Arthur, Gwaine and Merlin all trudged back into Camelot, soaking wet, freezing cold and dripping with mud. Gwaine pushed his hair back up over his head for the thousandth time so that his vision wasn't obscured by it clinging together, and he wasn't dripping what felt like ice on to his nose. He looked at Merlin, and Merlin looked back at him; both of them exchanging muscle pain and fatigue and cold to the point of numbness as Arthur very valiantly attempted to stride into the courtyard, but didn't quite manage it because as much as he hated to admit it, his legs didn't want to move either. Merlin could feel his hair plastered to his head and he was actually cold to the point of not shivering. He sighed to himself, even his body had given up, stupid pointless mission… Oh, and it's going to take flaming hours to get the mud out of the clothes. So that's another few hours up to his elbows in muddy water. At least Gwaine looked as annoyed as Merlin felt, and even Arthur was having a hard time keeping his scowl to himself.
Uther was staring down at them from out of a window, and Gwaine saluted to him in such a way that if he wasn't completely fucking mental these days, would have definitely lost him his head. Arthur half-smiled as well as his ice cube for cheeks would let him, and Uther smiled back broadly, turning away from the window to no doubt come down and see them. Gwen appeared in the doorway, and Arthur smiled more broadly this time as she ran down the steps to greet him, her breath clouding in front of her. He held out his arms, but she stopped short and looked him up and down, wrinkling her nose.
"Good to have you back, sire," she said, curtsying. Arthur dropped his arms, realising what a pleb he looked as Gwaine and Merlin snickered behind him.
"Fuck you both," Arthur muttered.
"No thanks mate, I like to do the fucking," Gwaine said, and Merlin laughed louder, Arthur joining in. Gwen looked slightly disgusted, and slipped off back into the castle as Uther came to the top of the steps.
"My dear boy!" he cried, holding out his arms with his crown lopsided on his head. "Did you find it?"
Arthur looked at Gwaine and Merlin standing behind him, "Er… no."
Uther's face fell, "What, again?"
"The map you gave us… was a bit…"
"Rubbish," Gwaine muttered, and Arthur stamped on his foot.
"Well, wrong. We ended up in a bog. And none of us really know how exactly it happened… it just did."
He motioned to the state of himself and Merlin and Gwaine.
"I see. So you failed?"
"Father -"
"You did not find the creature!"
"I don't think there was a creature, father. Even the description you gave us… there is no match in any book we have looked in so far."
Uther's face brightened again, and they all glanced at each other.
"Then we must keep looking! Why are you all standing out here? You'll catch your death."
Uther strode back into the castle leaving Merlin, Arthur and Gwaine to just look at each other, completely baffled.
"Arthur, no offense but do you still not wish to take over the throne?"
"Believe me, Gwaine… sometimes I would take great pleasure in killing him."
Arthur started to move his aching muscles towards the castle entrance.
"Merlin, go and have a bath. I think we all deserve being warmed up slightly."
Merlin nodded to Arthur as he disappeared through the doors.
Gwaine looked at Merlin and nodded, "If it's all the same to you…"
"Yeah, go. It's fine."
Gwaine got halfway up the stairs before frowning and turning round to face Merlin.
"Merlin, you do have a bath, don't you?"
"Er…"
Gwaine tutted and awkwardly walked back down the stairs to grab Merlin's arm and pull him up the stairs with him.
"Gwaine, what -?"
"I can't leave you to catch your death, can I? I'm supposed to be a knight."
"You don't have a problem with not acting like a knight most of the time."
"Stop being a twat before I change my mind, Merlin."
"Sorry."
"You go first." Gwaine said, as he attempted to peel his shirt from his body.
"What? Why?" Merlin said, clearly confused.
Gwaine tutted, "Because I can't imagine you being anywhere near as comfortable as I am with sitting naked in front of the fire until I'm done."
Merlin shrugged, "Fair point."
Merlin walked behind the screen and managed to peel off all of his clothes even though he couldn't feel his hands. Or anything else for that matter. The mud had managed to seep through his clothes and on to his skin, making him filthy, and he'd never been more glad for Gwaine's strange, blunt manner. He hissed as he hit the warm water, it making his skin feel like it was freezing and burning at the same time. Gwaine looked up at him from in front of the fire, and smirked.
"And I didn't want the extreme reaction."
