It was just a dare. "Climb onto the old man's roof and get in through the attic window. Take anything cool-looking, or you're chicken."
Well. Arthur wouldn't have that. Being called "wart" because of that one time he got one on his hand was bad enough—he wouldn't let people start saying he's a coward as well. 12-year-olds are like that. So, he climbed onto the roof of the old man's house and went through the open attic window feeling the eyes of his audience drill into the back of his head as if trying to determine whether or not he would change his mind.
He didn't.
The room he enters is a paradox of an attic—though clearly very old, everything shines as if it is brand new, yet they are covered in a thin layer of dust as though someone cares about them enough to clean them, but not enough to do so often. Arthur shakes his shaggy blond hair from his eyes and looks for something that is small but still cool enough to bring outside and present to his entranced audience. And then, a gleam in the corner of his eye catches his attention. Carefully, he works his way through the paradoxical maze until he reaches his destination and realizes what he'd seen was the lock of a very old chest. He knew he probably should have left it alone and moved on to something else, but simply knowing this wasn't enough and so he knelt in front of the ancient chest, fully intending to reveal its secrets and steal them away in his sticky fingers but fate had other plans.
Just as Arthur was going to pull on the lock, the wooden floor beneath him gave way and he fell through with the paradoxical dust and landed with a solid thump on something far softer than his body had braced itself for and when his heart finally settled and the dust went on its way, he realized he was in an arm chair in someone's living room. The old man's living room.
Oh.
Ready to make a run for it, Arthur sprang from the fortuitously placed chair and almost came into a hard impact with the person standing behind it.
"You're late." Was all the bearded old man said. Arthur gulped.
Merlin.
...
Second Merlin fanfiction.
reviews are appreciated.