Title: Lædan pompeon
Category: Gen (Canon), a bit of humour
Characters: Gwaine, Merlin, Morgana, Gaius
Warnings: K
Summary: About pumpkins and apples
Author's Note: I'm not sure if this is all historically acurate. But hey, it's Camelot, a fictional world. :-) Happy Halloween 2012 everyone.
"Lædan pompeon."
With a swift movement of her wrist, Morgana muttered the spell that she knew would bring chaos and hopefully havoc to Camelot. She stood on a hill overlooking the citadel. It was a dark and cold clear night, just how she liked it. The full moon seemed to be grinning at her, which send shivers of pleasure up her spine.
From where Morgana stood, the citadel seemed to come alive with large bonfires lit throughout the lower town and the castle square itself. It was the eve before Samhain, and they were trying to scare away evil spirits. Samhain to her was a night to honour the lord of the death. The night of the witches. Morgana felt wonderful, more alive than ever. This was going to be her night, she was going to enjoy it.
"Lædan pompeon." She pronounced the spell clearer and louder this time, with more confidence, hands spread out towards the citadel. When she turned and walked away, a grin was solidly plastered on her face. Agravaine was going to report to her later. She almost couldn't wait.
Gwaine was fiercely holding on to his apple. He knew the Samhain traditions, the lightening of fires and the dreadful part, the sacrifice of fruit and vegetables to appease the spirits of the deceased. He was not going to give away this apple. It was red, large and crunchy. The spirits would understand.
The knights, Merlin and Gaius were standing on the castle square and enjoyed the largest bonfire he'd ever seen. People around were gathering mostly cabbages, turnips and pumpkins, piling them up to be burned later on. No apples, yet.
A little boy strolled up to Gwaine, one small finger pointing at the apple. "You cannot eat that apple, Sir knight, mum told me you need to sacri... sacri... burn it."
Gwaine intensified his grip on the apple, aware that everyone was staring at him now. He was so not going to give the boy his apple. No matter what the others might think. There was enough to burn on those piles already. This precious apple was going to be saved by him... And eaten later of course.
The boy reached out...
"Whoa." Gwaine did a step backwards and tumbled over a pumpkin behind him. The minute he'd touched it, the pumpkin let out a little squeaking sound, made a slight jump which was absolutely impossible, and before Gwaine could even blink, there were three more pumpkins.
"Did you see that?" Gwaine muttered. Thank goodness he hadn't been out drinking earlier this evening, or he would have thought he'd be drunk. "That pumpkin."
Before he could gather his wits, there were a lot more of the same squeaking sounds to be heard all over the square and beyond. It suddenly got mixed with shouts of surprise and fear. Pumpkins were jumping up and multiplying so rapidly, small piles were quickly turning into huge amounts that filled the streets and the square.
People were pushed out of the way, or worse, crushed against walls. Gwaine felt a strong arm pulling him up just before he got buried. It was Percival, who pulled him to one side meanwhile carrying the little boy in his arms.
"Definitely magic," Gwaine panted. "Could me Morgana's doing."
"Gwaine?" It was Merlin's voice coming from behind a pile of pumpkins to his right.
"Merlin?"
"Do you still have the apple?" Merlin's voice yelled from behind the pile, trying to over stem the loud noise of pumpkin squeaks and the chilling sound of people screaming.
Apple? Why in the world was Merlin thinking about apples, while they were going to be crushed to death at any second? Gwaine trusted Merlin though, he wasn't sure what it was about the young man, but he had total confidence in him.
"Throw it to me, Gwaine, quickly!"
Gwaine didn't think. He threw the apple with as much precision as he could muster while pumpkins were still piling up and up to all sides. There was nothing more he could do, nowhere to go. Death by pumpkins, it would have been funny if they weren't in such a tight spot.
As soon as the pumpkins had started to multiply, Merlin had gazed at Gaius who didn't look surprised at all. The older man had quickly told Merlin that he'd seen such a spell performed before, ages ago, when he had been a young lad.
An old witch from his village had wanted to make pumpkin soup, but she only had one very small pumpkin, not enough to feed her family of ten, including young Gaius who was good friends with her oldest son. So, she had cast the spell right in front of them all and the small pumpkin had reproduced itself.
"How did she stop it?" Merlin asked impatiently, "I mean, she did stop it from multiplying again, right?"
"With an apple."
"An apple?"
"You stop vegetables from doing this with fruit, or the other way around. If these had been apples, we could have used pumpkins or turnips." Gaius was grabbing Merlin's arm pulling him out of the way of a large pumpkin that almost decided to land on his head "It's all about restoring the balance."
"Where do we find an apple, we're stuck in a pile of pumpkins!" A wave of helplessness made itself master of Merlin quickly. People were going to die if he wouldn't be able to stop this. And he wasn't so sure this time if he could.
"Gwaine!" Gaius yelled, almost making him jump out of his skin.
"Gwaine?"
"He had an apple last time I saw him."
"Where is he?" Merlin looked around frantically. "Gwaine?"
"Merlin?" Gwaine's loud steady voice reached them from the other side of the pumpkin pile to their left, and a wave of relief washed over Merlin like the voice was a breath of fresh air.
"Do you still have the apple?" Merlin tried to over shout the madness around them. "Throw it to me, Gwaine, quickly!"
The apple appeared in mid air, and Merlin didn't wait for it to land in his hands by the forces of nature. There was no one near them, so he directed it straight into his hands by magic.
"And now what, Gaius?"
"Hold the apple against the nearest pumpkin and use a spell that orders them away."
"That simple?"
"I hope so."
"Hope so?"
"Just do it."
Merlin concentrated and moved his left hand holding the apple against a large pumpkin near his head that was about to slide down. "Gewitan, heonon!" It meant go away, and he hoped it was enough.
Nothing happened for a second, then all of a sudden all the pumpkins gave one loud screech as if they were alive. Scary faces appeared on them, like they had been carved into their orange skin, like they wanted to devour everyone around. Then they started to evaporate into tiny orange raindrops, one by one until there were no pumpkins left.
Camelot had been saved once more. This time by Sir. Gwaine's apple.
"Ha, Merlin." Gwaine looked around like nothing had happened, slapped him on the shoulder and gave him a broad smile. "I see you still have my apple, may I?"
A loud crunching sound was heard all over the square and Merlin couldn't help but grin.
If Gwaine only knew...
The End
[To read more of mine and other Merlin fanfic, visit the Heart of ]