AN: This is based on one of my favorite poems that I memorized in third grade. =) A bit cracky, so the characters are a tad exaggerated. My first Merlin fic. ^.^
Most definitely dedicated to my third grade teacher who talked me into saying this at the talent show and stuck it into my brain with superglue. Who knew it'd be helping me write fanfiction now? :P
Disclaimer: I disclaim. =)
The bells rang out across the square, turning heads. A second of comprehension followed the first loud clang and all the men dropped what they were doing and raced to seek out the disturbance. The women followed more sedately behind, making sure they stayed well out of harm's way.
Merlin had been helping Gaius when he heard the bells; he'd been out the door before Gaius even had a chance to look up from his task. He ran into Gwaine and the two wound their way through the throng of people toward Camelot's gate. There they joined Arthur and the other knights who had grouped around something—no, someone. A man lay collapsed at the entrance. He bled heavily from a gash in his side and there was blood at his temple as well; his clothes were torn and bits of his hair and skin were singed and burned. He looked like hell, really, and it was a miracle he'd made it to Camelot at all. "Send for Gaius," Arthur commanded and the knights rushed to respond.
An hour later the unknown man was settled in Gaius' chambers. He woke as Gaius was treating his wounds and reached out blindly with a gasp. He caught hold of Merlin's nearby arm and his eyes focused in on Merlin with disturbing clarity. "A monster!" he gasped. "It was a monster!"
Merlin cringed at the fever's haze that he still could see lingering behind the brief clarity in the man's eyes, but he nodded. "What did it look like?" The man didn't sound insane, at least.
"Like a dragon!" he exclaimed and Merlin's stomach sank. "But it wasn't a dragon, not really," he continued, his words beginning to stumble a bit as unconsciousness tugged at the man. Gaius had stilled and was listening carefully as well, his presence for now unnoticed. "It had a head like a fish, but its eyes! Its eyes were like fire!" He shuddered and collapsed from where he'd leaned up on his arm, eyes flickering closed once more.
"Well…" Gaius said slowly, studying the dying man before glancing up at Merlin. "What do you think?"
Merlin shrugged, not really sure what to believe. "I'll go tell Arthur," he suggested, "if you want to search the books?"
Gaius waved him off and Merlin fled the scene, the man's haunted eyes haunting his own mind along with the idea of such a terrifying, horrible beast. He really, really hoped it wasn't real.
He explained the man's claims to Arthur, who looked trouble but waved Merlin off and told him to come back if Gaius found any useful information. Dismissed, Merlin wandered off, not wanting to go back and help Gaius with research. It was just so boring.
He ran into Gwaine again and spilled the details to him. He didn't like the way Gwaine's eyes lit up with excitement at the description of the beast, nor the spring that entered Gwaine's step at Merlin's inference that the beast also breathed fire due to the man's severe burns. "No, Gwaine," he warned, "it probably isn't even real."
Gwaine grinned. "But what if it is, Merlin! Someone has to kill it!"
"No," Merlin said again. "Not you." If it was real, it was probably magic, and Gwaine would only get himself killed.
Merlin begged off before Gwaine could provide any more arguments; he'd take research over this.
Many hours and skipped dinner later Merlin was asleep on a large, old, dusty tome that he'd been attempting to stumble through a few minutes before. He was woken by Gaius' triumphant, "Aha!", and he sat up quickly.
"What?"
"I found it," Gaius told him, eyes still focused on the page. "It is called a Jabberwock. It has jaws of poison…" Gaius read out, glancing over at their man momentarily. Merlin was familiar enough with Gaius' thought process to know that the physician was thankful the man hadn't been bitten; it would have been impossible to make an antidote without the venom, and that venom was beginning to seem quite impossible to acquire. "It has jaws of poison," Gaius repeated, "and large claws. Wings, a spiked tail, and there it is! Eyes of flame," he read out, grinning over at Merlin triumphantly. "Our man wasn't insane after all." He looked back down at the book. "Ah… but I'm afraid we won't be able to stop it."
"Why not?" Merlin asked, confused by this sudden turn of events. "Can't it be killed?"
