Come on people please review! Ok, here comes chapter 2! It's not very well written because for some reason I struggle to write things about modern places. Medieval is so much more fun. You'll also probably spot lots of grammar mistakes, mostly with commas but grammar's never been my strong point. Anyway, please enjoy chapter 2!
Disclaimer: Nope, I still don't own Merlin.
Chapter 2 – Rising Again
It had been a week since the Goddess' visit and in that week the world had fallen apart. Merlin had sat, night after night watching the television in his small hut as more and more people around the world fell sick and died. Hundreds, then thousands of people went to sleep and never woke up. Cars travelling up and down the road that ran beside the lake of Avalon became fewer and fewer until the road remained deserted. On the fourth day of the sickness a man stumbled to Merlin's hut and knocked weakly upon the door. Merlin opened it and the man fell inside, crumpling to the floor. Merlin immediately bent to him and felt his pulse. He was alive; but barely. Merlin managed to get him onto his bed and inspected him carefully. He had the plague; of that there was no doubt. The man shook and mumbled in his sleep, his dark hair plastered to his forehead by sweat and large lumps had formed under his arms. Merlin carefully placed a hand to the man's forehead and muttered a spell, his eyes burning bright gold as the magic within him was released. Merlin waited for the man to wake, waited for the spell to take hold but no such thing happened. The man was dead by morning. Merlin's magic was useless against the disease, but what worried him even more was the possibility that he could become sick. There were times when he had wanted to die as he was so tired of being alone and having to watch all his friends die, but his desire to wait for Arthur had kept him clinging to life. He couldn't die now- not when Arthur was so close to returning.
On Wednesday night the power went, much to Merlin's distress at what it meant. Everyone was getting sick which meant there was no one to fix the rapidly growing problems. No power, no police, no ambulances... Everything was failing. He fell asleep that night clutching the lucky rabbit's foot his old friend and mentor Gaius had given him. He didn't feel ill but he had been exposed to the disease and apparently the disease could kill you in your sleep. Merlin didn't think he'd mind being killed quickly and painlessly in his sleep but he needed to live. For Arthur.
On Thursday morning, Merlin woke with a heavy feeling of dread in his gut. He sat up and examined the room. Sunlight streamed in through the gaps in the curtains and cast long rays of light across the wooden floor. Birds tweeted merrily to one another outside. He slipped the rabbit's foot back onto the chain about his neck after discovering it still in his palm, cast his blankets aside and strode into his kitchen. It wasn't much of a kitchen, with a simple oven and a small fridge sitting alongside a narrow bench but Merlin was rather fond of it, especially as he remembered a time when cooking involved a spit and an open fire. He strode over to the kettle perched on the bench and flicked it on, reaching for the tea bags but stopped, frowning. The light on the kettle hadn't turned on; it wasn't working. Merlin sighed as he remembered the power cut and instead filled his cup with water from the tap. The feeling of dread had grown to the size of a boulder in his gut and he quickly placed down the cup. He scavenged around the house for a bit before he found his phone, and after blowing dust from it flipped it open. He hadn't used it in years; it's not like he had any use for it anyway and his contact list was empty. Merlin quickly dialled nine-nine-nine but there was no answer. Merlin swore under his breath. Emergency services wouldn't just stop operating... Unless... Merlin shivered at the thought. Unless they were all dead.
Merlin stared at the dead woman on the couch, her arms still wrapped loosely around her dead husband. This was the fourth house Merlin had entered and this was the fourth house in which he had found no life save for a few aggressive cats. Merlin closed his eyes and turned from the sight, trying to prevent tears forming in his eyes for the lives lost. He staggered out of the house and stared out across Avalon and to the island at its centre. This couldn't be happening; not again. Merlin had lived through the plague in the fourteenth century and that had been worse than his time spent under Uther's reign. Magic had been accepted, even after Camelot's fall, until those dark years. The plague was such a powerful disease that no sorcerer's power, not even Merlin's, had been able to cure it. The people, seeing they could no longer rely on magic for a cure, instead blamed it, claiming that magicians didn't want the people healed and that the only reason those with magic remained immune to the plague was because they had created it. They had rounded up anyone they knew or suspected of sorcery, with or without proof, and burnt them at the stake. Since then magicians had kept their existence a secret, fearful that what had occurred then, might happen again.
Merlin was drawn from his memories as the surface of the lake rippled and began to shine brightly in his eyes. Merlin frowned and squinted, trying to make out what was going on. Suddenly, he felt his legs moving forward and before he knew it he was waist deep in the water. Then, he knew. He could feel it in his heart. This was the time. For a moment all was still and silent, as though the land was holding its breath, and then, a girl burst from the water, and in her arms laid an unconscious King Arthur, his blond hair swept back by the water and his body still clad in armour and chainmail.
For a moment Merlin just stood, stunned before wading forward as fast as he could. "Arthur!" He yelled and stopped again for a moment as he realised who else was there. "Freya!"
Freya smiled happily at Merlin. It had been so long since he'd seen her. His first and only love. Freya; the Lady of the Lake. Tears welled in his eyes at the sight of her and Arthur, both of them returned. He smiled through his tears as he finally stopped before Freya.
"Merlin." The sound of his name on her lips made his smile widen. "How I have missed you." She said through a laugh. Merlin shared her laughter and into it he poured his soul. All his despair, all his doubts and fears seemed to vanish to be replaced by hope and joy and relief. Arthur had returned. Merlin was no longer alone. Merlin's eyes returned to his sleeping friend and he placed a hand to his friend's chest; as though checking if her he were really real.
Freya smiled as she watched him. "It is true Merlin; Arthur really has returned and only he, with you by his side, can save Albion. We must get him to the shore." She said through her smile and Merlin took Arthur in his own arms. Arthur was quite heavy due to his chainmail and armour but the water lightened the load and Merlin carried him to the shore, his mind floating back to all the times he had made fun of Arthur's weight. Arthur wasn't really fat but Merlin had enjoyed teasing him in the same way Arthur had liked to call Merlin a coward. Tears began to fall unrestrained down his cheeks. All those years of waiting and wondering and despairing, had all been worth it. Arthur was here again. Arthur was alive. The Once and Future King had risen again.
I know it's a short chapter and I know most people write reincarnation stories but I prefer having Arthur rise from the lake, also it lets me bring Freya back because who doesn't love Freylin?! Oh and yes I stole the plague wiping out most of the population thing from BBC's Survivors but I don't count it as a crossover because I don't bring any of the characters from Survivors into it. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease review! Everyone who does will get an imaginary cup cake that says I 3 Merlin in the icing! :P
