A/N - Lack of love is killing inspiration! Actually no, I blame sixth form, I can't even watch TV anymore and yes that means Merlin. But yeah, I am now asking for love. Once you read the update you'll realise that I really do need it! If anyone is going MCM Expo, I'll be in the dress and waistcoat surrounded by pokemon and nurse jenny. xx
Arthur lay on his side, watching Ceri as she leant back on her elbows and with her face thrown back as if to bask in warm sunshine. It was grey day however and while it was not cold, it was not warm either. Her hair tumbled down her back and on to the grass. A gold lock had fallen close to him. Gently he lifted the end and twirled it around his fingers just like he used to. Unwillingly he noticed that the hair was courser, less soft than it once was. Ceri shuffled closer to Arthur, halving the gap and Arthur took the hint and closed the gap. She shifted her face into Arthur's chest and they both dragged in deep gusts of air, like they were surfacing.
It was too much of a coincidence that Merlin found himself wondering the castle to accidently spy the whisper of gold beneath a night black cloak. Something, fate, wanted Merlin to see what made angelic young Ceri so furtive and frankly suspicious looking. Merlin wondered if she was heading into the forest to cast magic in its depths. He can't have been the only one to feel the undercurrent of magical energy weaving through the dense trees. Merlin didn't want to startle Ceri but he was curious and wanted to see what she was up to. The first time they had met Ceri had immediately sensed that Merlin was a wizard. If he used magic Ceri was sure to detect it. Silently and as least clumsily as he could Merlin followed.
Arthur realised that the silence had become awkward. But there was nothing to say. The past had been exhausted and her kidnapping had been sidestepped. What was left that wouldn't die in the air between them? Admittedly there was very little. Ceri had her face comfortably snuggled in his shirt.
"Arthur. I haven't learnt to swim yet," She lifted her face up so that they were almost nose to nose. "I trust that you intend to fix that."
He took a deep breath, opened his eyes wide, opened his mouth to say something and then he stopped and snapped it shut suddenly.
Ceri leant away from him and Arthur was shot with cold where she's been. She looked incredulous. "Arthur - you do know how to swim." But it was a question.
"Of course I do, don't be stupid."
Arthur may not have realised it but his poker face needed work and a lot of it. Currently he had his features frozen into fear.
Merlin was surprised at how easy it was to follow her. Her cloak was too dark, darker than the night surrounding her. Also, though he couldn't physically see it, Merlin felt as though there was light, or not light he couldn't understand it, surrounding Ceri. It followed her and even when all he could see was an arm, the hem of a cloak, Merlin noticed it immediately and followed. She ducked into the tunnels and Merlin was forced to pause and take his shoes off before he followed. They came out beyond the gates deep within woods. Ceri didn't glance about before she easily slipped out of her cloak and tossed it over the handy branch of a nearby tree. Merlin stumbled with his flash of confusion. Ceri's hair was a different shade of blonde-and deadly straight.
"We could learn together," Ceri shrugged lightly as if it was no matter that someone she idolized was stupid enough not to know how to swim.
Arthur scoffed, "I am very busy Ceri. We can find someone to teach you, they would be able to do it better than me."
Ceri ignored him, stood and reached behind to tug at the fastenings of her dress. "…Ceri, what are you doing?"
"You're being a coward Arthur, you won't fool me. There is no time like the present. Come on."
Panic gripped him tightly and he could only watch as her corset slipped away and was carefully placed on the floor.
Ceri continued goading him. "I cannot believe you are afraid of water Arthur. You, the Regent Prince of Camelot! You've…softened while I have been gone." Off came her over skirt and she folded it next to the corset.
Thankfully, she stopped at the knee length underskirt and shift. She glared a challenge.
Ceri's dress had loose long arms and when she went to brush her white, long, straight hair back away from her neck, the sleeves fell to her elbows. Once again, Merlin gasped. Pitch black tattoos wound steadily up her arm and past her elbow. They looked like ribbons or vines interspersed with-something- letters of some sort that Merlin couldn't read. Then two other figures emerged, still cloaked. But both gave Merlin that same sense of awareness. A coven-she was part of coven.
"I am not scared of water! What the hell?" Ceri was stood while Arthur clutched at a respectable attempt of nonchalance. He struggled not to jump up from the grass or raise his voice from a lazy drawl.
Ceri was smirking, when did she start that? "It looks that way from here. I can't wait to ask Morgana if I'm right." She made no move to put her clothes back on and started a staring match, it was hard glare and Arthur desperately tried not to look away. Yet he, the King of Staring, eventually blinked and Ceri pounced.
