I'm not a gangster tonight, don't want to be a bad guy
I'm just a loner baby, and now you're gotten in my way
"Ah, I see you're awake then?" Gaius noted as Merlin the warlock descended the stairs from his bedroom, rubbing his eye with one hand and stretching with the other. He yawned loudly and nodded before slumping into a chair and letting his head fall back. "And in as good a mood as you usually are this early, I see."
A small smile spread across the young boy's face. "You could say that," he admitted. "I don't know why Arthur wanted to get me up at the crack of dawn anyway. It's only training; he usually lets me have at least a few more hours of sleep. Otherwise he'll start complaining that I look like I've just dropped out of bed.
"Perhaps," the physician said, placing a bowl of what looked like mud in front of his nephew and moved off with a vial of gold potion to a nearby bench and sat down. "This is a special sort of training?"
"How special can Arthur's training get?" Merlin raised his head and swivelled on his chair to face Gaius. "You know the other day he made a servant girl carve a dragon's head out of wood and made me dance around in it," he swirled his finger in the air to show dancing. "And tried to hit me. Then he stopped me, he told me I wasn't realistic enough, and made me go and clean his horses out as punishment!"
The physician couldn't help but laugh heartily.
"It's not funny," the warlock protested childishly. "I thought I made quite a good monster."
There was a knock from the door and Merlin was just about to tuck into his mud-looking breakfast when the crowned Prince of Camelot waltzed in. Merlin dropped his spoon and let a small sigh escape his lips.
"Merlin!" Arthur cried, placing his hands on his hips and reminding the young manservant of his mother when he'd forgotten to make his bed. "I thought I'd told you to get ready by now! Why aren't you dressed?" He looked down and sneered a little at Merlin's grubby bed clothes. He received a look of disdain in reply. "Look, this is important training! I need you down there to assess the new candidates for knighthood we have. I don't want you embarrassing me by turning up half-asleep in your bed clothes."
"But I thought the knights weren't supposed to arrive for a few weeks," Merlin frowned. "So why are they so early?"
Arthur leant across the table and clouted Merlin hard about the back of the head.
"Ow!" he cried. "What was that for?"
"For being such an idiot Merlin!" the prince cried. "I'm obviously making an exception here, aren't I? The young knight in question is Sir Leon's brother."
Merlin turned to face Gaius and, pulling a face, mouthed 'How is that obvious?'
"So," Arthur clapped his hands together for Merlin's attention. "I shall go down to the training ground and get everything prepared. You Merlin," he danced his hands vaguely about Merlin's person. "Go and get dressed or something. Be quick about it." He then spun on his heels - Merlin rolling his eyes dramatically behind his back- and moved towards the door. "Oh!" he cried and quickly turned back to his manservant. "And don't forget to bring that dragon mask. It may come in handy," and with a boyish grin, Arthur was gone.
Merlin groaned loudly and managed to plant his forehead in his muddy breakfast in annoyance.
Merlin made his way to the training grounds a good half an hour after his visit from Arthur, just out of spite. A large carved dragon's head was placed precariously under his arm and it received many bouts of attention and occasional sniggers from passers-by. By the time the manservant had made it down to the grounds there seemed to be a fight already taking place. Merlin quickly moved to the sidelines to watch, a large crowd of knights and townsfolk already encircling the sandy pit where the fighters stood.
Both clad in chainmail, one slightly more soiled than the other, the knights danced around each other, the sand whipping whipped up by their feet. One knight, large and powerful shadowed over the other who was small and thin, but surprisingly nimble. He would weave behind the taller knight and land multiple blows with his wooden sword (a practice method that Arthur would always recommend- knights would show their willing and strength and fight with a false sword for one round and then a real one for the other). Both had full helmets covering their heads so Merlin could not tell which one was from Camelot's guard and which was the outsider.
A large gong behind them sounded and the fighting stopped. The smaller knight stepped backwards from the larger one, who immediately threw his sword down to the floor and stalked from the sandy pit. Arthur, who Merlin had spotted watching eagerly from the sidelines, moved away to speak to the winning knight.
"Good, isn't he?" came a voice from behind him, and Merlin struggled to retain his grip on the mask as Sir Leon came into view, smiling and regarding Merlin with the same bemused expression he always did.
"Oh, oh, yes!" the young manservant nodded vigorously. "I never knew you had a brother!"