"It is a creature of magic, of the old religion," Gaius told him. "The last known Jabberwock was killed by a blade called Vorpal; as far as I can tell, it was a blade forged with a dragon's fire. That's what is required to slay it; nothing else will do."
Merlin stared at Gaius. He blinked. Then quite suddenly he slammed his head down on the table. "Noooooo," he moaned. He made a fist of his right hand and slammed it down onto the table next to his head. "Not again!"
"Again?" Gaius asked, clearly confused, but Merlin just pulled his head back up and shook it slightly back and forth.
"I can handle this," he told Gaius. He got up and left the room, swaying a bit from the dizziness and slight headache his head-desk had caused him.
"But… the sword?" Gaius was only answered with the slamming door. He shook his head and got up to tend once more to their man, hoping he would live. Time would tell.
"Arthur!" Merlin called as he entered the throne room.
"Yes Merlin?" Arthur asked in his slightly exasperated tone, the one that he used only when he was either really stressed or just thought Merlin was being an idiot. Merlin was hoping for the former, although the latter was more easily surmounted.
"Gaius found the name of the creature. It's a Jaberwock."
"…and?"
"And I know how to kill it."
"Great," Arthur said, sounding like he didn't think it was really that great at all. "You go do that then."
"…I can't."
Arthur glared at Merlin. "What do you mean you can't? You just said you could kill it!"
"No," Merlin countered slowly, hoping he wasn't going to piss Arthur off by contradicting with him. "I said I knew how to kill it, not that I was able to. I need your help."
Arthur waved him off. "Take one of the knights. I'm busy."
Merlin stared at Arthur, incredulous. "Busy? With what?" How could Arthur possibly be too busy to help slay a beast that was slaughtering his people en masse?
"With my duties, Merlin!" Arthur shouted, exploding. "I'm the king now in all but name and I have millions of matters that I need to attend to and no time to actually do any of it!"
"…Oh." Merlin sighed. "I'm sorry. But really, I need your help, just for a bit."
Arthur seemed calmer now that he'd exploded and he let out a long breath. "I can't just leave the kingdom on its own to go running off on a quest, Merlin. Those days are long past."
Contrarily, Merlin was pretty sure they were only just beginning, but he merely suggested, "You could leave one of the knights in charge." Arthur frowned and Merlin hastily assured him, "It won't take long, I promise!"
"It has to be me?" Arthur asked, taking up the most put-upon puppy face Merlin had ever seen. He reflected that it really wasn't fair that one person could have so much charm and charisma and still have additional weapons like that puppy face in his arsenal to manipulate people with.
"Yes." He glanced away from the face; it was pure evil, it really was.
"Alright then. Run off and find Sir Lancelot, will you?" Merlin winced. "What is it now, Merlin?"
"Well, you see, I… I sort of need him, too." Arthur's glare was more piercing than a thousand daggers. "Well I can hardly kill the beast and you've got to come back here, so I'll need Lancelot once we've gathered the weapon!"
Arthur continued to glower for a few moments, but his glare had lost its ferocity. "Fine, then," he sighed. "Who did you have in mind?"
"…Gwaine?" Merlin suggested, knowing that putting Gwaine in charge would keep the bloody insane idiot here so that he couldn't run off after the beast and get himself annihilated.
Arthur looked horrified at the thought. "He can't even be trusted alone in a locked room, much less running a kingdom!"
Merlin sighed. "Percival?" The shy but kind man would be a good stand-in for a few hours.
Arthur couldn't find anything wrong with the suggestion, so he nodded. "Inform Percival, then, and have him come here as quickly as possible to relieve me. We'll leave in an hour; round up Lancelot and I'll meet you at the gates."
Merlin nodded and raced off. He crashed into Gwaine as he rounded the first corner and they toppled to the floor. "Where are you going at such speeds, Merlin?" he inquired, attempting to sound innocent (and failing quite spectacularly).
"None of your business." Gwaine pushed himself to his feet and gave Merlin a hand up.
"Nonsense!" Gwaine declared, following Merlin as he set off at a slower pace. "I make a habit of being involved in everything that involves my friends, didn't you know?" Sadly, he did know; that was the problem. It was useful a lot of the time, but not so much now.
