The Lady of the Lake
Merlin sat at the edge of the Lake of Avalon staring out at the spot where he had last seen his beloved, well her arm at least. He sighed, Arthur would be awake soon and Merlin knew he had to go back to their camp but he could not bring himself to leave her. A single tear ran down his face, Merlin sniffed whipping his face and got up. Merlin took one last longing looking out at the lake and whispered "I miss you so much Fraya, if there is something I can do to get you back please tell me somehow." Merlin waited for a moment wishing for something to happen but nothing did "I love you" Merlin said and with that he walked away heading for the tree line when a large, muscular Knight jumped out from behind a tree.
"Roar" The Knight yelled at the top of his voice
"Hello Gwain" Merlin replied miserably. Gwain looked at his friend and wondered if he'd done something wrong.
"What's up?" Gwain asked with hidden concern
"We're you spying on me?" Merlin said side tracking the question,
"Um no, I woke up and noticed you'd gone on a wonder so I thought I'd come and find you. I saw you just as you where heading for the trees" Gwain explained trying to make eye contact with Merlin who was refusing to comply. The men walked in silence as they headed for the camp.
Merlin's thoughts wondered to Fraya once more, how the candle light made her hair shine and the glint of excitement when he had shown her his magic, how he missed her.
"Errr Merlin" Arthur said again. Merlin looked up and gave a smile to the young King, Merlin had not noticed they had got to the camp so fast
"Yes sire? What is it you would like me to do?" Merlin asked with false cheeriness. Arthur stared at Merlin is confusion.
"I don't want you to do anything, I was just going to ask you if you are alright, you look a bit sad" Arthur asked. Merlin smiled again with more gusto, he did not want to have an inquiry into his personal life right at this moment.
"I'm fine sire, I'll go pack up the pots if that is ok now?" Merlin asked but before Arthur could reply Merlin had hurried off no longer smiling. Arthur looked at Gwain in confusion
"Do you know what's wrong with Merlin?" He asked Gwain, he shook his head
"No Arthur, I went to find him went I woke up and found him walking away for the Lake of Avalon, he looked like he was almost crying!" Gwain explained, trying to make sense of it himself
"Oh that's a bit odd. Well I guess if he wants' to tell us he will" Arthur said trying to brush away the concern in his own voice.
Week's past but nether Merlin, Gwain nor Arthur spoke of their discussion near the Lake of Avalon. Merlin was himself again so Arthur so no reason why he needed to question Merlin further. But if was Gwen who noticed that although Merlin was sociable and nice to everyone well almost everyone he met, he never seemed interested in any passes that a girl may throw at him or at least her would ignore it and move on. This troubled Gwen, shortly Merlin didn't want to die alone? So one cold November day at breakfast Gwen asked "Merlin, do you have a sweetheart?" she looked expectantly at the suddenly flustered Manservant. Arthur looked up from his plate of food and looked almost suspiciously at Merlin.
"Ummm not really no, my lady." Merlin said hesitantly, it was true of cores Merlin could not call Fraya his sweetheart as she was dead or at least beyond his reach. But still Gwen pressed on not satisfied with his answer.
"Oh come on Merlin, you must have had at least a crush?" Merlin sighed and was about to speek when
"Come on Gwen this is Merlin we're talking about, he wouldn't know what to do with a girl if she was standing in front of him naked" Arthur scoffed taking a large gulp of Orange juice. Merlin furious with this accusation blurted out
"You're wrong" Arthur laughed causing him to spit the orange juice out
"Ow yer Merlin, please enlighten us on this secret or imaginary girl friend you've been hiding so very well from us" Gwen looked at her husband disapprovingly, but then back at Merlin quizzically.
"Her name is Freya" Merlin replied with pride. Arthur looked at Merlin full of doubt.
"Oh yer where is she then, because I have never heard of a girl named Fraya here in Camelot" Merlin stood there not saying anything looking down at his feet not wanting to show his face. "See Gwen he made her up" Arthur laughed and went back to his food. Gwen looked at Merlin sympathetically wishing she'd never brought the topic up and she saw a tear fall flow Merlin's face.
"Oh I'm sorry Merlin, I should not have spoke of such personal things. I'm sure you'll find someone." Arthur looked to see his wife comforting Merlin who seemed to be crying, suddenly feeling very bad for what he had just said he got up and went over to Merlin
"It's alright, I'm sorry, I should not have teased you so much, you know what I'm like...Im a...I'm a prat" Arthur said choosing Merlin's favourite word to descried him. Merlin looked up at Arthur
"You're wrong" Merlin said again. Now frustrated Arthur looked at Merlin and said
"Ok then, where dose she live?" Certain he had again proved Merlin was lying.
"She's dead" Merlin replied, and then he ran out of the room. Arthur's face dropped as what Merlin had just said hit him. Dead, Merlin was too young to have suffered such grief but Merlin had said it dead, she was dead. Gwen looked into Arthurs eyes and he understood. He needed to find Merlin and apologise.
