to find a proper fighter in case the worst had happened. "Claud?"
The candlelight finally brushed over something in the darkness. Something that moved. A louder sniffle. Melissa tensed, stepping carefully. A piece of glass crunched under her boot.
"Who's there?" she demanded, sounding much braver than she felt. She thrust the candle out to arm's length, rather than keeping it close to her body as she had been, in an attempt to get whatever was moving in the darkness into the little ring of light it afforded.
Unfortunately, she got what she'd wanted.
Claudia had never looked so terrible. Her face was thin and clammy, dark shadows under her eyes. She and Saker were naturally of pale complexion, but now she was white as milk, unhealthily so. Her hair, normally pulled back into a smooth, sensible bun, lay in greasy tangles around her ears. The tie was tangled into one twisted lock. Her dress was torn and dirty, and her eyes, once a bright chocolate brown, were dark and hollow. She looked as though she'd been starved for weeks in a cage, not caring for a child in a home with at the very least the basic necessities.
Melissa was horrified.
"Mel?" Claudia's voice was rough, as though she'd either not been talking at all or doing a lot of screaming very recently. She was curled up on her floor mattress like she'd been attacked, or as though she were about to be. The village was very close-knit. How had none of them noticed? "Melissa, you must help me."
Melissa dropped to her knees beside Claudia, setting the candle carefully onto the floor beside them. "Of course," she said at once, laying a reassuring hand on her friend's bare arm. Her skin was cold. "Come back to my home. We'll get you cleaned up. Scott and Saker are waiting -"
"No!" the other woman spat with a surprising amount of venom. "I shall not go near that - that thing. Not while it wears my son's face."
"Claudia, you can't mean that!" Melissa cried, shocked. "What are you saying?"
"That creature, the one in your home," Claudia moaned. She shook under Melissa's palm. Her mood changed from fury to unbearable sadness in the time it took to blink. "It is a changeling, it's not human. My Saker never - never had such eyes. They stare into your soul, empty as can be. It's horrible. Awful. I've not ever seen -"
"Saker is just a boy, Claudia," the other mother reminded her distraught friend. She was shaken by this turn of events. Saker, crying about his mother saying cruel things. His mother, saying unimaginably cruel things about her own child. "A frightened boy, barely seven. Even if he were young enough to be snatched away by changelings, of all things -" which she had a hard time believing in, if she were honest, "I hardly think he could be one. He came to my house crying, over things you had said to him!"
"Trying to gain favor," Claudia snarled, shrugging her friend's hand off, "now that I've found it out! It knows, Mel, it's very smart!"
"He's human, Claud!" Melissa stressed, stomach churning. She'd not experienced this sort of madness before. Even with her knowledge of healing, she had no idea what to do. This was not what she had been expecting. "As human as you or I."
"He's a monster!"
The words fell like stone into the sudden silence, broken only by Claudia's heavy breathing. Her nails dug into the soft earth, creating little furrows.
"He's a monster." She stared at the candle, eyes wide and unseeing. "My poor boy. What happened to him? What corrupted him so? Mel…"
Melissa pursed her lips and took a deep, steadying breath. She reached out and took one of her friend's shaking hands, clasping it between both of her own. There was blood under her cracked and broken nails, packed with dirt and grime. "I'm keeping Saker at my house tonight," she said firmly. "Clean yourself up tonight, and come pick him up tomorrow evening. You'll use that time to put your home to rights, and prepare yourself to once again parent your child. He is your son," she declared, overriding Claudia's immediate protests. "You'll see it again in the morning. I'll spend the day looking over my texts to find out exactly what's wrong, but - Claud. You're not well."
"I know," the broken woman wailed, and burst into tears. Her face scrunched up much the same as her son's did, when upset. Melissa's heart broke, and she immediately brought her friend close for a hug. Also much the same as Saker, she latched onto her friend's sleeves and cried into her shoulder. They sat there together for a very long time.
Eventually, Melissa let go and got to her feet, brushing the dirt from her skirts. She picked up the candle and stared down at her friend. "Good night, Claudia," she murmured. "Sleep well."
The younger woman stared blankly at her for several moments in silence, tears streaking through the dirt on her cheeks, before turning and lying down on her bed much the way she'd been sitting: hunched and uncomfortable. Melissa took this as her cue to leave, just as quiet.
She was deeply worried about Claudia. This change in attitude seemed to have come out of nowhere, and her perception of Saker made her wonder if she should either take a closer look at the boy, or not allow him to leave. Perhaps both, she decided. There could, after all, be merit to her friend's words. There could also be some horrible misunderstanding. Something in the water?
Or it could be true…
By the time she set foot back in her own home, she'd managed to plaster a smile back on her face. The boys were waiting for her at the door, Scott with a grin and Saker with a strained expression.
"Mum!" her son exclaimed, barrelling into her legs. She staggered back a step, hand clutching the door, and greeted him in turn. Saker stood a few feet behind, wringing his hands. Any enjoyment he'd gotten from being with Scott had faded. Melissa offered him a reassuring smile, causing him to relax a touch.
"What do you think," she asked her son, who perked up at the sound of her conspiratorial tone, "about Saker staying the night here?"
"Can he!?" Scott was beside himself with joy. His wide smile was missing a tooth, that was only just starting to grow in again. "Didja ask Miss Claudia?"
"I did," she replied, confident that she was only telling half a lie. "She'll come get him tomorrow night."