"Go away."
"Merlin!" Gwaine affected an appalled tone. "Is that any way to treat your best friend?"
Merlin clenched his jaw in frustration and decided to ignore Gwaine's presence. He did so while he talked to sir Percival, but he glared Gwaine off as he pulled Lancelot aside. "I need your help," he told Lancelot quietly, keeping an eye on Gwaine to make sure he stayed out of earshot.
"What with?" Lancelot asked, always concerned for his friends.
"Remember that man earlier?" Lancelot nodded and Merlin continued, "Gaius found the beast, but it can only be killed by a specific type of sword: one forged in a dragon's fire." He saw the comprehension light in Lancelot's eyes. "It's magic and I need as few people as possible to know."
"You need me to kill it?" Merlin nodded. "When do we leave?"
"We meet Arthur at the gates in half an hour," Merlin told him.
"Arthur?" Lancelot questioned. Merlin understood Lancelot's stance; he was taking a huge risk in admitting his powers to Arthur, but he didn't have a choice. People would die at the hands—claws?—of this beast if Merlin didn't stop it.
"I kind of… put the sword in a stone. A very large stone, and only Arthur can get it out." He shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, staring at the ground and only glancing up at Lancelot once.
"Why would you do that?" Lancelot asked, sounding equal parts confused and appalled.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time!" Merlin told him defensively. "I had to make sure no one else could wield it; I didn't think we'd need it again so soon!"
Lancelot sighed. "Alright. I'll ready the horses; you gather the supplies."
Merlin raced off to the kitchens; he failed to notice that Gwaine wasn't behind him.
He didn't fail to notice that Gwaine was with Lancelot when they all met up at the gate. He sat on his horse and smirked down at Merlin. "Why is he here?" Merlin asked Lancelot, who could only shrug.
"He read our lips; he knew what we were doing. I had to let him come along."
Merlin sighed, glaring at Gwaine. He couldn't deny that he was also a bit terrified; he knew that he could trust Gwaine with his life, but he was so used to keeping his magic a secret. It frightened him to have his life in so many people's hands, especially Gwaine's. Gwaine was a good man, but he was prone to whimsy and he was drunk an awful lot of the time. He was a great best friend and would always have Merlin's back, but it just… worried him. The man hadn't been tried yet at keeping secrets.
He couldn't voice any of this, though, as Arthur didn't know about the magic yet and Merlin had to make sure they got the sword first. Just in case. Arthur was a good man and a beacon of hope for all magical people in Albion, but he was also Uther's son, and that had to count for something. He was loyal to a fault, and Merlin couldn't be sure where, specifically, those loyalties lay.
They reached the stone quickly; Merlin had made sure not to forget its location. The dragon would probably have eaten him alive if he had. They dismounted and stood around it, staring with varying levels of awe. Gwaine seemed the least interested, but he glanced at it a bit warily. He hadn't been lying, then; he'd really been able to read their lips and he knew that it was a sword imbued with magic. Lancelot held a respectable expression of awe; Merlin guessed that his reverence for the sword was due to his memory of its undead-slaying properties. Looking back, it had been pretty amazing. But Arthur's expression held something between awe and love; he and the sword matched, which made sense, as it had originally been created for him. He would wield it someday, Merlin was sure of that, but today was not that day. The dragon would kill him for letting another use it, but he trusted Lancelot. Lancelot's honor meant more to him than anything; he would never betray them for power.
"So, what do you want me to do?" Arthur asked, head tilted as he glanced between Merlin and the sword. He didn't seem to want to take his eyes off it.
"Pull it from the stone. It's not jammed in there very hard." That was a lie, but Arthur wouldn't know the difference.
Arthur gave him a funny look. "You dragged me all the way from Camelot for this?"
"Pull it out and I'll explain." Arthur clearly hadn't noticed the way the sword glowed even in the shade cast by the trees, nor the way the light reflected oddly on the rocks.
