A/N: Just a drabble straight from my whistle to you. I can only claim credit for the typing; poor whistle doesn't have any fingers, the dear... of course if it did it might just play itself sooo... I'm going to stop sounding crazy now and let you get on with the drabble!
Arthur finds him as he usually does nowadays; by following his ears. The thin tune wafting over the heath leads him out and up, past the small cluster of buildings at the base of the hill towards the castle ruins at the summit. Even without the music this is the first place he would have looked. Merlin, in a turn about from his old superstitions about such places, now feels more at home in crumbling castles and old forests than anywhere else. In many ways Arthur doesn't blame him. They belong to an age in which those castles were brand new citadels and the ancestors of the oldest trees now living were naught but saplings.
This particular castle sits perched atop a grassy hill overlooking a wide sweep of pastures between it and the river where a series of low bluffs conceal the next valley from sight of all but the highest towers. The hike up to the verge is one Arthur's become familiar with since they'd first made camp here several weeks ago. It's longest by far they've remained undetected and he can only hope that it will remain that way though the twist in his gut wonders if they haven't already been discovered with the enemy just waiting for them to let down their guard.
A wild leaping tune frolics around him now, pulling his mind away from such dark matters. Pushing himself into a light jog he breaches the outer wall. With half an ear cocked he meanders under stone archways and through crumbling walls until he find him.
Merlin stands, back to the entrance, on a large section of wall overlooking the cliff to the castle's back. Swaying slightly to his song he looks to Arthur as if he might, at any moment, fall into the air to be carried away back to Camelot.
Arthur leans back against a cool marble pillar and listens. Tunes from his childhood at court mix with the wild leaping songs of the Irish and modern pop from the single radio they have at camp.
He closes his eyes, imaging himself back into the cool woods around Camelot. They are taking shelter in one of the old ruins for the night. Merlin had complained of course, but Arthur is adamant. They'd already had their share of bad luck and bandits. The ruins will be safe enough. The men laugh and shove at each other as they prepare the meager supper they'd caught. The smell of woodsmoke and roasted conney sets his stomach churning. They haven't eaten since that morning. He won't be the only one who's hungry.
The music trails off into the night. Arthur surfaces from his daydream.
"Arthur? Is that you?"
He steps forward into the light of Merlin's electric torch. "Just checking in. You ok?"
The torch shifts slightly and Merlin's face is thrown into sharp contrast. From this vantage it's impossible to tell if his face is really that sunken and angular or if it's just the shadows but Arthur knows the truth. Bringing them all forward had cost Merlin every last drop of his magic. What he has left is only enough to keep him alive… and the rest is not coming back.
"Yeah. Just restless."
"You've gotten pretty decent on that thing. I remember when you first picked it up. I thought someone was strangling a cat."
They both smile at that. The pennywhistle had only been the first instrument Merlin had bought or traded for as they drifted like outlaws across the length and breadth of Great Britian. He likes the ones that dance under his fingers. The ones that are best played out of doors where they can echo across the hills or down alleyways calling out the time into the night.
"It's just… it feels like, when I play… that I'm….I dunno… closer to home, I guess..."
Arthur thinks back on his daydream. He knows the feeling exactly.
Merlin leans into the night wind as if listening to a melody unheard by mortals. Unbidden the words rise to his lips and escape into the air still quivering with song. "Music… It's like magic."
Was in enjoyable? awful? completely uninteresting either way? Please tell me!