Arthur looked up and down the castle and down in Merlin's room, Gaius hadn't seen Merlin since Merlin had done up to help serve breakfast. Then Arthur thought of what Merlin had once said
"When I need to think or to cleat my thoughts I do and sit by the fields just outside the city wall, there it is quite and the barley in the field looks so beautiful swaying in the wind it looks like the waves of the sea"
That's where he'll be thought Arthur. It did not take long for Arthur to find Merlin after that and as Arthur had remembered Merlin was sitting just outside the city wall. Merlin looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps, Arthur looked down at Merlin and sat next to him of the grass. They sat in silence for a few minutes.
"Merlin, I'm really sorry." Arthur said "Is she truly dead?" Merlin looked at Arthur with red eyes and nodded
"Or as good as" he said quietly
"So she's not dead then?" Arthur said confusedly.
"Well she.." Merlin couldn't tell Arthur it would mean reviling Fraya had magic but what was Arthur going to do, she was already gone "She's the Lady of the Lake" Merlin finished
"What a minute that would mean she.."Arthur trailed of as realisation hit him
"She was a druid" Merlin confirmed Arthur's thoughts.
"How did she become the Lady of the Lake, how did you meet?" Arthur asked
"I rescued her from being captured for being a druid, I could not stand by and let her be punched for..." Merlin stopped "Well anyway she stayed in a tunnel I knew of for a while and I got her food a water, we would talk for ages and she would tell me of her life, but then one night she got caught and she was fatally wounded there was nothing I could do so I took her to the Lake of Avalon and she died in my arms, I put her in a boat and set it alight, I don't really know how she because the Lady of the Lake but I saw her again a year ago so that's how I knew." Merlin finished trailing off into memories. Arthur watched his friend for a while trying not to focus on the fact that she had been a druid, Merlin had fallen in love with a girl who defied his own laws.
"Merlin you know if could not have worked..." Arthur trailed off
"We were going to run away together or we would have made it work" Merlin replied. Arthur looked at Merlin as if he was joking but Merlin look way to serious to convince himself that he was joking. Merlin got up "I have work to do" and Merlin walked away. Arthur sat there for a little while longer, how could Merlin and this druid girl, Freya, Arthur corrected himself, made it work? She was a druid but then again Arthur knew Merlin well enough to know that Merlin would not fall for anyone who was bad, but she had magic, Arthur started to think, was it wrong to judge someone as bad or evil just because they had magic?. No Arthur thought to himself it was what his father Uther had stood by so he must do the same.
A year or so latter Arthur was in his Thrown room sitting before a young woman perhaps a few years younger than himself. She had dark hair and dark eyes, she was dripping wet.
"We found her by the Lake of Avalon" Percival said looking down at the terrified girl "She was saying something that we could not quite make out but the suddenly she made some weapons appear along with a few candles" Percival waved toward a pile of metal and wax
"Did you conjure these girls?" Arthur asked angrily, the girl nodded. Then the door to the throne room was opened admitting Merlin who walked around the room towards Arthur carrying a few rolls of parchment and bottle of ink and a quill.
"Here you go sire.." Merlin turned and stared at the girl standing before Arthur "Freya?" Merlin muttered. The girl gave Merlin a massive smile and Merlin ran towards her dropping the parchment, ink and quill and embraced the girl and kissed her gently on the lips before drawing away and smiling at one another just holding themselves to each other.
"MERLIN" Arthur yelled, the couple broke apart and Merlin went red then turned the Arthur
"Yes sire?" Merlin asked now also wet from Freya's clothing
"You know this girl? This girl who has been caught using magic and will be punched for doing so?" Arthur asked now red with rage
"You shall do no such this Arthur! You will not punish Freya, I will make sure you cannot" Merlin said with a viciousness in his voice it almost scared Arthur.
"What do you mean, I shall do not such thing, I am the King and wait.. did you just call her Fraya?" Arthur said now confused. Merlin's eyes softened as he looked down at her and she took his hand.
"Yes, her name is Freya, I have told you of her once before" Merlin said with pride in his voice
"But you said she was The Lady of the Lake? She cannot but both here and at the Lake of Avalon, Merlin be reasonable" Arthur said trying to convince himself that this could not be the same girl Merlin was in love with
"If I may speak sire" Freya asked stepping forward, Arthur nodded "I am Freya, The Lady of the Lake, your knight said himself that he found me by the Lake of Avalon" Freya pleaded holding tightly on to Merlin's hand.
"But then how are you here?" Arthur asked, sure he had trapped her.
"The bonds tying me the lake realised me just last night, I guess perhaps I have served my due." Freya answered confidently looking Arthur in the eye. Arthur sighed.
"That still does not stop the fact that you are a druid and used magic, that is illegal and I think you probably know the consequences for using magic" Arthur finished, hating himself to have to be the one to take Freya away from Merlin. The guards at the end of the room and resoled Merlin and Freya apart and put Freya in iron shackles.
"NO" Merlin yelled pleadingly at Arthur "You cannot do this, Arthur please, don't do this" Merlin shouted.
