If you're confused, don't worry. Sometimes I forget I don't own Merlin too.
Arthur was pretty sure that he had died. He remembered dying. He remembered dying with Merlyn, the newly discovered sorceress holding him in her arms.
So why was he awake and breathing? Why is there no stab wound, not even a sore spot?
Slightly disoriented, and very confused, Arthur scanned his surroundings. He was at the shores of a beautiful lake, where he remembered dying.
And he couldn't forget the people that were all around. Gwaine, Elyan and Lancelot (tensing immediately when he saw him) were there, just as he remembered, and just as confused. One man looked like Gaius but older, even though he hadn't thought that possible. In fact, that was the case for most of the others as well. He could swear that the only woman on the shore was Gwen, and a man even older than Gaius had Leon's eyes. He was almost positive that the man with the graying hair was Percival.
Most of them were staring at him. The one that looked like Gwen had tears in her eyes and in a broken voice she whispered, "Arthur?"
Arthur recognizes that voice. It's a bit different now, full of pain, older, but it's still Gwen's voice so he stares into her eyes, just to make sure that it's really her, and whispers her name.
They continue staring at each other, until, in the typical Gwaine fashion Gwaine shouted, "Oi! Love birds! If you're quite finished having eye sex, does anybody know where Merlyn is?"
Merlyn was, in fact at her house. She was staring at the door, horrible insecurities running through her mind, and a type of nervousness that she hadn't felt since Camelot.
Taking a deep breath and silently telling herself to get on with it, Merlyn rushed out the door (she forgot her shoes, but honestly, she felt that she had a good enough reason).
Grateful that she had a van that seats eight people (it was always such a hassle making them bigger on the inside than on the out, and really now she just didn't have the time), even though it would be a bit of a squeeze and she was pretty sure that Gwen would have to sit on Arthur's lap, Merlyn set off from her small on the outside house (just because she didn't want to enchant her van, didn't mean that her house was off limits. Besides, it takes much more work to make a mansion from scratch).
Merlyn was kind of a mad driver. Scratch that, Merlyn was an impossibly insane driver. Whenever she went into the "Muggle world" she always had to make the officers that tried to pull her over forget that they ever saw her. She didn't want them to know that she didn't really exist in their world.
Her house being only a ten minute walk from the Lake of Avalon, Merlyn got there in less than a minute driving.
And now, here she was, staring at the people by the lake, facing the same dilemma that she did when staring at the door.
Seriously, her inner voice said, You are sixteen hundred years old. Not two hundred, andnot twenty. Get a hold of yourself!
The voice in her mind was right. Maybe she should listen to it more often… Nah. Though, with people's understanding of life nowadays, it would be fun going around claiming that she listened to the voice in her head. Maybe she should name it. Yes, she decides to call it Drew. A good, unisex name.
You're procrastinating, Drew accused.
"No," Merlyn said out loud, "I am not!"
So, just to prove it, she jumped out of the car, and walked as slowly as she could down to everybody that she had been waiting for.
She frowned. They seemed to be panicking. Frantically looking around, and calling out. She was just close enough to hear them call out her name.
She could see one of the men running around the ends of the woods. Well. That just wouldn't do, there were still a number of things in there that could harm them, and Arthur was the only one with a sword.
Your procrastinating is over. Time to go and get 'em!
"I was not procrastinating," Merlyn muttered under her breath. Louder, she shouted "Hey! You idiots! Stop running around like headless chickens! I'm over here!"
Of course they were too busy running around like headless chickens to actually hear her.
Well, all except for two really old men who she was pretty sure were Leon and Gaius. She couldn't really tell who was who from this distance, but both looked pretty close to giving up on standing and just sit down. Now that was something that she could understand. Merlyn, despite her twenty-four year old body, the years hadn't been the kindest.
Ignoring her self-pitying moment (she hadn't had one of those in years! Why was she going all sentimental now?), she finally started to pick up her pace, reaching them in a minute.
"By the Old Religion, it looks like Arthur's stupidity has leaked into their brains. May the Gods save us," Merlyn muttered to Gaius and Leon, her vision going suspiciously blurry as she looked at them.
She was slightly surprised at how easily she slipped into talking in the way that she used to, but she supposed that it came from forcing herself to remember all of the people of her past like they were, instead of like the world remembered them. Hell, they even made a ridiculous movie in which she was a rather crazy old man (who strangely reminded her of Dragoon), and called Arthur, Wart.
