Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Supernatural or of Merlin, unfortunately. How I wish I did.
Author's Note: This is meant to take place instead of 6.15 The French Mistake, and somewhere between 4.03 The Wicked Day and 4.04 Aithusa, so Arthur's just become King.
Thank you for reading, and enjoy!
"Dollophead!"
Dean scrambled off of the slight, dark-haired boy who he had landed on. The boy gave him quite a nasty look before pinching his wet shirt (presumably soaked by the water from the now empty bucket next to them) and drawing it away from his body.
"Can't oafs like you watch where you're going?" The dark haired boy stooped and grabbed the empty bucket, glancing into it before turning his arms up into the air in a show of annoyance. "Now look, I'll have to fetch more water. You're to blame if the King asks why I was delayed." The vibrantly blue-eyed young man wagged a slim finger very close to Dean's face before spinning on his heel and stomping off.
Dean took a moment, blinking repeatedly before he glanced down at his clothes, which were considerably wet as well. In glancing at his clothes, he caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye at a tall figure on the ground, who he immediately rushed over to.
"Sam!" Dean rolled over his brother's limp figure, whose head was a bit bloody, but the wound appeared superficial. Within moments, Sam blinked open his eyes in a daze.
"Dean? What happened?"
Dean helped his younger brother into a sitting position before attempting to explain. "Remember, Balthazar sent us through the window with the key? We ended up here, I guess."
"Right." Sam leaned away from his brother and stood up on his own, taking a glance around where they had ended up. "And where is here, exactly?"
Dean didn't have an answer. Peering around him, he was utterly confused as to where Balthazar had sent them. They seemed to be in the middle of a very old-fashioned town square- cobblestones and all- framed on one side by stalls and small huts, and on the other side by…
"Is that a castle?" Dean just shook his head in awe at his brother's exclamation, because they were, in fact, staring up at a very grand castle.
Dean licked his lips nervously. "Looks like it."
The boys stood there, in the town square, just looking around for a while, not sure of anything, really, until the sound of several hooves caused the brothers to turn around.
"Oi! You two! Don't just stand around! Make way!" Dean pulled Sam out of the way as several gallantly-dressed men in chainmail bounded past on horses.
"Were those knights?" Sam asked his brother once the sound of the horses had faded.
Dean looked nervously in the direction the knights had gone. "You don't suppose Balthazar sent us back in time?" He looked at Sam, pleading for the taller man to assure him, that no, they hadn't been sent back in time to medieval Europe.
Sam ran a hand through his hair, drawing it back to look at the blood now stained on his palm. He glanced over a Dean with a grim expression. "I have no idea. So I guess we'd better find some answers then." He looked determinedly at the looming castle, marching towards it with the intent of finding some answers.
Dean had no qualms at watching the lady-maids and the serving girls as they passed him by, for if they were stuck in the middle ages, he was going to make the most of it. After all, they were doing Balthazar a favor.
But it was a very tall stack of ornate sheets that caught Dean's eye, and although he could not see the woman carrying the sheets, he moved over to her, gently lifting a part of the burden so he could see her face.
"Can I help you with those?" He smiled, and he knew his brother was rolling his eyes behind him.
The woman looked flustered, but nodded meekly. "Yes, thank you."
Dean followed her not far to a very lovely bedroom, where she laid her sheets in a cupboard before taking the ones from him and adding them as well.
"So, I suppose you two are part of King Aeolus' company, from the east?" The dark-haired woman bowed her head and clasped her weary hands neatly in front of her pale lavender dress.
Sam and Dean exchanged a glance before Sam answered unconvincingly. "Ah, yes."
The woman's smile brightened. "I'm Gwen." Her smile faltered as she glanced at their clothing. "Oh, I did hear those in the east dressed peculiarly, but…"
Her expression turned to alarm as she saw the confusion on Dean and Sam's faces. "Oh! I'm so sorry, that wasn't my place to speak!" She began to mutter into the folds of her dress, until Sam reached out a hand and gently tapped her shoulder.
"No, no, it's fine. We would love to dress in the same manner as you do here." Gwen looked up, much happier, until she noticed the blood dripping from his forehead.
"Oh! Your head! We should have Gaius look at it!" She gently traced his cheek below the injury.
"No, no. I'm really fine." Sam disengaged himself from her grasp and began to walk back towards his brother.
"No, really, Gaius won't mind! He's the best court physician in Camelot, and perhaps in all the surrounding area as well!" Gwen's voice was pleading, clearly trying to make up for her slip about the clothing moments earlier.
Dean watched as his brother's expression drastically changed, but it didn't seem to be the reason for the change in his own expression. "Alright, if he won't mind." Sam began following Gwen out of the room until Dean pulled him back.
"Dude, Camelot! What the hell?"
Sam rolled his eyes. Balthazar did love his fun and games.
"And why do you want to go see the court physician? We need to figure out what's going on." Dean's expression was more than a little confused.
"Exactly why we go see the court physician." Sam walked out of the room, striding fast to catch up to where Gwen was fast disappearing around the corner. Dean jogged a bit to catch up to him, still not following his brother's logic. Sam, seeing this, amended his statement. "Look. The court physician knows a lot about the goings on in these sort of places, and he should be the easiest to get any information out of."
