When Merlin woke from his timeless slumber, it was to a very different world than the one he remembered. He was used to a much more ordered, formal life compared to the one he now found himself landed in.
As he disentangled himself from the old oak he had been bound in all those years, and stretched his stiff limbs, he gazed about himself, amazed at what he saw before him.
A few yards away was a river, full of boats pushed along by young men and women, wearing the strangest clothes, holding long wooden poles. They were all laughing, and it made Merlin long for his old life back in Camelot. When they hadn't been fighting off evil sorcerers together, or trying to stop long, bloody wars, he and Arthur had used to laugh like that. Young and carefree. That was until he'd been forced into the tree, but Merlin didn't want to think about that.
He glanced down at himself, and saw that his apparel was similar to that of the people nearby: blue, tight-fitting trousers made of the strangest material, a white t-shirt with a picture of a falcon on it, and a black jacket.
As he was admiring the red scarf wound around his neck, he heard someone say his name. He whirled round to see who it was. It seemed to have come from one of the young women in the boats, but Merlin couldn't think why they'd be mentioning his name. He listened harder.
"…better before Morgana turned evil," said one of the girls.
"I just can't wait till Arthur finds out about Merlin's magic. There are so many different ways he could react. It seems every fic I read it's different."
"Yeah, but in half of those, they end up declaring their love for one another and that's never gonna really happen. And Arthur's already married to Gwen, but I suppose that never stopped Merthur fans before."
By this point, Merlin was really creeped out by their conversation. He had no idea what was going on and didn't think he really wanted to either.
With that thought he turned and wandered out into a brave new world.