Ok, I didn't think I was going to get this up today, its 8:08pm at home, and I suppose readers from other countries are mostly behind a day so they wouldn't take much notice. I swear that this is not going down well on paper, it sounds better in my head without the worry about grammar and etc. But I'll keep putting it up anyway. Like I've said before I have been tweaking at it and its getting longer, i'm adding in new scenes and it is so going to not make it to the 5 chapter limit, its going over, by how much i'm not sure. Anyway, please comment and tell me what you think, if anyone actually does read this, maybe you just skip down to the actually story. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but Ellie and noname child.
Chapter Three
Arthur woke from his sleep, opening his eyes to vague light of the early morning sunrise intruding through the gaps between the planks of wood in the walls. He could hear the light breathing and slight snoring from the other occupants of the room. The dream that he had just awaken from was in fact the memory of the night he had last seen Merlin and Morgana before his journey to Ealdor. It was a constant reminder that used to haunt him, not because he was the reason behind their departure but due to the fact he couldn't do anything about it, although he wanted to, magic was outlawed by his Father. In the past, when he had this dream, it would leave him in a frustrated mood which had eventually lead him to visit Ealdor, to discover the state of his two friends. Upon waking up from the dream this time, he realised how much happier Morgana was; how she had managed to take control of her magic with the help of Merlin, and how Merlin wasn't living with the constant fear of execution. Meanwhile, they had found solace and love within the other and had brought a child into the world and were preparing to bring in another in a couple of months time.
Their children were loved by their parents, something that Arthur had not had in his life since his Mother died on the fateful day of his birth. Arthur was Crown Prince, and one would assume that he had everything he had ever wanted in the world but that was not true. Arthur did not have loving parents; he had a Mother that died before meeting her child, and a King for a Father. Uther wasn't the loving type of person, he was strictly business and although this would have its benefits when running a kingdom, it did not when raising a family. Arthur was jealous of Ellie for having two loving parents, he was jealous of Merlin for having his Mother still alive and for having Gaius as a guardian who looked out for him.
Coming to Ealdor had triggered a lot of emotional baggage in Arthur that he was too proud to admit to before. Sitting up Arthur looked around the tiny house, his eyes just able to see the outlines of the occupant's bodies. He looked to the beloved handmade crib where Ellie lay, beside the body of her Mother, who was contently sleeping in the arms of her husband. Morgana had given up probably one of the most comfortable beds in the Kingdom for her happiness which left her sleeping on the cold hard floor but she was congruous and didn't complain (she was probably grateful to Hunith for taking them in).
He needed them. He needed Merlin. He needed Morgana. Camelot was not the same without them, Merlin would be forever loyal to him and he knew that he couldn't trust anyone else more and Morgana was a person who wasn't afraid of taking his ego down a few notches when he got unbearable. He needed them to return to Camelot but knew that that was not possible under his Father's reign. He would have to make arrangements for them to have a future in Camelot under his reign.
Ellie announced to the room that she was awake with an ear-piercing cry. The people in the room that had been sleeping were now stirring, Hunith being the more alert, sat up in bed stretching the kinks in her back. She looked around the room to see which other of the adults were awake, spotting Arthur watching her, and Morgana trying to hide her face in Merlin's back, attempting to avoid the fact that it was a new day. She got off the bed and standing over Merlin and Morgana, pulled Ellie out of her crib. The child hushed as her grandmother held her while Hunith nudged Merlin with her foot to wake him.
"I'm going to fetch some water and then I will make breakfast." She informed her half-asleep son before placing her grandchild on the ground beside her father. "Good morning Sire, I'm sorry to ask you for a favour but may you watch over Ellie while I'm away, you won't believe what mischief this child can get into when not supervised."
"Of course. I believe you about the mischief, I'm not sure which parent she gets that from yet." She left the house and Arthur watched Ellie as she made her way to her feet, wobbling, obviously not used to standing up. He was told that she could stand but not walk yet, so her standing up wasn't surprising to Arthur but she was still fascinating to him. She finally lost her balance and fell back on her father, causing him to groan when she landed on him.
She quickly recovered and, giving up on walking, crawled over to Arthur. He held out his arms to the child, tickling her when she was in his reach, resulting in the room being filled with her sweet laughter.
"She really loves you Arthur." He looked over to her parents who were now sitting up, tiredly watching the Crown Prince with their daughter. "So we'll find your horse, and then Merlin will transport both of us to the forest outside of Camelot and then he and Ellie can come later today."
