I'm aware that not many people like fictions that portray Merlin as a girl. However, Merlin being a girl presents many challenges that you have to write around. Its challenging, fun, and lets you be very creative. (And changing someone's gender is always fun xD)

I have been told that this prologue sounds like it was written by an over-peppy teenage girl. (By someone who has never seen the series.)

I suggest that you dont read this story if you havent seen the entire Merlin series. There are spoilers and references in here that you might not understand.

I don't usually write things with so little detail. The prologue is just to give a little background before starting the real story.

Disclaimer: Merlin belongs to BBC.


Prologue

It would seem that the fates had some sort of grudge against Uther Pendragon from the day he was born. They seemed to have nothing better to do than to conspire and scheme of ways with which to screw him over in the long run. They cackled and spun, cackled and schemed, cackled and pulled the threads of Uther's life, all the while thinking of ways of with which to torture Uther Pendragon in the cruelest ways possible. The old hags who spun the yarn must be getting far too bored if they had to resort to toying with Uther.

Fates first instance of torturing Uther Pendragon had been when he was only just 6 years old, born to a powerful noble family in Camelot, and only beginning to understand the world around him and voice his discoveries. At the time of fates intervention, he had been riding to a neighboring kingdom with his mother to help bring along the trades between Camelot and Mercia. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and nothing seemed amiss at all.

The young Uther knew nothing of terror, or grief or death; he was pure and innocent, new and fresh. No one had seen fit to tell the young noble that taking along one of his best friends would be folly. Instead they simply saddled a horse and allowed for Uther and a boy the same age as the young prince ride on the same horse.

The boy whom Uther had already formed such a strong friendship with at such a young age, had also been born on the same day within the same hour. The two had been inseparable since the day they were born, as everyone around them had seen it fit to allow the young lord and this boy born on the same day in the same hour, be together even as infants. It was quite natural then for the noble and that boy to become like brothers.

However the fates were exceedingly cruel, in the fact that they had set that boy there with the intention of killing him to scar the young Uther. They made him die on a beautiful day, right beside Uther in such a horrible and grotesque manner that would leave Uther prejudiced against those who practiced magic for the rest of his life.

Although they never counted on the young Uther being strong enough to push past it, and keep a pure and loving heart of which he had been born with.

The fates were outraged with the young Uther; they wanted him bitter, cruel, and twisted, which was far too much to ask of a young boy of only 6. They developed a grudge against Uther that would drive them to continue pushing and pushing at him until they got what they wanted.

They waited until he developed his first love, with a servant girl who was playful and witty. They allowed Uther's infatuation with the girl flourish before they moved to rip her away from him, once more with magic.

They still did not count on Uther being able to survive that, to have him escape the incident with only deep emotional wounds and a scar on his arm that would forever remind him of his first love.

The fates were not satisfied with simply damaging Uther Pendragon and tainting his once pure heart with the need for revenge. They wanted to BREAK him, into tiny pieces of which not even the greatest forces of the universe could piece him back together again. They wished the most heinous and dreadful things upon Uther, they wished to drive him into the depths of hell, all for their own amusement.

They laid in wait once more, setting up elaborate schemes, tipping the balance of the world enough so that when the time came, they could tip him over the edge. They pushed him towards the sweet and innocent Igraine, allowed the man to fall deeply in love. They gave him time to heal, to let whatever remained of his once pure heart to piece itself back together again before they would set their next scheme in place.

Time (unlike fate) had been kind to Uther; it had aged him appropriately, and healed the wounds in his soul significantly. The man had gone from being a powerful noble in a crumbling kingdom, to the man who conquered and secured the throne by marrying Igraine. So that by the time fate decided to throw their next obstacle at Uther.

Uther had already been king for a while, and already he had caused a fair amount of bloodshed for those who possessed magic. He would tell you at that time that he was not against magic. However he already had a deep rooted loathing for it. When he met Igraine he was simply paranoid that he would lose her as well to magic, which made it so much easier for the fates to tip him over the edge.