Scott squealed in excitement before remembering himself. He slapped a hand over his mouth and winced comically. Melissa nodded approvingly: those lessons about not bothering their neighbors were finally kicking in. Saker, however, looked less enthusiastic.
"Is mum okay?" he asked in a small voice. "Is she still mad at me?"
"Of course she's not," Melissa said immediately, crouching to look him in the eye. "She's not feeling well, is all. She'll be better tomorrow, you'll see."
He looked relieved. It made Melissa hope desperately that this wasn't a lie.
The next evening, it looked as though Saker had all but forgotten what happened until his mother knocked on the door. Then he tensed all over and dropped what he was doing, much to Scott's confusion. Melissa was equally wary as all three answered the door together.
She looked put together, at least. Claudia had washed and redone her hair. She stood stiffly in a clean dress, with her hands clasped in front of her. Her expression was unreadable.
"Claudia," Melissa greeted her with a friendly smile. Saker waved hello.
"Melissa," Claudia replied. She held out a hand towards her son. "Saker. Come along."
"Yes mum," he said, and took her hand. "Bye, Miss Melissa. Bye, Scott."
"Bye, Saker," Scott chirped. "See you tomorrow!"
"We'll see," said Claudia, and dragged Saker away. Melissa watched from her doorway, wondering if she should have talked things over with her friend before letting them both go.
"Am I gonna see him tomorrow, mum?" Scott asked. Melissa took this as her cue to take him inside and close the door.
"Maybe you should stop by their house tomorrow to find out," she answered, trying not to think about whether she was using her son to scout out the state of their home. "He might be able to come over again."
"Miss Claudia didn't look very happy," Scott observed. She sighed.
"No, she didn't."
A month later, Saker arrived at her doorstep once again. This time, however, he was dripping water everywhere, and coughing as much as he was crying. It was late in the year, and frost was beginning to creep its way into the village.
"What happened?!" Melissa cried, suitably alarmed. She dragged him into her house and dropped him in front of the fire, handing him a small cloth for his face and dropping a towel on his head to dry off with. Scott dropped what he was doing immediately and went to find dry clothes without prompting. Saker half-heartedly patted at the towel on his head. He hadn't stopped crying and refused to speak to them for several long minutes. It was only after he'd been dried off and curled under two blankets with Scott that he spoke.
"She doesn't want me anymore."
"What do you mean?" asked Scott.
"She tried ta get rid o' me," Saker said, voice muffled by the blanket. "Like Mr Galen got rid of those puppies."
Galen had thrown his dog's pups in a bag and tossed them in the river to drown. He couldn't afford to feed them over the winter. The children weren't supposed to have known about it.
"Tha's awful!" Scott wailed. The two of them were close to driving each other to tears. "I wanna keep you. Mum wants to keep you! Right mum?!"
Melissa didn't know what to say.
**8**
Saker didn't go back to his mother. Instead, Melissa kept him at her house, only going to Claudia's to check on her health and pick up Saker's various possessions. She'd gone to the village council, which consisted of herself, the blacksmith, the tanner, the oldest man and women in the village, and an empty seat that used to be Claudia's, about the whole thing. It was a wasting disease, she'd explained, one that affected the mind and changed her perception of things. Despite her misgivings, she had given Saker an examination for any hint of something unnatural. He'd flinched when she had him hold a ball of iron, but accepted his reasoning that the thing was cold well enough. It was, after all, late autumn.
The village assigned Claudia a caretaker, to help her live out the rest of her days. The blacksmith's younger daughter had volunteered for the job - the elder helped her father in the forge - and listened well to Melissa's instructions. Saker visited once every few weeks, sometimes with Scott, sometimes without. Melissa supervised each visit. They never knew which side of her they were going to see. Most of the time, she simply laid there and listened to the boys chatter, or slept. Sometimes, she was violent. Others, terrified.
Nearly a year after it all began, it ended. The blacksmith's daughter had delivered the news. Claudia had distracted her, asking her for something she could only describe rather than name - the first time it had come out that she'd forgotten Saker's name, he'd buried himself under the bed and refused to come out for two days - and while her caretaker had gone to find it, she'd fashioned a noose out of her sheet and hanged herself.
Saker didn't speak for a week.
**8**
"Stop calling me that."
Scott made a face, confused. It was a beautiful day in early spring, two or so months after the funeral. "What, Saker? 'Syour name, though."
"Yeah, but." Saker made a face in return, and kicked at the wall under their ankles. Before them, the village's sheep herd grazed at their leisure. Nearly half of them were shorn, and the two of them had been giggling at their fluffy tails all afternoon. "I don't feel like a Saker anymore. Mum called me that."
"So do mum and I," Scott protested. "And the rest of the village."
"I know that," said Saker, exasperated. "Just - c'mon, Scotty, I need a new name."
"Hmm." Scott make a show of looking down the wall. "Stiles."
"What?"
"I'll call you Stiles!" Scott beamed.
"Like a ladder?"
"Sure! It's 'cause you're taller than me, and so you help me over walls when we sneak out! Like a stile over this wall. See?"
"I see," the newly named Stiles said doubtfully. "But I dunno if I like it. And what if it doesn't stick?"
"Oh," Scott promised, somewhat ominously for an eight year-old, "it'll stick."
He made sure of it.
**8**
When the boys had both turned nine, everything seemed to settle down. Stiles was fitting right in at their home, Claudia's old home had been emptied for new settlers, as per Stiles' request, and the boys got along famously. Outside of natural disaster, Melissa figured, nothing could go wrong.
Then, of course, she found out about the magic.
