"Do you have a believable excuse for being late two days in a row?" The prince enquires, not seeming to be in the last mood "I expect my meals to be on time"
"Sorry, Sire" he closes the door hurriedly
"What are you trying to hide in there?"
"N-nothing, just the mess that is my room"
"I can imagine, since you can't even clear mine properly. Or maybe you're just too busy tidying your mess you cannot bother with your work" Arthur walked to him and he stayed on the way to the door "move"
"Sire…" Arthur pushed the door open "Arthur!"
"…Who is this?" He looks at the boy who stared at the prince fearfully.
Merlin quickly shoved the door closed
"I can explain"
Arthur catches sight of the druid mark in the boy's chest
"Merlin… Is this the fugitive druid boy?"
Merlin nods reluctantly.
"You are a complete idiot" the prince takes a few deep breaths "You're lucky no one has caught you"
"You're not turning us in?" He asks, surprised.
Arthur looks at Merlin for a moment before gazing at the boy. He closes his eyes in apparent pain before opening them a moment later.
"No. God help me, I won't see a child executed," He decides and Merlin is practically beaming at him "You will be rid of him by dawn"
"I need a way to get him out of the castle," Merlin says hurriedly
Arthur looks around the room, then back at the boy as he considers his options.
"I think it's time we went for a hunt"
Merlin and the prince exchange a look. He can feel he is going to pay for hiding the boy soon somehow.
•••
"Don't you understand the simple concept of silence?" Arthur glares at Merlin, who had managed to hit another branch accidentally, causing the boy to giggle. The servant looks apologetic.
They had managed to sneak the boy out in an excuse of preparing supplies for a hunt and had left in two horses, the druid riding with Merlin.
'I need to talk to them' The boy's voice sounded in Merlin's head.
"How do you expect we find his clan, anyway?" Arthur continues on speaking in the tone he calls a whisper.
"I…" The boy's voice is hesitant, but he leans into Merlin's body on the horse and decides to talk "I can call them"
"So he can speak" Arthur turns to look at the boy with a small smile to show he is joking "Let's take a break, we're far enough from any night patrols. Then you can show me how you can call them"
Merlin suspected it had something to do with magic, but if Arthur were fine with it, then he would not object.
"ætíest ðæt hwæne íc ásce álíæfe oþ mænsume þéáh sé meresteall" The boy spoke into a bowl of water that was provided to him once they made their stop.
Arthur watched wearily as the blue eyes shone gold with magic for a moment before returning to normal. The boy stared at the water for a few minutes before putting the bowl down.
The prince had been torn between obeying his father's law and following his conscience, but clearly, the second had won out of the two. He knew magic could be evil, and had seen it do much of it, but to kill a child for it? Surely, that was taking it too far, even for him. He still remembers when he went with his father to raid a druid camp, how they had not attacked unless it was to defend themselves and how Arthur himself had struck down a child not much older than him in hopes of making his father proud.
It was one of his nightmares for years and still made a few appearances after all this time.
So as he watched the small druid child curled up next to Merlin, eyes shining gold as he contacted his people after his – father? – caretaker had been killed not many days ago; he did not utter a word.
"Iseldir is coming" the boy says, putting the bowl away.
"Who is that?" Arthur enquires curiously
"The chieftain of our clan" he answers curtly
"Good. While he's not here, let me take a look at your wound" Merlin took the chance to limit the conversation before something went wrong and the boy let him. It was healing nicely, not infected and since he had sweated out the fever during the other two days, it would most likely remain that way.
"I didn't take you for a mother-hen, Merlin"
"Shut up, clotpole" he mutters, making the boy snort and once he is satisfied with the bandages, lets the boy lean against him once more.
He simply cannot understand how anyone could think of hurting the quiet child.
•••
"At least tell me your name"
The boy looks back at Arthur and Merlin for a moment.
"My name is Mordred"
"Good luck, Mordred"
On my defence, I don't know a thing about the Merlin spells, nor am I very good with grammar stuff (english is not my first language) so I did my best with a random translator I found. Bear with me, people *puppy eyes*