Prompt: A Sleigh Ride
Play first, Cookies later – PG – Drama – No warnings, except for scant A/GArthur gained the top of the long hill, yelling encouragement to his lagging group of knights plus Merlin. He had been breaking ground through the thigh deep snow for the last hour and, on this gorgeous sunny day, the weight of his chainmail and half plate armor brought a ruddy glow to his cheeks, despite the below-freezing temperatures.
"Sometimes a man just has to get out and be a man!" Arthur shouted to the crystalline blue sky, conveniently ignoring every other day when he and his knights whacked at each other with heavy weaponry.
"What? Stupid enough to leave the comfort of hearth and home AND THE COOKIES to the women?" Gwaine asked, leaning over and panting heavily as he stopped by Arthur's side.
Elyan consoled Gwaine, neither quite as worn out nor as bitter, "Don't worry. They won't eat them all, 'cause they're afraid for their figures. After all, they didn't burn off energy slogging their way through EVERY deep drift of snow from here to Camelot wearing EVERY piece of metal they own."
Percival threw in gently. "It wasn't so bad." He had had to lead in the beginning, but with someone else breaking trail, his long legs were a distinct advantage.
Leon gained the summit as well, hauling the sack of helmets, extra weapons, and food he had taken from Merlin who was still a good hundred yards down the slope. "It IS good training."
Arthur grinned, "That's the spirit, Percival, Leon. A beautiful day, vigor in a man's limbs, and the ANTICIPATION of cookies, Gwaine."
"You can't have anticipation, if there ARE NO COOKIES LEFT! Have you had Gwen's gingerbread? Do you know how fast it disappears?" With both hands, Gwaine scraped his hair back against his head in agitation.
Arthur smirked, "Ah, but she always gives ME gingerbread*. Merlin! Hurry it up there! Especially since I see Leon took over your job."
Merlin had halted about fifty feet down the slope and was looking down the mile-long treeless slope to where the road emerged from the forest, his head cocked in a listening attitude. The tallest towers of Camelot were just visible over the tops of the trees to the south.
"C'mon, Merlin, you can't think of turning back now. You're almost here." Arthur cajoled him.
The rest of the knights looked at Merlin, and unconsciously turned towards Leon who immediately started passing out helmets and weapons. Despite his continued encouragement to Merlin, peppered with annoyed verbal abuse, Arthur automatically girded himself as well. After a few minutes Merlin turned back around, shrugging and grinning sheepishly, before continuing his slow climb to the summit.
The knights relaxed and spread out at the top of the broad peak, practicing lunging and evading in the deep snow. Soon most of the slope was crossed with the complicated patterns of attack and riposte, dotted with the occasional body-length depression. Merlin kept warm by continuously moving the food bag and himself out of the way of aggressive swinging.
The warlock surveyed the still sparring knights. One thing he and Gwen had recently noticed about their training was that they only fought shoulder to shoulder as a group during tournament melees or in emergencies. Usually they practiced against each other, not with each other. He had lately been thinking about how to remedy this situation to give them more experience, and the snowy tableau spread out in front of him seemed perfect.
Quickly scanning the group to make sure none of them noticed him, Merlin whispered a spell under his breath. Seconds later a half dozen snow golems roared from the far side of the summit field. They spread out, slowly herding the knights with awkward swipes of their long ape-like arms. Before long, the knights were in a loose grouping at the top of the slope they had climbed.
Soon the knights discovered that they could chip away at the mass of the snow golems. If a knight cut too deep in a solid part of the golem, then their weapons would get stuck. But if the knight could shave off a piece anywhere on the monster, then the chipped off snow would fall to the ground inanimate. Once they discovered that, the knights worked to cut one monster off from the rest, hacking away at its legs until it fell to the ground useless. Then they would move a short distance away, out of arms reach, and start in on another one.
The fighters had dismembered about half the golems when Merlin finally got tired and wandered back to the top of their earlier ascent. Looking back down at the road, he saw a sleigh pulled by a quartet of horses. In the sleigh were a few people he could not quite identify, but the deep blue cape could only be Gwen, the Queen.
The sleigh stopped simultaneously with a frisson from a much older magic. Merlin thought it felt a bit like the great dragon, but he wasn't anywhere near here. Turning back to the knights a movement at the top of one of the near peaks caught his eye. If he had to talk down another dragon in front of Arthur, his secret would be out.
Turning back to the knights, Merlin whispered another spell, dumping them on their backs and speeding them down the slope. Most of them were wearing chainmail which made it hard for them to slide naturally, but with just a touch of his magic they skimmed across the top of the snow. Arthur, Percival, and Leon kept their eyes on the golems for the first part of the descent; Elyan and Gwaine sounded like they were either panicking or having way too much fun.
Merlin released the snow golems. Hopefully the summoning magic was what had roused the creature, and now that he had released it, the ancient might lose interest. He should have guessed after the egg that there was something resident in these mountains, regardless of the twisted words of the Great Dragon.
After a moment of watching the peak, the budding sorcerer detected no movement and the feeling of dragon faded. Merlin turned back down the slope seeing that the knights were more than halfway down. He waited another moment until they were almost to the sleigh and let go of the magic that made them human sleds.
Now what was the fastest way to get himself down?
+A+G+A+G+A+G+A+G+A+G+A+G+A+G+
A scant minute later, Merlin shook himself dizzily out of the snow piled against the side of the sleigh that used to be a human-sized snowball. He surveyed the results of their little adventure.
Guinevere looked down at Arthur, cradling his head in her lap. She had removed his helmet and was stroking his sweaty blond hair back from his forehead.
"Arthur, what were you doing? I drove out thinking you might enjoy a ride back in my sleigh once you were done with your manly pursuits, and here I find you trying to be a sleigh."
From a few feet over, Gwaine moaned pitifully, "Forget about the ride, did you bring us cookies?"
Gwen looked up from her gentle ministrations. "Yes, Gwaine. Sefa has the cookies in the sleigh."
The knights hopped up from their prostrate positions in the snow, mobbing her maid for cookies, all except for Arthur.
He goofily smiled up at his Queen, happy now to settle down wherever she was.
A/N: * Yes, THAT gingerbread… :) Read kbrand5333's entries for the same fic exchange for the reference.
