And when I entered told me that himself
And Merlin ever served about the King,
Uther, before he died; and on the night
When Uther in Tintagil past away
Moaning and wailing for an heir, the two
Left the still King, and passing forth to breathe,
Then from the castle gateway by the chasm
Descending through the dismal night-a night
In which the bounds of heaven and earth were lost-
Beheld, so high upon the dreary deeps
It seemed in heaven, a ship, the shape thereof
A dragon winged, and all from stem to stern
Bright with a shining people on the decks,
And gone as soon as seen. And then the two
Dropt to the cove, and watched the great sea fall,
Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,
Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep
And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged
Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame:
And down the wave and in the flame was borne
A naked babe, and rode to Merlin's feet,
Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried, 'The King!
Here is an heir for Uther!'

From Alfred, Lord Tennysons "Idylls of the king – the coming of Arthur"


Chapter 2

"I'm sorry, I must have the wrong place, I'll uhh…" Arthur turned to leave.

"No! Wait!" Merlin cried as he finally stood up. If this was the return he had been waiting so long for, he could not simply just let walk out. Arthur paused and turned around, obviously confused.

"This is the right place then?" He asked, taking a few steps further into the shop.

Merlin knew he had to persevere. Arthur had no memory of the past, of that he was certain. He had been waiting for this moment for over a thousand years and had imagined over a hundred different scenarios in his head, and had tried many spells and potions to see the future but the fact remained that he had no idea what Arthur coming back would be like.

"Yeah, err, I guess I do know a bit… what is it you want to know?" Merlin sat back down behind the counter. He felt his heart flutter slightly as a look of relief washed over Arthur's face. Merlin watched in awe as Arthur began to traverse the shop, taking the lids off the bottles and smelling the contents, studying the maps with interest. He hadn't changed a bit.

Eventually, Arthur stopped in front of the desk and pulled out a folder and a notebook from his bag.

"I wanted to know about the mount. What makes it so special." Arthur said as he flicked through the pages of his book.

"Special?" Merlin repeated. He flashed his eyes towards the direction of the door and coughed to mask the sound of the lock clicking. He couldn't risk just letting Arthur leave now he was back.

"It's pretty hard to explain, I guess I've always just felt fascinated by the history. I started doing some reading about it, and I just like I connected with it, I don't really know why. It sounds stupid, but I just felt drawn here."

"It doesn't sound stupid to me, in fact, I've come across this sort of thing before."

Arthur looked up "You have?"

Merlin nodded. "What… what did you say your name was?" he asked, trying to seem disinterested. It was difficult to suppress the elation he was currently experiencing. Arthur was back, here, in the same room looking just as he did all those years ago.

"Oh, yes… It's Arthur. Arthur Pendragon." He reached out his hand, which Merlin took gingerly. Instantly a flash of energy surged down his arm, causing Arthur to jump back in shock.

"What the hell was that?"

"Oh, sorry…" Merlin mumbled, "It's this jumper, and uhh, static and all that, I get it all the time, my fault, should have earthed myself before I…"

He looked up to see Arthur looking at him blankly. "Would you like a cup of tea?" He asked, gesturing towards the back of the shop "then you ask me what you like."

"Sure…" Arthur looked warily at his still outstretched hand, and then towards the door.

Merlin led him into the tiny kitchen behind the main shop. Unopened boxes of stock littered the surfaces and there were little pieces of chipped candle wax everywhere. Merlin could help but smile at Arthur's face as he walked in; a kind of disapproving grimace that Merlin was so used to it only felt like yesterday since a far more happier time, at home in Camelot. A wave of sadness washed over him suddenly and unexpectedly; Arthur was back, he was here, but it wasn't the same. Was this what he wanted? He had stayed faithful in believing that Arthur would one day return, but was this how Merlin had seen it? He had pictured it more to be two friends reunited at last, rather than two strangers.

"What was your name? You didn't say."

Merlin paused, caught off guard. "Well" he hesitated "The people around here call me Merlin." He said as he filled the kettle with water.

Arthur burst into laughter "What, like the Wizard?" He asked incredulously.

"I guess. I think it's a nickname they gave me here when I first bought my shop, y'know, because I'd been studying the history of this place for so long." Merlin replied, still turned away. He probably should have come up with something different, but his wits were failing him and he still hadn't gotten over the fact that Arthur was sat at his kitchen table, alive and well.