"Well…that was…disorienting." Arthur stated as he held on to the reign's of his horse for dear life, Morgana squeezing his waist like he was anchoring her onto the horse and if she let go she would fall off the horse.
"If we feel this way, take it easy on the horse." The horse seemed relatively unaffected but they didn't want to risk their chances, so they waited a minute before getting the horse to start moving, planning to increase their speed when all of them felt like they could stomach it.
"Sire? Where have you been?" One of Arthur's Knights announced as they came across their Prince. It was barely past sunrise, but Arthur was on a horse galloping back to Camelot with a companion. Arthur and his companion, who was unable to be identified because of the hooded cloak they wore, came to a halt.
"The King is gravely ill, sire." Arthur flinched at the word 'gravely' knowing that the Knights didn't know how close their comment was to the truth. "Your presence is required at the Castle immediately." The Knight stopped to take a breath and was greeted by the Crown Prince and the unknown companion continuing their way back to Camelot as fast as their horse would go.
Gwen walked through the streets of Camelot having nothing to do. She had finished all her current jobs as a seamstress and was waiting for another order so she could actually do some work. However, she knew that with the King in his current state that the only orders she would get anytime soon would be for a funeral. King Uther's reign was coming to an end, he was dying by an illness and Gaius doubted that he would make it to the end of the week. As she looked around, she saw people who had stopped working and were waiting for news about the King by camping out in the Palace's courtyard. Being a worker of the Castle, she knew that the Knights were stressing out about finding Arthur, who seemed to have not come back from a hunting trip which he went on alone the previous day.
Deciding that she would help Gaius with his job to make the King as comfortable as possible, she made her way up to the Castle before a racket from behind her made her turn around to witness the Crown Prince galloping at top speed towards her. He halted their horse within feet of Gwen, revealing to her that he had a cloaked companion riding on the back of his horse.
"Get me off this horse; I'm going to be sick." The companion removed the cloak from over her head, and revealed herself to be the former Ward of the King. Gwen rushed over to the horse and helped her friend off, who was followed by Arthur jumping off without hesitation. She was holding her head with one hand and her stomach with the other, Arthur moved closer to Morgana as she swayed and he caught her as she fainted. Without a word, Arthur carried Morgana to Gaius' chambers with Gwen following close behind, both ignoring the odd looks that they received from the people of Camelot of the newly found missing Ward of the King.
Morgana was stirring has Arthur gently placed her on the patient bed in the Physician's chambers. Satisfied that Morgana was in the good hands of Gwen, Arthur left the room to tend to his ill Father. Gwen was stunned by the person that was laying in the bed before her, the person that had been missing-in-action for a year and a half. She had dearly missed her former mistress and friend who had disappeared from Camelot without a word. The said woman groaned and attempted to sit up before falling back to the bed feeling faint and light-headed.
"Take it easy milady." Gwen recommended, easily falling back into her previous occupation. At the sound of her voice, Morgana slowly turned her head to face and smile at Gwen.
"This bed is so comfortable." She sighed; she attempted to sit up again, slower than the previous time, succeeding as she did. "I can't believe I fainted, I suppose it's a result of mix of things, the transportation spell, the fast galloping back to Camelot and probably the start of morning sickness." She commented, killing two birds with the one stone, leaving Gwen with her mouth hanging open in shock, confusion spattered across her face.
"Spell? Morning sickness?"
"Yeah…I suppose I have to explain a few things first." It was at this moment that Gwen had gotten a proper look at her former mistress. Her hair wasn't as elegant as it had been when she was the King's Ward; her dress was of a peasant class which was even inferior to the dress that she was wearing. Morgana smiled as Gwen met her face and took one of her hands into her own, causing Gwen to notice her not-as-soft hands, toughened by work of a peasant.
"You know how my dreams could accurately foretell events yet to happen, in other words I possessed magic. The dreams were beginning to take its toll and I had to talk to someone who could understand what I was going through. I found a person that I could relate to in Merlin, he is a sorcerer." She heard Gwen gasp at the revelation of Merlin's secret.
"I understand why he kept it to himself but I never expected Merlin to be a sorcerer, I mean I thought his only secret was that he was close to you."
"I'll wait for Gaius to return before I go any further in the story."
Gwen nodded in agreement before adding, "The baby's Merlin's, right?"