Walking through the streets Merlin smiled to himself. He felt more at home here than he had anywhere so far. It was not that he disliked living at home; he loved his mother and his little village had been more than comforting to him, but he needed to find his destiny, he needed to go into the bigger world and make something of his self. Not that becoming a 'manservant' to Prince Arthur would get that.

But either way, at least he knew what he was capable of now, and he had a book to learn from. He read it every night before he went to bed, soaking up the information and muttering spells under his breath, learning it all in the comfort of his own room.

At the present moment in time he was headed to where Prince Arthur was waiting with weapons and armour for another practice round to prepare him for his battle later.

The thing that annoyed Merlin was that he could win so hilariously easily if he was just allowed to use magic, but of course that had been forbidden in Camelot, and he had seen the consequences of what happened to those who used it almost as soon as he entered the city.

His feet trailed on the floor as he got nearer to his destination; he really didn't fancy another thrashing today, which was no doubt what he would end up with. Each time they had to practice he received a ringing headache and a handful of bruises for his hard work. But, as Arthur said, 'at least he was brave'. He pulled a face.

"Ah, Merlin, you're here," Arthur said in an upbeat tone, grinning and chucking the armour and a sword to him, which he caught half of and which the other half of crashed immediately to the floor, "Pick it up then, chop chop."

Merlin mimicked the Prince, rolling his eyes and shoving it on. This wasn't really his scene; Arthur was indeed the strong, muscley fighting man, and he was the weaker, more ordinary one, as Gwen had said. Well, if you discounted for his magic, that was. With that he could quite easily take down any one of knights in Camelot, though of course would find it harder to bear on his mind. He might be able to kill, or seriously injure or maim, but that didn't mean he would want to. But luckily, he probably wouldn't have to either.

Arthur pulled him up off of the ground and immediately started to joust with him, knocking him with his sword once, twice, three times before going for the head as per usual. But as this had become expected by Merlin, although he might not be the strongest boy alive, like Arthur had said, he was brave, and he was fast and plucky too. He darted his sword quickly above his head to block the attack and the connecting of harsh sword against sword made a metallic ring echo around the grassy patch they fought on.

Merlin brought the weight of the sword down in the general direction of the Prince, but he dodged it easily as Merlin was clumsy with weapons, having not had much practice with them, and not being the strongest of boys. He went for another three swings and instead caught Merlin's head side on, causing him to wobble.

"Ow." He moaned, throwing the weight of the sword in the general direction of Arthur's waist and missing by a few feet.

"Oh, quit moaning and start practicing." Arthur replied, easily swinging his blade one handed and aiming a perfect hit at Merlin's shoulder.

"Okay, definitely ow!" he said, opening his visor and pulling a face at Arthur.

"Look, if you don't practice, you're never going to get better and so neither will I," he poked Merlin in the ribs with the end of the sword, "Because to be honest with you Merlin, you're not the most challenging partner I've ever faced."

"I'm better with a mace." He grinned, throwing the sword without much force at the Prince's feet who merely hopped back a couple of metres to avoid the 'attack'.

"Oh, give up, go and do some stuff Gaius has for you to do, or whatever you do in that place. I'll call for you when I need you later." Arthur said, rolling his eyes and walking away.

Merlin shed his armour and walked back through the streets of Camelot, back towards his chamber to no doubt read some more of his precious book.