Summary: Young Merlin, Gwaine, Lancelot, Elyan, Leon and Percival vie for Teacher Arthur's attention. Here be knights, frogs, wyverns, mortal enemies and an exasperated teacher who is not fond of his children in the slightest, thank you very much.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, everyone, they made my day(s).

Please note that this chapter is not a continuation of what happened in the last chapter. These stories will be posted in no particular order; they take place in the same universe and anything you learn will still apply in other chapters, but since the order is not chronological, some events may not yet have happened in future chapters.

3. Of Frogs and Enemies

Mordred was staring at him again.

Arthur shifted in his seat, not quite able to put his finger on what it was about the boy's gaze that unsettled him so. Was it the intensity in his eyes? The bright blue color of them; the kind of blue that, by law of nature, should not be able to exist? Or was it his unwavering attention, something that, logically, a teacher should value and not be distrustful of?

Whatever it was, Arthur didn't like the boy, and he was annoyed with himself for his unprofessional thoughts. He was a teacher; it wasn't his job to compare his children to each other and decide which ones he liked best, subconsciously or not. He ought to be above that sort of childish behavior, used to disapprove of it when he recognized it in his colleagues.

Was he as big a hypocrite as he believed his father to be?

"Valiant won't let me into the doll corner, Mr Pendragon!" an indignant voice cried from across the room.

Snapping his head to the side, Arthur found himself staring at the doll corner, or, more accurately, the children in front of it. "Elena?" He dropped his pen and pushed away his papers.

"I threatened to sit on him if he wouldn't let me past, but he's too big for me," Elena told him, her face red with exhaustion and frustration.

Arthur got out of his chair and quickly walked over to the arguing couple, silently berating himself for not paying more attention to his children, though he doubted he would have heard them if he had. It was always a bit noisy in the room when the children got to choose what they wanted to do. The doll corner, the sand pit and the block play table were extremely popular, though the computers had been gaining in popularity lately. Most children understood more about the devices than Arthur did himself.

Valiant was scowling at Elena and throwing nervous looks in Arthur's direction that he hurriedly tried to hide by scowling even deeper.

"Valiant, do you want to explain to me what's going on?" Arthur asked, sinking through his knees so he could look the sullen boy in the eye.

Valiant shifted. "Girls are no fun. They cry and they giggle. And they're afraid of snakes," he added, shuddering as if the very thought of disliking snakes disgusted him.

"Oi," Elyan said indignantly, wandering over to where they were standing, or sitting in Arthur's case, a red splotch of paint on his cheek. "My sister is a girl. And she's not afraid of anything."

"Neither am I," Elena insisted before Arthur could interfere. He knew she spoke the truth, for whenever a spider was located inside the classroom, it wasn't Arthur or the bravest boys most girls went to, but Elena.

He cleared his throat. "Valiant, I know you are more than capable of playing nicely with your classmates. If you let Elena into the doll corner and apologize for being rude, I'm willing to let this incident slip through my fingers."

Valiant stuck out his chin. "I'm not playing with a girl."

Arthur sighed. "Well then, Valiant, until you are ready to play alongside others, I want you to go back to your seat and think of a nice way to make it up to Elena."

"But–"

"Now."

Valiant's shoulders slumped. He slowly walked back to his seat, sat down with more force than was necessary and threw several pencils to the floor when he flung his arms over the table to rest his head on top of them.

"Pick up your pencils, Valiant," Arthur said calmly.

"No."

"Why are you being so mean?" Merlin looked genuinely upset as he regarded Valiant, his little fingers clamped around his blocks.

"Merlin," Arthur said warningly, knowing the extra attention would only make Valiant retreat further into himself.

Merlin turned his big, confused eyes on him. "Everyone always wants to play with Elena," he said with conviction. "She makes the best donkey noses. And she never wants to be the princess."

Freya and Sophia nodded furiously. Considering the fact that there was only one crown in the Dress Up Chest, anyone who didn't want to wear it was the other players' favorite person in the world.

Arthur got to his feet. "Let's consider the matter closed for now." He looked down at Valiant, who was still scowling at the ground. "Valiant, you will stay outside during the break so you and I can have a talk. Now, I'm going to ask you one more time to pick up your pencils."

His tone left no room for arguments. With a huff, Valiant bent down to pick up his things. He unceremoniously threw them back onto his desk.

"Thank you."

Arthur wasn't above rewarding good behavior – the definition of 'good' depending on the child's general behavior – but the knowledge that Valiant was more likely to be flustered by than grateful for the words made his insides ache. The boy probably never heard those words at home; he was raised to believe words didn't achieve anything – fists did.

Now that there was a free spot in the doll corner, Gwaine hastily ran over and shot Elena a wide grin as he grabbed her hand. "I'm a ferryman and you're a frog, okay?"

Elena's smile was equally wide. "Okay." And she dropped to her knees and quaked.

(*)

Leon was building a large tower at the blocks table. The tower appeared to be round, which was quite an achievement, considering the fact the blocks were oblong and square. Merlin was sitting next to him. He'd dropped his blocks and was now cutting small figures with pointy horns and scaly wings out of paper, his brow furrowed in concentration as he worked. The finished products were placed on the table beside Leon's construction.

Percival appeared out of nowhere with a pencil and started coloring the clippings grey.

"Aren't dragons supposed to be green?" Sophia asked, eyes wide and curious.

Merlin rolled his eyes at her. "They're wyverns, Sophia. There's a big difference."

(*)

Valiant wasn't very forthcoming during his talk with Arthur, and Arthur suspected he didn't quite know how to apologize, or how to feel sorry. It was difficult to think of a suitable punishment when Valiant simply shrugged and told him he didn't understand girls, or humans at all, really. He was fonder of animals, would spend every day taking care of them and training them if it was up to him.

So Arthur made him a deal. He agreed to let Valiant take care of the school cat (the animal had wandered in one day and refused to leave, so the Headmaster had put a pillow and a feeding through in his office and left it at that) if the boy paid attention during classes and tried to be nice to his classmates from now on. Valiant lit up like a Christmas tree and promised Arthur he'd be good from now on.

Arthur allowed him to go outside for the remainder of the break.

(*)

According to Google, wyverns actually existed.

Arthur frowned at his screen, vaguely recalling having come across the word before. On Wikipedia, it said the wyvern was a frequent mascot of athletic teams, colleges and universities, particularly in the UK and the US.

That explained that, then.

The red eyes of the creatures unsettled him more than he cared to admit, and Arthur quickly clicked the page away, telling himself it was time to clean up the classroom and prepare his lessons for tomorrow.

It was a good thing wyverns didn't actually exist in real life, he mused, as he sorted through his character cards. Arthur wasn't sure he'd have the courage to stand up to the creatures if he ever encountered them.

(*)

FIN