"I want to hear that story again mother," The young mother smiled as she eased her heavily pregnant body onto the bed, next to her young son.

"Again? Then you'll go to bed?"

"Yes. I promise."

She reached out and pulled her son to her, ruffling his hair before pressing a kiss on the top of his head. As he snuggled into her embrace, she started her story, a story she had told many times.

"Once upon a time, there was a young prince. Like all young men who had everything he ever wanted, he was confident, arrogant and selfish. But all that would change one day."


Arthur stretched and yawned as he slowly woke up. Glancing around his room, he noted that everything looked the same as they did yesterday which meant nothing had changed in his life. He sighed.

Footsteps echoed outside and Arthur started his countdown.

5 … 4 … 3 … 2 …

Sure enough, Rob stepped into the room just as he mentally said "one".

"Sire, I have brought your breakfast." Rob dipped into a bow, carefully holding the platter of food in his right hand so that it didn't spill.

"Isn't there some other way you can do this?" Arthur dragged himself from his bed and threw himself quite ungraciously into his chair.

Placing the platter gently onto the table, then draping the napkin across Arthur's lap, Rob replied the same way he always did. "I would be glad to do it in any manner you prefer Sire."

Huffing, Arthur poked at the bread and meat on his platter. "Well, I don't know. Everyday is the same isn't it? Don't you ever get bored?"

"No, my lord. I feel extremely fortunate to be working for -"

Arthur waved his hand to shut Rob up. As much as he enjoyed praise, hearing the same words every morning was getting on his nerves.

"What's on the schedule for today - no, let me guess, training with the knights, knights try outs, council meeting. Any feasts today? Any monsters needing slaying?" At least the meat was good - that was something he didn't really mind staying the same.

"No, Sire. Just dinner with your father."

Great. Dinner alone with his father. That should be a barrel of fun. Yesterday's dinner was so fun he had to stop himself from stabbing himself with a fork, especially when his father went into yet another life lesson he wanted his son to learn. Arthur once tried to point out that he might learn more about life if he was allowed to actually have a life but his father simply talked over him. The worst was how all the "life lessons" were essentially variations of the message "be more like me".

He watched as Rob took out his clothes for the day. It was the second day of the week so that meant his red linen shirt.

"Your red shirt Sire?" Rob held it out.

"I think the blue today."

Rob frowned and didn't move. "But Sire, today is the second day of -"

Arthur sighed. "Right, right. The red shirt it is then."


By the time evening rolled around, Arthur was bored stiff. It didn't help that his sister Morgana was off visiting some kingdom in the North. At least when she was around, there was somebody to talk to, even if all she did was make fun of him.

Training in the morning wasn't too bad. A couple new recruits had joined and it was pretty fun to put them in their places. But after that was lunch with the council (terrible and tedious), then his father insisted that he go through some petitions from the various Lords and sort them out (boring)and when that was done, Arthur was scheduled to visit the middle and lower town to check on his people (slightly more interesting but still tedious).

The lower town was a bustle of activity as usual. As the sun set, merchants dragged their wares home, workers chatted as they walked along the streets, waving to others and children played at being knights on the streets. All of them stopped to bow to their crown prince. Briefly, Arthur wondered at what it would be like to live like them - to not have his life dictated by his title, to have the freedom to do whatever he wanted. He could be a farmer or a mercenary. Or maybe even a blacksmith, he thought as a young lady, curls covering her face, caught his eye. She was dressed like many young village ladies, in a yellow cotton shift, but there she stood, legs apart, hammering resolutely away at the piece of metal she had on the anvil. There was grace in her strength and Arthur stopped to watch her. How had he never noticed her before?

Right on cue, Sir George spoke up. "Sire, the sun has almost set. It is time to return to the castle."

"We can stay out a while more." For some reason, he wanted to continue watching the blacksmith.

"Your father will not be pleased. He expects you back for dinner and council."

Sighing, Arthur tore his eyes from the lady and turned back to the castle."Alright. Let's go."


In a strange twist of events, Arthur acquired a new manservant. One he didn't like very much actually, but like everything in his life, he didn't have a choice. Apparently, saving the life of the crown prince was worth a promotion to being his manservant. It was one thing to reward the person who saved his life, but Arthur wondered why he had to be punished at the same time.

"You're not very good at this whole manservant thing, are you?" Arthur watched with a mix of exasperation and mild amusement at Merlin (what sort of name was that) struggled with preparing the morning meal. The bread rolled off the platter onto the floor, Merlin almost sliced off his finger as he cut the meat and when everything was finally done, his breakfast platter looked like someone had massacred a pheasant.

"Sorry. Don't usually have meat for any meals."

"Sire."

Merlin rolled his eyes but dutifully tacked on the honorific, "Sire."

"You do realise I could send you to the stocks for such impertinence." Arthur waved his fork in the air to emphasise his point.

"You could." Merlin replied absently. "Er, sire. So it's the fifth day of the week. You're supposed to wear the brown linen shirt." Merlin rummaged roughly through Arthur's wardrobe.

"I want to wear the white one."

"Ok. Whatever you want, sire. Here you go!" With a flourish, Merlin whipped out the white shirt from the wardrobe and waved it slightly in triumph. "I've prepared your bath, laid out breakfast and taken out your clothes. What else is there?"

Arthur frowned, his mouth full of food. This was precisely why Merlin was an awful servant. Rob knew exactly what needed doing. Merlin kept waiting for prompts. Sometimes (a lot of times actually), Arthur would forget that Rob even existed. He doubted that was possible with Merlin.

"Stables, armor and training."

"Ah right my lord. So." Merlin continued to stand in front of him, the foolish grin still on his face.

"So? Do them?"

"I would if I knew what to do." A pause before Merlin hastily added, "Sire."