"Oh yes, he's almost as good as me," Leon's face twisted into a mischievous grin. "And it looks like Arthur's taken a shine to him!" Merlin peered through the dispersing crowd of people and saw Arthur patting the young knight hard on the back as he walked away, causing him to fall forwards a little with the force.
"And now," Merlin told Sir Leon. "He has to fight Arthur."
"I know," Leon looked uncomfortable. "But my brother is very good, I'm sure he'll be able to land three successful hits."
"Yeah," the warlock said reassuringly. "I'm sure he will."
Even more people were beginning to flock around the pit, forgetting the tasks they had set out to do and now watching the young wannabe knight in the centre leaping from one foot to the other as a servant went over to him and handed him a worn Pendragon shield. Small children were whooping and cheering as Arthur, slipping a helmet onto his own head, came onto the stage. Merlin felt Leon tense beside him.
"I'm sure he'll be fine," he told him. "Arthur wouldn't do anything rash."
Leon just raised an eyebrow and Merlin shrugged his shoulders with a smile that said 'yes-I-do-remember-that-incident -last-year'.
"This challenge," Arthur began loudly, and every mouth in the arena was suddenly closed tight. "Is to prove how worthy our newcomer is. If he can land three successful blows," he raised three fingers. "Then he will become a knight. If he cannot then he goes home empty handed." He moved himself into a battle stance as did the smaller outsider and the fight began.
Swords clashed against each other, the rub of metal on metal and the pang of the weapon on the shield was all that filled the air. The young novice, quick and agile, managed to block and dodge many of Arthur's blows, and Merlin couldn't help but be impressed by his strength and parrying of the prince's sword. And then a hit came on the side of Arthur's chest. The crowned prince's face, contorted in sudden anger, leapt forwards towards the knight and his sword missed him by an inch as he fell to the floor, rolling in the sand. Another blow came quickly and Merlin could see that Arthur was beginning to get agitated. He had never been hit so many times in such a short period of time.
Peeling his eyes away from the scene, Merlin looked up at Leon, whose face had spread into a wide grin and whose eyes were following his brother with every move he made.
Arthur set out with his foot, trapping the young knight's sword underneath and pushed his shield hard into the outsider's face. His helmet flew off and Arthur, seemingly preoccupied with winning, slammed into the young man's face again, sending him falling to the floor.
The crowd gasped.
Merlin squinted his eyes against the sun to try and see what the prince had done to the man's face but what he saw shocked him even more. The knight stood, grasping his sword from under Arthur's now limp foot, but he was not a man. A young girl barely seventeen, her mouth bloodied and her eyes black and blue took her gaze away from her opponent for a brief second to the stunned faces that gaped at her. Her hair, from what Merlin could see, was tied up into two long and winding pony tails held firm by large red ribbons and snaked their way down her back, the rest of her locks floating gently across her forehead.
Arthur was standing deathly still.
"Come on," she cried, spitting blood. "Why aren't you fighting? I've got but one more blow to land!"
She seemed to panic, staring about the crowd as they stood, watching her and the silent prince until her eyes rested on her brother, Sir Leon. Her face was a picture of pure terror, her eyes seeming to well up with tears.
"No," Arthur hissed, removing his helmet and throwing it to the floor. "You cannot become a knight."
"Because I am a woman?" she protested. "You were fine with fighting against me a moment ago when you thought I was a man."
"Women," Arthur began, turning his head away, almost unable to view the sight he saw in front of him. "Are not permitted to become knights. Your brother should have known that when he put you forward."
Sir Leon, powerless to stand and watch anymore parted the crowd in front of him and stepped into the arena. "I did know this rule, sire. But I believed that the Camelot knights would benefit from having such a great fighter on their side."
Arthur turned to Leon, his face now a picture of rage and, Merlin had to admit, it even frightened him a little.
"You know the rules, Leon," he cried. "You have put this girl up for a knighthood for what? Did you not know what would happen when she was revealed to be exactly that, a girl?"
Leon said nothing.
"I will find some suitable punishment for you later," Arthur told him sternly before turning back to the girl. "And you, there is no way that a woman could become a knight of Camelot. You've not only wasted my time but you have wasted your own. Please leave," and with one last violent look about the pit, he stormed from the arena. The girl, her lip quivering, threw her sword down onto the sand and ran off in the other direction, pushing her way through the stunned crowd.
- Scissor Sisters, I Can't Decide