"Ah." Dean nodded, finally beginning to understand. By the time he had sorted things out in his slightly slow brain, however, his brother had caught up to Gwen, and the pair had disappeared into the next long corridor of the vast castle.
For a castle of this size, it took a surprisingly little amount of time before Gwen had halted at a shabby wooden door with a shy smile. "Here we are, Gaius' apothecary and room." She gently swung the door open, and both Dean and Sam had to duck to make it through the rather short doorway.
"Gaius, I've brought two of the men from King Aeolus' company. One's injured." Gwen spoke nervously to the old man facing away from her and the Winchester brothers.
The man turned around, and Dean and Sam were surprised to see a very confident and also judgmental expression on his face. His white hair lightly brushed his shoulders, and his fingers looked feeble, and he may not have walked with a straight back, but both Winchester brothers were reminded of Bobby.
"Thank you, Guinevere. I'll fix them up right away." Gwen began to bow out of the room until Gaius spoke again. "Also, if you see Merlin, could you tell him to come down here? Can't imagine what that boy's up to." Gaius shook his head unapprovingly before turning to a workbench and fetching various materials.
Dean and Sam watched awkwardly as the physician stirred and mixed, poked and prodded what he was doing, careful not to interrupt him. At last, when he seemed satisfied with the product, he poured it into a vial and placed it into a storage cabinet.
"Sorry, what is that?" Dean's expression could best be described as a mix between confusion and disbelief.
Gaius briefly glanced at the tall hunter before looking back at the vial he had just stored. "A simple salve, for soothing nerves. The King really is need of some."
"So you spent these last few minutes making an irrelevant salve while he's standing here with a bleeding head?" Dean motioned angrily towards his brother, who looked slightly put off as well.
Gaius looked at the brothers with a candid expression they had only ever seen on Bobby and Gabriel. "It's a superficial wound, as you well know, and from the way he's not rolling around screaming, I think he's seen much like this before. Waiting a few minutes will do you no harm." When neither brother answered, Gaius pursed his lips and waved Sam over to him.
"Fine, let me have a look." Sam hesitantly sat at a bench Gaius waved him to, and Dean watched as Gaius gently cleaned and sanitized the wound.
After Gaius had gotten most of the blood off, but before he had finished fixing Sam up, Dean decided to bravely venture a question about what he had heard transpire between Gaius and Gwen earlier.
"So, that lady-maid, her name was Guinevere?"
Gaius looked at Dean in an expression Bobby liked to call 'idjit'. "Yes."
Dean shifted his eye contact to seem more casual. "And you asked her to look for someone named Merlin?"
Sam made eye contact with Dean. He knew what his brother was thinking. If this was really Camelot, then those two people mentioned must be the Queen Guinevere and the great wizard Merlin.
Gaius' arched eyebrow grew, if possible, closer to his forehead. "That's right. Merlin is my assistant and the King's servant." The physician remained tight-lipped as he continued to finish dressing Sam's wound, not ready to reveal unnecessary information.
"Right, then. All done." Gaius gave Sam's shoulder a gentle pat, then turned away, back to his herbs.
"Thanks." Sam gingerly touched his head, but continued to stand there, he and Dean watching Gaius, who was completely ignoring them.
Finally, Gaius turned when he noticed they hadn't left. "Still here? Haven't you got other things to do?"
Dean was going to offer a weak answer when the door to the room banged open, and a figure in brown and red blew by him to his left.
"'Lo, Gaius." The boy dropped a satchel on the workbench next to Gaius.
"Merlin!" Gaius spun around as the youth continued to run around like a whirlwind. "Where've you been? The tavern? I hope you've gotten the lavender and yarrow."
The boy didn't answer, grabbing a thick, leather bound book and flipping through the pages as he walked back to Gaius. Gaius rolled his eyes, but when the youth finally looked up at the Winchester boys, Dean's eyebrows shot up so high on his head that he almost had to push them down.
"You!" The boy slammed the book and stared accusingly at Dean. "You ran into me in the courtyard! And I'll have you know the King was not pleased to have his bath water brought to him late!"
Dean actually took a step back from the boy. So this was Merlin. The greatest supposed wizard in all of history was a slim young man servant to the King, assistant to the court physician, with messy hair. He had to laugh, which seemed to make the youth madder. His face screwed up unpleasantly, and Dean suppressed his chuckles as the facial expression sparked in him an image he associated more accurately with the great wizard Merlin.
"Merlin, these are part of King Aeolus' escort from the East." Gaius said, his voice laced with warning.
Merlin just clenched his jaw, and screwed his nose up one more time before spinning on his heel and running up a short bit of steps to another room, where he slammed the door.
Dean and Sam exchanged a furtive glance, but said nothing. So perhaps the great wizard was still experiencing a hint of puberty. Gaius continued to stir and attend his potions, until he had finished and corked another vial of bubbling liquid.
"Well, then, no more games." The old man walked up to the brothers and looked each squarely in the face. "Who are you, really? I've been to the East- they don't dress like that. And you are quite interested in Gwen and Merlin, more than two should be about a lady-maid and a servant. So I ask you again, who are you?"