She had laughed for days on end.
Was it raining? She could swear that there was something wet on her cheeks, and just as she was bringing her hand up to wipe it away, she realized that she was crying.
Wow, Drew said, You haven't cried since… When was it? A few centuries ago wasn't it?
Ignoring it (him, her?), like always, she forced herself to look around, and not at Leon and Gaius.
Okay, their search was getting kind of ridiculous. Elyan was walking in the lake, as if he would find her under the water. Arthur and Gwen were sticking together, walking around the lake, and it looked like Arthur hadn't even noticed that he still had his sword, because he had picked up a rather pointy looking branch, and was holding in front of him, like something would attack any second. Lancelot was staring in confusion at her van, looking like he was wondering whether it was a monster or not. Gwaine and Percival were looking in the trees, and starting to go further into the forest.
Silly boys, never looked to where she actually was. It looked like nothing had changed over the years.
She spared a glance at Leon and Gaius, wishing that she could just go up and hug her old mentor and friend, but instead informed them, "You might want to cover your ears."
Not even waiting it see if they actually listened to her, Merlyn brought her fingers to her lips and blew a long, loud, ear piercing whistle.
Immediately, everybody turned to her.
"Now, if you're done making complete fools out of yourselves, we have some very important things to discuss. First off, Elyan, why the hell were you looking in the water for me? Wait, never mind, I don't even want to know," cutting herself off suddenly, when noticing the weird looks she was receiving, she asked, "Why are you all looking at me like that?"
"Merlyn," Lancelot said, looking anywhere but at her, "What are you wearing?"
"Clothes, why?" She looked down at herself blankly. She was just wearing her sundress and her hoodie… Oh, right. Her dress was only up to her knees. She was surrounded by people who were from the fifth century. This was something prostitutes would wear, back when people were used to girls only showing their ankles in public, if that.
"Oh, right. Well, at least I'm not wearing any short shorts. That would have been embarrassing. For you mostly. I mean, those things only reach mid thigh. My dress reaches my knees, and you all look ready to have a heart attack. We're going to have to fix that, if you want to fit in" Merlyn said, looking over them critically.
Their expressions were really funny. Most were very red in the face (Gwaine was the only exception, because he had seen many other women and men in much less than what she was wearing), but all looked confused.
Her eyes were getting blurry again.
"Just give me a sec," she choked out, dissolving into tears, despite her best efforts not to.
She was beginning to really hate this. Seriously, what had triggered the emotional outburst this time? She was just looking at the faces of the people she considered family after centuries of not seeing them. So what? She saw them every night in her dreams, and when she had that time in the sixteenth century where she started seeing people that weren't really there.
Why did she feel so good? So happy? Was it because that this time they were actually there, and not a part of her imagination?
She could feel the looks that they were giving her, and she didn't even look up when she felt a comforting hand on her shoulder.
She just turned on whoever the hand is attached to, and started sobbing into their shoulder.
Gwaine was really confused. Though most people would tell you that this was a normal emotion for him, Gwaine knew Merlyn.
He knew that she didn't bother with dresses, he knew that she absolutely hated showing any skin, and she hardly ever cried.
So why was she in a in a knee short dress, bawling her eyes out in Gaius' arms?
Gwaine continued being confused until Merlyn finally stopped crying and looked up, and that was when he started being concerned. Merlyn's red eyes sung of untold horrors that he had never seen in her eyes before, and she almost seemed older, though not physically, somehow.
He looked at her eyebrows furrowed, scanning her to look for anything that would call for her little meltdown. She had no injuries, and was she smiling now?
Gwaine never knew that Merlyn was bi polar.
He was startled out of his thoughts by a small, "I've missed you guys. Really, those confused looks on your faces have never left me,"
And Merlyn is back.
I'm really sorry for the horrible ending, really I am. I just couldn't find anything else to write. What I'm not sorry about however, is the quick update. Really, those are rare for me.
I've decided that Leon is going to be just out of school, but he's going to be a foreigner. People wouldn't recognize him if he said he was just out of Hogwarts. Haven't decided who he's going to be with though. So if anybody has suggestions, fire away!
Reviews mean I update faster!