"I sorry Merlin, but the law cannot be changed just because you where foolish enough to fall for a druid" Arthur said calmly as he rose from his thrown and walk to the end of the room past the struggling girl.
"Arthur, NO." Merlin yelled desperately willing Arthur to change his mind
"I said it cannot Merlin" Arthur yelled angrily. Merlin stood their staring Arthur in the face and muttered
"Then you leave me with no choice"
"Oh be reasonable Merlin what are you going to do? You're just a manservant!" Arthur scoffed at the now enraged Merlin
"I once told you Freya and I would have found a way to make it work, you never wondered how? And just now I said I would not let take Freya away from me and again you did not wonder how, you under estimate me Arthur Pendragaon, you always have" Merlin said with a deadly calm
"What on earth are you taking about" Arthur said, convinced Merlin had gone mad. Then Merlin yelled something in another language causing the two guards to fly backwards and hit the opposite wall, then Merlin ran to Freya and said another word in a different language setting Freya free, Merlin took Freya's hand and the ran towards the door where a shocked Arthur stood.
"Merlin?" Arthur asked, looking bewildered and scared.
"Yes Arthur?" Merlin replied looking straight into Arthurs eyes
"You used magic." This was not a question it was a statement. Merlin looked around suddenly very aware to the fact Gwain, Percival, Elyan and Leon where all staring at him with the same expression as Arthur
"Yes I did" Merlin replied, knowing there was no point denying it "And I've been using it to save your life for the last 5-6 year's we've known one another." Merlin added in pride
"Wait...what...really?" Arthur asked astonished. Merlin nodded." But that's illegal" Merlin laughed.
"What saving your life?" Merlin looked at Arthur who he could see was having a mental battle with his self whether to thank Merlin or try and probably fail to imprison Merlin "Look Arthur, can't you see that it's not the magic that's evil it's the people who use it who decide whether to be good or bad. I have had so many chances to kill you, and have I once even tried to kill you? NO. And Freya did she once try to harm you with her magic? NO, so why must she be punished? "Merlin finished looking around at Arthur and his Knights
"Arthur he's right" Gwain spoke up, Percival, Leon and Elyan nodded
"Merlin..." Arthur sighed look tired a weary "I know your right, I've been thinking about this for a very long time and... its true what you said, it's not magic that's evil, it the people who use it who decide whether its good or bad" Arthur strode over to Merlin and embraced him in a hug "I think this is probably well over due, but thank you" Arthur then turned to Freya who had been standing there silently "I will not have you killed nor anyone who use's magic for good"
"And it's about time too" Freya said, making Merlin, the Knights and Arthur laugh.
"Well I've got to draw up some new laws" Arthur went to go then he turned around again "Oh Merlin I'm going to want a ummm sorcerer"
"Im actually a Warlock, oh and the last Dragon Lord AND the high priest" Merlin corrected Arthur with a smile. Arthur smiled back
"Yer well I'll want one of those to help me through all of this, do you think you're up for the job?" Arthur asked
"What and not be your manservant?" Merlin asked in delight
"Yes I think this could be a fulltime thing" Arthur said jokingly
"I'd love to, thank you Arthur" Merlin smiled. Arthur nodded and walked out of the Thrown room. Freya turned to Merlin
"So does this mean that we can use magic and not get killed for it?" Freya asked gleefully. Merlin smiled even more
"Yes I believe it dose!" Merlin replied. Merlin and Freya both laughed with joy knowing that they were safe being who they where and could be with each other for as long as they wanted. Merlin leaned down to kiss Freya gently on her red lips but as Merlin drew back Freya kissed Merlin with passion and Merlin was kissing her back with so much enthusiasm it was almost inappropriate.
"Don't mind us we'll just stand here and watch you to undress each other" Gwain said loudly. Freya and Merlin broke apart, it was true. Freya had yanked Merlin's jacket of him and Merlin had started to undo Freya's dress. They both went very red.
"Sorry" Freya muttered but with a smile on her face.
"I'm not" Merlin said. Making everyone laugh.
"I think we should probably be getting off now anyway" Percival said. And he headed towards the door followed Elyan, Leon and the Gwain.
"Who would have thought it, Merlin an Warlock AND he has a girlfriend, maybe he's not as stupid as we thought" Gwain said loudly, this was followed by laughter from the other nights as they headed down the corridor. Merlin and Freya where finally alone.
"So my beautiful Freya" Merlin said entwining his figures with hers.
"Yes Merlin" Freya laughed watching their two hands.
"I love you" Merlin said silkily. Freya looked up into Merlin's eyes
"I love you too" Freya replied with a smile. Merlin bent down once more and kissed Freya and she pressed close to him making their body look as one.
"Would you like to see where I live" Merlin whispered into Freya's small ear with a smile.
"I would very much like that" Freya said as she kissed Merlin on the cheek. And with that hand in hand Merlin led Freya to his and Gaius's chamber. Sharing kisses as they went.