He set two mugs down on the table and sat down slowly. He could go back, he supposed, to being young again, but it didn't seem fitting seeing as he had been around for so long, and he had carved something of a life with what he looked like now. People knew him and trusted him, it was far easier to deal with the aching bones and arthritis than it was to live a life constantly moving from place to place. He had done enough of that for a lifetime.

"What is it that you do then, Arthur?"

"I'm thinking of going into politics, like my father."

"Oh, a leader?" Merlin said, smirking.

"Indeed" Arthur began to shuffle through his papers once more.

"You don't really look like a politician."

Arthur looked up, obviously amused by Merlin's tone.

"No? I guess not. I've just finished at the Olympics, actually. Trained for four years, got a gold. But it isn't a career, as such, more of a hobby. I want to do something worthwhile, I think."

"An Olympian? How fancy! In what sport, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Fencing." Arthur replied. Obviously, a swordsman, it had to be. This was obviously not what he had gone there to discuss, and Merlin knew his patience would be wearing thin. A thousand years into the future, he was exactly the same.

"How interesting. Right well, let us get on with it. What is it that you want to know?"

"I want to know how this place is linked to the stories I've read. There is something different about it, I don't know what, but I can hardly find anything that documents its history. It feels like I have a link to it but I can't trace any of my family history back to the area, so it can't be that. I've often dreamt of it in such vivid detail before I've ever visited. It's just so bizarre and I don't understand it, but I need to, because it's starting to drive me crazy. This past few months it gotten worse, every night, I dream the same thing over and over again, that I'm stood on the top of the mount in front of a grave and it's raining, but there are no graves here, I've checked and…"

Merlin held his hand up, making Arthur stop mid-sentence.

"You are mistaken. There is no gravestone, but someone is indeed buried here. I understand you feel drawn to this place. It has a certain power, a magic that I know all too well. You shouldn't feel foolish for coming to me, it was the right thing to do. I think for you to properly understand, we need to make our way further up the mount, to the top."

Arthur sat in silence for a moment, staring at Merlin. It was what he had been hoping for after all, to finally have someone be able to explain what these dreams meant, and why he felt so drawn to the mount.

"Ok" he managed to replied "Ok, let's go"

Merlin nodded and made his way out of the shop, beckoning Arthur to follow him. Together they walked up the steep cobble path towards the top of the mount in silence. Merlin couldn't help but notice the side glances of Arthur, who was obviously concerned about the idea of such an old man climbing at an alarming fast rate.

The silence gave Merlin time to think. He was elated that Arthur was back, right here next to him, happy in the knowledge that his patience had paid off, even in the dark times when he was so desperate to end it all. But there was something else; a feeling of uncertainty he knew so well. A thousand years was a long enough time for a person to finely tune their intuition, and something wasn't right. If Arthur had returned, then something was wrong. He remembered Kilgharrah's words like they were yesterday. Arthur would rise again when Albion needed him, and here he was. Something must be happening, England must be in some sort of danger. For now, Merlin pushed this to the back of his mind. They had only just be reunited, it was no time to start expressing his concerns that something terrible was probably going to happen.

They reached the top viewing platform just as it was going dark. To the west, the sun was falling lazily behind the horizon and the stars were coming out. It had always been Merlin's favourite time of day.

"It sure is beautiful here" Arthur remarked as he leaned over the wall to look down at the winding street below. "You said someone was buried here. Who were you talking about?"

"This place, this island, was once called a different name. It was known as Avalon." Merlin said as he sat down on a stone bench.

"I've read about it in books before, I didn't think they knew where it…"

"They might not, but I certainly do. It's believed to hold special powers, directly linked to fate of the country itself, bound by thousands of years of magic."

"So who is it then? " Arthur asked curiously.

"I suppose many people don't know for sure, but I believe it to be the greatest king that ever lived, who they say." Merlin paused, he could feel the tears in his eyes "they say when Albion needs him, he would rise again, the once and future king. His name was Arthur."


I'm so happy people have been saying they liked the first part! This chapter does feel a bit slow but it was necessary to explain why Arthur was back in the first place. :)