"You bastard," Merlin muttered, his teeth starting the chatter, but Gwaine just laughed.
After ten minutes, Merlin had managed to scrub the dirt from his skin and was now clean and warm, if very pink. He got out of the water and grabbed a towel to wrap around him.
"There's some spare clothes over there, Merlin. Unless you want to sit around like that all night."
"No thanks," he said, picking up the clothes and going behind the screen. "Want me to call for some more water?"
Gwaine laughed, "Like you couldn't just make the water clean again."
Merlin's blood ran cold, and he popped his head out from the screen.
"I'm sorry?"
"Merlin, I'm not an idiot. I saw the whole thing in the forest."
"I thought you were knocked out!"
"It takes more to keep me down than it does for Arthur. Strength, remember," Gwaine said, smirking.
"You can't -"
"Merlin, I'm a mate, am I really gonna tell anyone?"
"No, of course not, sorry."
"Don't worry about it."
Merlin pointed at the water and it instantly cleared and started steaming. Gwaine looked impressed, and got into the water.
"Ahh, that feels nice. Stupid Uther. Why's he gotta send us on those mad missions of his?"
"He doesn't know what he's doing…"
"Why does Arthur insist on us actually going?"
"Keep up appearances I think, make it look like there's nothing wrong."
"Nothing wrong with a man who shouted at a turkey the other day because it was 'looking at him funny'?"
"Well, you know…"
"Merlin, it didn't have a head."
"Well, I know but…" Merlin trailed off and Gwaine raised his eyebrows, waiting for the end of the sentence. "Nah, I don't have anything."
"Exactly. I didn't realise being a knight would involve being sent on wild-goose chases and falling in mysterious appearing bogs in the line of duty of serving a nutter."
"I'm not a knight, and I still have to do it."
"True."
Merlin heard Gwaine splashing around and muttering to himself as he was stoking the fire.
"Gwaine… what?"
"There's dirt on my scalp! How does that even happen?"
Merlin started to laugh.
"Ahh shut up you stick wielding bastard!"
Merlin laughed more, and Gwaine couldn't help but join in. eventually he gave up on trying to get the grit out of his hair and got out of the bath, stepping behind the screen and getting dressed.
He walked over to Merlin and plonked himself beside him by the fire. Merlin conjured some food and wine from nowhere and set it down beside them. Gwaine grinned like Christmas had come early, and muttered, "I could get used to this," through a mouthful of bread. Merlin smiled back.
"It's nice not having to hide it all of the time. I mean, Lancelot knows but…"
"You told Lancelot but not me?" Gwaine said, in mock outrage.
"No, he found… you're having me on, aren't you?"
Gwaine nodded, "You fall for it every time."
"I know."
It was around an hour (and a bottle of wine) later when there was a knock at the door.
"Yeah?" Gwaine said, and Arthur walked in. Gwaine's face fell.
"Oh no, please no. there's not a giant fucking dancing pheasant somewhere that we need to go hunt down is there?"
Arthur tried not to laugh, but it didn't really work.
"No Gwaine, I just came to say… Merlin?"
"That's a weird thing to come to say?"
"No, I mean why is Merlin here?"
"I'm Gwaine's friend! I'm allowed to be here, Arthur!" Merlin said, outraged (and a little drunk).
Arthur shrugged, "I know, I know. Anyway, I came to thank you both."
"Oh my god, he said thanks!" Merlin said, and Gwaine laughed.
"Merlin, I'll have you know I regularly thank you."
Merlin mumbled something no one could make out.
"Are you drunk?"
"He's a lightweight." Gwaine said, smiling.
"I know…"
"Ahh come and join us anyway, it's warm over here and we all need a break."
Arthur smiled back, "I think I may just do that."
As they sat by the fire, drinking and joking, glad for the warmth and the chance to relax, a woman in the lower village started to get a headache. And this headache progressed quite quickly to a full-blown fever. Since she had no family, and it was a cold winter night with no one passing to check up on her, her condition worsened without anyone knowing. The woman stopped breathing in the early hours of the morning, when it was still dark and Arthur, Merlin and Gwaine were passed out on the rug in front of the dying embers of the fire which was still giving out enough heat for them to remain comfortable. The woman opened her eyes and stood back up as everyone around her was snoring. It took her roughly an hour to get out of her house, and into another, shocking the occupants, who tried to calm her down before having to fight her off as someone else rushed to get help…