She dragged him up with that surprising strength she only let out on special occasions and pulled him up and turned him around to undo the fastenings on his clothes. Arthur jerked out of her reach. "I don't think we should do this. If anyone found out it, Father will kill me."
"When did you start caring what gossips thought?" Ceri started glaring at Arthur all over again and Arthur found himself pulling off his tunic easily. "Keep your trousers on." She instructed.
The women removed their cloaks and Merlin was slightly disappointed when they were not as insanely beautiful as Ceri. They were both very ordinary looking women, women that Merlin would never ever suspected of being witches. He wouldn't have been able to distinguish them from the women at the market. They were both much older than Ceri. One had faded brown hair shot through with silver tied up in tight bun. Faint wrinkles lined her face but her eyes sparkled a warm brown and her genuine smile at Creirwy showed pearly straight white teeth. Her cheeks were rugged and plump and she was the shortest of the three. The other woman was tall and also had her hair tied into a bun. She looked like Merlin's mother with her pitch black hair shot with paler strands. Her features were so completely ordinary otherwise, brown eyes, a wide generous smile and straight nose. They both pulled down their hoods and hugged Ceri joyfully.
"I wasn't going to take them off!" Arthur protested as he clumsily folded his clothes next to Ceri's. She reached over like it was automatic and without taking her eyes off Arthur's chest, folded them properly and returned them to where they'd been.
The air became awkward very quickly. She jerked back to her sense. "Sorry Arthur I just didn't expect it." She flushed and the colour flooding her cheeks made her more cute than beautiful. It gave Arthur a strange flash of smugness to see her lose her head around him for once instead of it being the other way round.
"Come on," he slipped out of his shoes, kicked them next to Ceri's discarded ones and dragged her straight into the water.
"Hello little sister. I have missed you a lot." The taller woman hugged Ceri again. She returned it eagerly.
"I have missed you too sister. It has been too long since I last saw you." The woman suddenly lifted Ceri right off her feet and twirled her round. Ceri laughed merrily and staggered dizzily when she was finally put down. Wow. The tattoos Merlin had seen earlier reached up her body to her face and now Merlin suspected they caged her body completely. Merlin saw that her features had returned to the ones she hid from all the castle's inhabitants with a glamour. He himself, had only seen them once. Still, the comparison of the dead grey and vibrant green of her eyes astonished him.
"Oh my Lords above me. It's freezing." Ceri couldn't answer because her teeth had already started to chatter sharply. When he looked at her his eyes narrowed to her hooded eyes and how she struggled tried to stand up even though the water was only up to her chest.
She was mumbling incoherently, desperately like she wanted to be screaming. He breaths came in sharp shallow pants and her chest worked heavily under some strain. Without warning she started shaking her head frantically and her eyes snapped wide and her splashes became terrified. She was dragging herself deeper into the water even as she cried and struggled to get away. Water was dragged into her mouth, up her nose and she only panicked more. She didn't even seem to recognise Arthur trying to grab her into a hug. He stopped being polite and roughly trapped her flailing body against his own. He easily carried her right out of the water and onto the bank. She was shuddering so badly Arthur could hardly keep a grip on her.
"So have you been accepted back into Camelot little sister?"
The taller one seemed the most dominant, so far the smaller one had yet to speak except to greet Ceri. No names, not even Ceri's had been used. It was all big sister, little sister.
"Naturally," Ceri sounded insulted that they needed to even ask.
The other two laughed while Ceri smirked slightly and sat down on the forest floor.
"Are you enjoying being back?" The other two joined her so they were knee to knee in a circle.
The joined hands and shut their eyes. Merlin began to panic. If they were casting out their senses they would notice him behind the tree immediately. All he could do was hope they weren't.
"Yes. I love being back at home. I've even been making new friends, haven't I Merlin?" she turned to look over her shoulder at him with her eyebrow raised at the tree Merlin was cowering behind.
Arthur knew he was supposed to take off Ceri's wet clothes and wrap her in the dry ones they had removed earlier but even as she cried and curled on her side he couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead he wrapped her in her dry, heavy skirt and his tunic and hugged her as close as he could.
"Ssh it's okay, you're okay now." He murmured and stroked her thankfully dry hair as it loosened from its bun and fell back around her waist. She sniffled against his chest and her shaking eased but she still shivered against him.
He debated taking her straight back to the castle. It was England, not known for its warmth and sunny days and today was grey one with a mild wind.
"Can we sit down? I need to think. And I'm freezing." Ceri's voice was rough and almost cold. She didn't wait for an answer and pushed him back to where they'd been sitting before this ridiculous debacle.
My final demand is review, or the update after next will end up as boring as this one... :'(
xxbluehyperpixiexx