Uther's unconscious fear of magic was not foolish, especially when the fates held such a grudge against him. As one day he witnessed a sorcerer standing over his wife's bed, using magic to slowly drain the life from her. In a rage Uther killed the sorcerer standing over his wife. However the damage was already done, she was already well on her way to death.

This turn of events hardened Uther's heart completely to magic. Causing him to start what would soon be known as the Great Purge. Many with magic would die, not even children were spared from Uther's rage. He killed so many with magic that the balance of the world was tipped greatly; many races were decimated, including most of the dragons, and dragon lords.

However the fates still did not feel that they were done. Uther still wasn't broken; he was still whole, despite how cracked and twisted he appeared. They still had work to do.

On a whim they made his wife barren; they made it so that her condition did not allow for her to give Uther an heir. Uther during one of his darkest moments turned to a sorceress who he had recently captured. He wanted to at least have something of his Igraine left. She only had 2 years left; during that time he must be able to have a child with her. A child would surely be able to keep the memory of his Igraine alive.

This sorceress, bitter with revenge, knew exactly how to help Uther. She even knew how she could cure Igraine and give her more than simply 2 years to live. However, Uther had already burned any bridge of which he could cross to receive help from those in the magical community. So instead of curing his dear Igraine, she instead granted Uther's wish, and allowed for his wife to bear a child, despite the fact that she knew Igraine would not live.

Uther who truly was not one to be ungrateful allowed the sorceress to live, setting her free without knowing what exactly she had done. He simply believed her promise that Igraine would be able to survive the 9 months of her pregnancy and live out the rest of her 2 years with Uther.

9 months passed, and it became clear to all those around Igraine, that this pregnancy would kill her, for as her belly grew, she became weaker. Many tried to warn Uther, to tell him that he should prepare for the worst. Uther however simply would not believe them. He clung so desperately to the sorceresses promise that his dear Igraine would survive this. He refused to believe what he already knew. The sorceress had lied and stolen most of what little time he had been assured with his Igraine.

The day came when Igraine would bear her child, she strained herself, summoned the last of her strength to bring her child into the world, having already known that it was very likely that she and her child would not survive the pregnancy. However, she was determined to at least hold her child before she died, and there was no possible way which she would leave Uther without someone to keep him grounded.

She prayed for at least 5 seconds to name her child, before summoning everything she had to help her bring her child into the world.

The fates were not entirely cruel and evil; they felt slight guilt for bringing this cruel fate upon Igraine. She was such a sweet and wonderful woman, who would have lived a long and happy life had they not decided it would be better to use her to break Uther. She had been strong and healthy, willful and spirited. The very least they could do was give her time to spend with her child. To honor her life in any little way they could.

Igraine had been in labor for almost a full day before the sound of a baby's crying could be heard. Igraine was weak, and she was holding on with everything she had so that she could at least see her child.

Uther held his child in his arms, marveling at how small it was. He moved over to sit by Igraine, to share their little bundle of joy with her. Not even once during that moment did he even think that his child would be without a mother for most of its life.

Igraine with what little life she had, smiled, and looked the baby over, memorizing every little thing. She took her child into her arms. She felt so weak, and knew that her time was short; however she treated this moment as if she had all the time in the world. It wasn't long before she finally realized that she was near her end. She took her time in looking to see if her little angel would be a prince, or a princess.

Igraine did not seem to realize how unfortunate it was that she had not borne a son. Or she simply refused to see anything negative about her daughter's birth. She only wished to see the beautiful deep blue eyes, and the soft tuft of dark hair at the top of her head. She already knew exactly what her daughter's name would be.

Taking a shaky breath, she strained herself to kiss her daughters forehead, holding her close as the little princess cried at the shock of being alive, before she closed her eyes and uttered her daughter's name in her dying breath.

"Merlin."

And with that, the fair Igraine slipped away from the world, cracking Uther's heart to where he would never be able to love again.


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