"Do this, Merlin! Do that, Merlin!" – he muttered to himself annoyed as he was heading back to Gaius's chamber, after he finished his chores for his 'royalness'.

The day had barley begun and he was already feeling tired - and annoyed.

The physician gave him some different medicine in the morning for the coughing ("Here! Drink this!" - and he woke to Gaius holding a cup in front of a very sleepy warlock.); and it made him feel distracted and drowsy, which made it hard to do the things Arthur demanded, not to mention how he behaved whenever he, Merlin was like this, thinking the second part made it more unbearable then the actual drowsiness. Sure he was under a lot of pressure, but it was no reason to take it out on his manservant! - But at least he wasn't fighting for a breath of air every other minute. - the young warlock tried to compensate himself.

"How are you feeling?" – the old man inquired, taking only a glimpse of him as he walked in, focusing on the two vials raised to eye level, carefully pouring the content of one into the other.

"Feel like I could sleep for the rest of the week." – came the answer with a sigh and he set a bag down on the table. Inside were some ingredients and a special salt, Gaius asked him to pick up "on the way", but it became the perfect excuse to get away from the smelly stables, even if it was just for a little while. He stretched, and started unpacking it and held the glass with the salt up to the light to observe it better. It was colorful and the light played on it as the young warlock lifted it towards the sun, displaying various colors. He found it most interesting for some odd reason; for a second wondering what exactly did Gaius put in that medicine.

"You know, I was thinking about that lake you mentioned." – continued Gaius, once he set aside the vials and walked to the boy.

Merlin looked confused for a moment.

"That frozen lake, you and Arthur fell in, during that journey a couple of days ago."

"What about it?" – he asked and went back to looking at the salt crystals as he turned the jar slowly.

"It sounded familiar, but I didn't know where to place it. That is until I came across something in a book. It's said that long time ago some followers of the Old Religion would gather by that lake for certain rituals. Mind you, they weren't the good kind."

The young warlock looked at him with interest and set the jar down on the table.

"What are you saying? You think there was something there?"

"I'm not entirely sure.. but, did you feel or notice anything? Any presence?"

"Uhm.. no." – the young man thought for a moment. - "Nothing like that.. well, it was very cold. Extremely cold."

"What exactly happened?" – the old man pressed on.

"Well.. Arthur thought he saw something on the lake and wanted to check it out. It turned out to be an old boat frozen into the water. I don't even know why he wanted to see that thing. Then we headed back.. After the ice cracked we tried to get away as fast as we could. We were almost at the shore, but then Arthur fell in. I tried to pull him out. I lay down on the ice, but his cape got wet and was pulling him under, and I couldn't hold him, then the ice cracked under me and we were both in the water. I heard the others yelling, then there was a rope.. or a branch or something.. and .. it's blurry after that. I remember, that Percival pulled Arthur out, and Gwaine grabbed my arm. I don't remember what happened after that. When I woke up, I was laying on the ground, next to Arthur covered with capes and blankets and we were shaking and he was still unconscious.. It was very cold. The others were gathering firewood so I used magic so we could warm up. I made the blanket heat us up. None saw it! I swear!" – he added once seeing Gaius' un-approving expression, knowing what he thinks about using magic in front of others. - "Then.. I fell asleep again, I suppose. We came back to Camelot the next day." – Merlin remembered the ordeal and he felt a shiver run through him, just thinking of that cold. – "Why? Do you think there was something in the water?"

"Can't be certain.. But we can't exclude the possibility of it."

"Well.. Arthur is fine" – he shrugged - "And we both were in the water."

"True.. Maybe it's just my imagination then." – said Gaius – "Maybe not everything is tied to magic that happens. No reason to start seeing ghosts where there probably aren't any." – and with that the physician picked up the new supplies and turned back to his work.

Merlin nodded, but it made him uneasy of what he learnt from his guardian. No matter how hard he focused on the memory he didn't remember seeing or sensing anything; and there was that blackout as well. Who knows what has happened while he was unconscious.

All of this was about three days ago, and his coughing persisted since then, slowly getting more intense and more painful. At times it felt like he had ember in his throat, and his lungs were on fire, and whenever a coughing seizure caught him, he would feel his chest and back ache in a way he never felt before. Breath hot, lips dry..

He kept on thinking about it; maybe there is some truth in it, that he didn't notice magic because of the shock of the cold, or.. Maybe this really was just a common illness, after all, he is only human, - a magical one, but still a human..