When Arthur pulled the sword from the stone, however, the stone started to glow blindingly with light. It faded after a few moments, but Arthur and Gwaine looked shaken. Lancelot alone stood calmly; he'd long ago decided to trust Merlin's magic. His loyalties never did falter.
"What was that?" Arthur's voice was flat and a bit dangerous. He looked at his sword as if it was a poisonous snake about the strike. Lancelot gave Merlin a questioning glance before stepping forward and taking it from Arthur. Merlin handed over its sheath and Lancelot busied himself with attaching it to his side. Merlin faced Arthur hesitantly.
"Magic," he told him, trying to pull on the expression of innocence that he hadn't needed to use on Arthur in months. "It was, um, my magic."
"Your magic?" Arthur asked, incredulous. "You mean to say that you, Merlin, are a sorcerer?"
Scorn was heavy in Arthur's tone; it was just like the time Merlin had tried to turn himself in to save Gwen and Arthur had protected him. "Yes."
Arthur appraised him. "I see. And why did I need to come all this way to pull your magic sword from your magic stone?"
"Because… because you're the once and future king and only you are able to pull Excaliber from the stone."
Arthur raised an eyebrow, but he didn't seem to have anything to say. He didn't really need to; his disbelief was tangible.
"It's true," Lancelot spoke up from behind them. "He killed the griffin, not me. I've always wanted to admit that."
Arthur whirled to him. "Merlin killed the Griffin?"
Gwaine was looking at Merlin funny now, too. "You started that fire, didn't you? When Arthur and I were brawling in Jarl's keep?"
Arthur spun on him and then back to Merlin. "You're a sorcerer?" Now he didn't sound so scornful at all; it was starting to dawn on him. Merlin's magical abilities answered so many unanswerable questions, after all. It was a wonder Arthur hadn't discovered it sooner.
"Yes." He didn't know what else to say, really, but Arthur was still staring at him in a blank kind of shock and he couldn't really anticipate what his next reaction would be. "I'm sorry?"
Arthur's expression went completely blank and Merlin momentarily panicked. This was it; he was going to die. He just knew it.
"Nothing to be sorry for," Arthur said finally, clapping Merlin on the shoulder and remounting his horse. "I'm off to Camelot, then," he continued. "Best of luck to you three." He was gone before any of them caught up with their thoughts.
"I think you broke him," Gwaine commented. He shrugged. "Oh well. Moving on. Let us go forth to slay the nasty beastie!"
Lancelot gave him the look, but he only grinned incorrigibly. The three remounted and rode off in the direction the dying man had come from. They figured they would know when they got there by the sight of charred homes. They weren't far off.
There weren't so much charred homes as a very large pile of ashes and some burnt foundations where buildings had once been. A village had been completely ravaged by the beast. It lay on the edge of a forest and after a brief wander through the destroyed town they rode in.
The trees quickly became too dense for them to easily ride through, so the trio tied up their horses and continued on by foot. It was noisy, tiring, perilous, an three hours had passed in the time it took them to traverse what they assumed was a mile of ground. "Let's rest," Lancelot suggested, leaning against a tree. The other two gave no argument and likewise leaned against trees nearby. For a few moments all was silent but for the call of birds in the distance and the labored breathing of the three friends. Suddenly, a great crash was heard and the beast burst through the trees and into their sight.
It was fearsome indeed. Lancelot and Gwaine scrambled for their swords; Lancelot drew both of his and tossed the ordinary sword to Merlin so that he could defend itself if the Jaberwock took a swing at him. "Watch its teeth!" Merlin called out, belatedly remembering. "They're poisoned!"
"Now he tells us," Lancelot muttered and Gwaine grinned.
"Now this is my kind of party," he declared, and he launched himself at the beast. He ran around and narrowly avoided the snapping jaw of the Jaberwock a handful of times; he was leading it away from the other two in hopes that Lancelot would find a vantage point to slay it. Merlin's observant eyes traced the scene, looking for a way in which his magic would be useful. The Jaberwock almost managed to nip Gwaine, who had to dive aside to avoid the sharpened teeth. It towered over him and went down quickly for the kill; desperate, Merlin sent a log flying…
The log smashed the Jaberwock in the head sidelong as its teeth closed inches away from Gwaine's head; it roared in fury and spun on Merlin. "Lancelot!" he yelled, unable to see the knight because the angry Jaberwock had backed him into a dense knot of trees and was obscuring his vision. "Anytime now would be great!"
