I'm participating in a MerlinShipsFest on Tumblr right now. I thought I'd post the fics I write for it on here as well as there. My ship of choice is Freylin; it's short and sad but so beautiful.
The prompt is Before/After. This one is short, but the next one will be longer.
I don't own Merlin. I just write fics to make me feel better about the ending.
Before he met Freya, Merlin was young. His impetuous nature and ardent desire to do the right thing responded with unadulterated compassion to the druid girl chained inside the cage. The fear in her eyes was a reproach against him, who deliberately deceived King Uther himself every day that he dwelt in Camelot. He did not help her out of any mere sense of duty, however. He saw her and all thought abandoned him save that he must save her.
. . .
Before he met Freya, Merlin had never felt so alive. He took her in his arms, and all at once he knew the spark that ignites at the meeting of two people who were always meant to find each other. He kissed her, and every atom in his body set ablaze. His heart had never beat so fast, his blood had never flowed so warm. Something vibrated deep inside him, breaking open and sending life like he'd never felt it before coursing through his veins. A harmony arose, a similar vibration, so sudden and so beautiful that he drew back in wonder. Freya's eyes fluttered open, and, looking into them, Merlin found the source of the harmony. The smile that spread across his face only hinted at the joy that overwhelmed his every sense.
. . .
Merlin stood at the shore of the lake of Avalon. The mists over the waters hung heavy with magic, and the mountains in the distance were a dusty purple-gray. Yet the beauty did not charm him, and the magic did not arouse his senses. There was only a terrible, vast emptiness aching inside him. The fire burning out on the lake, intended only to consume the empty shell that had once held Freya, seemed to be eating away at Merlin's heart. He lacked the strength to stand up straight, to move his feet, or to tear his mind away from those golden days of happiness and life. Amidst these memories he had only one other thought.
This is what it is to feel old.
