You've seen Merlin's secret revealed by accident, by design, by scars, by neckerchief, by tattle tale druids, by ...well, you get the idea. You thought you'd seen it all, but no, you haven't. Not yet. Not until you've seen his secret revealed by ...his boots! Read on.
Undone by his Buckles
It should have been an outstanding and momentous morning. King Arthur had returned late last night from secretly treating with the druids as a prelude to legalizing magic. He had hoped to meet with the council today to finally make the formal announcement and propose new laws and regulations.
Yes, it should have been an outstanding and momentous morning. But it wasn't. It was an ordinary camelotian morning. As usual, his manservant had slept in, almost making him late for the council again, almost making him look a fool. After thanking the messenger and moving the council meeting to tomorrow, the king proceeded to his incompetent manservant's chambers. He was actually looking forward to 'waking' his manservant. Yes. He was looking forward to it very, very much.
"MERLIN!" he shouted directly into the sleeping servant's ear, "GET! UP! You're late again!"
The hapless young man shot up, struggled and bumbled around in his blankets before falling on the floor with a series of klunks, bumps and yelps. In the main chamber, Gaius shook his head as he ground herbs, able to picture everything happening in the tiny adjoining room.
"Honestly Merlin! What will it take for you to get yourself up and out of bed on time!?" The king continued to berate his manservant as the lanky figure scrambled about grabbing a wrinkled tunic from a corner and pulling it over his head. He scooched across the floor retrieving his boots from the dusty floor where they'd been haphazardly flung.
"Sorry Sire!" he gasped, still recovering from the shock of the abrupt awakening yet quickly regaining his footing in the conversation.. "I guess I stayed up too late washing the mud off your chainmail after we got back late last night. I apologize for needing to sleep at some point."
He finally slid into his boots and stumbled to his feet.
"Ready and raring to go, Sire!" he said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
The king gazed at the fool standing before him and shook his head.
"Well it's about time, you idiot. Fasten those ridiculous boots of yours and get down to the kitchens and fetch my breakfast!"
He glanced toward Merlin's feet. His friend was clumsy at the best of times. He knew what chaos and possible injury could occur if Merlin tried to stumble down even just the three steps from his small closet of a room without paying proper attention to his feet.
The king abruptly froze in shock, however, as he observed the straps of Merlin's many boot buckles tugging and wrapping themselves securely around the young man's feet and ankles. Once tight enough, the buckles flashed cheerily as they secured the worn brown leather boots.
"What the… How? ...SORCERY! Merlin! Quickly! Get those boots off your feet! THEY'RE CURSED!" He shoved Merlin back onto his bed to rip the boots from his friend's feet himself.
Surprised beyond measure, Merlin quickly looked at his feet.
"Drat." he groaned internally. He'd forgotten about the spell he'd placed on the blasted - yet fashionable - buckles on his boots. He'd worked long and hard to buy those boots. They were one of a kind and the charm he'd worked on the buckles was just so handy. Yes. The situation was dire and the choices were clear: either let Arthur destroy his favorite (and only) pair of boots with all the fun straps and shiny buckles in a moment of frenzied, protective impulse or ..fess up.
Fess up it was.
"Hands off my boots, Arthur."
His king was paling fast.
"Er, perhaps you'd better sit down."
He pulled the cabbage head down to sit beside him.
"Just calm down. My boots aren't cursed. I enchanted them myself. I got the idea from one of the druids. See, he was admiring my boots and I was explaining how difficult it was to get them on at a moment's notice when I need to rush off and save your royal backside and he had this great idea… Oh. Um, by the way,..."
After several repeated dosings of Gaius' smelling salts, the king got up and made his way back to his chambers. A message went out that the council meeting was once again rescheduled to that afternoon.
King Arthur stood before the council and announced that the ban on magic was hereby formally removed. Respectful silence gave way to chaotic outpourings of relief, joy and outrage.
Merlin simply stood behind his king beaming brightly, the highly polished buckles on his boots flashing merrily in the sunlight streaming through the windows.
.
A/N: Farmgirl and I were admiring and discussing Merlin's very charming, yet impractical boots. Yes, they look great, but as she pointed out they would be very difficult to throw on when Merlin has to suddenly run off to save Arthur's life. (Did you realize that there are 5 straps and buckles on each of those terrific boots!) And thus, 20 minutes later, this silly bit of fluff was born.