He received no response and tried to keep the Jaberwock at bay with magic, but soon its nose was only inches from Merlin's own. He held in a whimper as it sniffed at him. It sensed the magic and paused to consider, and that pause was its downfall. Lancelot appeared next to it and stuck at its head with the sword. It turned and avoiding a mortal wound, but its claw swiped at Lancelot and threw him back against a tree. Excalibur clattered from his hand down to the ground and lay there, abandoned. Merlin slowly began to lose hope.
He stared into the eyes of Jaberwock—eyes of fire was no misnomer, for sure—and once again was belatedly hit with an idea. He spoke in the tongue of a dragonlord and hoped that he could control it.
He could see that it understood his words, but it obviously wasn't dragon enough, because it only paused momentarily before snapping at him in annoyance. Damn. He was going to die. He was going to be eaten by a Jaberwock and his destiny be lost with him.
A sudden cry ran out from above. Gwaine dropped from a tree and landed on the neck of the Jaberwock. He slid down it and hit the ground, quickly rolling out of the way. He'd driven Excalibur into the skull of the Jaberwock with the force of his fall and the "nasty beastie" was now weaving unsteadily. The fire in its eyes flicked and went out; it crumpled to the ground in the spot Gwaine had occupied moments before. He held his hand out to Merlin and the young magician took it gratefully. "Thanks."
Gwaine shrugged, grinning from ear to ear. "Glad I came along now?"
Merlin made a face at the blatant "I told you so" and headed off to wake Lancelot. The man was confused but quickly sharpened upon seeing the dead Jaberwock. "Who?"
"Gwaine," Merlin told him and Lancelot gave Gwaine a nod of approval. The man all but buzzed with hyperactive energy, completely unable to understand why Merlin and Lancelot would be weary. Merlin sent Lancelot back off to Camelot to spread the news of Gwaine's kill, but he kept the other knight with him. He returned the sword to the stone, ignoring Gwaine's sad face at the loss of such brilliant and powerful sword. It appeared Gwaine had gotten over the magic scare and now supported Merlin's magic whole-heartedly. Merlin worried that Gwaine would be unable to keep his mouth shut back in Camelot, but his friend was serious long enough to assure him that he would keep his secret safe. Merlin trusted him; he had to. He now owed his life to Gwaine yet again; it was hard to keep the record straight of how many times they'd all saved each other. He supposed that was just the way their destinies were fated to play out.
Merlin had rarely been happier to see Camelot's walls; he wanted nothing more than to collapse in bed. Gwaine took pity—it was nightfall, after all—and he let Merlin head home without celebrating or whatever else was on his agenda. Merlin found Gaius waiting up, supper sitting out on the table. "You're back!"
Merlin nodded wearily. His arm was scratched and bleeding; apparently the Jaberwock had nicked him and he hadn't noticed in all the chaos. He relayed his tale to Gaius as the physician patched up his arm; he inhaled his dinner as the man thought it all over, and only when he was finished did Gaius speak. "So Arthur knows." Merlin was relieved that Gaius wasn't angry with him (right now, at least) for using the sword; it was as useful as it was dangerous.
"Arthur knows." Merlin sighed. He didn't know what to think. He hadn't seen Arthur yet and was dreading tomorrow.
"He isn't Uther," Gaius reminded him and Merlin smiled. That much he knew for sure; he'd been the one to argue that point at Gaius a few times in the past.
"True," he agreed. "We'll see what tomorrow brings?"
Gaius nodded slowly. "Yes. Now off to bed, Merlin."
He grinned at the man who was truly the only father he'd ever known. "Goodnight, Gaius."
"Goodnight Merlin." Merlin wearily wandered off to his room, but he was stopped by Gaius' call when his hand reached for the doorknob. "Yeah?"
"Good job."
He smiled proudly to himself as he collapsed in his bed a few moments later, falling quickly into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Reviews are love! ~Lynx